The Woman in the Garden

Chapter VIII. Dusk

Nobody got much sleep after the harrowing the night before, so the next day everyone took it easy. The only task at hand was to clean up the carnage in the garden. At midday, they held a small ceremony for the interment of Mikhael and Boros's bodies, along with an urn filled with Renoa's vampiric ashes. The horse was the difficult part; Xadoran's bold Yokudan charger was hundreds of pounds of muscle, and it took both of the Ash'abahs' remaining horses and the family's ox all tied together with the corpse to drag it away. Its torn belly left a thick trail of blood, glistening darkly in the sun, but by the late afternoon the soil had swallowed it all up.

Xadoran, Salim, and the swordswoman whose name turned out be Ithko all held council with the family to discuss the matters of the night before. Given the bite marks found covering Mikhael and Boros, they said it was fair to assume that Renoa had been feeding off of them the past few days, before raising them as undead servants in order to find more sustenance. She must have not found enough blood, however, and went into a feeding frenzy. It still left the question of the vampire that turned Renoa, however. Whoever they were, they could still very well be out there. Ah'zuli thanked them for their work and for saving the lives of her family, and in return for their bravery she assured them that they would always have a place at the Farúk estate. Xadoran thanked her, and vowed to defend the estate from any more of the vampiric plague that happened to lurk in the Dragon's Tail. It was clear that they would be staying for some time longer, but they were more than welcome to.

"I should never had said the things I said."

Shaniera walked at her side. It had taken a day of rest, followed by half a day of pumpkin pie preparation involving Leanne, Toren, Gro'shuba, Ella, Shaniera, and even Ah'zuli for Leanne to work up the courage to ask Shaniera for some time to speak in private. They set out with flour-caked hands through the garden, past the vines where the great big pumpkin now sat alone. The harvest festival had come and gone, and so, tragically, the pumpkin would never see the world beyond the garden and the manse. The pies that they did not eat would be kept on the fire salts for when the prince's uncle came up with the rest of his entourage, some dozen men and women of the Sentinel royal guard, along with his eldest daughters. Why he had elected to bring them along was a mystery to Ah'zuli; she could only fathom that he would want a marriage for his own children, and she had no sons to offer. Nevertheless, they sent Hasan down to check on the status of his recovery, and prepared the manse in the meantime. The pies would be baked and the seeds roasted for a feast at home.

"No, you shouldn't have," Shaniera agreed.

"But if I hadn't, would you have told me why you didn't fight back?"

"Perhaps, but you could have asked, instead of accused."

"You're right. I was wrong."

"Just a bit, yes."

"I was a bitch."

"Okay, you can stop. Leanne may not be perfect, but I love her very much, and won't tolerate you speaking of her like that." She stopped and turned to head to the pumpkin. Leanne followed, dumbstruck. Had she heard her right? Shaniera climbed atop the massive gourd, sitting down to face the north, to where the vast garden melded with the mountain forest. Leanne climbed up on uncertain feet to join her. Though not as high as the windows of Shaniera's room, the pumpkin afforded a perch that overlooked the whole of the farm and most of the garden, a rolling sea of golds, reds, purples, blues, and greens, low-lying beds of poppies and tall sunflower stalks, fruit trees, aloe plants, the maze of hedges filled with berries and roses, and the ring of flowers around the well from which the garden and family all drank, a mass of marble and stone constructed after an Ayleid fashion.

"I forgive you, Leanne." In the midday sun, the thick waves of Shaniera's hair shone darkly, and the light caught in the brown of her eyes like souls in a gemstone, a sight both beautiful and haunting. Leanne ached, wanting nothing more than to kiss her.