A Ballad of the Sun and the Moon

Chapter 12

It seemed Sunniva's guards had not returned to their duty after that day at the spring. That constant leering intent and hyper-vigilant sense of being watched no longer surrounded her everywhere she went. She was thankful for it, though it didn't change her habits.

Kimber, she knew, was responsible of course, perhaps a calculated moved to get her to lower her defenses. Sunniva liked to think it wouldn't work but she found herself more at ease the past few days. So when the Earl knocked on her door she was genuinely startled. She cast her senses feeling that unique frisson of moon-touched skin and thunder and undeniable dominance. Who else did she even expect to find waiting beyond the few planks of wood between them?

The Earl stood before the white-washed door frame of the little cottage silhouetted by an noon sun. His fingers were locked behind his back, a stance he quickly rectified letting his empty hands hang at his side.

"I wasn't sure you would be home," he said.

"Have your guards failed to inform you of my every movement?"

His lips teased a semblance of a smile. He knew she was perfectly aware they were no longer there.

"I was hoping you'd fancy a walk."

Sunniva's eyes narrowed into suspicious slits. "Why?"

"It's going to be a fair afternoon. The sky is clear. There's a pleasant breeze carrying harvest wheat with it. Everything is scented of Autumn."

She was absolutely still, glaring him a stoic mask.

"I want to show you something," he admitted. "Something that few of the tribe are ever permitted to see."

Sunniva was torn between keeping Kimber at a distance and seeing a treasure of this place. It was probably another of his hidden springs, maybe a cave or some other pretty landmark. She looked behind her as if searching for a possible excuse. The kitchen was positively tidy, the dishes put away, the table and small counter clean. All the floors were free of dirt. She was downright bored in the cottage and curiosity got the better of her.

"Fine," she finally agreed reluctantly.

She was still dressed in her ridiculous outfit, but had since rolled up the legs of the pants and crudly trimmed the sleeves of the over-sized shirt. He wondered if she'd kept the pearl cuff links or merely discarded them in some obscure place. He was thankful at least that she still wore his coat which hadn't been washed and was still covered in his scent.

"How long is this going to take?" she asked as she stepped off the covered porch and looked up into the sky.

"Depends on how fast we walk."

"Well then try and keep up noble Lord," she said, taking long strides through the small, foot-trodden path leading from the cottage.

They passed through an orchard first, with sun-ripened fruits drooping from old trees. Niva snatched three pears and shoved two into her pockets. The other she immediately began to eat. Kimber carefully plucked an apple from a tall branch and inspected it as he walked.

"Do you know of our history?"

"Don't be daft, you know I don't," she spat, her mouth full of sweet fruit.

"You seem to have a knack for finding hidden things. I just wondered, maybe you had heard of something those many years on your own." He tossed the apple carelessly into a tuft of grass preluding the forest.

Sunniva shook her head. "Apart from the surly legends told to children, and the fantastical tales written for bored housewives, I've never heard a single version that didn't contradict-"

She stopped herself from finishing the sentence. One slip and it might be off to the chapel with her.

"-that didn't have an element which contradicted what I've seen of your people."

"Our people," he corrected with a smile.

"If you say so," she said dismissively.

They crossed the little stream where Sunniva had once tried to clean herself. It was drier than before, the Summer drought still exacting its toll. She let the cleaned core of the pear fall into the remaining creek sludge.

"Most of our origins are just passed down fragments from family to family. The most prevailing version is that we originated from the Carpathians and were driven away by hunters finally ending up here. Our ancestors developed a strict code of secrecy which has allowed us to survive in this hidden pocket of England. We've lived by this code, in the greatest of secrecy for at least fifteen generations, growing, thriving. As you might imagine this is why we are so terrified of exposure."

Kimber noticed a bush heavy with plump, black fruits growing in a rare spot of sunlight just before a family of oaks. He detached a strig of ripe currants left untouched by the birds, popped one into his mouth, then offered some to Sunniva.

"They usually aren't so sweet and rarely grow in the forest. Just goes to show that sometimes, things sprout unexpectedly in the strangest of places, resulting in the most pleasant of outcomes."

Sunniva frowned at the allusion and plucked a single current, stem still attached and examined the little morsel. She squished it between her fingers and brought it to her lips to taste.

"It's still rather sour, noble Lord," she pointed out.

Kimber popped another into his mouth. "Hmm, if one prefers their berries overly sweet they could use a bit of sugar. But I like them just so, wild as they are."

He offered her more which she declined and then ate the rest as they resumed walking, returning to his history lesson once his mouth was empty.

"What if the hunters came back? What if there is some pocket of them in the world that still exist, teaching their children to hate anything that isn't human? What if they come here where the women are bound to the Earth along with our helpless children?"

The thought of humans, organized and armed hunting the dràkon sent a swell of fury up her throat. Despite her disdain for this place, she wished no harm to any of them. As Kimber liked to remind her, they were her people too. And she'd seen it all before, in the rural, forgotten places of the world, humans attempting to destroy anything they didn't understand, banded together with torches and pitchforks screaming "destroy the monsters."

They came upon a large opening in the forest with a large depression in the center, bare of grass or leaves. Kimber stopped at the edge and looked down.

"We aren't perfect at keeping our guises. Perhaps even you are aware. The Turn sometimes becomes overwhelming under certain circumstances. Illness has also been known to force even the strongest of us into smoke and dragon and back, unpredictably and violently. And despite that knowledge sometimes a member of the tribe decides to leave with full knowledge of the consequences. Which is why leaving the shire without permission is a mortal offense."

"This," he said lifting his arm and sweeping it in an arc over the expanse of the clearing, "is where their bodies come to rest. Even in death they are shamed and quickly forgotten."

Sunniva sucked in a quick breath and let it back out with a hiss finding the scent highly disagreeable.

"Have you brought me here to frighten me? Send me a warning?"

"No. I brought you because you deserve to know the truth about our people. You deserve to be familiar with our ways."

She cautiously stepped closer to the pit. A few white protrusions jutted out from the earth. They could have been jagged crops of stone, but only a fool in denial would mistake them as such.

"Are some bones here because of you?"

"Yes", he forced out.

"All runners?"

"Five of them. Three refused to return. And the other two Turned after giving an oath not to. The last was a human who wandered too close to our borders and witnessed what we are."

A subtle wind sifted through the forest, dragging a few loose leaves into the pit of bones.

"Would you kill me if I ran?"

Kimber turned to face her.

"Never," he answered without a hesitation.

"Only because I'm a woman," she added.

"The council would never kill you because you're a woman."

It was true, the council wouldn't allow a female of breeding age to be destroyed. They would keep her detained, forever if need be, but they would find a way to make her do her part for the tribe.

Kimber had other reasons. He knew he could never destroy someone so lovely, someone he was growing to care deeply for. Even the thought of her locked away in the depths of Chasen left him uneasy, her precious light snuffed out.

They remained quiet for a while staring out onto the desolate graveyard, the ghosts of rogue drákon raked into one, solitary pit.

The wind grew stronger, shifting the trees to and fro, sending the foulness of that place into an upward whirl.

"I've killed as well," Sunniva confessed, breaking a staleness between them.

Kimber could scarce believe it, though it shouldn't have surprised him. Like everything about her this revelation drew him to her. He took a cautious step closer blocking the rays of the sun which now hung lower in the sky.

His shadow wrapped around her like a familiar blanket. She shouldn't have liked it, but it felt comforting and encompassing.

"My mother died when I was eight. We had no family to take me in, so I found work as a scullery maid in the Baron of Bilfshire's mansion in London."

Sunniva felt entranced. Maybe it was the feeling of death surrounding her. Maybe it was the lingering of fire, and ash, and burnt bone permeating this place.

She continued without a thought, a crease forming between her brows.

"I began to grow breasts, become wider in some places and thinner in others. Everything began to quickly change. I looked abnormal. Unnatural. One of the footman called it exotic."

Kimber knew it was a feature of their kind. The drákon often began looking peculiar. Sometimes even considered ugly. When they began to mature they transformed into creatures of polished beauty. Even those of the thinner blood stood out among mere mortals.

He knew Niva was using an unknown magic to hide, concealing whatever exotic truth that she was. The regret of having tried possess her with deceit grew more severe with each passing day. He wanted more than anything to gain her trust, have her show him of her own accord who was behind the mask.

"The Baron took a fancy to me," continued Niva, "first brushing by far too close than was necessary. Or wiping dust off my bosom as an excuse for a touch. One morning, the day after my twelfth birthday, I was summoned to his chamber under the pretense of cleaning some soot from the fireplace that had spilled onto the floor. The bastard had kicked it out with his own boot, the grey dust spread across the heel. When I bent down to scrub he grabbed me, pulling me against him his pants already down to his knees. As he tried to lift my skirts up, I shoved him away and-"

Sunniva realized she was about to tell him about the first time she Turned. Something she had never told anyone.

Her body had melted away into fire burning the man's hands once her clothes had gone to ash. His terror fueled her into form, the delicious surge in power of becoming dragon. The bed's canopy had caught fire, the bright light reflecting red and black fear in the Duke's eyes. When he ran she snatched him in her jaws feeling delight as bones crunched and blood gushed through her fangs. Humans: such fragile creatures. She flung his limp form against the wall, then spat flame across the lifeless body and beyond intending for the whole place to be destroyed. She burst through the crumbling ceiling shooting out into the skies freeing herself from that wretched city forever.

Kimber was drawn even closer by her hesitation. His eyes bore deep as if to look inside her, as if he could beckon secrets from her with the will of his mind, his lips a silent lilt, a single strand of black hair tickling the center of his temple.

Sunniva gave a dismissive laugh and waved her hand aways as if to banish her thoughts. "I grabbed a lantern and smashed it across his face. He fell unconscious, the house caught fire and I let the flames take him. I couldn't say if everyone escaped the mansion in time."

She knew they hadn't. The desperate screams still haunted her, visions of laughing flames as she scorched wall after wall.

There was a telling hitch in her voice and her eyes cast downward hiding the guilt of knowing she'd caused many undeserving deaths.

He couldn't divine the details, but Kimber knew that very look on her face, one he himself had worn before. God he wished she would open herself to him. But he didn't deserve that trust. Not yet.

Sunniva had tried to blame it on the novelty of her first Turn, the barbarous power intoxicating every vein and muscle of her new body. Sometimes the explanation was fear. She'd panicked in reaction to an attempted rape and that terrible beast protected her.

The truth of it was she'd known what she was for a long time. Maybe not precisely, maybe not to what extent.

When she chewed her food as a child with soft, stunted teeth she imagined biting down into flesh with powerful jaws and sharp fangs. When she dashed across soot-dusted rooftops in the dregs of London she felt as if she might sprout wings at every leap. And when the telling attributes of a woman began to emerge her appearance became inhuman. Colorless hair. Violet eyes. Features she quickly learned to contain. She knew before she Turned that she was something else.

After her mother's death, with nothing to tie her to civility, she had waited for an opportunity, an catalyst to summon that terrible beast, the guilt of it to be felt for a lifetime. She would never give the burning dragon such unbridled freedom again.

Something deep down forced her gaze towards Kimber. The light haloed him exquisite, the contrast of consuming dark surrounded by a translucent glow capturing. She had vowed to hate this deceptive man for eternity, yet she was far less innocent than him. Though it pained her to admit it, they were both beasts, driven by instinct, so very much alike. Her animosity began to melt away, her expression and feelings shifting from wary to conflicted.

Kimber noticed the change. The last of the day's sunlight peaking out over his shoulders danced shades of amber across her face, daring him to risk a caress. He thought better of it, willing away his own dreadful instincts to touch her.

"It will be dark soon," he said, not caring to look into the sky to check the verity of his words.

Sunniva pulled from his gaze with a gasp. She turned to see the pinks and blues bombarding the forest floor in shards of fading light. Torn between hiding in her little cottage and a sudden craving to join Kimber, the draw of him and the heavens a deepening desire, she gave her head a swift shake, a dreamer awakening.

"The others will be smoke soon. You should join them. I can find my way back," she said no longer looking at him.

Kimber shook his head. "I'd walk you to your door, if that's alright," he said softly, hopeful.

She had little time and the moon in the forest was a tricky thing, not always found when required.

"It's not," she said, with a resonating finality. She took off with a sprint before stopping briefly.

"Kimber?"

The use of his name startled him.

"Thank you" she said.

He cocked his head confused.

"For showing me this."

And she disappeared quickly into the trees.