A Whisper to the North

Chapter XXXVI ✠ Rotten Flesh

Una rose from her slumber violently. She did not know where she was at all, let alone that she was still alive. In her dream, she was dying by the sword, standing naked in a field of thorns and roses. It was her own blade, piercing her to the heart. Una had stood in front of Gareth to protect him with her body from Wilona. She had driven Una's blade deep into her back. When Wilona pulled the sword out of Una, her blood ran black as soot. Una looked off into the distance and saw Alaric and Ingrid lying in a pool of blood. Ingrid had a blade slashed into her neck, and Alaric's body was contorted and broken. Una coughed, and the blood spewed across the snow below her feet. She turned around and faced Wilona. Her eyes were solid black, her pale hair matted in blood. She was infuriated and crazed beyond rational action.

Una could hear a baby cry, and she looked down at Wilona's feet. Hanging between her legs was a tiny newborn, still attached to the umbilical cord. The child was obviously dead and looked to have been decaying. Una could smell it. The crying, though was far away, she knew that cry somehow, someway. It was Una's baby, her child, her family. She turned and, in the distance, she saw a man with beautiful long golden hair flowing in the wind. He was trying to console the child by gently rocking it. Wilona began to chant in tongues Una had never heard of before. Una began to walk away with each word, but her bones began to twist and snap with each utterance. Gareth called back to Una. She looked back at him as he begged her not to leave him, but she had to. When Una turned around, the bones in her legs broke, and she fell forward, breaking her arms. She lay there in a pool of blood, looking at the man with her child.

Suddenly Una could see Selene approaching the man and babe. The man knelt and bowed to the great white wolf. Una called out to Selene, but Selene did not listen. She jumped over Una's collapsed body, and she could hear the blood-curdling sounds of Selene ripping into Wilona's flesh. Gareth cried out too, not in fear but joy. Wilona finally stopped screaming, and Selene came up to Una and licked the wound in her back. Una remembers hearing Selene talk to her in a tongue she could not speak but understood.

Selene spoke to her with a man's voice, a voice that was calm, low, and soothing. It was like a melancholy lullaby sung by a night bird. Selene's words to Una were bittersweet. Her dead family was well. They were happy and couldn't be prouder of the woman Una had become. Then Selene turned and said that the Gods cursed una. However, the higher creator above them cursed them in return. The creator said only one of the Gods did not abandon Una. To lift the curse, Una must know the truth of who she is. Una reassured Selene that she was confident in who she was, but Selene said she was lying. She was hiding, and that veil will be lifted the night of Samhain. Una could feel her body begin to fade, but she was fading back into a wakeful state in the real world. That is why Una is gasping for air and feels sick to her stomach now.

"No," Una said helplessly as she bent over in her bed.

She closed her eyes and took slow and deep breaths to calm herself. She could not help but feel a chill that surpassed her skin. Tomorrow was Samhain. Today was the day of preparation. For the people of Wessex, they would barricade themselves in their homes away from this pagan holiday. The ones that did call themselves Christians and continued to go outside were heretics. They would be punished if caught outside their homes, no matter the cause. They were encouraged to recite the scriptures of the bible and pray. Though most of Bryttania was now under Christian rule, the old mystery religions of the pagans still existed in the far corners of the great land. Una's father was Christian at one time, Idris told her, but he abandoned his God for her Gods when he met Una's mother.

"Oh, please, let me dream sweetly for once!" Una said, rising out of her bed.

She quickly put on her over cloak and headed down to the garderobe. Peering out of the corner was Wilona. She was waiting for Una to leave her chambers. Wilona slipped into her room very quickly and went over to a table with her comb lying there. She quickly pulled the hairs stuck in it and put them into her dress pocket.