Binarius (13 page)

He sat himself next to her and slid
his arm around her. She curled into him like a child. They sat
there, curled into one another, for a long time.

“
I missed you Fir. I know the Mist
had me for so long. It’s…well, it’s all catching up to
me.”

“
What was it like? The Mist having
you, I mean.”

“
It’s torture. You can see
everything that you’re doing, but you can’t stop what you’re doing.
You are no longer in control of what you do. I guess it’s what
we’ve always feared for the Desideriums. They really can see all of
the pain they’re causing.” He was staring into her eyes. The space
between them shrank, and they fell like gravity towards each other.
She missed his lips; they silenced her mind.

“
I’ll make it up to you, Fir.” She
gave him a sad nod.

Then, they heard the sound of grass
being crushed in the meadow. Cyneric got to his feet and drew his
sword. Firinne grabbed his arm.

“
No, it’s okay. It’s just my stag
friend.”

Cyneric looked at her quizzically
and then spotted Mabon as he came around the boulders.

Mabon lowered his head. “Cyneric,
this is Mabon. He came to me on my way to Archen Castle. He’s kind
of been my best friend this past week.”

Cyneric was clearly taken aback,
but Mabon appeared to be threatened. He lowered his head further
and gave a low grunt.

“
Mabon, it’s okay.” What she
wanted to say was, I think it’s okay.

Cyneric put his hand out towards
Mabon, taking a step forward. Mabon pawed at the ground and grunted
again. Cyneric took back his step, put his hands in the air, and
said, “All right, all right.”

Firinne urged him to sit back down.
“It’ll just take him some time to get to know you. See, you don’t
just have to prove yourself to me now…you have to prove it to him.”
She gestured to Mabon and gave Cyneric a confident smile. She was
being feisty; it felt good. There had been far too much seriousness
in the past week. She felt her chest give a little. She could
breath.

“
Do you have any food?”

“
Yeah, I’ve got a couple things
that were given to me by someone at Archen.” That was a lie. “Not
much, just some bread, jerky, almonds… you?”

“
Where are you headed? Will that
food last you?” It was either a question of concern or a question
fueled by motives, but Firinne didn’t falter.

“
I’m not sure yet. I just needed
to get away from Archen, so I thought I would start traveling
through the forest.” Another lie, “Do you have any
food?”

“
Give me a second.” He disappeared
behind the boulder and reappeared with a dead turkey which was
hanging by a rope. “Shall I prepare our feast?” He
smiled.

“
Oh, look at you! You’ve killed a
poor, defenseless bird. You’re such a big man.” She could keep
playing this all night with him, but she knew that behind her
playful jabs, there was anger.

“
I’ll start on the fire while you
clean the bird then,” Firinne said.

After having stacked all of the
branches properly, she was blowing soft air at the embers. With
every glow, it lit her face and showed her determination. Cyneric
walked over with the bird which was now clean. They sat by the fire
in silence as the bird cooked. When Cyneric had confirmed that it
was done, he offered a leg to Firinne. “For you, my
love.”

“
Mmm.” She rolled her eyes. “Thank
you. I’ll stick to what’s in my pack, though.”

Cyneric shrugged. “Suit
yourself.”

After they were full and there was
nothing left of the bird but bones, Firinne began making a bed from
her cloak. She laid down, Cyneric beside her. They gazed at the
stars for a long while when Cyneric finally broke the
silence.

“
Are you gonna be mad at me
forever?”

“
Forever is an undefined period of
time. My forever and your forever could be two different lengths of
time.” Cyneric was silent. She could tell on his face that he
wasn’t in the mood to play. “We’ll see…that’s the best I can do and
I’m sorry, but it’ll just have to be good enough.”

“
I accept.”

Firinne lifted her head up so that
he could slide his arm beneath it. She slid her hand across his
chest. She knew every muscle, every mountain of his body. He hadn’t
let her touch him like this in forever. He turned towards her with
half of his body on half of hers. His strong hands pulled her into
him. He kissed her neck, just behind her ear — then her cheek. The
forest would not cool her tonight. She ran her hands down the gully
of his back. Their lips were inseparable —they were stuck. She
didn’t want to stop. She wanted all of him. He was crushing her
with his flesh, but he wasn’t close enough. She was trapped. She
was trapped.

She inched her body away from him.
Her hand clenched into a fistful of the front of his cotton shirt,
as she pushed him from her. Tears were now building in her eyes.
She didn’t need to say anything. The look on her face was enough
for him to read her thoughts. He couldn’t be redeemed so soon. She
needed time.

Silently, they gazed at the stars —
her head on his arm, his arm wrapped around her waist. Eventually,
Cyneric dozed and she imagined the waves crashing in, and
out.

He had come back to her. Everything
he said seemed genuine. It had been so long since she had seen him
filled with this much sincerity. He knew what he had done, and he
was ready to make himself accountable for it. He was there to help
her, and besides, she didn’t have anyone else. She needed him to be
him. Yet, she couldn’t help to wonder. Would she ever be able to
trust him again? Was there any certain way to know that he was
being honest, other than her intuition, or love for him — whichever
it was?

Yes, she wanted him to be hers;
desperately, but she had lied to him twice. Why had she
lied?

Because no matter what happens, I
will never believe he is real. This is a strategic relationship now
and, I will never let him have all of my secrets, again.

Cyneric was shaking her, trying to
rouse her. No, I don’t feel Cyneric. I’m so cold. Firinne moved the
palm of her hand along the ground next to her. Firinne shot up, her
eyes wide in panic. She was paralyzed with instability. Cyneric was
gone. The ground was shaking — Fia was trembling.

Violently.

CHAPTER
FOURTEEN

Splinter

Where was
he? Firinne was afraid to move. In the light of the moon, she could
see that the trees were shaking erratically — all of the branches
like weak muscles after a fist-fight. A small way from the boulder,
she saw Mabon. His legs were sprawled out like a newborn’s. Off in
the distance, she could hear the sounds of cracking and pounding.
From the far end of the meadow, something caught her eye. There was
a dark line that was continuously stretching straight towards the
boulders. She barely had time to figure out what it was before she
leaped to her feet and dived towards Mabon before the chasm
engulfed her. There was no time to look back — to assess the
damage, to see just how far the chasm went in its great revealing
of Fia’s innards.

“
Mabon, we have to go!” She
screamed. Although, she didn’t know how they were going to walk
while the ground was so unstable beneath them. She grabbed onto
Mabon. “Listen, just take it slow. Get used to the pattern of
motion.” He lowered himself to the ground so that she could ride
him. Once she was on, he slowly began moving. After a few steps
forward, he appeared to have gotten the hang of it. Perhaps it was
that he had more than two legs to depend on, or perhaps it was
because he was a creature of Fia.

Behind them, Firinne heard a sound
that she had forgotten about in the midst of everything that had
happened. It was like the sound of drums. It was definitely closer
than it had been before. Then she heard an ear-splitting screech.
It could only have come from one thing.

“
Mabon, you have to get us out of
here!”

It was as if he already knew. Her
hands clutched so tightly onto his mane that her knuckles were a
sickly greenish, white color. Her knees and thighs were straddled
around his ribs so tightly — if they lived through tonight, they
would both be bruised tomorrow. He rode hard and fast, in zig-zag
lines that she soon realized were strategic. With every jerk of
Fia, he would jerk with her. He rode on her tremors in complete
unison.

There was another screech and more
drums. She could hear them so clearly now. Of course, the
Demogorchians could ride just as fast in this, they were like
machines. An obsidian arrow flew past Firinne’s ear, landing with a
sharp, thud into a tree on the right of her. Then, another arrow
flew inches from Mabon’s ribs. She released one of her hands, and
although her fingers were almost completely stiff, she pulled out a
milky, ball of spectralin and flung it furiously behind her. It
exploded into white flames on a tree far behind her.

In the light, she could see that
there were only three Demogorchians with riders. The blast had
knocked one of the Demogorchians into the middle one, which
momentarily knocked them, and the rider on the far right, off
balance. She hurled another spectralin at them. This time (since
she was able to see where they were from the light of the previous
hit) the spectralin engulfed the middle Demogorchian. He had been
slightly ahead of the other two, so when he landed to the ground,
the rider on the left tripped on the corpses
momentarily.

They shot another arrow which
skimmed the surface of Mabon’s fur, almost drawing blood. They were
trying to take him out. She couldn’t let Mabon sacrifice himself
for her. She bent down and whisper-yelled in Mabon’s ear. “We have
to split up. I’ll aim the next one the best I can. When I do, you
go right, and I’ll go left. You found me once, you’ll find me
again. If I survive this, I’ll head toward the river up there.” She
hoped that he could understand her.

Another spectralin flew towards the
riders. As soon as she released it from her hands, she jumped off
of Mabon and hurled herself into the left side of the path. She
could feel the branches scraping the thin, layer of skin in too
many places for her to count. She ignored it and ran. In and out,
dodging trees, stumbling over rocks. The forest was dense and there
was a light fog. Fia was still trembling and the sound was
incredible; the forest was screaming, as best a forest
could.

She tried to mimic Mabon’s zigzags.
Occasionally, she would predict the wrong sway of Fia, and be
thrown into the trunk of a tree. She turned herself towards the
North; towards the river. There had to be somewhere to hide. Zig.
Zag. That last tree may have cracked a rib. She barely had time to
recuperate, when she tumbled into a dry, ravine. Just a little
further down the ravine, there was a huge rock that was protruding
out of one side. Below it, there was a willow bush. Firinne decided
to investigate, so she crawled, woozily towards the
stone.

She pushed the bush to one side
with all of her force. Behind it, there was a small cave. Without
hesitation, she clambered over the willow and threw herself at the
very back of the cave. Fia was still shaking, and Firinne only
hoped it would stop soon — and that the cave would not collapse in
on her. She didn’t have a choice but to hide. There was no way she
could outrun the Demogorchians — Mabon was barely a match for
them.

It took her a few minutes to
realize that she was still gripping the walls of the cave even
though the tremor had halted. Everything was eerily quiet now —
like the quake had never happened; all at peace. But she knew
better and so she waited, and soon she heard hooves; paws; claws,
whatever you would call the feet of a Demogorchian. They drew
closer and she could tell that they had stopped just before where
she was hiding.

“
She has to be here somewhere.
Search the area.” Said a voice.

She heard two Demogorchians prowl
off in opposite directions. There had to be someone else. She heard
a crunch as he broke apart the leaves dismounting his Demogorchian.
Shortly after, she heard his footsteps as they walked sideways,
down the ravine. Firinne stayed as still as humanly possible. He
wouldn’t know. He wouldn’t think to look.
Crunch. Crunch, crunch.
She was sure
that he was now standing directly in front of the willow;
essentially, they were looking straight at each other. She hoped
the willow wouldn’t give her away. Hopefully, he would never
know.

One of the Desideriums returned.
The Demogorchian let out a screech.

“
Neither of you found
anything?”

Silence.

“
I had her! If this damn quake
hadn’t started and woke her up…we could have slit her throat in her
sleep if we’d wanted to. I should’ve never left to report our
location. If I had stayed, she wouldn’t have been able to escape.
Let’s double back and see if there is anywhere else we’ve missed.
If we haven’t found her or that beast she was riding by then, we’ll
make for Archen where Mistress Triphosa is waiting.”