Aleksey's Kingdom (A Royal Affair #2)(56)

We stumbled through the trees, one chasing, one running, then wrestling viciously until escaping once more. And then he came to the river, and there was nowhere more for him to run. He picked up a rock, and, trust me, if you have never witnessed someone being stoned to death, then you may underestimate the threat from a fist-sized river pebble. If it hit my head, he would kill me. But he had not the aim or speed to inflict such a mortal wound, and it only glanced off my shoulder, and then I was on him once more.

But then something unexpected happened that shows how deeply I was concentrating on him and the threat he posed. I had overlooked the river. It tasted him, and then it wanted him.

One leg shifted the sand beneath him, and a hole formed. The current swung away from its course and filled it, and from that one nip, it wanted more. He was swept into the force of its greed, but I lunged and held his arm. I needed him to show me how he had come to the island—I was desperate to save him, and he to have himself saved, of course, but I felt the traitorous grit shift beneath my feet too. I was sitting then, trying to brace myself upon the shore. He was dragging me in. I let go with one hand and seized a root projecting from the bank behind me. His face registered the horror of our situation. Was I strong enough to pull him against the river with one arm? I might have been, but in his terror, he clawed his way up my arm—my burnt arm, and the pain made me cry out and open my hand. He was gone before I could blink, and I was holding only air. I felt the root start to give behind me. I was only in a few inches of water. It was incredible how powerful it was. Very cautiously, I twisted, grabbed another handhold, and heaved myself up onto the gnarled roots. I did not ever want to be this close to the river again.




CAPTAIN ROCHESTER and Aleksey had captured the second man.

The officer had become separated from Major Parkinson and did not know where he now was. I made an attempt to find the old man. I wondered if he had perhaps fallen and was lying injured unable to call out; he had not looked well for some time. I could not find him. It was too dark to continue my search. I only again found Aleksey by dint of locating the shore and following it around toward the north.

Their prisoner was bound tight. He looked… wary, but not as frightened as he ought.

We conferred in low voices. I told them that I believed we were alone and that, therefore, it did not matter what we did to this man. Aleksey did not like what he knew I was proposing, but he did not have to do it—I did. We desperately needed to know how he had got upon the island.

I balanced my knife in my hand and considered this trapper—although by now I was fairly sure he was no trapper at all. This seemed like a good place to start. I asked him who he was. I dodged the spit. All men spit upon their torturer at the beginning of this adventure. I had spat upon mine. I did not think the less of this man for it.

I asked again, and this time I encouraged a civil reply by slicing off his ear.

Aleksey stood and went to look at the water. I did not want him to see me like this any more than he wanted to watch, but then, before I knew the outcome of my action, Aleksey returned and squatted down next to me, his hand upon my thigh. I felt the strength of his approbation, and we were as one once more.

I told the man that if he did not tell us what we wanted to know, then the devil’s disfigurements would be as nothing to his.

He told us.

He related how on a Sabbath they had left the colony for the short walk to the falls to admire them: the families and a few of the soldiers. They had gone to the promontory upon which I had fallen clutching the grass for comfort. But they went there often and were familiar with the place.

And then the devil had come to them. He had risen from the falls, exhaled on a breath from hell, and he had told them that he was come amongst them. “He wanted tribute—tribute of the most beautiful and the best—and we gave him—” He put his face into his bound hands and wept. “We gave him the girl who had come amongst us lately. She had been a captive of the Uron and had… she had a child with her that had been born from her terrible treatment at their hands. It was a foul thing… even so young…. We had found it with one of the colony’s cats and her new kittens….” He paused, deep in his memories. “So we gave Mary to him. She was fair of countenance, and we hoped he would not see into her heart before it was too late. He took her. He took them both into the falls with him, and we believed we had appeased the devil. Many of us then wanted to leave this place—abandon the colony. We could not stay here, and so we made preparation. But a foulness had come with the girl that had crept into the hearts of some of my brothers and sisters. They began to….” He paused, his face twisted not just from the pain of his missing ear but apparently from memories that were too awful to bear. “They performed unnatural acts… became wanton. Sin slithered between the cracks of our Church, and we were confounded. They would not leave this place, but we had not the heart to abandon them to their lusts.

“And on the third day, the devil rose again. She had also risen and the child with her—he rode upon the devil’s back. They were on the island. And she was pleading with us to save her. She told us we would be absolved of all our sins—as she had forgiven us. We did not know what to do, but those who had followed her ways were restored at the sight of her and fell writhing and ranting upon the ground, speaking such blasphemies as will not bear the retelling here in the darkness.”

I have rarely seen Aleksey’s eyes so wide, his face so concentrated on a tale. I held my counsel.