Stormchild: Emeline and the Forest Mage

32 Dark Woman

Götteril, 30 years ago

    'What is it that you most desire?' Vargin twirled a lock of her pitch hair in a thin finger, her hypnotising eyes trained on Huiden.

    He fell deeper into the depths of them and his smile widened. The curtain of his blonde hair fell forward as he leaned in to her. 'You know what I desire most.'

    The whisper sent goose bumps along her neck and back. Indeed, she did know what he most desired, and it worked for her purposes. They lay close to each other in a hovel, a dark spot found on the one side of the lake of gathering, where the ground suddenly dropped and their forms and plans could be hidden from the Fathers ever scrutinous eyes. The darkness felt warm and safe, and at the same time it felt risky and exciting. She wore her most revealing black dress, and her pale legs gleamed like pillars of lust in the darkness.

    'You know what I mean beloved; what is it you desire on Erdil.'

    Huiden licked his lips, his eager eyes travelled up and down her body, and he rested his hand on her side. 'I want to kill a man and have his blood stain my hands.'

    Vargin sneered and her eyes gleamed. 'How delightful.'

    'And I desire to fight. In a war, where lives balance on the edge of a bloody blade.'

    'Delicious,' she said.

    'I desire also to taste the ocean's waters, to gaze on the mountains and feel the snow on my face.'

    Vargin's smile fell. What a fool this one was. 'Would you like to know what I desire...' With her dark fingernail, she drew a slow line down his cheek. 'Brother?' Huiden's mouth drew close to hers, parted with desire, panting with yearning. 'Yesss.'

    She held his chin in her one hand. 'The marked one.' A smile played at the corners of her mouth, and a laugh built in her throat. Huiden's eyes were confused, and she watched him war with the possibilities of what she truly meant with a knoll of satisfaction deep inside her.

    'Ahh.' He forced a laugh from his chest that sounded flat and dry. 'You mean to meet him, kill him, taste his blood.'

    A sinister twinkling in her eye was all that gave her away. 'Oh, yes. To meet him and know him.'

    'Where are the others?' Huiden looked around, removed his hand from her waist, and would not meet her eyes.

    'They will be here. I know they are as eager as we are.'

    They stood, and Vargin pulled a crimson hood over her dark head. Did she look as breath taking as she felt? Huiden's star-struck eyes seemed to indicate so. A smug smile spread over her face. She was the most lovely and the most powerful of the Immortals.

    Soon Celissa and Gorst joined them, and Jarbin entered the shadows last, skulking behind the rest with that ridiculous lopsided grin he always wore. Jarbin unsettled her with that crooked face and those conniving eyes.

    'I'm so excited!' Celissa squealed and hopped about the hovel with her fists clenched.

    'We all are,' Vargin said.

    'I want to see the naked starred sky stretched over the desert.' Celissa swept her hand through the air. 'And I want to taste the food the mortals eat, and sit with them around a fire while they share stories.'

    Gorst folded his arms. 'I'll de damned if I'm going anywhere near as boring as that.'

    'You'll be damned if the fathers find us, that's sure.' Vargin swept the cape of her hooded coat away and revealed just enough leg skin to steal the attention back to herself.