Evelda put her hands on her hips and chewed her lips and thought. There was a significant distance between the edge of the lake and the tree in the centre. There were no stones to hop onto, nor could she see anything she could pull together to make a raft or a makeshift bridge. “I’ll have to swim.” She felt her adrenaline spike through her veins as she realised that she was going to have to discard her dress. Not only so she didn’t catch her death in wet cloth when she returned to the village, but also because she’d drown in that dress. If it wasn’t made for skulking in the forest, it certainly wasn’t made for swimming. The skirts would drag her down to her death for sure. “Sigurd needs those flowers.” Evelda scanned the water. It was clear and she could see to the bottom. It was deep and seemed to have a pebble lake bed. There weren’t even fish in the lake. “Ok. Here I go.”
Not wanting to be naked in this cursed place for longer than she needed to be, she hurried her hands over the cords over her bosom and back panel. She pulled the blue overdress over her head first, and then the white underdress. Once she was left in her chemise she did a little prayer, before removing the last linen barrier between her body and the world. Finally in the nude, the last thing Evelda wanted to do was linger. She dropped to a squat and tested the lake with her left foot first. It was cool, but not unpleasantly so. “So far so good…” She slid down the sharp drop of the grassy bank and was quickly submerged to her shoulders. Shivering as she acclimatised to the water, she did one last scan of the water for any sign of…anything really. Finding herself to still be alone, she released the edge of the banking and doggy paddled over to the tree. She knew the principle of swimming but had never had cause to try it before. It didn’t take her long to get a rhythm going, so it resembled a breaststroke, albeit a clumsy one. She scrambled her hands onto one of the large curved roots and pulled herself up out of the water by a few inches. Her hands made busy work of swiping as many lilac flowers as she could reach. Hoping that five would be enough, she lowered herself back into the water and swam back to the edge of the lake. It was loud and awkward, as she had one hand out of the water holding the flowers, but she made it. She grinned, feeling victorious, and climbed up out of the water.
Then reality smacked her in the face.
Stood between her and her dress was a man. Her heart seemed to stop in her chest as her mind screamed silently against her skull. He looked alien, stood in the middle of the beautiful glade. He was so very tall and intimating, wrapped in a long black hooded cloak. It shadowed his face so she could only see his eyes. They reminded her of the eyes of the feral cats that would come into Douma and try to steal some food. The slits were black, and the rest of his eyes were blazing orange and yellow. Like his eyes were on fire. The edges of his cloak had tendrils that were moving, feeling at the ground around him. She didn’t doubt for a second that they weren’t capable of lashing out and taking her feet from beneath her.
Totally naked and totally vulnerable, still holding the precious flowers, Evelda put one hand down between her legs to try and…do what exactly? Protect herself? Her modesty? Her nipples were hardening in the cool air of the breeze coming through the glade, and her body was so very bare. Her wet ginger locks ran red rivers down her back and shoulders. She didn’t dare turn her form from him, for fear of missing him faint towards her and losing her neck. “Please.” Her hazel eyes watered, and she held the hand holding the flowers to her chest. “A friend of mine, her brother, he’s dying.” She watched his eerie eyes move from her face to her chest where she held the flowers, and then back to her face. “I need to get back to the village with these flowers. Please, he’ll die without them.”
“You are a thief.” His voice sent a chill down her spine. It was wispy, like a whisper, but his voice was neither soft nor gentle. She trembled, from both the cold and her own fear.
“Please. I didn’t know these flowers belonged to anyone. I thought they were wild flowers. I-I don’t have any money.”
“Then leave them behind and go.” He took one step to the side, leaving a path for her to get to her clothes. It meant she had to walk right past him, but at least she could see they were still there.
“Oh please sir.” She took one step forward and shook so much she thought she’d faint if she lost her resolve. “A little boy is relying on me bringing these flowers.”
“You were sent here on orders?” His voice seemed to sharpen, and Evelda saw an image of Douma on fire in her mind.
“NO!” She panicked. “No, I heard a description of these flowers and-”
“Knew exactly where to find them?” She gulped and darted her hazel eyes to the discarded dress. I can’t leave without these flowers.
“I remembered having seen them here.”
“I see.” He cocked his head to one side, regarding her. “You have also violated my land before today, then?”
She felt her situation becoming more dire by the second.
“Please sir, all I wish is to leave with these flowers. You-you can take the dress as payment. I have no money to give you I-”
“Are you the one who takes my mushrooms?” The horrified look on her face was answer enough. “So you are a thief at least once a month, if not twice. One dress does not cover such a debt.”
He stepped back to the side, blocking her from the dress once more.
“Oh please sir.” She was crying with grief. “I was starving. I didn’t think they belonged to anyone. We’re all starving in Douma and I was desperate. I’m so sorry.” She whimpered. “P-Please don’t hurt me. p-p-please.” He took a step towards her, and she released a yelp. “Please!” He took another step, and she released a scream. She fell to her backside and still held her flowers to her chest. With the other arm, she tried to drag herself backwards. One of the tendrils of his cloak coiled around her ankle and dragged her body towards him. She was still screaming when he knelt next to her and leaned over to stare down at her with those haunting fiery eyes. His cloak parted just wide enough to allow one arm to slither out and reach for her. A black-gloved hand with claws wrapped around her neck and brought her up to face him. She pawed at the ground with her free hand and whimpered with fear as he brought her face up for inspection. Evelda whimpered, but no longer screamed. His hand was around her throat. She was naked at his feet. If this was to be her last moments alive, she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of screaming or begging for her life.
“Starving, you say?” He turned his hooded face to examine her body, and then returned to look at her face. “You look underweight.” He paused, like he’d expected her to say something, then shook his head. “Those flowers are useless. It’s the roots that have medicinal purposes. You left the roots on the tree.” He nodded towards the willow tree, and Evelda closed her hazel eyes.
So I’m going to die in vain. I didn’t even get the right part of the flower…I will not look at him as he kills me. She unfurled her fist and the lilac flowers spilled forward. They made a trail down from her cleavage, over her ribs and sunken navel.
Evelda tried to think of her parents, wanting their loving smiles to be the last thing she remembered before she died. The defiance on her face was tight in her jaw. She was literally at his mercy, but would not submit to him.
He dropped her. She yelped in surprise and blinked around her to find he’d walked away from her. The hooded man lowered slowly to grab her clothes and threw them at her feet. “Dress.”
She hesitated, not knowing if it was a trick, but then decided not to wait for him to ask her twice. Evelda pulled her chemise over her head, and then her white underdress. Once she had the blue overdress on, her freezing hands went to the cords over her bosom. She pulled her wet coppery locks out of the dress and reached for the ties at her back. “Allow me.” He blurred from her vision, and she panicked when he suddenly stood behind her, and yanked at her cords. Stiff as a board she waited for him to finish strapping her in, and come back into her field of vision. “You…” He spoke with an edge of curiosity. “…are a thief. I will require recompense.”
“I-I don’t have any money.” She trembled, and she peered over her shoulder at the lake behind her.
“You still covet my property?”
“Oh please sir.” She put her hands together, begging. Surely allowing her to dress was a good sign he intended to let her live, right? He kept referring to the debt she owed, and so he must believe that alive she could repay him somehow? At least, that’s what Evelda was counting on. “I’ll work off my debt. I’m a hard worker. Most day’s I’m sowing and harvesting wheat. If you have a field that needs tending I could-”
“You could take this to the boy.” He opened his cloak and once more held one arm out of it. In his eerie black-gloved hand he held a vial. “This is a crushed version of the root of the heavenly grace.” He paused. “The flower you just tried to steal.” Her eyes honed in on it, her hands fussed against her front and she gulped deeply.
“…truly? You will have saved Sigurd’s life if that’s truly the root.”
“I will give this to you.” He held it at arm’s length for her. She leapt forward to take it, but he retracted his hand at the last moment. “For a cost, of course.” He chuckled darkly at her. “We demons like our contracts, after all.”
“…de…demon?” He nodded at her question, and she visibly paled.
Oh great. He’s a demon. Well of course he’s a demon. Look at him! Even the air around him feels like fire. Then something else occurred to her, and she lost her voice to ask it. Could he be…the demon? The Shadow lord from our history lessons?
“I will allow you to take this to Douma to cure the boy of what ails him.”
“…for what price?” She whispered warily.
“Clever girl.” He chuckled and extended his arm again. “I will require you to broker a meeting between myself and the leader of Douma. A treacherous Bryne, no doubt.”
“A meeting?” Evelda thought that sounded quite reasonable to be fair. But something in her gut made her press further with her questions. “For what?”
“I wish to renew our previous agreement. If your people are truly starving, they will have no reason to refuse me anymore. The specifics of the arrangement I will discuss with your leader, of course.”
“…previous…agreement.” She gulped again, and this time found her voice to ask. “Are you…the Demon Lord Turuk?” He bowed his head, and she swooned forward. The demon’s cloak twisted forward to coil around her body like a snake, preventing her from falling flat on her face. Evelda didn’t completely lose consciousness, so she panicked once she realised she was trapped. He also didn’t release her either.
“Do you accept our contract? I will allow you to return to Douma with the medicine, and you must arrange a meeting between myself and your leader.” She nodded, knowing she didn’t actually have a choice in the matter. He’d no doubt kill her if she refused. “I am Turuk. You know my name, and I must know yours for the contract to be binding.”
A foolish voice in her head told her to lie and say someone else’s name…but her common sense prevailed.
“Evelda Ottum.” The air around them seemed to crackle, putting her on edge again. Lighting in the air around them was a well-known sign of a demon contract being signed. Distantly she thought about how she’d expected to have to actually sign a piece of paper or something, but apparently not.
“Evelda…” Her name rolled off his tongue like a ghost’s whisper. “We have a bargain.” He uncoiled his cloak from her and allowed her trembling fingers to take the vial. “Tell your leader I expect you to bring him here at Noon tomorrow. No one else is to come, or I’ll send my familiars into Douma and take all the children and virgins.”
He took a sweeping step back from her, and Evelda nodded franticly. She was still running when he shouted after her. “Don’t be late Evelda! My familiars won’t be!”
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