The Black Chalice

Ten

They lay together on the soft grass, spent.

For all the pretty words she had used, there really was beauty in that moment. Beauty and peace.

She owned him then, body and soul.

Alymere rolled onto his elbow. He looked down at her, seeing finally that there was nothing innocent about her nakedness. There was a look of utter contentment on her face. He smiled.

The hart stood at the edge of the clearing. It wasn't alone. It seemed almost as though all of the creatures of the forest had come to witness their coupling. He saw dozens upon dozens of birds, all manner of them, lining the branches around the grove. He saw foxes and badgers and voles, rats, moles and ferrets hiding in the shadow-fringe of the trees, watching. It was the most unnerving thing he had ever witnessed. Not one of them moved. Not once did their gazes waver. They only had eyes for him.

"You could do one more thing for me," she said, not looking at him.

"You need only ask it," he said.

"Do not be so eager to make promises you cannot keep," she chided him lightly.

"There is no promise I cannot keep," Alymere said earnestly. "There is nothing you could ask of me that I would not willingly do, without a second thought."

Blodyweth shifted slightly in the long grass, and turned to look at him.

"You really mean that, don't you?"

"With all of my heart."

And with that rash promise, he took his first step on the road to becoming the man he was always destined to be. He was no longer Alymere the Undecided.

"Be my champion," she said. "Save me."

Alymere traced a finger down her cheek to her lips, and leaned in and kissed her. "No-one will harm you while there is a breath in my body."

"You are so sweet, my little knight," the Crow Maiden met his kiss with her lips and for a moment they chapped and hardened, betraying her true age, though again Alymere was too lost in the moment to notice the disparity between what he saw and what he felt. "My fearless and brave hero. Lying here in your arms like this, I almost believe that you could protect me from anything."

"On my life," Alymere swore, leaning in to kiss those lips again.

"But you cannot save me, the bones are already cast. No-one can."

"Hush," he said, pressing his finger to her lips. "Didn't you just say nothing is writ in stone?" He teased a flower from her garland, and held it between two fingers as though it were the most precious thing in the whole world. "He loves me, remember?" He scattered the petals with one breath.

And for a heartbeat her resolve crumbled, the cunning of the crow creeping to the surface for all the world to see, in her eyes and in her predatory smile, as she drew him closer and said, "Hold me." He did. And because of that, he missed the truth.

"That is not such a hard promise to keep," he said.

"If only it were so easy," the Crow Maiden breathed in his ear.

"Talk to me, Blodyweth. There is nothing you can say that will scare me away. I am yours." It was said with all of the earnest honesty of youth; the same sort of youth where mountains are there to be climbed and fears to be conquered.

"I know," she said, soothing him. "I know, my sweet, sweet knight." When at last he began to doze sleepily in her arms, and she judged him receptive, she whispered: "Our fates are entwined now, just like our bodies. You are my champion. I love this land as though it were my own flesh, and her rivers flow through my veins like blood, and you love me, don't you?" he nodded. "Here," she tore a strip of fine linen from her discarded dress, tying it around his forearm, "so that I am always close to you, wherever you may be. Close your eyes, my love. Rest, dream of me."

He did.

And while he slept, she planted the suggestion in his mind:³ "Do this one thing for me, Alymere. Find the blind monk whose skin is impervious to blades and steal the Devil's book⁴ from his hands… do not fail me, or all of this will be lost. Promise me now, make this the one promise you keep."

He grunted and shifted in his sleep.

"Promise me," she insisted, letting go of her beautiful face. Feathers fell from her lips to tickle his. He sighed, his lips parting.

"Promise," Alymere said sleepily, sealing his fate once and for all.

The Crow Maiden leaned down and kissed him like lovers do. His mouth opened to take her in. Finally she broke away from that last kiss and told him, "Follow the smoke. When the time comes, you will understand. You must be strong. True. If there is a weakness in you, he will exploit it. If there is evil in your heart, he will stoke it, and all will be lost. Stay true. Save me, my champion. Save me, or the Devil take both our souls."