Disclaimer- I am in no way affiliated with Marion Zimmer-Bradley or the Mists Of Avalon series.
"I dunno..... it just doesn't seem like a genetically-engineered super soldier thing to do." Max looked at Logan amusedly. "Well, it's not a Logan Cale thing to fall for girls that raid his house in the middle of the night, but I did. Just read it, OK?" Logan looked over at Max who was smirking at him, but she just shrugged and walked out the door. Outside Logan's Apartment Max stared at the book as she absent-mindedly unlocked her bike and got on her motorcycle. The book seemed big and not particularly heavy, but Logan made her promise not to look at it until she got home so she stuck it into her backpack and turned on the bike. "Logan gets more and more confusing every time I see him" Max silently laughed to herself at her thought. What was the deal with this book? It's not like
one of the things Logan does, but then again everything has gotten weird since Manticore stuck that virus into me. Granted it's gone, but I guess Logan still sees me with it in my blood. I don't know what I'm going to do. But this book is going to be read and I'm going to be able to be with Logan if it kills me. Max was startled by the fact that she just got home, she found a parking space near the apartment and walked upstairs. Max walked into her apartment and threw her backpack beside the couch. "Hey girl,", Original Cindy barely looked up from the TV. "I'm gonna make some supper", Max bent into the fridge and realized all they had was leftovers from last night. "aiight, but I don't think we have much" Cindy said into the screen, "I'll just heat up the Chinese from last night.". Max went to stick the Chinese in the microwave when Cindy saw the package in her bag. "What's in the bag, sug'?", "Just something Logan gave to me, I'm not even sure what it is.","Well don't just stand there, open it up". Max flopped onto the couch and opened the bag. "The Forest House" Max said bluntly "Is that supposed to mean something to me, 'cause it don't.", I'm not sure, but I guess I'll read it, you know, 'cause Logan took the time to buy it for me..." "uhhhh huh"
Shafts of golden light shone through the trees as the setting sun dropped below the cloud, outlining each new washed leaf in gold. The hair of the two girls who were making their way alone the forest path glowed with the same pale fire. Earlier the day there had been rain. The thick, uncleared forest that still covered much of the south of Britain lay damp and quiet, and a few low boughs still shook scattered drops like a blessing across the path. Eilan breathed deeply in the moist air, heavy with all the living scents of the woods and sweet as incense after the smoky atmosphere of her father's hall. In the Forest House, she had been told, they used sacred herbs to purify the air. Instinctively she straightened, trying to walk like one of the priestesses who dwelt there, lifting the basket of offering in her best imitation of their balanced grace. For a moment, then, her body moved with a rhythm both unfamiliar and completely natural, as if she had been trained to do this in some ancient past.
Max looked at the page curling her hair in her hand and looking at the page intently, although she didn't understand why Logan had given her the book, she was oddly entranced by the book and how far it seemed from her life. The only images she thought of when she thought of Forests were the ones that Manticore trained them in. Although this one seemed so much more beautiful and undisturbed by the blood and gunshots that she remembered. If she ever would see a forest, Max thought that it probably wouldn't be like this, this book is way pre-pulse and even before the pulse I doubt they had this sort of stuff.
The boy lay shaken and bleeding at the bottom of the boar pit, his hopes of rescue fading with the ebbing light. The pit where he lay was dank and foul, smelling of the dung of animals trapped there in the past. Sharp stakes were set into the bottom and sides of the pit; one of these stakes had pierced his shoulder-not a dangerous wound, he judged, nor even particularly painful as yet, for the arm was still numb with the force of his fall. But still, slight though it was, it was likely to kill him
This is weird, I wonder why Logan gave it to me, there must be something that reminded him of me, or of us, maybe it comes later, I suppose they're building up to it,. Most books do. Maybe I'm supposed to be like this boy.... Max read on and realized that the story was about a girl named Eilan and a boy named Gaius. Eilan lived in a small town and Gaius was a Roman soldier. Eilan wanted to become a priestess and Gaius never dreamed he'd end up anywhere near Eilan. Gaius is saved by Eilan and her friend Dieda and is taken into the care of her family, and although Rome is at war with her people, they fall in love.
He touched Eilan's cheek, and it was like the petal of a flower. Gently he turned her face towards him. Her eyes were wide and wondering, her lips a little parted. He felt her start of surprise as he kissed her, but she did not pull away. Her lips were sweet, so sweet that he held her against him and kissed her again, and after a moment of resistance felt her mouth opening beneath his like a flower. Gaius fell into her sweetness. Dazed, every pulse pounding, it took him a moment to understand abruptly that what he felt for her was a holy thing. He realized that when he let her go he had plunged his fingers instead into the grass, and sat up, wiping his hands. 'We must not" she whispered. "My father would kill us both!" "It is true." He was surprised that he could speak so steadily. His senses were still awhirl, but he felt the warmth of certainty within him. Since that first moment when he saw her looking down into the pit where he had fallen, haloed in light, it seemed to him that this moment had been preordained. "It would shame us both, and there is no dishonor at all in what I feel for you. I love you, Eilan, as a man loves the woman that he would make his wife." "How can you?" she whispered, staring at the fire. "You are a stranger. You never even saw me until two weeks ago. Have you dreamed of me, too?" "I am more of a stranger than you know," he said grimly. "But I will prove my love to you-" He gathered his courage. "Now I will put my life in your hands. I am Roman, Eilan.........."
Max smiled to herself, and turned the page.
