Author's Note - I just realized the errors littered throughout my story and author's notes... I will fix them tomorrow or sometime soon. Thanks to everyone who reviewed. I will try and take the time to name you individually next update. I apologize much for character deaths. I never planned them... well, sort of but they ended up being written sooner than they were supposed to be. Those of you reading and not reviewing (perhaps there are some), please review. Your feedback is appreciated.
Chapter 6 - Helios and Diana
And so they came. Aranwen did not see them at first but she knew they were there. Tree branches swayed though there was no wind and the calls of horns not unlike her own answered her from afar. Aranwen did not rejoice nor did she fear them. Creatures of an unknown sort emerged from the wood as strangers from a mist. Clothed in forest darkness, they strode into the dim light of a shrouded sun. Aranwen held her breath, her heart counting every step they took. They were coming.
"Aranwen!" a voice shouted breathlessly, a figure stumbled in through door. Aranwen did not greet Lucan. She but looked at him for a sad, brief moment and solemnly ripped the blankets from her bed and thrust them into the hearth where a hungry fire devoured them. Aranwen watched, in a bitter trance, as furs once so clean turned to ash.
"I am leaving," she said quietly. "I am not sure if I will return... where is she? Where is the witch?" she demanded, looking hastily over her shoulder in case the crow had lingered. But it didn't matter anymore. Lucan, whose face was occupied by a look of bewilderment, did not answer in a proper fashion. His eyes lowered themselves in sadness.
"You will leave all this to Morgaine?" he asked. Aranwen's heart was compressed further by such a suggestion. But that was what she was going to do - even if she had not yet realized it and her mind raced to find excuses.
"There is so much pain here... and though I know the pain will follow me wherever I go, perhaps my spirit will not be so restless elsewhere. I want to learn, Lucan... I want to fly and I cannot do so here, trapped in this cage."
"I could not bear to lose you as well!" Lucan said desperately, his lonely eyes pleading. "You cannot leave me here - alone."
"You will return with the knights. There is nothing left for them here - not anymore. My father's kingdom has crumbled to ruins... it seems so strange that it did so in the course of but only a year - and under a woman's hand."
"Perhaps a woman's hand can bring it up again," Lucan said, bringing her hand to his face. "Sarmatia does not call to me... it was never my home. My home is here - and wherever you are." Aranwen tried to smile but could not. Salty tears stung the marks on her face, a bitter reminder of the night's events.
"You will find a pretty lady, Lucan. You will marry and have many sons and daughters - your wife will take good care of you... and her love will mean more to you than a sister's broken love. You will be great, my brother... your name will be carved in the stone and never leave the lips of man."
"I will be content only to hear my name uttered from your lips, Aranwen." He drew his finger across her cheek, letting it rest upon the crimson lines. "What happened to you?"
"I have been wronged..." Aranwen began, brushing his hand away, voice choked by the memory.
"Perhaps I can right this wrong."
"Only time can ever accomplish such a task. But I will forever be haunted... the trees approach, Lucan. I must greet them." She hurried to the window and leaned out, wishing that she could let go. She wanted to fall.
"No," Lucan protested, pulling her back from the window. "I fear you will never return to me. Come with me, Wen, and we shall ride!"
"To where, Lucan?" Aranwen cried exasperatingly. "To where?" her broken voice echoed.
"To where it no longer hurts, my lady."
"Heaven is only for the dead - and I am still of the living, if only in body." Aranwen wrapped her traveling clothes more tightly about her and wiped the tears from her eyes, as if to deny that they were ever there.
"I will come back stronger. I swear by every brick in Hadrian's Wall that I will take back what is mine. But until then I will be gone from here." Lucan clung to her suddenly.
"And will I do?" he demanded, holding her in a tight embrace.
"Look to the moon... for that is where you shall see my face... and the sun is where I shall look in your name. We are twin souls you and I - Helios and Diana." Aranwen's soft words silenced him for only a little while.
"Will you be a stranger when you return? Will you forget me in your absence?"
"I will not return a ghost," Aranwen told him simply. "I no longer care for yesterday."
"But we were yesterday as much as we are today! Surely our memories mean more than nothing to you... or do they not? I shall be simply forgotten while you find a new life for yourself?" Lucan looked like a stricken child and Aranwen wanted to feel pity for him.
"What we are is now - we cannot still play the parts of children." She kissed his cheek with haste, drawing a way in a hurry not knowing that she wounded Lucan with her kiss. Her eyes made his heart grieve for something not yet lost. But she will be lost, he told himself in hopelessness. "Dagonet watches," she reminded him gently.
Lucan watched her go from the room with nothing in her hands. She is gone, Lucan realized sadly knowing that Aranwen, if kept in her cage, would have died in Morgaine's grasp. I love you, echoed words unsaid. Those words would mean nothing to her if kept locked in his heart. And it would haunt him until he could have the chance to say them properly. He waited.
"Is she gone, boy?" Morgaine, her voice hanging in the air as breath in the winter. But Lucan did not look at her nor did he betray any anger. Instead, his eyes were fixed upon the far distance. He watched, his heart breaking with every tree that retreated back into forest dark.
"You have won," he said as bells sounded to confirm Arthur's death and a dark cloud descended upon the people. Lucan blinked to let the tears fall, not ashamed to let Morgaine see them. "Even the peasants mourn him."
"Indeed... his murderer has been put to justice. He lies in the prison - the blood still dripping from his hands." I fear it was you who put the dagger there. Morgaine sighed, as if the darkness of the times did not affect her. But again, Lucan thought, it was she who made it that way.
Author's Note - Another note! Sorry. Next chapter, I will draw the attention away from Aranwen and write a little about Galahad (because I love Galahad)... yes, he will make an appearance. So it will be a Lucan / Galahad / OC next chapter.