Chapter18

Flashback

The Queen walked back and forth with a frown lingering on her beautiful features. Turning every time she reached the walls of the large tent she was living in, she only walked back the way she had come from. She had been Queen for some time now – or rather, she had been Queen for several hundreds years and with the title came responsibility.

During her morning ritual for the Goddess they served, under the white statue made of marble, she had been told by her patron that yet another girl had been chosen and this girl was the offspring of a northern God. She was used to get news of yet another Untouchable every other morning, but the news about this girl had shocked her.

It was at the ceremony that she had received the news and looking up from the bowl that was filled with water from the forbidden stream she had let her eyes observe the faces of hundreds of woman waiting for her to say something.

Some of those was young girls, maturing into womanhood until they reached the year of twenty-four, but some had been the right age for some time. Beside the women or behind them, small groups of animals rested – awaiting new orders from their mistresses or simply guarding them; watching for every single movement that meant that danger was upon them, but they would have to wait awhile longer, because the ceremony wasn't over.

The woman and girls, kneeling on the ground in front of her, had come to her during centuries and every morning she had spoken the same rite; the one she had spoken the first time she had stood at the alter.

Walking back and forth in her tent she couldn't help but to remember how she had left him behind, with cuts in her cheeks from the beating that had followed after she had refused him. She had only been fourteen by the time her father had called her to him and explained that he had arranged a marriage for her, and the first-born son from the local fief was to be her husband.

That night she had cried herself to sleep and continued to do so every night until her the night of the wedding where she had stood dressed in white at the alter, allowing the priest to bind her hands to the man who was almost twice as old as her. Her grief had overwhelmed her so much that tears had run down her cheeks during the ceremony, dropping down on the bond that presented that she now belonged to the man who had stood beside her.

Such she had entered the room where she would become a woman and her unwanted husband had immediately struck her across her cheek with the back of his right hand. The blow pushing her of balance – forcing her to crash into the nightstand – and then drop down to the floor in complete shock.

No words had escaped her lips as her attacker, and her supposed-to-be loving husband, had come forth and grabbed her upper arms, raising her to her feet while red liquid dropped down on her white gown from her bruised lip.

"Your little brat," he had spat the words at her while letting his eyes wander down over her young and still not maturely developed body. "Lets see what you have underneath all that clothes," and with that he had started to rib her dress apart. Not taking any precaution to the delicate fabric her father had spend so many money on.

Whimpering and begging had only gotten her a stroke that made her head spin and she had dropped too the floor yet again. She had been silenced by that blow, her lips had swallowed up, preventing her from speaking.

After that, the beating had been rough, even worse and she had been submissive until he had pressed her down on the mattress of the bed and pushed the fabric of the white dress up over her thighs – she fought off cause, but as he was stronger than her and she just a mere girl, she had been on the very edge of exhaustion when her hand accidentally brushed the tip of the knife hanging in his belt.

It was only when she was running though the forest that she realized what she had done – the knife had embedded itself in her husbands upper arm and screaming in surprise and pain, she had been given the space to get free from his hold – the prison her father had thrown her into. She after that found herself running barefoot over the ground of the nearby forest, trying to escape the certain death that awaited her if he ever was to lay his hands upon her again. The run had ribbed her damaged dress apart. Each branches from the bushes catching her, slowing her process down.

The sounds of a frantic man could be heard behind her and every time she had tripped, she had pushed herself to her feet again only to run more, thinking that if he were to capture her, he would kill her instantly.

Such she hadn't noticed the wall or the boundary before she stood on the other side of it – looking back on the man she was running from. As she watched, her husband collided with the blueish wall that was protecting her and with a scream, he burned alive leaving only the smell of burned flash.

Hiding her face from the view she could heard the scream of anguish as he became ashes. While slowly looking up she found that she was being observed by a presence on the other side of the boundary and within a blink of the eye, the presence had moved itself to stand in front of her, looking down on her with emerald green eyes.

She had pushed herself back, only to trip over a log. Laying on her back, she had been given a clear view of the person standing towering over her and a hand, pale and smooth had been offered to her.

Looking up into the emerald green eyes yet again Ademia had crawled back, trying not to be afraid as the woman – the most beautiful woman she had ever laid eyes off – spoke softly, "Don't worry my child. You are safe."

Shaking all over Ademia hadn't replied to the sentence and while laying on the ground the woman had wandered over to a large stone that stood in the clearing she was laying in. The sky over her head was clearer then anything else she had seen and the smell of the grass underneath her itched her nose and she sneezed, but she still allowed her eyes to follow the woman as the sun was caressing the blackness of the woman's hair.

As the woman walked her hand brushed a single stone and it slowly transformed to an alter of some kind. Half expecting that the transformation was a trick of the mind, Ademia pushed herself to her feet and while standing, she had almost bitten her tongue of as the woman sudden gestured at yet a stone, smaller then the other, but this one grow vertical.

Ademia almost dropped to her knees as the stone twisted and turned – she could almost feel the pain the stone was in as the stone reached the commanded height and looking up she stirred into stony-eyes that looked back into hers. The woman with the emerald eyes was still standing calmly and in flesh by her side, and in front of her stood a replica of the same person – a Goddess.

Turing to Ademia again the Goddess gestured to their surroundings and before Ademia's eyes, every where she looked large tents popped up from the ground, encircling the alter. Back then there had only been about twenty tents, but now – there was several hundreds.

"This Ademia," the woman had said with a voice that sounded like baying hounds and the call of the huntress urging them on "is your sanctuary for the women who is been given no choice in the matter of matrimony."

"What?" she had said and had took a step forth. Her bruised face still filled her with pain, but as the woman reached out to touch her she had felt the most magnificent feeling ever. Cold was slowly pushed through her body, leaving her slightly dizzy. After the feeling was gone she had reached up and touched her cheek – the cuts was gone.

The woman with the long charcoal hair had left her to stand at the alter and waving her hands though the air, a bowl of pure gold materialized – levitating in the air by itself.

Lifting the bowl up, turning around, a stream of the purest water had come rushing forth as the ground underneath Ademia's feet had split itself, allowing water to reach the surface. The Goddess knelt and filled the bowl as she spoke ancient words Ademia didn't understand at that time, but after years under the guidance of the Goddess she quickly had become accustomed to the words and their important meaning.

Standing beside the woman at the alter, the Goddess had grabbed Ademia's hand and forced it into the water. While speaking unknown words, the Goddess had summoned forth a picture in the water and for the first time Ademia had seen the face of a very young girl at the age of ten sitting near a fire looking absolutely miserable.

"What am I supposed to do?" Ademia had asked the woman and lifted her eyes from the picture confused.

"Just say the words and she will be the second Untouchable – your second in command," the Goddess had whispered low.

Ademia had turned her head and looked up. "Why are you doing this?" she had asked, a bit concerned that this was only a dream and she would soon wake to the horrible reality she had lived in.

The Great Mother Goddess had reached out and touched Ademia's cheek. "Because no daughter of mine are to marry without love."

Looking down into the bowl, "Then only love can release them from the spell?"

"Yes my daughter – only love can give them mortality."

The young girl looked up at the Goddess and met the emerald eyes with her own blue ones, "Then I'm immortal?"

"As long you don't offer your heart to a man, then yes, but if you do – then this will for always be gone and the girls who are to come here don't have the opportunity to escape the lives they are forced into."

So she was trapped, Ademia thought, but nevertheless accepted her fate until a thought struck her. Looking down over her body, she had sighed, but quickly wished that she hadn't.

The Great Mother Goddess heard it nevertheless and turning from the picture of the young girl, she asked with a bright voice ."Why are you unhappy?"

"If I am immortal, then my body won't develop and I will for always be a child," she had whispered in a low voice. Around her small noises from various animals took form and not far from the largest tent, that stood in the middle of the other tents, animals gathered in a line – looking at her with curious eyes. She frowned over the presence of the creatures, but decided that there must be a reason to why the Great Mother Goddess had conjured them. She would get an answer to that later on.

"You want to be a woman?" the Great Mother asked while completing the surroundings that was going to be Ademia's home for ever.

Looking up, Ademia nodded. "If I am to be the Leader of the," she paused trying to remember what the Goddess had said, "Untouchables in this body, others that come here and are older then I will not follow me," she looked into the Goddess emerald eyes. "Who want's to lead by a child?"

A hand settled around her chin and lifted her face. The emerald eyes searched for something that Ademia couldn't possible understand.

The Goddess squeezed her eyes together. "You aren't stupid at all," she concluded and after a few seconds the Goddess nodded, "As you wish my child – you will continued to develop as if you were on the other side of the boundary, until you reach your twenty-fourth year."

When the Goddess looked down on Ademia, she had felt again a strange sensation in her body and suddenly something settled on her forehead.

To be continued