It must seem odd, this determination of mine to secure the life of someone who had in reality given me no reason to even like him. I suppose it was that indefinable something, that sense that somehow he was destined to be a great influence in my life. Perhaps it was a deep sense of pity or human compassion in me; a desire to show another love because I had hardly been shown any since I was six.
Having said that, if it was true compassion I would not have visited Erik again in order to tell him how compassionate I had been. The same as before, I sneaked into his tent and sat down by his cage after my night's work was finished. This time, he did not feign sleep but was sat upright using the bars of the cage for support. He looked better than before; not quite so skeletal, but still beaten black and blue. As I sat down he snarled at me.
"What do you want, gypsy?"
"I wanted to tell you that it was me that made Vrack feed you more"
I regretted saying it as soon as the sentence was out of my mouth. I sounded like a child fishing for praise. I waited for his scorn to pour out on my head. But no scorn was forthcoming.
Instead he just asked me, "Why"
"Because I don't want you to die," I replied.
"Why does it matter to you whether I die?" he asked, shuffling over so he was sat opposite me. Were it not for the bars, we would have been sat nose to nose - well, with him a little higher up than me, but you get my meaning.
"Human compassion," I said with as much decisiveness as I could muster.
The truth, I suppose, was that under the bruises, and even with the distortion of the right side of his face, he was, well, beautiful. I know it's not the done thing to describe a young man as beautiful, especially not these days, but he really was. The scrawniness brought on by his starvation at Vrack's hands was beginning to disappear, filling out a body that would one day be strong and masculine. His eyes were deep and oddly soulful, and his voice which was just beginning to settle into its manly tones, was rich and melodic. It was not human compassion that moved me at all, it was the first stirrings of something greater.
"What do you do here? I mean, you are not like me…" he waved his hand to indicate his cage.
"I am a seer," I told him, Elina having decided that this epithet was more of a crowd draw than 'fortune teller'. I expected him to laugh, but he did not.
"What do you see?"
"I see visions of the future. Sometimes in dreams, sometimes if I touch someone I see pictures in my head, or I just have a sense of knowing something. I mostly see bad things."
Slowly, he held his hand out to me through the bars of his cage.
"Tell me what you see for me, Arielle."
Gingerly, I took his hand, enjoying his use of my name. I closed my eyes, and tried to breathe deeply and calm my racing heart. I had never tried to summon a vision on demand before, and I had no idea if it was even possible. Please God, I prayed, please let me see…The images came thick and fast, too many to recall. A white face, voices singing, screams, fire, and one image that kept returning. A child, laying on a bed, its mother weeping over its body…I let forth a great sob, and dropped his hand.
"What is it? What did you see?" he asked me, picking up my hand again and holding it in both his own.
"I told you I only see evil things. Sometimes I do not know what they mean. I saw horrible things, horrible things…" I fell into silence. "I saw death."
"Am…am I going to die here?"
I shook my head. "No, no it was not your death I saw, it was someone else's. Someone I don't know."
"Arielle, I'm sorry. I didn't realise how painful it must be, seeing all those things." He paused for a moment, still holding my hand. "I am also sorry for being so cruel to you when you came here before. No one has ever shown me a kindness or given me a gift - for which I thank you, by the way - and I treated you with the same contempt with which I have been treated. You have a good heart."
He lifted my hands to his lips, kissed it, and let it drop. I lifted my head, and with tears in my eyes, I gave him a promise. I did not know then how it would bind me. I did not know how it would break me.
"I will get you out, Erik. I don't know how, but I am sure I can find a way."
"Then I am in your hands, little gypsy."
He smiled, and the world lit up around me.
