Chapter 12: Night Melodies
Christine felt her heart constrict with fear, not for herself, but for Erik. Just as the two of them had at last achieved happiness, it was to be taken away...She began to tremble, helplessly. Erik, who was still holding her to his body, hugged her tightly for a moment. Then he picked her up, kissing her forehead.
"Do not fear, my love," he whispered tenderly. "We have plenty of cover here. They may not see us, and pass right by."
She whimpered, looking up at him as he strode swiftly to the stallion's side. "Erik, they shall take you away from me..." Her voice caught on a sob.
"Hush, my sweet," he soothed, softly. Then he clicked his tongue in that strange manner again, and the great horse stirred, turning his head to look at them in the darkness. Erik carefully placed Christine on his back.
"You are a good horsewoman, I know," he said, looking up at her. In spite of the deep darkness, he was able to see her clearly, thanks to his uncannily acute night vision.
"If they come for me, I want you to kick his flanks as hard as you can, and give him his head. He will take you to Nadir. I am the one they want. You have nothing whatever to do with any of this."
"No, Erik!" she cried out, "I will not leave your side!" She now began to weep in earnest.
"Christine," he murmured, in his most soothing tone. "You and I both knew that it would come to this. I am, after all, a murderer..."
"But you are so much more!" she exclaimed, passionately.
"No crime goes unpunished for long, in one way or another..." He sighed. "I have perpetrated the deeds for which they now seek me. The fact that I hide a horrible disfigurement beneath this mask will immediately condemn me in their eyes. They will always persist in seeing me as a monster. So, even if I were I completely innocent, I would still be found guilty."
She could not answer, and continued to sob uncontrollably.
The hoofbeats were clearly audible now. Hidden by the trees, the Phantom and his love waited, hearts pounding, scarcely breathing. They were completely sheltered from view inside the thick clump of trees. The moon, too, was well hidden behind dense clouds. The night breeze had stilled, and not even a leaf stirred now. Only the sound of their erratic breathing, as well as the stallion's occasional low snort, could be heard.
Suddenly, a small group of men on horseback entered the forest. One carried a lantern, which swung crazily to and fro as its beams swept the eerie gloom of the massed trees.
"How many are there?" Christine whispered, her voice trembling.
"I cannot tell as yet," he whispered back. "But speak no more, my love. I have thought of something which may extricate us from our present predicament. We will reach our destination in peace, after all. I know not what destiny may bring thereafter, but we shall truly enjoy our first night as husband and wife!"
Puzzled, she was about to ask him how this would be possible, when he began to sing, as melodiously as ever, yet allowing his voice to carry inexorably toward the group of horsemen that were so intent on finding him. Christine gasped, feeling a jarring bolt of sheer terror travel up her spine. Surely his voice would draw them in to him now! Erik, mindful of her great fear, quickly grasped her hand, which he stroked reassuringly. She again began to tremble, yet he continued to sing, in that powerful, yet tenderly flowing voice that had mesmerized her the very first time she had heard it. It swept up on the soft breeze, through the tree branches, to the very sky, and then down to touch her heart. His voice was all around them, inside them, trilling like a translucent stream of harmonies... He sang the lullaby of the love between earth and sky, of the enchantment of Nature. He sang of lost souls, reaching for each other across chasms of misunderstanding. He sang of the endless river of life, and of the great tapestry of the human race...The music embraced her, comforted her, enveloped her in its intricate sequences of flowing sound. She felt herself drowning pleasantly in it, carried along in its powerful, enticing tide. Erik caught her effortlessly before she fell off the horse's back as sleep pulled its tendrils around her. He ended the song as softly as he had begun it, its last notes sighing away on the very slight breeze that now caressed their faces again. Then, with sudden agility, he grasped the pommel, and swung himself up onto the horse's back, bringing her with him. The other horses, at a short distance away, stirred and whinnied briefly. Then there was utter silence once more. Erik took the reins firmly in one hand, and, holding Christine securely by the waist with the other, spurred Al-Hafaz into a gentle trot. They came out of the clump of trees, and he headed the stallion away from their hiding place.
Christine, dazed, leaned back into Erik's chest once more, slowly awakening from the spell he had spun about her. Neither of them spoke for several long moments, as they continued toward the edge of the forest.
"Erik...," she whispered at last. "What happened? What did you do to me with those incredibly beautiful melodies? I find I have no will to resist them...I only wish to be near the source of that heavenly music, to sleep, to immerse myself in it...Is that one of your compositions?"
He smiled in the darkness, kissing the top of her head. "I know precisely what effect this lullaby's melodies have on the human soul. They express the deepest human longings, which are all reducible to one: to love and be loved. And yes, I did write it, a long time ago, when I first dreamed of making you my wife...I intend to sing it to our children, my love, as they sleep contentedly in their mother's arms..." As he said this, he brought up the hand that held the reins, to gently caress her cheek.
"Oh, Erik..." She sighed, smiling, and, reaching up, caressed his cheek as well. Then she sighed again. His voice...it simply entranced her...She could never get enough of that voice...
"Why did you sing this lullaby, Erik? What of the horsemen following us? I can no longer hear them!"
He chuckled softly, quite pleased with himself. "If we were to go back, my dear, I do believe you would find them all sound asleep, right on the backs of their horses. Even the horses themselves were not completely unaffected. You will notice that Al-Hafaz is quite placid, too."
She was rendered totally speechless. That his voice could so enchant the human spirit, as well as charm non-human creatures, was incredible to her.
"I could see no other way for us to avoid my capture, unless I had resorted to violence. I do have the punjab lasso, hidden away in the folds of my cloak." He gently squeezed her shoulder. "But I knew you would not want me to kill in your presence, especially on our wedding night!"
"Oh, Erik! Thank you for that! But I want you to promise me that you will never kill again, ever!"
He smiled, grimly. "That, my sweet, is not entirely within my power. Were your life to be threatened by anyone at any time, I would most assuredly kill without compunction!"
"I would hope that it would not come to that, my angel." She tightened her grip on his hand, and bringing it up to her lips, kissed it tenderly.
"Brace yourself, my darling! Your riding skills are to be put to the test now!"
He suddenly urged Al-Hafaz into a gallop, while Christine immediately leaned forward, holding the pommel, allowing her body to move in rhythm with the horse's gait. There were no signs of pursuit, and the stallion swiftly bore them through the night, his great lungs gulping in large amounts of air, his gallant heart pumping as his speed gradually increased to that of a race champion. Erik felt immense gratitude toward the Persian for such a gift. This horse was obviously descended from royal equine blood.
The first glimmerings of light were beginning to spread through the foliage. Still they must go on. There were a few country folk moving about at that early hour, taking their wares to market. They stared in open-mouthed amazement as the strange pair on horseback came upon them, obviously having emerged from the forest, only to flash past their astonished gazes. They could not thereafter agree on what they had witnessed. Some affirmed that they had seen the devil and his consort riding a horse that was straight from the pits of hell. Others just as firmly insisted that they had seen a ghost, carrying off the spirit of a woman recently passed from life, on the back of the devil's own horse. All agreed, however, that the male rider had been masked. That was the one detail that had indelibly etched itself in their memories.
The sky began to change its hues from deep purple-black to magenta and orange. The countryside opened out before them, its fall colors catching the light of the nascent sunrise. Al-Hafaz took them along a broad road bordered by massive trees much like those of the forest. The cool morning breeze stirred Christine's wayward tresses, which tickled Erik's face deliciously as they flew through the stirring morning landscape. The great stallion had still shown no signs of tiring.
At last, round a bend in the road, glowing in the golden shadows of dawn, they saw the inn, sheltered by sturdy oak trees.