Chapter 4
Many moons had passed since that night beneath the standing stones, when Lu cast a spell of binding upon Chief Gartham. Ever since, he had been nothing but helpful to Lu, though his sudden unshakeable loyalty disturbed her, and she harbored guilt that her magic compelled him. What she found most unsettling about it was the fact that Chief Gartham fully understood that he was under a spell, but he didn't care. He thanked her for the magic that moved his heart to be in the service of such beauty.
"I guard our secret well, my queen," Chief Gartham said yet again during one of their weekly secret meetings.
"Please," Lu said with a tilt of annoyance, "do not call me your queen, Garth."
Lu's long legs of ebony skin were covered from her flared hips to her knees by a skirt of crimson cloth. She had become so good at controlling her elemental power that she could wear flammable materials. It helped to conserve her power, which did not come steadily and naturally as it used to. She felt her connection to her volcano waning, and she feared it was because Evalyn was corrupting the magic of her crystal grove.
"Forgive me," Garth said deeply, "I speak only what is in my heart. I only wish it to become true. A false queen has taken your home from you, and I will fulfill my oath to return it! And, perhaps after..."
"No, I told you. You cannot take me as your wife, Garth. I do not want to be a queen, I just want to save my crystal forest."
"Can we...never be together again? Like that first night here?"
"You mean when you tried to have your way with me?" She gave him an accosted look.
"I did not mean exactly as that night, mistress," he said with a blushing of his freckled cheeks.
Had the circumstances not been so serious, Lu might have laughed to see such a beefy, accomplished warrior look so embarrassed. But she was embarrassed, too. Things had happened so fast, and there had been so much at stake. She resented the demon Labolas, as well, for his part in it, for he had given her spell power from an aspect of destruction. She felt violated. Labolas did not come as often as before, and he seemed to be holding back in her lessons. He would not tell her why. She spent more of her time with Gern, and helped him prepare for war. Chief Gartham, by her instruction, was influential in rallying other clans to their cause. In front of others, she had to pretend that everything was alright, or else someone might discover her secrets.
She had never had secrets, before. Secrets that she couldn't even share with Gern, even though she thought about it every day. The burden of her guilt came with fear that Gern would be angry with her, but that made her choice easier. He did not need to know. Knowing would only hurt him.
"We cannot be again as man and woman in that way, Garth. All I can offer you for your help is my love and thanks. I am your friend."
"You are...my friend," Gartham affirmed with sadness and longing in his eyes.
"Thank you for understanding, Garth." She approached him and hugged him. The swell of her belly poked at his hip. Her brass bra was warm from her touch. To have any part of her hot skin pressed against his was sweet torture to him. His phallus began to swell under his kilt, and he was haunted by the memory of falling under her spell. His heart ached with yearning, and he feared that he would never feel anything as good as what he had almost felt that night.
"Is there any news from your kinsmen?" Lu asked as she stepped back from the embrace.
Gartham cleared his throat, and took a moment to find his voice.
"Every warrior from the Mountainlands is making the journey here," he answered, "now that the passes are clear."
"And what of your sister's mate?"
"My sister's husband has pledged fifty ships of warriors from the tall islands. They should have set sail soon after my messenger did with their answer. Soon, we will have the strength we need to take back your mountain from the witch!"
"I pray to my mother that you are right. Go now, before someone sees you up here."
Chief Gartham dipped a bow with a hand over his chest, and departed down the little-used goat path on the side of the mountain.
Lu hurried down the other way, on the well-kept path the druids used to ascend the cliffs to the standing stones. Stretched out below were the buildings of stone and oaken beam that she still found bizarre, and the teeming people whose lives were now entwined with her's. A few moons ago, she considered their lives too short to matter to her and her mountain, but then she fell in love with Gern, and then Evalyn....
So much had happened, it felt like ages ago. She had learned so much, but though the knowledge empowered her, it did not make her happier. She felt separated from who she used to be and where she came from. She forged tools of war with humans, dressed like them, took arcane lessons from a demon, and even had a loyal thrall to serve her.
She ran her hand over her swollen belly. She tried to focus on her child, the synthesis of her love with Gern. She felt her daughter's receiving, feminine energy, and she sang a song she used to sing with her trees. She imagined a warmth of love nurturing her child, and in return she felt the peace of pure innocence still her churning mind.
She came to the sacred hot springs halfway down the path, where the time-worn pools of hot mineral water cascaded one into another from the top-most pool, where scalding steam wafted from the bubbling vent that reached into the hot depths of Gaia. She felt replenished and rejuvenated when she bathed there, and even though it was very different from bathing in lava, she had dreamt that the fire in the water was connected to the fire beneath her mountain in the deep below.
Before she could remove her skirt, she heard a sound in the water. It must be Gern, she thought, as he was the only one who came to the pools without her invitation. She turned her head to the source of the splash, and was startled to see the shape of a woman languidly swimming just under the water's surface.
Lu felt a ripple of goosebumps spread across her body as she watched a head of luscious, dark green hair rise from the clear water. Golden-irised eyes opened and looked at her.
"You're here!" The strange woman exclaimed jubilantly, and her apple-sized breasts bounced as she rose up swiftly. Her wet hair hung down to the small of her back and clung to her skin.
"Who are you?" Lu asked. She thought about taking a defensive guard, but she felt no ill-intent from the woman. There was a naturalness to her that was soothing and inviting.
"I'm Opal," the woman replied in a voice as clear and sweet as a babbling brook, "and you're Lu! I am so happy to finally meet you."
Lu took in the sight of Opal, who stood waist-deep in the natural pool. Her madrone skin did have an opalescent quality to it, flecked with pink, blue, green, and gold, and shining like wet gemstone in the sun. Her cheeks were speckled with duckweed-green freckles. Her lithe body was decorated with pyrite swirls, and her eyes were a deep ochre yellow. She was sky-clad except for an actual opal at her bellybutton, and a waterlily leaf that shielded her sex and covered her pubic mound.
"You're like me..." Lu breathed in wonder.
"Yes. The humans call me a naiad, and they call you an igniad, but they call us both nymphs. We are like cousins!"
"Why are you here? Did Gern send you?"
