My
dear friend Hero,
An
absent friend is no less dear.
I
beseech you, go. Return to The Kingdom
for our enemy comes for us.
I
have been in league with Houdini, and he warns me that Tornty intends to come
for us, both of us.
She
wishes to deal for us - Our lives, for Scarroh’s.
Protect
your family, protect yourself. But for
the love of Mother Earth do not let Tornty’s forces capture you, for it will
only end in pain and humiliation.
Carlton
and Rascal will never give up the traitor Scarroh, even for us. This is my only warning.
I
love you brother, flee, go now while there is time and may we be reunited in
the home we love so dearly and fight side by side to defend it.
Your loyal friend
Myrchen
Hero
“Go,
please. Never look back.”
“No. Please Hero no,” she pleaded, clutching to me
desperately, falling to her knees as she begged me not to do it.
“You
must!” I insisted, though it broke my
heart.
“Could
we not come with you? Surely we can find
a home in Turnbaer.”
“It’s
not safe. For even now I hear rumours of
the new King expelling all Bale-Orreans and Kharr-Attens. It’s not safe for you,” I said, allowing the
terror in my heart to embellish my words.
I asked so little of her, in all our years together, but this, needed her to do.
“But
you serve the Kings brother, surely he would help us find sanctuary? Please Hero, no. Don’t do this to us.”
Angered
now I shook her away from me. Why could she not understand it?
“I
must go! It is my sworn duty. I must fight with my kin,” feeling the burn
of my honour and loyalty scorching my soul.
This was the hardest thing I would ever face and she was making it
harder. I wanted to shake her, I wanted
to wail and cry, anything to convince her of the danger we were facing.
She
was angry now, I could see the pulse of it in her eyes, as if her heart had surged
into flame - she shouted her defiance.
“Duty?” I’d never seen her beautiful face so twisted
with wrath, “You speak of duty! What
about your duty to your family?”
“Rascal
is my family. Turnbaer is
my home?”
“And
me? Your Children? What are we?
Are we nothing to you? Damn you
Hero and your foolish pride!” she spat
the tirade. Her fear, her desperation,
her love for me, a noxious concoction that boiled and frothed in malice. I know her well enough to realise that she
felt betrayed by me. I was killing her,
but it was the only way I could save her precious life.
“Enough
Martha!” I raised my hand to her, she cowered back, afraid I may strike
her. In my life I had never been so
close to doing it. Yet it was not her I
wished to hurt for tearing this family to shreds. She was not my enemy.
I
softened, soothed my tone and stilled my fervour.
“Understand
me. Please,” now it was I that begged. I reached for her, but she backed away.
“I
won’t hurt you!” I was wounded that she
may think me capable of hitting her in anger.
“You
already have!”
She
turned her back to me, and gazed out of the window into the flowing rains. They pattered on the glass relentlessly,
drumming out their misery, darkening our once happy home.
“Martha
I…” I walked to her, raised my hands to
hold her and hesitated.
“You
need to go,” I repeated. “Go anywhere,
you know where I keep the cash. Take it,
take it all, but just go. Take the
children and save yourselves. I beg you. Darling, please.”
“You
cannot buy my submission with cash,” she responded defiantly.
“That’s
not what I’m doing and you know it!”
She
continued to face away from me. My heart
was tearing itself apart. She must know
that this was the last thing I could ever want?
To leave her and young daughters?
If
only the girls were here, but they were at Martha’s mothers house. I wouldn’t have time to go and say goodbye, I
would have to find another way to tell them how much their father loved
them. And I would pray to Mother Earth
that I would see them again.
Martha
was closing herself off now. Refusing to
argue any more and refusing to obey me.
A
crash of thunder, and seconds later a spear of lighting lit up her silhouette
with a silver shimmer. I saw her
shuddering with sorrow. Knowing she was
silently sobbing, but unable to soothe her.
For the agony was too much to bear.
I longed to pull her into my arms and stay with her, to do my duty as a
father and husband to protect her, but there was no escaping the fact that I
was the biggest threat to them. A wanted
man who our enemies would never stop searching for. I couldn’t risk Martha and the girls falling
in the firing line. Why did she not
understand this?
“I
must go,” I sighed, grabbing my knapsack and dragging it wearily onto my
shoulder, “Take only what you can carry and take the girls far away from
here. Promise me!”
She
nodded solemnly but still refused to look at me.
“Goodbye
Martha,” I began to leave the room. As I
reached the door I paused, I glanced back at her perfect outline, shadowed
against the window.
“I
love you.”
I
turned, and left.
The
rain was thankfully easing off as I stepped into the sneering night. It dappled my hat, and I pulled the collar of
my coat up and hunched my neck into it, trudging wretchedly down the path.
“Wait!”
I
stopped and turned to see her chasing me down the path, the mud spattered up
her skirt as she plunged towards me.
I
let my knapsack slide down my arm and splat into the mud, and met her with my
arms as she leapt into them.
She
wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me over and over on the cheeks.
“I
can’t bare to part on sour words,” she sobbed.
I
clutched her tightly to me, folding her into my heart. Nuzzling my face into her sweet neck,
fragrant with her familiar scent.
“Promise
me something Hero.”
“Anything.”
She
tilted her head away and looked me hard in the eyes,
“You’ll
be careful? Come back to us.”
“I
promise you. I will do all I can.”
“I
love you.”
And
with that, she squashed her lips into mine passionately and we enjoyed that
final kiss goodbye.
