New excerpt from the next Chronicles of Lilith.
The yellow-haired woman fled across the wastelands, running away from the oasis as if monsters were on her trail. She flung herself headlong, with no supplies or possessions, indeed as naked as the day she had been born. When that had occurred, she had little knowing at this point--the day of her birth. Having lived dozens of a human span of life already, she no longer counted days and months to herself; years rolled on and blurred into one another as she wandered the reaches of the Earth.
Tears streamed down her still unlined face, her breath came in shallow gasps while her long, muscular legs continued to pump. Long blonde hair billowed out behind her in the wind. What was she running from, this lost woman, this creature that could not die? What could have spurred her, a being that had melded with the ancient desert spirits of her vanished tribe and learned the secrets of the Universe itself, in such a way?
It wasn’t simply a place, the Oasis, that she fled from. The lush, green paradise that sprawled around a primeval river was perfect, in fact. Fruits and vegetables grew year round, and large numbers of species of beast flocked there, but no. It was the people. Humans. Ones that she had grown to love and hoped maybe, at last, grow old and die with. It was a man with warm, dark eyes and a magic soul who had stolen her heart. It was a brown-skinned woman with healing hands she had sought to befriend. It was a shattered love and shattered hope and brutal realization that she would never belong.
The blood, the blood, oh, the blood was still on her hands!
At that moment, in the River Oasis, keening and wailing could be heard. A man lay in a pool of blood, his brown eyes staring up at the clear sky yet seeing nothing. A woman on her knees sobbed beside him with her head bowed, her long, thick, coarse black hair a curtain to shield her grief. She wore a grass skirt and a necklace of shells, her only other adornment was her smooth, dark skin. Another man stood beside them, tense with shock and anger, his fists clenching and unclenching. He wore only a loincloth and an elaborate headdress made of feathers and beads. A few dozen others, also quiet with shock, surrounded them.
“My brother! My brother, Apos, is dead!” the woman cried. “The chieftain is dead at the hands of Lilith! You must do something, Idim!”
“I grieve with you, Hawwah,” he finally spoke. He controlled his tone with visible effort. “She will not get away so easily.” He turned and headed toward his hut, the shaman’s hut.
Before he reached the doorway a hand was laid on his shoulder. “What will you do?” Dimmuz asked Idim.
“I will send my spirits for her. She is mine, and she must be punished.” He entered the dwelling and built up the central fire. Idim snatched one of his pouches up and tossed sacred herbs from it onto the fire. A pungent, burning odor soon permeated the dwelling as the man sank down before the fire cross-legged and closed his eyes.
“Hear me, Unseen Ones,” he cried out after several quiet moments. “One of your followers has committed crimes against us. She thinks to run away, back to the sands from whence she came. Bring her back to me, so that we can punish her! By earth and water, your elements, I demand it!”
A dark humanoid shape appeared in the firelight. Whispers filled the small space of the hut, the murmurings of spirits that fed off the devotion and fear of the living. “We hear you,” came the voice of the spirits. “What if she will not come back? What then, Shaman?”
“Then I shall curse her!” he bellowed. “I shall curse her to never know the comfort and security of other human beings, to wander alone at night. Her companions shall be owls and snakes and other night-demons. She who is a she-wolf in human clothing shall live like an outcast wolf. I say it, and so it shall be, by her true name Val-il. Val-il!”
Lilit had reached the foothills of a region due west of the River Oasis of Ai-denn, the home of a pack of wolves she considered her peers and companions. She had an affinity for the creatures from the time she was an adolescent--when she had elicited their aid getting revenge on the ones who destroyed her tribe, and helped them in turn. It was mediated by Azyu, the collection of wind spirits she made her bargain with.
It had been a devil’s bargain, one that eventually began to suck the lifeforce from her. Azyu began tormenting her, and her bond with him was what marked her as different, a renegade, an outcast. Idim had freed her from the hold of the collection of night demons that called themselves Azyu. She had confessed who and what she was to him, and he had loved her anyway. It was the first time a human had connected with her since she had lost her folk, the Khebas.
Lilit slowed at last, then collapsed amongst the small brush that grew in the small hills she’d reached. She lay there, hitching and sobbing, heedless of the four-legged beast that approached her in its easy loping gait. Sister, she heard the wolf’s voice in her head.
“Rehla,” she said softly, then looked up at the majestic grey wolf that studied her. His ears were turned toward her, amber eyes intent.
I felt your pain from the next ridge over, the canine spoke. Come away from those foolish two-legs, and hunt with us again.
“I can’t,” she whispered. “It hurts...it hurts too much.”
Then what do you want, Lilit Wolfsister? Why do you come to my territory broadcasting your disturbing pain?
Before she could answer, the moisture in the air coalesced into a manlike shape. “Lilith, woman of the night,” the thing greeted her. “You have brought death into Ai-denn and you have left your husband. Come back home and take your punishment.”
“My husband?!” the blonde spat and got to her feet. “The buffoon who thinks he owns me? The one who wanted rid of that toad Apos then blames me when I kill him? The one that worships that woman-hating El and expects me to fawn over him? I think not!”
“Going back to the Oasis is your only shot at salvation,” the water-spirit told her. The water-shape floated slowly around her as they conversed. “Nobody else will take you in. Nobody else can help you find a way to live a mortal life. You will wander alone in the depths of the night, never dying, unable to live.”
“Go back to Idim, spirits. Go back and tell him Lilit submits to none, tell him to wed that foolish Hawwah and have a dozen bawling brats for all I care. Tell him I would rather die than be his, that I shall die a free woman! Rehla, brother,” she turned to the wolf who had been watching impassively. “I know what I want. It’s not in me to take my own life, but you can help me. Tear my throat out, pack brother. Give me peace.”
Is this what you really want, sister? the wolf asked her.
“Yes,” she breathed, and sat down before him.
So be it, the wolf declared. He trotted forward as Lilit tilted her head back and stared up at the evening sky. In one smooth motion he clamped down with those deadly jaws. The sharp teeth sank easily into her flesh, ripping into veins and arteries when he jerked backwards. Gore stained her chest and the wolf’s muzzle, sadness now filling the canine’s eyes.
“No!” cried the water spirit before disappearing.
“NO!” Idim screamed in anguish. He saw the scene through his link with the spirits, and when it severed he found himself on his feet panting as if he’d been running. “Lilith! No, no, it can’t be...”
Hawwah burst through the door of the dwelling. “What has happened?” She looked round the room and sensed the magick that had been done, but it had a different taste than that she knew when she did healing work. “What did you do?”
“I cursed her. She has divided and afflicted our people enough.”
“And why the tears?”
He touched his face, unaware that he had been weeping, and felt the moisture there. “I loved her. You know this.”
“You still love her, you worm! And you go and bring dark spirits in here? In this place of green, this place of peace? Tell me what you’ve done!”
Miles westward, Rehla the wolf chieftain watched in amazement as the body of the naked woman began to glow. The gaping hole in her throat closed, and she seemed to rise up and float like a puppet being pulled. She then cried out as her body changed, her form shifting before the astonished wolf’s eyes. Her face lengthened into a wolf muzzle, her teeth growing sharp, and golden fur sprang out over her body.
In moments a large golden woman-wolf emerged from the shining light where there once was a woman. She looked down at herself in horrified surprise. “What has happened to me?” she wondered in the wolf tongue.
“You are...a wolf-woman. You look like the Grey Tribe, yet not. Your eyes look like the woman Lilit’s eyes, so I know you are her.”
“I have been cursed! I can’t even die! Why can’t I die?” She howled mournfully. “What am I supposed to do now?”
“Come back to my tribe, Lilit Wolfsister. Forget the two-legs and their troubles.”
The yellow-haired woman fled across the wastelands, running away from the oasis as if monsters were on her trail. She flung herself headlong, with no supplies or possessions, indeed as naked as the day she had been born. When that had occurred, she had little knowing at this point--the day of her birth. Having lived dozens of a human span of life already, she no longer counted days and months to herself; years rolled on and blurred into one another as she wandered the reaches of the Earth.
Tears streamed down her still unlined face, her breath came in shallow gasps while her long, muscular legs continued to pump. Long blonde hair billowed out behind her in the wind. What was she running from, this lost woman, this creature that could not die? What could have spurred her, a being that had melded with the ancient desert spirits of her vanished tribe and learned the secrets of the Universe itself, in such a way?
It wasn’t simply a place, the Oasis, that she fled from. The lush, green paradise that sprawled around a primeval river was perfect, in fact. Fruits and vegetables grew year round, and large numbers of species of beast flocked there, but no. It was the people. Humans. Ones that she had grown to love and hoped maybe, at last, grow old and die with. It was a man with warm, dark eyes and a magic soul who had stolen her heart. It was a brown-skinned woman with healing hands she had sought to befriend. It was a shattered love and shattered hope and brutal realization that she would never belong.
The blood, the blood, oh, the blood was still on her hands!
At that moment, in the River Oasis, keening and wailing could be heard. A man lay in a pool of blood, his brown eyes staring up at the clear sky yet seeing nothing. A woman on her knees sobbed beside him with her head bowed, her long, thick, coarse black hair a curtain to shield her grief. She wore a grass skirt and a necklace of shells, her only other adornment was her smooth, dark skin. Another man stood beside them, tense with shock and anger, his fists clenching and unclenching. He wore only a loincloth and an elaborate headdress made of feathers and beads. A few dozen others, also quiet with shock, surrounded them.
“My brother! My brother, Apos, is dead!” the woman cried. “The chieftain is dead at the hands of Lilith! You must do something, Idim!”
“I grieve with you, Hawwah,” he finally spoke. He controlled his tone with visible effort. “She will not get away so easily.” He turned and headed toward his hut, the shaman’s hut.
Before he reached the doorway a hand was laid on his shoulder. “What will you do?” Dimmuz asked Idim.
“I will send my spirits for her. She is mine, and she must be punished.” He entered the dwelling and built up the central fire. Idim snatched one of his pouches up and tossed sacred herbs from it onto the fire. A pungent, burning odor soon permeated the dwelling as the man sank down before the fire cross-legged and closed his eyes.
“Hear me, Unseen Ones,” he cried out after several quiet moments. “One of your followers has committed crimes against us. She thinks to run away, back to the sands from whence she came. Bring her back to me, so that we can punish her! By earth and water, your elements, I demand it!”
A dark humanoid shape appeared in the firelight. Whispers filled the small space of the hut, the murmurings of spirits that fed off the devotion and fear of the living. “We hear you,” came the voice of the spirits. “What if she will not come back? What then, Shaman?”
“Then I shall curse her!” he bellowed. “I shall curse her to never know the comfort and security of other human beings, to wander alone at night. Her companions shall be owls and snakes and other night-demons. She who is a she-wolf in human clothing shall live like an outcast wolf. I say it, and so it shall be, by her true name Val-il. Val-il!”
Lilit had reached the foothills of a region due west of the River Oasis of Ai-denn, the home of a pack of wolves she considered her peers and companions. She had an affinity for the creatures from the time she was an adolescent--when she had elicited their aid getting revenge on the ones who destroyed her tribe, and helped them in turn. It was mediated by Azyu, the collection of wind spirits she made her bargain with.
It had been a devil’s bargain, one that eventually began to suck the lifeforce from her. Azyu began tormenting her, and her bond with him was what marked her as different, a renegade, an outcast. Idim had freed her from the hold of the collection of night demons that called themselves Azyu. She had confessed who and what she was to him, and he had loved her anyway. It was the first time a human had connected with her since she had lost her folk, the Khebas.
Lilit slowed at last, then collapsed amongst the small brush that grew in the small hills she’d reached. She lay there, hitching and sobbing, heedless of the four-legged beast that approached her in its easy loping gait. Sister, she heard the wolf’s voice in her head.
“Rehla,” she said softly, then looked up at the majestic grey wolf that studied her. His ears were turned toward her, amber eyes intent.
I felt your pain from the next ridge over, the canine spoke. Come away from those foolish two-legs, and hunt with us again.
“I can’t,” she whispered. “It hurts...it hurts too much.”
Then what do you want, Lilit Wolfsister? Why do you come to my territory broadcasting your disturbing pain?
Before she could answer, the moisture in the air coalesced into a manlike shape. “Lilith, woman of the night,” the thing greeted her. “You have brought death into Ai-denn and you have left your husband. Come back home and take your punishment.”
“My husband?!” the blonde spat and got to her feet. “The buffoon who thinks he owns me? The one who wanted rid of that toad Apos then blames me when I kill him? The one that worships that woman-hating El and expects me to fawn over him? I think not!”
“Going back to the Oasis is your only shot at salvation,” the water-spirit told her. The water-shape floated slowly around her as they conversed. “Nobody else will take you in. Nobody else can help you find a way to live a mortal life. You will wander alone in the depths of the night, never dying, unable to live.”
“Go back to Idim, spirits. Go back and tell him Lilit submits to none, tell him to wed that foolish Hawwah and have a dozen bawling brats for all I care. Tell him I would rather die than be his, that I shall die a free woman! Rehla, brother,” she turned to the wolf who had been watching impassively. “I know what I want. It’s not in me to take my own life, but you can help me. Tear my throat out, pack brother. Give me peace.”
Is this what you really want, sister? the wolf asked her.
“Yes,” she breathed, and sat down before him.
So be it, the wolf declared. He trotted forward as Lilit tilted her head back and stared up at the evening sky. In one smooth motion he clamped down with those deadly jaws. The sharp teeth sank easily into her flesh, ripping into veins and arteries when he jerked backwards. Gore stained her chest and the wolf’s muzzle, sadness now filling the canine’s eyes.
“No!” cried the water spirit before disappearing.
“NO!” Idim screamed in anguish. He saw the scene through his link with the spirits, and when it severed he found himself on his feet panting as if he’d been running. “Lilith! No, no, it can’t be...”
Hawwah burst through the door of the dwelling. “What has happened?” She looked round the room and sensed the magick that had been done, but it had a different taste than that she knew when she did healing work. “What did you do?”
“I cursed her. She has divided and afflicted our people enough.”
“And why the tears?”
He touched his face, unaware that he had been weeping, and felt the moisture there. “I loved her. You know this.”
“You still love her, you worm! And you go and bring dark spirits in here? In this place of green, this place of peace? Tell me what you’ve done!”
Miles westward, Rehla the wolf chieftain watched in amazement as the body of the naked woman began to glow. The gaping hole in her throat closed, and she seemed to rise up and float like a puppet being pulled. She then cried out as her body changed, her form shifting before the astonished wolf’s eyes. Her face lengthened into a wolf muzzle, her teeth growing sharp, and golden fur sprang out over her body.
In moments a large golden woman-wolf emerged from the shining light where there once was a woman. She looked down at herself in horrified surprise. “What has happened to me?” she wondered in the wolf tongue.
“You are...a wolf-woman. You look like the Grey Tribe, yet not. Your eyes look like the woman Lilit’s eyes, so I know you are her.”
“I have been cursed! I can’t even die! Why can’t I die?” She howled mournfully. “What am I supposed to do now?”
“Come back to my tribe, Lilit Wolfsister. Forget the two-legs and their troubles.”
RSS Feed