(August 2009)
A life spanning three and a half decades had seen Bien travel from kingdom to kingdom, continent to continent, fighting more battles than he could remember in the service of rulers, lords, nobles and generals whose names had long since dimmed into the mists of memory.
One bloody conflict had faded inexorably into the next as he had thrown himself headlong into one war after another, seeking in vain to slay the one memory that refused to leave him, or die trying.
Yet it was a memory that would not die, constantly present, always haunting him with lost possibilities.
Even now, lying in a rented room in a cheap tavern, dying from a wound received in a pointless brawl his mind still turned to the smiling face of the woman he had left behind.
For half his life he had been trying to escape from the feelings and emotions associated with that face.
Kathryn…
They lay on a soft carpet of summer grass in a small forest glade, surrounded by bluebells, with the cool evening air running its fingers across their bodies.
He rolled to his knees and stared down at her, brushing strands of fire-red hair from her cheek.
She smiled up at him, blue eyes twinkling and tongue held between her teeth as she returned his stare.
She reached up to touch his face and he held her hand, kissing the slim fingertips.
“You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. I would give my life for your love. Will you not reconsider?”
Her smile turned to sadness as she sat up, folding her arms across her breasts.
Her eyes left his to stare into the trees as she replied.
“I cannot. My life is here. I cannot leave and you cannot stay. I told you this when you first found me here. I have given you all that is mine to give.”
He sighed and pulled her into an embrace, stroking the soft hair that reached down her back.
What she said was true. She had made no promises, told him no lies.
She had made it clear from the beginning of their relationship that she would not leave her forest home for him or allow him to stay.
One year together was all that she had offered. He had accepted her conditions willingly, always in his heart sure that he could change her mind.
Now, the year ended, she was as adamant as ever. He forced his tongue to silence, stilled the arguments that fought to spill from his mouth, and held her close.
He buried his face in the cascade of hair, breathing in the clean smell of her, before kissing the back of her slender neck.
Kathryn, I miss you…
She lifted her head from his shoulder, the mischievous smile back on her face now as she pressed her lips against his, letting the weight of her body force him back onto the grass.
The following morning he packed his few belongings into his saddlebags and rode away. He looked back once, as he passed between the tall birch trunks, to see her standing in the glade with the late summer sun shining around her.
Kathryn, I miss you… A thin grass-green dress clung to the curves of her body, a cloak of autumn leaves draped about her shoulders.
Her hair shone red-gold in the sunbeams and he thought that the smile upon her lips was tinged with sadness.
He raised a hand in reluctant farewell and urged his horse on.
Even now, so many years later, he could still remember every detail of that last night. In all his travels since he had met many women.
Not a single one had compared to her.
She had been as regal as a queen but with all the passion of an earth maiden.
His heart had been hers from that time on. How he wished that he had possessed the strength of will to break her conditions, to force her to see that what they had shared was special.
He should have insisted that she leave with him, or else he should have stayed, but he had done neither.
And now his life was over.
Instead of devoting it to the love he had craved it had instead become consumed by violence.
Denied love he had sought out death with a reckless disregard for his own safety.
Only now, as his breath came in short ragged gasps and cold hands squeezed his slowing heart, could he look back with regret and see how foolish he had been.
His eyes were closing when a sudden glow of green light banished the gloom of the small bedchamber.
A figure moved into the room to stand by the bedside.
A hand gripped his, warm against his cool skin, and the bed creaked as someone sat beside him.
Fingers traced a path down his cheek and he forced his tired eyes to open.
For a moment the breath stopped in his throat before he could force out a single croaking word.
“Kathryn?”
She leaned towards him, kissing him gently on the lips before lying down beside him, head pillowed on his bandaged chest, as it had been so many years before.
The groan that escaped his dry lips was not one of pain as he reached up weakly to stroke her hair.
Her breath tickled against his skin as she spoke.
“Be still, my love. I could not leave you to die alone.
When you left, autumn came to my wood and all was different.
I convinced myself that I had made the right choice for us both but I was wrong.
I should have forsaken immortality for you, for what pleasure is there in a life devoid of love?
SoI make the sacrifice now that I should have made so many years ago, though it costs me everything.”
The two lay together on the bed, arms around each other, as their breathing stilled.
The following day the innkeeper discovered the body of his injured guest.
He was not surprised for the wound had been serious and the man had refused the attentions of a healer.
What did surprise him was the layer of autumn leaves that covered the smiling corpse like a blanket.
Not only were there no trees near the inn, it was also the middle of summer.
In the birch wood, bereft of their spirit, the trees reached skeletal fingers to the sky.
Fallen leaves lay scattered across the deadened grass of the glade, drifted into piles against the tree trunks.
The End