Chapter Five
Alanah had half convinced herself she had dreamed the whole episode when she woke the next morning but then Jenla was knocking at her door and telling her the giant was outside waiting to come in.
“Outside where?” Alanah exclaimed, clasping her white linen sheet to her breasts. She slept in nothing but a thin white shift, although it was almost time to start wearing her thicker, winter sleep clothes. As much as she’d enjoyed kissing and touching Bram, she didn’t think it would be proper to let the giant see her dressed so skimpily.
“Outside the castle, my Princess,” Jenla said, smiling a little. “You didn’t think I’d let him come up to your bedchamber did you?”
“Oh no—of course not.” Alanah sat up, blinking the sleep out of her eyes. “Well, bid the guards let him enter. I told him he could have breakfast with us and work beside me today.”
“You did?” Jenla’s brown eyes were troubled. “Do you think that’s wise, Alanah?” she asked quietly. “Thiera is going around saying all kinds of crazy things about this giant. I don’t think the people trust him.”
“That’s because they don’t know him yet,” Alanah said firmly. “And Thiera is just upset because I’m doing what I feel is right instead of obeying her every whim.”
“The Elder Witch has a lot of power over what people think,” Jenla pointed out quietly. “It’s not wise to cross her, my Princess.”
Alanah sighed. “Well, it’s too late now—I’ve already crossed her and I’m not going back. Besides, once the people get to know Bram—”
“Bram?” Jenla interrupted her.
Alanah felt her cheeks getting hot.
“That’s his name,” she said shortly. “Bram. And I’m meeting him for breakfast.”
Jenla must have seen the light of determination in her face because she nodded and lifted her chin.
“All right—then I’m coming with you.”
“Thank you, Jenla.” Alanah smiled at her friend gratefully. It was good to know that Jenla would stick by her—especially since her decision to entertain the giant was certain to be an unpopular one if Thiera was already spreading nasty rumors about him.
“You’re welcome, my Princess. Now let’s get you dressed.” Jenla nodded decisively and went to rummage in Alanah’s closet for something suitable to wear to breakfast with a giant.
Alanah nearly laughed at the idea but then she stopped. Having Bram around would be no laughing matter if Thiera had her way. Alanah would have to step carefully around the Elder Witch from now on…very carefully indeed.
* * * * *
The food was simple but good and Bram ate as carefully as he could, not wanting to give offense. He complimented every dish and was very careful with the tiny, rough silverware he was given to use—a two tined fork about as long as his pinky finger and a knife which was only slightly longer to cut the salted ham he was served.
He wondered about the domestic animals—where had they come from? Alanah’s planet was small and rocky and cold, just on the edge of the habitable zone of her solar system. While looking for her, he and his crew had discovered another, larger planet with a much more hospitable atmosphere which was located closer to the sun. There were signs of a civilization that had died out long ago—one far more advanced than the one which prevailed here.
They might have sent a colony ship which crashed here, Bram speculated as he carefully buttered a thin slice of toast with his tiny knife. They lost contact with the home planet and their technology failed or was lost. After a few hundred cycles, their past became nothing but legends and they were forced to live off the land as they are now.
Not that they were living very well. It was clear great care had been taken to offer him the best of what they had but the portions were meager, even for a female of Alanah’s size, let alone a male of his own height and weight.
Alanah obviously saw this and offered him more but Bram declined. He had an idea from the way the serving girls were eyeing the dishes hungrily that they probably got what was left after the nobles were finished eating. He would not deprive them of food they needed much more than he did. After all, there was plenty and to spare on his ship—it wouldn’t hurt him to go hungry for a little while.
Conversation was somewhat stilted at the breakfast table, perhaps because Alanah knew all eyes were on her, including the harsh gaze of the woman she had called “Elder Witch.” She seemed to hold great control over many of the women present and the ones gathered around her table all shot disapproving glances at himself and Alanah even though they ate quietly and spoke hardly at all.
After breakfast, Alanah rose from her chair and declared to the assembled woman that it was time to go applen picking.
“There are a few left on the wild trees that grow on the edge of the forest,” she said, when she stood to make the announcement. “I’m taking a party to gather them. This is probably going to be the last nice day before winter truly sets in so let’s make the most of it.”
There were some grumbles—especially from the more richly dressed women—about the ignominy and hardship of picking applen but Alanah shut them up with a simple question.
“Who here likes applen streusel for the Mid-winter feast?” she demanded in a carrying voice.
“Well…it’s part of the traditional menu,” a younger female dressed in a green gown answered. “Of course we all like it. The Mid-winter feast wouldn’t be the same without it.”
“Well this year in order to get it, you’ve got to work for it,” Alanah told them briskly. “I’m sorry but there are no male pickers to get the applen for us anymore—we’ve got to do it for ourselves. I’m going and Bram, our guest, is going with me.” She motioned to him. “Who else will come?”
At once there was a flurry of excitement and many of the younger females clamored to be included in the applen picking party. Bram was surprised but pleased, knowing they were probably coming in order to gawk at him.
If I can show them I’m not to be feared, perhaps they won’t fear my Brothers either, he thought. There were many females here who were probably starved for male attention—just as there were many Jor’gen Kindred warriors aboard his own ship who craved a female of their own. If he could bring them together peacefully, both races could be renewed.
He only wished he had more time to do this in. If he could spend weeks living among them he could surely win these females over. But the world-killer headed for Alanah’s little planet meant he had to speed things up faster than he would have liked. Even spending this one day with her, working and eating and generally trying to prove he was trustworthy, was a risky expenditure of time. But Bram considered it necessary, especially if he hoped to coax Alanah up to his ship so that she could see for herself the danger that was headed her way.
* * * * *
Having a giant along was extremely helpful for applen picking, Alanah soon found out. In fact, she couldn’t have picked a better way to show Bram off to best advantage if she’d tried.
She was tall enough to reach many of the applen the other girls couldn’t get to but Bram, being even taller, could reach many more. They filled more baskets than she’d ever hoped to but in the process, they also wandered deeper into the forest than was safe.
Alanah blamed it on the sense of security she felt being near the giant. She had the same feeling around him that she’d had around her father when she was a little girl—that he was big enough to take care of her no matter what danger might arise. Her father had been renowned as the biggest and strongest man in the kingdom—once he had fought off a whole pack of gerda—the huge, hairy wild doggen who roamed the waste lands—when she’d wandered too far into the forest picking flowers as a little girl. Only this time it was applen which drew her deeper and deeper into the trees…
“Look—look there!” She pointed to an applen tree which was taller than most. It had several clusters of luscious looking golden skinned fruit just at the very top. Alanah really wanted them. Breakfast, while tasty, had been necessarily scanty. With as many applen as they had collected that day, she thought she could be allowed to eat one or two instead of saving them all for the Mid-winter feast.
She walked closer to the tree but saw with disappointment that it was taller than it had looked from a distance.
“It’s too high for me to reach,” she told Bram. “I don’t think even you can reach that far—can you?”
“I’m afraid not,” he remarked, eyeing the fruit at the top of the tree. “But together we might manage.”
“Together?” Alanah looked up at him uncertainly. As if by mutual, unspoken consent, the two of them had scrupulously avoided touching this whole day although sometimes she thought it would drive her mad. She knew it was wrong but all she seemed to want to do was wrap her arms around the giant Kindred warrior and feel his big body pressed close to hers.
Of course she couldn’t do that with half the court watching their every move but still, the craving to touch her giant (she was already beginning to think of him as hers) was so strong she had to fist her hands at her sides to keep from reaching out to him.
“Yes, together,” Bram said, interrupting her guilty thoughts. “If you’ll allow me to lift you, you might be able to reach the fruit at the top.”
Alanah looked around uncertainly, but luckily, Thiera had declined to join in the applen picking party. She and Bram were still the center of attention, however, with many curious female faces turned their way.
Suddenly she decided she didn’t care what any of them thought. She’d always been an outsider anyway—first for being royal and second because of her unseemly height. Let them stare—she wanted to touch her giant and to feel him touching her too.
“All right,” she said, smiling up at Bram. “As…as long as you’re careful.”
“I’ll always be careful of you, little one,” he murmured. Kneeling, he wrapped his large hands around her waist and then lifted her as easily as if she were a doll. Carefully, he sat her on one of his broad shoulders and then rose smoothly to his full height.
“Whoa!” Alanah clutched at the hands holding her and the thick mass of braids he had wrapped in a club at the back of his neck. They felt silky-rough under her touch and she wondered briefly what his hair would feel like unbraided, what it might look like loose around his face.
“It’s all right, I’ve got you,” Bram rumbled. “I’ll never let you fall, Alanah—I swear it.”
“All…all right.” Laughing a little shakily, she let go of him, secure in the feeling of his big hands wrapped around her waist.
Bram waded into the branches of the applen tree and Alanah was able to lean forward, still perched on his shoulder, and gather the luscious fruits she’d been craving.
“Catch, Jenla!” she shouted and her friend, laughing, caught the applen Alanah threw down in her apron and put them safely into the waiting basket.
They made a game of it and were having so much fun that Alanah didn’t hear the gnasher coming until it was almost too late.
It was the sudden silence in the forest which warned her—the way all the birdens stopped chirping and the smaller beasts rustling in the undergrowth suddenly went quiet and still. And then she heard it—a snorting like blunt thunder and the distant pounding of hooves on the forest floor.
A gnasher—oh gods, it’s a gnasher! she thought wildly, as she opened her mouth to cry out a warning. How could we have gotten into their territory? We’re too deep in the woods—gods, this is all my fault!
Bram must have felt her stiffen against him because he looked at her, concern in his glowing blue eyes.
“What is it?”
“A gnasher—the beast I told you about,” Alanah breathed. “Gnasher!” she shouted, raising her voice. “Everyone hide! Get out of the forest or get to high ground where it can’t reach you!”
She could see the beast now—it was easily visible from her vantage point high on Bram’s broad shoulder. It was pushing through the forest, its massive shoulders knocking the smaller trees aside as it pulled up vines with the two sharp, curving tusks on either side of its long snout. The shaggy hump on its back rose higher than Bram’s head and its hooves were the size of dinner plates. Its mouth was full of jagged, murderously sharp teeth that looked like knives to Alanah as they gnashed and ground together.
“Oh, Bram—it’s charging!” She could feel her body getting cold all over. “They’re very territorial—we must have wandered into its hunting ground. We have to get out of here now.” She looked all around her. “But we can’t leave my people! I led them in here—this is my fault!”
“Can gnashers climb?” His voice was low and urgent. “Or do they stay on the ground?”
“Climb? No, I don’t think so.” Alanah felt like the bottom had dropped out of her stomach. The gnasher was getting closer and closer and so many of the women she’d brought on the applen picking party were still running around, trying to find places to hide or get to higher ground. There was no way they would all survive this—gnashers were known for their aggression and their ability to hold a grudge. If this one thought they had been invading its territory, it wouldn’t stop until all of the invaders were dead. They—
“Oh!” Alanah gasped because the big hands on her waist had lifted her free of Bram’s shoulder. Carefully, he deposited her on a broad, strong branch near the center of the applen tree, high off the ground.
“If it can’t climb, you should be safe there.” There was a look of grim determination on his face. “And I should be able to hold it off until your people can get to safety.”
“Hold it off? Oh no, Bram!” she exclaimed. “I know you’re a giant but gnashers are huge and mean. It’ll kill you if it gets a chance!”
“Then I won’t give it a chance.” He kissed her hand and turned to face the huge creature, tearing up the underbrush in its angry charge.
“Bram, no!” she cried again but he only shook his head and turned to go, putting himself directly into the path of the raging creature.