Chapter Nine – Willows in the Wind
Shante’s office was gorgeous. Willow had expected some sort of white, sterile environment like the therapist offices she saw on TV from time to time. This was richly decorated in bold geometric patterns, bright blues and yellows that had distracted her for several minutes when she first entered. Shante had chatted a little about life there with her – Willow was surprised when she learned that Shante was human, like her – before Willow was hooked up to a lie detector.
“Now.” Shante leaned on her desk. “You and Asa have slept together, yes?”
“Yes.”
“When was that?”
“A couple days ago now.” Willow smiled as she remembered it. “We were in the hot springs below his house and I decided that I wanted to sleep with him. Normally, I wouldn’t have acted on it, but given the situation, I decided that it was as good a time as any to start creating a new life. A new identity.”
Shante smiled at her and nodded. “It can be quite a heady feeling, knowing that you can do what you want. But could it be that you wanted him because he was there? And if it had been anybody else . . . ?”
Willow shook her head. “No. No, I wanted him. I’ve been wanting him for a while. I like him. He’s sweet and funny and caring. I thought I’d be afraid of him, but I wasn’t. Even at the start, I wasn’t afraid. But then, I had already been planning on leaving my village when he took me. Sometimes it feels more like he rescued me than kidnapped me.”
“But you did try to escape.”
“Yeah.” Her smile faded. “I don’t really know why I did that. I mean, there was the part of me that thought ‘Yes, I need to get out of here,’ but I didn’t. I didn’t actually want to. It was like I did it just because I should have. I don’t know. But I wasn’t running away from him.”
“Has Asa ever done anything that you felt was threatening?”
The questions kept coming for hours. Some of them seemed to be awfully repetitive, but Willow supposed that was just to make sure that the humans were protected properly. When they were finally done, Willow was sent to wait in a separate room. It took another couple hours of watching mindless TV before Shante brought her back into the office. She was smiling, so Willow took that as a good sign.
“We’ve done an analysis of your answers and everything looks good. You’ll be returned to Asa for now, although further analysis will be done on the videotapes. These machines can be fooled, after all.”
Willow couldn’t stop herself from rolling her eyes. “I said that I want to stay with him. Why isn’t that good enough?”
Shante laughed. “Given the situation and how you came to us, it’s more complicated than that. We have to make sure that humans and dragons are getting together for the right reasons. You can understand that we want to avoid situations in which a human is pressured into doing something that they don’t want or thinking that they have no choice in the matter.”
“Well, that’s not me.” Willow shook her head decisively. “I wanted to claim him, so I did. And I intend to claim him even more in the days to come.”
Her eyes widened as she realized what she had said. Her face turned to the same shade as her hair and she slapped both hands over her mouth. A new person or not, she wasn’t going to be one of those girls that bragged about their sex life with everybody that they met. This was a disaster! What must Shante think about her now?
So much for being a new person who doesn’t care what others think.
Shante, however, only laughed. She smiled at Willow, helping ease her embarrassment and shook her head. “There is no need to be embarrassed, Willow. When you live as long as dragons, the sexual prudishness of societies seems small and petty. I’ve seen more sexual revolutions than I care to admit and there is one thing that stands out in all of them. We love the people we love, and sex shouldn’t be something that shames us.”
Willow lowered her hands, trying to appear put-together. “Um, so we’re done, right? I can go home?”
“Yes. I’m pleased that he’s found you,” Shante added as Willow stood. “Asa’s always been an odd one. He hasn’t lacked for female attention, but he rarely has ever returned that attention. I’m glad that he’s found someone to love now when it matters most.”
When what mattered most?
Love?
“Oh, no, no, no.” Willow’s eyes grew huge again. She shook her head hard. “No. You’ve got that all wrong. This isn’t about love. I don’t love Asa. I barely know him. We haven’t dated or anything. All we did was have sex. I don’t love him. And he most certainly doesn’t love me. No. No, that’s not it at all.”
All Shante did was smile a knowing smile. “Well, then it was my mistake. You may go now, Willow. Good luck.”
Willow nodded at the king’s mistress before quickly leaving the room. Her hands shook a little as she considered what Shante had said at the end there. Love? No. No, there was no love involved. Was there? True, he had been furious at her parents for treating her as something expendable . . . and he had fought the Spear for her . . . and when they made love, he looked at her as though she was the only person in the world he had ever looked at that way. When he kissed her it was a promise to always care for her. But love?
Even if he did love me . . . She couldn’t even finish the thought. If she never saw him again . . . it would utterly break her. Am I in love with him?
She was almost out of the palace when a hand suddenly grabbed her wrist. Willow shrieked and another hand slapped over her mouth. Her attacker pulled her in tight against his chest and she stomped on his instep and elbowed him in the stomach. He grunted and released her. She started away again, letting out a piercing shriek.
The man caught her again. This time he slapped a hand over her mouth as he spun her around and pressed her into the wall. It was Sherwood. His eyes were a deep amber color and her scream died in her throat. What was he doing?
She pushed his hand away from her mouth and glared at him. “What the hell?”
“We needed to talk privately,” Sherwood whispered. “I’m sorry that I startled you.”
Willow snorted. “Listen, despite what the movies might say, talking with a woman privately is not best accomplished by grabbing her and dragging her into an isolated area. That is creeper behavior.”
“I said I was sorry.” Sherwood’s eyes flashed but he shook his head. “There is very little time. You have to come with me quickly. Our last attempt at escape did not turn out, but this time—”
“No.”
Sherwood, to her surprise, looked angry. His hands clenched. “My burning flame, you can’t stay.”
“Yes, I can.” Willow stepped back from him, unnerved. “Look, thanks for your concern. I’m happy to know that there are people around here that will help girls who don’t want to stay get away. But I’m not one of those girls. This is my home now and I don’t want to leave.”
“Do you really think that the dragon will love you? A human, doomed to die in a few years?”
“It’s not about love. Shante was talking about Asa being in love with me, too. But I want to stay because I want to stay.”
Sherwood let out a heavy sigh. Both of his eyes turned silver, a small white dot in the center of the pupil. “Well, that is most distressing. But I don’t have time to waste arguing. If you won’t come with me willingly, then I will have to collect you another way. Oh, little flame. You could have saved yourself so much pain.”
Willow backed away. The white in his pupils widened like a second pair of eyes. She opened her mouth to scream but he caught her wrist. Spikes of pain rushed up to her arm and settled into her throat. The only sound she managed to made was a wheezing croak. Sherwood didn’t move his gaze from her eyes as he slapped a golden bracelet around her wrist. The cold metal fastened tightly around her. Tendrils of ice wound through her muscles. They invaded her brain like probing fingers. Then, the ice washed through to every part of her.
“There.” Sherwood nodded in satisfaction. “Don’t be distressed. Everything is going to be fine. Now you are going to go to Lord Asa and tell him that you want to leave.”
No. Willow couldn’t make her jaw open. Her head nodded, and she turned. Her heart remained utterly calm even as she fought to gain some control of her body. It was like she was in a prison of her own flesh, helpless to do anything but watch as her feet carried her away. No!