Songweaver's Awakening

Chapter 29 - Rajheem

Rajheem stared at the door in front of him, willing himself to lift a hand and turn the knob.  He could feel that itch in the back of his mind, that presence, grow as if in response to his thoughts.  Vaeluras always created this conflict in him, the desire to both go to her and to stay as far away from her as possible.  There was something about his room that felt safe, like it was a place she couldn't possibly get into, but it had begun to stifle.  He'd hardly left since the night Haman had died.

It still haunted him at night, just before he slept, that feeling of life being drained from his body.  Was that how it felt to die?  There'd been the barest of moments, just as Haman had stopped breathing, where Rajheem had felt something—dark, velvet, and warm as the insides of his eyelids—before he'd pulled back.  Thoughts of that, combined with the maddening itch in the back of his mind, left him lying on his back in his cot, eyes wide open.  He never slept well anymore.

Still, he hadn't realized until now what good it had done him to get out of the palace and away from thoughts of Vaeluras.  He'd barely noticed the itch when he'd been with Haman and Eris.  He still wanted to leave the palace walls.  The only things that were stopping him were Eris and Vaeluras.  He couldn't bear to run into Eris again.  Haman was dead, and likely Eris knew, if Lladwen hadn't tracked him down as well.  It made him sick when he thought about the obsessive light in the man's eyes, a light that he'd put there, unwittingly.  Then there was Vaeluras, beautiful and tempting in her cold way.  She played a game of cat and mouse with him each time he left his room, and thus far he'd been lucky enough to evade being touched by her again.

Whatever he did, though, he couldn't stay in his tiny, cramped room any longer with no company except his music.  Now, more than ever, he wished Antuk was still around, but she had left in the midst of winter.  Rajheem thought of her parting words.  She'd said it would rain.  Rajheem had no reason to doubt her, but the clouds were drifting away and winter was coming to a close.  Spring would come again, and then summer, and then he would become a ripe seventeen.

No more idle thoughts.  Rajheem shook himself.  He'd stood at his doorway long enough, unable to act.  Feeling slightly numb, he lifted his hand one last time, turned the doorknob, and slipped out into the hallway.

They were foolish, his attempts at stealth, he knew.  Whatever attachment Vaeluras held to him also told her where he was.  She honed in on him like a hound on a hare.  Almost immediately after leaving his room, the itch increased.  He needed to make it down to the garden, where the bundle of servant's clothes was hidden beneath a rock.  His fear pressed him to take the most direct route, but he couldn't discern which direction Vaeluras came from.  Better for him to take the most winding route possible to try and throw her off.

Mind set, Rajheem brushed away his fear and started down the tangled hallways of Helen's palace.  Although he felt a little silly for doing so, he practiced the techniques he'd observed Eris use when trying to remain unseen.  He hugged the sandy walls of the palace and kept his steps light and even.  It would've worked better if there had been a crowd, as there always had been when Eris had evaded Lladwen.  As it was, the hallways were sparsely populated, and the few people that passed him spared him not a glance.

He was several hundred paces from the door that led into the gardens when the itch in the back of his mind increased tenfold.  Instinctively, he reached a hand around to the back of his head only to find a fistful of hair and no relief.  Rajheem forced his hand back to his side.  He had to think clearly.  Another turn, perhaps.  He'd go out a window if he had to.  The itching was fast followed by that intoxicating smell, filling his nostrils.  Before he could think no longer, he made a snap decision and stumbled down a hallway to the side.

It was the wrong decision.  Vaeluras materialized out of the air, blocking his path.  Even in his mentally hazy state, Rajheem acknowledged that she looked beautiful.  She wore a willow green dress that nearly fell off of her shoulders, exposing her pale flesh.  Her long black hair was pulled into a loose braid, silver eyes and ruby lips beckoning, mocking.  The same sort of strange green cloak he'd seen on the Fair Folk in the alleyway was around her neck, writhing and squirming if he looked at it too closely.