Trallis: Summer Storm Dancer

"I am Gerahn of Stolle, second and most unimportant son of Lord Ragnar," He introduced himself formally.

Dana stepped further away from him knowing the fate of her father and so many of the men of her clan at the hands of Warriors from Stolle. He saw her step back and almost cringe from him and even though he knew the tales the true reason of her dislike did not occur to him rather he took it as rejection and a slight to him personally. Looking around for others party-goers walking on the wall and seeing none his hand lashed out to grab the girl by the arm and pull her close to him. She did not scream as others might have but rather squeaked in surprise and that angered him all the more.

"So a second son is not good enough to walk with the sister of a storm-dancer," he snarled. "Without her you are nothing but the daughter of a criminal executed for poaching on Stolle lands," his low voice rang in her ears though it was hardly above a whisper. She inwardly cringed at his version of the fate of her father, but she knew that he was right about her being a nobody now and tears formed unbidden in her eyes as she looked away from him turning her head as much as she could in the strong grip that held her to him.

Seeing what he believed was yet another sign of her rejection of him by the beautiful girl he pushed her from him and started toward her in a menacing way ready to make her show him the proper respect due to the son of a lord, when he noticed a shadowy figure moving towards their place upon the wall. Leaning over her to help her back to her feet he growled in her ear and turned her to the wall where they stood side by side his arm seemingly supporting her but in reality holding her in place.

Baden jogged down the walkway smiling. "Dana! I arrive in town and you are nowhere to be seen. We have been looking for you. Rhys was worried, come back inside and join the festivities," he encouraged Dana, all but ignoring Gerahn whom he had already met and disliked immensely. Trying to not let it show he turned to the man and inquired, "You don't mind if Dana returns to her sister's festivities do you?"

"Of course and I shall walk back with you," Gerahn said magnanimously to Dana equally ignoring the horseman. Dana smiled brightly having practiced the forced smile all week and walked silently between the two men back to the banquet hall. Once inside Dana hugged Baden tightly. She told him how very glad she was that he had made it in time and when she looked around Gerahn was gone. Dana stayed close to her family for the rest of the evening and allowed herself to be escorted back to the house of her aunt at the end of the evenings events. She had no wish to encounter Gerahn of Stolle again.

Kerys was in heaven, so in love and enamoured of her new husband she believed that all the world was as happy as she and danced her way through the week up until her wedding. She chose to believe the bright smile on Dana's face as she excitedly spoke of her wedding day plans and the feast to follow and after years of dancing in secret she could finally embrace who she truly was. "It was," she told Dana, "the most remarkable summer in the entire history of the world!"

Dana had hidden her sadness and fears dancing and laughing with her sister as they had when they were younger. For her though, the last several summers had been the worst of the seasons for they took her sister from her and now they would be separated forever. She wondered how her mother had coped with leaving her sister but remembered the story of how deeply in love she had fallen with the horseman she had eventually married. She sighed deeply, no one would ever lover her like that, she was nobody without Kerys, there would be no great romance in her life.

The wedding was as beautiful as Kerys had wished it to be and Dana had let herself cry, smiling crookedly at anyone who inquired and waving it off as tears of joy for her sister. It was their final parting and Dana felt as though half of her being was being ripped away. After the feast the happy couple had rowed out to a small islet to enjoy their first nights together alone and Dana had returned to the small room that she had been given in her aunt's house and thrown herself on the bed weeping silently for her loss knowing that the summer sun would never shine as brightly for her again.

*****

Dana had cried herself to sleep and believing Rhys or Baden had come to check on her she barely opened her eyes when she heard footsteps enter her room. It wasn't until a hand wrapped around her mouth and another pulled one arm behind her back that her eyes flared open seeing only a dark figure behind her in the dim moonlight. Blindfolded and gagged Dana tried to struggle but the man sat straddling her legs as he bound her hands and feet. Picking her up he carried her from the house and all she could do was make muffled cries in an attempt to help herself.

"If you continue with that noise you will not only harm yourself but kill any would-be rescuers," a voice she knew whispered in her ear and she froze into stunned silence. Outside of the house she was dumped unceremoniously into a market cart and covered with rough hessian sacks. She was hauled to another section of the city and finally pulled from the cart into a windowless room and thrown to a small bed still bound, gagged and blindfolded, the voice spoke in anger at her.

"Still think you are too good for the second son of a lord?" The voice sneered. "No one noticed or cared about you tonight, it was almost too easy to find you and take you from the people who are meant to protect you. You are just like me, the second borne useless and overlooked by those you love."

Dana curled into a ball and shook her head, she knew it wasn't true. Rhys would come look for her in the morning, Baden would ask where she was, Kerys........ was gone now. Once again Dana let herself cry and admit the truth of his words. He took the blindfold for her letting her confirm his identity and stood over her smiling as she blinked tears from her eyes.

Gerahn of Stolle, gloated that he had taken what he desired with no difficulty or need for fighting. The girl crying on the bed was one of the most beautiful he had ever seen, so different from the pale girls of his own realm she seemed so colourful and full of life. His desire for the young woman over came and he advanced on her as she flinched away making him snarl, "You are mine now. You don't have to love me but you will realise that I am your better, your lord and master."

Rolling Dana to her stomach, Gerahn raised her hips and pulled her back towards the edge of the bed. Pushing the dress up over her hips he tore at the flimsy underwear she wore and began to thrust into her battering at the thin membrane that marked her as a virgin. Rather than disturbing him the muffled cries excited him and he dug his fingers into her flesh as he held her bound body in place before him forcing her to give way to his dark desire.

On the small islet in the bay Kerys was embraced by the arms of her new husband and cried out in joy, tears staining her face as she gave her husband what was rightfully his. For each of the twins in that moment the pain of the first sexual experience exploded into a howl that was carried on the wind blowing in from the sea and echoing around the sandstone city.

Rhys roused from his sleep with a sense of foreboding he couldn't name and stood going to the window to look out into the night. Dawn was still hours away, unsettled he went back to bed to toss restlessly until the morning. The morning sun broke the horizon and as the sky lit up Rhys had woken Badon early, still unsettled from the howling wind that had woken him through the night and together they went to find Dana and begin preparations for their journey home. The home of their aunt stood empty with the door wide open. Confused they began to search the small city inquiring of the street merchants and eventually finding their aunt on the sea wall. Grief was etched in her face as an officer of the watch spoke with her.

The brothers stood immobile with frozen looks of horror on their faces as they were informed a young woman matching Dana's description had fallen from the wall just prior to dawn. As no other women had been reported as missing and the body having been washed out to sea had not been recovered they had no choice to assume it was indeed their sister.

Kerys smiled into the face of the man she loved and kissed him lightly as he continued to sleep. She was truly happy but a she shivered with a sense that all was not right and was not surprised when sand crunched under the feet of an approaching interloper. She shook Keharn awake and pulled the light cover up to hide her own nakedness and a voice called to alert them of an urgent message. Keharn had met with the messenger briefly before returning to their shelter and held his new wife tightly as he delivered the news of Dana's fate.

"No!" Kerys had said in denial, "I would know, I would feel it. I would..." her voice trailed off. "It isn't true Keharn, we must go back and find her. I know it's not true!"

Dana had not slept at all. She had suffered multiple attacks from Gerahn both physically and verbally and as the morning dawn she found herself packed into a large crate cocooned by blankets. The gag had been partially loosened so she could drink from a straw and she gratefully sucked down the clear cool water before the lid of her prison was nailed shut. Her thoughts stretched out to her sister wishing for the comfort of her closeness as she had had the last time they had been taken from their family by force. The tears began to roll down her face knowing she would never see Kerys again.

The warriors of Stolle moved through the city gates at a slow pace, the wagons were checked over and Dana lay in her soft prison unable to make enough noise to alert anyone that she was within the crate. She could hear snippets of the muffled conversation, there was a funeral, someone important , the newlywed couple, Gerahn laughing that the Horse lords would not want the mountain warriors at their funeral procession. Dana froze. "Funeral for who?" she asked herself and struggled harder in her bondage to alert someone she was there.

A moment later the wagon rolled out from the city and she cried hard until she finally slept, giving herself over to her fate. She knew she would be taken to the snow-capped mountains of the south and never again enjoy the hot summer sun and dancing in the summer storms with her sister. For her only cold dark winters awaited her. Her dreams were full of horrifying images of snow beasts and members of her family frozen in death and no matter how often her dream-self looked up at the sky the summer sun was nowhere to be seen.