[Fic] [Round 35] Erl-King, PG
The air smelled like damp soil and green and growing things, and the leaf litter was so thick that it muffled the sound of the horses’ hooves.
Adelbert shivered and drew his cloak tighter around himself. No matter how many times he went through here, the intense silence never failed to disturb him. It wasn’t so much the absence of noise so much as the not-sound of something staying very still and listening very hard. It was upsetting. Worrying. Creepy, that was the word he was looking for. As if the very forest were crouched and waiting, each tree a tiny part of a collective green mind, waiting, waiting, waiting for the intruders to make a single mistake.
Waiting.
He glanced sideways at his companion. Günter von Christ seemed composed, his perfect face serene, and if he was unnerved by the unnatural silence he gave no sign. Adelbert scowled, turned his eyes back to the path ahead, and thought about how Günter von Christ could be just as creepy as any forest.
“You seem anxious about something.”
Adelbert started violently, and his horse snorted and stamped in disgust. Günter shot him an amused look and the younger Demon glowered. “I was just thinking,” he said over the sound of his pounding heart, “That no matter how many times I’ve been through here I will never get used to the silence. But it doesn’t seem to bother you much.”
“Oh, it bothers me,” Günter replied breezily, “It bothers me very much. But we won’t be harmed so long as we hunt or harvest nothing, and do not light a fire.”
“You seem to know a lot about this place. I wonder why you even need a guide.”
“I know about the forest. I don’t know the way through it.”
Günter lapsed into silence again. They came to a fork in the trail, and Adelbert consulted his compass even though he already knew the way. He gestured towards the path and Günter followed.
“You’re an excellent tracker,” said Adelbert after a while, “I’ve seen you. Couldn’t you have made your way through here with magic?”
“He wouldn’t like that.”
“Who’s he? Yuri?”
“King Yuri,” Günter corrected, showing his teeth, “And no, not him. I mean the Erl-King.”
“Erl-King,” Adelbert said flatly. “I thought that the Erl-King was just an old story.”
“Oh, no,” Günter said, “No. He’s real. This forest is his. And if you displease him, he shall do you grievous harm.”
Günter’s horse snorted and Adelbert’s horse whickered in reply. The canopy was thick, but what light passed through it was beginning to dim. They were making poor time and Adelbert clapped his heels to his horse’s belly, and Günter followed him.
They cantered until it was almost too dim to see, and then only concern for their horses and the fear of loosing the path stopped them. It was getting cold too, cold and damp and Adelbert dismounted and fumbled blindly at the leather straps holding his swag behind the saddle, cursing the dark and numb fingers, and there was a hiss and a smell like burning sulphur and burning sugar, and a sickly blue light filled the clearing. It illuminated the sharp planes of Günter’s face, the light and the smell coming from the small bowl in the older Demon’s hands.
“One of Lady Anissina’s inventions,” he said in explanation, “If one mixes the contents of this vial with the contents of that vial, the combined powder will emit light.” Adelbert just grunted. He jerked the swag off and the gelding snorted and kicked. “Have a care for your beast, Lord von Grantz,” and Adelbert snarled silently, thinking about how much he hated Günter, and everything the Demon stood for.
They laid out their swags in the clearing, and they crawled into them fully clothed. The dim blue light was just enough to show Gunter’s frozen breath, and Adelbert stared out into the darkness as he gnawed on a strip of jerky, wishing that he could hear a cricket sing, or an owl call, or the rustling of mice through the grass, anything, and for a fire too.
“What’s the Erl-King, anyway?” Adelbert genuinely didn’t want to talk, but he hated the silence. And he heard Günter shift in his blankets. The older Demon cleared his throat.
“The Erl-King is neither Demon nor ghost, neither physical presence nor an incorporeal one,” Günter’s voice sliding smoothly into teacher mode, “It has been theorised that he is the embodiment of the forest, given his hatred of fire and his swift retaliation should someone hunt for flesh or gather fruits, but it’s said that he captures any bird that flies here and leaves them in cages to die and to rot; he hunts and kills any four footed beast that stirs; he tolerates some small Demon presence, but pretty children and lovely maidens and beautiful youths may be seduced away.” Sound of a yawn; Günter’s voice fading around the edges. “Handsome in aspect, but his eyebrows meet. He’s antlered like a ten point stag but accounts vary as to whether he has feet or hooves. In his malign aspect he wears a necklace of baby skulls, but when he is benevolent- for he has been known to grant favours on a whim- his hair is red-brown and his face beautiful. He plays the lyre and sings sweetly, but his lyre is strung with the hair of those he kissed, and were never seen again.”
Günter moved in his blankets, and didn’t speak again. There were only the faint sounds of his sleeping breath and faint as they were, it was still sound and Adlebert was grateful for them. He thought longingly of hot, cooked meat and bread buried under coals and baked, but there was only the bitter taste of jerky lingering in his mouth.
**
A sharp clatter.
Adelbert snapped awake and groped at his broadsword before he realised that it was dawn and Günter was fumbling with bowls and an earthenware jar, the older Demon’s hands clumsy with sleep. Inextricably embarrased, Adelbert flushed and stepped out of his blankets and Günter raised his eyebrows and said, “That’s why I prefer a light sword myself; easier to draw in a hurry,” and Adelbert snarled and buckled the sword sheath over his shoulders.
“I prefer a weapon with some sort of clout to it,” he said, and Günter just shrugged and handed over a bowl filled with grain flour mixed with cold water and Adelbert wanted nothing more than hot tea but there was no way he was going to get it. So he spooned the cold gloop into his mouth and hated it, hated the forest, hated the silence, hated Günter who didn’t seem the least bit upset about the reason they were in this forsaken place in the first place.
The horses stirred and whickered, Adelbert’s notoriously foul-tempered gelding fawning traitorously over Günter, and the gelding’s master added ‘seduction’ to the list of Günter’s many crimes. The older Demon brushed both horses down with a curry comb while Adelbert finished breakfast, and then tucked the comb away and, without so much as a blush, stripped off his shirt.
The sight of all that perfect flesh hit Adelbert like a thunderbolt. It was so long since he’d been with a Demon; white hair against smooth skin and the memory of Julia’s taste and after that there were only human bodies, clumsy, flawed humans with hair on their chests and under their arms and fine lines around their mouths and eyes. Günter was physically perfect, marred only by the tribal tattoos scrolling down his spine and disappearing into the waistband of his trousers and Adelbert thought maliciously that even though the Demon was no maiden, he was pretty enough to be one. Erl-King to do him grievous harm; Adelbert wanted Günter to hurt because he doubted that Günter had ever hurt before in his life. Adelbert believed very strongly that misery should be shared. Any resemblance to Julia, any disrespect to her memory, should be stripped away and broken. Rest in peace, Julia.
A fresh, clean shirt was pulled out of the saddlebag, and Günter’s vulnerable skin disappeared from view. Adelbert shivered and looked away into the forest, to the never ending green.
“Don’t you have doubts?” he said suddenly. “Do you honestly think that this is the right thing to do?”
Günter craned his head to look at Adelbert. “I have no doubts. I do as my King commands, and that is sufficient.” His elbows worked as he did up the buttons. “However, this war will not stop while Saralegui leads. That’s it, pure and simple.”
“You’re going to murder someone in cold blood.”
“I’m going to assassinate someone,” Günter corrected sharply. “Murder is such an ugly word.”
“It’s still murder,” Adelbert said.
“It’s the right thing to do. If this war continues so many more people, humans and Demons both, will die. Cut off the head, the body will die. If Saralegui dies, the army will stop.” Adelbert sneered contemptuously, but of course Günter was right and if Adelbert hadn’t agreed, he would not have agreed to guide Günter through the Erl-King’s forest.
“Let’s go,” he said abruptly. They saddle the horses, Adelbert’s gelding trying to sniff Günter’s hair like it was some sort of strange flower, and Adelbert yanked on the reins in disgust. Günter gave a reproving look and Adelbert stared back, thinking that the proud lord valued horses more than the common people that tilled the soil and made the von Christ family wealthy. Günter von Christ was everything that was wrong with the world, and he was too damn pretty besides.
Erl-King to do him grievous harm. Erl-King to do him grievous harm. The words slid across his brain, hardened into a chant. Adelbert set his horse cantering down the forest trail, and he found himself mouthing the chant like a prayer: Erl-King to do Günter von Christ grievous harm.
**
They made excellent time.
Weary and saddle sore, they came to a clear stream as the afternoon sun slanted through a rare break in the canopy, and in wordless agreement they pulled up, let the horses pick their way down the banks to the water, hairy muzzles slurping greedily. Still atop his horse, Günter yanked off his boots and tossed them up onto the bank, tore off his tunic, draped his swordbelt around the saddle pommel and jumped into the water. Adelbert ground his teeth and wondered just what the mad Demon’s obsession was with getting naked was, and deliberately looked at the sky as Günter peeled off his trousers, his only garment the national underwear, and dug a cake of soap from a saddlebag and slid slippery as an eel into a deeper section of water and began to lather himself.
The younger Demon sat atop his horse and manfully resisted. For about two minutes. But he was hot and sticky and smelled like horse and grudgingly, he pulled off his boots and jumped down, the legs of his trousers immediately soaking, but the water was cool and the smooth pebbles slid against the soles of his feet, and utterly against his will, Adelbert felt something relax as the water tugged at the hems of his trousers. He bent down and cupped a handful of water and splashed his face and shuddered with the pleasure of it. Then Günter had the sheer blinding nerve to ruin the moment by attempting to sing, and the noise that the idiot made was so hideous that Adelbert suddenly realised that there were worse things than the unnatural silence of the forest. Cracked, disastrously off key, no sense of rhythm or timing at all. “Do you mind not making that hideous sound? Are you tone deaf or something?”
The noise ceased and then Günter said grudgingly, “Yes,” and Adelbert turned his head and stared at Günter, nearly naked Günter, lathered and shiny with soap, blushing Günter, talented, brilliant, beautiful and perfect Günter who’d been forced to admit that he wasn’t so perfect after all.
“I don’t believe it,” Adelbert said, almost crowing with delight, “You’re honestly tone-deaf?” and Günter scowled and ducked his head under the water to rinse his hair. Adelbert grinned and looked up into the shafts of sunlight, happy beyond all proportion. Perhaps the whole journey wasn’t so bad after all but then there was a flicker of movement and he jerked his head to see antlers rising above the bushes and he suddenly couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, was frozen in place. He felt abject terror. Just a deer; just a deer behind the bushes but Adelbert knew deep in his heart that it wasn’t a deer at all.
“Erl-King,” Günter whispered behind him and the spell was broken. Adelbert glanced at Günter and then back at the bushes, but the antlers were gone.
“Just a deer.”
“No,” said Günter.
Erl-King to do him grievous harm. Adelbert thought of Günter near-naked and vulnerable in the water, and suddenly understood the gravity of the curse. “Just a deer,” he said again, almost desperately, but Günter didn’t reply, just stood and slogged his way through the water and up the riverbank to where his boots and his trousers lay. Adelbert watched as Günter searched fruitlessly for his shirt, but the garment was missing and could not be found.
Silver hair shone white-gold in the sunlight; Adelbert closed his eyes, thinking of Julia’s hair the time they’d taken tea together in the gardens, just before she died. He shivered and it wasn’t the water that made him feel cold.
**
They rode as hell itself was chasing them, but once again the day was closing and they finally stopped, resigned to spending another night in the Erl-King’s forest. Günter did not speak as they unrolled their swags in a clearing beside the trail, his face stony in the unnatural blue of Anissina’s powder. When Adelbert looked at his own hands they were pale and sickly-looking, while the blue cast rendered Günter statue-like and even more beautiful Adelbert felt something sick and fearful slide in his gut and he mouthed the word no, no, over again because he knew, just knew that the Erl-King would come in the night and make the curse come true.
Erl-King to do him grievous harm. Erl-King to do him grievous harm.
Julia’s hair in the sunlight garden. The perfect serenity of her face. Günter’s hair shining white in the afternoon sun.
Erl-King to do him grievous harm.
Oh, no. No.
Let’s leave, let’s just ride, Adelbert wanted to say but it was pitch black beyond the circle of blue light and they would only blunder blindly in the dark, would stray from the path and become hopelessly lost and the horses would stumble and break their legs and they would be left here, left in the forest with the Erl-King, and Saralegui would march his army ever forwards, humans and Demons ground beneath his elegant boots, the soil turned wet and sopping with blood and the murder would never end.
It was so quiet.
The horses bundled in together, too terrified to even whinny or so much as shift a hoof. They were utterly silent and completely still. Adelbert lay in his blankets, shuddered with the cold, the only noise the fast rasping of his own breath and he thought that he could see the barest flick of horns just outside of the light. He looked at Günter, who lay in his own blankets, face serene and composed.
“He’s watching us,” Günter said aloud, and Adelbert cringed. He wanted to grab his broadsword and just swing, swing the heavy blade until there was nothing left but quivering meat but even he knew that the Erl-King could not, would not be killed.
The air seemed to draw together, as if in anticipation of a sneeze.
Günter sighed and the blankets rustled. Adelbert shut his eyes very tight, knowing what was to come. All deities, pagan or otherwise, demand some form of sacrifice, and sacrifice comes in many different ways but always it must be something valued. Erl-King will do you grievous harm, unless you have something he wants.
Soft footsteps beside him. Adelbert opened his eyes and Günter knelt down beside him, his face set in the unyielding planes of a statute. “Hush,” he said, and Adelbert stared out into the dark, thinking that he would rather cut off a finger given a choice, but there was no choice to be had. Günter placed his hand on Adelbert’s forehead, the warmth shocking against his chilled skin. Adelbert jerked and gasped and Günter said “Hush,” again, this time with annoyance. That warm hand slid down across Adelbert’s mouth, his throat, down into the blankets, and down into his clothes that were suddenly too warm and too tight. Günter striped, and everything about him was perfect, everything, and Adelbert couldn’t even think of Julia in that moment and Günter’s very skin seemed to burn with an inner heat, an inner fire, as he covered Adelbert’s body with his own.
They didn’t kiss, and for that Adelbert was infinitely grateful.
**
The next morning they saddled up and rode out, careful not to meet each other’s eyes. Adelbert felt Julia’s memory sullied and suddenly growing dim, overlaid with the taste and feel of other Demon. For his part, Günter was blank, his eyes expressionless, and Adelbert felt the first grudging threads of his hatred slipping away because as selfish as he was, he knew that Günter had sacrificed something as well.
So they rode through the forest, the branches thinning and the sunlight brightening, riding so that Günter could murder one man in order to save thousands.
Gradually, things began to stir; the first few notes of a bird song drifted through the air. There was the sound of a snake slithering through the long grass by the side of the trail. The Erl-King’s attention waned and faded as Adelbert von Grantz and Günter von Christ left the forest behind.
Erl-King had done them both grievous harm, and was well satisfied.