Cursed

    

          

  Chapter one

                                      Reynalds keep, 1099

            Gunnor raced through the night clutching the reins of his massive gray charger. Gusts of wind tore at his cloak and the sound of pounding hooves nearly deafened him, as his mount ate up the earth beneath him.

“Through here,” he bellowed to the army of armed men who were keeping up with his urgent pace. They left the beaten path, entering a barren field that would take them to the walls of the keep all the faster. They fell upon their target only moments later, attacking the wooden fortress with a force that would cause a seasoned solider to swoon with fear.

They were not many in numbers, but what they lacked in men they made up for in ferocity.

“Bring it down,” Lord Haven bellowed as they were showered with arrows from the numerous archers upon the battlements above. It was his daughter who was being held within. He looked to her husband who was doing his fair share of the labor to see they gained entrance and saw her to safety before it was too late. “Bring it down!” He bellowed again, his heart constricted with fear.

Gunnor heard the gate crack, it was beginning to give. They rammed it again causing the wood to splinter, and a curse of outrage sounded from their enemy as the yard was filled with a swarm of armed men.

He pushed past them, ran through the courtyard, and climbed the steps of the keep bringing down any who dared step in his way. He prayed as he had never prayed before, for strength, for forgiveness. It was he who had left her; he had been foolish, they both had.

She was his life, his everything, and yet he had stormed off as if she was nothing to him and now he pleaded with God that he wasn’t too late.

Heloise swallowed her terror as she looked upon her father-in-law; he radiated hostility as he stomped about the hall. Blessedly, Gunnor had reached the keep. The sounds of battle being waged in the night met her ears as she struggled to keep her wits about her.

Regret seemed to swallow her up, as she feared she would never be able to plead for Gunnor’s forgiveness, to tell him she was sorry. She had called him a coward for not confronting his father properly.

They had both thought his father, the Lord of Reynalds, was still oblivious to his eldest son’s wedding. They had been wrong. Theobald had known, and by the look upon his face he was livid.

The two neighboring keeps had been wrought in hatred for longer than Heloise could remember, and the thought that his eldest son had married the daughter of his enemy was too much for Theobald to stomach. She shuddered as he looked upon her with cold, dark eyes, so like his son’s, yet full of an unspeakable hate.

Theobald pulled at his graying beard and glared at the woman who had stolen the heart of his son.  She had destroyed everything he had ever imagined for his eldest son. Gunnor was a strong powerful man who could have been so much and now look at him wed to the enemy. He would not stand for this; he would remedy Gunnor of this vile woman and free his son of a life full of torment.

He pulled his eyes from the wench before him to the newcomer in his hall. The old hag shuffled her bent frame across the rushes to where he stood and offered him a short bow. “My lord has summoned me?” she asked, her aged voice cracking through a toothless, drooping mouth.

“Aye. See you this foul woman?” He pointed to Heloise a sneer upon his lips.

“My lord,” the hag answered, her faded eyes falling upon the woman of whom he spoke.

“I wish her dead,” he stated as if taking her life was an every day matter that meant nothing more to him than ordering his evening meal.

The old woman approached Heloise, reaching up to place a gnarled hand upon her young, smooth face. “So, it comes to this.” She whispered, her rough voice smooth and low, reaching only the ears of Heloise. “Love came easily for you my dear, and now you must fight for it as you never have fought before… or you will wander forever, lost to one another.” She gave Heloise a small smile, holding her gaze even as she spoke to her fuming master.  “To take a life such as hers will cost you greatly, my Lord.”

“I care not the cost!” he bellowed, throwing his venom at her. The old woman had been his confidant, his council. She saw things that no other could see, predicted the future and spoke ancient words of the past.

He never went into battle without her telling him he would be victorious, and she had never failed him, not once. She had brought him wealth, honor, favor with the king and above all, power.

“You will, my lord, you will.” She whispered through her aged mouth, turning her gaze from her master’s victim to face the man himself. “Her love for your son is strong, stronger than anything you will ever know. Kill her, and it is you who will suffer. And when you have passed, it will be your children who carry your fate, and their children after them, until there is one who is strong enough to do that which you were not man enough to do this day.” She muttered, then began to cackle at his astonished face.

“Have you cursed me, witch?” Theobald asked, drawing his blade, his anger lit anew.

She only continued to cackle at him until he looked as though he might strike down his victim. “You will lose your son if you kill her, he will never again enter these walls.” She shook her head at the infuriated man before her and left the hall, her shuffling feet fading into the raging sounds outside the wooden walls of the keep.

Heloise watched her go, struggling to understand what it was the old woman had been implying. It had been easy to fall for Gunnor. He was handsome, charming, and had swept her away with a single look.  To fight for his love was not something she had to think upon. She would fight for him even if it meant her very life.

 The door to the hall burst open, sending a rush of wind into the smoke filled room. Gunnor stood in the doorway, his chest heaving, his dark eyes filled with rage as they swept past Heloise to look upon his father.

“Let her go,” he breathed, his eyes never leaving his father’s face.

“She has forced you to betray me, to turn on your own father,” Theobald spat at his son. He had once thought him to be so great, and now all he saw was a blind man in service to a woman. 

“You have done this out of spite. Let the past die, father… allow this to be,” Gunnor pleaded as he looked upon Heloise, silently telling her he was sorry.

“The past will die my son. This woman has brainwashed you, made you believe that you love her and look what has become of it. You have raided your own keep, betraying your own kin. It is by my hand that she will free you to be the man I raised you to be.” He turned on his heel before any could intervene, plunging his blade into the stomach of the woman who had stolen his son from him.

“Heloise!” Gunnor screamed, watching helplessly as she fell to the rushes.

“Fall back!” was shouted from somewhere in the night, beyond the door of the keep. It was Lord Haven who gave the order. They were outnumbered and would last no longer.  “Fall back!” he bellowed, his voice echoing in Gunnor’s head, as he crossed the rushes to where his wife lay and gathered her into his arms.

He looked to where his father stood, pale and shaking, his sword still clutched in his hand. “What have you done?” Gunnor asked of the man he had once believed could do no wrong.

“I have saved you from a marriage that would have brought you nothing but sorrow.” Theobald wheezed.

“No…no!” Gunnor screamed. “You were saving yourself! I love her, father. Is nothing sacred to you?” He rose to his feet, holding her close, his eyes fixed upon the twisted face of his father.

“Gunnor,” Heloise whispered from the cradle of his arms, recapturing his attention. “Take me from this place.” He instantly obeyed, turning from the man who had raised him, to take his wife from the gloom held within his father’s hall.

“Where go you, boy?” Theobald bellowed, storming after his son.

“Away from here. This will not be where she takes her last breath,” Gunnor spat over his shoulder as he carried her towards the door.

“As your father I forbid you to leave the keep,” Theobald bellowed, causing Heloise to tremble. Gunnor turned and glared at his father, who was now standing a breath away from him. If his hands had not been full, he would have sent the evil man to his grave as payment for what he had done this night.

“The man I see before me is not my father… I have no father,” Gunnor whispered, then left the keep, walking into the chaos of the night. The battle that had once raged inside the courtyard had now faded. Lord Haven’s men had fled as they had been instructed to do. 

Not one of his father’s men paid him mind as he carried his wife from the keep, through the mangled gate and into the night.

He wandered into the forest, heedless of the faded eyes that followed him, looking down on him with sorrow from the tower. The old woman had cursed Theobald and, in doing so, had cursed two that were innocent in their love for one another. The treachery of the Reynalds line must end, and if this was the only way to see that come to pass, then so be it.

She watched them fade into the trees; their love was strong, stronger than any curse she could place upon them. In time, they would discover how to break the bonds that would separate them.

She smiled as Theobald bellowed from the hall below, knowing that it was his curse as well. He too would suffer from what he had done. Not only would he lose his son, but also his sanity, as would any that followed him. His curse would be passed down from generation to generation until there was one brave enough to end it.

The old woman nodded at the couple as they disappeared into the forest vanishing from her sight.

Once concealed deep within the trees, Gunnor knelt upon the soft ground, holding Heloise in his arms. He knew that their time was short; even now her breath was labored as he held her to him for fear that if he released her she would leave him forever.

“Stay with me.” She begged gripping the front of his tunic.

“I will not leave you again, I give you my word,” he vowed softly.

“I am sorry,” she whispered, her eyes fluttering as she struggled to look up at him.

“As am I, it seems we have been foolish of late.” Gunnor smiled at his love, knowing not what to do to help her. “I never should have left you as I did. Had I been with you, this never would have happened,” he apologized, brushing a strand of chestnut hair from her face.

“Hush your fool tongue and speak soft words to me, love.” She did her best to smile through her pain and fear, not wanting him to leave her.

“My darling, my Heloise, I would save you if I had but the power to do so.  I love you.” She never answered him. She never spoke of her love, though he was never in doubt of it. 

His poor soul racked with sorrow as he looked into her empty eyes, they saw nothing, not his tears, nor his pain as he rocked her, holding her lifeless body to him in agony.

He sobbed out his grief, for he had not the strength to hold it in. He had failed her, and in doing so had lost the only person who ever really mattered in the whole of his life.

“Why!” He screamed into the night, knowing the darkness that encompassed him had not the answers he sought. “Why.”

As the gentle rays of morning fell upon him, he forced his aching arms to release her, carefully laying her upon the dew covered grass of the forest floor. Hours later, he buried his love in a grave he dug with his own hands. When the horrid task was complete, he sat beside the place where his wife now rested, unable to force himself to leave her.

Lord Haven drew his horse to a stop a good five miles from Reynalds, dismounted, and followed his weary feet into the forest. Shortly after he had entered the trees he came upon the trail of a single man wandering into the dense woods, and followed the broken branches and trampled undergrowth, praying that he would find both his daughter and her husband alive and well.

They had been met with a force that greatly outweighed their own. They had been pushed back before he was able to make it to where his daughter was being held. But Gunnor had achieved his goal, pushing his way into the keep. And if it came to be that they were separated, this was where they were to meet, deep in the seclusion of the woods.

He entered a small clearing and his heart lodged in his throat as he took in the sight before him. Gunnor sat beside a mound of rocks. His head in his hands, his shoulders slumped, telling Lord Haven instantly that which he had feared most; his beloved daughter was dead.

“My son,” he whispered, his heart breaking with the sight of the wretched man before him.

“She is gone, my lord,” Gunnor replied from where he sat, never moving or acknowledging his father-in-law.

“Aye,” he whispered as he stepped forward, placing his hand upon Gunnor’s shoulder, knowing he had done all he could to save her. “Come with me, lad, it has been days since you have eaten or slept.” He attempted to help him to his feet, only to have his hands shoved away.

“Nay, leave me,” Gunnor hissed his voice gruff and low.

“There is nothing more you can do for her now.”

“I will not leave her.” He looked up at his father-in-law, his dark eyes red with sorrow, his face pale and ghostly against the bright light of day.

“Gunnor, you loved her as best you could, she knew that, and now you must move on and live. Heloise would not wish for you to suffer because of her.” He watched this young man shake his head, his eyes glistening with fresh sorrow.

“It was not enough,” he murmured in agony. “I failed her my lord, I left her alone as I promised I would never do.” He placed his hands upon the grave, his shoulders shaking with grief. “She was terrified of being alone, terrified.  I will not fail her again.”

Lord Haven nodded, knowing he could not force him to leave her. “I love you as a son, Gunnor, know that.” With that said he left the clearing, making his way slowly back to where his men were waiting, his heart was heavy with grief, his soul racked with regret.

They had all known the marriage was risky, but for his daughters sake and her love nothing else had seemed to matter. In his eyes he had seen an end to the violence that had been a part of their lives for more years than he cared to admit. He had accepted Gunnor as his son and loved him for the man that he was, he thought of him as his own and was proud to do so. He had aided the two in hiding their marriage until the time was right that it could be explained to Theobald and the feud of there fathers might be ended. But Theobald had discovered the truth and claimed his vengeance.

Lord Haven took one final glance over his shoulder, sighing deeply with the sight of Gunnor bent in misery over his wife’s grave. They had only wished to love, they had committed no crime, and yet the love they held for one another had cost them everything.

That was the last time he saw Gunnor alive. A fortnight later, he returned with a small party and buried his daughter’s faithful husband in a grave next to hers, making certain that even in death his beloved child was not alone.

He marked their graves with a heart-shaped stone that was placed between them. Etched upon it were words that would never do their love and there death the justice they deserved.

They had found a love that others would covet and they had lost everything because of it. “Rest in peace my children,” Lord Haven whispered as he placed his hand upon the marker, then rose to his feet; the forest of his enemy was no safe place at the moment. Theobald was searching the forests for his son, believing he still lived. When the news of Gunnor’s death reached his father’s ears, there would be hell to pay. Border Haven would be blamed for his death; he must return to his keep, straighten his walls and see that his people were protected.

Lord Haven feared that the feud between their families would now fester into a wound that would consume them all and bring all they had worked so hard to gain crashing in around them.

This petty feud of his fathers’ would bring them all to ruin.