Chapter One

A couple stand on a cliff, the mighty blue ocean stretched out before them. They turn to one another – one, a beautiful woman, with her rich brown hair wavering slightly in the wind. But her cinnamon eyes are cold and wary. The man in front of her holds the gaze of many women – strands of black hair falling into his strong emerald eyes. His eyes do not hold the coldness that the woman’s do, they are admiring of her beauty, but he seems to hold a deep guilt. They stretch their arms out to each other, and a strange man appears in the middle of them. He ties their hands together with a strand of red ribbon, before stepping backwards. There is an eruption of applause.

Blaine sat bolt upright in his bed, sweating and breathing heavily. He frowned at the memory of the dream that had caused him to awake, quickly trying to bring back the image that had now left him. The only familiar figure in that dream had been Fay, his foster daughter, and it worried him to see her joining with a man, and being so unhappy about it. He sighed and leaned back against his pillow, not wanting to go back to sleep. He could sense that the dream had been a prophecy, but he did not want to know what came after it. Sometimes the prophecies were a curse – he could not tell Fay what he had seen, for fear that she would try and change the course of events, which could be extremely dangerous. He already knew that Fay had quite a large part to play in the future of the village – though he did not know the details of what that part was, exactly.

But now it involved a man.

He closed his eyes, feeling tired, but trying to put off sleeping for the moment. He wanted to decipher what the vision meant. The physical part of it was obvious… but why did Fay hate the man so? And who was the man joining them? For anyone in the village, it was Blaine who usually joined them… that meant either that Blaine was unavailable to do the joining… or the joining was not in the village… Either way, Blaine was worried.

His foster daughter had had a lot to cope with throughout her life, she didn’t deserve a joining with a man she hated. No woman deserved that. But why would Fay allow herself to be forced into such a joining? She was a strong-willed woman. She was forever arguing with Blaine, forever arguing with the leader of the village.

Blaine turned over, trying to soothe the aches in his joints. He must remember to go to Fay tomorrow for some more ointment, his joints were worse than ever, and without her ointment, it often become a chore just to move about. With his job, moving about was important, and Fay knew that. She often came to give him his ointment without him even asking.

She was a good healer, a strong woman, who did not even need to join with a man. Many healers lived solitary lives, without men, without children, the only visitors being those who needed the aid of a healer. He didn’t think Fay would do such a drastic thing… but she spent a lot of her time alone.

Where on earth did a man come into the picture?