SONG OF SEED AND BLOOD Fantasy Novel
CHAPTER 1
Inside the Amazonian Lily pavilion, Del stood engulfed in a burgeoning energy. Roots tickled her feet, stalks willowed in and around her.
Li stood close. “I’ve accepted the risk,” he said, green eyes steady in his strong Asiatic face.
She nodded and he gripped her arm as the transformation finally came upon her, deep auburn hair going scarlet then white the bud opened steamed with need and the merging began.
She felt Li’s heart, his beat and skin. Incandescence. Two now one. A silvered moon as The Amazonica Lily bloomed. Completeness. Darkness and a wrench. Sharp scent of earth and water. She opened her eyes.
Li was next to her and whole. But his eyes flashed a warning and she turned her to see natives lining a path to a great river. The smell seeped into her and she knew it for the Amazon.
A girl, on the cusp of womanhood walked between older women to the river’s edge. The men in the background stood holding the torches, stony faced, dark eyes alert. The air shifted as if something primordial had breathed.
Del’s skin burned. She gritted her teeth and watched the girl wade into the river toward the expanse of lily pads and long stems buds unopened. One appeared higher than the others. The girl made her way steadily toward it.
The women chanted, their voices low as smoke hazed across the river. Even so, Del could see quite clearly. She looked at those gathered and saw wide blank eyes. She looked back chilled then saw the girl move to climb onto the great lily pad. It held her weight. She reached out and placed a hand onto the bud. It opened. A swarm of beetles descended and covered the flower and her.
Sound narrowed to the hum of the beetles. A rush of sexual energy rush through Del.
Li gripped her more tightly and whispered in her ear. “The propagation is feeding our desires. I want you but not like this – in blind frenzy.”
“I agree,” and she grappled with the feel of beetles on her skin - wild silk and wild hunger. Then it was over and Del’s knees gave way.
Li held her up as the girl emerged, transcendent and within her cupped hands, an oval seed. She waded back through the river and stepped onto its bank.
Instead of walking back through the line of women she turned and headed straight for Del and Li. No-one else moved. No-one even seemed to see the girl as she drew closer to Del.
“Am I imagining this?” Del said, body thrumming in anticipation and dread. .
“No. She is focused on you.” And so it proved. The girl stopped in front of her and offered the seed.
Del looked into dark eyes, full of ancient knowledge and wanted to ask one, burning question. The girl shook her head then placed the seed into Del’s rising hands. Light flashed and enveloped her.
When she could see again a vast white expanse spread out before her. t was not cold.
“Where are we?”
Li squatted down and scraped up some of the white substance. Stood again, his long rope of hair swinging. “It’s salt.”
It stung her throat, and with it, an image of fish looking up through bubbles of evaporation, the hot shimmer of it rising with hundreds of wings. “I think we’re on Lake Eyre.”
“What did you see?”
“Pelicans. But when are we? “
“I don’t know, but the seed you’re carrying is growing.”
Del put it on the ground. It grew to a foot long, pearlescent and so beautiful it hurt. The lure rose within her it fragrance, taste and pulse stronger, more potent. Knew fear then for Li but he gripped her arm. “I’m fine. I feel it but am still immune.”
She let go and suddenly tendrils of green emerged and grew from the seed. Branched up to form a six foot tree, its silver leaves shimmering. She reached out to touch one, surprised at its suppleness, like leather.
The tree shuddered in response. All the leaves falling down around her and where they touched, came a pain so terrible she cried out.
“I’ve got you,” Li said as she panted through the pain until her bones and skin eased to a surface burn.
“There’s a shimmer on your skin,” he said.
‘What?” And she saw he was right. Like gold dust on her dusky skin. She ran a finger across it and felt sharp ridges. Blood welled.
She jerked her hand back. “Something under my skin,” and remembered all too well what had happened the other times she’d transformed. Twice before. Men who’d come responding to the lure. The fear and the screaming afterward when it seemed she’d absorbed them. Only one had turned up again. Adam, fractured and ending up in a mental health facility. She shuddered. Li held her. He knew and understood.
But this – this was different. She’d absorbed the tree. Why? Li tightened his hold. “The light and the tree have gone.”
“It’s changed me.”
“A progression of some sort?”
“I don’t know and that scares me. What will I become?”
“There’s a reason behind this, and why you transformed in the first place. I think it’s time to tell Anna. She’s skilled in propagation.”
“All we have to do is get back.”
“I saw some straggly salt bush nearby. I’ve a lighter. We’ll make a fire and hopefully the smoke will get someone’s attention.”
Under the surface of salt bone fragments and black silhouettes mapped lines and undulations… an ancient language born in increments like the flowering fruit of Babylon’s Hanging garden of myth and desire.
It curved and grew as it entered the city shown in Del’s vision looking for the one being who sat perfectly poised on the brink of life and death. Once penetrated, the cycle long lost would return.
CHAPTER 1
Inside the Amazonian Lily pavilion, Del stood engulfed in a burgeoning energy. Roots tickled her feet, stalks willowed in and around her.
Li stood close. “I’ve accepted the risk,” he said, green eyes steady in his strong Asiatic face.
She nodded and he gripped her arm as the transformation finally came upon her, deep auburn hair going scarlet then white the bud opened steamed with need and the merging began.
She felt Li’s heart, his beat and skin. Incandescence. Two now one. A silvered moon as The Amazonica Lily bloomed. Completeness. Darkness and a wrench. Sharp scent of earth and water. She opened her eyes.
Li was next to her and whole. But his eyes flashed a warning and she turned her to see natives lining a path to a great river. The smell seeped into her and she knew it for the Amazon.
A girl, on the cusp of womanhood walked between older women to the river’s edge. The men in the background stood holding the torches, stony faced, dark eyes alert. The air shifted as if something primordial had breathed.
Del’s skin burned. She gritted her teeth and watched the girl wade into the river toward the expanse of lily pads and long stems buds unopened. One appeared higher than the others. The girl made her way steadily toward it.
The women chanted, their voices low as smoke hazed across the river. Even so, Del could see quite clearly. She looked at those gathered and saw wide blank eyes. She looked back chilled then saw the girl move to climb onto the great lily pad. It held her weight. She reached out and placed a hand onto the bud. It opened. A swarm of beetles descended and covered the flower and her.
Sound narrowed to the hum of the beetles. A rush of sexual energy rush through Del.
Li gripped her more tightly and whispered in her ear. “The propagation is feeding our desires. I want you but not like this – in blind frenzy.”
“I agree,” and she grappled with the feel of beetles on her skin - wild silk and wild hunger. Then it was over and Del’s knees gave way.
Li held her up as the girl emerged, transcendent and within her cupped hands, an oval seed. She waded back through the river and stepped onto its bank.
Instead of walking back through the line of women she turned and headed straight for Del and Li. No-one else moved. No-one even seemed to see the girl as she drew closer to Del.
“Am I imagining this?” Del said, body thrumming in anticipation and dread. .
“No. She is focused on you.” And so it proved. The girl stopped in front of her and offered the seed.
Del looked into dark eyes, full of ancient knowledge and wanted to ask one, burning question. The girl shook her head then placed the seed into Del’s rising hands. Light flashed and enveloped her.
When she could see again a vast white expanse spread out before her. t was not cold.
“Where are we?”
Li squatted down and scraped up some of the white substance. Stood again, his long rope of hair swinging. “It’s salt.”
It stung her throat, and with it, an image of fish looking up through bubbles of evaporation, the hot shimmer of it rising with hundreds of wings. “I think we’re on Lake Eyre.”
“What did you see?”
“Pelicans. But when are we? “
“I don’t know, but the seed you’re carrying is growing.”
Del put it on the ground. It grew to a foot long, pearlescent and so beautiful it hurt. The lure rose within her it fragrance, taste and pulse stronger, more potent. Knew fear then for Li but he gripped her arm. “I’m fine. I feel it but am still immune.”
She let go and suddenly tendrils of green emerged and grew from the seed. Branched up to form a six foot tree, its silver leaves shimmering. She reached out to touch one, surprised at its suppleness, like leather.
The tree shuddered in response. All the leaves falling down around her and where they touched, came a pain so terrible she cried out.
“I’ve got you,” Li said as she panted through the pain until her bones and skin eased to a surface burn.
“There’s a shimmer on your skin,” he said.
‘What?” And she saw he was right. Like gold dust on her dusky skin. She ran a finger across it and felt sharp ridges. Blood welled.
She jerked her hand back. “Something under my skin,” and remembered all too well what had happened the other times she’d transformed. Twice before. Men who’d come responding to the lure. The fear and the screaming afterward when it seemed she’d absorbed them. Only one had turned up again. Adam, fractured and ending up in a mental health facility. She shuddered. Li held her. He knew and understood.
But this – this was different. She’d absorbed the tree. Why? Li tightened his hold. “The light and the tree have gone.”
“It’s changed me.”
“A progression of some sort?”
“I don’t know and that scares me. What will I become?”
“There’s a reason behind this, and why you transformed in the first place. I think it’s time to tell Anna. She’s skilled in propagation.”
“All we have to do is get back.”
“I saw some straggly salt bush nearby. I’ve a lighter. We’ll make a fire and hopefully the smoke will get someone’s attention.”
Under the surface of salt bone fragments and black silhouettes mapped lines and undulations… an ancient language born in increments like the flowering fruit of Babylon’s Hanging garden of myth and desire.
It curved and grew as it entered the city shown in Del’s vision looking for the one being who sat perfectly poised on the brink of life and death. Once penetrated, the cycle long lost would return.