Chaos In Paradise

Chapter One

Chapter One

“Her ignorance of me is peace,” I explain.

“You don’t plan to tell her?” Knowland probes me hard, the way he does with his narrow beady eyes peering out of his scruffy face.

“If she knew who I was, I’d never have her again, so I’m not about to tell her.”

“You’re sure of that?”

“Someday this will all be destroyed. But these months with her have been the best of my life.” He always looks at me so blankly waiting for me to explain. I don’t think the man lives with any particular passion. But Teagan is something different all together. I see her lying naked on the sand, and even though my c**k’s limp, it’s starting to mew again. Her hair is the color of wet sand as it dries, but then it sparkles when the sun hits the side of her face. Her widespread eyes are green like the sea, her features curiously small and dainty. Her face is sometimes deathly pale, though sometimes there’s a rosy glow on her cheek when she’s smiling. I watch her when she walks, how her body floats inside the clothes she wears. Her thighs move like two soft pillows, and I get hard seeing the way her round ass curves toward her waist. I think I could climax seeing her n*****s poke against her dresses like tiny whitecaps on the surface of a rocky sea, and the way her breasts move buoyantly inside the material, gentle waves of flesh … ripe, hot, steamy flesh.

“I touch her skin, Knowland, and I touch what the old seers said of heaven. Something about that touch oscillates within me and I have to consume her. Knowland, my friend, you’ve got to replace me. I can’t do this job any more.”

“So you’re in lust. What the hell’s wrong with that? You’re a man aren’t you?”

“She’s from the South, Knowland. I don’t belong having an affair with her—or anyone, for that matter. Perhaps you forgot, I’m supposed to shun this kind of carnality.”

“Then marry her.”

I laugh. “You think she’d have me after she knows who I am, or rather what I am?”

“Tell her she has to marry you, that it’s the law in this land, otherwise the Provincial Lord will expel her for harlotry.”

“Oh, you’ll expel her along with Queleah and all the other women of “lesser” breeding.”

“It’s in my power, why not?”

“You’re as bad with this game as I am.”

“It’s not a game, Keven. It is our lives and who we are. And we do it well. This province has known peace for nearly three hundred years, just the way our ancestors framed it. We made a sacred pact with those ancient ones. I am the Lord of this tribe and you its High Priest … you say the prayers, you bless the babies, you make the proud women bow to their men in obedience, and purify them when they stray. You secure the peaceful existence of these several hundred families so life goes on without the wars that are killing hundreds in the South. Everyone is happy here, but you. You think too much.”

“Yes, I think too much, I think of her too much. I’m horny all day long thinking of her. How am I supposed to prevent that? How could I possible purify my mind? How am I suppose to be worthy of what my birthright gave me the power to do?”

He laughs in my face. “You don’t have to make yourself worthy, Brannoch! You have this by divine right. You can twist the laws any way you like to accommodate this woman. Purify her. Marry her. Then you can do all the despicable things you want to the b***h. And you don’t have to sneak around worrying if one of your flock will find you out.”

“I should have you locked up for heresy,” I explode on him.

“Me? Now? I’ve been a heretic since you and I were slinging bows over our shoulders and running after deer in the woods when we were ten. Your problem, Keven, is that you take this occupation of yours too seriously. You keep your head in those ancient manuscripts looking for some indecipherable Truth. Well, there is no Truth. There’s just the way things work and the way they don’t. We have the way that works and you fight it. Why?”

“I don’t know. Sometimes this makes me sad what we’ve all come to.”

“There you go, you sad ass.” He sneers at me, but I’m used to it. “The world blew up three-hundred odd years ago, and this is what was left. We had ancestors that fought for the peace they hammered out. No one bucks it but you.”

“Have you ever wondered why our brothers in the South don’t all migrate to paradise? Why do they stay in the wastelands and keep slugging out the bare bones of life? Do you ever think about that?”

“Never. But since you’re making me, it seems the only explanation is that they just aren’t smart enough to do anything else. We’d kick their asses out anyway. There isn’t a northern tribe that would let them in.”

“Except their women.”

“Their women are willing to mold themselves. Their women want peace. We don’t turn people away that want to join us, just the troublemakers.” He’s exasperated with me. I see that when his hand combs through his long hair, pushing it off his face and he scowls through the beard. “Quit making this so hard on yourself, Keven. Marry her.”

I stare at him for some minutes, thinking of what he says. Marry her. “I’ll destroy what we have if I marry her. Besides, if she finds out, she’ll leave. I’m afraid of what a purification would mean to her—especially one as vile as hers would undoubtedly be. There seems to be no space between us where there is any animosity or pain or regret, but there will be if I tell her the truth.”

“Then you live with the lie, friend. Obviously you won’t allow yourself to have it both ways. So live with the lie. Live with it until she finally finds out on her own. You can’t keep the secret forever. And then when she does know it all, she’ll leave on her own.”

I wonder if somewhere in some magic corner of this utopia there is a place were we could make our loving legal, but I think the future will likely go the way Knowland suggests. He’s infinitely practical, and a good friend.