Following Tides -Book II - Sascha & Yuri: "Darkness in Stone"

“Following Tides II - Sascha and Yuri's Tale”

T H E   F O L L O W I N G   T I D E S   S E R I E S
PART II  - SASCHA & YURI
Author: D. Sanders a.k.a "The Fablespinner"
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CHAPTER FIVE  -- "DARKNESS IN STONE"
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Sascha frantically searched the fields, calling out in fear. A baby wailed in the tall cane and Sascha found his son alone in near hysteria sobbing as Sascha scooped him up in his arms. “Tomas!” Sascha sobbed clutching his son to his breast. “Yuri! YURI! YUUUURIIIII!” Sascha was just as frantic, he couldn’t sense Yuri anywhere, it was like she had simply vanished.
 
“Sascha! We can’t find her anywhere!” Oksana sobbed and then cried harder in relief when she saw Sascha had found his son.
 
Andrik came pelting back. “HURRY! Ship cast off about three hours ago. “The Tempest.” Locals noted they carried a body on board!”
 
“Kazamirov!” Sascha gasped in horror running with his son back to “the Golden Sun.” The long boats seemed to take forever to reach the ship. Oksana took a wailing Tomas from Sascha as he scrambled up to the observatory to his bowl. Andrik barked orders to get the ship ready to sail immediately. Sascha met darkness in his bowl as he scryed for Yuri. The bastard had her shielded. “Please, oh please give me a direction. Show me “the Tempest”!” Sascha begged his bowl, only storm clouds could he see. He turned to the mirror on his wall.
 
“Show me SERGEI! ALEXANDRE! VANGEL! ANDRE! NOW!”
 
All faces turned at once to the desperate summons. “Son?” Sergei asked seeing wide-eyed panic.
 
“Scry! Find me the ship “The Tempest”! He’s blocked me! HE HAS YURI!” Sascha sobbed his whole chest feeling torn open. The men vanished from the mirrors only to reappear up in their observatories.
 
“Nothing! I see only storm clouds! Come on Show me!” Andre said first.
 
“Same here! It’s a cloaking spell. Illuminate shadow! Show me beyond the veil!” Vangel demanded, trying to cut through the spell. There, a glimmer. “EAST! Damn it he sensed me! Go east Sascha. I’m coming too, I’m three days east of you, I’ll try and cut him off and keep cracking at the spell.”
 
Sascha stuck his head out of the window and bellowed. “DUE EAST ALL SPEED!” The winds ripped into the sails as Sascha called them up in a fury.
 
“AH gods!” Sascha sobbed going back to his bowl and finding infuriating darkness in stone. “Show me Yuri! Please!”
 
“What happened son?” Sergei asked bent over his own bowl.
 
“I don’t know. We were on Nanta. Yuri and Tomas were in the cane. Not five hundred feet away from me. Then just gone! He left Tomas, a sleep spell on him. Which means Yuri is with him and asleep. He didn’t block our bond until he was away! Oh gods he must have been planning this!” Sascha sobbed. “I’ll murder you Kazamirov!” Sascha was in a rage.
 
“Sascha! FOCUS! You’ll do her no good in a state!” Van ordered, the most powerful of the family wizards until his son Alexi came of age. His own seventh son.
 
“He’s right Sascha, don’t lose your head! We know the bond between you and Yuri will distort you. Don’t cave in to it; Yuri will need your strength! She’ll suffer when she can’t feel your bond too and she’s not as strong as you. For your lives stay focused!” Sergei pleaded and Sascha nodded, swallowing the bile in his throat.
 
“Empty. I’ve never felt so empty.” Sascha said softly, a hole in his chest where Yuri’s light had always sat since he was six years old.
 
“We know. We’re all coming. We’ll get her back!” Andre said to his beloved brother as they worked until they passed out trying to lift the veil of darkness shrouding Yuri.
 
 
~*~*~*~
 
Yuri awoke and flew into a panic. “Sascha! Sascha!” the hole in her chest a gaping wound. She couldn’t feel her husband’s soul inside anymore; he was utterly gone in her senses! “Tomas! Tomas!” Yuri stumbled out of bed, a rich cabin that was not her own lifting and rising on the waves. A male voice dripped from the shadows.
 
“Please, my beloved lady, calm yourself.”
 
Yuri whipped around and shrank back in fear. “My Son! My Husband! Where am I?” She demanded and Kazamirov swept forward pinning her against the wall.
 
“Home my love. I will pamper you for the rest of your beautiful days. You shall have more sons. I left your first with his father. I would nary kill flesh of your flesh.”
 
“No! Oh gods no! You can’t! Sascha!” Yuri screamed, clutching her shirt at her breast, the pain intense. “I can’t feel him! What have you done?”
 
“You will live, the pain will fade, I have just blocked the connection.”
 
“You can’t! We’ll die! We’re soul bound! Yuri was frantically trying to get away from Edvard who held her fast.
 
“Nay, I have spelled the bond. You will no longer feel it, but it will not kill you my love.”
 
“Stop it! Stop it! Oh gods please I beg you, let me go!”
 
“Nay. Loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you. I will be a good husband to you. I will not beat you if you do as I say. None of my men will dare touch you.”
 
“You’re mad! I am bonded to Sascha!”
 
“And he is not here and will not find you. Come love, you are tired you should rest.” Edvard tried steering her to the bed and she fled to the other side of the room trying to flee and the door was stuck fast.
 
“Don’t touch me!”
 
“I said do as I say! Do not make me angry!” Edvard gripped Yuri’s arm and dragged her back to the bed and threw her in it. Edvard moved to begin undressing and Yuri screamed, trying to scramble away again and only to once more be restrained.
 
“Enough of this. I will have you willing or unwilling.” Edvard crushed his mouth against Yuri’s, swallowing her anguished sobs. His hands ripping off her blouse and skirts as she struggled. He was almost as large as Sascha and Yuri had not the strength to fight against his superior size and power, but she tried, she’d never go willingly, never.
 
He slapped her hard enough to stun her. “See what you make me do woman? Cease this now!” Edvard demanded pinning her hands above her head with one hand and running down her body intimately with the other. “Perfection. And what is this? Aspect spell? You are not a woman naturally. Healer male, transgender.”
 
“Let me go.”
 
“Nay. I see I will have the joys of a male aspect too. I do so enjoy them both. Tell me, do you prefer being loved as a female or a male?”
 
“LET ME GO!”
 
“Female. You wear this aspect permanently by choice. I will love you for now as a female, I will respect your choices beloved.”
 
Yuri sobbed as Edvard stripped her and tied her hands above her head against the headboard to stop her struggling. His hands touching places only Sascha had ever known. Yuri was too devastated in spirit to fight any longer and she whimpered and sobbed as Edvard entered her.
 
“Divine. My golden goddess. Do I please you beloved?” He asked dripping kisses across her breasts as he took her, his manhood burning her as he took her spirit and raped it as he was doing her body. His words a sickening contrasts to his actions as he thrust into her forcibly. Yuri sobbed ragged as Edvard shuddered in his pleasure.
 
“Ah beloved, you are indeed perfection. Tight as a virgin.” Edvard dripped as he rolled off her, patting her belly. “My sons from now on, you belong to me.”
 
Yuri wanted to die. He untied her and she curled up into a weeping fetal position in pain all over. He stroked her hair like a lover whispering words of devotion. She willed with her whole being to change, she’d never carry his children, she’d rather be male again forever than to let her body give life to that monster’s children. But she was not a wizard and only a wizard could change her aspect. So she did what she could and she wept harder with the knowledge that she might never be able to undo what she was about to do. She focused her gift on her womb, severing her ovaries, sealing the tubes from her womb. Cutting off her eggs, fusing the tubes shut. Making herself barren on purpose, praying with her whole being for rescue, “Sascha.” She whispered into pillows as she fainted from terror and exhaustion.
 
~*~*~*
 
For weeks, Edvard paraded her around his men like a prized possession, only the few women on board giving her looks of pity. Yuri was pale as a ghost; she never spoke anything other than the names of her husband and son. A haunted woman, a broken woman. Edvard would dress her in splendor, and she’d glide around on his arm like a wraith. At night they’d hear her sobbing as Edvard took her. She was in hell and Sascha and Tomas were gone.
 
Sascha did not fair much better, He was gaunt with bags under his eyes from sleep deprivation, his bed empty, he couldn’t bear to sleep in it without Yuri. He spent most of his time scrying, desperately seeking her, “the Crimson Lady”, “The Lark”, “The Nightwind” and “the Handmaiden” in formation as they scoured the seas. A fleet of red-sails in search of Yuri. The only thing sustaining Sascha was Tomas. He clutched his son desperately, he cried at night for his mam most. Both of them aching with Yuri’s loss down to their very souls, Sascha a shell of a broken man.
 
“I got you! YOU BASTARD!” Van crowed, at last breaking the veil after weeks of futile efforts. He called his mirror. “EVERYONE, DUE NORTH, THREE DAYS I GOT HIM!”
 
The winds howled as five ships raced to the rescue.
 
“CAPTAIN! FIVE RED-SAILS OFF TO PORT!” the lookout cried and Yuri was on deck and her stupor lifted as she raced to the edge.
 
“SASCHA! SASCHA!” She sobbed seeing the ship named after her racing at top speed toward “the Tempest.”
 
Edvard grabbed her and raced to his cabin, locking her inside then back on deck. “All hands, to arms!” Edvard called out calling up a fog to hide them.
 
“Oh no you don’t!” Sascha spat, dissipating the fog in his fury. It was five angry wizards against one; Sascha would destroy and murder one Edvard Kazamirov today.
 
It was chaos, five ships boxed in “the Tempest” and men fought as Sascha swung over to face down its Captain. He was ablaze with rage. “WHERE IS MY WIFE KAZAMIROV?” Sascha shouted as he cornered the wizard, under attack from four others. Sascha raised his hand and in his hatred, tore apart matter from the weakened wizard.
 
Sascha raced into the hull, killing anyone who tried to stop him. “YURI! YURI!” once Kazamirov was dead, their bond had been restored and he felt Yuri’s frantic need.
 
“SASCHA!” Yuri screamed and the door splintered and Sascha raced inside crushing Yuri in his arms, kissing her face, her hair, clinging to her in desperation before scooping her up and rushing back to “the Golden Sun.”
 
Yuri was shaking as Sascha laid her in their bed, her face lost in sorrow. “Sascha! He…”
 
“He’s dead beloved. I killed him.”
 
“He…”
 
“I know beloved. I know.” Sascha held her against his chest, his heart bleeding. His wife used and soul scarred. “I’m so sorry Love. Forgive me, I should have been able to protect you, I failed you.” He sobbed, blaming himself.
 
“No Sascha, please love no. You could not have known. Oh Sascha, I… I had to.”
 
“Had to what?”
 
“He wanted sons, I Destroyed my womb. Forgive me. Oh please I didn’t know what else to do!” Yuri wept in soul numbing grief.
 
“Beloved. We have Tomas. We have each other. Please dearest, I understand.” Sascha wrapped Yuri’s mind with his power and took the memory of her ordeal from her mind, he saw it all, what she’d done to survive and prevent, what he’d done to her, Sascha viewed the memories with sobs, his beloved was shattered inside.
 
Just then Sonja, Ilya and Anya arrived. Two healers and one mental healer coming to heal the emotional torture as best they could. While Anya was not a complete healer of physical and mental means, like Sonja and Ilya, she was imminently stronger where emotions and mental behavioral patterns were concerned. Because what she lacked in physical she made up for in the psyche. Those were her talents.
 
Before Sascha could bark at them to get out, Ilya held up his hands and his power flooded over them and they sank into immediate sleep.
 
Ilya took his brother and held him in his arms weeping. “Ah gods, what he’s done to you?” Ilya saw it all, just as Sascha had seen. “Sonja, help me. She’s sealed her womb in panic. Help me try to restore it. She’s so strong, she’s hard to undo.”
 
“Aye. Ah gods, Angel what you’ve been through. But smart, we don’t give you enough credit for your inner strength.” Sonja stroked Yuri’s hair; feeding Ilya power as he tried to heal her self imposed sterilization.
 
Anya worked on her son. “He’s lost. The grief is worse now than it was.”
 
“Because he only suspected before. He knows the truth now, he’s had to have seen what he did to her.” Ilya was furious; Edvard’s words of love while forcing her night after night to endure his perverse pleasure in his bed were beyond cruel. His twisted desire and coveting of her beauty had made Yuri hate herself and her face. It was not her fault and it would take a very long time to make her believe it.
 
“He’s heartsick, he feels like he failed her. Ah gods, soul bonds do not deserve the distortion of their love. Neither of them are to blame!” Anya wept as Alexandre, Sergei, Vangel and Andre came.
 
“Can we help?” Van asked and Ilya shook his head where he rocked his brother.
 
“Nay, just pray we can lesson their sorrows. Soul bonds are very hard to handle. What one feels the other augments and vice versa. They will spiral out of control unless we turn it around immediately. Just keep Tomas occupied, he doesn’t understand why he can’t see his Mam or Daa.” Ilya said and Van nodded, if there was one thing he knew, it was children, he did have eight of his own, so he went to get the baby and take him over to play with his own for now.
 
Sergei sighed and collapsed in a chair. “Twenty men, he killed twenty men without batting an eye. The wizard is covering the deck.”
 
“Aye. And you would have too for you wife.” Alexandre said looking at his. “I’d have done the same in his shoes. I did once.”
 
“That was a long time ago Alex.”
 
“Aye. But I still carry it with me, as he will do. As she will.”
 
“Daa? Mam?”
 
“It was before you were born dear. Just before I bonded to your father, I was fourteen and he had just proposed to me. Like Yuri, I was taken. I know what she’s going through.”
 
“Aye. As I know what Sascha is going through, I killed every last one of them, tore them all apart. We’re men like any other, we anger and fear like any man. Our powers make us dangerous and are a cross to bear and a burden on our souls.”
 
“I never knew.” Sergei said and Sonja smiled at her son.
 
“We never told you. Life can be cruel.” Sonja sighed as Ilya’s glow began to fade.
 
“I did the best I could. One side partially open. If she ever can get pregnant again, it will be difficult. It’s possible, but highly unlikely now.” Ilya felt devastated. Yuri so loved being a mother.
 
“There is hope though, before there was none.”
 
“Not much. It would be a miracle.” Ilya laid his brother down and kissed her brow. “Love, you did only what you could, I’d give anything to remove this memory for you.”
 
“So do it.”
 
“We can’t. We can only lesson the emotional attachment to it; we can’t take it away entirely. She’ll not relive it, she will see it rationally now and not have the gutting ache, but she will never forget. Only time will heal the rest. The raw edges of the wounds are healed, but they go very deep.” Ilya said going to change her clothes. “Burn these. They aren’t hers, but what he forced her to wear.” He said tossing the richly brocade dress away and pulling out one of the light nightgowns Yuri had made for herself and dressing her in it before covering her up.
 
Sascha’s slept deeply as Anya leaned back and laid him beside his wife with the help of his father. “He’ll only feed off her now. Like they used to, They’ll have pain, we can’t stop that, but they’ll be able to move forward now. We’re only three days away from Safe Harbor Isle. We should port early. They’ll need time to themselves. I say spell them to sleep until we reach port. They need rest, they’re both weary to the bone.”
 
“I agree. Daa can you spell them both to do nothing more than sleep and eat?”
 
“I can do that. Have food brought in, they’ll wake only long enough to eat and even then it will be like sleepwalking for them. I’ll make it last four days, which will give us time to port and get them settled in their cabin on the beach. Let them awake in surroundings they love.” Alexandre said casting the spell.
 
“I’ll tell Andrik the course.” Sergei said leaving. Ilya followed him.
 
“I’ll keep Tomas until we get there. He can terrorize his cousins for the journey. What’s one more eh? It’s not like I ever get to sleep anymore anyway. Sonja how did you do it?”
 
“They leave home eventually.” She smiled pulling out a blanket. “I’m going to stay here and watch over them. Anya?”
 
“Me too, I can’t in good conscience leave.”
 
“Right, then see you in three days.” Ilya said heading back to his ship while Anya and Sonja settled into their silent Vigil.
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tbc....