Little Indians
Chapter 21 – Helen Discovers
The Andersens had turned up at Helen’s door, somewhat unexpectedly, a few weeks ago. Helen had already fallen in love with them all.
The three had been solicitous of her, and encouraged her to talk. They wanted to hear everything about her family and her friends, and were especially interested in those she knew in Gynt: her sister, Magda, her talented niece and nephew, Dee and Penn, and Gynt’s healer, and teacher, Jennifer and Tsanja Beale.
Pamela was sitting at the kitchen table as Helen arrived home from her research at the Archives. She had some documents in her hand, and was obviously excited, and she kissed Pamela on the cheek with some familiarity, and hurriedly.
Penn saw this tableau, as if through Helen’s eyes, and felt it, as if in Helen’s skin, and heard her talk,
“Pamela, I know you’ve been badgering at me for weeks now, but I have finally found it. I have found what you seek. You and Poe were right all along.”
Pamela smiled, and reached up to Helen, and kissed her in return, waiting for Helen to continue.
“My sister’s children, Penn and Dee, are indeed very special. They are both the direct descendants of the King.”
Helen proudly placed one of the documents, a family register, in front of Pamela. When the Sisters of the Trinity had overthrown the monarchy two hundred years ago, the King’s family had been scattered, the throne abandoned, but the Sisters conscientiously maintained records of all who had lived in the land.
“Penn’s father, and Penn, are the only living descendants of King Pendragon through the male line. Penn’s father is married, so, obviously, he is no longer capable of taking the crown. If the Monarchy were still in existence, Pendragon Fillis would be king, and Deepankar Fillis would be a Princess.”
Pamela nodded, and smiled,
“Yes, I suspected as much.”
Helen continued, excited to show her other findings.
“I have also found James Beale. He is descended from the first Holy Sister, Mary, in Solveig.”
“The Sisters of the Trinity must remain virgins while they serve, but they are released from their vows at forty years of age. Mary had three children, late in life, with her husband, Henry Beale.”
Helen placed another register in front of Pamela.
“As Henry Beale’s direct descendent, Tsanja Beale would have the greatest claim of anyone alive today of taking up a high-ranking position in the Church. As Jennifer Beale’s daughter, she is also a direct descendent of the first Healer in the land.”
Pamela looked very pleased.
“Helen, thank you so much. You know, my mother always suspected that your sister’s village was special, that Gynt had more than its fair share of important personages. I would very much like to meet your sister, and your nephew, and your niece, and I have already been in contact with Mrs Beale. She has graciously invited us to stay with her. You might like to come with us, and pay your sister a visit, if you have some time.”
Helen pulled out a third sheet, and looked a little uncertain.
“Pamela, I have also done a little more digging, and I have gone a little beyond what you asked me to find. However, I cannot make head nor tail of it.”
“Pamela, you told me that you had been born here in Toridé, is that right?”
Pamela answered, very carefully,
“Yes, Helen, but as I have told you before, we have been travelling, for Madeleine’s education. We have not lived here for some years now.”
Helen laid the sheet down in front of Pamela.
“Pamela Andersen. A very prestigious family register, with many great figures in her past. She was born years before the Monarchy fell, years before the Sisters of the Trinity took control of the land. Pamela, your namesake was born in Toridé more than two hundred years ago, and her mother, Palomina Gustafsen, was healer to the King, and one of his favourites.
“There is no record of their deaths, and no record of what became of them after leaving Toridé. It is as if they simply disappeared from the land.”
Pamela smiled.
“This is a wonderful coincidence, Helen. Who would have known that a mother and a daughter lived such a long time ago, and had such similar names to me and Poe?”
Helen sat down next to Pamela, and held her hand.
“Oh, Pamela, you must explain. You must help me. There was no record of anyone born with your names since then, and, as you know, in Toridé especially, the Church is scrupulous about such documentation.
“Pamela, what are you doing? You have taken these names for yourself, but to what advantage? These women are long dead. They must have had influence in their time, but who remembers them now? Why would you do such a thing? Who are you, really?”
Pamela looked on Helen as she would a child.
“Helen, all will become clear to you.
“Firstly, Helen, thank you so much. You have excelled yourself. We would never have been capable of finding these proofs without your help, and the documentation you have found is perfect for our purposes.
“If the Church were to fall, then your family would have an admirable claim to restore the monarchy.”
Helen replied quietly,
“That is sedition. Your lives would be forfeit if the Church were to discover your plans.”
Pamela made the sign of the Trinity over her chest, and continued with the familiar slogan,
“Do not misunderstand me. We are not royalists. In any case, it is of course not possible. The King is gone. The Church will endure for ten thousand years.”
Helen detected more than a hint of disrespect, and looked a little exasperated. Why were these women using her so? She had come to love them all, with all her heart, in the weeks they had stayed with her, but what was the meaning of this gross deception? Who were they, and what did they want with her, and her family?
“Helen, it would be better if you were not to know this, but Pamela Andersen is my name, and Palomina is my mother, and we are the self same women as you found in your registers. Oh, Helen, I did so wish to take you with me, to love you, to help you find a good husband, to take care of you, to be healer to your children.
“But that, Helen, that is no longer possible.
“My name is Pamela Andersen, and I have been waiting, for so long, to find a mate for my smart, beautiful, talented daughter. Madeleine, at least, is innocent in all of this. She knows nothing of the intriguing route her life has taken. I love you, Helen, and I know that when I meet them I will love all of your family. Remember this, Helen, no matter what may come, remember that I love you, and yours, with all my heart.
“You may see our purpose as mercenary, as shallow, but that is far from the case. Our reasons are selfless, and I hope that you will see that in the fullness of time.
Pamela walked up to Helen’s bookshelves, and pulled out a copy of “Debauchery and Debasement in the court of King Pendragon VI”, the standard text referred to in matters concerning the final Monarchy. She knew the work well, and flicked to the section containing a page describing every member of the Court.
She put it in front of Helen, with her finger on an engraving of Palomina Gustafsen, Healer to the King, wife to the King’s Astrologer.
It was Poe.
She looked a little younger in the engraving, but nobody could mistake those mischievous eyes, those fine cheekbones.
“I was sixteen when this portrait was taken of my mother. Oh, the rich life I could have lived if the Sisters had not used their virgin magic to overwhelm the King, to take control of the Land, to enslave all Men! Sister Mary understood the role of the Healers in the land, and left them be, but Sister Hypatia from Solveig now wants to cast them out into the darkness. Helen, I must stop her, and your family is important to this task.”
Helen looked at Pamela with awe. She had thought that she knew what kind of magic existed throughout the land, but she had never seen anything like this. How had Pamela and her family avoided the ravages of time? Had she spent the years travelling, or had she simply been asleep for two centuries? Why would the Church challenge the Healers? The whole thing seemed nonsense, but, Helen could not deny the evidence, and it was the kind of nonsense that might turn out to be true.
Pamela held Helen’s face in her hands, and held her gaze steady. Oh, how Helen loved Pamela, and how beautiful were her features.
Pamela kissed Helen then, and, with some strength, raised her by the hips, and sat her on her lap. Helen felt the familiar heat between Pamela’s legs, and was falling once again into lust for this miraculous woman.
And, a dangerous woman. She had waited almost two hundred years to find her seditious proofs. Why did she want to know? Would she use them in an attempt to restore the monarchy? What would she do to ensure that her plans remained secret from the Sisters? What would she not?
Pamela reached between them, and, lifting Helen again, smoothed their skirts out of the way.
How many evenings of pleasure had started like this?
Helen’s thighs felt the cool skin of Pamela’s, and, in between her legs was that strange, fierce pleasure that could not be touched.
“I’m sorry, Helen, that you have discovered so much, that you have been so competent at the task we set you. I suppose you are lucky to find your end now.
“Helen, please, trust me.
“Untie my charm, free my flesh. Then you will understand, you will know all of my mysteries, you will feel all the pleasure that I have in store for you. Until you untie me, you will not understand.”
Helen knew the pleasure of her times with Pamela in bed at night, and she could only guess at its final completion, its ultimate fulfilment. Oh, how she wanted it, she wanted to give herself to it, body and soul.
But it was not mere pleasure for which Helen would untie the choker.
Helen wanted to see how this mystery ended. It was the secret knowledge which tempted her, wanting to know more of this remarkable woman, wanting to understand how she had lived for so long, wanted to know what she planned for her nephew and niece, and, she guessed, for all the land.
She reached behind Pamela’s head, and removed her choker charm.
Helen felt Pamela’s protection fade away, and the demon flesh crept between her legs.
Penn and Helen would both learn now. He looked on, and would soon know what it was like to be taken by the demon.
All cried in ecstasy and pleasure as Helen learned the truth, as Penn learned the truth, and Lilith did her work. Helen’s time as mistress of her own body was at an end.