Before he could speak, Esylle rushed towards him. “Where is my father?” she demanded.
Joron, who must have been sore from being jolted all night from riding on Terbis’ back, appeared finally, walking gingerly out the brush. He saw Esylle rush to him and embrace him. When they finally sat down, all four kings were here and he didn’t know who would speak first. He wanted to know what had happened that caused her to call for them before she got to Idric. He was under the impression all of the answers about her lie there with Belisarus.
He thought the girl may speak, but Volaris told them everything that happened that led up to her playing the flute. When he brought up Inanos, Fluvis and Terros drew back in fear. Joron didn’t know what the place was because he had never been taught.
“Why should we believe anything that fool says? You know what he did. He took her away from us when she was just a baby and didn’t properly train her. I don’t know what we are supposed to do with a confused girl who doesn’t know how to do what she is supposed to,” Terros snapped.
“You don’t know how I’m supposed to do it either. You just seem convinced that I do. If I died there, maybe there are answers for me. If the tribes stopped going there, the humans probably don’t know about it and we will be safe while you teach me some of the things I am just learning. Maybe you have no reason to fear going there. Before I left, I was raised to fear both you and humans. You don’t want to hurt me and these four humans want to help.”
“There’s an entire army of humans headed this way who want you dead,” Terros snapped.
“I’m only saying that sometimes, we may be raised to fear things and they are not as bad as we thought. He wouldn’t have mentioned that place to me if I would be hurt there.”
“That place is cursed,” Fluvis spit. “You died there. Does that not speak to you that you shouldn’t go back there?”
“Then tell me where it is. I’ll fly over and make sure it’s not dangerous and come back.”
Terros could see why he kept hearing she risked herself. She couldn’t be left alone to fly to Inanos.
“You’re a child and you don’t know what you are talking about,” he snapped at her.
He saw a small flame start to dance in her eyes. “Am I a child or am I here to save you? You say I’m here to bring peace, then listen to me! You didn’t know who I was until I exposed myself. If I hadn’t agreed to leave, you never would have found out about me. There’s something in Inanos that is important to who I am and we need to go there.”
He was about to lose his temper with the girl when Oris put his hand on his father’s shoulder. “She’s right,” Oris told him. “If she doesn’t know who she is, there could be answers for her there. I thought she was a myth until I met her in person. Maybe we shouldn’t be afraid of Inanos like we’ve always been taught. If she wants to go before us and make sure it’s not dangerous, then she can go as a Theran and I’ll go with her.”
Terros noticed the look Sono and Neptis were giving Oris when he suggested this and hoped there would not be fighting when it came time to choose a husband for this girl. He sighed and gave up. “Both of you are too important to risk yourselves going there. If she thinks it’s important, we will go if that is right with everyone.” Volaris already thought they should go and he saw Fluvis reluctantly agree.
“I have an entire tribe, as does Volaris, who wants to meet you. I didn’t want to frighten you all at once. Can I call them out? I know they are anxiously waiting,” Terros told her.
The girl nodded and he went to get his tribes members while Volaris went to speak to his own.
Joron
Joron had overheard everything and not spoken, even though he wanted to. While they were talking, he let the blue slip out of his eyes and knew he would stop using herbs in his hair. Esylle had stopped using them on the trip and her hair was almost all the way red again. The girl could just think hers black. He wondered why Belisarus never taught Esylle that trick.
He didn’t know why this Inanos frightened everyone so badly. So much of the tribe’s history was lost to the Tempris because it ceased to be taught to them after the wars. It had been so long since the wars, he really knew nothing about it and Belisarus never brought it up, to neither Joron nor Esylle. When Terros, Volaris, and Fluvis went to get their people, he finally turned to the girl. The revelation that Belisarus had her this entire time and was her grandfather finally hit him.
“Lisana?” he said to her after the kings had left. He moved to embrace her, but she danced away.
“I don’t know that name. I don’t know you. He never treated me like he was my family. I don’t know what it’s like to have a mother, nor a grandfather,” the girl said, looking uncomfortable.
“I will call you by the name you know, but forgive me if I slip and call you by your real name. I know this is all too much for someone so young to handle, but I hope you take the time to get to know both me and your mother. While you learn what it is you are supposed to do, we can teach you what it is like to have family,” he said, gently.
He really knew nothing about this girl other than what he had been told so far. He knew she was somehow special to the tribes and what they thought she was here to do. Looking at this small girl who seemed confused and uncomfortable at the idea of meeting her family, he still didn’t see how she was supposed to defeat an entire army or if they expected her to do it alone.
He meant to try to talk to her again to get to know her and make her more at ease around him, but he noticed that the Farkhi prince, the Tark prince, and Oris all surrounded her and seemed to try to compete for her attention. Based on the look on her face, which was the same look Esylle had when something confused her, she didn’t seem to understand why they all wanted her attention. Joron understood immediately. This girl really took the best qualities from both Esylle and Rivannus. If she hadn’t been taken, she would be married now and the sons of the Lords her age would have been trying everything to win her favor.
Esylle was by his arm and whispered in his ear. “It’s escalated now from just warning looks to each other. She doesn’t understand what it means because she was never allowed to talk to anyone.”
“Has anyone attempted to explain it to her? You know what they want.”
He listened as Esylle told him Leodos sent her away because she was experiencing things Tempris didn’t. Joron was also angry at first that Volaris laid with her like he was her husband. Esylle explained to him that she didn’t like it either, but had come to accept that he had helped her. Esylle explained that she had lain with Volaris, but only out of instinct and she still didn’t understand what the three princes were feeling towards her. Esylle said she would try to get her alone and explain it to her.
Joron and Esylle’s conversation was interrupted as Oris shoved Sono and they looked like they were about to come to blows. Sono rushed at Oris, but before they could fight, they were all of a sudden both suspended in the air, as if sitting on a cloud. He realized the girl had somehow done it.
“What in flaming hell are you doing? You all start talking to me at once and now you’re fighting? You only want to talk to me because of who you think I am! If you can’t talk to me without fighting and you can’t treat me like a regular person, then don’t talk to me again!” she snapped, stalking off.
Esylle went after her and both Oris and Sono fell out of the air as soon as the clearing began to swarm with both Theran and Farkhi. The Tarks slowly started peeking their heads out the brush like they finally wanted to come out. He saw all of them looking around trying to find her. Both Volaris and Terros stormed back over to the clearing and both started talking at once. Volaris wanted to know what upset her this time and Terros was upset thinking she had left for Inanos against their wishes.
“Talk to your sons,” Joron told both of them. “They started fighting over her and she doesn’t know what it means. She thinks they were fighting over her because of who she is, but we both know what they want. Esylle left to
talk to her.”
Joron watched as Terros and Volaris pulled their sons aside and started yelling. He only hoped Esylle was able to explain this to her and she would listen, since she was still uncomfortable around her, despite all their days of traveling together.
Esylle
Esylle followed the girl when she stormed off and only hoped she could catch her before she transformed into something again. Frog told them she ran when she was upset and the night Esylle suggested she be her heir, she watched her turn into a large black cat before she disappeared until morning. Esylle was able to catch up with her a little further into the wood as she was angrily slapping branches away from her face.
“Wait!” she called, relieved when the girl stopped and turned around.
“I just want to be alone right now.”
“You’re going to have to get used to the fact that you’re not going to be alone anymore now that you’re here. I don’t think any of them is going to let you risk yourself and disappear again. I don’t want you disappearing again.”
“They only care about me because of who I am to them. I’m still a regular girl, no matter what I can do and what I’m supposed to do. I don’t want people fighting to talk to me when all they care about is what I am to them.”
Esylle had trouble not calling her by her real name. “Soryn, sit down so I can explain some things to you,” she said, relieved when the girl sat, but still looked angry. “I was upset when Volaris laid with you, but did you learn nothing from that?”
“I didn’t like the way I felt and he made it go away. I wasn’t expecting to like it, but it felt good.”
“Soryn,” she said, hesitating. “The way you felt that day and what you wanted to do, they were fighting because they want to do that with you. You’re of the age that you would marry in the tribes and all three princes want to be the one that marries you.”
“They don’t want to marry me because I’m me. They want to marry me because of who I am to them. Only Sono talks to me like I’m a regular person!”
“Soryn, I realize you didn’t grow up around people and no one probably told you this, but you’re a very beautiful girl. The parts of you that don’t look like me look like your father and your father was one of the most handsome men I had ever met. They aren’t just fighting over you because of who you are to them. I thought you said Belisarus told you stories?”
“He did, but he never said anything about what I looked like. He was my teacher, so I never asked. Frog’s opinion doesn’t mean anything. He likes everything about me because of what I did to him.”
The girl looked like she was trying to process what Esylle just told her and she wasn’t arguing with her this time. “Did you not look at paintings and then look in the mirror?” Esylle asked.
“There were no paintings in our house. The only drawings he showed me were for learning. There was only one mirror in the house and he used it for shaving.”
“You never thought about it growing up?”
“The only time I’ve thought about what I looked like was when I wanted to mate and Leodos pushed me away. I thought he did because I wasn’t pretty like you.”
The girl was embarrassed now and not looking at her, but Esylle was relieved she was finally talking to her. “He didn’t push you away because you’re not pretty. He pushed you away because you are too young and because of who he suspected you were.”
Soryn finally looked at her. “He kissed me back at first, then told me no. He only did because I look like you, then he pushed me away because I’m not you. He looks at you and protects you like the men in the stories he used to read me.”
“Leodos is an honorable man, but he doesn’t feel that way about me. How can you see he feels that way when you don’t understand why those boys were fighting over you?”
“How can you see that they are fighting over me because they like how I look and not how Leodos looks at you when he thinks you’re not looking? I still think they only fight over me because of who I am to them, no matter what you think about what I look like.”
“Leodos has known me since I was a child. How do you think you know what his looks mean but don’t see how they look at you? Even Frog knows what their looks mean and he’s only been a man for a few years. Have you not noticed how he places himself between you and Sono when he tries to be near you?”
“Frog is just jealous. It was just him and me for the longest time and now I have other people who want to talk to me.”
“You’re as stubborn as your father was,” Esylle said, putting her hand on her head. She didn’t know how she would react, but she didn’t push her away when she was tired. “Trying to convince either of you of something you don’t want to believe is impossible.”
Esylle thought the girl was going to argue. “What was he like? If he knew what I was, why didn’t he tell you? If I needed protecting so badly I was taken in the middle of the night, why didn’t he tell you so you could help? Why didn’t he tell you what he was?”
Esylle knew she needed to be getting the girl back to the camp because everyone was there to meet her, but she was finally relaxing around her and asking questions about her past and she didn’t know if she would ask again.
“I’ve never met anyone like your father. He was such a good hunter, but he was also very gentle. He didn’t like hurting people like you don’t want to hurt anyone. I don’t know why he kept his secret from me other than the same reason you initially refused to come here. He was frightened someone else would find out and kill him and he knew what that would do to me. When he left to find you, I don’t think he expected to be hurt. Belisarus only told me he died while looking, not how. I never wanted to admit he wasn’t back because something had happened to him. I always told myself he was still out there trying to find you. I had no way of knowing someone I had trusted and learned from for so many years had taken you and I never knew he became part of my family when I married your father.”
“I understand how I am some of the way I am because of who he was and who you are. I don’t understand everything else about who I’m supposed to be. Belisarus told me it’s all true, so it must be, but I still don’t know how I’m supposed to do what they think I’m here to do.”
“I would have preferred you just be my daughter instead of this Spirus they say you are. I worry something will happen to you while you are doing what they say you are meant for that you can’t heal from.”
The girl looked at her sadly. “I don’t know what is supposed to happen to me after this.”
Esylle wanted to sit with her longer and keep her talking since she seemed to be relaxing around her. But she could hear the clamor coming from the clearing and she knew she couldn’t keep the girl away from those who had been waiting so long to meet her. She buried her thoughts she thought it was unfair that she finally found her after nineteen years and she wasn’t a normal Tempris girl like she had always thought. She had no idea how she had managed to give birth to such a special girl. She told Soryn they needed to get back because everyone was waiting for her. She also didn’t know if she should bring up to Leodos what the girl thought she was seeing when he looked at her.
Soryn
Soryn saw both Sono and Oris look surprised when she lifted them off the ground to keep them from fighting. She knew they didn’t know how she did it, but she discovered at a young age, playing by herself, that she could lift things with a little heat. She hoped their burning backsides made them get over themselves.
Esylle was bringing her back to where everyone was waiting for her. This was the first time she had talked to Esylle and was actually able to relax around her. Esylle still stared at her, but she knew it was because she wanted her to accept who she was and let her be a part of her life. Soryn still didn’t know what that kind of relationship was supposed to be like, but it seemed easy to sit there and chat with her this time. Maybe getting to know her wouldn’t be as difficult as Soryn thought.
Her nose was overwhelmed the close
r they got to the clearing. There were so many people there. When she got close enough to see out of the brush, she could see the Tarks had come out the bushes, all of the Theran were there, and the Farkhi were all spilling into the small clearing. She could see Sono and Oris sitting away from everyone with their fathers and they both looked angry.
She didn’t know what was said to them after she left. She was still confused and didn’t know if she believed Esylle that they were fighting over her because they thought she was beautiful and wanted to marry her or if they only really wanted to marry her because of who she was to them. She didn’t know they were fighting over marriage at all. She never thought about getting married because it always seemed impossible. She was never supposed to show herself to anyone and she always assumed she would stay in Idric, hiding herself, and it would just be something that never happened to her
She was surprised when Sono told her she was beautiful and was bending down to kiss her, that she wanted to mate again. It didn’t feel like it had before, where she felt like she might explode if it didn’t happen. It just felt like she might want to experience it again. Volaris told her she would only experience that once a year from now on. She didn’t know how much of that applied to her because while she was like the tribe members in many ways, she was also Tempris and Esylle’s daughter. Esylle had human blood in her. Soryn was like everyone she had met so far, but also different.
“You need to go out and let them see you. You know they’ve been waiting and I’ve seen how they’ve reacted to you so far,” Esylle told her gently when she hesitated before walking out.
The Spirus Page 15
