Despite his worries, he enjoyed the trip. The Smiling River was exactly that, a nice gentle stream that ranged from a dozen meters to a half kilometer wide at times but had a gentle current that could be fought with ease and still make headway. When the river narrowed, there were some rapids that needed to be portaged but he marked them for future bypass construction and continued on. Food was easy for Jason was an adequate hunter even here where the game was far scarcer than in other countries. And there was fish and crayfish to catch and plenty of fruits and tubers around so he was never hungry. And so the days drifted with evenings around the campfire reading and watching the stars. When he found an overhang, he’d modify it a bit for a rest-stop and carve his name into the wall as a sort of hotel registry. If not, he’d make a lean-to and roof and fire-pit for the next travelers. So with his explorations and mapping, the trip was relaxing though he missed Diane and his kids, probably more than they missed him.
***
Jason was in the river, a rope tied to him in case he was swept away and checking some gentle rapids for depth when someone rode up calling for the man. So with the horse pulling the rope, he reached the shore easily and demanded, “What’s wrong?” Jason always had images of the house being attacked or Cassie breaking a leg or hip while climbing a tree and with an open StarGate nearby, invasion or assassination was always possible.
“Diane sent me to tell you that you have a visitor, a woman from your past. She says all is well but please cut your trip short and return home.”
“Are you certain that everything is fine?” Images of a trap flooded his mind.
“Yes, My Lord! I saw her myself. An older woman in pants and vest but carrying a sword. She was alone and gave her weapons to Diane who was accompanied by two archers. They went to see Magda, the Gypsy then to your home. It was obvious that Diane was in charge and no one had any fear at all. When I left the woman was asleep on your porch and there were archers nearby but Diane left and seemed to be safe and concerned but not in fear or danger.”
This was interesting. Jason didn’t have many women in his past but why would any come here? If there was any possible danger, Diane would have remained with the girls and not left them no matter how many guards she set. The sword didn’t bother him for she could be an Amazon or one of those rare female Adventurers or even a woman he had trained as he did Diane and Fiona. And the fact that she disarmed herself probably meant a peaceful visit though Magda would have been used to seek the truth. Since Diane had left her alone which meant that she was satisfied with the interview under one of Magda’s truth potions or spells. The guards were simply a precaution to make me feel better. Jason decided then, he did spend too much time thinking before he acted, to return to the house to see this visitor. If Diane thinks she’s important enough to see, then he should also.
Since his gear was already packed, return was simply a matter of mounting the horses and returning at a decent but not exhausting clip, leaving the canoe behind. A day, maybe two to get back though if he killed the horses, he could return in a few hours.
It was dark when they reached the crater of an extinct volcano that Jason had chosen as a safe place and had a secret entrance dug and supplies and weapons hidden away. There was no evidence of entry so none of the girls had felt the need to run and hide and this was a good sign. They camped in the shadow of the crater and Jason idly wondered if it would be possible to climb that thing here. It had taken a week of searching to find a climbable area and only the Don’s climbing abilities had made it to the summit. Well, he enjoyed climbing but perhaps another time. All those youth potions he found over the decades gave him ample time to do what he wished without being rushed like a Dayfly.
They reached the house around noon and Jason forced himself to arrive at a walk. He carried no swords but his hunting bow and knife were ready just in case, but Cassie saw him and came to meet her father, calling for her sister.
“Father, you have a lot of explaining to do. So be nice to our guest. Here, dismount and give me your weapons, I know how excitable you are.”
It was hard to tell but he couldn’t see any signs of stress to indicate danger so did as she bade though he wasn’t happy about that. The sight of his porch froze him for a moment, Lyssandra! She was sitting there drinking lemonade with Donna and Diane and chatting in English as if this were a normal day in Arabel. She looked up, saw her former husbband and froze. Jason was about to charge her, to beat the shit out of her but Cas grabbed him and he forced himself to calm down then turned and strode to the beach. She let him go.
Jason just stood in the water, fighting the waves, struggling to stand as the adrenaline slowly drained when he heard Diane next to him. She didn’t fight the water, she rose and fell with it as she said, “I know you and she have issues. Hell Jason, you have issues with every woman you ever knew, me included. But as you always said, ‘_Rashomon_ proves that for every issue there are three sides, yours, hers and the truth.’ I’ve heard yours often enough and these last few days I heard hers. So now we need to find the truth. Aside from her past and her obvious sexual desire for me she is a really nice woman. And she still loves you and even Cass and Donna are thinking of allowing her to move in. These kids of yours are so damn accommodating at times. But Magda says that she isn’t dangerous and she does have a story that you need to hear so stop being a baby, come out of the water and listen to her without yelling.”
“I yelled enough at her in Immersea. All I can do now is to repeat my anger. Don’t let me do that please. Where’s Felix?” He was crushed. A century ago they were lovers and he loved her enough to forget her past. Then…
“For her it has only been a year. She never ran off with Felix, she ran after him, chased him for a year to kill him, always expecting you to catch up with her. When you never came, she thought you had abandoned her. Magda says that this is the truth. You wronged her, Jason. But then, you always were stupid enough around women to totally misconstrue us. That’s why we fought so much, you never understood me or why we divorced. But Lyssandra needs your help now to kill Felix and stop a war. It took a lot for her to swallow what pride she had and come here to beg you for help. I understand because it took me just as much courage to come back to you to ask you to help me save Fi and Slezdi.”
When they turned, he saw Cassie standing with her but didn’t know if it was to keep them apart or to give her support. Jason never knew with her, his younger daughter was so much like him and yet so different. She was jealous of Diane and their past but loved the woman anyway, always wishing they would re-marry. She knew that Jason and Diane still loved each other and knew that they forced themselves to be only friends, more difficult now that Diane was seriously dating someone in America.
“Di, I never had closure with her. We never really resolved our problems. I had that with you so we could move on and be friends but I don’t have that with her. I am back in that tavern in Immersea watching her run away with Felix. I had to track Chrysiese down to her home planet and it took me years to find her to get closure from her. This is not going to be pleasant.”
She took his hand and pulled him from the ocean. “You aren’t as weak as you think you are. Think of it, your experiences with women may be rare but if I can love you and Fi and Slezdi and I can be friends, then you can do this.”
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MEDITATIONS
Lyssandra thought that this place was nice. Much nicer than Arabel which Jason loved. They had started the morning on the beach, collecting shells and watching the crabs and birds and tasting the sea. The Sea! Larger than any lake in Kosovo and this was only a bay and filled with salt! Back in Arabel salt was so expensive many people were paid a part of their wages in salt.
And the people too. There were so few of them and yet so different. In Kosovo when you asked what race a person was, you meant were they Serb, Slav, Greek or Turk. Here you meant black or white
or brown, human or alien or Minotaur or Amazon. And somehow Jason kept them all living together in peace. He was always like that. Even being Boyer, a Noble himself, he insisted that men and women, Christian and Mohammadan and Witch all be treated the same, which to him meant respect their differences and be nice to each other. Here she saw no poverty, no crime and no one needed to wear weapons. Some did so out of habit but no one sat against a wall or hid in alleys or treated a lone woman as a whore. Back home both Cassie and Donna would have been chained in the village square to be laughed at and pelted with rotten fruit for their dress, but here, they were treated as Nobles themselves.
People were so open and accepting. She had always had to hide her bi-sexuality but she saw Amazons walking and kissing in public and no one cared. Jason even had a Stone Circle and woe be to the people who sought to harm a Witch here. Those heads on the beach showed how adamant Jason was about keeping the peace. In Kosovo, he had even hanged one of his own men for raping a Mohammadan girl after they captured her town. He said that he’d done it to keep the peace and he did keep the peace. Both sides, Christian and Mohammadan, Serb and Turk feared him but they all respected his integrity and the Mohammadans would often negotiate with the King only through Jason.
It was obvious that Diane still loved Jason and Lyssandra wondered if… Diane ignored her flirtations, Cassie and Donna found them curious and interesting and teased Diane about her though Cassie, the youngest was jealous of Lyssandra. Jason did enjoy watching two women together so she had a chance there though she had to force herself to remember that Diane was an ex-wife, much like herself.
When it got hot, they moved to the porch, poured iced lemonade and scattered seeds for the birds to eat as they talked about everything, including Jason. They all had stories. Diane had been married to him for years as an adventurer and caravan guard and even a gladiator but not really a soldier. Lyssandra had spent her seven years with Jason as a soldier fighting Turks, bandits and Greeks and even vampires but they had never left Southeast Europe. Diane and he had gone everywhere it seemed looking for excitement. Cassie and Donna seemed content to just listen to the stories that their father had never told.
Despite this, Lyssandra had only two questions that mattered, would Jason help her find and kill Felix and keep Merrick dead and would Jason take her back and if so, how would they manage with this family?
***
Diane found herself liking Lyssandra. She had known a few prostitutes in her day in Chicago and the Middle-East and almost every one was acting to get a bigger tip from their johns. But after a few days, she realized that Lyssandra wasn’t acting. She did love Jason. She did hate Felix. She was sorry for her past indiscretions and wanted to make it up and she did want Jason to take her back.
It was Lyssandra’s life that interested her more. It wasn’t strange that Jason would allow women into his Mercenary Company or that he took in Moslems and anyone else who wanted to join and could fight. He always was on the forefront of equal rights for anyone regardless of sex, race, religion, sexual orientation or even species despite his occasional sexist and racist remarks. It never occurred to him that one sex or race or religion was somehow lesser and the idea of women or Indians or blacks in America being forced to fight for the right to vote was totally incomprehensible to him. So here was a woman who was a soldier under him for almost seven years, yet, they never adventured. Lyssandra’s life with Jason was so similar but so different from his life with Diane. And looking at her growing up a repressed minority, used and abused by everyone it was no wonder she distrusted him. Even now, Fi sometime mistrusted Jason and they’d been companions and lovers too. There was a lot of baggage for them to work out and a lot of potential danger, emotional danger, for Jason and his ex-wives. And despite her liking Lyssandra, Cassie and Donna were family! Hell, she was once married to Jason and Cassie treated her like the mother she wanted and never had.
Though if Jason had trained her, and she was still alive, then she would be good with that sword and knife and even unarmed and Diane wasn’t looking forward to having to face her with a blade.
***
Cassie saw in this new woman a potential danger. She had been married to her father for seven years, years that Cas never even suspected. They shared war together and that made a tie that was almost impossible to break. Even now, her father and Fiona and Diane had that war-buddy bond and the jokes that no one understood but them. At least he never had children by this Lyssandra.
But this woman wanted her father back. And a woman with that on her mind was the most dangerous animal ever. Also dad loved sex and here was a woman whose experiences would give her father everything he wanted in bed and companionship in the battlefield and more. True, she was much older than Diane’s age and her body wasn’t as firm as her father preferred, but men were men.
Her past saddened the girl. She had never really known love before Jason. She had hundreds, thousands of lovers which was totally unimaginable, even in the time Cassie grew up, but only one real love who loved her back. If Cassie had suffered that life, she’d have tossed herself off a tall building, three children lost, two dead and one taken from her. It made Cassie glad that she had decided to never have children.
Damn! It would be easier to hate her if she weren’t so lovable. She knew how to make people like her and although Diane cautioned them that it was a learned act, still it worked. What if dad forgave her? He would because he was that kind of man, a man who would forgive the worst crimes if there was even a spark of love between them. He had proven that when he married their mother who had cheated on him often. He had proven that when her mother admitted that Jason wasn’t Cassie’s father (though to be honest, no one believed that and dad said that a father was who raised you, not who donated the DNA) and he could easily prove that with this woman. But, could she allow this woman into her hone? It was easy with Diane for they had been friends for years before so this was just another aspect of friendship. As a good daughter, though, if her father told her that Lyssandra would be moving in, she and Donna would either accept it or move out.
But, she had to admit, having another mother would make things easier. She was so tired with her father always complaining about Cassie’s messiness and the household. Another woman to take over those duties would be a nice change and Donna could use more help cleaning. And her father never liked having servant’s underfoot so the maids only arrived when they were needed, not when they were wanted.
This was definitely going to be difficult but then, fortunately, Jason came from a nation where men ruled the family but women the house so he would accept whatever decision the women made regarding Lyssandra. It would be hard to give up being the woman of the house but she had better start to pretend it was a good idea so if it happened, she’d be prepared. The thought of moving out and living on her own never occurred to her.
***
Donna found the new woman to be tragic but fascinating. But then, she had seen so much in her life even though she had never really left her own country. Jason had trained Lyssandra to be a warrior in the same way he trained Diane and Fiona to be Adventurers. But with that skill, came horror. The horrors of seeing your children die, of being raped over and over, of always being armed for fear of robbery or rape or kidnapping, of wondering if you will eat that day.
The woman made it clear that she wanted to be married to Jason again and she also made it plain that she wished to bed Diane as well. Donna had gay friends but it was different when your father and ‘step-mom’ were doing the deed.
Donna knew that her father and Lysssandra would go off to adventure and kill this Felix and once away, she’d try very hard to bed her father and Jason, no matter how much he loved Diane, was still a male which meant he’d rut with anything with a hole. She loved her father desperately but had no illusions about him.
The question was then, would he return to them or run away with her? Since
both Cassie and Donna were adults, he’d be under no legal obligation to continue to raise and support them. Or would he bring her back and expect the two girls to accept her as their mother? He wouldn’t insist or even ask but he’d be insufferable until his daughters suggested what he had already decided he wanted.
Maybe it would be better if Felix killed Lyssandra during the adventure. No, Jason never let anything happen to any of his family or friends and he wouldn’t let Lyssandra die either. So she and Cassie had better start getting used to another woman under their roof. At least there were advantages. Lyssandra was too old to have any more babies so Cass wouldn’t have to feel neglected if she got pregnant. Or pack her things and move back to the States.
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REVELATIONS AND PLANS
Ok, time to get down to business. What is really going on here? Jason didn’t trust Lys. Despite what Diane said, she does have a history of deceit and Felix may be hiding in the trees so he needed to be careful and observant.
When they reached the porch, Lys stood but had that look so he waved her down, “Wait!” and entered the house. he wasn’t ready yet to face her. He grabbed his broadsword, the one he had inherited with his title in Ireland, the one he had carried across Europe including those seven years in Kosovo, the one that had killed so many men that he had lost count. he also grabbed a bottle of wine, then a second, he figured he’d need it. Lys could drink a company under the table, Jason was a lightweight but the alcohol would relax him.
When he returned, he placed his chair against the wall and sat with sword in lap and after talking a long drink, probably too much too fast, looked at her and said, “Begin.”
Lyssandra & The Return of Lyssandra Page 10
