“Sorry I couldn’t stop him in time, Tad.” His low voice was sincere. “Ye always did yer best fer us, fer us all. Even me.”
A warm hand cradled his head and he looked up into the pale face of Alexandra. For some reason, instead of getting dark it was getting light, and the vast bulk of the crowd was edging away. Hedric looked up, and smiled. “Hello, ladies.”
Selene’s voice wasn’t loud, but it WAS stern, and it commanded attention. “I am the Goddess Selene, and this is my sister, the Goddess Rhiannon. The man lying at your feet, struck down by that idiot Gralt, is our Agent among you. A troubleshooter, if you will. He assists where we can’t always. He takes the risks, and sometimes we have to step in and help. You know him as Tad Swimming. He could be home, living in a castle, with servants, but he is here, lying in the dirt, spilling out his life for you. I have claimed him and he is mine.” Her glare swept the crowd and there wasn’t a single person who didn’t step back. Some just started running. “I am displeased with you.” The voice echoed across the still water. She shot a quick glance at her sister. “My sister is displeased with you. I am taking this man that I have claimed.” She made a quick motion to Lexi. “And this woman I have also claimed. We are returning to Medin. Pray I can heal Hedric, for if I cannot I will return—and my wrath will be dreadful.” Hedric touched Selene’s sleeve, and nodded. Selene smiled; John Tilbet looked shocked in that last second before he too disappeared.
“This is getting to be a habit, Hedric.” The voice in the air said dryly. Hedric grinned as he slipped on a soft white robe. Thanks to the ministrations of Medin and Dawn, he was now completely healed of what would have been a fatal knife thrust. It was the other procedure that left him wobbly-kneed. “Excuse me, sir.” The soft voice interrupted him as he turned for the door. “You might check the mirror. You’re still glowing, I believe.”
Glowing! He turned to the mirror and glared at his reflection. A slim handsome young man with serious green eyes glared back. The glowing slowly subsided. Glowing happened every time Medin showed him how to access new abilities within himself. This time he had been learning how to heal, both himself and others. Now he was itching to try it out. “Are we through here, Medin?”
The sigh from the empty air was audible. “I suppose so, Hedric. Your friends are waiting for you down by the lake. Would you like…”
“Yes, please.” The boy interrupted, almost jumping up and down in his enthusiasm. His legs were already pumping in a run when he arrived, well up the side of a grassy hill above the placid lake. He sprinted down to the two who waited for him, swinging Lexi up and around him as easily as a father might swing his two-year-old daughter. “You were perfect!” He gasped, swinging her one more time before setting her on her feet. “I never even thought of asking Selene and Rhiannon for help.” He turned to John and grinned widely. “Impressive, weren’t they?”
The larger boy’s eyes were wide. “Selene and Rhiannon? It’s like having a figure out of a fairy tale appear in front of you, only to discover that the figure is more beautiful and more awesome than you could possibly imagine.” He looked around, his eyes going wider. “And this really is the Moon Medin?”
“Yup.” He glanced at Lexi to say something casual, to find her staring up the verdant hill, a slightly sad look on her face. “What’s the matter, Lexi?” He slipped a hand into hers, and was startled to feel it trembling.
“Up there is where you left to die. And then I left too. It started out so nice and ended so sad. That’s the day everything changed for us.” She began to cry, with great shoulder-shaking sobs.
“Lexi, I…” A soft hand touched his shoulder.
“I’ll take it from here. She needs a woman’s touch right now.” Rhiannon gave him an unreadable look. “Don’t you have something you should be doing?”
Instead of turning away at the comment, he returned the look. “I would like to thank you, Rhiannon, for what you are doing for Alexandra…and for me.”
She touched his cheek, and a ghost of a smile brushed her face. “In our family, ‘thank-yous are not necessary.”
“Still, you will get it.”
“As you wish. My blessing on you both.” She glanced down fondly at the weeping girl, and they were gone.
John Tilbet was standing with mouth hanging open, his wide shoulders slumped. “Family?”
Hedric gave him a sour look. “It’s complicated. Now, why don’t you sit down on the grass there.” He pointed to a spot beside him. “And take off your pants, or at least roll the leg over your bad knee far enough so that I can touch it.”
“What?”
“Sit down. I want to take a look at your bad leg.”
“Ah.” The big youth still hesitated.
“Look, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not going to take advantage of you.” He chuckled at the ridiculous picture of that in his mind. “Roll the pants. Now!”
John sat, somewhat awkwardly, and rolled. When he was done Hedric knelt by his side and tried to remember everything Medin had taught him. Putting one hand on each side of John’s leg, he looked inside. The damaged area, just as Medin had said it would, showed up in red, pulsing in time with the boy’s heartbeat.
Dawn chuckled dryly.
Hedric threw back, smugly.
Hedric finished his work on John’s knee without another thought. He was stunned past the point of rational thought.
Hedric blinked. “You went away for a while, Tad.” John’s voice held a curious note.
“Like you were talking to someone.”
Hedric sighed. “I was just trying to remember what I’d read about knees.”
“That’s not much of an answer.” The larger boy replied. When Hedric failed to reply, he continued. “But it’s all I’m getting, is that it?”
Hedric returned a shrug. “You’ve just gotten to this place. I don’t want to dump too much on you, too soon.”
“That’s reasonable.” The boy sounded dubious.
Hedric forced a laugh. “I’m so glad you feel that way. Let’s have something to eat, and then I’ll send you on home.”
John got slowly to his feet, ignoring the fact that the agonizing stiffness he’d felt since the fight with Hedric was missing. His eyes were on the younger boy’s face. “You sound like Tad Swimming. You look like him. You even laugh like him, but you aren’t him. What happened to the old Tad Swimming and who are you?”
It was a reasonable question. The answer wasn’t so reasonable, and Hedric wasn’t in a reasonable mood. “The o
ne that you knew as Tad Swimming is dead. He died getting the vaccines that are saving the world. I have his soul, although not his body. Everything he was is me, but I am not him.”
John gave him a long look. “I think I’d like to go…” He was already gone.
“Medin?”
“Yes, Hedric.”
“Is there someplace I could go to think? The more alone and bleak the better, I believe.”
“There is a small observatory on the surface that was used to position the moon originally, and hasn’t ever been used by either Selene or Rhiannon. It is really quite nice.”
“That sounds fine, Medin.”
If he had been thinking of a twenty foot dusty cobwebby room, he was sadly mistaken. The observatory was a two hundred foot clear dome, scattered about with comfortable chairs and set with small cozy fires. The air, as always in the moon, held the faint resinous scent of pine, and hovered just on the warm side of goose bumps. A wealth of stars and the sweep of the golden Thalassian rings took his breath away. He had been standing there quite some time when a log popped in a fire, and a soft step sounded behind him.
“I’ve been looking for you.” It was Alexandra’s voice. “Rhiannon said that you needed my company.”
He turned and looked into her deep mysterious blue eyes. “I was losing myself. This has helped give me perspective.” He waved an arm at the vast vista around him. “And this…” He took her soft hand.
“What is this place?” She whispered, as her eyes began to take in the vast panorama.
“A room that is no longer used. Our secret. Our retreat from the world.”
Her hand squeezed his. “I’d like that. Somewhere we can always retreat to, that nobody knows about.” She looked about once more, and her face fell. “You know we have to go.”
“I was trying to put it off.” Standing under the cold stars, and still gently holding her hand, he kissed her. At first nothing happened, and then her hands wrapped themselves around the back of his head, pulling him in closer. He thought he heard the sizzling crack of electricity. They were both panting when they backed up, several minutes later.
“Oh my!” Alexandra gasped, her blue eyes wide.
“Indeed.” Hedric puffed in a great lungful of air. “I think we’d better go, or start looking for a bedroom.”
Her own look was naughty. “I’m going to hold you to that one day, Hedric Schwendau.”
“I look forward to it.” He looked up. “What time is it back home, Medin?”
“Just past midnight, Hedric.”
“Is the fo'c'sle clear?”
“No. Captain Isenhart appears to be standing there. If I were a betting person, I’d say she was waiting for you.”
“That’s my guess too, Medin.” Lexi chimed in. “Put us down about five feet from her, if you please.”
“Very good, miss.”
They appeared on the deck with a faint pop, and Captain Isenhart jumped.
“So why is it that Medin calls you Hedric, and calls me miss?”
Hedric gave a brief wave to the Captain. “Because I acknowledged that he was my friend, and I asked him to call me Hedric, unless customs and courtesies dictate otherwise. He had no problem with that.”
“But Medin is my friend too!” Her voice went up a few octaves.
“Did you tell him that?” In the darkness he saw Dolores Isenhart smile.
“Ah…”
“I didn’t think so. All beings, no matter what they’re made of, like to be told that they have a friend.” Hedric looked up into the inky black sky, where a silver sliver of Medin was just showing above the horizon. “Am I right, Medin?”
“Yes, Hedric.” The soft baritone voice came out of the air just above Hedric’s right shoulder. “That is certainly correct.”
“Thank you, my friend.”
“Ohhh, you’re terrible.” Lexi laughed. “Medin, would you be my friend too?”
“I would like that very much, miss.”
“And could you find it in your heart to please call me by my first name, rather than some formal title, unless necessary, of course.”
“Yes, Alexandra.” Hedric could have been mistaken, but he was almost certain he heard laughter in the moon’s usually dry voice.
“John Tilbet was a little wild-eyed when he got back here this evening.” The Captain was giving Hedric a level look. “I think you might have given him a little too much truth for him to swallow.”
Hedric rubbed his stubbled chin. “It’s possible. I was a bit short with him, and he was being thick-headed.”
“He’s saying you’re not Tad Swimming.”
“Well, I’m not. No more than Lexi is Alexandra Smith, your daughter. We died and were brought back. This afternoon your daughter went into the weepies on Medin and Rhiannon had to calm her down. I had to stare out into space to try and get my sanity back. I’m not sure how well it worked. She and I are in the dark, even more so than usual.”
Captain Isenhart stood looking at the two young people before her. As if to reinforce the strong words, a soft glow seemed to envelop the two, flowing across their tightly held hands.
Chapter 10
River traffic increased dramatically once the Golden Fleece left the River Styx, and turned south down the Mississippi heading for New Boston. They stopped every few days for wood, dropped off serum to the local doctors and continued on their way, while in the steaming engine room, Hedric had almost forgotten what the weather was like outdoors, caught up as he was, in routine ship’s maintenance. Only at night did he, and sometimes Lexi, stand in the bow, watching the dark river flow by.
“What is all this I keep hearing about a foursome?” The night was exceptionally dark, no moons had risen, and a thin layer of cloud obscured the glow of the rings. The question from Lexi had come out of nowhere.
“Why?”
“Moran seems to be studying some problem involving a foursome, and he won’t talk about it. When I pressed him, he said talk to you.”
“Oh, he did?” Hedric replied dryly. “That was thoughtful.”
“Give, Hedric.” She was standing very close to him now, so close that he could smell the lilac soap she used when she bathed, but even her warmth couldn’t stop the sudden chill from running up his spine.
“You’ve gotten the same lecture I’ve gotten from Dawn; the one about the K’Dreex prohibition on bonding with an intelligent species.”
She nodded. “I never understood that. Moran and I get along just fine. What’s the problem?”
Hedric laughed without feeling. “Try hugging Moran, sometime. Don’t try to ‘do’ anything. Just hug him like you would a close friend. See what happens. When you’ve done that, imagine what would happen if the four of us did it together. Blended, flowed, melded into one spirit. Imagine what would happen if we had the full power of two of these super-bodies available to that being. THAT’s what is bothering Moran, but first, try hugging him.”
She took a step closer. “I would rather hug YOU, Hedric Schwendau.” Her arms slid around his waist, and he let out a low purr, reaching out for her in return. Overhead a nightbird let out a shrill, lonely cry, and he held her tighter, his face buried in her hair.
There was a small reception committee waiting on the quay at New Boston, when the ship tied off. Through the engine room porthole, Hedric could see officials and soldiers, neatly ranked. One hard faced soldier in particular caught his eye, and he grimaced to himself.
“I’ll be in my room for a while.” He commented over his shoulder as he shut the door. Doander and Simms returned the look with a slightly puzzled concern.
“Medin.” He said as soon as the door to his room was shut. “I need your help.”
“What can I do for you, Hedric?” The soft mellow voice was just over his left shoulder this time.
“I need to get a ring back from Lexi, to give back to Colonel Harrison. I think I might hurt her feelings if I just tell her I want it back.”
“Give her a replace
ment.”
“But I don’t have any rings.”
“Hold out your father’s pin, Hedric.”
Hedric did as directed, and the pin sparkled and disappeared. An instant later a heavy gold signet ring appeared in the palm of his hand. Set into the top was a flat shiny black stone, and embossed into that, was the silver gryphon, facing to the dexter. The wings of the ancient beast actually seemed to be moving. “My gods.” Hedric whispered. “It’s beautiful.”
“It did turn out rather well—for a rush job.” There was a smug note in the disembodied voice.
The boy jammed the ring into a pocket. “Do you happen to know where Lexi is right now?”
“In the wheelhouse, sir, with her mother.”
He squeezed his eyes shut. He would have preferred to do this in private. “It will have to do.” He sighed and left.
Two pairs of blue eyes nailed him as he walked through the wheelhouse door.
“What brings you up here, Chief Engineer?” Dolores Isenhart’s voice was gentle.
“I’m sorry for interrupting, Captain.” He knuckled a salute and was rewarded with a flicker of a smile. “I really do need to speak with Navigator Smith, for just a moment.”
The Captain’s eyes narrowed. “Keep it quick. I’m not running a dating service here.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He turned to Alexandra, and took a deep breath. “I asked you to hold a ring for me, at one time. The time has come that I need to return that ring to Colonel Harrison, who is waiting on the quay as we speak.” He swallowed, and looked at the floor. “I offer this ring to you in exchange, until such time as I can come up with something more permanent.” He held out the golden ring on the palm of his hand. In the reflection of a closed porthole he could see Captain Isenhart’s jaw hanging open. Lexi didn’t move.
“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” She said quietly, bending closer. Looking up, a furrow of a frown cut her face. “You’re a boy and not very experienced. Do you know what the gifting of this ring means?”
The Finger of God: a Thalassia novel Page 16
