SONS of DON

by Brenda L. Harper

  She knew better now. But that hadn’t dampened her enthusiasm.

  She finally made her way to the history shelves that held the numbers she was supposed to be looking for. She ran her finger along the bar coded stickers that also sported the catalog numbers, looking for the ones she needed. She found two right away, but had to hunt for several of the others. As she squatted down to search a low shelf, a shadow moved over her in the dim light.

  “Sorry,” she mumbled as she tried to scoot closer to the shelf to leave more walking space. But the shadow didn’t move around her. It just stayed where it was.

  Gwen looked up, thinking it might be Cei come to see what was taking her so long. Instead, it was a stranger—a tall, blonde, handsome stranger—who seemed quite interested in the books she was collecting.

  “Doing a paper on Welsh folklore?”

  Gwen pulled herself to her feet with a hand on the edge of a shelf. “Just doing research for one of my teachers.”

  “Must be Professor Langley.”

  Gwen pulled the books tighter against her chest. “He’s helping us.”

  “Langley is an interesting fellow. I heard his classes are pretty exciting sometimes. Someone told me he comes to class in costume from time to time.”

  Gwen had never heard that. It would have made her laugh if she hadn’t been a little ill at ease speaking to someone she’d never seen before. He was cute—what was it about her lately that she was attracting all these good-looking guys all of a sudden—older, maybe by a few years. Not really her type, but she was flattered by his attention just the same.

  “I should get back to work,” she said, gesturing to the shelf behind her. “We just got started and we only have a couple of weeks…”

  “Of course. Sorry to have interrupted.” They guy stepped back, his head bowed just slightly in acknowledgement. “Maybe we’ll run into each other again, sometime.”

  “Maybe.” Gwen tried a smile, but it felt stiff on her lips. “It was nice to meet you.”

  “Oh, well, we haven’t officially met.” He came toward her again, stopping just a few inches in front of her so that their toes were practically touching. “I’m Bran.”

  Gwen’s eyebrows rose. Bran. That was the closest to a normal name she’d heard recently. What happened to all the Bobs and Billys and Johns this state was so big on? But, again, when celebrities name their children Apple, a Bran shouldn’t be that big of a surprise.

  “Gwen,” she said, shifting the books she was still holding so that she could offer him her hand. He took it with a soft smile that reminded her of someone. She couldn’t quite decide who, but someone.

  “Nice to meet you, Gwen.” He gave her hand a light squeeze before letting go. “See you around.”

  He was gone before she could respond. She kind of shook herself and turned back to the shelf, only to find Cei standing at the other end of the aisle.

  “Having trouble?”

  “No,” she said, squatting down again to check out the bottom shelf. She found the book she needed almost immediately. “I’ve got it.”

  Cei hesitated, his gaze wandering to the other end of the aisle where Bran had disappeared. It was almost as if he knew something had happened, that someone had been there. It was that show of concern that kept Gwen confused. He was constantly there, almost like he was watching over her, but when she tried to talk to him, he was standoffish, didn’t appear to want to be alone with her longer than necessary. The word “frustrating” didn’t seem to fit the situation, but it was the closest word she could think of.

  “Here,” she said, shoving the books into his arms. “I’ll look for the rest if you’ll go get started on these.”

  His eyes fell back to hers for a brief moment. “Don’t take too long.”

  “As though I would.”

  She wandered along the shelves, pulling out books that simply looked interesting, taking her time to irritate Cei. She wondered if he was jealous. Had he seen Bran? Was he upset that a good looking college boy had spoken to her? But, again, why should she care if he was jealous or not? She wasn’t interested in the complication that comes with a relationship—not that she’d had that many relationships. Hook-ups, yeah, but not relationships, per se.

  But Cei was different. She felt it every time he looked at her. There was something there, something that suggested he was more invested in her than the average foster brother should be.

  She gathered the last three or four books on Cei’s list and made her way back to the table he had commandeered on their arrival. He already had his nose buried in one of the books, two others open in front of him. He was making notes…quite academic. She admired the way his hair seemed to swallow the light from the low lights above him and the way his muscles in his wrist flexed whenever he wrote something on his notebook paper.

  She settled across from him and began rifling through the books, picking one that seemed to have the most information relevant to their research. The table of contents even mentioned Blodeuwedd by name. She found the story and began to read it quickly, but then slowed down. She was drawn in, fascinated by this simple tale of love and betrayal.

  Blodeuwedd was created out of flowers—oak, broom, and meadowsweet—by Math, to be a wife to Lleu. Although Lleu was good to Blodeuwedd, she was not happy in her marriage. Therefore, when she met Gronw and fell head over heels for the ‘radiant one’, she felt no loyalty to her husband. Blodeuwedd and Gronw plotted Llew’s death so that they might be together. But Lleu’s uncle, Gwydion—

  “Hey, isn’t Gwydion one of the guys Ms. Dru mentioned on the first day of school when she was talking about that battle…Battle of the Trees?”

  Cei looked up, clearly annoyed by the interruption. “Gwydion was a son of the goddess, Don.”

  “The one who enchanted the trees to help him fight the other guy, right?”

  “Right.”

  Gwen tapped the open page she’d been reading. “He’s part of this story, too.”

  “He’s a god. He likely appears in most of these kinds of stories.”

  “What kind of god?”

  Cei put down his pencil in a manner that suggested he was a little annoyed by the continuing disruption. He then interlaced his fingers over the book he had been referencing, taking on the appearance of some sort of lecturer, a professor, maybe.

  “These are all Welsh gods associated with the Iron Age in Britain.”

  “I know that,” Gwen said, growing a little annoyed herself. “But who were the sons of Don? Why were they so important? And why is this guy showing up in this story?”

  Cei glanced over at the only other occupied table in the library on a Saturday afternoon, his eyes lingering on the blonde girl who was surreptitiously staring at him. Lowering his voice so that it wouldn’t carry, he said, “Don was the goddess of light. Remember Ms. Dru said that?”

  “Yes.”

  “Her children are the ones who dominate most of what little literature there is about the gods. They were powerful beings who were responsible for light magic, the magic that did good rather than bad. Gwydion was the most dominate of them, like an older child might be in a family.”

  “That’s why he’s in this story?”

  “Math was Gwydion’s uncle, and Math is the one who created Blodeuwedd; therefore, Gwydion is in the story. Not only that, but Gwydion is Lleu’s uncle.”

  Gwen nodded. “I guess I should start by writing out a family tree, or something.”

  “Maybe.” Cei touched his finger to the open story in front of her. “You’ll also see in here that Gwydion is the one who cursed Blodeuwedd to live in darkness. They say he transformed her into an owl.”

  “Really?”

  “The Druids believed in reincarnation and immortality. Gwydion just sort of skipped the step of dying and made her an owl instead of killing her. The books say that she, theoretically, still lives as an owl.”

  “But isn’t she a goddess?”

  Cei shrugged. “Yes, I suppose so
. She wasn’t born, she was created. That kind of gives weight to that idea.”

  Gwen dragged her fingers through her hair, her eyes falling back to the story. “I can’t imagine what it would be like to live all of eternity as an owl.”

  “It’s better than living eternity in the fires of the Underworld.”

  Gwen looked up. “The Underworld?”

  He nodded. “People in Wales during the Iron Age believed that when a person died, they went to the Underworld, a place of darkness lorded over by the son of the god, Llyr. His name was Bendigeidfran. From what I’ve read in here,” Cei gestured at the books in front of him, “it was not a fun place to be.”

  Gwen sat back a little. “I didn’t realize the Welsh gods were so like the Roman and Greek ones.”

  “A god’s a god,” Cei said, picking up his pencil and getting back to work.

  Gwen followed suit, quickly growing more engrossed in Blodeuwedd’s story.

  Blodeuwedd and her lover killed Lleu as he bathed beside the river, with one foot on solid ground and the other in the water as it had been prophesized. When Gwydion learned of his nephew’s death, Gronw challenged him to a fight. Gwydion easily beat the prideful Gronw, killing him and transforming Blodeuwedd into an owl, to forever live in darkness as punishment for her betrayal.

  Fascinating.

  Chapter 13

  “So, what do you think of our little school?”

  Gwen bit back a laugh. She’d gotten lost crossing the campus from the library to Tony’s office, even though she was following Cei and he seemed to know where he was going. “Little” was not a word Gwen would have used to describe the place.

  “I think she likes it. She was pretty awed by the library.”

  “I was not.”

  Cei’s eyebrows rose. “You looked pretty awed to me.”

  Gwen shook her head. “I was just amazed by how many books there were. It’s bigger than the public library.”

  “And that’s only one part of it, my dear. There’s separate areas for the law library and the health library.”

  Gwen knew her eyes had widened, but she couldn’t help herself. She was a bibliophile—she would be perfectly happy never talking to another human being again as long as she had books to read.

  “See,” Cei said, gesturing toward her, “look at how big her eyes just got. She loves the library and all those dusty old books they have shoved in there.”

  “Is that a bad thing?”

  “Of course not.” Tony dropped his hand on her shoulder, the weight of it causing her shoulder to drop several inches. “I think it’s great that there’s finally someone around who likes books as much as me. Remind me to show you some of the rare books I have in my collection back at the house. You might enjoy those.”

  Gwen nodded. She couldn’t imagine a better way to spend an afternoon.

  “Good.” Tony moved around her and scooted around a stack of books—one of many stacks of things that littered the floor of his office—and picked through the huge pile of disorganized essays and memos and other paperwork that was scattered across his desk. “Let me find my wallet and we’ll go find some lunch. How’s that sound?”

  “Great,” Gwen and Cei said almost at the same moment. Gwen stole a glance at Cei, but he was focused on Tony.

  “It’s in your pocket, isn’t it?” he suddenly asked.

  Tony straightened and touched his back pocket. “So it is,” he said with a little laugh. “Look at me, the epitome of the disorganized academic.” He looked over at Gwen with something like a sheepish grin. “It’s not usually this bad. I had a teaching assistant who kept all of this organized for me, but she quit at the end of last semester to get married, and I haven’t had a chance to hire a new one.”

  “You should hire Gwen,” Cei suggested. “I’m sure she’d love hanging out at the university after school.”

  “Yeah?” Tony looked from Cei to Gwen, seeming to size her up in a new way. “Do you think you would like it? It’d only be for a couple hours every afternoon.”

  “What would I do?”

  Tony gestured around himself. “Organize this stuff, mostly. Answer a few phone calls, head off any students wanting to talk to me outside of office hours…they never seem to take the posted hours seriously, always coming in here whenever they please…and maybe help me organize my classroom materials.”

  “I could do that.”

  “Great.” Tony slipped his arm over Gwen’s shoulders as he propelled her toward the door. “Welcome to Texas Tech, Miss Reese.”

  ***

  They had lunch at a local restaurant just off campus, a deli that was packed with college kids who couldn’t, or didn’t want to, leave campus for the weekend. Gwen found herself drawn into their conversations, listening to complaints about specific professors or the amount of class work already assigned after only a week of classes. She couldn’t wait to be a college student herself. The idea of living on her own, attending classes that were at the top of the academic arena, having no one to tell her how or when to study…she couldn’t wait.

  “Did you find anything interesting in your research?”

  Gwen pulled herself out of her thoughts and focused on Tony. “A few things. The story itself, Blodeuwedd and her lover, is quite interesting.”

  “A tragic story.” Tony sat back, his soda in hand like the pipe a traditional professor might hold. “Blodeuwedd was as much a victim as her poor husband, I think. She never asked for marriage, never asked to even be created. All she really wanted was to be loved by someone she loved back. She never really loved Lleu.”

  “Why not?”

  Tony shrugged. “The stories don’t really tell us. But I suspect it was because he was as indifferent to her as she was to him. Lleu never asked to be married, either. This was all Math’s doing.”

  “Like an arranged marriage,” Cei said.

  “Yes,” Tony agreed. “An arrangement that suited Math because he got a new virgin to rest his feet on, or so the story suggests.”

  “Wait, what?”

  Tony laughed at Gwen’s surprised expression. “You didn’t get to that part?”

  “No.”

  “Math believed that his feet could not touch the ground or he would lose his magic. So he required a virgin to lie at his feet so that he could prop his feet on her at all times.”

  “That’s insane.”

  Tony laughed again, the sound a deep, from the belly sound that reverberated through the room. A few people turned to look, some with smiles on their faces. Gwen brushed the hair out of her face and lifted her own soda to her lips, a blush responding to the sudden focus of attention.

  “Math was quite a character.”

  “How does he fit in to all this as far as relationships go?”

  Tony shrugged. “Math is Don’s brother.”

  “The virgin thing is actually how Lleu came to be,” Cei said. “The Mabinogion says that Math needed a new virgin to rest his feet on. When his niece offered to take the position, he had her step over his wand to see if she really was a virgin. When she did, a child fell from her body, a boy Math called Dylan. Another child was also born, but Gwydion hid him from everyone, including his mother. The child was later named Lleu.”

  “Lleu was born to a virgin?”

  “The birth of the twin boys would suggest she was not a virgin,” Tony said. “But it’s hard to tell with these stories sometimes.”

  “And Gwydion raised Lleu. I guess that would explain a few things.”

  “A very interesting family,” Tony said. “A crazy uncle who has wild ideas about punishments, a brother who hides his sister’s child from her and then tricks her into breaking her own curse against him, and a young woman created out of flowers who should have been the sweetest, kindest person, but turned out to be a cheater and a would-be murderer.”

  “Would-be?” Gwen glanced at Cei and then Tony. “I thought Lleu died. In the story I read, it implied he did.”

  “No, Lleu su
rvived. He transformed into an eagle and hid in the trees until Gwydion found him. Gwydion nursed him back to health.”

  “The story I read said that Lleu died and Gwydion sought revenge.”

  “Gwydion was not the vengeful type,” Cei said quietly, almost as though he had personal knowledge of Gwydion’s personality.

  “Then who killed Gronw?”

  “Lleu,” Tony said.

  Gwen shook her head. “This stuff is so confusing.”

  “It’s just made confusing by the fact that there is so little known about this time period. The Welsh people did not write things down, so most of what is known about them is secondhand information—mostly from the writings of Julius Caesar and his contemporaries. And, as most people know, the writings of the conquerors about the conquered is usually slanted and inaccurate.”

  Gwen nodded, playing thoughtfully with the straw in her soda. “I guess it’s hard to know for sure what really happened all those years ago.”

  Cei and Tony exchanged a glance, but they didn’t say anything. It made Gwen feel as though she was missing something, though. She sat back, dragging her fingers through her hair—should have worn it in a braid again today, it would have stayed out of her eyes a little better—and glanced around the restaurant. It wasn’t as crowded as it had been when they first arrived, only a half dozen tables continued to be occupied. It was getting late, and Gwen had homework left to do. She was about to suggest they get on their way—if that wasn’t too forward for Tony—when the front doors opened and in walked Rhein.