Return To Sky Raven (Book 2)

by T. Michael Ford

  My mother gave a little huff, as if she would speak to him about this later, then she proceeded to blanket an astonished Maya in a heartfelt hug and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Maya, I am so excited about having you both here! Not only have I gotten to hold the son I haven’t touched in twenty years, but now I’ve gained a daughter as well. You are everything we could possibly wish for Alex, and you are so gorgeous, too.” My girl was looking pretty uncomfortable at this point but, fortunately, my mother didn’t linger. Not skipping a beat, she went on to Winya. “Ah, Winya, my dear, you’re looking better than ever.”

  “I’m a sword. She does know I’m a sword, right?”

  “Yes, I know you’re a sword, but you have to admit that you weren’t exactly the most stylish woman. But now look at you; you’re a stunning work of art!”

  “I…I don’t know where to go with that, so I’ll just take it as an insult and move on from there.”

  “Oh, don’t be like that, we’re old friends now. There’s plenty of room in our relationship for a little bit of fun,” my mother chuckled.

  While this was all going on, I was getting the life crushed out of me by my father. Releasing me, he held me at arm’s length to look me over. “Ha, just look at you, lad! You’re almost as big as I am! And again, excellent job on the armor; you make me very proud.” He turned to Maya and gave her a gentle hug. “Maya, you’re looking absolutely radiant as always.”

  “Um, thank you, I guess,” Maya replied sheepishly and shot me a look that said, “This is so weird and uncomfortable, I can hardly stand it!” My parents ceased all the hugging and drew themselves up as a couple with my father enfolding my mother’s small hand in his giant paw.

  “Come, come, we have so very much to talk about, and I do believe the east dining hall is ready, is that right, dear?” said mother as she patted his hand. He nodded, and she ushered all of us down a hallway and into the room.

  The inside turned out to be a large rectangular room with heavy wooden wainscoting and paneled walls. A few nondescript landscape portraits decorated the walls and a crackling fireplace anchored the far end of the room. The center of the room was dominated by a lone, very ornate wooden table at the center. Aside from some missing plates and cups, everything looked to be set for about twenty individuals, and set for show. All the furnishings and tableware in this room was of the highest quality - for 400 years ago, anyway. The long wall opposite the door featured a large glass window with a glass door that looked out onto a small stone courtyard and a vibrant, but overgrown, flower garden, which struck me as almost impossible considering the temperature of the air outside.

  Currently, the garden was being overrun by two very eager, aggressive young druids who seemed to be beside themselves. One would stop and inspect a plant only to have the other rush over and drag her away to look at another. This seemed to be an ongoing process and appeared to have the potential to go on for a very long time, especially when I spotted the dreaded sketchbooks coming out of their robes.

  Smiling, Mother placed a hand on the window and watched the two of them work. “Ah, those two have already found the garden. They’re probably ecstatic right now as there are some very rare plants indeed out there.” She spun around to face the rest of us. “But I’ll talk to them later; right now I have my son and daughter to spend time with. I’ll see about getting us some refreshments and then we will get to the not-so-fun stuff.”

  She snapped her fingers and suddenly Alera was in the room with us, facing the far wall, and apparently giving orders to that same wall.“No, I said that bed station goes there and this one goes here…and no one’s there. Great, now I’m crazy,” Alera muttered.

  Mother cleared her throat, startling Alera so much she jumped almost a foot in the air. The now irritated and confused healer spun around angrily to yell at someone, but instantly her anger was replaced by confusion. “Alex, Maya, what are you doing here…where am I?” Then she spotted my parents and looked like she was going to die. “My…my King, Queen! I…I don’t know what to say!” She dropped to her knee and bowed her head reverently. “You honor me! Is there anything you need, my King and Queen? And, of course, also my Prince and Princess?”

  Maya and I both were looking at my parents in confusion. I’d had a hunch by this time, but that just confirmed it. But both of them were laughing. “Well, I guess the cat’s out of the bag on that one! If you would be so kind as to open a portal, that would be wonderful.”

  My mother, after a fond look at the healer, turned back to us and explained, “Alera’s grandfather was a nebulia who fell in love with a human healer. Their daughter took up the healing arts, and lovely Alera is the next generation. We are all very proud of what she has accomplished.”

  After Alera finished casting the spell and the portal appeared in the corner of the room, she added wistfully, “I was raised with a foot in both worlds but, unfortunately, never belonging wholly to either.”

  “Well, that explains your protector,” I said.

  “Yes, as you can imagine, anyone with a bent or sensitivity for evil recognizes me for what I am. Since healers have no real combat skills, I was assigned Nydard as my protector.”

  My mother motioned for us to sit, the portal opened and several female nebulia in long golden dresses flowed out with their inhuman grace. Each was of a different type; some had the heads of hounds, one was a fox and the other two were eagles or hawks. Most were carrying golden platters with large covers, the rest had either wine bottles and goblets or were pushing small carts loaded with plates and other utensils. Silently, they bowed slightly and placed the platters in front of each of us and stepped back. A few of them went back into the portal leaving nine in the room with us. One stood behind each of us with one behind an empty chair and one standing next to Alera. The hound nebulia motioned for her to take a seat next to Dawn to our left.

  We sat silently for a bit, seemingly waiting for something. Then suddenly the fox standing behind the open chair spun around and opened the door. And there was Rosa, standing with her hand in the air ready to knock on the door. “Well, I guess I was expected. And you two must be Alex’s parents whom I’ve heard so much about.”

  Their smiles brightened, and Mother just motioned for her to take her seat. Wearily, she sat where the fox instructed. Once seated, Mother looked over her shoulder and gazed at the window. Following her gaze, I found that she was interested in two muddy-footed marmots that had their furry faces pressed against the glass looking in at our dinner party. With a chuckle, she nodded to the eagle maiden standing behind her. Bowing, the nebulia ducked away and quickly opened the door to the patio. Realizing the game was up, the two marmots dashed off in opposite directions, eluding the first snatch by the eagle maiden, who was now in hot pursuit. Back and forth she chased them as we all got up from our chairs and moved to the window to watch. The nebulia was inhumanly fast and very graceful, but she was hampered greatly by the long formal gown and high-heeled shoes she was wearing. Every time she was about to reach down and grab one of the rodents, the act of bending down gave them just enough time to bolt out of reach. Apparently, nebulia are too refined to make a diving grab like I would have done to catch a piglet back in Foalshead. This continued comically for several minutes. I was speechless, Maya was openly snickering, and poor Rosa couldn’t help herself and was braying like one of the donkeys. Even Alera had her hand over her mouth and was shaking like a leaf.

  Finally, my mother could take no more. She beckoned and whispered to another nebulia maiden who dashed through the portal and returned carrying two devices that looked like fishing nets attached to long poles. The maiden, this one with a fox head, went outside and tossed one of the nets to the poor, tired-out nebulia who was still not having any luck apprehending the artful dodgers. A few moments later, an exhausted but seemingly vindicated maiden had collared both rodents by the scruff of their necks. Resigned to their fate, the marmots just hung there mournfully as the nebulia carried them inside. The fox mai
den ditched the nets and closed the door behind them. Presented to my mother, the two rodents just seemed to eye her warily and didn’t even struggle. She smiled and motioned to two of the empty chairs. The maiden carefully deposited the furry creatures in the assigned chairs. Not quite done with her task, she walked through the still-open portal and returned almost instantly with two more maidens with platters, setting them before the confused marmots. Seemingly pleased, she returned to her position behind my mother and the other two stood behind the furry critters, just like the rest did for us.

  Maya looked at me with a wide-eyed look, but I also caught Rosa smiling. From the thoughts I was getting from her, I had an idea what was going on. Using my mage sight, I confirmed what Rosa was thinking - the two marmots were a pair of mischievous druids, not ordinary varmints.

  “Lin, Julia, you can change back now; I don’t think you’re in trouble for anything,” I said to the two teens in disguise.

  “Certainly not, we are going to need help eating all this food!” my father said, almost shouting it actually.

  Reluctantly, they chittered at each other before changing back to their normal selves. It wasn’t as dramatic a shape change as we were used to from the dragon twins, more of a soft blurring of lines as they grew larger and the scruffy fur rewove itself into their normal green robes. “Um, we’re so sorry for intruding,” they said in unison, and then looked guiltily down at the floor and all the mud they had sloughed off in the course of their change.

  Brushing off their concern, Mother snapped her fingers, sending the room into motion. The maidens behind all of us whipped out large cloths from somewhere and placed them on our laps; they even had a small one for Nia. They then proceeded to set out silverware that seemed to just materialize in their hands. Once each of us had a truly alarming number of spoons and forks placed in front of us, normally more than enough for an entire family, they removed the lids of the trays. Underneath was a single bowl of soup; based on the size of the tray, I was expecting an entire roast duck or something. With a flourish, my server scooped up the bowl and placed it on the plate in front of me, then stepped back.

  Looking around, only Maya and I had been served. I looked across the table to Mother, but she was just smiling back at me.

  “Sir and Lady, you are the guests of honor this day; by your right, you are the first to be served,” intoned the maiden from behind me. Her voice was very smooth, but I could tell she wasn’t speaking in common.

  Maya looked at me questioningly, unable to understand her. “We are the guests of honor so we eat first,” I said, and she smiled slightly as we both picked up spoons. As we were about to dip into the soup, we were each tapped on the shoulder, and our servers shook their heads gravely and swapped out the spoons we had selected with two others from the group near our plate; this was all performed with lightning fast grace. Confused for a second, we shrugged and took our first taste of the soup.

  It was some form of cream-based soup, but that was all I could tell even with all my cooking experience. But that didn’t stop it from being absolutely delicious! Apparently pleased with our expressions, the rest of the maidens uncovered the platters and served everyone else with beaming smiles on their faces.

  “Now with the formalities out of the way for now, we can finally talk freely, and your father and I can begin some long-overdue explanations.” Mother paused and smiled at each of us, happily watching us eat with so much enjoyment; she seemed uninterested in her own soup. “Undoubtedly, your first question is ‘who are you?’. Which is a very good question and one that will require rather more explanation than you think. In short, my name is Oreale and your father is Ranther, and we are the Nova.”

  “Well, that explains the writing on the wall and gate,” I said, putting down my spoon.

  They were both still smiling. “Indeed, and as Alera said, we are the rulers of the nebulia. This makes you a prince, Alex.” I’m a prince? Wait, what?

  “If he’s your son, then why did you abandon him?” Maya asked levelly, searching both their faces.

  Both my parents cringed, and my mother looked away, her eyes glistening, as my father sighed and explained, “You should probably get comfortable as this is going to take a while. Maya, my dear, not to sound trite, but it’s complicated. The short answer is that Alex would have died if we had kept him with us; the long answer involves his place and responsibilities moving forward in the universe. I’ll tackle the short answer first, as it’s the easiest. The long answer involves all of you,” he said, affixing each of us with a serious look, “and will undoubtedly generate a lot more questions. Alex, if we could have kept you, we most certainly would have. But if you had stayed with us, you would have died in a horrifying way.”

  “Why?”

  He continued, “I know this will be hard to understand, but please know that it is the truth. Alex, we have no real bodies, not anymore. What you see before you are just shells that we can inhabit. As Nova, we are the rulers of the space beyond this world, what you would call the stars. We are very old and very powerful, but all things in the universe have limits. The first thing you should know is that there are many of our kind scattered throughout the stars, far beyond those you can even see. Normally, if one of our kind has a child with a mortal, the child stays with the mortal and is raised by them. Most of the time, the father is never seen again, but the child grows up to do great things, or terrible things, as sometimes happens. You are an exception.

  “How so?” I asked.

  Mother put an arm around my father. “We are the only pair.” She kissed my father on the cheek. “All of the others are male and live alone. But one day, many centuries ago, your father found me and we fell in love. But instead of just giving me a child and leaving, he gave me a choice - I could stay on my world or I could join him for all eternity, I chose him.”

  Rosa stepped in. “Wait, you’re from another world?”

  She smiled back. “Yes, I am. There are, in fact, many worlds out there. But it would be best if we left it at that for now.”

  Father continued, “As we were saying, I chose to share my powers with your mother, but it didn’t quite go as planned. Instead of sharing them, I ended up splitting them right down the middle. I retained my powers over the physical plane, but your mother now controls everything of the magical realm. But to be honest, it’s not so bad. The other Nova, on the other hand, feared this outcome and vowed to never let it happen to them for fear of losing their own powers.”

  “So they would give up a chance at love just to retain a bit of power? That seems rather sad,” Maya said.

  Father sighed, “I know, and it is regrettable. Don’t get me wrong, they are all very good men and do their jobs without question. But we still have not answered your question. Many years passed before we decided to have a child, and looking back, I feel like a fool. We had completely forgotten what we were that day. Alex, if you were born without a body, your soul would float forever, unable to even pass on to the afterlife; we could not let that happen. Unable to stop what was coming on our own, we were forced to turn to the one group that we despise the most, the gods of this world.”

  “Why do you hate the gods so much?” asked Lin.

  Mother smiled at her. “It's not so much that we hate them, it is more of a inane disgust. We Nova created this world, but they claim the credit; we created the sun, but they say it’s theirs, and so on. Yes, they have powers and most of them are vastly different from ours. But they need followers to draw their strength from, we don’t. Unlike them, we will never age, never tire, and never die, yet they think themselves superior just because they roam the world more freely.”

  My father continued, “But we needed their help, and after some rather humiliating negotiations, they agreed to help.”

  “What sort of negotiations?” I asked, leaning forward in my chair.

  Mother frowned, “They demanded more power over the forces of magic, to make themselves more impressive to their followers. But
no matter how humiliating it was to be laughed at by the rest of our kind, it was worth it. They upheld their side of the bargain, you were crafted a body and a chance to live. But that was only half of our struggle; as Nova, we have our own laws we must follow, one being we cannot show ourselves to you until you come of age, which for humans is your twentieth birthday.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  My father answered, “It is not a law without reason. Undoubtedly, you have noticed your powers are growing more and more each day since your last birthday. This is because it takes that long for your body and mind to grow and adapt to the powers you possess. Before the law, some fathers would visit their children, and just the act of being close to them would activate their abilities prematurely. This release of raw power would almost always kill the child outright, or in some cases, cause permanent insanity, and that is why we were forced to stay away from you. But just because we had to stay away doesn’t mean we were gone from your life. We did everything we could for you, all of you, in fact.”

  All but the twins seemed confused by that statement and were looking around in wonderment. But I didn’t really care, I was still processing what was just said. They left me because if they didn’t, I would die? I guess I could see that as a good reason. Even though they were hiding it pretty well, I could still tell they were screaming on the inside. As a parent, how do you cope with knowing that just being near your child would kill them? Mother picked up the story and continued as the maidens whisked away the second course of food that apparently I hadn’t even touched or noticed was even placed before me.

  “Alex, we put much thought into your life. The choosing of your foster family for one thing was very painful. I wanted someone who would love and care for you where I couldn’t,” my mother revealed unsteadily, still daubing at her eyes regularly with the cloth.