by Regan Claire
“This isn’t a good time. They’re coming to get us,” Toby said instead of answering my plea.
“Dux Neale, Lionel will direct you and your father and son to your quarters for the night where you may get ready. Duxa Deare, you may follow me to your room.”
I looked desperately at Cash and Connor, not wanting to be anywhere alone with these people. Cash grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze in reassurance before following Lionel out of the stadium. I looked at Alexander and plucked up my nerves before following him.
“Why am I not staying with the rest of my family?” I asked, needing some sort of conversation to take my mind off things.
“Since my Lord’s own testing with the humans, we have had a generous room in reserve for the Duxa Deare. You will be the first to enjoy the accommodations.”
“Oh, because he swore loyalty to my family?”
“Yes, the Deare family. My family and yours are allies, and now that you have been accepted by our council, you get all the advantages of being aligned with us.”
“Alexander, may I ask you a question?” There I was, always with the questions.
“Of course,” he replied in a monotonous voice.
“Was the testing really that unusual?”
“Yes, it was.” Well, that wasn’t the long explanation I’d been hoping for.
I settled myself into walking silently until we reached our destination and went over all the things I knew about me, my mother, and whether there was a possibility of my being some sort of Elfennol-human mutt. I’d known that my abilities were a result of a mixed heritage, magically speaking, but had no idea what Elfennol abilities I must have displayed for them to make such a claim.
We walked all the way to what I would have considered the back of the cave, a trek that took about fifteen minutes. In front of us was another doorway with runes etched on the top.
“What does it say?” I asked, as he put his hand on the symbol in the center and opened to doorway to another, smaller, cave structure.
“Leoht. It’s our family name. This is where we stay while in this area, our home away from home. Each family has a similar section. Richard Heorot’s family is on the south wall,” he pointed to the left, “and Etta Strang’s family is on the north wall.” He then pointed to the right before leading us inside.
It was like walking into a house. Well, kind of. You definitely couldn’t tell that we were in a cave, and the size of it reminded me of the interiors of the big mansions that you see in movies, if the mansions were made up of nature.
The walls were made up of dark green twisted vines, so tightly woven that I thought it was just a textured wall at first, but when I reached out to touch it I could feel the life underneath my fingers. Like the giant space we’d left behind, the ceiling was lit with runes, making it seem like natural light when it was anything but. The layout seemed similar to a house, as well, though it didn’t hold the warmth that most houses had.
Alexander, as he had before, gave me a brief tour on the way to my room, and after seeing most of the rooms it started to sink in that this place was really more of a military base than a home for these people. I was shown the “practice room”, which was covered with thick moss on the floor and walls and had two people fighting in such fluid movement they looked like they were dancing. There were two rooms filled with ‘bunks’ for people to sleep in. Of course, these bunks were a mix between hammocks and canopy beds, made out of the same vines that covered the walls in most of the places. They granted full privacy, and looked way more comfortable than most of the regular beds I’d slept in during my life.
“Why are some of the bunks larger than others? Are they for the officers or something?” I asked when I noticed a few such beds.
“No, those are beds for those of us who are paired together. Couples.” Well. That was certainly different from human military practices.
He showed me the War Room, with its big table and beautifully drawn maps, the kitchens and the dining hall, then finally the area reserved for the private rooms.
“This room is for your use any time that you are here. My Lord has taken the liberty of having an appropriate outfit picked out for you for tonight’s celebration. Your token is here, as well.”
“What’s happening tonight? And what token?”
“It is customary for us to have a feast in honor of the initiates completing their testing. The token is a gesture of friendship from the Council, and is proof to any of our brethren that you are our allies. Someone will be here in about thirty minutes to show you the way.” He opened the door for me, just a normal one this time, and left me to explore it by myself. I was hit by the smell of flowers; the walls in the room were covered with honeysuckle instead of the vines that had covered most of the other walls I’d seen. I didn’t give myself much time to look around before I opened the door back up and poked my head out.
“Alexander!” I was so relieved that he hadn’t disappeared down the hallway.
“Yes, Duxa?” He stopped and turned towards me without coming any closer.
“Um, where’s the bathroom?” I was hoping no one else was close by.
“There is one in your room,” he answered, then half turned to continue on his way before I stopped him again.
“Wait! Uh, how does it work? I mean, I know how a toilet works, just does it work the same here?” I could feel my cheeks heat from the blush I was sure adorned them.
“It works the same way as it does everywhere else, Lady. We are not without modern conveniences down here. There is a shower as well, if you wish to bathe.” Nothing he said was out of the norm, and his voice was perfectly respectful, but something about the glow in his eyes, and the half smile on his mouth, gave me the feeling that he was teasing me a little. Or at least found my inquiry funny.
“Thanks Alex.” I nicknamed him in retaliation. He dipped his head at me in response, and waited there until I went back in my room and closed the door, probably to make sure I didn’t have any other stupid questions to ask.
After going to the restroom, I took a quick look around before getting ready. The room was smallish, certainly no bigger than my space at Connor and Ellis’s, but was still impressive. The bed looked similar to the ones I had seen in the barrack rooms, but prettier and less like a hammock. The only furniture in the room, other than the bed, was a bureau against the wall. It was the most normal thing in the room, but still had unusual craftsmanship, looking as if it had grown into its current shape since there were no seams in the wood. There was also a small fireplace in the wall closest to the bed and I lit it with a quick flick of my powers.
Lying on the bureau were my clothes for the night. Well, I guessed they were my clothes even though I had absolutely no idea how to put them on. There was a ridiculously long swath of a shimmery blue fabric with silver embroidered holes on the edges, and different lengths of silver corded rope. There was also a small leather case with three metal cylindrical thingys with a point on either end of them. Etched in the center of each one was the same symbol on my key, the family insignia or whatever. I thought that it must have been the Token from the council, but instead of spending time figuring out what the heck it was I went ahead and took a shower.
Even the shower took a few minutes to figure out. I had to put my hand on the same circle that was etched in some of the doors and swirl my finger on it to control the temperature. The water, like the light throughout the place, seemed to bleed from the stone ceiling, making me feel like I was showering in the rain and I wondered how much it would cost to install something like this in my own house.
I dried myself off and put my bathing suit back on, since they had yet again left out underwear among the clothes they provided. I figured it must be a cultural thing. Putting on the giant bolt of fabric proved troublesome, and when I was finally done I felt like I was going to a toga party and was especially glad I was wearing my swimsuit in case something fell down. I wasn’t sure how the Elfennol would react to a wardrobe mal
function. Probably not well.
A knock on the door proved that I had finished dressing just in time, and when I went to open it for whoever it was I saw a woman of my height waiting for me. She had black hair, green eyes, and took one disapproving look at me before pulling me back in the room to fix my clothes.
“Now I know why Lord Derek wanted me to come a few minutes early to help. You look like you’re wearing a potato sack,” she said uncharitably.
“Hey, where I come from you don’t need a how-to guide to get dressed!”
“I meant no offense. You weren’t far off, just twist it here and pull it all the way around like this, then wrap the cord a few times, like this.” She started messing with my wrap, undressing then redressing me the right way. “This is the fastest way but there are several other chiton styles I can show you at another time if you like.” She then put her hands on the spot on the bureau where drawers would normally be and after a brief glow, opened it up, showing a cache full of goodies.
“Let me fix your hair, and put some kohl on your eyes.”
“Uh, sure?” I said, though she didn’t really give me the option to say no.
“My name is Laurel, by the way,” she introduced herself before somehow growing a perfect little stool made of stone and ivy from the floor for me to sit on while she knotted my hair at the base of my neck and then expertly applied eyeliner and color to my mouth and lips. Whatever she used on my cheeks smelled strongly of ginger and nutmeg. When she was done I looked sleek and sophisticated, and the black around my eyes made them glow blue, matching my “chiton” beautifully.
“Wow, Laurel, it looks great! Thank you.” Now that she’d wrapped my dress properly, it was actually pretty comfortable and I wondered what type of looks I’d get if I decided to get one to wear around back home. She nodded her head at her handiwork, which was basically all of me, then handed me my token thingy as if I knew what the heck it was for.
“Yeah, I saw them…” I trailed off, not wanting her to think I was a complete moron. The only thing they resembled to me was hair-chopsticks, and she’d already fixed my hair.
“Put it on you wrist. The council will want to see their present to you. These are very nice, usually they give initiates something more delicate. I suppose these will come in more handy than some ring or such would.” She kept talking, and I kept not understanding.
“Would you mind helping me with it?”
“You don’t know what this is, do you?” her eyebrows knit together as she asked.
“No, not exactly.” I kept my eyes on her, determined not to be embarrassed by my lack of knowledge.
“They are throwing spikes. You can throw them, or use your abilities to throw them, at enemies. The sheath is for your wrist, just tie it on like so.” And once again I found myself being fussed over by this woman.
The sheath fit nicely on my inner left forearm, and I spent a few minutes waving my arm around and finding it not at all cumbersome, a comfortable weight, in fact.
Laurel then led me out the door to the feast. She was much more talkative than Alexander had been, but she spoke just as formally as he had. It took about fifteen minutes to walk all the way back to the stadium area where we had our testing. During the walk, Laurel told me quite a bit more about herself and the “battalion” that was stationed there. She focused on long range, and I had no idea what that meant other than maybe a bow and arrow.
The stadium was once again full, but instead of the Elfennol crowding the seats, they were milling around the field where the testing had taken place. It had been transformed in the time that I’d been gone from an empty-then-devastated field, to a party that any A-list actor would kill to be invited to.
Everyone was out of their ‘karate’ garb, and most of the women were wearing dresses similar to mine, though most of them were wrapped in a fancier way. The men were wearing shirts similar to what they had on earlier but sleeveless, and a pair of darker looking slacks. Most of them left the top few buttons undone and they all reminded me of GQ models, which wasn’t that surprising considering how ‘in shape’ everyone was. Guess they didn’t have cheeseburgers down there. Sucks for them.
Laurel was still by my side as I searched the crowd for Cash and Connor. Hell, I’d even take Toby just to see a familiar face. I’d had way too much “unfamiliar” in the past several hours and needed someone to take my mind off the whole “My dad’s probably an Elfennol or worse, a Clade” thing.
I’m not… what’s the word for disliking a group of people based on the fact they aren’t human? Is it racist? Specist? Anyways, I’m not whatever-the-word-is, but I was having a hard time accepting the fact that I wasn’t fully human. Was I sterile like a mule or a liger since my parents weren’t the same species? Or were they…? Do I need to track down all the doctors I’ve ever been to and burn my files so someone doesn’t discover my strangeness? If Clades were all Elfennol at one time, did it mean that I could turn all “bad guy”? What if my dad already was, would I have to kill him to prove my loyalty to The Cause? My mind definitely needed something else to latch on to.
I finally spotted my cousin’s tow-headed self, and walked towards him, trying not to notice the wide berth everyone else was giving me.
CHAPTER TWENTYTWO
July 10th, 1969
Dear Journal,
I believe that Anise is finally catching on to the fact the Toby Neale is in love with her. She isn’t the same reckless girl that she was a year ago; heartbreak changes a person and if Lucas did nothing else, he did break my daughter’s heart. I’m curious to see what she does with the knowledge of Tobias’ feelings towards her. I know she is fond of him but… Well, I suppose she is an adult now, and I must work on cutting those stubborn apron strings and let her live her life. But I miss her laugh. I suppose love is a hard thing to heal from.
“What’d you do to your face?” Cash asked me when we got within talking distance. He was wearing a darker grey shirt than before, tucked in to show off his fancy new leather belt. It was stained the same rich brown as mine, and I pulled on the metal hoops that were sticking out of the sheath on one hip to find out what kind of goody he’d gotten.
“Shut up. What kind of knives are these?” I asked him since I’d never seen one with hoops on top, and its hilt was just flat and metal.
“Throwing knives! Balanced better for Bending through the air. What’d you get?”
I held out my arm so he could pull out one of my spikes while I admired his gift. It was the same black metal as my spikes and even the sharp parts of the blades were black. It also had the power of three symbol etched into it, surrounded by a circle like mine. I made a mental note to ask Uncle Connor, or Luke, about what the symbol meant later, and gave the knife back to Cash.
“How come I got spikes instead of a knife?” I wasn’t complaining, just curious.
“We are aware that you’ve had less opportunity to practice your abilities, and the spikes are more easily controlled. Besides, it’s traditional that the future Neale get a weapon to be used with his physical strength since their bending abilities are usually negligible. We gave Cash something that can be useful either way, since your generation doesn’t have the limits that you grandparents did,” Lord Derek explained from my right. I hadn’t even realized he was there until he spoke. Cash and I turned our bodies to include him in our conversation.
“Thanks for the gifts. I can’t wait to start training with them next week,” Cash said, handing me back my spike while he took his knife back.
“I’m sure you can convince your father to start training as soon as you get back tomorrow,“ he said.
“No, Dad will be getting ready for my aunt’s memorial service this weekend. It can wait a few days.”
“You’re having a service for Gabriella?” Derek’s eyes widened, and he leaned forward in interest.
“Yeah. Dad wants everyone to be able to come and say good bye,” Cash said.
“Oh.” He cleared his throat before addre
ssing me, “Della, we were all very saddened to hear about your mother’s death. I know that you were robbed of the chance to know her, but she was a wonderful woman. We were all lucky to know her.” Derek was the first person to say that they were sorry I didn’t know my mother, not just “sorry for my loss”.
“I’ve heard. I really came back to get to know her a little, but with everything that’s been going on…” I trailed off, realizing that I really hadn’t done what I thought I’d be doing. I knew a lot more about her life, but she was still so mysterious to me. I didn’t know what her favorite food was, or her favorite season, or how she smelled.
“So, Della, will you be moving back into the family house?” Derek offered a welcome change of subject.
“Yeah, we’ll be moving in this weekend too,” Cash answered for me.
“What do you mean, we?” I narrowed my eyes.
“I mean we’re moving in this weekend. Unless you’re wanting to wait another week,” he looked at Derek, “I told her it might be weird moving the same weekend as the funeral.”
“No, I meant about the ‘we’. We’re not doing anything. I’m moving this weekend into my house.”
“Well, I’m moving too. I can either get one of the two extra bedrooms, or camp out on the lawn. Your choice, just might not be the best way to get along with your neighbors if all of my stuff is just sitting in your front yard.” So. Infuriating.
“I really think you might be insane! Did your mother drop you on your head as a baby? There is no way you’re moving in with me and if you-“
“There is no way I’m not moving in with you! You were almost killed two freaking days ago. You shouldn’t be alone. Plus, I’m such an awesome roommate, you’ll hardly know I’m there,” Cash said.
“I doubt that,” I grumbled. We had a group of people looking at us as we argued, who all started their conversations back up at once when we looked around at them. It made us both laugh a little when we noticed.
“I see that you are getting along well.” Derek looked, I don’t know, indulgent as he said that.
