Llewellyn cocked his head and thought a bit, “Well, I’m a High Silver. Silvers and High Silvers can both change their coat color. You know when I first was learning to change my coat, it seemed not unlike flexing muscles in the skin, as weird as it might sound. Nowadays, well, I don’t know, I just do it.” He paused for effect before continuing, “How do you make your wings come and go? It is most likely fundamentally the same mechanism.”
“I… I’m not sure either… I guess it is kind of like you said: I just do it.”
“Well, there we are then, now back to the discussion at hand; while that was a marvelous flight, breakfast is the next order of business.”
Dawn cautiously nodded and winked her wings out with a flash and quickly straightened her dress. “I’ve seen a Silver once before, he could change the hue of his fur and darken it a bit. Chromophores at the root of the fur or something… but it was nothing like that…”
Llewellyn nodded as the pair, somewhat timidly, started walking toward the house, “Yes, well… where to begin… Like I mentioned, I’m actually what they call a High Silver… much like a Silver but more so. There are a few hundred thousand Silvers spread across all the known worlds… there are eighteen of us. Eighteen times more common than you, but in the grand scheme of things, about par on rarity.”
“How long have you known about the wings? Have you been spying on me, sir?” Dawn was a rare mix of scared and irritated and fought for the right words.
“I’ve known of your wings since shortly after you were born; I was contacted by members of your family. And no, I’ve not been spying on you; that would be rude,” he offered quite sincerely. “I was heading out to the butcher this morning, got a chance to see you in full form, so I kind of made myself scarce so as not to disturb you.”
“You scared me… a lot!”
Llewellyn gave a broad grin, “I can be a bit melodramatic. One of many faults!”
“So you didn’t actually see me crash the other day when you found the feather?”
“No, I came across it after the fact. An exceptionally large feather that I’d never seen before with your footprints all around… it wasn’t much of a stretch.”
“Who all have you told?” Dawn cautiously inquired.
“Told what? About the twins?”
Dawn gave him her best dirty look.
“Oh! About the wings… No one. Should I have?” he queried.
Dawn shook her head vigorously, “No! Thank you…”
“Not even Maria?”
Dawn sighed, “Please, let me tell her on my own time, sir.”
“Fair enough! Well, I’ll meet you at the house later. I have to get to the butcher shop!”
Dawn made it back to the house on her own and found Maria had just starting to look for her.
“Oh, there you are,” called Maria. “Where have you been?”
“I took a walk with Uncle and we talked a bit.” Well, that was true enough.
“Oh, very good then. Was he headed to the butcher?”
Dawn cracked a smile. So at least that part was true. Maybe he hadn’t been spying on her after all. “That is what he said.”
“Good, good! Well eat up. Classes this morning and then maybe a short trip to the meadow after lunch.”
Dawn nodded and smiled, Maria always did a good job of breaking up the monotony of class work. “Great plan, as always!”
Chapter 8
The afternoon soon slowly rolled by as Dawn sprawled on a picnic blanket and devoured her book. Nearby, Maria and Heather were working on lettering with a chalk and slate. The birds sang long high notes as a few high and mighty clouds finally surrendered to the day’s sun.
Maria suddenly sat upright holding her side and gasped a bit. With no small amount of effort she made it to her feet and breathed deeply.
Dawn was suddenly scared, “Are you all right? What is it.”
Maria smiled at her through some very obvious pain, “It’s okay, sunshine. I think it’s time…”
Dawn was now even more confused and scared, “Time for what?” Suddenly the obviousness of the situation caught up with her and she became very excited, “Oh! The baby!” She madly scooped up her book and tried to quickly fold the blanket. It was a mess, but it got done. She quickly stuffed it along with the slate board in the wicker basket.
“Don’t worry about that, I’ll send one of the twins back for it.” Maria paused to catch her breath. “Do you feel comfortable going into town right quick for me?”
“Yes, Maria. Of course, but do you need help getting back to the house?”
Maria made a long low sigh and caught her breath, “No, I’ll be fine this short distance. Get to Rachel there in town and tell here it’s time.”
“Rachel, the midwife there at the apothecary. Got it!” Dawn turned to run toward town but stopped and turned back to Maria. She gave her a careful but firm hug and then started off again. Running like the wind she quickly crossed the field and turned up the old forest path. Quickly she made it to the stone road and pressed forward ever more excited as time pressed on.
By the time she made it to Rachel, she was well out of breath, barely able to squeak out the simple, “It’s Maria!”
Rachel smiled at the excited youth and informed her she’d be heading that way in less than ten minutes.
With that brief respite, Dawn thanked her and tore off down the road heading back toward the house. She had just turned off the stone road when it hit her. The forest was all wrong. Dawn stopped and looked around. She almost felt lost things were so different. She nervously scanned her soundings trying to figure out what was wrong. Suddenly she had it: there was no forest noise. No birds or squirrels, nothing!
Fear crept up on her in the unnatural quiet and she strained her ears as she cautiously started back down the path. Home was closer than the town, so that was where she headed. As she turned a corner around a very dense set of trees, she saw them!
Two large kartivalds were on the prowl. Looking like a demented cross between a warthog and a bear, they were not to be trifled with. What are they doing here? she thought to herself. They are lowland creatures and shouldn’t be ranging this far out. Her logic was spot on, not unlike someone finding a tiger in Europe, the beasts were just as out of place and just as dangerous.
She slowly started for a tree and then another thought hit her. Rachel would be heading down this very path soon! What to do?
The kartivald caught sight of her and Dawn’s mind was quickly made up for her: up the tree she went! Claws gnashing into the side of the tree she made quick work of the climb and soon found herself on a limb twenty-five feet up.
The largest kartivald was not amused. It charged the tree, smashing into the side with a horrible impact. The tree shook hard, but held its own. Dawn desperately clung to the tree as the beast pounded it again.
There was a crack this time. Both she and the beasts heard it. The larger one salivated as it readied another charge. Dawn grimaced as she braced for the impact. The crack was even louder this time and the tree started to buckle. Dawn quickly shifted gears. She stood up on the tree branch and extended her wings. Not having a chance to prepare, they painfully tore through the back of her dress. She fought through the pain and pushed off, pumping the wings as hard as she could.
There was no way she could make it up through the canopy so instead she made for a branch on the largest tree she could find. She smacked her wings painfully against the trunk as she landed, but she kept her balance. Her wings now hurt more than ever before, but she had found a solid perch!
Oh, that was not fair! The smaller of the two kartivalds started slowly climbing the tree! She didn’t know they could climb trees. Dawn screamed and called as loudly as she could, “Llewellyn!” Oh, now she wished he had been spying on her! “Llewellyn!” she blared again, louder than before almost making her hoarse. As panic threatened to take control she dug down deep inside of her. Someplace where things always kept hiding, much deeper insi
de than her beautiful wings, something bubbled up from inside and out came a roar! The ferocity of the roar caught the climbing kartivald by surprise. She was not prey! But what caught Dawn by surprise was that as she roared, she heard her own voice buried in that roar calling her uncle a third time, and it echoed throughout the woods.
A sharp thunderclap heralded Llewellyn’s arrival. Encased in a sparkling blue flame he winked into existence at the base of the tree. His eyes flashed with primal anger and narrowed to slits like that of a wild cat. A blue flash of a sword coming and going brought the smaller beast to its end while the other, much larger one spun to engage. It may have outweighed Llewellyn by ten to one, but Dawn was pretty sure he could have dropped the brute bare handed if he had wanted. Of course, that would have been playing fair, and Llewellyn had absolutely no interest in playing fair. Four blindingly quick blue flashes dispatched the beast almost twenty feet away from him.
Dawn let go of the breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding and fluttered down out of the tree. She quickly retracted her sore wings and ran towards her uncle. As she closed, she was both relieved and frightened: he looked like a man possessed! Llewellyn had to be nearly hyperventilating; she wasn’t even sure if he was in any condition to talk.
Llewellyn dropped to his knees with one hand on the ground and strained his senses. With eyes shut, his ears twitched and nostrils flared as he licked the air. Suddenly he spun and dashed into the woods, ten steps later Dawn could tell he’d found his mark as another kartivald screamed. Almost as quickly as he had departed, Llewellyn was back at Dawn’s side.
She couldn’t hear him say a word but knew almost instinctively that they were now all gone. The road was safe.
Llewellyn scooped up Dawn in his arms and suddenly the whole world faded out in a shimmer of blue light. Briefly she caught sight of massive ancient machines orbiting around them in a shimmering netherworld while closer in, an immense arsenal of weapons floated as well, all just out of reach. She could just make out a ghostly glow of her own wings behind her when the world faded back just as quickly and they found themselves in the kitchen of the house.
Llewellyn collapsed to the floor exhausted and hyperventilating for certain.
Dawn knelt by him and cradled him crying, “Thank you! Thank you! How did you do that?”
Panting and starting to fade he countered, “How did you call me?”
Shocked, her head swam, “I don’t know… I just had to!”
Trying to laugh as he tried to control his breathing, “Well, I just had to as well…”
Dawn hugged him tight, “Thank you, Father.”
And with that Llewellyn passed out.
Chapter 9
Dawn carefully cradled the infant as Maria passed it to her. It was snow white like her mother, but oh so tiny! With the eyes not open yet, Dawn could still imagine the child having the same beautiful eyes as her mother.
“Lily, right?” Dawn asked.
Maria, thoroughly exhausted, nodded and smiled weakly.
“It’s okay, Second Mother, I won’t drop her,” Dawn promised.
That lit up Maria’s face even more. “Now doesn’t that sound better?” she asked ever so faintly.
Dawn beamed back at her and caressed the infant lightly.
“Can you spend the night, Rachel?” Ivy asked as Maria started to fall back to sleep.
“All part of the plan, Ivy. We brought enough things for two nights in case we had to, but by the looks of things, we may be able to leave by lunch tomorrow. Both are healthy as can be,” reassured Rachel.
“We,” she had said. The second person in question was a strange girl of about sixteen. She was lovely enough, but quite strange in her manner, and she hadn’t spoken a word since they arrived. She had handled Lily expertly and with great care and poise, but had never even made eye contact with anyone. Gwen was her name, at least based on introductions. The only attempt at social interaction the strange girl had done was play mandolin with the twins. She was quite good at it! The twins seemed to really enjoy playing music with her as well, but just as quickly as she started, she stopped and wandered back to be with the infant again. Dawn wasn’t sure, but she could almost swear Gwen could hear the infant wake up all the way across the house. All the adults paid no mind to her idiosyncrasies and instead just enjoyed the skills she showed.
“Besides,” continued Rachel, “It’s always nice to see Gwen spend time with the twins. She does so seem to enjoy being with them and Maria.”
“I saw her playing music with the twins, but what is this about Maria?” asked Dawn, trying to be diplomatic.
“Gwen is Maria’s little sister, so I guess in a manner of speaking she is your aunt. She has just been apprenticing with me as she does very well with small children and doesn’t seem to fit in many other places,” Rachel explained before quickly changing gears. “We are all just happy you have started to settle in. Everyone was worried for you.”
Dawn nodded, “I thank you for your concern. Speaking of which, how is Father?”
“He is doing quite well,” offered one of the twins. “He should be right as rain in the morning―just still a little tired.”
The sudden voice behind her caught Dawn off guard and she visibly jumped. They were a sneaky pair! “With Maria out of action for a few days, I’ll volunteer to take Dawn into town tomorrow,” the other twin offered.
“Thank you, May,” responded Dawn nervously. Dang! She thought she had gotten out of going to sword practice.
“How did you know it was me and not April?” asked May both curious and surprised.
“You are left handed and lead that way in your body posture,” Dawn replied matter-of-factly.
“Excellent observation!” exclaimed May. “Hmm… now we will have to work on making that less obvious.”
They all had a good laugh. That was the twins for you, always scheming to maximize confusion.
“Ivy, there is still the dance tomorrow night,” continued May. “April and I, and Gwen if she wants, can cover it if you’d like to stay here with Maria.”
“I’ve gotten so wrapped up, I completely forgot about playing for that dance. If you two feel comfortable doing it on your own, I would indeed rather stay here,” said Ivy a little overwhelmed.
“No problem. We’ll even take Dawn along. She’d do well on the dance floor with bells on,” snickered May.
Dance floor! Dawn started to squirm. Maybe this is what she got for publicly breaking the twins identity code! She needed to watch herself around those two.
“She may be a little young for bells, but I do think the outing would be good for her,” agreed Ivy beaming at Dawn.
Dawn would have loved to crawl under the table and hide. As she judged her chances, the bell at the door caught them all unaware, and suddenly she had an escape!
“I’ll get it,” offered Dawn quickly as she started to pass the infant off to Rachel. But there, suddenly, was Gwen! My, she got around. She was almost as sneaky as the twins. Gwen, ever so motherly, accepted the child instead from Dawn, and cradled her lovingly.
Dawn eagerly bounded downstairs to the door. Outside were two adults. She immediately recognized one of them as the Lady Mayor. She didn’t recognize the other, per se, but noticed he wore a sash of the constabulary.
“Oh, you must be Dawn!” greeted the mayor. “Ivy has spoken so much about you.”
Dawn bobbed politely, “Pleased to meet you, ma’am.”
“If possible, that is, if he is well enough to take visitors, we’d like to speak with Llewellyn,” the constable said with no small amount of urgency.
“Yes indeed, please come in to the great room and I’ll fetch him.” Dawn led them into the house and then hurried back upstairs.
Llewellyn was already coming out of his room. He was a bit worse for the wear, but he was walking and wearing what was most likely a forced smile. “I heard them. It’s the Lady Mayor and Owen the Chief Constable, is it?”
Dawn n
odded, “The Mayor, yes. It is a constable of some sort, but I don’t who is which.”
Llewellyn smiled and kissed her gently on the forehead before slowly starting downstairs.
“Dad, do you need help?”
He smiled genuinely back at her, “I do like the sound of that…”
Dawn giggled, “That is what Maria said…”
With mock confusion he fired back, “You called Maria, ‘Dad?’”
Dawn laughed, “I guess you are feeling better.” She followed him into the great hall.
The guests both stood when he entered. This sign of respect surprised Dawn given the stature of the guests. Apparently, her uncle had a reputation beyond this small town.
“Maggie, Owen, good to see you again. Sorry that it’s not under better circumstances.”
Maggie, the Lady Mayor, nodded back showing obvious concern, “Owen said the kartivalds you killed had collars on them. That means they didn’t just wander five hundred miles up here on their own. Someone brought them.”
“And the only people who have done something that outrageous before,” interjected Owen, “was the Fechner Gang.”
Dawn hung on every word, both curious and scared. She was at the doorway as she had neither been dismissed nor invited in, so she chose to bide her time and learn what she could!
“The Kulpgurie were very clear: if the Fechner Gang was ever released from prison for any reason, we were to be told immediately!” The mayor was more than a little excitable.
“The Kulpgurie are efficient and expedient if nothing else,” her father began. “The problem is, if they were released, or had escaped, the first person that would have been told would have been our late ambassador Helen.”
The mayor grimaced at the obvious break in the information chain, “Ouch! Okay, I’ll have to inquire immediately through our other channels.”
“Dawn?” called Llewellyn.
Dawn jumped, startled at being called. She had hoped she hadn’t been noticed and could just remain a fly on the wall. “Yes, Dad?”
Dawn Page 5
