Stormcrow: Book Two: Birds of a Feather

by N. C. Reed

  “Good grief,” he sighed as she was finally gone. “What next?”

  “What the hell are you doing in there?!” he heard from outside the doorway and cringed, shaking his head slowly.

  “I had to ask.”

  -

  A long hot shower and shave had left Tony feeling semi-human again and he decided it was time to collect his friend and then find some breakfast. It took him a minute in his mildly hungover state to remember where Galen was.

  Or where he was supposed to be.

  The memory of his mother informing him that Sean had been sent to kill Roberto flooded back into his mind, along with her casual mention that Sean was a 'distant kinsman' of hers. She hadn't mentioned how distant, or how they were related if it came to that. Still, Tony couldn't help wonder what the odds were that his best friend, who he had met on a small-time freighter hopping the galaxy, would somehow be related to his mother.

  “Luka would know,” he muttered to himself. “If I could get him to listen long enough to explain it,” he added. He hit the second-floor landing of the stairs and made his way down the hall toward Sean's room. He had almost forgotten in the years he'd been gone just how big this place really was. Of course there were a lot of people living here other than just his family. Most of the staff lived on the grounds if not in the house itself.

  As he neared Sean's door he saw something that made him forget all about how big his parent's house was, how his friend and his mother were related, or even that his oldest brother, the rat, was now probably in a dumpster somewhere.

  The door to Sean's room opened and his baby sister, his sweet little bratty flower of a sister, emerged into the hallway and slammed the door closed behind her.

  “What the hell are you doing in there?!” he shouted.

  “None of your business,” Lucia shot back, still angry at what she perceived as a rejection.

  “Like hell it's not!” Tony retorted. “What the hell is going on between you and Galen?” he demanded.

  “None. Of. Your. Business.” She bit the words off angrily. “And stop yelling, for God's sake!” she added. “You sound like a sidewalk hawker!”

  “Lucia, what were you doing in Galen's room?” he demanded again, this time in a much quieter tone. One she recognized as her over-protective big brother exerting himself.

  “I'm not going to tell you again, Antonio,” she crossed her arms in defiance. “What I was doing in no way concerns you. And if you say a single word to him about it, I will find a way to make you pay for it. Understand?”

  With that she stormed past him down the hallway, not even bothering to look back. Furious, Tony went straight to Sean's door and opened it without knocking, storming inside.

  “What the hell did you do to my sister?!” he shouted.

  “Do come in,” Sean said dryly, looking up from where he was cleaning the knife he'd used to shave. “And close the door,” he added seriously.

  “I'm not fucking around with you, Galen!” Tony slammed the door shut. “What was my baby sister doing in your damn room?”

  “Galen, is it?” Sean looked up again. “Are we back on a last name basis? Delgado? Giannini? What do you want me to call you, since you're calling me Galen now?”

  That seemed to take some of the wind from Tony's sails for some reason.

  “Sean,” he said slowly, “if you in any way touched my sister inappropriately, I swear to God-”

  “Inappropriately?” Sean snorted. “You're lecturing me on inappropriate?” He stood abruptly, putting the small knife away. “For your information, and I mean for your information only, she came here last night because she was afraid.” He let that sink in for a minute.

  “She snuck in here because she was too afraid to go to sleep in her own bed in her own room, even though there were guards outside her door and her window. Come to think of it,” he frowned suddenly, “how did she get out of her room without some of them seeing her?”

  “Probably through the service duct,” Tony replied. “She used to do it all the time when she was a kid. And if she was afraid, why didn't she come to me?” he demanded.

  “I suggested that, or to your parents,” Sean nodded. “She thought it was childish to sleep with her parents and somehow perverted to sleep with you,” he shrugged. “Apparently, that left me.”

  “So you slept with my sister,” Tony made the declaration sound flat.

  “Slept,” Sean stressed. “She curled up under a blanket on the far side of this ridiculously huge bed and slept. That's all.”

  “And I'm just supposed to believe that,” Tony snorted. Suddenly Sean's eyes seemed to contract just a little and his demeanor changed somewhat.

  “I couldn't care less what you believe,” he almost whispered. “If you think I'd lie to you, if you think I'd somehow violate your sister at all, let alone in your parent's home, then I'm fairly certain you don't know me nearly as well as you thought, Antonio.” His use of Tony's full and proper name didn't go unnoticed. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to see about getting a ride back to the Celia since I appear to have worn out my welcome here.” He took a step, then stopped.

  “And by the way?” he added. “The reason I let her stay? Was because when she was sneaking in here and I didn't know it was her, it crossed my mind that someone in this house might yet be working with the Falcones, or with whoever they're working for assuming they were hired to do this. Sending her back out alone after she'd made it this far just didn't seem smart. So I let her stay. She slept soundly, right there, under her own blanket while I slept right there,” he pointed to the other side of the large bed, “above the cover. And that's honestly more information than you deserve, seeing how she is an adult.” With that he pulled the door opened and walked out, leaving his 'friend' behind.

  -

  “First the girl and now him,” Sean muttered to himself as he made his way down the back stairs of the home. He wasn't part of the same society the Delgados were, so he didn't go down the front stairs. He was in the hallway looking for Marisa when he saw Antonia Delgado looking at him.

  “Walk with me,” she said simply, her tone indicating she meant for him to do so. She was clearly accustomed to wielding power. To issuing orders and those orders being obeyed. She would have made a fine tribal matriarch had she remained at home.

  “Alright,” he agreed with a sigh. What now?

  “I must assume since you returned last evening that I am indebted to you yet again,” she said as the two made their way out to the back veranda of the immense home. Sean reached into his pocket in way of answer and removed the ring he'd taken from Roberto's finger.

  “B'izo yii'sh'zii,” he said softly. His star has gone dark. He handed the ring to her without fanfare.

  “I see,” she accepted it stoically, looking at it for a moment as she turned it over in her hand. She looked up, staring into the distance at nothing for another moment of silence, then looked back to Sean.

  “It is a hard thing, Bringer of Storms, to take vengeance upon one's own,” she said softly.

  “So it is,” he nodded.

  “You speak from experience,” she said rather than asked.

  “I'm afraid so,” he admitted. “I also took this,” he reached behind him and pulled out the small booklet he had found in Roberto's things, handing it to her.

  “Thank you,” she accepted the journal without opening it. “I will give it to my husband. There is likely a record of the distasteful things that Roberto has done recorded here, somewhere.”

  “No idea,” Sean shrugged. “I just went through what was there and brought this because it looked important.” He paused, and when she said nothing he continued.

  “I need to call a cab,” he said simply. She looked at him, eyebrow raised.

  “You are leaving?”

  “Yes,” he nodded. “I have outstayed my welcome, I think,” he admitted.

  “With who?” she frowned. “I know it is not my daughter that thinks so,” she almost
smiled. “I know where she spent the night, Stormcrow.”

  “Don't call me that,” Sean asked softly. “My name is Sean. Sean Galen.”

  “As you wish,” she nodded. “Your welcome here is exhausted when I say it is, Sean Galen. I make the rules in this house, not my son. My daughter is enamored with you,” she said simply, looking back out toward the back of the estate grounds.

  “It will pass soon enough,” Sean saw no reason to deny something the woman clearly knew to be the truth.

  “Why does this bother you?” she looked back to him yet again. “Many a man would love to have her attention. Why do you shun it?”

  “You know who I am,” he replied evenly. “What I've done. She doesn't need to be around a man like me, Mrs. Delgado. You know that. She will know it as well, in time.”

  “I cannot agree,” Antonia shook her head, her long black hair swaying behind her. “I told you I was once called Eyes Afar.” He nodded. “I was not called that because I kept my gaze on distant worlds, wishing to see more than the home I was born to.”

  “You have the Sight,” Sean realized what she was saying.

  “I do, though without access to the Caves it has dimmed over the years,” she admitted. “Still, when Lucia was born, Sean Galen, I had a vision of her with a man. A man covered in blood, in fact. A warrior who bears the brand of the AriPerro.” Her gaze was piercing as she looked at him, as if searching into his soul. Eyes Afar was an apt name for this woman, he decided.

  “It can't be me,” he said finally. “I am and will always be a wanted man, Mrs. Delgado. That will never change. Sooner or later I will be too slow, or will not be watching, and that will be that. If you have the Sight, you know how my story ends.”

  She was silent for a moment, studying him. Then she once more returned her gaze to the distance before them.

  “There is always more than one end to any story, Sean Galen,” her voice startled him when she began to speak again, so soft he had to strain to hear. “Lucia may well have to take Jerome's seat at the head of this family one day. Luka, our other son, is a hapless academic. I am very proud of him make no mistake, but his prowess would do him no good in our world. Antonio is afraid of what he would become, I think, and resists the idea that he should take his father's place. With Roberto gone, that leaves only Lucia. She is young and at times impetuous, but she is also highly intelligent and very determined. This ordeal will have hardened her my husband believes, and I agree assuming she can recover from the trauma of losing her governess, a woman who has been with her literally since the day she was born.”

  “I'm sure she'll do fine,” Sean settled for saying when Antonia fell silent. “There is strength in her that I do not believe she herself yet sees. When her time is upon her, she will rise.”

  “I am sure you are correct,” she nodded finally. “If you are determined to go, at least let me send you away with a full stomach,” she smiled suddenly. “You have done much for me, Sean Galen. Allow me to do this small thing for you. And know that should you ever need our help, we are but a call away. You will find that having the Delgado as a friend is no small thing.”

  “I would imagine that to be very true,” Sean ventured a small smile. “And breakfast does sound good,” he admitted. “I don't recall when I ate last, now that I think about it.”

  “Then come with me.”

  -

  Still fuming, Tony stalked his way down the main stairway into the receiving hall and moved toward the dining room. There should be someone cooking this time of morning. If there wasn't, well, it wasn't as if he couldn't cook for himself, was it?

  He wasn't sure who he was angrier with at the moment; Sean, for letting Lucy stay with him like that, Lucy for going to him in the first place, or himself for laying into his friend without even giving him the benefit of the doubt. A friend who had helped him yesterday save his sister from certain death.

  “That is a fierce look upon your face, my son,” his mother's voice made him draw up short. He turned to see her standing down the hallway, looking at him.

  “Mother,” he nodded, moving to kiss her cheek. “Good morning.”

  “Is it, my son?” she asked him, eyebrow raised in question.

  “What do you mean?” he asked, frowning slightly.

  “I am forced to wonder at your treatment of a man you called friend just yesterday,” she told him. “A man who followed you and assisted you in saving the life of your sister at that. A man that you trusted enough to bring here with you and introduce to your family.”

  “Yeah, well,” Tony more or less mumbled. “Things can change in a hurry around here.”

  “Indeed they can,” she nodded. “I can see but two reasons for your anger, Antonio, and neither is your concern.”

  “How can you say that!” he demanded.

  “What he did last night he did at my behest,” she replied flatly. “If there is someone you need to blame for that you must blame me, for it was my decision that your brother pay for his offense.” She said it plainly for once, shocking her son a little.

  “As for Lucia,” her eyebrow shot up again, “she is a grown woman who knows her own mind. It is not for you to decide how she spends her time, or who she spends it with.”

  “She's my sister!” Tony protested.

  “That does not make you her guardian or her keeper,” his mother replied firmly.

  “You know where she slept last night!?” he demanded, voice rising slightly.

  “Do not raise your voice to me, boy,” Antonia's voice was suddenly hard and cold, catching him by surprise. “You may be a man grown but I am your mother and you will show me the respect I am due, more especially in my own house!”

  Taken aback by her savage response, Tony looked chagrined as he apologized.

  “I'm sorry,” he said in a softer tone. “I didn't mean to be disrespectful.”

  “Then cease to be so,” she was not mollified. “And yes, though it is not your concern, I know exactly where she spent her night. You will find that nothing happens in this house that I do not learn of sooner or later. And if you think my daughter was able to do anything last night without my knowledge, then you sadly underestimate your mother.”

  “I can't believe you're okay with that,” Tony shook his head in wonder.

  “Okay with what, exactly?” Antonia cocked her head to one side, studying her son intently. “That your sister has chosen a man indeed to give her attention to, rather than one of the countless vultures and hang-arounds that generally compete for her time and attention? That she spent the night chastely in his company?”

  “How can you know that?” he asked, dumbfounded.

  “I know my daughter,” Antonia replied coolly. “While she may be infatuated with Sean Galen, she is not in any way so far gone as to surrender her maidenhood to him, not even in appreciation for saving her life. She has sworn to remain chaste until she marries. Not at my request, or your father's, but of her own accord.”

  “I didn't know that,” Tony admitted, a bit shame-faced.

  “It is difficult to know anything when you are never at home and only rarely call,” she had no mercy on her son this morning. “You show up suddenly after so long away and think that you can dictate to your sister as if she were still a child? You amuse me, my son,” she actually smirked a bit. “Your sister has grown up in the years you have been away, whether at school or aboard your ship. She is no longer a child, though she does occasionally still act as one. That I attribute to her free spirit more than any immaturity. Consider that despite her ordeal yesterday, she has not broken. Bent, yes. Broken, no.”

  “All the more reason to be careful with her!” he insisted. “Someone could take advantage of her in that state!”

  “The man you call friend would never dishonor this house in such a manner,” she told him flatly.

  “How is it you know so much about him, anyway?” Tony demanded. “And what is this crap about him being a distant kinsman?”

&nbs
p; “His mother and mine are of the same people,” she told him easily, there being no reason to hide it. “I should say were, as both his mother and mine are are now with our ancestors.”

  “What?” she couldn't have surprised him more.

  “You heard me,” she didn't bother to repeat it. “Why do you think he was willing to help me regain my honor? And should your sister convince him that she is worth his time, who are you to object to that? Until she showed an interest in him, he was your 'best friend' I believe you called him? He was good enough to accompany you yesterday and save her life, to shed blood for this family, but not for her to have an interest in as a man? This makes no sense to me, my son.”

  “You don't know him!” Tony objected. “You don't know what he's capable of!”

  “To the contrary. I know exactly who he is, and precisely what he is capable of,” his mother assured him. “And I grow tired of repeating myself that this does not concern you”, her voice hardened once again. “You were the one to decide that you must leave us, and you did. Do not now presume to return and think that you can merely begin dictating what will be. I will not tolerate it, nor will your father.”

  “And you should think carefully before tossing away such a valuable friendship over something that is not only not your concern, but a product of your imagination.”

  She turned and walked away from him before he could respond to that, leaving Tony a bit confused and at least slightly ashamed.

  He continued his way into the dining room thinking about what his mother had said.

  -

  Sean looked up from his meal to see Tony walking into the dining room, head down, hands in his pockets. He didn't bother to speak to his 'friend', instead returning to his meal in silence.

  “Sorry, Sean,” he heard Tony say a moment later. “I didn't see you there.”

  Sean shrugged but said nothing in reply, continuing with his breakfast. Whatever faults this place might have, food wasn't one of them. Even Tony's cooking wasn't this good.