Haylwen straightened up quickly, looking to see Feabee standing near the barn, smiling. She nodded, and looked down to see the three cats, now sitting in a neat row on the step below her, looking up at her.
Feabee studied the cats. “I haven't seen Airball in days, and I can't remember when Jazzy has sat still for that long. They must really like you.” Haylwen caught her in an odd look before she composed her face again. “The other kids are that way,” Feabee said, waving her hand.
Haylwen headed off, at the last second remembering to throw a “thank you” at Feabee’s back before heading out. She looked over her shoulder to see the three cats, sitting in a row, watching her leave.
Chapter 23
In School Out
“Hey!”
Haylwen looked up, to see Cadarn's head poking out of the window. “Wait for me!”
Haylwen heard him pound down the stairs, and a moment later he came running around the house, having come out the front door. Haylwen told him about “the other kids,” and he raised one eyebrow.
“Other kids, huh. Well, Mom and Dad did say this was like a school.” He looked around. “Looks like a farm to me.” His eyes opened wide in realization. “I hope they have at least DSL here!”
They walked in the direction that Feabee had waved, and saw rows of what looked like fruit trees, maybe apple. Further down they saw another patch about the size of a soccer field, with rows of different kinds of plants. Haylwen though she recognized lettuce and tomatoes, but wasn't sure. A few minutes later they heard a girl’s voice in the distance. They found a trail into the woods that seemed to go in the right direction.
Haylwen and Cadarn walked along the trail, following the sound of the girl's voice. They both heard the tone of fear and anger mixed together in her voice. They only heard her, however, and wondered who or what would put up with such nagging without saying something back.
They slowed as the voice became louder, and they stopped to look at a girl, about Haylwen's age, apparently yelling at the trees in a small clearing just off the path.
Haylwen looked at Cadarn, who shrugged. “Do you need some help?” she called to the girl.
The girl spun, hands raised. Haylwen could see blue waves radiating off of her for a moment, which quickly settled back against her like a skirt flaring and smoothing after a short spin.
Above, there was a sharp crack, and a grunt, followed by something crashing down through the tree branches. The girl spun back, taking a step back to look up as a large dead branch came crashing down. Cadarn rushed through the bushes and to the side of the girl and looked at the branch that fell. Haylwen followed slowly, for no better reason than not to be alone.
The girl ignored them both. “You fools had better be ok!” she yelled up into the tree, moving around to try to see into the branches better. The way she was moving, she obviously couldn’t see anything. Haylwen stopped, looking up into the tree. From her perspective further away, she saw movement. About half-way up the tree, taller than the roof of the farmhouse they just left, hung a boy from a branch. He kicked, trying to pull himself up, waving the leaves on the branch crazily. Another boy, even further up, climbed down trying to get to him. Haylwen clapped her hands over her mouth as one hand of the first boy slipped off. He swung, and managed to get this hand back onto the branch, but couldn't do much more.
The branch was too far out, didn't have any other large branches nearby, and was too small to support the weight of the second boy, even if he could get there in time. Haylwen felt the fear rising in her throat. She was going to watch this boy fall and get badly hurt, or worse.
She put her hands to her mouth and her arm touched the wish wand against her chest. She had a surge of hope. She felt the fear diminish, replaced by anger at the unfairness of someone, some poor kid, being hurt. She slid one hand over the wish wand, and reached up with the other to the boy, as if to push him up. She reached harder, and somehow it appeared as if he came closer, or her vision became much clearer.
She felt the hand on the wish wand heat up. She reflexively closed her eyes, and immediately saw lights flashing in her peripheral vision and a bright ball in her center. She felt both straining toward the boy in the tree. She opened her eyes and saw a brownish-green fly from her fingers before she was even really aware of what color it was. It streamed away from her fingers like vines, wrapping around the boy and branch. She could feel them tighten, pulling the boy onto the branch to where he could hold on with arms and legs. The boy’s head dangled back, and his eyes were drawn to Haylwen. He looked at her with amazement. His face was so clear and seemed so close, she could see his brown eyes had flecks of yellow-gold. He looked away, squirming so he was on top of the branch. Haylwen wiggled her fingers and the vines loosened. He started to slide his way along the branch toward the trunk, when the branch bent suddenly with a ripping sound. Haylwen felt pain, from somewhere, and reflexively sent more of the brown-green energy into the branch to try to make it stronger. When she did, she felt something, like an awareness, like knowing someone was in the room even though the lights are out. She felt a nudge, through the energy. She didn’t understand it and tried not to think about it, just follow it. She made the green more blue, the brown richer. She didn't have the time to guess who was nudging her, so focused on feeling if what she was doing was right. It felt right, and the branch stopped bending, seemed to straighten a little. The boy, who had frozen when the branch bent, made his way back to the trunk and then started climbing down the tree. She relaxed, then completely dropped the energy in surprise as Cadarn ran up.
“Wow, that was close!” Cadarn said. “For a second, I thought he was going to...”
“Yeah,” Haylwen said, then dropped her voice to a whisper. “I used magic so he wouldn't fall.”
Cadarn's eyebrows shot up, and he whispered, “Oh! I didn't even think of that. Wow. How?” He looked over his shoulder at the two boys making their way down the tree. “Tell me later, okay?”
Haylwen nodded, feeling a little guilty she didn't say she used the wish wand.
The boys and the girl were hugging. Haylwen looked a bit jealously at their group hug as Cadarn walked over to where they were standing. It sounded like the girl was both apologizing for distracting them and reminding them to be careful. The two boys didn't say anything, and didn't seem to notice Cadarn and Haylwen's approach.
The girl turned to look at them as they came near, and the two boys spun and stood behind her. Haylwen finally had a chance to look at her more closely.
She was short, even shorter than Haylwen. She had long, straight dark hair, pulled back into a neat pony tail. Her eyes were a bright blue, and in the filtered light of the forest, they looked to be almost glowing. Haylwen had a brief flash of seeing her wearing white silk clothes and no shoes. She blinked and it went away. She reached up and touched her necklace absently.
The boys looked to be about the same age as Cadarn. They were head and shoulders taller than the girl. One had dark hair, though not as dark as the girl, and the other had light brown hair. Haylwen again saw the flecks of gold in his eyes.
“Are you ok?” she asked him.
He nodded, with just a hint of a smile around the corners of his mouth. His brother gently smacked him on the back of the head, to which he laughed, an odd-sounding laugh.
The girl was looking at each of them in turn. “Feabee said you would be here today. I forget your names, though. I'm Nacia, and this is Oakren,” she said, touching the light-haired boy's hand, “and this is Doakren,” touching the other boy’s hand. She smiled. “They're twins.”
Haylwen looked at each of them, and thought they didn't look like twins.
“They don't look exactly alike, but that's because they are fraternal.” Nacia smiled again. “Who are you?”
“I'm Cadarn, and this is Haylwen,” Cadarn said. He looked over the girl's shoulder to the two boys. “What were you doing in the tree?”
“Oh, they just like climbing trees,” Nacia
replied, taking a step back and to the side, so she could face the twins, Haylwen, and Cadarn. She scowled at the boys, turning to face them more directly. “They almost clobbered me with that branch, and could have fallen too. I feel angry and scared when you climb that high, the branches get so small. Would you two be willing to stay closer to the ground from now on?”
The boys, who were watching her face intently, shrugged. The light-haired one, Oakren, touched the side of his mouth and his ear.
“Oh, yeah,” Nacia said. “Oakren wanted me to tell you they're deaf.”
Haylwen felt suddenly uncomfortable. She saw Oakren watching her, and tried not to show it. She smiled, and he smiled back, raising his eyebrows. Haylwen blushed. Oakren touched Nacia to get her attention, and then made a few gestures, touching his chin.
“He asked how old you two were,” Nacia said, translating.
“I'm sixteen,” Cadarn said, “and Haylwen's fourteen.” He looked at the boys, then Nacia. “How about you?”
Oakren flicked his fingers at Nacia with a questioning look, and Nacia nodded. Haylwen saw Oakren's face twist and wondered what they said.
“I'm fifteen… well… fifteen-and-a-half,” she said, “and the boys just turned sixteen, but they act like they’re twelve.” She said the last part mostly facing the twins, and they both laughed their odd laugh again. Haylwen realized it was because they were deaf, and looked quickly down.
Oakren looked at Nacia and made a few gestures, touching his nose with two fingers.
“Cute?” Nacia looked confused. Haylwen blushed, and Oakren smiled. His brother gently cuffed him on the back of the head again, and they started gesturing back and forth. Nacia watched for a moment, then just shook her head.
“Can you teach me to do that?” Cadarn asked.
“Do what?” Nacia said.
“Sign language,” he said, raptly watching Oakren pointing up into the tree and making a several other gestures quickly. “That is so cool.”
Nacia shook her head. “Oh, you can learn sign language, but most of that isn't sign language. I call it 'Kren' and it's their own made up version of sign language. They had tried to show me some, but they can't really explain how it works. I swear they just read each other's minds and the rest is for show.”
They watched the boys for a moment. They had moved off, arguing the whole time, to stand near the tree they had climbed. Oakren put one hand on the tree and just stood there. Doakren turned to look at Nacia, and saw them watching. He touched Oakren, who shook his head. Doakren touched him again, and moved back to the group. Oakren finally walked over to join them, but looked over his shoulder at the tree.
“We should probably get back, though,” Nacia said.
They quickly made their way back to the trail. Nacia led, chatting with Haylwen about some of the other misadventures the boys had gotten into. Nacia made it sound like the only thing keeping the twins alive was good luck and her constant watchful eye.
Haylwen glanced over her shoulder, seeing Cadarn behind them, listening, but not wanting to leave the twins. The twins ambled along behind, looking into the trees as if they were each the only person around. As they emerged from the wooded trail to the regular dirt path, Haylwen asked, “So, where is the school?”
Nacia smiled. “This is the school,” she said, waving her hand around in a large circle.
Haylwen looked around for the building, and not seeing one, asked, “You have classes outside?”
“Outside is class,” Nacia stopped and turned to face the twins, and made a few gestures. Cadarn watched her closely and turned to watch the twins closely, too.
Haylwen tried again. “Your mom is a teacher?”
“No, she is a learner too.”
Haylwen was getting frustrated, and Oakren took a step forward while doing something quickly with his hands, ending with a sliding motion and touched his finger to his chin, pointing at Haylwen.
“What's that mean?” Cadarn said.
“Oakren just said to stop playing and just tell you,” Nacia said. She looked at them both, and said, “we're unschoolers.”
Haylwen just looked at her.
Nacia smiled. “We believe that learning is not the product of teaching, but of living. We live, and learn, all the time, and thinking it has to be done in a particular place or handed out in a certain way actually blocks the learning process. Unschool. Everywhere, all the time.”
Haylwen was confused. “So you don't go to school?”
“That's what I was trying to say. We are in school, right now. You are learning about learning, not because you were told to, but because you are interested in it.”
Haylwen paused, thinking about that. They all started walking again.
“Don't you get in trouble?” Cadarn asked. “I mean, there are laws to make sure kids get enough schooling, truancy laws, right?”
Nacia shook her head. “Feabee mails in paperwork every year for the government. A man came here once, about three years ago or so, looking around, asking questions. But we have never gotten in trouble.”
“And it’s just you three?” Cadarn asked.
“No, other unschoolers and regular home-schoolers come. Feabee invites people to bring new ideas. There's a lot going on most times. We do a lot of exploring trips, too.”
“Like field trips?”
“Sort of. We find something interesting, and we’ll go explore it. Like the twins are into botany, so we spent a few days at a field lab. Stuff like that.”
Haylwen jumped back in. “Feabee is your mom, right?”
“No, she’s the twins' mom; my mom is Topaz.” Nacia smiled, but dropped her head and looked at the ground.
Haylwen didn’t say anything, but Cadarn didn’t seem to get it. “So how did you end up here?” he asked.
Nacia didn’t seem to mind as much as Haylwen did. “Feabee used to work at the shelter where my mom and I ended up for a while. They got to be friends. Feabee invited us to come live with her for a while, and, well, we never left. Feabee's such a great person.” She paused for a moment, as if deciding something. “The twins are adopted too, but you'd never know it from how she loves them.” She checked Cadarn's and Haylwen's faces. “It's not like a secret, but I didn't want you to ask uncomfortable questions.” Cadarn and Haylwen nodded.
The twins went running past, Oakren spinning to run backward for a few steps, long enough to throw a smile Haylwen's way and look at Nacia while touching his throat.
Nacia laughed.
“What did he say?” Cadarn asked.
“Oh, he said he can smell dinner, and is hungry!”
Cadarn grinned, and they picked up their pace for the house.
Chapter 24
Baskilon
Stephan took a deep breath. The energy flowed over and through him, pushing out a sigh of relief. He settled into the small couch like a toad into mud.
“I really wish I could do that for myself,” he said. “Can you imagine how invincible the warrior would be that could heal himself?”
Gheneve opened her eyes as she lost contact with the energy. Her shoes disagreed with each other, click thunk, as she took steps across the cement to a rug, away from the couch. She picked her jacket up off one of the two desks across from the couch and slipped it on.
“You know I would if I could,” he said. “I don’t want to have you come here.”
“Better here than anywhere else,” she said, taking his line. She said it with a touch of sarcasm, though he didn’t seem to catch it.
“Yes,” he said painfully, “we certainly can’t be seen in public, or at your place.”
Conflicting emotions made a reply like juggling cats, so she let it drop. To change the subject and finish the other half of what she thought of as her duty, she pulled a thick envelope from her jacket. “Here, take this.”
He shook his head even as he reached for it. “You don’t have to do that. I am fine, really.” He quickly opened the envelope for a reassuring glance, then wit
h a word and flick of his hand, made it disappear. “You sure have come a long way.”
“We both have,” she said, rising to leave.
“I thought so, but it doesn’t seem like it recently.” He rose too, slowly at first, then more easily. He took her line this time. “But, it will all be better soon, right?”
She glanced at his face, but could only manage tossing a small smile for her younger brother. She never liked this place, but tonight for some reason she was especially motivated to leave. Then again, she really should visit him more, she should stay longer, the Conclave would never find out. She hesitated, and turned back to him. She searched his face for the boy that she grew up with, the boy she promised she would rescue with herself.
Their eyes met, then flared wide in unison as thudding footsteps hit them at the same time. They were momentarily kids again, terrified of what they knew was coming. Like those old days, Gheneve took charge. She quickly motioned to the lamps, and then the chairs.
Unlike those old days, Stephan used magic to douse the lights and pull them both to their hiding places. The room became a den of shadows. The door opened to cast light into the room. The unsuspecting light was eaten by the dark pools that spilled across the two chairs behind the two large desks.
Cawnal strode in and sat on the edge of his desk. A large, shaved-head man with a large, lumpy nose followed him past the couch and dropped to one knee on the rug in front of Cawnal’s desk, bowing his head.
Cawnal reached behind himself and pushed a button on his desk. The door shut with a clunk. “All right,” he said. “Now, what happened?”
The man slightly raised his head. “Initial attempt unsuccess-sful,” he said with a lisp.
Cawnal picked his teeth with a fingernail. “Yes, I got that. It was a simple mission, like stealing candy from a baby. What happened?”
“Magic.” the bald man said. “Powerful female magic sslew him, desstroyed him. The magic that felled my clutch-brother wass very powerful; I felt itss echo.” His eyes flicked to the chairs behind Cawnal as he paused. The bald man continued, taking the silence for an opportunity. “I wass told there wass no threat of magic! He wass-ss killed...” his lisp increased and he stopped, cutting his rising anger short. He restarted without the emotion, but the increased lisp remained. “The loss-ss, the failure wass-ss becausss-ss of…at leass-sst…miss-ss-information.”
One is Come (Five in Circle) Page 16