Ellanor and the Curse on the Nine-Tailed Fox

by K T Durham

  Then she gulped: she’d left Greymore behind in Alendria. Just before she teleported back to Gaya, she had teleported to her home. She’d stood at the front gates staring at the person she had known all her life as her mother. After that, she felt so angry that she teleported to her bedroom and left not only Greymore there but also Nebulane and Marlow, possessed by an intense desire to drop everything and leave Alendria behind …

  Thorne and Jonah. Thorne and Jonah.

  The names kept surfacing and swirling in her mind. She squeezed her eyes shut and put her fingers to her pounding temples in an attempt to push them out. Everything that she had ever known was based on a lie fabricated by the very people she had loved and trusted all her life. The people who called themselves her parents had lied to her face for thirteen years. How could they?

  She caught sight of her shock of long, messy hair in the hallway mirror and paused. Her black hair indicated that she was definitely a Celendis. But who were Thorne and Jonah? One of them was human. And how were they related to the Celendis clan? As far as she knew, unions between elves and humans were forbidden. She had never known an elf who married a human. How could it ever work out between a being that was blessed to live for one thousand years and one that was doomed to die before they reached one hundred? Thorne and Jonah would have become notorious. But neither of their names had ever come up in anything she’d read. She’d never heard of them. It was like they had never existed.

  What if they had been criminals? Is that why they had died and why they were kept a deep, dark secret? Had they brought such shame upon the Celendis family that their identities had to be buried and concealed forever?

  She stared hard at herself in the mirror and grimaced as she looked at her green eyes. Mama, Papa, and Luca all had blue eyes. Long ago, when she had asked Mama why she was the only one with green eyes in the family, Mama smiled and said, “Because you’re special, darling. Unique, as I always say. Someone in our clan, somebody you’ve never met, had beautiful green eyes. You take after them.”

  How could you love someone and lie to her face every day? They would have had to tell her someday. But when? How long would she have stayed blissfully ignorant? Tears stung her eyes, and the anger and sadness all rolled into one tight, heavy lump in her chest and stayed there like a large, bitter pill, one she refused to swallow.

  She had always been different back home in Alendria, and that was one of the reasons she had always been singled out by bullies like the Three Flamingos. She could never hold a tune and had no aptitude for music at all, which was very unusual for elves, to whom music was second nature. She had always been on the small side, less agile, her reflexes slower. Her parents had chalked it all down to her being “unique.” What a load of nonsense. Because of what she lacked in physicality, she’d had to train so much harder with the Order to reach what they deemed a satisfactory standard. She had always been interested in the humans; not only that, she seemed to blend in much more easily than the average elf. And she was immune to the effects of contamination in Gaya.

  It was all because there was human blood running in her veins.

  And then it hit her: Goldie might have had a hard time fitting in with humans in Gaya, too. Elly wondered if Goldie also hated pink, just like her …

  She nibbled on her lip as she thought about Goldie and the quirks they might share. Aron had always tried to reassure her that her quirks simply made her interesting. “It’s boring to be the same as everybody else!” he would always declare, making her smile.

  Then her stomach twisted. Aron. He couldn’t have known the truth, right? She couldn’t bear it if he had lied to her all along, too. She just couldn’t.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Is Blood Always Thicker than Water?

  After dinner, Elly sat down with Miriam and Horace in the living room and told them, as much as she could, the reason she left Alendria so abruptly.

  Of course, because of the Oath of Silence, she could not mention a word about the Four Guardians, the orbs of power, or anything about her true mission in Gaya. Being bound to the Oath also meant that she couldn’t mention anything about her relationship with Jong-Min and his grandmother, and how Guardian Graille had led her to them.

  As she talked, an uncomfortable realization dawned on her; she had been lying to Miriam and Horace, too. It wasn’t something she had planned or schemed. It was simply necessary, something she had to do out of obligation. It wasn’t just Miriam and Horace; she had not been truthful with Lily or Maddy about who she really was. Who was she to accuse others for lying when she herself was guilty of doing the same thing, even if it was out of obligation?

  Was that what Mama and Papa had been doing all along? They kept the truth from her because they believed it was necessary, that it would somehow make her life easier?

  After Elly finished talking, a long silence ensued as Miriam and Horace sat there grasping their tea mugs, speechless and stricken. Finally, Miriam sighed. “Oh, Elly. I don’t know what to say,” she murmured. “I’m so sorry you have to go through such an ordeal.”

  Elly leaned back in her chair and stared down at the untouched tea in her mug. Horace was shaking his head in disbelief. “So Goldie really is your twin sister,” he murmured wonderingly. “Who would’ve thought?”

  Miriam cocked her head and gazed at Elly. “Goldie does look amazingly like you. I guess we should’ve thought something was too coincidental about that.” She frowned. “But what’s even more amazing is that we actually got to meet her. What are the chances?”

  Elly bit her lip. That was the thing: it couldn’t be due to chance. Some mysterious force was behind all of this; why else would there be so many strange coincidences? Guardian Graille had felt indebted to Soo-Min, who was now married to Charlie Cobble, son of Miriam and Horace, the first two people with whom Elly connected in Gaya. Then her long-lost twin sister, Goldie, had been taken in by Winifred MacDougall, an old family friend of the Cobbles. The common denominator came down to Miriam and Horace.

  Some divine hand had a part to play in all the events that had transpired so far. Sooner or later, she would get to the bottom of it.

  Elly sighed. “Nobody would’ve thought that I have a sister in Gaya. Least of all me.” She hesitated before asking: “You haven’t heard from her, have you?”

  Miriam hesitated for a moment. She didn’t want to alarm Elly, not until she had all the facts. Winifred still hadn’t heard from Goldie and Sebastian, and she was close to calling the police, though Goldie had pleaded with her not to. “No, no news. Last I heard from Winnie, Goldie and Sebastian had found some sort of safe house in Edinburgh, all the way in Scotland. They had probably taken the train there. Anyway, it seems that they’ve been in Edinburgh for the past several months. The kids have been checking in with her.” She didn’t mention Winnie’s frantic phone call. Nor did she mention that Sebastian’s foster parents had sounded strangely, disturbingly, unconcerned when Winnie told them she hadn’t heard from the kids.

  Elly bit her lip. If her dreams of Goldie reflected what had been happening in real life, then Goldie and Sebastian were in danger. But she had no way of knowing for sure …

  Miriam furrowed her brow, stroking Snowy on her lap. “Your parents … the ones who adopted you … they must have had a good reason to keep the truth from you. Suppose they’ve been planning on telling you when you got older? Even if they didn’t give birth to you, they’ve loved you like you were their own flesh and blood, haven’t they?”

  Horace cleared his throat. “There’s this saying that blood is thicker than water. But is that always the case? When mixed with other ingredients, water can be just as thick as blood or more so. It’s kind of like that with family, I think.” He paused, and Elly stared at him. “Family can be about much more than blood ties. If you share a strong bond with someone who is not related to you by blood, that person can become like family to you. Right?�
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  Elly was taken aback by this unexpected insight; the old man rarely said anything substantial beyond his petty grumblings. Looking pleased, Miriam beamed and nodded in agreement with her husband. “You don’t know this, but our Charlie … Well, we did not have a close relationship for a long time. After he got married, he rarely kept in touch, and so that’s why we knew so little about Sue and so hopelessly misunderstood her background.” She blushed. “To this day, I’m awfully ashamed to admit that I mistook Sue as Chinese, when she is in fact Korean.”

  Horace smirked. “Well, Charlie wouldn’t get off his high horse for a long time after he graduated from medical school. He was ashamed of his old man—”

  “He had good reason back then,” Miriam interrupted sharply. “You were a bitter grump, and God knows how you pushed Charlie away.” Horace grumbled and shoved a piece of pumpkin pie into his mouth. Miriam turned to Elly. “Before you knew us, Horace and Charlie were barely on speaking terms. But then you came and changed our lives, Elly. You helped Horace believe he still has it in him to make the most of life, to use his gift to the fullest. Horace regained Charlie’s respect, and he and his family came back into our lives.” She smiled. “You have no idea what you’ve done for us, my dear.”

  Elly blushed and shook her head in wonder. Had she really made such a difference? Miriam persisted, “I can understand why you’re so angry with your parents, Elly. You have every right to be. But there are two sides to a story. Perhaps you should give them a chance to explain? They must be worried sick right now.” She paused, then said softly, “When you love someone, sometimes you don’t tell the truth because you believe it’s in their best interests. People aren’t perfect, Elly. We don’t always know best, and we make mistakes.”

  “That’s right,” Horace chimed in. “Who wouldn’t love you, munchkin? I’ll bet your adoptive parents loved you so much, they were probably afraid of telling you the truth, in case you ran out on them. Which is what’s happened, by the way.”

  Miriam nodded. “Does it really matter that they didn’t give birth to you?” she asked in a quiet voice. “Does that fact diminish what you mean to each other?”

  Elly did not know what to say. It only just occurred to her that all this time she had only been thinking about herself – how hurt and betrayed she felt, how much of a victim she was. But what about Mama, Papa, and Grandpapa? What difficulties and tragedies did they have to face when they brought her into their family? What sacrifices did they have to make?

  There are two sides to a story.

  Greymore’s voice sounded. It is easy to wallow in our own sorrows and fail to ever see things from other people’s perspectives.

  Elly bit her lip. Mama, Papa, and Grandpapa had always been there for her growing up. She’d never questioned that she wasn’t a part of the family. That counted for something, didn’t it?

  “So you were adopted,” Horace mused wonderingly, then shot Miriam a look, as if to ask, “Should we tell her now?” Miriam frowned and shook her head slightly.

  Elly didn’t miss this covert exchange. She knew they had been bursting to tell her about Jong-Min’s adoption. She could have laughed at the irony of it. Here she was, reeling from the shock of having discovered that she was adopted, and the Cobbles were rejoicing at adopting a child into their family. The world certainly worked in strange and mysterious ways.

  Then she recalled how she had almost laughed out loud when Jong-Min’s grandmother asked whether she was adopted. What were the chances? The old woman had been right, after all.

  She raised her eyebrows at Miriam and Horace, pretending to be curious. “Do you have something to tell me?” she asked, feigning nonchalance. Miriam and Horace exchanged apprehensive looks. Elly suppressed a grin. “I’m not as fragile as you think. I’m going to be all right. Now, tell me what you’ve been burning to say!”

  Miriam smiled. “Actually, what we’re about to tell you is sort of relevant to what you’re experiencing. It’s about the little Korean boy that Charlie and Sue adopted. The whole thing is nothing short of a miracle!”

  Elly leaned forward eagerly. She really was curious, since she didn’t have the full story of how Jong-Min finally came to be reunited with his mother. She was also curious to hear more about Soo-Min, the woman who had held such a special place in Guardian Graille’s heart and would never know it. “Do tell me!”

  Miriam furrowed her brow. “Are you sure you want to listen to this? It’s a long story.”

  “Does this story have a happy ending?”

  Miriam smiled. “Yes, I suppose so.”

  Elly grinned and curled up on the sofa. “Then I’m all ears.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  The Plight of Han Soo-Min

  “Charlie and Sue had been trying for another baby for several years. They adore little Alex to pieces, and they wanted a sibling for him. So they were devastated to learn from the doctor that they couldn’t have any more biological children.

  “Charlie was keen on adopting a child. But Sue was resistant. They got into a lot of arguments. Horace and I were quite taken aback by the news. The idea of adoption took a little getting used to. We thought it wise to leave Charlie and Sue to sort out their own feelings on the issue and just support them the best way we can.

  “Back when you visited last Christmas, Charlie told us about their plans to adopt. Sue works in the cancer ward at a big hospital in Surrey, and you can imagine how tough Christmas gets for the patients and their families. Sue, with her heart of gold, decided to stay with her patients until Christmas Eve, when she would make her way to London to celebrate with us. She arrived shortly after you left, Elly.

  “We enjoyed a lovely Christmas Eve feast together. Alex had taken a real shine to you, and he mentioned you during dinner. Sue was surprised there had been another guest here. ‘Elly’s so pretty, Mummy,’ Alex said. ‘You should see her big green eyes!’

  “Charlie had been distracted all day since he confided in us about the adoption. It was only when Alex mentioned your name that he noticed you weren’t there! We told them that you had to leave for your trip abroad. Alex, our little Curious George, lit up like a Christmas tree and asked where you had taken an airplane to. He’s obsessed with all forms of public transport these days. I told him you had gone off to Korea, and he got very excited and turned to Sue. ‘Mummy, Elly flew to where you come from!’ Sue turned pale at the mention of Korea. It was only much later, after Charlie explained everything to us, that we understood.

  “The first time Horace and I met Sue, she seemed shy and didn’t say much, but she was kind and gentle, and Charlie loved her. Over the past few years, we saw what a devoted wife and mother she is. But Horace and I knew little about Sue’s background, except for the snippets that Charlie had told us when we were barely on speaking terms – that she had flown in from somewhere in China when she was twenty, and back then she could barely string two words together in English. It was only much later that we discovered other details, such as the fact that Sue has an uncle here in London who runs a Korean restaurant, and he was the one who sponsored her work visa.

  “Sue had trained as a nurse before she came to London. She took intensive English classes at the community centre, and in the span of three years she learned to speak English with admirable fluency. She worked three jobs supporting herself, and finally she was able to qualify for a job as a nurse at the local hospital in Surrey. That’s where she met Charlie, who works as a heart surgeon there. And for him, it was love at first sight. They got married a year later at a small church ceremony, and Alex was born a year after.

  “Horace and I had never felt the need to pry into Sue’s past. So we were mighty surprised to find out that she was, in fact, from South Korea, not China. We had misunderstood all along! Sue was born in Seoul and raised by her grandparents after her parents passed away in a boating accident. Before she came to London, she spent
a whole year in a small rural town in China with distant relatives. Sue can speak some Chinese, and she worked as a seamstress, a farmhand, and a nurse at the local clinic. Her Korean name is Han Soo-Min, and she took on the English name Sue shortly after she arrived in London.

  “We were shocked when Charlie told us Sue had previously been married to an abusive man in Seoul and that she had given birth to a little boy named Jong-Min when she was barely 19. She left her first husband a year after her son was born, and she got out of Korea altogether. She’d wanted to bring Jong-Min along but was told that it would be better to go back for him later after she’d made a clean break. She was afraid of her husband, and she was desperate to start life anew with her boy. So she became convinced the best way was to leave Korea by herself first, get established somewhere far away, save up some money, and return to collect Jong-Min within the year. Being so young, she was hopeful.

  “But Sue had a very hard time in China. That winter was particularly harsh, and she fell ill with pneumonia and was bedridden for almost two months, and the relatives she stayed with resented having to nurse her back to health. Her uncle in London was encountering problems getting her work visa accepted. In the chilling dampness of her concrete cubicle in that small Chinese village, where she coughed so much she thought she might die, the only thing that sustained her was her love for her baby son.

  “Thankfully, she had a couple of trusted friends in Seoul who kept an eye on Jong-Min, and they updated Sue whenever she telephoned them, which was infrequent as it was hard to make international calls from the village. She was comforted to know that Jong-Min was safe and sound, though it grieved her that she could not be with him. She was grateful, though, that Jong-Min’s grandmother was there, for the old woman was the only other person in the world who truly loved Jong-Min.