“Uncle is hoping you can unite the clans,” observed Flower. She paused for effect, then added in worldly tone, “It is our considered opinion that he is quite out of his mind.”
“I’m an outsider,” I pointed out. “Not even of your blood.” I touched the damp dressing about my throat. “Though I’ve added some of mine to yours.”
“Oh, that,” said the girl scornfully. “It’s never really about blood and birth and mothers and such.” She gave Lucy a pat. “You are in, or you are not. You give and share and love and remember faces and hearts and words and accept family for the bloody fools they are, and let what names come. Or not.”
Lalena walked through the sunlit grass, tasting it with bare toes. She came up beside Brick, began to taunt his pointed ear with a dandelion. He ignored the taunt, continued.
“We ran laughing across the world, mocking its muddy face. The wandering folk, magic and untouchable. Glorious in our days, terrible in our nights.”
I watched the clan share sunlight like wedding wine, till it began to fade, the magic ending. No matter. In a few hours it would be dawn again, just as magic. I wondered if the clan would await the morning, to walk in the fresh-recalled light.
Lalena held hands out to seize all the fading light, keep it from ebbing back to night. I stood, gave a tap to the head of Flower, who sniffed in disdain, shook her tangles. A pat to the head of Lucy, who grinned. I walked to my day-pinked bride, took her by the hand. Her hair hung disordered, gold strands happy in confusion, shining in the light. So also her eyes.
I considered the woman. Did I love this creature? Too early to say. But I wanted and needed her. While her need for me seemed so similar to sunlight, I fast confused the two. I bent down to kiss her ear.
“Let’s to bed again,” I suggested. “These things require practice.”
She looked up at me, touched the strips at my bandaged throat.
“You are a madman, Rayne Gray,” she declared.
I took her by the hand. “I am a carnival barker,” I proclaimed to her and the gathered family, and to the field of graves and the glorious ruins and an overarching sky puzzled where proper night had wandered. I realized it for truth, and declared it so.
“I man the wheel of fortune, fixed to let all true lovers win, while I dream of nights of glory, deeds of sudden daring.” Kiss to the ear again. “Lips of red. To bed, I said,” I said.
Brick sat his gravestone, reciting his puppet-show as we walked away.
"We tumbled and tangled hearts and bodies, furious in our love. We feuded and laughed, each of us all the world to each. We leapt from high trees into deep waters, daring the next to follow. Raced across desert dunes, leaving mad poems in the sand. We stood alone on mountain-tops singing to the wind, in honor of the next of our blood the wind should meet. Glowing coals we snatched from fire, held to the stars, laughing at the agony and the joy to be us, us, entirely ourselves and nothing lesser."
About the author:
Raymond St. Elmo wandered into a degree in Spanish Literature, which gave no job, just a love of Magic Realism. Moving on to a degree in programming gave him a job and an interest in virtual reality and artificial intelligence, which lead him back into the world of magic realism. Author of several books (all first-person literary fictions, possibly comic). He lives in Texas.
Quest of the Five Clans shall continue in these exciting sequels:
The Moon Tartan
The Harlequin Tartan
The Clockwork Tartan
The Scaled Tartan
The Blood Tartan: Quest of the Five Clans Page 21