“Yeah, all right. The coffee’s on the counter behind you, if you want some. There’s soda in the fridge. Just… Don’t talk to me right now.” Not that there seemed much chance of that.
She pulled her sweater off the back of the chair, and created a nest of sorts on the desk, weaving current into it so that it stayed in the right shape. If there was a small protection charm woven in as well, it wasn’t as though anyone would be able to tell. The baby scrunched her face again, and let out a little sigh, and a tiny bubble of spit formed at the corner of her mouth. Ellen wasn’t sure if that was adorable, or disgusting. “Hello, sweetie, aren’t you a sweetie?” She unwrapped the blankets, wondering if maybe the boss had stopped to pick up diapers and formula, because otherwise someone was just going to have to turn around and go out again. “You look human… ten fingers, ten toes…”
The door opened behind her, the sound of Danny’s cowboy boots a familiar noise against the linoleum. She risked a glance away from the baby, and saw that he was carrying a bag from the drug store down the street. Good.
He put the bag down on the floor with a soft-sounding thunk, and looked over her shoulder just as the baby opened her eyes.
“Huh. Well, there’s that then,” Danny said, an odd tone in his voice.
“Definitely not human,” Ellen agreed. She lifted the now-awake baby in her arms, and turned, stepping away from Danny as she did so. “Your granddaughter,” she said to Faosullvaant. “I don’t suppose you know her name?”
The gryphon looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there, but Ellen didn’t let him escape, stepping forward just enough that the baby caught sight of him. Chubby little arms flew out to the side, fingers working as though she was trying to grab at him.
The gryphon looked at her then, two pairs of golden eyes meeting for the first time. Something in him seemed to break, quietly. “Her grand-dam’s name was Marciad.”
“That’ll work. Hello, Marciad”
“Still think she’s an abomination?” Danny was leaning against the desk now, watching all three of them.
That beak clacked again, and Ellen though that maybe she was starting to “read” gryphon, because she knew it was thought, not irritation, that was behind it. “Yes. But it is not her fault that she exists. My daughter bears the blame for that, and she has gone beyond responsibility.”
Dead then, or somewhere out of reach forever. Ellen wasn’t sure which might be worse.
“She can never know what she is,” the gryphon went on. “No-one should be able to use her, ever.”
Danny nodded immediately, although she suspected he had his own reasons that had nothing to do with whatever grandpa was afraid of. “Agreed. Although if she starts to show -“
“A problem for another day?”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Great, now that you’ve got her life all planned out for her, where’s she going to go?” Ellen would have called them on their typical male BS, saying what Marciad could or couldn’t be, but the chubby little hand trying to grab her nose now had all of her attention. “Don’t do that, baby-girl. Stop. Help?”
Danny removed the fingers from Ellen’s nose, and lifted the child away from her. “Hello, sweetness,” he cooed at her, and she went right for his horns. He laughed, like they were ticklish, but didn’t remove her hands. “You’re going to be a handful and a half, aren’t you darling?”
“What are we going to do with her? I mean, I don’t think grandpa there wants her, and her parents…”
“Mom’s gone, and dad’s not really set up to handle this, no.” Danny coaxed the baby into settling down, letting her grab at his own fingers. “Her mother’s people said they’d take her. They’re pretty mellow, as breeds go, and she’ll be safe there.” Isolated, he meant, and she heard, even unspoken. “And they always have kids running around, so one more won’t raise eyebrows. If our gryphon buddy says she won’t manifest feathers or a beak, I’m willing to take that on trust, but other breeds mingle a little less obviously, and those eyes are always going to be a question mark. Besides, she may not seem very Lilin-like right now, but better she be there when she hits puberty, just in case.”
He went into the inner office, baby still in his arms, and she heard him sit down, and pick up the phone. Presumably to call the Lilin House. Or maybe to order pizza…it was Friday, right? She checked the calendar: yeah it was Friday.
They’d managed a happy ending, despite the odds. Their missing man was home, and Lilin House would take the baby in: they’d said so, knowing what the baby was, and Danny thought they were telling the truth. Whyever she’d been born, whatever her mother might have thought would happen, whatever she grew up to be, they would take her in, protect her. They’d make sure that Marciad doesn’t spend her life being looked at oddly, as a freak, forever out-of-place. Danny would call that a win.
Ellen walked past the gryphon and reached down to pull a soda out of the fridge, taking it back to her desk and sitting down to sort through the mail. She slit open the first envelope, smiling. Boss might call it a win, but she called it a promise, kept.
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Acknowledgements
with thanks to the Early Patrons and meerkat minions
Copyright & Credits
Promises to Keep
Laura Anne Gilman
Book View Café Publishing Cooperative
Cedar Crest, NM
October 2013
ISBN: 978-1-61138-273-09
Copyright © 2013 Laura Anne Gilman
www.lauraannegilman.net
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
For information/permissions, contact [email protected]
Cover design by Tiara Lynn Agresta
www.bookviewcafe.com
About the Author
Laura Anne Gilman is the author of the popular Cosa Nostradamus novels for Luna, and the Nebula award-nominated The Vineart War trilogy from Pocket, and a wide range of short fiction from many fine publishers.
In 2012 she dipped her pen into the mystery field as well, writing the Gin & Tonic series as L.A. Kornetsky
Ms. Gilman is represented by Barry Goldblatt Agency and is a member of Book View Café Publishing Cooperative.
If you enjoyed Miles to Go please consider reviewing it on a blog or at an online bookseller, or mention it on your favorite social media. Find Laura Anne Gilman online at LauraAnneGilman.net.
Also by Laura Anne Gilman
Retrievers
Staying Dead
Curse the Dark
Bring it On
Burning Bridges
Free Fall
Blood From Stone
Paranormal Scene Investigations
Hard Magic
Pack of Lies
Tricks of the Trade
Dragon Justice
Vineart War
Flesh and Fire
Weight of Stone
The Shattered Vine
Gin & Tonic Mysteries (as L.A. Kornetsky)
Collared
Dragon Virus
From Whence You Came
Tales of the Cosa Nostradamus
Visit Laura Anne Gilman's website for more information.
About Book View Café
Book View Café Publishing Cooperative Cedar Crest, NM is a professional authors’ cooperative offering DRM-free ebooks in multiple formats to readers around the world. With authors in a variety of genres including fantasy, romance, mystery, and science fiction, Book View Café has something for everyone.
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