by Dan Glover
"I think that's why we connected the way we did on that old beach back in France. Are you happy to be here with us all?"
"I sense I bring discord among some of you."
"You mean my Grandfather Nate."
"Him, among others."
"You've learned to talk again. I think that's splendid! I mean, I know we can communicate in other ways but I'm so used to speaking that it's difficult for me to do otherwise."
"I've been spending much time getting reacquainted with the Ladies. We often spend whole days and nights speaking of our former lives beneath the waves of Lake Baikal. Orchardton Hall reminds us of our old castle, plus it helps that the weather here is very watery."
"I remember Lady Lauren told us a story of how the walls used to glow in that castle beneath Lake Baikal."
"Yes they did. Though I have no memory of it, I am told how I used a special type of algae that grew near the Great Vents which heated our water and provided us sustenance during long winters when the surface of the Lake was frozen over with ice."
"You did that? You and Grandfather Nate should get along well, then. I don’t understand why you two are not great friends already."
"May we talk freely here, Miss Ena? I would not wish my words to be repeated."
"I'm not given to gossip, Mr. Kāne."
"I understand this very well. Please, may we become less formal?"
"I'm just not sure what to call you."
"Try calling me Father and see if the word fits."
"I like that, Father. Please call me Daughter."
"I will do that: thank you, Daughter. I sense resentment coming from Mr. Nate. I understand that I once lived with and loved Lady Lily in a long ago day before we ever trod upon the land. I have no recollection of this nor have I any desire to renew old acquaintances. Still, I am not sure how to approach this problem without further embarrassing your grandfather."
"I'll talk to him."
"I would not wish for you to come between us and our troubles, my Daughter."
"Nor will I, darling Father. Leave it to me. We often go sailing together. I will broach the subject with him at a time I deem proper."
"Perhaps you might entice your grandfather to invite me along on one of your trips. I found the experience exhilarating."
"Is this where the monster hurt you?"
Ena touched a nearly invisible indentation on Kāne's head running diagonally from his right temple to the corner of his eye socket. Normally it was not noticeable as he wore a hat, an old fashion derby that seemed to suit his face.
"No, the monster did not cause that hurt. It was a human being. They hurt me there and in many other places."
"You must hate human beings."
"No, not really, but neither do I love them. I've never spent enough time around them to form any opinion of them."
"I'm part human."
"Well then, my opinion of them rises."
"The girls of the People all talk about you."
"And what do those girls say, Daughter?"
"You must understand, Father, that there is only one human being left alive in the world and many girls. I hear them clucking like hens when you walk about the estate. They all think you're the most handsome man they've ever seen."
"You are jesting with me now."
"I could never tell you an untruth, Father."
"I have been alone for so long that even the human girls fill me with excitement. Is that wrong of me to reveal, my Daughter?"
"No, of course not... no one likes to be alone, Father. Talk to them. They won't bite you, you know."
"But I might just bite them, my lovely Daughter."
She burst into laughter which she couldn’t help but notice seemed to set her Father on edge. She wondered if such mirth was foreign to him and his kind yet she had witnessed the Ladies laughing together many times.
It was a strange and wonderful thing to be sitting across the table from the man who had given her so much without even knowing she was alive. She could hear a rustle of her own speech mingled in his, a certain tenor that resonated somewhere in between the spoken words, like an unvoiced accent, perhaps, but less pronounced.
"Come to the dance, Father, and I will introduce you to all the girls."
"But I do not dance, Daughter."
She raised her left eyebrow and smiled.
"I'll come by your cabin, Father, and you can follow me."
Chapter 26—Breaking Bread
When she saw a thickly-set man dominating the crowded living room, Lauren wondered if some cruel trickery was afoot.
She remembered Bilbla as supple and full of vigor and grace, handsome beyond words, and with rippling muscles that moved like steel cords beneath his skin. This man was muscled and stout, almost feral, as if he had spent the last few dozen centuries enduring trials beyond the scope of even an immortal being to attend.
When his gaze met hers she studied the lines of his face, the way his jaw bone melded to his neck, the color of his eyes, how his hair sprouted in whorls, searching for old familiar marks. She sensed he was doing the same with hers.
"I am Lady Lauren. What is your name?"
She didn’t like the tenor of her voice. Over the past century she had openly sought to keep from becoming haughty yet now she sounded like a queen questioning a slave.
I have no memory of that.
"You cannot speak?"
She heard the voice inside her head with tentacles groping about before she had a chance to put up her guard.
You are indeed my mother.
"Your name is Bilbla."
"Kāne."
He spoke the single word as if correcting her yet she was certain now. During their brief co-mingling of thoughts she knew the depths of his mind unrevealed even to him.
"I did not expect to see you again, my darling son."
Her heart mourning the hardships he had suffered, Lauren took a muscled hand to lead him into the dining hall where she prepared a lavish meal for everyone. The People thronged the table not to eat so much as to adore this stranger, the first visitor they've had for over a century.
Rain pattered against the kitchen windows as she ladled fresh vegetable soup from the cauldron kept bubbling over a low fire on the stovetop beside the Dutch oven. The aroma lacing the room told her the bread was ready as well. Delilah stepped forward unasked to help Lauren set the table with silverware and napkins while Lily and Natalia brought cups for everyone sitting them alongside a large copper samovar and plates of sliced lemons. Ena hovered in the background with Alpin by her side.
"Mr. Kāne, are you from Lake Baikal too?"
"How did you find out we were here, Mr. Kāne?"
"Was it scary being all alone for so long, Mr. Kāne?"
The girls of the People took turns calling out questions in excited voices. Lauren hated to chastise them and yet she sensed Kāne was becoming overwhelmed with all the attention.
"I am sure sweet Kāne will have answers for everyone. But please allow him to eat now. He looks famished. Those who wish to partake, please sit down. Those who do not, please depart and allow us some quiet time. I promise you will all have time to speak with our precious Kāne later."
Disappointed faces ushered each other out of the kitchen while the Ladies and a few remaining girls sat down to a hushed meal.
"Lovely Ena... I wonder what became of our darling Nate. I thought he might be hungry too."
"He said he was concerned about the Nautilus, Grandmother Lily. On the way to old France we ran the ship aground on some submerged rocks. He believed there might be leaks in the hold. Kirk agreed to aid him in making repairs."
Lauren noticed Kāne eyeing Lily who sat directly across from him. When he sensed he was being watched he put his head down to eat his soup by breaking off pieces of bread and dipping them into his bowl and lifting it to scoop the vegetables into his mouth. He did not seem aware of the spoon lying beside him nor did he attempt to mimic the others by using it.
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br /> "Perhaps when you finish your meal, Alpin, you could please go check on them. Let them know we are enjoying an early dinner."
"Of course I will, Grandmother Lily. I'll go at once."
As Alpin loped out of the room Lily could not help but giggle at her granddaughter.
"I hope that boy makes love more slowly than he eats."
"Grandmother... how can you say such things!"
"We are all adults here, or do you still consider yourself a girl, lovely Ena?"
"It's just embarrassing, that's all."
"Oh precious Ena... you should be proud to be bearing a child of love. Never be embarrassed, especially around us. We are your family."
Ena raised her left eyebrow to Lauren and motioned with her chin to Kāne, who was still involved breaking bread and did not seem to have heard any of the discussion.
"He is family too, my sweet girl. In time you will grow to love him just as you love the rest of us."
Lauren reached out to take Kāne's hand. He had finished his soup and seemed fidgety, as if he desired something they could not provide. When her hand touched his he raised his eyes to peer into hers. A smile creased the edges of his mouth and crinkled the tiny wrinkles around his incredibly black eyes.
"Thank you, mother."
His words were simple, halting, haunting, as if he was straining with all his willpower to remember the language, to force his tongue into old movements long forgotten. She recalled how his disappearance coincided with their emergence from beneath the Lake. They had talked openly like this only a handful of times.
Gazing at his features she sensed that during the intervening years since they were last together his abodes were not ones filled with gentle intercourse among other intelligent beings who spoke in tongues as fluently as here.
"You are welcome, my son."
When Ena came to her telling Lauren a tale of a presence on a beach in old France she knew better than to hope. For many years after Bilbla disappeared, she dreamed of him, always laughing and happy, just as she remembered him being in their old life together. As the years began to pile onto one another in great stacks the dreams came less often and then faded all together.
She accepted his death as something final. She grew to dislike the monsters of the Lake as much as human beings, at first with vacillation, but later as her heart hardened the hatred—that odium—turned into repugnance and then into murderous resolve.
Even now it was difficult for Lauren to be around the People for more than a short stretch of time. With the return of her son, however, the will toward complete annihilation of the human race took on a new dimension.
For the first time in hundreds of years, Lauren wondered if she was wrong to hate them all so much. Perhaps she was only hating a part of herself that couldn’t give up the war that had brewed between her people and human beings for hundreds of thousands of years.
Chapter 27—Saving Grace
Natalia recalled the day she met Lily with a kind of perfect clarity.
She had to only close her eyes and think of that time and she was there again. It was the same with the moment Nate was born... the scent of lilacs in bloom wafting through the open windows always brought her back to that day Lady Lauren burst into her life like a forgotten dream.
Though she lived more than a hundred years she could single out but a handful of such amazingly joyful days to mark her journey. She experienced such a profound sense of happiness since they came to live at Orchardton Hall that she sometimes felt an overriding guilt, as if she was merely living a lie in the face of a terrible reality.
Now the suffering at the root of the world had once again declared its presence... her son was in trouble. Perhaps their suspicions about Nate were erroneous. There might be many causes of his recent personality changes that had raised concerns with the Ladies as well as among the People who had come to regard him as their leader.
"Isn't it strange how Nate's symptoms surfaced at the same time Kāne appeared?"
Perhaps like a drowning woman she was grasping at straws. Natalia did not mean to blame anyone or to cast aspersions toward the newcomer yet she could not help wondering if somehow being in close proximity with Kāne was having a negative effect upon Nate.
"I didn’t realize that, Lady Natalia. Are you sure?"
Natalia knew if anyone would take her seriously it would be Karen. The doctor was deeply aware of how the presence of the Ladies caused profound and deeply impacting changes in the physiology of human beings.
"Yes I am quite sure. It began the day he flew his airplane to the beach in old France. We were supposed to all sail to that beach in the Nautilus but he wished to reconnoiter the area first, just to be sure it was safe. When he returned, several of us noticed how unsettled he seemed. You can ask Ena. She mentioned it to me. That's what set me to thinking that perhaps Kāne is the cause."
"It's an interesting hypothesis, Lady Natalia, and one that is easily tested. All we have to do is to separate them to see if Nate recovers."
"He is always talking about sailing to old New York City. Is there a danger of him being so far away though? What if he doesn’t get better? He may need your help."
"I'd love a chance to see what kind of equipment I could find in old New York. The medical laboratories there were at the cutting edge of science. As long as the buildings are still intact, the equipment might be of use. I'd be happy to go along. I could prepare the treatment I'm thinking of using. If your hypothesis is wrong and he doesn’t recover, we could start the stem cell regimen during the trip."
Lily jumped at the chance to aid Nate though she wasn’t sure he would acquiesce to their suggestion of a trip to old New York. She told Natalia how he had basically sequestered himself in their apartment all day long going out less and less these days and did so only to go to the seaside with Kirk where he sat staring into the campfire.
Natalia made a radical decision, one she never thought of before. She enlisted the assistance of the man who along with Marilyn conspired against them. She found him alone in the kitchen early the next morning.
"We have a plan to help Nate. We want to take him on a trip but I am unsure if he will go along with us. Will you talk to him, Kirk? He seems to value your opinion very highly."
"Of course I will, Lady Natalia. When are we planning to leave on this trip?"
"Did you wish to go along too, then?"
"I think it will be easier to convince Nate to go if I'm going along too, unless you'd rather I didn’t go."
"No, I am surprised, Kirk, that's all. I remember you getting motion sickness on the journey to Lake Baikal. You may well be susceptible to sea sickness too."
"I'm sure I'll be sick. That doesn’t matter though. If I can help Nate, I'm willing to risk a little discomfort."
"We should leave as soon as possible. If you wish to bring Delilah along that will be fine, but otherwise it'll just be the six of us."
"You and Nate, me and Delilah, and who else will be going?"
"Dr. Karen is coming along and so is Lady Lily. The doctor will be there just in case, and Lily is Nate's wife. She wishes to be with him in his time of need."
"When you say just in case, what do you mean, Lady Natalia?"
"We believe Nate's symptoms only appeared when he came in close proximity with Kāne. That is why we are taking this trip... to put some distance between them. Perhaps it will work. If not, then Dr. Karen has an alternate plan."
Going to the suite she shared with Lauren, Natalia began packing for the trip. Though she knew their purpose was one of great importance for her son, she couldn’t help but feel spurts of excitement popping inside her mind like the old fashioned soda pop used to do when she drank it too fast as a kid.
She had never traveled across the sea. In fact, she had never been anywhere outside the cubicle where she used to work for what seemed like an eternity before she took sick with the cancer that threatened her life.
Born to Gypsy parents, Natalia had wand
ered with them from village to town in old Russia but to her that wasn’t traveling... it was survival. Most places they visited were full of hateful people ready to drive them away the moment their wagon creaked into town. It always seemed strange to her how the men of those villages crept into the Gypsy camp later without their women folk with hats in hand and money in fist.
The truth became apparent when she grew older. The Gypsies were an excuse for merriment that could not be found in those churlish villages full of soot and sin, the wages of lives wasted in toil and struggle for but a few pennies to keep starvation at bay. The Gypsies were both damned and divine. They lighted the way to a better place yet the price they paid was high.
Natalia wanted no part of it... the endless traveling, the second hand clothes she was forced to wear... the looks she began getting as she grew into a young adult. Those men, the peasants as well as the landholders, would have given all they had for but a night with Natalia but they had nothing she desired.
Moscow was so full of life yet death lurked in every corner. After the death of her parents she had gone to school in the big city and then to took a job, rarely leaving either building where she both lived and worked. There was no reason to go forth into the world, not until the day she discovered her life was coming to an end and she realized she had never even been alive.
"The disease has progressed instead of showing signs of remission as we had hoped, Natalia. From now on, we should focus our efforts on palliative care."
The doctor told her the news like he might be reading an article from one the many medical journals filed neatly away on the shelving adorning the walls in the closet-sized cubicle he called his office.
"What does that mean, doctor?"
She knew what it meant but asking the question gave her a chance to catch her breath that suddenly seemed so hard to capture. She was dying. The fight she had waged over the past year had proved as futile as her life in general.
Growing up she had never known a boy. That didn’t change when she became an adult. Save yourself, Natalia... wait until the right man comes along. She could still hear mother's words. And oh how she had waited, all right. Everyone told her what a beautiful woman she was until she began to believe it herself. Now, she was thirty years old and it was too late for any of that. No one would want the cancer-ravaged skeleton she saw staring back at herself with hollow eyes and yellowed skin hanging loosely off her bones.