Halfblood Heritage

by Rheaume, Laura

  It had been three days and he hadn’t heard a word from Lena or Ian and he had just about accepted that he probably wouldn’t see them again. It had really disappointed him, and he had apparently been looking depressed because yesterday his housekeeper had made a special dinner to cheer him up. She could be really nice sometimes.

  Finally, accepting that they weren’t going to get bored and walk off, he looked down at the two little girls staring up at him where he sat at the top of the jungle gym.

  “Yes, ladies?” He felt a strange tugging at his heart at the way they giggled at being called by the old-fashioned term.

  “We’re not ladies,” laughed the older one, six-year-old Lakia. “We’re girls!”

  “I’ not,” said the younger to her sister. “I’m a princess.”

  “Yeah, me too! We’re princesses.” They started laughing again and jumping up and down a little on their toes. Their eyes were wide, innocent and excited. He couldn’t help but smile at their silliness.

  “Princesses? Where’s your castle?”

  “Right here,” said Lakia, grabbing onto the bar of the jungle gym. “But, we can’t get up as high as you.”

  “I wan to get up dere!” yelled the little one, Mara.

  “Well, you can’t. You’re too small,” said Scythe, turning his head to find the girls’ mother staring at them from her seat, her eyes wide and mouth slightly open. He looked back down at them.

  “Why don’t you just pretend you're walking in a magical garden? You could pick flowers and talk to the fairies. How about…over there?” Scythe pointed toward a nearby patch of wildflowers. He felt bad about the fairy lie, but it was the type of cruel game that Humans were used to playing. They liked to rationalize things like that: It’s okay to lie, especially to little children. It is just an imagination game...

  An energetic Mara looked over and asked, “Are dere fairies?” She ran enthusiastically over to find some, and Scythe felt a little worse. Why had he said that?

  Lakia stayed and directed a pouty look at him, “But I want to come up there with you.” She reached up, grasping the first rung with her small hand and hooking one foot over the nearest bar. Then she proceeded to fail to climb up even one level.

  Scythe watched her struggle for a moment, trying out several different bars and futilely attempting to pull herself up with her stringy arms, before commenting, “Look, this gym is for the big kids, yours is over there.” He pointed to a boxy, plastic climbing area with a ramp and tiny slides that was close by.

  Two blue eyes flashed at him from a ruddy face. “You could help me if you wanted to.” She righted herself, dramatically planted her hands on her hips and glared at him.

  “Yes, but I won’t, because your prince will come and think I’m a monster trying to carry you away. He’ll probably attack me and kill me with his magic spear.”

  Mara yelled from the flower bed, “Look! I foun’ a fairy!”

  “That’s just a butterfly, Mara! Fairies are like mini people, but with wings,” Lakia explained before turning back to Scythe.

  Mara looked around in disappoinment, “I don’t tink dere are any fairies here.”

  “Its okay if you don’t find them,” called Scythe, belatedly trying to make up for his mean joke. “They like to hide.”

  “There aren’t any fairies,” Lakia accused Scythe while her sister continued to search, this time on hands and knees, “or princes either.”

  “I met a prince once,” Scythe said.

  “Really?”

  “Really. Well, he was a governor’s son, but he was like a prince. He was tall and brave and true.”

  “What do you mean? Like tell the truth?”

  “No, like reliable, does the right thing.”

  “A hero.”

  “Yup.”

  “Was he like you?”

  “What?”

  “Did he look like you?”

  “Kind of.”

  “Then he can’t be a prince, ‘cause princes don’t look like you. You look different.”

  “Maybe there are different kinds of princes...”

  “No, there is only one kind, and they look like my daddy.”

  “You are probably right.” The conversation, like the growing pile of lies, was not sitting right in his stomach.

  “Why do you look different?”

  “Because I am different.”

  “That’s weird.”

  “I know. Why don’t you go play with your sister?”

  Lakia looked at the younger girl, who was now crawling around in the flower bed. “Naw, I want to climb up there, but mom never lets me.”

  “She doesn’t want you to get hurt, princess.”

  “I won’t get hurt if you help me.”

  “I won’t help you though, 'cause it would scare your mom.”

  “Because you’re different?”

  “Yeah, because I’m different.”

  “That’s stupid.” She glared at him for a bit before going over to her mom.

  “Mara! You are messing up your dress!” yelled Margie. To her sister she complained, “I tell you, it never ends.”

  “Momma, I want to go on the big monkey bars.” Lakia pointed to where Scythe sat.

  “No, honey, I told you before. It’s too dangerous. Go play with your sister, or go...”

  “But I don’t want to do that baby playground! I want to play up there!”

  “Lakia, I said, ‘No.’ That means...”

  “It won’t be dangerous if that boy helps me. He’s big.”

  Margie kept her eyes fixed on her daughter when she said, “It doesn’t matter. I already said, ‘No.’”

  “It’s not fair!” Lakia marched off towards the smaller playground before changing her mind and turning toward the flower bed.

  On an uncharictaristic impulse, Scythe jumped down and started toward the place where Mara was yanking on a particularly large flower that refused to budge. He pretended not to hear the gasps from behind him or notice the movements of several men standing around the playground.

  The click he heard when he was only halfway there, however, made him stop in his tracks. He held himself relaxed, hands loosely hanging at his side despite his racing heart. A voice spoke calmly to his right and it’s metallic twin echoed through a headset on the other side of the playground, “Stand down, Marshal.”

  “He’s a threat,” was the reply of one of the newest guards. Marshal hadn’t figured out yet that he was there to protect Scythe from Humans, not the other way around. This always happened whenever someone joined the security team for the first time. They took one look at Scythe’s angular Kin bone structure and his gray skin and they knew right away who the monster was.

  “Stand down, Marshal, or you are off this duty.”

  “You don’t know what he’ll do to those little girls...” The guard's voice was tense and pitched up a level. He was obviously so concerned for them that Scythe wondered if this time he really would be shot.

  Not able to hear and not bothering to see, Marge and Sara continued to chat about their plans for the weekend. “I’ll bring the drinks but you’ve got to make that potato…”

  Ahead of him, Lakia had stopped next to her sister and was staring down at where she trampled through the grass. She used her foot to move aside a few tall flowers so she could see something in the dirt below. Then she sighed and, looking around, noticed that Scythe had stopped in the middle of the playground. She started to walk toward him.

  “Lakia,” Scythe said quickly, “Help your sister.”

  “Marshal, stand down, return to the van and surrender your weapon to Jack. Now.” The captain's words were strung with the same tight strings that bound Scythe’s chest.

  Lakia hesitated, glancing back at what was obviously an unappealing task.

  “That’s what big sisters do, right?”

  She considered for a few seconds and then turned around with a huff. She went to crouch down by Mara, moving aside a patch of long
grass with the back of her hand.

  After what seemed like a long time, Scythe heard a second clic. It was followed by the sounds of retreating footsteps stomping through the grass and leaves.

  Scythe let out the breath he had been holding unconsciously and turned his head to look back at the captain. The man nodded minutely, and, his heart still fluttering in his chest, Scythe slowly closed the distance to the flower bed.

  Mara was sitting in the middle of the flowers, her face smudged with dirt. “I couldn’ fin’ any fairies,” she complained with her lower lip stuck out.

  He resigned himself to one more lie, now that the damage was done and the truth would only cause more problems.

  “That’s okay. You would have really scared them anyway, because they are so small. You are like a giant to them.”

  “Oh.” She considered that for a moment.

  Scythe sat down across from her, leaving a good eight feet of space between the. He reached out and picked one of the longer flowers, a beautiful red and orange one that had just opened. His fingers circled the stem, brushing against the thin, soft, hairlike strands that covered it, and stopped just above the leaves. Using his thumbnail, he pinched and twisted expertly to make a clean break that wouldn’t tear or crush the tip; immediately the wet, bitter scent of the plant mixed with that of the flowers and soil around him. He breathed in deeply, enjoying the way it tickled the back of his throat. He lay down the flower and quickly went to work on gathering more. He had done this a lot when he was younger. They had done it together.

  “I don’ wanna scare dem,” Mara finally decided.

  Lakia sat down with another, louder huff right next to him, prompting Scythe to slide over.

  “That’s because you are a nice princess who cares about other people’s feelings.”

  Scythe leaned over and held out for Mara a small bouquet of flowers tied together with a few long blades of grass. “You should give this to your mom so she won’t be so mad about your dress.”

  Mara’s eyes widened with delight. “Okay!”

  Lakia watched Mara run and give the flowers to her surprised mother, and then turned back to Scythe holding out another small bundle for her. She smiled, her anger forgotten in a second, “Thanks! Wait, are these for my mom, too?”

  “No, princess. Those are for you.” Scythe got up, brushed off his pants, picked up the rest of the flowers and walked over to his housekeeper, who was just turning off a timer that was vibrating inside her purse.

  “Time to go, Simon.”

  “Okay.” He turned to Margie and said, without reacting to her slight flinch and wide eyes, “Thanks. I had a good time.”

  “Uh, sure...I mean, you’re welcome, Simon,” she lied.

  “Your name is Simon?” asked Lakia, coming up behind him.

  Scythe looked at Sara and Margie who were both holding themselves very still next to him. He sighed and answered, “Yep.”

  “That’s a nice name.”

  Scythe shrugged and then added at the last minute, “My parents picked out a different name for me: Scythe.”

  “Sigh?”

  “Scythe.”

  “Oh. That one’s weird. My mom picked my name, too.”

  “I think its pretty. I have to go princess.”

  “Bye!” Mara and Lakia chimed in together, waving as Scythe and Sara walked away. They were followed at a short distance by a team of security personnel in black uniforms.

  “See?” his housekeeper said to the captain. “I told you it was no problem. My sister wasn’t concerned in the least.”

  The captain nodded and continued to silently scan the area.

  Next to them, the boy walked in silence, his lids lowered slightly over eyes that stared straight ahead. Without having noticed it, Scythe had slipped on a distant, stony mask.

  Chapter 3

  “I’ll take care of this, Simon,” Sara said, tucking her bag in the front closet. She took the bundle of flowers from him and headed toward the kitchen.

  “Thank you, Sara,” he replied.

  Scythe dropped off his book in his room and then went to wash up. A minute later, Sara called through the bathroom door.

  “There’s a message here for you from that woman in the border patrol. She’s coming by at two tomorrow to speak with you.”

  “Okay.” His hands stopped moving under the water. That had to be Lena. He wondered what she had been able to arrange. Would he start helping them with their case? Would he be visiting them at the border patrol a few times a week, or would she come to his place so he wouldn't cause a disturbance at her work?

  He reached up and turned off the water. Probably they’d want to interview him at his apartment. After all, he had been a bit of a hassle, wandering around on his own to find Lena. That hadn’t inspired confidence. Maybe, though...maybe he’d get to do more. She had talked about needing a release form. A release form meant more than just an interview. It meant a trip, didn’t it?

  "Calm down," he muttered to himself. He finished drying his hands and left the bathroom. He didn't want to get too excited about getting out of the apartment more. Something like a trip would probably be impossible for him. After all, it had taken two weeks to get permission to go to the park. Besides, there was another reason why he was tied to his home.

  He knocked once and then opened the door to his mother’s room, hovered in the doorway for a moment and then went in to the bright room. A soft breeze played with the curtains and kept the room as fresh as possible.

  His first housekeeper had thought that open windows were unhealthy for a convalescent, but Sara disagreed. He was grateful for her attempts to keep the room bright and lively because he was sure it was good for his mother. Before they were taken, Scythe’s mother would spend at least half the day in the garden during the spring and summer; they usually ate breakfast and lunch on a small table just outside the kitchen door, the same place she liked him to sit and do his studies while she worked. His mother was the kind of woman who had to be active and she loved to be outdoors. Since it usually wasn’t safe for them to leave the house when his father was out, the large garden had been very important to her.

  He crossed the room to his mother’s bed and sat down in his chair. “Hello, Mom. I brought you some flowers from the park today. Here, I think you’ll like this one. It reminds me of the ones you liked to plant right outside the front door at home.” He reached over to the vase that Sara had left next to the bed and pulled out one of the red and orange lilies. He held it up in front of her face and then brought it closer to her nose. After a moment, he returned it to the vase.

  “There were some nice girls there, cute ones. They reminded me of Prize’s little sisters, Dalsne and Yonna. Remember how Yonna used to get into all kinds of trouble? This little girl was just like her.”

  Scythe sat quietly while machines beeped around him. He turned his head toward the window so that the breeze could caress his cheeks with its cool satin gloves. He loved windy days. If he closed his eyes, he could imagine that he was flying somewhere high up in the sky: his spirit and the glorious wind, soaring every which way. As an added bonus, the fresh air dampened the smell of sickness and detergent so that he didn’t have to breathe as shallowly as he normally did.

  His hand idly played with the crisp white sheet, occasionally straightening it or smoothing it over her.

  “I’ll be right back, Mom.” He patted her arm, stood and left the room. He found Sara preparing dinner in the kitchen.

  “You don’t have to stand by the door, Simon, just come in,” she said after she noticed him.

  “Thank you.”

  “I told you, honey. It’s kind of creepy. You want me to tell you when you do things that bother us, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Here, take a bite of this. Like it?”

  He bit into the marinated carrot that she held out for him and nodded. Then he quickly finished off the rest of the piece. “Yes, it’s good.”

  She smil
ed, “I thought you might like it. Anyway, skulking about staring at people is a definite ‘No-no.’”

  “Sorry, I’ll remember.” He had already told her that he wasn’t standing in doorways just to stare, but she must have forgotten. Three times. He sighed. He was going to have to let go of that one, too, he guessed. Another Kin custom left by the side of the road so that he wouldn’t freak out the Humans.

  “Dinner won’t be ready for another forty minutes. Why don’t you watch some television?”

  “No, thanks. I was wondering if you were able to get those books for me from the library?”

  “Oh, yeah, I did. Well, some of them anyway.” She wiped her hands on a towel that was hanging at her waist and went down the hall to the closet. She pulled out a brown bag and handed it to him after removing a small, paperback book and putting it on top of her purse. “All are here except for two of the history books...um, let me see...I can’t remember which ones they were, but they were the hard to find ones…”