The woman met her stare.
Well, it wasn’t important what she was; those distinctions had never been important to her anyway. The stranger had helped them when they needed it badly, and that made her a friend.
No one spoke, aloud or in the web of power that Ian had connected them with. It was not out of fear; that was rapidly subsiding. In fact, Mercy felt a little foolish for having been afraid, because it was clear from the woman’s crystal clear voice and gentle mind that she was a compassionate spirit who wanted to help them.
Into the stillness, the stranger continued, Come, let us talk about what you will do now. I fear that this will not be the last attempt on you if you remain here.
Lena was the first to speak. Squeezing her husband’s arm before she released it, she met the lady at the door. She looked past her at the bodies on the ground and asked, “These people here, they are still alive, right?”
Yes. They will remain in this state, like a deep sleep, for a short time, perhaps a few hours. By then, you must have made your decision. I think it might be best if you were not here when they awoke.
Mercy thought that was probably a good idea, too. So did everyone else.
Lena opened the door and let her in.
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Scythe had spent a long time in the bath. It was something he rarely did but was considering adding to his daily routine because it had felt fabulous. Then he used the fully stocked bathroom cabinet to shave, brush his teeth, twice, and use something called a facial scrub, just for fun; he remembered hearing about it years before, but he hadn't known what it was. It was such a wonderful product that he decided it should be used for the whole body, and put it by the tub for the bath he planned on taking in the morning before he left.
Everything on the shelves, in the whole house, actually, was elegantly designed, finely packaged, usually fragranced, and luxurious in the extreme. Every item he touched made him feel pampered, down to the ribbons tied around the pillows on the bed. He had actually unwrapped his pillow before he dropped his head down on it. Heron’s retreat was nothing like his valley, where most things were utilitarian.
He couldn’t wait to get back there.
Still feeling the foggy effects of the best sleep he’d had in weeks, he lay on the bed and thought about home again. He was going to hug them and thank them for every rebuke, keep a straight face while Lena lectured him, spend hours with the children, taking them on trips all over the valley and reviewing all of their studies, give Will extra hours of the training he’d been asking for, and follow Hap around to see what work needed to be done. He was going to wait for Mercy to come home and then he wasn’t going to wait any longer, probably not even to the end of her first day back, because time was precious.
He had made enormous mistakes this trip, starting with the decision to return to Quo Ire in the first place. He had come very close to having the life he had struggled to create taken from him. When had he gotten to the point where he took so much for granted that he foolishly risked losing it? He was going straight home, and he wasn’t planning on leaving again for a long while.
He stood up and started to put on the clothes Heron had purchased for him. They felt tight against his skin, not because they were too small, but because he still had numerous injuries, particularly incisions, that had not healed completely. In the ornate, full-length mirror that stood in the dressing room, he looked over his body; his gray skin was generously spotted with old, faded scars of various lengths and shapes. Across his back and down his legs were dozens of long and short lines from an incident that involved dozens of jagged, broken glass shards. He had several small, round marks from bullet wounds and quite a few scars from knife injuries. After a month or two, the newer cuts wouldn’t be as pink and tender and would begin to blend in with the rest. There wouldn’t be an obvious change to his body from Summer’s work, except for what stared back at him from just below his jaw.
The five old scars on his neck were red and thicker than before. There were also a dozen new ones that crossed the horizontal ones. They started off on the left side as straight, nearly vertical lines, but as the pattern progressed across his neck, in conjunction with the increasingly frantic mind that had carved them, they had become more jagged and crooked until the ones near his right ear were random slashes. Not too deep, though, because she hadn’t been trying to kill him at that time.
Something to remember Summer by. Heh, as if he would ever forget. He took a slow breath, gently pulled on his shirt, a soft, dark blue turtleneck that fit perfectly, and went to find Heron and hopefully some food.
The doctor was sitting forward attentively on the couch and watching television. He waved Scythe over without taking his eyes away from the news program in front of him. “Here, come see this. I’ll get you something to eat.”
“I can do it,” Scythe said.
“No, no. Just sit.” Heron put down the remote and stood up. “I have it ready. I just have to reheat it because you slept longer than I thought.” He disappeared into the kitchen, saying, “Just watch what you did. I can hardly believe it, no matter how long I sit there.”
Scythe raised his eyebrows at the picture, “Is that your house?”
“Yes. I have my wife coming up with a few of the younger children. They’ll be here in a few hours. That’s alright, I hope?”
“Of course.” The news reporter was pointing to the house, explaining about the arrest of Tiburon and the full-scale investigation into his finances and business practices. Scrolling along the bottom was a list of the other people being indicted, names that Scythe recognized. When the man started interviewing a neighbor about the family, Scythe asked, “Isn’t this going to cause you a lot of trouble, Heron?”
“Nothing I can’t handle,” he said easily, bringing in a bowl of soup and some crackers. “Sorry I don’t have anything fresh. I’m having Melode bring up some groceries.”
“This is just fine,” Scythe said, and it was. He had no problems with soup. He took several spoonfuls, to take the edge off his hunger, and then studied Heron. He looked about as cheerful as Scythe had ever seen him. “You seem...optimistic.”
He smiled. “I’m feeling pretty good. My house is getting cleaned while I’m on retreat.”
“True, but it will be a lot of work really soon.”
“I’m good with work,” he said confidently. Then his eyes widened as the picture changed. Tiburon was being walked up the courthouse steps with his hands in plastic restraints. Reporters mobbed him on all sides. “There he is.”
They watched for another hour until Scythe got bored of it. He stood, stretched and picked up his dishes on the way to the kitchen.
The audio muted in the room behind him.
“You need anything else?” Heron asked.
“No, thanks. It was good. Thank you.”
“What song is that you keep humming?”
Had he been humming? Scythe realized he had. “I don’t know. It’s stuck in my head.”
“It’s very unusual, but nice. It reminds me of Gethrelode. Could it be from one of his symphonies?”
“I don’t even know who that is,” Scythe said, turning on the water and rinsing the bowl. When he was done, he dried his hands and returned to the living room. “I saw a study down the hall. Mind if I look over your books?”
“Not at all. Let me show you what I’ve got. I remember that you used to read a lot. I’ve got a few antiques here if you are interested.”
He definitely was.
Chapter 32
“I’ll be gone just a week, two at the outside, I think,” Scythe said to Ian as he stuffed the food for his trip into the knapsack.
“I still don’t see why you don’t take Smoke with you. Or, I could come.”
“This is an easy one, and I don’t want to take a car. If I take the bike, I can go faster,” he explained.
“And the bike is more fun,” Ian said knowingly.
Scythe didn’t argue because it was tr
ue, and a little fun sounded good to him. He had been cooped up lately and wanted to get out. Usually he had plenty to do and didn’t need anything to distract himself; but in the last few months he had been feeling stagnant. The jobs were so repetitive and just...too easy. Even his reading wasn’t taking the itch off. What he needed was a short trip where he could stretch his legs a little and get the kinks out.
“You’d better be back by the fourth, or we’ll all hear about it.”
“That’s right. Do not even think of missing that. I will kill you myself, and don’t think for a minute that I can’t still take you down, zooboy!” Lena yelled from the other room where she was working with her sons on their studies.
“Don’t worry. I don’t plan on missing Mercy’s visit.” He’d have to lose an arm or something before he’d do that. Her visits were the best times of the year. In addition to the pleasure of seeing her, there was the cheer that she brought to everyone else in the house. She was always so excited to be back that she wandered around the place, hugging, helping, and chatting it up with every person she came in contact with for the entire time she was there. Pretty soon, people were looking around for her, making her special treats or asking her to go on hikes, all which she accepted graciously and joyfully. In fact, it was often hard for people to get a minute with her. She always managed to find some time for him, though, even if it was just the last few minutes of the day.
If he were working late, she would come into his study and curl up on a chair and talk quietly, or just sit and be with him. Sometimes she would be so tired, she would fall asleep right there with her head leaning sideways against the back of the chair. He didn’t know why he tried to be productive after she came in, because he could never get any work done, even when she was sleeping. On the other hand, he had her all to himself for those precious minutes.
The only rotten day was the last day. Well, the second to the last day was pretty rough too, because the last day was next. Then, it was months of waiting.
“Okay, well, take care and be safe,” Ian said, throwing another apple in the bag.
“Yeah, don’t die!”
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Lena hadn’t thought that she would be leaving their beautiful home like this. In fact, after settling in so comfortably, she had intended to spend the rest of her life there. It was everything that they needed when they had escaped from the city: a remote, secure refuge for a group of people who wanted to live their lives in peace. However, in the years that followed their escape, it had come to mean much more to her than a hideout. The winery was filled with the memories of children being born and growing, making mistakes and finding their way; it was filled with their lives. Even though they were packing up everything that they thought they would need in their new home, some of the things that were the most meaningful to her didn’t fit into boxes and couldn’t be taken with them. Those things were tied to this place, and it was getting increasingly difficult as the minutes passed for her to accept that they had to leave it behind.
She reached into the drawer, her hand gripping the next sweater, and stopped. Why were they leaving again? She blinked. She knew they would be in danger if they stayed, that was obvious. They had been found by the Scere, and once the failure of the unit that miraculously still lay unconscious on the grounds was made known, another group would follow. Even so...something…
“Honey, keep moving,” Smoke said from behind her, stuffing the last of his things into the box they had scrounged from the packing room of the winery. “We’ve only got ten minutes.” He started in on some baby clothes.
“I know. Hey, we aren’t going to need those old baby clothes.”
He grinned mischievously, “Oh, I think we definitely will.” He made a show of holding a big stack up and packing them securely in with his things.
“Oh, no. Nope.”
He chuckled knowingly and kept working.
“You are an impossible man. No woman should have to put up with someone like you. I’m not a breeding machine, you know…”
He didn’t stop, but he did give her a look that she knew well. She knew that he didn’t think of her in that way, and he didn’t like her saying that he did, even if she was just venting her frustrations. She growled, “Arrgh. Fine. We’ll discuss it later.” She pulled out the sweater, and put it in her box. As it dropped in, she frowned.
Out of the drawer, into the box. Something…
She lifted her eyes from the box that seemed to be swallowing her up and sent them after her husband. He was pushing the clothes down deeper to make more room. “Smoke?”
“Yes?” Alerted by something curious in her tone, he stopped and turned to her after checking the time. They only had eight minutes. Even so, he put his hands gently on her upper arms, choosing pleasure over the practical, as always, and pulled her forward into a comforting embrace. “What it is, my Heart?”
“Why...no, I know why we’re leaving...but, why do we have to move so fast…?”
“The soldiers will wake soon, and we need to be gone before that.”
“But, why not just tie them up, or put them back to sleep?”
He blinked.
“And,” she continued, “Why are we going to her home again? We don’t know anything about it. Shouldn’t we find our own place?”
They both jumped at the sharp voice at the door. “You must hurry, now. It is almost time.”
Lena felt a strong push, and then it tightened.
Lena and Smoke both stepped away from each other, and Smoke turned immediately to his job, saying, “She’s right. We need to hurry, Lena.”
Lena stared at him through the dizziness that had suddenly come over her and then turned to Jaelyn. She opened her mouth to speak, but the woman spoke first.
“Smoke, I believe your young ones are already in their places, but you should check, don’t you think? You have already packed what you need. Why don’t you take down that box and check on your children, especially those boys.”
“Of course, thank you,” Smoke said, closing up the box and lifting it off the bed. He turned to Lena and gave her a quick kiss. “Finish up, my Heart and come down. We’ll be leaving soon.” He left the room.
“What is going on?” Lena backed up, her fingers pressing on her temple. Why was she dizzy all of a sudden?
“You are turning out to be quite a bother,” Jaelyn said, entering the room and going straight to the dresser, where she opened the last drawer and started emptying it. “It isn’t enough that the two halfbloods are missing. No, now I find that I spend half of my time on you, your brother and that niece of yours. Of that half, nearly all is on you.”
She was spinning and at the back of her head alarms were going off. Then someone hit the snooze.
She didn’t want to be a bother. After all, the woman had saved their lives, hadn’t she? Lena turned to look around the room; there was nothing else that they needed, except… She started pulling pictures off the wall, just the ones that were important. She stopped, staring at one.
Scythe.
“You don’t need those. We only have room for necessities.”
She blinked and shook her head a little. Her hands squeezed the frame. She was having trouble thinking. She tried to push away the fog that surrounded her.
Jaelyn let out an irritable sigh, “This is all due to your temperament. Ian and his sweet daughter are accommodating by nature, but you are a different breed. Your father warned me about that. You were a terror, even at a young age.”
Lena spun around, “My father?” She thought he was dead…They both did. Who the hell was this woman? Her power jumped forward, ready to fly at the woman...and then was swatted down.
Lena looked up from the floor. Someone wavered above her. Two someones...no, it was one, after all.
“If you weren’t so precious to me, I’d just leave you for them. But, my troublesome child, it happens that your life is of paramount importance to me. You have things yet to do. Get up.”
; Push.
Lena accepted Jaelyn’s hand, rubbing her head with the other. “Sorry, I just got a little dizzy, there. I think I need to get something to eat.”
“Hapillon’s family is preparing food for the journey. You are finished here.” Jaelyn crossed to the door, carrying one of the boxes in her arms.
“Yes.”
Wow. She had finished faster than she thought. She didn’t even remember putting in the rest of these pants. That was everything.
“Well, almost.” She collected the pictures she had dropped on the floor and put them on top of the clothes. Hefting the box, she turned to the door and found Jaelyn with a small frown on her face. It wasn’t much, just a little pinch at the mouth. “What?”
“I guess it is nothing worth fussing over. Let us go.” She turned her back and led the way down the hall. Lena followed.
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Report to: Scere Intelligence Officer Iris
Re: Investigation of subject: Karin Horn
Have located suspects. Interrogation reveals neither power nor criminal activity of any sort. Report attached. Returning agents to posts.
Iris didn’t even have time to review the report. She accepted the field agent’s analysis, recorded the details, and closed the case. The Scere was moving quickly on the recent Family scandals, and had pulled all available intelligence agents off their current caseloads to assist. She finished up and then reported as ordered to an emergency briefing.
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Scythe woke up and listened. The room was silent, except for normal household noises, like the creaking of the building, the shuffling and breathing of sleepers, and the whistling of the wind through small cracks in windows. His ears didn’t pick up a note, but the beautiful music trumpeted through his head nonetheless. It filled him with silver moonlight; it was a radiant, stunning paragon of heart wrenching structure and perfect pitch.
Halfblood Legacy Page 46