by Gloria Craw
The only joining left to introduce was Ian’s. “Confidant,” he stated under the weight of my stare. “I can get a person to tell me just about anything, from their deepest fears to their greatest desires. I can get them to admit past indiscretions and fantasies of future indiscretions. So if you ever want to blackmail one of your human buddies, I’m your man.”
“That’s what you did to me in the sickroom,” I said. “You asked if there was anything you could do to make amends and I told you I needed a ride to work. I said it even though I didn’t want to.” Ian scrunched his nose, looking apologetic. “Why did it work on me if it wasn’t supposed to?”
“I think it’s because your thought patterns mimic human ones,” he said. “Your mind functions as a human’s mind does, so it’s possible for another dewing to join to it. That would also explain why you don’t register as a dewing to our senses.”
I thought of fedora man at the bookstore, and a chill ran up my backbone. “Was the man at the bookstore, the one who took the book, a dewing, too?”
“Brandy and I think he’s the dewing who’s been following you,” Ian admitted.
“There was something really off about that guy,” I said. “It was like he enjoyed hurting me. Really enjoyed it. Like he didn’t want to stop until I was dead.”
Spencer nodded gravely. “Do you know what the people in the jungles of India call tigers?” When I shook my head, he explained, “They call them man-eaters. Dewing tigers are also man-eaters, in a way. Their joining completely destroys the human mind.”
“Tigers,” I repeated. “So he could have killed me with his mind?”
“Yes,” Ian affirmed.
I allowed that shocking piece of information to sit for a moment and then said, “I understand how a tiger could threaten humankind, but other than just messing with them, what damage could the other types of joinings do?”
“Imagine a world leader with a child who suffers from mental disability,” Spencer said, “and then someone like me comes along and cures them. It would seem like some kind of magic. What secrets might that leader tell me out of gratitude? Imagine someone like Amelia, who can make a human feel euphoric to a degree that no drug can. What might a human pay or do to get more of that feeling?”
Bruce Dawning spoke for the first time. “There are all sorts of ways we can use our joining to manipulate the human realm,” he added. “I see the thoughts behind the words during a human conversation. I see their greed and plans for betrayal, their lusts. I see things no one else would consider asking. Dewing with joining like mine can use this information to manipulate humans into any number of situations.”
Spencer continued, “The real damage is done when a group of us work together for a common purpose. That’s what made Tenebrosus and his followers so dangerous. They combined their joinings to take secrets, money, power, and the lives of humans. And that was just the beginning. Our kind has always been far ahead of human technology. With the ability to undermine human social structures and our advanced weaponry, he planned to bring humankind to its knees.
“The Rorelent couldn’t let that happen. It was against all they stood for. So, they went to war against Tenebrosus. Plato wrote that the Athenians fought the Atlanteans, and that is true. Tenebrosus admired the Athenians’ bravery and skill in battle. They were the first civilization he targeted. On his command, they killed thousands of the Rorelent who lived outside Atlantis as protectors. When their numbers decreased enough, Atlantis was vulnerable to invasion, and Tenebrosus gained control over the city. The Rorelent survivors were forced to encamp on land while they decided their next course of action.”
“He was a lot of things,” Ian said, “but lazy wasn’t one of them. During the next few months, he continued his ‘recruitment’ of human forces.”
“That’s right,” Spencer picked up. “The Rorelent determined that Tenebrosus and his followers were past redemption and that they would have to be destroyed. A leading dewing scientist had just learned how to split the atom. Fortunately, he was on the Rorelent side. The Rorelent staged a battle against Tenebrosus and when the battle had drawn most of the Athenian forces off Atlantis, the Rorelent destroyed it with today’s equivalent of a nuclear bomb.”
“Tenebrosus and almost twenty thousand of his followers died instantly,” Ian explained. “Atlantis didn’t exactly sink into the ocean. There just wasn’t much left of it when the dust cleared.”
“Which spelled the end of the Tenebrosus but not the end of his political ideas,” Spencer said. “We had a long period of peace and prosperity, but that all changed when Sebastian Truss came to power. He’s dusted off and embraced Tenebrosus’s ideas again.”
The atmosphere, which had been solemn during the history lesson, turned positively grave at the mention of Sebastian Truss.
“Sebastian Truss is like Tenebrosus reborn,” Bruce said. “He has no problem killing humans or other dewing.”
“In order to understand the gravity of the current situation,” Katherine said, “you have to understand something about our biology. As a species, the dewing’s brain functions are faster and more efficient, which makes it possible for us to do things that no human can. We can recall memories, we heal faster, and we live longer than humans. But in one way, humankind is superior to us. You see, we can reproduce only twice in a lifetime.”
Evidently this statement was worthy of profound silence, because that’s what came next.
“This might not seem like a big deal,” Katherine continued, “but it is. A typical dewing will live almost three hundred years. In spite of the extended lifespan, we never have more than two children. Which means that while we struggle to maintain a steady population of less than five thousand, humans outnumber us many million times over.”
I knew she meant the two kids thing was important. It was that live-three-hundred-years thing that staggered me. “We live how long?” I asked.
“You heard her right,” Ian said. “Three hundred years.”
“Holy crap…”
“Pace yourself,” he said. “There are more holy crap moments coming.”
“Do any humans know we exist?” I asked.
“Some of them suspect we exist. The human mainstream, with a little help from us, has turned its back on these people. They’re regarded as crackpots. Their ideas aren’t taken seriously, but they’d love to get their hands on a dewing. It isn’t just the crazies we worry about. Militaries would love to get a hold of us. Humankind thrives on war, and under the right circumstances, we could be used as weapons. If the military couldn’t turn us to their purpose, we would become prime targets for genocide. We still have technologies that humans don’t, so we could put up a fight, but there are more than seven billion of them, compared to a few thousand of us. The numbers aren’t in our favor.”
“We don’t reveal ourselves to humans under any circumstances,” Amelia chimed in. “If we do we’re subject to the highest punishment.”
Ian made a slicing motion across his throat to illustrate her point.
“The man who told me I was a dewing also said I was unprotected,” I said. “What does that mean?”
After an awkward moment of silence, Spencer took the reins. “The Laurel clan, which is your clan by blood, was the smallest, but known for the strong thoughtmaking that ran through it. And also for taking a determined stand against those dewing who used their joining without regard for human freedoms.”
“No one expected the massacre that resulted,” Katherine stated quietly.
“Massacre?” I asked.
“The group that follows Sebastian Truss hunted your clan members down and killed them,” Spencer explained. “The Laurel clan numbered two hundred and eighty-seven one day. The next day, they totaled thirty-nine. Over the following year, he hunted and killed everyone left…but you.”
“That’s only because he couldn’t find you,” Amelia added helpfully.
Katherine shook her head. “None of us foresaw such a terrible t
hing happening,” she said. “The other clans didn’t have time to come together to prevent it.”
I swallowed a lump in my throat. Whether I knew them personally or not, it was tragic.
“Your mother was special,” Spencer said. “The odds were against her from the beginning, but she defied Sebastian over and over again. He wanted her loyalty and control over her joining. He had her captured and tortured, but she refused to give in to him. He was out-of-his-mind angry at her refusal, and thinking he’d weakened her by days of isolation and pain, he went to see her by himself. He was so confident in his own abilities that he dismissed the guard. That turned out to be a mistake. Your mother had been weakened, but she was still one of the most powerful thoughtmakers in our history. She engaged him, and from the damage she inflicted, we believe she almost won the battle.”
“He killed her?” I asked weakly.
Katherine’s eyes were glassy with unshed tears. “Yes,” she confirmed.
Deborah McKye was the woman I’d always think of as Mom, but I longed to know about the courageous woman who was my biological mother. “How old was she when she died?” I asked quietly.
“Twenty-six in human years,” Katherine replied. “There was a rumor that she had a child. Most of us dismissed the idea because she was so young, but no one could say for sure. She must have become pregnant when she and your father were on the run from Sebastian. They weren’t in regular contact with us during that time.”
Across the space between us, Bruce said quietly, “She died bravely. Inspired by the White Laurel, many others defied Sebastian Truss.”
“Her name was White Laurel?”
“Her name was Grace, but she’s a legend among us,” Katherine explained. “We call her the White Laurel because she was heir to the Laurel clan chiefdom and because she had white hair.”
“Can you see how things sit for us now?” Ian asked. “The dewing are verging on another war, and considering that the last one ended with bombing an island, it doesn’t look good.”
I nodded agreement. My head was spinning from so much information.
Katherine gave me a smile of understanding. “It’s a lot to take in,” she said. “Any more would be overwhelming. We should probably get going, anyway, or we’ll miss our reservation.”
Everyone stood up. With Amelia at his side, Bruce came to shake my hand. He was an unremarkable-looking man except for the color of his hair. It wasn’t really blond but not really red, either. “Your mother was a great woman,” he said. “You can call on us if you need anything.”
“Thank you,” I replied.
Spencer gave me a big smile and a hearty pat on the shoulder, which nearly sent me flying. Then he turned to face his son, and I saw tenderness in his expression. “Can I help you in any way, son?” he asked.
“Just give me some time, Dad.”
Spencer wrapped his arms around him in a bear hug. Reluctantly, Ian patted the big man on the back. “Love you, too, Dad,” he said.
Katherine put her hands on my upper arms and stared into my eyes. “You look so like your mother,” she said before kissing me on the cheek.
I froze, unblinking, until she let me go.
Surprisingly, Luke lingered last. He didn’t say anything. He just coughed and gave me a grimacing smile before making an awkward exit from the room.
I turned to the window and looked at the dark sky, wondering if I was more grateful or sad that I finally had some answers. At least I knew the name of the man I’d been hiding from all these years, the man who’d killed my parents…Sebastian Truss.
Chapter Nine
Ian let silence settle between us while a million different thoughts crashed and whirled through my mind. Feeling him watching me, it occurred to me that he was waiting for an emotional breakdown.
“I’m not going to cry,” I assured him.
“Are you sure?” he asked. “I think I’d cry if I were you.”
I put my head back against the cushions and sighed. “I passed the emotional-breakdown stage when you tackled me on the rocks. I’m solid at the moment. I’m really hungry, though.”
Ian laughed. “You’re jumping from a life-altering conversation to I’m hungry. You can be so weird.”
“And you can be so rude. I wish I could hate you for it.”
He laughed again. “Don’t worry, no one can. Let’s see what there is to eat in this place. Probably not much. I was supposed to go to the grocery store today. Instead, I was parked out back of the Shadow Box with my brains boiling in the heat.”
He opened the door of a virtually empty refrigerator. “You should have come in,” I said. “Lillian wouldn’t have minded. She would have ignored your existence. She does that with most people.”
He shook his head. “Lillian is an odd one, but it was because of your shattered nerves that I stayed outside. The last thing you needed today was me hovering over you at work.” He looked back into the refrigerator. “I’ve got bread and some processed cheese slices, so I can offer you grilled cheese or…grilled cheese.”
“I’ll take the grilled cheese, please.”
“Excellent.” He removed the bread and cheese from the fridge, opened a tall cupboard and took down the one pan in it. Turning back to see me peering into the unfilled space, he explained, “My parents have owned this place for a couple of months, but Brandy and I didn’t move in until last week.”
When he bent to look in a drawer for cooking utensils, a lock of his hair fell across his forehead. All my determination to ignore how hot he was evaporated. Tall and lean, he was built more for speed and efficiency than for brute strength. Though, judging by the way his T-shirt stretched across the muscles in his shoulders and arms, he’d have no difficulty defending himself in a fight.
I was just looking, not really interested, I told myself, but the idea of Brandy and Ian living together didn’t sit quite right with me anymore. I wondered if there was more going on between them than a cousinly relationship.
“Is Brandy your cousin or your girlfriend?” I asked.
He snorted. “She’d get a laugh out of that one. Brandy is sort of like my sister-in-law. She was my older brother’s likeness. A likeness is a dewing’s life partner, or mate, for lack of a better term.”
“Brandy was your brother’s…likeness,” I repeated, trying out the new word. “Does that mean they got divorced?”
“Dewing don’t get divorced. Once likeness is determined, two dewing can’t be separated for very long or they die. Most dewing choose to live with an irritating likeness over dying from the separation. Brandy is what you would consider a widow.” All the amusement left his eyes and was replaced by pain. “My brother, Jack, was killed five months ago,” he said quietly. “Brandy’s parents and sister have been gone for a long time, so she came to live with us after it happened. She’s lasted longer than any of us expected, but every day she’s less vibrant than the day before. She’ll be gone soon, too.”
It took me a second to understand what he meant. “Are you kidding me?” I asked. “She’s just a teenager and probably one of the healthiest girls I’ve ever met.”
“You didn’t know her before, so you can’t see how she’s changed. It’s sheer determination that has kept her going this long. And she’s not a teenager. When you asked earlier if any adults live here, I think she qualifies. She’s almost sixty years old.”
I started to cough, literally choking on my own spit. That would make Brandy older than my human parents. Ian got me a glass of water. “You okay?” he asked, patting me on the back.
I drank water as he put cheese slices between bread, wondering about his age. If Brandy was almost sixty and appeared to be eighteen, how old was the boy next to me? Noticing the expression on my face, he asked, “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I’m trying to figure out how old you are.”
“I was born seventeen years ago, on the twenty-seventh of May.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “At least one
thing about you is what I thought in the beginning.”
While he lit the gas stove, I thought back to the scarred V I’d seen in Brandy’s palm. I looked at my own palm to compare it. “Why is the V in my palm blue, but the one in Brandy’s is more like a scar?” I asked.
He pushed the sandwiches around the hot pan. “The mark starts out subtle and gets more defined over time, and it’s not really a V.” Taking my hand in his, he turned it so my fingers pointed toward the floor. “What does it look like now?”
It took me a second but I got it. “An island?”
“Yep. It’s a sign of our original home. The only solid thing we’ve got left to connect us with it.”
When he turned away, I kept looking at my palm, appreciating for the first time the significance of the mark in my flesh. Eventually, my mind returned to more practical matters. “Shouldn’t you make a sandwich for Brandy?”
“She won’t be back for a while.”
“Just out of curiosity, what is her joining?”
“She’s a drawer,” he replied. “She draws humans like a flower draws bees. She can sense what a human likes and make them think she’s just their thing. A drawer can make a human want their company to the point that they’d sign over their life savings or their firstborn child to get it. Most drawers are quite attractive and age slower than other dewing, which is an advantage, because humans appreciate youth and beauty so much.”
He put two grilled cheese sandwiches on a plate for me. I was so hungry I almost asked for a third. “I think Brandy has some diet soda somewhere around here if you want one,” he said.
I took a bite before responding, “No, thanks.”
My stomach growled for more, so I took another bigger bite.
“I told you you’d be hungry,” Ian observed.
I chewed and swallowed at record pace. “Very insightful of you,” I replied. “You know, you might want to get a table in here. In case your species hasn’t heard of them, tables are the four-legged things humans push chairs under.”
“Really?” he said with a quirky smile. “Come on, we usually eat in the living room.”