Vulcan's Kittens (Children of Myth Book 1) (15 page)

“And I get to meet her?”

He laughed again. “Indeed, and I think she will be as charmed as I am.”

Linn felt her cheeks blush. “I think I’ll go back and read for a while. Can I bring you anything?”

“Once we are over the ocean I can walk around a little, I’ll get it then.”

Linn went back to the cabin. Bes was awake, the children were all asleep.

“Hey.” She grabbed her pack and sat down with him again. “Coyote loaned me some books. I mean... I think he gave them to me. I don’t know when I’ll see him again. But he said it was a loan.”

“You’ll see him again. He likes you,” Bes reassured her.

“Do you want one to read?” Linn realized as she said this that she’d never actually seen him read.

“Yes, please.”

Linn pulled the books out and offered them to him. He gave a subdued chuckle as he looked at them. “Quite an interesting collection.”

“He picked them out and said I should read them.”

“I’ve read this one.” He handed the book she had been reading the night before back to her.

“I’m enjoying it,” she told him. “I hadn’t read any of them.”

“I’ll keep this one. The author writes a good, fast story.” He showed her the newest one, which still had its dust jacket. A rearing golden dragon appeared behind a woman dressed scantily and carrying a bow and arrow. Linn eyed it.

“What is she supposed to be?”

“Wood elf, I think.”

“Oh.” She opened her book and then looked back at him. “Bes? Are there...”

“Elves and fairies?” He filled in with a smile.

“Yeah.”

“Well, sort of. Some immortals have chosen to live differently.”

Linn blinked. Her world kept turning further upside down. She went back to her book.

They were both quietly reading when Quetzalcoatl came back to the cabin.

“Ah, noses in books together, I see. Care for a sandwich and a soda?”

Linn got up and helped him with them. She didn’t think Bes was going to get out of his seat while they were in the air. She brought him food and drink, which he eyed dubiously but ate obediently.

“Feels strange to be taking care of you,” she commented, sitting back down with him.

“Feels strange to be taken care of.”

“Well, someone has to do it,” she shot back tartly.

This sally did provoke a laugh out of him. “Child, I am older than the human race. You are still a child.”

“I’m human. We grow fast.”

He snorted. “Feed the children.”

He was asleep, or at least faking it well, when she was done taking care of the kittens and toddlers. The tiny galley had been messy after dinner, making her glad she’d chosen to feed them in there. Blackie and Gareth used their improvised litter pan. All together, when she was done and cleaned up, it had taken quite awhile.

With the kids settled, she sat back down and took his hand in hers again. Then she closed her eyes and fell asleep. She hadn’t dreamed in days, but woke up shaking from the dream about running through the fog with Blackie, Lambent held high, a beacon in the night. For the first time, she heard a sound. A bull-throated roar she knew was Bes... She angled toward it, tripped over something yielding, and fell... fell...

Linn sat bolt upright with a little squeak. The cabin lights had been turned down, and it was all but dark. Bes was snoring softly. The children were all asleep.

She stood and stretched out some of the kinks. Going forward to the cockpit, she rapped on the lintel of the open door.

“Come in, child.”

“Thanks. I wanted a little company.”

He smiled, a flash of white teeth in the dim light from the instruments. “Couldn’t sleep?”

“I had a dream,” Linn told him, looking out the windows at the stars. “I know Grampa said immortals aren't magical. But the Oracles at Delphi... prophecy is a recurrent theme throughout mythology. And I keep having this same dream.”

“Ah.” Linn inferred an unseen nod. “You are correct, there are those who have the power to foresee. It is rare for it to be clear.”

Linn sighed. “I kinda figured that.”

“What have you been dreaming about?” Quetzalcoatl asked her gently.

“I’m walking in a fog, using Lambent as a torch.”

“Lambent?”

“The sword Grandpa made me. I named her Lambent because that’s what she is... she’s softly brilliant with flickers of power.”

“You have the Sight?”

“Yes. You are a lot of colors, Bes is just... white. Grampa is lava-flow colored. Coyote is grass green. But what’s really weird is that I could see the power of the dead monster in Coyote’s valley.”

“Really? I have never been there.”

“Can all immortals See power?”

“No, not all. Some of us can.”

Linn fell silent, thinking about this. She still wasn’t sure what her Sight could do for her. It was pretty, she thought, now that she’d gotten over her initial fear of it.

Quietly, Quetzalcoatl asked, “And the rest of your dream?”

“Oh... well, Blackie is with me, only he’s big. Big enough I can rest my hand on his head.” She cupped her hand in the air, showing him how tall, while her skin glowed red in the instrument lights. “We’re running. I put Lambent down by my side after a while... I think it’s lighter. Then I trip over something... something soft and I fall. I fall into a hole, I think.”

“Does it change?”

Linn hesitated. “Well, tonight, I could hear Bes. He was... well, it was like a war cry.”

“He does that,” the Mayan god murmured.

“So I was trying to get to him. Only I tripped.”

“And fell in a hole?”

“Well, I just kept falling, past where I thought I should have hit the ground.”

“Linnaea, I can’t tell you if it is a dream, or a foretelling. I wish I could. The future without uncertainty would certainly be easier.”

“Yes.” Linn wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but she felt better for having told someone about it.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?’

“What?” Linn was confused by the change in topics. “Oh... Well, I wanted to be a teacher.”

“An honorable profession.”

“Right now, I’m not sure, though.”

“You come by that naturally.” He smiled again. “Your mother is a notable adventure seeker.”

“I hadn’t thought of it that way.” Linn got up. “I’m going to try and get some rest.”

“Good idea. Sleep when you can.”

She sighed. “That’s what Grampa said.”

Linn went back into the darkened cabin. The children were still asleep. Bes turned his head and opened his eyes briefly. She sat down next to him and took his hand without speaking. He squeezed her fingers and then she closed her eyes. This time, she didn’t dream.

Chapter 21

Sekhmet sighed and stretched. They had run halfway around the globe and weren't done yet. They had Cloud safe, and the Japanese triplets, who had been a handful to retrieve. Their next charge was the oldest of the children on the list. He wouldn’t have been on the list at all, but his mother had insisted. With her people scattered and her legends all but forgotten, she felt vulnerable.

Sedna, the mistress of the Inuit underworld, had a thirteen year-old son whose father she had not named. Raised on the edges of human society in the last frontier, he was likely to be another interesting child, Sekhmet mused.

They fell to Earth near the designated meeting place. The tundra was ablaze with fall color, the end of the warm season came early here. They walked carefully through the bright clumps of blueberries and birches. None of them came higher than Sekhmet’s knees.

A bright-eyed Siberian husky came bouncing up to them, barking. Sekhmet laughed. “Hello, Stith.”

The dog transformed to a short, stocky boy with a beaming smile. “Hello! You must be Sekhmet, and you must be the Mayan god of terrestrial fire.”

“I prefer Steve. Nice to meet you, young man.” The black jaguar laughed.

“Boy, am I glad you guys are here for me!”

“Has something happened here?” Sekhmet looked around, pricking her ears forward.

“No, nothing ha
s
eve
r
happened here!” Stith scowled. “Mom won’t let me go to Anchorage. I can’t have a Ski-doo. I am dying to get out of here.”

Steve laughed. “Well, then, let’s get going, kid.”

The two great cats exchanged amused glances as Stith picked up a backpack. This one was normal as American apple pie. He ran the high path with them exuberantly.

At the Sanctuary, one of the Coblyn greeted them with a bow and a lei for the delighted Stith. The goblin turned from the boy to Sekhmet. “Linn and the kittens will land shortly. Would you like to wait for them?”

Sekhmet sighed and rubbed her face along the soft inner side of her foreleg. “We still have three children to bring back, and they are on the other side of the world.”

“No, they aren’t,” the Coblyn contradicted her.

“What?” She wasn’t sure she’d heard that right, and cocked her ears at him.

“We are flying them in. Cora is on a private jet of her father’s, and the twins are flying commercial with their mother.”

“Why not wait for us?”

“Heff didn’t want you two to be exhausted, and there have been no moves made against the other children.”

Sekhmet sat and sighed. “And might not be. But I do feel better knowing they are all safe.”

“Heff said you would say that. He also said to tell you that he could give you guys three days, but then you had to be at HQ with him.”

Steve laughed. “Sounds like him. Well, I know these sore paws could use a break.”

“Shall we go to the airport?”

“Absolutely. Let’s go get the kids, then we can play on the beach for a while.”

She laughed at him. “I thought your feet were sore.”

“I’m a god.” He shrugged. “I can heal them.”

She batted at him with a paw the size of a dinner plate and he ducked away, laughing. She chased for a minute, and then they returned to Stith. “Are you going to be all right?” Sekhmet asked.

“Can I go to the beach, too?”

“Yep, you can meet us there, right?” She looked at the Coblyn, who nodded.

“Of course,” he assured the Inuit boy.

“Why not all the kids, and we’ll make it a welcome party. When are the others due in?”

“Cora should be here in a few hours. The others, not until tomorrow.” The Coblyn looked like he was getting into the idea.

“See if you can coax the Scholar out in the sun a little, too?” Steve suggested.

“Quetzalcoatl thought she and Linn should meet.”

“Oh, really?” Sekhmet mused. “Yes, I think that’s a great idea.”

She and Steve nodded to the boy and his guide and started for the front entrance. The winding tunnels of the Sanctuary contained a lot of things no one on the surface of the island had any idea about. The Library was only one of them. It made getting from one place to another tedious, but they still had time.

Sekhmet walked shoulder to shoulder with Steve, feeling relaxed in knowing that they were done with their mission, and the kittens were coming here. No one knew how long this war would last, and Hawaii certainly wasn’t a place to be stranded should civilization come to screeching halt. For now, and the children, it was a good place. Pele’s power so saturated the islands that the Old Ones didn’t dare approach.

Chapter 22

Linn jolted awake as the plane touched down. She reached down, but the buckle was done. Looking across the cabin, she could see the twins were holding hands and looking around with wide eyes. Bes was sitting still, holding onto both the armrests. She knew without asking he would do this until they touched down. Blackie and Gareth were nowhere in sight.

“Blackie, Gareth?” she called.

Quetzalcoatl answered. “With me, Linn. Don’t worry.”

Linn sighed and leaned back. Her protectorship might be coming to an end, but she thought she would always feel like this toward all the kittens. The plane slowed and then turned. She felt a little sad. Her adventures were done. Pretty soon she would probably get on a plane back to Seattle and the apartment.

When the plane stopped she unbuckled the girls, giving them an extra hug and kiss as she did so. Gareth came scampering into the cabin, his tail held high. Quetzalcoatl, laughing, followed him.

“They watched the landing from the co-pilot’s seat. Blackie is still glued to it. Also, you have a greeting party waiting for you.”

“Oh, Blackie!” Linn handed the girls off to Bes, who put them down and took their hands.

She went into the cockpit, where Blackie had his paws up on the instrument panel and was lashing his tail.

“Looks like fun, doesn’t it? Maybe you can be a pilot someday, like Quetzalcoatl.”

He turned and looked at her, and for the first time she saw his power in his eyes. Raging blue fire... she blinked.