Vulcan's Kittens (Children of Myth Book 1) (6 page)

“Gift?” she choked. “I was so scared!”

“It will be a gift, once you’re used to it and trained to use it.”

He felt her shaking ease. She still had her eyes closed. “What... what was I seeing?”

“Not the future, child. You are seeing my power.”

She slowly opened her eyes, looking up at him. Her face relaxed. “I’m not seeing it now.”

He nodded. “It will come and go at the beginning. You’ll learn to use it, in time.”

“So your... power... looks like fire.”

“Yes. I’m the Smith, and God of Volcanoes, for a reason.”

She sighed and buried her face in his shoulder for a minute. Then she sneezed. “A stinky one, too.”

He laughed and let her sit up. “Why don’t I go clean up while you prep for dinner? Feel like you can stand up now?”

He offered her an arm, but she was back to normal. As she stood up, she realized she was still wearing the pack. “Oh, no! The berries!”

Heff laughed again as he went out the door while she laid things on the table, checking for damage. It had been a long time since life had felt this good. With the development of her power, the child’s defenses were that much stronger. And she made him laugh. He was going to miss her when he left tomorrow.

He stripped to the waist and washed in the cold water from the pump. Then he went into the forge and shut it down. Most of the power he pulled from the earth himself, but the fire was still essential to the metal work. He would come out here tonight and finish while she slept. Right now, he felt the need to be near her, and he still needed to teach her how to gut the rabbits.

Linn looked up as her grandfather walked back in the cabin, pulling a t-shirt over his head. She raised an eyebrow at the worn Metallica design and muttered. “Figures.”

“You need your knife, your kills, and to come out to the pump.”

“Yes, sir.” She grabbed the limp rabbits and followed him. She’d not taken the belt knife off. She all but slept with it on, up here at Grampa’s cabin.

“Normally, you will want to butcher immediately. You don’t want to leave the carcass intact, it will spoil the meat.”

She nodded.

He picked up one by the hind legs. “Cut the skin here and here.” He sliced neatly around the rear hocks, and then from the inner leg all the way between them. “You’ll be able to pull the skin down, like taking off a glove.” He pulled the skin down the legs, then took hold and with one smooth motion inverted the skin completely.

It looks like a white tube sock coming off
,
Linn thought.

“Cut the front feet off. Shears work well for this, too.” He showed her, laying the carcass down in a stump and chopping them off quickly. Then he decapitated it. The hide went onto the woodpile, the feet and head into a nearby bucket.

“Your turn.”

Linn quickly realized that it wasn’t as easy as he made it look. Her hide had a couple little holes in it when she finally had it off. Rabbit skin was so thin. He showed her how to cut around the anus and slit carefully from tail to breastbone to remove the guts intact. Those went into the bucket as well, although he kept the thumb-sized hearts aside on the plate for the meat. She was slower than he, but managed not to puncture the gut and contaminate the meat. They washed the rabbits in the cold water and he took the hides and bucket of guts while she went inside with the carcasses to get dinner cooking.

By the time he came back indoors, she had the fat heated, the rabbits quartered and dredged in a flour mixture, and was cutting potatoes into French fries. She’d fry them along with the rabbit pieces. The salad was on the table already.

He sat and filled a pipe quietly. “Think anymore about what happened?” he asked.

“Not really.” She kept her eyes on her work. The potatoes and sharp knife gave her a good excuse.

“You need to think about it, girl,” he said gently. “Need to be able to do that at will.”

“Why?” she asked. It was bad enough to have other things in her life she couldn’t control, like her emotions and hormones.

“Well, think about it. You’re in a group of people and you need to know who’s an immortal. Could be handy. And you can learn what wards are, and how to tell they are there, how to tell when someone’s using power.”

Linn nodded, laying the cut potatoes on paper towels to absorb the excess moisture.

“It has to be scary, I know. But once you learn to control it you’ll be glad of it.”

“How do I control it?”

“Hmmm. Look at me for a minute.”

Linn laid the knife down and looked at him. No flames, just gray hair disheveled from his last foray outdoors.

He held out a hand and opened his fingers. “Focus, that’s it.”

She stared at his hand. Ghostly flames seemed to dance in his palm. He closed his hand and they disappeared. She looked up at him and saw the flames in his eyes, they concealed his eyes and danced in the sockets... He blinked, and was just Grampa Heff again. “I saw...”

He nodded. “It will get easier. Don’t burn dinner, now.”

Linn thought all through dinner. Grampa seemed content to let her stew, barely speaking himself except to comment on the meal. They didn’t eat all the fried rabbit, but as he said, it would be good lunch the following day. He raised an eyebrow at the flowers in the salad, but ate them without comment.

Chapter 8

As Heff was washing up and she was wiping down the counters and stove, Linn finally asked the question she’s been avoiding all day. “Grampa, who is going to be babysitting?”

“It’s not going to be your grandmother, girl. Sorry, but I need her where she is.” He seemingly read her mind, as she had been thinking about her grandmother earlier in the day.

“So who?” She didn’t look up, afraid he’d see the sudden tears in her eyes.

“You’ll meet him tomorrow. He defies description, and the kittens are starving.” Heff shooed her out of the house, gruffly but gently. She guessed he knew how she was feeling.

Linn sighed and went out to the barn, where she found that Grampa had milked and filled the bottles before dinner. That’s what had taken him so long. The kittens were indeed convinced they were being starved, crying piteously at the gate for her.

She fed them, and cleaned the little pan. They were washing one another and her when she thought to try the Sight on them. She squinted at each of them, but couldn’t see anything other than little pink yawns and fuzz. Slightly disappointed, she curled up with the heap of kittens and drifted off to sleep, dreaming of floating down the Nile in a papyrus boat with the kittens, trying to steer clear of crocodiles and hippopotami.

She woke up to her watch alarm in the morning. Yawning, she climbed down the ladder and fetched the milk pail and Silly. She rested her head on the doe’s warm flank and milked as she woke up. Milking was already an easy habit, as her muscles knew how to do it now. She headed into the house with the full milk pail, only to stop short at the sight of someone sitting on the front porch.

He was in Grampa’s chair, which was tilted back against the wall, and his pipe wreathed smoke around his head. He was trying to look like Grampa Heff, but he wasn’t. Linn squinted at him. Her Sight kicked in and she took a step back. The immortal on the porch was powerful. White light burst forth from him in waves, and she threw a hand up in front of her eyes to ward it off. She blinked furiously, trying to shut the Sight off again.

She heard the chair legs hit the wood. Steps came towards her and she closed her eyes tightly.

“You all right?” His deep voice was gruff, but she could hear the concern.

“Yes - no... I’m still trying to figure out how to turn this on and off!” she burst out in frustration.

“Look at me...” He put a hand under her chin, his warm fingers softly reassuring.

Reluctantly, Linn opened her eyes. Sighing with relief, she realized she could see again. She was looking straight into the eyes of a very short black man, who was grinning at her. His hair and goatee were snow white, but he didn’t look old.

“You’re the babysitter?” she blurted.

He let go of her chin and took a step back, then swept her a flourishing bow. “At your service, Linnaea. I am Bes. Sometimes known as a god, although I prefer... cosmic clown.” He cut a caper.

She laughed in surprise.

“Don’t spill the milk, child.” He was back to being serious now. “Come in, you’ve passed the first test.”

“Which was?” she asked warily, following him up the porch steps.

“To see through the illusion, of course. And I was laying it on thick, being forewarned that you had seen through Mars' sleep spell.”

“Which was why you almost blinded me with the power,” she said ruefully.

“True. But you did see it truly before the Sight kicked in. You really will have to learn to control that.”

“Grampa keeps telling me that.”

“Keeps telling you what?” Her grandfather’s voice came from in the house.

Linn headed for the sink with the milk pail. “I need to control my gift.”

“I see you met Bes.” His suppressed laughter warmed his voice.

Linn glared at them both over her shoulder, then turned back to her task, hearing Bes’s delighted chuckle behind her.

“Feisty, isn’t she? She’ll do, Heff.”

Linn blushed.

Her grandfather laughed. “You’ll have your hands full with this lot, I’m afraid. The kittens are about ready to leave the barn.”

“And the girl?”

Bes and her grandfather walked out onto the porch. The last thing Linn heard was her grandfather’s voice. “Teach her to be sneaky...”

She sighed. Her babysitter was a clown. Evidently a sneaky one, but still! She put the milk pail to dry and walked over to the bookshelf. She found Bes in the Standard Dictionary of Folklore. He was an Egyptian god, she read, known for his protection of children and pregnant women. His other aspect was the god of war and vengeance. She slid the book back in its place. It figured that Grampa would choose him, then
.
He has all the right characteristics
,
she thought
,
to protect us, and to teach me.

The door opened, and she turned to see Bes and her grandfather come in. Her grandfather was carrying a cloth-wrapped bundle. He set it down on the table. Linn dried her hands and walked over to him. He wrapped her in his arms, holding her tightly enough that she squeaked.

She felt his chest rise and fall with an unheard sigh. “I hate to leave you, girl.”

She looked up at him. “Go do what you need to. Just like I told Mom.” Linn frowned. “Is she safe, by the way?”

“Linn, your mother really is a goddess,” Bes interjected. “She is a formidable one, too.” He looked thoughtful. Linn wondered what the story was, there, and made a mental note to pry it out of him sometime.

Heff smiled at her. “Your mother is currently traveling around the world to volcanoes and calderas like the one under Yellowstone. She’s tapping and controlling energy to keep them from all erupting as the Olympians draw power from the Earth’s core.”

Linn gaped at him. “Draw power from the core?” she managed. “But...”

“I’ve told you enough for now. Your mother’s work is crucial to keeping this world’s ecosystem viable. That weapon was used once before, I won’t let that happen again.” He looked grim, and Linn remembered her promise about OpSec.

“Yes, Grampa,” she responded quietly.

“Now,” he let go of her and stepped back, “I have a present for you. Close your eyes, and hold out both of your hands.”

Linn held them out obediently, palms up, and closed her eyes. She felt Grampa put something cool and heavy in them, and then his big, warm hands closed over hers. He was murmuring something, but she couldn’t hear the words. Then Bes was speaking, too, and touching her forearms. Linn felt a flash of heat travel through her.

She gasped and opened her eyes. The Sight flickered and she saw a flare of power from both men, extended from them to the sword in her hands. Her eyes widened. They stepped back and she held it by herself, still glowing slightly. It was warm now, she realized.

“She is bonded to you,” Grampa Heff told her quietly. “Your weapon. There is enough power in it to injure even a god. Carry her always. Sleep with her, even. You understand?”

Linn nodded, speechless. She was scared, and excited. A tumble of emotions flooded through her. Her grandfather looked as grim as she had ever seen him. She opened her mouth, and then shut it again, unsure what to say.

Bes broke the silence. “Sure, and she needs a name.”

Linn looked at the leaf-bladed sword blankly. She recognized the style from swords Grampa had made in the past. The smaller size would make it possible for her to wield. A two-handed broadsword like you often saw in movies would have been ridiculous for her. Power still flickered along the edges of the blade.

“She is Lambent,” The voice wasn’t hers, although it came from her mouth. Linn felt funny, and swayed as she stood. Grampa stepped quickly to her side and took Lambent from her hands, sliding an arm around her shoulders.