Wood Sprites (41 page)
Authors: Wen Spencer
“Hmm.” Nikola sounded unconvinced.
“I don’t want Jillian to be alone while she’s asleep, so please, just stay here with her.”
“Okay.”
Louise was filled with sudden certainty that Jillian would try to come looking for her and get caught. “And don’t let her come looking for me! Sit on her.”
* * *
The house was huge and dark and quiet. She used her stage manager flashlight to pick her way through the seemingly endless halls, trying to quietly find the kitchen. Downstairs, every room she peered into could swallow her parents’ entire home. They were vast Cinderella palace rooms with marble and crystal that echoed the slightest sounds.
The kitchen was tucked in the corner, behind a great dining room with a table that could sit dozens of people. There were two massive gas ranges, a granite countertop island nearly fifteen feet long, and an entire wall of cabinets.
The far door led to a service entrance facing the massive detached garage. Since no one seemed awake in the house and she would be able to see a car drive up, the kitchen seemed safe to ransack at will.
Louise opened a door to what she thought might be the pantry and discovered an entire room of dried beans, sacks of flour, sugar, and cartons of salt. A locked door in the back of the pantry suggested a way down to a wine cellar. Bins along bottom shelves held three types of potatoes and four types of onions. The elves apparently were preparing for nuclear winter. Despite the abundance, there was little she could carry back to the room and feed Joy. She loaded one of each potato into the pillowcase just in case she found nothing else. Did these people not have anything that could be eaten instantly?
She moved through the kitchen, opening and closing doors as quietly as she could. Finally she discovered a cabinet full of sardines, smoked oysters, herrings, mackerels, kippers, cod liver, and something called tonno all in flat little cans. Luckily the hockey puck cans featured pull-tab lids. It meant that she wouldn’t have to take a can opener, but Joy would be able to open the cans and gorge. They would also have to figure out a way to dispose of the smelly cans afterwards.
How were they going to keep Joy hidden and fed?
There was a huge freezer and a big walk-in refrigerator. The latter was a jackpot of fresh fruit, from oranges to pineapples. Louise took one of each. One shelf held wheels of cheeses. She found a knife and cut thin slices from every single block. When she was done, she washed the knife and returned it to its drawer. Another shelf had jars of opened jellies of types she’d never heard of before. Lingonberry. Black Currant. Cloudberry. Wild Chokecherry. Confit of Violet Petals. Rose hip Jam. Lilikoi Jelly. She eyed them with intense curiosity, but they were small single jars and would probably be missed. There were also several jars of more mundane strawberry and grape. She took a large jar of Smucker’s strawberry jam plus the thing of honey and tracked down a stack of fresh baked breads on the counter and stole a loaf. Her pillowcase was now bulging with food, but how long would it last?
Somewhere in the house, she heard a door close. Someone was awake and moving around, and she was suddenly sure they were coming to the kitchen. Louise scanned the room for a hiding place. It was all cabinets and stainless steel appliances; a gleaming trap. She hurried back to the dining room and pulled out one of the center chairs. As she hoped, the table was wide enough that underneath there was a tunnel of space down the middle.
She ducked under the table and turned off her flashlight. She was just pulling the chair back into place behind her when she heard the voices and footsteps of people coming down the hall.
The lights went on in the room.
“I brought an orchid for my mother. I wanted to give it to her on Mother’s Day, but he had me searching for crows.”
“Sire is not happy that you only located Shoji.” Celine went into the kitchen, the door swinging back and forth behind her.
“They’re very clever birds.” Tristan raised his voice so that Celine could continue hearing him in the kitchen. There was a thump on the table as he apparently put the flowerpot down. “No one else was able to find him. Did Yves manage to capture Shoji after I found him?”
“You don’t need to know that,” Celine called.
Apparently Tristan was used to this type of answer. He only huffed and pulled out a chair. He sat down, swinging his legs as his feet didn’t touch the floor. “I’m really not good with plants. It nearly died once.” And then in a quiet voice, he asked, “Do you think she’ll like it?”
“It’s pitiful.” Celine set a dish on the table with the clink of china and silverware. By the smell, she’d made him toast.
“Can I have something else?” he asked.
“What is wrong with this?” Celine asked.
“I’m sick of toast and cereal for breakfast. I’ve tried to make kippers and eggs like Nattie makes it, but I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong.”
“I am not a cook,” Celine stated flatly. “You will have to wait until Nattie rises.”
“She won’t show me how to cook them.” Tristan kicked the leg of the table.
“You should be able to find a place that cooks that kind of thing in the morning. He gives you money enough to buy breakfast at a restaurant. You should be getting proper amounts of protein.”
“I hate eating out alone.” Tristan slumped down onto the table. “Always getting the same questions. Where are my parents? Why am I there alone? Don’t I have someone to take care of me?”
“The monkeys are too damn curious,” Celine muttered.
“Why can’t I have a cook? I could say that they’re my guardian.”
“We can’t afford for the monkeys to learn our secrets,” Celine stated.
“I mean one of us!”
“To live away from the manor is a slow death sentence. You are young enough that you do not suffer from the lack of magic. The rest of us grow sick without it.”
“I know, I know, supposedly I will grow up faster. I wish it would just hurry up and happen already. Everyone else grew up already. Lain. Esme. Adele. Bethany. Chloe. Felicie. Danni.”
“Shh!” Celine hissed loudly. “You’re not to mention the inbreeds in this house.”
“You said my mother was still asleep.” He was unrepentant.
“You must always be vigilant with our secrets. It is the only way for us to stay safe.”
“Why can’t one of them be with me? They all grew up.”
Celine went to the door and glanced down the hall before whispering. “Your half sisters are all wholly human, and they will die before you are even adult. In a very short period of time, you will be the caregiver, not them. You will grow up. You must be patient.”
“I’m tired of waiting.” He kicked at the table leg again.
Half sisters? He’d named at least six or seven girls. Louise only recognized Lain and Esme. Who were the others? How were they related? Lain and Esme were his half sisters because they shared the same mother. Ming was Tristan’s father, and he was an elf. If the girls were true humans, it meant that the other girls couldn’t be Ming’s children, so the parent that they all shared had to be Anna. But at the gala, Anna had said that she had two daughters. Did this mean that somehow she wasn’t aware that the others existed? And who was their human father? Why had Celine called them “inbreeds?”
He kicked the leg again. “Where is Bethany? No one talks about her anymore.”
“I told you, do not mention them in this house.”
A clock chimed somewhere in the house. Someone was walking through the house in long, solid strides.
“When does mother come down for breakfast?” He sounded slightly afraid.
“She has been sleeping heavily lately.”
“He’s been giving her
saijin
to make her dream more?”
“Her visions are vital to our success.”
Tristan growled slightly.
Celine scolded him for his anger. “For thousands of years we’ve had to hide ourselves among these savages, huddling over fissures in the earth. We who were gods of paradise were forced to this. But it soon ends.”
The footsteps grew louder. Louise huddled under the table, growing more afraid. It was Ming. She was sure of this. Celine turned toward the door and Tristan stood up.
“Sire,” Celine murmured, her voice full of reverence.
“Father,” Tristan said.
“You were not to come here today.” Ming’s voice was deep and menacing.
“I want to see her. I haven’t seen her for over a year.”
Ming continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “You’re to go to Cranberry.”
“Cranberry?” Tristan cried as if it were a death sentence. “Why?”
“There are some more crows for you to find. I want them found before the next Shutdown. Once you’ve done that, you’re to go to Elfhome.”
“For how long?”
“You will not be coming back.”
“Ever?”
“We have what we need to pull the bastard’s teeth. More importantly, the Eyes have seen that Feng’s people have a dragon.”
“Malice?”
“No, not one of the ones Feng cobbled together out of pieces of the Stone Clan’s holy dogs. A true dragon. With it, they can preempt our strike. I need you with Lucien on Elfhome.”
Tristan panted harshly, as if he had taken a deadly wound. Louise ached for him; to love his mother enough to desperately want just a few minutes with her and to be told he would never see her again.
“Shutdown is not for another week or so.” He scrambled for a delay. “There is no reason for me to rush away. Can I at least have a few hours? Just this morning?”
“She is too distracted after seeing you.”
“Please.” It was a horrible, heartfelt plea.
“No. Here is a list of our people in Cranberry. Here is money. Go now.”
He went, slow and dejected.
Ming took the orchid from the table and handed it to Celine. “Throw this away.”
* * *
Nikola was sitting on Jillian in the middle of the floor when Louise returned to the bedroom.
“Where have you been?” Jillian cried. “What did you tell Nikola to do?”
“She said I shouldn’t let you go!” Nikola stated.
“Food!” Joy scampered across the carpeting to climb up Louise’s leg. “So hungry! Smells wonderful!” She danced across Louise’s shoulders, patting her on her head. “Gimme!”
“I almost got caught by Ming.” Louise tugged at Nikola’s scruff to get him off Jillian. “He’s horrible. I hate him!”
“That doesn’t sound like almost,” Jillian said. “And did you have to tell Nikola to sit on me? He’s heavy!”
“Would you rather be tasered?” Louise said.
“Gimme!” Joy caught Louise by both ears and pulled.
“Ow! Wait!” She dug through the bag to find a slice of cheese and handed it to Joy to give her time to think about rationing out the rest of the food.
“A note would have worked,” Jillian grumbled. “What happened? Why do you hate Ming?”
“Because he’s horrible!” Louise moved Joy from her shoulder to the desktop; she didn’t want the baby dragon to see into the pillowcase. Joy probably could and definitely would open all the cans of fish and gorge on them.
Having gobbled down the slice of cheddar, Joy twiddled her fingers. “Yummy yellow stuff!”
“It’s cheese.” Nikola sounded slightly smug for being able to name the food but ruined the image by adding, “Right?”
“Yes, it’s cheese.” Louise fed a wedge of smelly blue cheese to Joy, who sniffed it experimentally and eyed the blue-green lumps. “That’s blue cheese. I think.”
“Stinky!” Joy cried as if this was a wonderful quality and then crammed the entire wedge into her mouth. “Nom, nom, nom.”
“Lou!” Jillian cried. “What happened with Ming?”
While feeding more cheese to Joy, Louise explained what she had heard. “Because half-elves grow up slower than humans, he’s just as much a kid as we are, and they’ve been making him live all alone for years. They won’t get him a nanny and they won’t leave here to take care of him because they think this place has magic.”
“It does,” Jillian said.
Louise gave Jillian a puzzled look. Had Jillian been experimenting with magic while Louise was gone?
“I noticed last night downstairs.” Jillian only got more confusing.
“What are you talking about?” Louise said.
“I could see magic downstairs.” Jillian pointed toward the foyer.
Louise stared at her twin.
“You can’t see it?” Jillian asked.
“No!” What’s more, Louise had never heard of anyone being able to “see” magic. “What does it look like?”
“It’s purplish and misty and it’s warm,” Jillian said.
“How do you know it’s magic?” Louise asked.
Jillian pointed at Nikola. “Because it’s the same as the magic generator.”
“You can see magic?” Louise barely kept from shouting. It felt like a betrayal that Jillian had some weird special ability and she didn’t. That Jillian hadn’t even mentioned it up to now.
“I thought you could, too.” Jillian started to cry.
Louise stared at her twin in dismay. Once again Jillian had bested her without even trying; so why was she crying?
One good thing about Joy stuffing herself was that she was asleep before Anna knocked on the door and walked in before they could answer. Jillian was in her Peter Pan costume and obviously hiding deep within the character.
“Jillian, where are your clothes?” Anna asked.
“I want to keep them clean,” Jillian stated. “If we eat something like pancakes for breakfast, they might get messy.”
“She’s a very messy eater,” Louise said because it might be useful for one of them to constantly be dropping food. It would be easier to sneak out food if some of it was always rolling under the table. “When can we go home and get everything we want to keep?”
“This is your home now.” Anna waved to take in Esme’s steampunk bedroom. “The house is part of your parents’ estate. It’s up to the executor of their will to go through things and decide what is to be done with them.”
“Who is that?” Louise hated the idea of a stranger going through their things.
“I don’t know. I have my lawyers looking into it.”
“We should be able to get our stuff,” Jillian said. “Our clothes and everything in our bedroom are ours.”
“In these kind of things, it’s best to follow protocols; otherwise things get messy.”
There was a protocol for kidnapping your grandchildren? “What are we going to do for clothes?”
“We’ll go out shopping later.” She waved them toward the door. “Come downstairs for breakfast.”
Would the cook notice the missing food? Would she tell anyone? Would Ming realize Louise had heard everything? Louise wished she could turn to someone for comfort, but she was afraid that if she leaned on Jillian, her twin would break under the pressure.
Nikola was leaning against her, obviously not wanting to be left alone. It would be better, though, that he never come to Ming’s attention. Besides, Joy probably wouldn’t stay hidden if there was a table full of food just above her head. Louise patted him reassuringly but commanded firmly, “Stay.”
* * *
They didn’t eat breakfast in the grand dining room with the massive table. Instead, Anna led them to a tiled sunroom. Louise recognized it as the place where Ming’s photograph had been taken eighteen years earlier. It seemed as though time had stopped in the room. Ming sat in the same wooden thronelike chair. He wore a dove-gray suit of linen and a purple shirt without a tie. It could have been the same suit that he’d been wearing when his picture was taken. The pale fabric made his white hair, ashen skin, and strange amber eyes less striking.
“This is my husband, Edmond.” She touched them each on the shoulder as she introduced them. “This is Jillian and Louise.”
He studied each of them without so much as a nod to acknowledge the introduction. “What do you know of your real parents?”
“Our real parents are George and Mackenzie Mayer,” Jillian stated with Peter Pan’s bravado.
Ming frowned slightly. “Your genetic donors.”
“Our parents never told us who donated the stuff they used to make us,” Jillian stated firmly since it was true.
“They didn’t tell us anything. We figured it out,” Louise added cautiously. “Our blood types are wrong to be their naturally conceived children.”
“The paperwork only has lot numbers on it,” Anna murmured as if it were something the twins shouldn’t hear. “I suspect Esme pulled material from a sperm bank.”
“I am interested in who she selected to father her children.” Ming didn’t lower his voice; he acted as if the twins weren’t present. “The DNA scans were interesting. I’m having more detailed tests run on them.”
“I can’t imagine what Esme was thinking. Why go through all that pain and angst if she wasn’t going to stay on Earth? Was she afraid she was going to have an accident like Lain and be stuck on Earth, unable to bear children? It breaks my heart that she never told me that she was afraid. And to think, that she sat right here, a week before she went into orbit and never breathed a word about what she’d done.” Anna gave a sad little laugh. “After she left home for that last time, I had several vivid dreams about her hiding babies in a cabbage patch. Every night, a different woman would come to the garden and steal away a baby.”
Ming looked at her sharply. “You did not tell me about those dreams.”
“I thought it was utter nonsense.”
Ming breathed out what might have been anger. Whatever it was, it didn’t touch his face, but his eyes were ice-cold. He motioned to Celine, who was hovering by the door. “We’ll eat now.”
They sat at a round table with exactly four seats. Even if Tristan had stayed for breakfast, there wouldn’t have been room for him. A female that Louise hadn’t seen before rolled a cart into the sunroom and produced plates out from under silver covers. She had lush red hair woven into a long braid. Like Celine, her beauty marked her as an elf even though there was no sign of elf ears.
“This is Nattie, our cook,” Anna introduced the female.
The dishes were identical in content. Each had a split-grilled fish with a poached egg, a small mound of cooked spinach, a dark slab of bread, a wedge of lemon, and a yellow flower of something. The skin and head were still on the fish, and it stared up at Louise with reproach.
“This is breakfast?” Jillian didn’t like runny eggs, and the yolk glistened like a drop of honey in the morning sun, ready to burst open.
“Yes, dear.” Anna picked up her silverware and started to dissect the grilled fish. “The skin comes off easily and the filet is exposed. But be careful—there are bones underneath.”
The yellow flower proved to be a very nice buttercream. The dark bread had a strong sweet flavor to it, some odd cross of rye and molasses, which was acceptable, but Louise would have liked toasted wheat instead.
“The lemon is for the spinach.” Anna demonstrated, squeezing the juice onto the mound of rich green. “It’s very good for you. It’s a very balanced breakfast.”
Was this a typical elf breakfast or some kind of weird take on breakfast for immortals? Every part of it was well-cooked and tasted fine but was just too strange after a night in an unfamiliar bedroom. Louise nibbled at it, thinking of the contents of the pantry. Everything in the kitchen had been strange and unappealing. It did not bode well for future meals. They might starve to death here.
* * *
In the end, it had been smart to leave Nikola in their room. Anna took them straight from the table to clothes shopping. Louise felt he’d be safer and happier in their room than dragged through dozens of new places, unable to ask questions or comment on their surroundings.
“I want to change into my regular clothes first!” Jillian obviously wanted to warn Nikola that they were going to be gone for a long time.
“You both can change into the first dresses that you like.” Anna had a hold of Jillian’s wrist when she announced her plan. She used her hold to gently but firmly tow Jillian toward the front door. “It will make it easier to deal with the sales staff if you’re wearing something better than your normal clothes.”
Celine appeared in the foyer, blocking the stairs back to their room. Louise had little choice but to follow behind Anna.
It was still raining outside, a downpour that well reflected Louise’s state of mind. The limo waited under the shelter of the portico with two elves in black suits pretending to be men. Considering that the car could drive itself, two drivers was extreme overkill.
Louise tried to get a better idea of the neighborhood where the mansion was located, but the rain smeared the windows.
Anna outlined her shopping plans, ending with, “Until we can get things settled out, you’ll need dresses, socks, and underwear.”
“We like T-shirts and pants,” Jillian stated firmly in Peter’s voice. “Dresses are sissy.”
“We will get those, too,” Anna said as if she’d won some point. “If we have time, we can look at furniture for your bedrooms. We’ll remodel Esme’s room and then Lain’s, so you both can have your own space.”
“We like being together.” Jillian leaned forcibly against Louise to underscore her point.
“And we like the room we’re in.” Louise liked to imagine Esme was protecting them in her old bedroom, even though she knew that was impossible.
Anna breathed out a small sigh. “I indulged Esme’s grief after her father was killed and Lain had her accident. I let her make that room into a cave and fill it up with so much escapist whimsy. I thought it was good for her, hammering nails instead of heads, but looking back it seems exactly the wrong thing. It was the beginning of the end.”
Anna spoke as if Esme was dead instead of just in another star system billions of miles away. The colony sent audio updates on a regular schedule, delayed by nearly five years. Esme’s ship would have arrived nearly eighteen years ago; had she not sent messages home?
“She’s not dead,” Louise said.
“To me, she died the day she jumped out of Earth’s orbit. She’s lost to me. That damn gate has stolen all my baby girls from me. I hate it.”
“What about—” Louise caught herself. She and Jillian shouldn’t know anything about the rest of the family. How could she salvage her question? “Were Lain and Esme your only kids?”
“No.” Anna didn’t seem to notice how horribly the question was cobbled together. She sighed and looked out the window, although it was so hazed by rain it was unlikely she could see anything but her own blurred reflection. “I wanted rafts of children, and Edmond was more than willing to indulge me. After several—failures—we had two little boys. The doctors said I wouldn’t be able to safely have any more. We talked about using surrogate mothers; India had a booming business in it at the time. We went so far as to take the first steps, and have some eggs harvested and fertilized. I still dream of the little girls they might have been; the grown women they would be now. The doctors said, though, that the genetic testing showed that all the girls had inherited the same genetic illness as our little boys.
“Our two little boys were so ill. They didn’t sit up until they were nearly one and didn’t start to walk until they were three. They were always so small for their age. When they were twenty, they were smaller than you are now. I couldn’t bear to subject more children to that, and Edmond agreed. I had the embryos disposed of.”
Louise stared at her. Bitter sorrow and self-blame were obvious in her voice. Anna didn’t know. She didn’t realize that her sons were half-elves. It took a hundred years for elves to reach “adult,” so it was probably no surprise to Edmond that the boys had grown so slowly. He had left his wife believing that somehow she was responsible for their lack. How had he fooled Anna for so many years? Had she never considered it because when the boys were born, elves were still mythical on Earth?
Louise glanced at Jillian, who shrugged. She scrambled to come up with more questions. “Do—do they live at the house?”
“No. They might look like little boys, but they’re full-grown men. They moved out years ago.”
But they weren’t really adults. They were still children.
And who were Tristan’s fully human half-sisters? The missing Bethany and the otherwise unmentionable Adele, Chloe, Felicie, and Danni? Had they been the embryos that Anna thought destroyed? Had the DNA tests been a lie so Edmond could do what he wanted with the unborn children? Louise remembered the loathing in Celine’s voice as she called the girls “inbreeds.” What had Edmond done to the girls?
* * *
The next few hours were a whirlwind of shopping. Anna seemed to want to compact nine missed years into a single day. First stop was a hair salon for three-hundred-dollar haircuts. Then they had their nails done. Deeming Macy’s too common, Anna took them to Les Petits Chapelais, Kisan, Half Pint Citizens, and Julian & Sara. They shopped for dresses along with a sprinkling of shirts and jeans as promised, each piece of clothing over a hundred dollars. Then their shoes were deemed too worn and new ones were bought.
Louise felt like she was being flayed, everything familiar and safe being torn away. Finally, as they were “slumming” in Neiman Marcus, Louise locked herself in the cell-like fitting room and called their Aunt Kitty. Jillian was serving as a distraction, doing a full-blown version of the song “Tomorrow” from the musical
Annie
.
Aunt Kitty answered with a frantic “Louise! Where are you? Is Jilly with you? Are you two okay? Where are you?”
“Shopping.” Louise eyed the fitting room’s mirrors. She barely recognized herself. She hated how little and scared and fashionable she looked. She turned around to face the blank door. Four black dresses hung from a hook, waiting to be tried on, just in case Anna “deemed them stable enough to attend the funerals.” By the way she phrased it, Louise wasn’t sure Anna would actually allow them to go to the funeral home, let alone the burial. “The school called Anna Desmarais, because she’s our grandmother. She got her name on our records as emergency contact. She’s taken us clothes shopping.”
Apparently Aunt Kitty knew some of this because she didn’t ask how Anna was their grandmother. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
My mommy and daddy are dead!
Louise closed her eyes tight on the tears that wanted to come. “I’m scared. I don’t like her, even if she’s our grandmother. She’s not letting us go home. She says we have to wait for someone called an executor to go through everything first.”