Ellida (29 page)

“There’s something I want to ask you, Ahmed,”
she said one evening. “It’s about my mother.”

Ahmed gave her curious look. “Ask me,
tatlim
.”

Astrid smiled. Sometimes, Ahmed called her
tatlim
, ‘sweetie’, in his mother tongue. It sounded as
fatherly and warm as James’ ‘sweetheart’.

“I’m sorry if I’m bringing up painful
memories, but I need to know. Before Khotyn, you were a human,
right? A part
shihirbaz
, but otherwise a human. You were
turned into a werewolf, you’re not born as one. As you know, my
mother was turned, too. As a wife of a werewolf, she had a right to
request it, and she did.” She took a deep breath. “Now, I know
almost nothing about werewolf tribal magic, Ahmed. Seth is mentally
sick. Jack said nobody’s sure, but it could be because of the
interbreeding between close family members his family had practiced
for generations. Seth didn’t, but the damage might have been done.
Could he transfer his condition, whatever it is, to my mother
through blood? Is that possible? I mean I know insanity isn’t
contagious, but werewolf medicine and psychiatry is not what I
studied.”

Ahmed leaned across the table and took her
hand between his. “You have no reason to worry,” he reassured her.
“See, when we speak about werewolves, turning is a simple ritual
but still it’s supposed to be done by the most skilled clan member.
Generally speaking, humans can be turned—or turn, in some
instances—easier than any other species. A woman pregnant with a
child of a werewolf father, for example—”

“What?! Wait a second! I can’t cast a simple
spell while pregnant, but a human woman can be turned into a
werewolf?!”

“That’s because you’re a wizard, Astrid. In
some ways humans are tougher than the rest of us. A werewolf child
in a human woman’s womb makes it perfectly safe for her. A pregnant
human often spontaneously goes through her initial transformation
during the first trimester.”

“Wow! It’s amazing how nature regulates it!
Well, at least for human women. I’m jealous.”

“Turning a human into a werewolf has to be
risk free simply because humans are the key to our existence.
Wouldn’t make any sense if it harmed them, right? We mate with them
more often than other races and this allows them to become one of
us, if they want it, of course.”

“I know. We are a small population, we have
to breed with humans to keep our genetic pool healthy. But turning
a human into one of us isn’t always easy and without risk. You’re
an example.”

“Of course it’s not. If it’s done wrong, the
recipient could die. And you’re right, I barely survived it.
Whatever my turning was, it wasn’t a ritual. For all I know, I was
intended to be a meal. But see, I could have stayed forever trapped
in a wolf body, or, even worse, between two shapes, two minds and
two spirits.”

“A monster for real…” Astrid said
quietly.

“Exactly. But Seth’s insanity
is not
in his blood, Astrid, so it cannot be transferred through it. It is
a sickness of his soul, or the imbalance of energy in his body and
his mind. Besides, your mother is an asanni, her wizard blood would
have protected her from any harm, as mine, I guess, saved me from
an almost certain death. But don’t you know it wasn’t Seth who
turned her?”

“It wasn’t? Why has nobody told me? Who was
it, then?”

“Jack probably assumed you knew something
about the tribal rituals… Arina Landau was your mother’s donor.
She’s the Copper Ridge ‘converting specialist’.”

“Seth’s former sister-in-law? She must have
hated doing it!”

“Not at all, Astrid. Soon after your mother
married Seth, she and Arina became good friends.”

“What? Are you sure?”

“And have remained as such. You know, Arina
is also a lonely, betrayed woman. I’ve heard the father of her
daughter, Amilla, was a human, an outlander. He and Arina had a
brief affair, and he left Copper Ridge before he knew she was
pregnant. It’s not hard to imagine your mother and Arina quickly
found out they had much in common.”

Astrid let out a sharp breath. She’d need a
bit of time to process this newest piece of information, but at
least it had given her some peace of mind.

ASTRID AND Ahmed soon discovered another
special connection. One night Astrid had needed him urgently, but
before she’d reached for the phone, a vivid image of Ahmed sitting
in a lunchroom with a cup of his favorite cardamom black tea in his
hands shot through her mind.

“Coming!” she seemed to hear him say. She
shook her head and phoned him nonetheless, but even before his
phone started ringing, Ahmed had stormed into the room. “What
happened?” he asked, not a bit surprised at being summoned.

She asked him how he knew she’d needed
him.

“I sort of heard you,” he said slowly, as if
he tried to explain it to himself, too. “Like when we talk in our
wolf shape.”

“Can you communicate like that with anybody
else?”

“No. It’s never happened before. You?”

“I don’t think so, not like this. Sometimes I
can track Jack down, although only visually and only when he is
around. I never know if it’s going to work or not. He can be in the
next room and I still can’t see him, so it’s more annoying than
helpful. It’s arbitrary; I can never count on it. And we can’t
communicate. Jack’s not aware I see him.”

“This is different. You sent me a message,
and I heard it—”

“Ahmed, it’s not the first time! Remember
when we flew to Stanford to operate on a little girl whose dog
attacked her and smashed her hand? You were on your way home. I saw
you in the parking lot. I had the phone in my hands. Oh my God,
yes! It did happen before! I said something like, ‘I need you
back’, and you turned around and looked at my window.”

Ahmed nodded, still looking puzzled. “Now I
remember. I thought it was a coincidence. Is this working one way
or both? Let’s try.”

When Ahmed tried to send her a mental
message, nothing happened. “Doesn’t matter,” he said and shrugged.
“It’s still astounding, Astrid. If we can communicate like this,
it’s just wonderful!”

They quickly found out that no matter the
distance, Astrid could reach him.

Jack was even more delighted. Astrid’s safety
was his first priority and his constant worry. Getting a free
tracking device in the form of his loyal friend and a person with
whom Astrid was spending lots of her time was an unexpected
blessing. “I was recently thinking about those ankle monitors,” he
teased her, unable to hide his excitement, “but I knew you’d
object. It’d be perfect if it worked both ways, but regardless,
please take advantage of it, okay? You know what I mean, Astrid,
don’t you?”

“I know. If you’re not around and I need to
go to grocery shopping, I have to notify Ahmed about my
intentions,” she said with a dry laugh.

“Precisely,” Jack said, dead serious.

JACK HAD traveled twice to Scotland, to meet
with Darius, and a couple of times to Seattle, where he’d met
Ingmar’s friends Dinah and Gerard. The last time he’d secretly
brought all three of them to Red Cliffs. They had settled on the
Silverbell Ranch, close to the Langdons’ land. Powerful wizard
magic protected them from the unwanted curiosity of their closest
neighbors, and nobody, except a small circle around Jack and
Astrid, knew they were there.

Peyton and Ingmar continued to see each
other, although not on the farm. They would fly separately to the
nearest city and spend a few days together.

Liv and Tristan had moved to the ranch on the
outskirts of town, also in great secrecy.

By the end of May, Ella and Arnaldur had come
to Red Cliffs as Betty and James’ guests. Astrid’s grandfather gave
her a couple of suggestions on how to use her metal skills. As the
Grandmaster Arnaldur quickly became aware of, however, there wasn’t
too much any wizard could teach Astrid anymore. His beautiful
granddaughter had become one of the most powerful asannis of their
realm.

DURING ONE of their afternoon walks to the
clearing on the edge of the forest, Morgaine had brought up the
pregnancy issue one more time.

“Good, because I wanted to ask you about
something,” Astrid said. “You said before, we can use some energy
in the first trimester. What does it mean, Ellida?

“I say don’t use it if it’s not necessary, to
stay on the safe side. Bleithasts don’t use it at all when
pregnant. Our energy, mine, yours—I’m talking about the Ellidas—is
even stronger because we have the blood of both races in our veins.
We are rare, Astrid, and little is known about us. We know, though,
that the wolf inside us can and will protect the fetus if
necessary, even after the first trimester, at least from the
limited use of energy.”

“Define limited.”

“Enough to make an illusion—not fire
exhibitions, mind you, that’s considerable energy, no lightning
bolts, no heavy stuff. Now when I think about it, manipulating
metal, in fact, would be relatively harmless. And no
transformations after the first twelve weeks. Your husband, your
family, your clan—they are all here to protect you when you’re
pregnant. It’s payback, sort of, because you protect them the rest
of the time.”

Morgaine smiled and reach out to stroke her
face. “Astrid, this little problem with Seth is going to be over
soon. It would be wise to wait.”

“We’re using protection,” Astrid whispered as
her cheeks flushed. “I’m scared even to think about getting
pregnant now. Seth would try to get me for sure.”

Morgaine looked into her eyes. “I know,
honey, and I hope it won’t come to that. But if anything happens, I
want you to keep in mind that you’re not helpless, not even if
you’re pregnant. Don’t ever let despair get the better of you. Fear
is the worst enemy. If it comes to that, use your wits, use your
energy—you’ll know how much you can—and use what Takeshi taught
you. Humans’ skills are considerable, especially when nobody
expects you to have them.”

“That’s exactly what Takeshi says.”

“He has a great understanding of humans. He
knows what he’s talking about.”

Astrid rubbed her forehead and sighed. “I’ve
never been scared for myself that much. Seth wants me alive, so he
probably wouldn’t harm me until the very end. But he could hurt me
through those I love: Jack, my mother, my family, innocent
people.”

“About Jack, I wouldn’t worry too much,
Astrid. Aside from Brian, his father, he’s the most competent
werewolf warrior I’ve ever known. The others, well yes, there’s
always a possibility. To avoid that, we’ll see to finish it before
anybody gets hurt. By the way, Peyton Kincaid has considerable
wizard potential. I’m going to work with her. She’s been
romantically involved with Ingmar Mortensen recently, am I
right?”

Astrid smiled. She had become accustomed to
Morgaine’s tendency to sudden changes of topic.

“They are bond-mates,” Astrid said.

Although she’d never say that to anyone else,
not even to Jack, Astrid didn’t feel she’d betrayed Peyton’s trust
sharing her secret with Morgaine. What is said between two Ellidas
stays between two Ellidas.

“I suspected something like that.” Morgaine
narrowed her eyes, looking somewhere above Astrid’s head. “That
girl… I’m not sure. We’ll soon see,” she murmured, more to herself
than to Astrid. “I’m wondering…hmm… but it’s quite possible… quite
possible.”

Abandoning her randomly chosen focal point
somewhere on the horizon and moving her pale, sage-green eyes back
to Astrid, she said, “Although most of the time it’s a blessing,
you sometimes may find the fact that we can’t foresee the future
quite annoying. Right now, for example, it’s driving me nuts. What
can
you
tell me about Peyton?”

Astrid tried the same faraway look she’d seen
in Morgaine’s eyes a moment ago, focusing her inner senses on her
friend and Ingmar. Except for plenty of positive energy and bright,
sunny light that enveloped her inner vision of them, she couldn’t
see anything else.

“They are going to make each other very
happy,” she said, “that’s what I feel. They have different
personalities, and they’ll need to work on their bond a bit, I can
feel that too. That might be only because I know them both well.
They’ll have children, definitely… I don’t see the images of them
in my mind, Ellida, if that’s what you’re asking me to do. I
feel
their relationship, I don’t see it.”

“That’s all right, Astrid. That’s quite a
lot. You know what I feel? I feel I need to continue working with
her on her wizard skills. Ingmar should also do that. I have a
hunch she’s destined for something big.”

Astrid laughed. “Let’s put feelings and
hunches aside for a moment, Ellida. My logical mind tells me that,
theoretically speaking, there is a solid chance that, having both
werewolf and wizard blood in her veins, and being a wonderful
person, Peyton may become the mother of Copper Ridge’s first
Ellida. Her father was from there. What do you think?”

Morgaine slightly tilted her head and zeroed
her green gaze in on Astrid. “Your logical side has always been
admirable, Astrid Vandermeer. Yes, I would say it’s logical. We’ll
see.”

MY OBSESSION with keeping Jack close all the
time had eased after the last full moon, which was good because he
was on the road more than I’d bargained for.

Betty and Peyton always asked me to stay with
them when Jack was out of town but I always declined. I liked being
in my house, even alone waiting for Jack to come back. The bed
smelled like him, and I’d sleep on his side, in his T-shirt, head
buried in his pillow. Blue, my kitty, was allowed to sleep on my
side of the bed.

When I was alone, I would use Jack’s bathroom
instead of mine, his bathrobe, his towels, and sometimes even his
toothbrush, although I never told him that. I’d just discard it and
put out a new one before he came back. I’d leave his clothes
scattered around the room, and his book on the nightstand. His
presence was everywhere, and that made the waiting bearable.