The Illegitimate Claim (3 page)

“You two shouldn’t worry so much. Let me get cleaned up and I’ll make some

enquiries. Once I find her, and determine if she’s still alive, you can decide if you want

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The Illegitimate Claim

Andru to know about it or not.” With that, he swung his travel bag over his shoulder

and walked casually out of the room.

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Lorie O’Clare

Chapter Two

The children ran playfully across the warm sand on the long, narrow beach. They

laughed with excitement when the tide rolled in and soaked their feet. Damp air, thick

with the smell of salt, offered the familiarity of home, and the sun hung high and round

in the perfectly blue sky. Meah stood and stretched before turning to look toward the

group of children. She squinted and held her hand over her eyes then smiled when her

two children jumped to avoid the white foam that chased after their bare feet.

“They really like it here.”

The petite woman looked at the man standing next to her. His almost black skin

glowed in the sunlight, defining every muscle in his arms and hard-worked body. He

smiled down at her and wiped a strand of her hair away from her sweaty face.

“You’re leaving soon, aren’t you?” His black eyes showed his affection for her.

She smiled back. “My work here is done, Rog. Your community is established and

the temple is built. Besides, you said there is no more war to the east.”

Rog continued to smile but walked away from her toward a wicker basket full of

clams. “I think we have enough for now.”

He looked toward the children and Meah turned as well. She focused on her two

young ones.

“Tory…Tia…time to go,” she called across the beach, and two curly-haired children

looked up at her in dismay.

They slowly started walking toward their mama, glancing more than once back at

the remaining children who continued to play.

“Hurry up, you two,” Rog scolded and the children broke into a run.

He turned and watched Meah as she smiled at her twins. Their inky curls, doused

with gold highlights, bounced hilariously as they trotted across the sandy beach.

Meah’s grin broadened when they wrapped their chubby arms around her tiny waist.

They were filthy and happy. Their cheeks were rosy and their identical eyes looked up

at her.

“We don’t want to go,” Tory pouted, and then looked at his sister. “Tia’s thirsty,

though.”

“We’ll get something to drink when we get home. And I think we’ll take baths

before we eat.”

The children groaned as they fell in beside their mama and walked slowly up the

hill toward the small village they knew as home. Tia turned in front of Meah and lifted

her hands to be held before they reached the first leaf hut. Meah lifted her young

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The Illegitimate Claim

daughter into her arms and smiled as the child buried her head in her shoulder. Her

children were happy here. It was the only life they’d ever known.

That thought was one of many that swam through her head as her children soaked

in the large tub on the front porch of her small hut. The woven mats that covered her

front windows were rolled up and secured with twine so she could easily watch them

as she straightened the main room of the straw and leaf structure she called home. Her

arms were full of small animals carved from wood when she stopped to watch Tory

pour water gently over his sister’s back.

They were identical, absolutely two peas in a pod. Of course, they looked just like

their papa. That hadn’t surprised her much. It didn’t even surprise her that she’d

birthed twins. And as they grew, now over four winters, their strong ties to each other

didn’t surprise her either. It worried her, though. Meah remembered Tara once saying,

by the time she realized how close Andru and Ana were to each other, the damage was

done and there was no reversing it. Meah knew Andru loved his sister possibly more

than he would ever love another woman, and she knew it caused him pain.

It caused her pain too. He had a right to know that he had children. Twins. Twins

who looked just like him. She knew from the beginning though, if he found out she

became pregnant from their night together before she left her clan to begin the age of

searching, he would have brought her back without listening to a word of argument. At

the time, that simply wasn’t an option.

Meah shoved Andru’s image from her thoughts and put the children’s toys away.

The warm night air greeted her like an old friend as she walked outside to dry her

children. After dressing them in matching white night smocks that fell to their ankles,

the twins ran to their straw mats. As always, Tia rested her head on her brother’s chest

and looked up expectantly at her mama.

“Tia wants to hear the story about the wild boars,” Tory spoke through a yawn.

“You want to hear that one again?” Meah sat cross-legged on the edge of their mat.

Tia nodded eagerly.

“And she wants you to tell the part where you stand on the glider with Papa,” Tory

said, and Tia nodded again as she smiled sleepily at her mama.

“Actually, I kneeled.” Meah smiled.

She told her children the story of her youth, of the first time she met their papa. It

was one of her favorites, too. The twins knew all the Runner stories. But she never

mentioned anything about Gothman to them. She couldn’t. It was for their protection.

They were the future heirs to Gothman, or at least Tory was, and that was knowledge

she couldn’t let get out. Especially since Gothman had just finished defeating the Sea

People. She associated with that race from time to time, even though the village she

lived in was primarily Neurian.

* * * * *

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Lorie O’Clare

“What are you doing?”

Meah wiped the sweat from her forehead and turned to face the cracking voice of

the old woman.

“Why do you always have to show up behind me?” Meah looked at the dog-

woman, the old guardian of Crator. The old woman smiled, revealing several crooked

teeth and black holes where other teeth should have been. “I think you enjoy startling

me.”

Meah looked across the rows of the communal vegetable garden and saw no one

watching her. She knew she was the only one who could see the dog-woman and didn’t

want anyone to think she was talking to herself.

“What are you doing?” the dog-woman asked again.

“I’m pulling weeds.” Meah bent over to continue her work after making sure the

twins were close by. They sat drawing in the dirt at the end of the row and didn’t look

up when she looked at them.

“You still have work to do.”

“I’ll get it done,” Meah answered as she studied the remaining rows she hadn’t

weeded yet.

“You must start on it immediately,” the dog-woman persisted.

Meah looked up at her and then glanced at her children as she asked slowly, “What

work are you talking about?”

“Take your children home.” Then the old lady disappeared.

Meah sighed and looked up at the sun. They’d been working in the garden all

morning and the heat of the day was setting in. It would be smart to cool the children

off and seek some shade for a while. She stretched her sore muscles and strolled over to

the twins. A hot breeze outlined her slim, petite figure through her long pale blue

smock and matching pants. She wrapped a long, inky strand of hair behind her ear as

she admired her children’s drawings in the dirt.

Tia had already mastered the Neurian alphabet and pointed to the crude letters

then looked at her mama for approval. Another guilt pang ran through Meah as she

thought how she should be teaching her children the Gothman and Runner alphabet,

but didn’t dare while living among Neurians.

“There you are.” Rog walked up to them smiling. “I just got a transmission from

Sharay. She thinks she will be able to leave Semore soon with some priests. She’ll be

here before the cycle is out.”

“Oh Rog, that’s wonderful. You two have waited so long to be together.” Meah

smiled up into the handsome dark face of her friend. “Why don’t you join us for a

drink? I thought I’d get the children into the shade for a while.”

Rog took her hand and walked slowly by her side while the children skipped

around them.

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The Illegitimate Claim

“Sharay would really like you,” he said quietly after they’d walked silently for a

minute.

Meah held her hand up in front of her with his larger one holding it. “I don’t know

about that, Rog.” She laughed. “I’ve grown accustomed to our friendship, but I don’t

know if your future mate would understand.”

He opened the door to her hut and then helped her lower the rolled mats over the

windows to keep out the afternoon heat. As she poured cold water from a clay pitcher

that had chilled in her icebox, Rog came up behind her and wrapped his muscular arms

around her small waist. He rested his chin on her shoulder and sighed.

“I don’t want you to leave, Meah. Where will you go? Who will protect you? The

farther east you go the more dangerous it will be for you, I fear.”

“The dog-woman came to me today while I was pulling weeds. I didn’t understand

at first but I think she wants me to leave soon. I’m not sure where I’ll go,” she lied.

Meah understood now what the dog-woman meant by taking her children home.

They needed to return to Gothman and face all the people she’d left behind. She turned

around in Rog’s arms and handed him a clay mug. “Crator will guide me, and I trust

He’ll protect me as well. Now tell me about your transmission from Sharay.”

“She says that the Neurian nation has triumphed over the Tree People and the Sea

People. They had some help from some of the people north of them but now things

seem to be settling down. She plans to announce to her papa in the morning her plans

to do Crator’s work.” He took a long drink from his mug and Meah reached for the