Chaos and Retribution Box Set, page 28
part #1 of Chaos and Retribution Series
“I’m sure she’s just outside playing with the others,” Mattie said, but Netra barely heard her. She was fumbling at the heavy bar holding the front door closed, afraid that at any moment she would hear screams from outside.
She got the door open and hurried outside, blinking at the sudden brightness of the sun after the dimness of the bedroom. At first she didn’t see Aislin anywhere and fear bloomed in her chest, but then she saw her slight form down by the stream, the other three children nearby. They all looked unhurt, and she took a deep breath, glad there’d been nothing to worry about.
“There they are,” Mattie said. “Down by the beaver pond. Nothing to worry about.”
“I’ll go get her,” Netra said. “I’ll be right back.”
She hurried toward the children. As she drew close, she could hear them talking.
“Come on,” the boy said to Aislin. “I want to see your gills. Show them to me.”
Aislin was looking down at the ground, not responding.
“What’s wrong with her?” the girl said. “Why don’t she talk?” The youngest of the three, barely old enough to be out of diapers, stood watching with his thumb in his mouth.
“It’s cause of the gills, I bet,” the boy said. With one finger he poked Aislin in the shoulder. “Hey, fish-girl. Can you breathe underwater?”
For the first time Aislin looked at him, and whatever he saw made him take a step back.
“Can you?” she said.
The boy was standing with his back to the beaver pond, and when Aislin said those words Netra saw the water in the pond start to swirl. Tiny waves lapped up on the shore around the boy’s feet.
“Stop it!” Netra cried, running the last few steps and grabbing Aislin by the shoulders.
“I wasn’t doing no harm,” the boy said sullenly.
“I’m not talking to you,” Netra said. The water was still moving. She gave Aislin a little shake. “I said stop it.”
The swirling ceased, and the waves receded.
“What’s wrong with her?” the little girl said.
“She’s just different,” Netra replied. “Isn’t that enough?”
She took Aislin’s hand and led her away. “Never do that again,” she hissed in a low voice. “Never.”
“I was tired of him,” Aislin said, not looking at her.
“That’s not a reason,” Netra said. “It’s never a reason.” As she said this, she could not help but think of the terrible things she had done, the ways she had abused her power. “Did you hear me? Tell me you heard me.”
But Aislin had lapsed back into silence, and nothing Netra said could draw her out.
“Is everything okay?” Mattie asked, when she saw the look on Netra’s face.
“It’s fine,” Netra said. “I…I’ve been having some problems with Aislin’s behavior lately.”
“I know how that is,” Mattie said. “I can’t ever get through to that boy of mine. His head’s like a stone. Whatever happened, I’m sure he was to blame and I’m sorry for it.”
Netra gave her a weak smile. “Fortunately, nothing happened. I probably overreacted.”
“Children do that to you.” Mattie gave Lea another hug and touched her cheek. “I want to thank you again. I don’t…” Her voice broke. “The last one died just about this age, almost two years ago. I couldn’t go through that again, not so soon.”
“Bring her to me anytime you need to. Any time. I mean that,” Netra told her sincerely.
“You better count on it. You’ve made a believer out of me this day.” Mattie came forward and took Netra’s hand. “I don’t know what you did in there, but I’m grateful. Anything you ever need, and I mean anything, all you need to do is ask. I’m sorry we don’t have any coin for you, but you won’t want for food for you and the little one for a good long time.”
“That’s enough,” Netra replied. She looked around and saw Daren emerging from the barn, heading their way. “If you don’t mind, I think we’ll walk back home.”
“You sure you don’t want Daren to take you in the cart? It’s no trouble.”
“Thanks, but I think I feel like walking.”
“If you say so. He’ll come by your house later and bring you some vittles, so you don’t have to carry anything.”
Netra and Aislin began walking down the road toward home. When they were well away from the farm, Netra stopped and crouched down in front of Aislin.
“Look at me, Aislin,” she said, moving into the child’s line of sight. Aislin turned her head to look away. “No, you’re going to look at me.” Netra put her hands on the child’s face and turned it to face her. Aislin turned her eyes down.
“What were you planning on doing to that boy?”
No answer. Netra wanted to shake her until her teeth rattled. She had to grit her teeth until the feeling passed.
“If you don’t talk to me, I won’t let you go down to the sea.”
Aislin flinched slightly.
“I’m sorry to have to threaten you with that,” Netra said, “but this is serious. That frightened me, what you did back there. I thought maybe you were going to harm that boy.”
She waited to give Aislin a chance to respond, and when she didn’t, she continued. “When you hurt someone, it leaves a mark inside you. That mark never goes away. Believe me, I know this. The things I’ve done…I’ll never be free of them.”
Still no answer.
“Talk to me, Aislin. Tell me you understand what I’m saying.” Her voice cracked, and she paused.
“I don’t know what I was going to do,” Aislin blurted out suddenly, her face darkening. “But I’m tired of it. Maybe it’s time to be scary. Maybe that will make them leave me alone.”
Netra’s heart broke a little when she heard the words. She gathered the child up in a fierce hug, tears streaming down her face. “I know it’s hard. I know you’re angry and you don’t understand. But you can’t do that, honey. You can’t ever strike out at anyone that way. If you do I’m afraid they’ll take you away from me. I’m afraid they’ll put you away somewhere and we won’t be together anymore. I love you so much and I don’t want to see that happen.”
She pulled back and stared into the child’s eyes, willing her to understand.
For the first time, Aislin looked at her rather than through her. “They’ll take me away?” she said in a small, lost voice.
“I’m afraid they will. I’m afraid they’ll put you somewhere so you can’t harm anyone else.”
“We won’t live together anymore?”
“No,” Netra said, fresh tears starting in her eyes.
“That would make you sad.” It was a statement, not a question.
“Sadder than you can imagine.”
“Okay,” Aislin said. Then she pulled away and started walking alone down the road.
Netra stood and stared after her, not sure what, exactly, had just happened. Despite how many times she’d told Aislin she loved her, the child had never told her back. She wasn’t entirely sure the child was capable of feeling love. This was the closest she’d ever come to showing Netra that she did.
Netra wiped at her tears. It occurred to her that Aislin’s acquiescence might have less to do with anything approaching love and more to do with a discomfort at having her living situation changed. Aislin did not handle changes well, and often grew very agitated when they happened, such as the time when she broke her mug, and Netra had to get her a new one that was a different color. Whatever it was, she would take it and call it a small victory. Living with Aislin for this long had taught her to count every victory she could.
Chapter 32
“How about we go on a picnic today?” Netra asked Aislin. The little girl was sitting on the floor staring out the window, watching the clouds roll overhead. She hadn’t spoken since they got back from the farmer’s a few days ago, as if she’d used up all her words for a while and needed to wait for some more to build up.
Netra went over and sat beside her. She stroked her hair, marveling at the softness of it. It was so thin and wispy, as if it were made of the clouds Aislin was staring at.
“We’ll go down to the beach and you can swim in the sea. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
Nothing at first, then Aislin nodded, almost imperceptibly.
Netra got up and went to the shelves where she stored their food. “We’ll bring some of the cheese that Mattie made and the rest of that loaf of bread. There’s also apricot jam we haven’t opened yet. What do you say to some of that? Won’t that be good?”
She continued talking as she packed the food into the bag she usually carried herbs and salves around in. It was habit by now, like narrating her life for someone who couldn’t see.
While she was packing, Aislin went to the front door and opened it. She stepped outside and looked up at the sky.
“Don’t leave without me!” Netra called after her. “And put your cloak on.”
Aislin made no move to get her cloak, so Netra got it for her once she’d put hers on. But then she looked at the sky, saw that it was mostly clear, felt the gentle breeze, and put it back. They could always come home if the weather turned bad later on. It also meant one last thing she’d have to keep track of, since Aislin would ditch it at the first opportunity and make no effort to pick it up.
Aislin started down the path to the village, and Netra hurried to catch up with her. “Take the left fork when we come to it, honey. We’ll go a different way today. I want to go to a different part of the beach.” The left fork of the path led around the village to the north. The truth was she didn’t want to go through the village yet. She was still a little shaken by what almost happened at the farmer’s. She wanted to keep Aislin away from other people for a while until she was sure there wouldn’t be a repeat.
As they circled around the village, Netra looked down and saw Mirrim out in front of her home, standing at the edge of her garden, leaning on a spade. Mirrim saw them and waved, and Netra waved back. At the sight of the older woman Netra felt a sharp pang. Right then she wanted nothing more than to go talk with her. Talking to Mirrim calmed her, helped her regain her perspective.
She briefly considered trying to get Aislin to go by Mirrim’s for a little while, but she quickly gave up on the idea. The little girl was walking with the firm steps and determined look she got when she was heading to the sea. Trying to divert her now would be next to impossible. Netra would probably have to drag her, and then she’d spend the whole time trying to sneak away anyway. No, Mirrim would have to wait.
Netra picked up the pace to keep up with Aislin, who was already getting out ahead of her. The path wound through the low hills then into a band of sand dunes and finally out onto the beach where there was a small bay. Netra eyed the sea uncomfortably. Considering the mildness of the weather, the waves seemed awfully high. Maybe there was a storm out to sea that was out of sight. She looked south, toward the village. Oddly, the waves seemed smaller over there.
“What do you say we start by building a sand castle?” she asked Aislin, knowing the question was pointless as soon as she asked it. Only once had she ever gotten Aislin to show the slightest interest in sand castles, and that was the time the child stomped the one Netra had spent all morning building.
Aislin ignored her and made a beeline for the sea. She paused briefly at the edge of the surf to kick off her sandals, and then dove out into the next wave. Netra sighed, and hurried to pick up her sandals, which were already being sucked out to sea. Sometimes she felt like raising Aislin was a constant tug-of-war between her and the sea, with Aislin as the rope. The sea kept trying to pull her child away from her, and she kept trying to pull her back.
Netra backed away from the surf and chose a small dune to sit on where she could keep an eye on her child. Not that there was really any need to. Aislin swam with all the ease and grace of a fish. It seemed so effortless, the way she knifed through the water. She hardly moved her arms at all, and then mostly just to steer it looked like. She kicked with her legs but nothing like hard enough for the speeds she attained. Netra had only tried swimming a couple times in her life, and she’d barely been able to move in the water at all.
As the time passed and the sun grew higher and warmed the air, Netra began to relax. It was a beautiful day, after all, only a light breeze, the feel of spring in the air. Sandpipers ran along the beach, and seagulls wheeled overhead. The steady roar of the waves had a soothing, almost meditative quality. She began to feel sleepy and wondered if she could nap.
She glanced out at Aislin, checking on her out of habit, but this time what she saw made her heart pick up. She jumped to her feet to get a better look. Was that…?
A shark fin, cutting the water near where Aislin was floating on her back.
“Aislin!” Netra called, running toward the beach, now thoroughly frightened. She’d seen the remains of seals that washed up on the beach and knew what one of those cold-blooded predators was capable of. “Aislin, get out of the water!”
Now there was another fin, then another and another. Soon there were at least six of them, swimming in a circle around the little girl. Netra splashed into the sea up to her knees, screaming Aislin’s name. Still Aislin did not respond. Netra had no way of knowing if she could even hear her.
Desperately, Netra went beyond, pushing through the mists and into the velvety darkness. There was Aislin’s akirma. Circling it were the glows of the sharks’ akirmas. In the distance she could see several more sharks swimming closer.
Netra gathered herself. The sharks were well within her range. From here she could reach out with her will and snatch the flows of Song that sustained the creatures. Fear for her daughter lent her strength. She would easily be able to rip those flows away. Bereft of the Life-energy that sustained them, the sharks would quickly die.
The danger lay in how many of them there were. She might not be able to get them all before one of them was able to attack Aislin. Already one of them was gliding right toward the child.
She focused and reached for it…
But as she did, she saw with her normal vision as Aislin finally reacted. As the shark neared the child she rolled over and swam toward it. The shark, instead of attacking her, slowed and, even as Netra grasped its flow, it bumped the child gently with its nose.
Netra watched in amazement, moments from killing the creature, as Aislin stroked the top of its head. As the shark slid by her, she grabbed hold of its fin and gave it a tug.
Then the others closed in. The water around the child fairly seethed with sharks. They seemed to be seeking her out, crowding in close but without bumping into her. Aislin petted them all as if they were puppies rather than dangerous predators, a smile on her face the whole time.
Netra could only shake her head in disbelief. Gradually, she backed out of the water and went to sit down, though she continued to keep a close eye on things.
The child and sharks played together for some time, then one by one the creatures slipped away. Aislin swam to shore and emerged from the sea, dripping wet and still smiling. Netra went to meet her.
“Did you see?” she asked, looking straight at Netra for once.
“I did,” Netra said. “How did you…I didn’t know you could do that.”
“They know I am their friend. I’m hungry.”
With that Aislin opened the bag, dug into the food and started eating ravenously. She was always extra hungry after swimming in the sea.
Nibbling on a heel of bread, Netra watched her eat, still stunned by what she had witnessed. Curious, she slipped beyond and examined the child more closely. This time she saw something she’d never seen before.
There was another flow attached to her akirma. Unlike the normal flow of LifeSong, which was golden, this was green. But not the green of a plant. Rather it was the emerald green of the sea. And it was pulsing softly.
Had it always been there, but she’d just never noticed it before? Or was it new, something appearing as the child’s powers awakened?
Netra reached out with her inner senses and brushed up against the flow, then quickly pulled back. Whatever that flow was, and it had to be some kind of Sea power, it was not pleasant to touch it.
Netra left beyond and laid her hand on Aislin’s shoulder. What are you? she wondered. Where did you come from?
When Aislin was finished eating, she looked longingly at the sea once again, but Netra stopped her before she could head back in. “Can you do something for me first?” she asked her.
Without looking at her, Aislin said, “All right.”
“Can you do what you did the other night, when you made the shapes and the colors in the water? I’d like to see it again.”
Aislin opened her mouth and began to sing. It was the same eerie melody, though pitched differently. Netra guessed that the words were in the same language as before, but she had no way of knowing for sure. Whatever they were, they seemed to hiss over her skin like the surf, washing over her, then withdrawing, washing over, withdrawing, over and over. It was simultaneously soothing and frightening.
Netra found herself wanting to get up and pace, and also to lie down in the sand and close her eyes. It was very peculiar.
Instead she slipped back beyond and observed. The first thing she noticed was the way the odd green flow attached to Aislin was thicker now and pulsing more strongly. Then she looked out into the sea and forgot about the strange flow.
Before, all she’d seen in the water were the golden flows of the various fish and other creatures that lived there. Now, though, she could see so much more. Thick, powerful currents of emerald green in constant motion. Even more surprising, they seemed to be moving in time to Aislin’s strange song. Netra could feel how much power was there, moving to the call of one little girl. When she’d fought Melekath and his Children she had taken hold of vast quantities of power several times, but except for the River itself, she’d never touched anything on this scale.
