Chloë (3 page)

Sure
enough Chloë could make out two males far on the trail ahead walking their
way.  The elder was a lean and elegant sort with a brilliant coat of snow
leopard spots, just like Chloë’s.  The younger was a striking young man in
his late twenties with clean lines and ticks like a snow lynx in winter. 
They both waved as they got closer.

“Hi,
Dad!  This is Chloë.  Ivy says she can stay with us for a
while.  Oh, and this is Gavin, Dawn’s husband!”

“Delighted
to meet you both,” smiled Chloë.

“Delighted
to meet you too, Chloë,” replied Llewellyn.  His voice had a light and
even meter to it.  Chloë could tell where Heather got her voice!  “I
go away for six hours and all of a sudden we have a new person at the
house.  Well, that will teach me!  Lowlander, are you?”

“Yes,
sir,” replied Chloë formally.

“You
wouldn’t know anything about the crash over by the canyon would you?  Two
days ago, Altshea craft.”

Chloë
nodded and replied evenly, “I believe that may have been my governess, sir.”

“You
walked
here from there?  It was raining enough to strangle the frogs
the last two days.”

“Yes,
sir.  I walked all the way from there.”

Suddenly
Llewellyn’s face melted, “Did you have food?  What about rain gear? 
That was a nasty storm!”

Chloë
shook her head. “The first real food I had in two days is what the lovely lady
Maria made for me this morning.”

“She
walked all that way in a nightgown, Dad,” interrupted Heather.

“Oh
my word, young lady.  It is amazing you didn’t catch the death of
cold!  That was a terrible storm and your fur coat is blown for this
season.  You are taking her into town for more clothes, yes?”

“That
and to show her around.”

“At
the shops, buy her what she needs or wants.  Tell the proprietors to bill
my account.”

Chloë
just stood there in shock and the generosity again, “Thank you, sir. 
Thank you very much!”  

Llewellyn
cocked his head, “If you want to thank me, call me Llewellyn not ‘sir.’  I
get enough of that already!”

Chloë
just laughed, “Yes, Llewellyn.”

“Okay,
I’ve got to get back to the house.  Gavin, do you think you are up for
running this young lady’s trail backwards?”

“No
problem, I’ll just want to tell Dawn first.”

“Dawn
was at the house when we left,” informed Heather.

“That
will work; I’ll grab some supplies there and head right out.”

“What’s
up with that, Dad?”

“The
crash has attracted a bit of shady attention.  Need to find out if she was
followed,” he replied evenly.

“If
I’m endangering your house, sir, I’ll leave at once!” Chloë immediately
offered.

“Oh,
there is was again… ‘sir’… how tacky… after all that effort too…”

“I’m
sorry, Llewellyn.  It is just that…”

Llewellyn
smiled a broad, toothy grin, “Oh, don’t worry, young lady.  It is not my
house that needs to worry…”

Heather
hugged her father and the two groups quickly parted company.

“Um,
your dad, well heck, your whole family seems unconcerned for their
safety.  That worries me a bit,” offered Chloë apologetically.

Heather
grinned. “Dad helped fight alongside the Shukurae for several years when he was
young.  He’s seen some pretty serious action.  If he isn’t worried, I
wouldn’t worry!”

“Shukurae? 
Those four meter tall, troll-looking things!”

Heather
frowned for the first time since Chloë had met her.  Well, she
thought
it was a frown.  Heather’s face didn’t quite seem able to form a frown
properly.  “Oh my word, Chloë.  What have people told you about
them!  They are wonderful people! Creepy looking, I admit, but they are
wonderful, noble, honest people.”

“I
was just always told to stay way clear of them.  That they were violent
beings that would kill faster than you could twitch your tail!  Razor
sharp teeth and huge tusks!”  Chloë shuddered at the images she had been
presented.

Heather
laughed, “Well yes, all of that indeed, but first of all they are three meters
tall, not four.  And yes, they are
capable
of great violence, but
they are equally capable of great kindness and compassion.  They helped
frame the house we live in after my father got married.  All my uncles
could spend
days
telling wonderful stories about them and their sense of
purpose and self-sacrifice.”

Chloë
hung her head, “I was never taught any of that.  All my education seemed
to be to cultivate fear of those different than we were.  I’m so very
sorry I’ve slighted them.”  

Heather
blew a raspberry; she seemed to do that a lot. “You didn’t know better.  Don’t
blame yourself; blame your tutors.  Maybe you will get a chance to meet
them and decide for yourself.”

“Things
are so different than they were a week ago,” murmured Chloë.

“Hopefully
for the better!”

Chloë
smiled, Heather’s optimism was just so darn contagious, “Yes. Now they are far
the better.  You have several uncles then?   I didn’t see any
brothers.”

 Heather
beamed. “Yeah, a bunch of uncles and no brothers.  Blew the odds
there.  Oh!  Right, you’re a lowlander and wouldn’t have caught that:
Dad is a High Silver and if a High Silver and a twin have kids, it is almost
always either a boy or twin girls!  Thus we have quite a few twins. 
The really,
really
, awesome one is Moira had
triplets
! 
Those are so darn rare you never even hear of them up in the Highlands.”

Chloë
nodded and smiled, but most of that was just due to Heather’s incurable
personality.  High Silver, what was that all about?  Questions, but
questions for another day!

Chloë
joined five of the adults of the house for dinner along with Heather and the
block of five, thirteen-year-old girls.  The rest of the children, along
with Maria and Gwen, ate at a separate table that actually started thirty
minutes earlier.  Dinner was a
serious
production at this
house.  Including Chloë, there were twenty-one mouths to feed. 

Chloë
finally got a chance to meet the Third Mothers, the twins.  Short red hair
with gorgeous jaguar like coats with crisp rosettes, they were darlings at the
table if not outwardly mischievous.  They enjoyed talking and operating as
a block.  One would start the sentence, leaving the other twin to finish
it.  They seemed to enjoy the confusion they caused.  But it was in a
playful spirit that was well received.

Most
of the talk of the table was centered around a minor festival and public dance
that was coming up in two weeks.  Not a soul asked Chloë more than she had
already ventured.  Even the twins steered carefully clear of asking about
Chloë’s background.  She did notice that Llewellyn seemed to be showing
some favoritism to Moira, a point that Ivy seemed to enjoy playfully
admonishing him about.

Chloë
did her best to help clean up after dinner.  She had never had to clean up
dishes in her life, much less help by hand rather than machine.  Heather
just laughed and helped her when needed.  It wasn’t hard, of course; Chloë
just had never done it!

The
evening quickly passed as stories were told to the younger children before they
went to bed, and the adults soon resigned themselves to either books or exchanges
on the pianos or other instruments for the benefit of the hall.  Chloë was
amused to watch Maria comb and braid Moira’s hair for bed, almost like
sisters.  The amusement was complete as when Moria’s hair was done, the
twins descended on Maria and helped Moira comb and braid Maria’s hair; it was
so long, no wonder it took three people to prepare it for the night.  Back
at the palace Chloë had servants to help with her hair, but these weren’t
servants.  These were sisters by choice helping each other and laughing
and gossiping while doing so.  It was so very different…

 
Chloë was immediately curious about reading and soon found herself inundated by
options when she was shown the family library.  It was massive!  Most
of the books were in the Old Tongue, but there were a few books in more
familiar languages.  Not ever certain what to read, Chloë spent most of
her time just rummaging, much to the humor of the wonderfully helpful Second
Mother, Maria.

Soon
the evening was wearing late and the group separated as various people headed
off to bed.  Llewellyn casually called out as people were departing, “We
are probably going to have some people dropping by tonight.  I’ll do my
best not to let them wake you.”

Heather
just giggled at the comment while Chloë was both amused and nervous about the
statement.  Llewellyn had mentioned the crash had brought unwanted
attention; had various people already followed her here?   Was she
putting these wonderful people in danger?  Heather just walked Chloë back
to her room and said her good-nights.  Worries or no, Chloë soon found she
had fallen fast to sleep in the wonderfully comfortable bed.

A
light flashed briefly in Chloë’s window.   She didn’t know if she was
supposed to stay quiet or scream out for help.  She was three stories up;
there was no way someone should be shining a light into her room.  She
held still and held her breath.  What had she done to these nice
people?  What evil had she brought upon them?

Just
as quickly as the light came, it was gone.  She could hear footsteps on
the roof outside.  They were moving away from her window and down the
length of the house.  The next room over was Heather’s.  Chloë’s
stomach tied itself in knots as she thought of poor Heather next door. 
The girl was so wonderfully nice.  Surely they wouldn’t bother her. 
But Chloë couldn’t take a chance!  She slipped out of bed and crept to her
door and peeked out: to her horror there were three strange men in the hallway,
ready to sweep into poor Heather’s room!

It
wasn’t a planned reaction, it just sort of happened: Chloë screamed as loud as
she could.  It wasn’t a plan to warn Heather so much, rather it was raw
fear bubbling over.  The scream launched the three intruders as they
rushed Heather’s door and flung it open.  The three ignored the source of
the scream, too preoccupied with their prey, so Chloë burst out of her room and
down the hallway, aiming for the staircase.  Just as she reached the
staircase, she suddenly noticed Llewellyn standing there calmly at top,
blocking the path.

“Shhh!”
he scolded.  “You’ll wake the rest of the house!”

Chloë
stood there frozen in panic.  Don’t wake the house?  There were
intruders!  Llewellyn was blocking the staircase; was he party to all of
this?  That didn’t make sense; they had gone into Heather’s and not
Chloë’s room.

The
sounds of brutality erupted from Heather’s room and Chloë reflexively spun to
see what was happening to poor, poor Heather.  There were also sudden
vulgar shouts of outrage as the intruders suddenly realized that Heather’s fur
coat was unmistakably not Chloë’s.  So they were after Chloë!

Suddenly
the three quickly backed out of the room in a defensive fighting posture. 
The sounds of a thrashing in Heather’s room only added to Chloë’s
confusion.  In an instant, Heather was at the door, snarling, teeth
flashing in the narrow streaks of moonlight.  The first man rushed her
only to have his feet knocked out from under him by an excellent kick by Heather. 
The man started to fall over.  Halfway to the ground, Heather fired a
second shot, a savage knee strike that sent his head into the door frame. 
He hit the ground and didn’t even twitch.

“Are
you going to help her?” pleaded Chloë to Llewellyn.

Llewellyn
looked shocked and confused, “Um, there were only five of them.  I didn’t
think she needed any help.  Besides, she has it down to two now.”

Chloë
was shocked, not just at the statement, but with the tone of Llewellyn’s
voice.  He honestly didn’t seem to think this was a problem!

The
second man leaped at Heather and grabbed her left arm.  In a smooth motion
Heather spun, rocketing her elbow into the side of the man’s head.  In the
same arc of motion, she jumped into the air and kicked off the far wall,
sending the man crashing against the nearer wall.  Even at this distance
it was obvious the man’s shoulder was completely dislocated.  Half stunned
and in an immense amount of pain, he was reduced to writhing on the floor, no
longer a threat.

The
third man did something foolish: he went for a knife.  With the silver
blade flashing in the dim light he swung wildly at Heather.  Heather, to
her credit, expertly dodged the first two wild blows before catching the man’s
wrist and firing a powerful shot into the man’s elbow.  His arm was at
full extension and he was teetering off balance.  Heather’s strike bent
the man’s elbow a good forty-five degrees… backwards.  As his scream
filled the hall, Heather pulled him the rest of the way off balance before
spinning and kneeing him in the back of the head.

Heather
just stood there and smiled as Llewellyn brought the lights up in the
hallway.  Standing there in her nightgown with the three men sprawled at
her feet she was a picture of contrasts: cute, bouncy, hyper and happy, but with
a presence that implied she had been going easy on the attackers.

“Heather?”
asked Chloë more than a little surprised.

“Oh,
hi, Chloë!  Sorry we woke you up,” she beamed.  She giggled as they
watched Gavin appear as he hauled two more unconscious forms from her room.

Gavin
secured their arms and legs before turning his attention to Llewellyn. 
“The other four are already secured.  Do we run them in tonight?”

“Eh,
constable Owen and his men are already heading this way.  We’ll let them
take care of ‘em.  You ought to be getting back home to your family!”

“Sounds
like a plan to me!  Heather, that was an excellent job you did there.”

“Thank
you,” beamed Heather, “but I know Dad is a little grumpy at me.  I should
have gone to Live Steel as soon as the guy brought out his dagger.”

Llewellyn
smiled broadly, “Yes, please.  You always want to be two steps
ahead.  But you did do an excellent job, nonetheless.”

Heather
just grinned and grinned before motioning to Chloë, “Go back to bed! 
Sleep!  Dad has it under control!”

Chloë
cocked an eye at her, “So you knew you were going to be attacked.”

“Well,
Dad handed me the tracking beacon that had been embedded in your nightgown, so
it was a given!  No big deal, go back to bed.  I am!”  Heather
laughed as she entered her own room and peeked back at Chloë, shooing her.

Chloë
laughed in spite of herself; Heather was such a live wire.  “Um, sir, er
uh.. Llewellyn, they were tracking me by my clothes?”

Llewellyn
just smiled, “Yep, yep.  It appears that way.  Think back; it might
explain things when you were back home.  Now go to bed girl!  You
could use a good night’s sleep.  We are all very sorry they woke you up,
but it’s been taken care of.   Sleeeeeeeep!”

Chloë
wandered back to her room and closed the door before snuggling deep into the
wonderful bed.  Tracking her.  Her clothes had tracking
devices.  Were they bugs too, picking up her conversations?  Oh, she
was angry!  She knew she had been living under tight surveillance, but
bugging her clothes?  It did explain much, like how people were always
there for her, no matter where she was.  Or how she could wander off to
try and be alone, but someone would
always
find her in time for
supper.  Well, that was behind her and she had new people to watch over
her.  She was a little annoyed at the night’s subterfuge, but she felt
that Heather honestly didn’t want her to lose sleep over it.   It was
all so different.