Katrina, The Beginning (22 page)

“I’ll talk to you later,” I
called to Kate and Rosa.

“Hi,” I greeted Quinn as he
caught up to me.

“Hello,” he said
dismissively. “I haven’t seen much of you today; I’m sure that
means Damien did.”

“Quinn, what do you want me
to say?”

“You don’t have to say
anything. It’s really none of my business.”

“So why did you bring it
up?”

He looked at me for a long
time before his expression evolved into that “I wish I could stay
mad at you” look; at this point I couldn’t help it, I started to
laugh, and finally, so did he. Then he shook his head and, “What am
I going to do with you?”

“I’ll try to think of
something.”

We talked the rest of the
afternoon about the girls, our training, and how we couldn’t wait
to be home at last. It was effortless, relaxed, like old times.
Finally we arrived at the place Gunter had chosen, a nice open
area, to make camp for the night. I was always amazed at how
efficient the men were at setting up our camps, each on task until
the job was complete: tents set up, horses cared for, fires made,
and cooking started. Gunter gave orders for a hunting party tasked
to find small game for dinner.

“Okay, girls, it’s all
right for you to go hunting too, but stay to the west and don’t
stay too long,” cautioned Gunter.

Rosa mocked him in a
singsong voice, “Yes Father,”.

We gathered in the meadow
to plan our first hunt together.

“First, let’s figure out
how to use our gifts to get the best appraisal of our
surroundings,” I looked to the others for suggestions.

“I’ll bring the wind so you
two can ‘see’ even further away.”

“Good, Letta, go ahead. The
rest of us will hold hands; it’ll enhance our sight and
scent.”

The breeze blew and Kate
and I closed our eyes. I took a deep breath and held it for just a
moment. I couldn’t believe how many things I could pick up - deer,
rabbits, a fox with three kits, and a bear. Looking further than I
ever had before, maybe five or six miles, I sensed there must be a
cottage. I could smell its fire, the family that lived there, a
man, woman, a little girl, and their animals, a dog, horses, and
sheep. It was amazing. The land had so much game and no danger that
I scented. I opened my eyes.

“That was great!” Kate
exclaimed, “I could see with such detail, including a little white
cottage with a small barn and sheep, horses, a dog, and three
people. I didn’t detect anything dangerous to us, did you
Kat?”

“No, but I could detect
things so much further away than I ever could on my own. Let’s go
out and hunt. I saw lots of deer. Letta, Rosa, you go to the right;
El you go straight in; and Kate and I will go left. We’ll circle
and meet in the middle.”

In a flash we were off.
With our speed and strength, no animal was much of a challenge, and
in minutes we had all taken down prey and fed. As I started to head
to the circle’s center to meet everyone else, Kate raced by me. My
first thought was something was wrong, but I didn’t sense any
danger. She circled and as she came close this time she reached
out, tapped me on the shoulder, sang out, “you’re it and raced
away.”

I chased her around trees,
over logs, swinging off branches. It was exhilarating, and we could
see the others now.

“Kat’s it,” Kate
announced.

Now they all scattered, but
I was too quick for El.

“You’re it, El, I tapped
her on the back and then zipped away.

We regressed into children
as we chased each other around the forest, tagging each other until
everyone had been ‘it’ at least twice.

“That was fun,” Rosa joined
us as we collapsed on the ground. None of us had sisters growing
up—at least not living with us—but we were making up for it now. We
knew we should get back, but we wanted this time to ourselves. It
was getting dark, and although we could see in the dark, we still
asked Letta to start a fire.

“We’ll gather some wood,”
El started to get up.

“Don’t bother,” Letta said,
and she held out her hand. A flame appeared right on her palm, we
all gasped.

“Isn’t it hot Letta?” El
was already thinking about the energy she would have to expend
healing her.

“It can be, but not if I
don’t want it to. Like now, the flame is just for light, but let me
show you what else I can do. I’ve been practicing.”

Letta grabbed the flame and
threw it at the tree next to us. As she intensified her stare, the
flame grew, engulfing the entire base of the tree. We could feel it
getting hotter and hotter. Then Letta closed her eyes and the now,
roaring fire disappeared, leaving the trunk smoldering and black.
She then pointed her finger in the air, and a flame appeared on the
very tip, and with flare she wrote her name in the air with the
fire. We all clapped and shook our heads, our mouths gaping with
awe.

“Wow, you’ve come so far in
just a few days,” I was astounded at her progress.

“Wait until you see what
Rosa can do,” El said. piquing our interest.

We turned our attention to
Rosa then.

“All right, give me your
daggers.” She asked, holding out her hand.

Rosa reached out to receive
our weapons and took hers out as well; then laid them all out on
the ground. We could see her start to concentrate and to our
amazement the daggers began to rise, continuing to do so until they
were head-high. Next, at a speed we could hardly see, she sent them
one at a time, straight into the still smoldering tree. They landed
within millimeters of each other, as if in the center of an
invisible target.

Rosa beamed with pride.
“I’ve been practicing too.” She winked at El.

“No kidding,” Kate said.
“Wow”.

We practiced every night of
our journey home and found the five of us now could enhance each
other’s gifts without having to hold hands. It was enough just to
concentrate collectively on whatever we were trying to do; but
holding hands or placing our hands on whoever was the source of the
gift gave it the ultimate enhancement. Between travel, swordplay,
and skill training, the days flew by, and in a week we were within
sight of Castle Mormont, our home. The stone walls glowed in the
fading sunlight, and the dark slate tiles of the turrets gave off
hues of purple and blue. I had never seen anything so
beautiful.

“Welcome home, Elizabeth,”
Father helped Mother out of the coach. I could see the emotion on
her face and tears filling her eyes.

“Oh, Fredrik, I had
forgotten what a magical place this is.”

Father hugged her and
kissed her forehead.

“Now, girls, why don’t you
go and see if your new quarters are to your liking.”

I had forgotten all about
our new rooms being prepared while we were gone. We hurried
excitedly up the stairs. Instead of my two rooms on the left, there
was now a door where a hallway used to be. Opening the door, we
found my two rooms were now two separated bedrooms, with another
three across the wide hallway. Each bedroom was lovely. Mine had
remained the same, just as I wished. Kate was next to me, the
others across the hall. The once empty turret room at the end of
the hall was now a common room, with lovely overstuffed chairs, a
stone hearth and fireplace, and a wood table with five chairs, so
we could dine in if we wished. It was even lovelier than our
quarters at the palace. We even had doors on each side of the
fireplace, which opened onto a private balcony. While the others
were exploring their rooms, I went out on our balcony, closed my
eyes, and concentrated.

“Damien,
are you there?”
I thought to myself.

After a short while I
heard.

“I’m here.”

“We’re home… I miss
you.”

“I’m right here,” he
said.

Then I heard Kate calling
me.

Our link was broken; so I
decided I might as well see what she wanted.

“What is it, Kate?” I asked
as I came inside.

“Sarah is here. Do you want
to have a bath now or later?”

The thought of taking a
long bath sounded so good.

“Now, please.”

“I’ll let you have a nice
long soak, and then I’ll wash your hair. Would you like something
to drink?” asked Sarah.

“No, thank you, but could
you see if the rest of the girls want to eat here? I know, I
would.”

“I’ll ask them. Isn’t it
grand each of your rooms now has one of these beautiful copper
tubs? There are even copper pipes to let the water drain to the
outside.”

“Yes, it’s lovely. Father
really out did himself this time.”

“I’ll be back in a little
while then,” she said as she left.

I sank down as far as I
could without going under, the hot water soothing my muscles and
the soft scent of lavender soothing my senses.

“Katrina?”
I heard in my mind.

It startled me at first,
because I was so relaxed.

“I’m
here,”
I replied.
“I’m taking a
bath,”
I smiled, thinking of his reaction.

“Now I wish I could see,
not just hear you.”

“I bet you do. I wasn’t
sure we’d be able to communicate this far away. I’m glad we
can.”

“Have you told anyone we
can hear each other?” he asked.

“No, that’s just for
us.”

“Just for us,” he replied,
“Father just arrived, and I’ve got to go.”

Sarah came in to wash my
hair and comb it out with sandalwood oil, the helped me into a
clean outfit.

“There was a beautiful
young lady under all that dirt after all,” she stood, hands on her
hips, looking very pleased with herself.

 “
The other girls want
to eat here as well. Is there anything special you’d
like?”

“I think Rosa is missing
her Italian food, so maybe her people could make something for us.
And some dessert please; not fruit but Bavarian cream
pastries.”

“I’ll see to it right
away.”

It felt so good to be home.
I snuggled down in one of the new overfilled chairs.

Now we were back, I needed
to get to the library and start my regular studies
again.

“Hey, Kat, I could have
stayed in that bath all night,” El said as she came out of her new
room.

“How’s your room? All
settled?” I asked her.

“It’s great. Sarah had
everyone buzzing around like worker bees, getting everything
unloaded and put away, but that bathtub has to be my favorite
thing.”

“Mine too,” sighed Letta as
she came in, “and I must be least a pound lighter after washing off
all the dust and dirt.”

“Sarah, that smells
fabulous,” sniffed Rosa, as she followed her into the common
room.

“I smell dinner,” Kate
called. “I’m starving.”

We had pasta with chicken,
a fresh salad, tomatoes, cheese, hot bread, red wine, and of course
my favorite dessert.

“I couldn’t eat another
thing,” I took my last bite of pastry.

“Thanks for ordering pasta
tonight, Kat. That was just what I was craving,” Rosa gave me an
appreciative smile.

“I think we all enjoyed it,
didn’t we?” I looked around at the contented faces at the
table.

“What does everyone want to
do tonight?” I asked.

“Can we just sit by the
fire and relax, talk, drink wine—a girls’ night in, no training at
all?” Kate suggested.

We were all for that, so
when Sarah came in to clear the food away, we asked for some
additional wine and snacks for later, then settled in around the
fire, some of us in chairs and some on the floor.

“Is there anything you need
or would like to have changed? I really want you to feel at
home.”

“I can’t think of a thing,
Kat,” Letta said. “This”, she indicated the rooms and the common
area with a sweep of her arm, “is beautiful.”

“Me neither,” El
added.

“Well, I for one think
Father outdid himself getting this done ahead of our arrival; I
can’t wait for you to show us the whole castle and grounds,
Kat.”

“That’s just what I told
Sarah earlier, the part about Father; twins really think alike. We
can look around right after breakfast if you want; Gunter gave us
half the day off.”

Letta laughed, “A whole
half-day, he’s too kind.”

“Kat, you haven’t talked
about Quinn at all the last few days,” El commented.

“You know, you’re right. I
haven’t even thought much about him lately. That’s strange isn’t
it?” I wondered what it meant.

“Not really,” Rosa
explained, “When you fed directly from him you began a very
powerful connection for both of you; but it wears off gradually,
unless its renewed, so maybe what you thought was love was just a
blood-lust bond.”