The Care and Feeding of Griffins (35 page)

Taryn drew back, stunned.

“But I knew that you would not before ever we left the kraal.  I knew that you would not when you told me you would not ride.”  He studied her seriously, a faint line appearing between his slowly-knitting brows.  “I think that you are a good person,” he said at last.  “Aye.  I truly think you are.”

He extended his hand to her.

She took his wrist.

“
Kinswoman,” he said.

“
Kinsman.”

He nodded, looking thoughtful, then released her and galloped away.

45.  Letters From Home

T
he mail came a few days later, as Taryn was muscling Aisling through a bath (one he decidedly did not want to take) in a new folded-bark basket that was not quite as water-tight as Taryn had hoped.  Romany hailed, came into camp with all her dragons spinning in sparkles around her hair, and set the letters on the ground after a glance at Taryn’s wet hands.  Then, to her utter astonishment, Romany sat down.

Aisling, sensing distraction, immediately made a break for it out of the bathing basket and Taryn had to dive fast to catch him before he made it out into the tall grass.  This, of course, resulted in a thick coating of mud for both of them and it was back in the tub with more soap for her little prince.  When she could risk a glance around again, Romany had her fingers steepled, watching
over the point with her sly-eyed smile.

“
Um, I’d offer you some tea, but there’s griffin-water in the cauldron at the moment,” Taryn said.

“
Aye.”

“
Just as well, really.  I’m all out of tea.”  Taryn poured a few handfuls of water over her fuming griffin’s head and accepted the malicious sneeze he aimed at her in good grace.  “But there’s some caramels just inside the flap there, if you want one.”

She heard the crinkle of plastic a moment later and beamed to herself, the role of hostess admirably filled despite the very real handicap of not having a damned thing to share.

“I don’t think I’ve ever thanked you for bringing me here,” Taryn said, dropping her one towel over Aisling’s whole body and rubbing vigorously.  Happy peeps puffed up from beneath the terrycloth.  He liked this part.  “Or for anything else you’ve done, come to think of it.  But I am grateful, Romany, more than I can ever say.”

“
Mm.”

Taryn glanced around and saw Romany in the midst of a cloud of dragons, holding up the caramel to be frantically licked by all of them.

“Thee seems to be well-settled,” Romany remarked.  She looked over the garden and the plow parked nearby, a thin smile teasing at her lips.  “And well-allied.”

“
Yeah, finally.”

Romany looked openly surprised for a moment.  Then she threw back her head in a gale of merry laughter, startling her dragons into flight as she rocked and laughed. 
“
Finally
, does thee say?” the gypsy asked at last.  “
Finally
, after these spare days and nights?  What, not even a full moon’s dance twixt hatching and here and thee would say
finally
?!”

“
Well.”  Taryn blinked as Romany again dissolved in laughter.  “It seemed like a lot longer to me.”

“
Thee does feel things too deeply, methinks.”  Romany tossed the caramel up and watched her dragons bear it away in a squabbling storm of multi-colored glitter.  She looked at her hand, licked one finger, and then regarded Taryn with her sly smile.  “But should that be a fault, truly?  Why else would thee have risked so much to come here?  Nay, I do not wonder that thee has swiftly won allegiances.  Thee is a fine thing.”

“
Um.”  Taryn looked down at her muddy shirt and camping-frenzied hair.  “Thank you,” she said dubiously.

“
And a fine place it is that thee has chosen to be thy kingdom.”  Romany’s eyes turned westward, to the distant ridge of ice-capped mountains, and her expression became a little longing.  “My family resides in that domain,” she said.  “Would that I could go to them.”

“
I thought you went where you willed.”

“
Aye, easy enough to travel,” Romany replied matter-of-factly.  “But I would not have them know what business brings me to this world.  Elsewise, I would go.  But absence is the sweetest spice to reunion’s feast, or so they would say.”  She glanced at Taryn’s mail, then up to Taryn’s face.  “Has thee letters for me?”

“
Oh, are you leaving already?  I just got cleaned up.”

“
Aye, but my road is long and the wind is calling.”

“
Well,” said Taryn, smiling to mask her disappointment.  “I guess you can’t argue with wind.”

“
Aye, thee can, but to what effect?  It will blow regardless.”  Romany stood up and shook out her skirts, then stepped aside so that Taryn could get her letters for home out of her backpack.  She took them and tucked them away in her sleeve, but made no immediate move to leave.  Her gaze drifted out over the plains and she smiled a faint, wistful smile.  “Of all the lands to which thee may have traveled, I am glad that thee came to settle here.  Long have I desired to be made welcome here.”

“
Of course you’re welcome here,” Taryn said, surprised.

Romany smiled around at her, her eyes shining with that knowing light. 
“Aye,” she laughed.  “Of course and finally.  Ah, thee!”  She leaned in suddenly and kissed Taryn right on the lips.  She tasted of honey and foreign spice.  She drew back, saw Taryn’s expression, and burst into a merry peal of laughter before she turned and walked away, her voice already rising in song.

Taryn stared after her, trying not to feel too shocked.  It had not been an entirely sisterly kiss
…

The letters at her feet caught her eye.  She sat down, raised her arm so that Aisling could come bounding into the nest of her folded legs, and picked them up.  Three of them this time.  One from her parents, one from Rhiannon, and one
—

Oh hell.  One from Aunt Janet.

She’d been expecting this ever since she got the head’s up about her evil cousin’s photo tour of Granna Birgit’s belongings, but she wasn’t in any kind of mood to open it and take the blasting she was sure Aunt Janet had enclosed.  Even her name and address on the envelope looked angry.

Taryn moved it to the bottom of her short stack of letters and opened the one from Rhiannon instead.

Holy God, that guy is cute
! it began.  Not even a Dear Taryn.  She settled back with a smile to read. 

Too bad about the spear thing, but hopefully, your new neighbors will all lighten up once they see how feeble you are.  Tonka is a weird name.  I wonder if the truck people ripped it off from his tribe or if somebody in their tribe named their kid after a truck.  I looked up Farasai on the Internet trying to figure out exactly where you are, but all I found out was that farasi is Swahili for horse, so you’re somewhere in Africa, which you already knew.  Are you going to learn Swahili while you’re there?  I totally would.  Then I could swear in Swahili and nobody would know I was calling them a rimjobber or whatever.  I tried to look up Tonka, too, but I just found the truck people so I don’t know what his name means.  It probably means hottie, because that guy is a real good-looking slab of man-meat
!

It went on from there, rambling its way through the trials and tribulations of her little sister’s life, her senior year at high school (
Getting mostly A’s and B’s this year, but I’m getting a D in chemistry again and it’s totally the teacher’s fault because he just hates me for no reason
), her job as a coffee house barista (
Swear to God, this lady comes in four times a day asking for a triple-shot one-percent latte, one caffeine, one de-caf, and one half-de-caf, with half an inch of foam and heated to precisely one hundred thirty degrees because she says she can taste the temperature
), her boyfriend and all the reasons why should dump him and find a new one (
He thinks Nascar is a sport and he bites his toenails
), and the one reason why she didn’t (
He can make me melt from across the room just by looking at me
), and so on.  She ended with a list of all the people who had been asking about Taryn, reiterated that their mother cried all the time these days, and told Taryn to sneak in another picture of Tonka, a full-body shot this time, so she’d have something to pin up on her bedroom ceiling.

She signed off with
Miss you a “Little Bit”
, which was Taryn’s old nickname for her.  Rhiannon hadn’t used it since she was eight, when she’d loudly proclaimed that she was too big to be little and Taryn was a boogerhead for indicating otherwise.  Taryn’s nostalgic smile at seeing it again became a laugh when she flipped the letter over and found
P.S. You’re still a boogerhead
printed in tiny letters on the back.

But the warm glow brought on by Rhiannon
’s rambling letter faded fast when she opened the one from her parents.  It was just a quick note, just a few lines really, in her mother’s hurried handwriting.

Taryn
(it said)

Your grandmother had a heart attack at two o
’clock this morning.  She has been moved to the critical care unit of the facility, and while she is expected to recover, we’ve been told that her system may have suffered some damage.  I know you will be very upset at having to be so far away right now, but everyone understands the importance of what you’re doing.  Everyone who matters anyway, and if you get anything from that hateful sister of mine, my advice is to tear it right up.  Telling me how she sent Cliodnha away with you to escape the clutches of the ‘evil cousins’ was the only thing that could make my mother smile while they were taking her to the hospital, so if you send anything that she gave you back because Janet tells you to, I will personally come to Africa and put you over my knee.

I
’ll write again when there’s more to tell.  Right now, just know that things are stabilizing and we all love you.  Take care of your hands and give baby Aisling a kiss from his family over here.

Mom

Taryn folded the sheet of paper into a small square and tucked it into the envelope with Rhiannon
’s letter.  Then she just sat and faced out into the grass, letting her hand stroke down Aisling’s back as she tried to take in what she’d read.  Expected to recover wasn’t the same as going to recover.  And even if Granna Birgit did get better…well, it would be three more years before Aisling was grown up enough for Taryn to let him go, and that was only assuming that he’d found his way into a storm of other griffins.  Seeing as he was raised by a human, maybe they wouldn’t even take him.  She’d never considered that until now, but what if it were true?  Could she leave Aisling to live all by himself?  Could she live the rest of her life without ever seeing Earth again?

What if something really bad happened back home?  Taryn wouldn
’t even hear about it for days, maybe even weeks.  If…If Granna Birgit died…Taryn might not even find out until after the funeral had already happened.  She might be able to leave Aisling with Tonka for a day or two and convince Romany to take her home for a quick trip, but she’d still be late.  She…

She
’d abandoned her family.

Taryn sat numbly on the cold ground, staring out into space, feeling hollow.

She had no right to do that.  She had no right to put Aisling ahead of everyone and everything just because of what he was.  She was a horrible, selfish person.  She’d turned her back on the people she owed the most and now…

Taryn looked down at the last letter.  Aunt Janet
’s tiny, furious handwriting glared up at her from the envelope, shouting her name in accusation.  Taryn opened it.

You self-serving, malicious little brat
.

Taryn crumpled up the letter in her fist, sat with it in her lap for a while, then smoothed it out again and kept reading.

How dare you take advantage of an old, sick woman like that!  You’re nothing but a miserable little thief exploiting a frail, senile woman and unless I have the items you stole back in my possession by the first of the month, I am going to sue you for every penny you ever hope to possess.  And don’t think you can hide from me in whatever low place you’ve run off to, because I am perfectly content to sue the rest of your conniving family in your absence.

And Life Corps?  Don
’t make me laugh!  There’s no such organization.  I don’t know what you’re off doing with yourself, but believe me when I say I can send people to find out and regardless of where you really are, if I find out you sold my mother’s wedding ring and heirloom cauldron for your drug money, I will see you in jail where you can spend the next ten years of your life being slutted out for cigarettes.  Think about that, you snot-faced little bitch.

The first of the month.

It was not signed.  Taryn folded the paper in half, in half again, in half yet again, and then tossed it into the coals.  The edges burned slowly and without flame, blackening gradually inward and sending up a waving sheet of smoke, which was a fitting end for the words being consumed.

She never should have read the stupid thing.  She should have just burned it as soon as she saw who it was from.  She felt worse than ever, and now she wasn’t just a whole world away from her family, she’d brought the wrath of Aunt Janet down on them.