Doublesight (17 page)

“I am angry at the moment,” Rend admitted. “I will wait to choose punishment, as you say.” He nodded. “But I will not wait to reprimand.”

Oro patted Rend on the shoulder, and to Zimp's pleasure, stepped away and let them pass.

“Cute act,” Zimp said to Lankor as they backed away. She looked above his head and could see the dragon image, like a fog around him. It stirred and she felt its power emerge. “I don't think this whole meeting was aimed at you,” she said, fighting the fear that shook her.

Once the dragon clan was out of the tent, Oro said, “You need to be reprimanded as well.”

“What did I do?” Zimp said.

“Agitate,” Oro said. “Unnecessarily.”

“I'm sorry, Grandmother. I didn't mean to upset you.”

“An unkind reaction to what happened,” Oro said.

Zimp said, “That shift into dragon was the most frightful thing I have ever seen.”

18

“YOU KNEW,” ZIMP SAID to her grandmother. “And if you knew, how many others have known about them for years? I can see why they were wiped out. They're frightening, arrogant, and they smell.”

Oro didn't answer. She kept her pace, Zimp holding to her arm, but being pulled along rather than helping her grandmother. Before they stepped into the clearing, Brok, Breel, and Therin appeared magically beside them.

Brok said, “I don't trust him.”

Oro dragged Zimp the last few feet to a stool that sat near the fire. She settled onto the stool and took several deep breaths. Zimp began to open her mouth and Oro raised her hand for silence. “No,” she said. Another breath or two and Oro pulled a small cloth from her shirt and wiped it across her forehead. She coughed into it, replaced it, and kept her hand in her pocket searching for something. She removed a candle.

Zimp recognized a flicker candle when she saw it. “What are you doing?”

Oro handed the candle to Zimp. “Light it.”

Storret flew into the clearing and hopped behind the wagon. In less time than it took Zimp to light the candle, Storret stepped around and into view.

Arren burst into the clearing followed by his three brothers. Several others from the crow clan entered the circle the firelight spread into the night air.

“This can't be true,” Arren said, “I just heard that—”

“It's true,” Zimp told him.

“We've got to do something. We can't let them—”

Oro stood and cut Arren off.

“You've known all along,” Arren said. “And you said nothing. What about the welfare of the clan?”

Oro's voice sounded thick and coarse when she spoke. “The dragon clan has suffered enough. Hundreds of years. They are doublesight and we will respect them like our brothers and sisters.”

“With respect, Oronice,” Storret said, “but didn't The Few suggest that it was a rogue dragon who might be behind the recent increase in doublesight killings?”

She looked at Storret with surprise.

“I listened from outside,” he said.

“Are there not rogue crow doublesight?” She turned to include Brok and his siblings, “And rogue thylacine?” Oro reached for the lighted candle. Dark red swirls curved around the candle's circumference and the flame appeared to change color at times. “This family, I assure you, is a friend to the doublesight. They are as horrified to find out about the rogue dragon as you are.”

“How can you say that when he did what he just did in there?” Brok said in a forceful and angry voice. “Could they be turning us over, one clan at a time?”

“Not this family,” Oro said.

“They won't help us,” Arren said. “If they did, they'd be helping to destroy their own existence. No doublesight can exist without both its animal and human counterpart.”

“He may be right,” Brok said.

“It is true.” Arren rushed in and slapped the candle from Oro's hand. Wax flew toward her face and she backed to get away from it, tripping and beginning to topple.

Breel leapt smoothly to the side and caught Oro before she could fall backward.

Zimp sidestepped the action, seeing that Breel needed no help. Instead, she clawed at Arren's hand a second too late.

Brok was quicker. He tackled Arren at the knees, bringing him down. The candle rolled away. Arren's brothers, with looks of shock on their faces, jumped onto Brok's back to pull him from Arren.

In a split second, Zimp glanced over at Oro, Breel's face next to her grandmother's cheek. Oro blew into the air. Zimp imagined that she could see her grandmother's breath in one long, thin stream of smoke, arriving just as Zimp inhaled. Something energetic coursed through her body. She didn't know what had just happened, but she knew what her duty was now. Her duty was to the greater clan of the doublesight. She fought the idea only long enough to be overwhelmed by the responsibility. “Enough!” Zimp allowed her body to straighten, no longer in movement, no longer reacting to the situation.

The brothers peeled off Brok.

Brok sat back onto the ground and rubbed his once-injured shoulder.

Arren stared defiantly into Zimp's face. “What do you think you can do for anyone? A shy girl does not shift into a warrior woman.” He spat on the ground.

“Remove him,” Zimp said.

Dail, Felter, and Kel helped their brother to stand and walked him into the woods toward his own wagon.

“Are you all right?” Zimp asked.

Brok nodded. “I could have handled it,” he said.

Zimp suddenly didn't know where her words came from but she said, “I did handle it.” She swung around and clasped Breel's forearm with her hand. She gripped firmly and reached around to embrace the girl. “You are a true friend to our clan. Your brother I'm beginning to tolerate,” she added with a slight smile.

Brok retrieved the candle. “What is this supposed to do?” He relit it from the fire.

“A prayer candle usually, but I don't recognize the color. What herb is this?” Zimp asked Oro.

“It is blood.”

Zimp stepped back. She had never heard of a prayer candle using blood. The crow clan didn't use blood in any ceremony. Without thinking she glanced over at Brok.

“Now that,” he said, “is ceremony I can understand.”

Breel had to laugh as she helped Oro sit near the fire.

Zimp set the lighted candle onto the ground.

Oro whispered a few private words over the candle. She threw cedar into the candle flames. “Join me,” she said.

The three thylacine doublesight, Zimp and Storret kneeled next to her. Other crow clan stood outside the clearing to witness the ceremony. Each would provide a blessing to the prayer, strength to whatever it was that Oro whispered into the flame.

Zimp jerked when the candle spit fire nuggets at them. It flickered weakly next to the campfire.

Oro threw a handful of leaves into the larger fire and it roared, flared up, and danced as though the wind had changed. “Speak after me, my children,” she said. “Let these days of peace.”

“Let these days of peace,” the group said.

“Stay true in our hearts.”

“Stay true in our hearts.”

“As battles before us.”

“As battles before us.”

“Plan to tear us apart.”

Zimp looked over in surprise as she repeated the words along with the others. The candle spit again and a terrible odor rushed into the air. She wrinkled her nose.

“The doublesight must know,” Oro proceeded.

The chorus rushed like a wind behind her words.

“To protect one another.”

“To protect one another.”

“For the ability to shift.”

“For the ability to shift.”

“Dies with our brother.”

Brok raised his head and gave Zimp a look as though he didn't want to believe what Oro was saying, that as one clan dies out the rest become weaker. But he murmured the words as he was asked to do.

Therin whined and laid his head across Breel's leg. “Not you, Therin. You haven't caused any problems for us.” She scratched behind his ear and he nudged her leg as though he understood what had been said.

Oro reached out and snuffed the candle flame between her fingers.

“That smell,” Zimp said. “It's the same smell that he gave off.”

Oro took a deep breath. “Every time a dragon shifts they are burned by their own internal fires. It only happens from human image
to dragon image. The return, I understand, is sweet and inviting. But then, instantly, the hunger for pain, the hunger for the dragon image returns.”

“He must have been angry,” Breel said.

“Frustrated. Perhaps hurt, would be my guess,” Oro said.

Brok stood and brushed leaves and pine needles from his pants. “The prayer. Is it true? Are we weakening every time another small family is killed?”

“The whole of doublesight is in danger,” Oro said.

Brull wandered into the clearing followed by two of his sons. “Life is not destroyed, only the doublesight. I'll tell you, being human-only is not so bad.”

“Brull. You might say it, but you do not believe it, my friend,” Oro said. “Even I can sense the longing inside you. That is why you married a doublesight, to be close to your hunger.”

“My sons,” Brull said, turning to each in turn. “Bennek and Raik.” He walked forward and they paced him. “Can you use your wondrous senses to tell me which is the doublesight and which human only?”

Zimp stepped next to Oro. Without thinking, she said, “Raik is the doublesight.”

Surprise crossed Brull's face. His jaw clenched. “Lucky guess, young one. I thought Oronice was the intuitive.”

“We're all intuitive in some way,” Zimp said. “In our clan we don't have to be pregnant to open to other realms.”

“You mock us?” Brull advanced and Raik and Bennek pulled their swords.

Therin leapt several feet from where Breel kneeled to just in front of Zimp. In an instant Breel stood next to Brok.

“Enough,” Oro said. “We must work together.”

“You don't mean work,” Brull said, indicating for his son's to put their swords away. “You mean battle. And I've heard that the doublesight brought this onto themselves.”

“You would fight us, knowing that your own family could perish?” Zimp asked.

“No,” Brull said. “I am angry. The doublesight have kept themselves separated, not the humans.”

“Persecuted, segregated, mistrusted,” Oro began.

“Not by everyone,” Brull said. “The High Priest Orn of Flande,” he reminded her.

“And the Two Sisters of Lissland, where we come from,” Oro said.

Three young boys burst into the clearing, jumping as though chased by something fierce. They stopped dead in their tracks between the two families. The boys appeared nervous but obviously had a duty to perform. “Wonder of wonders, several at once.”

“What is this about?” Zimp said.

“You,” one boy said, pointing at Zimp. “And you,” he said to Brok. He turned and lowered his head as though Brull's boys were difficult to see in the dimmer light from the fire. “Oh, and you, Raik,” the boy said with a smile. “To The Few. To The Few.” The three of them ran back toward the woods but stopped at the edge of the clearing and turned completely around. The speaker of the trio cocked his head. “Someone not hear me?”

“What of Bennek?” Brull said.

The boys huddled together and brought up their heads. “Not today.”

Zimp looked to Oro, who nodded approval.

Breel stepped in and said, “I'll care for Oronice.” She hugged her brother, “Be well.”

Brull motioned for Raik to follow the boys. “Be careful,” he said.

The three boys spoke to one another in whispers. The speaker pointed, “Is that Therin?”

“He is,” Brok said.

“Oh, then he must come along too,” the speaker said. Again, the boys jumped into the air and onto the path.

The four doublesight followed quickly with no time to think about their argument.

When the boys turned to a separate path, Zimp, who was out front, followed them. The boys stopped and swiveled around in unison. One shook his head. “Where are you going?” He pointed back to the other path. “To The Few,” he said leaning into the words and letting them out slowly as though she might not understand them.

“This way,” Raik said from behind her.

Zimp nodded to the boys and spun around to follow Raik. She heard the boys scurry along the other path.

Zimp sensed that Brok waited for her to be close before he spoke to Raik. “It appears that your father has very strong opinions about the doublesight,” Brok said.

“He does,” Raik said.

Zimp felt extremely intuitive that evening. Her dance and her openness to Zora had overwhelmed her and kept her in the mid-zone between realms. She didn't know how she knew that Raik was the doublesight; she was merely positive of the fact. She hoped that she could see Raik's etheric body easier, too. She squinted and peered over Brok's shoulder.

“But your father is not a doublesight,” Brok said.

Zimp almost instantly saw Raik's shifting aura, which moved smoothly over his physical body, sliding rather loosely back and forth. It had little shape, no ears that she could notice, and no snout. She tried harder, but thought it might be their movement through the woods, the shifting shadows caused by the moonlight, that kept her from seeing clearly. It could have been the adrenaline from the argument.

“My father is human,” Raik said. “But he will fight for the doublesight. He is loyal to The High Priest Orn of Flande.”

“And if The High Priest is against the doublesight?” Brok suggested.

“Then Brull will battle to save his own family,” Raik said.

“I'm not so sure,” Brok said.

Raik spun around, pulled his sword, and coiled his body in a position to strike.

Brok stopped and reached for Therin's scruff to hold him back. “Not now, brother.”

Just as quickly as he turned on Brok, Raik put his sword in its sheath and swung around to continue down the path toward the cabin of The Few. His body slid into motion as though it were fluid.

Zimp became suddenly aware of her own walk, which bounced her along the ground, her head bobbing as she walked in an almost hopping motion. Brok, too, she noticed, bobbed somewhat as he walked on his toes, just like a thylacine. She reached out and clasped Brok's shoulder. “To the Gods,” she whispered. “They are snakes.”