Edward (20 page)

The
luncheon lasted well into the afternoon and Edward soon found himself being
dragged across town with Gillian, Zoë and Tatiana.  It had been decided
that it was high time that Edward was made presentable in high society and thus
he was given a whirlwind tour of several haberdasheries.  Edward tried to
protest, but it fell on deaf ears.  Edward hated picking out clothes, but
he had one simple advantage here: he didn’t care what he wore; it was up to the
three of them.  The only place he drew the line was at a kilt.  His
brother might wear a kilt, but that wasn’t for him!

“Hey! 
Llewellyn will wear one and you won’t?” teased Zoë.  “So
much for looking up to your older brother.”

“Yeah,
‘looking up’ is exactly what I’m trying to avoid.”

“You
realize if you hadn’t said anything, the girls wouldn’t be combing your fur
backwards about it now,” mused Gillian.

“Thanks,
Mom.”

“Just pointing out the obvious.”

“She
has a point,” agreed Tatiana, “Now I’m dying to see you in a kilt.  I
can’t get rid of the mental image.  There is only one way to resolve
this.”

“Back
to the dressing room!” cheered Zoë.

“Tell
Dad
I expect to see him in a kilt, too,” groused Edward.

“That
is an excellent idea,” agreed Gillian.

 Several
hours of harassment went by, but it was all in good sport; 
Edward was actually having fun being the center of attention, he just
wasn’t going to tell anyone!

Edward
stared at the fresh pile of clothes in his room.  He had no idea what to
wear that night, but that wasn’t what was on his mind.  Not really. 
His brother was next door, and it was time they talked.  He looked in the
living room and found Llewellyn sitting in a corner napping in a sunbeam in
front of a cold air vent.  That seemed to be at opposite purposes! 
Edward grinned as he sat on the floor next to his brother.  “You awake
over there?”

“Sort of. 
What is on your mind?”

“Why
did you leave the Highlands when I was little?”

Llewellyn
smiled and sat up, “Fourteen years later and you finally ask me.  I was
running away.  I was running away from caring.  It didn’t work; I
ended up finding people that I cared for with the 768
^th
JSOG and
they cared for me.  In time, again I learned to care enough to let Ivy
into my life.”

“Ouch,”
said Edward solemnly.

“Yep.  I was
in love with Beatrice.  Her family objected strongly to me, a Ranger
roaming the outer lands, so the two of us were married in secret.  That
ended poorly.”

“Her
family came between you two?”

“Yes, but not as you might expect.  Her brother, who had always been a black sheep, had
formed up a gang and was terrorizing the outer passes.  Three of us went
in and broke them up.  We captured half the group, but in the midst of it
all, I had to kill her brother.  She never liked her brother and she hated
what he had become, but he was still family.  When she found out, well,
things fell apart.”

“She
left you?”

“She
tried to kill herself.”

“Oh
crap!”

“Yeah.  Well
her parents had our marriage annulled.  For two months we were living on
the top of the world in a little two room house and we didn’t care.  And
then the whole world fell down.  She couldn’t be with me and she didn’t
want to be with her parents, so Helen took her into her family.”

“That
was right when Helen first became ambassador.”

“Exactly. 
That got her off world and away from her parents.  Well, needless to say,
I was a little put out, so I went off and joined the Shukurae.  Never
cared how hard I pushed myself because I’d already lost everything.  Once
you think you’ve lost everything, you are damn dangerous.  In time, I
started to learn I had friends around me in spite of my attitude.  Friends
take care of you, and in time I let myself start to care again.”

“That
is when you met Ivy.”

“Yep,
and the rest is, as they say, history.”

“So
when we lost Helen, you finally lost Beatrice completely.  I’m so sorry.”

Llewellyn
smiled cryptically, “No, I didn’t lose her completely.  I still have
Dawn.”

Edward’s
fur stood on end, “Um, Dawn is your daughter?  I mean as in actually your
biological daughter?”

Llewellyn
nodded, “That is one of the reasons I could track her in that building.  I
know where all of my family is.”

“Does
she know?”

“She
suspects.  She’ll find out soon enough.”

“It’s
not like you to keep secrets.”

“If
she were to ask a direct question, I would tell her the truth.  If you
want fun with secrets, you should see Dawn go flying around sometime.”

“Flying?”

Llewellyn
smiled cryptically, “I didn’t stutter.  Come on, it’s almost time to get
ready for dinner.  What are you wearing?”

“Well,
I think the girls would freak if I actually wore a kilt, so I’m debating that.”

“Go
for it.  I am.”

“Yes,
but you have always been a little weird.”

“Only a little?”

 True
to his word, Edward found himself standing in the reception hall of the top
floor of an exclusive restaurant not two hours later, wearing a formal
kilt.  Beside him stood Zoë and Tatiana, both elegantly dressed in dresses
that barely contained them.  Both also wore the necklaces they had been
given by Mr. York just days earlier.  Next to them stood
Gillian with Trevor hanging off her arm.  He had never seen Trevor
look so happy in his life.  Heck, the pair of them looked positively
radiant.  Tazo and Kadu were both there as well.  Kadu was mostly
confined to a chair, but she seemed to greatly enjoy the company.  Grand
Centurion Toch the Red was there as well; he had known Llewellyn all those
years ago.  And it was the interaction between Toch and Llewellyn that was
currently the source of everyone’s attention.

Toch
handed Llewellyn a small red stone with a broad toothy grin, “How long will it
remain dormant after this?”

“Approximately
three days,” Llewellyn replied.  “Here is the other one back.”

“I
will care for it well.”

Llewellyn
closed his eyes as he held the small stone tightly and growled deeply under his
breath.  The growl rattled around inside of Edward’s head.  He could
growl like that and he understood what was being said.  It was a simple
command, “Open the door when you are ready.”  He tossed the stone to the
ground and a moment later it exploded in a swirl of blue sparks as a wormhole
opened up.  It churned and swelled as it grew larger and larger.  As
it grew larger, it also grew clearer until Edward could quite clearly make out
his niece Dawn standing on the far side of the wormhole.  She was
straining with concentration as the wormhole continued to expand and
stabilize.  Dawn was unique; she had solid black fur and jet black hair;
almost an Auroran in reverse, but there was a new aspect of her that caught
them all by surprise: as the wormhole enlarged it became obvious she had a pair
of giant black feathered wings.  As the wings spread so did the portal
until at last it was stable and she looked up and smiled with a sense of
accomplishment.  In a brief blue flash, her wings flashed and
disappeared.  A young Auroran about Dawn's own age suddenly appeared
behind her and helped her close the back of her dress.  Edward suddenly
realized he was looking at the gate house back at the homeworld of Afon. 

Soon
a small parade of people formed behind the portal and entered into their
world.  Ivy hugged them all as they entered and introduced them all as
they entered.

Dawn,
with her jet black fur and white dress, was accompanied by a solid white
Auroran dressed in solid black.  They made a humorous contrast. 
Behind them came a sharply dressed boy of about fifteen with the coat like a
snow lynx.  “This is our daughter Dawn and her best friend Lynn. 
With them is their boyfriend Gavin.”  They all politely nodded to the
crowd.

Zoë
poked Tatiana and they both laughed.

“That
is so cute!” giggled Zoë.

Next came an elegant and shapely Auroran in a green dress
carrying an infant in her arms.  The infant was snow white ball of fur
that held tight.  Holding her hand was a young girl of about three years
old.  Reddish-orange fur with a white stripe, just like
Ivy, but extra curly red hair to go with it. 

“This
is our Second Mother, Maria.  The youngest is Lily while the extra hyper
one is Heather.”

“Oh
my word, the little one is so darling,” remarked Tatiana.

“You’ll
say that until she spits up on you,” joked Zoë.

Lastly
came two identical twins with jaguar like coats and short red hair.  Both
were showing signs of advanced pregnancy.  Holding their hands was an odd,
but friendly looking young lady of about seventeen or so.

“The
twins are our Third Mothers, April and May.  The other is Gwen who is
Maria’s sister and has been helping us around the house with the new one.”

The
twins nodded and spoke in unison, “Delighted to meet you all.”

Zoë
and Tatiana both laughed.

“Do
they do that often?” asked Zoë.

“Yes,”
replied Edward.  “They enjoy making it hard to tell which one is which.”

Ivy
then continued around the room, “This is Toch, who used to serve with
Llewellyn.  The lady in the chair is Kadu, Edward’s former partner. 
The one standing next to her is Tazo, Edward’s new partner.  Next to them
is Gillian and Trevor; they announced their engagement today.  Then,
finally, we have Edward and his two fiancées Zoë and Tatiana.”

Zoë
and Tatiana bowed in sync and giggled.

“You
are enjoying this, aren’t you?” asked Edward.

“Aren’t
you?”  asked Zoë.

“Well,
yes.”

“Then
what is the problem, silly boy?”

“Your
fur is on end again,” observed Tatiana with a grin.  Yep.  It was
going to be a long dinner.

Edward
enjoyed the meal in spite of himself.  Soon it was over and people were
just mingling and being social.  He was really worried about talking with
Gavin.  Gavin was a High Silver and was four years younger than he
was.  That just felt wrong.  But he was just a normal young boy,
tickled pink to be out with his girlfriends.  Nothing there made him stick
out or feel like he was different.

Llewellyn
caught Edward to the side, “Shaking down the youngster?”

“Just curious. 
He is so not like you!”

“I’m
working hard to keep him that way.”

Edward
grinned, “I think I’m finally starting to appreciate what you mean by that.”

That
earned Edward the first sincere smile from his brother in some years. 
“You might want to go rescue your dates,” he offered with a grin.

“Huh?”
Edward turned to find the two youngest with Zoë and Tatiana. “Oh right!” 
He quickly came over to help.  “I’m sorry.  Did they get dumped on
you?”

“Nah,”
glowed Tatiana as she gently rocked the infant Lily. “We asked.”

Heather
was sitting on Zoë’s lap and talking to her, “First Mother says you play piano
really well!  You going to come by our place and
play?”

Zoë
laughed, “I have no idea.  I have a few concerts yet to play, and then
maybe we'll see.  I would definitely love to play piano with your First
Mother again.  That was a lot of fun.”

Suddenly
Heather noticed Edward and all but climbed him as she scrambled up into his
arms.  “So which one is going to be the First Mother?”

Edward’s
fur stood straight on end and his fur cycled in color uncontrollably.  “Um!”

Zoë
and Tatiana both just broke out laughing.

“We
are still trying to figure that out, little one,” offered Zoë through fits of
laughter.

“They
are both nice, so don’t screw up,” admonished Heather as she climbed down and
trundled off toward Maria.

“Out
of the mouth of babes,” laughed Zoë.

“I do
have a question for you,” asked Tatiana.  “Was I mistaken or did Dawn have
wings?”

“I
saw that too.  My brother alluded to it, but you know how he is. 
Let’s just go talk to them.”

Zoë
nodded and the three of them, with little Lily over Tatiana’s shoulder,
approached the three older children, Dawn, Lynn and Gavin.

“Hello,
Uncle.  Sorry I never said thank you properly before,” said Dawn politely.

“It’s
okay.  Ultimately I was window dressing.  Your father could have done
it all on his own if he had felt it was necessary.”

Dawn’s
eyes went wide, “I got to see that first hand.  We had a case with some
kartivalds.  He took them out and then gated back with me.  That was
truly scary.  He was sick for a day.”

“He
gated carrying you?”  Edward knew High Silvers could gate
themselves.  He had never heard about them taking passengers.

“Dad
can do some amazing things when he has to.  I just hate it when he
does.  It always makes him so blue afterwards.”

“Now
I saw you do something pretty amazing, and I’m not just talking about the gate
stone.”

Dawn’s
fur briefly stood on end, “Oh, the wings!”

Lynn
and Gavin laughed.

Dawn
smiled, “Yeah, well, I was kind of shy about those for a while.  These two
convinced me I was just being silly.”

“Now
she has dresses cut so she can get her wings in and out without having to get
half undressed,” beamed Lynn.  “She’s really good flying with them.”

“I
figured you all would have freaked out when seeing them.  Most people are
more than a little taken aback by them.”

“I
saw your father throw grav tanks and make 30m tall trees sprout of the ground
last night,” began Zoë. “Wings seem far more natural than any of that.”

Dawn
laughed at that, “I guess everything is relative.  Jumping subjects, one
of my sisters, from my old family, had several of your albums Tatiana.”

Tatiana
laughed, “Seriously? We never promoted much off world.”

“She
enjoyed it a lot.  It’s just fun music.  It’s not high art, not to be
insulting.”

“No
insult, that is a statement of fact,” agreed Tatiana.

“But
it is still a whole lot of fun.  Just something you play when you want to
feel better.”

Tatiana
smiled, “I’m glad it was enjoyed.  That is all it was ever there for, to
be fun.”

“So
do you think you can make it big off world?”

“Don’t
know.  And I’m beginning to not care so much.  I’m more concerned
about the company I keep,” Tatiana said with a glowing smile.

Zoë
playfully nuzzled Tatiana and they both giggled as they hip bumped Edward.

“Be
careful, Gavin.  You’re next!”