One is Come (Five in Circle) (19 page)

Solbright looked down for a moment, then sighed. “Oh, all right, you can eat the one human.” Solbright patted Sheela's head. “I have such a weak spot for my daughter. But you have to wait until after I've gotten the ones I want away, and you have to clean up any mess. I don't want any of them to have even the slightest suspicion, got it?”

Sheela nodded vigorously, and licked her lips again.

Chapter 26

Big Mistake

Haylwen watched as Cadarn threw a punch at Oakren, who blocked it easily. Cadarn threw a second, also blocked, and then kicked low followed immediately by a third punch. Oakren blocked the kick, but missed the punch. He grunted, stepping back.

“What was that about?” Nacia yelled. Oakren's glare was louder. “Cadarn, pull your punches, and Oakren, where is your focus?” Haylwen thought for a moment that Nacia was crazy, yelling at a deaf boy, but Oakren shrugged.

Cadarn laughed, sounding a bit overloud to Haylwen. “Sorry,” he said.

Before Nacia could respond, Oakren smiled with his lips, and nodded. “Again,” he signed.

He and Cadarn stepped toward each other. Oakren threw a slow punch at Cadarn, who blocked it, and threw one back. Oakren blocked it, turning the block into a hold that pulled Cadarn in. Cadarn stumbled, and Oakren's hip flung him over easily. Cadarn's feet landed hard, the rest of his body still held by Oakren as he grabbed Oakren with both hands.

They looked so cute, holding each other, Haylwen had to smile.

“Oh, nice move!”

Haylwen whirled to see two blond girls at the edge of the clearing, coming their way. Both irritatingly pretty, the one who had spoken had strange orange eyes, and the other gave Haylwen such a feeling of déjà vu she wondered if the girl was on TV or something.

Oakren and Cadarn couldn't get away from each other and to the two girls quickly enough. “Solbright!” Cadarn almost shouted, and ran to her grinning. Oakren had an almost identical grin as he walked toward the other girl, who signed to him. The girl and Oakren exchanged signs so quickly and easily Haylwen immediately felt a stab of jealousy, and then surprise at the feeling.
Well
, she thought,
it wasn't like Rivenwake was going to step out of my dreams, or drive up and find me, even if he knew where I was!

Haylwen glanced from Nacia, whose jaw was hanging open, to Doakren, whose face moved through a strange progression of jealousy and pride. All three just stood there as Cadarn and Oakren came back with the two girls between them.

They formed a little circle in the middle of the clearing. Cadarn glanced at the girls and Oakren, and then said, “Uh, Haylwen, Nacia and Doakren, this is Solbright. Solbright, this is Haylwen, Nacia and Doakren.”

Solbright smiled. “Nice to meet you.”

Nacia said, “Welcome,” as Haylwen said, “nice to meet you.” Neither showed any warmth, but Doakren smiled and winked.

Sheela signed something to Oakren, who shook his head while he made a couple of signs and pointed at Doakren. “Ah,” Sheela said. “I'm Sheela, nice to meet you,” she finished while she signed something quickly to Doakren.

“So the whole story was true, with the mountain lion and everything?” Haylwen blurted. Oakren nodded and looked proudly at Sheela, who slid a little closer to him and put her hand on his arm. Oakren fairly glowed.

Doakren went over and shook the girl's hands, and then cuffed Oakren on the shoulder with a grin. Oakren grinned back, and they shot a few signs back and forth. Sheela looked puzzled, trying to follow the exchange, and Haylwen guiltily felt a little better.

“We don't want to interrupt your practice,” Solbright said when the twins turned back. “We'll just watch until you're done, ok?”

After a few shrugs and polite refusals, Oakren and Cadarn stood face to face again. Doakren stood next to the two girls. Nacia stood to the side, trying to keep one eye on the girls, one eye on Oakren and Cadarn, and help Haylwen with her form on moves. Oakren and Cadarn went through an exchange, so obviously distracted by the girls that Nacia groaned.

“Go ahead, take care of them,” Haylwen said, and before she was even finished saying “go,” Nacia was on her way. She stopped next to Cadarn and Oakren. “Either focus or let's just quit for the day!”

Oakren and Cadarn looked over to where the two girls were standing. They smiled, and so Oakren and Cadarn took their stances as Nacia backed off. She stood next to Haylwen with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face. Haylwen suddenly realized that Nacia was jealous too, but in a different way.

“Ok, let's take it up a notch, like Nacia said, ok?” Cadarn said with a gleam in his eye.

Oakren's eyes flicked to the two girls, back to Cadarn's, and a fierce grin leaped onto his face. He nodded.

They stepped forward and bowed, and then started throwing punches and kicks like Haylwen had never seen. Nacia yelled at them, but they didn't even pause, so she just shook her head. At first they were smiling. Oakren slipped a punch past Cadarn that sent him back a step, and Cadarn responded with a solid kick to Oakren's thigh that had Oakren hopping. The smiles disappeared. Haylwen cringed as the blows kept going. She glanced over at the girls. Their smiles were the same, if not bigger.

Oakren and Cadarn locked up in a hold, and Haylwen surprised herself by running in and breaking them apart. “What's gotten into you two?” she said.

“What was the matter with that?” Solbright asked as the two girls came over to stand next to them. “What? Are you their mother? I thought they were great,” she said, putting her hand on Cadarn's arm.

Sheela smiled and nodded, looking warmly at Oakren from under her eyebrows and licking her lips. Both boys puffed up a little. Haylwen looked to Nacia for support, but she was distracted by Doakren signing something to her.

Sheela turned to put her arm around Oakren. “You shouldn't feel too badly that you are too out of shape to do anything like that,” she said to Haylwen.

Haylwen flushed, and felt nauseated, but Oakren didn't seem to catch it. Nacia did, though. “She's trying as best she can.”

Haylwen knew she was just trying to help, but felt that was almost as bad, if not worse in some ways, than not defending her at all.

“Come on, Cadarn, Oakren, why don't you take a break?” Haylwen said, looking from one boy to the other.

“We're fine,” Cadarn said, looking at Oakren. “Right? Ready to go again?”

With a quick kiss from Sheela that made Haylwen's jaw clench, Oakren nodded. Before the two boys stepped away, Solbright touched Cadarn's cheek and a shiver went down Haylwen's spine.

As the boys stepped together and bowed, Haylwen tried to think. She might be jealous of Oakren because she thought he liked her, but Cadarn? Was she just jealous that Cadarn found someone and she didn't? She searched the feeling as she looked at Solbright.
I swear I have seen her before
, she thought. Regardless, it was obvious that she was going to be no good for Cadarn.
So am I just feeling protective of Cadarn?
Yes, that was close, but there was more to it than just thinking Cadarn was going to have his feelings hurt. Yes, that girl didn't really care about him. She looked at him like she owned him, like Cadarn was a pet. A favorite pet, perhaps, but one she wouldn't hesitate to beat if he stepped out of line.
Yeah
, she realized with increasing confidence,
there is something terribly wrong here
. The fact that he didn't even mention her, the weird déjà vu feeling... maybe there was something magical going on here? Haylwen stared at them, trying to see if there was any smoke or colors or anything she could possibly see coming from the two girls, but couldn't sense anything.

The boys were at it fiercely by this time, and Haylwen glanced over at Nacia. She couldn't help notice Solbright talking with Doakren, smiling and playing with her hair. She was flirting with him! Haylwen saw in shock. Doakren kept looking from her to Cadarn, but was smiling and nodding all the same.

“Doesn't he see it?” she wondered out loud.

“See what?” Nacia said, somewhat distracted by Oakren and Cadarn's exchanges.

“Doakren,” Haylwen said, pointing with her jaw.

Nacia glanced over. “Oh, he can't really help it. All girls just seem to like him.”

“No, Nacia, there's something really strange going on here,” Haylwen said.

“What, because she likes Doakren better than your brother? Or that two deaf boys would get two pretty girls to like them?”

“What? No, nothing like that, though, it is strange that they...”

Nacia cut her off. “Oh, mind your own business,” she said as she walked toward Doakren and Solbright.

Haylwen was shocked, watching her go, and didn't even hear Sheela approaching.

“Hi, um, I forgot your name,” Sheela said. Haylwen started to remind her, but Sheela cut her off. “Doesn't really matter, I don't care anyway. You had better not cause any trouble with me and Oakren.”

“What?” Haylwen said.

“You heard me. I see you eying him, and if you think a fat, frizzy-head nothing like you could compete with me, you have another thing coming.”

“I never...”

“Oh, don't lie,” Sheela hissed, her voice a stark contrast to her smile. “I'm keeping my eye on you,” she said as she walked away. She walked by Oakren and Cadarn, who took a brief pause so Oakren could flirt with her. Cadarn looked over to where Solbright was flirting with Doakren and a cloud dropped on his face.

Haylwen went to him quickly and pulled him away from Oakren and Sheela.

“Cadarn, listen to me, something strange is going on,” she said.

“What,” he said, distracted. “Oh, um, let's talk in a minute, ok? I'm going to go talk to Solbright.”

“No, wait, that's part of the problem.”

“What, a pretty girl likes me?” he shot back.

“No,” she said, her voice dropping to a whisper. “I think there is something magical going on.”

Cadarn looked at her, and then at Solbright. He sighed. “Do you see something?”

“No, it's just a feeling.”

“Well, until you have something concrete, let me have a bit of happiness, ok? Not everything is a fanged monster in disguise.”

He stalked off, going over to stand next to Solbright.

She stood there, all by herself, completely alone.
Maybe I'm wrong?
Cadarn was right, maybe this was just normal weirdness.
But I have to know for sure
, some part of her urged. Maybe if she did some magic, something to find out what those two girls really were up to? She didn't know how to do that. Maybe a bubble around everyone, to block whatever magical hold those girls had on everyone?

She closed her eyes, calmed herself, and gathered the energy. She opened her eyes and called a ball of energy into her hand. As she did, the two girls swiveled their heads as one toward her and stared at her intently. Sheela leaned back, hiding her face behind Oakren's back and sneered at her.

They know! They know I can use magic, and not only aren't put off, they are expecting me to, even wanting me to!

Haylwen scowled at the ball of energy and it disappeared.
Well, if they want me to do that, I surely won't do it! How do they know about magic? I just have to keep trying to talk to my friends,
she thought.

Her friends. That's what she felt, looking at them. And, they kind of were. Cadarn too, even. Sure, he was her brother, and always mostly annoying, but especially with all this weirdness going on, he was really becoming her friend. Was that the problem? She was just jealous, didn't really want her friends to be happy, just wanted them to stay her friends only?

No, she knew that wasn't the answer. Well, wasn't the large part of the answer. So they could be truly happy, she really would help them get there, even if it meant going back to not having any friends. She wouldn't like it, but she would. No, this was an honest feeling, a knowing that these two would be nothing but pain for her friends. Besides, if they knew about magic, that was something she could tell Cadarn.

She marched over to stand next to Cadarn. “Hey, Cadarn, can I have a sec?”

“Not right now,” he said, then went back to listening to Solbright telling a story about some computer game. She waited a moment, then thought of trying with Nacia.

“Nacia, listen, can we talk for a second?” All Haylwen received in return was a quick, “In a moment, please.” She looked at Oakren and Doakren, but they were as entranced as Nacia in Sheela's sign language. Whatever she was saying was apparently both fascinating and intermittently hilarious.

Haylwen considered leaving again. If these people, her supposed friends, didn't even care what she said, why should she care about them? But she did care.
These two are going to give pain to people I care about
, she thought,
and I have to do something
. How could she convince her friends to let these two... wait, that was it. She clenched her jaw.

“Sheela, Solbright, why don't you just tell me what is really going on,” Haylwen said, her hands clenched at her sides. “I can see right through you, and I am not going to stop trying to show my friends.”

The two girls turned to face Haylwen, their faces perfect innocence. “What are you talking about?” Solbright said. “Are you so jealous that someone doesn't find you attractive that you need to spread your poison all over? I don't know that I would call you my friend if you said that to someone I liked.”

Sheela immediately followed her lead. “Oh, poor Haylwen, too plain to have anyone like her, now she tries to ruin it for everyone.” She gestured to Nacia. “If you would just do what she does, you could have the perfect body she does. I'll bet you don't have any trouble getting any boy you like, right?”