The Drifting (16 page)

“Ah, girlie,” says Kulzo, now standing facing us with arms crossed at this chest.  “I wasn’t really going to hurt you.  Just toss you around a bit to see what you’re made of, that’s all.”

I stare at the odd-looking man and then back at Ziri.  I give up.  I shake my head, resting it on the vine and trying to get my breathing under control…again.  I start to feel the chill now, seeping into my bones and I realize I’m shaking, my teeth chattering. 

Noticing my shaking state, Ziri reaches out saying, “You can relax now, Lily.  Drop your legs.”  I let my legs down slowly only to have my thighs cramps up on me and I gasp out loud.  Before I realize what he’s doing, Ziri catches me under my knees and lifts me easily into his arms. 

“Lily, untangle your arms from the vine,” he demands softly.

I shake my head at him.  “I can’t.  My arms are cramped too, it’s hard to move them,” I reply.  While holding my legs with one arm, he reaches up with his other and cuts the vine.  He catches me once I’m free and cradles me close to him. 

He stares down at me with a worried look, “Hmmm, perhaps we’ll do your training out of the rain until you’ve become accustomed to it.”

“Ah, you’re being too easy on her,” says Kulzo.  “It’s just rain – who gets sick in the rain?  Besides, if she’s to become accustomed to our realm, well then, she’ll need to get used to training in the rain.”

I want to tell off Kulzo, but I find myself curled up against Ziri’s chest trying to get warm and hide my face from the rain.  This endless, godforsaken, nonstop rain…I hate it.

“I’ll call you again soon, Kulzo,” calls out Ziri as he makes his way to the tree where the vine ends.  Kulzo doesn’t reply but stands watching us go, oblivious to the rain.  I look at him one last time before ducking back into Ziri’s shoulder. 

As Ziri carries me up a winding landing that appears from the tree, I say, “Ziri?”

“Yes, Lily?” At this moment in his arms, the way he just answered me I’m reminded of how much he is like Tharin.  Tharin…all of a sudden, I miss him.

“We have a saying back home,” I say through chattering teeth and my thoughts filled with images of Tharin.

“And what’s that, Lily?”

“Watch your back,” I promise sighing into his chest. 

Ziri laughs out loud at my challenge.  I close my eyes as I hug closer to him, pretending just for now that he’s the elf I love.  I ache at my sudden need to be with Tharin, to see him again.  But I blew that chance when I didn’t go into the
drifting
state when he was here last.  But if I did, he would have stayed, and he would’ve heard what I said.  I guess it worked out okay then, he didn’t hear any of it, which means I can put it to him in another way.  Even though I know it’s a dead end between us, I still want to be his friend, to at least have that with him. 

God, I miss him so much.  I wish he were here.

~ * ~

Chapter
Eleven

~
Tharin
~

From a perch several feet up, I watch Ziri carry Lily back to their temporary thela.  I lean forward as if it would help me hear her when she whispers to him – words lost to me due to the rain.  Painfully, I didn’t miss Ziri’s laughter in response to her words, or how she snuggles even closer to him afterward.   Has she already forgotten about me?  Granted that she’s here stuck with only Sema and Ziri.  Ziri the Lithi…tall, strong and he’s had his share of turning heads.  I refuse to believe that Lily wouldn’t see more in me than just my looks.  I continue to watch, frustrated with no way to release it.

Kulzo remains standing on the net.  I wait knowing that he would disappear soon within the kavi trees.  He is a Kavir, a tree dwarf and protector of the kavi.  He and his kind have been protecting the kavi trees since before the rendering.  Like many others, the Kavirs were warriors fighting alongside King Kalinest during the Great War.  When the realms were split apart and we found a new world before us, it was the Kavirs who replanted the kavi trees and have been their caretakers over millennia.  This is one of several kavi forests within the Oak Clan territory, and there are forests spread throughout the remaining territories thanks to Kulzo and his kin.  As I suspected, Kulzo turns the opposite direction from where Ziri and Lily are heading, disappearing into a tree trunk.  As soon as his feet step off the netting, the vines slowly unwind from each other until the net disappears completely.

I’m able to return this time without Ka’s help.  Each previous visit I would remember more details of this area to tie me to it.  However, the distance from the
Oak
Tower
to this location is greater than any I’ve
drifted
before.  It took all of my concentration and will to make the journey and we hadn’t reached the Tower yet.  It’s not just a risky move, but a dangerous one, too.  I found a clearing of oak trees and hidden in one of the thela is my body.  I lie with only the protection of the oak itself.  Even now my
drifting
self is not as solid as I would be if I were
drifting
within a half-mile or so from where I lay.

I move among the shadows, following Ziri and Lily at a short distance.  I’m careful not to concentrate too long on Ziri and give away my location.  Ziri has stopped on the landing before entering, placing Lily on her feet. She holds on to him and I try not to let it skewer me anymore than it already has.  He untangles her from the vine as she continues to shake from the cold.  Idiot.  He should have realized that she isn’t accustomed to our climate.  He should have setup one of the thelas for basic training instead.  Not only that, but he threw her in with Kulzo on her first day?  What the hell was he thinking?

I slip by them into the thela making my way to Lily’s sleeping area.  I move within the shadows, but keep a look out for Sema.  Ziri may miss me in the shadows, but somehow I doubt that Sema would have any trouble finding me in the dark.  Not more than five seconds after entering Lily’s room, several panswas come to light instantly chasing the shadows away.

“I would think that the future king of Velesi would have better things to do than skulk around his future wife’s room like some lovesick adolescent,” says Sema tartly standing near the end of the bed.  With her hands together and placed in front of her, Sema gives me an arched brow waiting for a response.

I turn to her folding my own arms.  I’ll be damned if I will let this woman chastise me for being where I have every right to be.  “I didn’t know that I needed permission to ‘skulk’ in my betrothed’s room,” I remark back, not showing any offense to her accusation.

“Until she is officially your bride, you will be respectful of her innocence, Prince Tharin,” she states firmly.

“You do me an injustice, old woman,” I reply lifting my chin at her.  Despite my defiance to her questioning, her implication of Lily’s innocence pleases me.

“Oh, really,” she retorts.  “I’ve been watching you since you were a babe in your mother’s arms, Tharin.  I’ve witnessed you and your brother grow into handsome boys, and become formidable warriors.  And although your brother grew up oblivious to the young Sidhlettes buzzing about him all his life, you, however, not only noticed but
gave
notice to the fairer sex.”  She squint her eyes at me with intent, “You will behave yourself where Lily is concern.”

I chuckle at her admonishment and walk farther into the room thinking,
If you say so old woman.
  I note that Sema added more to the room since my first visit with Lily.  The bed and the nightstand are still here, but there is now a mirror above the nightstand.  The bench at the end of the bed is now covered with a handmade blanket.  Did Lily make that, or Sema?  There are two large baskets along the wall, with Lily’s jeans and shirt sitting neatly folded on one of them.  Beside it on the floor are her boots.  A tub sits at the farthest part of the room, a small stool next to it with towels, and the scent of gardenias lingers.

“I will do as I please with my betrothed,” I say casually knowing it would rile her a bit.  I look over the items on the nightstand.  On it is a small frame with a picture of Lucas and Lily.  It’s the same one that was in her living room.  I recognize the picture where Lily is wearing a uniform and she’s holding a basketball to one side, while on the other side she has her arm wrapped around Lucas.  He towers over her, hugging her to him, and they are both smiling…their faces filled with joy.  I reach for it, but stop short of touching it.  I stare at the young Lily.  It’s the same little girl I met during our Binding. 

“How did this get here?” I ask as I lightly trace my finger over Lily’s young face.

“I brought it to her,” replies Sema.  “Why are you here, Tharin?  You don’t have to worry about her now.  She’s come out of her self-imposed coma.  Ziri and I are more than capable of caring for her until the Seating, and of course, she has Cessa with her at all times.  So, again…why are you here?”

“I don’t have to have a reason to be here, nor is it any of your business, Sema,” I remark, becoming irritated by the old woman’s meddling.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Prince.  I have made her my business.”  She stands rigid and seems taller than her small stature.  I face her, ignoring her defiant stance because I’m still not sure whether she and Ka are dangerous.  I know they’re powerful – just not sure what their limits are.  However, I do recognize a lioness protecting her cub.  I decide to tread lightly.

“How long?” I ask.

“How long what?” asks Sema perturbed.

“How long have you been watching over Lily?”

Sema keeps her eyes on me and after making a decision she sighs and says, “All her life.”

I remain quiet to let her sort out her thoughts.  I wait patiently on whether she will confide in me or decide to turn me into a frog just to shut me up. 

Sema moves to the bed and sits on the bench.  She leans back against the bed and with folded arms she starts, “It was I who opened the doorway for John Michaels so he could take his children to his brother.  I knew what John wanted to do, and knew that he would fail.  So, I granted him two wishes.  The first was to give him the ability to live in Velesi undetected, along with the strength to move forward with what he had to do and the longevity to get it done.”

“What?  How are you able to do that?  Who are you? 
W
hat
are you?”

She raises a hand at me, “All in good time, Prince.  You are unprepared for that answer.”

I realize I’m staring at her with my mouth open.  I snap my mouth close as she continues, “His second wish was for me to protect his children.”  She stops, hesitant to say what she needed to say next.  Again, another sigh, “The moment she was born, we knew that Lily was the child of prophecy – the key to opening Eirrell’s doorway and taking our people back to our homeland.  However, as the years past, I noticed that she became more and more dependent on Lucas instead of her uncle or aunt.  When she was eight, her guardians were killed in a car accident and Lucas became her whole world.  We, of course, made it possible for Lucas and Lily to remain in their uncle’s home under the guardianship of a distant relative, who happened to show up when child services would visit.”

I shake my head at her. “Lily has never mentioned any distant relative.”

“Of course she wouldn’t have.  The lawyer who helped work their case never had to work again.  He was highly compensated to be around when child services came by to meet his ‘client’…the children’s distant relative.  Neither Lily nor Lucas knew who this relative was, and it was only Lucas who the lawyer dealt with when necessary.  Lily was just a child and by that time Lucas took it upon himself to protect her from such things.”

“Hmmm, I take it the ‘relative’ just happened to be a six-foot elderly man who wore a fisherman’s hat?”  I try picturing Ka in a business suit, but all I can see is him in the clothe he wore when I first saw him at the minimart.  Sema gives me a sheepish smile, nodding quietly.  “What happened with Lucas?  It’s obvious you were unable to protect him,” I question. 

Sema looks down at her hands as she rubs them together.  I shake my head as the realization hits me.  “You let them take him.”  The silence that follows lies heavily in the room.  The magnitude of this discovery jars me and if I could, I would sit down somewhere.