The Mountains Rise (33 page)

It was a second before Daniel realized she meant him. “Me?” The idea that he might
be permitted to hold something so fragile frightened him.

Kate leaned over gracefully and deposited her son in Daniel’s suddenly awkward arms.
“I think you would count as an uncle at the very least.”

The tiny boy
tugged
painfully at Daniel’s beard almost immediately, but he didn’t flinch or pull away.
He was at first frightened to move, afraid that any motion might somehow damage the
delicate
child in his arms. Aaron wasn’t similarly encumbered, he wanted to move.

Wriggling in Daniel’s arms the small boy managed to get his head closer, gazing curiously
at Daniel with his deep brown eyes. One hand released his beard and took his finger
in a surprisingly strong grip.

“He’s very strong,” noted Daniel in amazement.

Seth smiled with a father’s pride, “He’s almost walking. I keep thinking he’ll take
those first steps any day now.”

Staring down at little Aaron, Daniel felt a weight lift from his heart. Sitting between
his two oldest friends, Seth and Kate, he was at peace. He could feel their love
and protectiveness for the child in his arms—and perhaps for him as well. They were
a family, and in a small way he was a part of it too.

This is the difference between us and the She’Har,
he thought.
They
are created whole and finished;
the only growing they do is when they finally put roots down. We are born small
and unfinished. We are not meant for pens and arenas. Our strength comes from love
and nurturing, from play and exploration. Only then can we develop our minds and
find the strength that
lies in our potential.

“The ancient humans knew that. They were like us, and if they hadn’t lost, who knows
how strong we would be today,” he murmured to himself. Stroking Aaron’s cheek with
a rough finger he spoke to the boy, “Now we are all that’s left.”

“What was that?” asked Kate.

Daniel looked up, moving his eyes back and forth between his two friends’ faces.
“I love your family.”

Seth nodded, “Well, you’re a part of it.”

The next day Daniel rose early, intending to help his father, but he discovered that
Alan had already left.

“He went into town,” explained his mother. “I think he wants to get more lumber so
he can take you up on your offer.”

“I guess I’ll take the sheep out then,” Daniel said agreeably.

He noted the wagon’s absence when he got to the barn, which made sense if his father
intended to bring back a substantial amount of wood. He smiled to himself,
he really intends to get the most out of me that he can.
The thought made him feel good.

After helping his mother with a few of her morning tasks
,
he took the flock out, moving them toward the pasture closest to what was now the
‘Tolburn’ house
. He knew it wasn’t the most ideal spot, since some of the other fields they used
were more lightly grazed at the moment, but if he
were
only going to be home for a few days he wanted to spend them as close to Kate and
Seth as he could.

“Dad can take them to the other fields after I leave,” he told himself.

He spent the morning getting better acquainted with Lacy. She was a smart dog
,
and her nose had already told her that he was her master’s son. She had accepted
him quickly
,
but they were still becoming friends.

Around noon he stopped and ate the lunch his mother had given him before bringing
out his cittern and playing a song. Blue skies and warm wind seemed to smile upon
him. It felt as if the whole world
were
conspiring to show him its affection.

Seth appeared a short while later, walking up the hill hand in hand with a much smaller
person.

Daniel felt a sense of apprehension, a sudden nervousness as he suddenly knew who
it was. It was a little girl with his friend
,
and after their conversation the day before he knew that it must be Brigid. It was
his daughter.

“Well, one of them anyway,” he said to himself.

More for his own benefit than anything else, Daniel continued playing as they climbed
the hill. The music kept him calm and eased his anxiety. Finishing the song he had
been playing
,
he switched to a merry tune that was popular for dancing, the ‘Fisherman’s Daughter’.
It was also one that he could easily sing the words to, for the notes were all within
his vocal range.

The song told the story of a young woman who lived by the sea with her parents.
In the beginning she meets a sailor
,
but by the end her love convinces him to give up the sea and become a fisherman,
like her father. Unlike many similar songs, it had a happy ending and a lively melody.

Seth and Brigid sat down beside him while he finished playing. When the song was
done the little girl began clapping. “That was pretty,” she said with an innocent
grin.

“Brigid, this is my friend I was telling you about. His name is Daniel,” said Seth,
introducing them.

“Nice to meet you, Brigid,” Daniel told her.

Suddenly shy, the girl looked down at her feet, but not before Daniel caught a flash
of blue eyes beneath dark hair. “Hi,” she said softly.

She’s gorgeous,
he thought, feeling his heart clench. “Did Seth tell you that he
,
and I
,
and your sister were all friends when we were little?”

Brigid nodded at him
,
and Seth gave him an apologetic shrug. His eyes conveyed a message,
be patient.

They sat together quietly for a few minutes until at last Brigid’s curiosity go
t
the better of her. Moving closer
,
she plucked at one of the strings on Daniel’s instrument. She glanced up at him
nervously when the sound was unexpectedly loud.

“It’s alright,” he told her. “Would you like to learn how to play it?”

Her eyes brightened
,
and she nodded at him.

He spent the next hour showing Brigid how he fingered the frets in order to play certain
chords. Her arms weren’t long enough
,
and her hands weren’t very large
,
so it was too difficult for her to press the strings along the neck while strumming
,
so they worked in tandem. He would show her where to press
,
and she would use both hands, one to support the neck while the other put pressure
on the correct strings. Once she had the position
,
he would run his fingers across the board
,
and she would laugh at the sounds.

“Let me do it,” she told him, indicating his strumming hand.

I should have thought of that first,
he chided himself. She moved over
,
and they switched jobs, he would fingers the chords and when he nodded
,
she would strum. It was still
clumsy
but they were able to play an awkward, halting melody that way.

“I need to get some things done,” Seth told him. He had been a silent observer through
most of their interactions. “Do you want me to take Brigid home with me, or…”

“I don’t mind if she wants to stay,” said Daniel, feeling a sense of awe that she
might be left in his care for even a while. “I can bring her by before I take the
flock in this evening. Assuming she wants to stay, that is.”

“Brigid,” said Seth, “Would you like to stay with Daniel for a while? I need to go
home.”

She had already forgotten the two of them, distracted by the novelty of Daniel’s sheep
dog. She was crawling forward through the grass toward Lacy, as if she meant to sneak
up on her. Of course, Lacy was already well aware of the girl hunting her, but she
pretended not to notice.

Seth glanced at Daniel, remarking, “They get so wrapped up in their heads that they
can’t hear anything sometimes. Make sure you keep a close eye on her.”

“I will,” assured Daniel. “Thank you,” he added with emphasis.

The girl had reached the dog
,
and Lacy was game enough to leap into the air with a yip of surprise, as though she
hadn’t seen the child stalking her. She circled the girl, barking excitedly and pretending
to nip at her. Seth snatched
the little girl up,
and Brigid shrieked excitedly.

“I’m leaving you here with Daniel,” he told her. “Is that alright?”

She nodded, barely paying attention as she wriggled in his arms, trying to find some
way down so she could get back to the dog.

He placed her carefully on the ground and turned away, “She’s all yours then.” Waving
,
Seth started down the hillside, heading home.

The next few hours were a revelation for Daniel. He watched as Lacy taught her how
to herd sheep, circling to keep stragglers from getting too far from the flock. Then
they played a chaotic version of tag, girl and dog chasing each other in turn. Daniel
was too absorbed with watching them to even play his cittern
,
but when they tired of that game
,
he brought it out again and played a lively tune while Brigid skipped.

Or is she dancing?
He wondered. The girl’s movements were to
o
disordered to be sure, but it hardly mattered
,
for she was enjoying herself.

Later, tired and sweaty despite the cool breeze, Brigid sat down, leaning into him.
He talked to her, studying her hair and dirty face, marveling at the sparkle in her
eyes while she answered him enthusiastically. According to her
,
Lacy was probably the bravest dog in the world, and certainly the smartest. Before
he knew it
,
she had fallen fast asleep.

Not daring to disturb her
,
he gave Lacy a nod and a command, making sure she knew to warn him if the sheep needed
him. Then he lay back and relaxed, watching the blue sky even as he pondered the
miracle of the small girl nestled under his arm. He measured each breath
she took, and his heart seemed to slow, trying to match her rhythm.

***

His mind drifted lazily while the clouds sailed past. No longer quite awake
,
he wasn’t asleep either. Daniel was in the place between asleep and awake, a place
where the spirit meets reality and dreams begin, and where they
return to die when finished
. There he felt at peace, as though he
were
part of something greater. The world was alive
,
and he was a small but happy piece of it. The heart of the earth was beating beneath
him, dreaming of things too large for his small mind to comprehend.

A small figure was running,
coming uphill toward him. It was a curious animal, racing awkwardly on two legs.
Four would have been a better choice for that sort of terrain. His mind came into
better focus
,
and he knew then that she was human, and humans only used two legs.
I’m a human too,
he thought idly.

“Oh, it’s Kate,” he heard himself say
,
and then he felt the world fall into place. He was having trouble understanding
the state his mind had been in, but that hardly mattered now. Kate was winded, trying
to run up a hillside. She wouldn’t be making such haste unless she had a good reason.

Sitting up he nudged Brigid, “Wake up, it’s time to head back to the house.”

She sat up, looking around blearily and rubbing at her face. “Mmmhh hmmm,” she answered.

“Climb onto my back
,
and I’ll give you a piggyback ride,” he told her.

It didn’t take much to convince her, Brigid loved piggyback rides. As soon as he
knelt
,
she hopped
on,
stretching her legs around his hips and wrapping her arms around his neck and shoulders.
“Go!” she commanded.

He couldn’t help but chuckle to himself at that, and so he dutifully took off. Moving
downhill at speed was tricky, especially with a child on his back, so even though
he made haste
,
he was careful not to take risks. He met Kate halfway down.

“What’s wrong?” he asked her, even more worried when he saw her face.

“It’s your dad,” she answered, heaving to catch her breath between each word.
“He’s hurt.”

“Where
is he
?”

“At my house,” she replied. “The men from the town brought him back.”

“The men?” he asked suspiciously.

She nodded, but she was still too out of breath to elaborate.

“I want you to follow me back with your sister,” he told the girl on his back, easing
her around and helping her down. Brigid nodded in agreement and took Kate’s hand.

“Daniel, wait!” shouted Kate as he began to run.

“You’ll have to catch up,” he told her. On his own now
,
he shielded himself and used one of the tricks he had learned in the arena. He
extended and shaped the shield beneath him, forming it into a large concave disk.
From his arms
,
he sent out long pole-like extensions, using them to push himself downhill
,
and he began to slide, skidding at ever increasing speed.

Once he was in motion he didn’t have to worry about propelling himself, he just used
his arms to push and shove to either side, to guide his disk around obstacles too
large for him to slide over. It was a wild frenzied way to travel downslope, but
it was far faster than the alternative. Since the disk beneath his feet was attached
to his body shield
,
it was impossible for him to fall free, so balance wasn’t an issue.

Stopping, now that would be a greater concern.

As he neared the bottom, where the river and a number of jagged rocks awaited, he
changed the shape of his disk, widening and flattening it to create more resistance.
That alone wasn’t slowing his descent enough, though, so he began to send long streamers
of force out behind himself, grasping weakly at small trees and rocks without trying
to grab on to them too forcefully.

That made the difference
,
and by the time he reached the river he was moving at a pace comparable to a fast
walk. He shifted the shape of his shield then, changing the extensions from his arms
into long claw-like appendages. The disk beneath him vanished
,
and he began using the shield around his feet to create stilts, projecting them outward
to give him a boost with each step upward.

Climbing toward what he still thought of as the ‘Sayer House’,
he
surged
upward in long bounding steps while the claws extending from his arms reached out
to brace and balance him. He was able to ascend almost as quickly as he had flown
down the other slope.

His magesight had already found his father, long before he was close to the house.
Alan Tennick lay in the back of his wagon, his body still and his breathing shallow.
Seth was with him, easing a towel under the back of his head. A bucket stood to one
side, filled with water. It looked as though he planned to use it and a second cloth
to clean some of the blood and dirt away.

Why is he still in the wagon?

Daniel knew it was a bad sign. His father had to be badly hurt if Seth didn’t want
to try
to
move him into the house. He covered the remaining distance in a frantic rush.

Seth was startled by the odd manner of his arrival
,
but he pushed his shock aside, “They brought him just a few minutes ago…”

Daniel was already in the wagon, examining his father, his magesight probing within
and without. Years in the arena had taught him much about basic anatomy. He had
learned to seal wounds and stop bleeding arteries when necessary
,
and he had spent a lot of time exploring the inner world of his body. He was by
no means a great healer
;
the She’Har that tended to wounded victors could manage feats of healing that seemed
to be nothing short of miraculous.

If you won and survived long enough for them to reach you, they could restore you
from almost any wound. After a quick examination
,
he immediately wished that one of them was here.

Alan
’
s ribs were broken in several places
,
and one
fragment had lodged in his left lung. His right femur had snapped
,
and the thigh was purple with bruising from whatever had broken it. One of the larger
veins there had ruptured and was causing the leg to swell. His father’s face was
dark and swollen so badly that if he had been conscious
,
he would have been unable to see. The lower lip had been cut through by his teeth
,
but somehow his nose remained unbroken.

Alan Tennick had been beaten within an inch of his life.

In fact, given a short period of time
,
he might not survive. The injury to his lung might prove fatal by itself
,
and the leg could lead to dangerous complications later on, assuming the bleeding
stopped before it killed him.

“Who did this?”

“I’m not sure,” said Seth uncertainly. “Mr. Stiles brought him back, along with John
Hedger, but I don’t think they were in on it. I think they were trying to help.”
Mr. Stiles was the town blacksmith, a fairly decent man as far as Daniel knew, and
one without any reason to hate him. John Hedger was Billy Hedger’s father, but aside
from fathering a bad son
,
Daniel didn’t think he had any reason to hold a grudge either.

Kneeling beside his father, Daniel closed his eyes
;
they would only distract him from his task. “Seth, I’m going to need to concentrate
for a while, so try to stay quiet. Keep the water and towels handy. When I’m finished
,
we’ll move him into the house.”

“I don’t think we can, Daniel. Look at his leg!”

“Trust me,” said Daniel
,
and with that he shut out the outside world, focusing purely on what was occurring
inside Alan Tennick’s beaten and bruised form. The lung needed his attention first,
and he used his mind to remove the bone fragment and reseal the lung before it got
any worse. There was some blood in it already
,
but he wasn’t sure how to get it out without creating more problems
,
so he left it alone.

He wanted to realign the bones and fuse them together, but the bleeding vein in his
thigh was more urgent. He stopped that temporarily, until he could find the other
end of the torn vessel and reattach it. Sealing it off would have been enough
,
but he knew that it would make it much more painful later if he didn’t reestablish
the pathway for blood flow.

Alan began to move a bit, moaning as Daniel’s activities began to become more painful
for him.

He ignored that, ready to use his aythar to hold Alan still if necessary. Then he
began realigning the ribs, getting them into their proper positions before fusing
them together. Apparently that was an exceedingly painful operation, for his father
began to thrash wildly. Using his power
,
he restrained the older man forcefully, locking him rigidly in place.

Alan tried to scream, but his damaged lung and broken ribs made it impossible for
him to do more than let out a soft airy howl. Daniel ignored it and continued fixing
the ribs. Seth, meanwhile, had taken a seat on the ground. The sight of Alan Tennick
helplessly screaming in half-silence while Daniel worked on him had made him light-headed.

Daniel finished the ribs and then removed the excess blood from his father’s leg before
closing up the torn skin and muscle there. Once that was finished
,
he went over
the older man from head to toe;
closing every small cut and abrasion, making sure his skin was whole and unbroken.

He could do nothing for the swelling, and Alan would still have a long painful recovery,
but he wouldn’t be crippled. Daniel released the restraints on his father and motioned
Seth to bring up the wet towels. “Let’s clean him off.”

Kate had arrived by then, a wide eyed Brigid beside her. “How is he?” she asked.

“He’s going to be sore as hell for a few weeks, but I think he’ll be alright if he
doesn’t get a fever,” said Daniel. “He would have died, though. They beat him half
to death, Kate.”
As he spoke he created a shield under his father and lifted him into the air, moving
him gently toward the house.

Kate ran to open the door
,
and Seth followed him, wide eyed.

Once they had him settled into the bed in what had once been Kate’s room
,
Daniel headed back outside.

“Where are you going?” asked Kate. The alarm in her voice was poorly hidden.

Daniel ignored her
,
and Seth went with him. “There’s never been any trouble like this before, Daniel,”
said his friend. “Things were tense, but nobody ever did more than curse or swear.”

“They probably found out I came back,” said Daniel. “They might be hoping I’ll come
to town.”

“Don’t you even think about it, Daniel Tennick!” said Kate from behind them, her voice
loud and commanding.

Daniel glanced at her over his shoulder before meeting Seth’s eye. “I’m sorry,” he
told them
,
and then he began to walk toward the road.

“I’ll come with you,” said Seth.

There was no hesitation in his old friend’s voice
,
and the pronouncement sent a shiver through Daniel’s heart. He had been alone for
so long that he had forgotten what friendship meant. A painful lump formed in his
throat
,
but as much as he yearned to accept the offer he knew he couldn’t.

“No,” he replied. “I don’t want them associating you with me any more than they do
already. It might cause you trouble in the future. I couldn’t forgive myself i
f
something ever happened to you or Kate.”

“Piss on that,” said Seth with venom in his voice. “What they did wasn’t right.”

Kate put her hand on her husband’s shoulder, “He’s right, honey.”

The familiar gesture and the easy endearment, ‘honey’, sent a twinge
of
regret through Daniel.
That could have been me.
He started walking again.

“You shouldn’t go either, Daniel,” she said sternly.

He didn’t turn around, “It’s too late for that.”

“They’re probably all waiting for you. That’s what they want you to do!” she yelled
as he got further away.

“You know how much I like to make people happy,” he answered sarcastically.