Chapter Forty-eight
~
Mama’s SUV is so sweet, didn’t feel at all like we’d been on the turnpike the better part of an hour. The fact that Beky was murmurin’ softly, not maniacally chattin’ as is her norm, in the backseat with Hale, made for a really pleasant trip. A grin still tended to creep onto my face when I’d look in the rearview. Funny with Beky sittin’ on a bumper cushion. Outrageous that she’d taken his hand in hers, and had mostly gripped onto it as if it were a lifeline, the entire drive. Hale isn’t much for physical contact, after all. But didn’t scream. Didn’t experience an episode. Appeared to even enjoy it. Hard to tell, but I even imagined his thumb softly caressin’ the back of her tiny hand. Had to imagine it. Wasn’t gonna turn around and make a spectacle of myself. Maybe they deserved their privacy. I shivered a bit. So stinkin’ cute.
That image had me thinkin’ a lot, like tons, about what a life would be like between an ogre-troll and an orc. The size difference is— Lot grander than between Papa and Mama. They weren’t the first. But followed quickly after Uncle Jam and Aunt Ezra. Wow. What an adventuresome generation.
Jam’s size required Ezra’s labor to be induced way earlier than a gynecologist would prefer. Thin’s worked out. Wasn’t an issue for Mama. Trolls have a longer gestation anyway. Story goes, relatives would ask her if she was truly pregnant, or just tellin’ a tall tale.
Beky. No way. She’d never—if they can even be fertile—carry the offspring of an ogre-troll hybrid papa into the second trimester. They’re two lovin’ folk. Deserved a family. Maybe adoption. Never heard of a giant, orc, or goblin ever raised outside a blood-sire. The other night, had looked it up—humans are awful about abandonin’ offspring. Have a thin’ called orphanages specifically to raise the unwanted. Unwanted. How can—
“Stop it,” Hale growled. Made me jump.
“What?” Beky asked.
“Never mind,” Hale grumbled, clearly workin’ to get the anger out of his voice.
“Ya can’t blame me for wonderin’,” I hissed at him.
“You worried about this healer?” Beky asked.
Well, a bit. But didn’t want to lie.
“She’s stickin’ her nose where don’t belong,” Hale hissed.
“The sex thin’?” she asked. The tiny orc isn’t bashful.
I eyed my siblin’ good. Even durin’ an episode, his face doesn’t show a lot of emotion. Anger was clear now. Just stop it, I directed his way—mentally, as we do.
Beky laughed. “Ya can’t guess it can’t be good.”
“Hush,” Hale whispered. More hissed. Beky’s double negatives confused me. Claimin’ it would be good or not?
Beky warned him not to hiss at her. “We orcs are pretty physical, if you don’t know.” Was she tellin’ me or him?
“Would ya please not encourage her?” Hale begged. “Not any of her business.”
“What I’m pretty sure we’re talkin’ about, your siblin’ has a pretty good point of reference to give me a lifetime of advice. So don’t you dare hush her.”
I almost missed the exit as the two of them gritched on. The nav system directed me to take a half-dozen quick turns, proppin’ us on a stinkin’ narrow, rough blacktop toward a higher peak that made the OM downshift a bunch of times. The amount of snow piled off the side implied we’d be enterin’ a major glacier any moment. Just have to watch for the trees to disappear.
The engine did a little of its own growlin’ as it plowed into hairpin after hairpin.
“You taking us to visit one of your gods or something?” Beky asked.
Felt like it. The nav confidently reported we were arrivin’ at our destination in fifty meters. What? There wasn’t a hamlet or village in sight, much less anythin’ that might harbor a medical clinic. Another hairpin and a lodge sat in front of us, complete with a snow-covered roof line decorated with icicles. Still. Days from official summer. The blacktop deadended at the front door.
“Not what I expected,” Hale mumbled.
“Can’t be right,” I mumbled, pullin’ up to the lodge.
Hale told me to check the address I’d put into the nav system. I knew I’d put the right address in. Took it right off the confirmation email Hale forwarded to me.
“We must be almost as high as your Ike’s shrine,” Beky said. “Doubt they have a lot of neighbors nearby.” With that she was out the door, joggin’ for the front stoop nearly one-story above us, hands jammed under her armpits.
Except for the space opened for the road, there was nothin’ but trees in sight.
“I sense her,” Hale said. “Wow. Never felt this before.”
I could too.
~
Hale
~
I hurried to follow after Beky. I smiled on the inside, as she struggled with the twenty or so steps up to a broad veranda, risers set for trolls, not little people. But despite a slowed metabolism from a challengin’ recovery, which she dismissed with a shrug, she got a good bit of steam goin’ up them.
I made it to the base of the stairs when I heard a door swing open above. A, “Hello little one,” greeted Beky at the top. “Ya’re a pleasant surprise to these cold parts. Don’t see many of ya up here.”
“Probably the curvy drive,” Beky said. The whimsy in her voice made that spot on my sternum jiggle.
“Not the cold?” the raspy troll voice asked, as I took my last step up. “Ya must be the siblin’ she talked so sweetly about, who flirted with my receptionist.”
Beky turned my way. The way she had to look so sharply up, made it even funnier, her harsh, “I catch you flirting, you’ll be sorry.”
“I’m sure it was very innocent. My receptionist would flirt with a coffee pot.” The rasp went with the frail-lookin’ troll hen that stood in front of us, a thick cardigan sweater over her shoulders, arms crossed in front of her.
“Ya’re sick,” blubbered out of my mouth.
“Hale!” Bele stepped beside me and gave me a healthy, firm, and sharp elbow into the side of my arm. Hurt a tad.
“Brought the whole clan with ya, I see,” the old hen said.
“I apologize for—”
“No need,” the troll said. “Do come in, before we freeze the little one to death.”
“They tried that already,” Beky said, raisin’ a chuckle from the healer.
As we assembled on the other side of the door, the troll introduced herself to Beky, then shook Bele’s hand. “Good to see ya again.” She pushed her hand to me. I allowed her more to lay it in mine—didn’t want to hurt her. “Goodness, I’m ill, but not dead yet.” Did she read my mind? “Of course. Easy with ya two. Like a powerful machine pushin’ yar thoughts at me a hundred miles an hour.”
Wow. That hit me in stereo—out loud and a moment later mentally, as though she was makin’ a point. She waved us to follow her. After a short meander we found ourselves in a large but traditional Range-lookin’ kitchen, with a black-sooted wood stove and a flamin’ hearth.
“Sit yarselves down where ya’d like, after choosin’.” She pointed at the cooktop. “Hot water for tea. Fresh coffee if ya prefer. Bele, if ya wouldn’t mind.” She pointed at a near cabinet, where Bele found a passel of unmatchin’ mugs. I would love this hen.
“That’s so sweet,” Dr. Tie said. Oddly, I didn’t sense the embarrassment I would have expected.
Bele set herself to pourin’ coffee for me and her, and hot water for Beky, who was pickin’ through the collection of teas on the counter.
“I should have had my assistant explain I was gonna have ya join me at home. Apologize for the surprise. So, little one, I’ll call ya sweet sweet Bek if ya don’t mind. Ya were in the hospital recently?”
I sensed the rise of emotion in Beky, for the nickname. There was a favorite aunt, she hadn’t talked about, that called her that. Beky explained about the four of us bein’ rescued off the mountain.
Dr. Tie pointed a spindly finger at her then me. “Ya two. Didn’t think I could be shocked. But I sense a heated pile of future between the two of ya.”
I believe the three of us may have sucked half a lung way deep.
Tie laughed. “I’m teasin’, sort of. I’m no teller of the future.”
“Then what are you?” Beky asked.
Tie only paused a moment, as she leveled herself into a chair with ample paddin’. “From my earliest sensations, I knew the ancient Black Lake majic had settled inside me. In my bones. The sky, trees, creatures runnin’ hither, acknowledged my existence.”
Silence settled around us as the three of us found our own seats around the long counter. There was a cloud of confusion surroundin’ Beky, and Bele described the day Tie had surprised her at the Inn. Explained that she’d started with, “It’s strong in ya.”
Tie smiled, looked hard at me. “As it is in ya, but don’t expect me to help ya with—the way the gods have given ya to look at the world.”
“He has these—what we call episodes—”
Tie interrupted Bele. “Gods blessed ya with height. Doesn’t mean ya’re not gonna bump yar head if ya walk into a human’s home—without leanin’ over significantly.”
“Ya can’t help him? Just like that?” Bele snarled.
“Didn’t say that.” Tie smiled softly. I sensed a tremor from the neck up. She turned fully my way. “If there’s a majic inside ya, that ya can leverage to aid ya, it’ll be ya to find. Come here, sweetie.” She motioned me near.
Pretty sure every inch of flesh coverin’ me tingled. The strong emotion that always forewarns of an episode, raised its head a tiny bit. She motioned downward, and I took a knee in from of her. She placed a hand on each shoulder, closed her eyes, leaned close, almost touchin’ me close. The emotion rumbled a bit louder in my gut.
~
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