Rising Moon (The Rune Stone Trilogy) (7 page)

             
"
Culinary school,
"
El shrugged.
"
My parents are very, very wealthy, but they don’t want me to rely on my inheritance. I suppose its smart thinking. My grandfather started out with barely anything to his name, and at the end of his life he had more money than he ever dreamed possible. My father is carrying on the legacy. Thank God I have a brother to learn the business because I am no paper pusher.
"
She poured herself a second glass of wine.
"
Save room for dessert, I made a strawberry custard tart.
"

             
"
What about you, Aylin?
"
Terra asked.

             
Aylin shrugged and leaned back.
"
I was born and raised here. My father died when I was ten, so I helped my mother in the floral shop. I took over the store four years ago when she was diagnosed with cancer. She passed six months later, leaving me this house and her store.
"
She waved her wineglass around, gesturing to the walls around them.

             
"
I’m so sorry,
"
Terra said softly.

             
"
It’s alright, but thank you.
"
Aylin smiled. Terra could tell there was more to her and El’s stories, but she didn’t feel like she was comfortable enough to ask. She had been having a hard enough time trying to ignore the glimmering light that danced on the walls from the candlelight and the two women.
"
So, tell me, Terra, what brings you to Willoughby Island? So far from your home?
"

             
"
I just needed to get away for awhile. Change of scenery,
"
Terra said automatically, and shrugged her shoulders.

             
"
I know that feeling,
"
Eliana
said smiling
.
"
What kind of work did you do there?
"

             
"
I help my mom run a bookstore in town. I also repair old book spines.
"

             
"
Oh, how interesting.
"
Aylin leaned forward.
"
I bet you saw some pretty interesting books.
"

             
"
Yeah, I only repair spines right now. I hope to develop it into a full restoration of old books, you know, restoring the leather, the pages, everything about it. I’ve heard there are families looking to get their ancient family bibles restored. It’s really impressive what can be restored.
"
She shrugged,
"
But I have a lot to learn before I get to that level.
"

             
"
But you’re on your way.
"
Aylin tipped her wine glass to her.

             
"
Yes.
"
Terra nodded.

             
"
Dessert?
"
El held out a plate that had what looked like a slice of creamy heaven on it. But Terra was distracted by El’s wrist. She held the plate so the inside of her wrist was facing up. On it was a Celtic tattoo. Three swirls formed three circles, and in the center between the circles was a small, intertwined triangle. Each of the three circles was different. On El’s, the lower left circles was an orange sun with it’s flares turning red and yellow. The other two circles were black, but one was a full moon, and the other was the earth. What distracted her was how familiar it looked.
"
Terra?
"

             
"
Tattoo,
"
she could barely utter, pointing at her wrist.

             
"
Oh, yes. Recognize it?
"
El smiled.

             
Terra numbly slipped off the thick leather strap she wore as a bracelet everyday. Hidden underneath laid an exact replica of El’s tattoo, except the sun was black, and the earth was colored in blues and greens. The reason she had kept it hidden was because she swore she could see the earth slowly turning on her skin. She knew it couldn’t be possible for a tattoo to change. Terra’s tattoo had appeared on her wrist, and it had unnerved her to discover it since it hadn’t been something she had ever done to herself.

             
Aylin held out her own wrist, which also bore the same tattoo, except the moon illuminated silver.
"
How is this possible? I mean I didn’t even get this done. My whole life I had this ugly dark birthmark there. Then on my eighteenth birthday it changed into this.
"

             
"
The birthmark was hideous, wasn’t it?
"
El wrinkled her nose.
"
I always tried to cover it with makeup. Of course, it never worked.
"

             
"
How is this possible?
"
Terra asked again.

             
"
Let’s start at the beginning.
"
Aylin held up her hand to quiet Terra.
"
It’s a long story, so eat your tart. El, get another bottle of wine.
"

             
Terra took a quick bite of the tart, and was about to take a second when she stopped. There was a different flavor than strawberries and the sugar glaze in this tart.
"
What is in this?
"
she asked conversationally.

             
"
Oh, some sugared honeysuckle.
"
El licked her spoon, watching Terra.

             
"
That’s edible?
"
She frowned at the tart in front of her.

             
"
Oh yes. Some even believe it’s good to eat because it helps one understand… things.
"
El shrugged and winked at Aylin.

             
Without another word Terra had inhaled her tart and now she sat on the edge of the sofa. El and Aylin walked in, carrying a new bottle of wine and their glasses.
"
Okay, Terra, are you ready?
"

             
Terra took a deep breath and slowly nodded.
"
Yes.
"

             
Aylin sat perched on the other end of the sofa, making sure she gave Terra some distance. Eliana, however, lounged in the overstuffed chair, her feet propped up on the footrest. El nodded at Aylin.

             
"
When I was a child I was vaguely aware that my parents were different from other adults. They weren’t treated differently, but no other parents spent extended periods of time in the woods, or have message bottles appear in the yard, or the pond, or have pantries full of dried flowers and herbs.
"
Aylin smiled at herself.
"
One night I slept over at my best friend’s house. We snuck out to the garden and I asked her why they didn’t have any floating lights in their garden. I figured they were broken or they forgot to turn them on. She laughed at me and told me that you don’t have Christmas lights on in the summer. I learned to keep my mouth shut when I was a teenager. There was so much I didn’t understand, but I didn’t want to express my embarrassment to my mother. After my father passed she kept herself tirelessly busy with the shop.

             
"
The night I turned eighteen my mother slowed down. It was just before midnight, and I was reading in bed when she slipped into my room.
"
The memory easily opened to Aylin, still so fresh in her mind.

             
Nights in late August were prone to be hot and sticky with humidity. Her mother didn’t like to run the air conditioner, so Aylin had her ceiling fan on, her two windows wide open, and a second floor fan pointed at her. With all this airflow moving around her, she felt sweaty, even down to her toes. It was stifling hot sitting in bed. She had kicked all the covers off, pushing them to the floor, and only her small bedside lamp was on to read. She felt sticky and uncomfortable, and desperate for her book, a murder mystery in Antarctica, to distract her. She was to turn eighteen in three minutes.

             
She had begged her mother to let her have a couple of her friends sleep over that night, but her mother wouldn’t allow it. She said she was too busy with the shop to be staying up late and worrying about them. It had angered Aylin to the point that she refused to speak to her mother for three days. She would be the only eighteen-year-old girl in the whole world that couldn’t celebrate her birthday with her friends. All because her mom wanted to make sure she would be awake enough to go play with flowers.

             
The book didn’t do a good job of distracting her. She held the book in her hands, but her focus was out the window, looking up at the moon. It was bright tonight, shining in her window. If she turned off her lamp she would still have enough light to read. Aylin barely looked at her mother when she felt her standing in the doorway.
"
Aylin, you are still awake?
"

             
"
Yes,
"
Aylin snapped.
"
I’m celebrating my birthday.
"

             
Her mother smiled to herself. She walked to her bed and sat down on the corner, watching Aylin.
"
Aylin, I lied to you when I told you why you couldn’t have your friends over tonight.
"

             
Aylin turned her head to look at her mother. She looked so tired; there were permanent dark bags under her eyes. It annoyed Aylin that she wouldn’t take a day off to relax and unwind.
"
Why?
"

             
"
Because tonight I wanted it to be only you and me. We have things to talk about.
"

             
Aylin’s jaw dropped. She had heard from friends that some parents kicked their children out when they turned eighteen, forcing them to become adults. She just never imagined her mother throwing her out.
"
Mom, I can’t live on my own yet! I don’t have any money-
"

             
"
Oh Aylin.
"
Her mother laughed softly.
"
You can stay here as long as you like. I love having you around. What I wanted to talk to you about is something else entirely.  I think it’s time for you to understand the truth of who you are.
"

             
Aylin frowned at this. All right, so she can stay here. It didn’t stop her mind from racing. Questions flew by wondering, what truth then? Is her mother not her real mother? Is she adopted?
"
What are you talking about?
"

             
"
Come with me outside. It’s so much cooler out there than in your stuffy room. Come on.
"
She stood and waited for Aylin to climb out of bed. Aylin followed her out of the house. Her mother led her through the garden to the edge of the yard where the woods met their property. A cement bench was placed there near a small pond that had goldfish and a small gurgling fountain. They sat down and her mother reached for Aylin’s hand. She turned up Aylin’s wrist, where her ugly birthmark was, and held it into the moonlight.

             
Aylin looked down to where her mother was lightly circling her finger on her wrist. She couldn’t believe her eyes. There was no birthmark on her wrist. Where it once had been now laid a tattoo. She pulled her wrist away from her mother and held it close to her eyes. Three circles seemed to swirl away from each other, one of the circles shined silver on her skin. The bases of the swirls were joined together, being held by a small symbol. She recognized this design immediately. Her father wore a necklace everyday with a pendent that was this design. Aylin rubbed her thumb over it, but it didn’t smudge. It was real.

             
She looked up to her mother, her mouth open in question, but her mother pushed back Aylin’s hair behind her ears.
"Look," s
he whispered, pulling a round mirror from her pants pocket. She held it up near the side of Aylin’s head and when Aylin looked at her reflection she jumped off the bench. 

             
"
What are you doing?
"
Aylin asked her.