The Mountains Rise (32 page)

“So you admit I’m right?”

He looked away. “In principle, but you haven’t seen these people, or the things that
they do to our kind.”

“I don’t know her, but I know you Daniel,” said Kate, “and I would never underestimate
your sheer thick-headedness.”

That made him laugh. “Tell me your secret
.
I
t would take all afternoon to cover the topic of my
thick skull.”

She glanced at the sun, “I have to hurry back, so I’ll be quick.”

“You’ve only been here for a half hour at most,” said Daniel, furrowing his brows.

Kate smiled, “I’m a mother now, Daniel. I left Aaron sleeping in his crib.”

“How long does he sleep?”

“Could be hours, but if he wakes up I want to be there.”

The look on her face told him all he needed to know, and it made him feel empty.
He would never be a father, not in any way that mattered. She was concerned with
caring for her family, while his only concern was for himself. “You can tell me the
rest tomorrow,” he suggested, “if I can visit…”

“You will visit,” she said imperiously, “but this is something I have to tell you
now. A secret only we can share.”

“Alright.”

“After you left, I was angry, at you, at the gods, at everyone. Later I calmed down,
and I spent a lot of time thinking about things, from beginning to end. When I tried
to talk to my mother about it, she reacted in unusual ways. She was abrupt, with
no sympathy for you. She always wanted to move on, to find something else to talk
about
.”

As she spoke Daniel’s face grew stony
,
but he said nothing.

“Eventually I figured it out.”

He could no longer look at her, so he turned his head toward the sun. “I’m so sorry,”
he whispered.

“Don’t be,” she said with a sudden fierceness in her voice. “I confronted her
,
and she tried to blame you, but I didn’t believe her. We fought and argued, and
in the end she confessed everything. She left soon after that
,
and I haven’t spoken to her since.”

Blood and fire roared in his head. The thing he had run from had finally reared itself
again
,
and there was no escaping it now. His emotions threatened his self-control
,
and Daniel wanted nothing more than to whip the wind into a frenzy, to give vent
to his anger and self-loathing. Standing now, his body became so tense that he began
to shake.

A soft hand on his back stilled his demons. “I forgave you, Daniel. As soon as I
understood, I forgave you, but I will never forgive her.”

“She’s your mother.”

“I’m a mother too!” she said, spitting the word
s out with considerable venom.

“I betrayed your trust,” countered Daniel.

“You were barely fifteen
,
and you let weakness betray your heart. She was a grown woman, and she helped to
raise you. The difference is far greater than you imagine,” said Kate.

“I don’t understand,” he choked out, “why
would you
forgive me? I don’t deserve that.”

Her arms circled around his waist
,
and she pressed her cheek against his shoulder. “I have only so much forgiveness
in me Daniel. My love is unlimited and unshakeable, but I only have so much forgiveness.
I chose to give both to you.”

He turned and pulled her closer, his cheeks wet with tears.
Dammitt, why is she so beautiful?
Without thinking
,
he lowered his face to hers and kissed her f
iercely, unable to contain his terrible need any longer. His life had become a cold
void
,
and the vital flame that was Catherine Sayer was all that he needed to fill it.

She returned the kiss, eager at first, but eventually she began to push him away.

Her aura was roiling with passion and lust
,
and he could see it mirrored in her eyes, but she held him at arm’s length resolutely.
“I’m still married,” she told him sadly. “My family will always come first.”

He released her, still fighting with himself internally.

“Although, if you used your power, I probably couldn’t say no,” she suggested teasingly.

Daniel growled, looking at her in desperation.
Is that hope in her aura? Does she want me to force her?
He knew then, she wanted an excuse. She would not betray her family willingly, but
if he took the choice from her…

“You’re a rapist.”
The memory of those words sent a chill down his spine.

“No,” he said bitterly. “I won’t do that again. I’ve hurt too many.”

“Truth, so much truth there…” She was walking away now. “Come for dinner tomorrow.
Seth will be glad to see you too.”

“Alright,” he managed to reply.

When she was over twenty yards away she shouted back, “Will you play for me—‘til I
reach my door?”

He did, and he continued long after, until his fingers ached
,
and his mind had gone blank.

He spent the morning with his father, who was reluctant to leave the house while Daniel
was there, and the afternoon with his mother. In between he spent some time making
good on his promise regarding woodwork. Fixing fences and some of the minor repairs
required for the barn were simple tasks for him in many ways. So long as he had dry
wood to work with
,
he could easily cut it to fit almost any shape or size, saving many hours’ worth
of labor at the saw. Driving nails was just as easy.

His main limitation came when he realized that he had used up all of his father’s
spare wood. That meant someone would have to make a trip to see Tom Hayes, at the
general store. While Colne had its own blacksmith, the closest lumber mill was in
Dereham. The Hayes store kept a fairly ample supply of lumber on hand, though.

“I’m going to see Seth and Kate this evening,” he told his mother when his father
returned with the sheep that evening.

“Do they know you’re coming?” she asked.

“Kate heard me playing the cittern yesterday,” he replied. “She came over and invited
me.”

“Oh,” said Helen. “Well, I’m sure they’ll be glad to see you again.”

“I guess we can’t keep you completely to ourselves,” said Alan, walking up from behind.

For what already seemed like the tenth time Daniel apologized, “I’m sorry, Dad. I
wish I had more time.”

Alan waved
his hand, dismissing the matter. “It is what it is, Son. Don’t worry yourself over
it.”

“When you get a chance, go look at the barn,” said Daniel proudly. “I think you’ll
like what I’ve done, but I’m afraid you’re out of boards.”

“The square posts or the planed one by sixes?”

“Both.”

“Damn, boy! You’ve been busy!”

Daniel grinned, “Yep. You’ll have to go into town.”

A shadow passed over Alan Tennick’s face, but it disappeared almost as quickly. “Yeah,
I’ll have to think about that. It might be a while before I get around to it. Our
credit is a little thin at the store.”

“Maybe I should go,” suggested Daniel. “If I get the wood before I leave there’s
a lot more I could do for you. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind if I expanded the pen and
added a few more stalls.”

“Don’t worry about that, Daniel,” said his father. “Just having you here for a while
is plenty. You’ve already done several weeks’ worth of work for me if you managed
to use up all that wood.”

Truthfully, Daniel was a bit nervous at the thought of going into Colne. He had probably
left a large mark on the town already
,
and there were bound to be a lot of people holding grudges. He didn’t want to admit
as much in front of his parents, though.

***

A tall lean man stood on the front porch of what Daniel still thought of as the Sayer
house.
Dark curly hair hid the tops of his ears and joined a thick beard that had grown
along his jawline. He still had a dark tan
,
and his posture hinted at strong muscles. Seth had never been big boned
,
but age and hard work had given him the sturdy body of a man
who
spent his days working with his hands.

“You don’t look half as shitty as she told me,” he said
,
once Daniel had gotten within easy earshot. There was a smile on his face
,
but it hadn’t quite made it to his eyes.

Daniel had taken advantage of his mother’s mirror and some shears to clean up hi
s appearance the night before. It was still pretty rough though, and his mother insisted
that he needed to give her an hour to work on his hair and beard before he would look
civilized again.

“I’d say the same about you,” he told his old friend, “but I’d be lying. You look
better than ever
,
and I’m damn glad to see it.”

“I’m glad to see you too,” offered the other man.

“Last time we met, I recall you gave me a damn fine punch.”

Seth’s shoulders visibly tensed
,
and Daniel could see wariness flare in his aura. “Listen, Daniel, about that…”

“I deserved it, Seth. Don’t worry about it. I should thank you for knocking some
sense into me,” he said, trying to put his childhood friend at ease.

Relaxing, Seth responded, “I have even more to thank you for. Kate told me what happened
with Ronnie and the others. You even carried me up here. I mighta died if not for
that.”

“I couldn’t leave a friend in need.” They were standing at arms’ length now.

Seth eyed him up and down, inspecting the strange leather armor. “You paid a high
price for it.”

Daniel
didn’t bother denying that one.
H
is eyes passed over Seth, catching Kate watching them from the window. “Yeah.”

Seth noticed the look. “About Kate, Daniel, you know it was years before…”

“Whoa!” said Daniel somewhat forcefully. Stepping closer he brought his hand up,
clasping his friend’s shoulder. “I was gone, still am, really, and I never owned
her. If I was going to pick someone to take care of her, it would have been you.
Don’t apologize to me
,
Seth. You’ve never done anything but good by me.”

Seth didn’t answer, choosing instead to give Daniel a short hug.

Kate opened the door then, “The food will get cold if someone doesn’t come eat it.”

They went in and took their places around the small table. A few small things had
changed
;
the rug in the front room, and two of the chairs, but otherwise it was the same.
The smell of roast lamb assailed Daniel, reminding him of his hunger.

“Something smells awfully good,” noted Daniel.

“You wouldn’t believe how good Kate’s food is,” declared Seth.

Daniel chuckled, “My nose is telling me that I won’t have to believe for much longer,
the evidence is right here before us.”

“Save your flattery for afterward, gentlemen,” said Kate confidently. “Once you have
dined at my table
,
you will find that all others pale in comparison.”

“She sounds as if she’s joking,” commented Seth, “but she isn’t. The Browns, Dalton
and Fiona
,
ate with us last spring
,
and ever since they’ve been giving us discounts hoping we’d invite them back.”

Kate winked at him and slid the platter with the roast in Daniel’s direction. He
wasted no time in helping himself to an ample portion before passing it to Seth.
Soon there was no time for talking as
they began to eat in earnest.

The food brought a new kind of nostalgia to Daniel. Kate’s mother had been an excellent
cook as well
,
and he remembered a number of pleasant occasions eating at the Sayer house. His
own mother’s food was good, but not quite so well perfected
,
and his first night home she had had no time to create anything special. Tonight’s
dinner reminded him of one of the things he missed most about life among civilized
human beings, good food.

Near the end of the meal he found himself mopping the plate with a piece of bread,
trying to get the last bit of gravy from the plate before he surrendered it. Once
he had done that
,
he began to stare at the serving platter itself. They had cleared it of meat, but
it still held the savory remnants of what had been sitting upon it.

Seth watched him with interest, “You look like you’re ready to eat the plate whole,
Daniel.”

That snapped him from his daze, “It has been a while since I had food like this.”

“What have they been feeding you?” asked Kate.

Daniel winced at the question, but it was at least one that he could answer honestly.
“Squirrel and rabbit, mostly,” he told them. He had never minded them before, but
after five years he had begun to miss
lamb—and beef, and pork. That left aside all the other little things, like milk,
cheese, beans, turnips, parsnips—the list went on.

He hadn’t tried to paint a dark picture of his culinary woes
,
but it wasn’t long before he realized
that
Seth was gazing on him with a worried look
,
and Kate was a picture of pity. “Really, it sounds worse than it is,” he told them.
“These past few months I’ve been able to cook for myself
,
and it has made a big difference.”

That was essentially true, but his list of ingredients was still limited to small
game, carrots, and onions for the most part.

Eventually they left that topic. Kate had already explained most of w
hat Daniel had told her to Seth
, leaving out very little
,
other than their impromptu kiss. He answered his friends’ questions on the finer
details patiently, leaving out only the crudest
parts, the things he knew would only make them feel worse for him. Overall he tried
to paint his last five years in as positive a light as possible.

“But you’re still a slave, right?” asked Seth, regarding his new arrangement living
with Lyralliantha.

“Yeah,” admitted Daniel with a feeling of embarrassment.

“I’m sorry,” said Seth. “I shouldn’t have said it like that.”

“It isn’t your fault,” Daniel told him. “We might as well put the proper name to
it.”

“And you haven’t told your parents?”

He shook his head, “No, they think I’m working as a carpenter.”

“Well
,
if that’s what you want
,
I won’t tell them any different,” reassured Seth.

“There’s something else we need to talk about anyway,” mentioned Kate, “your parents.”

“They seemed
alright.”

“Well, they are,” said Seth, “but it’s more about how they’re getting on in town.”
His face colored slightly. “I’m not sure how to go about this. Kate maybe you’d
be better with this one.” He glanced at his wife for help.

“It’s about your children, Daniel,” she said, not missing a beat.

“Oh,” said Daniel, suddenly unsure of himself. He had known there had to be some,
but he had decided to avoid bothering them or their families if possible. His current
state of affairs left him little option to do anything else.

“I wasn’t suggesting you should go and try to take responsibility,” she continued
before he could say anything else. “It’s far too late for that
,
and no good would come of it. I’m referring to the impact they’ve had on your parents.”

“What do you mean?” asked Daniel.

“Well, a lot of people in town know. There are quite a few dark haired, blue-eyed
children, and they’re all close to the same age. Most of them stayed quiet, but some
of them couldn’t, like Emily Banks,” said Kate.

“Her too?” said Daniel.

Kate nodded. “She hung herself two years ago, Daniel. Her parents are raising
Haley now.”

I have a daughter.
The thought hit him harder than he had thought possible, but it couldn’t eclipse the
tragedy of what she had just said about Emily.
She killed herself, because of me.

“Don’t go getting weepy on me now, Daniel,” she warned. “That’s not why I’m mentioning
this. Haley isn’t the only one, there are many more. You can’t do anything about
that. I’m bringing this up because a lot of people in town are no longer kindly disposed
toward your parents.”

“They didn’t have anything to do with it,” protested Daniel.

“That’s not how people see it. Whenever they see your parents
,
they remember that it was their son
who
slept with half the women in town, and left a significant portion of those pregnant.”

“You’re bringing this up, so I’m guessing you have an idea regarding what I should
do,” said Daniel. He remembered his father’s face when he had mentioned getting more
lumber.
He didn’t want to have to go to town.

“Not really,” she confessed, “I just didn’t want you to wander into town and make
matters worse for them.”

Seth gave out a nervous laugh, “Hell they might start a riot if they saw you in the
street.”

“A riot I could deal with,” said Daniel. “Violence is the only thing I’ve been trained
for
.”

“I don’t think you want to fight the whole town,” said Kate.

Daniel began to laugh. “It would hardly be a fight.”

Something in his voice made his friends flinch. Was that fear in their faces?
Do they think I would really kill the townspeople?
He reflected on that thought for a moment.
I probably would. They’re right to be afraid.

In his mind he envisioned the confrontation
;
townsfolk gathering angrily around him on the street. A few thrown rocks and a lot
of insults and then he’d lose his temper. Of course
,
they’d be no threat.
He could take his pick of methods
. He could kill them in great numbers using wind and fire or take his time and cut
them down one by one. His heart began to pound at the thought of blood. The second
option would be the most preferable of course. It was always more satisfying when
he could slice an opponent apart at close range.

The streets would run with rivers of blood.

Daniel shook himself and then covered his face with his hands.
I’m a monster. I could not only do it, but some part of me wants to do it. I would
enjoy it.
In his mind’s eye he imagined Alice Hayes staring at him in terror.
Would I kill her too?
The answer emerged in all its ugliness,
not immediately.

“Are you alright?” asked Seth hesitantly.

“No,” admitted Daniel. “There’s something seriously wrong with me, but I thank both
of you for warning me. I should probably avoid the town.”

“The children need their parents,” said Kate quietly.

Did she know what I was thinking?
It frightened him to think that she might suspect the violence he was capable of doing.
How could she love me if she knew?
The second realization hit him a minute later.
They need their parents.
The sentence excluded him as a brute fact. He was not a parent. He had sired many
children, but they neither knew nor loved him. He could only bring misery to their
lives.

A cry from the bedroom interrupted his thoughts.

“That’s Aaron,”
said Kate. “You need to meet our little boy, Daniel.” She gave Seth a hopeful look.
“Would you mind, dear?”

Seth looked at each of them, the signs of worry in his aura. “I’ll check on him.
Be back in a minute.”

“Let’s go out on the porch,” suggested Kate, a move that would give them even more
privacy.

Daniel found himself sitting on the bench
,
on the porch, in the same place he had once played and sung for Kate, before their
first kiss. She sat beside him.

“Are you curious about your children?” she asked him.

That broke him from his nostalgia. “They’re hardly mine. I don’t deserve any credit,
quite the opposite.”

“I won’t argue that,” she agreed, “but sometimes I find myself curious. When I thought
you were dead, it gave me a certain sense of you, knowing that your children were
still here.”

“But none of them were yours.”

She shrugged, “Doesn’t matter. After having Aaron
,
I learned a great secret. Loving children isn’t a matter of blood, or inheritance.
I love my son, simply because he’s here, and he needs me, but if he
were
born to someone else, I would still love him the same. Once you’ve been a mother
you realize that loving children isn’t a matter of birth. That’s why old nannies
love everyone’s children, not just their own.”

“You have gained a wisdom that I will never know,” said Daniel wistfully.

“There is one you could meet.”

“What?”

“My sister, Brigid,” she answered, glancing over at him. “She’s five now. She has
your eyes.”

Daniel swallowed, “Is that how you knew?”

She shook her head, “Not at first, but it certainly made it easier to figure out.”

“But Seth doesn’t know,” questioned Daniel, “that’s what you said the other day…”

“No,” she agreed, “He doesn’t, nor does his father
, though they may suspect.
Frankly, I’m surprised the old man married her since she wouldn’t disclose the child’s
father.”

He grimaced, “Your mother can be persuasive.”

Kate blanched, “I didn’t need you to tell me that.”

“Would she let me see her? I thought you weren’t on speaking terms.”

“We’re still blood. She sometimes sends her back with Seth when he visits his dad.
I’ll have him ask,” said Kate.

“Won’t that make him suspect?”

“Maybe,” she admitted, “but he wouldn’t ever say it.”

Daniel’s magesight, as well as the sound of approaching steps, heralded Seth’s return.
He carried an infant in his arms.

“He’s in a good mood, but I think he wants to see his momma,” said Seth with a soft
smile.

He handed the small child to Kate who began to laugh and coo at her babe. Watching
them was a small miracle for Daniel.

“I think he’s hungry,” she apologi
zed after a minute. “I’m sorry;
I’ll be back in a little while.”

Daniel sighed in relief. He had worried she might feed Aaron on the porch. While
such things were fairly normal in Colne, he knew that their past might create tension
between him and Seth.

Seth took Kate’s seat after she left.
Together the two of them talked about the past, the good parts anyway, when they
had been just good friends. The crickets had already begun to sing and the night
air was full of sounds. A soft breeze carried their words away
,
and despite all the news he had received, Daniel felt a sense of peace that was rare
for him.

Kate reemerged after a quarter of an hour. “He’s done
,
but he doesn’t seem sleepy,” she told them. “Maybe you’d like to hold him?”