Dawn (10 page)

“
Well, Kate, that doesn’t excuse you from…”

Kate got right in Dawn’s face. “I’ll do as I please, and drab, ugly little girls like you had best stay out of my way.” With that she shoved Dawn and continued on her way.

Dawn had caught herself from the blow and managed to stay on her feet.
What a grouch! What was her problem?
Suddenly the words from her late sisters seemed to catch up with her.
Drab and ugly. How long before “freak” was added to the list?
The rain was bitter cold, and it was starting to bite into her fur and stab her skin. She didn’t care…what difference did it make anyway? She was just so plain and dull and…

“
Hey, Dawn! Are you okay?” asked Gavin as he came running up. “What happened to your umbrella?” Gavin was all smiles. Dawn needed that.

“
Well, it looks a little wet for bocce. I might as well go home,” mumbled a deflated Dawn.

“
Hey, you just got here! You can’t leave now. Come on, let’s get in out of the rain. There is a café not far from here. I’m buying!” Gavin picked up the broken umbrella and carefully closed it the best he could without further damaging it. With a smile that was warm enough to fight off the rain, he offered his hand.

Dawn smiled in spite of herself. “Thank you. Something warm to drink and eat sounds wonderful.” She took his hand and the pair quickly made their way down the rainy street and into a small cafe on the corner. They found a seat by the window, and before long they were enjoying a light snack and comparing books they’d read. They both enjoyed an iced drink as they talked and munched away.

“
You invited me for coffee and you don’t drink it yourself,” Dawn suddenly realized.

“
I hate the stuff, but I had to suggest something, anything. I first saw you at the book store and it was only by happenstance that I saw you at the field,” admitted Gavin.

“
You saw me at the bookstore?”

“
Yep, you were getting ready to buy a huge pile of books. Smart and cute, I figured I had to check you out.”

Dawn flushed again, “You just have on rose-colored glasses.”

“
But that is the advantage of you,” he countered, “Black fur looks the same with and without red glasses.”

Dawn would have been horribly embarrassed, but the sight of her father and the Lady Mayor on the street drew aware her attention.

“
Father is with the mayor. Something is up,” she blurted.

A crisp smile crossed Gavin’s lips, “Then let’s go find out what!” He got up and headed for the door, turning back for Dawn.

Dawn’s mind raced. Following her father was a bit silly, but it also sounded like fun and she was terribly curious. Finally she nodded and smiled, joining him at the door.

“
Keep close and try and act casual… well, at least as casual as possible when sneaking up on someone like your dad.”

Dawn nodded and smiled as she flipped up the hood of her jacket against the light rain. The pair headed out. It was colder than she expected; it was spring in the mountains after all.

The adults quickly converged with Owen under an awning, while Dawn and Gavin tried to stay hidden in an alley.

“
Not good news I take it,” guessed Owen.

The Lady Mayor made a frown and began, “It started out good. It was reported that Eric Fechner died in prison five months ago. However, when we pressed them for a positive ID, things turned south.” She drew a long breath and continued, “He and a few other inmates were moved to a different prison a year ago. It seems during the transfer he swapped identities with another inmate. An unrelated inmate that was reported escaped three weeks ago.”

“
So he swapped places with another inmate, had that inmate killed and then escaped himself,” summarized Owen. “That sounds like his level of depravity.”

Dawn listened with great interest, but the weather was starting to wear on her. Her jacket was far too thin, and was now soaked. She started shivering.

Gavin noticed the shiver. “Here take my coat. You’re freezing,” he whispered.

“
But you’ll get cold too,” she argued.

“
Ah, but I live here in town and you have a long way to go home.”

Dawn nodded. Hard to beat that logic, she gratefully took his coat and tried to keep up with the conversation.

“
I assume Eric went after your sister because she presided over his case and conviction. Does that mean he will come after you two? After all it was you two that broke up the gang and arrested him,” the mayor continued.

“
He may very well, or he may just strike out at the town as a whole,” began Owen. “My job is to ensure the safety of everyone. While attacking me isn’t easy, attacking people I’m responsible for does sound like his style.”

Llewellyn nodded, “It does sound like him to go after soft targets.”

“
What do you two propose?” the mayor asked.

A grin, a primeval grin, spread across Llewellyn’s face, “We hunt him first!”

“
Marshal who you need. Make it happen before anyone else gets hurt,” instructed the mayor gravely.

Llewellyn and Owen nodded in agreement and the three split and went their separate ways.

“
Wow! That is creepy,” murmured Gavin after the others had departed.

“
Okay, what happened all those years ago?” Dawn begged.

“
Long story. First let’s get you back indoors.”

Dawn nodded her agreement and the two of them made their way back to the cafe. This time they choose to sit by the fire rather than the window.

“
Okay, it may be a long story, but give me the short and dirty of it.”

Gavin nodded as he fluffed his fur by the fire and began, “Fifteen years ago Eric Fechner and his cousin Tarl started robbing people on the outer passes. As time went on they developed a bit of a gang around them and also became much more violent. The Rangers were sent out to find them. Three of them, your father, Owen and a third named Allrich, hunted them down in the mountains and took them out. Tarl was killed in the process but Eric and most of the rest were captured. Twelve on three and the Rangers cleaned house. Your dad is just awesome! Anyway, they went to trial. I didn’t know that Helen handled the case, but that makes sense; she was a legal type before she became our ambassador. It turned out that Eric and a few of the others had dual nationality with the Kulpgurie, so it was decided that they could serve their time in Kulpgurie prisons which made sense; their prisons are bigger and stronger, plus we didn’t have to deal with it.” Gavin took another drink, “And that about brings us up to the present.”

Dawn nodded and soaked it all in: a killer from before she was even born was out for revenge. She suddenly shivered.

“
Hey, don’t worry,” offered Gavin. “You father is, well, he is just amazing. He won’t let anything happen to you.”

“
I know that,” she replied, “I’m just worried about everyone else.”

“
Speaking of which, there is your dad now,” Gavin pointed to the door.

Llewellyn had entered the room and smiled as he quickly spotted the couple.

“
Do we need to go?” asked Dawn.

“
Nah, everything is fine. I was just concerned you didn’t have a good coat for this rain, but it seems you have it in hand. Be back by four, okay?”

“
Yes, Dad. Take care.”

“
I will, little one. I will.”

Dawn warmed herself by the kitchen fire. Gavin’s borrowed coat had helped quite a bit, but she was still wetter than she liked.

“
You could just go take a warm bath and change into something new,” suggested Llewellyn as he wandered in and rummaged through the ice box. From how fluffy his fur was, it looked like he had just done the same himself.

“
I’m more tired of being wet than I am cold,” she replied. Her mind started to race. They were alone and she had a ton of questions, “Dad, can I ask you a question?”

Llewellyn found a pair of chairs and dragged them over closer to the kitchen fireplace. “Of course. What’s on your mind?” he asked as he offered her a chair.

“
Well, I have a bunch. I don’t know where to start,” replied Dawn starting to get flustered.

“
Well then, what question is the most perplexing or has the most abject curiosity associated with it.”

Dawn thought a bit as she tried to organize her thoughts, “I saw the results of a Forest Wall but what
is
it?”

Llewellyn brightened, “Excellent question. One of the principal effects of Live Steel is to access another plane of existence. The humans hypothesize it’s more of a pocket dimension that is parallel but out of phase with ours.”

Dawn nodded slowly.
Great!
she thought. Already her head was starting to spin.

“
Some of us,” continued Llewellyn, “can reach across this plane on our own. It is how a High Silver’s fur just goes away, how we can gate in times of peril, or how you can store your wings outside of our realm. There is a great strain between these two realms, and if you thump the boundary it rings like the string of a guitar. That ringing releases a
lot
of energy and actually helps stabilize the boundary after the fact. That ringing, however, resonates with the land itself here in the Highlands.”

“
I remember the humans in the drop ship mentioned something about strong magnetics here in the Highlands causing problems,” Dawn recalled. “Is that related?”

“
Yes, indeed! Good at finding the connection! The giant machines the Ancients built to connect our great lands and to defend the Highlands had unexpected consequences. Not only do they operate the gates, but they can generate massive magnetic pulses that can fry electronics. They also have provisions for
repairing
the land itself in case of attack.”

“
So when you make the boundaries between the realms ring, the energy is dissipated by having the machines regrow a forest?” Dawn was flabbergasted.

“
That does capture the essence of it. Bizarre as it may seem, it is a quite useful side effect of us using the realms naturally,” explained Llewellyn. “The next questions that follow are obviously: Why can some of us use the realm independently of Live Steel or the Great Machines? Why can the High Silvers fold space and why can you fold your wings in and out of existence? The short answer is we don’t entirely know, but it appears to be a side effect of something the Ancients started ten thousand years ago. Rather than fear these consequences, we are embracing them and using them to our benefit.”

Dawn melted in her chair. That’s what she got for asking a question, a bizarre answer that brought along more questions as baggage. “I, I think I’m full up on questions today,” stammered Dawn.

Llewellyn laughed and patted her on the shoulder, “Glad I could help. But seriously, if you ever have any questions, feel free to ask.”

Dawn smiled as her head started to slow its spinning, “Okay, here is an easy one.”

“
Go for it,” he beamed.

“
Will you teach me to use Live Steel? The twins say you taught them.”

“
Of course! I’d be glad to.” Llewellyn cocked his head at Dawn. “Hmm. Oh, let me guess. You are looking for something else to have in common with Gavin?”

Dawn grinned, “Well, just maybe.”

Dawn raced into the kitchen in search of a couple of big jugs to fill with water. She was going to be practicing swordsmanship with Father and the twins and she knew she was going to need lots of water before the day was through.

“
Are you coming?” called Llewellyn from the front door.

“
Yes, Dad. I’m just grabbing something extra to drink. I’ll meet you out at the field in just a few.”

“
Good plan. Hydration is always important and it looks like it’s going to be quite a sunny day. See you in a few, little one.”

“
Okay, Dad,” Dawn called as she filled up the jugs with ice cold water. The water was always fresh, right from an artesian well, and always quite cold!
Water at the ground floor made sense, but how did it make it up to the third floor? The artesian well didn’t have that much pressure and she had never seen a pump. For that matter, what heated the hot water? Was it just waste heat from the kitchen?
Dawn had lots of little questions, and just never seemed to find time to ask them. Oops! There was Maria, and from the look on her face she had questions of her own. “Yes, Maria? Is there a problem?”

“
So you are heading out for sword play with Father and the twins,” she began somewhat seriously.

“
Yes, ma’am,” replied Dawn a little nervously. It was so unlike Maria to be so serious. She was always so cheerful and fun-loving.

“
I see you made a good choice of clothing for the day’s outing.”

Dawn looked down at her skirt. It was sturdy and well-fitting but showed the signs of many repairs.

“
Would you care to explain,” began Maria carefully, “why that skirt is as damaged as it is? I do the laundry in the house. I do repairs as needed. Many, if not most, of those repairs were made by someone other than myself. Good quality sewing, I admit, and for that I compliment you. I just want to know why that skirt has seen so much abuse? The last time I saw it damaged was those weeks ago when you fell out of a tree. Yet here we stand much later, and the dress is much worse for the wear. Would you care to explain?”