Fort Morgan (11 page)

“
You mean the Sea of Amber
has shrunk,” Blane said.

Heather nodded.

“
Why?” Blane
asked.

“
Global warming?” Heather
asked. “Rise of the ocean levels? Psychopharmacology?”

“
Mental health
meds?”

“
The Sea of Amber grows
with people’s depression and general despair,” Heather said. “If
people are happier . . .”

“
And they are.” Blane
nodded.

Heather and Blane fell silent in their own
thoughts.

“
You have to go back,”
Blane said.

“
With the girlfriends,”
Heather said.

“
You should talk to
Delphie,” Blane said.

“
Why?” Heather
asked.

“
Didn’t someone say that
Oracles and serpents . . .”

“
Serpents hate Oracles,”
Heather said with a nod. “Everyone knows that.”

Blane grinned at her idea of “everyone.”
Heather smiled.

“
I need to talk to
Delphie,” Heather said.

“
How can I help?” Blane
asked.

“
Do you know of any
acupuncture sites that would make us less vulnerable to serpents?”
Heather asked.

“
Actually . . .” Blane nodded.

“
Really?” Heather
asked.

Blane nodded.

“
Can you show me?” Heather
asked.

“
Of course,” Blane
said.

~~~~~~~~

“
Once upon a time, there
were serpents and dragons,” Delphie said. “And they ruled the
earth.”

She was sitting with her head on Sam’s
shoulder. They had spent the last few hours talking, drinking wine,
and eating cheese and cookies.

“
Like dinosaurs?” Sam
asked.

“
No,” Delphie said.
“Dragons and serpents were some of the first flying creatures to
evolve from Titaalik, you know, the creature that went from water
to land?”

Sam nodded.

“
They aren’t counted
because no one has found their bones,” Delphie said.

“
Why is that?” Sam
asked.

“
It’s traditional for the
serpents and dragons to burn their dead,” Delphie said. “Nothing to
find after that.”

“
They both fly?” Sam
asked.

Delphie nodded.

“
Why don’t they still rule
the earth?” Sam asked.

“
Other creatures evolved,”
Delphie said. “Dragons preferred to interact with humans as if they
were one of them while serpents preferred to engage the world
through violence and trickery.”

“
You think they want their
rule back?” Sam asked.

“
From what I saw, the
serpents are being crowded out of their last habitat,” Delphie
said.

“
Going extinct,” Sam
said.

“
Not if they can do
anything about it,” Delphie said.

“
So where is Keenan?” Sam
asked.

“
He went to warn his
mother,” Delphie said. “The serpents intend to take over the fairy
world and then conquer humans.”

“
To rule the earth again,”
Sam said with a nod.

Delphie fell silent.

“
And the girls?” Sam
asked. “They just seem like young women.”

“
They are young and
strong,” Delphie said.

“
But why them?”

“
They are half-breeds —
Titan, Olympian, and fairy,” Delphie said. “All of them, except for
Sandy.”

“
But Sandy’s
symphony . . .”

“
The music is a love story
from a mother to her child,” Delphie said.

“
Sandy,” Sam
said.

“
That’s why she’s there,”
Delphie said. “And the fact that Heather loves her and all of her
friends.”

Sam nodded. They leaned against each other
in silence for a while.

“
Do they stand a chance?”
Sam asked.

“
If they don’t, none of us
do,” Delphie said.

“
You’ve decided to go,”
Sam said.

There was a tap at Delphie’s apartment
door.

“
Delphie?” Jill’s soft
voice came from the other side.

“
How can I not go?”
Delphie asked.

“
You can’t,” Sam
said.

Delphie got up to answer the door.

“
You can’t,” Sam repeated.
“Will you come home?”

“
Goddess, I hope so,”
Delphie said, and opened the door.

Chamomile Tea

Wednesday night — 11:24 p.m.

When Delphie came into the main Castle
living room carrying a ceramic pot filled with chamomile tea, Jacob
hopped up from the arm of the couch to retrieve the matching cups.
He held them up to Delphie, and she nodded to the women in the
room. He gave a cup to Jill, one to Sandy, and another to Tanesha.
He held up the last cup. Tanesha took it from him for Heather.

Jacob returned to the arm of the couch next
to where Jill was sitting. Katy and Paddie lay on either side of
Jill with their heads in her lap. Delphie poured tea for Jill,
Sandy, and Tanesha before pouring a cup for herself. Aden and Sam
came in from the kitchen carrying mugs of tea. Aden gave Jacob the
glass of water he’d requested.

No one spoke. Their eyes and minds seemed to
be on their tea. After a few minutes, Jeraine came in with a baby
monitor. Tanesha looked up.

“
He’s asleep in the
nursery,” Jeraine said. He gave the monitor to Tanesha. “Heather
was just getting there when I came down here.”

Sandy and Jill looked up at the mention of
Heather. They shared a look with Tanesha and went back to staring
at their tea. The atmosphere in the living room held an
undercurrent of doom. Aden sat next to Sandy on the loveseat. Sam
gestured for Delphie to sit in the armchair. She smiled and shook
her head. Delphie walked over to stand near the fire.

Over the baby monitor, they listened to
Heather settle Mack in one of the cribs in Jill and Jacob’s
nursery. Tink said something that no one could make out. Heather
encouraged her to stay with Ivy. Tink insisted on staying with the
babies, and Ivy agreed with her. Heather’s voice, heavy with
exhaustion, seemed to not have the energy to argue about it. A few
minutes later, the door to the loft closed, and they heard Heather
heft herself down the long stairwell to the kitchen.

Jill looked up at Jacob, and he nodded. He
got up to help Heather into the room. Heather stood in the doorway
for a moment. She looked at each of them. Jacob gestured toward the
couch. Heather came over, lifted Katy’s feet, and took a seat. She
set Katy’s feet on her knees, as her lap was full. Heather glanced
at the people in the room. Tanesha got up to give Heather her cup
of tea. Heather smiled her thanks, and Tanesha went back to sit
down.

“
We grew the chamomile.”
Facing the fire with her back to the room, Delphie responded to
someone’s silent question. “It grows wild here in Colorado, so it’s
very easy. The tea was made by a tea master specifically for us.
Can you taste the lavender? There’re borage flowers in there,
too.”

Everyone nodded, but no one dared break the
silence. Delphie had to turn around to see the response to her
question.

“
It’s my favorite,”
Delphie said. “It’s great for inflammation, pain,
and. . .”

Delphie stopped talking. The very air seemed
to absorb her words. She scowled. The room became thick with unsaid
words and anxious thoughts.

“
Where do we start?”
Delphie asked.

No one replied.

“
I guess I’m
not. . .” Aden said at the same time Jacob started, “Are
we sure. . .?” A breath behind them, Sam said, “Well, I
for one. . .” and Jeraine piped up with,
“What. . .?”

The men stopped talking and looked at each
other.

“
How are
we. . .?” Jacob started at the same time Jeraine said, “I
don’t think. . .”

Sam and Aden just looked at each other. The
women laughed.

“
I’m cold,” Delphie said,
and everyone stopped laughing. They turned their attention to her.
“I wonder if I’ll ever feel warm again, or if the Sea of Amber has
taken that away from me.”

“
I can turn up the heat.”
Jacob got to his feet.

“
Are you cold, Jacob?”
Delphie asked.

“
I’m. . .” Jacob
stopped talking. He glanced at Jill and then said, “I understand
what you mean.”

“
Where do we start?”
Tanesha gave voice to their thoughts. “We each feel as if we need
to go back to the Sea of Amber, go back to fight the serpents, but
we have no idea . . .”

Tanesha’s shoulders went up in a shrug to
finish her sentence.

“
And the fairies,” Sandy
said. “Edie said . . .”

Sandy gestured toward Jill and Jacob. Jill
cleared her throat.

“
Edie said that the king,
Fin, and Abi were on the Isle of Man,” Jill said. “They are not
fighting the serpents. Edie had no idea what I was talking
about.”

“
For now,” Heather
said.

“
What does that mean?”
Aden asked.

“
We
have . . . well, it’s Tanesha’s idea,” Sandy
said.

“
Heather and I were
wondering about time,” Tanesha looked at Aden. “When Jake and
Delphie were in the Sea of Amber, were they also in this time frame
— you know, now?”

“
Because the Sea of Amber
became so small,” Aden said.

“
Exactly,” Tanesha said.
“Or was that the future?”

“
How does all of this
relate to that creepy financier?” Jill asked.

“
Financier?” Jeraine
asked.

“
The one behind the
website that sold the child porn videos and the ones from the rape
trial,” Tanesha said.

“
You mean, the one our
moms helped catch?” Jeraine asked.

Tanesha nodded. Jeraine turned to Jill.

“
Why do you think it
relates?” Jeraine asked.

“
It’s just something that
seems to fit,” Sandy said. “I don’t know if anyone actually said it
or . . .”

Everyone fell silent again. For a few
minutes, the only sound in the room was the crackle of the
fire.

“
Why us?” Heather asked in
such a low voice that everyone’s heads came up to see if she’d
actually spoken. “Delphie?”

“
I don’t know,” Delphie
said.

“
You must know something,”
Heather said. “They wouldn’t have taken you otherwise.”

“
I know what you know —
the serpents are fighting for their survival,” Delphie said. “They
hoped to take over the fairy world by infiltrating Queen Fand’s
court. They wanted to control us.
But . . .”

Delphie stopped talking. Even in her
silence, or possibly because of it, she held their rapt
attention.

“
Why us?” Heather asked
again, this time in a louder, more insistent voice.

As if to say, “You’re right, that’s the
question,” Delphie nodded.

“
Okay,” Jacob said. “We
don’t know why. What
do
we know?”

As if he’d held a match to dry kindling,
everyone started talking at once. They talked without stopping or
even noticing that anyone else was talking. It was as if all of the
unsaid words needed to be said at that very moment. Jacob held his
hands up, palms facing them, to get them to stop. No one stopped
talking. They continued talking all at once until they were done.
The room fell back into a heavy silence.

“
We know
that . . .” Delphie started. She looked around the
room and smiled. “We know that we have each other.”

“
Is it enough?” Sandy
asked.

“
It’s more than enough,”
Delphie said.

“
Are they calling Sandy
and the others back to them to destroy them?” Aden
asked.

“
No,” Delphie said. “I’d
be surprised if the serpents have given them much
thought.”

“
Then why do we feel this
way?” Jill asked.

“
Because you do,” Delphie
said. “If your friends at Pete’s had been at the Sea of Amber and
seen all of those people freed, they might feel the same
way.”

“
So they feel like they
have to fix things because they were there?” Jeraine
asked.

“
No,” Tanesha shook her
head. “We feel this way because . . .”

“
We killed those
serpents,” Jill said.

Heather and Sandy nodded. Jill’s words held
such finality to them that the men’s heads moved up and down in an
unconscious nod.

“
You’re going to destroy
the serpents,” Aden’s voice rose as if he were asking a question
but his face indicated he was stating a fact.

“
No,” Heather said. “We
are not going to destroy them.”

The room fell silent and everyone turned to
look at her. She gave a slight smile and looked at each of her
friends.

“
We are not going to
destroy an entire species,” Heather said.

“
We’re not?” Jill
asked.

“
No.” Heather shook her
head.