Katrina, The Beginning (23 page)

“Mother mentioned something
about that. So, you think it’s probably worn off for him too?” I
asked.

“While it’s true you both
care for each other, the recent intensity of your feelings was
probably due to the feedings.”

“I’m so glad to have all of
you; I never had anyone to talk to like this before. You all at
least had your mothers.”

“True, but mine isn’t that
interested in me,” Rosa revealed

“Mine has two other
children by her new lover,” Letta said.

“My mother is lovely, but
wants to be my sister more than my mother. She’s probably trying to
get Father to come and get me as we speak,” El laughed.

“I guess I’m the only one
that had a Mother to really talk to, and all I could think about
was how much I missed having my father around,” Kate
shared.

I understood then, it
wasn’t just the availability of a mother but her ability to be a
mother. In that matter Kate and I were lucky.

“Well, we have each other
now, and that’s what matters. Don’t you feel this is our destiny or
something, that we’re together for a purpose, but we just don’t
know what it is yet?” I asked everyone.

El looked at me, “I’ve been
thinking about that too. We seem to have a lot in common but more
important have personalities and gifts that mesh with each other.
It came to me when we first discovered we could enhance each
other’s gifts. We’re like parts of something that once assembled
makes a totally different thing.” Seeing Rosa’s eyebrow raise, she
continued. “Like beautiful colors when seen separately are pretty,
but when put together to form a rainbow, are
breathtaking”.

Rosa nodded, “Of course
you’re right, I thought about it too.

“Me too, we were meant to
be together” Letta added.

In Sanctuary this would be
described as an “event of portend”, a warning of things to
come.

“Kate, I know you can’t
tell us where you and Mother were, but can you tell us about the
others there and what your hosts were like? It’s all so
mysterious.”

“Well Kat,” she was now
very serious, “I was an infant when we arrived there, so of course
I just accepted my surroundings, since I had no idea there was
anywhere else in the world to be. Now looking back, it almost
doesn’t seem real to me. So much has happened in the last few weeks
to all of us. I’ll tell you about it, but we must agree to keep it
to ourselves, all right?”

We agreed and she
began.

“I grew up among a very
large population in a vast city. The city was filled with unique
buildings, some homes were four or five stories, carved right out
of sheer canyon walls, others were located in the underground
caverns carved into dwellings, there were also grand chambers
underground, used for meetings and festivities. The inhabitants,
from all races including human, came from all over the world.” She
paused to look into each of our faces. We were all leaning in with
anticipation.

“What I tell you now, will
seem like pure fantasy, a made-up story, but it’s all true, I swear
to you. As stunning as this sanctuary is, the knowledge many of us
live by hiding in plain sight, is as much of a shock as seeing them
all together - leaf fairies, wood nymphs, pixies, to mention a few,
and of course vampires and witches. Of the people inhabiting
Sanctuary, our group; the vampires, was the smallest. Elves had the
largest population, followed by dwarves, gremlins, wizards, and
minotaur. Many wizards and healers make up the rest. We also
accepted into sanctuary, rare animal species like my favorite, the
unicorn, and we even had griffins. People or animals, we shared our
existence, and all lived in peace.”

“I remember reading our
history in the library and fantasizing about the world as it once
was,” El voiced her envy, “and now you’ve seen that world, you’ve
been there and you lived in it…how amazing.”

“Remember, I didn’t know it
was unique, it was just my reality. It was a challenge for all the
different species and races to live together in peace, until
everyone realized our only way to survive was to get along with
each other, or at least be tolerant.”

“Tell us more about the
elves themselves; what are they like?” Rosa asked.

“Just like anyone else,
each elf has their individual personality. On the whole they are a
lot like us, very long-lived of course but generally tall and
slender, with reserved, formal natures. They tend keep to
themselves, and they’re smart, very disciplined, and graceful. The
women are beautiful, the men handsome. They have slightly pointed
ears, most wear their hair very long, and except for eyebrows, they
don’t get body hair of any kind. Like us, the women don’t have
children until they’re in their mid-hundreds, when they look more
like twenty-five. As they have all the time in the world they never
rush anything. Decision-making is a slow, almost agonizing process,
filled with discussion, and contemplation. This trait sometimes
frustrates other races, so everyone has to have a lot of patience.
It was a magical childhood I suppose, but knowing I had a father
and a sister on the outside made it hard to stay, so Mother finally
agreed it was time to come home. Especially after I felt the
urgency of coming here.”

“Do you think we could ever
go back with you someday?”

“If there was once again a
need, they would take us back. The elves truly believe their time
will come again, because from our behavior they think eventually
humans will kill each other off. You realize, of course, not only
peaceful races are in hiding. Evil elements of all the races also
exist, they live along with demons in the underworld, and they seek
to destroy not only the humans, but all peaceful races.

Someday a call may come to
return, not to save ourselves but to join the fight to save all the
peaceful races of Sangustae.”

Kate was right, it sounded
like fiction, a bedtime story told to children; but we vampires
exist, so how could I not believe her? Besides, I already knew
these different races had existed, I just didn’t know they
still
existed. The thought they were secreted away in
Sangustae made me, happy. We talked for several more hours about
what Kate had told us, then dragged ourselves to our rooms and into
bed at last.

We all slept in, had
breakfast, and I took the girls on a tour. I wanted to begin with
the grounds: the stables and gardens. We walked and talked as I
pointed out my favorite spots and told stories of the childhood
lived in these places. Then we came inside, had something to drink
and I showed them the castle itself. We went from floor to floor
touring the ballrooms, meeting rooms, beautiful guest wings, dining
hall, and chapel, before entering at last, the pride of Mormont,
the grand library. I heard the gasps as we came into the room. It
was my favorite room. I’d grown up in this mammoth play ground and
had never given much thought to its grandeur. Now I saw it through
fresh eyes. The soaring twenty-five-foot ceiling was done in a
panoramic fresco of angels fighting demons. Its shelves were filled
with row upon row of books, manuscripts and scrolls. A spiral
staircase to the walkway, gave access to the room’s second-story
level and the bookshelves lining the walls encircling the room. On
the library’s floor, oak tables sat on top of hand-tied Persian
rugs. The girls exclaimed its magnificence; and although I’d always
taken it for granted, I had to admit it was a magical
room.

“No wonder this is your
favorite room,” Letta sighed.

“We’ll be spending a lot of
time here working on our studies.” I told them.

“I know what I want to
study,” Rosa piped up. “I want to study plans for our birthday
party, and it’s less than a month away.”

“We need to ask Father when
the meetings are scheduled. Your families will be coming, along
with members of the Council,” I continued. “The envoy to the
Americas will begin as soon as the meetings end.”

“Girls, come on, we’re
going to be eighteen, and this party has to be fantastic,” Rosa
encouraged, warming to her topic.

“Are we going to have a
theme party, a dinner, or a ball?” asked El, her hand to her chin
as she thought.

“How about all of the
above?” suggested Letta, growing excited.

“Why not? Okay, any ideas
on a theme?” I asked.

“I always like a masquerade
ball,” Rosa, holding two fingers of her hand to her eyes,
simulating a mask.

“Let’s just have a dinner,”
Kate recommended.

We stopped and looked at
her like she had just gone crazy.

Kate held her hand up in
the attitude of ‘stop’ and continued.

“Then instead of a big
party, we’ll get Father to let us go to Paris. Remember, Gerhardt
said the World’s Fair is going to be held there, and we could make
the journey along with those traveling to port. I’m sure Philepe
will let us stay at his chateau.”

“Kate, that has to be the
most brilliant idea ever. We can shop, and you know Gerhardt will
love showing us around,” I was exited now.

“So that’s it then; we’ll
ask Father soon,” resolved Kate, now beaming.

We all agreed, then left
the library to find something for lunch before starting the
afternoon sessions. The training the Gunter had set up for us today
was one of my favorite. We would be strengthening our horsemanship
skills and I was looking forward to it.

I was also looking forward
to seeing Quinn, but I was more curious to see how he reacted to
me, than how I felt when I saw him.

We were still excitedly
talking about our birthday celebration when we arrived at the
stables. Our horses were ready and waiting, but before we could get
to them, we were rushed from both front and rear by at least a
dozen “enemy” soldiers.

“Swords!” I
yelled.

“Circle!” yelled
Rosa.

Then they were on
us.

“Thought you could surprise
us, did you, Gunter?” I shouted defiantly, still panting after we’d
successfully defended ourselves.

“You looked very distracted
earlier, but you have proved your readiness, girls. Good job,”
Gunter said. “Now mount up and we’ll meet you at the training
grounds.”

The Watchers’ little ambush
put us in the right frame of mind, and we had a great session.
Quinn didn’t seem to pay any special attention to me, so I guessed
Rosa was right about the feeding causing what we had felt
earlier.

We decided since we were
already on our horses, to take a tour of the castle grounds outside
the walls. Here, there were beautiful fields, planted with
vegetables, oats, hay, wheat, and sunflowers and the vineyards and
fruit trees that seemed to stretch on forever.

“Since we’re out here, we
might as well hunt,” suggested Letta looking at me for
approval.

“Okay,” I closed my eyes
and took a long, slow breath. “There’s a herd of deer about a half
a mile to the west.”

We dismounted, secured the
horses and ran into the forest. In minutes we had achieved our
goal; downing a buck and several does, feeding until we were full.
As we raced back to our horses, we placed several flags on the
trail to help the Watchers retrieve the kill. I had just placed a
final marker at the perimeter of the forest, when without warning,
it started to rain, not hard, but a light spring shower that was
beginning to soak us.

El called out, “Letta, try
to stop it.”

We could see Letta look up
and concentrate; and to our surprise the clouds cleared above our
heads and showed us blue sky, while all around us it continued to
rain. Instinctively, the rest of us concentrated with her and
gradually the area of blue sky became larger and larger, until the
rain had completely stopped. Letta closed her eyes then and when
she opened them, looked around at each of us and we started to
laugh.

“That was
great
!” I
wonder what else we can do?” We could see how excited Kate was by
our intercession with the rain.

It seemed every day we
discovered something new to do with our gifts. Kate and I practiced
speaking to each other with our minds. We could do it, but it was
nothing like what happened between Damien and me, which seemed
strange. We tried it with the other girls too, but none of them
could hear us.

We left our horses at the
stable, where I gave the groom instructions to keep an extra eye on
Nulla and to include more grain into her diet, since I was sure she
was in foal. As mad as I was at Damien at the time, I had to
confess I couldn’t wait to see, what I was sure would be the most
beautiful little black colt in the whole world. I wouldn’t be
disappointed if it was a filly, but for some reason, I was sure it
would be a colt. I was starting to have more and more feelings like
that these days, sensing things before they happened. I made a note
to myself to look up such things in the library. Enhancing that
trait could be very helpful, especially now with five of us
helping.

“Let’s change for dinner. I
can’t wait to ask Father about our birthdays,” I winked at
Kate.

“I can’t see why he
wouldn’t let us go, do you?” asked Kate, now serious.