Ellida (17 page)

“—King Afron, Yvan Vyslavovich and Elena the
Beautiful,” I finished. “Yes, it does. But then Afron wasn’t a
wizard and Yvan wasn’t a werewolf, although his best friend was.
There was no Ellida and the horse mane was gold.”

“
And for us, it’s not a legend. It did
happen. Affan lived long ago. Illeanna did marry Harlan, and they
had a daughter who became the first Ellida of our realm. She still
is.”

“I know,” I said. “Morgaine told me she’s
sort of the ‘Reverend Mother’ of our sisterhood. The name, Ellida,
reminds me of Elatha, or Elathan, from Celtic mythology. He was a
Moon God; he was forever young, had silver hair and sailed in a
silver vessel. It was said he had a sense of humor and sense of
nobility.”

“
Ah, I wondered if you were going to make
the connection. Do you know what your wizard’s chronicles say about
him?”

“No. I was raised more or less as a human
girl, remember?”

“
I know, love. Well, according to your
sources, he was indeed a noble and wise man with a nice sense of
humor. He was a wizard, not a god, of course, but for the people of
those times, there wasn’t much difference between the two. He was
an Albino, hence the silver hair. He introduced agriculture to a
small group of hunter-gatherers, saving them from starvation during
long winters. They thanked him by turning him into a mythological
being. Affan lived many centuries after Elathan’s time, but Affan
must have known about wise, noble and altruistic Elathan. And if
you want to describe an Ellida in a few words, what would you say?
Wisdom, humanity and nobility—the principal qualities the vast
majority of you possess.”

“Affan might even have learned about Elathan
from human sources.”

“
And isn’t that fascinating? Our history
and heritage are preserved not only in our books and documents, but
often in human mythology, legends, and religions, in their
folktales and epic poems, their literature, music, art.
”

“We’ve been sharing this world with humans
from the beginning, but the more they evolved, the more ignorant of
other races they became. They’re very persistent in denying the
existence of other intelligences, either human or non-human, but
then, I suppose they don’t have a choice. Not yet.”

“
They can’t deny us completely, but they
can’t explain us rationally either, so they found a compromise:
they turned us into their deities, heroes, mythical creatures,
either good or bad.”

I laughed. “They have a tendency to
exaggerate a bit, though. They make us look both better and worse
than we are.”

“
Humans have many qualities, among them
beautiful imaginations. And in spite of all their—and
our—imperfections, we share this world on so many levels. We’re
inspirations for each other.”

“Indeed we are.”

Jack moved under me.
“Shall we go, baby?
Now I’m getting a bit chilly around certain spots that should stay
warm.”

I jumped to my feet. “Listen to me, Jack
Canagan! I think we agreed to share the custody of those certain
spots, so change back this instant and put your pants on, please
and thank you. Otherwise, I’ll come up with long johns for
werewolves, and I’ll make you wear them.”

He laughed but shifted, this time starting
from his head. I took his clothes and warmed them up with a simple
spell.

“Oh, that feels good,” he said, pulling up
his boxers. “It’s very convenient to have you around, Miss
Spock.”

“Are you gonna be okay, Jack? No frostbite
any place important? May I check?”

“Stay where you are, Astrid Mohegan. I’m
still not sure how to handle your kinky side. Not that I wouldn’t
know what to do, under different circumstances. Wait until you get
proper treatment the next full moon. God, I have a whole list of
things I’m going to do to you.”

I giggled. “Oh, tell me about it. I’m all
ears.”

“Nah, it’s a surprise. Start on your own
list.”

“I already have, long ago.”

Completely dressed and warm, Jack pulled me
against his chest. “Tell me just one thing from the list. The first
one, for example.”

“Okay, come closer,” I said and whispered it
into his ear. His heart instantly doubled its speed.

“You naughty little beast.” Jack’s raspy
voice brushed my neck, sending shivers down my spine. His mouth
closed over mine in a long, sensual kiss that left my head spinning
and my heart jumping somewhere in my throat.

“May I sleep in your room tonight?” Jack said
when he caught his breath again.

“Is that a good idea? How much self-control
do we still have? I know mine’s running low. I can wait a few more
weeks. I don’t want to risk anything now… Just remind me, what
exactly am I risking?”

“We must wait until the next full moon.” He
ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t know, Astrid. I’ve never
had to connect anybody before. We’ll wait, of course. But I want to
hold you while you’re sleeping. Don’t deny me that.”

I framed his beautiful face with my hands. “I
won’t deny you anything, Jack. Ever.” I reached for his lips,
kissing them gently. “You may come to my room. Blueberry can sleep
in the armchair.”

Jack smiled. “So you named your kitty?”

“Yes. Do you like it?”

“Very much. It suits her well.”

“Thank you, Jack, for her.”

“Oh, you’re welcome. Listen, when our house
is done, can I have a dog? I’ve always wanted a dog, but never had
one.”

“What do you want?”

“A German Shepherd. Blueberry’s still young.
If we buy a puppy, they will get along just fine.”

“Are you sure German Shepherds are good with
cats?”

He laughed. “Don’t worry about that.
I
am good with German Shepherds.”

“Ah, your first cousins, right. I
forgot.”

A wide smile spread across his face. “Yours,
too. And they are good with kids. I did my research.”

“Then a German Shepherd it is.”

WE WALKED briskly through the wood until we
reach the first houses. Snuggled under Jack’s arm, I felt warm and
safe.

“Jack, I have a question about silver. There
were so many positive connotations about silver in our culture.
Even Affan’s horse had a silver mane.”

“It was silvery-white, not actually made of
silver.”

I rolled my eyes. “I know it wasn’t
made
of silver. But there is silver everywhere in our
culture. We seem to like it a lot. I saw lots of silver jewelry in
Offenbach’s store. Well, my pendant is made of silver. Peyton and
Maggie have tons of silver jewelry, your mother has a house full of
silver accessories.”

“Silver is actually the symbolic element of
our race because the Moon, our celestial planet, is associated with
silver.”

“And we live in the Silver State, as Colorado
called itself in the past, but that’s probably just a coincidence,
isn’t it?”

“Silver hasn’t been mined here, in Red
Cliffs,” Jack explained. “We don’t have significant resources, but
it’s a different story across the Great Orme, in Copper Ridge.
Geologically, the two territories are very diverse, and the Great
Orme seems to be the border between the two areas. Maggie can tell
you all about it. In short, we have the best pastures and mountain
slopes for skiing. They have all sorts of mineral resources and hot
springs. They did mine silver when Leidolf Withali, Seth’s father,
was alive, and those mines are far from being exhausted.”

“Then why is the town called Copper Ridge?
Why not Silver Ridge?” I asked.

“Well, they found copper first.”

“What is the origin of the belief that silver
can harm us?”

“A human misconception. There are many
explanations, none of them are very logical. This confusion goes
not that far back, only to the seventeenth or eighteenth century,
and the silver bullet. It possible that
a
silver bullet
killed
a
wolf that somehow had escaped other weapons and the
legend began.”

“Arnaldur says our kind is virtually
immortal. You say we have a long life expectancy. That’s not same
as immortality, right?”

“We can live forever, technically. Our
ability to change forms provides us with incredible vitality, but
we’re not indestructible.”

“So we’re semi-immortals, like Achilles, for
example?”

“Sort of, yes.”

“What can kill a werewolf? Betty said many
werewolves died fighting in human wars, but besides that.”

“A very big bullet shot from close range
directly into a spine, or through the skull. It’s not easy, though,
because we are protected, in both forms, much better than humans.
Beheading. Daggers and swords coated with a poison that is bad for
us. Occasionally, a very old werewolf turns into a wolf and stays
in that shape until the end of his days, which, again, could last
very long. Sometimes, we have to kill our rogues. Our immortality
can be, how to say, disabled, temporarily or permanently, as a form
of punishment. By the way, only Ellidas can do that. Ellida
Morgaine will teach you how.”

“Oh! I know it’s possible to do with the
wizard powers; I didn’t know it’s the same for werewolves.”

“Long life is a privilege, and it has to be
lived wisely. It must not be wasted. Anyway, we can be slain, or we
can lose the will to live, but all in all, not many things can harm
us.” Jack turned to me and kissed the top of my nose. “Thanks to
our strong blood, even the nastiest injuries heal easily.”

BACK AT the house, Betty took in our wet,
disheveled appearance and promptly sent us to change into dry
clothes while she reheated the leftovers of the beef barley soup
for us.

Tomorrow, life would resume its usual
routine, I thought later as we lay on my bed. But before that,
there was a lazy night in front of us and Jack’s body curved around
mine.

“HERE.” JACK’S finger tapped a small square
on the blueprint of his house. “This is an adjoined room to the
master bedroom. It’s never been used for anything except as storage
for old junk. That’s going to be your bathroom. What do you
think?”

We were sitting at the kitchen table, sipping
strong, aromatic coffee Jack had just brewed. It was still dark
outside save for the thin orange line on the eastern horizon. The
workmen were scheduled for seven o’clock.

“Is the plumbing and wiring going to be a
problem?”

“No. Everything’s already there. They’ll just
route it from the central system. You only have to choose the
appliances so that we can order them.”

“I would like to see the house first.”

Jack looked surprised. “You’ve never been
there? I thought Betty and Maggie had already given you a tour.
Well, never mind that now.” He took my hand and pulled me from the
chair. “Grab your cup. Let’s go.”

JACK’S HOUSE was slightly bigger than James
and Betty’s. It was a sturdy, solid three-storey red brick building
with a dark-shingled roof and two tall terracotta chimneys, one on
each end. Built into the roof-structure there were three small
oriel windows. There were five similar multi-paneled windows, only
much bigger, on the middle level, and four on the ground floor, two
on each side of the main entrance. The wooden window frames and
doors were painted white. The back side of the house looked
similar, except the door was smaller and positioned to one side,
and there were windows in the roof. There was a large yard behind
the house, which I immediately pictured as my future garden.

The layout was similar to the Mohegans’
house. On the left side of a square hallway there was a spacious
dining room for formal occasions. A formidable-sized kitchen was
positioned in the middle. The dining room and the living room were
combined into a single great room, without doors or walls between.
Several doors along the walls lead into a big pantry, storage rooms
and shower-bathroom. An elegant curved staircase bridged the three
levels of the house.

“I’ve always thought the kitchen is the heart
of a home, so a while ago I had all the walls between these three
rooms knocked down,” Jack explained. “So, what do you think?”

I took his hand in mine and squeezed it
gently.

“I like it a lot.”

The bedrooms were on the second floor. The
master bedroom was on the north side. It already had one adjoined
bathroom and the storage room that Jack had shown me earlier that
morning on the blueprint would be converted into my own bathroom.
There were six more bedrooms on the floor, plus three empty rooms,
lots of room for storage and another shower-bathroom on the third
level.

The renovations had already started. The
rooms were free of furniture, the appliances were pushed to the
center of the kitchen and the floors had been removed. “I had to
start without you,” Jack said apologetically and kissed my temple.
“James and I did the prep work. Now you should tell me what you
want. What kind of floors, to start with?”

I held up my hands. “Parquet, deep
reddish-brown, oak. The rest, I really hadn’t thought about it. I’d
like it simple.”

“Me, too. We’ll figure it out, don’t
worry.”

When the workers came and started taking out
the rubbish, we sat down on the floor and talked about how we
wanted our house to look.

At nine o’clock, I kissed Jack and went to
find my teacher, who was waiting for me to continue with our
training.

EVEN WITH just a few hours left for
sleeping, I had the feeling I was constantly behind schedule. Every
morning Jack and I woke up at half past five, had a coffee and went
to his house. At nine o’clock it was time for another lesson with
Takeshi. Before noon, I would go meet Peyton. Morgaine had decided
I didn’t need any more instruction from her, but we continued to
talk about my future role.