Of Gaea (11 page)

“
It’s
only a myth, right?” Ari asked fascinated. “No one actually
believes that anymore?”

“
Don’t
we? If we didn’t, would you be here? Would Ghita have done all the
things she has if some small part of her did not believe? Believe
and feared it?”

The
knock on the door rescued Ari from answering. She had no answer.
Nasya leaned away and Ari hastily pulled her night shirt over her
head. “Come in!”

Sasha entered and looked around.
“Nasya went home I see.”

Ari
turned to where Nasya had been sitting and found the other girl was
gone. “I guess so.” Ari looked back down at the book in her lap
then at Sasha. “You don’t have to stay. I’m safe here,
right?”

He
hesitated a moment then rolled the chair next to the bed where she
could easily access it. “Yes and no. I would prefer if you’d allow
me to stay at least until Ghita gets back.”

“
I don’t
think I’ll be sleeping any time soon, and you look tired.” Ari
picked up her laptop from the nightstand.

Sasha said nothing else but went into Ari’s closet, pulled
out his camping mat, and rolled it out.
He lay down on his back and closed
his eyes. He wasn’t instantly asleep; Ari knew that just by the
semi-tension in his limbs. Taking pity on him, she hit the light
and watched his body slowly relax into deep sleep.

Ari watched him sleep.
All the tension that normally filled him
was replaced with peace. His hands rested on the chiseled muscles
of his stomach. He hadn’t kicked off his shoes. If Ari had working
legs she would have gotten up and pulled them off for him. She
unfolded one of her blankets and fluffed it over him. She smiled as
he curled into the blanket.

Even though she had given him an escape, Ari was glad he
stayed.
Maybe it was her imagination but it felt better having him
asleep on the floor.

A
ri greeted the
sun
as it inched its way
into her room through the patio doors she never used anymore. She
wanted to use the doors to sneak out like she used to, but the step
down to the terrace was an accident waiting to happen. It just
wasn’t wheelchair friendly.

Ari scooted to the edge of her bed and carefully lowered
herself to the floor.
Being careful not to disturb Sasha she used her
arms to move awkwardly towards the door.

The glass was already warm when she leaned against
it.
She
closed her eyes and the sun burned away the darkness that rose.
Pressing her head against the glass, she fell asleep.

She woke
in gradual stages. First to the full warmth of the sun, then to the
quiet chirp of birdsong. The soft breathing of someone else nearby.
The familiar perfume of the only woman she had ever known as her
mom.

When she
opened her eyes, the first thing Ari noticed was she was stretched
out across one of the padded Adirondack chairs on the deck. The
next thing she noticed was Ghita sat at the kotatsu table nearby;
her laptop open and Ghita was rapidly typing away. Ari’s notebooks,
both the one Sasha gave her and the one Nasya just gave her, were
lying on the table’s surface.

There was no way to be stealthy and cripple.
Thus, by the time
Ari was sitting up properly and turned, Ghita was already watching
and waiting. Ghita’s silent stare was one of Ari’s greatest
annoyances but there wasn’t any way to change that.

“
Where’s Sasha?”
Ari asked and was puzzled by Ghita’s
instant frown. It smoothed out and was replaced with a cautious
smile in rapid timing. Had it been anyone other than Ari watching
the change in demeanor might have been missed.

“
I sent him home.
You don’t really need him here. And
besides, I want to talk to you.” Ghita gestured to the notebooks.
“I’d like for you to explain. Without others feeding you
words.”

“
No good
morning, how’d you sleep?” Ari looked around for her wheelchair as
she spoke. It sat out of reach on the far side of the patio. At a
guess, Ghita didn’t want her rolling away. “You know I only have to
shout for him and he’ll be over here. Or Nasya for that matter.
You’re freaking me out with the semi hostage situation.”

“
Good
afternoon.” She raised a brow. “You’re not getting out of this
conversation that easily. I’m waiting.”

“
Last I
knew you could read.” Ari shrugged. “It’s obvious isn’t it? One is
everything we’ve already tried, and the other is everything I
haven’t yet tried but I think could work.”

Ghita
reached out for the book with the Kirin on it and flipped it open.
She must have had the page bookmarked somehow because it opened
exactly where she wanted it to.

“
How will this work?”
Ghita lifted it enough for Ari
to see her own doodling before it was dropped back to the table.
“How will any of this,” she gestured to the books, “pagan trash
work?”

“
Let’s
get something straight. Your God is not my God.” Ari’s tone was
mild but there was no denying the undercurrent of anger. “What you
call pagan trash may just be what I believe in. Maybe I’m not the
pagan one. Maybe you are. After all, everything I’ve written down
has existed long before your God was even a thought on the
wind.”

Ghita
gapped and reddened. “Humor me,” she said tightly. “What makes
this,” she gestured, “viable.”

Ari
sighed. “It’s all clearly notated but if you want me to explain,
those are what I believe to be a translation of the Elder. They’re
much, much older though so maybe I should say the Elder Futhark is
a translation of them. I found them last night. When I compared
them to the Elder Futhark these look like a starker version so I’m
assuming they are. I want to discuss it some with Nasya. She knows
practically everything.”

“
You’ve not explained the how part, Ariadne, though
I’m sure you find the history of such primitive work
fascinating.”
Her voice dripped with venom which surprised Ari.
Ghita was usually placid in all things.

“
They’re
used for magic. Or at least the Norse used them for magic. I still
have some studying to do, but I think I can use them for healing.
It’s not exactly what I was looking for, but it feels close enough.
I can’t really explain it.” Ari casually stretched and tried to
send invisible hand signals to whoever was watching. She had no
doubt either Sasha or Nasya or Kleisthenes watched. It was more a
matter of announcing she needed help without Ghita figuring it
out.

“
Norse… Pagan trash.
I will
not
have that in my
house
!” Ghita shouted and stood so suddenly the
kotatsu table overturned. Her laptop crashed to the patio and Ari’s
notebooks scattered at her feet.

“
It’s been around longer than anything
else.
Certainly there has to be some truth in it if it’s lived so
long. Longer than your God even.” Ari spoke cautiously. Ghita never
got angry. She was as volatile now, as her twin had been last
night.

“
I
forbid it! Do you hear me?” Ghita paced as she raged. “You’ll come
to church and do what you should have done a long time ago! This is
getting ridiculous. Sasha’s obviously filling your head with
garbage.”

“No.”

Ghita froze mid-step and turned to sear Ari with a
look.
“What
did you say?”

“
Sasha
doesn’t put words in my mouth; you of all people know that. He’s
above that, but what’s more important is I won’t be going to your
church. Ever.” Ari picked up her notebooks and held them close. “If
your God was supposed to heal me, Elias would have done so when I
saw him. He didn’t. Your faith is not mine and I want you to stop
pushing it on me. It’s not fair.”

“
You saw
Elias?” Her voice was quiet in disbelief. “He… wouldn’t… heal
you?”

“
He
wouldn’t even shake my hand.” Ari tipped her head. “I need to make
my own choices, and I have been or at least I’ve been trying
to.”

Ghita
drew herself up. “I am protecting you from yourself.”

“
No.”
Ari shook her head sadly and suddenly tired. “You cripple me. Just
as much as my legs do. Instead of teaching me, of showing me why;
you simply keep insisting it’s the right thing to do. Why wouldn’t
I question it? Why should I simply take your word as
truth?”

“I have the
experience, you do not.”

“I can’t get
the experience if you make all the decision for me, can I?”

Ghita pointed at the notebooks.
“Don’t bring that trash into my house
again, or you won’t have a place to call home anymore.” She walked
into the house and slammed the door behind her.

Ghita walked through the house and down the block.
She had to see
Elias. What had he have been thinking. It was such a little thing
for one as gifted as he was. Ari was too much of a burden in the
wheelchair. They all would be much better off when she was whole
again. It was outlandish to think Elias was somehow conspiring
against her. She would bring an end to it immediately.

Nasya watched Ghita storm down the block with a half-smile
on her face.
While she shouldn’t have taken pleasure in the other
woman’s frustration it was good to know Ari had stood up for
herself. Nothing was more bothersome than a bully and though Ghita
would deny it, that’s all she was to Nasya.

Nasya walked
silently around the house and studied the scene.

Ari eyed her chair across the porch.
It felt like it was mocking
her. In a way it was. It was proof that while she had said she
would make her own choices she couldn’t do anything without the
help of someone else.

“She’s wrong
you know.”

Ari thought she would die from the sudden gallop of her
heart.
She
turned to see Nasya. “Geez, must you scare me?”

“
I’m
sorry.” Nasya walked across the porch and brought the wheelchair
over.

“
I feel like… like she knows something but refuses
to tell me.
She could be all I need and yet, she’s not.”

Nasya held the wheelchair while Ari scooted into it.
“It’s fear I think
that stays her hand. Take Lyris for instance. The last time Ghita
took action it changed her twin. I think she’s trying to keep from
making that same mistake.”

“It doesn’t
make it right.”

“
No, it does not.
I never said it did. I was merely
giving voice to the thought.” Nasya rolled the wheelchair off the
deck and around to the sidewalk in front of the house. “Accompany
me on my walk, please?”

Ari had
little choice since Nasya had already started walking but she
nodded anyway. “Sure. It’s not like I want to go in there right
now.”

“She’ll cool
off by the time we come back, that too, is in her nature.”

“
Nasya,
you’ve only been here for like four years and you’re never really
around. How do you know so much?” Ari tipped her head back to look
at the other girl. “I mean sure, Sasha and Kleisthenes know but
you’re kind of new.”

Nasya
eyes seemed far away for a moment. “She knew my mother when they
were children. Ghita has always been the calm one and Lyris the
outspoken. Two halves of the same coin.”

“
How do
you know your mother? I mean don’t you follow Spartan tradition?
Would I know my mother if…” Ari trailed off.

“
Girls
are different unless they possess a skill. For instance if a girl
child possessed a great skill in words but her mother did not, she
would be given to foster within her family but if she was just a
normal silly girl, she would be left with her mother. For you…”
Nasya trailed off. “If I were to guess, I would say you would have
been placed with your grandmother or your great aunt. They possess
many of the same attributes you do.”

Ari
frowned. “Attributes? But I’m not skilled in anything.”

Nasya
laughed. “Archery is a skill, so is your athleticism, and of course
your ability to hunt on any track. Those are all prized skills in
Sparta. You would have made a fine soldier or tracker. Potentially
a messenger with your ability to blend in… a spy, too now that I
think on it. Of course you’d be part of the Envoy house
automatically…”