Of Gaea (28 page)

“Pig.” Ari muttered and blew on the hot pizza. “I don’t
want him to grovel.”

He snorted. “His knees could use the wear. It might humble
him a bit. It certainly wouldn’t hurt him.” He walked across the
room and the door closed firmly behind him.

Ari sat with
her pizza, flipped open the book and read while she ate.

W
HEN
SHE SURFACED FROM THE
book, the pizza was cold and the digital display
on the cable box read one o’clock. She hadn’t napped since she was
five or six. Ari couldn’t see the point in restarting that habit
now. Besides she wasn’t really tired or rather not overly
so.

She was more interested in what was written in the book.
For as small as it was, it was crammed from margin to margin with
information. It was broken into chapter like segments. It was the
perfect mimic of a textbook. She had always been a great
student.

Restless, Ari dumped her plate and glass in the sink before
wandering the space. For such a prick Leonidas was one of the
cleanest men she had ever met. Nothing was out of place. It felt
blasphemous to leave her plate in the sink, but she wasn’t washing
his dishes. Screw that.

Instead she wandered over to the curtains and swung them
rebelliously open.
The open curtain revealed a patio door and a set of comfy
looking patio chairs. Since Leonidas wasn’t here to stop her, Ari
opened the doors and stepped out. She was polite enough to close
the door behind her.

Instead of sitting in a chair, Ari folded into a
papasan.
She
couldn’t tell what level she was on with the way the buildings were
stacked in pueblo fashion, but the view was beautiful. The town was
nowhere in sight, but the farmers’ fields and pastures patterned
the scenery. Town would have to be on the other side of the
building. Leonidas was smart, not wanting the streets to mar his
view.

The wind teased and danced hinting at secrets. Ari closed
her eyes and lifted her head to it. She inhaled its clean richness,
“Tell me what you hear.”

It was like dialing an analog radio.
There was a lot of noise then
snippets of random conversation here and there. Nothing truly
specific to her or of anything important.

“Who talks about me?” Ari asked, not really expecting to
hear anything specific.

“You have to
talk to her!”

Ari jolted and lost the conversation.
Kleisthenes never shouted but
he had been shouting and she would bet money it was at Ghita. She
inhaled deeply, exhaled slowly and concentrated.

“Kleisthenes, what’s he saying?”
It took a moment to find the thread
of sound in the air again.

“It’s not fair to her.
You can’t do this.” Pause. “You are her
only family here.” Pause.

The error of her request came to light with the one sided
conversation.
“The whole conversation. The person he’s talking to as
well.”

“It’s already done.” Ghita’s voice was firm and
icy.

“One conversation. One civil conversation is all I ask.
Please. Do not end it this way. If you love her even a little you
will not do this in this manner.”

“She is not my
child to be concerned with.”

“YOU SHOULD
HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT WHEN YOU TOOK HER FROM SPARTA!”

“There’s no
need to shout.”

“There’s every need! She called you mother for seventeen
years. For one hour I ask you act like one. Think of her instead of
yourself.”

“I WILL NOT WATCH HER DIE! I cannot bear it. My heart would
not survive it. Yes, I love Ariadne, but she’s made her choice, and
I cannot support her in it. Her blood will not be on my hands, or
Lyris’s. Not if I can help it.”

“You do not
know she will die.”

“Can you
promise me she’ll live?”

Kleisthenes sighed.
“I cannot.”

“There’s
nothing more to talk about.”

“An hour, Ghi. For me. Give her an hour, be what she needed
you to be all those years ago and I promise I will not seek you out
again. I will stay here and protect her. You have my word on my
house and honor.”

Ghita sniffled, and if Ari had eyes on the conversation
instead of just ears she would have seen Ghita wipe hastily at her
eyes. It sounded like she was crying. Ari was sure of it when Ghita
raggedly inhaled. “She is more your daughter than mine or Lyris’s.
What can I say to her that she has not heard from you?”

“That is for you to decide. Ghita, my heart…” Kleisthenes’s
voice was so low, so intimate Ari dropped the conversation; some
things were best left unheard.

“Are there others?” Ari murmured quietly and the air buzzed
incessantly with random bits of conversation again.

“Just started
walking out of nowhere.”

“She was
probably faking it.”

“It’s a
miracle you know.”

She grabbed
onto the last one.

“There are no such things as miracles.”
Was the response.

“Then what was
it, for that poor girl to get hit by a car and be crippled then to
be able to walk again eight months later?”

“Magic. Wasn’t it?” The last part seemed to be directed at
her. With it, she felt like something hit her, and she flew
backwards and the papasan toppled. Her ears were ringing and she
couldn’t tell up from down.

“You can’t be left alone can you?” A pair of feet entered
her field of vision and she followed them up to see Leonidas
staring down at her. He bent down to sit her up and with the motion
the world swirled into a kaleidoscope of color and
motion.

Leonidas
cursed and Ari felt something trickle down her face.

She swiped at her face and her hand went through a sticky
liquid.
The
red fluid was a surprise. “My nose is bleeding.” She stated
dumbly.

“Obviously.” Leonidas dragged Ari over to the wicker seat
and sat her down. “Sit here. Don’t bleed on the furniture and no
more gifts for right now. Give me a second.” He vanished back into
the house.

Ari sat as still as possible. She felt like she had just
gone a round with a heavy weight boxing champ and lost. Her body
was starting to ache for no reason and when she couldn’t take the
incessant pounding in her head anymore she dropped it between her
knees.

“Oh good,
you’re already in position.”

Before Ari
could lift her head to utter a sound, her head was yanked up by her
hair, and something was placed in her lap then her hair was let go
and her head fell into the bowl.

It looked like water, steaming.
When she inhaled the cough couldn’t
be prevented but there was something in the steam that cleared the
fog from her mind.

“A few more inhales just like that.
Then you can tell me what you
were doing.”

Ari reluctantly did as he instructed and slowly sat back.
Surprisingly, Leonidas had a cloth ready and gently wiped her face.
His eyes were intense, not in affection, but irritation and
possible frustration.

“What were you
doing without a guide?”

Ari cocked her head quizzically. “A guide?”

“What has Nasya been teaching you?” He sat back. “A guide,
a teacher, a mentor. Technically, you shouldn’t try things without
a second to help you out until you understand it.”

“I’m not an
invalid.”

“No you’re not, but you’re new. It’s like riding a bicycle
without a helmet and knee pads. You don’t do that until you’ve
gotten so good you can ride with no hands without falling. You just
rode without hands and crashed into a brick wall.”

“Thanks for
the analogy.”

“Anytime. What were you doing when you got bitch
slapped?”

“Listening. That’s all. Nothing fancy just listening to the
air.”

His lips pursed thoughtful.
“You’ve got blood all over your clothes.
Follow me.” He stood and walked back into the house. With little
choice, Ari followed.

He walked into the guest room and opened the closet.
“Pick out whatever
fits. Bathroom’s through there. You can shower if you don’t mind
going commando.”

Ari walked into the closet full of woman’s wear. “Should I
be horrified you have a collection of woman’s clothes?”

“They belonged to my sister.” Leonidas’s voice was bitter.
He restrained from elaborating. She wasn’t something he was openly
comfortable talking about. Not yet. If he listened to the air he
could sometimes hear the echo of her laughter. Sorrow slammed him
so hard he grew angry. Reason told him it wasn’t Ari’s fault; she
didn’t know but he ignored it.

“Should I ask first? When can I meet her?”

“She’s dead. I’ve given you permission. Clean up. I’ll be
back in thirty. There’s no way you can get into trouble in that
amount of time.” He was clip, and turned quickly before he could do
something unforgivable.

When the door slammed Ari sighed realizing her
mistake.
He
had used the past tense. “Way to stick your foot in it.”

It took ten minutes of digging through the closet before
she found something that she liked. It was really close to
something she had seen Nasya wear at one point or another. Ari
debated on snagging the shoes that seemed to belong with her
outfit. She grabbed them, just in case, and rushed into the
bathroom in fear that Leonidas would decide to come back
early.

The bathroom was as neat and tidy as the rest of the house.
The porcelain gleamed and crisp white towels were folded on the
back of the toilet. Crisp white wash clothes were folded on the
sink basin next to the unused bar of soap that smelled like
lavender and rosemary when Ari sniffed it.

Looking in the mirror gave her pause.
Ari crinkled her nose at all
the blood. It was down the front of her shirt in thick rivulets,
and all over her pants. If someone else had seen it, she doubted
they would believe it was from a bloody nose. When she stripped
down the blood had soaked through to her underwear as well.
Terrible luck.

Ari pondered the dilemma a moment.
She could hand wash them in the sink,
jump in the shower and then put them back on damp. She could wrap
up in the big bath robe on the back of the door and go ask Leonidas
to use the washer and dryer. She could wash them and use her not
inconsiderate amount of skill to draw the water out of them. Option
C won the toss.

Heavy banging on the door interrupted the drying
process.
“I
can FEEL you. Just because I’m not Gaea’s child doesn’t mean I
can’t feel the elements nearby.” Leonidas informed through the
door. “Is it really so damn hard to ask something of
me?”

“I’m just drying my… garments.” Ari could feel her face get
hot even as she said it.

“If by garments you mean underwear, I am not amused.
Do you have a
problem with commando?”

“It’s called decency.” Ari gave her underwear a twist and a
shake and they were dry and blood free.

“If you were going to wash your
garments
then why didn’t you just wash
everything instead of borrowing clothes?”

“You gave me a time limit! And I’m trying to stay within
it. And I’m not going without in someone else’s
clothes.”

He coughed. Ari couldn’t tell if it was to cover a laugh or
if he really was coughing.

“If it makes you feel better, you can keep the clothes.
Just get cleaned up and get dressed. Five minutes.”

Ari scowled at the door. No doubt he knew she still had
fifteen minutes of the original time limit, but arguing that point
with him would have been futile. She’d have more success beating
down a cement wall with her head.

Ari took a washcloth from the sink basin and hastily
scrubbed down before getting dressed.
His sister had been taller than her-
how that was possible Ari wasn’t sure, unless the girl had been a
giant, like Leonidas- because the long, tiered skirt hung on the
ground by a few inches. The top tier was elastic with a draw string
that Ari rolled once to keep the skirt from dragging, when she
stood still it still touched the ground. She pulled on the thigh
length top and tied the wide sash at her waist. She sat on the
toilet and pulled on the sandals. They were cool as the top part
only had a ring for the big toe and then at the heel fabric straps
came out of the soles to wrap around and tie. She was tickled that
they matched the dark brown of the skirt and were completely
comfortable.