Scepter

Aidan leapt forward at the sound, transforming instantly into a mountain lion. The girls cried out and jumped. Olivia reached for her nearby rifle. Aidan stood in the middle of the room, a low rumbling emanating between bared teeth, the hair on his back bristling on end, a torn shirt slowly swishing side to side around his furry neck. His nose twitched and he stopped growling. The doorway stood empty, only small leaves dancing into the room on a light breeze. Aidan’s hackles settled back down flat, and he turned slowly around to face the back of the room. The girls’ eyes followed his gaze.

  “Daniel!” Olivia shouted. She ran across the room and threw herself at him. He caught her delicately in his arms and gave her a hug.

  “What’s going on here?” he demanded, his gaze locked on the large cat still standing in the middle of the room.

  Lilly felt her way around the overturned table and closed and secured the front door as well as it could be considering the damage done to it. “Werewolves,” she hissed between clenched teeth. “And then you almost scared me to death barging through the door like that.”

  Aidan grabbed his bag in his teeth, dragged it to one of the back rooms, and dropped it in front of the door. He let go and pawed at the handle. Olivia giggled nervously, let go of Daniel, and went to open the door for him. Aidan dragged the bag into the room and kicked the door shut behind him. A few moments later he appeared, again human.

  “I should make you mend these for me,” Aidan commented as he picked his pants up off the floor. He untied the small bag from a loop on his pants and tossed the torn clothing he’d been wearing before his transformation at Daniel. The clothes hit Daniel’s arm, but he made no effort to catch them. Instead, he strode to a nearby window and looked out. Aidan stooped down, grabbed the figurine he’d dropped and slid it nonchalantly into his pouch.

  “I heard the shots. I wasn’t sure if you’d made it here yet or not.” He was still facing away from them, but Aidan and Olivia could both see his chin drop to his chest as he continued. “I ran as fast as I could to get here. I thought maybe you’d been caught by some of Argyle’s men.”

  Aidan let out a snort and stopped immediately at the vicious glares cast at him by the sisters.

  Daniel turned and looked at Aidan. “I know you don’t respect me, but you’re still my brother. I wasn’t going to stand by when I thought you were in trouble. I thought I was going to be sick on my way here, imagining what would happen if Argyle’s men caught the three of you. From now on I’m going with you.” Daniel held up his hand when he saw the smiles appear on the girls’ faces. “Don’t misunderstand me,” he continued. “I still don’t agree with your plan to attack Argyle’s gathering parties. What’s gotten into you?” Daniel asked, turning to his little brother. “You were angry and upset after they attacked you at the house. Now you WANT to pick a fight?”

  Aidan dropped his eyes for a moment before looking up to meet Daniel’s gaze. “I realized it’s not our fight,” Aidan answered. “This isn’t our fight, it’s theirs. I didn’t want any of this. I didn’t send Mom and Dad away. I didn’t come to take you away, or Olivia. He did. Argyle and his men. They started the fight and they won’t stop. The only way we’ll be okay is if somebody stops him, but nobody’s fighting back. It’s up to us I guess. That’s why I want to fight, to end it, to finally be safe.”

  Daniel shrugged. “I hope we can. I don’t know if that’s possible, but I’d rather go with you than sit out there by myself, wondering what’s happening with you. It made me crazy today. I’m certainly not going to subject myself to that forever. I’m in. I’d rather fight alongside my brother than lose you.”

  Olivia jumped back into Daniel’s arms and squeezed him tightly. Lilly shuffled over and gave him a hug as well.

  “We’re glad you came back,” Lilly said softly. “It’ll be better to have you with us.”

  The two girls turned icy stares toward Aidan. Olivia gave a small cock of her head to indicate he should say something.

  “Yeah, I guess,” was all he could muster as he meandered over to the front window and looked out. “I’m going to go back down to the creek for the water buckets. You two can tell Daniel about our adventures while I’m gone.” He opened the door and cast a glance back at Daniel before closing it quietly behind him.

  Once outside, Aidan sauntered around the side of the house and walked tentatively to where the closest of the werewolf bodies lay. Squatting down beside it, he tried to get any feeling he could from its lifeless body. If he could get any kind of unique feel for them, he could help the others steer clear of the wolves’ paths in the future. Nothing. He got nothing from it. Neither good or bad. Disgusted, Aidan grabbed the hind feet of the animal and pulled it farther into the woods away from the house. Predators would not come for this feast, nor would any scavengers. He grabbed the other as well and dragged it to the same spot hoping it would be far enough away when the carcasses began to decompose. He didn’t plan on staying for long, but he wanted those bodies as far away from the cottage as possible in case there was a hot spell in the next few days.

  After wandering back to the creek, Aidan again took the plunge into its icy currents to clean off the feeling of filth he’d had since handling the werewolves. He scrubbed his hands pink in the frigid waters until he was at last satisfied he’d cleansed himself. He took his time putting his clothes back on, wincing as he pulled his shoes back on over his still oozing feet. Aidan then filled the buckets with water and hauled them back to the cottage. He walked slowly as the last of the daylight had disappeared behind the mountains while he’d bathed. Tree roots and rocks marred the path he’d chosen, and he was forced to choose his steps very carefully to avoid spilling the water or twisting an ankle. One gimpy traveler is enough, Aidan thought to himself with a smile.

  Daniel, Olivia, and Lilly looked up when Aidan opened the door. Lilly was telling Daniel about Olivia’s shooting as the wolves attacked. Aidan placed the buckets next to the kitchen sink and sat down at the table with them to listen to the rest of her story.

  “And then she got a second one!” Lilly exclaimed. “I didn’t get to see anything obviously, but I could hear it. And then they all just went away! It was so exciting,” she finished, a little out of breath at the recollection of the fight.

  “It’s a good thing you were here,” Daniel said, casting a quick glimpse toward Aidan. “The girls never would have known they were coming if you hadn’t gotten back here so quickly to alert them and lock the place down.” His voice dropped to a grumble. “Good job.”

  Aidan shrugged, seeming to inspect something on the table in front of him. “They probably wouldn’t have even come up this way if they hadn’t smelled my blood. They would have just kept on chasing that deer and passed right on by.”

  “No,” Daniel retorted a little too forcibly. He paused and collected his thoughts. Aidan looked up, his eyebrow cocked, waiting for his brother to continue. “They would have stopped for you if you hadn’t run back. You saved yourself, and I feel pretty certain you saved Olivia and Lilly too.” The girls nodded their agreement.

  “You’d have been a goner for sure if you hadn’t come back,” Lilly added.

  “I really don’t want to think about that too much,” Olivia said. “Let’s just be happy that everything turned out okay.”

  “Agreed,” Daniel responded, rising to his feet and slapping the table with an air of finality. “Now, Aidan, why don’t you take one of the buckets of water back into that room with you. You can clean out the worst of your scratches with that. I’ll go try to find some yarrow so they don’t get infected. Olivia, would you and Lilly unpack the bags. I think we should stay here for at least a few days so we can heal and come up with a plan for our attacks. I’ll be back as soon as I find something for Aidan’s cuts.” Aidan had already grabbed the bucket and was on his way to the room as the girls stood. Daniel marched to the door and opened it. “Block this behind me, just in case,” he announced as he shut it. “I’ll have to fix this tonight when I get
back,” Daniel noted, shutting the door and watching it swing back open. Olivia slid a chair under the handle after Daniel left and joined her sister at the table, pulling various items out of the bags and organizing them based on where they should go.

  Daniel knocked on the front door just as the last few items were being pulled from the packs. Lilly set down the bullets from Daniel’s pack with the others and tottered her way to the front door to let him in. He entered carrying a bouquet of small feathery white flowers.

  “How’s the unpacking coming along,” he asked as he crossed into the kitchen and grabbed a small wooden bowl. He began grinding the flowers and stems of the plant into the bowl using a rock he pulled from his pocket.

  “Good,” Lilly answered. “We’ve got everything out. Now we’re just working on putting it away.”

  “Excellent,” Daniel replied. “Thank you for the help,” he offered, looking up from the bowl. “I appreciate it.”

  “You’re welcome,” Olivia responded with a smile. “When we’re done here, we should probably start thinking about dinner. It’s getting pretty late.”

  “Yeah,” Daniel agreed, getting flustered by her gaze and dropping his eyes back to the plants in front of him. “I had a hard time finding these in the dark. Let me finish with this, and I’ll go back out and find some fruit. We still have meat left over from the other night, right?”

  “Of course, it’s right here,” Lilly said. She ran her hands over the items in front of her before finding what she was looking for and picked up a large bundle from the table.

  “Great. We’ll have that and whatever I can find outside.”

  Daniel added a little water to his bowl and ground the flowers into a thick paste. When he finished, he took the foul smelling concoction to the closed bedroom door. He knocked gently. “I’ve got the yarrow for you,” he announced.

  “Come in,” Aidan’s muffled voice called back.

  Daniel opened the door and stepped inside, closing the door behind him. After a few minutes, he and Aidan returned to the main living area. Olivia smirked at the smears of paste that now marked Aidan’s exposed legs.

  “Ha ha,” Aidan remarked, knowing what she was smiling about.

  “I like the new look,” Olivia chortled. “Very zebra. Or, since you seem to be fond of cats, very tiger.”

  Lilly laughed out loud before clamping her hands over her mouth and sitting down, embarrassed by her outburst. “Sorry,” she muttered.

  Aidan rolled his eyes, but didn’t respond. He just wasn’t going to win this battle. Best to let them get it out of their systems.

  “I’ll be right back,” Daniel announced as he left.

  The three worked together and cleared their gear off the table, then set it for dinner. They’d also found a couple of full lanterns in one of the back rooms and brought them out to the table. Aidan fumbled with them in the gloomy room. After a few unsuccessful attempts, he finally managed to light them. They filled the room with a warm and welcoming glow. When Daniel returned, he grabbed a chair from the back room and leaned it against the front door to keep it closed while they ate. Content the door would stay put, Daniel dumped a small pile of berries into a bowl and set it on the table. “Sorry there’s not much. I couldn’t find them in the dark.”

  “It’ll be fine,” Olivia said. She reached for his glass and poured him some water. After she’d finished pouring for the other three, the meat made its way around the table, followed by the berries. “There,” she announced. “A meal fit for a king, or queen,” she added as she reached across the table, giving her sister’s hand a squeeze.

  The topic of conversation turned quickly to the events of the day, and Lilly again recounted the details of the attack and Olivia’s shooting prowess. Aidan chimed in at times with observations of his own, but the majority of the speaking was done by the two girls. Olivia watched Daniel throughout the meal, sensing in him a growing frustration as the story unfolded. It wasn’t anything tangible that he did. There were no clenched fists or jaws, no flared nostrils, just a general sense that something was bothering him. He sat, eyes on the table while he gently squeezed his earlobe between his right thumb and forefinger. Olivia realized he did that quite frequently, usually when lost in thought. She smiled at his little quirk and looked back to her sister. When Lilly was done with the story, Olivia quickly changed topics hoping to pull Daniel back into the conversation and out of whatever funk he’d fallen into.

  “How about we play a game after dinner,” she suggested. “Something to take our minds off of the stress of the day.” Daniel looked at her quizzically. “I think I saw some games in the cupboard.”

  Olivia got up from her seat and crossed the room to the kitchen. She paused and looked over at Daniel before opening the cabinet. He’d dropped his head down and now appeared to be inspecting something in his lap. A scowl crossed Olivia’s lips and she turned back to inspect the shelves.

  “We’ve got Mancala,” Olivia announced proudly.

  “I’m done,” Aidan quickly responded. “I’ll sign up for doing the dishes. You two can take turns playing Daniel.”

  Lilly raised an eyebrow. “Why’s that?”

  “I think I may have beaten him once in all the times we’ve played that game together. I’d rather do the dishes and go to bed than have him beating me all night long.” Aidan stood from his chair and began clearing the table of dishes. Lilly helped.

  “Olivia, why don’t you play first. I’ll help Aidan and then I get to play the winner,” Lilly offered.

  “Sounds good to me,” Olivia replied. She sat back down at the table across from Daniel. His mood seemed to have improved dramatically. A sly grin played on his lips as he took the board and small stones from the box. His eyes gleamed as he divided the pebbles among the appropriate cups.

  “Ladies first,” Daniel mocked, sweeping his hand over the table.

  Olivia rolled her eyes and reached forward. Taking the stones from one of the cups, she started dropping them one at a time into the following indentations.

  “Your turn.”

  Daniel grabbed a pile of his own and began plopping them into the bowls as well. Daniel was the first to capture a stone. Olivia frowned, but took her turn. Back and forth they continued until at last Daniel claimed victory.

  “Good game,” Daniel said, standing and giving Olivia a bow over the table.

  “Thanks.” Olivia stood and wandered over to the kitchen. “Your turn,” she told Lilly. Lilly dried her hands and went to join Daniel at the table while Olivia stayed to help Aidan finish up.

  “He’s pretty good,” Olivia said while grabbing a plate to dry. Aidan snorted.

  “He should be. He’s played it enough.”

  “Oh?” Olivia prompted. She tried to act nonchalant in the hope that he’d continue.

  “Daniel used to play that all the time with our father, back before… back before our parents were taken.” Aidan glanced over at Olivia and then back down into the sink. “They’d play it for hours, just the two of them.” He shook his head.

  “Didn’t you ever play with them?”

  Aidan finished rinsing the last plate and handed it to Olivia to be dried. Grabbing another towel from the counter, Aidan turned around and leaned back against the sink while drying his hands.

  “I played every now and then,” he answered, “but I didn’t like it as much as they did. Usually I just read with our mother. Plus, when you lose every time, where’s the fun?” He shrugged. “I still play with him sometimes, but not very often. It seems like he’s getting better and I’m getting worse. Usually I just take it out when he’s in a bad mood. Something to try and cheer him up.” He glanced back at Olivia, then tossed the towel back onto the counter. “Well, I’m going to call it a night,” he announced. “I’ll share the room on the right with Daniel. You two can share the other. I’ll go get it set up for you before I go to bed.”

  “I can take care of that,” Olivia replied. “I’ll take care of
it while I wait for my turn again. Thank you though.”

  “Okay. Goodnight all,” Aidan called back over his shoulder as he meandered to the bedroom.

  “Goodnight,” they replied in unison.

  Olivia had barely finished making up the beds when Lilly came in to let her know that it was her turn. “He throttled me,” Lilly huffed as Olivia passed her on the way out of the room.

  The games continued late into the night, Lilly and Olivia taking turns being beaten by Daniel. Lilly kept her hand on Daniel’s to feel where he was placing his stones and keep track of the pieces. That slowed the process some, however they both enjoyed the competition too much to stop. Some games were closer than others, but Daniel remained undefeated at the end of the night, a huge smile plastered on his face as they chatted and played. Things finally settled down and they decided to call it a night. Daniel put the game back in the cupboard and pulled out some tools to try and fix the door. The girls grabbed one of the lanterns and headed back to their bedroom.

  “Goodnight, Olivia. Goodnight, Lilly. Thanks for the games. It’s been a while since I got to sit down and play Mancala.”

  “Goodnight,” Lilly answered through a yawn.

  “Goodnight,” Olivia replied as she walked to the back of the cottage. “Oh, and Daniel?” she said, pausing and turning to face him.

  “Yes?”

  “I will beat you.”

  Daniel smiled. “I look forward to it.”

  Chapter 14

  A Time for Healing