The Gift

Chapter Nineteen

In the Northern Province, Damien led us to one of the band’s houses.   We dismounted in the yard.  Damien took our horses from us to take them to the stable.

“Go on in.  I think they’ll be happier to see you than me,” Daniel told me when we were at the front door.  I opened it and walked in.

“Damien is that you?  Where’ve you been?” Jonathan called from one of the rooms.  There was a pile of bags in the front hall, as though they’d just dropped their bags there when they got in and nobody thought to go back to retrieve them.

“Who left this mess here?” I asked much louder than was necessary.  “You slobs can’t do anything without direction, can you?”

I heard ten male voices exclaiming and then a stampede of ten men rushing to the hall.

“Freyla!” I was immediately caught up in the mob.  They all wanted to hug me and talk to me.

“Where have you been?”

“What happened to your hair?”

“Why did you leave?”

“Who did you kill?”

I couldn’t catch the rest of their questions as they were all talking at once.  They all fell silent as the door closed and Daniel cleared his throat.  Jonathan scowled openly at him.

“Where the hell did you go?”

“He saw me passing through one of the provinces and followed me,” I answered.

“We sent Damien after you,” Brandon told me.

“I know.  He’s putting the horses in the stable.  Now guys, did you really have to leave this pile of bags right here in the hall?”

“We’ll take care of it right now,” Peter said.  The bags were all gone from the floor and the men of the band gone from the room in less than a minute.

“I told you they’d be more eager to see you than me,” Daniel said.  He took my bag from where it had been dropped when they swept me up.  “Go sit down.  I’ll take your bag to your room.”  He disappeared up the staircase to the bedrooms.  I went around the corner to the living room and curled up on one of the couches.  I could see cards scattered across the floor where a few of them had been playing cards and messed them up in their hurry to come see me.

Within a few minutes they were all back.  They sat on the couches and on the floor by my couch and looked at me expectantly.  I ignored them for the time being.  Daniel came back soon after the other men.  I sat up and patted the couch next to me.  He sat and I laid back down with my head in his lap.  He played with my hair as I closed my eyes.

“Is she going to fall asleep?” Jonathan asked.  A smack sounded follow by his exclamation.  I smiled.  Some things never changed.

“Well?” Kyle asked.  “Are you going to tell us what you’ve been doing?”

“I had something I needed to take care of,” I said, not opening my eyes.  “I took care of it and came back.”

“Why did it take so long?” Peter asked.

“Because that’s how long it took.  Once it was taken care of, I went to Lila’s house to give her a piece of my mind for everything she’s put me through and then I came back.”

“Why did you change?” Dylan asked.

“I do that every now and again as a sort of disguise.  People can’t kill me if they don’t have an accurate description of me.”

“Her aura changes with her new looks,” Samuel commented from his spot.

“You’re not still upset over that are you?” I teased.

“No.  It means you’re safe if anybody were to try to use my skills against you.  As if I’d even agree to it.”

“She sure is cozy with Cap’n,” Seth commented.  A few of the other agreed.

“Go ahead,” I said, shifting so that I was sitting up.

“She’s mine now,” Daniel said.  I could hear the smile in his voice, as he put his arm around my shoulders.

“Your what?” Seth asked.

“Let me see if this will clear it up,” I said.  I pulled Daniel’s collar so that he tilted his head down and I kissed him.  I heard whistles from a couple of the men.

“Well, that explains that,” Stephen said.  “She really is off limits now.”

“Any other questions?” I asked.

“Why didn’t you let us come with you to kill whoever you killed?” Edwin asked.

“Why do you think I killed someone?”

“Probably because there were assassins after you and you were gone for a month,” Peter said.

“Just long enough to figure out who was behind it and stop them,” Dylan added.

“They know the business,” Daniel shrugged when I looked up in bewilderment.

“It was something I had to do alone.  My old teacher assisted me in locating the target and accompanied me to the province.  After it was taken care of, he went back home to his family, and I came back.  He did not come with me to eliminate the target even though he would have done it himself if I’d let him.”

“You were taught by a man?” Jonathan asked.

“A man and a woman by the names of Jeremiah and Amelia.”

“Jeremiah and Amelia?  The married couple?” Brandon asked.

“That’s them.”

“They never take on students.  Hundreds have begged them to but they refuse to teach anybody anything,” Edwin said.

“I was the only one they ever taught.”

“Do you know what Christopher did while you were gone?” Stephen asked. I almost laughed at the sight of eleven men simultaneously scowling at him.

“I have already been informed of his behavior.  He’s looking better now than he did yesterday.  He is also now under close surveillance.  If he doesn’t eat every bite of his meals or is doing anything similar to his behavior during my absence, I want to be informed immediately.  I will fix the situation.”

“She’s going to get him back in working order in no time,” Brandon said assuredly.

“I am sitting right here,” Daniel said.

“They know that,” I told him.

“Don’t you all have things to be working on?  Whose turn is it to cook?”

“Yours,” Peter piped up.

“Well now it’s yours,” Daniel retorted.

“Hey, you’re the one who said that everybody pitches in equally,” Damien said.

“And it is your turn along with Stephen,” Edwin added.

“Go,” I ordered, pushing him off the couch.  He landed in a heap on the floor with a dull thud.  “I’m going to take a nap.”  I curled back up in the same position as before Daniel had come into the room.  He frowned at me from the floor.

“Get back to whatever you were doing previously,” he directed the men.  “Stephen, kitchen now.”  He went to the kitchen, Stephen right behind him.

Brandon, Peter, Edwin, Dylan and Kyle gathered the cards back together and started a new game.  Samuel picked up a book from by one of the couches and sat down to read.  Jonathan, Seth, and Mark drifted upstairs, leaving Damien by himself.

“I can’t return to what I was doing previously,” he told me.

“Go find something to do,” I told him, ready to drift off to sleep.

“Hey, guys; deal me in?” I heard him ask the men playing cards.  I didn’t catch their reply as I fell asleep.