The Youngest Mage [Completed]

(12) A Guest for Dinner

Bekma told Maurinn it was too risky to try to move Dalbreath, so she had her servants pitch a tent outside Bekma's treehouse, and had them lug two large trunks of clothes there, since she didn't know how long it would take for her son to recover. She felt that her prayers to the Mother Blessing were being answered, for good color had returned to her son's face, and while his eyes had fluttered open twice briefly, he was still not really awake, but the possibility of that happening seemed immanent.

Then one morning a few weeks after the incident with the cat-girl, Bekma, Maurinn, Lexanon and Fieatra were having a pleasant conversation at the foot of his bed. It was at that moment that he awoke from his fever.

"I told you he would wake before noon," said Mr. Nunn with a smile.

"What happened to me?" asked Dalbreath, looking around at what was essentially Bekma's bed in his tree house.

"You don't remember?" asked Bekma.

Dalbreath looked confused. "I'm not sure."

"You gave us quite a scare," said Maurinn.

"I'll say," said Fieatra.

"The cat-girl scratched you with her poisonous claws," said Maurinn. "Seems like you'll be fine, but I want you to have lots of my soups."

"And my teas," said Bekma.

"Is that what you call her, cat-girl? I remember her," said Dalbreath.

"Very good," said Bekma.
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After a week of soups and teas Bekma gave the okay for Dalbreath to return to the Nunn mansion.

"Just one thing," said Bekma to Maurinn in private.

"What is it this time?" asked Maurinn. She was tired of tending her son in a male stronghold.

"I'm not asking for much," he said, "but keep me informed of his condition. If he starts having sweats it means I didn't get all the poison out. Then when he's well, and anxious to be a rambunctious boy again, send him to me. I'll teach him how to defend himse if she ever comes back again. Hopefully she thinks he's dead."

"I assure you no cat-witch is going to steal my son away. Let her try again."

"I approve, it's good that you remember who you are woman."

"Oh shush up," said Maurinn, embarrassed. "I've always known who I am. I'm not ashamed that I tried to keep my son out of the world of Magery."

"Well, in my opinion it's better for him to know what power is hunting him, and mark my word, she was hunting him, the same as me."

"But he's my son," said Maurinn with emotion.

He belongs to the world, you know that as well as I."

"Not until I say so," she said bitterly.
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It was a week before Dalbreath was strong enough to go back to Bekma's treehouse for training. At about that time his father game to visit. Lianonn was on his way back from doing business in a nearby town. Dalbreath and Deearo were playing out in the giant garden in back of the mansion when Lianonn confronted his wife about the change he saw in his son.

"He looks frail," he said.

"He had a scare in the woods," she said, and then went silent.

Mr. Nunn took him aside and told him the whole story. Lianonn was ashen afterward.

"We'll sell the business and move away from Rhet," he said with passion.

"To where," said Maurinn, "she's a shape-shifter with the powers of divination. She could change herself to look like me. Think of the things she could teach our son then. She can follow us anywhere."

"What then? We have to do something, don't we?"

"We'll scrape Mage School and keep him in Bekma's care. He's the only one who can protect him from her evil."

There was a puff of smoke, and suddenly Bekma was there amongst them. "What about you, Maurinn. You can protect him as well as I."

Lianonn was steamed. "Who are you? What are you implying, sir, that my wife is a Mage?"

"I'm implying that she is much more than that," said Bekma, "but because of an incident a long time ago she is afraid of her own power. And I am Bekma the great Wizard if you must know."

Maurin was on the verge of tears. "You train him, I trust you. I can't, it wouldn't be right."

"What is it Maurinn," said Bekma. "Are you afraid that because you killed an evil one that you yourself are evil?"

"It's more complicated than that; I erased him."

"Good, that's one less evil one to come haunt us."

"It's forbidden," said Maurinn desperately. "We can't see into their future lives. Time can change them. Eventually they wear themselves out. Then their life falls, but often it falls into place."

"That's wishful thinking, Maurinn, that one would have never changed, and either will the cat-girl."

"You don't know that," she said.

"Will someone please tell me why my wife is speaking in riddles?" asked Lianonn.

"She's Rhonthowaa," blurted out Fieatra Nunn.

"Fieatra!" said Mr. Nunn.

The room went silent for a long moment. Lianonn had to sit down. "I thought I married Maurinn Ellawynda, not . . ."

Maurinn was visibly shaken with sorrow. "You did marry me, Maurinn, Maurinn Ellawynda. That other life was over a long time ago. I am Maurinn Efaltel, your wife"

"You will be her again, that Rhonthowaa," said Bekma, "on the day when a little Mage not much older than Dalbreath calls you by that name."

Mr. Nunn frowned at Bekma. "You're not helping."

"Pooh on you, soothsayer," said Maurinn. "I want nothing to do with your prophecies and predictions."

Bekma's laugh echoed through the house, as did his voice. "Stubborn to the last strand of red hair," and then he disappeared the way he had come, in a puff of smoke.

"That man," said Maurinn, exasperated.

Mr. Efaltel was quiet at dinner that night, and the tension in the air was high. Everybody was silent, even Dalbreath. Mr. Efaltel stayed only three days, and seemed almost relieved to be leaving his secretive wife. He promised to visit in the fall, but Maurinn had a strong feeling that their marriage was on thin ice, and that it would fall into cold times if she stayed away too long.

Dalbreath gave his father a big hug as he stood next to the coach that would take him home. "Come back soon."

"I will," said Mr. Efaltel. "Study hard, and let's stay out of those woods, shall we?"

"Yes father, I will," he said, hugging him again.

He waved until his father's coach was out of sight, and then he turned to his mother and said "Mommy, you should go back to papa when school starts."

Maurinn smiled and put her hand on his shoulder. "I know I should, but no cat-witch is going to steal a son of mine while I'm amongst the living."

"I believe you," said Dalbreath. She hugged him, and then they went back into the Nunn mansion.