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Liliana, her brothers, and their families had all sworn fealty to Andrew Periclum on that day about two decades past, even though they didn’t like him, or truly want to serve him. He was the new king of the lion-kin pride of North Carolina, and by extension, leader of all beast-kin in the area. Both her brothers moved away from Fayetteville after that, taking their families with them. They didn’t want to be where the new king would call on them for service to the pride. They feared what he might order them to do.
Andrew Periclum had never asked for any service from Liliana, for which she was glad. She didn’t even know if the pride-king remembered that she was the daughter of a lion, and therefore a pride-child.
Since Liliana had already sunk roots in Fayetteville, her business thriving, her clients counting on her to advise them, her brothers had left Liliana behind. That was the last time she saw them. They had already been old men. She hadn’t watched them after they moved to the coast, not wanting to see her strong brothers wither and die of old age. Lion-kin did not live for thousands of years without the venom of a spider-kin to keep them young.
Liliana’s sister, Isabella, her brother-in-law, Rizke, and niece, Ariadne, were all the family she had left now, and they were far away in Europe somewhere.
Doctor Nudd cleared his throat. “I’d heard that spider seers tend to choose mates from the fiercer Other species.”
Liliana nodded, pulled from her melancholy thoughts. She was pleased to find someone who was familiar with her kind. “Yes. My grandfather was an oak goblin, like you. Only from my first mother’s stories, he was more inclined toward bashing things than tending wounds.”
“Right, well, the goblin reputation is not entirely un-deserved.” He fell silent for a moment. His brown eyes widened suddenly. “You’re not looking for a mate, are you?”
The unexpected question startled Liliana. “I have nearly four years before my first blood fire time, when I will be old enough to bond with a life mate.”
The goblin seemed to relax. “Ah, all right, then.”
“But I would like to choose one before my blood-fire time. Once that happens, hormones and chance will choose, and I would rather make a choice for myself.”
Doctor Nudd swallowed, and set his teacup down a bit roughly, endangering the delicate china. The goblin doctor understood some of the nature of spider seers. So he was probably familiar with the blood-fire time. She could understand why discussion of such out-of-control behavior would bother anyone.
For the second—or was it third—time that month, Liliana found herself thinking about when she would be biologically compelled to find a mate and produce a child. She hadn’t thought about it much in the last half century, but now, she felt the pressure of it coming up fast. Her first mother hadn’t had the chance to teach her much about the blood-fire time, except that the overwhelming urges would be temporary. She must simply choose a male and ride it out. The more she thought about it, the more Liliana found the whole idea of being compelled to mate disturbing.
She had no one she wished to make a child with. She wanted to carefully choose the father of her daughter, as her mother had. Solifu loved and kept the man who fathered her children, and also the woman they both loved. She used her venom to extend their lives as long as her own. Liliana’s three parents had been happy together for centuries. Liliana wanted that, not the random forced choices of a biological imperative.
She stood up suddenly, no longer comfortable in the goblin’s home. She had returned his sweater and given him the necessary message. They had shared tea and conversation and gotten to know each other better. “I’m going home now.”
The goblin followed her to the door. “Well, then. Thanks for stopping by, unexpectedly, in the middle of music practice, for no apparent reason, without even calling.”
“You’re welcome.” Liliana paused at the door, thinking about what he said. “Would you prefer that I call first next time?”
“That would be a nice change.” The goblin’s voice seemed to almost always have that hint of mixed meanings. Again, she chose to accept his words at face value. Without looking into the goblin’s mind, she had no idea what else he might mean.
Liliana nodded. “Okay.” The cab pulled up just at that moment to pick her up. She had looked ahead before she left home, seen when she would leave on the goblin’s grandfather clock, and told the self-driving car exactly when to come back for her.
Doctor Nudd shook his head as she walked away, muttering, “Red wolves, flower sprites, spider seers… What’s next, dancing bears?” as he closed the door behind her.
Well, that had gone very well, Liliana thought, pleased with herself for overcoming her fear. She opened her fourth eyes and looked ahead. It hadn’t been enough. The goblin would still die in a few weeks. She had only bought him a few extra moments of life on the crucial day.
It was a beginning, but Liliana had more work to do.
Chapter 6
How To Train Your Wolf
A few days later, on a Saturday morning, Liliana sat in the branch of a tree in a part of the pine forest not far from Doctor Nudd’s house, near Smith Lake. The cold snap had let up and the February day promised to be warm and clear.
The Green glowed deeply here. She could see with her third eyes the rivers of energy flowing like healthy blood vessels in the skin of the earth. She listened to the wind in the leaves, the birds singing, and the occasional drip of water from the early morning dew. The air smelled of leaf mold, growing things, and the first hints of spring to come.
The world had changed a great deal in the last three decades of Liliana’s life. She remembered even this relatively rural area as having the stench of pollution in the air and living under the constant threat of the super-storms of global climate change. The green rivers of light her third eyes saw in the ground had once been faded and sluggish.
Liliana was amazed at how a few technological breakthroughs had changed the face of the world and brought back the waning power sleeping in the earth. Modern batteries were lightweight, made from readily available materials, and capable of storing and putting out power reliably. Modern solar cells could charge those batteries faster than the power could be consumed.
In the mid-teens of the new century, the US Navy had needed a cheaper and more reliable way to get fuel for their ships. They found a way to make hydrocarbon fuel out of seawater in a carbon neutral process. Solar energy could also split seawater into unlimited supplies of hydrogen and oxygen that burned clean. This made even internal combustion engines produce clean water, not unwholesome poisons. The use of hydrocarbons had all but ceased. In the mid-thirties, the global warming trend completely reversed. The earth had begun to heal.
And more than heal. To thrive.
Liliana took deep breaths and reveled in the beauty that this new age brought with it. She spent far too much of her time inside her house. She promised herself that she would come to this place again. Many times.
