Firstborn by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Various Publishers
Published: 1995-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

* * * * *

She and Kith-Kanan talked of many things in the night and day they spent in the secret cave. He told her of Hermathya and of Sithas, and he felt his heart lighten as he confessed all. The anger and frustration were gone as if they’d never existed. The youthful passion he’d felt for Hermathya was completely unlike the deep love he now felt for Anaya. He knew there were those in Silvanost who would not understand his love for a Kagonesti. Even his own family would be shocked, he was sure. But he didn’t dwell on that. He filled his mind with only good thoughts, happy thoughts.

One thing Kith-Kanan insisted upon, and to which Anaya eventually agreed, was that she tell Mackeli of his true origins. When they left the cave and returned to the oak tree, they found the boy sitting on a low branch, eating his evening meal.

When he saw the couple, he jumped from the branch and landed lightly in front of them. He took in their happy faces and the fact that they walked handin-hand, and demanded, “Are you two finally friends?”

Anaya and Kith-Kanan looked at each other, and a rare thing happened.

Anaya smiled. “We are much more than friends,” she said sweetly.

The three of them sat down with their backs to the broad oak’s trunk. As Anaya told Mackeli the truth about his past, the sun dodged in and out of the clouds and red autumn leaves fell around them.

“I’m not your brother?” Mackeli asked when she had finished.

“You are my brother,” Anaya replied firmly, “but we are not of the same blood.”

“And if I was taken from my parents,” he went on slowly, “who were you taken from, Ny?”

“I don’t know, and I never shall. Camirene took me from my mother and father, just as I took you.” She looked to the ground, embarrassed. “I needed a girl child to be the next Keeper of the Forest. I moved so hastily, I didn’t take time to notice that you were a boy.”

Kith-Kanan put an arm on Mackeli’s shoulder. “You won’t be too angry?”

Mackeli stood up and walked slowly away from them. His ever-present hood slipped down, revealing his white, Silvanesti hair. “It’s all so strange,” he said, confused. “I’ve never known any other life than the one I’ve had in the wildwood.” He looked at Anaya. “I guess I’m not angry. I’m … stunned. I wonder what I would have been if I.if Anaya.”

“A farmer,” said Anaya. ‘Your parents were farmers. They grew vegetables.”

She went on to explain that once she realized she’d taken a boy-child instead of a girl, she tried to return the infant Mackeli to his parents, but their house was abandoned when she went back. So she had raised Mackeli as her brother.

Mackeli still seemed dazed by the tale of his abduction, Finally he asked, rather hesitantly, “Will you have to find a girl to raise to be keeper after you?”

Anaya looked beyond him to Kith-Kanan. “No.

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