Sohna and Vivian - My Brother's Keeper

Everyone suddenly went silent and turned to stare at her. Helen felt as if she were intruding on a private conversation.

"He's ... er ... that is to say he was my private physician," said Wendell. "Until he took it upon himself to do away with Virginia's maid."

"Do away with?" she asked, aghast. "You mean he's a murderer?"

"I'm afraid so. We caught him when he attempted to do away with Molly" - the king turned abruptly away and spoke to the nearest attendant - "Please make sure Molly is well guarded."

Helen turned to her granddaughter.

"He has it in for your maids?" she asked.

Virginia hesitated.

"It's Wolf's ... I mean ... well ..."

"What?"

"It's because of me," Simon told her. "Mellifict is a member of a group of people that think all wolfs should be exterminated. He tried to kill Virginia and the baby and Molly tried to stop him. Probably Emma did too."

She couldn't keep herself from staring disapprovingly at her granddaughter. The situation was just so much worse than she'd imagined. Could Virginia have found a husband any lower on the social ladder, she wondered? She was quite tired of these unpleasant surprises and decided the air needed a complete clearing on the entire subject, immediately.

"I am just not clear on this," she announced. "What exactly is it about Simon's kind that is supposedly so undesirable?"

Again they were silent a moment. Finally, the little fairy girl said, "You mean you don't know?"

"Well, of course I don't know, my dear, or I wouldn't have asked," she replied haughtily.

"Well, you see ..." began Wendell, "half-wolfs supposedly have been responsible for ..."

"They're lies!" Wolf interrupted. "There are no more really bad half-wolfs than there are bad humans. Well ... not many more, anyway."

"I'm aware of that," replied Wendell in a placating tone. "Didn't I sign a pardon for all wolfs?"

"Don't think for a minute that I didn't know you weren't thinking of tearing it up!"

Helen's mind whirled, and she stopped listening to their argument, only vaguely aware of their voices. Simon not human? she thought. What is he, then? And if he's not human, how could Virginia get pregnant?

"Wait," she said. No one seemed to pay her any attention. "I said WAIT!"

Tight-lipped, both men turned to stare at her.

"You're not human?" she asked incredulously. It was hard to believe; he certainly looked human enough to her. A momentary vision of her satyr-like wolf creature flashed through her mind.

"I'm a half-wolf," he replied, as if that answered the question perfectly. She glanced at the others. The king was still staring at Simon, obviously incensed. In the background, she could see Tony trying not to laugh. Virginia stared icily at him.

"But what does that mean?" she pressed. "What exactly is a half-wolf?"

Her granddaughter turned to her as her son-in-law snickered.

"Wolf -- Simon -- is a werewolf, Grandmother," she said bluntly. "That's what it means."

Helen blinked.

"Oh don't be ridiculous, Virginia," she said automatically. "There's no such thing as a ..." Her eyes fell on the fairy girl's iridescent blue wings. Mutely, she glanced up at Simon, now unable to envision anything but Lon Chaney transforming into the Wolf Man. Her grandson-in-law stared back at her as if daring her to make a comment.

"How did it happen to you?" she asked.

"What?" Clearly, he hadn't expected her to inquire.

"How did you become a werewolf?"

"He was born one, Grandmother," Virginia informed her. "They're a race of people."

Helen digested this, barely hearing King Wendell proclaim that they had all wasted enough time, and needed to get back to the matter at hand: Doctor Mellifict. But how can there be a race of werewolves? she wondered. They're not fairy-tale creatures, are they? Abruptly the stories of Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Pigs flashed through her mind. But those were just animals that could talk; make-believe. Aren't they? And if werewolves are in the stories what about ... She suddenly recalled that many of the fairy tales she'd read or had read to her were full of very dark creatures. Creatures that would take your soul if you gave it to them. As Christine had done.

" ... don't have the slightest idea of where he could have got to," she heard Wendell say.

Without knowing why, she suddenly replied, "Snow White's stepmother."

They stopped talking and looked at her.

"Snow White's stepmother?" asked the king curiously. "How do you know?"

"I just know," she insisted, hoping to be believed. There was no real way she could explain. It just simply was a fact, like gravity. Nor did she wish to reveal the details about the visit she'd received from her daughter - even if they did believe her, the king wasn't likely to receive the news very gladly. She'd learned that, at least, living in the palace. "That's where he's gone."

"But what makes you think so?" pressed Virginia. Thinking about what she'd seen and done in that cellar (only a few months ago?) wasn't something she wanted to do - or repeat.

"Virginia ..." her grandmother began.

"No," said Wendell. "She's probably right. And even if not, the Swamp Witch is someone we have so far been successful in ignoring, which is never a good idea. She needs to be dealt with. We may have waited too long already."

"How?" Virginia wanted to know. "How do you kill someone who's already dead?"

"Well ... that difficulty is the main reason she's managed to survive this long," he replied. "That and her location inside the swamp. But I was hoping that now there's a necromancer at the court . . ?" He looked hopefully at Samantha.

"No," she said bluntly. The finality of her statement seemed to shock Tony, who was standing next to her.

"What do you mean, no?" he asked.

"I mean just that," she said reasonably. "I can't get professionally involved in political or personal matters. It's strictly against Guild policy."

"Professionally involved," he said, seizing her words. "How about personally involved? This Mellifict tried to kill my daughter, you know! Not to mention what that old witch did to my wife. I thought you and I were friends."

"I thought so too," she agreed. "And, yes, I am willing to help on a personal level. But that level does not include either magical assistance or arcane advice."

"Oh, well that's just dandy!" he exclaimed. "What good is your help, then?"

"Antony ..." said Wendell quietly.

"Sometimes the view of another person can make all the difference," Samantha returned. "I am more than just a repository of spells, you know."

"Yeah, well you'd never know you were that," spat Tony sourly. "I haven't seen you cast a single spell since you've been here. I'm beginning to think you can't."

"Antony ..."said Wendell again, louder this time.

"That is not going to work," she said flatly.

"What?" asked Tony.

"What you're doing. Daring me. It won't work."

"I wasn't daring you. I was ..."

"ANTONY!"

"WHAT?!" demanded Tony, finally focusing his attention on Wendell.

"They aren't allowed to interfere. It was my mistake to ask in the first place," he explained.

"Yeah, well, excuse me, but it sucks anyway! I don't see how we could even get near her. I mean, the swamp alone will kill us."

Virginia saw an opportunity and jumped in with something she had been thinking about on and off for some time.

"Maybe not," she said. "Wolf rescued us, remember? He managed somehow to not be affected."

Unfortunately, her husband's reaction was anything but helpful.

"Umm ... well ... uh ..." he began incoherently, and her hopes sank. Not only that, but she was sure she was going to be treated to yet another dramatic "confession" to something he was sure she wasn't going to like.

"Never mind then," she told him quickly, hoping to forestall the inevitable.

"Oh, Virginia ..." He was starting to whine. Unexpectedly, Samantha came to her rescue.

"The queen gave you something to protect you from the swamp's effects, didn't she?" she asked.

"Well ... um ..."

Obviously so, thought Virginia. Out loud, she said, "It's okay, Wolf. I understand."

"Well, do you still have it?" her father asked. .

Realizing that Tony was speaking to him, Wolf replied, "Have what?"

"Whatever it was that Christine gave you," explained Tony, his voice still annoyed. "The magic gizmo that got you through the swamp."

"Huh?"

Mom didn't give him anything? wondered Virginia, confused. Then why is he acting like that? She didn't want to think it was something worse. Or, she reflected, that the curse was back at work on him again.

"There is nothing like you're talking about," Samantha explained. "Amulets can be lost or forgotten too easily. The protection would've been in the form of a spell. But it would have long since worn off."

"And the good witch won't give us any protection," growled Tony.

"I can't!"

"No, you won't. There's a difference."

"Stop it! STOP IT!" shouted Wendell. "Quit arguing! We need to do something, not complain about what we don't have."

"But the whole point is ..."

"Antony, that is enough!"

"Fine." Her father folded his arms and walked away. Virginia rolled her eyes as she watched him sit down sullenly on a red velvet divan.

He still hasn't gotten over acting like a spoiled brat when he doesn't get his way, she thought, though privately she agreed with him. Not using your powers for evil was one thing. Not using them at all was carrying non-interference a little too far. Obviously, however, Samantha was not about to be persuaded, so Virginia didn't bother to try.

"I suppose we should investigate the dungeon," suggested Wendell. "Perhaps Mellifict left something behind in his cell that might give us a place to start."

"Excellent idea," agreed Samantha.

"Yes," agreed Wolf readily. "Virginia needs to go back to New York as quickly as possible."

"What?" She wasn't sure she'd heard him correctly. What did going to New York have to do with investigating the doctor's cell, she wondered.

"You need to go back to New York," he assured her. "This witch is bad, Virginia. You can't imagine how bad she is. You won't be safe here."

"She won't be safe in New York, either," piped up her grandmother, saving her the need to argue. "Christine wasn't safe there."

He looked absolutely crestfallen, so much so that she wanted to hug him. Clearly, he hadn't considered what had happened to her mother.

"Oh, huff puff ..." he whined miserably.

"I've faced her before, Wolf," she reminded him.

"Oh, but Virginia, you weren't pregnant then."

Expecting him to say something like that, she'd had an almost automatic response prepared. But somehow the hard reality of the spoken words frightened her, in an almost visceral way.

The baby ...

"He is right," Samantha said with a sigh. "Laura will be looking for a new host. She'll want a woman of power; a child would be ideal for her purposes. And, quite frankly, I doubt she could do better than yours."

"What are you saying?" asked Virginia.

"The gift tends to run in families. It's quite rare, however, for two such families to intermarry. And if you add to that the natural abilities of half-wolfs, it adds up to a rather powerful combination."

"Wait a minute," said Virginia. "You said she'd want a woman of power. My baby is a boy."

Samantha studied her middle with careful consideration. "No," she said. "You're carrying a girl."

"Wolf said it was a boy," Virginia insisted.

"No, I didn't!" he exclaimed.

"Yes, you did! At the banquet, when you first told me I was pregnant."

He looked confused.

"How would I have known that?" he demanded.

"I don't know!" she cried. "Something else "wolfies" know?"

"I'm sure it's a girl," Samantha insisted adamantly. "But I'll get another opinion." She turned to the blue fairy, who had been so quiet, Virginia had almost forgotten she was there. "Gwendolyn, your professional opinion?"

Professional opinion? Virginia wondered.

"I'm sorry if you wanted a boy, Virginia," she said, "But it's definitely a girl this time."

"How do you know that?" she nearly screamed. "Does everybody here know more about my baby than I do??!"

"No, no, no," Samantha assured her. "It's just something fairies can tell. They're very good with babies and children."

"What about you?" demanded Virginia, exasperated. "You're not a fairy. Or were you just going with some old wives tale about how I'm "carrying" it?"

"Er ... no," replied the wizard, suddenly clearly uncomfortable.

Virginia felt Wolf take her hand.

"Virginia ..." he murmured.

"How, then?" she insisted on knowing.

"She used magic," spat Tony bitterly from across the room. "Didn't you? You can use a spell to see what sex my grandchild is, but you can't help us keep her from getting taken over by that ... by that ... that thing!"

"You used a spell on me?" asked Virginia, aghast.

"Virginia ..." Wolf whined.

He thought the arguments and accusations were never going to end. At least, by four in the morning, they'd all finally managed to move to the dungeon, though everyone seemed to still be at each others' throats. If it were up to him, he would have taken Virginia and disappeared through the mirror long ago. All this hesitation was making him nervous, especially after what Samantha had said about the witch coming after his daughter. My daughter! he thought. I'm going to have a daughter! He only wished the excitement he felt weren't dampened by knowing how much danger she was in, even before she was born! What was taking Virginia so long to agree to go back to New York? Didn't she sense the danger to their child? And even though her tough old bird of a grandmother'd had a point about New York not being completely safe, it still seemed best to him for them to go back through the mirror. Why was Virginia wasting time arguing with everyone? For that matter, why was everyone arguing? It didn't seem natural.

As soon as he'd thought it, the hairs on the back of his neck started to prickle. Not natural. Oh, this is not good, not good at all. But what could he do? Virginia would never forgive him if he picked her up and carried her through the mirror against her will. But he thought he'd probably have to do just that. They'd pass the cell with the mirror in it before they ever came to Mellifict's. He just had to time it right. He hoped she'd forgive him.

Yes, this is familiar, he thought of the path as they walked along, trying to tune out their conversation. If he listened too hard, he'd just get drawn into it himself, he knew. He'd been a bit upset at Samantha's using her magic to find out about the baby (she might have asked them first) but fortunately had been so concerned about Virginia's reaction that he'd refrained from mentioning it. Just a little farther, he thought.

It was then that he realized what was so familiar. It wasn't the path, though he'd walked these corridors before. It was the scent of the person he could now identify beyond a doubt. He stopped.

The others walked on a bit before Virginia finally turned around.

"Wolf?" she asked. "Is something wrong?"

He waited a moment, hesitant to speak the words, to acknowledge out loud the betrayal. At last, he said simply, "It's Rafe. He's been here. Not very long ago."