Bran scowled as Catherine cuddled the baby again. True, she hadn't argued, and she had done what he had told her, but he would have rather seen Catherine at her worst than see her walk blindly into this trap. She didn't even seem to care!
"I've decided to name him Michael," she said. Bran tried not to act too impatient as she stopped once more to rearrange the baby's blanket. Her taking care of the boy had already set them back nearly half a day.
"Why Michael?" Bran asked.
"Because he's conquered so much," she said softly, not truly thinking.
"He hasn't conquered anything," Bran pointed out.
"Yes he has," Catherine said. It seemed like she was about to say more, but she stopped herself in time and rearranged the blankets again.
"What was that about?" Bran demanded.
"What?"
"What was that about? You were about to say something, and then you stopped, and now you're what- changing the subject by fiddling with the poor child or trying to pretend nothing happened by saying 'What?'"
"I don't know what you mean," Catherine said, turning away. She smiled at Michael and, since they weren't going anywhere apparently, tried to rock him to sleep by swaying back and forth.
"I think I deserve an answer," Bran said.
"You shouldn't."
"Catherine-"
"Cat. Everybody calls me Cat. I didn't go through a maze like that with a person like you to be treated formally."
His jaw clenched at the "person like you," but he ignored it. "I'll take him away from you and give him to an elderly couple who truly deserve him if you do not answer me."
Catherine spun to face him quickly, hugging Michael tight. "You wouldn't dare," she said.
"I would."
She studied him carefully, stroking Michael's hair. "It isn't important," she said. She tried to walk past him.
Bran quickly blocked her way and grabbed her arm before she could run off. "Does Daniel know?"
After a few seconds, she nodded quickly.
"If the Dark knows, then the Light should know."
"What are the Dark and Light? It's not as if its a secret."
"It is from me, isn't it? Tell me. I'll explain about the Light and the Dark after you explain."
"All right." They sat on a fallen log, and she sighed. "Um... Okay. About two years ago, Daniel and I were dating. Did I ever tell you that? Well, we did. Four months. In New Orleans, Louisiana. He wasn't the nicest guy back then, but girls like me don't really have a choice or a chance, do they?" She smiled sadly, not looking at him. "So one night we were coming back from a restaurant, a diner where we usually had our dates, since it was affordable. And coming home, I heard this crying, right? Well, Daniel, of course, tried to drag me away because he said I was a sucker for anything. Maybe I was. Maybe I am." She grinned at Michael.
Bran, to his credit, didn't say anything.
"So I followed the sound and found a little baby boy, just like this one. And I named him Michael because he was in a gutter and there were killers and prostitutes and all these other rotten people around, but he was still alive and healthy enough to cry. My parents didn't want me to keep him, but I kept him anyway. I got a job to pay expenses, but I didn't get my check but once a week, and a baby is really expensive when you first get one. My parents wouldn't give me any money, so I had to borrow some from Daniel. When I got my paycheck, I paid him back and used the rest on Michael. But I kept having to borrow money from Daniel. And he kept getting angry. And he got angrier." She turned her head away and looked solely at the Michael in her arms, her eyes stinging. "One day I came home, and we went out, and I took Michael with us. But he started crying in the diner, and Daniel got angry. He dragged us both outside into the alley and snatched Michael away from me. He'd been teaching me how to fight, and he was a lot stronger than I was. When I tried to get Michael back, he just kicked me away."
She stopped and looked up, studying the terrain beyond the precipice. "He went to where I first found the first Michael and said, 'It ends where it began,' and just snapped his neck." She swallowed and allowed herself a quick shiver before standing up hastily, Daniel's words and the quick pop still reverberating in her mind. "We broke up after that. For understandable reasons," she said with a lighthearted laugh.
"I'm sorry, Cat," Bran said.
"Don't be," Catherine said. She cradled Michael in her arms. "After all, you aren't the one who killed him."
Bran stood and dusted himself off. He picked the sack up.
"Bran?" Catherine asked.
"Yes?"
"I want you to promise something to be. It won't be too hard, I think. You're stronger than I am. Will you keep him from killing Michael as he killed the other one?"
That night, when they had reached the others and after a celebratory dinner, Catherine, who had left Michael sleeping in Arthur's tent, the safest place she could think of, sat down between Jane and Clara and said, "I need to learn manners. And quickly, if you please."
Jane and Clara looked surprised and glanced at each other.
"Well," Jane said doubtfully. "First of all, don't sit like that."
"How, then?"
"Uh, with your legs together. Kind of like you sit on your legs and then fall off, without the having to sit on them and fall off part."
Catherine grinned and did as Jane had said. "Like this?"
"Yes."
"Hey," Bran said, coming up behind them. "Cat, come on. I need to see how good you are at fighting."
"What?"
"If you took lessons on fighting from the Dark, you need to know the proper way to fight as well."
"All right." Catherine stood up, dusted herself off, and followed him to the edge of the clearing. As she showed Bran the fighting stances and moved she could still remember, he explained about the Light and the Dark and continued explaining while he showed her new moves, along with the proper way to throw a punch. As she practiced and punched a tree softly to toughen the skin on her knuckles, he practiced with Will with a sword, then against his father.
And through all this, Isabella de Francis watched from her tent. Clara had not been killed yet. She was coming under the protection of the Light, and soon it would be too late. But this other girl was just as bad, moving into Isabella's territory as she was. The Pendragon and she were friends; the Pendragon was shortening her name.
That just means I need to find a way to shorten my name as well, Isabella thought. The Dark could not come close to her when she was surrounded by the Light. She was on her own.
Tomorrow, they were scheduled to stay at an Inn where adventurous vacationers sometimes went. It would be best for her to claim the Pendragon as hers there.
All right! The same day! May 24, 2001! YAY! *cough* Which reminds me, copyright 2001. And I don't know if I've stuck any disclaimers in here or not, so here goes: The characters you recognize from "The Dark is Rising Sequence" by Susan Cooper belong to her. Clara, Catherine, Isabella, Dmitri, Daniel, and Michael belong to moi. Thanks for reading, folks!
