Thanks for the good reviews, people! They are greatly appreciated. I'll be sure to keep your suggestions in mind. I was just re-reading it and spotted sooooo many typos. Guess I'll have to go back and edit those. That's what I get for typing after I get off work.
Disclaimer: I am not Mercedes Lackey, nor do I own any of her characters.
On with the tale!
Chapter 2
The girls quickly planted themselves on the furry rug in front of the banked fire and began divesting themselves of their sodden garments as Kero butted the door closed with a hip. Her hands were occupied with the basket, which had begun whining and whimpering in a way that was truly alarming, especially when the whines were interjected with sneezes.
"Alright. Baby sneezing. That can't be good. See, this is easy. I can do this. Right. Eldan!"
Kero gently placed the basket on the rug next to the little girls who had managed to strip down to their shifts, which were also soaked through. The oldest was helping the toddler, who seemed to be falling asleep sitting up. Buck up, Kero-girl. You've played mama to a bunch of mercenaries; you can handle this. She drew a mental breath and squared her shoulders, then quickly grabbed some logs from the metal-strapped wooden box next to the hearth and began to build up the fire. Within minutes it was crackling merrily and Eldan still had not made an appearance.
"Eldan, get your ar- I mean, bum out here!"
"What?"
Eldan stumbled into the room, rubbing at a pillow-creased face that was in dire need of a shave. He was still as handsome as ever, in Kero's eyes, even if his gray streaks were a little wider and there were more laugh lines around his eyes and mouth. His shoulders were still broad and strong enough to carry her when her old knees started acting up in bad weather and students were not around to see, and his hips were narrow enough to make certain aging mercenaries begin to get jealous and devote some more time during the day to running a few extra laps around Companion's Field. He stumbled and bit back an oath as his breeches-covered shin nailed the low table a few feet from the hearth with a resounding thud.
The sound brought Kero back from her musings and she quickly turned back to the basket, which had by now worked itself into a full-blown tantrum. Eldan froze.
"Kero."
"Yes."
"Is that basket crying?"
"Yes."
"Who are they?"
Kero glanced back over at the little girls. By now, the toddler had given up the fight against sleep and lay curled into a small ball on the rug, thumb stuck firmly in a delicate mouth and wet, blonde curls drying in the heat from the fire. As she watched all the girls but the oldest seemed to be falling asleep where they sat. She was glaring furiously at Eldan, who was now fully awake and functioning.
"Well, who are you?" she demanded indignantly.
"I asked first, munchkin."
"I am not a munchkin!" She drew herself up to her full three and a half feet and planted herself nose to stomach with Eldan. "You wanna make something of it?"
Eldan crossed his arms over his chest. "You are definitely related to Kero." He turned to Kero. "I feel sorry for your parents if you were like this when you were little."
Kero smiled absently as she extracted a bundle of blankets from the basket and began delicately delving through them for the baby. "Worse. I stole my brother's toy weapons."
He turned back to the little girl. "No weapons for you."
She merely raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, mimicking Eldan. Upon closer inspection, Eldan realized that she did not quite seem to be the exact copy of Kero that he thought she was. Her features, while still far from fully formed, promised a delicate beauty that belied her thorny nature and her pert little nose turned up at the end, allowing her to stick her it in the air with ease. White-blond curls tumbled over her shoulders and down her back and were currently knotted into a snarled mess with leaves and twigs sticking out here and there. She was also frightfully skinny. Eldan decided to distract himself until he could do something about it.
"Nice hair."
"Nice stripes."
His hand rose defensively to his hair before he could stop it and the little girl smirked in victory over her point.
"Are you going to get done staring at me anytime soon?"
"Depends."
"On what?"
"Your name and the names over everyone else here under four feet tall and the reason you are here."
She pondered it for a second, then decided that it could not hurt for them to know their names. They would find out soon anyway.
"Fine. I'm Acacia. They are Ianthe, Damini and Caia."
"That's only four."
"What?"
The little girl looked over, startled at the sound of Kero's voice intruding in her contest of wills with Eldan. Kero looked up as she pulled off the last blanket to reveal a baby that could not be more than a few weeks old. Like her sisters, the baby was tiny, a delicate bundle of limbs that seemed almost bird-like in their fragileness. Her appearance instilled an instinctual fear in Kero, and she reflexively gathered the baby up against her and dragged a soft blanket over from where it was carelessly piled on the floor and wrapped it around them both, hoping to instill some warmth in the shivering baby. Then she froze. Whoa. Where did that come from? She looked over at Acacia before she could alarm herself any more than she already had.
"You only gave us four names. There are five of you."
"I only know four. She doesn't have a name yet." Acacia gestured at the baby, whose wails had quieted back to whimpers. Her sneezes, however, had escalated into coughs.
"Alright." Eldan dragged a hand through his hair and winced as his fingers met with tangles of his own. "Let's get the story. Who are your parents?"
"Roderick and Aaralyn."
"How are they related to Kero, since it is very obvious you are related to her."
"I told you, we are Kero's nieces. Our mother is the daughter of Dierdre."
Kero felt her face forming a confused expression. "Why would your mother send you here? Everyone on that side of the family is terrified of me."
Acacia smirked, an expression of self-deprecation. "You cannot tell me you do not remember what it was like to live there? We are girls. They only want boys. They already have a boy, but they want another. Heir and a spare? Mother and Father got frustrated when the latest was a girl. They decided they should concentrate all their time and energy on our brother. So…"
"So they sent you to family female outcast," Eldan murmured. "Lovely."