"Where's Mama?" Newert asked, frowning at Kylia. She sighed.
"I've told you, Newert! Mama is gone. She's gone to sleep and she's not going to wake up."
"Everyone wakes up," Newert pointed out. "Every morning. I'll go wake Mama up."
"Newert!" Kylia said, grabbing his arm. "Mama is dead!"
Shocked silence reigned, and Kylia could feel her brothers' eyes upon her. She shouldn't have broken it to them like that, but she couldn't help it. Last night she'd told them that their mother needed rest, and this morning she'd told them she was not going to wake up. Why couldn't Newert have just left well enough alone? Kylia's words hung heavily in the air until Leston broke it.
"Kylia, I'm scared. I've never been so scared."
Kylia was about to answer harshly when she remembered her mother's last words to her. Teach Leston bravery.
"Leston, I know you're scared. I'm scared, too. I'll bet all of your brothers are scared. It's a very scary thing, to be an orphan. But you have to be brave, Leston. Do you know what that means?"
"I have to not be scared," Leston answered fearfully.
"No, Leston. That you have to accept the fear and not let it overcome you. Do you understand?"
Leston nodded, popping his thumb into his mouth. Kylia breathed a sigh of relief; her first lesson. Her first true test of motherhood. For that's what she was now, their mother. The mother of five little boys at the age of twelve. Oh, Ma, why did you leave us? Kylia wondered, grief welling up within her. She squashed it down.
"What have you all got to do today?" Kylia asked.
"I've got to go to my lessons," Ezrem said. "For fishing." His blonde head bobbed out the door, and Kylia watched him go. Ezrem was a relief to her; she did not have to constantly watch him.
"School for us two," Morton said defiantly, and Jermi nodded. "But we don't have to go."
"Why not, might I ask?" Kylia demanded, narrowing her eyes.
"There is no one to make us go!" Morton declared, as if that explained it all.
"There is me, Morton," Kylia answered. "I can and will make you go. I am your mother now. You and Jermi are going to school, and I'll ask Harper Evans if you were there, see if I don't. Do you have everything you need?"
"Yes, Mother," Morton responded.
"Don't call me that!" Kylia protested, wanting to hit him. Or at least just run away from this big mess. "What about you two?" She asked Leston and Newert.
"We don't do anything." Leston said solemnly. "We are too young. Mama watched us."
"Too young?" Kylia asked. "You've seven turns, Leston, and you've six, Newert. Surely you can go to lessons?"
"No," Newert piped up. "We're too young."
"They are not!" protested Morton. "I had to start lessons when I had six Turns, I don't see why they don't!"
"Morton!" Kylia warned. "They did not have someone to make them go. Boys, I want to go with Morton and Jermi to lessons today. Let me write a note to Harper Evans. I'll send it with Kemm—he'll get there before you. Go on now!"
The four blonde boys reluctantly went out the door, Leston looking frightened. Kylia watched them walk for a moment before grabbing a spare bit of hide. She scratched a little note to Harper Evans explaining her mother's death and the presence of Leston and Newert. The note was finished quickly, and Kylia whistled for Kemm. The brown firelizard appeared from between, chittering happily.
"Take this to Harper Evans, Kemm. Harper Evans," Kylia instructed the brown, and he popped away between, leaving Kylia by herself in the kitchen. There was still something she needed to do—deal with her mother's body. A burial at sea, of course, and she would have to go make arrangement with the local MasterFisher. Before she could make herself move, however, a chubby face poked into the kitchen.
"What is it, Jermi?" Kylia asked wearily.
"You didn't give us any lunch," Jermi explained.
"How long do you stay at your lessons?" Kylia asked. "You just ate breakfast!"
"A long time," Jermi complained. "We need lots of food for the four of us."
"As long as all four of you get it," Kylia conceded. "If I hear that Leston or Newert don't get any, you'll be in for it."
Quickly Kylia bustled around the kitchen, making four sandwiches. She stood with them uncertainly in her hands, not quite sure what to do with them. Jermi gestured impatiently at a wooden bucket, and Kylia dumped them in there and thrust it towards her chubby little brother. He grinned happily and left again.
"For a boy of only nine Turns, he sure does eat a lot," Kylia told Kemm, who had just reappeared. "Add into that Morton's bent towards bullying, and I certainly hope that Leston and Newert get fed. Maybe I should send Harper Evans another note. No, that might embarrass them, Faranth forbid."
Kemm did not reply, but curled tightly around Kylia's neck, and she promptly burst into tears. For several moments she wept mightily in the kitchen, screaming incoherently at times, throwing things against the wall and listening to them shatter. How could her mother leave her? Leave them? How could her father have left them? It wasn't fair!
"Kylia?" A pleasant bass voice interrupted Kylia's tantrum, and she stifled her sobs, hiccuping as she turned to face Harper Evans.
"What do you want?" she asked sullenly. "Don't you have to teach lessons?"
"My apprentice is dealing with that at the moment." The Harper explained. "Newert told me that your mother passed away."
"That's right!" Kylia exclaimed. "She's gone, she'd dead, that ungrateful old bitch! I wish you were dead! Just leave me alone!"
Harper Evans withstood the torrent that Kylia tossed at him, his face full of pity for the young girl standing before him. After a moment Kylia stopped for breath and he interjected neatly into the tirade.
"Would you like to speak to Master Gregaron?" he asked. "To deal with the burial."
Kylia was calm now, dead calm. Although her hair was ragged and unwashed, her face streaked with dirt and tears, and her body short and immature, Kylia stood as tall as she could and stared icily at the Harper. "I have been given this family, Harper. I accepted. Now please get out of my kitchen."
A bit taken back, Harper Evans hastily made his leave from the house. He looked back over his shoulder and saw Kylia staring at him from the doorway, her stony face filled resolve. Reassured that everything was under control, he returned to his class, relieving the apprentice who had been left on duty.
"I accepted," Kylia echoed to the empty house when the Harper had gone. The words wrapped around her and gave her the courage to leave and speak with Mater Gregaron, who, of course, agreed to a sea burial for her mother. She had been much loved by those in the Hold, and she would be much missed. Everyone was anxious to help the five remaining boys and the one daughter, but word quickly got about, started on its way by Harper Evans, that everything was taken care of.