Soul Song ~ Book One

Chapter Twenty-Four

"Can you believe the gall of that man?" Mirabella was punctuating her questions by throwing a dagger at the wall of the hut and yanking it out again. "How dare he come here again?"

The night was late and the other Healers were tired, so they adjourned with the agreement they would meet again on the morrow to discuss the possible Healer in the House of the Elders. The entire way home, Mirabella made her thoughts known through silent stalking. Eventually, her grandmother's disagreement with her thoughts were overridden by her need to explode, and the tirade began. Grandmother kept her hands busy with sewing while she waited for her granddaughter to finish.

"He comes, so arrogant, asking for help...again! And the others! They treat him like he is some sort of royalty they should respect! As if he ever did anything for them!" While most of the hut walls are made of tightly woven reeds and baked mud, there was the occasional wooden support beam. It was here the last throw sent the dagger, and it was there it embedded itself to the point that Mirabella was struggling to remove it. After several minutes of grunting in frustration, she let out an irritated scream and slunk to the floor, ignoring the dagger still firmly attached to the support. With arms folded, she glared holes into the wall in front of her. Grandmother suppressed her amusement at seeing a larger version of the little girl she raised, pouting.

"Dearest," Grandmother ventured, "are you quite finished?"

Mirabella sent her grandmother an angry glare that might have intimidated someone else, but since it was directed at Grandmother, it was only returned with a patient gaze. Before long, Mirabella couldn't stand it anymore and she began to cry in the most pitiful way.

"He doesn't love me, Grandmother. He left me and he doesn't love me!" she wailed.

Grandmother waved Mirabella over and Mirabella scooted over to her, hanging her head on Grandmother's knee. Grandmother stroked Mirabella's unruly brown hair a moment, waiting on the tears to pass.

"My little dove, it does seem that way, doesn't it?"

Mirabella nodded against her knee.

"Bless you child, but you are a silly girl."

Blinking, Mirabella raised her head to look at her grandmother. "What?"

Grandmother folded her hands in her lap. "My dear, your Damien does love you."

"But..." Mirabella started.

"Ah, no, you have said plenty. Listen now. When he came to me before, he was freshly Changed. He felt like a monster and begged us to help him change back to a human. Why, dear, do you suppose he wanted to be human again?"

"He doesn't like blood?" Mirabella tried, wiping her nose on the back of her hand.

Grandmother gave her an indulgent smile, along with a piece of fabric for her nose. "No, dearest, he couldn't bear you to love him in the state he is in. He couldn't even allow you to see him and risk rejection. He was in so much emotional pain, a rejection from you would have destroyed him."

"But, I pledged my love to him!" Mirabella's voice was a plaintive whine. "What more can I do?"

"Like you, he is also silly. But, in his defense, he was extremely vulnerable." Grandmother's lips thinned to a small smile of pity. "The smallest rejection, to the coolness of his skin, or the color of it, or his teeth when they are elongated, any tiny thing, would have hurt him beyond what he can bear."

Mirabella sat back and thought on what her grandmother said. She didn't know if she could have controlled her initial reaction to him. The only thing that kept her from being repulsed tonight had been her anger.