Alec knew what the magic words of the pinkie swear chant meant.
“If you want me to, Sister.”
But he can’t stick a needle in his eye! That would really hurt! And I don’t have one on me, besides. I don’t wanna have to run all the way back to the castle—what a pain!
“You may have crossed your heart, but I hope you won’t die.”
Silence fell.
“…better…ed…”
Alec’s voice was so soft I couldn’t hear what he was trying to say.
“Listen, Alec? I don’t want you to die, so I don’t care that you crossed your heart—I’m not going to let you die.”
“Well…if you died, Sister…I would break…”
Guess my attempt of taking the pinkie swear chant literally to lighten the mood was a fail. Maybe it was wrong of me to assume he was going to respond with, “Of course I didn’t mean it seriously!” Alec always takes everything seriously…which is usually a virtue, but not in this case.
“Listen…Alec?”
“Yes…?”
“Forget about the pinkie swear. Isn’t there something you want to tell me?”
“…”
Alec slowly lifted his head from my shoulder and stepped away from me. When I finally saw his face, it looked unfamiliar somehow, even though he wasn’t away that long. Was it because he accomplished his mission? No… What I saw in his eyes was not a sense of accomplishment. It was an air of maturity.
And then, with tears in his eyes, he hurled a curveball at me.
“Sister… Am I Alexis?”
“What are you saying, Al—”
But I cut off midsentence.
Did this have something to do with Father’s mission? Did something happen to him out there? I knew Alec wouldn’t tell me, even if it did, but still…
“Yes. You are Alexis. Who else could you possibly be?”
All I could do was answer his question honestly.
If Alexis weren’t Alexis, then who would he be? There was no way I could be wrong.
“—All right.” Alec nodded slowly and deeply. Then the smile finally returned to his face. “It’s so good to be home. I missed you, Sister.”
At last. The words I was dying to hear spilled from Alec’s lips.
Ahh yes. Music to my ears.
It finally felt real to me.
“I missed you, too, Alec.”
I smiled back at him.
Meet the Parents was only one day away.
And my baby brother was finally home.
In my room, I was going over my checklist for the third time.
Tea set—check. Refreshments—check. Seats—check.
We’re good to go. And among the refreshments were the special gift from Lucinda—eba! My share was included in the pile. One of the great things about eba was that they kept well if stored at room temperature, and they tasted just as good as when they were fresh!
All that remained was to wait for Alec to arrive.
Without much reason, I paced around the room.
I hope Alec’s report is well-received by Father…
As soon as he returned to the castle, Alec reported straight to our father without stopping to rest. He was to visit me right after.
“Sister… There are so many things I want to talk about. Would you set aside some time for me?”
“But…you just got home. Shouldn’t you relax?”
“Nothing would be more relaxing than talking to you.”
Well, if he needed to talk, of course I had to make time! I’ll gleefully toss everything else out of my schedule for him.
He was only gone a couple weeks, but I had heaps of things to tell him, too. My days back at the castle were the epitome of eventful!
And what’s more, tomorrow was the Great Boyfriend Reveal I was thinking we wouldn’t be able to have a nice chat until afterward, so I was actually really flattered when Alec begged to see me sooner. I mean, the very day I grandstanded to Sirius about having a boyfriend—when the family gathered for supper that evening—I had promised Alec I would make time to visit him in his room and tell him all about it. The talk just got delayed, what with Alec leaving suddenly on a secret mission.
But instead of me visiting Alec, he was now going to visit me—grace my room with his presence!
Alec’s report to Father seemed to be taking longer than anticipated. Meanwhile, I’d already taken the wreven to see the vet and brought it back.
I looked at the cage. The wreven’s ash-blue eyes stared back. The wounded bird was to convalesce in my room. Guy, who had come to the stable with me, was conflicted about whether or not he should take in the injured bird, but it was decided that the bird would stay with me.
Well, technically, I was the one who suggested it. I mean, it is a wreven, after all…and Guy had a roommate, and other people were creeped out by wrevens. That was probably what had caused somebody to shoot it with an arrow in the first place.
The other reason was…this wreven was rather particular about people.
It was unconditionally docile with Klifford, for a start. And it seemed to like Guy since he knew how to hold it properly. But as for me…I wasn’t sure. It did let me touch its beak, so I wanted to think it liked me…
Meanwhile, it put up a big dramatic struggle with the vet. It was so unruly that the vet couldn’t have examined it properly without Klifford’s assistance.
But what I found most curious of all—
This bird wouldn’t kaw at all.
The vet, in spite of disclaiming, “I’ve never treated a wreven in all my born days…,” still managed to treat the wreven. The arrow was removed, the bleeding was stopped, and the wound was disinfected. I was to mix a sedative into its food and feed it after a while. Those were the only care instructions I was given.
The only other warnings I got was that it would likely be able to fly again, so once I saw it flapping, I should let it out of its cage. Also, particularly intelligent birds tended to get moody, delicate, or sensitive to any stimulation—just like injured humans do.
We also learned that this was a male, adult wreven. He was a bit smaller than the average adult wreven. His wing was likely injured by a loosed arrow—which led the vet to believe he was a loner. This made him an easy target, and meant he had no friends or family to help him. Believe it or not, wrevens flocked together and had strong ties to their kin, but they tended to ostracize anyone who was different.
In this little guy’s case…it was probably because of his eyes?
But the vet also said that unique wrevens like this one were more likely to become leaders. All that time alone forces them to get stronger, and when they return to the flock, they defeat all the competitors.
It’s a bird-eat-bird world.
I walked over to the cage and crouched in front of it. The wreven locked eyes with me, so I talked to him. “Looks like we’ll be roomies until your wing heals. Happy to have ya, buddy.”
The wreven tilted its head, almost like a nod. Some people say wrevens can understand human language, but I wondered if that was really true.
And then there was a knock at the door.