The Poison Season(92)

“It’s too early to go there now,” Stepan said, following his family inside like this was how things had always been.

Jaren smiled as he closed the door behind him, marveling at how this too-small house suddenly didn’t feel crowded at all.

After stuffing Leelo and Jaren full of food, his sisters took Leelo into their bedroom to find her some clean clothing, and, he felt certain, to marvel over her hair and argue over who would get to brush it.

Jaren and Stepan tidied up and sat down on their little couch, which easily fit all three girls but was a tight squeeze for two grown men.

“I’m so sorry,” Jaren started, at the same time his father said, “We missed you terribly.”

“It was foolish,” Jaren went on. “I kept going back to Lake Luma after that first night, when I camped near it. I thought it was just curiosity at first, but it was something more than that that made me go back. Something more powerful than me.”

His father stroked his beard like it was a new nervous habit, and his brow was creased with worry. “What happened out there, son?”

“I got lost. And then I found Leelo,” Jaren said. And then, in a softer voice, “I found home.”

Stepan turned his head so Jaren wouldn’t see his face begin to crumple.

“It’s true, isn’t it? I was born on Endla?”

Stepan swallowed and wiped his palms on his thighs. Jaren had never seen him so discomfited. “Jaren, you are my child as much as your sisters are. I have loved you since the day you came to us as a tiny wee babe.”

Jaren knew his father believed what he was saying, but the fact was that he was different from the rest of them. He always had been. “And Story?”

“She is not your twin, no.”

Jaren had suspected as much, but hearing his father say the words out loud hit him like a blow to the chest. She was his twin. They had shared a womb. They had grown up in lockstep, sometimes leapfrogging each other in height but going through all their milestones together. They lost their first tooth on the same day. Of all his siblings, Jaren felt a connection with Story that was special. And it wasn’t because he was the only boy. It was in spite of it.

“Don’t cry,” Stepan said, gently wiping a tear away from Jaren’s cheek with the calloused edge of his thumb.

He wasn’t sure why he was so sad. He didn’t love Story or any of his other family members any less because of this revelation. But he felt a loss just the same.

“How?” Jaren managed finally.

Stepan sat back a little. “Klaus’s wife found you, near the lake. It was wintertime. At first she thought you were just another stone by the water’s edge. But then she heard a cry. You were wrapped in a beautiful knit blanket, but it was covered by the snow. She wasn’t sure how long you’d been out there. You were so small and barely breathing. She could tell that you were just a few days old, at most.”

He rose and walked to the cedar chest in the corner, the one where they kept all of Sylvie’s good linens. Jaren waited for his father to rifle around in the chest for a few minutes before he came back and handed him a blanket he’d seen before but never thought much of. Now, though, he wondered how he hadn’t noticed it before.

The blanket was woven of soft wool in bright stripes that had been carefully hand dyed. It was quite clearly Endlan handiwork. There was even a chance that someone he knew had made it.

Stepan looked at his son. “Shall I go on?”

Jaren nodded.

“Understandably, Klaus and his wife, Ana, were distraught at the idea of an abandoned infant, but they didn’t know if you’d been left on purpose. There was a hole in the ice, a couple meters from the shore. It looked like someone had fallen in.”

“Leelo’s mother thinks my birth mother drowned trying to save me.”

“Ana believed as much. She was sure that the person had shoved you across the ice to safety when they went in.”

Jaren didn’t know why his birth mother had been leaving Endla, although after everything he’d witnessed, he could guess. And if it had happened once, maybe it had happened again. There could be others like him, Endlans living among outsiders with no idea who they really were.

“Ana and Klaus cared for you as best they could, but they already had five children of their own to look after. Klaus knew we had one daughter, Summer, and a brand-new baby girl, Story. Her delivery was a difficult one, and your mother wasn’t sure if she’d be able to have more children. But we had always wanted a son. So Klaus came to Tindervale with you and asked if we would adopt you. Your mother was nursing you alongside Story before I could even respond.”

Jaren smiled at that. They may not have shared a womb, but they were still twins. Nothing would change that.

“Did you know about Lake Luma, about the Endlans?” he asked. “Did you suspect that I could have magic?” For the first time, he didn’t trip over the word. How could he deny it anymore when he’d felt it? When he and Leelo sang together, they were no longer separate entities. They were one. He’d never felt so whole and right. He only wished his happiness hadn’t come at Leelo’s expense. He knew she wanted to be with him, but she had never planned to leave her mother behind.

“We assumed you were one of their voiceless children, the incantu. Why else would your parents be taking you away?”