Read Online Thirteen Orphans by Jane Lindskold - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Jane Lindskold
Tags: Fantasy
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do about the Dog. However, let me make a call where it may do some good.”
“Why don’t you use the phone in the bedroom?” Dad said. “I’ll get on my cell out here and call Deborah Van Bergenstein and Shen Kung. Those are the Pig and the Dragon,” he added to Brenda. “I’ll ask a few questions, see how they respond.”
Auntie Pearl nodded. “Good. We should also look to getting someone out to Denver. That’s where, according to my last report, the Dog lives. I’ll call my travel agent after I talk to Des.”
Brenda bit her lip to keep from asking any of the thousand questions this strange exchange evoked.
“Dad, I’ll step out in the hall, call Mom and let her know we got here safely.”
“Good,” Gaheris said, his own phone already in hand. “I’ll call her later when we know better what we’re doing.”
When Brenda came back from making her call, she found Auntie Pearl and her dad in deep discussion. They stopped the minute she came in, but not, she felt, because they were trying to close her out.
Dad turned to her. “Breni, we’re going to Denver tomorrow, you and me. Auntie Pearl is going to make some further inquiries into the well-being of the other members of the Twelve. However, since there’s nothing more productive we three can do for the rest of this evening, I think now is the time for you to ask Auntie Pearl every question you can think of.”
“And listen to the answers, as well,” the older woman said with a thin-lipped smile. “Pleasant as this hotel room is, I could use a change of venue. Brenda, with your father’s agreement, I have made reservations at Hour’s Deserve. The food is excellent, and the menu varied enough that we should all be able to find something we’d enjoy. Hour’s Deserve has the added advantage of being accustomed to hosting guests who wish to be given their privacy. We can talk freely about the most outré matters.”
Brenda mentally reviewed the clothes she’d packed. She thought she put together an outfit respectable enough to pass in a good restaurant. They agreed to meet in the lobby in half an hour.
“I am not as young as I once was,” Auntie Pearl confessed. “Fifteen minutes to rest my eyes would be useful.”
Pearl Bright’s eyes were shut, but her mind was racing. The results of the phone calls she and Gaheris had made between them had been disturbing. Des had taken her warning seriously, but several of the others had shown evidence of that same peculiar amnesia that she had witnessed in Albert Yu.
They had remembered whatever ostensible reason they had for knowing her, but of the deeper mysteries that bound them they had remembered nothing at all.
All of these were people Pearl had known all their lives, and, in some cases, for much of her own. She was among the oldest of the Twelve, the only surviving first-generation descendant of one of the original Orphans, but several of the others had held their positions for decades. The Exile Tiger had been the youngest of the Orphans. Some of his older colleagues had passed their heritage on to their children within a few decades of their being exiled. This had, of course, created problems of its own. Orphaned orphans had not always cared for their inheritance. Some had rejected it outright, but it would not reject them.
“I didn’t ask for this either,” Pearl said aloud to the empty hotel room. “I didn’t ask, yet here I am. Now with Albert gone … Is it worth going on?”
But Pearl knew she would. For one, even if she were to resign her role, that did not mean whoever had gone after the others would leave her alone. Moreover, the Tiger had an interesting problem. The Tiger did not have any children. There was a serious question as to whether or not she had an heir. The auguries Pearl had cast had been more than a little ambivalent on the matter. Probably the Tiger’s power would pass to one of her brothers, or to one of their sons and daughters.
“Why don’t you use the phone in the bedroom?” Dad said. “I’ll get on my cell out here and call Deborah Van Bergenstein and Shen Kung. Those are the Pig and the Dragon,” he added to Brenda. “I’ll ask a few questions, see how they respond.”
Auntie Pearl nodded. “Good. We should also look to getting someone out to Denver. That’s where, according to my last report, the Dog lives. I’ll call my travel agent after I talk to Des.”
Brenda bit her lip to keep from asking any of the thousand questions this strange exchange evoked.
“Dad, I’ll step out in the hall, call Mom and let her know we got here safely.”
“Good,” Gaheris said, his own phone already in hand. “I’ll call her later when we know better what we’re doing.”
When Brenda came back from making her call, she found Auntie Pearl and her dad in deep discussion. They stopped the minute she came in, but not, she felt, because they were trying to close her out.
Dad turned to her. “Breni, we’re going to Denver tomorrow, you and me. Auntie Pearl is going to make some further inquiries into the well-being of the other members of the Twelve. However, since there’s nothing more productive we three can do for the rest of this evening, I think now is the time for you to ask Auntie Pearl every question you can think of.”
“And listen to the answers, as well,” the older woman said with a thin-lipped smile. “Pleasant as this hotel room is, I could use a change of venue. Brenda, with your father’s agreement, I have made reservations at Hour’s Deserve. The food is excellent, and the menu varied enough that we should all be able to find something we’d enjoy. Hour’s Deserve has the added advantage of being accustomed to hosting guests who wish to be given their privacy. We can talk freely about the most outré matters.”
Brenda mentally reviewed the clothes she’d packed. She thought she put together an outfit respectable enough to pass in a good restaurant. They agreed to meet in the lobby in half an hour.
“I am not as young as I once was,” Auntie Pearl confessed. “Fifteen minutes to rest my eyes would be useful.”
Pearl Bright’s eyes were shut, but her mind was racing. The results of the phone calls she and Gaheris had made between them had been disturbing. Des had taken her warning seriously, but several of the others had shown evidence of that same peculiar amnesia that she had witnessed in Albert Yu.
They had remembered whatever ostensible reason they had for knowing her, but of the deeper mysteries that bound them they had remembered nothing at all.
All of these were people Pearl had known all their lives, and, in some cases, for much of her own. She was among the oldest of the Twelve, the only surviving first-generation descendant of one of the original Orphans, but several of the others had held their positions for decades. The Exile Tiger had been the youngest of the Orphans. Some of his older colleagues had passed their heritage on to their children within a few decades of their being exiled. This had, of course, created problems of its own. Orphaned orphans had not always cared for their inheritance. Some had rejected it outright, but it would not reject them.
“I didn’t ask for this either,” Pearl said aloud to the empty hotel room. “I didn’t ask, yet here I am. Now with Albert gone … Is it worth going on?”
But Pearl knew she would. For one, even if she were to resign her role, that did not mean whoever had gone after the others would leave her alone. Moreover, the Tiger had an interesting problem. The Tiger did not have any children. There was a serious question as to whether or not she had an heir. The auguries Pearl had cast had been more than a little ambivalent on the matter. Probably the Tiger’s power would pass to one of her brothers, or to one of their sons and daughters.
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