Disclaimers: BeastMaster characters and concept are property of their creators. No copyright infringement intended. Original characters and story are property of the author.
Spoilers: Well . . . duh.
Rating: PG; Drama.
Note: This series rearranges the timeline slightly -- into what it would seem the official writers had in mind (making the assumption of course that they're not writing different universes like we do). For this universe, episodes are arranged in the following order: "Riddle of the Nymph," "The Chameleon," and "The Minotaur." "The Slayer" will take place after the next story in the series arc. This story, however, is intended to . . . well . . . fill in a few blanks and answer a few questions that were left or brought up by events in the episode "The Chameleon." I was at a loss before, but then Aty showed up and made things all better. <g> By a bit of necessity, this story is less of a "missing scenes" snippet and more of a full "She Said" POV of this episode.
Atylanta:
"The Chameleon"
© 2000, Grace Macy
Part One
"My, you two do work quickly," a voice said dryly from thin air. "I'd think you'd at least find wives before you found children."
Dar and Tao whirled, the BeastMaster automatically trying to shield basket holding the infant Sharak had found. They had just been about to start on their way again to Samoria, figuring that even if the child was not from there, there would be milk available in the village. Neither man knew what he was expecting as they turned in direction of the voice. The Sorceress perhaps, or some forest spirit.
It was a sorceress alright, they discovered as she stepped out of shimmering air by a tree, but not the one they had feared. The sorceress Eskerr, so dubbed for her long dark hair, looked as lovely as ever. She was garbed in a softly patterned dress of deep greens and blues that looked like the depths of the ocean, yet was cut as simply as the one in which they had first seen her. Her hair was tied back with a length of ribbon that matched the gown, winding through her hair in the strands of an equally simple braid.
Dar still gripped his staff defensively, however: he didn't know this woman well enough yet to trust her, not with an infant like this. "Lady Eskerr," he greeted her politely.
The dark-haired sorceress raised an eyebrow. "Lady Eskerr," she chided him lightly, "is what King Zad calls me. And I would rather not think about that man, if you don't mind."
Dar couldn't help a smile; it was somehow comforting that a woman with such power had an equally low opinion of the Terron king. Dar noticed that Tao was eyeing the woman with a bit less suspicion -- but then again, he had seen her interaction with the Sorceress as Dar had not. "Eskerr," he corrected himself. "Can we . . . do something for you?"
Eskerr shook her head. "No. But as Pelagia is busy, she asked me to see if you two needed anything. Or rather, if the baby did."
"Pelagia . . . asked you . . ." Dar looked a bit stunned.
Eskerr raised an eyebrow. "I'm not a disciple, but I am a friend." She glanced at the basket. "Interesting choice for a baby-carriage, that."
Dar looked at the basket, then at Eskerr as she approached. He still wasn't sure whether or not to trust her. Eskerr seemed to sense that, for she said, "Pelagia knew you would be hesitant to trust me, regardless of our past meeting, so she asked me to remind you of the time when you were five years old. You asked her a question about mothers and children. . ."
Dar blushed, remembering that innocent question. He had wanted to know what relationship mothers had with the storks that supposedly brought babies to their families, and if he should call one of them 'uncle.' Eskerr smiled and continued, "Her answer was that that was precisely the question she should have expected from Ril's child."
Dar blushed a bit more, but nodded. "She's the only one who knows that story."
"And she begged forgiveness for relaying even a part of it."
Dar frowned. "She didn't tell you what the question was?"
Eskerr chuckled. "I think it's a good sign of trust," she told him. "Personally, there are a number of stories from my childhood I'd prefer she never shared, no matter the issue at hand."
Dar stared at her, as did Tao, but Eskerr only smiled. Dar shook his head finally and lowered the basket to the ground in order to open the clasps. Eskerr knelt beside it, smiling softly as the basket was opened and the baby revealed.
It seemed to Dar to actually be a genuine smile. If he had had any idea of the reaction his own interaction with the baby would have drawn from women, he might have recognized the look he and Tao wore now as the young sorceress reached a gentle hand towards the infant and cooed a "Hello" at him. Both men were staring openly, stunned by the gentleness a sorceress was displaying -- and at the soft and completely natural light that seemed to suffuse her lovely features as she did so. It was strange seeing someone who looked so much like the enemy Sorceress looking so . . . nice.
"Sharak found him by the muddy river," Dar said, not even realizing he had spoken until the words were out.
Eskerr looked up at him, smiling, and Tao felt his breath catch. He was vaguely comforted that Dar looked almost as walloped by the brilliance of the expression as he felt. But not quite. "Sharak has good taste."
"We think he's hungry," Tao put in. "From all the traveling. . ."
Eskerr laughed. "Well, I hate to disappoint you boys, but I'm not going to nurse him. Some things I cannot produce."
Both men blushed. "I -- we --" Tao stumbled, until she turned that smile on him and thoughts seemed to vanish.
"But other things, more conventional things, I can produce." She made a small motion and a clear flask filled with white appeared in her hand. "Goat milk. Smaller curds than cow milk, easier on an infant's belly." She looked at Dar and asked, "May I?"
Dar hesitated for a moment, exchanging a look with Tao, then nodded. The dark-haired sorceress picked up the baby with the same gentleness with which she had smiled at him, settling his in her arms with the ease of practice. This was clearly not the first time she had handled an infant.
Eskerr, known to those in her confidence (which as yet did not include the two men) as Atylanta, noticed that they stayed close. Their eyes were worried as they "hovered," and she restrained a sigh. If she wished them harm, she could have done so already -- and the same was true of if she wanted the baby. She supposed that was Dar's reasoning in handing it over to her. Atylanta pushed those thoughts aside, however, as she looked down at the infant in her arms.
Such a tiny little thing, and yet this was how they all began. Even the handsome BeastMaster and Eiron scholar, even Elorene and Atylanta themselves. The Witch found herself smiling down at the little one with wonder, all concerns slipping her mind, as they always did when she was around children. It was one of the things that had made it so easy for Pelagia to become friends with her all those years ago. She cradled the child confidently, rocking him slightly as he peered up at her. "Hey there," she murmured. "Hungry, are you?"
The baby gurgled slightly and Atylanta smiled. She was as unaware of the outright stares of wonder she was engendering as the baby. She eased the slender nozzle of the flask to that tiny little mouth, and felt a presence by her elbow. She looked up to find Tao frowning slightly at the child.
"So . . . it is . . . real?" the Eiron asked. He glanced briefly at her face, then colored slightly and looked down at the baby again.
Atylanta restrained a chuckle. Perhaps that "when I want something" line when we last met was too strong, she thought, amused. Aloud, she said, "I suspect what you mean is, is the child human? The answer to that is yes, he is. But . . . not quite."
Dar frowned. He stood a short distance away, watching carefully and trying not to trust her based on the look and smile of gentle wonder she gave the child. "Could a sorcerer have created him?"
Eskerr shook her head. "No. That much I can tell you, even without Pelagia's aid." She looked down at the child, a different kind of wonder in her eyes. "No sorcery created this little one. No sorcery could have."
"How do you know?" Tao asked.
Eskerr glanced at him. "It is difficult to explain, but . . ." She sighed. "Think of sorcery, or witchery as . . . as crafts that use weaving. For every spell, there are threads of power. With some the "stitches" are simple, like hemming a cloak. With others, it is more complex, like creating a tapestry. But there are always threads."
"And sorcerers . . . can sense these threads?" Tao asked, frowning slightly. Eskerr nodded.
"But with this child. . . ?" Dar prompted.
"There is magick, but there are no threads." Eskerr looked at the child, and again her expression changed, becoming almost distant and yet still wondrous. "With this precious one there is only . . . light. And a sense of . . . of goodness, innocence . . . purity." The child pulled its mouth from the nozzle and Eskerr pulled the flask away. A thin stream of milk slipping from the corner of the baby's mouth, along with some spittle. Eskerr laughed. "All right, perhaps purity is not quite the right word." Dar and Tao smiled, again almost despite themselves.
"We're trying to find his parents," Dar told her. "Or at least the people responsible for him. As you noticed, he is . . . not a normal baby. He . . . he changes color to match what he lays on . . ."
Eskerr frowned. "That would explain the magick I sense . . . to some degree." She looked down at the child and propped him up to her shoulder, aligning him to allow a burp should he need it. Her wandering thoughts distracted her from the sweet baby smell that made her want to cuddle the little one even closer. "Fate has something great in store for this little one. But what . . . that I do not know. I will ask Pelagia, but I doubt she does either -- else she'd have told me."
Tao nodded. "Whatever it is, an ability like that suggests it will be dangerous."
Eskerr smiled. "Destinies usually are," she observed. "As you two should know well."
"Tao says the weaving on the basket is from Samoria," Dar added, trying not to think too much about destinies. "It's a village not far from here."
Eskerr nodded. "I am familiar with it. And you're right, scholar, the basket does look to be their work. But the muddy river . . ."
"Is not close enough to have this make any sense," Dar completed. "Sharak said he saw no sign of the parents, or anyone heading away from the banks. We have no idea how the child got there."
Eskerr's eyes hardened, becoming as hard as flint. "If you discover the answer to this mystery, I think Pelagia would greatly like to know. As would I."
Dar smiled slightly, raising an eyebrow. "What would your mother say to what this does to your reputation?"
Eskerr laughed, but there was something slightly hard in the sound, as if he had struck a sore subject. Dar frowned and added this to his list of strange things as she answered, "My mother would hardly be surprised. I'm afraid my reputation has already been established as less than hers."
"Children rarely wish to match their parents in perception," Tao said softly.
Eskerr looked at him and smiled slightly. "But parents rarely wish anything else," she observed. She shrugged and shifted to carefully hand the baby to Dar. "Keep the bottle until you no longer need it. It will return to me when it has been emptied."
"Small stitches?" the BeastMaster asked.
Eskerr laughed, the darkness gone from her eyes now. "Very small," she confirmed. "Safe journey, BeastMaster. Scholar." She looked at the infant and smiled, reaching out a hand to touch his cheek lightly. "Little one. May fate smile on you, sweetling."
She turned and walked away, her figure shimmering out of sight with every step until she had vanished. Tao and Dar watched her go, then looked at one another. Tao shook his head. "And I thought it was just women that I would never understand."
Dar laughed softly. "You are not alone in that," he assured his friend.
With another chuckle, they settled the infant back in the basket and started back on the path to Samoria.
~*~*~*~
Atylanta had seen many unpleasant things upon entering her mother's Aerie unexpectedly, but the sight of Zad frozen in time was not one of them. She looked at the Terron king with definite amusement in her eyes and asked, "Did he finally try something lewd with you, too?"
Elorene turned from her observation of the scrying bowl and smiled at her daughter, knowing that Atylanta was referring to the time a month ago when Zad had placed his hand on the young sorceress' bottom. "He was unbearably rude. And he was going to try to strike me."
Atylanta gave an unladylike snort. "I did tell you he was stupid, Mother."
Elorene smiled. "And obsessed. It seems he had a dream recently. A nightmare vision of a child that would one day destroy him." She didn't noticed the flicker in her daughter's eyes at those words. She continued, "He actually went and collected children from all around to try and catch it, put a ransom on their heads. Silly man."
Atylanta frowned. "How does he plan on finding the right one? Surely with so many . . ."
"I made him a little spell. Over there."
Atylanta looked in the direction of the wave and frowned at what she saw. A mobile, but with magick so delicately enlaced through every piece that it nearly blinded her sorcerer's Sight. She approached the hanging collection of baubles and touched it lightly. There was something else tied to this. Something dark and deadly. Atylanta turned to her mother with wide eyes and asked in a hushed voice, "Mother, what have you made here?"
Elorene smiled. "A trap. But I am thinking of revising it a tad. I saw Zad's vision. The child in his dream, in his fate, is a magickal one! A child of all races! Imagine what it could be ---"
"In your hands," Atylanta completed quietly. Her eyes were hard. "I thought you had your fill of raising infants when I passed that phase of development."
The Sorceress waved a hand. "That was different. This child --"
"Clearly has a destiny. I do not think it would be any wiser to cheat Fate and Death by taking the child for yourself than it would be to do it by killing the child for Zad."
Elorene let out an exasperated sigh. "You sound like the Ancient One. Those were nearly his exact words."
Atylanta looked horrified by the thought. "Gods forbid," she muttered fervently. "But in this case, perhaps the Ancient One has a point." She shook her head with a sigh. "Leave Fate to its own devices, Mother. Else you play a very dangerous game."
Elorene scowled at her. "Are you sure you weren't eavesdropping?"
Her daughter chuckled. "Quite sure. But I have a sense that nothing I -- or the Ancient One -- say is going to change your mind on this matter. You will only get as obsessed about this as you are with the BeastMaster's powers, and with understanding love."
Elorene frowned. "What I choose as an obsession is no one's concern but my own, daughter. Go play your games and leave me to mine."
Atylanta sighed. "Mother. . ."
"Go! I have no time for this!"
Atylanta gave her a hard look, her own patience abruptly flaring to an end. "As you will, Sorceress," she snapped, and sent herself from the Aerie.
Elorene stared at the spot where she had stood and let out a little growl of annoyance. How dare she try to tell her what to do! She was only a minor sorceress compared to Elorene, for all her great power as a Witch! And she was her child -- Atylanta should have supported her venture! But Atylanta had never been that way, at least once she passed her 20th year. Then all of a sudden it was all a matter of kindness and compassion to her! She brewed potions for healing, created shields to protect villages and monsters. . . How Elorene had ever raised such a "sorceress" . . . !! It was all Pelagia's fault, for decreeing that the Ancient One could have no influence on the growing child!
Elorene scowled and glared at the frozen figure of King Zad. "Justice," she told him gravely, "just may be for you to have a child of your own someday."
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