Chapter 148 - Ilio part 15

I think it was then that I first realized how ignorant I truly was. I was old, and yet, in many ways, I was like a babe fallen from his papoose. I was lost in a world I did not fully understand. I had been transformed by a cruel blood drinker, a demented creature that knew only hunger and the need to dominate, yet in destroying him I had made myself an orphan. Out of love for my mortal family, I had never ventured far from the valley of my birthplace. I had remained there, isolated, untrained, until the great mountains of ice came and swallowed everything… even myself. I had thoroughly explored my abilities in the years that I was a recluse, yet in all other ways, I was a child. As much as the boy I thought to father.

I shared these thoughts with my adoptive son that night as we trailed after the Neirie exodus: that we must safeguard the living blood we carried in our bodies, lest we infest the world with the curse of our blood lust. That we must play the part of gods or magic spirits until the truth about our nature is forgotten again by mortal men. That we must make no others like ourselves unless we are certain of their trustworthiness.

He nodded in agreement, confessing that he had taken Kuhl's memories along with his blood. He had experienced the subjugation of the Pruss as if it were his own life, he said. He had shared Kuhl's bitterness and thirst for vengeance.

"You cannot imagine what he lived through, Father," Ilio said gravely. "His masters were so wicked. I understand why Kuhl was so angry, yet in his hatred, he was no better than the men who owned him. In the end, he was just as cruel as they. We cannot allow men like Kuhl access to the powers the living blood has granted us. He would devour the world, thinking his suffering justified his actions."

The moon was bright in the sky, the weather balmy and pleasant. We walked peacefully side by side, following the trail of the Neirie exodus. I looked up at the trees shifting somnolently in the cool night breeze, listened to the insects chirring, the rhythmic croaking of frogs in some nearby brook, and I couldn't bear the thought of this beautiful world coming to ruin.

"I plan to live among the Tanti for a while," I said. "These people are my descendants. I will stay until your child is born, Ilio, and then I go to find the blood drinkers of the east. I would like to know our history, and learn the customs of our brethren. You may accompany me on this journey, or you may stay with the Tanti. You are free to follow whatever path you choose. I am not your father, no matter what you like to think. I am not your master either. You are your own man, Ilio. I only tell you my plans because I love you, and because I enjoy your company."

"I love you too, Thest," Ilio said. "You are as much a father to me as any mortal man ever was. I barely even remember the man who sired me, or my life among the Denghoi."

His words touched my heart, and I stopped on the path, turning fully toward him. My hands shot out of their own accord and grasped him by the shoulders. "I have committed terrible sins against you, Ilio!" I said with sudden vehemence. "I cursed you with this hunger for blood out of selfishness. You were mortally wounded, and I could not bear to lose you! I know you do not hate me now, but I fear you will someday. I fear you will curse the day you set eyes upon me!"

"You have saved my life again and again and again, Thest. How could I ever hate you? If not for you, we would not be going now to live among these people; I would not be expecting a child. I am going to be a father, Thest! My bloodline, and the bloodline of my people, will live on in the mortal world. You have not just guarded my life, you have preserved the Denghoi people."

His eyes lit up as a great truth suddenly occurred to him.

"Thest!" he gasped, seizing ahold of me back. "You say these people are your living descendants? Do you know what that means?"

"What?" I asked, startled by his excitement.

"If these Tanti are truly your descendants, then you are the great great grandfather of the child I have made with this Neirie woman!"

I gaped at the boy, stunned by the revelation. I couldn't believe the thought hadn't occurred to me before. It seemed too incredible, and yet it was true! I felt the certainty of it in my soul. His woman Priss was just as much my descendant as the old chieftain Paba and all the rest of the Tanti.

Ilio danced in a circle, kicking his feet up and laughing. "I will have to call you grandfather now!" he cried.

He was right. I would be his child's most ancient grandsire.

Ilio dashed ahead, taunting me, "Hurry up, Grandfather! You've become much too slow in your old age!"

He leapt into the trees as I stood staring after him stupidly. I could hear him crashing through the canopy of the forest, his laughter receding into the distance. Finally, I followed.

Grinning, I gave chase through the dense network of limbs and leafy branches, jumping from tree to tree as the land rose steadily higher. He was a fast little monkey. His smaller stature gave him a slight advantage when we travelled through the treetops, but I finally caught up with him. He had paused at the apex of the ridge, hanging out from the trunk of a tree so that his body was outside the greenery. I stopped there too, standing with him near the top of the soaring oak, so high we swayed back and forth in the breeze.

"There it is," he said. "The village of the Tanti."

He was pointing down into a densely forested valley. There, on the shore of a great lake, stood the tiny homes of the descendants of the River People. My people, I thought, staring solemnly at all the winking torches that lit the settlement's avenues. I felt something lodge in my chest looking down on the village. The rugged gray peaks of the Carpathian mountains, capped in gleaming snow, loomed over the village, but it only reminded me of the great mountains that guarded our people so many years ago. A protective presence, those mountains, not oppressive or threatening in any way.

"The village of the Tanti," I echoed softly.

In truth, I felt as if I were looking through time, not space. I imagined that my family was waiting down there for me, that I might descend from this ridge and rejoin my mates and my children, and that all the years that separated me from that most precious moment in time would evaporate like a sad dream in the honey-colored light of dawn.

"What are you waiting for, Grandfather?" Ilio cried. "Let us go check on our new family!"

He flew from the upper boughs of the oak, making it sway violently back and forth for a moment. I watched him descend to the canopy of the forest below, his arms thrown out to his sides, his clothes flapping as he dived like a bird of prey, growing smaller and smaller. He disappeared in the lush green foliage with a resounding crunch.

I grinned, shaking my head with a mixture of amusement and consternation-- praying to my ancestors that the fearless boy hadn't impaled himself on some sharp tree limb—then, with youthful impulsiveness, I pulled back on the narrow trunk of the tree and used the forward momentum to launch myself into the wind.