Taryn stood just outside the hospital door feeling awkward and unsure of herself. Just past the doors in a chair sat Melissa looking stoic beside an older woman who showed even less emotion than her daughter as they waited.
Realizing that this was not going to be easy whatever way she went about it, she took a deep breath, felt Sylvie’s comforting presence behind her and went inside.
The two women looked up as she entered. Melissa nodded, somewhat respectfully, Taryn noted in relief while her mother’s jaw dropped nearly to the floor. Despite the sound of horseshoes outside, she had clearly not expected to see centaurs.
“Hello Melissa.” Taryn said quietly, coming up to the pair. “How is your sister?”
“About as well as can be expected, considering how much spider venom was in her.” Melissa said, sounding a little bitter. “I hate spiders.” She added venomously.
“I can understand that.” Taryn said. “Right now, I am none-too-crazy about them myself. But I fear deeper magic goes here than any of us expect. And I worry that you two may now be considered targets of opportunity for our enemies.”
Melissa looked up curiously at Taryn.
“Why? We’ve done nothing wrong. There’s no need to go after us.”
Taryn hesitated a moment, then chose the easier course first.
“You have aided us, with your knowledge of the canyon. Chosen to aid us, I should actually say. Perhaps by the Ancestors themselves for this purpose.”
At those words Melissa and her mother looked startled.
“Chosen?” Melissa asked at the same time her mother said, “Ancestors chose them?”
Taryn smiled at her and bowed.
“Forgive me, but we have not been introduced. I am Taryn Grogan.”
She looked for any sign of recognition in the older woman’s face, but there wasn’t even a hint as she nodded her head back and said, “Little Raven, Wendy Little Raven.”
“Pleased to meet you.” Taryn said, feeling a brief flicker of disappointment, but suppressing it firmly.
Melissa pressed on. "How was I chosen? It seems like a coincidence that you met my sister, who knew I had explored the canyon, and that I recognized your description. There might have been others who..."
She stopped when Taryn shook her head.
"No. The grotto was hidden by magic. No one in the park knows about it, and no map or survey has ever shown it. We searched thoroughly, and we are sure that the canyon was undiscovered for millennia, until you entered it. Or were led there for a reason."
"What reason?"
"To guide those who came after you." Taryn said with conviction. "But I think there is more that binds us."
She took a deep breath, screwing her courage to the sticking point.
“I think there may be more to why you were chosen, and I think it has to do with me.”
Melissa and Wendy looked baffled.
Taryn forged ahead.
“My father’s side of the family has First Nation ancestry.” She looked at them with a steady gaze. “He abandoned my mother nineteen years ago today because she had an incurable disease that made her frail and bedridden. I was a child then. I renounced him and suppressed my heritage as much as I could, feeling betrayed by him. When I became a centaur, I discovered that my bloodline influenced me more than I had realized.” She skipped the details of Nightshade and his Circus. “I learned that my magic is deeply linked to those roots. It is a magic that I have used to confront evil, both at Red Leaf and here.”
At once, Wendy’s face stiffened as a thought overtook her. Melissa noticed and her own eyes widened.
“Mom, what is it?”
“R-Red Leaf?” Wendy said Intently, ignoring her.
Taryn nodded, and waited.
“Mom, what is it?” Melissa said more forcefully.
“It can’t be.” Wendy shook her head slowly, denying something no one could see. “It can’t be.”
Melissa began to look confused and angry but before she could do anything a hand fell on her shoulder and she looked up to see Sylvie’s grim expression.
“Wait.” Was all she said before letting go.
“John used to work in Red Leaf.” Wendy said slowly, as if wanting to deny those words. “He would come home to me and complain that there weren’t any of our people there for him to have the feeling of home. He wanted so much for a tribal job, but he couldn’t afford to leave as it was just enough to pay his bills. He was willing to make the long drive home to me as often as he could.”
Taryn nodded.
“My mother says he used to tell her he had to work out of town, being part of the railroad.” She said flintily.
Melissa began to glimpse what was being said. Her mouth opened in denial and kept shaking side to side.
“No, mom! She has to be lying. I can’t believe dad would…how dare you malign him like that! He’s dead and you can’t even begin to imagine…”
“He is not dead.” Taryn replied grimly.
At that both women looked at her sharply.
“Yes. He is! He died in a railroad accident years ago, we have the documents…” Melissa said hotly, but Taryn shook her head.
“With the situation unfolding, understand that my family history has come under intense government scrutiny.” She said gently. “John faked his death, but not very well. For some reason, he never bothered to prove his death legally in the state, only to you. He went out of the tribal lands and is now currently living in Las Vegas with two other wives.”
“TWO!” Wendy gasped, the word coming as if she had been kicked in the belly.
“That we know of. They are apparently his current wives, which he also has children with. It seems he prefers his wives young, have kids with them, and then leave. In total, he has seven kids with four different women." Taryn spoke without emotion. "Of his current families, the younger ones are still in school, and they don't know about each other. Little Cloud and I are almost the same age, born a few months apart."
They stared at her, shocked by her words.
"I have evidence." Taryn said. "But we don't have time to look at it now. We are under attack, and the enemy wants to wipe out my family for good."
Taryn frowned.
"Most of my mother's relatives are gone. The ones who are alive have been alerted and protected. But that leaves my father's relatives."
She looked at them.
“You have already marked yourselves for your aid. I am so sorry about that, I did not realize the depth of danger I put your sister and you in when I asked for information regarding where I needed to go. And when we discovered your connection to me, then I knew that you are doubly marked.”
“So, what do we do?” Wendy asked, gripping her daughter’s arm as if to assure herself that Melissa would not be snatched away.
“The visions say I need your help.” Taryn said, looking at Melissa. “But I think you have already accomplished that goal. Now mine is to keep you safe. I would beg that you go with Agent Bengal and Mr. Wolfe who are working with us. You would be safely hidden until we are able to deal with this threat. Once it is killed, then it would be safe to come back out of hiding.”
Melissa hesitated, then shook her head.
“If dad’s alive, I want to find him.” She said firmly. “And prove that he’s really what you say.” She added defiantly.
Taryn nodded.
“All the information that I have on him will be given to you.” She said.
“Just like that?” Melissa asked, caught flat-footed. It was clear she expected an argument.
“If I were in your shoes, I would do the same.” Taryn said. “I think. I don’t know. I spent my life hating my father, as he abandoned my mother for her health and me because he would have had to take care of me.” Taryn’s eyes flashed and her teeth clenched, grinding a little in the hospital room. Melissa and her mother eyed her warily.
“He left us. He left us when it got difficult. So no, I will not shed tears if you confront him. You can do with him as you like. But keep yourself safe. Even around him. Our information, as you will find out, suggests that he is in deep debts to the local mob, and there is no telling what he would do to recover those losses. He has little ties to his own family it seems.”
Melissa looked at her and then took the proffered chip.
“I…believe you.” She said slowly, looking into Taryn’s eyes. She put the chip into her pocket, blushing a little under Taryn’s gaze.
“Good luck.” Was all she said thought.
“What are we going to do?” Wendy asked.
“That is where we come in.” A voice said unexpectedly behind Taryn.
They looked and saw Taryn’s mother, Wolfe, and Bengal standing just inside the door.
Taryn’s mother walked up to stand beside her daughter.In a bizarre tableau, mother and daughter looked across a yawning gulf to mother and daughter…and saw a connection between them. Bits and pieces of familiar features could be seen now, when the eye looked for them. A certain slant in the eyes. A bit of the same chin in both daughters. Taryn was amazed.
“Hello.” Taryn’s mother said suddenly, extending her hand. “I’m Mary. Mary Grogan.”
Startled, Wendy stared dumbly at the extended limb in fascination, then took it and shook warmly.
“I am Wendy Little Raven.” She said with a smile.
Taryn let out the breath that she realized she’d been holding. She felt suddenly encouraged by what she was seeing in front of her.
Perhaps things will turn out all right in the end. She thought.
“As I was saying,” Bengal said, bringing everyone back on topic. “That is why I am here. I would like to see all three of you placed into Witness Protection until this situation is resolved.”
His bluff, no nonsense face took on a stern cast as he glanced around the hospital.
“I don’t think this hospital is all that secure.” He finished.
“It’s the only one in town.” Wendy protested.
“I know.” Bengal agreed. “Which is why I recommended to my superiors that they arrange medevac helicopters to fly the patients to the hospitals in major cities. There they can be treated in better safety should this hospital become a target for the arachnids.”
“No,” he added, seeing Melissa open her mouth, “I do not think the city hospitals will have any better defenses set up for spiders. But they do have the advantage of being far inside cities away from natural terrain features. These larger tarantulas would have to come from the outside in, and that will make it much harder for them to get that far.”
Melissa closed her jaw with a click.
Taryn nodded to herself. It made sense, she admitted. Spiders were everywhere, she wouldn’t argue with that. But the larger species tended to be more noticeable and more vigorously killed then in the country. Surely these giants would have twice the trouble living undetected in any great numbers. That would be to their advantage.
“All right. Where do you think they should go?” Taryn asked.
“The further away the better.” Bengal said grimly. “I am recommending California and Oregon, but my superiors may decide to let the patients go to the closer hospitals if they believe the situation can be contained to this immediate vicinity.”
“Where exactly?" Taryn asked skeptically. "The Grand Canyon spans a huge area in the middle of the country, crossing several states by itself while the Colorado River extends even further north. The spiders have had millennia to expand as far as they like in their preferred habitat."
Bengal frowned at the reminder of that fact, but he said that the threat seemed to be confined to Arizona and its nearby regions for now. He did not want to think about closing down the whole river yet.
Taryn sympathized with him. It would be a massive task to fight in that much land and it would surely cause a lot of negative attention.
Taryn glanced at the wall clock, noticing how late it was getting. She looked at the door behind which Little Cloud's room was.
"We haven't gotten any news yet." Wendy said.
Taryn sensed the silent determination that nothing in the world or beyond would make her leave before she knew her daughter's fate.
"Then we wait." Taryn said. "And see what happens."