Heir of Earth (Forgotten Gods) Read online

  “What? So they’re like vampires?” I asked, choking on my tea.

  “Gracious, no! They don’t kill anyone. They just take a little bit of the strength out of a human soul, the younger the better. Good thing I don’t have anything to worry about...but you on the other hand.” She looked at me with another one of her spooky ghost story looks.

  “You’re not scaring me,” I said shaking my head defiantly and giving a little laugh. “I quit believing in fairy tales a long time ago.” My life was too far away from a Disney movie to believe life could be that perfect. “You, on the other hand, should probably watch what you say. They say Alzheimer’s starts with delusional ramblings…” I hinted sarcastically.

  “Oh, hush! I’m not that old yet!” she said with fake offense. “Besides, I only believe it because I want to. Life can get pretty boring sometimes. It gives me a little escape when I need it. It’s amazing how much the thought of something else, something other than this boring world being a possibility, can cheer a girl up,” Rose winked at me. “You’d better guard that pretty blonde hair of yours. It would do you no good to make the fair ladies jealous of you now.”

  “Rose, you’re crazy!” I smiled at her across the table and recognized something familiar in her eyes. It was the same twinkle that had shined in my own mother’s eyes years ago, before my handicap had surfaced and stolen her normal child. It warmed me to my soul to see that look of love in Rose’s eyes, but it made me utterly homesick, too.

  I laid in bed that night, wiping tears that filled my eyes and rolled sideways into my hair. Despite how right things felt when I was with Rose and Phin, I still doubted that I had made the right decision, coming to Ireland. Rose and Phin couldn’t have more royally welcomed me, but I still couldn’t fight the homesickness that churned in my stomach and ached in my heart. I had never been this far away from home and even though my life was certainly nothing worth missing…I did.

  I remembered Rose’s little trick. Escaping to a world of fantasy for a minute when the real world gets too real. I closed my eyes and of course he was the first thing that came to my mind.

  I saw him again, dazzling green eyes, standing on top of his chair, well above the crush of the crowd at his feet, looking like a king keeping a watchful eye on the royal subjects below. It was amazing how easily everything in my world had slipped away the moment his eyes met mine. I wasn’t thinking about the knot of homesickness in my stomach or the nerves wringing the rest of my insides. I didn’t think about anything but him.

  How could a single moment feel like a lifetime? And why was it that the thought of him made my body feel like it was about to explode? It was a funny feeling, like a million butterflies were flapping their wings inside me, tickling my stomach until I thought I might puke… or maybe pass out. I had never fantasized about any of the boys at my school. I knew that was a waste of time in my old life. But now it didn’t matter. I was starting over this summer, and falling in love with somebody like Dayne seemed the perfect place to start.

  My fantasy picked up too easily where reality left off. Our eyes met, but in my dream he knew me. He descended from his perch on the chair, his smile widening at the sight of me. The crowd parted into a straight line that ended at my feet. In two quick strides, he was by my side and took my hand.

  “Faye,” he said. My name had never sounded more beautiful falling from anyone’s lips before. Every thought in my brain washed away, and I felt the irrational obsession of my first crush settle heavily into my bones. It was bliss and torture to be filled so full with the only thing I wanted and having nothing but an imagination to satisfy my longing.

  With my eyes closed I tried to recall every detail of him. Slowly, as if by magic, he walked out of my dreams and was lying beside me. My pillow became his strong chest and the blankets wrapped around me were his arms holding me closely until sleep found me.

  My body completely relaxed and I sunk even deeper into the feather bed. The stresses of travel and homesickness faded from me, and a sleep took over my weary brain that was too deep to be bothered by dreams.

  Chapter 4

  All Work and No Play

  “Wake up, sleepy head! Don’t want to be late for your first day of work!” Rose’s voice reached my door seconds before her gently knock tapped on other side.

  For a moment I had forgotten where I was, so it was weird to hear Rose’s voice. As I struggled to pull myself from dreaming to waking, the two worlds collided and a black and white image of a poster nailed to a light pole lingered in my mind. Centered on the paper was a fuzzy picture of a girl, with the word “Missing” across the top in big letters and an Irish phone number scrawled below. It was too blurry to make out anything more than that.

  I sat up in bed, grabbing my head between my hands and shaking it furiously back and forth—the way I always did when one of the images crept in.

  Get out of my head, stupid Irish stranger! I thought, secretly relieved the visions were at least back to black and white. Rose knocked again and the door creaked on its hinges.

  I managed an unaffected smile when our eyes met. I was used to covering my handicap by now.

  “Get up, get up! Phin is leaving here in 15 minutes. You’d better be downstairs and ready. He’s not very pleasant this morning. Too much fun last night.” Rose was already dressed in blue jeans and a crisp flowered shirt. Her strawberry hair was pulled back in a low ponytail. She looked fresh and ready for the day.

  “Yeah, right. I must have been exhausted. I completely passed out last night. Where is my…” I tumbled out of bed and began racing around the room trying to remember where I had packed various articles of clothing. Giving up, I grabbed the stack of riding clothes Phin had gotten me. I pulled on the skintight canary britches, the knee-high leather boots and the shirt I had worn last night.

  “Ah! That was thanks to my tea no doubt!” Rose called after me as I rushed to my little bathroom to brush my teeth. I pulled my hair into its normal bun at the base of my neck, threw a baseball cap on top of it all and raced down the stairs.

  “Thanks, Rose!” I called out as the heavy leather boot heals clomped down the stairs. “You’re awesome!”

  Phin was waiting by the door, leaning against the wall in obvious need of support, nursing a mug of piping hot coffee. His eyes were barely open as he turned to me. “No need to make all that racket! We’ve got time enough.” He seemed to wince with pain at the effort of talking.

  “Sorry?” I offered, unsure of how to act around someone who had been up drinking all night.

  “There’s a biscuit and some tea for you on the table,” Rose called out from the balcony. “Never mind Phin. He’ll be right as rain, soon as that coffee gets in his system. Serves him right for staying out all night.” She wagged a finger at Phin as she made her way down the steps.

  “Now, Rose, you know it isn’t in an Irishman’s blood to refuse a free drink. The whole town would’ve been wondering what was wrong with me if I had come home with you last night and left that drink at the bar,” Phin countered in his defense.

  “Oh, I’m not saying I expect anything less of you. I’m saying it serves you right if your head is about to explode off of your neck!”

  She gave him a stern look but had to fight to keep the corners of her mouth from turning up when he jokingly began to bow down in front of her like she was the queen of England.

  “Anything you say, your majesty.” He bowed low and when he heard her choke back a laugh he quickly swept her up in his arms and planted a big kiss on her. I turned away embarrassed by their display. My parents never behaved like that in front of me.

  “Come on then.” Phin looked at me and jerked his head to the door, squinting his eyes in pain because he had moved his head too quickly. He walked to the side of the truck and fumbled with the door. I quickly assessed his current state and remembered the horror of driving with Phin on a good day.

  “Hey, didn’t you say the farm wasn’t too far away from here? Think we may c
ould walk it so I could get my bearings?” I asked, but pleaded with my eyes and hoped I was convincing him somehow in the process.

  Phin looked down and all around him. He patted the pockets on his jean jacket and finally agreed with a nod of the head. I wasn’t sure if he was too exhausted to put up an argument or if he realized he probably shouldn’t be driving either. He grunted, and we were off.

  After five minutes of walking quietly beside me and taking large gulps of coffee, Phin began to return to his old self, stretching his neck out and whistling a familiar tune as we continued in silence.

  I nibbled my biscuit and marveled at Ireland’s lush beauty, something I had always tried to imagine. That morning, seeing it with my own eyes for the first time, I realized my imagination could’ve never done it justice. The green pastures were just as unreal from this angle as it had been from the airplane yesterday. Everything around me was green, but I had never known there were so many shades. There were hundreds of hues in the grass alone, ranging from bright lime to a green so dark it was almost black. In the distance, the trees appeared brownish moss while the scraggly shrubs growing along the crooked stonewall were a shade close to mint. All this stretched out to meet an unnaturally blue sky on the horizon. At this hour, the sky was a deep teal color, not yet diluted with the full strength of the sun’s rays. When we reached a small crest in the road, I stopped in my tracks.

  Below us on the valley floor spread a regal looking estate of epic proportions. It wasn’t merely a castle holding court among the endlessly rolling green fields. It was like a fairytale kingdom with white walls stretching as far as the eye could see and swirling turrets reaching up to the heavens. To one side lay a pond where swans swam in the rising morning mist. Circling the house were forests and fields where animals, both wild and tame, were stretching their limbs after a good night’s sleep. The sun shone down on the sparkling white walls, making them glisten like diamonds. A massive manner house rose from behind the walls, so large it held yet another field inside. The manicured land around reached beyond the horizon and I wondered if it ever stopped.

  “I never get tired of going to work.” Phin squinted in the sunshine, holding his hand up to block the strongest rays.

  “This is work?” My head jerked back to him and I stared with an incredulous look at the smile dimpling his whiskery chin.

  “Welcome to Ennishlough, Faye.” He bowed before me, rolling his hand in a grand gesture as a court page might, mocking the grandeur of the estate below.

  He stood back up, winking at me before he continued whistling down the road to the enormous stone pillars guarding the entry.

  I skipped along at his heels, peppering him with question after question about the never present DeLaney family, who owned the spectacular spread, and the foals who were sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars in-utero and shipped to every corner of the globe as soon as they were weaned.

  He flicked on the light, clucking through his teeth when we entered the old stone barn. Unable to believe my eyes at the magnificent menagerie of horses turning in their stalls to greet us, I stared open-mouthed and dumbly as Phin walked over to pet the first warm muzzle. I had hit the summer job jackpot!

  After a quick introduction to the horses—each curious nose sniffing my pockets for treats— I was even more awe-struck than before. The last stall we came to was the largest, and right beside Phin’s office door. In the shadows of the corner an enormous jet-black mare stood silently, swishing her tail at flies.

  “This is Hannah. She is due to foal any day now,” Phin said. Her huge belly was swollen with the eleven months of gestation she had already endured.

  “Poor girl, she’s about to bust,” I said as Phin quietly entered the stall. He gently touched her side and slid his hand over the slick coat toward her hip, letting her know where he was moving. She flinched at the unexpected touch, but then cocked her back hip and propped the hoof up on its edge, in the typical way horses rest their hind ends. Phin bent at the waist and looked under her belly, back at the large udders between her legs. “Yep, that milk should be coming in soon. Looks like you will get to help us with one of the babies.”

  “Me? I get to do that?” I squealed a little bit at the prospect of helping with a delivery. Hannah startled and turned her enormous head to me, obviously not very appreciative of my shrill tone. “Sorry, Hannah girl,” I pleaded to the majestic mother to be.

  “Phin?” A voice echoed down the empty hallway. Phin and I were both in the stall rubbing on Hannah.

  “Lucas, we’re in with Hannah. Come on down here. I want to introduce you to Faye.” Phin walked over to the stall door and held it open for me to pass through.

  Out in the hallway a figure walked towards us. As he got closer I could make out curly sandy blonde hair and the slightly awkward gait of a boy about my age. He was tall, towering over Phin and myself.

  He stopped in front of us and tossed his head to the side, moving some of the blonde curls out of the way so I could get a good look at his face. He had sweet looking eyes hiding behind wire-rimmed glasses. His shape was lean, but I knew he had to be able to pick up a bale of hay by himself to work at a barn, so he couldn’t be weak.

  “Lucas, this is my niece, or cousin? Wait a minute. I know you call Rose your aunt, but isn’t she actually your cousin?” Phin pushed his hat back on his head and eyed me curiously.

  “Um, yeah,” I answered suddenly embarrassed. “She’s my cousin, you’re my cousin. I just always called you guys aunt and uncle.” I looked at the ground, feeling the familiar flush creeping in to my cheeks.

  “So, Lucas, this is my cousin-niece. She is staying with us this summer and will be exercising the horses. Faye, this is Lucas. He does all the heavy lifting and feeding around here to save an old man’s back.” A hand reached out toward me and I knew I had to look up to greet him.

  “Nice to meet you,” Lucas said.

  I was beyond relieved to see that the same crimson color I felt on my face was spread just as plainly across Lucas’ face and neck too. “Hey,” I said, and felt myself smiling before I could be embarrassed further. I shook his hand and we shared a little laugh, recognizing a friend in each other.

  “Would you two tomatoes stop it and get to work. There’s no time for that at my barn!” Phin barked orders as he turned and walked to his office. I looked over to Lucas who rolled his eyes and shook his head as he began to follow. I giggled and fell in line too, so glad to have found someone to commiserate with this summer.

  That morning I rode three horses before we broke for lunch. Each ride was a short lesson in the ring, on the flat and over some fences, with Phin instructing from the ground. He really was an amazing teacher. I was a pretty good student, too.

  Ever since the first day I sat on a horse I seemed to know what they were thinking. It was the way they held their body; loose and relaxed when they understood what you were asking of them, tight and tense when they were confused. I had a way of making them relax and understand that I was a friend.

  Phin recognized my natural talent. “Oh, what we couldn’t have done if I would have had you from the beginning, Faye! We’d be packing our bags for the Olympics right now!”

  At lunchtime, Phin fished out some sandwich stuff from the mini fridge in his office. We had thick cuts of ham, a loaf of hard bread and stale potato chips, washed down with a hot Coke.

  “Um, would you mind if I started packing us lunch in the morning?” I asked Phin when I choked down the last sip of the hot Coke; it burned and bubbled all the way down my throat. I could only imagine what my stomach would feel like after a few more hours of bouncing around on top of a horse.

  “And what’s wrong with this? Kids these days are spoiled, just spoiled,” Phin shook his head.

  “Not spoiled, I just think something else might be a better lunch for this kind of work.” I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

  “Anything would be better than this!” Lucas agreed with me as he made a production of b
ending a stale, rubbery potato chip before it snapped in half. He chuckled as he tossed it back on the piece of notebook paper he was using as a plate.

  “Oh, been here four months, with no complaints, and now all of a sudden this lunch isn’t good enough for you? Back when I was your age I’d be mighty happy to get a lunch at all, this would have been considered a feast! A feast I tell you!” He tossed a chip at Lucas’ head.

  “Just for that, you’ll be using your afternoon to show Faye around the rest of the farm. Tack up Penny and Prince and you guys hack out so she can begin learning her way around the trails.”

  “But I haven’t finished mucking the stalls yet,” Lucas protested.

  “I’m sure they will still be here when you get back,” Phin said and began cleaning up lunch, mumbling under his breath about how spoiled we were. I was used to Phin’s cantankerous ways and had no problem rolling my eyes at him when he wasn’t looking. Apparently Lucas had yet to learn that Phin’s bark was way worse than his bite. He eyed me with a sense of wonder as I scooted off the edge of Phin’s desk and made my way to the stalls.

  Penny and Prince were a matching set of chestnut sport horses generally used to pull the carriage parked at the end of the barn. They were pretty much inseparable and refused to ride any way but side by side, so close that my stirrup would occasionally hit Lucas’ with a loud clank that made me jump in the saddle.

  “I’m sorry Phin made you do this. I hope you aren’t too late finishing with the stalls.” Part of me felt like it was my fault he was here since I had kinda started the whole lunch rebellion.

  “Are you kidding? I would rather be out here riding than shoveling poop in that barn. I just don’t want Phin to think I am too eager to get away from my chores. You know Phin— all work and no play. I only protested for a little job security.” His eyes sparkled in the sunshine and danced with the excitement of being on the back of a horse. I felt the same way. There wasn’t any way life could get much better than being on the back of a horse and having such a beautiful place to ride.