“Nonsense. It’s no trouble.”
It was clear that Mace had been sitting at the table; there was a book open, a cup of coffee, and a plate with some crumbs. He laid out a breadboard with fresh crusty bread, some sliced ham and cheese, jam and rich gold butter in a set of small stone dishes. If this was Mace’s version of bachelor chow, Luke couldn’t imagine what he would think of the cold beans and ramen Luke had subsisted on in his younger years.
“I am aware you were both involved in the contretemps out at the ship yesterday,” Mace said, pouring coffee for both of them from a silver pot. The smell was heavenly. “Whatever you thought you saw, I’m sure you’re aware that I will not be answering specific questions about it.”
“That’s actually .... kind of not the question I had.” Luke glanced at Inga. “I think Inga and I are fated mates. We both recognize it. And we didn’t until today.”
“Oh, really? Interesting.” Mace smeared butter on a piece of bread for himself and took his seat at the head of the table. “It’s very possible that as a created shifter, you’re more like a gargoyle than you are like a normal shifter. We were created, you know—originally. Not me personally, but my ancestors, were humans who agreed to undergo a magical procedure.”
“Luke didn’t exactly agree,” Inga said, reaching across to grasp Luke’s hand.
Mace smiled enigmatically as he buttered his bread. “Well, there’s some doubt about how much choice my ancestors may have had, either. But that’s neither here nor there. Anyway,gargoyles don’t recognize their mates until they fall in love with them. I’m glad you two have had that experience. Congratulations.”
Inga flushed and looked down.
Before either of them could speak, a sudden familiar zipping sound accompanied a soaking-wet Rogue appearing in the kitchen in front of the fire. The dog shook himself, splattering water everywhere.
“Sorry!” Inga exclaimed. “Uh, so we found out that Rogue can—do that. Pretty sure you were right that he’s not a normal dog.”
“I would say so,” Mace said wryly. He had shielded the bread from the light spray of dog water, but he set it down and pulled out a clean pocket square to dab at his sleeve. “No, he can stay,” he added as Inga jumped up to try to grab Rogue. “Especially since making him leave doesn’t seem to be terribly effective. Anyway, I expect you didn’t come visit me just to share your good news.”
Luke hesitated. “I have a request. You can say no.”
“I’d better hear it first.”
“I want you to train me, sir,” Luke said earnestly. “I’d like to learn how to use these powers that Rogue and I both have, and I can’t think who else to ask. It’s not like there’s a school for this.”
Mace stroked a hand over his lips. “I’ll have to think about it, and talk to Thea before I decide anything. I have helped newer and younger gargoyles learn to use their powers. But that is something I know intimately, of course. I’ve never trained someone who isn’t one of us.”
“Obviously I wouldn’t expect it for free,” Luke said. “I can’t pay you, at least not right now. But I would do any kind of work you need done. Or I could work and save?—”
Mace held up a hand. “Let’s not negotiate details now. As I said, I need to think.” He glanced over at the wet dog who wassniffing curiously around the kitchen floor, occasionally pausing to shake himself. “And perhaps, on second thought, I might get a towel before he dampens everything in here.”
EPILOGUE
They hadn’t been backto the cabin for months, and as always, Inga found the rapid pace of the changes through the short northern summer startling to see up close. Flowers were blooming in vast profusion, softening the rugged, rocky hills. On their ride up the coast, using Nita’s borrowed skiff, warm winds blew to them from the coast, fragrant with the rich scents of a thousand growing things.
The cabin was as they had left it. Rogue bounded around, reacquainting himself with all his favorite rocks to sniff and mark as his own, while Inga and Luke opened up the cabin door and unboarded the window, aired it out, and unpacked the food and other supplies they had brought with them.
There was a flurry of squawking and flapping, and Inga looked out the door.
They had brought more than just dehydrated eggs and sleeping bags. They also had two of the teenage trash griffins with them, the ones dubbed Cinnamon and Sugar. The young ones had turned out to be incredibly friendly, following people around the streets, begging for food, and generally being a nuisance. It was easiest to just make pets out of them and have done with it. Nita’s sister Wyona had taken one for her kids.Bernie, who had delivered a healthy baby girl two weeks ago, flatly refused to adopt one in spite of Inga’s wheedling, because (she said) her cat would probably eat it. Cinnamon and Sugar had attached themselves to Luke and Inga, and it looked like one of Stieg’s fishing buddies was going to take the remaining one.
Inga had not quite been able to bring herself to ask Mace if he wanted one. She and Luke were now on friendly terms with the gargoyles—not just Mace and Thea, but also Mace’s niece Jess and her husband Reive—but there was still a certain sense of dignified serenity to Mace and his household that didn’t seem especially compatible with a screaming, squawking half-seagull half-raccoon.
Although given how both Cinnamon and Sugar had taken to following Luke and Inga around, together or separately, it was probably only a matter of time ...
“How is the work with Mace going?” Inga asked.
Luke had just finished formalizing his position in Mace’s household as a sort of handyman/general workman-around-the-house. Inga wasn’t sure exactly what he was doing, but she was pretty sure the answer was “whatever needed doing at any given time.” Mace regularly hired people from the village to do what he needed done, from cooking to housekeeping, but in general his household ran with few to no permanent staff. Luke was apparently going to be an exception.
“I’m enjoying it so far. Yesterday, Thea had me helping her transplant plants in the garden. I feel like to some extent, they’re finding things for me to do.”
“Nonsense. I realize I don’t know Mace and his family well, not as well as you do at this point, but there’s one thing I think I can say for sure, which is that he wouldn’t do anything out of obligation. If you’re there, it’s because he wants you there.”
Luke smiled and didn’t argue. “What about you? Have you heard back from the uni yet?”
“Yeah, it’s much too late in the year to be accepted for a formal degree program in the fall, but I’ll be taking correspondence classes over the winter, and we’ll see how I like it. If I do, I might end up having to move to St. John’s, or even the mainland, to finish my degree. I don’t know how that would work out with your training with Mace.”
