Elfhome

Oilcan backed up, waving him off. “Team Tinker is the only team I have.”

“The elves made you a team captain, like it or not. They gave you the power to be a force at the table.”

“There’s Tinker.”

“No offense but your cousin is like a boy scout on crack. Squeaky clean, trying to do a month’s worth of good deeds in one day, and bouncing off the walls at the speed of light.”

Oilcan grinned. “Yeah, that’s her.”

“You and I are a lot alike.”

“Ah, secretly you’re a bohemian artist?”

“We both watched the one thing we loved most in the world get beaten to death in front of us. I know how it makes you feel weak and helpless. And you swear to yourself that you’d eat broken glass before ever going through that again. But the one thing you won’t let yourself do is become your father.”

Oilcan winced and looked away. “It’s that obvious?”

“I’ve seen you with your cousin, and I recognized all the signs,” Tommy said. “I understand you. I trust you. I want to be on your team.”

“I don’t know what the hell I would do with a team.”

“We would make peace and live in it.”

Oilcan studied the river and the distant lock. He took another swallow of ouzo and passed the flask to Tommy. “Okay, let’s team up.”

47: Commitment

Sacred Heart had unofficially become “the orphan house” as all the various shattered Stone Clan households drifted into Oilcan’s care. Jewel Tear took up residence on the third floor as Iron Mace’s newly orphaned warriors shifted down to the second floor along with remains of Earth Son’s household. Again and again, the elves mentioned that the front door needed painted. By that, they meant “should be Stone Clan black.”

He’d been haunted all night by his conversation with Tommy. Just as the half-oni recognized himself in Oilcan, he could see his reflection in Tommy. They both had been lone wolves while surrounded by people. They had perfected being apart even while crowded by others. They clung to status quo because it was safe and comfortable.

Oilcan could have taken Tinker’s sponsorship days ago — should have taken it the minute he realized that he needed to provide for five kids. He was afraid if he forced the issue, the kids would walk away from him. He had taken the easy way out by not choosing. He had even drifted along in whatever he had with Thorne Scratch — silently accepting whatever she gave him because if he asked her to clarify, he might not like the answer.

In fact, wasn’t that his whole life, drifting behind Tinker, letting her chose the path? He had one-night-stands with women who couldn’t stay on Elfhome, do nothing to discourage the one night becoming one month, and then watch as the relationship ironically imploded under his fear that if he put demands on the other person, he would lose them. The pattern was there, clear to see, if he only made himself look.

Much as the possibility of losing the kids and Thorne Scratch scared the shit out of him, he couldn’t drift along any more. He had to take a stand. He had to make his choice of clan clear as the color of his front door. A household of Stone Clan members and a city full of Wind Clan wouldn’t let him be apathetic any longer.

He knew that he couldn’t be Stone Clan. It would be like walking away from everything that was him. But if changing clans would slowly drive him insane, wouldn’t it be even more so for the kids? Avoiding the issue, though, wasn’t the answer.

Talking to all the kids at once seemed like a bad idea. They were very good at joining forces, and he doubted his resolution could withstand their combined will. He decided to start with Baby Duck. She only had scattered memories from before Pittsburgh. In theory, she had the least attachment to the Stone Clan.

“Quiee.” Baby Duck quacked after Oilcan finished. They were sitting in the grass out before the anchor rocks. The indi leapt from stone to stone with the bells on their collars tinkling with each jump.

He waited for her to say something else. After a few minutes, he realized that she wasn’t going to say anything else. He felt like he’d broken her.

“I’ll be your sama as long as you want me to.” Scared him a little to know that now it meant forever.

She climbed into his lap and buried her face against his chest. “Quiee.”

He’d take that as a yes.

#

Fields of Barley was practically chained to the kitchen now that he was cooking for an army. It delighted him to no end. “I’m going to bake these carrots with honey glaze and sprinkled with chopped walnuts. The peas I’m just going to blanch quickly — it be a crime to do more to them than a dab of butter and pepper. Wish I could do a presentation piece with the rabbits — but we need to stretch the meat. I’m going to make a pie with shallots, mushrooms and apples. Need to do something other than pie with the peaches that cousin sent over.”

Apparently “cousin” was now going the other way.

“That sounds good.” Oilcan hated to break Barley’s good mood with bad news, but there was no way around it. He explained what he planned to do.