Page 53 of Ryld's Shadows
Hank took a breath and let it out. “I hope you don’t take offense, this isn’t directed at you, but…well, the pixie folk and the drow are like oil and water where I come from. And Lady Jessamine isn’t the only queen in these woods. If the drow made things difficult for them…that could have led to their current state.”
A few years ago, Kai might have exploded at those words. A few years ago, he wouldn’t have been riding along a highway with a half-goblin accountant. Now he just sighed. “I recognize the possible truth in that. Perhaps I should bring the subject up with Lady Ksatha and gauge her reaction to pixies. I’m not certain… Well, I need more information before I can be a proper interfering pest.”
They rode for another minute or two before Hank asked, “Again, I beg your pardon but…how come AURA is allowing this? I thought they had programs, education, job placements and such?”
“Yes, I’m sure AURA would help them if they knew about them.” Kai almost tripped over the words. He’d done his research before making this trip, of course he had, and why hadn’t he found any mention of a sizable colony of pixies living on Elvenhome land? That should have been in any of the AURA reports he’d read, but he was sure he hadn’t seen any mention of it. Which begged the question, how did AURA not know?
Or if they did, why hadn’t there been any intervention?
The orphanage, when they reached it, at least met expectations. A two-story building with many windows, it appeared to be a repurposed school. Probably not perfect as all old public buildings were not, but functional enough.
They left their horses at the little lean-to meant for them—so the school most likely had frequent Elvenhome visitors—and made their way up the front steps where they were met by a matronly human woman in a dark blue suit.
“Mr. Hiltas? Lady Jessamine phoned to say you’d be visiting for a tour this afternoon.” She stuck out a hand in the human way. “Gail Albright. Good to meet you.”
Kai took her hand briefly. “Thank you for accommodating us. This is my associate, Hank Onyx-Wainwright.”
She held her hand out to Hank as well, smiling. “Welcome, Mr. Onyx-Wainwright.” Apparently the elven prejudice they’d been laboring under these last few days didn’t extend to their human employees, which was refreshing.
“I hope you don’t mind me saying, we don’t get many drow visitors here.” She gave Kai an apologetic smile. “Don’t worry too much if some of the kids stare. You’ll be the talk of the week.”
No, they probably didn’t get drow visitors since it was an aelfe-sponsored institution. Perhaps if their respective queens weren’t so at odds…but that would be like asking geese to get along with foxes.
“The kids are mostly in the classrooms this time of day. We can peek in, but I don’t want to interrupt.”
“Understood, Ms. Albright. We will be as unobtrusive as we can.”
In the first classroom they came to, the teacher sat on a small chair with an open book on her lap, reading to a circle of about twenty young children, barely out of toddler stage. Every last one of them had a glossy pair of pixie wings fanning from their backs.
Their clothes were all very much the same, not quite a uniform, but plain denim pants and T-shirts made for wings. Nothing fancy, but the children looked clean, unlike their counterparts in the pixie slum.
They did stare, some with fear in their eyes. Kai told himself it hadn’t anything to do with him, didn’t affect him in the least. Generally, he couldn’t stand to be around children. Noisy, germ-carrying chaos tornadoes. But he knew he was lying to himself, at least a bit, and a corner of his heart broke.
Ms. Albright chattered away about programs and adoption rates. They saw older children learning math, and the not-quite teenagers in quiet study groups, a few humans scattered among the pixies.
“Why do you receive so many pixie children, Ms. Albright?” Kai asked as they strolled to the infant room. “Is the orphanage specialized?”
She laughed a bit at that. “I suppose it looks that way, doesn’t it? We’re not specialized officially, Mr. Hiltas, but most of these kids are local. Crossover parents who don’t make it or who abandon their little ones. We see a lot of it here.”
Hank narrowed his eyes, but his tone was mild when he asked, “I didn’t see any teachers or staff who were pixies. Are they all humans and elves?”
“We have an actively diverse hiring process,” Ms. Albright said with forced cheer. “But yes, right now our teachers and staff are human and elven. Oh, we do have Mr. Feldspar. He’s our goblin janitor.”
Kai had to give Hank credit for the complete mastery of his facial expressions. He was sure his own face looked like he’d bitten into a lemon. His initial assessment that perhaps the predominate prejudice in Elvenhome didn’t extend to the orphanage was rapidly changing. It was just more subtle here.
“Some of the classes have been let out for a recess, if you’d like to see the playground?”
Given that there didn’t seem to be much more to see, they followed Ms. Albright to the back entrance of the converted school building and out a set of double doors.
A scattering of teachers kept half an eye on the kids running around playing while they chatted. The kids screeched and tumbled just like any other children. If Kai didn’t think too hard on it, he could forget this was an orphanage. It seemed just like any other school playground. That was the horrible part, really. That there were enough kids here to make it seem like a regular school. The head count seemed far too high, even given that some of these kids were crossovers without parents in this world.
A pixie boy who was climbing a tall slide jumped from the top, wings blurring as he swooped down on his playmates.
“Trevor Fair-Sky, that’s a detention!” one of the teachers hollered at the child. “Inside. Now.”
The child in trouble, Trevor, trudged across the playground, head hung and wings plastered down as he plodded inside.
The adult response seemed extreme to Kai. Trevor—terrible name for a pixie—had simply been doing what pixie children do. Trying their wings. Practicing taking off from a high place. To punish that… But Kai held his peace. It wasn’t his place to undermine the grownups here.
