Page 12 of Valley of the Shadow
Carwyn’s son Gustavo had met them at the end of the road—which was literally the end to a road that ran along the coast, over the mouth of a river, and through the mountains until it ended in a dirt track—to lead them into the heart of the isolated refuge in the impenetrable mountain valleys of Patagonia.
The whole party had mounted horses with the children riding along with the adults. Dez and Matt were excited and talking softly while Carina slept in the saddle in front of Matt. It was their first time in the valley, but they’d heard a lot about it over the years.
Lucien and Makeda rode silently next to each other, a tall, regal-looking pair who would be at home in some kind of imperial procession rather than riding workhorses to a cattle ranch. Dema watched them both with undisguised interest.
Beatrice was far more comfortable in the saddle than Baojia had expected. She was riding next to Natalie, who had Jake sitting in front of her.
Giovanni fell back and rode next to Baojia, Sadia sleeping curled up in front of him, not unlike how Sarah was sleeping on Baojia.
“Are you comfortable?” the fire vampire asked.
“I haven’t ridden a horse in roughly a hundred years, but I guess it’s a little like riding a bike.” It probably helped that they were walking slowly through a relatively even section of the forest and the trail followed a river.
“It’s not too much farther. Maybe an hour or two.”
Giovanni looked at home on a horse, and Baojia was reminded again how old the man was. He’d been alive for over five hundred years. Cars were still new technology.
“What’s it like?” Baojia asked. “To be able to move around the world so quickly now? Yesterday we were in Los Angeles.”
“It’s astonishing.” He smoothed a hand down Sadia’s back, and the little girl sighed deeply. “She’ll never know a world where the entirety of the globe isn’t a few days’ journey away. Astonishing.”
Baojia thought of the weeks he’d spent crossing the Pacific Ocean in a steamship, crowded into accommodations far less comfortable than a private jet. “It is astonishing.”
“In some ways it’s made everything far simpler.”
“And far more complicated in others,” Baojia said.
“Yes.”
Baojia debated asking the question, but he was rabidly curious. “Can I ask you about Ben?”
Giovanni’s eyes flicked to Lucien. “It’s complicated.”
“Family usually is.” Baojia had only heard rumors, but he knew Giovanni was right. “He’ll be all right. Most of my own security staff aren’t as tough as your nephew.”
Giovanni glanced at Sadia. “She’s going to miss him. Ben is one of her favorites. They usually talk on the computer once a week. So far we’ve been able to distract her, but she’s beginning to ask more often.”
The Italian didn’t say what he was probably thinking: far harder to distract two growing and curious children from missing their own mother.
Baojia glanced at his daughter. Sarah was an even mix of Natalie and Baojia, unlike Jake, who was a small carbon copy of his father. Her dark hair curled slightly, like Natalie’s did. Sarah’s skin was fair, and she had freckles across her nose. Her eyes were brown like his, but her chin and nose were the exact shape of his wife’s.
He knew other vampires wondered how he and Natalie had conceived children who so obviously resembled both biological parents when natural conception was impossible.
Other vampires could mind their own business.
Sarah began to slump to one side, and Baojia nudged her back into place. “She’ll enjoy all these trees when she’s awake, though I may have to lock her up during the day to keep her from breaking all her limbs. She wants to climbeverything.”
Giovanni looked at Sarah, then at Sadia. “Does the complete and abject terror ever go away?”
Baojia looked up. “You tell me. How old is Caspar now?”
Giovanni smiled sadly. “I know it sounds odd, but I didn’t worry the same way about Caspar when he was small. He was a Jewish child living in England during World War II. The terror of German bombs and Nazi invasion seemed far more pressing than the terror of climbing trees or childhood illness.”
“That doesn’t sound odd.” Baojia hadn’t known any of that about Caspar’s background. He’d only known that Giovanni had adopted Caspar when he was a boy and raised him overseas. “That sounds practical. You have to prioritize threats.”
Giovanni mused, “Caspar was such a survivor—it didn’t even occur to me that he wouldn’t make it to adulthood. Isn’t that strange?”
“She’s a survivor too.” Baojia nodded at Sadia. “And she has a large family now who will do anything to keep her safe. And a nanny trained in krav maga.”
