“It is very complicated,” Kari admitted, raising her head and gazing at Mom. “The Archimaede told me once that even the walls between worlds could not completely block a mother’s sight. I did not know what that meant.”
“I think I do. Do you understand it now?”
“Yes.” Kari the dragon slayer looked as if she was going to cry. “Honored Father?”
Dad grinned. “As if there’s any question. Welcome home, Kari.”
Then Dad gave me a stern look.
“What?” I asked.
Dad indicated Kari. “You’ve got a sister, Liam. That’s a big change. You’re no longer the only child. We’ll have to think about her, too, from now on.”
“Yeah. Sure.”
“There’ll be more expenses. We’ll have to put off getting a new TV.”
“Yeah. So?”
Dad looked at Mom, puzzled. “Have you already talked about this?”
“I didn’t have to,” Mom said. “I think you have Kari and Liam to thank for his change in attitude.”
“You don’t have any problem with her coming into our home?” Dad asked me, sounding like he didn’t believe what he was saying.
“Problem? What kind of brother do you think I am? Kari is my sister. She’s got my back. And I’ve got her back. End of story.”
And that was that.
Chapter Nine
Home Again, Home Again
So, now I’ve got a sister. It turned out I’d always sort of had a sister, which I admit is unusual for an only child, but now I really have one.
The morning after fighting for my life and the existence of two universes I had to get up for school just as usual. Being sore and bruised and tired from fighting dragons and junk wasn’t an excuse for missing school. Kari offered to strap on her sword and escort me just in case the evil Lady Meyer tried to suspend me over the pits in her dungeon, but I told her that I’d be okay.
At school, James wouldn’t even talk to me. It wasn’t too hard to figure out why. What with all that quest stuff and narrowly escaping death in the coils of a basilisk I never had called him to go over that book report. When we went to English class I walked right up to Mr. Weedle and explained that I had promised to help James with his report but hadn’t done it, and if Mr. Weedle wanted to fail me that was only fair, but would he please give James a few more days to do his report, which I really would help him with this time. Weedle looked at me for several very long seconds, then told me that James and I both had three more days to get the report in, even though we would both get minus ten points on our grades for it being late. Which was really decent of Weedle, I thought.
And James seemed to think I had done something special, even though I told him that it was really the only right thing to do. It wasn’t easy going up to Weedle like that, but when there’s something you know you have to do, you ought to face up to it and get it done. Especially when someone else is counting on you. That’s what I always say.
We got those reports done, too, just like I said we would, even though I kept having this urge to stay out of James’s reach. “Do you think I’m going to hit you or something?” he demanded.
No, I think you might be a wight trying to lure me into your cold hole. Nah, probably shouldn’t say that.
That spare bedroom I had so many plans for is Kari’s now, all decked out with tapestries and her enchanted Sword of Fate and other girl stuff like that. She’s made a new minstrel’s harp (they sell kits for that, believe it or not). The upstairs bathroom is a lot more crowded, too, because Kari did put a lot of stuff in there, but I can live with that.
Dad is sometimes a bit overwhelmed by Kari, but that’s just the effect she has on most people. I found out what he does at work. Don’t tell anyone, but it’s actually kind of interesting. And it turns out he used to play fantasy game stuff, too, when he was a kid. How weird is that?
Mom’s so happy that I’d be jealous if it weren’t for the fact that Kari had saved me from being dragon kibble. Besides, I’ve been thinking about Kari, growing up not even knowing where Mom was. Thinking about all the things I would have missed if it had been me. Along with missing a lot of rules and lectures, of course, though from what Kari says White Lady had plenty of rules of her own.
The strange thing is that Mom is giving me a lot more slack now. She says it’s not about me being nicer to her (and I’m trying, after realizing what it would have been like without Mom around) but because I’ve been showing she can trust me. Which doesn’t make much sense, since I haven’t really changed, have I?
A lot of birds hang around the house, which bothered Mom and Dad at first, because they thought it was a little weird to have a daughter who talked to birds. But I told them that Kari had recruited the birds as scouts and was using them as a sort of neighborhood watch. Once Mom and Dad heard that they decided Kari’s bird friends were all right after all.
James hasn’t had any problem with Kari. As a matter of fact, he seems to like her. A lot. I need to keep an eye on him.
Oh, and I managed to convince Kari that Principal Meyer isn’t an evil dungeon master. When I eventually brought her to school Kari and Meyer circled each other like a pair of lionesses who were trying to decide if they should have a fight to the death or not, but once they got used to each other Kari decided Meyer wasn’t that bad and once Kari started winning sports awards Meyer decided Kari was all right too. She plays on the school lacrosse team, runs track like nobody’s business, and has started a club to teach kids at the school how to use swords. Including Tina. “Because a girl never knows when she might need a sword, Liam,” Kari told me.
And now Tina talks to me. Tina really likes Kari, and seems to think Kari’s brother is worth knowing, too, which is seriously cool. “I’m sorry I froze you out, Liam, but before I met Kari I thought you were kind of a jerk.”
I don’t know where she could have gotten that idea, but now that she knows me things are cool. Who am I to argue with that?
So now we’re just a typical family, and even though Kari misses her old home, she still gets to visit with old friends.
“Liam, tell your sister that unicorn is in the backyard again!”
Kari bolted past me down the stairs while Mom got a punch bowl full of ice water and a plate of fruit salad for the unicorn. White Lady also likes oatmeal cookies, it turns out. We all sat out back and talked about things, just me, my sister, my Mom and the unicorn, while birds flew down to perch on Kari.
I know. Kari’s still a bit weird. But isn’t every little sister at least a little weird?
About the Author
Jack Campbell (John G. Hemry) is the author of the New York Times best-selling Lost Fleet series, the Lost Stars series, and the “steampunk with dragons” Pillars of Reality Series. His most recent books are The Lost Stars: Shattered Spear, The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier - Leviathan, and the Pillars of Reality novels The Servants of the Storm and The Wrath of the Great Guilds. In May, Vanguard will be published, the first in a new trilogy set centuries before the events in The Lost Fleet series. John’s novels have been published in eleven languages. This year, Titan will begin bringing out a Lost Fleet comic series. His short fiction includes works covering time travel, alternate history, space opera, military SF, fantasy, and humor.
John has also written articles on declassified Cold War plans for US military bases on the Moon, and Liberating the Future: Women in the Early Legion (of Superheroes) in Sequart’s Teenagers From the Future. At somewhat erratic intervals he presents his talk on Everything I Needed To Know About Quantum Physics I Learned From The Three Stooges, showing how Stooge skits illustrate principles of quantum physics.
John is a retired US Navy officer, who served in a wide variety of jobs including surface warfare (the ship drivers of the Navy), amphibious warfare, anti-terrorism, intelligence, and some other things that he’s not supposed to talk about. Being a sailor, he has been known to tell stories about Events Which He Says Really Happened (but which ca
nnot be verified by any independent sources). This experience has served him well in writing fiction.
He lives in Maryland with his indomitable wife “S” and three great kids (all three on the autism spectrum).
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Jack Campbell, The Sister Paradox
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