Hawk and Magician Gentle, but heavy paws held Marshall still on the soft carpet of the Express. Zina was not letting her prey go until Ace came. Zina's ears pricked and she rumbled happily in her chest as the door slid open to reveal Cosmo and Ace in the portal. Ace glanced at the child on the carpet, noting with alarm the way she favored her entire right side as she sat up. "What happened?" Cosmo asked, worry in his entire frame. "Was flying here--got laser-shot in the right shoulder or wing by some crazy young fool; shifted out and hit treeline, young trees wind-tossed, got scratched up... landed on the grass, probably bruised a rib and an ankle, hurts to breathe or put weight on one foot, and dragged myself to your door;after I had entered on my own one and a half feet, I collapsed. Zina's been holding me still since then. Feel nasty." It took a while to address all the physical hurts the shifter had sustained, but eventually, she found herself on the couch, ready (almost) for a nap. "You won't be well for quite a while," Ace said evenly, pouring her a glass of milk. " I called Dr. Rosa Peterson at Pendragon's and she said just to keep you bandaged, fed and calm for about a month... you would be fine." "Feel it take longer than that." "More milk?" " Please." He deftly poured another glass and watched her carefully hold it and drink cautiously, her body protesting all the way. " I want to thank you for helping Cosmo and Mona, Marshall," the Magician told her. " I doubt even I could have done as well." Marshall's smile masked pain. " Helping Cosmo broke law," she reminded him. " What is more important in such a case? The law or a life?" " Life. Doesn't excuse action." " Valid point, one I keep trying to tell my partner. Can you stand to wait a few hours for my final decision?" " Not much choice. Sleep very important." " Get some, then. I am not going to keep you from your nap." He rose and left the room. Marshall half-closed her eyes and felt herself relaxing as much as she could. The sense of security here was perhaps not as strong as the House Sanctuary, but it was greater than many other places she had been. The secure feeling extended beyond the physical--that no one could get in--it extended elsewhere. Ace Cooper would not harm her without extreme provocation on her part and even the volatile Cosmo knew restraint. She saw, in a half-state, warm purple-white energy clinging to the chair Ace had occupied and smiled to herself at its clearness. With a grateful sigh, she relinquished her hold on consciousness again and slept. Zina pulled the blanket at the girl's feet closer toward her chin with strong jaws, licked the human's cheek and lay down, satisfied. Ace returned to the living room and pulled the chair closer to the couch, then sat down. Looking at the child asleep, the Magician's smile was mixed with sadness. She had the basic problem he was facing neatly summarized: what she had done to save his friend had broken a law, and while life was most important, there were the consequences of her actions to consider... The real problem, he decided after much consideration, wass how to stop her from entering the Express without permission... without hurting her more than she already was. He closed his eyes and dropped into a meditative trance in a matter of moments, still considering the problem. Punishing her was not a good option, he realized as he explored that possibilty. Punishment wouldn't help teach her anything useful. Physically and emotionally, she was not in any condition to be even mildly scolded, though she might be so mentally. Besides, why drag up more guilt? She had not said it in any way, but she was sorry for invading the Express even during the emergency in which she had found herself: not being able, because of a promise, to alert anyone in authority that Cosmo wasn't home while at the same time needing adult aid to keep the boy sane and well. "What a mess," the Magician said softly, opening his eyes and reaching out and rearranging the pillows around the sleeping girl's head and shoulders. " Ace, dude? Some guy's on the phone, says he needs to talk with you..." "Be right there. Zina," he said, glancing down into the cat's eyes, "come get me if there's any change. I put enough sedative in her milk to keep her asleep for a good while, but there's the chance of her waking or fever dreams." "Rrrrrl." "Good." Ace went to the vid phone in the practice room and saw a man with silver hair, hazel eyes, and a worried expression on his face sitting in a wingback chair, a white cat asleep on the desk bewhind which the man sat. "Mr. Cooper, I am Father Sean Gregor of the House Sanctuary... and I have a very special ward who has not come home yet. I was informed that she might be with you?" "She is," Ace affirmed, liking the baritone voice of the priest a great deal, "though I must inform you that she has sustained injuries to hands, face, right shoulder, and a sprained ankle due to some of my younger neighbors deciding to use her as target practice... Yes, Zina?" The panther tugged at Ace's cape and a soft, urgent growl came from her. "Cosmo!" "Yeah!" "Answer the door if anyone comes in the next ten minutes." The teen nodded and Ace dashed into the living room in time to see Marshall shift into something with wings, lion's feet--claws sheathed so far--, a hawk's head an a human torso and lower half. Ace moved to stand beside the couch, slightly behind Marshall's bolt upright body, pinned her lion-pawed arms to her side and sat down on the couch, holding her still despite the flailing wings battering his face. Suddenly, she went limp and opened her eyes, slowly demorphing, gasping in agony as the wings drew themselves back into her body, leaving blood behind. "Bad dream, Marshall?" Ace asked conversationally, looking at the now present Father Gregor to catch the priest's reaction. There was a mixture of surprise and relief on the other's face, as though this had not been what he had expected to happen. Of course it's not! the Magician chided himself, half- mocking. "V-very bad," the child managed unhappily. "Ohhh, now I feel worse." "Lean forward. Father Gregor, clean cloths are in the cabinet to your left, and you should find some salve there too..." The rebandaging of Marshall's shoulder took a few moments--moments of intense pain for the child from which she passed out. Ace was satisfied, when he leaned her back against the pillows, that she would not shift again...she was beyond the point of dreaming. "I'll help get her to your van, Father," the Magician offered, eyes warm. "There are a few things that need to be done while she's in this condition..." He picked up the sleeping girl, soon wrapped in blankets, and carried her to the dark blue van that served the House Sanctuary. A week later, Marshall sat in her room at what was called the vicarage of the House Sanctuary, just thinking about that term. In reality, it was just an extension of the stone and wood edifice consecrated by every belief system, by human toil and by the land itself, which was sacred anyway. There was no separation, except in name and function. A ginger cat with green eyes, black ears and black tip tail lay across her legs, effectively pinning her to the bed. It was nearing nine o'clock, in the evening and both shifter and cat were resting. :Thanks for delivering my note to Mona, Nisar.: `You are welcome.' The cats who wandered freely around the House Sanctuary were its keepers, especially the mage-cats, Sekh and Khensu, who had claimed Father Gregor as mage-cats like them had done for centuries. Marshall was not only Sean's ward, but the cats' as well and between all of them was an understanding of their responsibilities regarding one another. Nisar stretched and sprang to the windowsill as Sean peered in. "Marshall? Someone to see you." The girl swung off her bed and smiled at the priest. "I would have thought any visitor would come to see you, Sean." "Not this time, child. I am a little unnerved by the pet this visitor brought--a fully-grown female black panther- - but Sekh and Khensu did not object." The pair headed down the stairs to the library and through it, to the living room. Ace Cooper and Zina sat in the pooling moonlight--Ace on a comfortable leather seat and the panther at his feet. " I will be in the other study if you require anything," the priest said, more than a little nervous. "Thank you, Father Gregor. We will only be a few minutes." Marshall walked over to sit on the rug next to Zina and raised her gaze to meet the Magician's. "How are you, Marshall?" "I'm okay. The shifter council found out about everything--Raven came last week and informed me-- and their decision was to put me under light observation the better part of this coming month to insure my safety until my protective magic switches from internal to external mode... with no punative measures being taken at all. It was a unanimous vote." "That's unusual, isn't it?" "Very...H-Have you come to a decision, Mr. Cooper?" "Yes. I think, Marshall, that so long as you inform Angel of your presence verbally, you may freely enter the Express at any time. It means I can keep an eye on you, you'll have a safe place to go where you won't have to hide behind an animal true-shape, and Zina's assured of a competent friend and cat-sitter when Cosmo and I are away." Ace laughed at the expression of disbelief on the shifter's face both at his implied pardon of her deed and the ramifications of his sentence. "Thank you, Magician!" She rose and rather fiercely hugged him; Ace returned the gesture a little more gently and smiled. " I'm glad you're pleased." He rose and gathered himself as though ready to depart. "Won't you stay a little while? It's not often we have visitors who just drop by to chat... especially with me." "I wish we could, Marshall. We, unfortunately, have a show in twenty minutes or we would indeed stay and cheer you up... Are you allowed out?" "Tomorrow's the earliest I can leave the Sanctuary premises...and even then, it can't be more than two or three hours." The Magician closed his eyes and summoned a pair of purplish-white globes of energy that danced between his cupped palms. "Can you catch these two globes?" "A trick?" "Do you think you can?" he repeated, eyes dancing. She nodded. He released them and watched her try holding even one of them, but each time, the globe was just out of reach. "It can be done," he told her as he stepped out into the dark with Zina. "Just keep practicing." About a week later, Marshall shouted, " Angel! It's Marshall! Anyone in?" "_Yes. Enter." The girl bounded into the Express, eyes shining. "I did it! I almost touched the globes!" she exclaimed breathlessly to the Cosmo who had been quietly reading. "But, as soon as I did, the balls disappeared!" "Show me," the boy challenged, interested. The two purplish globes were in an erratic orbit around her, and Cosmo decided it would be a good diversion to see if his friend could indeed do as she claimed. Marshall sat down in the center of the living room and began slowly to calm herself. Once she was ready, she opened her eyes and just focused on the globe that was spinning counter clockwise. Slowly, slowly, the globe moved until it was within touching distance, then it stopped, rotating quickly enough to maintain its stationary position. The other was a tad more difficult, but she managed to bring it into grasping distance too. Then her concentration slipped and the globes flashed out of existence. "Well done." Ace stood in the doorway of the practice room. He held his palms outward and the globes reappeared in his hands. He began to juggle them, adding a third to the dance in between his hands. "That particular trick took me almost four months to master and I could show or tell no one back then," he told them both. " It was one of the most challenging I managed to bring under my control." "Dude, you said you gave this to her last Wednesday. It's now Sunday. She eclipsed you!" "You have to remember, Cosmo, that I was only eight or so when I first mastered the globes... Marshall is older and far more experienced in using her mind than I was, so it would be reasonable that she would take less time. Especially since she had all that time alone to practice..." "Trust me, they kept me busy, especially when I wanted to simply run after them." "Which was the entire point. The globes gave you something to play with besides your memories." The globes disapeared with a thought. And, with another's thought, there was a merlin in the Express where there hadn't been before. "Since when have you tried shifting since your accident?" the Magician queried, raising an eyebrow. :Just now. Would you mind taking me to the nearest park?: "Not at all. Coming, Cosmo?" The merlin hopped to the Magician's suddenly leather- gloved fist and they walked to the nearest park. As soon as she felt ready, Marshall launched skyward. It made Ace recall lines from a John Denver song, "The Eagle and the Hawk" and in his mind, the words rang: I am the hawk, there's blood on my feathers But time is still turning, they soon will be dry And all those who see me, and all who believe in me Share in the freedom I feel when I fly... Come dance with the west wind and touch on the mountaintops Sail o'er the canyons and up to the stars And reach for the heavens and hope for the future And be all that we can be and not what we are. The Magician watched Marshall glory in her freedom, and was satisfied. disclaimer: "Eagle and Hawk" excerpt copyright John Denver 1971. Gaumont Multimedia owns The Magician.