Chapter 43

“Hello, Sorbo.”

“Hello, mother, this is my beautiful wife Dakota. Dakota, this is my mother Mary, and my sisters Susie, Sharon and Sandra, but we call her Sandy.”

“Hi,” Dakota says, with a gracious smile.

“It is an honor to have the White Sorceress in our home.”

“She is Dakota and she is your daughter-in-law.”

“Of course.”

Sharon being the matriarch of the siblings comes forward, hugs Dakota and wraps her arms around her arm. “We are most grateful to you, darling, for bringing our little brother home to us at last. It has been such a very long time and in these interesting times there is much to talk about.” Sharon’s auburn hair has long since been invaded with gray, but her brown eyes still shine lovingly, as she was much like a second mom.

Sorbo looks quickly at his sister because as head of the siblings if anybody knows the family secrets it should be her. As the only male, any knowledge would have also been passed down to him, but by his twentieth birthday at which time any knowledge would have been shared with him, he was long gone living a hard day’s work but being privileged heading towards torment.

Susie walks up and takes her brother’s arm. Susie has always been the regal one. Her blonde has gray in it, but her blue eyes still glow with wisdom. “Welcome home, brother. Tomorrow night we have a grand celebration planned. You have cousins and nieces and nephews who long to see you again and you have many great nephews and nieces whom you have never met. They are excited to see the White Sorceress and her Great Protector. You have done well, brother.”

“So, you have brought the house of Pralene back to the rule of our kingdom.”

“Hello, Sandy.” says Sorbo, hugging his sister. Her strength and friendship has supported him more than once in his wild youth. Her brunette hair is also mostly gray, but her eyes shine with love and no judgment.

Maryann, who has always been the sweetheart of the family, walks over and takes Dakota from Sharon and says, “You must be tired from the journey through the mountains. I will show you to your room and you can rest up.” Sorbo starts to follow, but Sandy holds him up.

“Freeze.” Everybody stops and looks at him. “Come here, babygirl.” Sorbo waves his wife to his side and takes her hand. “I can see this family has lost none of its graceful maneuvering. What’s going on? My wife stays at my side. She has been at my side for eight, almost nine, years now, and except for one night that the Knights of Andromeda and Andromeda herself in the City of Divinity forced me away from her, we have not been apart and will never be apart again.” Dakota lays her pretty head on her husband’s shoulder. “Now I asked, what is up?”

“There is much your father wanted to share with you, but you abandoned the family long ago so it is left up to us women to tell the tales.”

“My tales are Dakota’s tales, so get to it.” He says a little too gruffly.

When Dakota looks up at him with her beautiful blue eyes from her pretty face and smiles, he calms down a little. “Sorbo, please.”

“Alright, babe. Sorry, mother, continue.” Mother Mary fights her way out of bed and hunched over walks over and takes her son’s other arm. She starts limping them towards the library.

This cabin is even bigger and more grandiose than the other mountain cabin was. He has yet to tell them that the Pralene vacation cabin that was built hundreds of years ago is now gone.

As soon as Sharon opens up the dark wooden door of the library the first thing Sorbo notices are golden banners streaming down the ends of bookshelves. They have always been there, but now he understands. Also within a tapestry that takes up almost an entire wall is a scene of an old man pounding molten lava into the world of Kara. The stars are twinkling bright and there are three moons barely visible in the sky.

“Son of a bitch!”

“What?” asks Dakota.

“Three moons.” says Sorbo, pointing at the tapestry.

Dakota takes in a quick deep breath. “This room is in honor of Odin. Did you never notice it before?”

Sorbo sighs almost regretfully. “No, history and ruling never interested me. I only cared about being a warrior.”

“That must be why you are the best.” Sorbo looks down at his lovely wife and smiles and then he bends over and kisses her.

“I’m feeling tired. Have a look around for a while and then we will talk after dinner.” As his mother and four sisters are leaving they all give him a sad look.

Sorbo, ever the practical person, walks over to the closest bookshelf and takes out the first book. He takes it over to a set of very comfortable chairs in the middle of the room and then he sits down. He pulls his wife down into his lap and they shift so they can both read the big book as it rests on the left arm of the chair.

By the time they get to the third book there is a knock at the door. “Dinner is ready.”

Sorbo places the marker on the page they have been studying and snaps the medium size dark brown book shut. He almost throws it very dissatisfied onto the nearby end table and then he turns to his wife. He takes his left hand and runs it up between her legs, under her golden dress and places it where his palm is on her bulge and his fingers are reaching towards her bellybutton. He takes his right hand and moves some of her long and straight dirty blonde hair out of her face and then kisses her. “Well, I didn’t learn anything new. How about you?”

His pretty petite wife shakes her head and says, “No, not really.”

As they sit down around the long oval dark brown dinner table Sharon asks, “Did you find anything interesting?”

“No, not really.”

“You probably started with the first book from the first shelf instead of looking for something unique, didn’t you?”

Dakota giggles. With a crooked smile Sorbo looks at his wife and reaches over and pulls the large chair a few marks closer. As they are sitting on the end with their backs to the far wall Sorbo places his hand on the inside of Dakota’s thigh for comfort. “Okay.” says Sorbo, hoping this trip down stubborn lane is going to lead somewhere.

All the girls smile, but it is Maryann who says, “Try looking for a golden book that is not right where you can see it. Only the worthy can find it. It is hidden by old magic.”

Sorbo’s eyes go big and at last the enormity of the awaited knowledge starts to dawn on him and he can’t wait to get back to the library. Both he and Dakota eat hurriedly, but they do the polite conversation thing as long as they can force themselves to.

At the end of the meal and socializing, Susie says, “I’m sure you will be wanting to get some rest before you start your search again.”

“Actually, that’s okay we will be in the library.”

“Your room is still your room, just as you left it.”

That stops Sorbo in his tracks. The thought of making love with Dakota in the bedroom he grew up in is very stimulating to him.

“What?” Sorbo bends down and whispers his thoughts to his lovely wife. She smiles prettily.

They are standing there in indecision, until Sorbo says, “We’ll be in the library and do not disturb us because were probably going to have sex in there.”

“Sorbo!” exclaims Dakota, not able to look behind her at his mother and sisters.

As Sorbo is dragging his pretty and petite glowing red wife towards the library, his mother and sisters are shaking their heads with smiles upon their aging faces.