Born Immortal

Born Immortal Chapter 12

Astyr took a moment to think this all over carefully.

"Is it dangerous?" she asked, "Can Gunnar get hurt or die because of this?

"Oh, don't worry about Gunnar, dear," Grima told her. "He's in good hands with his parents and Hakon with him; and at the coming-of-age ceremony there will be many of us present to help him if something goes wrong."

Astyr realized that she couldn't ask for more than that and felt reassured for her friend's sake.

"What about me?" she asked Grima. "Will I go through this before my birthday?"

"Yes, Astyr, you will. That is why I spent so many years trying to find you." Grima sprung this news on her with no warning.

"You were looking for me? How did you know anything about me?" This was the last thing Astyr had expected to hear.

Grima paused and thought carefully before answering. "Your mother was a dear friend of mine. She fell in love with someone and married him in secret. She never told anyone the name of her husband; not her own family and not me. She said it was too dangerous because he had an enemy who was desperate to take revenge against him by hurting his family the way the enemy felt that his family had been hurt. When she became pregnant, he sent her away so that no one would find out. She came to me and I was helping her through her pregnancy. One night when she was close to her time to deliver, she disappeared. I searched for years but I never found a trace of her. I did think that I might be able to find her by searching for the child who would have been born fifteen and a half years ago. When I found out about you, I knew at once that you were that child and I used my contacts from when I used to practice medicine to have you brought here."

Astyr was floored. She was so deep in shock that she could only sit and stare at Grima, not able to force words out of her mouth.

"I know this is a big thing to spring on you, dear." Grima said kindly. "We can talk more about this later when you've had some time to think."

"Yeah," Astyr said, "I guess I do need some time to wrap my head around this. Can I just ask you one more thing?" she added.

"Yes, of course." Grima replied quickly

"My mother," Astyr started hesitantly, "Is she, I mean, do you think that she might be, you know, still out there somewhere?"

Grima sighed sadly and shook her head. "I hope more than anything in the world that she is, but after all the years I spent searching, I'm forced to doubt it. I'm so sorry, Astyr."

Astyr thanked her and then went to her room. She laid down on her bed and just stared at the ceiling with her mind in turmoil. She was glad that Gunnar was going to be okay and she wasn't worried about her own upcoming birthday, yet. But the idea of her mother was burning in her heart.

She had been raised to believe that she was an orphan; abandoned at birth by a mother who hadn't wanted her. But according to what she had just learned, her parents had loved each other very much and had sacrificed being together to give Astyr a chance to live. What on earth could have happened to cause her to leave Astyr alone on the side of the road? Was it possible that Astyr's mother was still alive somewhere. Grima didn't think so but that didn't mean it was impossible.

No, Astyr told herself; don't even think about this. Even if she hadn't been abandoned on purpose, it didn't change the fact that she had been left behind. If her mother hadn't come back to find her by now, the chances that she would now were almost zero.

She heard a loud roar coming from the driveway and sat up to look out the window. It definitely didn't sound like Hakon's Camaro. In fact, it wasn't a car at all. It was a motorcycle; a big motorcycle. It was shiny and black and had chrome pipes coming out of the massive engine on both sides. Astyr jumped up and checked her face in the bathroom mirror before grabbing a black jacket to wear over her jeans and long-sleeved black tee shirt. She said goodbye to Grima and promised to be back well before ten o'clock and then ran down the stairs to see Randy pulling off his black helmet.