Copper Ravens by Jennifer Allis Provost Page B

not only good things had happened.
    All these changes in just a few weeks…Was I a bad person for wanting things to just stay as they were for a little while?
    There was also my complete and utter lack of maternal instincts to contend with. When I had mentioned this deficit to Micah, he merely shrugged and assured me that motherhood was natural, as if the knowledge of how to care and feed a tiny person would magically appear inside my brain. This, coming from an only child who lived with metal servants. It’s not like he knew anything about parenting.
    I sighed and kicked my way free of the bedclothes. These ruminations were getting me nothing but a headache. Besides, Micah was so, um, attentive , I’d likely be pregnant soon enough anyway, and I’d yet to find an Otherworldly form of birth control. However, it wasn’t like I’d really looked…
    After I got dressed and asked Shep for the location of the nearest apothecary, I made my way downstairs. When I saw the heap of parcels in the atrium, I asked a nearby silverkin if Santa had arrived. He didn’t get the joke, but he did tell me that others of copper had begun sending me gifts.
    â€œFor me?” I approached the heap, full of items in all sorts of shapes and sizes, wrapped in crisp brown and white papers, and secured with trailing vines in lieu of strings. A few were decorated with brightly colored flowers, and some of the larger ones had shiny copper baubles dangling from silky ribbons. “Why me?”
    The ’kin chittered away, informing me in his high-pitched cadence that the gifts had begun arriving yesterday, shortly after I’d been seen in the village with Max. That pixie must have had a pretty big mouth.
    Anyway, the news was that I had single-handedly held off the iron warrior; the fact that the pixie was the one who’d immobilized the brute was a little detail that the rumor mill had failed to mention. Well, since there was no current leader for those of copper, at least no one local, and I’d done such an awesome job of fighting off the enemy, others of my Element were now looking to me for guidance.
    â€œWe can’t accept these!” My outburst scared the ’kin, whose only real fear was of displeasing me or Micah, and he scuttled off for reinforcements. Another heartbeat later, Shep was kneeling before me, proffering his shiny hide as penance for whatever offense had been committed. Once I’d calmed them down, and assured them that no one had done anything wrong, I attempted to reason with Shep.
    â€œDon’t you see?” I said. “They think I’m going to be their leader, but I’m not. I don’t lead anything.” Shep hung his head, so I crouched down to his level. “You didn’t do anything wrong when you accepted these, because you didn’t know. But if anyone else comes with a gift, can you explain—nicely—to the people that we can’t keep them?”
    The silverkin both nodded vigorously, excited to have a new task, and the three of us set about opening the parcels. Even though I fully intended to return these gifts, I was itching to see what was inside the cute, little packages. Most of the items were perishable, food and flowers and such, so I couldn’t really have sent them back to the givers. Well, that and the fact that I didn’t know who had given them to me in the first place. The Otherworld wasn’t big on using return addresses.
    The few nonperishable gifts were a sight to behold, comprising such varied items as candlesticks, jewelry, and ornate mirrors, all of highly polished copper. After we’d found the third such mirror, I asked Shep if it was customary to send gifts to one’s leader. To my utter horror, he replied that it was only done when two or more were vying for the position, and the gifts were used as a show of support.
    â€œSupport against who?” I demanded. When Shep claimed that he didn’t