Mutant Legacy by Karen Haber

furniture, but the bed was comfortable and I slept better than I had in years.
    Rick seemed to think I had come to stay but I quickly dispelled that idea the next morning. He was outside, working without a jacket, seemingly untroubled by the wintry air.
    “I thought you said it was cold out here.”
    He grinned. “Out there, yes. But I’m nice and cozy, thanks to a little bubble of air I brought along from inside.”
    “I should have guessed.” Envy pricked me for the ease with which my brother could master his environment. “I’ve got to get back, Rick. I just took a quick leave to come out and see if you were really here.”
    He gave me a keen, knowing look. “You didn’t just come out here to see me, did you, Julian?”
    “Well, I—”
    “No, don’t bother trying to find a good cover story. I know—the Mutant Council sent you, didn’t they?”
    “Rick, it’s bad manners to eavesdrop on somebody else’s thoughts.” I felt my cheeks heating up with embarrassment.
    “I wasn’t eavesdropping, little brother. Just making an educated guess. And from the color of your face, I guessed right. I knew that bunch of golden eyes would send somebody sooner or later. They’ve been trying to get hold of me for some time now. But I’m not interested in going to them. They’re welcome here if they want to help out.”
    “Maybe you should go see them.”
    “And do what? Offer myself up for their convenience? Becpt enienceome their errand boy? No thanks. What good did they ever do anybody? They’re just a bunch of misers, Julian. Stingy with their mutant skills when they could be helping millions of people. And should be.”
    “They might make trouble for you.”
    “Anything they want to dish out I can take. But you tell them that it’s a bad idea to antagonize me, Julian.” He left the threat hanging between us.
    “I thought this was the new, improved Rick.”
    He gave me a half-smile. “Yep. But I’m nobody’s fool. And as someone a whole lot smarter than me once said, you can afford to be gentle only when dealing from a position of strength.” He held out his hand and grasped mine firmly. “I’m sorry to see you go, little brother. There’ll always be a place for you here. But tell those golden-eyed bastards that if they don’t want to help me out, then they had better stay away.”

4
    i wen t bac k t o th e mutant council with the bad news. A special meeting had been called, and the grand meeting hall was almost full. From across the room I noticed a striking woman: high cheekbones, the skin stretched tightly across them. Dark, curling hair provided the perfect frame for delicate features that might have been sculpted from porcelain and coated with a thin celadon glaze. Alanna, my half-sister, here. I hadn’t seen her in years. Why was she in attendance? Before I could reach her, or even use mindspeech to greet her, Joachim Metzger convened the meeting.
    “You were right,” I said. “It’s hard to believe, but my brother does have an organization out there,” I said. “It’s called Better World. And he has pledged it to community duty. He seems to think the mutants have been rather lax in their public service and he’s trying to make amends. Unfortunately, it’s like trusting a child with liquid explosives.” There, I’d said it. I believed it, too. But I didn’t feel good about turning against my own brother, not one bit.
    “If this is so, then he must be stopped,” Metzger said. “Before something truly dangerous occurs. We have had barely a hundred and fifty years of emergence and many nonmutants are still not comfortable with us. We simply can’t afford the risk.”
    “Risk of what?” a woman’s voice called out fiercely. “Too many happy, pain-free, well-adjusted people? What’s wrong with that?” The voice sounded familiar, and when the speaker rose to her feet, I saw that she was Alanna.
    “Julian, how can you be so disloyal?” she cried. “Perhaps you’re jealous