Sons (Book 2) (33 page)

“Mmm, this is good,” I mumbled, saluting Peter with most of the still-warm and dripping roll.  Swallowing, I continued, “I’ve already got the Dea brothers spreading the word that there aren’t any ramifications from me for having Changed children.  I was about to leave them to start building their homes when Deason pointed out we were too far away for the sprites to make it back to the Claiming, so I’m letting them stay in the garden until Wednesday.”

“Can I go see them, Seth?” Ian asked.  He’d been so quiet I’d forgotten he was here.

Glancing at Mike for permission first, I said, “I don’t have a problem with you
meeting
them, Ian, as long as either Jimmy or Shrank introduces you first.  Just don’t get in their way and make sure the nymphs know you’re there before you get in the water.  They’re making new clothes for the Claiming, but I’m sure they’d love some help gathering food and keeping the toddler and the nymphs occupied.”

“Can I, Mike?  Can I?” Ian asked his brother.  He knew how to work Mike, too, as he literally buzzed in his chair with excitement and his eyes grew to the size of saucers.

“Do you remember our agreement?” Mike asked, reaching over affectionately and scruffing his hair lightly. 

Ian ducked his head too slowly with a teenager’s whiny, “Yes.”

“Then after breakfast providing they have the time, it’s fine with me,” Mike said.  “Keep the key close.”

“Speaking of, I have to go to the Cahill’s today to hand out keys,” I said.  “Ya’ want me to see if Marty wants to go out with you?”

“Yes, please,” Ian said excitedly.  The words flew out of his mind like a missile,
Hah!  He’s got a moat, but I’ve got nymphs in my backyard!
  I almost laughed out loud.

“What else do we have to do today, Mike?” Kieran asked, sitting down across from me.  “Interviews start at one, I remember.”

“Yes, sir,” Mike said, pulling his mystery date book from somewhere.  He didn’t hide it or slip it into some magical hole, but he always seemed to have it in a pocket I hadn’t noticed or his briefcase, which I hadn’t seen him carrying.  I could
see
magic so I wasn’t sure what he did exactly.  “Everything else on the itinerary today was travel so eliminating that has cleared the day considerably.  We basically need to finish shopping and handle some minor logistics with David and Richard.”

“We should check in with Harris and Messner at some point today,” Peter said.

“Harris, anyway.  Messner’s probably still onsite now trying to get those people moved,” Richard offered, leaning back in his chair and watching Jimmy go back to the buffet table.  “If he’s not then he’s sleeping.”

“Or dodging bullets,” I said offhandedly.  “There had to be somebody coming back with trucks or buses for all those men and they didn’t have a compulsion forced onto them.”

“No telling what kind of fallout happened, either,” Peter added.  “A dead brigadier general is bound to create problems.”

“But luckily, not our problems,” Richard said, standing.  “Where’s the shopping list?  I need to add some groceries to it.  Somebody’s eating for three.”  He was grinning and pointing at Jimmy as he passed behind him.  Mike grinned back as he pulled the list free from his date book and handed it over the table to Richard, who changed a few items and started it moving around the table.  It stalled when it got to Jimmy.

“A good deal of this list is in storerooms downstairs already,” he said as he read.

“We assumed so,” Mike said, smiling a touch of condescendingly.  “But we didn’t want to monopolize Daybreak’s time running such menial tasks as fetching reams of paper.  That
is
what we’re hired to do, after all.”

Jimmy started to say something, changed his mind, then said, “Good point, but, Seth, we’re going to have to staff the Palace soon anyway.  Why not start here?  Something small and start building on it.”

I chuckled at the thought of it.  “There are too many questions to answer first.  Where are they to live?  Get food?  How do I pay them?” 

Shrank landed on the table in front of me on a tower of green, sparkling pixie dust.  “Pay them, Lord Daybreak?  Why would you pay them?”  His aura showed an almost surreal confusion.

“For doing work for me,” I answered.  “There isn’t any kind of a monetary system set up right now, not even a crude barter.  If they don’t find it on the ground, they ain’t got it.”

“True, Lord, but again, why would you pay them?” Shrank asked.  “Do you pay your right hand for placing something into your left?  Or your left foot for following the rest of your leg when you walk?  That is equivalent to what you are saying.  I am confused, sir.”

“That is part and parcel to the Faery mindset,” Kieran said, pushing his plate forward on the table.  “And if you think about monetary systems in general, what you’ve basically got here is a self-sustaining, hierarchical commune with one man in charge of everything.  Internally, money is unnecessary since everyone’s needs are taken care of.”

“So no independent trade between villages,” I suggested.  “No use for over-abundance in certain fruit yields.  No real farming.  None of that?”

“Well, my previous realm had money, but theirs only did around the Games,” Shrank said, lifting off the table.  I guess he thought I understood what he was saying.

“And it’s just a start, Seth,” Peter said.  “Even cast in stone, it’s not like you can’t remake the stone.”  A short laugh rounded through the balcony.

“All I did was water the seed,” I muttered.

“An apt analogy, perhaps,” Kieran said.  “It’s not a bad idea, though.  You will have to do it at some point.”

“All right,” I gave in.  “I suppose I can ask for volunteers.”

“No!” Kieran, Shrank, and Ethan all cried out loudly, then burst out laughing at each other.

“Your entire Faery population will be at the front gate,” Kieran said cheerfully.  “Shrank, Ethan, and I will find some candidates while you and Jimmy deliver and setup keys for the Cahills.  Everyone else who’s willing can go shopping.”

“Okay, okay,” I said, getting a little frustrated about it.  “But, Shrank, would you see if you can turn their… awe factor down a few thousand degrees?”  He looked to Kieran for clarification.

“I’ll try to explain on the way, Shrank,” Kieran said grinning.

“All right, then, Jimmy,” I said, standing up.  “Let’s introduce you to the Cahill’s and see what Marty’s up to today.  Oh, David, I’m sorry, I forgot about you.  You should come, too.”

David ran off to get dressed while I went back to my room to get more diamonds for keys and Jimmy took Mike and Ian to meet the sprites and nymphs in the gardens.  I just couldn’t handle the Fae anymore right then, maybe a snotty elf, but not a fawning fairy.  I was still helping with the breakfast dishes when David and Jimmy came back.  Richard ran us off and Peter didn’t object, so I moved us to the Castle’s door.

It was probably too much to hope that today would be devoid of killing, but I did anyway as we re-entered to world of man again.  Maybe just a light maiming…

Walking through, I pushed into the Castle’s wards and found John busy, busy, busy.  Work crews were building stadium seating in several places in the hills just outside the castle.  Two different sizes, man and elf, spaced out rather oddly from this perspective, but that was probably due to incomplete data.  I did wonder what they were making the elves’ benches with.  Steel nails and screws could be a problem.

Explaining the process we had setup with the Cahills, Jimmy made the call downstairs and got someone neither of us knew.  Now we had a true test of our security protocol, so I notified John of what to expect and sat back and watched.  It only took two minutes, give or take, for two stout men to show up in the hallway of our wing with Marty a few feet behind them.  I wasn’t too happy with the time or that Marty was the identifier, but honestly it wasn’t bad.

“Hey, Seth, figured it was you,” Marty said, pushing through the guards and flopping down on the bed beside me.  “You finally find some gofers?”

“Sort of.  Marty, would you mind finishing the protocol?” I asked him.  “I didn’t make the call.”

“Oh,” he said, looking confused.  “Who did?”

“I did.  I am First of Gilán,” Jimmy said.  I snickered.  I knew where this was going.

Marty glanced at me sideways, a little confused by the answer, then asked, “Is that your name or your title?”

“Both,” Jimmy said, also looking confused.

“Where have I heard
that
before?” Marty muttered and again glanced at me.

I grinned as Marty kept going, moving through the protocol now with government precision, uncaring since we knew the goal was met from the beginning, but step-wise it was correct.  Before Marty’s guards left, I asked one to pass a message to John telling him to expect a number of odd fluctuations as I taught several people to move between my realm and here.  This got Marty excited, which hopefully would translate into making this move along faster.  The timing was good, too, at a little after eleven thirty here.  Lunch time and as luck would have it since the kitchens were otherwise involved, boxed lunches were delivered.

We decided to stay here since this wing was the quietest in the manor and even though I had a good enough position to grab everyone I wanted through the castle’s wards, that would have been extremely rude, acceptable in an emergency only.  I would have to do this the hard way, sort of.  Finding everyone in the wards was a minor challenge, but only minor since I was intimately aware of each of the targets.  My parents were super easy since they were down the hall and just as easily convinced with the promise of free reign of the gardens for when therapy got too stressful—like that would
ever
be an issue with me.

Mr. and Mrs. Cahill were similarly as easy as Enid was in the middle of a harangue to get him to stop for lunch anyway.  I just provided him a convenient avenue of excuse to save face in front of the workmen and staff.  Why “I’ve just had a heart attack” wasn’t enough for him, I didn’t understand, but I guess when you’re set in your ways…  It wouldn’t be fair to say Enid nagged Felix, but that was how most of the men in the room chose to view it, though some understood it was necessary behavior.  I offered to move us up the easy way, but Enid said he needed the exercise.  Confusing logic there…

Gordon, on the other hand, was a bit more difficult.  He was at the center of the maelstrom and contrary to popular science, this storm did not have a quiet eye.  I’ve actually only been to Felix’s and Gordon’s offices once each.  Most of our dealings happened in the observatory for one reason or another.  There were a lot of people poured into those two tiny rooms.  Well, the rooms weren’t really tiny until you tried to fit that many people into them. 

And he’d delegated!  There was a secretary in the front room that was keeping tight control of who got into the inner offices.  Gordon had the interconnecting door open and Bishop was using Felix’s desk while Felix was recuperating, helping with the emissary meeting.  I didn’t even try to figure out who wanted what and why, but there seemed to be certain people in charge of certain aspects of the project.  Some I knew and some I didn’t, but I asked Gordon for this and I trusted him.  This was more than I bargained for, but that’s been true for a few months now.

While I was busy trying to figure a way to distract Bishop, I ran afoul of another problem I hadn’t foreseen.  Should’ve, but didn’t.  The secretary stopped me.  I didn’t know him and he didn’t know me, and to make matters worse, the office had cleared of the few who did know me.  It wasn’t an annoyance, more of an amusement, and easily and quickly resolved.  A quick mental conversation with Jimmy followed by a phone call from Felix had the guy almost genuflecting his way into Gordon’s office in front of me.  Bishop, unfortunately, was just passing through into Gordon’s when we came in and burst into laughter at the sight.

Gordon excused himself for lunch and cleared his office, equally amused at his new and probably temporary secretary’s behavior.  Gordon was a little suspicious of me being here alone but didn’t ask me about it yet, so rather than give either of them a chance to ask questions about why I was here, I grabbed at the first distracting question I could think of.

“Any news from the States yet?” I asked, sitting down in the chair in front of Gordon’s desk. 

“No, did something happen?” Gordon asked, getting more suspicious.  “Shouldn’t you be in the air right now?”  He glanced up at the wall clock beside the door.

“Huh,” I said, trying to be disarming.  “You’d have thought killing a brigadier general and capturing over four hundred active duty US troops on US soil while seriously damaging a blood cult all operating together in an attempt to destroy me and my family would have made the news or sumpin’.”

When I looked up, I saw the reaction I wanted: both jaws dropped and eyes widened in shock.  “I guess Harris and Messner are doing a pretty good job of cover-up then.”

“Is everyone okay?” Gordon asked slowly.

“I’m sure the General’s wife wouldn’t agree, but yes,” I said.  “There were only two fatalities that I know of in the military but only one got away in the blood cult.  We left a little after midnight, I think, so if anything happened after that, I don’t know about it.  That was, what, about six hours ago?  Considering that was the third attack on me yesterday, I was a mite testy.  And tired.”

“You call Harris and I’ll call Darius,” Bishop said as he stood, heading for Felix’s office.  “Let’s find out what we can.”

“Actually, I need to borrow Gordon for a bit first,” I interrupted as Gordon reached for his phone.  “He’s the last one and everyone else is waiting.  Won’t take too long.  I’ve just got something to show y’all and you can come back and harass Harris to your heart’s content.”

“’Y’all’?” Bishop asked.  It wasn’t a difficult contraction to understand so I wasn’t exactly sure what he was asking.

“My parents, his parents, and his brother,” I said, smiling with blissful ignorance, kind of like those shaved-headed guys in the airport with the flowers.  “Something I found in the Palace, a token of sorts.  It’s quite pretty.”

“Why don’t I believe you?” Bishop asked me.

I shrugged and said, “Maybe for the same reason you think you’re going to win that bet?”

Gordon burst into laughter as Bishop’s face flushed in embarrassment.  Wrapping us both in portals, I jumped us both to my room, putting Gordon on the bed sitting down so he didn’t fall in the transition.  Felix, sitting on the other side of the bed, turned to watch his elder son enjoying my joke at Bishop’s expense, not knowing why.  Gordon went through several attempts to say what he found so funny before he finally got it out.

“He knows about the bet,” Gordon said, wiping the tears from his very red face.  “Caught us off guard on it, too.  Who told?”  Both Felix and Marty swore it wasn’t them and I wasn’t going to say that Bishop was trying to figure out a way to get close enough to pin the bell on me without me knowing it.  I didn’t know what a ‘quid’ was, but Bishop bet Gordon a thousand of them that he could put a bell on me before the emissaries arrived.

“Okay, the reason we’re here today is that I found a better way than using that door to get in and out of my realm,” I said, pointing to the portal.  “It’s very easy to use and has a number of benefits, not the least of which is that they’re pretty.”  Moving to the footboard and leaning over it, I poured the diamonds out of the pouch and out onto the brown bedspread.  It wasn’t quite as dramatic as I wanted. 

Trust a mother to come to the rescue.  Mine sat lightly on the bed and slipped a white handkerchief in low between the blue diamonds and the warm comforter, showing the brilliance of the stones wonderfully.

“Seth, they’re beautiful!  They’re diamonds?” my mother asked, watching Enid spread them across the cloth evenly.

“Yes, ma’am,” I answered, grinning and trying to downplay it.  All I did was pick ‘em up, really.  “Learning more every day now.  The Palace decided to show me more about my realm by
showing
me my realm yesterday morning.  All of it, all at once, in several different ways and it’s a lot to process.  The simplest to understand is more or less in the form of a map and below this map are these, sitting in a pool of clear water.  You think these are beautiful?  You should see their daddy!”

“Have you chosen a name yet?” Dad asked.

“That was part of what I learned that morning, yes,” I said.  “’Gilán’ is the simplest in human speech and will translate equally in sounds phonetically in Fae Common, too.  There is a longer and multiple-voiced name that is actually a little hard to hear, if that makes any sense.”

“No, I think I know what you mean by that,” Dad said.  He had a strange enough look on his face that I believed him, because it was truly a weird idea to me—an incomprehensible sound?

“The Fae will sing a good portion of it as well as a good portion of my name on Wednesday,” I said.  “And if the Palace joins in?  I may cry, let me just warn ya now.”  I was grinning, but I meant it.

“Pick out a stone and you can consider settings using as many as you’d like, but just pick one today.  I have a smith recuperating from an injury and once we’ve got him nice and safely installed into home and hearth, we’ll see what he can do.”  It’s funny to watch six people basically pick from a pile randomly, but basing it all on an intuitive internal feeling.  There wasn’t much difference between any of the diamonds I’d chosen intentionally—I didn’t want anyone to feel slighted.  I probably should have brought only six, fairly identical blanks, but that seemed too stiff and impersonal. 

As they chose, I stamped their essences onto the primary face of the key, along with the senses of the places that would be the most likely places for each person.  It was easier this time with the practice of the other keys.  I had the preliminaries done by the time everyone had chosen.

“Okay,” I said while I returned the rest to the pouch.  “If everyone will turn their concentration to the diamonds, you’ll notice that they feel a little different now, feel like ‘you’.”  Slipping the pouch in my pocket, I looked around at everyone while they pushed their wills down into the keys for the first time, feeling the sensation for the first time.  “You’ll also notice that there seems to be the sense of a few places in there as well, like the foyer of the castle here, the gate to the Palace, my Throne room, and likely a room or two you’ve not seen before, right?”  My mother and Enid both gasped at seeing this for the first time, but everyone else nodded, accepting the visions they were seeing.  For all the power both these women could control, this was still very much a man’s world and they lacked the experience that their husbands and sons had.  Odd, considering the matriarchal Fae, and sad, but true nonetheless.

“These scenes are where you’ll be able to shift back and forth to,” I said.  “If you’re able to hold the sense of a place well enough, you can shift to that place instead, but recognize that there are dangers there that I cannot predict.  It is just like opening a portal, really.  These places in the gem are locked into place and safe to move to and from.  I can add to them as needed, but it’s just like opening a portal, I have to know how to get there, too.”  Everyone seemed to understand, even if Mother and Enid were so enamored with the vivid pictures they were seeing in the tiny stones they held in their palms.

“It’s such a clear image, Seth,” Mother said.  “How many ‘places’ will fit on one diamond?”

“Don’t know yet, but if there’s a limit, there’s plenty of keys to chain together,” I said.  “Now everyone doesn’t have the same places, but there are several in common so we’re going to learn and practice with those.  If everyone would find the Throne room, please…  Now once you’ve got that room set in your mind, push a pair of words through the key.  The words are…” 
Gilán, Daybreak,
I sent through the diamonds they held.

Everyone made the shift to the Throne room, but Enid.  She was flustered and stuttered over the Fae words.  I glanced at her with what I hoped was a calming look.

“This is easier than even a year with Felix, dear,” I said lightly.  “You can do this.  They’re just words.” 
Gilán, Daybreak,
I sent the words to her again, putting as much of my memory of the Palace’s singing the phrase as I dared.  I didn’t want to fry her mind, just incite her to move.

And a second later, she did.  I shifted over, too, with a smile on my face.  Grabbing everyone, I moved us all back to my room in the castle and said, “Let’s do it again, without my prompting, just to make sure everyone’s got it.”  Everyone shifted just fine this time.