Sons (Book 2)

by Scott V. Duff

  Byrnes casually strolled out last. “The Barracks are clear, Lord Daybreak,” he said, smiling. He saw the long line of pallets on the left and his face fell. “Where are we going to put all of that?”

  “I’m sure we can find a place, Major,” I said, running my senses through the Barracks walls, blocking off the shortcuts the brownies and sprites were using. Looking down near my feet, I found the trio of brownie authorities. “Alsooth, would you like to do the honors?” He shrieked into giggles and fell back on his butt.

  “I’ve never actually seen that,” Byrnes said, startled and choking on his own laugh. “He’s really rolling on the floor and laughing his ass off.” A deep roar of laughter came from the men pressed against an imaginary wall, trying to see what was happening to their new home.

  “We apologize, Lord,” said Laston, next to the nearly convulsing Alsooth. “Moving the walls the first time took eighty-two of us nearly fifteen minutes. Alsooth is… overwhelmed by the idea that he could do it by himself.”

  Grinning, I said, “Not a problem, I’ll do it.” It was a simple matter to return the Barracks to its original form. The few modifications that I needed were a little harder, adding another eleven seconds to the twenty-one for the original moves. “All right, everyone, welcome to Garrison Four,” I said, speaking to the Guard both verbally and through the geas. I pushed a map out of the new facility, too, highlighting the changes to their current areas and outlining the borders of the rest. “You’ll have access to the same rooms you did before, but they’re larger now. Lt. Brinks, I believe this gives you more than enough room for stores. Dinner service will be late and probably light.” A groan of protest rushed down the corridor, followed by scowls in that direction from the officers. “You can help speed it up by assisting in unpacking the pallets, and sorting and storing the food with Lt. Brinks.

  “Major Byrnes and Captain Velasquez, if you’ll follow me, we’ll walk through the new areas,” I told them. “Then you and your officers can meet and begin setting up training sessions.”

  “Yes, sir,” Byrnes said falling into step beside me. Velasquez took the other side, flipping open a portfolio to a clean notepad and clicking a ballpoint, ready to take notes. The brownies followed us in to return to work in their new environment, but they’d have little to do until Byrnes opened the rest and even less until the men returned.

  “The front rooms haven’t changed, so let’s start in the kitchens since they’ll be busy shortly,” I said, leading them through the hallways. “From here, there’s no more traveling through the dining room. The kitchen offices have taken that space now and accounting will take the rest of the front. Obviously, much of this will remain empty for a while unless the Guard dramatically increases in size. This Garrison will hold about fifteen hundred men handily and two thousand comfortably.”

  We entered the kitchens then and they gasped at the size difference. Everything about the room had increased by five times, by number as often as by size. It was on the map, so I wasn’t certain why they were surprised by it. The grills, for instance, had doubled in size and quadrupled in number and the shelving units were doubled, too, and now numbered thirty times what they knew.

  “Laundry and such is still down that hall,” I said pointing deeper into the kitchen. “But we’re going this way first.” The walk to the Dining room was only a short way further but the room was mostly empty now, lacking tables and chairs to fill the increased space. We crossed the main hallway again, turning left toward the front for a short way then right through a much wider doorway to what had been the gymnasium.

  “This is the pool, sort of obvious,” I said, grinning at them as we walked along the edge, speeding up the walk some. “It’s fairly deep at one end, sinking through the first level and into the mountain below, for training and such, and extends further back than the showers went. We will have to work on dealing with the pressure and breathing before anyone decides to try pearl diving down there.”

  “There’re pearls down there?” Velasquez asked, startled, stopping to peer into the depths of the pools.

  “Figure of speech, Ric,” Byrnes called from the corner of the pool. Seeing us grinning back at him, Velasquez ran to catch up. Byrnes and I turned right into the locker room for the pool before he was beside us again. Through a series of showers, sinks, and toilets, we passed into another set of locker rooms, then what was now the gym, or a very small coliseum pretending to be a gym.

  “Sgt. Cox will be drooling inside of ten seconds,” Velasquez said. I had to agree. The burly drill sergeant loved this kind of equipment. Stairs to run, ropes to climb, actual rock walls—no plastic stubs here, free weights along the far wall.

  “There’s more equipment in the two rooms at the far end there,” I said pointing. Heading out through the door to the main hall, I slid the door open enough to let us through. “This is EMT services, I guess you’d call it or maybe, sick bay? For the most part, I setup some brownies to work with the few medics we have, but simple illnesses shouldn’t be a problem and most injuries will heal quickly and correctly on their own. Still, there’s always a need, so we’ll be prepared for it.”

  Walking us back out, I sealed the doors again. Standing back from the door, I said, “Let’s go ahead and show you how to unlock doors while we’re here. First off, some locks are not meant to try. You should know those immediately on looking at them.” I waved my hand through the air to show the lock on my armory door. “This one, for example.”

  “Shit!” Byrnes yelled, shoving Velasquez right and diving onto me. He hit the brick wall that was me and fell to the floor on his back, dazed. Cushioning his head with the Stone before he hit it again, I knelt beside him. Velasquez knelt on his other side.

  Patting his cheeks lightly, I called, “Major Byrnes? Ted? Come on, Ted, you’re all right.” One or two minutes of coddling and nudging him and he slowly got to his feet with our help.

  “What was that thing?” Velasquez asked, nodding at the door.

  “The lock on my armory door,” I said chuckling. “One you don’t want to touch. I did make that clear before I showed it.”

  “You need an armory?” Byrnes asked, dubious, holding the back of his head.

  “Why not? I have to put my weapons somewhere when I’m not using them,” I said coyly. “Shall we try again?” I didn’t mention the five great weapons I already carried or where I carried them. They did manage the locks, though.

  We continued to the T-juncture, where I pointed out the first actual barracks and we walked through the second. I noted the divisions, size changes, additions of offices and rooms for each sergeant or corporal in charge, storage rooms, bathrooms and showers. I stopped just outside the first door on the right and directed their attention behind us.

  “Back there is the first Day Room for that barracks,” I said. “It and the third are both recreational with a few lecture or meeting halls, conference rooms and such. The second Day Room is in here along with the duty offices.”

  Touching the translucent force field holding the second Day room closed released it abruptly, popping it like a bubble. The lights came on in the room as we walked into the entryway. Two arches opened in the facing walls, but the lights remained off beyond the arches. On the right and left of the entrances were planters of exotic Gilán plants. Well, I don’t know exactly how exotic they really were, but here, they looked it. On the right were three at different heights growing in a helix, the tallest in the middle. Succulents in sandy soil, the leaves were a dark green, tinged at the edge in beet red, seeping over from the underside. It would be interesting to see them develop. On the left was a beautiful work of different natural cuts of ores from the mountain, capturing several different sizes and configurations of geodes and mineral deposits as well. It was quite beautiful.

  “The second Day room is that way,” I said, pointing into the darkened room. “It has more amenities than the other two, being more centrally located and adjacent to Command. It opens up to the ri
ght into recreational areas, several small lecture and conference rooms, small kitchen and eating areas, and things like that. There’s also a library in there, but we’ve yet to stock anything like that and I’m not giving up mine. In the near future, I’ll start building a general reference again that I don’t mind sharing, at the least.

  “Then this door is for the duty offices for the second Day Room,” I said, pausing at the doorway. “Each has several offices, lecture, and conference rooms of its own. Considering the makeup of our Guard being so high in specialized officers, office space may come at a premium, as well as Officers’ Quarters, but again, I’ll leave that to your discretion. You guys are through here.”

  I stepped to the glass doors and waited for Byrnes to unlock the door. He reached over and pulled on the handle, confused when it didn’t open. Velasquez reached around him and palmed the glass, saying, “The lock’s up here, Ted.” The door swung open instantly. The lights came to life, showing a bright hallway. Twenty feet up a counter marked the entrance lobby, our destination at the moment.

  “You’ll get used to it, Major,” I said lightly, charging through the door. “It’s only been a few hours. Anyway, this is the side entrance to the main Command complex for the Fourth Garrison, which is the actual name for this whole structure. You can consider it roughly equivalent to the Pentagon at the moment, but on a much smaller scale because our realm is much smaller right now. With time, that will change.”

  We now stood in front of the counter of the main lobby of the Garrison Command, an elegant but masculine area, basically devoid of decoration. Eight large chairs were arranged in the waiting area facing the counter. On either side a walk-through aligned with doors in the wall about twelve feet back in a wall of deep burgundy marble. The wall was emblazoned with the words “Fourth Garrison” in large letters embossed over the standard they now bore on their right sides. On the walls of the lobby on either side were the emblems for both my name and the First of Gilán in blue diamonds on a light grayish-blue stone. For a lobby, and a plain one at that, it was actually rather impressive.

  “Offices, mostly,” I said, highlighting their maps, “This is First’s here and yours, Major. The rest I’ll leave to you to decide. There are a number of them available, as well as conference rooms, two auditoriums and, for lack of a better word, a Situation room. Again, they’re mostly empty but for furniture. I’m working on computers and printers, but electricity is an issue. Now, across the hall is Officers’ Quarters.”

  We exited through the main doors. Entering through the double doors, it felt like walking into an apartment complex, reasonably nice, but not comparing to the lobbies of the Family suites at all. This was more general while those were more personal, geared toward the tastes of the people living there. Like many of the living spaces in the Palace, the centerpiece of the lobby was a fountain surrounded by a room of plants.

  As I looked around the lobby, I noticed a very mild blurriness in the air near a large palm tree at the far end of the fountain. It wasn’t a physical blur, but a mild congealing of Gilán’s essence. Curiously, it was the odd crossing of Kieran’s see in truth spell and Daybreak’s power that allowed me to notice, not either of them separately. I decided to watch this thing for a while before I made any decisions. Like, maybe, what the hell it was. It wasn’t like I could do anything about it until then anyway.

  “First, would you care to join us now?” I called across Gilán. “We’re about to go into the more interesting sections of the Garrison.”

  “Hi, Guys, nice place,” Jimmy said, shifting in beside me. “Kieran says we probably need to get someone to test line conditions before we connect any electronics to it, but it looks good for now.”

  “Cool, one less problem as minor as it is,” I answered. Turning to Byrnes and Velasquez, I asked, “You two and one more of your choosing, the Armor Master, are quartered elsewhere. Would you care to see?”

  Startled, both Byrnes and Velasquez were apprehensive about that question.

  “Uh, yes, sir,” Byrnes said nervously.

  “It’s not as bad as it sounds, Major, but yes, your quarters are next to the Armory,” I said, grinning slyly. We left the lobby of the Officers’ Quarters, turning right again down the hall and past the cross hall, further in toward the front of the Palace than they’d yet been. Twenty feet down into the hall we came to another force field. On the right was an unobtrusive doorway set back five feet into the masonry. Walking in, we found a small lobby with a set of three doors. The door on the left read simply “Armor Master,” the center read “Commander Byrnes” and the right said “Commander Velasquez.”

  Pushing to door open to Byrnes’ apartment, we walked into the foyer of a newly furnished four-bedroom apartment. Again, full of life with plants everywhere, this was meant to be a home away from the cold stonework of the Garrison, and it worked well.

  “Your new home, Commander,” I said, offering his new title for the first time. “I find it quite appealing and there’s plenty of room if you decide you want a roommate. Consider that carefully, though. Time alone among so many is a valuable commodity.”

  “Why are you surprised?” Jimmy asked, smiling and throwing his arms across both their shoulders. “Who’d ya think he’d give it to? Sgt. Cox? Congratulations on the promotions! Now come on! He won’t even let me see inside.”

  “You must have been fun at Christmas,” Velasquez muttered.

  “Really, First, let them enjoy the moment,” I said mildly.

  The links between the men of the geas burst into activity as they began discovering the changes. Lt. Brinks released a majority of the men from his caravan and after seeing the kitchen and mess hall, they were eagerly moving through their new home. The pool was a huge hit. They were captivated by the size. I watched as a few officers shouting about water safety were tossed overhead into the pool first. Their excitement was contagious as the backlog diverted down the hall to the new gymnasium and toward the barracks themselves.

  “Maybe we should move along,” Byrnes said, grinning. “There goes Cox, boo-ya!”

  “See? You’re catching on,” Jimmy said, slapping his back. He decided it was time to move and turned with his arm still around Velasquez. Byrnes followed in a mild disorientation, realizing he was seeing two things at once and actually dealing with it separately. I could vaguely remember that feeling as I followed them out, still watching the little condensation of magic drift toward us.

  Down the hall a few yards, Jimmy stood close to the force field blocking the way. I watched the little anomaly drift into a wall then shoot around and into the flow of the field. Being energy it moved fast, but it oozed out of the field slowly and twice as big, was facing Jimmy. I wasn’t worried about this small, slip of magic hurting Jimmy, but I was curious what effect it was having. It seemed to be increasing the field’s sense of apprehension on Jimmy directly.

  “Damn, that’s creepy,” he said, stepping back from the force field. “Still not as bad as the one on Daybreak’s Armory, though. That one makes you want to run screaming from the room.” Then, turning as if just noticing me standing beside him, added, “Sir.”

  “Why did you try, ya idjit?” I asked, grinning, falling back into friendly patterns from months ago. I shoved him aside and said, “You have a better chance of getting into Beth Hamilton’s pants than through that and you know it.”

  “Ha!” he cried, hopping back on one foot to catch his balance. “Too late! She got knocked up by somebody’s cousin’s Navy friend who shipped out months ago.”

  “Then why are you dreaming about her, you perv?” I asked, kidding him. “What? You like them pregnant?” I laughed and hit the field with my hand, first turning off the warning then tuning the field’s lock to accept Jimmy and my new commanders.

  “You liar!” Jimmy shouted, shocked at me but knowing I was joking. “I never dreamt of that! Don’t make up crap about me!”

  “Maybe,” I said, grinning. “But they’ll never know for sure.
Gentlemen, this door will stay locked until both the First and you agree that you are organizationally ready to begin some sort of battle training. Beyond here is the Armory and training facilities. Up to now, everything we’ve opened will stay open until you lock it again. This one will remain locked until either First or I change that, once we are satisfied that everyone understands the safety measures and the dangers involved. The Armory itself will always have staged locks of some kind, accessible only by you and the Armor Master.”

  “He’s lying! I’ve never dreamt about bangin’ Beth Hamilton pregnant,” Jimmy told Byrnes and Velasquez, earnestly. They just grinned at him innocently.

  The threshold to the Armory was a deep red stonework, in contrast to the lighter base coloring of the Palace. It gave it a more foreboding look than anywhere else in the Garrison. I started the doors swinging open.

  “Now the weapons here aren’t quite what you’re used to using,” I said, leading the way through the doors and turning right. “The style of warfare that you’re familiar with doesn’t quite work in fights against us, as you’ve discovered. We get much more personal and up-close. That’s not to say we won’t need firearms, but you already have proficiency in those.”

  The first room we entered was dedicated to armor. It was a huge, warehouse-style area filled with racks of suits from floor to thirty-foot ceiling with dozens upon dozens of different styles and colors. Shields were next, all bearing the mark of Gilán. From round to rectangular, varying is sizes from shoulder-width, single man to fifteen-man bulwarks, massive and heavy. Next came the shield-breakers. Heavy clubs at the beginning, graduating to maces, multiple-edged hammers, and spiked rams of all shapes and sizes.

  While my three subordinates were fascinated by everything—kids in a toy store—I was hungry and we still had three more rooms in the Armory and several training rooms to go. I opened the next room as we approached, but I needed to teach them a few minor tricks before we went too far back.