“This is the Unseelie Accords,” I announced, turning the document to face everyone in the room. “Don’t look away! Half of you said you signed this!” I looked around angrily at the panicking crowd of wizards, gasping and blanching and trying desperately to not look at the Oath that held more power than most of them had ever seen. “This is what keeps this realm safe from the elder powers of the universe. Who among you has signed this?” No one would confess to having signed anything similar to my scroll. Separating the Rules of Hospitality from the scroll, I sent it back into hiding. “What about this? Is this easier to take?” The relief of removing the alien magic from the tent was palpable from everyone but Jimmy, my brothers, and me. People fell limply back in their chairs. Hyperventilation was running rampant. Masters grew irritated with their students and underlings over it, though not as irritated as I got.
“Oh, the vapors!” I said, affecting a breathy, Southern accent and fanning myself with the Rules, one hand on my forehead as if about to faint. Then I snapped to and looked around again, angry. “Should I put in some fainting couches for you?” Pausing to let the full affect of my sarcasm sink in and frankly let them regain their senses, I circulated the air through the permeable membrane I put around the tent. It was getting a little stifling in here and the breeze felt good.
“Mr. Milykos, is this what you signed?” I asked pointedly, once I had the majority of everyone’s attention again. He nodded nervously, afraid to speak to me. “You should have actually read it, then, Mr. Milykos. That lie is going to cost you.”
Before Milykos could respond, his father interrupted, finally having something to say. “But he has done nothing wrong!” he said loudly and full of conviction, standing in objection. “Even the elves do not require payment for the asking of questions! Merely for their answers.”
“So the entire family joins, marvelous,” I said, smiling. “Mr. Milykos, your son’s breach of Hospitality wasn’t in asking questions or in challenging me. It was in willfully lying to me about signing the Rules. He didn’t… take… the Oath.”
The elder Milykos was appalled. Now he was caught in a lie his son told. I listened to him cuss his son out for a few moments before I interrupted, thinking that Greek might be funny to hear. It wasn’t.
“Will you accept my judgment or do you wish to call for an arbiter?” I asked them.
“I’d advise staying with Seth,” Kieran said. “You’re already going to lose. If you chose an arbiter, then you’ll just pay more for the privilege.” I didn’t say anything, but he was right.
“And I will challenge anyone in this tent,” I added.
Senior Milykos swallowed and nodded. “I will accept your judgment, Lord Daybreak,” he said hoarsely.
“I’ll make this simple and educational, then, since you’re listening to reason,” I said more cordially—well, at least more politely. “Obtain a copy of the Rules, one correct enough to bear the Oath, in whichever language you prefer. Translate this document into Greek, English, French, German, and Spanish. Then attempt to copy the Oath onto your translations. Let me know how that works out for you.”
“Too easy!” Ethan yelled out from the podium.
“You want to do it, too?” I asked him, turning around and grinning.
“No, but that’s no real punishment,” he complained.
“So Ethan is volunteering!” Kieran announced, laughing.
“You can’t ask my faery for help, either!” I said still grinning, knowing the difficulty of the task. There were many conceptual difficulties in most human language for the oath to take hold. “I think the Milykos family will find many friends because of this. They’ll be crawling out of the woodwork to compare notes on their translations. This will be good for everyone involved.
“This conference was called as a means of sharing information and developing ways of defending ourselves against an unknown adversary,” I said trying to bring everyone back to a purpose. “Instead, you people came to look at the freak. ‘Daybreak’s coming, right? We want to see the new elf-king, the one that killed MacNamara. We aren’t coming if he’s not gonna be there.’ What do I matter if you’re dead?” I paused briefly to give them a chance to consider the question, but only briefly. “That isn’t a rhetorical question and you really need to consider your answers.
“You are a fractious and arrogant lot. As much as I hear complaints of the faery, you’re no better, sitting in your ivory towers, arrogant and powerful. You totally lack concern for your neighbors and communities and this seriously confuses me as many of you were alive during World War II. You know how Hitler progressed through Europe and you know how he lost it again. These people are playing the same sort of scorched earth policy that Hitler and Stalin played except they aren’t playing for territory, they’re playing for lives. Our lives. And we don’t even know who or why yet. And you were attacked! How do you forget that?” I recalled the map that Gordon and Ferrin presented for us and pushed the image out into the aisle.
“Those eighteen families weren’t as lucky as you. The people in those twenty-three facilities weren’t as lucky. And while the destruction of those places is a minor distraction for you, it’s a major problem for hundreds of lesser talents in this country and on the continent. You’re making me wonder if I should deal with any of the councils, if it is in Gilán’s interest to even allow council members access at any point.” I was too angry now, feeling their indifference settling back into place. So I just left.
Falling back on my butt on the same hilltop, I sulked for a moment, trying to let my anger seep away.
“Damn, I’ve never heard Seth so mad before,” I heard Peter say to Ethan quietly. Bishop turned in alarm when he heard him.
“You think he meant it?” Ethan asked both Kieran and Peter.
“Yes,” they said together and nodded, slowly. Bishop got nervous at this. Good.
Jimmy, I called across our link, would you send Ryan to me, then find Simon and bring him to me, please? I don’t want to go near those people again today.
“Yes, sir,” Jimmy answered as he stood. He whispered in Ryan’s ear and put his hand on Ryan’s shoulder, then shifted Ryan to me across the veil in that odd rolling way he used to move without a portal.
“Are you going to talk to him?” Bishop asked Jimmy as he passed the lectern.
“I’m going to talk to Simon, if that’s the him you had in mind,” Jimmy answered.
“No, I mean Seth. Someone’s got to talk to Seth and calm him down,” Bishop said anxiously. “He can’t leave. We need him. We need all of you.”
“You may have a problem, then, Mr. Bishop,” Jimmy said. “I’ve never seen Seth mad. I’m not sure how to take it, but I do know he told me to do something so if you’ll excuse me…” Jimmy walked past Bishop and off the podium. When he hit the energy field around the pavilion, it collapsed completely, freeing everyone inside and allowing the breeze through again. Simon wasn’t hard to find. He was waiting a few yards away from the tent.
“Ryan,” I said to Davis. “Give me a few minutes to get your old friends set and we’ll be on our way.”
“Okay,” answered Davis, nervously. After a moment he added, “That was an impressive display in there.”
Jimmy and Lynton appeared when I grunted in acknowledgment to his compliment. “Impressive” should have knocked them out of their complacency.
“Simon, I need to complete your circle as well as the one below yours before I leave since you can’t do it without spilling blood,” I said standing. “Are the candidates in the glen now?”
“Y-yes, Archdruid,” he stammered, still a little confused by the transfer. “Everyone is still within the Hilliards’ copse at the moment, including the additions to the second and third circles. They’re part of the protection rings.”
“Will this change in their status affect those rings?” I asked.
“I would think only for the better, sir,” Lynton said. “It would increase their ability to hear and see the fl
ows within the higher magics. But can this be done without the binding? It requires the exchange of life’s blood for the elemental connections to the Earth’s energy.”
“I think I can manage,” I said with a small smile. “Ryan, would you stay here for a few minutes? You know how testy the old boys can be.”
“Most definitely, Lord Daybreak,” Davis said, palms up and taking a step back. I was still in too foul a mood to appreciate the humor.
Jumping the three of us to the Hilliard copse, I waved for Lynton to lead the way into the thicket. Once inside I went to check on Cornell while Lynton collected his circle. Hamish and Kendrick sat on one bed facing Cornell as he sipped at chicken broth.
“Feeling better, Cornell?” I asked the grizzled druid as I walked up to the beds. He nodded briskly, his eyes a bit wide. He made several hand motions, tapping and clicking his fingers against his thighs and arms.
“Cornell is asking you to show him the same two scenes you showed us earlier, Archdruid,” Hamish said, giggling.
“All right, since you put so much effort into the sinks, but commit it to memory. This isn’t a party trick, you know,” I said, smiling tiredly. I replayed the two scenarios for Cornell and his brothers without preface while I looked him over. The spell was more affective in some aspects but less so in others than I expected, but overall he’d be fine.
A burst of laughter in the small glade signaled Dad punching the Rat Bastard out as I was trying to get the druids to form up for me. Might as well have been trying to herd elephants with a plastic mouse for all the good it was doing me, so I waited for the second simulation to finish. The nearly eardrum-bursting shout of thirty some-odd druids meant the end of the elf. And my breathing, it seemed, as Cornell was squeezing it out of me with thin, twiggy arms from behind. I said, “All right, Cornell, let g—of*!” and Kendrick joined his brother in the hug. I didn’t know how he even heard me with the racket the druids were making. You’d have thought they killed the Rat Bastard right then with all the noise.
The whole scene amused Jimmy immensely, but he had the good sense not to show it outwardly. I caught his attention, pointing to Simon, held up two fingers, and ran my hand in a circle. Next, I had to extricate myself without breaking either set of arms or hurting either ego. Hamish turned out to be the key, or rather, my rescue.
“Brothers, Lord Daybreak is a busy man today,” Hamish said cheerfully. “We should keep our adulation short and perhaps he will show us more of his abilities.”
“Actually, that’s precisely what I had in mind,” I said, moving to the center of the copse. “We need to rebuild your sacred three, Hamish, so you can close your circles yourselves. Granted, this will have to be repeated in a few days when you retire, but by then I think I’ll have the compulsion amended.”
“With the Modred dead, Archdruid, we welcome retirement and the simple joys of teaching,” Kendrick said softly, moving to my side. All three of them had a sense of tranquility in them that was positively Zen. They sat on the ground around me in a close triangle facing outward and closed a ceremonial circle around us. This would allow me to pass across without breaking the magic of the binding that linked them together.
Simon’s circle moved in close around us and I discovered the new guy was the head of the second circle. I should have expected that. Promotions work that way most of the time, but I didn’t need to know the internal politics of the Hilliard Grove. Mostly I didn’t care so long as they behaved. There was probably much more ceremonial work that should have accompanied this, but I neither knew it nor had time for it, especially since I was once again working on instinct.
Starting with the new guy, I brushed his connection to the other circle away gently and linked him tonally with the Hilliards. He needed connections to the four elements, which he already had, and a connection to his new circle, which he didn’t. It looked like the elemental connections were abolished in the normal ceremony, otherwise there’d be no reason to spill blood for a new one. Wrapping his self-image in those elemental controls, I had him sing the tone signifying the sacred oak and linked him with the next man in the circle, progressing through each member of the primary circle until I reached Simon. Any of their sacred symbols would have worked; they certainly had enough of them. Simon, though, needed to be linked to everyone as High Druid of the Grove. Brushing Simon’s elemental connections away, I re-drew them stronger around his self-image then had him chant in succession the three tones for the sacred trees while I drew in the connections for the other eight druids. Pressing my hand on his chest, I closed the second circle of the Hilliard grove by saying, “So mote it be.” Pale green energy pulsed out of Simon’s aura and shot to each member, forming a series of lines. An aura of similar energy formed around the group in a bubble, authenticating that the circle had been made and made correctly without the need for spilt blood. They sat down cross-legged, giddy as schoolchildren on laughing gas.
Hamish and Kendrick were ecstatic at my achievement, previously convinced of its impossibility. Cornell was shocked in amazement. It wasn’t that hard once I knew what the bindings looked like and where they needed to be.
The third circle was more challenging only because I had to add three new people and a leader to appoint. I started with holly this time, much to Kendrick’s amusement though I didn’t know why. After finishing with the third circle, the three had to be sanctified together. I had the Hilliards hold the note for oak, the second circle held ash, and the third held thorn. I trilled my way through the shrubs while I bound their power to their wills through the leaders, setting the binding solidly in place with the familiar “So mote it be.”
While everyone was still dazed in the new connections, Jimmy and I sneaked out with my now clean pots and went to collect Ryan.
Chapter 58
Little brother, are you okay? Ethan asked through the anchor just as we arrived at back at Ryan’s hotel room.
I will be, I answered, falling back on the couch in Davis’ front room. Ryan went to get his briefcase so we could see to the paperwork on the house. Especially now that I’m away from those conceited, self-centered half-wits.
Well, you’ve scared the hell out of Thomas, Gordon, and Darius, he said, the humor in his voice unmistakable. After we got up to leave, there was a bit of general panic when everyone realized just how serious the situation was.
Y’all left, too? They deserved to be abandoned, but I didn’t think Kieran would actually do it.
No, just acted like we would. Thomas reminded them of exactly what you have achieved alone that they couldn’t together as well as what losing you and Gilán would mean. He wasn’t polite about it either. How serious about that are you, anyway?
Very! I answered emphatically. Why should we waste our time on them? There are a lot more people like Trelaine who could use our help and be grateful to have it.
Yes, Ethan agreed. And the bigger problems, like this war, would be solved much more slowly and more lives would be lost than would be necessary.
Stop being reasonable, Ethan. It’s unbecoming. I felt him laughing at me as he broke the connection. Oddly enough, though, that small exchange made me feel a little better.
“…So soon? Why?” Davis said into his cell phone as he came back into the room. “No, we have to pay them. They can wait. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He sighed as he disconnected the call. “There are inspectors at the house. I assume that is Lord Bishop’s influence working overtime to expedite the sale.”
“Cool. Maybe things will move in my favor for once today,” I said standing. “And Jimmy will get a chance to look over the landscape better now.”
“But it’s going to take us close to two hours to drive there from here,” Davis said. I wrapped the three of us in portals and jumped us to the nearly pornographic statues on the porch that Peter liked so much. “Or we can go this way. How can I forget…”
“Good question,” Jimmy murmured, grinning at the druid as he made for the front door. “There a
re sixteen men here, including Edmington, all on the rear patio.”
Davis and I followed Jimmy through the house to the patio. On the way I looked about the house and even though I hadn’t looked into the demo unit in the Throne Room, I think I agreed with them, it did need to be larger to suit our purposes. Whatever those purposes might actually end up being. This area wasn’t right for the research we wanted, but there were other places in the world.
We came out of the house to the patio to find a collection of men from neighboring farms yelling at Edmington while several men in yellow vests stood behind him with their arms crossed on their chests. The vested men were the surveyors. The men arguing were the neighboring farmers who apparently were taking offense with the surveyors. Since this wasn’t my problem, I sat down at one of the tables to watch and being last in line, Jimmy and Ryan missed that fact and proceeded into the melee.
I loosed my senses out onto the property in case there was something else around. The land looked and felt just as I remembered, except for the break in the fence and the extra vehicles. Listening to the argument, the neighbors were aggravated about the surveyors being on their property. The surveyors said they were on the property line and therefore in the easement, and it didn’t matter since their fences were on the wrong side of the property line. I thought it was a little funny that both neighbors were here, arguing the same thing. The surveying equipment was abandoned two-thirds of the way along one side. Measuring along the road, they started through a windbreak and making an obvious path. Pushing out a bit further I saw why and decided to let Ryan handle it.
“Mr. Edmington,” Davis said in greeting, meeting him at his side. “I’m Ryan Davis, attorney for the McClures. What seems to be the problem?” He spoke in a commanding voice, a little high-pitched, but it cut through the yelling and demanded attention from everyone. His singing voice was quite different. Glancing back, he saw me sitting with my head in my hands and watching with what I hoped was a perfectly angelic seventeen-year-old “huh?” look. Jimmy poured on the boyish charm, sitting on the railing. I had no idea where he got the sunglasses or who he was trying to charm.
Sons (Book 2) Page 107
