Sons (Book 2)

by Scott V. Duff

  “Not too many people can read it nowadays,” I told him. “That’s the Faery language from which all others are derived. And all the signatures are there. You just have to know who you’re looking for or be strong enough to hold the Authority.”

  “I thought I was,” he said, sounding dejected slightly.

  “Oh, certainly of Hospitality,” I assured him. “Run the scroll back about eight inches and lift up the paper. The scroll is much more elaborate than it appears. The Oath of Hospitality should be immediately visible, but there are so many signers to this document that you have to ask the signer if you’re unsure. All humans are covered by Accorded definition.” Dad checked the Hospitality seal, then rolled the scroll up again. I retrieved it from there to stop the passing through Ryan and Thomas.

  “So that’s why their translations can be crap and still claim the rights,” Bishop said, finally understanding.

  “Seth, would you mind reviewing the Cahill copy for me?” Gordon asked apprehensively. “We’re going to translate from this, but we want to make certain it’s viable to start with.”

  “Do you have it with you?” I asked and Gordon nodded, handing me a thick sheaf of papers. It was written in Gaelic by a precise hand and it was centuries old. Only a few of the pages showed their age. These bore the history of the translation and had no further significance to the binding of the Oath, explaining their lack of protections even though the Cahills had placed their own over the stack to help prevent decay. The last few pages read like a family Bible of history for the Cahills, going back over a millennium with signatures binding them to Hospitality in several places across Ireland until the keep that predated the Castle was established. The Cahills’ had excellent provenance here.

  “Yes, it holds the Oath quite well, Gordon,” I answered.

  “Good, Da wants Martin and me to take the Oath when we return to the castle,” Gordon said cheerfully, pulling a chair from the wall to the table between Steven and Kieran. Ted noticed and made room between Ethan and himself for Thomas and Ryan. Ellorn darted up his steps again as everyone got settled into place, putting a glass of ice water next to my beer. He seemed to be taking care of me alone as others swept in around the table.

  A flurry of brownies flooded the room from the kitchen, each carrying a plate of some Southwestern or Tex-Mex concoction, brownie variants of foods I, for the most part, hadn’t had before. The table filled quickly as brownies trouped up small sets of steps and dropped off steaming hot plates of enchiladas, tacos, and more, then disappeared again over the edge of the table, chittering and chirping happily in their native tongue to each other.

  Conversation was just as unlikely for a few minutes after that as the plates in the center of the table were off-loaded onto ours. My family ate quickly and voraciously, surprising only Ryan. We were home and relaxing. We let a few walls down, moved at a comfortable pace. At lunch today, we had “normal people” around so we were at a “normal pace,” and what he was used to seeing. We were a little fast for him now. Even Dad and Mike had an “orphanage speed” to their eating.

  “Don’t stop on their account, Mr. Davis,” Ted said very quietly. “If you show that you’re intimidated by them, they’ll pick on you incessantly. And you’ll starve.”

  “Ted, you bastard!” Mike cried across the table, grinning his accusation. “You know he heard you. He hears everything in here.”

  “And your problem with that?” Ted asked smiling.

  “Careful, boys, you never know which way the wind might blow,” Dad warned them quietly, chuckling.

  “Thank you, Ellorn,” I said, accepting the mug of steaming coffee he handed me. “Have I told you how much I love you today?” Peter and I both caught the brownie as he fell off the table laughing. We set him on his feet on the ground and he scuttled away for more coffee, still giggling.

  “This is a very different faery from the Queens’ faery,” Thomas said to Ryan, who still seemed shell-shocked. They were eating, however. “Much more friendly and caring, and at least you can eat the food.” He leaned over his plate and savored something. Then he called to Peter, “The food is excellent, Peter, but I don’t recognize any of it.”

  “You would if you saw it made with ingredients from Earth,” Peter said. “All the produce is local and has a very different look and flavor. We’ve worked hard to match the spices to what we’re used to and Gilán has a few more we haven’t tried yet.”

  “That should make dinner at the Palace most interesting for years to come,” Thomas said.

  “We’re in the Palace? In Gilán?” Ryan whispered to Thomas.

  “Yes, I thought that was obvious when I said we were going to the McClures,” Thomas said, matter-of-factly. “Where did you think Lord Daybreak would spend his nights?”

  “I just expected… more grandeur, I suppose,” Ryan said. “More extravagance.”

  “These are Peter’s suites,” Mike said, smiling briefly to the brownie taking his plate away. “He’s not the extravagant type.”

  “Neither is Seth for that matter,” Dad said. “But the Palace is suitably elaborate and grandiose in the right places.”

  “Jeez, aren’t you people tired of talking about me yet?” I said, scowling down the table.

  “I haven’t even started yet,” Thomas scowled back. “Do you realize the trouble you caused, young man?”

  “Yep, and don’t care,” I said, scowling back at him. “They sicced a decrepit old man at me just to watch me fight him and got a slap on the wrist for it.”

  “Well, it was your own damn fault for working High Magic for fifty solid minutes beforehand!” Thomas cried, throwing his hands up in front of him, palms up.

  I looked at Kieran and asked innocently, “What is ‘High Magic’?” Half the table burst into laughter while the other half stared at me uncomprehendingly. Kieran and Peter were both laughing at me, so I plugged on with the questions. “Is there a ‘Low Magic’ as well? Or does it change to some weird macaroni code?” I took on a mocking tone and said, “This spell is ziti class and can be upgraded to spinach with a flick of the wrist!” Even the guys who didn’t understand the reference were smiling at the ones laughing, finding the humor infectious.

  “High Magic is strong and transformative,” Kieran said chortling and a bit flushed. “Not everyone is capable of performing it since it takes considerable skill and talent as well as loads of raw power. On the human scale, it’s generally ceremonial magic to help build the concentration and power necessary. It’s not easily hidden and even non-magical humans tend to sense its working as a vague discomfort.”

  “But I didn’t do any ceremonial magic today,” I objected. “I wouldn’t know how, though some of the crap I did for Cornell could have been close, I guess. Besides…” I turned to Bishop, slightly confused. “You can’t see our magic. How do you know I did anything?”

  “We all heard and felt that!” Ryan said emphatically, with both Thomas and Gordon nodding in agreement.

  “Is that why you were muddling around in that sink?” I asked Kieran, grinning at him.

  “Yes, I wanted to see what you had done,” he answered. “Masterful work, too.”

  “A credit to the Hilliards, really, especially Cornell, even if he did nearly kill himself to do it,” I said. “But how was that High Magic? We merely repaired what already existed.”

  “Correct me if I’m wrong, but in at least one place in that particular spell, didn’t you supply no less than three of the necessary parts of the magic needed and direct a fourth?”

  “More than once, but you can’t expect First to sing in a language he doesn’t know without some help,” I said, my accent was the only Southern drawl present with Jimmy absent. “He hasn’t been graduated from high school yet, y’know, and not too many of those teach dead languages. So everyone felt the magic because it was druid magic? No one feels the faery magic.”

  “I think it was because you worked in concert with the Hilliards,” Ethan said.

>   “Probably that, yes,” Kieran agreed.

  “Where the hell does your accent come from?” Dad asked in what could only be described as an “American” accent, Eastern certainly. “Seth, you have a very distinctive Southern accent that is like nothing you have been exposed yet is perfect to the region you were born and raised in. Your mother is from Louisiana and I’m… from all over. The staff at the house was Southern, but rarely Georgian. Where does your accent come from?”

  “I dunno,” I replied, shrugging. “Maybe at some point I recognized how studied y’alls’ were and thought mine had to be the same way.”

  “It was beautiful work,” Kieran said honestly. “I could barely see your lines in the larger patches but your touch showed in the power flows. The Hilliards don’t have that sort of dimensional control to draw energy that strongly over such a short distance, though I agree with you on Cornell’s role.”

  “Oh, wait, Tom, are you done trying to bitch at me for my hissy fit?” I asked.

  “Actually, yes. You couldn’t have played a better role if we planned it,” Bishop said. “After you left, they were so afraid of you that when they felt the High Magic the second time, we almost had a mass exodus until Simon came back and assured everyone the ‘Archdruid’ left after impossible magical acts. Your brothers manned the sinks for many incredible displays of magic. Several of them were both informative and visually stunning. And I finally broached the idea of a world council with broader political and policing powers in front of a receptive audience.”

  “Yeah, good luck with that last one,” I said skeptically. “Unless you’re willing to foot the bill yourself, anyway. That group didn’t appear too willing to loosen their purse strings.”

  “Gotta start somewhere, Seth,” rumbled Gordon. “You and Mike have a point about the ivory towers and you shook their walls hard today. Hell, you rattle the walls of conformity just by existing.” A light chuckle went around the table.

  “We have a division that handles magical crimes in most of the larger metropolitan area in Europe,” Bishop said defensively. “And there are similar divisions in the US, Canada, and Mexico. Clifford Harris is with the Marshals and you work with a branch of the military, don’t you?”

  “After a fashion, I suppose,” I said, cocking my head to one side briefly. “I’m just saying good luck with it. We can’t help you with it. We’re useless on matters of the Accords, short of wielding the Authority.”

  “You can advise us,” Bishop offered.

  “With no experience?” I asked, again skeptically. “I doubt that very much, but I’m sure we could be talked into it. Sort of why I’m building embassies. London will be my first.”

  “So you’ll be holding court here?” Bishop asked.

  “No, there’s only one Court of Gilán and it’ll be years before I have need of it,” I said with confidence I didn’t feel. “Besides, what do I need to hold Court for?”

  “Esteleum trade, for one,” Gordon said. “Other than that, I’m sure you’ll find out as soon as your embassy opens for business.”

  “While we’re on the subject, Ryan,” I called down the table, “We need to get both McClure and Associates and FirstGuard Securities incorporated in England as soon as possible. Would you see to that, please? You can hire as much assistance as you need to get the job done. Seymour has the US documentation if you need it. David, if you and Steve would help him… And tomorrow, I’d like you two to go with me to the Pentagon to set up a plan to canvas the rest of the world by military bases like we did in the US. We’ll be moving much more slowly, but we need certain cities as soon as possible. Ric has a list for the first leg.”

  “Okay, Seth, no problem,” Steve said. David nodded with acceptance.

  “Mike, would you explain to Ryan how to use the key for communication, please?” I asked. “He has you three, Ted and me stamped into his.”

  “You got it, boss,” Mike said, grinning at the nickname. Someone was telling stories over drinks, I supposed, but Mike had more access to my brothers than to Ted.

  “Ryan, Mike is our main aide and among our best friends,” I said and introduced Steven, David, and Dad. The others started breaking away from the table quietly to spread out in the living room. “And you met Ted earlier as the man in charge of the security detail for the house. He is Commander of the Palace Guard.” Remembering what he said earlier, I grinned. “Which, apparently, isn’t that impressive.”

  “He did say that, didn’t he?” Ted asked, turning to Ryan. “But if all he’s seen is two rooms of Peter’s apartment, that would make sense. I had the benefit of the Throne room and the Road in the first five minutes.”

  “Yeah, he got a look at the front door this morning, though, and I’m hoping at some point he’ll get tired of being spoken of in the third person like he’s a moron or something,” I said sweetly.

  “I noticed we were doing that,” Ted said raising his voice high in a mocking tone. “Come on, old man, take up for yourself, seriously. You’ll get eaten alive by the people he hangs with if you don’t.”

  “You do seem to be sleepwalking through this, Ryan,” I said calmly. “What seems to be the problem?”

  “Not sleepwalking, Seth, just trying to keep up,” Ryan answered just as calmly. “You are a tempest in a teapot. I’ve known you for two days—someone who should have been on my radar a year ago from what Bishop and Cahill describe—and I have seen more high level magic performed than in my lifetime. I’ve met people who could snap me in half in a heartbeat, people whose auras I can’t see, people whose auras look normal one minute and elven the next. I came with Bishop tonight because he said this would be a quiet dinner where I could gain some insight into how you people worked, how you thought. It’s a circus in here. I don’t know how you keep anything straight; there were four conversations going on at once in here.”

  “This is a quiet dinner,” I said, nearly falling off the armrest laughing. “We normally have our meals in the Garrison, but the brownies are spoiling us. And if you think all I hear are four conversations at a time, then I invite you to take a few thousand for me. But Ted’s right, it’s time to step up your game. Surely an attorney of your reputation can think on his feet because that’s what I need right now. You know more than I do about who is important in Europe. You may have avoided the Faery but you cover a different venue than either Gordon or Thomas. I need that knowledge, Ryan. I have to play politics in a world that I am ruefully unprepared to play in and it doesn’t look like anyone is going to give me time to figure out who’s who. I’ve already made mistakes and luckily, I’ve been able to sweep those under the rug fast enough that most people won’t see them, but sooner or later I’m gonna screw up so badly I can’t hide it. I want to delay that as long as possible.”

  “So this isn’t a charade? This aspect you show?” he asked.

  “Please don’t call him a ‘kid’,” whispered Ted, clamping his eyes shut and grimacing. “He’s killed people for that.”

  “I have not!” I said, whacking Ted on the shoulder. “Well, that wasn’t the only reason, anyway.”

  “If you’re asking why he looks like a nineteen-year-old, it’s because he’s seventeen,” Dad said. “He’s grown in the past few weeks. It makes him look a little older.” I felt the focus around Ryan’s neck direct his attention to Dad. If he was good enough, the focus would allow him to pierce some of Dad’s shielding and camouflage. If he was very good, he might actually see Dad’s real aura, but I doubted it and the Pact was still invisible.

  “Druid,” Dad said mildly, splaying the last three fingers of his left hand at him and saying in Gaelic, “My life is my own,” without any magic involved. Ryan stiffened, redirecting his attention to me. “Seth never learned any of those traditions. Now it seems irrelevant. Do you think he’s an Archdruid? After only two days exposure?”

  “As much as he is Lord Daybreak, yes,” Ryan said, turning to meet my father’s gaze confidently. Dad smirked at him in return. Intimidating
him, the cocky bastard. I pushed gently into Ryan’s focus and found him loosely around the same circle he controlled, driving a minor revelation spell through his vision. The first thing I had to do was distract Dad.

  “Oh, good, you know about druids,” I said, full of attitude. “You can take care of checking on the Hilliards for me. That’d really be helpful since I don’t know anything about them.” I cut Ryan’s power output down to a hundredth of what he was using and jerked his attention back to his identity. Focusing the nine circles on the energy systems that my father used, I forced the triad to refocus the circles’ output through a translation spell and into the identity form.

  “Not a chance!” Dad blustered, standing up from the table and shining in Ryan’s eyes like a theater spotlight. “I had enough of them centuries ago. You can handle them easily enough.” He swaggered out of the dining room with Ryan following him to the head of the table. Releasing my control on the focus, he glanced up at me when he lost sight of Dad’s aura. At least the parts I was willing to show him, which were still formidable.

  “I’ll do my best,” he told me, turning to Mike. “When Seth talks to me through his key, he feels like he’s in the room with me talking. I end up speaking aloud. This isn’t necessary, is it?”

  “No, it isn’t,” Mike answered. “And in most cases, it’s inadvisable…” He started explaining how the diamond worked like he explained things to Ian, too metaphorically for a twelve-year-old but a little too simplistic for Ryan.

  Jimmy shifted in from the London house to the head of the table, looking around the room. I got up quietly to meet him with Ted a few steps behind me. “Hungry?” I asked Jimmy when I got close enough.

  “Enough to eat a horse,” he said grinning.

  “Ellorn, can you fix…” I started to ask the brownie for what was already in his hands, a large plate of several samplings from tonight’s dinner for First. Taking the plate from him, I said, “Thank you, Ellorn. How about a—” When I looked, the brownie was holding out a beer for Jimmy and a snifter of brandy for me. “Do I need to ask you for anything ever again?” I asked, chuckling and taking the beverages.