Sons (Book 2)

by Scott V. Duff

  “Is that why you and Mom prefer to stay at the Cahills?” I asked and leaned against his shoulder, reducing the amount of sensory transfer those nerves brought through. Sometimes it wouldn’t be a good idea to just reach out and touch me without getting a surprise, but he didn’t need to know that.

  “No, she wants to be around a lot of people and near her doctors,” Dad said, reassuring me. “I can’t say no to that, but I really want to start digging into Lucian’s records and other records for the last ten years from the Pacthome. Find out what they knew of what’s going on over there.”

  “You’re welcome to do that at any time,” I said, closing my eyes for a moment and resting my head on his shoulder. “You know where it is and how to get there. Anyone in the Palace will go with you. Well, give’m a few days now. It’s gonna be a madhouse till Ellorn can get everybody settled in and training started.”

  “Where are you learning to do… all of this?” he asked, exasperated. His senses swelled in search of mine. We had more than enough contact for me to try to link with him. It wasn’t as easy as a maternal link but Dad was always an equal part of my life. “I supervised everything you were taught. You shouldn’t know anything close to this! And it’s frustrating that it’s so beyond me that I can’t help you.” He paused for a moment as he felt his senses intertwine with mine for the first time instead of pierce or reflect or simply not exist. “Is this what they feel from you? This Zen-like contentment and confidence?”

  “Hmm? No, they need more from me than that, especially in full communion,” I said softly. “And step back a bit and look at the bigger picture. There’s a lot of panic and pain and confusion in that contentment and confidence. You accused me of always knowing what to do earlier. I don’t. I’m guessing, basing everything on intuition and observation. And math, fields, relationships, which you did teach me.”

  “So what scares my big, powerful son, huh?” he asked lightly. “What could panic you? I’ve seen you slice up a dozen men without breaking a sweat and you admit to panic?”

  “Honestly? Please don’t tell Ethan I told you,” I asked, looking up tiredly. “And I’ve just made it a thousand times worse, too. Sex.” He pulled his head back a little and looked down, confused.

  “Why is sex panicking you?” he asked, fighting not to grin, his cheeks getting rosy. “I mean, you know the basics and I know your equipment works.” He fought harder against snickering.

  “That’s about all I’m going to get for a long time, too,” I muttered. “It’s not a physical or a desire problem. It’s a fear that if I lose control while I’m having sex with a girl that I might create another sidhe quite by accident. And I haven’t figured out how to remove that kind of geas without completely destroying the person underneath it.”

  “Ouch,” Dad said, his eyes wide and no longer finding humor in my situation. “Are you sure about that?”

  “No, that’s why it’s a fear, but think about it,” I mumbled. “How would you like to risk making love slaves just because you wanted to get your rocks off. Seriously, even if the woman is hot as hell, once she’s one of mine even the sex is rather worthless. It’s… masturbation basically, just without the hand motion.”

  “And how have you just made it worse?” Dad asked nervously.

  “I just added thirteen hundred men and women to my mind who will soon come to realize that they’re no longer ruled by a mating schedule, that sex can be a recreational activity as well as procreational, and Gilán pushes that part. Sex is going to be rampant for a long time.”

  “Oh, God, son, I’m sorry,” Dad whispered. With our senses so close together, I could tell he wasn’t just talking about the sex.

  Grunting softly, I murmured, “Don’t worry about it, Dad. I’ll find a way around it at some point.”

  “That’s… not quite what I meant, Seth,” he said, stammering a little guiltily.

  Patting his shoulder and easing the link away, I sat up slowly, saying, “I know, Dad, and I understand. You’re not the only one that feels like I should have problems.” I pushed up lightly on his shoulder to stand up, then offered my hand to help him up. “Now I’ve got to get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.”

  “Yeah, I’ll be with you in the raid, though,” he said, leveraging up using me. “See you in the morning, Seth.” He hugged me, tightly and comfortably, then pulled away and shifted to his suite here. Jimmy stood up immediately and we headed up the back staircase that led to the Promenade on the next level.

  Being tired, I let Jimmy shift from landing to landing so I didn’t have to take the stairs. On the third landing, the noise from above was a buzz and on the fourth, it was just loud. When we entered the hall to my room, it was nearly unbearable till I capped us. Everyone was aware of me because the communion bond was active, so no worries of walking into me or running underfoot accidentally. So Jimmy and I entered the melee in the corridor.

  The hallway was filled with naked people, some in family units with father, mother, and children, usually in pairs. The families looked a little odd at times with the parents barely older than some of the children, but hopefully their Change would continue through the night like Ellorn’s did. The Guard had tables set up with food everywhere along the corridor and huge barrels for trash. Several men were barking their wares like hucksters at a carnival, offering tips on how to best eat their gastronomic delicacy—don’t eat the seeds, avoid the rind, you can eat the shell but that’s gross, dude, that sort of thing.

  Everyone was having a good time and was in high spirits, humans and elves, alike. I want another word: elf just isn’t right. Gelf? Everywhere I looked I saw a Changed brownie that I’d had a direct contact with in the last few days. The greatest number of them I hadn’t even spoken to unless it was a general “good morning” but I still knew their names without thinking about it. Nil and Null were eating pears and greeting passers-by while sitting on a planter. The three brothers from Peter’s apartment earlier juggled half-eaten plums between them while shoving more in their mouths. Serita was there with her family about to go through the showers that Ellorn built from the pool just before the great marble doors. She had two sets of twins and her entire family somehow fell on the bright side of the hair color schemes. They were covered in sticky juices of fruits and berries.

  Jimmy stepped into his apartment to change clothes as we passed so I waited. The timbre of the noise changed. Looking down the hall, I saw the line turned completely down the short hall and the end was in sight now. A good thing from what I could see of the food levels. When Jimmy came back out in basketball shorts and a T-shirt, we continued to my room through the massive, black marble doors. The Guard used the lobby to my office to hand out white nightshirts at furious rate, sizing people by guessing. That was a nice surprise—I hadn’t seen those.

  Jimmy handed me an Esteleum as we passed through the doors to my sanctum and at that moment, I realized how much of a sanctum it truly was, how much I loved my arboreal retreat. My garden was nearly picked clean of anything edible with that being very broadly defined. I shoved every bit of the shock and horror I felt at the sight onto Jimmy and smiled. He fell into me a step later laughing at me. I ate slowly so I didn’t have to show much of a reaction to anyone and the noise was too great to hold a conversation, but I just wanted to sleep anyway.

  All the lights were out, but it was still incredibly bright. Ellorn had chosen to open all the panels in the ceiling and clear the opaque glass. The sky above was crystal clear and billions of stars twinkled brightly above us. The moon neared its apogee, showing a hint of lilac in its halo at the edges. It’s a beautiful view that would have to change very soon. As we got closer to the Worldgem, everyone got quieter and more settled in for sleeping.

  There was some sort of organization to spacing with some people invading the planters and sleeping amid the shrubs, or with clusters of children on the few couches and chairs with parents on mats on the floor beside them, or in many different formations. T
he Guard was spread evenly throughout with more joining into a sort of honeycomb matrix in the garden, fixing beds of their own and helping others get settled and fed. Behind us the line to the food hucksters came to an end and they started shutting containers and closing trashbins. The showers were still going, but it looked like they’d make the half hour deadline. Damn, they’re good. I hadn’t expected to make that deadline.

  Shifting us to my den overlooking the Worldgem, I fell back onto an overstuffed couch and pulled two beers from a nearby cooler by force of will. Jimmy sat beside me and took one and we sat watching the glow of the gem as the din slowly subsided around us. We both felt Ellorn enter the room, marking the last of the Guard and the elves. His presence was commanding and noticeable, exactly like Jimmy’s when he pulled on his aspect. Ellorn walked the Road at an elven pace, shutting the panels and increasing the opacity of the clear cells as he went. By the time he got to the Worldgem, the room was in a very nice twilight and everyone began to doze lightly.

  “Ellorn, come on. It’s time for bed,” I said quietly, finishing my beer and standing. He shifted up and silently followed me into my bedroom. There wasn’t much need to speak with the communion in effect. Dumping my clothes in a heap in my closet on the level below, I crawled into bed naked in the center pulling a blanket over me. Jimmy and Ellorn crawled up on either side a few feet away with their own blankets and grabbed pillows. None of us felt the slightest sexuality about the situation as we settled in to sleep for the rest of the night. They were both a couple of feet away from me, Jimmy in basketball shorts and Ellorn in a white nightshirt. I closed my eyes, relaxed, and slept deeply.

  Chapter 63

  A few minutes before dawn, I woke up in the dark, hot and claustrophobic. It wasn’t hard to understand. Ellorn’s head was on my left shoulder with his arm across my chest and Jimmy’s legs crossed mine, trapping me under the blanket. Moving slightly counter to both of them got them both to adjust in their sleep and release me from confinement and I was able to ease myself out from under the blanket just as the sky hinted at dawn. I watched a few thousand stars twinkle out of sight as the horizon began lightening with the planetary roll. My body began rising of its own accord when the Palace started its daily ritual of singing, starting with the incredibly low registers that no one but me heard. Any fatigue I still felt was pushed out as that sound filled me completely and rushed forward for the rest of the symphony.

  I floated above the Worldgem and watched when the first ray of sunshine shot over the mountains in the distance and hit the front dome of the Palace. The cacophony of light and sound it created was no different than any other day but the response changed. Already awake, the brownies joined instantly in the singing as the halls and corridors brightened with the dawn. Ellorn and Jimmy both awoke instantly and watched me intently. The other elves woke more slowly, but not by much, and were equally intent on me floating in the air high overhead. I wasn’t paying them much attention at that moment, as this was my communion with Gilán. When they started singing with the brownies and sprites, I noticed them. They added incredible registers to the songs in both the human and the elven ranges. The Worldgem pulsed lightly, driving the song outward from the Palace on a wave of a joyous energy that spread around the globe slowly without losing any energy as it passed.

  Gilán announced the coming of the elves.

  ~ ~ ~

  My communion link with the faery shut down with the Palace song. It was an enormous relief to feel that complexity fall away. My mind centered as my feet touched the floor and I found the brownies had been busy, busy, busy all night long. The corridors were cleared and cleaned of any food droppings and the wet towels and trash bins had been hauled off to appropriate places. The right side corridor, previously empty, was now full of racks of clothing all the way to the stairs to the next level down. The hall was a huge rainbow of colors of shirts and slacks as far as the eye could see. The brownies, some portion at least, emptied supply rooms of clothing and spread them out by color and size along the hall, ignoring shoes for the time being. Just enough to get the day started, but it was an enormous effort on their part.

  Down the left corridor leading through the Family Wing, the brownies set up hundreds of tables of food. They made breakfast for everyone, close to eighteen hundred people. Of course, anything made with eggs was out of the question. They polished those off last night. There were many items I didn’t recognize that looked and smelled fascinating from here. Fruitbreads, meats, vegetables, and fruits spread out and repeated down the hall. Hand towels were piled at the pools and several families of brownies and sprites were already playing at the small parks along the promenade. It looked like Sunday in the park for the early ‘50s for really short people in garishly bright clothing.

  Looking up at Ellorn and Jimmy coming into my bathroom from my bedroom, I grinned at the nightshirt. “Let me put something on and then show you your suite,” I said. “You’ll want to change clothes yourself.”

  “Yeah, my granny wore a dress like that,” Jimmy said snickering as I shifted us to my mirror. “I really like the hair, though. Come’re, let’s see what we can do with that mop.” He gently dragged an unprotesting Ellorn to the vanity, grabbed a brush, and attacked his head with a vengeance. He had the poor elf’s hair spiked inside a minute.

  “No,” I said laughing as I came out of the mirror in shorts and a T-shirt. “You are not doing that to him. At least give him a day without practical jokes so he can do what needs to be done first.”

  “Is that what this type of humor is called? ‘Practical jokes’?” Ellorn asked in a rich baritone. “Is that me?” His voice surprised him.

  “Yes, that’s you,” I said, taking the brush from Jimmy. “Who else could it be? You don’t remember talking last night?”

  “There are… parts that are… blurry,” he admitted while I brushed down the spikes in his short, blue hair. “Other parts are extremely clear.” Brushing his hair straight back, I let his hair fall naturally into place. He seemed to have a natural part on the right with waves throughout that caused a curl onto his forehead. “Lord, I can see you!”

  “Really? What can you see?” I asked.

  “Daybreak,” Jimmy answered, smiling and clearly pleased. “I can see you, too, now, but it’s not all of you. We’re just seeing Lord Daybreak.” He would know; he saw more of my aura at his birth as First.

  “Huh. That could be a problem if just anyone can, but let’s just wait and see,” I muttered, quickly considering the consequences. If I was visible to just First and Ellorn, there wasn’t a problem. Even if my visibility is limited to Gilán or those of Gilán, I’d be okay. If anyone can see Daybreak now, am I a liability to my brothers? “Let’s take a look at your digs.”

  The men and elves instantly adjusted their paths in the busy corridor when we shifted in front of them. The Palace was busy last night, too, or rather, Ellorn’s subconscious was. The structure changed to one massive office structure. We stepped out of traffic and into the glass front with wide double doors. On either side was clear glass brick marking the office functions. On the left etched into the brick there was image of the Palace with the phrase “Office of Palace Affairs” repeated in English, Faery Common, and Latin. On the right, though, was a far more interesting emblem. There were very tiny bubbles of colored liquids embedded in the clear bricks. The pattern showed a reasonably accurate representation of Ellorn within the geas. Above it was his name and below it were the words “Saun Huri.” It looked to me like he’d written it himself, but I’d only seen his writing once.

  “Well, First,” I said airily, glancing over at him. “It appears you’re sidhe no more.”

  “Suits me!” Jimmy sneered. “That was so sissy sounding. Thanks, Ellorn, I definitely like the sound of Saun Gilán better than Sidhe Gilán.”

  “And I definitely prefer huri to elf,” I added. Ellorn was in awe of his emblem and with his increased sensitivity to the Palace, he wasn’t easily overwhelmed. “You
okay, buddy?”

  “Huh? Oh! Yes, sir, sorry, sir,” Ellorn shot out hurriedly. “I got distracted for a moment. It’s a beautiful display. Do those words have meaning? The language seems familiar somehow.”

  First of the Blended, I sent through the geas to Ellorn. “Written out, the words look like that. That is the language of the geas.”

  “And that defines me as being yours, Lord Daybreak?” Ellorn asked.

  “Yes, definitely,” I said.

  “Is the reverse true as well? If we speak words of another Lord’s geas, will it harm mine in some way?” he asked, alarmed.

  “No, nothing that simple would begin to affect it,” I answered. “It would take someone fairly equal to me in strength and finesse. Still wouldn’t be a pretty picture when they get done.”

  “Go ahead, Ellorn. Open the doors up,” urged Jimmy. “We’ve got a busy day with the huri.”

  “As well as the rest of the faery,” I added as Ellorn pushed the glass doors open. Lights came on throughout the office complex. The lobby was a simple array of chairs and benches of various sizes, ranging from perches for fairies and pixies to much-larger-than-human accommodations. The appointment desk was actually three separate desks built for brownies and sprites or the huri. It controlled access to three corridors behind it. On the hall to the left a placard read “Palace Affairs.” On the center the placard read Huri Chene, or “Work of the Blended,” or maybe “Hybrid Affairs.” The right hall was unmarked but obviously led to Ellorn’s outer office. He went that way, ignoring the other two for now.

  “It’s huge, Ellorn!” exclaimed Jimmy playfully just as we entered the hall to the outer office. “How’d you rate?”

  “Better real estate agent, I guess,” Ellorn answered, seeming to ignore us as he looked around briefly. Our jaws both dropped then we burst into laughter. Ellorn’s first joke. He pushed through the outer office into his. It was a large open space of elegant marble and granite and filled with plants. The center of the room was recessed into the floor, forming a conversation pit large enough for twenty people with couches, chairs, and tables. A second ring at the entrance level would seat another thirty-five or so. Suspended from the ceiling on the near end was a panel similar to the Situation room’s panel but three times larger and displayed my sigil in vibrant colors.