“Because it won’t matter, Seth. It’ll just keep happening,” he said solemnly and forlornly, full of conviction in his prognosis. “It happens that way sometimes. I’m an old man, Seth. There’s only so much my mind can take and my power is surpassing it.”
“That’s what you believe? That your power is surpassing your ability to control it? Did you consider talking with anyone about it? Being proactive? No? When did you give up?”
“I don’t know exactly,” he said despondently, looking at my feet, choosing that as the answer to all my questions but mostly the last.
“Why? What don’t you have to live for? We’ve just now found the Pact’s traitor. We can rebuild with secure bindings now. I need your help more than ever, Dad!”
“Seth, the Pact is you,” Dad said. “Haven’t you realized that yet? It’s the only answer that fits. There’s nothing to rebuild.”
Well, that was a shocker. Raising my eyebrows to show some reaction, I said, “I’m not sure what to make of that. I’ll talk with Kieran and do some research of my own and get back with you on that idea. And what about Kieran and me? Are you giving up on us, too?”
“You’ve got to be kiddin’ me,” he laughed, his aura brightened in overconfidence. “You boys don’t need me! You’re both more powerful than I am by far and you haven’t reached your majority yet! Kieran is mid-forties and Peter is mid-twenties and I watched them defeat armed men at a distance with ease.”
“They’ve had practice lately,” I said, shrugging it off lightly. “So what you’re saying is we don’t get to know each other because we’re powerful and you’re not? That seems pretty… petty.”
“Does, doesn’t it?” Dad said, curling his lip in distaste but not looking up.
“What about Mom? She doesn’t mean anything to you either? You don’t think losing you so fast on the heels of her father will devastate her?”
“Olivia knows I’m an old man,” he answered sadly, unintentionally adopting my accent. “I was going to give out sometime soon.”
“So nobody matters to you anymore?” I asked earnestly. “Because you are still needed by Mother, me, Ethan, Kieran, and nameless hundreds, maybe thousands. Oh, there’s one more you might want to consider. You don’t know about this one yet, men being so dense about the female anatomy for some reason. Mother is pregnant and I have a sibling on the way. Are you so jaded that you’ll give up your child, too?”
“Olivia’s knocked up?” he asked. Okay, Jimmy’s accent, more like, but there was a spark there in the kindling.
“Yeah, Dad, your two-thousand-year old pecker still works,” I said, smiling slightly at the crudity my old man made me take.
“That’s not supposed to happen,” he muttered, looking at my chest now. “You were the last, the ninth.”
“Well, it’s too late for that, now,” I assured him. “Unless something happens, but both are quite physically healthy now. If you start working now, by the time you’re ready to come out from under the geas we might know the gender.” I tried coaxing him, too. It couldn’t hurt.
“But that breaks the prophecy,” he said.
“That’s what prophecies are made for, to be broken,” I answered without a clue as to the prophecy. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I have another child coming,” he muttered.
“Yeah, Dad, another kid on the way,” I urged, still fanning the embers even though I wanted to know about this prophecy. “If you just let go, you’ll miss holding the crying infant taking its first breath, its first smile with delicate little giggles and stamping feet, your first crotch kick. Think about all the things you’ll be giving up here, Dad. How much did you miss out on with your other kids? What, wouldn’t you still like to be there for another, huh?”
Crap, I did it. I have a spark here, a tiny spark of interest in life.
“But the burn-outs will continue,” he said despondently.
“I think we can fix that,” I said mildly, not wanting to seem too eager, especially since I didn’t really know if it would work. “It’s not something I can do while you’re under the geas, though. I’ll have to release you first and to do that, you’ll have to heal.” Fan the spark lightly to give it air—give him hope.
“You have done some miraculous tricks, haven’t you,” he said, meeting my eyes for the first time. And I knew I had him then. I moved us back to the bedroom where he lay unconscious on the bed.
“Yeah, Dad, I have. Now I need you to do one. Just lie back on the bed and work on getting better.” He gravitated toward his body naturally but slowly. “Mom’s waiting outside to see you, Dad. Just lay back and rest, now. Your family is all around you. We’ll take care of you.” I watched the double image of the energy matrix view of my father phase into his real body, feeling his body latch onto the matrix with the familiarity of two thousand years. Gilán started healing the edges of his crispy mind immediately and he moved a little in the bed under his own volition for the first time. Nothing major, just tossing in bed weakly. Another good sign.
I sighed, relieved that this part was over, and started bottling up my emotions. It had been a really rough day in that regard. I was starting to understand the Queens a lot better now. Having to hide your own emotions for someone else’s benefit wears on a man. And here, I had to hide how hurt I was because it would do nothing but cause more harm. My mother was afraid to be in my realm and my father cared more about an embryonic collection of cells than me. While none of us was exactly rational about the situation, Dad least of all, it still hurt. I hoped I could get over it before my sibling was born. I left the room once I was confident I looked, or could fake, a happy face.
Mother met me at the door to the hall, anxiously grasping my forearm and searching my face for clues. “He should wake up in a few minutes,” I said smiling wanly and patting her hands. “You can go in now, dear.”
“Oh, thank you, Seth!” she cried and threw her arms around my neck tightly. She stayed there a moment longer than I expected, comfortable in the act if not the reason. Kieran came up behind her as she peeled away and he squeezed my shoulder as he passed. I’m sure he meant it to be comforting to me. Peter and Ethan waited in the living room for me, even though I wasn’t feeling particularly companionable right now. Still… I had to be a human being, after all.
Falling into the chair tiredly, rubbing my face, I looked up at Ethan looking down the hall and Peter looking at me contentedly. “Was there anything y’all needed?” I asked. “I was thinkin’ ‘bout turnin’ in.”
“You’re getting better at that,” Ethan said, turning to me finally. “Lying used to be harder for you.”
“Yeah, now you’re just more difficult to read sometimes,” Peter said. “You aren’t happy with what it took to get your father up. What was it? You know he won’t remember any of the conversation.”
“Blame it on Daybreak,” I said shrugging it off. “I am tired, though. The only thing that sparked the slightest hint of curiosity in him was the thought of having a tenth child. Apparently, it goes against some prophecy he’s under. I’m supposed to be his ninth and last child.”
“What does the prophecy say?” Peter asked.
“No clue. We never had a chance to look into it,” I answered. “I think I’ll go wander around, see how everyone’s doing, then probably turn in for the night.”
“Kieran checked with First and Ellorn while you were in with Dad,” Ethan volunteered. “Generally Gilán is in good hands.”
“Thanks, that’s good to know,” I said, stretching as I stood. “See y’all tomorrow.”
Ellorn partially closed the two doors across the Road on the Promenade, effectively blocking off traffic through the Family Wing. When I shifted to the main side, I understood why. The Huri are noisy, noisy people. They filled the corridor in a potluck communal picnic. At least I’d get something to eat…
Ellorn, are you free? I asked through the geas. Pushing the Road brought me to the forefront of the “stalls,�
� actually untouched as yet. I stopped to watch a Guardsman turn the huge roast a final time before hefting it onto a carving rack, then moving the rack into a warmer.
“Yes, Lord, how may I serve?” Ellorn asked suddenly beside me, smiling graciously.
“Oh, hello, Ellorn,” I said congenially, returning his smile. “You can tell me how close we are to housing everyone to start. Have you eaten?”
“Everyone is assigned now, sir,” Ellorn answered. “And, oddly considering our venue, no, I haven’t eaten since breakfast.”
“Rather stupid of us, especially since so much of our time was spent in getting everyone else fed,” I said, grinning as I advanced on what turned out to be the back end of a much larger grill setup. Several Guardsmen were grilling and cooking several things for a larger audience. The closest Guardsman was radiating the feeling of Please don’t talk to me please don’t talk to me please don’t talk to me… so of course I had to talk to him. Reaching down into the geas for information, we walked in behind the line of grills. “Evenin’, Stump,” I said in as thick of a Texas drawl as I could manage. “Not workin’ ya’ too hard, are they?”
Cpl. Dowd chuckled as he turned around and, nodding his head briefly, said, “Good evening, Lord Daybreak, Chene. I haven’t heard that name in twenty years. And no, sir, not workin’ too hard at all. This actually fun t’me.”
“So why are you anxious about talking to me?” I asked. “I don’t bite.”
“Maybe,” he drew the word into three syllables. “But I ain’t got nothing to say.”
Chuckling, I patted his shoulder, saying lightheartedly, “Of course, you do. You’re enjoying what you’re doing. That’s something to talk about. Did you get a chance to go outdoors today?”
“Yes, sir!” Stump said excitedly. “I went this morning as part of the detachment to the big lake just southeast of the Palace, just past the village of the nymphs’ families. They were so cool to meet! The nymphs, I mean, but the brownies were a lot more shy around us than the ones at the Palace. ‘Ceptin’ the greeters, they was nice and talkative. The lake was a beautiful sight to see as it reached across the horizon. And the water life! When we looked below the surface, the fish were huge and there were things under there we ain’t never seen before!” The two men at the grills behind us noticed Dowd and turned to stare.
When he paused to draw breath, Ellorn laughed. “And you said you had nothing to say!” We laughed, too, as “Stump” Dowd blushed at the floor sheepishly.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said, shifting two plates out of my kitchen cupboards, handing one to Ellorn. “I want everyone excited about Gilán. That’s why First took out as many as possible, to see what you’re protecting and where you live. I want you to love your land as much as I do, but at the moment, we’re in search of food.”
He brightened. “I have roasts of beef from rare to medium, salt-and-pepper rubbed and slow cooked. Would you like that?”
With barely a thought, I said, “Yes, please! Medium-rare, about a ten-ounce cut. What about you, Ellorn?”
“I will follow your lead, sir, never having had it,” Ellorn said, looking at me appreciatively. “However, I don’t think you’ve eaten all day and are seriously underestimating your appetite.”
“Maybe,” I said, smiling. “But I think I smell BBQ ribs about a hunnert foot that way and a group of huri another fifty yards on have five different stews going. Ten ounces is enough.”
“Point taken, sir. I just want to make certain you eat enough under my care,” Ellorn said. “I’d hate to have to wake your brothers when I notice you’ve left later this evening.”
“I can go where I want and I won’t be alone,” I said petulantly, watching Cpl. Dowd carve from a beautiful roast. “Damn, I really feed y’all like this? I don’t eat like this! Well, lately…”
“No, sir, we do eat good every day, but not prime rib good,” Dowd said, grinning at me as he placed a bright red slice of juicy, slow-roasted beef onto my plate. “The creation of the Huri and the expeditions outside to meet the rest of our family are reasons for celebration! But more importantly, there’re growing kids who’ve tripled in size. Gotta have protein to build muscle. Adults, too. Chef…?” He’d filled Ellorn’s plate as well with equally gorgeous cut of meat. We turned to find a shocked lead line cook with a plate of sauces in ramekins.
“Lord Daybreak, it is an honor to have you in our line, sir,” Sgt. Mead said. “And Chene Ellorn, you are welcome as well, of course. I’m sorry, it’s just shocking to see Dowd the Shroud actually string more than five words together.” The burst of laughter from the collected group of men behind him was startling in volume.
“Stop! All of you, now!” yelled Ellorn, curtly. He jerked us all through the floor by making us heavier, then letting off to normal gravity. Cool effect. It was similar to Gordon’s seismic gravity wave magic but on a tighter scale. “That was rude,” Ellorn continue his barrage of Mead. “Why did you choose to be rude to Dowd, Sgt. Mead? Why did you demean him in front of Lord Daybreak?”
“No, sir! I meant it but not to be rude!” Mead was adamant but struggled for words. “It is shocking to see him talk this much at one time! It’s great. Maybe we can keep him talking to us more often. And there’s a growing number of men who are taking quite an interest in forestry and the Rangers as a branch of service in the Guard. Getting him to say things like this repeatedly to or near his commanding officer is his only chance of getting nominated in the first place.”
“And I can’t get more commanding, can I, Lord Daybreak?” asked Dowd, still grinning, but mischievously now.
Snickering, I said, “Ellorn, I think you’re being pranked.” He turned to me confused. “Oh, I don’t think it started out to be on you, but you’re the target now, young man. Come on, chef. Sauce us and I’ll try to explain human interaction to Ellorn. And yes, Cpl. Dowd, there probably will be something like a Ranger Corps on Gilán within the Guard. I’ll keep you in mind. Thanks for dinner.”
Ellorn managed cheerful enough farewells as I led him back the way we came, but he was not a happy camper. “I take it this isn’t the first time you feel the Guard has over-stepped themselves?” I asked, shifting some silverware from my kitchen for us.
He sighed, accepting the knife and fork, “Honestly, Lord, I’m not certain if it’s them or me,” he admitted. “I’m feeling unnaturally aggressive. I want to bark at everyone. Everything said to me contradicts something I’ve already done. They are driving me crazy!”
I chuckled, opening the Saun link and expressing calmness in the now, patience for him when he needed it, and my confidence in him that he was up to the task. “That’s the testosterone talking,” I said, starting in on the rib. “Eat your steak before it gets cold.” He timidly sliced a small sliver of meat away and sniffed at it. “Come on, you’ve eaten beef before. This isn’t new.”
“Actually, everything is new,” he said before chomping down pretty hard on that tiny bite. It seemed nearly sexually savory to him as he sort of… quivered as he chewed it. “Our tastes for everything are different. Even familiar things are strangely piquant. There’s an amazing difference in flavors.”
“It funny that we’re obsessing over taste at the moment,” I said, sampling some of the sauces. Our variant of horseradish was fire-hot, making an excellent sauce, and the dill sauce was very good, too. “You know, just yesterday you were a two foot brownie in charge of the Palace and doing very well at it. Today, you’re Saun Huri, first of your kind and leader of your people. How do you think you’re doing?”
He chewed slowly, contemplating the question. “Not quite as well, I’m afraid, in some ways, but much better in others. Like back there, I have no idea where I failed. I thought I was protecting Cpl. Dowd. And why did you call him ‘Stump’?”
“I’d searched his memories and came up on a very pleasant afternoon cookout when Dowd’s father complimented his grilling,” I told Ellorn. “That’s the nickname he used, then. It brought back good
feelings he thought he’d buried without bringing up any bad.
“And you didn’t exactly fail, Ellorn,” I said. “Your intentions were in the right place and everyone saw that. Trust me, they’ll be more careful around you and yours in the future so maybe there ought to be a code of conduct or something discussed, for the common areas? Anyway, what you didn’t see was that Stump got excited and talked a lot. Two different people used it as a gag. They like Dowd. They wouldn’t have picked on him that way if they didn’t.”
“But it was humiliating for Dowd the way they treated him, especially in front of you!” Ellorn protested.
“Ah, well, I’m afraid that’s my fault,” I admitted. “I’ve encouraged a casual attitude during casual events, as you’ve seen, and I’ll continue to do that with the Giláni. We’re in the middle of a celebration, after all. Admittedly, it hasn’t felt like a celebration to you or me because we’ve been working.”
“I don’t foresee a time when I won’t be working in some capacity,” Ellorn said. “Especially now.”
“You have to make time,” I said, sighing. “It’s the way it is for some of us. Sometimes we’ll appear to be doing nothing while everyone else is running around like a chicken with its head cut off, but mostly, we don’t stop. So we delegate, take lots of short breaks, eat and drink often, make sure we have people to take care of us. It’s also why we have private places where no one is allowed except that caretaker, just to preserve our own mental health.”
Ellorn thought for a few moments. “I’ll have to assign a new staff to you. Your entire staff is huri now.”
“I don’t have a problem with that,” I said. “But I do love having brownies underfoot, too. I am going to miss having you around that way. But my point was that you need a support staff, too, and probably one bigger than you’re planning. How many people do you have working in your office now?”
Sons (Book 2) Page 125
