Sons (Book 2)

by Scott V. Duff

  “And how better to keep track of me?” I said, grinning and elbowing him in the ribs gently as we turned to face the collection of faery onlookers. “Good morning, everyone!”

  “Good morning, Lord Daybreak,” brownies and huri called together, but thankfully not in unison.

  “That would be my second hint,” I murmured behind my smile to Ellorn.

  “’Second’?” Ellorn asked, ignoring the lines of people and facing me. “I don’t recall the first, Lord.”

  “Understandable. It was the joke about the DMV. Humans have a penchant for bureaucracy and faery for hierarchy. Blend that together and give it a little time and… viola!” I gestured at the floor of his office.

  “Hmm,” Ellorn grunted. “This is when Ethan would say ‘Captain Obvious’ or something like that.” Nil gasped at the disrespectful way Ellorn spoke to me and I confused him even more by laughing at Ellorn.

  “It’ll be even more obvious when you finally see it,” I replied. “Want another hint?” He crossed his arms on his chest, knowing I was poking fun at him, and waited. “It’s not my job.” His face fell in confusion while he fought with the idea I was refusing to give him his hint. I was, after all, standing in front of him, bouncing on the balls of my feet, telling him it wasn’t my job to give him hints. Staring at him, expectantly, smiling.

  He bowed his head slightly with a smile and said, “No, Lord, it is not, but we both know you think otherwise. That’s the problem here, isn’t it? Only slightly different…”

  “Nil?”

  “Yes, Seth?”

  “Nil, I think I said too much,” I said chuckling. “He came at it from a different direction than I expected, but I think he’s got it.”

  “Sir?” Nil came up beside me while I watched Ellorn’s wheels turn.

  “You’re right,” Ellorn admitted. “It is rather obvious once you look at it, but this will be simple to rectify.”

  “And this is where Pete would call you ‘Captain Oblivious’,” I said and burst out laughing, grabbing Nil’s shoulder for support. I stopped short when I saw the heartbroken look on Ellorn’s face. “You can fix this situation but you’re going to have to be vigilant to stop it in the future. Let me know how you do. Come on, Nil.”

  We started back down the hall leaving Ellorn gazing over the lines for a moment while he gathered the Palace about him again. It was a major difference in power to have the Palace gathered like that. He could bring almost the entire strength of Gilán to bear within the Palace with it, within any of the Palaces. Of course, at this point, he probably didn’t realize that and was just using it to see better.

  “Where should we go next, Nil?” I asked just as Ellorn raised his voice to speak.

  “Well… Seth, would you mind reviewing the model of your London house? Everyone else has approved the design and we are anxious for your approval,” Nil asked nervously, for more than one reason.

  “Sure,” I said, and shifted us there.

  Chapter 71

  “How much is this going to cost me?” I asked Nil, following the wiring diagram through the fourth floor and down into the basement. They added a floor and established security ports on the roof at six points. How do you add a floor in the middle?

  “I don’t precisely know, Seth,” Nil answered. “Peter suggested a ‘ballpark figure of a hundred thirty pounds,’ but I don’t know to what that referred.”

  “British Pounds Sterling, it’s a monetary system. And he probably meant thousands of pounds,” I muttered, flipping pages before closing the plans altogether. At this point, the structure and design were sound. The rooms flowed somewhat functionally, except the place was rearranged slightly in ways that made me stop before going through doors and going down hallways. It really didn’t take me long to catch the medieval spell locks and murder chutes in the walls at each forced stop along an exit route. “Whose idea was it to stop everybody everywhere?”

  “Peter’s, sir, at first,” Nil explained, dropping through the ceiling. This was a physical mirage really. “Then the Armor Master made similar suggestions to the original blueprints, so that he could embed sigils in the masonry after the ward has been positioned. After that, it was a cascade of people rushing to randomize the length of runs and staggering of types of doors and windows. Your brothers, the Saun, and the Commanders paid particular attention to the third and fourth floors.”

  “The marble here is gorgeous. Who carved it?” I asked, looking down at the floor. Black marble with seams of impossible red, pink, and blue in thin lightning-streak ribbons. Each symbol was crystal clear for every entry, shining up the two story entry lobby like beacons in the night.

  “Masters Braedon and Shan were in charge,” Nil said. “They had forty-eight apprentice masons between them.”

  “All right, tell them they did a beautiful job if I don’t see them first,” I said still admiring the artwork. I couldn’t bring myself to walk on it yet, to treat it as marks on the floor. “The house looks fine. Go for it, once we have all the ducks in a row. We can check on a few points today actually.”

  “Really? You like it, Lord Daybreak? It looks so much different from the Palace that we were worried that you wouldn’t, but Lord Kieran said that would be appealing. And Ethan said—”

  “Nil, slow down,” I interrupted the excited huri. He wasn’t like this as a brownie that I remembered. “What are you so anxious about? Why are you still afraid?”

  Nil froze—deer in the headlights. His eyes teared and he started trembling. His voice was timid and hoarse, barely above a whisper, when he finally managed to speak. “I-I, I just don’t understand, Lord. I’m trying, Lord, I am. But Master Ellorn gave Zero and me the task of organizing the model and I know you aren’t happy with me, but we put so much hard work into the house and Zero deserves to be proud of it. And we do want you to like it.”

  Moving faster than he noticed, I hugged the nearly broken-down Nil tightly and opened a communion link with him, flooding it with the sense of Gilán. He melted into my chest, hands clinging to my back. Easing us gently toward the desk near the rear of the foyer, I separated us slowly while keeping the link open and maintaining skin contact with him. A few minutes passed before he calmed down enough to talk and I waited a few minutes after that before I started.

  “Nil, you’re jumping to conclusions,” I said gently, squeezing his shoulders. “Let’s start with the biggest problem. First off, you have no reason to think that I’m unhappy with you, none at all. The house is beautiful. Both you and Zero have a right to be proud of the work you’ve done here. So, why don’t you tell me what made you think I was.”

  “You don’t know, Lord?”

  “Mmmm, I could root around in your mind and find out, but wouldn’t you rather talk to me about it? Let’s try,” I said, feeling like I was talking to little nine-year-old Donny Grimes. “What makes you think I don’t like the house? I checked every room and approved. Nil, it just doesn’t make sense.”

  “But, Lord, you didn’t look!” Nil argued plaintively. “When your brothers looked, they removed walls and paneling, tugged on wiring and banged on the plumbing. And the Saun—” I held a hand up to stop him.

  “You’re having the same problem Ellorn was having,” I said with smile. “After assigning the house to you, did Ellorn require that you check with him before making every change to every material or color?”

  “Well, no, sir, you left most of those options to our selection.”

  “But he did check in with you from time to time?”

  “Yes, Lord.”

  “O-kay,” I drawled out. “So did you see Ellorn’s problem earlier?”

  “No, Lord.” Okay, that meant I had to backtrack rather quickly in my thinking.

  “Okay, I’ll come back to that,” I decided to switch tacts. “Look at it this way, who among my brothers, the Saun, the commanders, and Zero and you would not have done their level best to make certain that this house was well built and well protected, inside and ou
t?”

  “I don’t believe any of them performed less than their best, Lord,” Nil said, alarmed and worried at the idea.

  “Neither do I,” I said, modulating my voice carefully and conscious of every facial movement he tracked on me. “That’s why I only looked at the décor and the layout. I’d be more satisfied with the layout without the stops, but I understand the necessity so I don’t complain. Otherwise, I show great distrust to a number of people.”

  “I see your point, sir,” he said thoughtfully.

  “Good,” I answered, patting his shoulder proudly. “It’s also very inefficient if you think about it. If I was gonna come in and make a million changes, I might as well have done it myself. It would’ve been faster. Hopefully, more thought went into the cost than if I’d done it.”

  “Actually, Lord, I have a thought on that,” Nil stirred under my arm nervously. “If you wouldn’t mind delaying a day or two and if we divert some of the cost to bands, sawblades, and axes, we could build a decent sawmill and cut lumber ourselves. The workshops here just need the raw timber. And that way, the mill would be available when we expand across Gilán. It would cut both expenses in the long run, wouldn’t it?”

  “And that is a very good idea, Nil,” I said, happy with the suggestion. It meant he could see past the faery. “It’s that kind of thinking that put you here instead of in one of those long lines in Ellorn’s offices.”

  “What is the problem there, sir?” Nil asked. “It seemed to me that everyone was doing their jobs.”

  “You’re kidding, right? If their jobs were waiting in lines, then yeah, objective complete.” I hopped off my desk then, anxious to move. “I understand your misconception, though. They were all there for validation on their tasks. Problem was, they already had it. They just didn’t believe it. They don’t trust themselves yet and I don’t know why.”

  “But they aren’t Saun, Lord…” Nil objected, arguing with me again. I wondered if he would realize it before I reminded him.

  “No, they’re huri!” I said, emphasizing the word. “And perfectly capable of making the decisions of the offices Ellorn assigned them to work. They need Ellorn when they can’t fix a problem, otherwise each one is a two-hundred pound paperweight attached to a note.”

  Then it occurred to me. This was at least partly my fault. That’s why they were still in that mold—more than partly my fault, I said they were my “elves.” Kieran said weeks ago that this was something I just didn’t see and here I was muddling in the middle of something I literally cast myself into.

  “Nil, are you seeing the Saun and the Sidhe as being the same thing, just a different title?” I asked.

  “Yes, Lord, to some degree. Obviously there are the physical differences, but we all have those.”

  “And Elves the same as the huri?” I asked.

  “Yes, Lord, including the ransé,” Nil said, nodding absently.

  “That’s an unfair comparison for a number of reasons,” I said. “The biggest is that a huri can be made a Saun. I don’t like caste systems. Making a ransé into a huri is impossible, but one could progress to Saun as well. Saun is a level of power and control, of authority and command, and of mind and magic. It’s not an easy thing to manage. And the huri have a leg up on the elves with control of both magics, once I figure out how to teach it to ya.”

  “Both magics, Lord?”

  “Yes, human and faery magic are at your disposal,” I said, scratching the back of my head. “When I can figure out how.”

  “So that entire room would have cleared out if they had the nerve to say, ‘This is the right decision and I’m sticking to it’?” Nil asked, looking through the walls up in the direction of the Chene’s office.

  “Essentially, yes.” Nil seemed only partly convinced, but I think it was a confidence issue now. I had him logically setup for it, now he just had to make the emotional connection. Was I going to have to figure out how to do this a thousand times? “Let’s go see why the paymaster has too much money.”

  Nil trotted to the front door, expecting us to walk, so I switched what was on the other side of that door temporarily to the blank wall outside the command center in the Garrison. I enjoyed his confusion when Nil walked out, expecting the Throne Room and getting another door instead.

  “I don’t usually wait for people to open doors for me,” I said snickering a little as he wobbled drunkenly. His expected perception was cathedral-sized room, not large hallway with a big doorway. “Unless for some reason it’s expected for show, I just barrel through life. But you aren’t used to how I get around and until you get used to it, I’m afraid I’m going to find it amusing.” I shrugged, holding up my arms and hands in submission. “I know. It’s horrible of me. I’m sorry, but I can’t help it!” Then I snickered again when Nil opened the door and stuck his head in first to be sure of where we were.

  “By all means, sir, I understand completely,” Nil said smiling, holding the door for me. Then waiting until just as I passed, he said softly, “I have older cousins.” I didn’t know what that meant. It took me two steps to do the research through the geas before I burst out laughing. This was a little more like the Nil from before his change. He was saying I was picking on him like an older brother, like my brothers do with me, and none too subtly. Or, he was saying I was bullying him.

  “Maybe it’s payback for arguing with me in my office,” I said still laughing when I walked into Velasquez’s office. From Nil’s stall at the door, he hadn’t realized my joke yet. “’Morning, Ric. How’d you get stuck here?”

  “’Morning, Lord Daybreak,” Velasquez responded while coming to attention behind his desk. “It’s my duty shift and, believe it or not, you keep us quite busy.” He gave me an easy grin and waved at several stacks of papers on his desk.

  “Is my inventory in there, or do I have to wake Tom?” I asked, pointing at the stacks, then I turned and looked sideways at Nil. “A few days ago, they were complaining about not having anything to do. Give the man a shiny new office, a little bit of more work, and he complains. You can’t please people; you just can’t.”

  Velasquez chuckled and handed me a thick, paperbound manual titled Inventory: Stolen Items: November. I started reading immediately, impressed by the organization of the report. Starting with handguns, I progressed rapidly through rifles, assault rifles, RPGs, and artillery. Munitions, service vehicles, troop carriers, tanks—Tanks!—medical supplies and drugs, and bladed weapons. Millions and millions of dollars in military equipment that we managed to remove in fifteen to twenty minutes. Dropping the report in my lap, I tried to wrap my mind around where they could get the money for this, much less how they got the equipment in the first place. You don’t drop by the Wal-Mart for a Paladin or special order a SMAW off e-Bay.

  “Okay, after a quick perusal, I only have one question,” I said, looking up at Ric. “What the fuck have I done?” Then I looked at the chair, utterly confused. “When did I sit down?”

  “That’s two questions, Lord,” Ric said, grinning for a second before my glare cut it off. “You’ve been reading for ten minutes, Seth. You sat down five minutes ago. And from initial reports on site, we’ve achieved our objective. Positioned spotters watched as the compound steadily evacuated within four to eight hours of your departure. Long enough, we think, to have a good long look at what Commander Mankiewicz and his troops managed to appropriate and to pack up personal effects. Most were shell-shocked from the fascination and loss of purpose. It was sad, really.”

  “I could have killed them all instead,” I reminded him, noticing Nil turn his head to me ever so slightly, watching.

  “No, no, Lord,” Velasquez said quickly. “Your way is better. I agree wholeheartedly. Most of those boys’ balls haven’t dropped yet. There’s no use killing ‘em just because they’re stupid. You let ‘em live to learn something.”

  “Sounds so humanitarian put that way,” I said, leaning back in the chair with a grimace. Something about this really bo
thered me and I didn’t know what. Well, I did: Apaches, Paladins, SMAWs—it’s a long list.

  “There were a few casualties, though, after you left,” Velasquez said with professional stoicism. “Colonel Almareda and two of his aides were found dead in Almareda’s home early this morning. Suicide pact, apparently, blew their own heads off. If there was any communication between them and outsiders, we don’t know it.”

  “Yeah, well,” I muttered uncomfortably, then sighed. “I suppose we’ll have to wait and see what happens then. Can you shed any light on why we suddenly have more money than we should?”

  Ric grimaced and covered his face with both hands. “Damn, you’re fast,” he said through his hands. His double-irised eyes peeked over the tips of his fingers. “Yes, Lord, I can explain.” He sounded an awful lot like a teenager explaining a dent in the fender.

  “Wait, wait, why do I feel this is backward?” I asked the man more than twice my age. He smiled.

  “Wait till you hear the whole story,” Velasquez said. “You’ll think I’m Donnie Grimes telling you this by the time I’m done. As you can see from the report in front of you, the raid on the camp went amazingly well. The Armorer’s stealth teams performed superbly and actually took a little more than maybe they should have in terms of personal affects. They managed to collect just under twenty-two thousand dollars in chips from various casinos in Reno and Vegas. While Ellorn and Alsooth were showing Tom the high points of the new collection, Ted and I picked twenty men and sorted the chips between them and send them out to cash them in. That’s all, just cash the chips in.”

  “The ransé discovered gambling on the human level,” I muttered, then more cheerfully, “I suppose that’s better than the goon level.” Velasquez barked a laugh.

  “We know that kind too well already,” Ric said, still smiling, but it was no longer a friendly one. I could see that smile causing another man to pause the merest second before reacting.

  “What did they play?” I asked, but I should have known better.