by Scott Duff
“And Brothers Grimm is closer to the truth,” I called back, stopping for a second to watch a bee land—I had bees! “But even their realms are a continuum. Winter has her warm places and Summer, her cold. Those are just convenient labels, not true descriptions of their power.”
We started moving uphill when I noticed the brownies congregating in the field ahead of us. They were just standing and waiting in the morning sun. Disturbing since many were nocturnal sprites. I sped up, worried, though they didn’t appear to be distressed in any way.
“Slow down, little brother,” Kieran called from behind me, amused. “They won’t burst into flames.” I was quite a bit ahead of them, so I waited till they caught up and we crested the hill together. Trying to see the field in a purely optical sense, the road led to a perfectly normal grassy field blowing in the breeze. That sight would make sense to me if the grass could hold a tiny spark of fire in the center. This day is filled with amazing vistas. This one was over a million points of light, mostly brownies, but they were all there. Except Shrank. He was waiting on us at the next bend quite patiently.
“Hi, everybody,” I said loudly to the field of Fae, stepping onto the edge of the field. I still had the smile plastered on my face. Remembering the volume of the conversation with the lesser thousand voices, I took the precaution of baffling the space in front of us to dull the return some.
“Greetings, Lord Daybreak!” they sang in unison with amazing volume and pitch.
“Did everyone survive the night?” I asked the group.
“Yes, Lord Daybreak!” they sang merrily. It was hard not to empathize with their exuberance and cheerfulness, even if it did feel terribly vainglorius.
“Very good! Now this is a learning experience for everybody. None of us has ever done anything like this and unfortunately, I can’t stay here all the time. I have work to do that can’t be done here. So speak up if you need something, okay?” Looking out over the field, I doubted I’d be getting too many calls for help. They seemed a determined and contented group of… well, group. I still didn’t quite get how they worked.
“Yes, Lord Daybreak!” they sang. I knew they were taking cues from someone, but I couldn’t quite catch who. I could probably search down into a few minds and find out, but they were going to such lengths I just couldn’t bring myself to do that. It just seemed unsporting.
“So what can I do for you this morning?” I asked, finally getting to why they were gathered like this.
A sharp giggle ran through them, then they sang in unison, “We wish to thank you for this day and for the lives of our children, Lord…” But instead of the simple, two-syllable word everyone had been using, they used the ancient Fae word for daybreak. Unlike any of MacNamara’s names, this was a natural and flowing word that rose up from the primal forces common with life. It resonated with a part of me that I didn’t realize was there. I couldn’t tell what that part of me was, but I resonated.
“You’re quite welcome!” I responded. “Now, run along. You have lives to restart.”
Mom and Dad watched the Fae disperse, while I stepped back onto the road and waited for them to lose some of their fascination. This wasn’t a sight often seen in either of the other realms, especially of these Fae—they were the more incredibly shy ones, normally. Ethan finally got tired of waiting.
“Shrank!” he yelled down the road, effectively breaking my parents out of their fascination at the same time. “Get over here, dustball!”
Shrank flew in low and camouflaged between the road and the field, shooting up in front of me first. “Greetings, Lord Daybreak!” he squealed happily. “This is an Unforgettable Day, Sir. Most impressive! Thank you!” He flew to Kieran. “Greetings, Lord Kieran! May I ask a question, please?”
“Certainly, Shrank,” said Kieran, his face scrunching slightly, perplexed. “What do you need?”
“Our previous Lord and Ladies, Queens and Kings, they did not have parents,” said Shrank, uncomfortably. “We do not know what to call them or how to address them, Lord…”
Kieran laughed aloud, nodding, “Yes, I could see that being a problem. We’re gonna have to talk about this one, Shrank. I’m pretty sure Seth is still uncomfortable with the whole ‘Lord Daybreak’ title anyway, so for the time being, let’s stick with mister and missus, okay?”
“Yes, Lord Kieran,” he piped cheerily, then moved in front of Mom and Dad. “Greetings, Mr. and Mrs. McClure! I hope you enjoyed your son’s first Daybreak!” Then he was off to Peter and Ethan. “Greetings, Master Peter, Master Ethan!”
“Are they calling you ‘Shrank,’ like ‘shrank in the wash’?” Mom asked the pixie as he wafted by her. I started us up the road again and Kieran came up beside me.
“Yes, Mrs. McClure,” he answered, rolling in the air to face her and flying backward with the finesse that few of even his kind could match. “It is really only a part of my proper name so technically it is a nickname.”
“Why do you call my son ‘Daybreak’? Last night it was ‘Seth.’ What’s different now?” Dad asked him.
“Last night, we did not know him,” Shrank squeaked out. “The power of creation ran rampant all around us, not touching us, but vesting this realm with vibrant and joyful life. Once his Lordship bound the others here, they joined with that rampant joy and sang in that song. The song you heard them sing a moment ago. The closest word in your language is ‘Daybreak.’”
“Why not ‘dawn’?” Mom asked.
“Certainly an adequate word, Mrs. McClure,” said Shrank. “But your son is, perhaps, not quite as passive as he once was.”
“And we all have reason to be thankful for that,” Peter said, chuckling.
“Y’all quit acting like I hung the sun in the sky,” I complained over my shoulder. We could hear the river ahead of us through the trees now, faintly.
“Oh, no, Lord,” squealed Shrank, rolling again to face front. “You merely placed the planet below it and hung moons in the sky!” We burst out laughing at the absurdity of the statement, but the pixie believed it and so did the other Fae. Further questions were forgotten for a moment and the river got noisier as we walked nearer. And noisier.
We crested a small rise in the road and were hit by a roar of rushing waters. The river was massive. Somewhere between three and four hundred feet wide with deep rivulets alternating with shallow, rocky plains that created white water rapids. A kayaker’s dream, perhaps, but deadly fast, feeding the magnificent waterfall and lake below. We wouldn’t be fording the river here.
I searched up river for a better site, finding where the river exchanged with another large lake behind the palace. This one was not as large as the one below but certainly just as beautiful and bountiful with flora and fauna. That way was no better. Kieran and Ethan acted like little boys at the water’s edge, roughhousing. Ethan started it by pushing Kieran in the water. I don’t know why he thought he’d get away with it, but Kieran dropped a few hundred gallons of water directly on top of him, laughing the entire time, standing knee-deep in the river, dripping himself. Mom and Peter were laughing about it. Dad just shook his head, grinning.
Finally deciding I needed a bridge, I pushed through the dirt and rock at the bottom of the river and called to the stronger, harder stone below, pulling it up. It was far easier than I imagined. Wanting as little aggravation to the current environment as possible, I pulled it up as a stream, almost molten, and formed the bridge from the bottom up with strong supporting arches, a thick roadway matching the size of the current road, complete with railings on both sides. And for the biggest surprise of my day, as I stood there admiring my handiwork for a moment, I heard the palace sing, just as the Fae had done.
The Palace sang my name to me, calling to me.
“Did y’all hear that?” I whispered, awed, standing at the base of the new bridge.
There was no way anyone could have heard me to answer, but it was the first time today that the smile had dropped from my face. I started slowly and me
chanically across, gaining speed to a fast walk once I hit the higher, level straightway. I wasn’t enraptured by it, just very, very curious. How does a building sing?
Peter caught up to me while Kieran and Ethan paced Mom and Dad.
“You okay, Seth? You’re looking a little… spacey right now,” Peter said.
“Not surprising,” I muttered. “It called me, Peter.”
“What?”
“The Palace,” I said, subconsciously capitalizing the word now. “It called me just now, after I made the bridge. You didn’t hear it?”
“No. And all I can sense here is you. You’re… pervasive, especially on this island,” he said.
We approached the first of the outside towers, the road curving around it to the front. Fully-grown trees hid part and gardens of various flowers and shrubs grew in patterns forming complex paths throughout the front the entire Palace, breaking only at the promenade of the main entrance. There were many open paths to the road and doorways into the Palace from here, but neither of us felt the need to enter just yet. We both wanted to go in the front door. But for the first time, I stopped and was truly struck by the immensity of the structure. It was huge.
“What’s wrong with him?” Kieran asked Peter as they came up behind us.
“Nothing, I think. He’s just gawking,” Peter answered, amused at my reaction. “Pick your jaw up, Seth. You’re letting flies in.”
“What am I gonna do with that much space?” I asked absently. “I already have a house and it’s too big for me.”
“Entertain?” Ethan offered and started walking for the front door again.
“Who, Europe?” I replied, chortling. “I could probably fit half in this wing and the other half in the other and still have room in the center.”
“It’s not that big, Seth,” Kieran said cheerfully.
“Well, it’s three times the size of the Arena, at least,” I responded and followed after them. The valley caught my eye right then. The road sloped downward slightly and terraced into steps several times before changing to a platform that held a perfect position to view the vista of the valley below and the mountains beyond. The road widened as we closed in on the front door, but I was still looking out over the valley when Kieran gasped aloud, stopping.
When I saw what he was looking at, I understood. It shocked me, too. I’d seen something like it before. So had Ethan, standing beside Kieran, speechless and immobile. Mom and Dad moved in beside them and likely assumed it was because of the pure spectacle of the colorful and sparkling dome. Same with Peter, I imagine. I walked out slowly, staring at the stonework. It was… enthralling.
As I approached the focal line directly in front of the Palace, the dome sang again, pulsing the sound through the largest ring and causing a glow in the dark stone. The Palace called to me. That was so amazing to me. I felt so insignificant standing there and it wanted me. I pushed out my awareness to the doors and outward along the face of the sparkling gemstone surface. The Palace called again and the wave of energy shot through me to the walls, lighting every ring of stone in different but brilliant colors. As the lights began to dim, the large black stones of the doorway pulled back as if on a track, then to either side, giving a fifty foot wide and thirty foot tall entrance to the foyer. From there, several other doors slowly swung open more conventionally, revealing a continuation of the concentric circle motif through several rooms.
Rings of color, shining at me with iridescent power, in this specific order. I’d seen this before in the eye of a Twice-Dead God. As I felt the power of the gemstones of the dome fade away and the colorful lights died a gentle death, the only thought I could hold was Des’Ra’El’s last word.
Home.
And I was.
My thoughts raced through the last three months and out into the future. Problems were mounting on us. Removing MacNamara from the equation was a serious blow to the enemy, stealing away much of its hidden manipulations of the human armies. I still had work to do on the geas and with Kieran and our company and the Queens of Faery and…
I glanced over at my family, now three men stronger, peering through the doorway into the bright Palace and decided that everything could wait till tomorrow. I felt more complete than I ever have. Today, I had a Palace to explore and a world to see. Today, I was…
Home.
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About the Author
I’m Scott Duff. I have been a voracious reader all my life,
probably mostly trying to avoid a difficult childhood,
living in the Deep South. I went to college for a very long
time, changing majors in my junior year from Electrical Engineering
to Computer Science. Life intruded before graduation, though. I’ve
spent my adult life in restaurants and retail, neither of which would I
suggest as career choices for anyone. I spend my free time mostly reading
hard physics and light fantasy. Math and magic.
I can be reached at [email protected].
Read my author page on Smashwords here.
If you liked the book (or even if you didn’t), please leave a review at your favorite e-book store, or on my blog at Smashwords.
Look for the next in the Legacy of the Twice-Dead God series, Sons, coming soon.
