by Pam Uphoff
The gate guards examined their documents, and despite the Ambassador glowering at them, managed to take a ridiculous amount of time about it. They reluctantly let them through the high wooden gate that surrounded their side of the gate.
An ornate carriage with four big bays hitched to it was waiting. The crest on the door contained an “M.”
The ambassador’s carriage, not something from the government.
Lord Menchuro pointed out the sights as they wound through “Paree.” Not that this was anything remotely resembling Paris at any age and was located in the equivalent of northern Africa.
The Temple of the Gods was on one hill, and the Royal Palace on another.
Both in walled compounds. The temple gates were massive, and open. The palace looked a bit less fortified, with two wide gateways, and low broad wall between them, allowing a view of the vaguely Grecian building.
Xen noted that the low wall would make an excellent base for the large stone blocks stacked along the back side of the taller flanking walls. A couple of hours’ notice and it’ll be ready for a siege.
They were escorted by scowling guards to a large conference room. Emperor Alfred was flanked by a dozen advisors. The Exalted Jared had a single red robed priest to advise him, and a dwarf “Little God” crouched beside him.
Xen eyed them . . . The Dwarf is just pretending to be frightened . . . and there’s a three way conversation going on there. Not at all what I expected.
The Emperor’s haughty expression soured as he eyed them. “We don’t want your agents here. Especially not a woman. It’s a foul heresy for a women to have power.”
The Exalted raised a finger. “Neither of those two have any power. And it might be useful to have one person here that our people could talk to, without exposing themselves to heresy in that . . . place.”
Uneasy shifting and a lot of mumbling among the Emperor’s advisors. The man himself kept quiet, his head turned slightly to hear.
Then he sat forward. “Good advice, Your Exaltedness. The man may stay.” His gaze shifted to Ambassador Menchuro. “Take him to the House of Wisdom for their assistance in choosing from among their graduates a staff to keep him from trespass.” He waved a hand. “Go.”
Xen inclined his head to the Emperor, and again to the Exalted. And followed his people out.
Once out of earshot, Warric leaned closer to James. “Don’t look so worried. The House of Wisdom is a school. Mine, Jack’s and Faraster’s. We’ll set you up properly.” He looked apologetically at Sommer.
“Don’t worry. My enthusiasm weakened with every breath I took.”
***
She was much happier with her introduction to the British Empire. “Lady Sommer” was swept away by a dignified gentleman to take a tour of available offices, Carton Simpson strolling along behind, taking in the reality of a British Empire that never fell.
That’s fifty percent good relations with the first round. And the most dangerous of the lot.
I’m going to need more agents, Real Soon Now.
Chapter Nine
Refusal
“I don’t want to have anything to do with . . . that person.” Arno hunched his shoulders.
“Oh don’t be stupid.” Ryol was stretched out on the living room floor on her belly, tapping at her comp. “We don’t mean anything to him. If we meet him it’ll just be for magic lessons. Treat him like any other teacher—because that’s all he’ll ever be.”
You hope! But we’re Aunt . . . Biomom’s . . . Rael’s kids. That they might have raised together. What does he think about that? Will he be angry at Mother for . . . kidnapping us?
What does Aunt . . . Rael think about it? She was upset . . . but what does she think about it, now that she’s had time to calm down? Is she mad at Mother for . . . kidnapping . . . us.
I haven’t even had time to think about this whole mess. Are there some serious legal issues here?
Arno jumped up and grabbed the screen controls and started searching.
Ryol frowned at him. “What are you doing?”
“Research.” Arno started the first documentary. “I want to check the publicly available vids of the assassination attempt. Interviews. Once I have the facts, I’ll watch the movies.”
I have parents, I don’t want more. He blinked away tears, refused to cry. I want my Aunt Rael back.
He thumped his head back on the cushions. Not hard enough to do any good. Whatever good was.
Don’t be stupid, Arno, you’ve still got the magical, wonderful aunt. You always wondered if she was your real mom. So you were right. And she came and visited and spent time with you because she loves you, not because it was her duty to her kid.
“We’ve seen all the vids . . . well I’ve seen them over at friend’s homes.” She shut off her comp and walked over to the sofa. “Mother never let us watch them. She’d hate us seeing the actual documentaries. I thought that was because she didn’t want us traumatized by seeing Aunt Rael get shot. I guess there might have been other reasons too.”
She plopped down on the couch. “So let’s see what we missed.”
A lot. The Bio of Aunt Rael was mindboggling.
When she was a teenager, she dated “Bruno” Ubno Clostuone, the football superstar, and now part owner of the team? I thought he was just married to Mother’s buddy!
And extra years at the Princess School . . . which isn’t actual proof that she was a Dancer, however suggestive they try to make it.
And it never occurred to me that the ditsy redheaded secretary who accidentally sent out War Party secrets might be an agent of the One, let alone Aunt Rael!
“Whoa! Check that picture. That looks just like you . . . except that’s definitely Aunt Rael’s nose.”
Ryol put her hand to her hair. “I’ve never seen her with long hair. It’s not as curly as mine.”
“But that really is her.”
The vids of the assassination were horrible. Aunt Rael limp on the ground, as the fight went on around her. The pool of blood underneath her growing steadily. Endi Dewulfe finally going down, pulling himself closer to her. Giving her a drink . . . That Wine of the Gods . . . He may have saved her life with that.
The spy took a swallow, then passed out.
A news tidbit about “Our local heroine back on the job” with a vid taken in an airport, with Aunt Rael shaking hands with the President, getting a hug from Paer. Thin, stiff, no sign of a bounce as she walked beside the president.
Arno backed up to check the date. “That was almost a year and a half after she was shot.”
Heavy steps on the stairs. Dad looked at the screen and sighed. “I’d almost forgotten what she was like when I met her. And she was much worse than that. Oh, being Rael she worked hard to not show it. She’d pause on the stairs to make a snarky remark . . . took me a bit to realize she had to stop, to rest. That she wasn’t avoiding shaking hands because she was rude or oblivious, but to hide that she couldn’t squeeze back.”
He walked over and sat between them. “Nerve damage. She couldn’t feel and could barely use the outside three fingers of her right hand. She’d been in the hospital for a year, before she came home. You two were four or five months old? Something like that. She’d only hold you when she was sitting down, for fear of dropping you.”
“We ought to have told you. Ought to have told her. But . . . she physically wasn’t able to care for one, let alone two babies. Would it be kinder to not tell her? Rub her nose in the fact that she ought to give up her children.”
He nodded at the screen. “And that man. Now he’s everyone’s hero. Then? Yeah, a hero, but also the enemy’s agent. He’d disappeared, there was no contact with him or his government. So we did what seemed like the best thing under the circumstances, and stayed quiet.”
His dad’s arm tightened around his shoulders. “Now everything’s changed. So, pull up one of the movies and let’s try to see the good side of a genetic relative we’ll no doubt all meet sooner than
I’ll be ready for it.”
The shows were . . . standard spy-fare. With the “mysterious” Endi Dewulfe seducing women right and left. At least the chase scenes were different—horseback instead of cars. And had they really crashed aircars through a forest to try and catch someone on horseback?
I could ask Aunt . . . Biomom. Arno looked at the actress playing Aunt . . . the part. Worse than Ryol, and looking like a, well, cheap umm, don’t even think that around Dad. But it was a wonder she didn’t fall over, with boobs like that, and didn’t it hurt when they bounced?
And yeah, they did get the assassination attempt about right.
Arno clicked over to the new film about the Super Spy on Earth. Improbability upon improbability, and only sex once. Off screen, thank the One.
And then the film about the Embassy startup.
“That was five years later?” Ryol looked up at Dad. “Just before you married Mother?”
“Yeah, six months or so before the wedding. Rael came for a visit in the Fall . . . bouncing and energetic, her fingers working properly. It was a bit of a shock for me, I hadn’t quite grasped how damaged she’d been. ‘Oh, Xen fixed it all.’ She said, all breezy and happy. Raod and the grandparents all had a big so-happy-we’re-crying hug fest.”
He sighed and looked down at his feet. “We talked about it, then. About telling Rael. When she came for the wedding . . . we talked to her. We hedged all around it, asking what that man might do. Oh hell, umm, sorry. I still don’t know what that man will do.
“I told Rael I didn’t like taking a parent’s rights, even if the parent were in ignorance of the child’s existence. But we talked, and . . . the way she phrased it . . . ‘Xen wouldn’t take children away from the woman who bore them’ instead of saying ‘their mother’ . . . I thought she was hinting that she knew and . . . she said the most important thing was keeping the kids safe, raising them right, and to heck with the ethics.”
He looked from Ryol to Arno. “We never mentioned it again.”
Arno nodded. Glanced at the screen. Not knowing we were hers . . . but would she have felt differently if she’d known we were hers and Endi’s?
He glowered down at the screen controls. That Wolfson person may be exciting, and maybe Aunt Rael really loves him. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t a . . . a . . . ladies’ man. With hordes of children on at least two worlds. Not. Husband. Material. Even if he wasn’t an enemy spy.
He’s not good enough for Aunt Rael. And he’s only my biofather, not my Real Father.
His dad sighed. “Anyway, I was actually coming up to tell you that they’ve set up a . . . ten day training session. On Embassy. Next week.”
“Next week!” Ryol yelped. “I was going to . . . Oh. Drat!”
Arno sat up straight. “It’ll be all right. We can do this. Or at least I can. I just . . . don’t have to like a perfect stranger.”
Ryol nodded. “Yeah. He’s just a teacher. A stranger we have to be polite to.”
Then to Arno’s relief, the rattle of the garage door, and his little brother and sister were galloping in, telling them all about the birthday party they’d gone to.
He turned off the screen. This is my family, and no one can take it from me.
Or me from it.
***
“Ebsa! Oh Thank the One! Someone I can scream at!” Ryol flew down the stairs and grabbed Ebsa’s arm.
“Ryol!” Mother sounded upset.
“Sorry Mother Hi, Ebsa how’s Paer and the twins and hey can I talk to you about something? Good. C’mon up, Arno needs a dose of your common sense, and I need to vent. All my plans for the rest of the holiday are shot down in flames, and that’s smallest part of this whole disaster . . .” She dragged her step brother up two flights of stairs.
“Umm, Ryol . . .”
“What? I’m not going to invite you into my bedroom. I need to find Arno and get his permission to talk about this mess!”
Arno’s door opened. “What are yelling about, this time? Ebsa! Oh, sanity!”
Ryol gulped. “Yeah. Can we tell him?”
“Yeah, get in there.” Her brother heaved out a breath of relief.
Her stepbrother looked from one to the other. “Okay. You two aren’t acting like anyone died, but even your mom looks upset. So . . . ?”
Ryol took a deep breath and tried to figure out where to start.
Arno just nodded. “We just found out that Aunt Rael is our biomother and Xen Wolfson is our biofather. And they’re going to take us, and our 25 half siblings to Embassy for special training.”
Ebsa stared, then sat down. “Holy crap! That’s . . . a load to dump on you. Are you guys all right?”
Ryol flapped her arms. “Mostly . . . but . . . they’ll call us monsters, when the news leaks! And it will! Nobody can keep secrets!”
“It’s just a stupid label. You’re the same people you’ve always been.” His eyes narrowed. “Training on Embassy? Do they think you can make gates?”
Ryol nodded. “Aunt . . . Rael . . . I don’t even know what to call her anymore! She went to HIM! And brought back these weird cube things, and since we could see them, it means we have the dimensional talent and might be able to make corridors and gates some time.”
Ebsa whistled. “Look. I understand that you’re kind of shaken up right now. Especially about Rael. But she’s always loved you. Just, now you know she’s more than an aunt.”
Arno shifted. “Except . . . she didn’t know either. She was in a coma for two months after the assassination attempt. They did an embryo transplant, instead of an abortion . . .”
“Because the metabolic load was reducing her chances of survival.” Ryol sniffed. I can’t believe I’m crying. I’m not a baby. “She cried when she found out. Last week.”
“Nobody’d ever told her.” Arno added.
“Oh. That’s . . . a big tangle of lies, isn’t it?” He sat back and thought about it. “Okay, as Ra’d says. The first thing is to not make things worse. To . . . keep the peace within the family. Reduce the emotional levels. Ryol? No more screaming and shrieking about life not being fair.”
“But . . .”
“No. Reduce the emoting. Calm everything down. I suspect everyone is operating on high emotions right now. It is very important that you guys do all you can to calm everybody else down. You make sure your Mom and Dad know you love them, and you make sure Rael knows that you love her.”
Arno nodded.
Ryol heaved out a deep breath. “Yeah. That makes sense. Because . . .”
“It could get messy.” Arno said. “Legally. Better to peacefully share us.”
Ryol choked on a scream. Legally? For custody? But . . . everyone knows birth mothers have the superior rights . . . except in a few cases where the embryo was deliberately stolen. Which isn’t the case here . . . really . . . it’s that gray area stuff.
Aunt Rael would not accuse Mother of kidnapping. I’m certain of that.
“Yeah, they need to calm down and make something like a shared custody agreement. Let Aunt Rael take you for half the summer or some such.” Ebsa squinted a bit. “They’re sending you to Embassy? Good. Everyone can calm down and start thinking.”
Arno bit his lip. “That is good, isn’t it?
Ebsa nodded. “I think so. Holy crap. You two have my number, and I’m living in Gate City. I can be on Embassy inside of an hour. Call me if you need me.”
Ryol nodded. “Thanks, Ebsa. That really helps. I guess I needed a safety net.”
“Just remember. You are who you are. That hasn’t changed.”
Chapter Ten
Unsavory Plans
“No, no, no. We’ll do the sewage treatment magically, it’s better, and also cheaper. No eyesore, no bad smells.” Xen shook his head at the pile of documents. “Six months of torn up streets? And we don’t need to buy pipes or excavators. We’ll glassify the rock . . . well it’s limestone . . . all right, we may need to bring in rock, but it’ll be dead easy to get it under
ground.”
“Xen!” Cactus threw her hands up. “We can’t do everything by magic!”
“Why not?”
“Because there’s only one of you.”
Xen paused. “Well, it’d keep me out of trouble. But I can get the same guys who did the water system in to do the sewer pipes.”
A snicker as Q walked in. “Yeah, Xen, what could possibly go wrong?”
“I happen to like this building.” Xen grinned. “But perhaps we should be prepared to divert them, if we have trouble getting them to stop.”
Q leaned over the map . . . “Why don’t we plan on doing the big main sewers, and then every embassy can do their own hook up. Or either of us can do smaller pipes”
“And gravity feed would work better if the main line out of town went northwest instead of straight north for the river. More drop.” Xen eyed the regional map. “In fact, we’re getting a lot of congestion. Maybe we should take the northwest road diagonally out another five miles and make a new plaza. Designate one side for some sort of city government. Retail and restaurants around the square, then new embassies could surround that.”
Q’s finger traced out the square in a glowing line, moved back to the proposed sewer lines. “Run the main sewer from here down the northwest road and through the new plaza, then as needed, start a parallel system for that area. Then dump the treated water in this stream there.”
Lon eyed the glowing lines. “So you’re going to treat the water in the pipes? Isn’t that dangerous?”
“Well, yes.” Xen snickered. “But we’ll put the spells in the smaller pipes, where one hopes no one will be crawling, and it’s easy to make the spells not affect living creatures. We’ll have to warn everyone about sending in inspection teams. Because, clothes, shoes, expensive electronic gear . . .”
Cactus choked. “Surely . . .”
Q rolled her eyes. “We’ll need to warn them to get us to remove the spells before they send in expensive robotic surveyors. Although I suspect we could modify the spells to ignore working electronics.”