by T J Trapp
“Why couldn’t you control me?” Erin repeated, and let the mother feel a jab of pain.
The mother writhed for a long time until finally, she spoke. “Because you are a cross-breed. Disgusting! Cross-breeds are part elf and part orb. When cross-breeds are born the orb side dominates. But, sometimes the elf side can be coaxed out to create a monster that has both abilities. Like you.”
“What do you mean?” asked Erin.
“Mothers cannot control each other through touch, only by twisting the lines. Since I could not control you, that means your elf side has been brought out. For this to happen, it takes extreme pain that takes you to the limits of endurance. Then it requires something to trigger the experience.
“A version of that is what we have to do to use the cross-breed’s brain for the dragon. For the cross-breed brain in the dragon we implanted a small dragon stone to trigger the experience. I do not know what you did, or how you have triggered the experience, but it seems that is what has happened.
“Once your two parts emerge, it is impossible to distinguish you from a mother. Your orb part makes it impossible for you to control orbs by touch, like we can, but other mother-like abilities will emerge that allow you to influence others. That is most unfortunate. Non-elves do not deserve to have our abilities. I should have killed you last night instead of merely tormenting you. When I am freed, I will not make that mistake again.”
She doesn’t deserve to live because of what she did to me, but perhaps she will be able to provide us with information. Let’s keep her chained for a while, thought Erin to Alec.
Alec wasn’t happy but agreed that was the best approach. All right.
We need to make her look more like a drone, Erin mused, staring at Suva.
Alec focused. There was a sizzle and the pungent smell of burned hair, and then the mother was bald, with a few oozing blisters emerging from her bare scalp. Suva put her hands to her bare head and shrieked.
Good! Erin thought. Now she looks like a trainee drone. No one will try to free her while we are getting information from her.
“Tell us about your residence.” Erin listened to the mother describe her house and the little information she knew of her drones.
“How long before other mothers will notice you are missing?”
“Mothers do not routinely respond to others. My clutch would instantly notice I was missing, but you have killed all three of them. I sometimes go many days without interacting with other mothers.”
Erin instructed the mother, “Stay quietly here on the floor in the proper position. You will not talk except to me.”
She took Alec’s arm and said to him in a low voice, “I don’t trust her. Her answers are not completely truthful, but I think we will have a few days before anyone will notice she is missing.”
“Um-hmm,” Alec nodded. “She’s not telling us something – something important.”
Erin knew her role in this. They walked into the main house. Erin acted like she was dissatisfied as she looked at the lead drone. “Mother Suva has relocated to another residence. I am now the mother here. This place does not exhibit the cleanliness I require! Is my bath ready? I feel filthy.”
“Yes, Mother. Instantly it will be done.” The drone scrambled off to have the bath prepared and the floors scrubbed.
Erin took a long luxurious bath and cleaned herself. She had gone from the edge of death to luxury in a few hours’ time. The night was spent curled in Alec’s arms in the soft bed of the mother. It was heaven compared to the hell that she had just escaped.
The drones brought them breakfast in bed and they lingered over the meal.
After Erin had eaten, she asked “Oh Great Wizard, what do we do now! I want to get out of here and go home and be with our children. I miss them so. But if any of our riders are alive, or our people, we need to rescue them and take them with us.”
“I agree that we need to take care of our riders – if we can find them,” Alec said. “Let’s split the work. I will try to figure out the best way to get home while you see if you can find any of the riders. They already may have been turned into drones by now. As a mother imposter, you should be able to move around and search for drones. What I need is information. I wonder if we can get it from the elf archives?”
“How do we find out?” asked Erin.
“You can tell your house drones here at the residence to help me. They can do it, and can take me to the archives. Clutchmen do not do that kind of thing. Only drones do, so I am going to masquerade as a drone. I can move about freely as a drone without anyone questioning me, as long as I am on a mother’s business.”
✽✽✽
Alec soon found a set of drone clothes and put his fake drone band back around his neck. Erin called for the lead house drone to come to her chamber. He arrived promptly. “My personal drone needs some information from the archives. Find someone who can show him how to find the information.”
“Of course, Mother. What kind of information?”
“Why, he understands there are ancient pleasure ways that I would like to try,” Erin said, archly. “He needs to research them.”
“Yes, Mother, I have someone who can help him. Does he need the password for the archives?”
Erin started to panic. Password? How would a mother act? Then she threw her shoulders back haughtily.
“Do not bother me with that drone drivel. Take care of everything he needs. I expect better from you.”
The lead drone left contritely. His work had not been acceptable to the mother.
Within minutes a different drone was at the sleeping room door. Erin motioned towards Alec who was standing demurely in one corner and said. “Take him … it … and show it how to use the archives.”
Alec followed the drone out of the residence and down the broad boulevard. They walked down the streets until they reached the elf archives. Alec recalled visiting the archives from his first trip to New Haven so many years ago. They still looked the same.
A mother's approval was required to use the archives, but access turned out to be easy. The escort drone put his hand on an opaque slab of stone that was part of the entry door and the large door opened.
Alec whispered to the drone, in Dronish, “What does it take to open the door?”
In a normal voice, the drone answered, “The permission slab measures truth and allows any who have been authorized by a mother to enter. The building is very lightly used. We may be the only ones in here. I will show you how to use the information stones before I depart. Part of the information is stored in the information stones and part in old documents. Do you want an escort to return to your mother’s residence?”
“Yes. Come back late the afternoon and help me return.”
✽✽✽
Erin spent the day alternating between resting and exercising; she felt that she was starting to recover a little of her strength. When he returned from the archives Alec resumed his clutchman role, and as she snuggled in bed with him, he flowed dark energy into her. “We may not be home, but it is wonderful to be in your arms,” she purred. “What did you find out? Did you research ancient pleasure techniques?”
“I have just started to search the archives,” Alec said, ever the scientist. “Apparently I have access to all the elf information. There is so much stuff there that it is hard to absorb. I tend to get distracted – there are so many interesting things. Did you know that the archives contain information on how to create a dark energy link between two worlds? That is what Dr. Alder was trying to do back at my research lab at the Institute, when I accidentally ended up here on Nevia and met you. I also found instructions on how to make rings. I can make rings for us when we get home. Imagine how that might change the balance against the elves if we had lots of rings!”
“Nice, but does that get us home?”
Alec looked contrite. “Not yet. I might have gotten distracted on some topics, but I am working on how to penetrate or disable the illusion field.” Erin
gave him a knowing look; he would eventually get around to figuring out how to get home.
“I interrogated our captive Mother Suva today,” Erin said. “She gave me some ideas on how to find our riders, but she was not very encouraging. She also told me many things about how mothers behave. Much of their protocol is very similar to the formal etiquette of Theland or Gott.”
“It is interesting, how the elves’ society is much like yours, in many ways.”
Erin wrinkled her nose. “And in so many ways, it is not.”
“True.” Alec stared out the window over the garden for many minutes. Erin knew that he was lost in thought, probably rehashing something he had learned that afternoon.
“Tomorrow, I will continue looking through the elves’ archives,” he said finally, glancing at her.
She sighed. “Tomorrow, I will start looking for my riders.”
14 – At the Residence
Colin hesitated as he approached the dining hall door. Dinner this evening would be with his mother, the Queen, and Erin’s children. He did not want to enter the room – dining with his mother was bad enough, but he did not want to face his nephew and niece. However, Leon met him at the door.
“Uncle Colin, Uncle Colin!” the youngster yelled excitedly. “Uncle Colin, where have you been?”
Colin reached down and tousled the little boy’s dark hair. “Hello, my little pup,” he said. “I’ve been busy.”
“Grandmother says you have been too, too, busy to eat with us. But you need to not be so busy!” He grabbed his uncle’s hand and pulled him towards the big dining table. On the other side of the dining hall, Ariana looked up from her highchair and squealed with delight at the sight of her uncle. Her amah also smiled in greeting.
“You can sit where Daddy sits, when he is here,” Leon said earnestly. “You have to do Daddy’s job while he is gone. You need to tell me a story, after dinner. Before bedtime.”
“I don’t know, Leon. I don’t think I can do your daddy’s job.”
“But you can. You can tell me the story about how you saved Mamma and all the riders from the elves.”
“I don’t think …”
“But you have to. You are my hero!”
“Leon,” Colin said sternly, “I don’t want to talk about that. Not tonight. Not right now.”
“But you have to! I want to hear it!”
“Leon …”
“I want to hear about Mamma. And how you saved her. Mamma wants you to tell me. She is so proud of you!” Leon looked up at his uncle adoringly.
“What? Your momma isn’t here. How do you know she wants me to tell you about that?”
“She does. She is proud of me, and she is proud of Ari, and she is proud of you.”
“And how do you know that, my little nephew?”
“I just do.” The little boy looked at his uncle. “I have a secret, Uncle Colin. Let me tell you my secret.”
Colin bent down in front of the little boy. “A secret?”
“A secret. No one knows my secret. Except Mamma knows.”
“What is your secret?” Colin knelt in front of Leon and put his hand to his ear.
Leon stood on his tiptoes and put his mouth to Colin’s ear, cupping his hands conspiratorially, so that no one could hear his secret except Colin.
“Sometimes, Mamma and I can talk without talking.”
“What?” said Colin, leaning back and looking at Leon.
“We can,” the child said, looking at Colin somewhat defensively. “I know what she is thinking, and she knows what I am thinking. We think to each other.”
“Really?”
Leon nodded, his big brown eyes searching Colin’s face. “Like talking, but thinking. We practice together. It works really well when she is close to me, but sometimes I can hear her think even when she is a long way away.”
“You do?” replied Colin.
“Yes,” said Leon. “But she told me not to tell anybody. But I think it’s all right that I tell you.”
“Yes, I’m sure it is,” Colin replied, somewhat puzzled.
“Mamma and Ari can think to each other, too, but Ari is just a baby, so she doesn’t understand.” Colin looked at Ariana, who was still smiling a big smile, her little front teeth showing.
“And sometimes I can hear what Grandmother or Daddy or you are thinking. I know that you think that Mamma is mad at you, but I know she is not mad at you. She is proud of you.” Leon looked in his uncle’s eyes. “You can ask her when she comes back. She will tell you!”
Colin sat back from the little boy and put his head in his hands. “Leon, Leon, Leon. How can I tell you this?” He stopped, and suddenly broke out in tears. “I wasn’t a hero. I wasn’t. It’s all my fault that your parents are not here. I should have tried harder.” He wiped his nose on the back of his hand. “Your mother, your mamma, she might never come home. She might be … she might be dead!”
Leon patted his uncle on the head. “No, Uncle Colin. No. Mamma isn’t dead.”
“She might be.”
“No, she was hurting a lot for a few days, last week. That’s why Ari was screaming all week! Screaming so loud!” Leon put his hands over his ears and made a face to show his uncle how loud Ari was screaming. “But she told Ari and me that she was a fierce rider, and a warrior, and if we never saw her again, we could remember her that way.” He took Colin’s hand. “But we are going to see her again. I know we are! Don’t be sad!” He glanced towards the baby. “Ari is happy today, so that means Mamma is not hurting. And I think Daddy is happy today too, but I’m not sure about him.”
Colin wrapped his arms around the little boy and hugged him as tightly as he was able.
An attendant came into the room and tapped a small chime.
“The Queen arrives. All rise for Queen Therin.”
Leon wiggled from Colin’s embrace and ran to his chair at the table, shouting, “You are my hero, Uncle Colin!”
“Greetings, my son,” Queen Therin said, as she entered the room.
“Mother,” he answered.
As dinner was served, the amah quickly fed the children, and then took them from the dining hall. Then the room became quiet.
“You are much quieter than usual, Colin.”
“Sorry, Mother.”
“Are you thinking about how you could be with your latest dalliance instead of your mother?”
“No, Mother, I am not,” he said, raising his eyes to meet hers. “I know that you want me to consort, and I know that you do not like my … dalliances. But I am not yet ready to consort. Besides, that is not what I was thinking about. I have made a decision.”
“And what is that decision?” Queen Therin asked.
“I have decided that I am going after Erin and Consort Alec. I think they need my help.”
“But my son! I need you here!” She leaned across the table and looked intently at him. “What if I forbid you from going?”
“I told you, Mother! I have made a decision. If you forbid me, I will do it anyway.”
The queen sighed. “Then go with my blessing.” She looked at him sadly. “When are you leaving?”
“Tomorrow, as soon as I can get ready.”
✽✽✽
Are you almost done? Erin thought to Alec.
Done? No, he thought back to her. I will be here all afternoon. Why don’t you get out and walk around a bit? Get a little exercise.
Erin knew that Alec would remain at the archives as long as the keepers would let him stay. But, a free afternoon without him would give her the opportunity to look around New Haven a bit, and perhaps try to find out what happened to her riders, and the captives from Pome, too, if she could. Finding – and freeing – her riders would be a welcome challenge. Weak though she was, she felt restless and uncomfortable lounging around the mother’s residence with no real purpose.
The house drones did everything that she asked without question. With only perfunctory directions they had produced an ensemble that fitte
d her perfectly. The colors were too bright for her taste and the material was too sheer to hold up if she had to fight, but the outfit made her look like just another mother. Leon and Ariana would laugh if they saw me in these clothes, she thought to herself, and she fondly pictured their little faces.
“I see Mother is headed out for a walk. May I send some assistants to accompany you?” asked the head drone, respectfully.
“No, thank you, that will not be necessary,” said Erin, before she remembered that a mother would not be polite to a drone.
She walked slowly down the street, looking around as she went. Her task at this stage was to orient herself. The drones did not like for a mother to be unattended, and Erin could sense two of Suva’s house drones discretely following behind her. There were many drones out on the streets and some clutchmen, but only a small number of mothers.
She turned a corner onto another boulevard and encountered a mother coming from the other direction. Erin’s heart started to race. She controlled her breathing and walked past the mother without showing any outward emotions. The mother glanced at her in passing and continued on her way. That other mother has two drones and a clutchman with her. It may be for the best that I have drones with me. She slowed her pace somewhat, allowing her house drones to follow more closely.
For the better part of an hour, Erin wandered somewhat randomly through the elf city, checking out the residential streets and some of the side streets, occasionally seeing a familiar landmark. However, her captivity and foot injuries had taken their toll, and her stamina began to wane. She started the long trek back to the residence when a thought came to her.
She signaled one of her house drones. “I desire a ride back to the residence,” she said, trying to sound curt in the motherly fashion.
“Of course, Mother, it will be done right away.”
Out of nowhere, a sedan chair with two porter drones appeared and her house drone helped her into the chair. The group moved quickly through the streets with Erin using her elevated vantage point to observe the people and places they passed. In far less time than she expected they returned to the residence. The house drone opened the front gates and they entered the formal front courtyard; Erin stepped down from the chair with her best Princess demeanor and regally entered the residence. The drones were ready to serve her and had anticipated her desires; Erin took advantage of the opportunity and rested in bed while the drones brought her refreshments.