Sons (Book 2)

by Scott V. Duff

  “We haven’t gotten back in touch with him yet,” Peter answered. “We told him it would either be early tomorrow morning or after the emissaries.”

  I nodded, pulling my phone out and powering it up. “Ethan,” I said, pushing against the anchor slightly.

  Yes, Seth? He answered, hopefully. I glanced into Peter’s balcony again and saw Kieran and him still sitting face-to-face, delving into the geas and trying to find the problem.

  “Are you and Kieran still looking for the problem in the geas?” I asked him.

  Yes and we’re not having any luck, he answered with frustration. It’s terribly simple and straightforward for what it is. You did a good job with it. Neither of us can see anything that can cause these mutations or how it will fail.

  “The geas isn’t causing the mutations. Gilán is,” I said mildly. “The problem in the geas is that over time, minor fluctuations in some of those who happen to be on the very limits of my reach might have issues passing the geas. The Changed faery just made us look for something. It’s entirely possible that it would have been bred out of them naturally and never be a problem. There just aren’t that many affected by it.”

  I don’t understand.

  I pushed two copies of one section of the geas through the anchor. “See here?” I asked, then pushed the second, differentially less strong version through again. “This is the same as the second after a couple of thousand copies.”

  You’re kidding me, right? How did you see this? He was laughing, but I knew he wasn’t laughing at me, just at the irrationality of me actually seeing this problem so far in advance.

  “Just doing the same thing y’all are, digging hard ‘cuz I couldn’t find anything obvious,” I said.

  Kieran has a few subjective changes to suggest then, but no wholesale changes, Ethan said.

  “We can talk about that in a few minutes,” I told him. “I have a couple of things to do still.” Peter was coaching Jimmy about the tip and was actually being considerate with it. I reached out for Gordon while they talked quietly and found him sitting with Felix. Gordon, may I speak with you and your father for a moment?

  “Sure, Seth,” Gordon answered through the diamond. He sounded tired, and I didn’t think it was a simple weariness. “Would you like to join us?”

  “I’ll be there in a moment,” I said. “Thank you.” Pushing the half-empty bottle to the middle of the table, I got up, Jimmy and Peter following after me. Perky Steph waved at us as we passed the hostess stand, flirting unconscionably with Peter, I think.

  “Have you spoken with Dillon since last night?” I asked Peter once we were out on the sidewalk again.

  “Yes, that was one of the first things I did today,” Peter said. “Find out what you needed to tell Gordon. Mike and I are going to search through separately tomorrow and see if we can find anything, but Gordon has been incredibly careful.”

  “Means we can’t keep using Dillon like that, though,” I said. “Too dangerous for him.”

  “I said the same thing to him. He didn’t like the idea at all and said some rather choice arguments against it, too.”

  “It really isn’t his choice, though,” I argued gently.

  Peter hesitated a moment before saying, “Depends on how you look at it.”

  Considering the statement as I studied Peter’s roiling emotions, I think I figured out what Dillon had done. “He told you that if he can’t even exist in business with you and yours that there was no hope of a personal relationship at all, didn’t he?” I asked softly. Peter nodded sullenly beside me. I caught it out of the corner of my eye, giving him a little privacy in an awkward moment. “Well, to some degree, he’s right. It would be nearly as dangerous for him, I suppose… I guess we’ll just have to be more careful about what we ask of him.” A lot more careful, like nothing near criminal.

  “Thanks, Seth, but I’m not sure that will placate him,” Peter said morosely.

  “There’s time to work on that, Pete. Don’t worry,” I said, turning to him. “I need to talk to Felix and Gordon for a moment. Do you want to tag along?”

  “You coming back to my place after?” he asked. I nodded. “I’ll just see you there, then.” He evaporated from sight in an instant and I moved Jimmy and me halfway ‘round the world.

  “So are you ready for a vacation yet, Gordon?” I asked as I pulled a chair closer to Felix and sat with a dull thud. Jimmy stood slightly behind me on my right. We were a ways back in the Observatory with a nice view of the hills to the right front of the castle. It was currently marred with garish tents lit with bluish halogen lamps, still busy in the background even considering the hour.

  “By the time it’s cleaned up on Sunday, it’ll seem like I’m on vacation,” Gordon said tiredly, his thick, left arm thrown back leisurely over his shoulder. He kept an idle watch of the scene over his father’s shoulder.

  “I’m sorry y’all got caught in the middle of that. Again,” I said earnestly. “At least I promise I won’t lock them out of their homes again. That was petty…and spiteful, but I really need them to understand that regardless of what everybody wants, myself included, I’m not that seventeen year old kid everybody knew two months ago. I have a fledgling realm to consider now.”

  Felix chuckled, low and deep in his chest. “I don’t think anybody knew what to think of you when you were just that, Seth.”

  “You’re not letting them back in, are you?” Gordon asked, more statement than question. He sipped lightly from the dark amber liquid he was drinking.

  “I can’t,” I said, shaking my head. “I caught him red-handed, screwing us over, and I don’t have time to find out why. I will and soon, but right now there are more pressing considerations. And speaking of, Peter told you what I discovered in London yesterday?”

  “Aye,” Gordon muttered, swallowing and nodding emphatically. “We’ve put another plan in place to check again tomorrow for anything out of place, but honestly, I’m not sure what else to do ‘bout it. We’ve been so blessed uptight as it is.”

  “They said the same thing,” I said nodding. “All we can do is stay vigilant and be ready, I suppose.”

  “What should we tell Darius Fuller?” Felix asked.

  “Nothing. Is he still here?”

  “In Dublin, no doubt terrorizing a hotel staff,” Gordon said, hefting himself up from the creaking leather wingback chair and ambling toward the liquor cabinet. “We don’t have room for him here at the moment, but he did try for that.”

  “Do you have a phone number?” I asked, pulling my cell phone out. Dreading the call, I dialed as Gordon rambled off the number and dealt with the hotel’s PBX system. A male voice I didn’t recognize answered. “Darius Fuller, please. He’s expecting my call.”

  “I’m sorry, but Mr. Fuller is indisposed at the moment,” the man said politely. “May I ask who is calling and take a message?”

  I gawked at Gordon, dumbfounded by the man. “Fuller is indisposed and can’t speak with me,” I said. To the man on the phone, I said tersely, “Yes, you can take a message, tell him ‘Lord Daybreak said no. Again. He stood a snowball’s chance in hell before, but this ruined that!’” I hung up, nearly snapping the phone in two.

  “Can’t wait to tell Thomas about that,” Felix rumbled, moving himself slowly from the chair to stand. Gordon had stopped mid-pour at my pronouncement and now decided he needed more, doubling his previous volume and shaking his head slowly in disbelief.

  “I’ll be glad to put an end to this day,” I said standing up. “Y’all are coming tomorrow, right?”

  “Yes, of course,” Gordon said. “When should we be where?”

  “’Bout an hour before dusk on my side, at least,” I said, thinking about what needed to be done. “We’re roughly three hours behind you. But I gotta tell ya, both the Palace and the Fae were very vocal this morning. If you can spare the time, I suspect it will culminate tomorrow morning.” I glanced back at Jimmy standing behind me. “The Palace seems to be bondi
ng with a few people.”

  Jimmy grinned and shrugged. “I’m not complaining. It’s pretty.”

  “What do you mean when you say ‘the Palace is bonding’?” Gordon asked, then looking at Jimmy. “And if you wouldn’t mind, what exactly is your position? I haven’t quite gotten a strong grasp on that yet.”

  “Um, Seth’s lieutenant?” Jimmy said, shifting his feet a few times.

  “Especially in matters concerning Gilán,” I said. “He has connections to the magic and abilities through it. Is that not evident when you look at him?”

  “No,” Gordon said, shaking his head and looking at Jimmy intently again. “He appears to be a normal human man to me. Da?”

  “Yes, completely normal,” agreed Felix, twisting around in his chair to get a better angle.

  I stood up and took a few steps away to look back at Jimmy, too. To me, he looked like he did an hour ago, glowing a very light, Gilán blue hazy aura. I saw the geas binding him to me as well as the normal, human man. Dad asked if I saw things differently the other day. I wonder if this is what he meant?

  “This is curious, yes, curious, indeed,” I muttered, gleefully. I turned to Gordon, stepping back a little from my chair to face Felix, too. “Sorry, it’s been a rough day. Few highs, lots and lots of lows. You can’t see Gilán in Jimmy at all? He should glow with the same color as the diamonds in his aura, faint but distinct.”

  “Not a tinge of power,” Gordon said.

  “First, raise your staff,” I told Jimmy. He shifted forward, his weight on his right where the truncheon was strapped. By the time he slapped the bottom of the stick into his left hand it had grown to a six-and-a-half-foot rod of alabaster white metal-wood hybrid. Sometimes it was just wood or metal. Reaching across the short distance with my aura, I brushed up against his, causing him to burst into a bright fiery blue light. “How ‘bout now?” I asked, grinning.

  Chapter 28

  Opening my eyes to darkness, I knew I was right—the Palace anticipated today. I stretched out languidly against whatever force was holding me up. The valley was barely visible under the meager starlight as dawn approached, but there’s no place more beautiful in the universe. The horizon changed slightly, lightening. My pulse was steady, but felt as though it was quickening, racing, daring the day to begin. Stretching again, I relaxed, lowering my eyelids to slits along the horizon.

  When the first, solitary ray of light hit the upper dome, the dark outside ring of the entrance of the Palace, the sense of my body changed, increasing to include the Palace as part of me. I felt the wind along the front, the small cyclone around the eastern corner, many brownies scurrying around preparing for dawn. I felt everything, every empty room, slight breeze, blade of grass, reaching tree, and sleeping body in and around the Palace.

  Then it sang and it was glorious!

  A single bass note started the choir, but time held sway on Gilán and more voices followed, intertwining two words as one in millions of sounds, virtually uncountable. I felt the dome at the front of the Palace pulse with power as the sun rose higher in the sky, warming my body in the clear glass, adding more light to fuel the Palace choir. As each colored ring on the dome pulsed, its mate in the Throne Room pulsed in sympathy and on the fifth and final pulse, my consciousness once again fell away from my body and from the Palace. I felt Gilán with amazing intensity. All of the Faery were singing.

  Daybreak had come to Gilán.

  And I thought, Mine.

  Home.

  ~ ~ ~

  “What the hell was that?” Gordon asked as soon as I showed up on Peter’s balcony.

  “You made it!” I said boisterously happy. “I’m glad. I’m not sure how often that’s going to happen.”

  “Probably anytime you get really excited about something,” Peter said, grinning and plopping into a chair at the table. “We’ll have to go to the mess. You’ve eaten me out of house and home.”

  “Um, before everybody vanishes,” Steven interjected hurriedly. “Please remember David and I can’t.”

  “You don’t have an apartment yet, either, do you?” I asked needlessly, already knowing the answer. I reached across the veil into the well below the glowing blue orb of Gilán and retrieved a diamond. Personalizing the gem was a simple task as they didn’t have many places to lock into the faces yet. “After breakfast I’ll have Ellorn show you how to get around the Palace without us, then which apartments are available, which is pretty much all of them. Call me when you’ve picked an apartment and I’ll show you how to use the key so you can get settled in before the main events start this afternoon.”

  “Thank you, Seth,” Steven said, taking the little stone from my open palm with obvious relief.

  “You seem… uncomfortable, Steven,” I said, chuckling. “Is something wrong?”

  “Well, no,” Steven mumbled, uncomfortably. “It’s just… well, I can’t seem to find a line… When the brownies started singing there was a rush of energy through what felt like the whole room, but I couldn’t feel where it came from or where it went. I can’t see any ley lines.”

  “There aren’t any on Gilán,” I said, still smiling. “As I understand the concept, it will be years before they develop, but there’s magic all around you if you need it. We’re literally swimming in it.”

  “Well, I’ve got to be off now,” Gordon said, standing. “Tons to finish before tonight.”

  A chorus of “Good Morning” and “Have a Great Day” followed Gordon as he vanished, slipping through the veil and back to his room in the Cahill castle. It did however keep my attention on David and Steven.

  “Steven, when you look at First, what do you see?” I asked him.

  He shrugged, saying, “He’s just a guy, remarkable only because he’s standing next to you and you don’t have an aura.”

  “Really?” I said, intrigued. “And now?” I watched as Steven squinted at Jimmy, as if concentrating harder at him. His head twitched back, surprised.

  “He’s kind of… tinted now,” he said, looking down at the diamond in his palm. “It’s the same shade of blue as this.”

  “Seth, what’s going on?” Kieran asked, confused.

  “They met First in New York,” I said, turning back to Kieran. “They didn’t see the links to Gilán then. Felix and Gordon didn’t see it last night either until he was literally glowing in power. Weird, huh?”

  Kieran gawked.

  “Let’s eat. I’m starved,” Ethan grumbled.

  ~ ~ ~

  Breakfast was a feast of fresh food that was delicious beyond anything I’ve had in my life. Certainly it had a lot to do with the elation of the morning’s song, but what difference did that make? Between the soldiers and the brownies, we didn’t want for anything and we were stuffed full by the end.

  Major Byrnes was prepared to be left totally alone from mid-afternoon till well into the evening. Ellorn offered to stay close enough to hear a call except during the ceremony, but I declined. He deserved to be included in the festivities with his clan and his family. The soldiers were just going to have to stay out of trouble for twelve hours. They’d managed so far with minimal help.

  The few errands we had were sorted quickly. We made plans for food stops and a late supper. People started vanishing around us and soon we were almost alone in a room full of people. That’s when I realized we were missing someone.

  “Where’s Shrank?” I asked Kieran. “Don’t tell me he slept through that?”

  “Not hardly,” Kieran said, chuckling. “He went to help with moving the banquets, food, gifts, and such. He’s having quite mixed feelings about his last day in office as Regent.”

  “He’s done a fine job,” I said. “I just hope they haven’t gone overboard on gifts.”

  “He said they were one or two that you’d think were,” Kieran said with a slight smile. “You know of one already, I believe. You ready to go?”

  The smith, I remembered. I hoped it wasn’t a sword or a knife—I had plenty of those
already and I didn’t want to hurt their feelings by not using their gift, so painfully given. He was healing beautifully when I checked on him briefly the next day and should be fully recovered by now.

  “Yep,” I said, getting excited again. I opened Gilán for miles around to Kieran, Ethan, and Peter, letting them see all the areas that the Fae had settled in. The population had grown in a week, surprisingly fast. Roughly three percent had children and another twelve were now expecting. And many had grown in size as well as body type. There were more nymphs now, water and tree. None of the normally disagreeable types, like trolls or dwarves, showed up yet though. There was time, though, for evolution to make some effort and two more continents to explore.

  When I finished and looked up at Kieran and Peter, they were reeling back at the connection, clenching it shut tightly.

  “God, you look at that all the time?” Kieran gasped, his eyes unfocused as he fought to control what he was seeing in his head.

  “Well, I’m not always looking, but yeah,” I said. Glancing at Ethan, he just shrugged. His brothers were countless, so he wasn’t seeing the problem either.

  “Try looking at smaller divisions at a time, instead of the whole area at once,” Ethan suggested. With that in mind, I shifted the focus of what they were looking at down to a smaller volume of space, specifically, the room we were in. This was very similar to the perspective spell that the Rat Bastard employed in function, but considerably different in implementation. There weren’t any wards, for instance.

  “Better,” Kieran said, rising from the table. Peter agreed apparently, still studying his view as he glanced around the room, verifying that what he saw in both places matched. Silly man.

  “I would suggest some sort of sound baffles for this next part,” I said, grinning bigger, then picked everybody up and moved us to the clearing where I first laid the geas on the faery. There were a great number there, half at least, every one of them was gaily and brightly clad in mostly new clothes. The failing light of dusk had hidden them last week to a degree. I saw them when I laid the geas, certainly, but here and now, they were a sea of flowery movement that I had difficulty believing that I held bound to the land. It was mind-boggling to see. Well, figuratively speaking.