Sons (Book 2)

by Scott V. Duff

  I hadn’t noticed what Jimmy was wearing, so I looked now and chuckled. We weren’t dressed alike, exactly, but we were color coordinated and the patterns were somewhat similar. He wore simple pants and a shirt, both of Gilán-blue except for the broad streak of crimson straight down the middle about six inches wide. It was the same shade of red that dominated the gradients of my suit. His fit him more snugly than mine and showed his physique well. He used to be a lot scrawnier than that, I was sure of it, just yesterday.

  “Just lucky, I guess,” Jimmy answered Gordon with a smile.

  The head caterer stepped into the tent and spoke briefly to Gordon, then disappeared again. A bell tolled a moment later and everyone in the pavilion began settling into his or her seats, eager to begin lunch. At least, we were eager for lunch. They were perfectly happy to socialize and snack.

  “Would you like to do the introduction of his lordship?” Gordon asked Jimmy.

  “I’d be happy to,” Jimmy said, looking between Gordon and me. “But I don’t want to step on anybody’s toes.”

  “Not at all. Ready, Da?” Gordon asked his father.

  “Yes, very much so,” Felix said and adjusted the Ori-chair to raise up slowly. Then he stood up out of the chair and took a step forward then another. The chair reformed to its dormant shape while Gordon watched his father nervously. This was obviously not Felix’s first outing away from the chair and between his doctors and healers and my own ministrations on his behalf, he’d regained a vast portion of his health. That didn’t stop those who cared for him from worrying. “Seth, you ready to be bored out of your mind for two hours?” Felix asked then disappeared through the opening of the tent with Gordon behind him, snickering at the two of us.

  “You only think he’s kidding,” he said as he disappeared, too.

  “No,” I said softly to Jimmy and Peter. “Unfortunately, I know better.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Doubly unfortunate for us, Felix was wrong: it was two and a half-hours and I had to enforce the break. Jimmy’s entrance was more provocative and thrilling than mine. John called the convocation to order, running through some complicated and out of date formula of greetings that seemed to come from the Rules of Hospitality. I wasn’t interested enough to delve into the ideas at that moment, but if I’d realized how long it would take…

  John introduced Gordon as the Master of Ceremonies then stepped down while Gordon took control. From there Gordon introduced his father and his mother, and then everyone else at the head of the table at that point. Surprising to me was that he left Marty for last, then heaped praise on his little brother like there would be no tomorrow. His parents beamed with pride and Marty blushed in embarrassment. And not one word that Gordon said was wrong. Maybe a little exaggerated.

  When Gordon introduced Jimmy, I had no idea he was going to go in all flashy. We’d been talking and mingling with these people most of the morning and Jimmy pretty much looked like a normal man, totally lacking in any power signature. My brothers and I looked like our normal mannequin selves, a body with no aura whatsoever. As Gordon made his lead-in to introducing him, Jimmy unsnapped his truncheon and formed it into his staff. The sigils on the surface blazed to life in blue fire. It reached his hand and ran up his arm, and then his whole body erupted into blue flames.

  When Gordon spoke the words “The First of Gilán,” Jimmy… struck, I guess would be the right word. One second he was standing beside me listening to Gordon in the tent a few yards away, hidden out of sight from everyone. The next second he was a large ball of lightning standing in the middle of the tent, arcing power into the ground. When he formed his body, he definitely had a magical aura—almost an elven aura.

  “Good afternoon, I am First of Gilán,” he said, his voice booming though he’d spoken softly. He didn’t have the echo of the Throne Room, but I hadn’t even expected the vocal projection, much less an echo. “It is my privilege and my honor to introduce to you the creator and master of the Faery realm of Gilán…” Jimmy paused, raising his staff up and bringing it down on the soft earth and grass beneath us. The ground rumbled, surprising us all, but none more than me. “…The human Faery Lord, gained by Rite of Ordeal and Challenge and duly witnessed by both the Queen of the Seelie and the Queen of the Unseelie Courts…” Again he raised and banged his staff. “Liege-killer…” Another tremor-causing bang. “The man named Seth McClure…” He banged it louder this time. “And Lord Daybreak!”

  I hadn’t planned on making an extravagant entrance here so I was ill prepared for the corner Jimmy had put me into. So I decided to go for self-effacing instead. Lighting the undershirt up to show Daybreak’s energy, I wrapped myself in a portal and dropped in beside him.

  “Damn. Upstaged by my own lieutenant,” I said with a wry smile, my voice booming through the huge tent just as Jimmy’s had. “Welcome. Thank you for coming to share in this auspicious occasion with me. And I must thank Felix and Gordon, along with Master Bishop of the European Council and all of the men and women of the Cahill Castle, for the huge amount of work that went into making this day possible.”

  Once again, the applause—and the standing ovation—surprised me. I decided it was for Jimmy’s appearance since it was more impressive than mine. As we made way to the head table, my mother snagged me and hugged me tightly.

  “My son is a man of few words, but they are good ones,” she said smiling as she released me. “Nicely said, Seth. I’m proud of you.”

  “Thank you, Mother,” I said with a smile. “But what are you doing down here? You and Dad should be…” I looked up at the head table and saw the problem. My table would be about thirty people large if I got everybody together. Gordon kept the number low by putting our parents and other close relations at tables very close to us. My parents, Peter’s parents, Justine, and Dillon were at one table directly in front of us. “Hello, Dillon!” I called, reaching out to shake his hand, but he pulled me into a hug instead. “I didn’t know you were coming to this.”

  “Peter made me,” he said grinning. “He said I won’t understand everything or even see it all, but it’ll be cool anyway. So far, he’s been right, but you people are scary as hell.”

  “Are you coming back with us? Staying the night or anything?” I asked.

  “He’s giving me the weekend as long as he can check in with Corey at least once,” Peter said from behind me.

  I glanced back slyly and said, “He just wants to gloat about his closet space, Dillon. Don’t fall for it, whatever he’s selling.”

  “My closet? Hell,” Peter scoffed. “I’m showin’ ‘im yours! That’ll really depress ‘im!”

  I laughed and kept moving. I really should have kept moving out of the tent. The food was good, but the service was slow. I think that was more the proceedings than the catering, though. Everybody got an introduction along with some ego boosting accolades, most of which were pretty much useless in this day and age. The population of the tent was overwhelmingly male and fairly young, overall, though the younger men did seem to hang close to their older relatives. As a group, we got through Gordon’s itinerary and finished eating in a little under two hours.

  I thought we’d be clear then. We’d have time to kick back a little while, relax, jump over and pack up the gifts. Then grab a coupla dozen lawn chairs and kick back on the front lawn and wait for dusk. It was a nice idea and was honestly what I had originally thought would happen last week when I asked Gordon if we could use this place again.

  But Bishop had to ask if anybody had questions. People started shouting questions at me like a press conference for an ill-tempered pop star.

  Luckily I was more adept with shielding myself this time from the undercurrents of each person’s desires and wants. It probably had a lot to do with the buffer of Jimmy and my extended family between everybody else. Their questions ranged between the inane, swashbuckling, “tell us a story”-type from the younger ones to the highly technical type from the elder members.

  “How b
ig is your realm, Mr. McClure?” asked a Slavic man from a table in the middle of the room and to the left. He spoke English with an affected British accent, so he was likely educated in England, though his demeanor and magic defined him as clearly as his mindset. “Perhaps in relation to say, Ireland or the United States?”

  “Well, I haven’t exactly measured anything,” I said. “I have taken a pair of nymphs to see the sea for the first time and that was quite a distance from where we started. Off-hand, I’d say that Gilán was bigger than Ireland.” And I left it at that. It wasn’t an answer to his question but I didn’t really want to give him one, either.

  “Nymphs?” remarked a Swedish man from a nearby table. “Your previous accounts reported that you only took brownies, sprites and a few fairies with you from MacNamara’s Arena. There were nymphs as well?”

  “No, but there are now,” I said. “This was my first pair. Another three pair showed up a few days later, along with a few other types that hadn’t come over with Dad and me.”

  “What about the palace that you’ve mentioned twice now?” the Slavic man asked. “How big is that? Surely in such a short time you haven’t managed to cobble together something as grand as the Cahill Castle.”

  “Mr. Malekovic,” I said, pulling his name from his mind and definitely noticing the irony in his name as translated in English. “You seem to have a psychological issue with size. Is there something you feel you need to discuss with the group?”

  As the roar of laughter went around the room at the Slavic wizard’s expense, I took a moment to alert Ellorn to a thirty-minute warning that I’d promised him. The brownie was already waiting beside the well with the cases sitting on the ledge. He had four others with him and they were quite happy to watch the world-gem turn slowly above the pool while they waited.

  “One more question and then I’m afraid I have to run home for a moment and collect the items I’m giving to the emissaries for the Queens tonight,” I said, letting my voice boom through the tent again.

  “You’re giving the Queens gifts? May we see them?” Bishop asked.

  “An odd last question,” I said, grinning. “I believe that I can let you see the outside of them. The inside is too personal, though. Be back in a few minutes.” I shifted to the well as I stood. “They are driving me bonkers,” I said to Ellorn, exasperated, surprising them with my sudden appearance. They were startled and ran for the bushes, except Ellorn. He giggled as he turned to me after briefly watching his folks dart for cover.

  “We can sympathize, my Lord,” he squeaked cheerfully. I had to smile at that one, certain that we confused him constantly. His companions eased out of the underbrush and planters now, realizing it was me who’d startled them, even though it couldn’t have been anyone else.

  “What did y’all come up with?” I asked as I stepped closer to the well’s ledge to inspect the empty containers. I came to the Seelie Queen’s first and examined it carefully. They’d managed to make the container almost as much a gift as the diamond itself. It was a flowerpot. Five sides of the six-sided design were different stones and bore different flowers etched in fine bas-relief. The sixth side bore familiar marking, “A Gift from Daybreak.” This panel was larger than the others. Touching my name, I felt a slight click on the surface of the light blue marble and the panel pulled away with my hand. Under the panel nestled in a niche of some sort of spongy material sat the replica of the diamond I was giving to her. I tugged at the clay model then slipped the real on one inside and replaced the panel.

  Then I glanced through the soil that they’d placed in the pot, wondering about seeds. “I take it that the pictured flowers are what’s in the dirt?” I asked Ellorn.

  “Yes, Lord,” he said with a small tremor in his voice. “We are fairly certain that these particular flowers have been extinct in Faery for many centuries, though considering our positions, we cannot be certain of that. We are confident that they will not grow outside of Gilán’s influence, so with a Gilán diamond hidden in its base…”

  “Clever,” I said appreciatively. “I don’t suppose you thought to make a carrying case for the carrying case?”

  “Yes, Lord,” he grinned up at me. “Two versions, one for if you wanted to grow one of the flowers before presenting it and one for if you did not.”

  What the hell was going on with these guys? They were turning out to be a lot smarter than I thought brownies and sprites were supposed to be and certainly a lot stronger as well.

  “Were y’all able to do this type of thing before you came here?” I asked as I threw a small part of my consciousness into the pot to find a seed to sprout. It wasn’t hard; they’d put dozens there about two to three inches below the top. Picking one at random, I urged it to life.

  “Honestly, Lord Daybreak, I don’t remember much from my life before coming here,” Ellorn said somewhat pensively. “Just a great deal of fear overriding every facet of my mind and then there you were with a joy that we have never seen. You share that with us and our lives have meaning now.”

  The little sprout burst up through the soil then, visibly growing larger. I cupped my hands in the well water and dropped some into the pot to help the little seedling along. At its current growth rate, it should blossom in just a few minutes, then I’d have to slow it down.

  The Unseelie Queen’s case sat a yard further along the ledge and looked remarkably similar to the first case. The sides were more colorful examples of the same flowers as the pot, but it had a top of solid black, marble or obsidian, I couldn’t tell, where the dirt should be. Suspecting that there was more to this item than just a similarity, I touched one of the colorful sides. Immediately the image on the side began to fall away like sand, but slowly reform in the center of the black top, duplicating the flower in three dimensions.

  “Damn, Ellorn, this is beautiful!” I said once the flower was fully formed.

  “We thank you, Lord Daybreak,” the brownie said shyly and bowed deeply. The four that hid earlier now stood behind him and bowed with him, standing when he did. They were watching him closely for clues on how to act in my presence. Joyful they may be, but I still scared the crap out of them. “There are more variations within the Seelie’s pot than the Unseelie’s. We were hoping that would balance the permanence of one over the other.”

  I touched the black top and the flower began flowing backward onto the side panel again. Touching the front released that panel and revealed the clay model. Exchanging the clay disk for the gem, I asked, “And I image you’ve engineered this to only work under Gilán’s influence as well?”

  Ellorn giggled and said, “We know no other way, Lord.”

  “Every time I turn around, you guys are making me proud,” I said to the five of them. “For the second time, I have asked for a case for a gift and you have given me a case that rivals the gift itself.”

  As the six of us began packing the two pots into plain wooden crates, the faery in the Palace started singing happily.

  Chapter 32

  I wasn’t planning on doing it and Ellorn definitely didn’t expect it. Neither did his companions. It occurred to me as we crated the pots. They would have to get used to it sooner or later, anyway.

  “Okay, I think this’ll take care of ‘em,” I said as we closed the lid around the glass dome of the white and fiery red of the delicate flower that bloomed in the Seelie Queen’s flowerpot. I’d already slowed the plant’s growth rate down to nearly nothing and now we just had to protect what had grown. The stasis that I’d implemented felt like it would remain until some outside force removed it; it wasn’t that strong a field.

  “I think I need an entourage,” I said, sitting on the ledge again. “You guys think you’re up to it?”

  The five brownies froze in place, then turned slowly to face me. “You want us to accompany you, Lord?” Ellorn asked carefully.

  “Mm-huhm,” I intoned, nodding. “You don’t have to do much, mostly just socialize with some humans, stay near the gifts and t
he First and me. We’ll be watching you anyway to make sure no one makes any aggressive moves. You already know the more powerful people there, Ellorn.”

  “I should have someone take my responsibilities while I am away, sir,” Ellorn said. “Freyson, I think, would be suitable.”

  Searching the Palace, I found the brownie Ellorn asked for and watched him a moment before I called. He explored the far reaches of the Palace and at that moment, he was in the depths of a laundry room, trying to see where the dirty water drained, I think. Making the call to him gentle so I didn’t startle him, I shifted him directly from the dark hole.

  “First off, it’s great that you explore the Palace,” I said casually, “but nobody should go into confined places like that without someone close by. You could have slipped and fallen, maybe gotten stuck somehow. So from now on, everybody exploring either goes out in pairs or explores no farther than shouting distance, understood?”

  “Yes, Lord Daybreak,” both Ellorn and Freyson said in unison. It made me feel like I was chastising kindergartners.

  Chuckling, I said, “Go ahead and tell him what you need, Ellorn. We need to get a move on.” Should’ve plugged my ears first, but their conversation was brief, piercing but brief. I concentrated on Jimmy and my perspective shifted to see out into the tent of wizards, and someone apparently had asked him a question.

  “I have absolutely no idea,” Jimmy answered, directing his eyes at a Hispanic wizard from one of the South American groups who I hadn’t met yet. “But I can’t imagine ever wanting it. I mean, it’s a freaking dream job, man!” Several people laughed and many chuckled, so apparently he had a goofy grin on his face.

  Jimmy, would you mind clearing this side of the table for us, please? I sent to him, indicating the entire right side of the table.

  “Yes, Lord,” Jimmy answered as if I stood beside him. “Gentlemen, Daybreak needs this side of the table. Would you mind?”

  Turning back to my sextet, “Thank you for taking over, Freyson. We’ll get you back to exploring as soon as possible. Now we’re going mostly for show. First we’re going to show a gaggle of human wizards the carrying cases that you’ve devised and then we’re going to show the cases and the stones to the Emissaries. Then we’ll send you home. Okay?