Liaden Universe 18: Dragon in Exile

by Sharon Lee

  “Perusal of the records I have recently accessed indicates that you are very close to the mark, Master Val Con. I will say that no harm has been taken, other than embarrassment—and Mrs. ana’Tak’s dismay. She had been following a recipe provided by Yulie Shaper to make a dessert treat for his homecoming, one specifying a wood oven . . .”

  From within bustled Mr. pel’Kana, tidy and neat, a basket in one hand and a tray table folded under his arm—

  “This way, if you would, lord and lady, and young lady. We shall utilize the front door ourselves—to avoid this smoke. I shall serve you Tree-side while the last of this inconvenience is settled. We have tables on the East Patio, for those who follow. The staff apologizes, if you please.”

  The snack and the light afternoon wine had put them into a quiet mood, so quiet that they allowed returning family and guests to find their own way to the East Patio, and to wander the gardens as they would. The Tree welcomed the company, though it was, Miri was certain, the Tree’s doing that they three were not disturbed in their solitude.

  Backs comfortably against the warm trunk, and Lizzie stretched across their laps, they drowsed on the side of the Tree known as Delms’ Court, facing as it did the delms’ study on the lower level.

  “Gonna think we’re rude,” Miri’d suggested, drowsily.

  She was rewarded with Val Con’s soft laugh and a playful, “Gonna think we’re rude? No, Miri, they shall not. Gonna think we’re delm, at home, after a long day.”

  Sleep came upon them easily, as Miri had expected. What she hadn’t expected was the vivid sighting of a wild-haired young woman in Scout gear and leather, laughing as she watched great birds flying in a distant warm sky of brightest blue. Someone away was calling for Liz, and elsewise there was wind blowing and seed pods to be planted . . .

  And then, there were Shan and Priscilla standing hand in hand as they overlooked the waves crashing into foam on rocks far below. A spaceship was in Miri’s view, and twin hills, each crowned by a sapling, and in the distance, a house rising from a plateau . . .

  Val Con was in the dream, or sharing it, watching with her from an impossible place as a ship larger than the Dutiful Passage pulsed into Jump away from here to an equally impossible there. . . .

  Sharing Val Con’s eyes, she saw Theo, somewhat older, possibly wiser, standing before a potted tree tied into the Jump seat on a ship’s bridge, just as the legends and diaries said the Tree they leaned against had once traveled. And there . . .

  . . . there were cats curled around and against them, and a man’s laughing voice, quite nearby and not at all dreamlike.

  “Sleet, I can’t get so many, and hey, some of them live with me!”

  With one breath Miri woke, and Val Con did, and so, too, did Liz/Lizzie/Talizea yos’Phelium wake, still laughing from whatever her dreams had been, and seeming as fresh as if she’d had a full night’s sleep.

  At their feet stood Yulie Shaper, with Mr. pel’Kana in attendance.

  “Apologies, Lord and Lady,” he offered. “It happens that the smoke is clear, with both Jeeves and Nelirikk declaring the house suitable. I thought it best to clear away. Mr. Shaper is on his way home, and wished to properly take his leave.”

  “That’s right,” said Yulie, with a nod. “An’ I need to talk at you a minute, too.”

  Lizzie laughed again in Miri’s arms, admiring the myriad of cats in the garden, some in their own orbit, some in Yulie Shaper’s orbit, some in her orbit, and about her mother’s feet as Miri stood, Val Con’s hand under her elbow.

  “We are at your service, Mr. Shaper,” he said. “How may we serve you?”

  Much to their surprise, Yulie laughed.

  “Oh, no, you don’t gotta serve me! Mrs. ana’Tak’s done that—got some cookies to take home, too!—and your Mr. pel’Kana, he’s done right by me too . . . more’n right. But I gotta ask, since you been busy: what’re you gonna do about your branch?”

  The waking delm shared confusion. Miri asked the question.

  “Our branch?”

  “Sure—that branch out front. Getting to be time to do something with it. Got itself a nice covering of mulch leaves now, but it’s broke in three, and they oughta get themselves settled. ’Nother ten or twelve days we’ll be seeing autumn. Oughta get roots in before winter hits, you know!

  “Now, here, lemme show you, since I’m my way home . . .”

  The cats led the way, foreknowing Yulie Shaper’s direction and intent. Perforce, Val Con and Miri followed, until at last they stood in the last rays of the setting sun, surveying the branch that had been the Tree’s answer to their tourist problem.

  Like Yulie’d said, the branch had broken into three sections, and on each section grew a tiny spike of a tree, while green fuzz covered the rest of the log.

  “Now, see, this’n here, on the piece nearest my place, it looks to me that one’s most along, and I was wondering, if you’re not needing it, if I can take it over to my far field. Give it twenty or a hunnert years and it’ll do like your big one’s doing—pulling in some warm, sucking in the water, keeping out some of the cold and breeze! I’d be pleased to have it with me—and it’ll give yours some company!”

  “Indeed,” murmured Val Con. “Take it and plant with our goodwill, Mr. Shaper.”

  Yulie nodded, and waved his hand at the log.

  “These other two, see, they’re almost twins. If your brother’s coming home like you said he was, you might wanna take and plant ’em down on that piece o’land I’m gonna sell ’im. I think they’d like the sea air—an’ they’d make a good present, a—a welcome home present!”

  The Delm of Korval looked at each other and, as one, extended a hand in response to small rustlings overhead.

  Miri’s catch was two pods—one large and firm; the other small and soft.

  She gave Lizzie her pod, and smiled when her daughter laughed.

  Val Con’s catch was four pods. One, he knew, was his. One was Father’s; the third belonged to Mother. The fourth . . .

  . . . was for Yulie Shaper.

  He held it out and his neighbor took it without hesitation.

  “Welcome home, Yulie Shaper,” Val Con said, and raised his pod, as if it were a fine glass of wine.

  Miri raised her pod, Yulie raised his, and Lizzie raised hers.

  “Welcome home,” Miri said. “All.”