Dragon in Exile - eARC (38 page)

“The road—the people open the road that they own.”

Epilogue

What with the All-Boss Parade down the whole length of the Port Road and the public reception at the Port, and the private, all-Boss dinner at Lady Kareen’s house, Miri guessed the day qualified as a long one for everybody. Most of all, though, it had been a long day for Lizzie, who, worryingly, showed no signs of being tired.

She sat alert on Miri’s lap, her head turning in the direction of house and tree, the instant Val Con guided the car ’round the corner onto what was properly their own driveway.

Miri sighed with contentment, and Val Con put his hand companionably on her knee, sharing his pleasure at being in sight of home and the tall green spire.

Lizzie laughed, and Miri sighed again, half-amused.

“Brat, you’re so tired you’re not gonna sleep for days, are you?”

Val Con’s gentle attention bubbled through her back brain as his casual concentration on driving gave him permission to see what she saw…

Indeed, his glance showed alert eyes and eager, fidgety fingers, wanting the world.

“I warrant we’ll all sleep well this evening,
cha’trez
,” he said patting her knee in emphasis before regaining the wheel. “And I thought we weren’t to say
brat
any more, since Talizea seems to be trying to repeat it!”

“Habit,” she said resignedly, “but with company due in, I gotta get out of it. This Mom-to-a-Princess stuff ain’t half as easy as running a herd of mercs!”

Val Con laughed and accelerated, letting the car briefly hint at its potential, before sighing and bringing the speed down again to what he considered to be stately.

“
Princess
she’ll not be under our roof.” The car twitched as he played again for a second. “At least, I swear that I will do my best not to make her a princess. Now, what we must do is convince all of them!”

He casually flicked fingers over his shoulder, showing the road behind them, and by inference those who followed them; a caravan of sorts containing Mrs. pel’Esla, Nelirikk, Diglon, his wife Alara, the mostly recovered Yulie Shaper, not to mention half of Kareen’s household, and assorted others vetted by her or Kamele, in several cars and trucks.

In fact, Lizzie’s first visit to her great-aunt’s town house hadn’t boded well for her future as a not-princess. It’d seemed that all of Surebleak, and their twins too, had marveled at the beauty and wit of the Road Boss’ child. Miri had seen Natesa’s seek the comfort of the ceiling several times in response to the hints—subtle, and not-so—that surely Boss Conrad also deserved the delight of a child’s voice to light his mornings.

Miri snickered softly.

“We’re gonna need some help with that. Nelirikk’s an old softy when it comes to kids, is what I’m thinking. Might hafta get us a couple more Scouts on-staff just so he knows everything’s shipshape…”

Ahead, the gate was open, falling into shadow as Val Con guided the car to the family entrance, slowing and stopping…hesitantly.

Miri felt his attentiveness, not quite concern, but—and then she smelled it, too. “Smoke,” she said, even as Val Con popped his door and got out. He opened hers and took Lizzie from her so she could get out.

“Woodsmoke,” he said, sounding more puzzled than concerned.

“The house?”

They walked forward, both scanning the roofline, finding no sign of fire, save the smoke, which was getting…

“Master Val Con, how good to see you so soon…”

Jeeves, and several of the cook staff as well, were just outside the kitchen door. A large fan was inside the door; a smaller in the window; grey smoke flowing from both.

Talizea sneezed gently, and Miri laughed. Val Con turned wide eyes on the AI, whose headball was flickering between orange and blue.

“Forgive me, Jeeves. Naturally we have surprised with our unexpected arrival.”

Jeeves managed to sound both contrite and put upon.

“Surely not
surprised
, sir. Merely, that, due to circumstances barely under my control, I have become involved with the need to oversee the immediate ventilation of the kitchen, as Mrs. ana’Tak has discovered that the small brick bread oven in the back baking quarters is currently unserviceable…”

“The
small
bake oven?”

Miri felt the familiar buzz of her lifemate’s concentration, understood it to be a scan of memory—

“It has been lately unused,” Jeeves informed them. And, as I was not consulted…”

“I hope staff has taken no harm,” Val Con said. “Jeeves, to the best of my knowledge the
small
oven hasn’t been used—as an oven—for nearly four hundred Standards. It has been utilized as a secret hiding place for childrens’ special snacks for that at least that long!”

“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 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 seedpods 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 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 attendence.

“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
some
thing 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.”