Authors: Scott V. Duff
“Asshole,” Messner said, then he punched Echols in the face.
I shifted us both over, laughing at Messner.
My laughter echoed loudly on the walls of my Throne Room. It was much quieter than I’d expected it to be. Except for Messner. He danced around the top step of the dais shaking his hand, cursing and muttering about the “hard-headed bastard.” My brothers and assistants were rather artistically arrayed on the steps to the Throne. Jimmy stood on the blue carpet two steps down and half a step left, his truncheon in full quarterstaff mode, in one hand crossed in front of him. He had a thin coating of blue flames flickering off of him as he watched imperiously over the crowd of mottled green and brown clad men. The immensity of the room awed them; even at four hundred plus, they didn’t cover a tenth of the floor area.
“Welcome to Gilán,” I said in what I thought would be just loud enough to catch everyone’s attention, but I boomed through the room with near ear-shattering volume. Everyone snapped to attention. “You are in my home and I expect you to act accordingly.”
A general air of surprise rose up from all of them, as if they couldn’t believe that something this large belonged to someone. Heh. Wait till you see the rest, guys. Standing before the Throne and clasping my hands behind my back, I continued my address:
“You are the first humans outside of my family and friends to see Gilán and definitely to stay in the Palace. Understand that you are here under duress. With that in mind, you are not to discuss what you see or experience here with anyone on the other side. Ever.” It was a simple and easy push to make that command a truth in their minds. Too easy, I felt. I needed to watch that feeling. “This is a temporary solution. We’ll get you moved into quarters where showers will be available. Food will take a little longer than first expected but as fast as we can move it over, we’ll get it to you.”
Shrank
, I called with a touch of power.
Yes, Lord?
Are you busy? We have a new guest problem.
Not at all, Lord Daybreak.
Are the Dea Brothers with you? They could be helpful, too.
Yes, Lord, they are with me.
I reached through the diamond chip that sat at the end of Shrank’s sword, curiously wrapped around his waist, feeling for both him and the Deas. Once I had them, I pulled them through space to me. They trilled greetings in the pixie’s common tongue and I replied, “Evenin’, guys,” smiling at them. Pretty much the first time the soldiers have seen me smile when it wasn’t taunting them or condescending. “Now, should you encounter any of my people within the halls, defer to them. As a whole, they are considerably smaller than you and while you may accidentally hurt one, they are far more able to defend themselves than they appear and they will swarm. And then there is always the issue of dealing with the First.” Jimmy’s quarterstaff hit the marble step like rifle shot, echoing through the hall.
“This is Shrank, a pixie,” I announced to the men. Shrank wheeled around to face them and let out a startled ‘whoa!’ with the Deas doing precisely the same a half-second later. “And this is Deason and Deacon, two fairies. Most of the Fae inhabitants of the Palace do not fly, so watch where you’re walking.
“Again this is a temporary situation, but it solves some of the immediate issues, specifically sanitation and infestation. Showering and laundering services will be made available once you’re settled in quarters. You will be put into the barracks of the Palace guard for now. Food is our first priority. Make certain that supply lists are as complete as possible for necessities through Friday. We will be completely unavailable Wednesday and Thursday and have extremely limited availability tomorrow. We have to get you taken care of tonight. We’ve got a lot of work to do, gentlemen, so please be on your toes.
“First thing we have to do is get you to quarters,” I called out. “This building is huge and quarters are some distance away. To get there faster, we’re going to take the Road. This is not like any road you have ever been on before and it takes getting use to using it. First, take the Road, please.”
Even with his back to me, I could see him smile as he strode down the steps, following the bright blue carpet down to the Roadway. Soldiers cleared a path for him as he went, probably more frightened by the blue fire leaping off of him. When he began tapping the staff lightly on the marbled surface, causing the Road to vibrate, other men on or near the oval track of the Throne Room’s Road moved off of it quickly. Then he started walking the loop at a steady rate. The Road influenced his body immediately, his speed doubling. After his first lap, he started a light jog and his speed doubled and redoubled again. He ran faster and I was fairly certain he was nearing highway speeds without pushing himself hard.
“Thanks, First, I think that’ll do it,” I said, after his tenth lap, looking over astounded faces and dropped jaws. Jimmy reversed the process, slowing to a stop within a single loop. His staff reverted to the truncheon and put back on his thigh at some point during his run. “Now you won’t be able to match the First’s speed and certainly not mine, but it will be much faster. So if we can get four, somewhat equal lines formed up in front him please.”
It got very noisy then as commanders of men have done throughout the ages: they started yelling. Like a bridge falling, the orders started in one place and repeated in several others and the parts just started falling into place. Within minutes, I had my four lines. While we waited, we planned what little we could.
“That’s a lot of men,” squeaked Shrank as we watched them hurry into formation. “The Palace staff is not prepared to take care of them, yet, Lord.”
“I’m not expecting them to, Shrank,” I said. “Just… supervise. They’ll have to take care of themselves through the weekend. At least as far as feeding and cleaning up after themselves go, anyway. They’re going to need help with facilities, though. A lot of things don’t work the same as they’re used to. Stoves, showers,
lights
, a lot of things. Do we have enough English-speaking brownies in the building to ride herd for that?”
“Oh, yes, Lord,” Shrank replied. “The entire complement of Palace brownies speak English, Spanish and several other human languages. How many would you like assigned to the task?”
I looked to Kieran for a suggestion. “A hundred at any given time?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Four to one sounds reasonable.”
“Let’s start there, but if they feel like it’s not enough, double it,” I told him. “Keep our people safe. Can you and the Deas see to that, please? Richard, did you have enough time to setup a reasonable menu and list of supplies?” I asked.
“Mostly, yes, although moving here changes a few things, they’ll be minor and I don’t think it’ll affect the supply side,” Richard answered. “All of our problems arise from a simpler point: where do you get eighteen hundred pounds of bacon, six hundred dozen eggs, eight hundred pounds of hamburger meat, two hundred pounds of baked beans… I think you get my point here.”
“Seven thousand eggs?” I asked in disbelief, looking over the squirming mass of men before me. “Wow, I guess I can believe that. Damn, where do you get seven thousand eggs?”
“From seven thousand chickens?” Peter offered with a chuckle.
“Well, I have an idea…” Dad said, a mischievous grin creeping over his face.
“They’re ready, Seth,” Jimmy called from the Road.
“Hold that thought, Dad,” I said. “I’m gonna need it.” Then I stood up and looked over the lines. The FBI had taken the lead in one line, which was fine because I needed to cull them out anyway, to get them back to Atlanta. I hadn’t studied much of current military procedures, but I had seen a few movies and Dad made sure I knew generalities years ago.
What I saw were four lines of similar size. The head of one line was the FBI agents, the other three were Byrnes and his officers. Then they seemed to be broken into companies with two to three men in charge of each company.
As I came down the steps of the throne, an officer beside Byrnes turned his head and yelled, “Ten-Hut!” That caused a cascade of repetitions that created an almost simultaneous change in stance to the ‘Attention’ position. It was almost mechanical.
“Major,” I said, seeing the immediacy at which their orders were obeyed. “I’m going to let your officer relay commands. They seem better suited than me.”
He gave me a wry smile. “You seem to manage well enough, Mr. McClure.”
“Here, he is ‘Lord Daybreak’,” Jimmy said sternly.
“It is an important differentiation,” Ethan agreed. “The Fae will take insult if his name is continually misused in his home.”
“You may, however, continue to refer to Lord Kieran as ‘Mr. McClure’,” squealed Shrank, bobbing in the air in front of him, then shooting off in a flash of green pixie dust, his wings making a little tinkling sound in the air. The Deas were flitting above and around the formations. Chittering and laughing as they flew through, causing different reactions from the men as they did. They thought of it as playing but they were at the advantage. A simple swat would ruin their fun but the men wouldn’t do that so soon after being warned.
Jimmy saw it, too, and I felt the Road surge off its tracks as he used it to move to the far end of the row the two fairies were flying down. “Hold this,” Jimmy muttered as he handed his staff to the soldier on his right. The corporal took the staff automatically, almost robotically, then realized he was holding a hard, metal rod blazing with blue fire. The look on his face suggested apoplexy and if he didn’t start breathing again soon, he would probably fall over, but I thought he’d be all right for a moment. In the mean time, Jimmy reached up in the air and snatched both fairies from their lazy skyward arcs; they hadn’t seen him coming, he’d been that fast.
“What do you two think you’re doing?” Jimmy said in a loud and scolding voice, holding both of them in a fist by their legs. Somehow he wasn’t hurting them, but they were definitely uncomfortable.
“Just playing, First of Gilán,” Deason squeaked nervously, with Deacon piping in behind him, “Yes, First. We were just playing. We meant no harm, sir.” They made it sound so plaintive.
“No, you weren’t ‘just playing’,” Jimmy said, disbelieving their story. “You were taunting them just because they are different from you. You might consider where you would be if Lord Daybreak felt that way. Most of these men are nice but misguided people. You may even like a few of them once you get to know them. But you will not badger them anymore than they will badger you. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, First!” they squealed together at nearly eardrum-piercing pitches. I was thankful they’d chosen English. Any Fae dialect would have been excruciatingly long. Jimmy released them and turned to retrieve his staff. He chuckled when the man wouldn’t let go of it. He was still staring at it, sort of catatonic. Jimmy shrunk his stick and slipped it from the man’s grasp quickly.
“Breathe, big guy,” he said, patting the man in the chest heartily, grinning big. “In through the nose and out through the mouth. You’ll survive.” Another surge of power through the Road and Jimmy was back at the front of the line. It was a quick and impressive display, and it certainly went along with my feelings without hurting either side. Score one for Jimmy.
“Thank you, First,” I said, glancing back on my right as he slipped in directly behind me. Turning back to the Major, I said, “What we’re going to do is follow the Road around the loop and down the corridor to the smaller array of barracks with facilities. We want to walk, pick up a little speed, then slow down, then stop. All together about five minutes, max.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem, Lord Daybreak,” Byrnes said with a short nod.
“Wanna lay odds on the collision rates?” Messner muttered to his partner.
I just ignored him, but I wanted the thirty to thirty-three percent range personally. Couldn’t say that, though, so instead, “Let’s get this party rolling then, Major. Follow us.” Kieran, Ethan, Dad, and Richard stayed put by some unspoken agreement between them to take the rear of the line. Shrank and the chastised Deason stayed with them. So with Jimmy on my right and Peter on my left, I led four hundred and some odd number of Army and Marine soldiers down the looping Road and into the corridor. Deacon stayed close to Jimmy’s left side, not wanting to incite further problems.
Once everyone was clear of the Throne Room, I increased our pace as the Palace came to life in front of us, lights blossoming ahead of us as it sensed our presence, eager to be active. The near-perfect cadence of the march moved us along quickly, but the Palace kept pace with us, lights gleaming like gems in the tall ceiling which may even be gems. We passed doors and windows along the hallway in blur as we traveled two-thirds of the Palaces’ wing to the barracks. I warned them of imminent slowing and listened remotely for the call.
Not one collision occurred when we stopped at the door of Barracks Four. Now I was glad I hadn’t actually wagered. Slapping the granite slab that served as the door was enough to make it slide back on its track and swing wide to reveal the front offices of the barracks as well as the half-dozen brownies waiting patiently on the desk.
“Evenin’, guys,” I said cordially and smiling at the little brownies. “I really appreciate y’all helping us out and I’m amazed that you got here this fast.”
They all looked surprised for a moment, then in high-pitched English, the shorter of the middle brownies stepped forward and said, “Good Evening, Lord Daybreak. It is a great honor to be of any service.” As a unit they bowed from the waist, foreheads scant quarter-inches off the desktop.