Authors: Scott V. Duff
“Good morning, Lord Daybreak, First,” Major Byrnes called as he walked into the kitchen with a lieutenant in tow. Brinks came to attention and snapped a quick salute to the major, which Byrnes quickly returned. “Lt. Brinks, morning mess seems to be progressing well. The McClure’s came through with supplies as promised?”
“Almost everything, yes, sir,” Brinks said. “At least on food supplies.”
“Very good. Lord, will you care to join us for breakfast?” Byrnes asked. He was actually interested in having us join him, and while it was mostly to discuss current issues, he was intensely curious about his surroundings and knew I was his only avenue of information. The brownies would only tell him so much.
“May as well. We have a couple of things to discuss,” I said, glancing down at the brownie. He seemed to be placated about his “failing” me for now. “Ellorn, would you call for Alsooth and join us, please? We have a few minor matters to discuss with the Major, too. Oh, and can you send someone over with a bowl for me, please?”
“Yes, Lord Daybreak. Right away,” Ellorn said and moved away in a blur. Another brownie took his place almost immediately, holding out a large mixing bowl to me and bowing almost to the floor.
“Thank you, Lexid, but do you have something smaller, maybe half that size?” I asked. The little sprite looked up fearfully at the bowl, and squeaking apologies the whole time, ran to exchange the bowls. The entire episode took three seconds and the poor little guy quaked the entire time. “That’s a good size, yes.” I unloaded my pockets of the fruit from my garden while the little guy held the bowl up for me. “Thank you again, Lexid, that’s perfect.” He beamed a cute little grin up at me and darted off to return to work, happier than he’d been since their arrival.
“Shall we…?” Byrnes asked, making motions toward the dining room. With a mumbled “Yes” we followed him back down the hall again. I continued to follow Byrnes toward the line, but Jimmy politely objected, very politely objected.
Clearing his throat, he said very softly, “Seth, that would not be appropriate here.” He nodded toward a table away from the others but still near enough to be part of the group of men. Both Ellorn and Alsooth stood in the aisle beside the table waiting for us and I noticed the table was set with linen tablecloth, napkins, silverware, china, the works. Even the chairs were changed out for more comfortable, padded chairs. Mine actually fit my butt perfectly.
“Wow,” I said slowly as I stepped up to the table. Jimmy pulled out the tallest chair from the center of the table and stood beside it waiting expectantly. “You’re enjoying this a little too much,” I whispered to Jimmy as I sat down, drawing the chair in behind me and knowing I was three shades of red past embarrassment—a guy just held my chair out for me.
“Don’t worry, Seth,” Jimmy said, snickering. “No one doubts your masculinity. I haven’t told a soul that you took me to a gay dance bar last night.” Then he ran off before I could come up with a scathing retort. That was probably on purpose. Alsooth and Ellorn hopped up into the chairs opposite me, standing on the seats.
“Good morning, Alsooth,” I said in greeting, setting my bowl of fruit between us.
“Good morning, Lord Daybreak,” Alsooth replied with a huge smile. “The Palace has a beautiful voice!”
“Thank you, Alsooth, I couldn’t agree more,” I said. “Now my first question for the two of you is simple: when was the last time you had a break?”
They looked at each other, confused. “Lord? I’m sorry, I don’t understand the question,” Ellorn said.
“When was the last time you took time to just relax,” I asked again. “To let the pressures of the day seep away. Visit with your families, have a meal, play with your kids if you have any, spend time with your spouses if you have them. Slept.”
“Oh, two days ago,” Ellorn said. It was just a statement of fact to him; there was no issue involved. Alsooth nodded in agreement. “Just before Lord Kieran came into the village to direct us to the Palace.”
“Well, I won’t tell you when and how to take free time at this point,” I said cautiously, “just make certain that you do. You need to eat and sleep just as much as I do and you have families, too. I may be still learning about you guys, but I do know I don’t want a bunch of burned-out and resentful husks around me.” It made me remember looking at the Princesses of Summer and Winter and it made me shiver for a moment. Jimmy chose that moment to return bearing two plates and trailing a short train of people.
“I bet neither of you has eaten since yesterday,” Jimmy said to the brownies as he set a plate down in front of me, then sat down on my right with his. “Go and get something and come back.”
“Yes, First,” they squealed in unison, sounding like petulant children and hopping down from their chairs. Byrnes and his lieutenant took seats opposite Jimmy while another man came behind them and placed plates of bacon and sausage, and assorted biscuits, muffins, and other baked goods on the table.
“Amazing little creatures,” commented Byrnes as he started eating. “And very closed-mouthed about you and the Palace.”
I shrugged. “The less you know, the less you have to worry about not telling the rest of your world. That should make your life easier in the long run.”
“Good morning, Seth, gentlemen,” Ethan said cheerfully, patting my shoulder and sitting down beside me with a plate. “How did last night go?”
“Morning, Ethan,” I said. “All right, I suppose. Showed that Gordon’s doing a damn good job, but I still need to drop in again later today and let him know some things I found out.”
“Cool. I’m sure Mike’ll want to tag along to see Ian,” he said.
“Yeah, I’m gonna bring him back anyway,” I said. “But Mike can still go. Gotta get Messner and his boys back to Atlanta, too.”
“I can do that while you’re in Ireland, if you want,” Ethan offered.
The brownies came back to the table each carrying a small plate of food with them. They both seemed positively enchanted by going through a cafeteria line. Ellorn helped his shorter cousin when they arrived, holding Alsooth’s plate while he climbed up the chair gracefully. It was so weirdly cute that I really didn’t know how to react. I ended up sort of watching with a slight smile and thinking I’d end up like that a lot.
“Let’s talk about that a little later. There might be a problem we have to address,” I said bringing myself back to the people around me. “Major, how many people are in the chain of command in the kitchens?”
“I believe Lt. Brinks has four direct reports,” Byrnes said after a moment’s thought. “Is there a problem?”
“Not that I can see,” I admitted. “Except that he seems to be there every time I check. I’ve been having a similar problem with some of my staff not knowing when to take a break. Working and running a kitchen to serve this many people takes experience and ability, I understand, but those men are going to fall down from exhaustion. There’s no reason for that when there are so many people to spread the work. Most of those guys have been back there since last night. They need to shower and sleep, too.”
Byrnes was nodding before I finished speaking. “Yes, sir, I understand what you’re saying. I’ll be holding a staff meeting shortly after breakfast to discuss these issues specifically. It will, however, still leave a large portion of our population without something specific to do and I was wondering if you might have something that we could assign to work details, perhaps something outside?”
“Not outside, no,” I said quickly. “For your own safety, you and your men should stay within the confines of the Palace. I can’t spare my First to guard you just yet and there are dangers that you would not understand to avoid. As for work details around the Palace, you may have noticed from our trek to the barracks from the Throne room that we aren’t exactly highly populated.”
“Yes, sir, I did notice a distinct lack of people,” he said. “I assumed it was the late hour, truthfully.”
“Little more complicated than that,” I said, chuckling a little. “Ellorn, would you tell Major Byrnes how long the Palace has existed, please?”
“This is the beginning of its sixth day, Major Byrnes,” Ellorn squeaked as he sniffed a piece of bacon, unsure of its origins I suspected.
“Sixth day… since its completion?” Byrnes asked Ellorn, confused.
“No, Major,” Ellorn said, turning to Byrnes. “The Palace was created in a single hour by Lord Daybreak. We watched him do it. It was his last act in creating Gilán.”
“You… created this?” Byrnes asked me, incredulous.
I nodded, shoveling food in my mouth before it got completely cold. “I was unconscious at the time and had control of a magic of… stellar proportions. Everything you see around you is a result of me shoving that power into a stunted realm. It… blossomed. Well, except the Faery. They are refugees from the Rat Bastard’s realm after he committed his final atrocity.”
“And
that
was a battle to see!” enthused Ellorn. “The Regent’s descriptions are most harrowing. Our Lord Daybreak almost lost his life to
doyanmoshovel
on several occasions, fighting with several weapons.” I clamped my hand over my mouth, laughing as I translated that word and trying desperately to swallow. The pure shock of the prim little sprite calling MacNamara “one who eats shit with a silver spoon and licks it clean” was hilarious. “If you thought the sparring match between the First and Lord Daybreak was impressive, you should have seen the battle between the four of them and the Rat Bastard and his thousands.”
Byrnes stared at Ellorn in total disbelief. “You’ve lost me. Four against thousands?”
“To be fair, there were only about a thousand in the Arena during the final battle,” I said. “And the European council was bombing one side of the Arena while the combined forces of the US and the North American councils were firing artillery into the other side. It’s not like I was alone, at least until he figured out how that was happening and closed the portals. And once he…” I shivered again at the thought of that
doyanmoshovel
did to his own people. “Committed his atrocity, I sent Mike, Gordon, and Peter back to Ireland, it was just him and me. Till I called my dad, anyway.”
“And part of your confusion may be that they keep referring to the same elf by different names:
doyanmoshovel
, Rat Bastard, same piece of filth,” Ethan said. “Pass the bacon, please.”
“Still, four against a thousand? Even if they’re these guys…” Byrnes said with a sneer, waving his fist back and forth with his thumb pointing at Alsooth. If the brownie took offense, he had the class not to show it.
Ethan laughed beside me and said, “Go ahead, Seth. I know you want to.”
“I do, I really do, but it wouldn’t be fair to him,” I said, leaning back in my chair, crossing my arms on my chest and staring condescendingly at Major Byrnes. He didn’t have a clue what Ethan was hinting about and I knew it. Pretty sure Jimmy didn’t either.
“What my brother is so indelicately hinting at is a matter of interpretation of the Rules of Hospitality,” I told Major Byrnes. “I have to set a precedent here and it is therefore a delicate matter. There is much to consider, after all. First and foremost, there is the matter of insult. Then there are the definitions of the parties involved. It is there that I will run into problems.
“But, I think instead, I’m gonna cheat,” I said, grinning. “I’m gonna do it in a way that’ll teach you a little respect without hurting anybody and that will satisfy my staff member. But, just as a matter of perspective before we delay the issue until after breakfast, let me remind you that I walked into your encampment with my brothers and an associate and overtook it with minimal loss of life.”
“I’m sorry, sir. I really didn’t mean to insult anyone,” Byrnes said, his aura a tumult of panicked emotions.
“I don’t think you really did, Major, especially at this point,” I said, pulling back on the condescension. “That’s why I’m willing to cheat. I think you see the brownies and sprites as miniature versions of yourselves, like children, perhaps, or the dwarfism-type little people. They are not. They are a species and race all by themselves, and they are the Fae. They are
not
of our world.
“But on to other matters,” I said, moving along. “Ellorn, do you have any work within the Palace that the men can do?”
“All that we are doing at this time is mapping the Palace and cataloging stores, Lord,” Ellorn said. “This alone will take some time. If they can assist with the gross work there, we can attend to the details at a later time. That would be helpful.”
Turning to Byrnes, I asked, “It’s grunt-work, Major, but is that what you had in mind?”
“I was hoping for something a little more physical, like ditch digging, but it is certainly enough,” Byrnes said.
“Good, because it’s really hard to put a shovel through granite and marble. Alsooth, please attend Major Byrnes’ staff meeting and decide what kind of assistance these work details will need in travel and translation. Keep Ellorn informed on where the details are sent, and if you want additional help, just say so.” I paused, considering any further business, but couldn’t think of any I had. So I wolfed down the rest of breakfast.
Everyone appeared finished, so I stood and said, “Shall we adjourn to the gym for my demonstration?” Byrnes nervously agreed. “First, would you go ahead of us and clear a space for sparring? And yes, Ellorn, you may…” The brownie disappeared in a blur before I finished the statement, making me snicker as we headed for the gym in Jimmy’s wake. “Oh, calm down, Major. I’m not going to beat you down in public. I was in the exact same place as you a month ago.”