Authors: Scott V. Duff
“It would probably be a good idea, yes,” I said after thinking about it a moment. “That way they can’t plug a ringer in, not that I couldn’t track the culprit down if they tried it, but let’s not take that chance.”
“Does this have images on it?” Peter asked as he probed into the diamond’s surfaces. “I can’t get a sense of the structure here.”
“Oh, yeah, it’s full. And I do mean full,” I said. “There are very personal scenes of their respective lives in the gems, locked behind their essence signatures. Had to search through quite a bit to find the good times, though.”
“Are there any limitations that you wish for us to maintain, Lord Daybreak?” Ellorn asked.
I felt Jimmy enter my room from the access hallway and head for the Road. “Jimmy’s on his way,” I said to Peter, then answered Ellorn. “No limitations that I can think of, except no one should get intentionally hurt for it.”
“And you might want to consider that there will probably be a need for other gifts in the future,” Peter added. “You’ve already set the bar pretty high with the gift. You might need the package on the next to be more splendid just because of that.”
Chuckling, I said, “I get the point but in this case I need them as impressive as possible. They will compare, true, but not one after another. They don’t think that way. Ellorn? Can you do this or shall I?”
“Yes, Lord Daybreak, we of the Palace can create suitable carrying cases as you require,” the brownie squealed happily as Jimmy entered the alcove. “Can we have two facsimiles to work with while you are gone? The workshops are quite a distance from here.”
“Certainly,” I answered and, reaching across the Palace to one of the forging areas in the outer reaches of the south wing, grabbed several pounds of modeling clay. When I brought it over, I cast its shape into the same shape as the dinner plate diamonds and sealed the outer edges against drying and cracking. They didn’t have to last more than a few hours so I didn’t worry about making them structurally sound in any way.
“These aren’t anywhere near as heavy, though,” I said as I held one out to Ellorn. Jimmy’s jaw dropped when he saw the blue disks sitting in Peter’s and my laps.
“I would think not, sir,” Ellorn said, taking the clay disk from me with relative ease. “There is perhaps a sixty to one ratio?”
“Make it a hundred just to be on the safe side,” Peter said. “Where do you want this in the mean time?”
I moved mine, the gem for the Unseelie Queen to my desk in my office, then I shifted Seelie Queen’s from Peter’s lap to my desk as well, right beside the other one. Jimmy stopped gawking since the diamonds disappeared and now merely stared at the clay model that Ellorn held. I offered the brownie the second reproduction.
“Jimmy, do you mind if they go through your apartment for a few hours to get through to here?” I asked him. “They’d just have to go through the access hall.” He nodded mutely, still staring at the models. “Ellorn, would you mind also once that’s done sending a few people down to straighten up my bathroom and closet? I’ve been a bit of a slob and we’re rather pressed for time.”
The brownie’s eagerness hit new heights. “Yes, Lord Daybreak! Certainly!”
“Very good, thank you, Ellorn,” I said and pushed awareness of my room into his mind so that he could find his way around. “I’ll give you as much warning ahead of time as I can before I come for the cases, okay?”
“Yes, Lord,” Ellorn squealed happily and jumped off the ledge with his models, already contacting his subordinates through some sort of psychic web in the Palace.
“Y’all ready?” I asked, standing.
“Um, yeah. What the hell were those, anyway?” Jimmy asked looking back after Ellorn. He was opening the big door to my room from halfway down the Road as he sped toward it. “Nice suit, by the way.”
I shifted us over to the Cahill’s foyer. There were quite a few people moving through the corridor when we appeared, but I’d chosen a quiet corner. “Remind me to search the grounds again before the next stage of this,” I said a little nervously as I watched forty people rush past us carrying various implements of catering services. “Where do we need to be?”
“There you are!” John cried from the landing of the stairs. “We’ve been looking for you three. We’re almost ready to introduce you and start the reception. Come along now.” John descended the stairs with a speed that belied his age and walked quickly out the front door. We almost had to run to keep up with him, at least until a quarter of the way up the hill. He slowed down some then; after all, the man was in his late sixties and he’d been moving hard all day.
He led us to a small tent at the top of the hill, very near to where they’d setup the command tent for last week’s attack on MacNamara. The other side of this tent opened to a passage to a larger, open pavilion where nearly one hundred and twenty people sat or milled around waiting and talking jovially with one another. Felix and Gordon were at the far entrance, talking quiet with each other as they watched the crowd of people move and undulate as they waited. They both looked up at us when we came in.
“Good! You’re on time,” Gordon said. I felt him rise up into the wards, so I followed him, curious to see what was going on. “Billy, Martin, are you ready?”
I found Billy in the Butler’s pantry, sitting beside the buffet table. Marty, though, was sitting at a table in the pavilion, just a few yards away from us. Of course I wondered what was up, but I waited instead of asking. The wards buzzed slightly as both Billy and Marty signaled to Gordon that they understood him. I guess.
“I stand relieved,” Gordon said and passed the controls of the wards to Martin very slowly. Marty then placed certain controls, specifically the outer gates to the grounds, on Billy, but kept a majority of them, especially those of the Castle itself even though it was currently dormant. Billy, in turn, began shutting those gates completely, locking us all into the property.
The exchange made sense to me now. Gordon couldn’t have dropped the wards onto Martin hot or he’d risk frying his brother’s mind and with the collection of wizards and magicians here it would be incredibly risky to drop the wards for Marty to re-engage them. They had to swap control while the power was on and running hot. This couldn’t be done if the Castle was raised.
“So, did you guys dress alike on purpose?” Gordon asked grinning at us.
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.