Authors: Scott V. Duff
“Actually, just a few hundred yards from where we were,” I said, taking the light show T-shirt off of its stand and letting it wrap itself around me. “This is all I need. I just want my assistants and you guys to be able to see the magic working. This lets Daybreak be seen to some extent.”
“You are very comfortable here,” he said, turning to me. “By all accounts, you’ve been king for all of two weeks and your people love you. You work faery magic like you were born to it. In less than three months, you’ve gone from an unknown to literally the most powerful wizard in the entire world and you’re barely out of diapers. No offense intended.”
“None taken,” I murmured.
He sighed and sat on a bench. “Thank you for saving my life, but more importantly, thank you for what you did to my wards,” he said emphatically. “That saved Sean’s life and if I’d lost him, I’d be truly lost.”
“You’re quite welcome on both counts, Darius,” I said. “And oddly enough, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” He looked up at me, confused. “Do you remember much of what happened yesterday morning? With your fight with Seward?”
“Not much,” he admitted. “I was pretty delirious near the end. All I remember at the end was Sean and Mark being there and that traitorous bastard dead on the floor.”
“Well, I don’t know the situation between Sean and Mark,” I said, trying to take an understanding tone. I very quickly outlined what happened and ended with, “He shot Seward. He’s both worried and hates himself for killing someone and he’s worried that you’ll hate him for it, too. As much as you’re here to recuperate? You’re here to help
him
recuperate.”
He looked up at me with tears running down his face. “How could he think I hate him for saving my life?”
“He doesn’t believe that he did anything heroic, Darius,” I said, kneeling down beside him. “All he sees right now is me and the bad. The changes to the wards let him see what happened out there. He thinks I kept everyone safe. It gave him courage, he believes. After that, he watched me healing you and thought of it as effortless. I can’t help that.
“But he’s a teenager,” I said, as if that would explain it all for him. “And he’s just killed a man with a very loud and very messy weapon.
He
saved your life. I was just a lucky coincidence in both cases. True, a very important one for both of you that might have cost you dearly, but coincidence all the same. He’s confused, but he’ll work it out. He’s a good kid and he’ll turn into a good, strong man just like his father. But you need to talk to him, especially over the next two days. You don’t have to gush and most of the time you can talk about anything else you want. Just let him know how you feel, then just spend time with him.”
“You sure that’s all he needs?” he asked hopeful.
“It wouldn’t hurt to open up your schedule a few days a month for him,” I suggested, also hopeful.
He grinned and said, “I’ll do that. Hell, I owe him that much.”
“Good,” I said, patting his shoulder and adding a warm glow through the shirt. “Let’s get you cleaned up and join the others.” I moved the closet door to the mirror in my bathroom and walked through with Darius close behind. Oblivious to the change, he walked through the mirror without knowing but stumbled into the wall when he felt the membrane falling away. I caught him before he could fall further.
“Darius, are you okay?” I asked concerned but already knowing. “Sorry about that. I should have mentioned I moved the door.” I really wanted to laugh, but that was mean.
He laughed weakly and said, “You have a strange realm, Seth McClure. It fits you.” I laughed and helped him stand up again. Taking a couple of hand towels off the shelf, I led him to the vanity.
“It’s very likely that I don’t have this setup correctly,” I said, turning the water on and adjusting the temperature. “I haven’t had time to bring Ellorn in to explain what all of these little vials are, but that’s soap. Use it very lightly. Seriously, watch.” Rolling up my sleeves, I wet my hands thoroughly and barely daubed my fingertip in the creamy ivory liquid. Then I proceeded to make a thick lather all the way up to my elbows, repeatedly running my hands through the water. Scrubbing my face before rinsing it all off, I heard Darius snort a laugh before starting the same ritual.
Darius is resilient if nothing else. He was healing already and he would help Sean figure out that he’d done nothing wrong. Maybe even before they left. I stepped out into the hall, drying my hands while Darius was rinsing.
“Ellorn? One last thing before you leave,” I called through my room.
“Yes, Lord?” he asked, running up along the path.
“When we can arrange it, can we have someone come in and check out my bathroom?” I finally asked for help. “I don’t think I have anything setup right and it’s getting inconvenient.”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered.
“Thank you,” I said as Darius came up behind me, looking around. “We’ll be leaving now, Darius, a sudden change of rooms. Are you ready?”
“Sure,” he said shrugging.
I shifted us to the entrance to the barracks and started walking in, forcing him to follow me. “This is Barracks Four, down a floor and half one wing from where we were. Everyone, most likely including the brownies and sprites watching over them, is in the gym waiting for us. We’ll walk directly in and head for the podium in the center. Don’t appear surprised if I start moving you around physically, though I doubt I’ll need to. And don’t be surprised by the number of faery present. There are a lot of them right now.”
The halls got noisy quickly after the first turn, noisier than I’ve heard yet from them. The faery registers were piercingly active, too. When we stepped through the doorway without stopping and into a sea of blue Palace Guard uniforms. On the second step down into the stadium, four men bellowed, “Ten-hut!” Unheard the first time, they repeated themselves and gained remarkable results. Between the fourth and tenth steps into the auditorium, fifty shouts of “Ten-hut” created waves of excitedly attentive and ramrod straight men and sudden quiet.
“What happened?” I heard Sean whisper, facing away from us. Phillips shushed him while gently turning his shoulders to face us. He grinned, waved, and mouthed, “Hi, Dad.” I felt Darius smile genuinely.
Looking at the group on the floor, my podium was going to be a little full. Fourteen once we got there. Greeting Alsooth at the bottom of the stairs, I made a full circuit around the floor to give Darius time to catch up and reviewed the stands somewhat imperiously. Dad and my brothers were amused by my demeanor but had the grace not to show it. The men were excited, expecting to hear news of how negotiations were running. Only Byrnes, Brinks, and a few of the kitchen staff knew what was happening for sure.
“At ease!” I called loudly, not wanting the return to noise that “As you were” would bring. As it was, the slide of sinew against silk was almost noisy by comparison to the silence in the room. “Has everyone heard of my proposal from a few hours ago?”
“Sir, yes, sir,” they shouted as one. Shocked the crap out of me. First because of the volume and second because of the timing. It was very loud and perfectly understandable. I took on a sly grin and narrowed my eyes a little as I surveyed the room.
“You practiced that, didn’t you?” I asked, gaining a lot of laughs and both bashful and boastful nods and “Yes, sirs” from many. “I’ve been in two meetings today with Pentagon officials regarding this matter. Before I talk about that, I want you to reconsider your individual petition. This is a life changing decision and I don’t want you to rush into it ill prepared. Some of you have had a very ‘country club’ life for the last few days, but life on Gilán is definitely not a country club. You
will
be expected to work for your supper just like everyone else here.
“Right now, we are a terribly small and struggling society,” I said sternly. “But we are a peaceful one. I have no idea how you will be employed, but there is much to be done here and Earth-side so trust me, you will be employed. And remember that I have no idea what affect the fairy geas will have on a human. Gilán may help some of you in some ways or it may just hold the geas in place as with the faery. This is unprecedented.”
The faery cooed and whispered very quietly as they saw me push out into the room and start gathering their intentions from their minds. The only others that could see the magic start were on the floor with me and only Phillips and the Fullers watched intently. Pushing the podium up, I paced around the edge and looked around at the faces of not so innocent men and women desperately seeking absolution from their sins and a simple place to call home. I wasn’t certain of absolution, but at least I could forgive them and share my home.
“If I haven’t managed to talk you out of it yet,” I said, sighing and swinging sound baffles around us protectively, “then I guess I should tell you I bullied the Pentagon into agreeing this afternoon.” Even through the baffles the roar was near deafening. I gave them a few minutes for back pounding and chest thumping, congratulatory shouts and crushing hugs. I haven’t seen so many flashing teeth outside of shark feeding-frenzy videos.
Jimmy took his countenance, bursting into fire, and slammed his rod down once onto the marble causing a crack like a rifle shot to ring out through the gym. Instantly, their attention returned to me and their bodies went rigid and stiff as I seized control of their minds simultaneously. Sitting at the crux of their minds, bodies, and souls, it wasn’t hard to see the reasons for their decisions. Most of them truly saw it as their only hope for their own peace of mind. For some, it was very nearly true. For others there was more hope, but mostly it was less than a coin toss. It was really sad.
I placed the geas there, at the crux in my place, and receded. Gilán pulsed lightly, offering a welcoming feeling against their souls as I replaced their minds. I felt the light pulse again as I returned their control to them and gently receded completely. Quite a few of the men fell on their butts in their seats, sprawling on each other, while the few that remained standing swayed in place. To a man, they all had a dazed, faraway look in their eyes, their suddenly very blue eyes. Even the black and Hispanic men had startling blue eyes now.
The faery started singing when the Palace did, startling half the podium, especially the Fullers and Phillips who hadn’t yet heard it. The men whipped their heads toward my room in rapt attention to the sound, hearing more of the tones than they had in the past. Gilán was giving them more through the geas than merely eye color. I let the songs finish before I continued.
Welcome to Gilán,
I sent through the geas, causing another bout of whiplash, especially from the south side of the gym. “Tomorrow will be a busy day for many as you will be helping to purchase food stores for the next several days on the other side. Then as soon as I have time, we’ll open the rest of this barracks and give you some more room in here. The same rules will apply for the next few days. Let’s give you a chance to get settled in before I give you free reign to wander the Palace. I don’t want anyone hurt because you don’t yet know what you can and cannot do, so let’s just ease into this.
“Major, give me a few minutes to discuss plans with you, then let’s call it a night,” I said, lowering the platform.
This looked like it might work out well, I thought, looking around at elated and disoriented faces. I was certainly hopeful.
“Pallets, pallets, everywhere,” I chanted in singsong as I wove my out. “Lt. Brinks, as far as I can tell, everything on your list is here.”
“Yes, sir, and quite a bit more,” he answered. “I just don’t know where I’m going to put it all.”
“I’m about to take care of that, Lieutenant,” I said, dusting off my hands.
As is on cue, the brownies started flooding out of the entrance in a great colorful stream. Their clothing was a mimicry of tailored suits with breeches and jackets in muted colors, but over half had grown enough and could no longer fit in such clothing. Theirs was the colorful clothing of celebrations, altered with other brownies’ suits. They moved quickly, turning left toward the long line of pallets, not running, just being normal fleet-footed faery.
My newly installed Guard was next, much more slowly but more rambunctiously. A sea of blue uniforms, the left sides of their tunics now bore the emblem of the Palace Guard under the auspices of the First of Gilán. Babbling and happy, they still rode the exuberance of the casting and the gentle flow of magic that Gilán fed them through the geas. The Palace faery readily accepted them and that acceptance flowed out easily to the other faery in the realm.
In some ways, what the men expected to happen during the casting of the geas was appalling. Their personalities being overwhelmed and overwritten by mine, for instance. This came because they saw Jimmy and I as being fairly similar in general personality, not realizing that was the basis for our original friendship, but we really weren’t that much alike. Their understanding of the brownies was too limited to fathom that their personalities were their own.
Next, the idea that I would control their every thought, movement, and memory was reminiscent of Darius’ belief. There were times that I had to put too much thought into how
I
was moving, so why I would want to control theirs was beyond me. They gathered these concepts from a number of different places, but mostly from a series of movies and television shows about space invaders with hive minds that completely ravaged whole planets of humans. Now, obviously, that wasn’t real, but to me, it looked more like poor defense by the humans than the abilities of the insect-like invaders. Yes, they were amazingly fast and adaptive, but the humans’ targeting systems…? Come on, two giant circles with a cross in the middle as a gun sight? On a two-hundred-foot long
energy
cannon? And they had a hard time shooting a ship out of the air that was flying in a straight line.
Unfortunately, they actually got the hive-mind concept and sank deeply into it. It kept them exuberant and happy, almost joyful. Those who worked in some way throughout the day had a fair realization that they could pull back from that to concentrate on tasks. Major Byrnes and Captain Velasquez were further along in that than anyone, though some of the dedicated martial arts practitioners closed in quickly. Jimmy and I would be holding classes for instructors sometime after I opened the Barracks to help them differentiate better and cope.
Byrnes casually strolled out last. “The Barracks are clear, Lord Daybreak,” he said, smiling. He saw the long line of pallets on the left and his face fell. “Where are we going to put all of that?”
“I’m sure we can find a place, Major,” I said, running my senses through the Barracks walls, blocking off the shortcuts the brownies and sprites were using. Looking down near my feet, I found the trio of brownie authorities. “Alsooth, would you like to do the honors?” He shrieked into giggles and fell back on his butt.
“I’ve never actually seen that,” Byrnes said, startled and choking on his own laugh. “He’s really rolling on the floor and laughing his ass off.” A deep roar of laughter came from the men pressed against an imaginary wall, trying to see what was happening to their new home.
“We apologize, Lord,” said Laston, next to the nearly convulsing Alsooth. “Moving the walls the first time took eighty-two of us nearly fifteen minutes. Alsooth is… overwhelmed by the idea that he could do it by himself.”
Grinning, I said, “Not a problem, I’ll do it.” It was a simple matter to return the Barracks to its original form. The few modifications that I needed were a little harder, adding another eleven seconds to the twenty-one for the original moves. “All right, everyone, welcome to Garrison Four,” I said, speaking to the Guard both verbally and through the geas. I pushed a map out of the new facility, too, highlighting the changes to their current areas and outlining the borders of the rest. “You’ll have access to the same rooms you did before, but they’re larger now. Lt. Brinks, I believe this gives you more than enough room for stores. Dinner service will be late and probably light.” A groan of protest rushed down the corridor, followed by scowls in that direction from the officers. “You can help speed it up by assisting in unpacking the pallets, and sorting and storing the food with Lt. Brinks.
“Major Byrnes and Captain Velasquez, if you’ll follow me, we’ll walk through the new areas,” I told them. “Then you and your officers can meet and begin setting up training sessions.”
“Yes, sir,” Byrnes said falling into step beside me. Velasquez took the other side, flipping open a portfolio to a clean notepad and clicking a ballpoint, ready to take notes. The brownies followed us in to return to work in their new environment, but they’d have little to do until Byrnes opened the rest and even less until the men returned.
“The front rooms haven’t changed, so let’s start in the kitchens since they’ll be busy shortly,” I said, leading them through the hallways. “From here, there’s no more traveling through the dining room. The kitchen offices have taken that space now and accounting will take the rest of the front. Obviously, much of this will remain empty for a while unless the Guard dramatically increases in size. This Garrison will hold about fifteen hundred men handily and two thousand comfortably.”
We entered the kitchens then and they gasped at the size difference. Everything about the room had increased by five times, by number as often as by size. It was on the map, so I wasn’t certain why they were surprised by it. The grills, for instance, had doubled in size and quadrupled in number and the shelving units were doubled, too, and now numbered thirty times what they knew.
“Laundry and such is still down that hall,” I said pointing deeper into the kitchen. “But we’re going this way first.” The walk to the Dining room was only a short way further but the room was mostly empty now, lacking tables and chairs to fill the increased space. We crossed the main hallway again, turning left toward the front for a short way then right through a much wider doorway to what had been the gymnasium.
“This is the pool, sort of obvious,” I said, grinning at them as we walked along the edge, speeding up the walk some. “It’s fairly deep at one end, sinking through the first level and into the mountain below, for training and such, and extends further back than the showers went. We will have to work on dealing with the pressure and breathing before anyone decides to try pearl diving down there.”
“There’re pearls down there?” Velasquez asked, startled, stopping to peer into the depths of the pools.
“Figure of speech, Ric,” Byrnes called from the corner of the pool. Seeing us grinning back at him, Velasquez ran to catch up. Byrnes and I turned right into the locker room for the pool before he was beside us again. Through a series of showers, sinks, and toilets, we passed into another set of locker rooms, then what was now the gym, or a very small coliseum pretending to be a gym.
“Sgt. Cox will be drooling inside of ten seconds,” Velasquez said. I had to agree. The burly drill sergeant loved this kind of equipment. Stairs to run, ropes to climb, actual rock walls—no plastic stubs here, free weights along the far wall.
“There’s more equipment in the two rooms at the far end there,” I said pointing. Heading out through the door to the main hall, I slid the door open enough to let us through. “This is EMT services, I guess you’d call it or maybe, sick bay? For the most part, I setup some brownies to work with the few medics we have, but simple illnesses shouldn’t be a problem and most injuries will heal quickly and correctly on their own. Still, there’s always a need, so we’ll be prepared for it.”
Walking us back out, I sealed the doors again. Standing back from the door, I said, “Let’s go ahead and show you how to unlock doors while we’re here. First off, some locks are not meant to try. You should know those immediately on looking at them.” I waved my hand through the air to show the lock on my armory door. “This one, for example.”
“Shit!” Byrnes yelled, shoving Velasquez right and diving onto me. He hit the brick wall that was me and fell to the floor on his back, dazed. Cushioning his head with the Stone before he hit it again, I knelt beside him. Velasquez knelt on his other side.
Patting his cheeks lightly, I called, “Major Byrnes? Ted? Come on, Ted, you’re all right.” One or two minutes of coddling and nudging him and he slowly got to his feet with our help.
“What was that thing?” Velasquez asked, nodding at the door.
“The lock on my armory door,” I said chuckling. “One you don’t want to touch. I did make that clear before I showed it.”
“You need an armory?” Byrnes asked, dubious, holding the back of his head.
“Why not? I have to put my weapons somewhere when I’m not using them,” I said coyly. “Shall we try again?” I didn’t mention the five great weapons I already carried or where I carried them. They did manage the locks, though.
We continued to the T-juncture, where I pointed out the first actual barracks and we walked through the second. I noted the divisions, size changes, additions of offices and rooms for each sergeant or corporal in charge, storage rooms, bathrooms and showers. I stopped just outside the first door on the right and directed their attention behind us.
“Back there is the first Day Room for that barracks,” I said. “It and the third are both recreational with a few lecture or meeting halls, conference rooms and such. The second Day Room is in here along with the duty offices.”
Touching the translucent force field holding the second Day room closed released it abruptly, popping it like a bubble. The lights came on in the room as we walked into the entryway. Two arches opened in the facing walls, but the lights remained off beyond the arches. On the right and left of the entrances were planters of exotic Gilán plants. Well, I don’t know exactly how exotic they really were, but here, they looked it. On the right were three at different heights growing in a helix, the tallest in the middle. Succulents in sandy soil, the leaves were a dark green, tinged at the edge in beet red, seeping over from the underside. It would be interesting to see them develop. On the left was a beautiful work of different natural cuts of ores from the mountain, capturing several different sizes and configurations of geodes and mineral deposits as well. It was quite beautiful.
“The second Day room is that way,” I said, pointing into the darkened room. “It has more amenities than the other two, being more centrally located and adjacent to Command. It opens up to the right into recreational areas, several small lecture and conference rooms, small kitchen and eating areas, and things like that. There’s also a library in there, but we’ve yet to stock anything like that and I’m not giving up mine. In the near future, I’ll start building a general reference again that I don’t mind sharing, at the least.
“Then this door is for the duty offices for the second Day Room,” I said, pausing at the doorway. “Each has several offices, lecture, and conference rooms of its own. Considering the makeup of our Guard being so high in specialized officers, office space may come at a premium, as well as Officers’ Quarters, but again, I’ll leave that to your discretion. You guys are through here.”
I stepped to the glass doors and waited for Byrnes to unlock the door. He reached over and pulled on the handle, confused when it didn’t open. Velasquez reached around him and palmed the glass, saying, “The lock’s up here, Ted.” The door swung open instantly. The lights came to life, showing a bright hallway. Twenty feet up a counter marked the entrance lobby, our destination at the moment.
“You’ll get used to it, Major,” I said lightly, charging through the door. “It’s only been a few hours. Anyway, this is the side entrance to the main Command complex for the Fourth Garrison, which is the actual name for this whole structure. You can consider it roughly equivalent to the Pentagon at the moment, but on a much smaller scale because our realm is much smaller right now. With time, that will change.”
We now stood in front of the counter of the main lobby of the Garrison Command, an elegant but masculine area, basically devoid of decoration. Eight large chairs were arranged in the waiting area facing the counter. On either side a walk-through aligned with doors in the wall about twelve feet back in a wall of deep burgundy marble. The wall was emblazoned with the words “Fourth Garrison” in large letters embossed over the standard they now bore on their right sides. On the walls of the lobby on either side were the emblems for both my name and the First of Gilán in blue diamonds on a light grayish-blue stone. For a lobby, and a plain one at that, it was actually rather impressive.
“Offices, mostly,” I said, highlighting their maps, “This is First’s here and yours, Major. The rest I’ll leave to you to decide. There are a number of them available, as well as conference rooms, two auditoriums and, for lack of a better word, a Situation room. Again, they’re mostly empty but for furniture. I’m working on computers and printers, but electricity is an issue. Now, across the hall is Officers’ Quarters.”