Sons (Book 2) (88 page)

Training Room #1 was clearly marked and enclosed totally in glass on the hall side.  We walked through the open entrance, out onto the thick, blue matting on the floors.  From this side, all four walls appeared mirrored, but there was power in the walls, ready to snap forward to protect and slow projectiles.  On the far wall, a fixture of staves lined up in slots, hundreds of them, sat beside another of equally numerous sets of padding.  Reminiscent of baseball umpire uniforms, the padding consisted of face masks with eye guards, thick chest and arm pads, and thigh and shin guards.  They looked very hot, but far better than getting the crap beat out of you with a big stick.

“Obviously for large groups,” Jimmy said mildly, looking around the room.  “Will we be training in here?”

“No, I think we’ll need a bit more room, so mine is more appropriate,” I answered.  “And once you start tossing magic around, it’ll get even weirder, no, not here.”

“So this room and two others for groups of hand-to-hand, stick fighting, and sword combat,” Velasquez said, eyes unfocused but concentrating on the map.  “A lot of smaller rooms for specialized or smaller groups and archery ranges.  Those can be changed to handgun and rifle ranges with ear protection when needed.  Seems fairly complete for what we need.”

“I just don’t see how sticks and bows can compete with modern weapons,” Byrnes said dubiously.

“Well, my Crossbow can take the pit from a cherry from five miles away on a windy day,” I said confidently.  “And the Day sliced through a running car engine in about a second flat.  How many guns does the Army have that can do that?”

“None that I know of, sir,” Byrnes answered, paling.

“And don’t underestimate the staff, Ted,” I said, waving absently back at the sticks racked up behind us.  “It’s not merely a practice instrument for swords, but a powerful weapon in its own right.  I have fought experts at both and neither was easy and certainly not one easier than the other.  Further, I watched my brother Kieran take the Swords I carry from their previous owners bare-handed and they were nearly as fast as First.”

“Kieran did that?” Byrnes asked, shocked.  “Big, happy Kieran?”

“Big, happy Kieran,” I repeated, laughing.  “I wouldn’t want to face him in a fight, believe me.  He scares the hell out of me.  Anything else here you want to see?”

“Um, I don’t see anything on the map that doesn’t make sense,” Byrnes said.  “You, Ric?”

“No, sir,” Velasquez said.  “Everything but the Armory vault is clear.  Now we just need the time to make sense of it all and put it to use.”

“Time is something you have,” I said, heading out the door.  “We will have to pull some men away to build support services for you on the other side.  I’ll coordinate through First or probably some other officer once you’ve had a chance to build a hierarchy.  I suspect that you’ll both be very busy for a while.”  I gave the force field a little mental push as we neared to collapse it.  Disappearing only long enough to let us pass, it snapped back into place on Velasquez’s heels. 

“Now just a few more minor issues to take care of here tonight and I’ll let y’all get settled in,” I said, stopping at the intersection of halls just down from the gymnasium.  My commanders still hadn’t quite realized how fast I’d made them walk yet.  “First off, I don’t think that any one single man here has worked harder and more constantly than Lt. Brinks.  Please arrange for him to take a couple of days off, even if you have to do it under threat of violence.”

They laughed lightly.  “Yes, sir,” Byrnes said.  “No problem.”

“It might be,” Velasquez said, eyebrows together in concern.  “He’s a sneaky bastard.  We’ll have to put a tail on him.”  Byrnes laughed again, nodding in agreement.

“Second is the two of you,” I said, looking between them.  “You’ve only been
slightly
less active than him and I don’t want my commanders cracking up under pressure.  Your bodies and minds need time to rest to acclimate to your new surroundings and the changes caused by the geas and Gilán.  Don’t rush things just to impress us.  Take some time off opposite each other.  Don’t work through every night.  Trust me, I can use the time myself.”

“Yes, sir,” they said in unison, still smiling.

Jimmy looked at them dubiously.  “Why do I think I’m going to have to say that again?”

“Probably will, Mr. ‘Practiced Every Chance He Got’,” I said, chuckling myself.  “And finally, I brought a couple of things back with us today for you guys…”

“He got suckered, he means,” Jimmy interrupted.

“I did not!” I objected.

“Yes, you did,” Jimmy challenged me, drawing each word out.  “You saw both Delvecchio and Simms looking down that aisle like there were ten strippers down there and then you saw Ramirez dancing in the aisle in that other store.  Don’t deny it!  I saw you.  Suc—ker!”  He fell against the hall wall laughing, probably to avoid another shove.

“Whatever,” I said, shaking my head.  “Anyway, after I address the men, First and I are going to dinner.  In each of the Day rooms, my brothers and the brownies have set up sandwiches and beer for all of you as well as a battery-operated stereo and a small CD library.  Also, in each of your offices are small CD players that you can use for background music while you work.  Bear in mind that batteries are limited until we can set up the generators for recharging them properly.”

“Yes, sir,” they said happily.  “Thank you, Lord Daybreak, that’s unexpected and quite charitable of you considering all that you’ve already done for us,” Byrnes added.

“Think the IRS will let you take that deduction?” Jimmy asked, then slid down the wall laughing.

“Eh, there’s a little lesson in the beer,” I said, grinning at laughing boy on the floor.  “Some are gonna try
real
hard to get plastered.  Those guys are gonna actually drink themselves sober.  The faster they intoxicate themselves, the faster their bodies will detoxify them now.  Those that hit a nice warm buzz will last longer.”  Now it was our turn to laugh.

“And they won’t believe us when we tell them that, will they?” Byrnes said, still laughing.

“Not likely,” I answered.  “Come on, First, time to get up.  I’m hungry.  Let’s go act all lordly and everything.”

“At-teeeen-shun!”

We hadn’t even made it through the door before that order was called so someone sent a message ahead of us.  Four hundred and twenty men and women jumped to their feet and snapped to attention in the bleachers on one side of the gym.  My brothers and our assistants milled around in the center.  We walked at a human pace to join them.

“Hi, guys, thanks for getting that set up for me,” I said to them.

“Not a problem, Seth,” Kieran said, then he grimaced a little, “But we did skip lunch so…”

Smiling, I said, “This shouldn’t take long, but would you mind walking up with Jimmy and me?  There’s something I’d like your opinion on.”

“Sure,” he answered without pausing.

“Thanks,” I said, patting his arm absently.  Looking back at the ramrod straight men facing us, I said to Byrnes, “Um, Commander?”

“At ease,” he called loudly without yelling.  Everyone quickly and quietly sat down.  It was kind of eerie.

“Thank you, Commander,” I said, then stepped forward so I could modulate my voice to speak loudly enough to be heard by everyone and not blow out my brothers’ and my aides’ eardrums.  “Welcome, you are the newly installed Fourth Garrison of the Palace Guard of Gilán.  I see you found the pool.”  A roar of laughter rolled through them.  Half of them were still dripping wet. 

“Over the next few days, you should get more aware of your surroundings.  There have been a number of changes and per our agreement, you will no longer be idle.  Instead, all of you will be actively involved in building this garrison into a force that can handle fights more attuned to the kinds of battles that a faery kingdom actually fights.  The modern style of warfare that you’re used to fighting will only be so effective in magical realms and you have to adjust to that reality. 

“I will, however, continue to do everything in my power to avoid such conflict as I don’t consider warfare particularly useful for anything.  There are just far too many better ways to a resolution, but I won’t back down when others are killing my people either.  I think you know that.”  A low rumble of agreement ran through them.  That was the reason they were here after all.

“Most of these changes will come slowly,” I said, gathering some speed in my speech.  “Others, by necessity, will happen rather quickly and some won’t be popular, chief among them is the issue of rank.  Your titles, whatever they may be, may have to change.  Some of you may go up, some of you down. Major Byrnes and Captain Velasquez have both been forced to give up theirs.  Please understand that this is reorganization, not demotions or promotions.

“With that in mind, I’d like to introduce your new leaders,” I said proudly.  “Placed at the rank of Garrison Commander is Ted Byrnes…”  Damn, could four hundred people get loud.  Byrnes tried not show how much he enjoyed it, but it wasn’t a battle he could win, being bright red and having that shit-eating grin on his face.  After three minutes of ‘boo-yahs’, stomping and other miscellaneous carrying on, I had to call for silence.  “And placed at equal rank and second only to Commander Byrnes is Ric Velasquez.”  I got as far as “equal rank” before low chants of “Kez” ran through the bleachers.  The Guard was rowdy tonight.

Looking over at my extremely happy commanders, I asked, “I should be aggravated by this, shouldn’t I?”

“Probably, yes, sir,” Byrnes admitted begrudgingly.

“Eh, not tonight,” I said, wearing a crooked smile, and turned back to the Guard.  “My brothers and I have a lot of work to do over the next few days, so you won’t see us much.  Some of you will be called to do some work in your areas of expertise over there in support of the Garrison.  These assignments will go through your commanders.  And if you are brought over, I need everyone to remember a few things.”  I paused for a moment to get everyone’s attention solidly.

“First, to most of the world,” I said slowly, “Gilán does not exist and we need to keep that as true as possible.  Among those who do know of Gilán, they think of us as a realm.  This is a word full of connotations that you aren’t aware of.  You think of Gilán as a world, just like Earth, and you aren’t wrong.”  I projected two very different globes out into the space between the bleachers and us.  “Earth is obvious, the giant blue marble in space.”

I sighed, admiring my handiwork.  The image held the same luster as the Worldgem but it lacked something for me, probably the wonder of the gem itself.  “This is Gilán as it as shown itself to me.  It has many similarities to Earth, but there’s one incredibly important one.  It’s a planet.  No other realm shares this distinction.  Since this is what makes Earth such a valuable commodity, it also makes Gilán a very valuable commodity.

“So, it is
very important
that we keep even the idea that our world could be planetary a secret,” I said solemnly.  “Initially, it’s best if you didn’t mention Gilán in any way, but that’s not always possible.

“And second is the matter of our protection,” I said uneasily.  “There is a treaty out there between man and… basically everybody else in the universes.”  That struck me as funny, actually.  “There’s a lot of myth and legend about this treaty that hides the truths behind its origins.  Right now, I’m standing in front of a firing squad and daring them to shoot at me, more or less.  The treaty is called the Unseelie Accords and it quite literally codifies acceptable behavior between individual peoples in innumerable circumstances.

“An oath was attached to the treaty that binds the promise to the magic wielded by the signer,” I explained.  “Ancient and unbelievably powerful, breaking the oath could kill if the right rule is broken.  I took the Oath in good faith, signing my full name below the Queens of Faery on the Original.  Both Queens watched along with dozens of other powerful magicians and wizards as the magic of the Accords flared over me and fell away without taking hold.  And the second time, when the Queens attempted to interfere, Gilán blew them off like a snowflake in a fire.  The magic can’t bind me.

“But it puts me in a big predicament,” I said, admitting a small frailty.  “In a terribly complicated political way, I still have considerable protection under the Accords as Lord Daybreak.  Any overt act of war out of Faery and I get to call foul, activating the Oath on whichever of them I trace it to.  I retaliate and take her land and mantle—something that is
not
supposed to be possible but I’ve done it once already.  Then I just roll over the other one.

“And the best part is, being unaccorded means I get to use much more relaxed rules in defining acts of war than they do,” I said, grinning.  And more slowly, “That makes them very, very paranoid and very, very worried.  So at the moment they are leaving me alone, but that was just a few days ago.  Here, we are protected behind a very strong veil that seems to be impervious to just about anything.  Over there, I have some protections in place in several places.”

“You’re rambling,” Kieran interjected.

“Low blood sugar, I’ll bet.  Feed monkey body,” Ethan said and acted like a rabid comic chimpanzee behind us.  A deep roll of laughter rumbled through the gym in two crescendos.  The second one could have been because I was blushing.

“All right, all right, I’ll finish up,” I said, looking back at Kieran, grinning at me.  “This gives you an idea of where we are.  As much as Gilán needs me now at the early stages of its development and I need to be here for it, I do have other responsibilities.  So when you’re over there, try to speak of Gilán as little as possible.  Be as discreet as possible.  Avoid any possible references to planet.  Commanders Byrnes and Velasquez will be training on some techniques that will allow you to more effectively handle communicating through the geas.  If you see something you don’t understand, ask questions.  From there, we’ll figure things out.  Now, I believe your Commander has a few words then maybe a little something for putting up with the speech-making.”

That got them riled up, in a good way, yelling and clapping and stomping.  They were still riding kind of high on ambient magic now.  It made a lot of them look very boyish to me.  Stopping the projections and giving the Guard a broad wave, I turned and was the last to shake hands with Byrnes and Velasquez as we left.

“They’re officially all yours, gentlemen,” I said as shook hands, speaking through the geas as well to be heard through the noise.  “As soon as I can, we’ll meet to discuss your candidates for Armor Master.  Have a good evening, guys.”

Ethan shoved videos in the air above me of Presidents walking quickly to cars, planes, and helicopters while waving to crowds.  After a few seconds, he started interspersing images of impossibly perfect food.  Smells played an overriding factor in his dreams of supper as he let that sense drift past the food and into the waving and now running Presidents.  When he threw in the prat-falling comedians, he almost tripped me up.

“Where are we going?” I managed to ask once I stopped Ethan’s barrage.

“Sean invited us for a late dinner,” Mike said from the front of the line.  “I got the feeling he needed a break from Darius, so I said we’d at least stop by depending how late it got.”  He stopped at the pool entrance so everyone gathered around him.

“Sounds fine to me,” I answered.  “Why don’t y’all go on up?  That’ll give me a moment to talk with Kieran and Jimmy.  Shouldn’t take but five minutes or so, promise.”

“You?  Only talk for five minutes?” Peter exclaimed.  “Since when?”

“Shut up!” I cried defensively, causing a small laugh.

“In his defense,” Jimmy said, thoughtfully, “he didn’t talk this much until he came back with you.”  He smiled innocently at Peter’s shocked face as the laughter doubled.  The hall went abruptly quiet when Peter acted in a fake huff and shifted the five of them to Darius’ front door.  My little energy anomaly sat up and took notice, but stayed lodged in the walls a few yards away where it had followed me.

My rowdy crowd down the hall got rowdier.  “Ted and Ric are selecting their officers to talk with tonight,” Jimmy said, looking back down the hall.  “They’ll be breaking up in a few minutes.”

“I’m outta here!” Kieran said abruptly and almost sprinted for the front door.  When we caught up with him, he leaned against the wall just outside the Garrison doors.  My little anomalous follower settled into the wall about four feet to the left of his elbow.  “So, little brother, how are you?” he asked, concerned.  “You’ve been pushing yourself hard for a while now.”

“Me?  I’m fine!” I answered, disconcerted.  “Just busy.  Why?  Am I asking too much of y’all?  Do you think we need to change directions?”

“Slow down, Seth,” Kieran said, taking my shoulders and staring me down.  “I concerned that you are working too hard, that’s all.  You told them to take time to get used to their magic, but you’ve hardly taken any time for yourself.  So I am doing what you would do and asking how you are.”

“Really, I’m fine,” I said honestly.  “If what you’re asking is how I’m dealing with the Faery magic, the answer is the same way I’ve dealt with any magic—I’m figuring it out as I go along.  The two are very different and blending them is… odd.  And the awareness it gives me is astounding, but I’m learning how to temper buffers to keep it from being overwhelming.  For the most part, Gilán takes care of itself.”

“Okay, that is an acceptable answer,” he said, sliding an arm over my shoulders, smiling.  “But really, slow down and more than just dinner once in a while.  It’ll do you some good.  Now what did you want to ask about?”

“Oh, I discovered a very faint energy signature following Jimmy and me around,” I said.  I was going to explain more, but that excited Kieran.  He threw arcane senses out in a great sphere forty yards out, reaching into depths I didn’t know existed.  There was a reason he was teaching me.

“Is it still here?  I’m not seeing anything suspicious,” he said, eyebrows tightly knitted and squinting in concentration.

“Yes, it’s in the wall about five feet to the left of the door, three feet up and an inch in,” I answered calmly.  “It looks like a very pale congealing of Faery magic and it seems to interact with the Palace easily.  But I have no idea what it is.”

“I understand Ethan’s dismay,” he muttered, staring at the wall now.  “What do you mean it interacts with the Palace?”

“It triggered the gate mechanism when I opened the Armory door,” I said.  “When Jimmy was pushing on a force field that held an aversion spell, it exerted a good amount of power, doubling that spell around him to make him back off.”

“That’s what that was!” Jimmy exclaimed.  “I knew there was something wrong with that wall.”

“And two very good examples of interaction,” agreed Kieran.  “It is made of your magic… Is it intelligent?”

“Depends on your definitions, I guess,” I said, shrugging.  “But the only thing that makes it appear that way is the fact that it’s following us, so I’d say no.”

“I have no idea,” he said slowly, sighing heavily and scratching along the day’s growth on his jaw.  “And that worries me.  We’ll just have to keep an eye on it.  Have Ethan watch it, too.  Maybe he even knows what it is.  He’s seen much more than either of us ever could.”

“True,” I said, remembering the bits and pieces of Ethan’s life I actually witnessed in his memory, incomprehensibly small when viewed over the whole of his “lifetime.”

“So what are your plans for tomorrow?” he asked, moving for the Road but not dropping his attention from our tail.