The refugees wasted no time returning to Castle Cameron. Camping in the mountains was far less desirable than what I had to offer there.
I kept Penny’s location a secret. She didn’t need to be bothered. Not by anyone, whether it was a small matter or a concern of the Queen. As soon as our home was empty, I took her quietly and installed her comfortably in our bedroom.
Lilly and Rose had been caring for our children, a kindness that I loved them for. That’s how you know who your family is, truthfully. I spent a long time with the children that first day, to the exclusion of everyone but Penny. Irene hadn’t noticed my absence of course, but little Conall had. He stared at me constantly and seemed hesitant to let me out of his sight. I took to carrying him around, as much for my own comfort as his.
Moira cried and clung to me when she first saw me, but she recovered faster than the others, outwardly at least. I knew she would grow up to be a strong woman someday. Her personality was comprised of some of the best parts of Penny and me, and the end result was a resilient, intelligent girl who might wind up more like Rose than either of her willful parents.
Matthew wasn’t bashful, but he didn’t cry when he saw me. I think he wanted to protect me somehow, to avoid letting me see how much he had been hurting. I held him as long as I could, and days later, when it was just the two of us, he finally broke down. When all was said and done, I suspected my ‘death’ had been hardest on him.
Once we were reunited, I evicted everyone but Lilly Tucker. I asked the Thornbears to stay with us as well, but Rose declined. I suspected that it was my return that influenced her decision. I knew she considered us family, but she had only recently lost Dorian. While that hurt all of us, I couldn’t imagine what it must be doing to her to see Penny and me together again.
Their roles had been reversed. Our family was whole once more, while Rose had become the widow. That’s the true horror of losing a spouse, being alone. Sometimes the very people who care for you the most cause the greatest pain, reminding you constantly of what you’ve lost. We wanted nothing more than to help her, but our good fortune only pained her more.
I put Peter in charge of the castle itself and told Walter, the Baron of Arundel, to act in my stead in everything else. Despite some initial objections, I closed the door to our home and the Illeniels isolated themselves from the world.
***
A day later, Peter was knocking.
“The Queen is asking for you,” he informed me when I answered it (I had ignored everyone else who came to the door).
“And?”
“The World Road isn’t functioning,” he replied.
I hadn’t thought about it, but that made sense. When Mal’goroth had destroyed the shield around Castle Cameron, the feedback would have shattered the God-Stone, which was where the power that fed the portals was stored. It also meant Celior was on the loose somewhere.
“Too bad,” I told him.
“But…!”
“One of the Prathions can provide transportation if that’s all she needs. The repairs can wait until I get around to it,” I assured him.
Peter frowned. “My lord, I realize you are busy, but the capital is in shambles. The Queen will need your assistance during the reorganization…”
I cut him off, “I don’t give a damn.”
His expression went blank.
“I don’t give a damn,” I repeated. “The capital, the world, and all the rest of it, can go to hell. My wife is sick, and my younger daughter needs to be changed.” As I spoke I could hear Irene crying in the background.
“Isn’t Lilly there?” he reminded me. “Surely she can handle it.”
I scowled at him, “Your sister is busy cooking dinner. I’ll look after Irene myself.”
He started to speak, but I put a finger over his lips.
“Because I want to,” I clarified. “More than anything else.”
Although he was intelligent in many ways, Peter still didn’t get it. “I understand wanting to see your family, but you have priorities, my lord, duties and obligations.”
“I was dead for a year, trapped inside a monster. I’ve already saved the world, Peter. It can do without me for a while. I know what my priorities are, and they aren’t out there,” and then I closed the door.
“There could be a civil war!” he shouted through the door.
“Our young Queen is stronger than you realize,” I answered back. “I’ll come out in a few weeks, maybe. If anyone has the poor taste to try to depose her before then—well I feel sorry for them.”
I walked away from the door, but after a minute I changed my mind and went back to it. Opening it, I found my chamberlain still standing there. His expression became hopeful.
I hugged him, which made him stiffen immediately. Embraces were strictly not part of normal lord-servant relations. “Thank you, Peter,” I said. “You saved me a few days ago and the rest of the world too.”
“You’re welcome, my lord,” he intoned sincerely, his voice was muffled by my chest. I hadn’t let him loose yet. “Does this mean you will see the Queen?”
“Nope,” I replied, and pushing him away, I shut the door on him again.
Penny was sitting by the fire. She was still having trouble staying warm. “Who was at the door?” she asked me.
“Just Peter,” I said.
“What did he want?”
“He just needed my approval to deal with a few minor things,” I said mildly, winking at her.
She gave me a suspicious look, but didn’t say anything.
“It can wait,” I told her. “The world will survive without us for a few weeks.”
Slipping her hand into mine, she nodded. I sat down beside her, and she leaned into me. It scared me to feel how cold she was. Irene began crying once more. I still hadn’t taken care of her.
“You better get that,” said Penny with a wan smile.
***
That night, after dinner, Penny went to sleep early. She had been doing that every evening, as well as napping frequently during the day. Her strength still hadn’t returned, and she had begun to develop a cough. I worried that an illness might take her before she recovered.
“Dad?” said Matthew as we sat in the parlor. We were watching Conall play a new game he had invented involving two sticks and some rocks. It made no sense, but he enjoyed it anyway.
“Yes?”
“Is Mom dying?” he said with his customary directness.
“No,” I said immediately, putting all the confidence I didn’t have in my voice. “She’s just weak because she gave me too much of her aythar, her energy.”
“You said that the same thing happened to you though, right?” he asked. I had given the children an abbreviated version of the ordeal, but I had kept the descriptions less vivid.
“You mean when Mal’goroth took my power?”
He nodded.
I took a deep breath. “That was different. He was drawing the aythar that my magical construct had gathered. My ‘source’ was still protected, isolated, within the magical cage. Your mother gave me the aythar from her wellspring, from the place that keeps us alive. Does that make sense?”
He nodded again. “She’ll get better?”
“She will.” I hoped she would. Sometimes when the flame of life is drawn down too far, it sputters and goes out. Hers was guttering, too close to the edge of having been extinguished to immediately restore itself. All I could do, much like a man husbanding a newly lit fire in a frozen wilderness, was to shield it from the wind and keep offering fresh tinder.
The twins were able to sense what I was doing, hence their concern. Since returning with Penny, I had kept a constant light shield around her. When she slept, I stayed close, warming her not only with physical contact but a tiny flow of aythar. I wanted to give her more, but I had learned a bit from my studies before and after Marcus had died. Much like the fire in my analogy, forcing too much on her could overwhelm her and ultimately produce the opposite e
ffect.
I thought she would recover, but it was far from certain, and only time would tell. Until she did, I wasn’t going anywhere.
***
Another two weeks passed without much change. I spent some of my free time, while Penny was convalescing, examining the wilderness around our isolated cottage. The brief visit by several hundred refugees had done considerable damage to the forest. Some trees had been cut, and a lot of underbrush removed to make lean-tos and other temporary structures.
Not that I blamed them. If you’re in the woods with your family, you do whatever is necessary to stay warm and dry. The twins and I explored, removing some of the deadwood and cleaning up the damaged areas. An amazing amount of refuse had been left behind as well. Some of that we burned, and other portions we buried.
Naturally we used magic to do this, and I enjoyed the opportunity to see my children learning how to use their abilities. Moira’s magic hadn’t manifested until my unfortunate transformation, and Matthew’s had come even later. This was my first chance to see them at work, and I found it fascinating.
Walter had taught Moira some of what she needed to know, but her knowledge was still very limited. Clearing brush, turning logs into firewood, and eliminating trash—rather than being annoying tasks had become a special way for us to restore our bond. I began teaching them the Lycian vocabulary, offering advice, and showing them my preferences for how to do these things.
What amazed me most was the agility of their minds. The young should not be underestimated.
They were full of enthusiasm, having never been asked to use their abilities for any productive purpose before. Like puppies they seemed to vie for my attention, and they frequently surprised me. I had been a wizard long enough to have stopped thinking about many things that I considered ordinary. They hadn’t. Whenever I showed them something new, their curious minds turned it over, shook it, and sometimes they found new insights I had overlooked.
Sometimes parenting can be as humbling as it is rewarding.
That afternoon I fell asleep, a common occurrence for me after our outdoor exercises. I woke to find Moira leaning over me, holding a cup of hot tea. Lilly had taken to teaching Moira and Matthew some of the basic tasks of cooking, letting them help her prepare meals. Moira in particular had shown a fondness for it.
“Thank you, sweetheart,” I told her, touched once again by her thoughtfulness. My daughter was proving to be a natural caregiver. “Your tea is always welcome.”
“Momma made it,” she said with a knowing look in her eye.
I raised my brows. “Oh,” I said astutely. Expanding my attention, I was surprised to see Penny sweeping in the kitchen.
My wife had always been a meticulous person, and one manifestation of that was a propensity to clean. Since her illness, she hadn’t done any of that, letting Lilly manage everything. Seeing her with the broom told me a lot.
She was feeling better.
Her aythar was brighter, and I knew she’d passed the danger point now. I blinked a few times, feeling the boulder that had been sitting on top of my shoulders for the past few weeks quietly vanish.
Moira leaned in to kiss me on the cheek. “I knew she wasn’t going to die, Daddy.”
That shocked me, and I let my face show it. “Who said anything about dying?” I had kept those fears carefully to myself.
Moira wrinkled her nose at me, “Sometimes you aren’t a very good liar.”
“If you knew, why didn’t you ask me about it?” I asked, remembering at the same time that Matthew had asked. “I might have been able to reassure you.”
“You had enough to worry about,” was her reply.
My children had been hiding their fear to protect me. I wondered where they learned to do that. I have only myself to blame. Setting my cup of tea aside, I rose and hugged her tightly. “Go tell your brother,” I said.
“He already knows,” she told me.
“You told me last?!”
“He told me. It was his watch,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“His watch?! You were setting watches?” Again, never underestimate the young. “And you wait to tell me last.”
“You were sleeping. I wanted to wake you sooner, but Matthew thought you needed your rest,” she said with a smile.
Her words made me wonder exactly who had been taking care of whom for the past few weeks. I had thought I was caring for my wife and children, but apparently the situation had been partly the opposite.
Matthew entered from outside then, carrying a dead rabbit, presumably for dinner. Looking at his sister he said, “I see Dad’s up.” The tone in his voice clearly communicated his anticipation of my surprise.
“I’m still a young man, I hope you two realize. I don’t need you both watching over me like a couple of overprotective shepherds!” I told them firmly.
My son rolled his eyes with a sigh and took his prize to the kitchen. Moira just smiled, and then she reached over to pat my head. “You take a lot of keeping, and Momma was tired.”
I gave her my best glare.
“Are you hungry?” she asked. “You always get grumpy when you’re hungry.”
Our conversation was a losing battle, so I studiously ignored her. Taking a sip of my tea, I rose and went to find Penny. She was my only hope for an ally against the unholy conspiracy that was forming around us.
Chapter 50
We waited another week before emerging from our seclusion. Peter and Walter had been giving me reports all along and things had been moving as expected, so I didn’t feel too guilty. I might have pushed to wait longer, but Penny was beginning to get cabin fever.
That’s what she called it anyway. Once Penny had recovered her strength, Lilly had left, to give us more privacy. After a week though, I was pretty sure that my wife was yearning for more diverse company.
In other words, I was driving her batty.
Peter was relieved when we finally stepped out. It took a lot of pressure off of his shoulders. Walter and his children had been up and down the valley, assisting those that needed help to return to their homes.
Walter’s estate in Arundel had been thoroughly mucked up by the Shaddoth Krys, but most of his buildings were still fine. It was nothing compared to the state that Lancaster was in. The castle had been gutted by fire, some of the people’s homes had been burned, and most of the storehouses pillaged.
Winter was deepening quickly, and without outside assistance famine would soon be an unwelcome guest in many people’s homes. The fact that the World Road was inoperative only made matters worse; outside aid would be difficult to arrange or convey.
Teleporting to my house in Albamarl, I set about creating a new circle there, one large enough to accommodate wagons. Once it was established, Walter and his children took care of transporting what was necessary. One of them remained at either end to allow frequent trips.
Being one of the richest men in Lothion, if not the richest, now Tremont was dead, I opened my purse strings to purchase whatever was necessary. I gave Elise Thornbear carte blanche to handle the arrangements in Albamarl in my name. It was something I had done once before, with Rose, but she had declined to involve herself this time. She still had deeper wounds to heal.
Once those things were in motion, I made a visit to our new Queen.
***
Adam, the head chamberlain who had served in the palace under both King Edward and King James, was the first to respond when I made my presence known at the palace.
“Her Majesty is in a meeting, Your Excellency. If you would like to leave your card, I’ll make certain that she knows you would like an audience,” he told me with an air of efficient formality.
I had never known Adam to be anything less than professional, but over the years he had learned to treat me with an extra level of respect. I had clearly had the ear of King James, being one of his most trusted confidants. Before that, I had been to the palace numerous times to see King Edward.
When t
hings had gone badly with Edward—well, I was the one still in the palace. Edward was buried in the royal cemetery.
“What meeting is she in?” I asked casually. “She probably won’t mind if I drop in.” While James was in power, I had had to fight with him to stay out of the meetings.
“That is a matter of state, Lord Cameron,” he responded.
Now he really was putting me off. ‘Lord Cameron’ was my official title; if he’d been treating me more normally, it would have been simply a ‘Lord’ plus my surname, Illeniel. Not to mention, he had just told me, in essence, that everyone who ‘needed to know’ was in there—and I wasn’t one of them.
“Do you remember the last time you gave me a cold reception, Adam?” I kept my tone friendly, but I wanted to make sure that he knew what he was setting himself up for.
“Unfortunately, I have always had an excellent memory, Your Excellency,” he answered demurely.
I gave him my best genteel smile. “I’ll give you five minutes to report my presence to Her Majesty. I’ll even play nice and sit out here, so everyone can see that you followed your silly damn rules and kept me waiting. After the five minutes are up, I’ll find my own way, and I don’t mean by leaving.”
He held out a gloved hand, palm upward.
“I don’t have any damned cards!” I bit out, losing my patience a bit. I’d always thought the damn things were pompous and silly. Peter had had some made once, but I never used them.
“Very well, Sir,” he said, and then he left.
Taking a seat on one of the cushioned benches that decorated the waiting room, I let my mind explore the palace. Just because I was being kept out, didn’t mean I couldn’t peer in any and every corner of the place if I felt like it.
Imagine my surprise when I found my magesight couldn’t sense anything beyond the few rooms in the entry areas and the courtyard. Curious, I stepped outside and focused my senses from a different vantage point. I could sense a large swath of the city, but most of the palace was curiously opaque. Many of the interior walls seemed to have some sort of embedded shield that blocked magesight.
Stepping back inside, I walked until I reached the closest wall with one of the new shields. Peering closely, I could see the small runes engraved along the base of the wall. It was an enchantment I hadn’t seen before, but its purpose was self-evident. Someone had put privacy shields throughout the palace.