Celina moves to the table with the podberry shot still in hand and sits down facing Conner.
Conner releases Merlin's hand and looks about the common room. "I thought you would be gone longer somehow." Conner comments with a smile. "Is there news to share?"
Her fingers wrap the drink tighter. "We can all expect company if we stay the night." Celina knocks back a good swallow of the podberry. It sears and burns. "The girl was followed here. Perhaps we should speak upstairs?" She licks her lips savoring the heat. She looks at Merlin and Conner and does not ask what they were just doing, even though her curiosity is plain.
Conner nods. "It would seem prudent. We can fill you in on a little family gossip at the same time." Conner gives a little push off the chair and half floats to his feet. "Shall we?"
Merlin nods and moves to join them.
Celina hesitates and rises to match the men. Once started up the stairs, she passes her mug to Conner. "It goes with gossip well. To our prudence." If Conner chooses to think her a bit backward and old fashioned, well she is from Seaward. She does not look back to see if he takes the toast.
Once upstairs, she works the door and glides into the room silently. Circumstances will hold Amala asleep if they speak with restraint.
Conner chooses not to drink from the cup. Intoxication in his experience never led to prudence and drinking to irony does not appeal. Conner looks with curious eyes to the unconscious girl and then back to Celina in question.
"What happened?" Merlin asks softly. "We have news, but I think we need to speak of this first."
Looking over at Amala, Celina does not try to explain the girl's disheveled state. She frowns though as if something about the girl thwarts her. "I got Amala to relax and talk about trade and politics, but someone, Khela I think, was spying through a mirror mechanism hidden in the locket about her neck." Celina gestures to the jewelry still about Amala's throat.
Celina looks at Conner. "Have you heard of Khela? It's time you did if not, however, I ask a price of some things I would say that concern me personally. I will speak less of the truth if you cannot promise me that you will not reveal my secrets without my permission."
Conner pauses before answering. Celina may be new enough to the family to actually be asking for confidentially. She could also be getting used to the game and is using this as a gambit to see what his word is worth. In the end, there was no choice. Conner wanted all the information she would give him. If he had to break his promise later, then he would deal with the consequences.
"I will make you that promise Celina." Conner says solemnly. "Tell me of Khela."
The Seaward cousin moves with sudden delight and energy. She kisses Conner on the cheek and bestows a hug on him. She admires him then at arm's length. "Khela is Llewella's daughter and exiled from Rebma by Moire."
And she adds almost as an afterthought, "I met her before being sent to Rebma."
Conner accepts the hug graciously but shakes his head at Celina's behavior. He is used to the physicality of Paige or Folly where a hug or kiss slips in at appropriate moments. Celina still catches him off guard with these outbursts of touch. His usual soft smile is back in place by the time she holds him at arms length.
Celina senses the headshake during the hug but does not react to his seeming disapproval. He is after all probably decades older than she.
"So yet another member of the family waxing and waning with the tides." Conner comments. "But you did not extract a promise of confidentially for that to be the full recital." Conner observes. He slides one hand down Celina's and takes her hand gently. "What does Khela mean to you that you seek to protect her? And what does Khela mean to us that you tell me off her now?"
She nods as if these questions are inevitable while studying Conner's hand on hers. "You make this easier, Conner." She orients on his eyes and smile. "Of course there is more."
She musters a smile. "Khela was my mentor in arcane: what those in Amber call the warping of the universe. I learned this Art as a destiny principle called Llaya. I have yet to understand if I was lied to about that.
"In course of our association I became smitten with her. After graduation but before I was called to Rebma, we became lovers. Since I was introduced to the family at Paris, I've learned that she participated in a political reform movement in Rebma during Martin's youth. For her part in this, the Throne sentenced her to death." Celina shivers and puts her other hand on top of the one Conner holds her with. "Martin believed her killed. In truth, she was smuggled out of Rebma but the Throne faked her death rather than let people believe she had escaped.
"Then I learned she was family. I think she is still working against Moire." Celina sets herself a bit closer to Conner. "Now, she is under my protection. Those who think to harm her have to come through me, Conner. I shall be the one to decide who knows this."
She nods, "Thank you for your promise, I have heard it is not an easy thing for a man of Amber to give his word."
Merlin has listened to the proceedings, fascinated, but has not spoken. He waits for Conner's response.
"To give one's word is easy, Celina. It is the keeping of it that is difficult." Conner explains. "So then, you believe in this Khela so strongly that you would stand between her and Queen Moire, yet the discovery that she might know of us seems to disturb you." Conner summarizes. "Are you so certain of her then?"
Celina considers Conner's advice as she might any elder of this family. She is silent for a moment or two. Long enough that she glances at Merlin and nods at his calm attentive manner. There is a shy smile then for Merlin that seems disconnected from the seriousness of the issues debated now.
Her eyes return to Conner. "I think your question has its own answer, my diplomatic cousin. You know I am not sure of her. You want me to know that you know or bring out that I've just said she may have lied in teaching me the more disturbing Arts of moving with the universe we live in. So I consider myself justly rebuked."
Celina considers just how to say the next as her eyelids lower a bit and she looks at Conner through her lashes. Her hands, above and below his, begin idle motions like waves massaging the floor of the ocean: inevitable and unconscious of shaping any meaning. It is a pleasant tactile sharing.
Conner has no objection to this whatsoever. He even hums softly in enjoyment.
"Yes," Celina murmurs to Conner as if they enjoy a bit of pillow talk, "Khela and I have unfinished business of the heart. When that riddle cyphers shall there be a terrible force upon me and such strengths to answer broken dreams. Moire and Khela have warred over and around me for years, trimming away at my choices and bending my love. Before long I shall know which of them deserves death by my hand."
"Odd to offer your protection before you know which side deserves protection." Conner observes. "I like to verify such things before putting my life on the line. Though if I really believed that, I suppose I wouldn't be here now, would I?" Conner grins.
Celina gently lets go of him and tucks her hands together at the small of her back. "Is your family gossip as interesting as that?"
"That all depends on your curiosity level regarding Huon and the condition of Abford after you left it." Conner replies. "Apparently, the son of one the newest members of the family has been conscripted into his army and several of the family are in pursuit to retrieve him."
The Seaward lass blinks in thought: a son? Garrett? Hannah? No. She nibbles her lip. Breeze? Leif? She settles within instead of trying to solve the plowing of seed. Celina grins back at Conner and teases, "Indeed. Would you? How droll that you invite my speculation." Her grin goes shy once more.
"Tomorrow I can introduce you both to Khela. I think you might like her. The lady has a bewitching smile." She pauses and looks over her shoulder at Amala and shakes her head thoughtfully.
"I shall endeavor to love her for your sake," Merlin says. He glances at Conner for a moment before adding, "Meg is the cousin whose son is with Huon's army. I do not think she has any comprehension of what she has taken on in retrieving him. She sends you a message, sister, about the bracelet Huon gave you."
Celina touches her waistband where the pouch holding the bracelet is under her blouse. "What message? What has Huon saddled me with?"
"Meg's birthright it would seem." Conner replies evenly. "Meg wanted us to tell you that when she was placed in fosterage in Abford that bracelet was left to pay for her upkeep. She asks that anything we learn about it be relayed to her as it may reveal pieces of her past."
"You talked to Meg?" Celina catches up. "Someone Trumped us and we answered."
"Ossian contacted me," Merlin clarifies. "Meg joined the contact later."
Celina looks at Merlin and her expression relaxes just enough to imply, 'oh'. It doesn't appear to settle her thoughts much. She grabs at the floor with bare toes and works a wave of muscle meditation up from toes to neck. That works to relax her. She brings her hands up to run through emerald tresses and she blows dolph-style.
"Huon hinted Rebma was his destination," Celina begins for Conner's benefit, "and so we imagine he went nearly straight to Abford after gathering a force of arms. He takes the bracelet away from the folk there and gives it to me, after telling me I remind him of his past when he was young and bold. Meg was a..." she struggles for the right word, "orphan there."
She recognizes the inner flinch at the word 'orphan'. Celina chews at her lip.
"Huon is headed to Rebma with cannon. Huon wants Bleys' head. Bleys and Rebma? Ossian is squiring Meg around shadow. Is Ossian Bleys' son? One of Meg's sons is inducted in the army. That's probably not an accident at all. If Huon knows he left a daughter there and he knows the bracelet was marker for the daughter."
She looks at the ceiling and puts her hands on her hips. "I remind Huon of Rebman days of yore. Khela arrives tomorrow morning, probably with her own troops. Khela wants Moire's head. Could Moire be Meg's mother and Huon her father? Could carrying a child of Amber give you partial authority over Rebma's Pattern." She frowns. "Which lasts for some years but needs to be renewed again through carrying another Amber child?"
She scowls. "No, no. Huon has been gone too long. Meg isn't old enough." She realizes for the first time that she is older than Rebman events because of her years in shadow. Could Abford have peculiar time flow?
She suddenly looks at Conner and Merlin. "Any ideas? I have neither blade nor battalion to my call but we need to be ready to react to all this potential mayhem. You two are closer to all these family stylings than I am. Say something and don't hint." She gives Conner a friendly glare at that last.
"Something." Conner states clearly and forthrightly. Conner chuckles and waves his hand. "I could not resist." He grins at Celina. "As to the rest, I've come into these developments already in progress and without time to gather proper backgrounds on any of it.
"However, I can hazard a few educated guesses." Conner continues. "I know of no connection between Bleys and Moire. My uncle has no reason to tell me such things but there was certainly no aid for his assault from Rebman quarters nor agents for me to draw on during my appointment there. So if Huon goes to Rebma, then either his plans for revenge have widened or he seeks something there to support his war on Amber. With his comments of reminding you of Rebman days of yore, I suspect he holds a fondness for it."
Conner shrugs. "As for Khela, you are the expert there. You are eager for a confrontation with her but I question how this benefits your own mission to gain what you seek. Perhaps it should be a pleasure deferred."
Merlin appears to still be musing over something Celina said earlier. When Conner pauses, he says, "I do not think Moire was given power over the Pattern by her liaison with our father. If she had that power and she were able to walk the Pattern, she would have done so. And that would stay with her no matter what she did afterwards. Do you not both think so?"
He looks to Conner and Celina for agreement.
Celina's skin darkens a bit in a hint of blush. Her mind wheels towards all the pleasures of Khela. Conner makes an excellent point. Khela needs to be dealt with, but should she do so when Khela thinks it is time?
Celina could make it much harder. Be less eager.
Moire. Pattern. Khela not able by the word of the eldest. Celina fastens upon Merlin's question. "Agreed, Merlin. I did not mean any power over or access to Pattern. I only meant that there would be some shared blood and association between mother and child while the child lay in flesh cradle. Perhaps that was a foolish notion. But there might be some things of Pattern that were true even by such intimate association. Moire has not found access to Pattern through bed with father."
"Nor has she found it through any other Rebman coupling with those of Amber." Conner observes. "Only Moins seemed to know the trick of getting a child of Amber to support the Rebman throne. I wonder what my dear aunt would say if I asked her about it." Conner chuckles. "Regardless, I concur with Merlin's assessment. Nothing Mother or Uncle have taught me would support the notion of a non Family Mother gaining any such affinity from a carrying a child of the Family. Whatever nutrients and fluids a mother and child may exchange, the powers do not cross the placental barrier. No, if she meant to gain the power of Pattern through her liaison with Corwin, it would the old fashioned way of gaining your trust and exploiting your gifts." Conner grins wryly.
"Thus I find it odd that you were thrust out of Rebma so swiftly." Conner points out. "I would think she would want you under her influence as you grew in that power. If she is playing then the game is deep indeed."
"You cannot learn of Shadow while sheltered near a Pattern," Merlin points out to Conner. He turns his attention back to Celina. "Are you truly ready to face Khela, sister? I mislike this business more and more."
Celina moves to Merlin and reaches. She doesn't stop her hand as she has so many times, but slows it to lay gently on his shoulder.
"Khela has chosen the place," Celina responds, "so I expect you are both right about mis-liking the moment. Between Moire and Khela, they've done much to make sure I'm unready. I can't solve Conner's riddle at all. I've dreamt and pondered. I've cast back across the conversations those two women made mundane and mysterious. Who threatened me so that Moire sent me away? What power does that traitor have that the Queen must hide her treasures? Did she think Corwin would clutch me close and her embassy would find me there next season fresh with Pattern learning? Who turns the tritons against each other? Is it only history? I don't think so."
She takes a slow breath. Something feels as if it is going to break inside and it shows on her mouth if not her eyes. "Khela also cast me out to Rebma rather than give me my heritage. Perhaps neither wants me near. Maybe that is the question I need to define." A gesture of her left hand sends the questions away again and the hurt goes with them. "In any case, your counsel is fine, it is my weakness that holds me here. I still love her.
"I'm going to see Khela. I'm not waiting for shadows to fall or the blade of which I dream," Celina says. "You two should rest. I'll bear watch and twist riddles until morning."
"I find twisting riddles and paying attention without to be mutually exclusive." Conner observes. "Besides we are not yet done here. Show me what you have learned about the enchantment on the young woman. If I am to meet Khela, I would know of her capabilities."
Merlin waits expectantly for Celina's answer.
Celina looks at Conner with a bit of puzzlement. She moves slowly from Merlin and closes with her red-headed cousin. She tilts her head slowly, looking at the curve of his jaw. "Her capabilities?" She sighs. "Fine."
The Seaward lass moves around Conner trailing a fingertip across the round of his shoulder. She steps to the side of the bed where Amala dreams. "Amala," she whispers, "was fixed up with a talisman against Rebman spying." She points to the necklace. "Within are mirrors set in opposition to each other, also with a prism kick which points to the wearer's face. In such as this, at some distance, Amala can be monitored by one who knows the wrightwork of bright."
"Skilled at mirrors and sorcery." Conner notes. "Quite ingenious to protect her from spying except from the one that gave it to her. That settles that then. What I have hidden should remain hidden lest it be discovered by its use." Conner decides. He was currently a minnow among sharks where mirrors were concerned. "If we have the time, remind me to tell you a story about Valeria."
"Stories about my neice are always welcome," Celina nods. "What else do you want to know about Khela? Imagine the years she has spent in the Seaward building a net of such young people to act as eyes and ears. Khela does not seem sure of me even now. She questioned if I would turn her over to Moire." Celina gestures again at the necklace. "Amala was intoxicated and Khela spoke through that using Amala's mouth."
Conner looks back up at Celina. "You did not tell me you actually spoke with her." He reproaches. "That changes things considerably. What more did she say? Just as important what did you say to her about your intentions? Do you seem more ally to be wooed or threat to be eliminated?"
Celina casts a look at Merlin. She ponders how he would answer that question when applied to his mother. Still ....they both deserve an answer.
"She said no more than to ask if I was queen's agent or my own," Celina says. "I answered 'my own.' Then she bade me linger here overnight. No, I would not tarry if I thought she was going to imprison or kill me nor would I ask you two to witness that. I've heard madness runs in my family but I intend to live a life otherwise."
Merlin has moved to examine the mirror necklace once Celina began to describe it. He has not touched it yet. He looks up and says, "I could make use of this, but it might be safer to be rid of it. What do you think the consequences of destroying it would be?"
"Amala awakens and feels her confidence in me betrayed," Celina responds first, still eyeing Conner for reaction to Merlin's question. "Mirror work is fragile and follows laws of mass. That small working has three elements but is more skill than power. You could break it without harming any here."
Celina shares a slim smile with Conner. "I say use it if you can. An opportunity to measure Khela's magical scent would be provident. Conner?" This last obviously invites her cousin to offer his own advice to Merlin.
Conner shrugs and moves to a position to better examine the amulet. Taking a moment for a deep draft of water, Conner steadies himself and then concentrates upon the necklace with his third eye open. "What did you have in mind, Merlin?" He asked.
The magic is a sort unfamiliar to Conner's inner eye, and very different to the mirror he possesses. It's not Sorcery; in fact, it seems almost to be more ordered than sorcerous.
Merlin says, "If Khela made it, I could use it to determine things about her."
Celina finds the idea shocking and exciting in equal parts. The determination of the future wouldn't be the most interesting thing about Khela. She watches Conner.
"You suggest using it as a focus for temporal or physical scrying." Conner muses for a moment. "I think it is worth the attempt. Let us pool our skills at this endeavor and see what we can learn."
"The past?" Celina whispers, remembering her spell on Merlin's eye. "What is the pressing question then before I agree?"
Merlin looks at Celina calmly. "What question do you think is most pressing?"
Will you still love me? Of course. Celina looks at Conner as if he might already have a question in mind. "I wonder about her allies and in chasing the green blade, have the forsworn tritons made her their dupe."
"In a more general sense, I want to know her true intentions in coming here." Conner replies. "But I think the focused nature of Celina's questions might serve us better."
Merlin nods. "They are more focused. But the question contains some presuppositions." He looks at Celina, and adds softly, "I cannot assume she is a victim."
Celina nods at Merlin's truth. "All my questions contain such eddies right now. And in some ways, the better course is to ask her tomorrow to her face. Or so I----" Celina holds her elbows with crossed arms and lets the sentence be overwhelmed by the imagined hours between now and then. She licks her lips. "Allies and prices paid. She has been denied the Pattern. What does her power tell us about what she has dared in order to adjust for that? Mirrors and sorcery we already know. What or who else might be standing in for the basement birthright?"
"Is sorcery and mirror-magic and command over tritons not enough?" Merlin asks. "My mother is a Lord of Chaos and she makes do with less."
"Does she?" Celina lets show the surprise. "So again I've not asked many of the right questions. By my inference your mother commands shapes, sorcery, eats memories, travels through shadows, binds lesser creatures and realms of Chaos and has made an attempt 'to steal' the Pattern of Amber." Celina lowers her voice again, "I dare hope that Khela is less accomplished than that and mislike the comparison."
The Seaward cousin rubs fingertip along chin. "And while she may ally with tritons, I'm not sure she commands them. She has no personal triton from the throne." She looks to Conner to see if he can shed more light on that from his years in Rebma.
[If he only smiles.... she adds---]
Conner doesn't just smile. He shrugs as well.
"We cannot assume Khela is victim. With all this strange old history, most pressing is if she is sane."
"Sane or not, her agenda is the most pressing matter." Conner opines. "Let us focus our scrying on divining her intentions towards us and the sword Celina seeks."
Celina nods and looks to Merlin.
"I will scry her intentions as best I can. Her sanity might be easier, but I cannot judge how you Ordered beings mark sane from insane." Merlin bites his lower lip for a moment. "Unless you have some objection, I will perform the spell now."
"No objection," Celina says. "Can we help in some way?"
Conner chuckles at Merlin's observation. "Many Ordered beings have that difficulty too. I second the lack of objection and the offer of assistance."
Merlin nods and instructs Conner and Celina on how they may aid his sorcerous endeavors. He is significantly more advanced then either, but with his help, the basics of what he is trying to do are clear. Merlin chooses to cast for a watch or more, but less than a day. He conjures a few needed props, including a bowl full of a what looks like a liquid mirror. "Do not drink this", he warns.
Conner listens attentively to Merlin's instructions and watches his every action through his Third Eye. Conner clearly has many more questions that he asks but restrains himself so as to not delay the sorcery. At Merlin's warning, Conner thinks back to a certain purple Chaosian treat and decides this is a general truth to be followed with magical reagents.
Celina plays a green shadow hovering near the two men as they bond over the magical working.
"If this works, we should see Khela as she is now, and perhaps we can discern her motives from seeing her." Merlin dips Amala's necklace into his concoction and gestures to his companions to look into the reflecting surface.
Each sees a slightly different view. The scene is the same: an encampment in a Seaward rift valley. Lights glow in the distance and it is possible that the mountains are the same ones Celina and Conner were led through. In the foreground is a mirror, and the view turns towards it and the figure in it is wearing Rebman garb; short pants and suspenders and is armed with a sword the color of jade.
Each viewer sees the figure as themselves. Shortly, the vision fades.
Celina is startled by the mirror vision of the blade in her hand. She notes other bizarre discrepancies in her attire, the cut of her hair and the colors of her makeup. The figure nods back at her and smiles.
Merlin sits back. "I do not think that worked properly."
Conner collapses his pointer and tucks away his stopwatch. "I would have to concur." Conner strokes his chin in thought. "When I was in Xanadu I had a temporal scrying go awry. Instead of showing me the past, it caused the man to relive it. Perhaps the proximity of Rebma's Pattern or the ordered nature of the mirror magic forced the magic down unintended paths."
Celina nods. "She had mirror protections in place."
Conner leans forward and gently pulls the necklace from the liquid mirror and shakes it a bit to clean it in the surrounding water. "Because the only straightforward interpretation, assuming the vision still related to Khela's motives, is that she wants or needs one of Pattern blood to wield that blade." Conner then removes a large handkerchief out of his pocket and drapes it over the bowl. "I am still a little leery of handy reflective surfaces this close to Rebma." He explains. "I am half tempted to cast the cards to compare and contrast an Ordered versus Chaotic read on the situation. I must admit though that I begin to tire of the oracular. The cosmos seems loath to give up information without something in trade." Conner smiles. "I'd rather deal with a Marid any day." He says almost fondly.
"I too am weary of prophetic ripples in the current," Celina sighs. "But thank you Merlin. It gives me a lot to think about. Did either of you actually see Khela at all?"
Merlin shakes his head and looks to Conner for his answer.
"I saw myself only and confirmed my suspicion that Rebman garb would flatter my physique." Conner grins. "Droit would never let us try you see as representatives of Amber."
"What do we do now, sister?" Merlin asks. "Do we sleep and prepare to meet her? And what of this one?" He gestures to the still-sleeping Amala.
Celina smiles at Conner. "Khela plans to see us and perhaps needs us more than we need her. I think we should be rested. I offered to take first watch, I'll leave that to you two if you think I shouldn't." She glances at Amala. "I think it probable that something detained her friend. He will not arrive as planned. So I will stay with her until morning. She won't waken."
She looks at her comrades to see how they dispose of the watch.
"I would rethink the probability of her companion being waylaid." Conner advises. "If Amala proved useful, why not the one she was to meet?" Conner looks over to Celina for her opinion on the matter.
Celina thinks about that for a moment. Her teeth nibble at her lower lip. "I'm not so keen on having an unknown show up and chastise her, let alone slit her throat if she's done something wrong in talking to me." She closes her eyes imagining opportunities missed and wicked.
"If you," Celina looks again at Conner, "take charge of the fellow, I grant it might swim well for us."
Conner's grin would make a barracuda proud. "Of course. Let us have that which waylays him, be me."
Conner and Merlin arrange to wait downstairs so they can meet Amala's contact, Cassius. It's clear to both sorcerers after a brief discussion with him that unless he's hiding a lot of power from them that he's ignorant and incapable of making real trouble for them. They let him go upstairs and together with Celina, waylay him. Soon the young man joins Amala on the bed, unconscious.
Celina, Merlin, and Conner arrange a watch order and sleep accordingly. The night passes without further event.
Conner settles into a half-lotus position in the corner of the room as he watches his companions and those they waylaid. On land, Conner would have been waiting for the deep even breathing that signaled deep sleep but he does not quite have the ear for judging the flow of water that is the Rebman cue. So he focuses on the rise and fall of their chests and what feels like an hour passing without movement or stirring.
Only then does Conner remove his deck of fortune cards from his pocket. For all his frustrations with them, it is a method of divination that both his mother and Uncle Bleys respect and practice. Thus there must be something to it. Conner shuffles the cards slowly and methodically. He remembers his surprise that first time he took out his cards underwater and found them undamaged. It is a property of the cards or his own desire that the cards be undamaged keeps them that way. Either way, it is best not to worry about it.
Conner turns his head to look at Merlin. Once more, he considers waking him or waiting until the change of watch to get his assistance. His full trump deck would make for a fuller reading. Disturbing the quiet seems wrong though and two minds influencing the cards can distort a reading. No, Conner would learn what he could on his own.
So all that leaves is the question. Khela is a mystery that would be solved by morning. Celina and Merlin are mysteries that Conner could solve over the coming years. So Conner focuses instead on their stated quest. The sword of jade. It looks so right in his hands. What forces are ranged to help or hinder their quest for the sword? Conner stops his hands. The cards feel ready. Conner deals a classic pattern face down and then flips the cards over one by one.
These are the cards Conner turns.
Bottom row:
The Satyr, reversed
Autumn
Usurper
Middle row:
Law, reversed
Summer, reversed
Top row:
The Peasant
Merlin kept the last watch and so is up and about when Celina and Conner open their eyes.
"Amala and Cassius will awaken soon," he tells them.
"Well, a lady shouldn't awaken with a fellow she didn't lie down with," so saying Celina gently hoists Amala like a child and moves off to the necessity. There, she combs Amala's hair and straightens her clothing as she wakes.
"Good morning, sweet eyes," Celina says. "Finish tucking. Your fellow is here and I want to break my fast."
Amala opens her mouth and then closes it. "How much did I drink last night? I don't remember Cassius getting here at all!"
The girl works on her hair and smoothes over her clothes.
"Oh, I hardly recall." Celina husks her voice. "There were so many distractions."
When Amala is ready, Celina and she will proceed to the common room and get a large table. Celina will order a medley breakfast, extra large.
"I think I shall let Cassius tend to his own grooming when he awakens." Conner comments dryly as Celina carries Amala off. "Meeting new family is always an interesting proposition. I think I shall arrange for breakfast with an extra place setting." Conner decides. "Good to know when you are expected if not welcomed."
Merlin regards the sleeping form of Cassius with something less than enthusiasm. "I believe Khela already knows she is expected. But it will help us to welcome her with politeness. Perhaps she can be diverted from plans of homicide by the hope of family news."
"What more can one hope from any family gathering?" Conner grins wide. "Back in a moment." Conner heads to the common room of the inn and seeks out the lady that served them in the evening to arrange breakfast.
Conner is coming out of the kitchen as Celina and Amala descend the stairs. Amala is looking around as if expecting someone.
Shortly, breakfast arrives, in large quantities. As the woman is putting it on the table, the inn's front door opens, swirling the currents in the common room. Striding in is a woman with a dark green complexion, wearing makeup and light travelling clothes, the clothes that were visible in the vision's mirror. At her side is the green sword. She turns towards the common room and stops at the entrance.
"Khela", Amala says.
"Praise water," Celina whispers. She can cry and only the water will know. She tries to say a welcome, but her throat has closed up. Instead, Celina walks to Khela and takes her hand. Lifting the twined fingers, she puts a kiss on the dark skin of her lover's wrist.
And if Khela permits, Celina invites her to the table with a gesture.
Conner remains seated at the table as the door opens. The results of the scrying are now much clearer as Khela enters bearing the sword and wearing the outfit. Conner lets Celina have her moment. It was not his place to intrude upon this. Yet. Instead Conner concentrates upon Khela and the sword with his third eye open. The blade intrigued him and he would know if Khela was prepared for conflict or not.
To Conner's third eye, the blade appears as real as any he's ever seen. Including Werewindle.
Merlin remains with Conner, silently watching the scene unfold, as do Amala and Cassius.
Khela accepts the kiss from Celina and then draws Celina in closer, kissing her mouth. It is not the kiss of a sister.
Beside him, Conner feels Merlin flinch.
"A kiss is just a kiss, Merlin." Conner murmurs. "Though this is a rather impressive one, I must admit." Conner is grateful for the cold shower surrounding him though even that is not enough to keep his body from responding. After all, the Real blade was not going anywhere. Might as well enjoy the show.
The kiss is returned and Celina's free hand reaches around Khela to latch onto her suspenders and tug her close. A small sound purrs from deep in Celina's chest as the water around her runs hot. Celina backs off the growing grip on Khela's fingers from her other hand. She comes up for breath after a very long time and breaks the kiss. She glares in mock disapproval at her old lover.
"Now, I'm very hungry." Celina invites Khela towards the breakfast Conner has arranged with a gesture. "These gentlemen would like to meet you. This is my brother," she languidly motions to Merlin with her right hand, the left still twined with Khela's, "Merlin."
Merlin's expression is a bit flat. He rises and bows to her; the degree is, Conner suspects, very precise. What he says is, "I am pleased to meet you, o friend of my sister."
Khela returns the bow and smiles at him, a bit indulgently. "And I am pleased to meet you, o brother of my friend." There's the slightest emphasis on the word "friend".
"And this is Conner." Celina nods to the redhead.
Conner rises as he is introduced and bows to the lady. "Greetings Khela, Blade-bearer and enigma. " Conner intones formally and then smiles at her. "It is a pleasure to meet you."
Blade bearer. Celina's eyes drop to the green weapon at Khela's hip. She blinks and waters within her seem unsettled for a moment on her face.
Khela bows to Conner as well, although the bow is less deep. "And a pleasure to meet you." She slides into the booth next to Conner without releasing Celina's hand, drawing the younger woman with her. "How did you come into Celina's service, Conner?"
Conner's eyes dance with amusement. "Oh the usual way, my lady. We met in Gateway you see. I had right skills at the right time and my mistress offered both payment and a grand vision that I would help fulfill." Conner smiles. "So far it has been a most interesting experience."
A hot thunderstorm prickles along every exposed bit of skin making Celina twitch. She grips a steadying hand on the table edge. She smiles at Conner; a grin that beams at his smooth introduction. His beautiful words tickle some bit of history in her head, or something about the yesterday, or a thing she thinks to remember. But her eyes draw away from Conner to Khela's painted eye and long night lashes. She holds off kissing her again. Soon enough. A little decorum would be nice.
"Conner is a literati among other talents," Celina husks. She squeezes Khela's fingers and rubs her thumb slowly along the palm of that dark hand. Celina searches her mind while chewing at her lip, trying to parse some of Conner's elegant words. A message within?
Khela smiles fondly at Celina before returning her attention to Conner. "A grand vision. That, I believe Celina and I can offer you, Conner."
Merlin is looking vaguely alarmed. And Celina's lips purse in surprise.
Before Merlin can actually say anything, Khela continues, "I believe that we should break our fast first, and then take our discussions of grand visions to a more private place. We have much to speak of, Celina and I, and if you wish a part in the grand design, we can find a place for you, Conner. And you as well, Merlin, who are owed a place by the blood you share with Celina."
Celina blinks slowly, tugging aside heat and memory.
Conner smiles like the cat that caught the canary and turns his head back to Merlin as if to share the good fortune. He makes the smile more reassuring and mouths, "Just play along."
Conner turns back to Khela and inclines his head at the great honor being bestowed upon him. "A place in the grand design is all that I ask." Conner smiles and begins serving Celina her breakfast as if he had done so all his life. He had traveled with her enough to know her likes in the slivers of raw and pickled fishes, fresh sea cresses, and the sticky cakes of jellied clam.
Celina watches his hands delivering food. She licks her lips, her thoughts bending again towards the promise of curves and nourishment sitting beside her. Khela seems to find everything just as she expected.
Under the heat, there is a bitter taste. Celina nods at Conner.
His patter continues throughout his serving. "It is unfortunate that the talk of such things must wait though. One must conjure talk of lighter topics to pass the time lest we eat in uncomfortable silence." Conner looks to Khela with his eyes for her say yay or nay to the various dishes and serves her as well. "There is simply no adequate substitute for talking about the weather in the underwater realms, I find." Once finished, Conner piles his plate with the Rebman foods that he enjoys and passes the dishes along to Merlin. "Though in naming my talents, my mistress perhaps hints at an answer. A literati I am and as part of my researches I have gathered recordings that purport to be Rebman history though I have been unable to corroborate them. I should love to get your opinion on the matter lady. May I tell you a story?"
Celina adds in an intimate voice, "A lovely idea."
"Please do, Conner," Khela replies. She still has not relinquished Celina's fingers, and now her thumb slides along the web between Celina's thumb and her fingers.
Merlin is almost stock still.
Eyes wide, Celina concentrates on Conner even as her nerves sing of happy memories.
"Excellent, ladies." Conner smiles in pleasure and moves to a chair facing Khela and Celina. Conner could not tell how much of Celina's distraction was real or feigned but at least she is focused enough to help his gambit along. Merlin, as per usual, is a black box.
"The teller of this story was a Marid that traded quite dearly for the tale. I was able to receive it for a much lesser price." Conner says with some pride. "I shall endeavor to tell it as it was told to me. Conner closes his eyes for a moment. When he speaks, the rhythm and cadence is not his own. There is even the hint of an accent.
"The Sons of the Dragon are near-mythological. They are a crafty race, they are capable of great piety, great violence, and great guile. Some say that the great kelp-forests from which they appear is fey, a wood between worlds where the unwary can become lost for a day or nap for twenty years and miss a war and a generation in a single afternoon. One may run across an unnatural pod of hunting sharks or a sunken city from ages long before Man or Marid walked the sea bottom. Stray into the deeps of the forest and you may never find your way out. It is rumored that they seek those who are of an artistic bent, and they fall naturally in thrall to the sons..."
Conner pauses for a moment to asses his audience and then speaks a little more quickly.
"But the one encounter dreaded by all who must pass the forest is that with a Son of the Dragon! Some call them legends, but I am all too aware of their existence, for I have encountered one and survived! For all that our people complain of the burdens we undertake for knowledge, we do take those burdens willingly.
"I dealt with a Son of the Dragon, and traded with him for something of their story. At the time I felt that I had done well, but I have since decided that the dragon son sought me out and used me as he would.
"His Tale, for which I paid dearly, is short and intriguing. For uncounted time the sons of the dragon lived with their mother (all dragons are female, it seems) and were lords of the forest, fighting amongst themselves and with their neighbors. A blight came, an irritant to their mother, in the form of a city on the outskirts of their forest. It grew for some time, a canker untreated, until the sons banded together and decided to war upon the interlopers.
"The war was epic, and eventually the city found allies and turned the tide. The battle was taken to the great forest and the interloper and her foreign cousins won. The sons of the dragon sued for peace. The arrangement was tricky, with some of the sons given in bondage in perpetuity to the city, with the understanding that the city would not expand further towards the forest.
"He seemed to think it was a good arrangement for the protection of their mother, the Dragon, but wondered how his long-estranged brethren were living up to the obligations incurred on them by their ancestors."
Conner drops from his light trance and looks at Khela for her response. "What do you make of that, my lady?"
Merlin is listening raptly, almost to the point of ignoring Khela's indecent fondling of his sister.
Khela's lips curve into a smile. "I think you have delved deeply into matters of Rebma that no man is normally permitted to touch on, Conner. Be careful what you say in the company of Moire's court, lest you die for your trouble. I have seen it happen." Her eyes darken. "Moire has brought a fate on herself by the way she deals with these matters. As she deals with others, so shall the llaya deal with her, in time."
Her hand in Celina's relaxes a bit, then, as she forces it to unclench. "Why did you seek this story, Conner? What is your interest in the Sons of the Dragon?"
Celina uses both hands to soothe Khela's tension with massage directed into forearm and hand. Conner can see Celina's eyes cleared to a sharp focus at the use of the word, 'llaya'. The Seaward cousin sneaks a glance at Merlin and mellows the massage cycle she plies on Khela.
"My interest as always, lady, is in information that has value." Conner replies easily enough. "And tales of Dragons and their children have been in demand. As this tale hooked the interest of my mistress and led to my present position, I should count my purchase a good one. Yet even before I met my mistress I thought I had a buyer for this story. Travelers out of Amber came to Gateway seeking information about Dragons. As there are problems below so there are above the saying goes and it seems to be true even now. Is there naught you would tell a humble male of these matters? The better I understand, the more I can be of service." Conner bows his head humbly to hide the twinkling amusement in his eyes.
Celina gently bites her lip.
Merlin's expression has gone a bit dubious at Conner's play with Khela.
"What I say is common knowledge, for all that it is deemed treason," the Rebman woman replies. "Moire holds the Tritons as slaves, against their nature. She commands them by right of blood, and she has defended that prerogative with her own bloody hands." The word 'right' elicits a sneer from Khela.
Celina's eyes are wide green.
She turns to Celina, her voice gentling. "I would have told you more of these things years ago, but I knew Moire would not turn her hand from you any more than she turned her hand from Martin's beloved. She died on the stair. I would not have had you meet such a fate, and I did not know then what I know now." She strokes Celina's hand with her free one.
Celina's lips purse to speak the 'but' and yet she hold silent.
After a moment, she adds, "But we must make haste. I have word this morning that an army is marching from Gateway and we are unfortunately in its way. Will you and your companions come with me?"
In a hoarse voice, Celina asks, "Who commands this army?"
Khela looks at her, ignoring the two men for a moment. "According to my sources, an uncle, sweet cousin. An uncle named Huon of the Horn."
Conner does not like the sound of that at all. Gateway would likely bargain passage for Huon's army. Battle would not benefit either side. Still having to pass through the Gate would delay them for a time. "I do not think further contact with Huon of the Horn would aid your cause, Mistress." Conner advises. "Perhaps we should withdraw."
He's right. Celina sucks in her lower lip swallowing the emotions that she has no time to analyze. 'Sweet cousin' has put a eerie twitching to the back of her neck. But the heat between their hands is more true than the learned response of auntie's manners.
Celina wants bedroom time with Khela; talking time and other sweet things that may bring later fury.
"No time, no time," Celina mutters. "Of Huon I have some understanding, but I needs not test it now." She realizes only a moment late that she has said it aloud. She flushes. She protects Conner and Merlin with a twist of words. "Yes, Khela, let us away."
Let Khela believe it is still all about lust.
"Very well. We shall go." Khela glances at Conner and Merlin as if to make sure they are done with their breakfast. Merlin pushes his plate aside. Clearly he is ready to go with Celina and Khela, as little as he likes the entire enterprise.
Khela comes to her feet and leads the way out of the inn, tossing coin for their meal onto the table as she goes. It's a rich and generous payment.
Last modified: 23 April 2007