Bleys finds Brennan and Paige that evening. "I have had enough mootery for a decade or two. And if we stay, we'll be invited on a tour of regional sub-moots. I think that that is adequate stick to propel us, headlong back in the direction of our own ancestral home, don't you?
"Try not to forget anything, as it's a long walk back."
"You or Aunt don't have a shortcut, short of ripping Grandfather's wonderful tapestry?" she asks rhetorically surprised.
Bleys pulls a card from his pouch and concentrates on it while Paige and Brennan make any last minute preparations they need to make.
Leif is in a sling on Paige's hip in green opposite a bag of their necessities. She holds Brooke, clad in cerulean blue, in her arms. "We're ready."
"Bleys, with a small phalanx of the rescue squad. Can you bring us through?"
He reaches his hand out and passes the others through to Random. They find themselves in a small family dining room. Random looks at Paige and the babies.
"Brother, I'd like you to meet your very grand-niece and nephew, Brooke and Leif. Yes, I know. Time flies and all that."
Random blinks a few times and says "You'll have to share your secret, Paige."
"Once I know what it is, I'll be happy to, Your Majesty," she responds with a wry smile. She looks to the window to judge the hour and the weather if possible.
[Anything that would suggest that Amber's fallen into winter, yet?]
Nope. Perhaps it's past winter, because it seems to be mid-spring.
"I'd guess their father could tell you more," Paige suggests. "Since we're on the subject, there's no chance that anyone knows where he might be found?"
Brooke turns and watches her mother, seemingly aware of the tension even if Paige's voice stays even. Leif may be sleeping through his first audience with the King, if not, he's definitely not overly impressed.
"Majesty," Brennan says. "For the benefit of those of us who ran in lands where time was someone else's whim, how long have we been away? And how much of the news have you already got?"
"You all sailed away about a month ago. Assume I need the full update. I know a picnic was planned..."
"The monarch's summary?" Brennan says. Those words could be the beginning of a flippant recitation. Nothing in Brennan's soft-spoken tones is flippant, though.
"Brita is alive, healthy, and at liberty in Shadow. I understand that she proved herself in Paris. Dame Aisling is confirmed dead. At least part of her survives as a being called Saeth, now in Madoc's custody. Despite everything, I request that she be remembered with honor, in an official sense."
Brennan pauses, then adds the high points of his own trip to Uxmal, and his tone lightens a bit. "Ambrose is confirmed my brother. He's young. We have a middle sister, Chantico, who is going to be a problem, but perhaps not for the larger Family."
Brennan looks to Paige and Bleys, if they have anything to add.
"Conner, too, is at liberty in Shadow, last we saw headed for the Lands of Peace on The Sun," Paige adds. "His next declared port of call beyond that was Amber.
"We've most recently come from Altamar, but Father can tell you much better on that count.
"Only a month here? It's been no more than two for us, at least as well as I could judge in Clarissa" she offers, her tone mixed with exhaustion and concern. It's obvious that Paige is doing the math in her head... Spring here, summer in the Lands of Peace, fall at Ygg, winter in Clarissa, spring in Altamar and getting home again just in time for summer to turn. She looks to her Father, "I think the twins will be needing clothes again in the next month or so."
Bleys looks at them, "Yes, unless you plan to let them take after their father in sartorial minimalism."
"Who knows, Aunt Flora mentioned that she thought less might be the way fashion should go next," Paige quips back with a smile.
Random looks at Brennan. "Tell me more of this brother of yours. He seems to have started out on the wrong foot with us, what with the attack, the kidnapping, and aiding and abetting Dara's Crimes Against Rhetorical Bombast."
Brennan composes his thoughts into a grimace before setting them free. "Ambrose is aware that his recent actions have resulted in an almost complete screwing of the pooch on his part. His story makes some sense to me, given what little I know of him-- He couldn't get to Amber without help, since Brand tended to gaurd his Trumps very carefully. Dara was an inherited alliance that gave him a ride to Amber. He understood her motives, but chanced it, thinking he could deal with Dara and Cleph when they tried to double cross him."
Brennan pauses to acknowledge-- nay, highlight-- the magnitude of overconfidence that this statement implies.
"We know how that ended, more or less. Taking Merlin is something Ambrose claims he was misled about. When he found out that Merlin was terrified of his mother, he claims he decided to let Merlin go, just as he decided to convey Brita to safety. Right now he's caught between Dara, who will certainly try to use him again, and a domestic situation back home that's got no easy solution."
Brennan shrugs. There's much more he could say about any of the above subjects, but he's not saying them right now.
Random nods.
Paige nibbles her lip and doesn't comment on Ambrose either. "Do we know the current whereabouts of Merlin? I had hoped to reassure him that I still know him, even after spawning."
Brooke babbles, "Muh-win," and her brother stirs at the sound of her voice.
"Merlin's here. He came in with his sister, Celina."
Bleys just looks at Random for a moment. Random adds, "Moire's."
"Well," says Bleys, "I hope that Chateau Random has lots of room, brother. At this rate, you'll be up to your eyeteeth in relatives before you get to your coronal anniversary."
Brennan raises a speculative eyebrow, and gives Bleys a sidelong glance, but has nothing to add.
"Do I even have eyeteeth? They sound painful." Random shakes his head. "In any case, considering that any unguarded offspring is a risk to Dworkin's design, I'm not lifting Dad's anti-progeny stance. Exceptions are to be made as necessary, but they should be exceptions." He turns to Brennan. "So try not to give birth in the next few centuries, old chap, if you can at all avoid it."
"Count on it," Brennan says smoothly.
Paige quirks a smile at the image of Brennan giving birth. "So, we wandered off and you've heard most all of that. What's passed here that we should be aware of, Uncle?" She's rocking gently side to side, and humming lightly, but does seem to give him her total attention. "Besides a new daughter of Uncle Corwin."
"It's been somewhat slow, but we managed to entertain ourselves. Did anyone tell you that I made a pattern, in a place called Xanadu? 'struth! I'm running a tour group there in a day or so. On which tour you're invited."
He runs his fingers through his hair. "Anyone have a smoke? I gave away my last one a while back."
"Paris and Xanadu, then," Brennan observes. "Fanily started choosing sides, yet? Or does that come later?"
Bleys tosses a bag to Random. "Only the foolish would commit so early, Brennan. Even Flora would, I expect, think it was gauche."
The King digs in the bag, and contradicts his brother. "Nope, she's Corwin's."
Brennan smiles faintly to himself-- even in this political family, there had to be at least one or two family members who detested Random or Corwin so much that they'd put gut emotions above cynical calculations.
[Bleys]
"I see. I trust your majesty will allow me more time to choose?"
Random waves nonchalantly at the three redheads and nods, once.
Brennan nods graciously in return.
Paige's been a little preoccupied with the twins, but nods at taking the time to choose. A small smile quirks her lip as she lifts the twins' bag to her shoulder again as she notices that none of the men here are eligible targets for her "I told you so."
After the debriefing with King Random (however long that takes) Brennan returns to his own quarters, paces for a few minutes, then summons Dignity to get the update on who is known to be in and out of Amber at the moment. He has Dignity wait while he writes a few messages, first to Lilly, Marius, and Jovian:
Dame Lilly/Sir Marius/Sir Jovian,
I'm back, and I have news. Some of it is bad news which shouldn't be delivered by letter, but won't wait until we can all gather at the same time and the same place. We should meet as soon as possible, though.
Sir Brennan, KCOR
Another for Brita:
Brita,
Looks like I beat you back to Amber. Do you happen to play chess? That invitation is still open, so I can catch you up on the Uxmal/Ambrose situation, and a few other matters of import. I think we should talk when you get back.
Brennan
And, after some thought, Martin:
Prince Martin,
I have news that bears on us both, that you need to hear if you haven't already.
Sir Brennan, KCOR
And, finally, Caine:
Prince Caine,
I have news.
Sir Brennan, KCOR
When he's finished writing those in his practiced hand, he gives them to Dignity, then takes him aside to somewhere private where they are extremely unlikely to be overheard. "Dignity, the first task is easy: Deliver these to their addressees. Some of them aren't here, and those that are, you don't need to wait for a response unless they tell you to." He hesitates, half smiles. "Don't go out of your way to tell Cambina or her staff that I'm back."
Then he puts his hand on the boy's shoulder, "Here's the interesting part, by which I mean, the part that you're not going to talk to anyone about. After you've finished that, go to the ballroom and have a quick look around. Do that at least once a day, at times when no one is likely to be there, perhaps very early in the morning. Work it in to your daily schedule, and do not advertise it. Report to me anything unusual you see. If you're questioned about it, and cannot talk your way out of it, refer them to me, or to King Random."
Brennan dismisses the youth, after answering any questions he may have.
A short time later, he heads out of his rooms, muttering to himself, "That's right, Brennan, try to surprise the precognitive girlfriend. That's a plan, all right." His goal is to find the right location to casually lean against a doorframe just as she comes around a corner.
"You're late," she says, reproach written large across on her face. She walks up to him and places her hands around his waist and looks up at his face.
"Hello, yourself. I wrote you. Did you get my letter?" His hands rest comfortably on her hips, pulling her closer, looking back down and giving her a distinctly fade-to-black look with those green, green eyes of his.
"Yes. We were glad for the news, although your uncle was not thrilled to hear that it 'just arrived'. How ever did you cleverly manage to send it?"
"I had to sweet talk a Lord of Chaos to get it sent. And I had to keep my brother from getting killed, and maybe get him straightened out after his charming introduction to the Family.
"Unavoidably delayed," he says. "But not any more."
For at least a moment, I suspect neither of them will be speaking.
After Cambina catches her breath, she looks up at Brennan. "So, you know about Random, right?"
Brennan pushes one strand of black hair back into place, smiling down, before he offers her his arm to lead her away.
"His new artwork? Yes, that was part of the delay. Unless there's something else. I have news on four new relatives: Paige gave birth to Brooke and Leif. Aisling... spawned a being called Saeth. But Aisling is dead. And Ambrose and I have a half-sister, Chantico."
"His Royal Self is having a gallery opening, to which we're invited, just as soon as Folly and Martin get there to pull us all through." She takes his arm. "Tell me more about how Aisling has a child. That sounds like a fascinating story. I've never seen a train wreck, but I've heard of them."
Brennan isn't sure how much Cambina knows about the Chaosi equivalent of a life-cycle, so he starts out with what little he understands of the basics. If he sees that he's telling her things she already knows, he'll jump forward.
"Fascinating is one word for it. Grisly is another. One of the ways that Lords of Chaos reproduce is by some sort of fissioning or splitting off. I'm blessedly unclear on the details, but I gather the Lord splits off a small part of itself, and we'd call the smaller part the child of the larger, by way of analogy. I think the parent-- the original parent, before the spawning-- has some control over the..." Brennan waves his unoccupied hand, looking for the right word in Thari, "...template? Personality? of the child. I think that may be why Aisling was so off. She was made to be a spy.
"Well. It turns out if you damage one sufficiently, something similar happens. The diminshed being that remains isn't the original Lord, but still has some memories and traits of it."
Brennan pauses for a deep breath. "So when Grandmother decided she wanted her niece at the family reunion, she didn't let trivialities like Caine's prison get in the way. And she did enough damage in the process that Aisling is effectively dead, with this new Saeth in her place. Who has at least enough memory to remember who Caine is. She's with Madoc, now, out of reach. She and all the memories she retained."
Brennan muses, "I think it can go the other direction, too, merging instead of splitting. Thus, the damage Dara did to that gaurd. Thus, her desire for Merlin's return. I don't know--"
Something in Brennan's train of thought strikes him hard enough that he scowls and almost misses a step in concentration. Cambina knows him well enough to realize that he's got several thoughts bouncing around his head. The one that reaches his lips is, "I wonder if Dara is such a psychobitch because Merlin got all the reasonableness and calmness?"
"I don't know, but I know who we can ask."
Brennan shoots her an arched, but not unamused eyebrow, imagining that conversation.
She smiles and changes the subject. "If I ever complain about life, remind me that I could have been born on the Chaos side of the family." She shudders. "It's almost enough to make me feel sorry for Aisling, you know."
Brennan gives a very philospohical shrug. "I'm done making excuses for her after the gun thing. Now I'm just trying to understand, so nothing else comes up and bites us in the rear."
Brennan lets the conversation change course, too. "So other than new art galleries, what's the gossip from here?"
"I've got the latest copy of 'The Dirt' back in my rooms, if you're looking for that." She smiles. "I think we've managed to keep a lid on the big migration, but the family seems to be falling over itself to get out of Amber. Which new cousins do you want the scoop on?" She smiles again, and it's less friendly.
"Well, now that we have duelling art galleries, it's going to get real interesting, real fast. As for new cousins... all of them, of course."
"Alright, let's start at the start, then. Hannah is new. Found by your favorite Aunt having tea in a very special grove."
Brennan raises an eyebrow. That's a story he's going to have to hear.
"She's a physician from a culture that's discovered the scientific method. I think she's been practicing in a frontier region of her home shadow, though. For reasons I do not completely fathom, everyone's impulse has been to throw her at Gerard's legs."
"Family hazing ritual?" Brennan murmurs.
"She has no idea who her parent is, except that she was "a white woman who stayed with our tribe long enough to give birth and then left."
She looks at him to see if he has any questions.
"Are they going to throw her at Lucas' ear, too? Or would that be too cruel?" More seriously, "Did she prove herself in the grove?"
"Hmf. Hannah tried to fry off her own ear in the grove, so I think she may have proven something."
"That sticking your unprotected head into the center of the universe is a bad idea, if nothing else," Brennan mutters. "But we knew that."
"Yes, I'm concerned that Cousin Hannah will be perfectly well equipped to be a member of the majority of our extended family."
Brennan's ready to hear about the next on her list, too.
"Next is one Celina, brother to Merlin, Aunt to Martin. And no, she isn't Oberon's by Dara. She's the Rebman equivalent of the Innocent MilkMaid who is determined to be an Enchanted Princess and brought to the Castle, except she never quite figured out she why they brought her to live in the castle." Cambina waves her free hand around, as if grasping for a reason that she can't find. "She came in with Merlin."
"I didn't think Rebma had innocent milkmaids. Or innocent anythings. Granted, I have to filter this through Brand's ravings, but he made the place sound pretty rough, politically. Corwin and... Moire?" Brennan says, trying to work the answer out from what Brand told him of Rebman lineages. He looks to Cambina for confirmation, before saying, "There's a kid born to be someone's pawn." He doesn't sound joyful over that, but there it is.
"Speaking of Rebma, How is your brother?"
"All wet. He's in Rebma. He's come up with some elaborate plan that involves convincing Random to tell Moire that Jerod is working for him. My guess is it's all some scheme to keep him from having to tell his grandmother 'No' without it being about his choice. Still, it keeps him busy, and happy in his paranoid state."
Brennan snorts, then says, "And does Moire tear people apart just to complete her family reunions? I thought not." Then, "There does seem to be an almost pre-emptive Rebman element to the Kingly lines of descent, doesn't there? Your brother through Eric, Martin through Random, and now this Celina girl through Corwin. It's almost enough to make your other paranoid wonder just what those fabled mirrors can see."
"Have you noticed how Jerod and Martin keep their rooms darkened?
"No, but I've also never been in their rooms. I can't say I'm surprised," Brennan says. He refrains, at this moment, from pointing out that he's never seen the inside of Cambina's rooms, either, even though that's the way they happen to be heading.
"Some spies are more subtle than others.
"Solace has had another of her fainting incidents."
"Really. Lucas must be getting worred. How are the children holding up?"
"Phillippe is doing well enough. Hope is worried. His ineffable majesty has taken an interest in children, to the extent of providing them with a drum and bugle, respectively. The children's bedtime is becoming much more well publicized in the quietude of it."
"Their grandmothers must be thrilled," Brennan says. "I'll have to pay a visit to Lucas, tomorrow. So, Hannah and Celina. Any others? Because I've got more, but they're historical, and you might already know about them."
"I have one more, and the circumstances are also hysterical. I've saved the best for last." Her eyes are twinkling. "The day before yesterday, for a longer time than I would have expected, a former servingmaid from the castle was banging on the door to Random's office, demanding entry and the return of her missing son, apparently kidnapped by Prince Martin and apparently also Random's son. Or so the maid said. Repeatedly. Loudly. No one could calm her down and his Majesty spent the time performing extended drum solos within. Eventually, the woman's husband was summoned from the stables and managed to remove her with no loss of life on either side."
Brennan listens to this with rapt attention, picturing the whole scene-- or trying-- in his mind's eye. When she's finished, all Brennan can ask is, "Did she declare war, too?"
"So, Groom Garrett is Cousin Groom Garrett. Who else do you have?
"Two names I have, for the consideration of my favorite historian: Huon and Ysabeau. Heard of them?"
She nods. "Yes, but not in the present tense. Huon was the source of the 'no fratricides' rule of Grandfather's."
"Really," Brennan says. "Interesting. And would he have been on the giving end, or the receiving end?"
"He was officially banned and stricken from the histories for fratricide. There's no record of his birth, his parentage, or his crime. But I asked Gerard and he told me a bit. The story is that he pushed his older brother onto the pattern knowing it would kill him. Gerard said that there weren't any tears shed for him. Or perhaps he said 'thair were no' a tear shed for the laikes o' that un, lass.' Yes, something like that. I got the impression that he was young and mean."
Brennan looks well and truly apalled by that. "And here I was tentatively set to have some sympathy for him," Brennan says.
"I met neither of them, but it turns out that Brand had left behind a small handful of Trumps for Ambrose to inherit, none of which Ambrose knew anything about. The others were Paige and Lucas. My hypothesis is that these were people Brand thought-- at least at one time-- might not be immediately missed if they happened to suffer a brief spell of exsanguination syndrome.
"Where did Huon fall in the birth order, do you know?" Brennan asks.
"Towards the end, in the part where everyone says 'And then it gets really confusing'".
"Well," Brennan says, at length, "That he was a homicidal maniac doesn't invalidate the hypothesis. I suppose it strengthens it, since evidently, no one would miss him. Just for the benefit of my continuing education, who was the older brother?"
"Someone who couldn't walk the pattern. I can find his name, but I wasn't really paying much attention at the time. I got the idea that it was more than just naming him outlaw and banishing him, but that he was actually sent someplace from which he couldn't get back."
"Interesting," Brennan muses. "Conjures visions of Caines little pocket prisons, doesn't it?"
Even though Brennan had been slowing his pace not simply in deference to Cambina's shorter stride, but to prolong the conversation, they inevitably reach Cambina's suites, but Brennan does not depart. Unless she protests, Brennan pulls her close again, and kisses her once, twice, with increasing urgency.
"Cambina," he says. "I don't want to leave you, again."
She kisses him. "That could get awfully inconvenient. We both have things to do and I don't do knightly stuff." She kisses him again. "Or do you just mean I don't want to leave you again, 'tonight'?" Her face is too close to his for him to focus clearly, but he thinks her eyebrows went up, mockingly.
Brennan concedes to her logic: "If we can't do knightly things together, that leaves things nightly, doesn't it?"
[FTB?]
[Yes, sarcastic comments continue at appropriate intervals, but not at *every* opportunity.]
When Brennan sorts through his papers, he finds the following note:
Kinsman:
I've had word of things that concern us both. We should talk. If I'm still out of Amber, my father has my card, as does Merlin.
The letter is signed with a scrawled 'M' and the rest of Martin's name added as an afterthought.
A day or so after Paige's return from Altamar, she receives a package in the form of a large workman-like back-pack of sturdy canvas, stained with use but smelling green and fresh. It is presented by a Ranger named Couth, who says it's a gift from Lady Robin.
Paige thanks Couth and asks that he send her appreciation to Lady Robin. "Is she within Arden or further out?" She asks while looking into the pack's interior.
"I don't rightly know, Lady," Couth says. He's an older man, stout and gone a bit to seed, but with a fine appreciation for womanflesh from the sparkle in his eye. "She sent this in some time ago, and gave me instructions to give it to you. I'll send your thanks on, but I'm here to stay. Prince Julian says I'm to help ward you against what may come from the Deep Green."
"Really?" Paige asks. "That will be appreciated, but I think it'll be the twins before me that have those worries."
"Well, Lady, I don't think he was thinkin' there were gonna be twins just yet. I know he and Robin were worried, because they wouldn't've sent me, and Robin wouldn't have said you should do what you need to make sure what's in here is safe." Couth gestures to the pack.
She indicates a seat nearby and waves him toward it. "I've another bodyguard in town, and I'm suitably skilled with arms myself, even if I don't have a regular training schedule since I've returned. My other protector should be on his way back soon from abroad.
"I'm sure I can get the three of you in a suitable rotation," she thinks out loud. "Has Prince Julian been in contact recently?"
"No, Lady. He's gone into the Deep Green, just like Robin, and there's not much you can do to send word in from there." Couth moves to the chair, but he doesn't sit down. He seems a restless fellow, and would probably just fidget if he did sit down.
Paige sets the pack on the floor befor her and begins unpacking. "Couth, did Robin make you aware of what you were carrying?" she asks.
"Not so much, but I had to pull out the Mother's Heal to water it and I saw some of it." Couth eyes Paige appreciatively. "With all due respect, Lady, I don't think you'll be needing that so much now."
Paige's blush is slight as she accepts the compliment with a small nod of her head.
Inside the pack, Paige finds the following items:
A large basket cleverly woven of fresh pine boughs, fragrant with sprigs of lavender interwoven in a decorative pattern reminiscent of blossoming trees overhanging a peaceful glade.
"Beautiful," she comments.
In the basket is --
A exquisitely soft and comforting hand-woven wool throw. It's colors are vivid reds, majestic golds, and dusky oranges fading to deep majestic purples and serene blues. While there is no pattern or image per se in the blanket, when held open it is clearly a sunset over the sea.
Paige smiles, remembering other sunsets. "Thelema..."
A medium sized plant of a succulent nature rising from a satiny polished 'pot' made from a single large hollowed oak burl. The swirls and seams of the wood creating a peaceful texture that begs to be stroked lingeringly when one is in a contemplative mood.
The plant itself is healthy and bursting with vitality.
[Paige knows that chewing the succulent leaves of Mother's Heal is reputed to be a side-effect free remedy for morning sickness. And in some stories, it's said that the children born of a mother who chews Mother's Blessing will be gifted with strength and luck.]
Paige breaks a stem and chews on the leaf as she investigates the rest of the Robin-sent gifts. If it's good before hand, it probably can't hurt now.
Two stuffed bunnies -- not rabbits, bunnies. Floppy oversized heads from which eminently chewable ears depend in comfortable happy drapes. Stubby arms and legs, perfect for holding onto while dragging the poor unfortunate animal down the stairs. Plump stuffed bodies that demand one lay one's head upon them when one cannot fight the afternoon nap a moment more. Bunnies. With extremely secure eyes of bright river rock that seem wise and playful at the same time.
One is black and white, the other white and black. Otherwise they are identical. And stuffed with some sort of small non-toxic sweet smelling seeds that hisses pleasantly as it flows from one floppy limb to another. The fur of the bunnies is actual rabbit fur, but it... must have been treated somehow for it seems to absolutely resist shedding in hand or mouth and is very, very clean.
"I shall definitely have to find a way to thank her," Paige says, repacking the treasures carefully. "Come, we'll find someplace I won't kill the plant and I'll introduce you to the Warden's newest grandchildren."
[Couth will serve as a bodyguard with a primary eye for the twins, and he's willing to be worked into Paige's service. If Paige wants to pay him, he'll accept her coin, but he really is Julian's man and always will be.]
She figures she's housing him and feeding him when they're not in the palace, and understands that he's the Warden's, but it's also explained that if he has need of something that he should to address it to Grant or her. Mace is the other bodyguard to hand, but Winter's not just there to nurse.
If he's up to it, she'll try to find a regular sparring time to work with him.
Paige will set in motion her minions and scribble off a note for Merlin...
Merle,
If you have the time, please come see the accuracy of your scrying and allow me to reassure you that I haven't forgotten you. In fact, I've missed you horribly.
If she's available, I've heard that there's a new woman in your life, a sister, that I'd love to meet, too.
P
Merlin sends a return note:
Paige,
I am so pleased that you have returned and will be happy to visit you. When would it be convenient for me to see you and the infants? I am using my chambers for a studio, and I do not know whether that will suit for the new beings.
I think you will like my sister.
Merlin
And Paige answers...
Merle,
It might suit the children, but I doubt it would suit your work. We're taking a late lunch/early dinner in the gardens. Please join us and invite your sister, also.
P
When found in the gardens, there is a large blanket spread on the lawn near a fountain. Seated upon the blanket is Paige in a simple skirt of green and blouse of ivory. Some of her hair is falling out of the netting she has it drawn back in, or perhaps it's been pulled out by the child in green that's currently pulling on it. There's another child, this one in blue and holding a ragdoll unicorn, laughing at the antics. Nearby there's a low table with several varieties of soft finger foods, fruits and the like, along with a pitcher of fruit juice and a carafe of mixed wine.
Merlin arrives alone. He is dressed in black, as he often is. He stops and looks at the children as he approaches.
"Paige?" he says, tentatively.
She looks up from her son to her cousin and more importantly, her friend. "I still answer to that. This is leifandbrooke, they're still working on being Leif," she indicates the green clothed boy making for the fountain as his fastest crawl while Mama is distracted, "and Brooke."
Brooke in Blue is sitting, still holding her play unicorn tight, and watching the newcomer with interest. She parrots her mother, "Mama."
Merlin says gravely, "Hello, Leifandbrooke." He eyes the children speculatively.
Paige waves Merlin over and indicates a spot on the blanket beside her. "Tell, me everything I've missed. How fares Paris? Who is this new cousin, your sister? I'd tell you to spare no details, but I've made that mistake before."
Merlin sits down next to Paige.
"Paris is well. We watched Vere essay the trial, and Jerod also. Both succeeded, and went into Rebma afterward. While we were there, but before Vere tried himself, a delegation arrived from Rebma, led by a young woman who was a close intimate of the Queen. She carried a message from the Queen to my father. It said she was his daughter, and that she had been sent to him for protection from some trouble in Rebma. Later, she came here to Amber with me, and now she has gone ahead to Xanadu."
He observes Leifandbrooke again, in their separate halves. "You must have passed a long time while you were gone. They are older than I saw them being after a year."
"Not as you saw after a year, but as you saw them after the turning of seasons. They seem to be aging in response to the local Shadow's changes. I'll be interested to see what happens when they're under the influence of one of the anchors again," Paige explains.
Merlin nods, taking that information in and filing it.
"If their personal time stayed true, I'd still be pregnant," Paige says, her hand sliding over her stomach without thought, mimicing the gesture from earlier in her pregnancy."
"Aisling is gone, I'm sure you've heard. We met she who remains, Saeth, in Clarissa. Madoc was there, but the children came and I can't offer you much more in news Chaos-ward."
Merlin frowns. "I am surprised there was only one spawn if the Aisling spawned under such circumstances as to cause one to remain. I hope the rest of it has not returned to Amber with you. Not that I think your father would have missed such an infestation in close quarters, particularly when he has Leifandbrooke to watch out for."
"I've not heard any talk of another spawn, but I'll keep my ear to the ground. Perhaps the other spawn remained here from where Grandmother drew her? Then it wouldn't have had to return."
"Maybe," says Merlin. But he doesn't sound like he's counting on it.
He watches the children for a moment. "Spawning seems to make orderly females fragile. Did you know that Solace has suffered a collapse recently?"
"No, I hadn't heard," Paige answers with obvious interest and concern. "Has Uncle Gerard looked in on her?"
"He has, and I have been told the new cousin Hannah has looked in on her as well. I have not met her yet," Merlin offers, anticipating her next question.
Paige chuckles and returns her attention to the twins. "I'll have to look in on her myself, and perhaps this new cousin as well."
"Speaking of cousins," she begins quietly. "Have you any word of Adonis? I had hoped to find him returned," Paige admits.
"None, but I am recently come myself. Perhaps one of our uncles knows," Merlin says. "Or I could locate him for you, perhaps."
"Other than my father, I have no uncle Trumps at the moment, and if Father knows, he's not speaking of it."
Paige looks at him thoughtfully. "Do you think you could locate him?" she asks, hope creeping into her voice. "I don't want to put the twins in danger, but I don't know what all the dangers are without him.
"And while Julian offered support before, I'd like to know what I'm asking before bothering him." She looks to the children who have found the bunnies beneath her shawl.
"What can I do to help?" she asks resolutely.
"To find Adonis, I would need something of his. I do not know whether the offspring he produced with you will be enough. Hair or bodily fluids are good, perhaps nail clippings. Anything that might have a magical resonance. Do you have any such?" Merlin asks.
Paige thinks for a few moments, shaking her head. "None that I know of, but there are the fire-lillies. I suppose we could try to find one of them," she says. "Not that I'm keen on going anyplace near Heather Vale.
"I wonder if anyone's transplanted any of them?" she muses aloud. "Have you seen one? I'm hesitant to shift toward them."
"I know nothing of them. What are they?" Merlin asks.
"Flowers of flame that emerge from places that Adonis bled in Heather Vale and then further into Arden," Paige explains. "Perhaps his fellow knights know where we might find one. I'd think the magical resonance of a shapeshifter's blood creation would work, yes? Or would the proliferation of the blossoms themselves interfere?"
"I do not know. I would have to see such a blossom to even begin to guess," Merlin says thoughtfully. "Yes, we will have to ask the Knights about this, or your father and aunt."
"Father hasn't mentioned them, of course that doesn't truly mean anything, but I don't know where my Aunt currently is," Paige mentions. "Which Knights are about? Brennan and Marius, I know. Lilly's off for Xanadu, yes?
"Is Jovian about?"
"I do not know. I think I saw him the other morning at breakfast, but I have not seen him since," Merlin says.
Paige bites her bottom lip shrugs. "I figure he might have some idea where his brother is without having to turn to sorcery. Well..."
Paige finishes feeding the children and takes them to her bedchamber that's been set up as a nursery and sees them settled with their Nurses Eve and Winter.
As they walk back into the hall she suggests, "We could look for the Knight Commanders together or split up."
Paige and Merlin search for the Knights, but the closest they come is finding Brennan's aide, Icicle. She reports that Brennan is out for the day, and none of the other KCs are currently in Amber. She'll take a message for Brennan if Paige and Merlin would like to leave one.
Paige is willing to leave word that she'd like to talk to him if he's available today to tomorrow. She thanks Merlin for his help and promises to let him know if she locates something that he can use for focus.
Last modified: 21 November 2004