Brothers: Legacy of the Twice-Dead God (115 page)

“Slow down, little brother,” Kieran called
from behind me, amused. “They won’t burst into flames.” I was quite
a bit ahead of them, so I waited till they caught up and we crested
the hill together. Trying to see the field in a purely optical
sense, the road led to a perfectly normal grassy field blowing in
the breeze. That sight would make sense to me if the grass could
hold a tiny spark of fire in the center. This day is filled with
amazing vistas. This one was over a million points of light, mostly
brownies, but they were all there. Except Shrank. He was waiting on
us at the next bend quite patiently.

“Hi, everybody,” I said loudly to the field
of Fae, stepping onto the edge of the field. I still had the smile
plastered on my face. Remembering the volume of the conversation
with the lesser thousand voices, I took the precaution of baffling
the space in front of us to dull the return some.

“Greetings, Lord Daybreak!” they sang in
unison with amazing volume and pitch.

“Did everyone survive the night?” I asked the
group.

“Yes, Lord Daybreak!” they sang merrily. It
was hard not to empathize with their exuberance and cheerfulness,
even if it did feel terribly vainglorius.

“Very good! Now this is a learning experience
for everybody. None of us has ever done anything like this and
unfortunately, I can’t stay here all the time. I have work to do
that can’t be done here. So speak up if you need something, okay?”
Looking out over the field, I doubted I’d be getting too many calls
for help. They seemed a determined and contented group of… well,
group. I still didn’t quite get how they worked.

“Yes, Lord Daybreak!” they sang. I knew they
were taking cues from someone, but I couldn’t quite catch who. I
could probably search down into a few minds and find out, but they
were going to such lengths I just couldn’t bring myself to do that.
It just seemed unsporting.

“So what can I do for you this morning?” I
asked, finally getting to why they were gathered like this.

A sharp giggle ran through them, then they
sang in unison, “We wish to thank you for this day and for the
lives of our children, Lord…” But instead of the simple,
two-syllable word everyone had been using, they used the ancient
Fae word for daybreak. Unlike any of MacNamara’s names, this was a
natural and flowing word that rose up from the primal forces common
with life. It resonated with a part of me that I didn’t realize was
there. I couldn’t tell what that part of me was, but I
resonated.

“You’re quite welcome!” I responded. “Now,
run along. You have lives to restart.”

Mom and Dad watched the Fae disperse, while I
stepped back onto the road and waited for them to lose some of
their fascination. This wasn’t a sight often seen in either of the
other realms, especially of these Fae—they were the more incredibly
shy ones, normally. Ethan finally got tired of waiting.

“Shrank!” he yelled down the road,
effectively breaking my parents out of their fascination at the
same time. “Get over here, dustball!”

Shrank flew in low and camouflaged between
the road and the field, shooting up in front of me first.
“Greetings, Lord Daybreak!” he squealed happily. “This is an
Unforgettable Day, Sir. Most impressive! Thank you!” He flew to
Kieran. “Greetings, Lord Kieran! May I ask a question, please?”

“Certainly, Shrank,” said Kieran, his face
scrunching slightly, perplexed. “What do you need?”

“Our previous Lord and Ladies, Queens and
Kings, they did not have parents,” said Shrank, uncomfortably. “We
do not know what to call them or how to address them, Lord…”

Kieran laughed aloud, nodding, “Yes, I could
see that being a problem. We’re gonna have to talk about this one,
Shrank. I’m pretty sure Seth is still uncomfortable with the whole
‘Lord Daybreak’ title anyway, so for the time being, let’s stick
with mister and missus, okay?”

“Yes, Lord Kieran,” he piped cheerily, then
moved in front of Mom and Dad. “Greetings, Mr. and Mrs. McClure! I
hope you enjoyed your son’s first Daybreak!” Then he was off to
Peter and Ethan. “Greetings, Master Peter, Master Ethan!”

“Are they calling you ‘Shrank,’ like ‘shrank
in the wash’?” Mom asked the pixie as he wafted by her. I started
us up the road again and Kieran came up beside me.

“Yes, Mrs. McClure,” he answered, rolling in
the air to face her and flying backward with the finesse that few
of even his kind could match. “It is really only a part of my
proper name so technically it is a nickname.”

“Why do you call my son ‘Daybreak’? Last
night it was ‘Seth.’ What’s different now?” Dad asked him.

“Last night, we did not know him,” Shrank
squeaked out. “The power of creation ran rampant all around us, not
touching us, but vesting this realm with vibrant and joyful life.
Once his Lordship bound the others here, they joined with that
rampant joy and sang in that song. The song you heard them sing a
moment ago. The closest word in your language is ‘Daybreak.’”

“Why not ‘dawn’?” Mom asked.

“Certainly an adequate word, Mrs. McClure,”
said Shrank. “But your son is, perhaps, not quite as passive as he
once was.”

“And we all have reason to be thankful for
that,” Peter said, chuckling.

“Y’all quit acting like I hung the sun in the
sky,” I complained over my shoulder. We could hear the river ahead
of us through the trees now, faintly.

“Oh, no, Lord,” squealed Shrank, rolling
again to face front. “You merely placed the planet below it and
hung moons in the sky!” We burst out laughing at the absurdity of
the statement, but the pixie believed it and so did the other Fae.
Further questions were forgotten for a moment and the river got
noisier as we walked nearer. And noisier.

We crested a small rise in the road and were
hit by a roar of rushing waters. The river was massive. Somewhere
between three and four hundred feet wide with deep rivulets
alternating with shallow, rocky plains that created white water
rapids. A kayaker’s dream, perhaps, but deadly fast, feeding the
magnificent waterfall and lake below. We wouldn’t be fording the
river here.

I searched up river for a better site,
finding where the river exchanged with another large lake behind
the palace. This one was not as large as the one below but
certainly just as beautiful and bountiful with flora and fauna.
That way was no better. Kieran and Ethan acted like little boys at
the water’s edge, roughhousing. Ethan started it by pushing Kieran
in the water. I don’t know why he thought he’d get away with it,
but Kieran dropped a few hundred gallons of water directly on top
of him, laughing the entire time, standing knee-deep in the river,
dripping himself. Mom and Peter were laughing about it. Dad just
shook his head, grinning.

Finally deciding I needed a bridge, I pushed
through the dirt and rock at the bottom of the river and called to
the stronger, harder stone below, pulling it up. It was far easier
than I imagined. Wanting as little aggravation to the current
environment as possible, I pulled it up as a stream, almost molten,
and formed the bridge from the bottom up with strong supporting
arches, a thick roadway matching the size of the current road,
complete with railings on both sides. And for the biggest surprise
of my day, as I stood there admiring my handiwork for a moment, I
heard the palace sing, just as the Fae had done.

The Palace sang my name to me, calling to
me.

“Did y’all hear that?” I whispered, awed,
standing at the base of the new bridge.

There was no way anyone could have heard me
to answer, but it was the first time today that the smile had
dropped from my face. I started slowly and mechanically across,
gaining speed to a fast walk once I hit the higher, level
straightway. I wasn’t enraptured by it, just very, very curious.
How does a building sing?

Peter caught up to me while Kieran and Ethan
paced Mom and Dad.

“You okay, Seth? You’re looking a little…
spacey right now,” Peter said.

“Not surprising,” I muttered. “It called me,
Peter.”

“What?”

“The Palace,” I said, subconsciously
capitalizing the word now. “It called me just now, after I made the
bridge. You didn’t hear it?”

“No. And all I can sense here is you. You’re…
pervasive, especially on this island,” he said.

We approached the first of the outside
towers, the road curving around it to the front. Fully-grown trees
hid part and gardens of various flowers and shrubs grew in patterns
forming complex paths throughout the front the entire Palace,
breaking only at the promenade of the main entrance. There were
many open paths to the road and doorways into the Palace from here,
but neither of us felt the need to enter just yet. We both wanted
to go in the front door. But for the first time, I stopped and was
truly struck by the immensity of the structure. It was huge.

“What’s wrong with him?” Kieran asked Peter
as they came up behind us.

“Nothing, I think. He’s just gawking,” Peter
answered, amused at my reaction. “Pick your jaw up, Seth. You’re
letting flies in.”

“What am I gonna do with that much space?” I
asked absently. “I already have a house and it’s too big for
me.”

“Entertain?” Ethan offered and started
walking for the front door again.

“Who, Europe?” I replied, chortling. “I could
probably fit half in this wing and the other half in the other and
still have room in the center.”

“It’s not that big, Seth,” Kieran said
cheerfully.

“Well, it’s three times the size of the
Arena, at least,” I responded and followed after them. The valley
caught my eye right then. The road sloped downward slightly and
terraced into steps several times before changing to a platform
that held a perfect position to view the vista of the valley below
and the mountains beyond. The road widened as we closed in on the
front door, but I was still looking out over the valley when Kieran
gasped aloud, stopping.

When I saw what he was looking at, I
understood. It shocked me, too. I’d seen something like it before.
So had Ethan, standing beside Kieran, speechless and immobile. Mom
and Dad moved in beside them and likely assumed it was because of
the pure spectacle of the colorful and sparkling dome. Same with
Peter, I imagine. I walked out slowly, staring at the stonework. It
was… enthralling.

As I approached the focal line directly in
front of the Palace, the dome sang again, pulsing the sound through
the largest ring and causing a glow in the dark stone. The Palace
called to me. That was so amazing to me. I felt so insignificant
standing there and it wanted me. I pushed out my awareness to the
doors and outward along the face of the sparkling gemstone surface.
The Palace called again and the wave of energy shot through me to
the walls, lighting every ring of stone in different but brilliant
colors. As the lights began to dim, the large black stones of the
doorway pulled back as if on a track, then to either side, giving a
fifty foot wide and thirty foot tall entrance to the foyer. From
there, several other doors slowly swung open more conventionally,
revealing a continuation of the concentric circle motif through
several rooms.

Rings of color, shining at me with iridescent
power, in this specific order. I’d seen this before in the eye of a
Twice-Dead God. As I felt the power of the gemstones of the dome
fade away and the colorful lights died a gentle death, the only
thought I could hold was Des’Ra’El’s last word.

Home.

And I was.

My thoughts raced through the last three
months and out into the future. Problems were mounting on us.
Removing MacNamara from the equation was a serious blow to the
enemy, stealing away much of its hidden manipulations of the human
armies. I still had work to do on the geas and with Kieran and our
company and the Queens of Faery and…

I glanced over at my family, now three men
stronger, peering through the doorway into the bright Palace and
decided that everything could wait till tomorrow. I felt more
complete than I ever have. Today, I had a Palace to explore and a
world to see. Today, I was…

Home.

###

About the
Author

I’m Scott Duff. I have been a voracious
reader all my life,
probably mostly trying to avoid a difficult childhood,
living in the Deep South. I went to college for a very long
time, changing majors in my junior year from Electrical
Engineering
to Computer Science. Life intruded before graduation, though.
I’ve
spent my adult life in restaurants and retail, neither of which
would I
suggest as career choices for anyone. I spend my free time mostly
reading
hard physics and light fantasy. Math and magic.

I can be reached at
[email protected]
.

Read my author page on Smashwords
here
.

If you liked the book (or even if you
didn’t), please leave a review at your favorite e-book store, or on
my blog at Smashwords.

Look for the next in the
Legacy of the
Twice-Dead God
series,
Sons
, coming soon.