The Final Key: Part Two of Triad (13 page)

"Grandfather!" The boyish voice burst out behind them.

Roca turned with a start. Eldrinson maneuvered around more awkwardly, but faster than she had seen him move since he started to walk again. A seven-year-old boy was running up a hallway deeper within the house, his black hair disheveled over his shirt collar, his gold eyes fringed by black lashes.

A smile creased Eldrinson's face. He braced himself against the wall with one hand as the boy barreled into him and threw his arms around Eldrinson's waist. The Bard put his free arm around the boy and hugged him back.

"Taqui!" Dehya hurried over and caught Eldrinson's arm as he staggered under the boy's onslaught "You mustn't knock over your grandfather."

Taquinil let go of Eldrinson and looked up, brimming full of excitement as if he were lit from inside. "I was reading cosmology. I didn't even know you were here!"

"Cosmology?" Eldrinson asked.

"Are you going to stay with me?" TaquiniFs words tumbled out like balls bouncing everywhere. "Is it really true?"

The Bard's face gended. "It really is true."

"I'm so glad!" Taquinil grabbed his hand and tugged him forward. "We can play games. I'll show you my Bessel

runcaon generator. Ana you can see where l swim! it has a waterfall."

Eldrinson laughed as he struggled to keep his balance. Dehya nudged Taquinil back so he didn't send his grandfather toppling. The boy suddenly realized who else was standing nearby. He hurled himself into Roca's arms. "Grandmother, you're gold."

Roca held him close. "I've always been this color."

He stepped back. "I just forget the way you're like metal instead of normal."

"Taquinil!" Dehya turned red, an unusual state for the normally unruffled pharaoh. She gave Roca an apologetic look. "He didn't mean that the way it sounded."

"But it's true," Taquinil said.

"It's all right," Roca said, laughing. "Look at your eyes, Taqui. They're like mine."

He regarded her somberly. "Like Uncle Kurj's."

Eldrinson grunted. "No need to insult yourself, young man."

Roca frowned at her husband. "Eldri."

"Well, it's true." He winked at Taquinil. "We will have great times together, eh?"

"Yes! I'm so glad you came." Taquinil's smile faded. "But are you really sick? You don't look sick."

Dehya glanced at Roca. 'Didyou ted him 'Eldrinson was sicft

Roca shook her head. She could speak mentally only with people she trusted enough so that she and the other person were willing to drop their mental barriers. Even then, it only worked if the sender focused the thought. They both shielded their thoughts from the boy.

I rfUfttt ted him, Roca thought. Did you?

Only that you and'Eldrinson were coming. 1 wasn't sure about 'Elan's condition or how much he wanted your son to Iqiow.

Taquinil was watching them. His thoughts sparkled as clear as rain water. Grandfather is here to heal his epilepsy.

Roca winced. She should have known they couldn't hide their thoughts from the boy, at least in such close quarters.

Eldrinson gave Taquinil a reassuring smile. Maybe the doctors here can help.

I hope so.
Taquinil could have spoken, since they were all in the conversation now, but telepathy with his family came so easily to him, he often didn't seem to distinguish between speech and thought.
Your neurons fire too much.

Dehya put her hand on her son's shoulder.
Have you fed your grandfather's seizures?

Like an echo.
His gaze took on an otherworldly quality.
If a a storm that flares, wild and mad. It jumps until his mind aches.
He regarded his grandfather,
it is not demons, Grandhoshpa. "Really.

Eldrinson tilted his head as if he were seeing Taquinil for the first time. In some sense he was; Roca traveled more often than her husband or grandson, so she had experienced far more of the boy's remarkable mind. For all that Taquinil paid a price in his extreme mental sensitivity, his gifts of the intellect and his empathic kindness made him a marvel.

Eldrinson put his arm around the boy's shoulder.
You and I will chase those demons down.

We will!
Taquinil tugged his hand.
Come see the holo palace I built.

Eldrinson chuckled, and winked at Roca. Then he went off with Taquinil, down a blue hallway with holosunsets on the walls.

Roca turned to Dehya. "Your son is good for Eldri." She spoke aloud; unlike Taquinil, most of them had trouble maintaining telepathic conversation for long.

'Taquinil loves him so much." She walked with Roca outside, into the dappled shade of the trees. Dehya was twenty-five years her senior; as a child, Roca had admired her genius sister, and as adults, they often turned to each other for support. But Dehya's marriage had nearly destroyed their bond. Roca knew her anger should have been directed at the Assembly rather than the victims of its machinations, but her heart couldn't hear that logic. The situation had created a rift between her and Dehya that took years to heal. Roca was only able to accept it when she saw how much Eldrin thrived with his family.

Lately he even seemed euphoric, so much that it didn't seem normal. It troubled Roca; she wondered if he had "help" for his mood. Since his separation from his family, he

was drinking more. But perhaps she was overreacting. The last time she had seen him, at the Ruby Palace, he hadn't touched the rum-laced kava that Kurj had enjoyed.

"How are things with you and Eldrin?" Roca asked.

Dehya was quiet for a moment, her gaze downcast as they walked under the trees. Then she said, "I miss him terribly." She looked up at Roca. "I don't understand why he can't come home. I've been afraid..."

Roca waited. "Yes?"

"That he doesn't want to come back."

"He does." Roca had no doubt on that score. "He's worried he'll hurt Taquinil. Or you."

"He would never harm us."

"Intentionally, no." Roca hesitated. "Does Eldrin still see the therapist?"

Dehya frowned at her. "Of course not. He isn't sick, and I don't want people making him think something is wrong with him. He gets enough of that rubbish from the Assembly."

"No, he's not sick." Roca drew her to a stop in a cluster of spiral trees. "Dehya, he can be healthy and still be troubled in his life. He needed that counseling. It was one of the reasons his father and I arranged for him to come here eight years ago."

Dehya's delicate fist clenched at her side. "If you mean he was traumatized by going into that barbaric war with your husband when he was sixteen, then hell yes. But that's over now."

"It's not over." It frustrated Roca that Dehya could be so brilliant in so much, yet so blind in this. "It isn't just the war. It's everything, the differences in his father's culture and mine, his feelings of inadequacy compared to Althor, and now Althor is dead—"

"Inadequacy?" Dehya stared at her. "He has no reason to feel he is less than his brother. They are completely different." A shadow crossed her face as breezes shifted the trees. In a subdued voice, she added, "Were completely different."

Were. Roca spoke past her grief. "We know that. But see it from his view. Althor is two years younger than Eldrin, but they hit puberty together. By that time, Althor was bigger,

stronger, faster, better in school, and at ease with modern culture. Althor qualified for the Dieshan Military Academy when Eldrin could barely learn to read and write."

Dehya crossed her arms. "Eldrin isn't stupid."

"I didn't say he was stupid!" Roca wanted to shake her. "You've seen the records. His father isn't stupid, either, he's neurologically incapable of written language. Eldrin inherited whatever causes it. Eldrin learned to read because we caught it earlier, but he may have lost something valuable in the process. We just don't know. Althor learned to read when he was three; Eldrin when he was seventeen." Her voice quieted. "Althor was, to everyone on Lyshriol, the epitome of the warrior, the golden prince, the star warrior who rode the skies in a glowing ship."

"Eldrin is an artist," Dehya said. "His voice is an unmatched gift."

"I agree. But Lyshriol culture values warriors." Roca pushed back the tendrils of hair blowing over her face. 'The girls in Dalvador wanted Althor, including the girl Eldrin liked. Even if Althor never said anything, Eldrin knew his brother had no interest in those girls. That, in a culture that considers heterosexual marriage the only valid expression of sensual love. Eldrin couldn't deal with all the contradictions and comparisons."

Dehya crossed her arms. "Eldrin isn't responsible for the prejudices of Lyshriol and your husband."

Roca stiffened. "We weren't talking about my husband."

"He's the one who disowned Althor."

"He disowned Althor for taking Soz to DMA." Roca knew it was more complicated, but she felt how much her husband mourned that he had never reconciled with Althor. He would live the rest of his life grieving that his last words to his son were spoken in anger.

Dehya scowled. "Soz would have gone crazy if he had made her stay home and get married."

Roca crossed her arms, mirroring her sister. "I do not wish to discuss your problems with my husband."

"I don't have problems with your husband. I like him. My problems are with his attitudes."

"Yes, well, he says the same about you."

Eldrin is changing. Dehya lowered her arms, making an obvious effort to relax. "You've seen him in Assembly. He comes to almost every session."

There was that. It impressed Roca. She had never expected her son to take an interest in politics. His first appearance in the Assembly had shocked everyone. She knew he believed it was because they considered him inferior. And it was true, some of the more foolish delegates felt that way. But his age caused the greatest consternation. Among the thousands of representatives, Eldrin was by far the youngest.

Most members of Skolia's governing body won their hard-fought seats after decades of political maneuvering. The few hereditary seats held by the noble Houses went to senior members of those families. Everyone in the Ruby Dynasty had a seat, but most of Roca's children were too young and none had shown an interest. Almost none. The day seventeen-year-old Eldrin had walked into the amphitheater and setded regally into his chair, Roca's jaw had dropped along with everyone else's. It pleased her no end that he chose to participate.

"I'm proud of him." Roca made herself lower her arms as well. She could guess why Dehya resisted hearing about Eldrin's problems. "Everyone, at some time or another, needs help. It doesn't mean the people who love them have failed them."

Dehya watched her for a long moment. Then she stared at the hills beyond the glade where they stood. "I will miss this place while I'm gone."

Roca understood her well enough to recognize the topic was closed. But she knew Dehya. The pharaoh was thinking about what she had said.

"When do you leave for Parthonia?" Roca asked.

"In a few hours." Dehya glanced at the house. "I wish I didn't have to go."

"I, too. But I need to get home." Although she trusted her older children to look after the younger ones, she didn't like leaving them. "I'll attend this Assembly session through the web."

"I worry about security." Dehya began walking with her

again. "When I'm extended through the meshes, I absorb so much data, it's hard to define individual pieces. But the web seems jagged lately. Less stable."

"Do you think it would be safer if I went to Parthonia?"

Dehya hesitated. "I would say yes, but Kurj wants the Rhon dispersed as widely as possible. He isn't happy with you going to Lyshriol, either, with so many of your children there, but I don't think he will forbid it He knows they need you, even if he has a hard time saying that."

It exhausted Roca dealing with Kurj's conflicted emotions toward his half-siblings. He obviously loved them but he refused to admit it. "What do you think? Is our family in danger?"

Dehya gathered up her hip-length hair and began twisting it into a braid. "Yes. Everyone is. Certainly we should minimize our vulnerability. That doesn't mean we should hide and tremble. It does no good to have the power of Rhon psions if we're too afraid to use it."

Roca thought of her husband. He should have been protected on Lyshriol. "No place is safe."

Shadows shifted on Dehya's face. "I will be glad to be with Eldrin in Selei City."

"I thought he was on Diesha."

"He is." Dehya paused in braiding her hair. "I have been dunking it would be good if he and I could spend more time together." She spoke awkwardly. "The medical staff at the Sunrise Palace above Selei City has an excellent counselor he can talk to. If he wishes."

A tightness within Roca loosened, and she felt a sense of lightening. Perhaps Dehya and Eldrin would work out their difficulties. "Do you think Kurj will allow Eldrin to travel there?"

"I think so. Eldrin is as safe with me on Parthonia as with Kurj on Diesha. Kurj already sent Soz to your cruiser." "My what?" "Roca's Pride."

Roca winced. "I can't believe Kurj named that batde cruiser after me."

A smile quirked the pharaoh's lips. "Be flattered. He meant it that way."

"Yes, well, you might feel differently if he had called one of those big cans Pharaoh's Pride."

Dehya laughed. "He did. Pharaoh's Shield, actually."

"Oh." Roca squinted at her. "I fear ISC will start naming warships after our children."

"Perhaps we could distract them with other suggestions." Dehya smirked. "How about Kurj's Calamity! Or Majda Madness?"

"Majda nobles are the epitome of perfection," Roca said dryly. She thought of her son Vyrl, who had run off with his child sweetheart instead of marrying Devon Majda. Then Devon had abdicated to her sister Corey. "Did you know Corey Majda commands the Lyshriol defense system?"

"I doubt that's coincidence." Dehya finished braiding her hair. "The Assembly still wants the Majda Matriarch to marry one of your sons. They're just being more subtie this time."