Blood Reunion (15 page)

"Neither you nor Toff are any of those things," Karzac declared. "Come, I think Cheedas has made chicken and dumplings for you."

"Really? They never make it at Grey House." Nissa was ready to eat.

"Because they don't know how," Shadow let Nissa slide off his lap. He rose and draped an arm around his daughter's shoulders as they made their way out of Nissa's suite and down marble halls toward the dining room.

* * *

"Nissa?" Toff stood the moment she entered the room, accompanied by Karzac and another man.

"Toff." Nissa went straight to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I was so worried about you." She even kissed his cheek before letting him go. Toff stared after her as she went to sit next to her mother at the head of the table. Toff was sitting between Ry and Tory only a little farther down. Ry tugged on Toff's borrowed tunic and Toff remembered to sit down again.

"Uncle Roff," Tory nudged Toff and Toff turned swiftly in his seat, his breath catching in his throat for a moment as Roff walked into the dining hall. Tory's Uncle Roff had wings. They were held tightly against his back for the moment, but Toff could only imagine what they might look like if they were spread out.

"Ask him to fly you around, sometime," Ry whispered as they watched Roff glance briefly in their direction before finding a chair next to Tony. Several servants came to serve the meal and Toff knew they were of the same race as he—he recognized it now, thanks to Cheedas. One of them winked slyly at Toff as he served a soup. Toff smiled at the servant before he hurried away.

"Toff, we want you to take a day or two off to recover. We'll set you up with Morwin after that—he'll tutor you in the mornings while Ry and Tory are practicing with Drake and Drew," Queen Lissa smiled at him. Toff felt a bit of shock—the Queen had been so kind to him. She'd hugged him last night, and may have kissed him, even. Now she was offering lessons. "Do you want to stay in the same bedroom you had last night, or do you want one to yourself?" The Queen asked.

"I can stay with Tory and Ry?"

"We want you to," Tory nodded. "If you want to, that is."

"I want to." Toff stared at his hands for a moment. He wanted to ask why he was in the palace and why everybody was being so nice to him. He was nothing to them, yet they were treating him as if he were a member of the family. "I would like that very much, thank you," he remembered his manners, albeit a little late.

"Good. We have someone coming in who will bring some clothing for you. You can pick out what you like," the Queen went on. "Is there anything you want brought from home? Corent has already offered to send whatever you need."

Toff was embarrassed to ask for the small wooden box of bits and pieces he kept beneath his bed. "We'll just have him send everything, and you can pick and choose," the Queen told him. "Let's eat, I'm starved." Everybody started eating, then, and Ry and Tory quickly had Toff smiling as they teased one another, and then Nissa was getting onto her brothers and soon they were all laughing. For Toff, that hadn't happened in a very long time.

* * *

"Careful, she spits." Tory snickered at Ry's words after Tory sneaked Toff, Ry and Nissa into the dungeon to see the prisoners. They were coming up on Narissa's cell. She did try to spit at them, but her efforts fell short.

Narissa called them unkind names as they stared at her. "Mom says she's not right," Nissa told Toff softly as they walked away from the cell. Next on the list was Clover's cell. Toff stared at his would be murderer and shook his head. Clover looked lost and dejected.

"Gren's a pig," Toff whispered as they walked from Clover's cell to Laral's. Laral looked to be in much the same state as Clover. Gren, whose cell was next to Laral's, began shouting and forced Tory to skip them all away from the dungeons before the guards came running.

* * *

Lissa's Journal

"Roff, why don't you offer to let him help out at the winery in the afternoons? Corent said Toff has helped with that before. Mostly the crush, but he understands the basics." I took Roff's hand and pulled him down to the sofa beside me. Roff allowed his wings to loosen—his way of resting them, before he allowed the one nearest me to unfold completely and wrap around my shoulders.

"Raona," Roff breathed as he leaned down and kissed me.

* * *

Lissa's Journal

"He has not had sufficient teaching in geography or history, and nothing at all in Alliance Studies." Morwin gave his report to me later. "He is very bright and is good with basic mathematics, as far as his instruction has gone, anyway."

"Can you bring him up to the proper levels?" I looked across my desk at the best private tutor in the Alliance. I felt lucky to have Morwin—many couldn't see past his race, all of whom thought that the bushier and lengthier your eyebrows, the more knowledgeable you were. Knowledge was highly prized by the Amterean race, and information often brought more riches than gold or jewels. As curiosity went, they were nearly on a level with the Larentii. Morwin's eyebrows wiggled as he considered my question. I'd learned not to snicker when he did that.

"I think he will come along quickly, as long as he applies himself. I worry about the stress that such a move will cost him, however." Morwin was pointing out one of my own fears. Toff's background with the Green Fae was vastly different from life in the palace or any other place on Le-Ath Veronis. That would affect anyone, I think. We would all be watching Toff closely, to make sure he was adjusting to his new environment.

"I'm hoping that spending afternoons at Roff's winery will help with that," I sighed. "Please keep me informed if he needs help in adapting. I want him to be as comfortable and happy as we can make him."

* * *

"We still make the oxberry wine by hand." Roff was showing Toff through the winery. "It's the most expensive wine we sell."

Much of the winery was automated, but Toff was amazed at the number of comesuli there, all busy as ants at one task or another to get barrels and barrels of wine made. "More than likely we did the crush at the same time you were doing it at the village," Roff went on. "The fermentation is going on with this year's crop and we'll be bottling and corking some of last year's press soon." Roff led Toff past stacked wine barrels.

"This is overwhelming," Toff stared up at the tall racks that held several barrels, one on top of another.

"I don’t want you to feel that way," Roff placed a hand on Toff's shoulder. "We can start you out on the floor and allow you to work your way up if you want. And if you decide that this isn't for you, just let us know. We'll find something else. Something that you want to do."

"No, I want this," Toff breathed. "It's just so different from what I'm used to."

"I know. When I started out, we did it all by hand—my father, brother and I. My oldest child came along and helped after a while."

"Where is he now?"

"My oldest child is dead." Toff knew by the tone of Roff's voice that this was a painful subject. Toff nodded and didn't ask any more questions.

"All our power is from the sun—the collectors are on the light half of the planet," Roff showed Toff the control room where all the power lines were monitored. "The workers are paid a very good salary and receive four weeks' vacation every year. When you work, you will be paid for your work. It won't be much in the beginning, but your salary will increase as you gain experience."

"I've never had money. Someone will have to teach me about that." Toff hunched his shoulders. There was so much to learn, and the weight of it troubled him at times.

"Morwin will show you that, and you can ask anyone if you don't know about something. We realize this is a large step for you, and we want you to be comfortable." Roff patted Toff's shoulder to offer comfort and encouragement.

Toff wanted to ask Roff why he was being offered a new home, an education and work that he liked, but held back. What if the answer was something that frightened him? Redbird's words came into his mind more often than not, although he hadn't seen anything that might make him think she'd been correct on any of it. Toff resolved to wait and see. Meanwhile, he enjoyed spending time with Ry and Tory, and if Nissa were there, he liked it even better.

Chapter 8
 

"Toff, I have to go back to Grey House tomorrow." Nissa sounded depressed. Toff sat beside her in the arboretum. Nissa had grabbed his hand after dinner and led him up several flights of broad marble steps until they'd reached the top level of the palace. There, Toff found the most wondrous garden—it was lit with solar lamps and multitudes of plants and foliage grew inside, all of it lush and full. Small waterfalls and fountains placed here and there provided soothing sounds while visitors enjoyed the garden.

"I don't want you to go." Toff took a chance and put his arms around Nissa. Surprisingly, she leaned her head against his shoulder as they stared through the windows at the capital city of Lissia. Toff had learned about Lissia from Morwin only that morning.

"Daddy won't let me stay, and since they know I made two working protection jewels, they'll step up my training."

"Don't they ever let you take a break? Roff told me that his workers get four weeks of vacation time." Vacation time was a new term for Toff, and he'd asked Morwin about it during one of his lessons. Morwin had explained it completely. There was so much that Toff didn't know and he was determined to learn as much as he could as quickly as possible. He missed Corent, but was surprised to discover that he didn't miss Redbird very much. He certainly didn't miss any of the others, except for Father Willow.

"I'll be back in four days—it's my birthday," Nissa said softly. Toff tightened his arms around her.

"How old?" Toff thought about kissing Nissa's cheek but held back.

"I'll be twelve."

"You look more grown up than that."

"Thanks." Nissa smiled at Toff. "And we do get summers off, but that's when Ry goes to train with his dad on Karathia. Tory spends a lot of time on Kifirin, too, which means we still don’t get to see a lot of each other."

"I'll be here." Toff surprised himself by saying it.

"I know. We'll have to see if Mom will let us spend time at the beach house, or go work at Niff's in Casino City."

"The beach house?"

"It's on the light side, right on the ocean."

"I've never seen an ocean." Toff had learned about them—there were three on Le-Ath Veronis. One stretched so far into the dark side of the planet that most of it was covered in ice.

"Hey, you two," Ry and Tory skidded into the arboretum. It looked as if they'd run up all the stairs to get there. "We want to ask Mom if we can go to Niff's for ice cream."

Nissa had Toff pulled off the bench immediately. "Come on," she grinned at him. "I want ice cream."

"Mom's in her office signing papers," Tory said as they all clattered down the endless steps to the first level of the palace. Toff was running to keep up with Tory's long-legged strides. Ry and Nissa were nearly trotting, so Toff didn't feel so bad. Eventually they made their way to an elaborately carved door that stood open on the first floor.

"Mom," Tory said first thing as they made their way inside a spacious room that Toff could only stare at in amazement. It was furnished in beautiful fabrics with rich paintings hanging on the walls. The Queen sat behind an ornate desk that looked as if it had gold trim around it.

"What is it, honey?" The Queen looked up from a paper she held in her hand.

"We were just wondering," Ry managed to get out before Toff clapped his hands over his mouth to keep the shriek from escaping. A huge snake lifted his head over the top of the desk and stared at them.

"Don't worry," Nissa's hand rubbed Toff's back as he stared at the snake in fright. He'd never seen a snake that large and this one had to be poisonous—its head was a triangular shape and lengthy fangs were visible when it opened its mouth. The creature was rising higher, now, right beside the Queen. Toff was terrified she'd be bitten.

"It's the full moon tonight, I forgot," Tory turned to Toff. "That's Uncle Norian. He's a shapeshifter, and that's his lion snake. He won't hurt you unless you decide to attack one of us."

Toff was still staring in shock. He'd seen Norian earlier at dinner. Now he was a snake? "Nori," the Queen said, reaching out to run a gentle hand down the snake's neck and body. "You're scaring Toff." Toff watched in amazement as the snake turned his head and looked at the Queen, his slitted eyes blinking at her.

"He understands everything, just as he does in his humanoid form," the Queen reassured Toff. "Do you know about the ASD?"

"What does that mean?" Toff asked. He recognized the letters, but there appeared to be another meaning to them.

"Alliance Security Detail," Nissa supplied the information. "They keep the Alliance safe from criminals and other factions that are unlawful inside the Alliance. Uncle Norian is the Director of the ASD."

"I've never seen a shapeshifter before," Toff breathed, lowering his hands.

"Too bad Uncle Winkler isn't here," Nissa hugged Toff. Toff wasn't sure about Uncle Winkler but he was sure about the hug he got from Nissa.

"We wanted to go to Niff's for ice cream," Tory was back to their original mission.

"Let me find someone to go with you," the Queen said, standing up and stretching. Norian slid his body onto the top of the desk, showing Toff his full length, which was twelve feet. Black and gray patterns ran the length of the scaled body. "Bring some back for Norian and me, too," the Queen smiled at the snake.

* * *

"Uncle Norian loves ice cream," Tory said as they followed Drake and Drew toward the entrance to the palace. "We get to ride tonight. I love riding to Casino City."

A tall man waited outside a metal carriage at the bottom of the palace steps. "This is Radomir, an old friend of Mom's," Nissa whispered to Toff as they climbed inside the vehicle. The seats were soft and comfortable; Tory rode in the front seat with Radomir and Drake and Drew rode in the back, facing Ry, Nissa and Toff.