Bloodchild (9 page)

CHAPTER NINE

Staffing Issues

When Aedan had said he wanted to
find more guards to protect her, Vivien somehow imagined it would take days,
and that she’d have gone back to Rhuinn’s castle for the duel before they found
anyone. By the time she woke up, however, she was proven wrong.

Very early that morning, Aedan had
apparently enlisted Doril’s help in contacting people he knew who might be
interested in becoming guards. When Doril came to bring Vivien her breakfast,
she told her about it, though she seemed less concerned about the two men who
were to come to the castle after lunch than she was about more practical
matters.

“I’ve tried telling Aedan, but he
just won’t listen. Maybe he’ll listen to you, my lady. I’m a cook. I was never
trained in anything else. I can channel to let people Pass Through, of course,
but I’m no majordomo, nor do I want to be one. Maybe after you’ve found more
guards, you might want to find a majordomo along with a maid?”

Deep down, Vivien wanted neither
more guards nor a majordomo, let alone a new maid. However, she had resigned
herself to the fact that, as far as the staffing of the castle was concerned,
her wishes counted for very little, and so she assured Doril that, yes, they
would find someone. It only occurred to her after Doril had left her that maybe
they already had someone who could serve as majordomo.

“Elver?” Aedan repeated,
nonplussed, when she ran the idea by him. “He could do it, I’m sure, but do you
really want your groundskeeper to be the first face visitors see when they come
to you?”

“What’s the alternative?” she
asked. “Having Doril open the way instead? Or me? What kind of impression does
that make?”

Aedan’s silence was as good as a
concession that she was right. It was nice to get the last word with him, once
in a while.

Elver was already at work outside
when Vivien went to talk to him. She could all but feel Aedan’s discomfort when
he had to remain inside while she walked out into the sunlight, and she knew
he’d watch her from the threshold, as close to being outside as he could manage
without risking being burned by the sunlight.

She remembered all too well that
first morning when she’d opened a door carelessly and let the sunlight in. The
smell of his burning flesh was one she wouldn’t forget; the guilt was just as
difficult to shake off, even if she’d had no idea at the time what would happen
if she exposed him to the sun.

Stopping a couple of steps
outside, she looked first to the sky, checking the position of the sun, then
toward Aedan. Taking a deep breath, she focused her mind and reached for the
Quickening, watching the colors drain from the world as she willed into
existence a large beachside parasol.

It was the first thing that had
come to her mind, but it looked more than a little odd, standing there. Also,
it wasn’t quite good enough for her purpose. She changed the image in her mind
and watched the parasol extend and become a large black, opaque, floating
screen that cast an extended oblong shadow over the ground. Satisfied that this
would work, she looked at Aedan, one eyebrow raised.

“It’s direct sunlight only that
hurts you, correct?”

He nodded, eyeing the patch of
shadow with a wary expression.

“We both know I’ll be safe going
to talk to Elver,” she said. “But if you want to come along…”

She wouldn’t demand that he come
with her. For one thing, she didn’t need a guard, and was only offering because
she knew he’d worry if she went alone. For the other, if he stepped into that
patch of shade, he’d be dependent on her to keep him safe by moving the sun
block and making sure it didn’t simply vanish. Maybe it was too much to ask him
to trust her so implicitly with his very life.

Or maybe not; as he walked out, he
gave her one of his customary small bows.

“Walk next to me,” she demanded,
knowing he’d otherwise remain behind her. “So I can see where you are and move
the shade along with you.”

He did as she asked, one hand as
always on the hilt of one of his knives. Habit rather than belief he’d need the
knife to protect her, she was sure.

They followed the path of small
white stones that circled the castle and quickly found Elver. His new project
now that he’d finished restoring the path was to build a gazebo.

When he’d first mentioned it,
she’d imagined a small thing that would be large enough for three or four
people to stand together. What she found instead was a large circle, maybe
fifty yards across, that had been covered in a Quickening-made layer of dark,
shimmering rock almost a foot high. She stopped as the sight gave her pause. It
wasn’t what she’d been expecting.

“Dame Vivien?” Aedan said
urgently.

She blinked and looked at him.
Even though she had stopped, her mind had continued to will the circle that
protected Aedan forward onto the path, and Aedan had to continue on or risk
being exposed to the sun. Grimacing at her inattention—and at the dire
consequences it could have had—she stopped the circle’s progress, then, when
Aedan looked like he wanted to come back toward her, reversed its course. Even
as Aedan approached, Elver joined them from where he’d been standing by the
circle of stone some distance away.

“My lady,” he said, bowing
awkwardly to her, then inclined his head toward Aedan, who nodded back.

His gaze flitted to the circle of
shade that shielded Aedan, but whatever he thought of it, he didn’t say, and
looked back at Vivien instead.

“Have you come to see my
progress?” he asked with a pleased smile. “I’ve been working on the base so
far. It doesn’t look like much yet, but better to go slow for this part. It has
to be perfect or the rest of it won’t sit right.”

Vivien nodded absently.

“It already looks impressive. I
didn’t expect something so big, to be honest.”

Elver looked alarmed.

“Is it too large? If it doesn’t
suit, I can still change the size, my lady.”

“No, no, do as you wish. I’m sure
it’ll be wonderful when it’s finished.”

Elver bowed again.

“But that’s not why I came here,”
Vivien said. “We’re in need of a majordomo, and I was wondering if you might
agree to take the job.”

She’d expected he’d be excited at
the prospect. She imagined that working with people inside the castle would be
more pleasant than spending his days alone under the harsh sunlight. She’d been
wrong.

“I’m honored, my lady,” Elver
said, sounding anything but. “I’m just a gardener, though. I don’t know the
first thing about majordomos.”

He looked at Aedan as he finished
as though to seek his support, but didn’t quite get it.

“It’s not complicated,” Aedan
said. “I’ll tell you what to say and how to act.”

“But… who will take care of the
grounds? What about the gazebo? I can’t leave it only half finished.”

“This is what your dame needs from
you,” Aedan said in his coldest voice.

Elver shivered and bowed down
again, more deeply than before.

“Of course, my lady. Whatever you
need—”

“No, wait,” Vivien interrupted,
and threw a brief frown at Aedan. “It’s not like that. Your work out here is
important, and you want to make the gardens something special, I realize that.
I promise we’ll take you away from the grounds only when needed. And when we
have more guards in the castle, I’ll have them take turns at opening the
Passing Room.”

These assurances seemed to mollify
Elver, and he said he’d be happy to serve her in any way she saw fit. He asked
if he was needed now, but the two men who were coming to interview for the post
of guard weren’t expected until the afternoon, so he could continue with his
work on the gazebo until then.

As they started back toward the
castle, Vivien was careful to move Aedan’s shade at an even pace, glancing
every so often to check that he was safe. She couldn’t fail to notice his
thoughtful expression. She knew what that look meant.

“Go ahead,” she said, sighing.
“Tell me what I did wrong this time.”

Aedan cleared his throat.

“You didn’t do anything wrong,
Dame Vivien. I just…”

“Yes?”

“You really think what you said,
didn’t you? That his work in the gardens is important.”

She looked back toward the gazebo.
Elver was kneeling next to it, running a hand over the flat surface. From a
distance, it looked like smooth lava rock.

“I don’t know that anyone will ever
use this,” she said quietly. “But it’s obvious it’s important to him. He’s one
of two people who came here of their own accord when they heard I was back. I
can’t tell him I don’t need a gazebo large enough to hold a ball in, can I?”

She’d expected an argument, maybe
something about how, if she was to reign, she couldn’t let sentimentality rule
her. What she got instead was a quiet correction.

“Four,” Aedan said. “Four people
came back to you.”

She knew what he meant, and she
shook her head.

“Two. Doril and Elver came back.
Brad and you… you never left.”

The expression of surprise that
brightened his features was familiar enough; that was the way Brad looked
whenever she told him she loved him, like he still couldn’t quite believe it.
She couldn’t recall ever seeing this particular expression on Aedan’s face
before, however. It was lovely to know something she said could make him look
like that. They were at odds so often, finding common ground was refreshing.

The rest of the morning was yet
another occasion to practice for her upcoming duel. It would have been easier
to train with someone who could channel, but she worked something out with
Aedan: she first channeled to create a handful of small, colorful bouncing
balls. Armed with those, Aedan spent the next hour or so providing distractions
while Vivien tried as best she could to keep control of the Quickening even
when an unexpected ball hit her arm or leg.

For the first duel, drawing blood
wasn’t permitted, which meant that Rhuinn would without a doubt do his best to
distract her and sever her link to the Quickening. If she could train herself
to hold on to that link regardless of what was going on, it would be a great
help.

She didn’t mind training with
Aedan, or at least not as much as she would have a few days ago, but all
morning long the same question was on the tip of her tongue. She managed to
keep it quiet until lunch time, but once Doril had left the dining room,
leaving Vivien to once again take her lunch alone and in silence, she couldn’t
stop herself anymore and had to ask.

“Is Brad still sleeping?”

Aedan’s posture stiffened at once,
as though she had criticized both their work ethics.

“He is, Dame Vivien,” he said, his
tone more formal than it had been all morning. “Vampires’ natural tendency is
to rest during the daytime and be active at night. For young vampires, it can
be difficult to keep to a human schedule. We trained for a large part of the
night so he needed to rest.”

“That’s fine,” she said. “He
should rest as much as he needs to, of course. I was just worried… I mean… he’s
completely healed, right?”

“He is. He’s fine. There is no
reason for you to worry.”

She opened her mouth to say that
of course she worried; she couldn’t not worry about Brad. She doubted Aedan
would take a reminder of her feelings well, however, so she said nothing and
focused on her food, all the while thinking it would have been a lot more
appealing if she’d had someone—Brad—to share it with.

Once she was done, Aedan went to
find Elver to instruct him on how to receive their expected visitors, while
Vivien went on her own to the small reception room where she would talk to
them. She didn’t look forward to it, but when she heard the chimes that meant
someone was requesting to Pass Through, she schooled her features, sat down in
an armchair that could have passed as a throne, smoothed her dress over her
lap, and waited with no small amount of trepidation.

Within a couple of minutes, Aedan
was knocking on the door and preceding the first of their guard candidates into
the room.

Behind Aedan, a young man walked
in. He looked no older than seventeen or eighteen, and Vivien’s first thought
was that he was much too young for the kind of fighting she’d seen Brad and
Aedan do to defend her—much too young to put his life on the line for anyone,
let alone her.

Aedan marched until he was
standing two feet in front of her, a little to the side. With a gesture, he
stopped the young man, keeping him a small distance away from Vivien. The man
immediately bowed, then dropped down to one knee.

He carried no weapon, she noticed,
although he wore a black uniform similar to Aedan’s. His skin was tanned, his
hair bleached by the sun; she had a feeling he was more used to working outside
in the elements than to following anyone through the corridors of a castle,
keeping them safe from imaginary enemies.

Aedan asked his questions, as
they’d decided, while Vivien channeled and made sure everything the young man
said was true. It was easier to hold on to her lie-detector trick when she
wasn’t asking the questions at the same time.

Only when Olric claimed to be
twenty did the Quickening cast a doubt on his answer. With much stammering and
apologies, he admitted he was nineteen—
almost
nineteen—but while not an
adult he had permission from his mother to join the QuickSilver Guard, if
Vivien would have him.

His grandfather had served
Vivien’s mother, he said to explain his eagerness, and Vivien was once again
left to realize that all these people had little interest in her, per se; they
came because of whose daughter she was. Then again, she’d been gone from
Foh’Ran for most of her life. How could anyone know enough about her to care?