Elam (13 page)

“I did as well.” She turned and looked at him, his voice sounding in awe of her. “I’d not known her as your mother, bless her soul. But she was a sight to behold sitting atop Daniel when they’d be coming or going skyward. And once they were sky bound? Well, I have to tell you, there was nothing I wouldn’t have given to have been there with her. She turned heads, she did, walking down the streets, her armor all shiny and dented. Even then, knowing that she was not in my league, I’d think about what it would be like to have her as a bride. But I also knew she’d eat me live.”

Ariannona laughed with him. “Daniel told me that she could cut a tree down with a look and a man, too, should he treat her badly.”

“That she could. Much like you, I’m happy to say. But she was the kindest person. too, from what I heard back then.” Ariannona nodded and looked at the lake again. “You’re a lot like her. A beauty in all ways, a look that makes men tremble in their boots. Beauty beyond what a normal man could have ever hoped to touch. And here you are, my daughter-in-law. I’m a lucky man, I am.”

“Daniel said she never left his side, not even to get help for herself. He said the one time that she’d started to leave him, he asked her to stay. He told me that he felt responsible for her death for a long time. And for whatever happened to me.” Ariannona tossed another rock in the water. “Have you thought about how many lives were touched by them? The king and queen, I mean? How their magic brought us all together, mates for their sons and yours. A castle to put our hearts in. Had they not died that day, do you ever wonder what would have happened to all of us?”

He was quiet for a few moments before he spoke. Ariannona knew that he was a thinker, a great deal like Asher and Kiaran. Jed, she’d come to discover, talked things out, worked the details out for you to help him with, and would write them down, crossing them off as he discarded them. Elam was the same way, a talker and a listener as well. Shane was a man all unto himself. He would sometimes work them out in his head, or just bounce ideas off his head for people to tell him if they would work or not. Gideon, like his brother Asher, would sit for hours working on a problem until he had it worked out to the very last detail. Simeon did neither. He would waste more time doing a job several ways before he’d get it right, neither writing nor talking about his plans until it was done. She liked that most about him.

“I talk to my Sally. Every day I go and sit with her, telling her about my day, something that the boys were up to and what I had thoughts about. She’s having me read to her. I do it because she said she likes to hear the sound of my voice.” Ariannona started to ask him if he really spoke to her when he continued. “She’s stuck there, you see. Something or someone is holding her back. I don’t mean to say that she’s being held against her will or anything, but she and I believe that there is someone coming that will release her from her grave, and she’ll be here as I am.”

“The king mentioned you to me. Or at least Sally. He had me repeat a message that I was to give to Casdon several times, making sure that I got it right.” Jacob asked her what it was. “They said the love of Sally would bring forth the love of a mother. I told him, but no one seemed to know what it meant.”

“I don’t either. Sometimes messages can get all jumbled up in your head when you try too hard to remember it. I’m not saying you, but the king, he might have gotten the message all messed up in his head, and that’s the reason for you telling him over and over.” Ariannona nodded, but she didn’t think that was right either. “My Sally, she’d be as happy as a bug in a rug to have these babies coming along. When she passed, it done broke my heart to pieces to have her leave me like she did.”

“There’s a cradle in the sublevels, did you see it?” He said that there were six of them. All with the boy’s names on them with a note. “For their babies. I’m so glad that Daniel showed us what was in there. I knew to open it, but not what we might find inside.”

They sat there, neither of them needing to fill the silence. She thought of her mother soaring through the sky with her belly full of her. Of the things that she’d thought had happened to her, why she’d been left alone for most of her life. And she thought of the conversation that she’d had with the lady Eve, too.

“She told me that the magic I got from them would make me different from other witches. I asked her why and she said that they would know that I’d been touched by them.” Ariannona thought of the look on her face, and realized even then that she was sending off her future daughter-in-law to meet up with her yet unborn son. “She told me that I could command animals like no one could, that I’d be able to summon them to me when I needed them as well. But she told me most importantly, I’d be forever marked by her. Then she took my arm into her hand.”

Instead of telling him what she’d done to her, she lifted her sleeve up and showed Jacob the mark that until recently had never been there. It was a dragon that encircled her entire arm. She told Jacob that Elam and Casdon now had one as well on the same arm.

“She gave you the gift of the dragon.” Ariannona nodded and pulled the sleeve back down. “I’d like to answer you now…your question about what would have happened had they not died that night. I think nothing would have changed. Essie would still have come to us. Lindsey too. And you would have wandered into our lives with the message just as they preordained it to happen. The only difference is they would have been here too, to enjoy seeing you all to come together as I have.”

“And the rest? The slayer? The man who tried to kill Lindsey? You think they would have been a part of our lives too?” He nodded and said that he knew they’d have to be. “Why? So we’d suffer before finding happiness?”

“Nay, you don’t believe that either. I think that they set in motion a great deal of happiness for a lot of people. Yes, they saw to my children and theirs. They provided a good life for me and my family. Much better than it would have been for us should I have simply married my lady Sally.” Ariannona asked him about the rest. “You mean the castle and the work being done on that? I think that they would have had something that you would have come together with. Not the castle, but something else equally as large.”

“To keep us busy?” He laughed and quoted the busy fingers thing to her. “Yes, being idle has gotten me into a bit of trouble over the years. And most of it was my own fault. I wasn’t always this sweet and gentle with folks.”

He laughed loudly, just as she knew that he would. Ariannona leaned back so that her back was on the grass and watched the clouds go by her, making shapes out of some of them, thinking idly about the things that she’d seen in her lifetime. The changes that had happened despite the king and queen being murdered.

“I love it here. All this peace and quiet. It’s like being here when the castle was new and there was no threat of them dying. The people mostly minded their own business, and when there was an occasional issue, it was dealt with in a timely manner. No one was shot and killed over it. There was no real problem with drugs to make us feel unsafe.” She looked over at Jacob. “You did an amazing job in raising your boys. You and Sally, you should be proud of what you’ve done. It couldn’t have been easy raising another man’s children as your own.”

“It was easier than you might think. We never wanted for anything. There was love there, respect too. Not to say I didn’t have to beat a little of the nonsense out of them on occasion, but they were good boys. And have grown to be better men than I could have ever hoped for.” She told him he was a good man as well. “Thank you. But you have my Sally to thank for that. She had a harder task keeping me in line than she did those boys of ours.”

Long after he left her, she lay there. It was a very tranquil place and she really was happy to be there. As her eyes got heavier and her body more relaxed, she thought perhaps she’d never been this happy in all of her life.

Chapter 12

Elam reached for Ariannona and was disappointed to come up empty handed. Casdon, he knew, was going to be out of the house for a couple of days. He had some things, he’d told him, that he had to take care of. He knew what a part of it was and couldn’t wait for him to come home again. They were having a necklace made for Ariannona as a token of their love, and were to give it to her when he returned. Just as he was going to reach out for Ariannona, to tell her to come back to bed, she moved into his head like a tornado, cursing and pissed.

He is far and away the most...how the hell do you ever have a conversation with him?
Asher. He had no idea why, but Asher could piss Ariannona off quicker than anyone.
All I said to him was he should put the books he has in a safer place. I did not tell him to do it. All I did was suggest that having them in his fucking bedroom right out in the open was one of the stupidest stunts he’d pulled to date.

You told him it was stupid?
She said that she had because he was.
And then you wonder why he’s mad at you. What else did you tell him?

I might have mentioned that he’s pig-headed and an ass. But that’s not my fault either.
He asked her why not.
Because he provoked me into it. As I said, he’s an idiot, and a pig-headed one at that.

I see.
Elam got out of bed, knowing that she was going to be too pissed off to join him now.
And where is the stupidest man alive that’s also an ass?

You make it sound as if I’m not right in calling him that.
Elam pointed out that she might have said it later and not to his face.
And what kind of fun would that be for me?

He paused as he reached for the shower door.
You wanted to piss him off? Because that’s the way I’m hearing it.

Yes. It’s fun. I just don’t care so much for when he pisses me off.
He stepped under the spray and reached for the shampoo.
He’s here, by the way. In our house. He joined Essie and I when we were having a cup of tea with Lindsey. I think he only came here to be a prick.

Maybe. Or it could have been because I’m supposed to be at the castle with him now and I’ve overslept. You should have woken me up.
She said that she’d wanted so have tea with the women.
They’re more important than I?

On some things, yes. They don’t have a lovely cock like you, so you do have that in your favor.
He thanked her for that much.
You’re most welcome. We’ve been thinking of a way to have a party for your dad. Did you know that his birthday is coming up?

Yes, he might have mentioned it.
Several hundred times over the last few days, as a matter of fact. He’d also told them that they didn’t have to make up for all the ones he’d missed, that he’d be just fine with a small cupcake and a little gift.
Are you going big, and do I have to borrow from the bank to make this work for him?

I think we have it covered. But you will have to dress up.
He asked her why.
We’re having a picture made for him. Of all of us. Essie thinks he’d like that. All his sons and their mates in one picture
.

He’ll love it. Casdon is picking up his gift from all of us while he’s in town too. When we were moving things around a few months ago, we found some old pictures of him and Mom. We took them to be painted on canvas and some color added to them. There was even one of us boys, all twelve of us, sitting on the front stoop of the main house when Simeon was about ten.

Oh, he’ll love that. Did the others know?
He turned off the water and told her he had no idea, he’d only thought of it when Casdon said he was going by to check on it.
So that’s why he left us. I thought...well, never mind. I asked him to pick up a few things for me too. He’s going to get me some new shorts and a bathing suit.

A two-piece one?
He felt his cock stretch when she told him yes
. Christ woman, are you going to be wearing it around the house?

Oh yes, it’s all the rage now. Wearing a swim suit in the house while you sweep the floor.
He wanted to spank her.
Of course I’m not. I’m going to go swimming in the lake, silly. He’s getting you and himself each one as well, but yours will only be the kind men wear, not women who want to show off for their mates. Asher said you guys used to swim in it as boys.

We did. But I don’t think we wore suits.
She laughed and he told her he was on his way down.
I’ll take Asher out of your hair and you ladies can plan.

He found Asher still arguing with Ariannona when he entered the kitchen. Neither Essie nor Lindsey were helping the matter either, but egging her on. Asher was losing the battle, whatever it might have been, and Elam thought even he knew that. So after kissing his mate, he left with his brother in tow.

“You saved me back there.” Elam told him he could see that. “She’s so much fun. I can’t tease Essie that way. She cries, and that makes my heart hurt.”

“You make her cry?” He told him everything did nowadays. “Oh. Hormones. I guess she hides it well when we’re all together.”

“Yes, she does cry when she’s in bed though. It’s all Kiaran and I can do not to join her. And I guess Jed and Zak are having the same issues with Lindsey. Having a baby is really hard work for a woman.”

Elam nodded. They’d never talked about children, Casdon and him, and now that they had Ariannona, he supposed it was something that they should bring up. Not that there had been a great deal of time. Things had been a little hectic with the castle and all the things in the lower levels being brought out. And today was a big day for them all.

The stones were all cut, they thought. After going over all the diagrams they had, counting them over and over, they thought they were ready to start laying them in order. The hardest part, as far as Elam could see, had been done yesterday with the women there.

“You think that’s what has made her so cranky with you? You know, using up a lot of magic to fill in the floors and walls of the lower levels?” Asher just cocked a brow at him. “Yeah, okay, it’s all you. You do seem to bring out the worst in her.”

Using as much of the earth as the lady would give them, which Elam was sure still more than she should have, the three women of the family, Caroline, and Gobi had combined their magic and had finished the first of what they hoped were the final steps in getting the castle together. Elbert and his dad had stood by with juice and fruit for them, and when they were finished, falling to the ground when they were too weak to stand, they were fed and pampered until they were better. Mostly when they got irritated with them at the fuss they were making over them.

“We’re going to go down slowly, seeing what we need to do on each level as we come up. We won’t wander off to explore. There won’t be any leaving anyone behind, all right?” Everyone nodded at Asher. He wasn’t treating them as children. It was just that like they were, he was a little afraid. The unknown was bad enough, but facing the unknown several hundred feet below ground was something else altogether. “Dad, are you sure you want to do this?”

“Yes.” He’d told them all yesterday that he wasn’t sure he could be in the castle just yet. Then an hour later, after talking to their mom, he’d come back to say that he was going. No explanation, just that he was going with them. As soon as the light was shone down the long staircase that was leading them to the first of the three levels below ground, Asher let out a long breath and put his foot on the first step. The first of many.

~~~

Casdon moved slowly. He had expected the walls to be cold, the stairs to be slick. They were not just dry, but the walls were as warm as the ground they’d been standing on. But he wasn’t taking any chances of falling. Not that he’d be hurt, but he didn’t want the rest of them to make him feel stupid. Smiling, he thought of the way he’d gotten back at Elam last night for teasing him.

He’d gotten down on one knee and had taken Ariannona’s hand in his. He’d wanted to do this for a few days now, ask her to be their wife. Casdon knew that in the court’s and law’s eyes she’d be Elam’s wife. But in name she was for them both.

“I love you, Ariannona. With all that I am. My dragon worships you. We would both die for you. All of us would.” She tried to pull away from him, but he held her fast. “Let me do this. I want this to be right. Okay?”

“Yes. But it’s not necessary. I love you both very much too.” It was the first time he’d heard her say it. He’d never thought those three little words could instill such a warmth in his body and heart. “You don’t have to do this at all.”

“No. But I want to. Because we love you as well.” She nodded and didn’t pull away again. “Okay. I love you. You showed us a way that we would never have found in the castle. You came to us to bring me a message, knowing that you might well die when you gave it. Years and years you waited for the right time, biding your time to do as you’d been asked by our mother and father. For this, my brothers and I would like for you to have this. As a sign that not only do you belong to Elam and I as our mate, but you also belong to all of us as family.”

The bracelet was much like the one that Lindsey wore. It was made of dragon’s tears as well, but this one had been made with each of his brothers contributing a single sapphire to form it. He clasped it to her wrist and watched her face to see if she liked it.

“This means so much to me.” Casdon had said nothing but stood up, keeping her hand in his. Elam took her other hand and they held her while she wept quietly. “I love you all so much. I can’t believe how lucky I am that you found me.”

“We’re the lucky ones. We started this relationship out so badly,” Elam told her. “And for that, we will forever be sorry. But Casdon and I have something for you too. From the two of us.”

When Elam had nodded at him to give it to her, he tried to hand the package to him. But Elam told him he was much better at romance than he’d ever be. So Casdon had the great privilege of giving their one true love another gift, the gift of the ring that symbolized their love for her.

He was at the bottom of the stairs when Keion brought him from his memories by pecking him on the shoulder.

“It’s huge.” They were at the bottom of the stairs and looking into a room that was as vast as it was empty. They had known that it would have to be big…there had been a lot of people living and working in the castle back then. Keion grinned as he continued with his observations. “The floor below this one, it’s the one to the outer buildings? If so, where is the entrance from there to here?”

“I don’t think it’s supposed to be easy to find. Essie thought it would be in the southwest corner, so we’ll work from there.” All of them moved to the walls, and Onimia held the flashlights over them. Casdon was running his fingers gently over the wall when he found a split. “Here it is. I think.”

It was indeed the opening to the rooms below. None of them moved to go down this time. The rooms were being emptied by the faeries and brownies, as well as a few dragons. It was hard work, but all of them, even old Daniel, who was supervising the work, said they were honored to do it.

They’d started at the bottom of the newly formed area and were going to work their way up one floor at a time. Zak was in charge of making notes of things they’d need, and Akassa was measuring. So far it seemed that the plans they’d found on the castle and what the women had done were perfect. Casdon moved around the rooms on the next floor up and noticed a light switch on one of the walls. He was staring at it when Elam joined him.

“Is that what I think it is? And have you tried it yet?” He looked at him and said he was afraid to get his hopes up. “Yeah, power wouldn’t have been anything that they might have had back then. And when you think of this wall, being solid stone, you have to think there is no fucking way that this will turn on any lights.”

“There’s an overhead light with a fan too.” Both of them were still debating on it when Asher entered the room and asked them if they were lost. “There’s a light switch.”

Asher, being Asher, went to it, more than likely thinking it a joke, and flipped it on. He fell back on his ass when not only did the light come on, but the fan started going round and round. Elam and Casdon were still laughing when the rest of them joined them in the room.

After that it was a game to find the switches. Bigger rooms had one at each end. The few rooms that had a storage area, like the one they’d seen in Daniel’s room, had a light in it too. Hallways were brightly lit. There was even a bathroom, neatly hidden, in each of the five rooms on this floor. They ended up going to the lower level again to see if there were lights there, and discovered a large gathering like room that they’d missed before.

“This is amazing. Do you have any idea how nice this is going to be for the people who work here? Electric and plumbing. I thought we’d be lucky if we got to use these floors for storage, but now we can have people here.” Asher was turning the lights off and on as he spoke. Casdon had already decided that should he come here to stay, he wanted the room on the lowest floor; he just liked the feel of being so deep underground.

The rest of the discovery was done much easier. Jacob had staked out the room he wanted, on the first floor nearest to the top. Asher told him he’d hoped that he’d live on the upper floors.