Balancer (Advent Mage Cycle) (29 page)

He got that smug, irritating expression again on his face again. “You are so wrong on that point, my friend, they would follow you anywhere you decided to go. Garth, please just go talk to them, as a favor to me. If you’re right and I’m wrong, I’ll send someone else to talk them about it later.”

Unhappy with even this small concession, I glared at him. “Fine. Knowing you, you’ve already set up a time and the place when you want me to talk to them.”

“Yes, of course! Tonight, in the main courtyard of the Palace at 7:00. You can take Nolan home after that.” There he sat, my King and my friend, with those trusting eyes and that “you can pull this off” expression.

I was so glad we were
not
living in Del Hain. I couldn’t ever say no to that man, and he knew it.

~*~

There were a million and one things to do between planning a wedding and an academy but all I really wanted was to take a moment and read a book. Just sit in my chair, feet up, and enjoy a moment to myself. I had several hours before I was supposed to talk with the mages, I might as well take the chance to relax while I could. I couldn’t remember the last true free moment I’d had. Six months ago at least. I’d just finished settling myself when there was a knock on my door. I groaned. What. Was there some kind of magical sign that said “Garth is trying to relax, please prevent at all costs?”

“Yes?” I called a little crankily.

“Garth, it’s Cora. Can I talk to you for a moment?”

I sighed. “Sure, come on in.” She walked in and stood there hesitantly, like she was unsure of herself.

“Please, sit down. Is there a problem?” I coaxed, hoping to get back to my book.

“Um…” She slowly took a seat at my implied invitation.

I eyed Cora sideways, wondering why she looked so perturbed and unsettled. It was never a good thing when someone hunted me down with “that look” on their face. I inevitably get caught up in whatever trouble was brewing. Nevertheless, I reluctantly put down the book in my hands and gave her my undivided attention. “Is there something bothering you, Cora?”

“Garth…I think I did it again.”

That phrase had such a potential for a myriad of disasters, I didn’t dare start guessing. “Did what, precisely?” I started to grow increasingly unnerved as her silence stretched on and on.

“I think I may have given the boys too much information,” she admitted slowly. “Like the time with the meurittas.”

That…did not bode well. “What kind of information? What went wrong?”

“No, it’s not exactly
wrong
per se…I’m sure that if everyone knew, they’d throw Nolan a parade and a party. It’s just…” She blew out a breath and slumped forward into the chair facing me, her hands rubbing her temples. “Let me start at the beginning. Roughly five days ago, the boys came to see me with all sorts of questions about human reproduction.”

I felt an ice cold chill go straight up my spine, and explode out of the top of my head.

“…go on.” I intoned, closing my eyes and mimicking her motions with my hands on my own temples.

“And the very next day, Queen Chaelane miraculously becomes pregnant after years of hoping and waiting,” Cora finished dryly. “You can probably see why I’m jumping to conclusions.”

She wasn’t the only one. “Did Nolan tell you he…”

“Dabbled?” Cora offered. “No. But he was the one who first noticed she was pregnant. That might be a coincidence…I mean, with his abilities, seeing that sort of thing is very easy. I might have dismissed my suspicions if he didn’t look so…pleased with himself.”

Nolan and Trev’nor had already proven that if they saw a problem, then they would try to take steps to solve it. If they knew that Chaelane desperately wanted a child and couldn’t have one… I groaned and rubbed all the harder at both temples with my fingertips, feeling a world class headache coming on. “No, I think you’re right. I think he ‘fixed’ the problem, whatever it was, so she could have children. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing…” I trailed off, not sure just why I felt so uneasy.

“No, it’s not a bad thing,” Cora hastily agreed with me. “I mean, the kingdom needs heirs. And Chaelane and Guin have wanted children for a long time.”

“Right, right,” I agreed just as earnestly, looking for a silver lining. “It’s just…”

“He shouldn’t have been meddling in this,” Cora finished firmly. “His intentions were excellent, I can’t fault him there. But he only had a limited grasp of what he was doing. Working magic of this delicate nature is very complicated, and could have tragic consequences.”

I winced as if she had physically struck me, just imagining everything that could have gone wrong. “I think the only thing that saved us was that magic follows intents.”

Cora nodded wryly. “He intended for the Queen to get pregnant, and so she did. I’ve never been as thankful for that quirk of magic until this moment.”

Neither had I.

“So will you talk to him?”

I gave her a pained look. “Is that why you’re telling me this?”

“
Someone
has to talk sense into those two,” she pointed out with ruthless logic. “And they both think that you can do no wrong, and you are the final word on everything in the whole world. If you tell them no, they’re not going to argue with you.”

I hated that she was right. “But why does it always have to be me?” I demanded plaintively, fighting futilely against my fate.

“I have no sympathy for you.
I
was the one that had to explain the birds and the bees to two six year old boys. It’s your turn to explain
why
they shouldn’t have used that information.”

Okay, so maybe she’d had the rougher road after all. I held up both hands in surrender. “All right, all right, I’ll go talk to them about it.”

Cora nodded in satisfaction. Half-way out of her chair she paused. “Should we tell the King and Queen?”

I wasn’t sure about that myself. After a moment’s thought, I realized that definitely wasn’t the right approach. “No. I think we should have Nolan tell them, with Trev’nor standing by his side.”

“Nolan and Trev’nor?” Cora repeated in surprise.

“Yes, Nolan and Trev’nor. Maybe if the boys learn that there are consequences to every action, they’ll think twice next time about meddling in someone else’s lives.”

Cora considered that for a moment, rolling it over in her mind. “Genius. That’s pure genius. In that case, can I be a fly on the wall? This is one conversation that I don’t want to miss.”

“I don’t think that’s wise,” I responded blandly, but seeing her point. “But I’ll have Chatta put it into a memory crystal for you so you can watch it later.”

She grinned at me mischievously. “You’re a true friend, Garth.” Cora headed for the door, and then turned back for an instant, reaching for my forehead with her finger. The headache that had been brewing inside my head since she walked into the room was suddenly gone. I love Life Mages! A true friend indeed.

I shooed her off, smile fading as I realized I had to come up with a good argument for a pair of six year olds on why they shouldn’t always poke their noses into other people’s business. Considering my own history…that was going to prove challenging.

 ~*~

Neither Trev’nor nor Nolan would be out of school until later that afternoon, so I had a little time to kill. Or so I thought. Somehow, I wound up behind my parent’s house with a large bottle of shampoo, buckets of water, and a wet nreesce. Night stood in front of me, soaped up on one side, head dropped in pure pleasure.

“Garth?”

I turned, hands covered in soap suds. Night gave a squinty glare at whoever was interrupting his treasured bath-time. He was wickedly enjoying every moment of the bath he had conned me into giving him. I was going to need a bath myself by the time I was done with him, probably two. Asla stood just outside the back door, another bottle of shampoo in her hands. “Thank you,” I said nodding toward the other bottle. “I was almost out.”

She smiled and walked forward, putting the bottle near the bucket of water at my feet. “Well, he is a big nreesce, after all.”

She didn’t have to tell me! I’d been scrubbing here an hour already, and only had half of Night washed.

“Every time the team is here, my children are just glued to Xiaolang,” she noted with a slightly perplexed smile.

“Well, I’m not surprised.” I started rinsing the area I had just washed, before the soap could dry on Night’s hide. An itchy nreesce was not something I wanted to deal with. “Xiaolang, as a Q’atalian, is very good with people. And he’s used to children, as he has a lot of nieces and nephews and younger cousins.”

“So he has no children of his own?” That seemed to surprise Asla as there was an incredulous tone to her question.

“No,” I answered casually. “He’s not married.”

“Isn’t that rather odd for a man of his rank?”

I hadn’t thought about that until she asked. “Well, I suppose. But he’s really not very old, despite his rank.” And I doubt he’d marry someone without some kind of precognitive intuition. Xiaolang was not casual in his relationships with other people, and I had never seen him interested in any females at all.

Asla considered this with a slight frown. “How old is he?”

“Twenty.”

Her jaw slowly dropped open. “He’s a year younger than I am?!”

I hadn’t done that particular mental arithmetic, but he was, wasn’t he? “Pretty incredible, isn’t it? He was promoted to Captain at sixteen. He’s due for another promotion later this year, actually.”

Asla had the oddest look on her face. I couldn’t begin to decipher it. “Why is a Q’atalian so adept at warfare?”

“Because he’ll do anything he has to, to protect the innocent,” I answered quietly. I let my wet hands rest on Night’s side and turned to look at her. “I won’t tell you the story of how he became an Ascalon Captain. It is not my story to tell. But I will tell you this—he will sacrifice anything to protect the people around him. That’s what makes him such a good Captain. And that’s why your children are so comfortable with him, trust him so completely. They sense, at some elemental level, how he feels about them. They know they can trust him, and rely on him.”

“As you do,” she noted softly.

“Yes,” I agreed. “I trust him with my life.”

She nodded, satisfied, and went back into the house.

I rubbed my chin with a soapy hand, wondering just what that conversation had been about. It felt like Asla had been digging for something…some sort of reassurance. Surely she knew how much I trusted the man. I wouldn’t have let him anywhere near my family if I hadn’t. So what was it she had wanted? And what answer had I given her, to let her leave with that satisfied smile?

“
So the interest is mutual, eh?
” Night twisted his head to stare after Asla, a speculative gleam in his eye.

Huh? Mutual? I felt like someone smacked me in the back of the head with a wet tail. “Wait, Xiaolang and Asla are interested in each other?!”

Night sighed. “
It worries me sometimes that you’re so totally oblivious, it really does.”

I started reviewing all of the times I had seen Xiaolang with Asla, trying to figure out where I had missed seeing what Night saw. Now that I was thinking about it, she had always been comfortable with him from the first time they met…and he had been very attentive. “…okay. I guess it was staring me in the face, I just didn’t see it.”

“Yes,”
Night agreed dryly. “
Why don’t you think and ponder while your hands are scrubbing my shoulder.”

I dutifully resumed his scrubbing, still thinking. Perhaps I needed to have a little heart to heart talk with Xiaolang.

After my talk with Nolan and Trev’nor, that was. When did I become the neighborhood councilor!?

~*~

After Night was washed, dried, and brushed, I decided I had put off the inevitable long enough. With marked reluctance, I headed off to the Palace, in search of the two prime mischief makers. It took a while to hunt both of them down, as they were—for once—in different places. When I finally had them both, I escorted Nolan and Trev’nor away from their foster parents. In a dusty, seldom used part of the Palace, where we could have a private conversation, I patiently explained to them why their good deed was a bad idea.

After a half hour of explaining, and driving home stern warnings, I was finally satisfied that they knew they had interfered where they shouldn’t. They might not completely understand why, and I didn’t really expect them to until they hit about fifteen. When I was satisfied that it was firmly drilled into their heads, I decided it was time for the fun part.

Well, for me it would be fun. Doubtless they didn’t view it that way.

I frog-marched both of my charges into Guin’s personal study. I had sent word to Guin and Chaelane that I would be coming back with both young Mages, and they would need to hear what they had to say. As we entered the study, both Monarchs were sitting, waiting patiently for our return.

I hadn’t explained the reason for our visit, so when we walked into the room, I was met with some very curious looks.

Both boys froze only a few steps inside the doorway…and stayed frozen, unable to say a word. Perhaps they thought they could bolt for the door, if they weren’t too far away.

I masked my blatant enjoyment of their discomfort behind a genial smile. “Nolan, why don’t you start, as this was initially your idea to begin with?”

“Um…” he cast me a pleading look, like a drowning man looking for something to hang on to. I had no sympathy for him, and just smiled back in return. Hangdog, his shoulders slumped a little and he said to the ground, “I did it.”

A little too general, there, my young friend.

Chaelane came and knelt in front of him, trying to catch his eyes. “Did what, Nolan?”

“Made you pregnant.”

Guin choked, and sounded like he was going to cough up a lung.

Chaelane’s eyes went very wide, “…what?” looking at me for an explanation.

I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing out loud. I probably should have stepped in and clarified his choice of words at this point, but…this was far too entertaining.