Sable Palace/Argent
March SY009
I looked up from the papers I was working on as I heard the knock at the door, then stood and stretched.
"Enter."
"Dinner is about to be served in the private dining room, Your Majesty," Gabriel said, as he opened the door, "you asked me to inform you."
"Thank you. Are my family there yet?"
"Her Majesty and the Princess Alison have arrived. We still await Prince Cathal."
"Right. I'll be there in a moment."
"As you wish, Your Majesty," he replied, and stepped out of the door, before closing it. I had made Gabriel the major domo of Sable Palace when I had created it, and over the years he had proved himself trustworthy and reliable. I smiled slightly at the memories, then crossed to the door, went out into the library and climbed up the wrought iron, spiral stairway to Claire's and my private quarters to freshen up.
About five minutes later, I walked back downstairs again, and made my way along the colonnade outside. I paused a moment by the dining room, looking across at the fountain playing in the water of the pool, lit by soft lighting in the deepening darkness, and then opened the door and went in.
"How's it going, my love?" Claire asked, rising from her chair as I entered and crossing over to me. Alison remained seated at the table, and even from where I was standing, I could see that she was in one of her sulky moods, glaring out of baleful nine year old eyes.
"Slow. The Commonwealth treaty negotiations with Kinsale seem to have struck a snag. Dryden, the chief negotiator, has checked back in with me requesting a judgement on how much further he can bend before abandoning the whole project, but it doesn't look hopeful."
I gave Claire a hug, then crossed to my daughter, and knelt down beside her.
"Dare I ask what it is this time?" I asked, quietly.
"Cathal broke the star globe you made for me last birthday," she said, her tone resentful, "can't you stop him being so clumsy?"
"He'll grow out of it," I answered.
"Well make him do it soon," she snapped in reply, folding her arms across her chest and resting her chin above them.
I stood quietly, and squeezed her shoulder with my hand to try and tell her it would be alright, before looking at Claire.
"What happened?"
"According to Sam, he was sitting at the table, and got up to get a book," she replied, "as he did, he managed to jog it, and the globe rolled off its stand and onto the ground."
I could picture it in my mind's eye. Cathal had been growing quickly, and sometimes he just got a little carried away and either knocked things either accidentally, or bumped into them harder than he had intended. It was a phase he would grow out of, but until he did, accidents would continue to happen.
"When?"
"About an hour ago. Apparently he left Alison's room in a hurry, before she turned on him."
"He keeps doing this," came my daughter's petulant voice, "last week it was the china eagle Wilhelm gave me, and the week before that..."
"I know, Alison," I answered, trying to calm her, "he can't help it, but he will learn. Do you have any idea where he went?"
"Don't care," she replied, "probably to his room. Can we eat now?"
"I'll see if I can find him. Claire, if you want to start dinner, then we'll join you shortly."
"If that's what you want..."
"Don't worry, love. I won't be long."
I walked out of the door and along the colonnade to the stairway. I went up, then made my way to my son's room and knocked on the door.
"Cathal?"
Silence.
"Please, Cathal. Open the door."
Nothing.
Gently, I tried the handle, and felt it open.
"Cathal, are you in there?"
Still nothing.
A little worried, I pushed the door open, and turned on the light. The room was empty. Puzzled, I checked the other rooms, but I could find no sign of him. Surprised, but not unduly worried, I slipped into the day room, sat down and brought up a Pattern lens. Quickly, I scanned the King's Isle for him, and was rather more concerned when I couldn't find him anywhere on the island. I extended my search out into the lake slightly, but there was no sign of him in the water, either.
I dropped the lens, then teleported over to the far end of the light bridge, to talk to the guards.
"Your Majesty..." the sergeant said, obviously surprised to see me.
"Has Prince Cathal come out this way?"
"No, sire," came the rather apologetic reply, "I haven't seen him at all day."
"Damn," I muttered, more to myself than to him, then turned and walked back over the bridge, trying to work out where the Hell he might have gone. I didn't like either of the possibilities that came to mind - Azure or Argent.
I hadn't shown him the safe routes to the other realms, and I did not think that Claire had, either. Cursing myself for a fool, I transported myself to the cairn, brought the lens up again, and sent it down the staircase to the water realm.
Everything seemed quiet. The bustle of the day was giving way to the more staid business of the evening. However, as I scanned the realm, there was no sign of anyone real down there, except for the Regent I had installed in the palace - a reinforced Shadow of myself that I had specifically gone out to find in the first months of Sable's existence. A little like Wilhelm's 2-i-C in the Reich. Eventually, Azure would have a real monarch, but that was for another time.
As I pulled back the lens, I felt the stirrings of a Trump call. I dropped the Pattern and scanned my deck, to discover that it was Claire.
"Have you found him yet?" she asked, worry in her tone.
"I'm still looking," I answered, and I could see the concern growing on her face. "Please, Claire, don't worry. I'm sure I'll find him soon enough. You and Alison carry on eating, and I'll be back with Cathal before you've finished the starter."
"Any idea where he is at all?" she asked, the worried look deepening.
"I'll find him, Claire. I promise," I answered, "I'll talk to you shortly."
She shrugged and broke the contact, but the last thought that reached me through the link was for me to hurry.
Once the link was down, I brought up the lens once more, and sent it up towards the Argent Stair. I knew from experience that it was always a little difficult to get a read up there, as the nature of the place was so strange, but I felt I had to try. The lens went up the staircase, but as it entered the city it became a little less focused. I would have to work on that, but now was not the time. Instead, I pulled it back slightly, and then teleported myself through to near the top of the stairs, before walking up the last few steps.
The market place seemed busy, with the shades going about their daily business. The question was where to start looking. I crossed to one of the guards near the market barracks, and focused on him to bring him to reality.
"Did you see a small boy climb up the stairs this evening?" I asked.
"The Young Master was headed for the palace, sire," came the answer.
"The Young Master?"
"The pale child. He seems so ghost-like, like yourself, sire, but we have seen him here before. I've spoken to him on occasion."
A little surprised, I thanked the guard, then released the focus, and once again he was one of the Argent shades. Once he was free, I headed up the main street, towards the fairy tale castle that was Argent palace, pondering what he had said. A pale child would be how Cathal appeared up in Argent, given that her people were like that to us. What was puzzling me, however, was that the guard said he had spoken with him.
While it was easier to communicate with the Argent shades than the Tir?na Nog'th ones - an initiate of my Pattern having the ability to bring them into focus without the need for some other tool, such as Greyswandir or the Jewel - I couldn't see how Cathal could be doing it. He most definitely hadn't walked the Pattern.
The palace gate was open. I walked past the guards, and then looked around. As if at great distance, I could soon hear the sound of children playing. I walked towards it, and eventually came around the side of the palace. I glanced about me, and suddenly saw a solid looking boy and the shade of a girl running out of one of the side entrances of the palace, looking as if they were playing tag. Except that they were soon far too close to the Rim for my liking.
"Cathal!" I called, urgently, and sprinted towards him. He stopped, inches from the edge, and looked at me.
"Dad!"
Like a small whirlwind, he ran to meet me, and as we met in the middle I picked him up and hugged him, relief flooding through me. My first thought was that I wouldn't have to explain to Claire that he was hurt, or worse.
"What the Hell are you doing here?" I asked, as I put him down.
"Just playing," he answered, "Ari doesn't yell at me like SHE does."
I looked across at the girl, and realised that if I looked past the paleness, she did look rather like Alison. Her hair was slightly shorter, and her face was a little rounder and more open, but there was a resemblance.
"How did you get here?" I asked, finally.
"Up the stairs," came the answer.
"I never told you about the stairs."
"I've seen them at night, sometimes," he answered, which left me puzzled. While Argent did manifest in moonlight, it wasn't usually visible to anyone but me, except from at the summit of the peak from which the stairs rose.
He must have seen my expression, as I saw his face fall. "Are you cross with me, Dad?"
"No, just surprised," I said, sitting down so that I was more at his height, "you had me worried. I didn't know where you had gone."
"I come up here when I want to get away from Alison," came his reply, then he looked down at his feet, "I don't break things here, and Ari doesn't get mad at me and hit me."
"How can you talk with her?" I asked, quietly.
"I just think hard, and there she is," came the answer, "I can talk to all of them. They're my friends. They call me the Young Master. Ari's father says I'll be King here one day."
"Ari's father?"
"He looks kind of like you."
It still fitted. Argent was ruled by a Shadow of myself, Lord Raibeart, who did bear something of a resemblance to me, and on occasions when I had visited him, I had sometimes seen shades of his family - although he had never formally introduced me to them - as well as reflections of Claire, Andrew and others of my own kin.
"Ari has a twin brother?" I asked, half remembering the fact from one of my conversations with my counterpart
"She used to, but he faded away."
"When?" I asked, alarmed.
"A couple of weeks after I first came up here. I never met him."
I watched him, fascinated and seeing him in a new light. Raibeart had told me, on our very first meeting, that for Cathal to reign in Argent, he would need to learn how to exist up there and become sufficiently one with it that he would always be able to be there. And yet, listening to my son, he seemed to have a natural control that should have been well beyond the abilities of a nine year old. That was when I wondered for the first time if that was connected to the "fading" of his counterpart: maybe there couldn't be two of him in the sky city, and that was what its current ruler had meant when he said that my son would need to give up part of himself to become one with the place. Curious to get to the bottom of the mystery, I gently reached out and turned his face towards me.
"Cathal, look at me a moment," I said, quietly, "will you let me try something?"
"What?"
"I want to check your mental shields...you remember them, I've mentioned them to you before."
"Is it going to hurt?" he asked.
"No, I promise I'll be very gentle," I answered. He shrugged, but let his gaze meet mine. I rested my hand on his shoulder, then very gently I probed against the shields I had helped him build, expecting to find just the rudimentary ones we had put up together. I was surprised to bounce off something a lot stronger. Far stronger than anything either Andrew or William had had at his age.
"Who has been working with you?" I asked, surprised, but he just looked confused.
"I don't understand."
"Who's been helping you with your shields."
He shook his head, still looking puzzled. "I just made the pieces fit better," he replied, then he looked worried, "shouldn't I have?"
"It's not that. I'm just surprised you've done it so well. Are you willing to let me see past them?"
He frowned, and narrowed his eyes a bit, in the way he often did when he was thinking. "I guess..." he said, finally, if a little unsure.
Beneath the touch of my probe, I felt him bring them down, consciously, and accurately, and again, far more smoothly than I would have expected. I gently entered his mind, and what I found surprised me greatly. Despite still being a child, his mental strength was greater than Andrew's.
"What's wrong, Dad? You look puzzled."
"Nothing's wrong," I answered, "in fact, it is more right than I had ever imagined."
Following a hunch, I quickly probed to where the potential for the Talent would be located in his mind. I found it easily, and from that brief touch guessed that when it was developed, he would be one of the strongest mages I had ever met. Stronger than his mother or Andrew by a long way. Was it a combination of that and his mental strength that gave him such an affinity with Argent?
"Are you done yet?" he asked, "that tickles."
I withdrew the probe, then released him. "Yes, I'm done."
"Am I in trouble again?" came his worried reply, but I shook my head and smiled.
"No, you've just surprised me, that's all," I answered, stroking the away the curl of blond hair that had fallen over his eyes, "you'd better put those shields up again."
He concentrated for a moment, and when I reached out with my mind again a few seconds later, his mind was as tightly locked as it had been before.
I glanced at the shade he called Ari, and could see her watching us. Then she came over and said something to Cathal, but seemed to walk straight through me.
"She wants me to carry on playing," Cathal said, looking at me plaintively.
"We need to be getting home, as your mother's worried about you," I answered.
He looked down again. "Please..."
"Not tonight," I replied, more firmly, "tell your friend you need to go now."
He raised his eyes and his gaze met hers.
"I'll see you soon, Ari," he said, and then she headed back into the palace, waving to him, but without giving me a second look. Then he brought his attention back to me.
"Will you let me come up here again?" he asked, quietly.
I smiled.
"I suspect that if I don't give you permission, you'll do it anyway," I answered, standing up and taking his hand. "For now, however, it's time to go home."
He looked up at me, then nodded, and I cast the teleport that would get us back to my library in the palace.