Five Odd Honors (51 page)

Pearl sighed, the sound coming out as a sibilant hiss of which Honey D reamwould have been proud. “But this isn’t about Albert. This is about Des and Riprap, about our five ancestors, about people who need us.”

Shen shook his head. “To Gaheris, this is about returning to the Lands. Returning to the Lands has always meant one thing to Gaheris Morris: Albert becoming emperor.”

“But that’s crazy!” Nissa said. “Will Albert become emperor? I didn’t think that was possible, even likely. Oh, I know Righteous Drum promised his support, but that’s a pretty flimsy promise. Righteous Drum can’t even get home, much less make anyone emperor.”

“I agree,” Shen said. “Righteous Drum agrees—we talked about this last night. But I bet if we were able to get Gaheris to honestly admit his motivations . . .”

“Not likely,” Pearl admitted dryly. “He is a Rat.”

“Then,” Shen continued, patiently ignoring the interruption, “he would have to admit that resentment of A lbert’s birthright as emperor would be central to everything Gaheris has done to this point.”

“Maybe,” Nissa said. She reached in her purse and jingled a set of car keys from her index finger. “Pearl, I’ve got about an hour before I need to pick Lani up from Joanne’s. I thought I’d go and get a few extra treats, some of that strudel Brenda likes or something.”

“A welcome back,” Pearl nodded. “Good thought.”

“Then Lani and I will pick up Brenda and Mr. Mystery. We’ll be back in time for dinner.”

And they
were. They came in through the kitchen door, Brenda first, her expression of very real plea sure at being back not completely hiding her obvious apprehension as to how Pearl would react to her bringing someone into Pearl’s private domain.

That someone came through the door next: a handsome young man with tousled curls the color of dark honey and sparkling green eyes that looked as if they laughed more readily than they maintained their currently serious and formally polite solemnity.

Pearl had cast All Green when Shen announced that he’d seen the town car round the corner. Through the spell’s magical aura, she inspected her latest house guest for anything unusual.

Parnell maintained no obvious spells, but there was something about him that hinted that all was not as it seemed. As if he felt her critical regard—and he might well have done so, for Pearl had made no effort to mask her own spell—Parnell bobbed Pearl a short, courteous bow.

“My hostess, please accept my promise that I know how a guest should behave. You have no reason to believe me, but I tell you most sincerely that I mean no harm to you or any member of your household—although I cannot say I feel quite the same about all your kin.”

Parnell’s voice held a pleasant Irish lilt. Gaheris’s mother, Elaine, would have been enchanted by the sound of that voice alone. Pearl wondered if Brenda had shifted Flying Claw out of her feelings, replacing him with this attractive Irish lad.

If Parnell’s even Irish,
Pearl thought.
There’s something very odd about him.

Over dinner, a relatively simple meal of baked chicken, rice, and salad—a concession to the fact that they hadn’t known anything of Parnell’s tastes when planning the menu—talk stayed general and conversational.

Lani chattered happily, and Pearl was amused to see that although everyone else had long ago become accustomed to Lani’s particular patois, Parnell was understanding only part of what the little girl said. However, he was game. The smile Pearl had known must be his habitual expression arrived and set about charming everyone it touched.

After dinner, while Brenda and Nissa were upstairs moving some furniture around, preparatory to Lani’s bedtime—Lani had insisted that Brenda have “her” room back for this visit and Brenda had not protested, making Pearl question again the young woman’s probable relationship with Parnell—Parnell turned serious.

“I’ll need to explain again when Nissa comes down, and surely when the rest of your company arrives later this evening, but I’m not going to be guilty of misleading my hostess one moment longer than need be.”

In a few brief words he explained his heritage, and pricking himself with a pocketknife, demonstrated the reality of his strange, white blood.

“So,” Parnell concluded, “if you’re not wanting me beneath your roof, I understand, and will go without hard feelings or delay. I’ve gotten Brenda here safely, and although I’m eager to help you in the trials to come, I’m not going to force myself in where I’m not wanted.”

Pearl swallowed an appreciative grin, wondering just how long it had taken this fey youth—although he might not be a youth at all—to decide that frankness would get him further than deception.

Pearl glanced at Shen and found her old friend looking bemused.

“Sidhe folk,” Shen said. “Well, I can’t say I never suspected your people of tampering here and there in human affairs. One doesn’t live in New York as long as I have without having good reason to wonder. Do you plan to explain why you’ve involved yourself in our business?”

“I do and I will,” Parnell said. “The short form is that your enemies are a threat to the sidhe, as well as to you. We’d rather have the battle fought in lands other than our own.”

“And Brenda? Why did you fasten yourself to her?” Shen persisted.

“Beyond the fact that she’s as sweet a colleen as one might wish?” Parnell grew serious again. “Brenda drew our attention because, although you think of her wholly in terms of your concerns and your heritage, she has links to us as well. Her grandmother, Elaine, made sure of that when Brenda could hardly walk.”

“Did Elaine know what she was doing?” Pearl asked. The more magically sophisticated of the Orphans had long suspected that Keely McAnally, Brenda’s mother, brought more with her into her marriage with Gaheris than met the eye.

“Elaine did and she did not,” Parnell said. “That is, she believes in the sidhe folk with all her heart, as faithfully as she believes in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, in the Virgin Mary and the choir of saints. Elaine would be a bit surprised, though, if one of us came knocking at her door.”

“As doubtless she would if Saint Patrick showed up to drink the beer she pours him on his feast day,” Pearl agreed. “I understand. Fervent belief, perhaps a touch of the Sight, but nothing more.”

“There might have been more,” Parnell said, “if there had been training of it, such as the training you’ve given to our Brenda, but the time for such teaching is before the brain knows so much that it forgets what is real.”

Pearl nodded. “We have found that as well. We were lucky with our three most recent apprentices that events they each witnessed gave them reason to believe the unbelievable, even though each was past the age of easy acceptance.”

“So,” Parnell said. “May I remain, or shall I make my farewells to Brenda and depart? Brenda only let me accompany her on the terms that I be frank with you and obey your decision.”

Pearl saw the smile that twitched the corner of Shen’s mouth. He, at least, approved of this strange addition to their numbers.

“Stay,” Pearl said. “You’ll abide by our rules and not abuse my hospitality?”

“I promise,” Parnell said. “You can trust me.”

Albert arrived
with Righteous Drum and Honey Dream shortly after Nissa and Brenda came down from putting Lani to bed.

Over dessert, coffee, and tea, Parnell once again explained his true nature. Albert had a few questions, but catching Pearl’s signal that she and Shen thought Parnell had something to offer, did not push overly hard.

Righteous Drum and Honey Dream had some questions of their own, but they were less aggressive than might have been expected. Once again, Pearl had to remind herself that in the Lands other worlds were accepted—not as a matter of speculation or faith as was the case here—but as a reality as definite as the history of their own world.

And not as an origin myth,
Pearl thought,
such as that of P ’an Ku, or Prometheus, or even that of God creating Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, but as fact harder, drier, and more real than current scientific speculations about the age of the Earth. Honey Dream and Righteous Drum know how their world came to be, that it is an offshoot of this one, so why shouldn’t there be other worlds sharing some strange linkage with our own?

“Is this all of us, then?” Brenda asked. “Will Deborah be coming back?”

Unspoken was: And what about my dad?

Albert ignored the unspoken question. “Deborah hopes to join us, but she can’t for at least a week. She caught chicken pox from one of her grandchildren.”

“Oh!” Brenda said. “That’s not good for old—”

She caught herself and corrected, “Older people, I mean. Is it?”

“It’s not great,” Albert agreed. “Deborah’s doing all right, but she certainly shouldn’t travel while she’s still possibly infectious.”

“Lani,” Nissa said, “hasn’t been vaccinated yet. I’d been waiting until she was a bit older. My sisters raised a huge fuss. Now I wish I had ignored them.”

Now,
Pearl thought,
when your attention is going to be needed elsewhere. Now, when you couldn’t sit at her bedside or be with her while she soaks in a tub of cool water and cornstarch. I agree. . . . Childhood illnesses have their place, but not now.

“Okay,” Brenda said, when it became apparent that no one was going to clarify Gaheris’s status. “Then what are we going to do? Nissa filled in me and Parnell a bit while we were driving back from the airport. Somehow our scouts have been captured and it doesn’t sound as if their captors are very nice. I think Nissa said something about Li Szu being involved, but I admit I can’t figure out how that’s possible.”

“Li Szu,” Honey Dream echoed with a shiver. “The creator of the Lands Born from Smoke and Sacrifice, the ruthless one who did not hesitate to order the murder of both scholars and wisdom if that would simplify the task of establishing empire.”

“Li Szu,” Parnell said, his Irish brogue a marked contrast to Honey Dream’s light, clipped words. “Li Szu who is more of a threat to this universe and others than you seem to realize.”

“What,” Albert said politely, “does one of the sidhe know of a Chinese official from the time of the founding of the first empire?”

“I’ll tell you,” Parnell said. “I’ll be glad to have it said. It has been a weight on me, a heavy weight indeed.”

Brenda stared
at Parnell. “You knew Li Szu was our enemy? Before we did, I mean?”

Parnell nodded. “I cannot pretend otherwise, acushla.”

Brenda saw the surprised expressions that crossed the Orphans’ faces at this endearment, so casually employed. Nor did she miss the look of calculation that flickered across Honey Dream’s to that point carefully neutral features.

Of course, the translation spell would politely decide to translate from the Irish, and now Honey Dream has heard Parnell call me “darling.” She’s figuring I’ve transferred my affections and Flying Claw is fair game.

Brenda’s face got hot, but that moment of embarrassment made her only more determined to find out what Parnell knew. After all, Flying Claw was the one to whom Li Szu offered the greatest danger. Whether Flying Claw loved her or Honey Dream or neither of them hardly mattered if he was imprisoned . . . or dead.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I feared you would not believe me. As Albert Yu has said, why should a member of the sidhe folk know anything of a Chinese official from long ago?”

“And why should you?” Albert asked.

“Because Li Szu proves a danger not only to this world and the Lands, but to our world as well. Indeed, Li Szu is a greater danger to us at this point, because we do not fit into his conception of what the universe should contain.”

“Let’s back up,” Shen suggested. “Parnell, do your people have any idea how Li Szu came into power?”

Righteous Drum added, “I have wondered about this since Gentle Smoke’s message came to us. Li Szu is very important to the creation of the Lands, but in all our history, he has never belonged to the Lands.”

Brenda thought she understood, but she figured she’d better make sure.

“You mean that even though Li Szu’s advice to Shih Huang Ti led to the Burning of the Books and the death of all those scholars, Li Szu himself was never part of the Lands?”