KingsandPrincelyMenKings and Princely MenThe door closes behind William and Valerian with a quiet but audible click, leaving the pair of them back in the corridor outside, with the King's quarters not far away. In contrast to the headlong events that led William and the other blond haired man to his mother's door, all is quiet now on the fourth floor. Valerian's voice finally breaks the near silence. "Anything I should know or you should tell me to keep our story straight with his Majesty?" Valerian asks, giving a glance backward at the closed door. "Is she not magnificent?" William says in response, already heading away from his aunt's door. "Dangerous women, ah, they are my weakness." Valerian does not quite drop his jaw. Instead he blinks his eyes and finally gives a nod. William smiles at Valerian, then says, "Despite his majesty's possible impatience, my mother needs to hear who sent her attacker first. She deserves such, do you not think? You can hear the tale at the same time. A story dulls with repetition, do you not find?" He is walking at a brisk pace back to his mother's chambers. "Depends on the story, of course." Valerian says, as he picks up his pace to match William's own brisk one. "Some stories are *never* old. On the other hand, spending the extra time to tell me what you are going to tell your mother already is a bit of a redundancy." At this point, William and Valerian have reached the door to Flora's chambers. They are saved the necessity and delay of knocking by the opening of the door, to reveal one of Flora's servants that William is familiar with, Fernan." "Good day, milords." he says politely and then steps back to the door. "Your son, Milady Princess." the servant calls inside. "And the distant scion from Crimson, Valerian." "Admit them, Fernan" Flora calls back. The servant gives a bow of the head and allows William and Valerian entrance into the quarters which are in a buzz of activity. "Flora's staff are remarkably well informed about me." Valerian says quietly to William. "My mother makes it her business to be well informed about people," William answers, equally quietly. "Her habits extend to her staff." Several more of Flora's staff are about, led by the dark complexion aspected Ines, cleaning up glass, buzzing about and adding an aura of studied activity to the anteroom. Flora comes out of the bedroom and regards William and Valerian expectantly. "Count Leonidas Taisson," William states. "Why does he dislike you, Mother?" Valerian looks at the servants and then at Flora. William's mother waves her hand at Valerian's look. She nods to her son and gestures for William and Valerian to join her in chairs in a corner of the sitting room. Diego brings a tray with a decanter of burgundy wine and glasses in a smooth and practiced fashion. Flora takes a sip of her wine before answering William's hanging question. "Now that is a very good question." Flora says. "I do have interests in Begma, Eregnor and Kashfa, of course. I had an encounter with Luke's demonic mother some years back, when she had the misfortune to come to Castle Amber." Flora begins. "As far as the Count, I suspect it is because he is not in favor of my politics." Flora looks thoughtful "If the status for Eregnor is to change, I would not see the not so amicable but ambitious Count as the head of a new nation of Eregnor or even as the viceroy of a semi autonomous satrapy of either of its neighbors. He is certainly aware of this preference of mine. And he knows my opinion carries weight with Random." "So he sent that...thing through my mirror to abduct or harm me?" Flora asks William "His was the image uppermost in the creature's mind. While I don't know the extent of his sorcerous ability, I would think sending such a thing through a mirror would be possible. That he is insane enough to do so, well..." William shrugs. "One constantly stands astonished at the idiocy one encounters, does one not?" Florimel smiles a bit ruefully. Valerian chuckles and takes a sip of the wine. He waves a negligent hand. "Oh, there are always the alternate possibilities. Someone planting a false trail to throw us off the scent and blame the Count, a shapechanger taking his form for the same reason, and so one." He shrugs again. "Alas, one could find oneself stuck in indecision, like a mighty steed sucked down by mud. So I prefer to ignore such possibilities, failing strong evidence, and accept the surface appearance for now." William smiles at his mother then, a charming smile of honest affection. "Shall I kill him for you, Mother?" She pauses, and looks at Valerian. "Are you accompanying my son on his forthcoming venture into the Golden Circle?" she asks. "It's been suggested that I might accompany him." Valerian says. Florimel nods. "I will trust my son on that, then." She focuses her gaze on William. "No doubt, no matter how verbose or edited a version of the events here that you tell his Majesty, Random will not be very happy with the thought of doing anything to him unless there is evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that he is involved." "As for my opinion, however." she looks at her son. "I think you know I trust your judgment on the matter. If you should encounter him..." her eyes look at William long and unblinking. "I expect you to use your best judgment with the situation as you find it in dealing with him. Understand?" And then as quickly as it was there, it is gone, and Florimel smiles again and takes a sip of her wine. William nods. "So, and so," he replies. "And now, Mother dearest, we really must report to the king. I wanted to let you know what we found before reporting back to him, but he will be getting impatient." Flora rises. "Of course he will. Which is why you should placate him." she says smoothly. "Bide a moment." "Ines" she calls before turning around to face her servant who dips her head in recognition. "Bring me a bottle of the 50 year old Regal." Flora commands, and Ines moves off to a side room. The young woman quickly returns with a fat blue bottle of Whiskey which Flora takes, looks at, and then presents to William. "The advantage to being a scion of Amber, son is that you can find anything that you want if you look in Shadow for it. However, being King, Random's opportunities to do so are somewhat limited. And not everything in the universe comes through Amber's port." "So, in apology for being late, present him with this as a gift." Flora urges. "And now off with the both of you." The blue eyes look amused. "And good luck. Keep me informed on your progress." Flora embraces William warmly and gives Valerian a smile which results in a bow from the man that is not that polished, but has authentic earnestness to it. William returns the embrace and kisses her cheek. "My love to Sis," he tells her. "Of course." Flora agrees. And then they are off and away, down the corridor back towards Random's chambers. "Sometimes I feel court life is spent running back and forth betwixt rooms," William confides to Valerian as they walk. "Fortunately, many of them are bedrooms, so it does not become tedious." "I wouldn't imagine that to be tedious." Valerian observes. "If anything, it might be a little too interesting, if ones presence in a bedroom is not always appreciated by a jealous rival for the object of one's...negotiations." "One does like some spice to enliven one's life," William agrees. Not long thereafter at all, William and Valerian reach Random's quarters, and without much fuss, are admitted to the sitting room which William and Priya spoke with the King and Queen not long ago. The Queen is no longer here, and of course, Priya is gone. As far as Random, he walks in from another room just after their admittance. "You found him. Excellent." Random gives a nod to William. "Sit down, the both of you." He waits and then looks at William. "I suppose you should tell me about that little disturbance of the peace before we talk about what you were doing last night, which is, if he didn't tell you, why I asked William to drag you up here in the first place." "My story is long." Valerian says. He looks at William. "I'll let you talk about your Mom and that thing and then I'll do the talking." "Good." Random says. "There's some spring water underneath the bar over there. Get some for all of us. Unless you'd prefer something stronger." He looks at William expectantly. William produces the blue bottle. "In an amazing development of synchronicity and coincidence, look what I have," he said. "If glasses could be made to appear, we can refresh ourselves like men." Random smiles smugly. He turns to look at Valerian. "Yes, Sire." Valerian says to Random's unspoken relay of William's suggestion or command. He waits for the glasses, then pours, and launches into the story of the attack on him mother and what Fiona discovered. Random sits back and sips the drink. Its clear the King finds favor with it, since he gives a smile and nod with the first sip. It is a mien that slowly disappears as William tells the story. Once he is done, Random places the glass, now done, on the table."Little pimple of a noble." Random says in a low tone of voice. "50 years ago, I would have either found this funny, or killed him for the impertinence that this Count would dare such a thing." William smiles a small smile. "Begma and Kashfa are on the slate for your Grand Tour." Random says to William, as he gestures for a refill of the glass. Once he takes a sip of the refreshed glass, he continues. "Feel free to do a little poking, discreetly. He's important enough that we can't simply squash him. I would like to know, though, if he really is behind this. And more importantly." he looks at William. "You are the perfect choice for this court intrigue business. This Count may very well have other fingers in other pies. Find out what else Taisson is up to. *Especially* if its something I'm going to hate." "Any questions?" Random asks William. "Oh, I do believe I have it all, uncle. This is going to be fun." He looks at Valerian, then back at Random. "I shall take my three companions, and Shannon, of course. Perhaps one or two other cousins if any take my fancy in the next day. Alas, am I correct that you are going to want Valerian for other tasks? Or shall that decision wait until you've heard his story?" "Let's hear your story, son, before I decide if I can inflict you on the Golden Circle." Random says to Valerian. "Or if I am going to lock you up here." "I'll attempt to be brief...sire." Valerian says after a gulp of the alcohol. "I met William last night in the Dreamlands in the effort to find Triton's Ka. However, early in the process, I noticed a disturbing problem, disturbing enough that I left him to that, so that I could investigate it." Random looks surprised, looks at William for confirmation, and only thereafter gives a slight nod for Val to continue. William nods, and sips his whiskey. "Reconnaissance suggested that a group of entities from beyond the region where people normally dream was making incursions into that realm. Bad dreams, twisted dreams, and the like were going to be early symptoms of it." "Vi didn't sleep well last night." Random says. "Continue." "I started talking to family members about it. I spoke with Corwin, and he asked me to do a favor for him regarding his daughter, Alais. So I included her in a group of cousins I contacted to go deal with the Yithonghu, the entities in question." "I threw lots of bodies at the problem, in an effort to deal with it decisively and we found the dream sphere of theirs that had drifted close by. We dealt with the problem of them escaping from that dream, and extinguished many of their dream forms at the same time. This ended the threat, although I don't know how it originated. We did discover something else, though." Valerian pauses and takes a drink, clearly reluctant to continue. He gives a look to William. "Here it comes." Random sighs. "Say it." William grins. "Within the realm that the Yithonghu were boiling out of, we discovered two members of the family who were bodily, rather than astrally, in the dreamlands, and had been petrified by a pet basilisk of the Yithonghu." "Toireasa, and Destiny." Random growls. "They've been acting stupid since they've gotten here, and you're telling me they not only get themselves into the Dreamlands, but got themselves snakebit?" Valerian nods. "Yes. I moved their statues into the Core Dreamlands. Doing more would take preparation and time. It may not even be possible except at certain times and situations. Through Tir, for instance." Random gets up and paces. After a few moments he looks at William. "Well, now I have to go talk to Gerard that his daughter has really done something stupid." He walks back and takes another sip of his drink. "Right. You might not get your partner in crime here, especially if he has to figure out how to undo what Torri and Des did to themselves. In the meantime, you can have Shannon for your trip. And your friends of course. Take another cousin, if you want. You might not find that many floating around but you could get lucky." "You." he looks at Valerian. "you stay here until I talk to Gerard." Valerian gives a nod, and then Random focuses on William. "William,unless you have more questions, you are free to depart and begin to make preparations. Henden will have your writ and bona fides ready by the time you go, never fear." William nods. "Well and enou, off I flit." He stands and smiles at Valerian. "I look forward to hearing from you soon, cousin," he says. "You know how to find my dreams." "Hopefully I'll get paroled soon. I would like to see the Golden Circle, and there are precious few besides yourself I would choose as a companion for such a venture." Valerian responds. He offers William his hand. "Good journey." He bows to the king, then laughs and clasps his uncle in a hug. "I'll do you proud, nuncle," he tells Random. "People will say, 'Now there's an ambassador who reminds us of what King Random is really like!'" Random does not roll his eyes, but only just. Instead he regards William and shakes his head. "Just do me and your mother proud, son. You have my trump if you need to contact me, but I'll trust you understand how much latitude you do and don't have." "Oh, indeed!' William assures him. "You can count on me!" And with a final laugh and a deep bow, he heads for the door, pausing there just briefly to cast a look back. "With the royal permission to depart?" he asks. "You may be on your way, William." Random says with a nod of the head. "Do me proud, William." Valerian gives another to William as he makes ready to leave. "Oh, and William." Random adds with a grin. "Thank you for the present. Vi will appreciate that it was a potable, and not cigars." And William is at liberty to start a new thread at his own recognizance. William laughs again, and is away. Backlinks Backlinks |
