Prince of Attania, 2

This time Attan was allowed to go to Darcy for the state wedding of King Roderick Estee to Lorra Graves, lately of Darcy. This time, he wouldn’t have minded skipping it. But he was the Prince, the only Prince so far. So he had to go.

This time the news made a big deal of Queen Doll staying behind in her city to give the soon-to-be newlyweds this private time together. It was a big deal. Doll was Queen in Low City; Lorra would be Queen in Darcy, the Capital. It remained to be seen which Queen Jet would ultimately choose as his main wife, though tradition pointed towards Darcy’s Queen.

During the week-long preparation, Jet, Doll and Attan stayed at the official Low City residence rather than at their own modest house on the other side of the river. Attan had to miss a lot of school, which meant he didn’t really have a chance to talk to Greg about what had happened with his brother, or about joining the Sons of Men. Attan wasn’t sure how that was going to work, anyway, especially with Tom Jadock being held prisoner at Parrion.

A cool breeze tickled Attan’s neck as he fidgeted in place while the tailor put the finishing touches to his formal suit. There was to be a leave-taking ceremony tonight here in Low City, and Attan had to look presentable for the news cameras.

“Uncle Daniel!” Laughing delightedly, Attan hopped down from the chair as his uncle’s wind essence flowed through his body. The tailor was Family, too, but one of those who opted to remain solidly human, except for a slight ability to manipulate his element. To be fair, he might not have been able to assume Elemental form, not all Family could.

The tailor pursed his lips, which were full of pins, and grumbled something Attan couldn’t catch. He spit out the pins into his open hand and rolled his eyes. “Go, I can finish the rest without you.”

Attan didn’t wait. He scrambled out of the formal clothes, leaving them in a heap on the floor, and transformed so he could merge with his uncle. Of all his relatives, not counting his father, Uncle Daniel was the closest to what he was. Merging with him was like . . . too late Attan remembered that Daniel would be able to pick up nuances that other Elemental Family might not.

“What’s so different about those free elementals?” Daniel asked, after the merge. He slung an arm around Attan’s shoulders and hauled him along toward the dining room, where a buffet had been set up so people could grab food whenever they had the time, considering the hectic schedules they were all under these few days.

“What do you mean Tom Jadock’s not a prisoner?” Attan asked at the same time, having garnered that bit of information out of the merge. Ben had mentioned nothing about freeing Greg’s older brother when Attan communicated with him last week. All Ben had said was so far they had not been able to get clear answers from Tom or his followers, though they hadn’t stopped trying.

Daniel grinned, and pushed Attan towards a long table laden with too much food. Everybody wanted Attan to eat more. “We gave him the run of the place,” he said, thankfully dropping his own line of questioning in favor of Attan’s. “He can’t go far, and I’m always around. We want to see what he’s going to do with the freedom. So far, it seems like he wants to be there. His men seem to think they really are Sons of Men and Tom has finally been called to the home base. Which he has.”

“But what about his real plans?” Attan asked. “We know he isn’t really one of the Sons, even if his men think so.”

Daniel ruffled Attan’s hair. “You just worry about your father’s wedding. Leave Tom Jadock to us.” He laughed softly. “Lorra, she finally got her way. Macek must be devastated.”

Macek? His teacher? Somehow, Attan couldn’t think of him as having romantic feelings towards anybody. “Really?”

Daniel just laughed. “You’re too young yet. Wait until some young Family girl catches your eye. It’ll happen, don’t you worry.”

It had happened already, at the Family school at Arden. Some of the Family girls showed just how interested they could be. Attan still didn’t get it, and wasn’t sure he wanted to. His face must have showed his doubt, because Daniel ruffled his hair again, chuckling to himself.

Attan broached the subject of joining the Sons of Men with Daniel as they found a spot at one of the empty smaller tables which had been set up around the dining room to accommodate the influx of diners. Staff flitted around between tables, clearing the used ones to make way for the next wave. Besides visiting Family, like Daniel, and the ever-present press, there were scores of wedding preparers, like the tailor, who came in and out of the royal residence at all hours. Attan could only imagine how much more intense it would be once they got to Darcy.

“Ben said it was all right if I joined, since you’re one of them,” he said, taking a sip of his water. His plate, which Daniel had helped heap high with tempting-looking morsels, remained untouched. “But I’m not so sure that’s the right answer.”

Daniel eyed him, half-seriously. “I couldn’t be Enforcer, and I can’t be King, not that I even want either of those jobs anymore. So why can’t I lead the Sons of Men someday? When Ben gets tired of it, I mean.” His eyes shone with mirth, but under it was something else. What was the Sons of Men these days, anyway? No longer a group dedicated to eradicating Family, and no longer purely non-family, either. What was their purpose now?

“Should I join or not?”

“Join us.” This time Daniel’s expression was deadly serious.

Attan nodded. He’d consider it again. “But Tom—“

“Never mind Tom. I’ll handle him,” Daniel said, digging in to his own plate.

“What’s this about Tom?” Jet ambled over. He picked a dinner roll off Attan’s plate and bit into it. “I thought Daniel was taking care of it.”

“I am,” Daniel mumbled through a mouthful of food. “Attan gets more like you every day, old man. He needs to relax.” The old man comment made Jet smile; if anything, he looked younger now than Daniel.

“What about that other matter you were looking into? Have you found anything else out?”

Daniel paused. “About the caves? No. But maybe you should ask your kid here about the free elementals in Midver. He seems to think they’re different from the rest.”

Attan froze in the middle of raising a strawberry to his lips. Since his father had returned from his progress in order to prepare for the upcoming wedding, they had not really had a chance to share a real merge, one to one. He looked up to see Jet staring at him now.

Jet immediately turned to wind, heedless of the table of reporters across the room, and forced a merge with Attan. Daniel whistled in admiration. Jet would only concede so much to Family propriety. When it came to his son, Jet was what he was, no less. No matter who was watching.

The reporters half-stood in surprise, eager for a story. Daniel lazily strode over to their table and put his hands flat among the dirty dishes. “A little father-son time before the big day,” he said pleasantly. “Why don’t you give them a little privacy?” He nodded towards the door.

Despite his friendly tone, the reporters knew better than to argue. This was Daniel Murrow, once Estee. Next to the King and the Enforcer, he was the most powerful Family in all Attania. Daniel chuckled to himself as they filed out, taking their recording equipment with them.

By the time he turned around, Attan and Jet sat at their places once more. Jet, as usual, went right back to scarfing down great quantities of food. Attan—didn’t.

“Well?” Daniel sat across from Jet. “Are Attan’s elementals like the ones in the deep caves or aren’t they?” Daniel didn’t have Jet’s way with the free elementals, but he could sense them now, and since he’d been exploring the vast network of caves which stretched beyond Parrion almost to the Eastern sea, he’d noticed more and more of them around the color bands only Family could see.

Jet shrugged, swallowed one last time, and looked across the table at his son. “Don’t think so,” he replied, wiping his mouth. He eyed Attan’s plate as if considering whether or not to finish it. Jet hated to see food go to waste. “At least eat the meat,” he said, before addressing Daniel’s question. “Attan’s like me. He can communicate with the free elementals the same way we Family Elementals communicate with each other during our merges. Actually, Attan is probably better at it than I ever was.” He smiled fondly. “He made friends with Midver’s free elementals. Of course he feels they’re special. Still, we’ll keep a close eye on Midver. I thought Attan might continue that task, since he’s already completed his first one.”

First one? Attan looked quizzically at his father.

“You captured Tom Jadock,” Jet said in answer. “Daniel can take over that end of it, and you can concentrate on Midver.”

So despite the merge, his father hadn’t really believed Midver’s free elementals were any different from the others. He believed more that Attan was different enough from the rest of the Family that he was able to interact with Midver’s elementals more fully. Perhaps his father was right. Maybe Attan only thought these elementals were different. He wasn’t as widely traveled as his father, who had said Midver’s elementals were not the same as the ones Daniel had found in Parrion’s caves. That meant there were other unusual free elementals too, didn’t it? But what about Emma—and Elea? Attan decided not to bring them up again if his father didn’t think it was significant. However . . . “Uncle Daniel said Tom’s not a prisoner,” Attan blurted. It wasn’t really telling. Surely Jet knew about it from his merges with Daniel. But Attan wasn’t convinced Daniel’s explanation told the whole story.

“We’ll watch him,” Jet said. “And see what he does. Sooner or later he’ll tell us who he’s working for.”

Unless Tom was the leader. Attan wouldn’t rule that out.

“After the wedding I want you to go to Arden,” Jet said.

“What? Why? You said before I didn’t have to!”

“Things change. I’ll be at Darcy more often, so I’ll be nearby.”

“But what about Mom?” Doll had been more than accommodating about Jet’s impending marriages. She was Family raised, after all. But if both Jet and Attan left Low City, she would be all alone.

“We discussed it. She agrees it’s for the best. You can still make periodic visits to Midver. I’m officially giving you the job of overseeing that town.” He smiled. “And it’s not like you can never go home. There will be periods in between your training where you can go back to Low City for visits. I’ll be going back periodically, too. Low City is my home.”

Training! What sort of training did his father have in mind? A thrill of apprehension filled Attan as he contemplated training with Merrell’s enforcers. Even Charles and Tommy dreaded it.

Daniel had kept quiet throughout Jet’s speech. He didn’t seem surprised at anything Jet had said. But now he offered a suggestion. “Arden won’t start up again until the fall. If you’re that worried about Tom Jadock, then why don’t you and that non-family kid, Tom’s brother, come to Parrion after the weddings?” He laughed at Jet’s scowl of disapproval. “It’ll be a learning experience.”

“Hopefully not for you,” Jet quipped, but he didn’t forbid it.

The night before the King’s party left for Darcy, Attan slipped in to see his parents in their stately bedroom. He clutched the presents he had made in front of him. Jet and Doll blinked at him from the middle of their grand bed. It was after midnight. Doll softly patted a spot in between them. “Come up, Attan. What do you have there?”

Attan knelt carefully on the bed so he wouldn’t damage his presents. Little tendrils of light and shadow wrapped around his fingers before swirling back in interlacing patterns around his two small gifts. “These are for you,” he said, placing one into his mother’s hands and the other into Jet’s. “I made them.”

Their touch dissolved the elemental wrappings, revealing two likenesses of the King and his chosen Queen of Low City. Or at least a male figure and a female figure. “They’re beautiful!” Doll said, her eyes welling with tears. “You made these?”

“Yeah. In Midver. Here.” He took the carving he had done for his mother. With a flick of his finger, he imbued it with elemental light until it glowed like fire from within.

“Oh, it’s me!” Doll gasped. Her face broke out in a big smile.

Attan did the same thing to Jet’s carving, lighting it up from within so that the colors pulsed gently outward in waves. “It doesn’t last,” he explained apologetically.

Jet blinked rapidly, then grabbed Attan in a fierce hug. “Thank you,” he mumbled against Attan’s hair in an oddly gruff voice. He held on so long, Attan was almost tempted to dissipate, but he understood his father needed this touching, and it really wasn’t so bad. Jet pulled Doll into their hug with his free hand, and eventually they all settled down to sleep, with Attan’s carvings snuggled in between them, still softly glowing.

Jet kicked Attan out of his bed in the early hours of the morning so he could have some time alone with Doll before he got married to someone else. By the time they gathered later, at the motorcade, Jet was cool and composed as he bade his first Queen farewell. Doll, likewise, was dressed in queenly finery as she inclined her head and wished her husband well.

Attan’s new clothes itched. He would be glad to get inside one of the big limousines with tinted windows so he could get out of his skin, even if he had to suffer through the ride to Darcy. They would arrive at dusk, for an evening ceremony. He stood next to Daniel, feeling small compared to the slender height of his uncle. Up front, the Enforcer directed the line of limousines and the cameras that filmed them.

“You, with me,” Thomas Merrell said, when Attan moved to follow Daniel. Attan meekly followed the Enforcer instead, who not surprisingly sat in the foremost car. The King traveled in the one behind them. “We have a lot to talk about in the next few hours.”