Prince of Attania, 2

“You’re too idealistic.” Governor Talli reached across Jet to grab a roll from the center of the table. They were back at the governor’s mansion having a late lunch, just the two of them.

“Am I?” Jet thoughtfully took a bite of his sandwich.

“Not everyone sees the world the way you do. People are selfish. They want what they can get for themselves first and foremost.”

“I’m selfish,” Jet said, thinking of Attan.

Talli laughed. “That’s why you live in a modest house in Low City and give away practically everything you own. And it still doesn’t work, does it? You saw the people out there this afternoon. They didn’t care how much you did for them. You’re too lenient. Do you think that non-family would have dared to complain to the King ten years ago? Or to the Enforcer now? Or even to me?”

His brother had a point. That was why Jet kept Merrell as the Enforcer, why he kept Family as governors of the largest cities and provinces for the most part. Jet’s strength was in his vision. “If that’s the case, then why am I King and not—you, for example?” Jet pushed up from the table. If he wasn’t King he could go explore the caves to his heart’s content without worrying about it.

“Oh no, I don’t want it!” Talli exclaimed with a laugh.

“Then what would you have done?” Jet demanded. “Let the windstorm scour it all clean again and start over?”

He was being sarcastic, but Talli took his question seriously. “I doubt I would have been able to do that. There’s a reason you’re King and I’m not.”

Yes, Jet was powerful, more powerful than any other Family except, possibly, Attan. His half-brother Talli, however, was an experienced administrator.

“Let me handle Parrion and the farmers,” Talli suggested. “When they see the good our Family settlers can do here, they may change their attitude. In the meantime, I just won’t give them any choice in the matter.”

As if they were children, Jet thought. “For their own good? All right, I trust your judgment. Now--,” Jet chugged the last of his drink and smacked his lips. “Will you go with me to tour the city? Everyone involved with the project wants to show me their latest accomplishment.”

“And if I’m with you they’ll think twice about asking you for favors, is that right?”

Jet grinned. “They should be asking you anyway. I’m just the King.”

As a concession to his brother, Jet kept physical form for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Since Talli couldn’t—or wouldn’t—take elemental form, neither did Jet.

He remained in New Parrion for the rest of the week, touring the glass skyscrapers and the new one-rail which snaked through the city and even below it—although that route was restricted to all except the Sons of Men. Ben maintained a presence in the city above, but his real operations remained in the belowground city. Jet had not banned the Sons of Men. Instead, like every other obstacle he’d encountered, Jet had incorporated them into his grand plan for Attania.

He was anxious to get back home to Low City. Even so, he took a car back. No sense in flaunting his Elemental abilities. Jet was King to all of Attania, Family and non-family alike. News of his visit to New Parrion had preceded him. He figured it would. He figured he would hear an earful from Merrell, too, which is why he went straight home to Low City rather than to the capital at Darcy. His private home was off-limits to reporters as well as to government officials. Jet had the means to enforce it without resorting to guards. Cars found themselves turned around when they got too close, and reporters found that their equipment suddenly did not work. Jet’s home was sacrosanct.

“Where’s Attan?” Jet asked, first kissing his wife. They had a modest home, as Governor Talli had pointed out, near the river on the non-family side of Low City, close to where Jet had grown up. Doll leaned into him and rested her head on his chest. He could sense the fire in her just below the surface and it called to an answering fire within him. Here, in their own home, they could be what nature made them. Jet melted into flame and sank into Doll. His flames did not burn Doll’s body; she was flame, no matter the form she wore presently. Unlike Jet, who contained more than one element, Doll’s core element was fire. But right now he was fire, too.

They shared being, and for a few moments Doll melted into flame too, merging more completely. But they were both also physical creatures, and first Doll, then Jet resumed their human bodies. There was more than one kind of merging, and it had been a week. “At school,” Doll breathed, tilting up her face for another kiss. Jet obliged her, before sweeping her off her gratifyingly physical feet and into their bedroom.

Later, they talked. Jet’s head was pillowed on his arm as Doll’s lay on his stomach. Sleep was another satisfying physical sensation, and Jet was on the verge of drowsing when Doll’s comment registered. “He’s not eating? Again?”

Doll wriggled around so that she was lying on Jet’s chest, face to face. “I try to get him to take a little bit of breakfast with me and he forces himself to swallow a few bites, but I can tell he hates it. And in the evening when he comes home, he has no interest in dinner.”

Attan wasn’t a big fan of food in general. He was thin, like all Family, and there was a real possibility that Attan didn’t actually need to eat food in order to live, because of how he had been conceived. But he was still a child, physically. If he didn’t eat physical food, would he continue to grow into adulthood or would he just—stop? Jet couldn’t understand why Attan didn’t like eating. Food was one of the pleasures of life. “I’ll talk to him,” Jet promised. “Wait a minute. In the evening? I thought Attan only had school in the mornings. Why is he coming home so late?”

Doll smiled. “Didn’t I tell you? Attan has made a friend.”

Jet was wide awake now. He sat up, pulling Doll up with him. “A friend? Family or non-family? Not that it matters. A friend! Have you met him? Is it a him—or a her? No, Attan is too young . . .”

Doll burst out laughing. “You can ask him yourself tonight. It’s a boy, and he’s from a farm outside of Low City. Attan has been going to his home village almost every afternoon this past week. I’m sure he’ll tell you all about it when he gets home.”

Jet wasn’t sure he could wait that long. He wanted to find Attan now and see this new friend for himself. Not that he thought Attan might be harmed; that was virtually impossible, considering what he was. But Attan was impressionable. However, Doll was warm in his arms, and since they’d had a child, they didn’t often have this kind of privacy for a purely physical merging. So Jet took advantage of it, and tumbled Doll onto her back. First, sex—and then, if he was lucky, a nice dinner.