Chapter 4

Something warm and firm settled on his back. "Hey! Kid! Wake up!" Something shook him. "Come on, Adam! Wake up!"

"Uhhhnn…" Not really awake, Adam grumbled in protest as his back was shaken again. He tried to swat away whatever was manhandling him, but he couldn't seem even to twitch his arms. His body was so heavy, so –

Adam sat up with a shriek, his eyes wide with shock as icy water dribbled down the back of his neck, disappearing beneath his shirt and sending chills up and down his spine. "Gah!" More of the cold stuff dampened his hair, making it hang limply down into face. Yet more soaked the front of his shirt, soaking through to his skin and making him shiver. "Mekanek! How – why – what the heck are you doing?!"

The Master was leaning over him, still holding the pitcher with which he must have doused his slumbering prince. If it was a prank, however, he did not look very amused by its results. "If this is how heavily you normally sleep, it's a wonder you ever get up at all," Mekanek said, sounding exasperated.

"What'd you do that for?!" Adam demanded, wrapping his arms around himself in an effort to control his shivering. He clamped his jaw closed once he got the question out lest his teeth began chattering and shaking as much as the rest of him.

Mekanek sat down on the bed beside him and put on arm around his shoulder, pulled him close, and began chaffing his arms. "I'd wrap your blankets around you, but they got wet too. I think I used too much water."

"No k-kidding," Adam said, fighting to get the words past his trembling lips. The water had been very cold, and waking so suddenly had left him feeling more than a touch disoriented and shocky. "With friends like you…"

Mekanek laughed. "Yeah, I know. 'Who needs enemies?' Well, at least it woke you up. I was beginning to think it would take a bomb."

"But why did you wake me? I thought you said I could sleep."

"That was more than two hours ago, kid. And you were having some kind of nightmare. It must have been pretty bad because you were rolling around on the bed, muttering in your sleep."

"I was? Ancients, I must have looked really pathetic."

"No, not pathetic, Adam. It happens to me sometimes too, when life gets overwhelming. Nightmares are no fun, but they're nothing to be ashamed of."

Adam shrugged.

"I wasn't sure at first that I should wake you, since I couldn't understand what you were saying, but when you started crying – "

"I was crying!" Adam groaned, looking utterly stunned. "Oh no. I am such a complete waste of air!"

"Hey! Don't talk like that!" Mekanek exclaimed, pulling the prince into a tight hug. "I don't know what's causing you so much pain and grief right now, but I do know that you are not a waste of air!" Adam let himself be hugged, and even managed to take some comfort from the gesture, but after a while his damp clothes began to itch in a way that had him squirming.

Rising to his feet, the Master pulled Adam up with him. "I think it's time to get you into some dry clothes," he said with a grin. "Why don't you go change, and I'll send for someone to change your bedding?"

Adam nodded and shuffled toward the bathroom, still rubbing his eyes with the heel of his hand. It had been several minutes since he's been so rudely awakened, maybe even a quarter hour, but he still felt horribly heavy limbed and muddy minded. He just couldn't seem to shake the fatigue off. Stress. Maybe that's why I'm tired. Stress and depression can wear you out. Mek slept for days on end after Phillip…yeah, that's it.

The bathroom door was nearly closed when he heard Mekanek yell, "Take hot bath too!"

Adam sighed gustily, not really annoyed any longer. "Yes, Mama!" Then he closed the door firmly and began shedding his sodden clothing. It took only seconds for the tub to be filled with steaming hot water, and the prince sank gratefully into its depths. The sunken bathtub had many wonderful features, most invented by Man-At-Arms, including special jets of water that could massage away sore muscles and ease tension. Giving in to a sudden, childish urge, Adam grabbed a bottle on the side of the basin and poured a tankard's worth of gooey liquid soap into the tub with him. Within minutes, the jets had contrived with the hot water to turn the soap into a heaping mound of bubbles that spilled over the edges of the tub and disappeared into drains in the bathroom floor.

More than enough bubbles remained behind, however, for Adam to play with them until he was so dried out that his skin was in danger of cracking off and blowing away like dead leaves. Before that time came, he built frothy castles, dug long, iridescent tunnels and generally played with the sloppy stuff in a way that he hadn't played for years. It was incredibly soothing, and he was feeling much better about life in general and his life in specific by the time he got out of the tub

But then, talking with Mekanek usually had that effect on him as well. Mek was so understanding, so undemanding, and… Mek was a father. The Master might not be Adam's father, but his son had been one of Adam's closest friends before he died. These days Mekanek was a father without a child, and there were times when Adam felt like a child without a father… at least without a father that really cared about him. But there was no denying that Mekanek cared. He had such a good heart, and he was always to so anxious to be of help to everyone. If there was a way that he could help him, Adam knew that Mekanek would do it in a heartbeat.

Unfortunately, there was nothing that the good-natured Master could do to ease his prince's burden. Finding a way to tell him that without telling him why he couldn't help was going to be decidedly awkward. Or… maybe not. What if Mekanek knows something about Jared?! He's been around since forever! He might be able to answer my questions!

Hurriedly drying off and pulling on a robe, Adam yanked open the bathroom door and darted into his room. "Hey, Mek! There's something I want to ask – " The prince's words stopped like a lump in his throat as he saw one of the maids, Lanau pulling back the blankets on his bed, preparatory to remaking it with fresh linens. It was not the maid's presence which caught his eyes, but the little green leaves – no, not leaves, clovers – the little green clovers that were scattered between his sheets. Where did those come from? he wondered. And why does looking at them make my stomach want to tie itself into a knot?

"What'd you want to ask me?"

Adam didn't respond, his every thought still fixated on the bed and the bits of clover that the maid was rapidly sweeping into her hand. When she moved to throw the leaves away, his eyes followed her, passing over Mekanek as if he wasn't even there. Something... That means something… I can almost…

The master walked over, blocking Adam's view of the maid and interrupting the almost tangible bond between the prince's thoughts and the clover. Adam felt the connection snap with an inaudible twang. Suddenly dizzy, he squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head to clear it. When he started to sway slightly, Mekanek grabbed him by the shoulders and rapidly guided him to sit down on the edge of the bed.

"Hey, look, can you finish that later?" Mekanek asked, looking over his shoulder at the maid as he sat down beside Adam. "We need to be alone for a while."

"Of course, sir." Lanau gave the prince a worried glance, and Adam did his best to smile reassuringly at her. Somehow, he didn't think he'd succeeded when her eyes widened in alarm. Groaning, Adam closed his eyes once more and lowered his head into his hands. Great. Just great. Now the palace servants would be convinced that he had vapors or some such. Dimly, he heard the light sound of Lanau's footsteps retreating, and a moment later the door to the suite opened and closed again.

With a sigh, the prince rubbed at his eyes, wishing he could start this week over.

"All right," Mekanek said, "What's going on?" When Adam looked up at him, the master removed his helmet and dropped it onto the floor. "Well?"

"Give me a minute," the prince muttered, stalling for no reason he clearly understood.

"Uh uh. No more time," the master insisted, his grip on Adam's shoulders tightening ever so slightly. "If you don't tell me what's wrong right now, I'm calling Dorgan and you're getting a full medical exam. Now spill it."

Adam blinked up at him, appalled. The resolution he saw in Mekanek's face left him with no doubts. That was one threat that the master would carry out without hesitation. And one fate that Adam definitely wanted to avoid. And hadn't he wanted to ask Mekanek about Jared anyway? Why was he hesitating? It was like his tongue was suddenly stuck to the roof oh his mouth.

Grimacing fiercely, his face contorting so thoroughly that the master actually flinched backwards, Adam finally managed to blurt out his question. "Have you ever heard of a man named Jared?"

"The blacksmith on -- ?

The prince shook his head violently. "No. No. This man is a wizard or a mage or something. At least, I saw him do one spell. Oh, and I think he may be a criminal or something."

"You saw him do a spell?"

Adam nodded.

Mekanek's eyes widened. "When did you see him?

"In Orsinol. The night we came home."

"Does your father know you saw him?" the master asked, his voice strangely neutral.

"Yeah. That's why… at least, I think that's why he made me come home early."

For a moment, Mekanek said nothing more, merely turning his head to gaze out the window. There was an expression on his face that reminded Adam of Teela when she was just on the verge of solving a particularly difficult math problem. One that had been frustrating her for some time.

Looking back at the prince, Mekanek finally said, "Have you asked Randor why he made you come home?"

Adam clenched his jaw, and then stopped when it unexpectedly hurt. He was probably going to have bruises from where his father had grabbed him. That was just great. Mom would have a conniption.

"Adam? Answer me, please. I can't help you if you hold anything back."

"Yeah, I asked him," Adam snapped, the bitterness in his tone unmistakable. "Do you think he answered?" He laughed. "Not likely! Why should he bother to tell me anything? It's not like he cares what I think."

Mekanek blinked furiously for a moment, seemingly taken aback by the level of hostility that Adam knew he had to be radiating. For several seconds they sat quietly, Adam not quite sure what to more to say or whether he should apologize.

"Look, Adam, I know there's been some tension recently between you and your father. And I know you've both been angry with each other from time to time."

The prince shrugged. Mekanek's statement hardly needed affirmation.

"And I know," Mekanek said, placing his hand very gently on the side of Adam's face, "that he hurt you this morning."

The prince blinked, and opened his mouth to speak, but he could think of nothing to say. No words could get past the shock that constricted his throat. Finally, he managed to croak, "How…"

Mekanek smiled sympathetically. "He told me Adam. I know this will be hard for you to hear, but I think he was as hurt by what happened as you were. He was so horrified by what he'd done, so very ashamed. I don't you can imagine how badly he really feels."

Adam's jaw clenched. How could Mekanek claim his father was sorry? How could he defend him? And if Randor was so sorry – "Then why did he do it!?!" Adam demanded, tears of anger forming in his eyes. "And why hasn't said to me what he said to you?! Why did he just leave me? WHY?!"

With sigh, Mekanek stood up and walked to the window. He stood there with his hands behind his back, staring off into the distance as Adam walked slowly up behind him. "Mek?" the prince asked softly, alarmed buy the sudden sadness in the master's demeanor.

Without turning around, Mekanek began to speak. "Adam, the thing that you need to understand is that parents are just people, and like anyone they get angry." He paused, sighed deeply, and then went on. "Do you remember that time we went to the seashore, and Phillip hid and called out to me, trying to make me think that he fell off the cliff so I'd come save him?"

A burst of laughter, quickly cut off, escaped the prince's lips. "Yeah. He thought it was great way to get you to be all heroic in front of his friends. Right until you went ballistic that is. After that, he didn't think it was such a good idea any more."

Mekanek turned around to face Adam, and the prince was relieved to see that the master was smiling. "That certainly wasn't one of his brighter ideas, but its clearly a fond memory for you. What I bet you don't remember," he said, his smile becoming distinctly chagrined, "is that Phillip had hand shaped bruises on his arms for about a week after that incident from me grabbing him."

"I'm sure you didn't mean to do it!" Adam blurted, horrified by the idea that Mekanek might have been carrying an unreasonable load of guilt around with him all these years. "You didn't mean to hurt him!"

"Of course I didn't mean to hurt him, but sometimes when adults are scared, especially parents, that fear gets all mixed up with the love we feels for our kids and it comes out as anger. You've heard Duncan yell at Teela when she does something that frightens him."

"Yeah," Adam said quietly. "He yells at me for that, too."

"Well what happened with your father is the same sort of thing. Or do you think that he meant to hurt you the way he did?" Mekanek asked, fixing the prince with a piercing gaze. "Do you?"

"No," Adam whispered, blinking his eyes against sudden flood of tears. "I know he didn't mean to, and I know that he… he—"

"He loves you," Mekanek prompted, dipping his head lower to look directly into Adam's eyes.

"But then why did he say—" the tears began to fall in earnest, and Adam choked back a sob. "Why did he say that to me?!"

"Say what?" Mekanek asked, looking baffled and more than a touch annoyed.

The prince hoped devoutly that the annoyance was directed at his father, because he just didn't think that he could handle having one more person angry with him right now. He opened his mouth to speak, but his voice wouldn't come and he shrugged hopelessly, wiping at his eyes with the heels of his hands.

To Adam's delight and utter humiliation, Mekanek pulled him into a tight hug, resting Adam's head on his shoulder and rocking him ever so slightly. "Ah, kid. Let it out. Just let go."

For several minutes, all the prince did was cry, taking comfort in Mekanek's undemanding love. He devoutly hoped that the conversation was over, and that he could find a hole to crawl into somewhere where he could die of embarrassment after the master let him go, but Mekanek was far from finished. Once Adam had stopped sobbing, Mekanek continued right where they'd left off without, however, relaxing the hug.
"He said something hurtful, didn't he?"

Adam nodded against Mekanek's shoulder, far too ashamed to admit what, specifically, his father had said to him. To his surprise, Mekanek snorted and began to laugh in decidedly ironic tones.

"Ah, Captain Randor rides again."

"What?" Adam asked, pulling away slightly so he could look the master in the face.

"Did I ever tell you what a horrible temper your father used to have when he was a captain in the Eternian Army and what a hard time he had controlling it?"

Adam shook his head, some confused by the apparent change in topic.

"Well, he did, and it used to burst out spectacularly. That's what I mean by, Randor rides again.' I wouldn't take it too seriously. You should have heard what he called me once, right after I first joined up." Mekanek began to laugh in earnest. "I was so excited to be serving under Captain Miro's son, so convinced that I was on the verge of great adventure… and so utterly fumble-fingered and useless."

"Really?" Adam asked quietly.

"Oh yes," Mekanek said, nodding. Randor ranted at me for a good twenty minutes or more." Taking a deep breath, Mekanek began speaking in a very bad imitation of Adam's father's voice. " 'How do they expect me to win a battle when they send me idiots like you? I've seen better marksmanship by a horse! If you're not serious about being a soldier then at least stay out of the way of those of us who are! Blasted, back-bred fool!' And that's only a small sample. But, I suppose I had it coming."

Adam's eyes widened and he found himself unexpected fighting back a grin.

"What did you do?" he asked in conspiratorial tones.

"At that point? I said 'Yes, sir!' and got out of his sigh fast."

"No," Adam said, laughing. "I mean, what did you do that made him say that?"

"Oh, uh," Mekanek hesitated, looking thoroughly sheepish. "I, uh, shot him in the foot."

"You shot him?!" Adam gasped, all embarrassment gone in the face of Mekanek's far bigger blunder.

"Only in the foot," the master defended himself. "It healed fast. Anyway, my point is that, I mean, I guess all of my points come down to this: grownups have bad days and say and do things they don't mean. Even fathers."

"Even kings?"

"Especially kings," Mekanek said with a grin. "All that extra stress and everything.

Adam sighed. "I suppose that's true, but still…"

"Look you want him to trust you, treat you with respect," Mekanek said, taking Adam's hands in his. "Well, that works both ways, Maybe he has a good reason for not telling you about that Jared guy, maybe he has a good reason for calling you back from Orsinol without explanation, and maybe, just maybe, he has a good reason for being scared right now."

"I guess… I never though of it like that," Adam said, his thoughts whirling. "So what should I do?"

Mekanek smiled broadly. "Why don't you try following his orders, however ludicrous they seem to you, and giving him the benefit of the doubt for once? Does that seem fair?"

Adam shrugged, too caught up in considering the master's words, and too embarrassed, to respond aloud.

"I'll take that as a yes," Mekanek said, tweaking the prince's nose. "Oh, and if you're not feeling better by tomorrow, I am siccing Dorgan on you. So get your rest, eat and drink plenty, and try to relax. Got it?"

Adam grinned. "Yes sir!"

"Buck up, kid. Things are bound to get better."