[T]

Thayne's Major Dream

Mother's come! the call high upon the air above the noise that normal people could hear flew swiftly from Child to Child and excitement filled the Family of Mother.

"The Queen has come!" whispered through the dark alleys and dim hidden bars and inner places at nearly the same time. Some who heard it were of the Queen's House, others weren't and they took notice but didn't move otherwise.

A young man flipped wavy light brown hair out of his eyes and stood up to wipe the sweat from his brow. His grey-blue eyes caught the dark eyes of one of his companions. The other man, his bare muscles rippling with the effort to lift his burden and glistening with sweat, looked back with a bare half-smile, then a wink. "Off you go lad. You've got other duties today."

He grinned, "And likely for a few days at least, this time."

The other nodded as he turned to carry his load. "Bring her by as soon as you can. Tell her we're waiting to greet her. She'll be pleased with the progress."

"Got'cha." Thayne put down his trowel and wiped his hands on a dirty rag. The building of the exterior of the second arena was almost completed and the interior of the first was getting the final touches this week. They might - just might - get to see her christen it this visit. It was a thing he and every nightwalker in Lyrias was looking forward to, and half the Family as well, truth be told.

Thayne walked both sides, night House and day Family. She'd put him there, but he'd wanted it. Wanted to walk at her back since the day she'd helped his father bury his mother. She'd refused to let him join her at her home, saying that he was too good to be ruined that way. He didn't mind, as long as she let him walk with her. He'd only seen her on the two or three occasions per year her lord, Earl College, visited with his own Viscount until then.

-o-o-o-

His father hadn't thought too much about her before that one memorable visit. A lanky pre-teen with straight black hair she wore in a braid that fell half-way down her back. Already a hard face that seemed to have seen too much of the hard life of her master. When they came and the lords were in conference, their men ran roughshod in the hunting lodge, teasing the maids too much, gambling, drinking and fighting - though not enough to get tattled on by the young girl who stood unafraid in the middle of them (when she stood still). When she wasn't standing watch, her piercing dark tawny eyes seeing every little detail, she was running.

Thayne loved to watch that. He cowered when the men were there, hiding in the stable or in his father's cottage. But when the Queen left the lodge to run...then he came out, sat on the stable roof, and watched. She would run towards her selected tree, run up the tree, grab a branch, swing herself up to rest briefly, crouched on her branch - her starting line. Then, with a breath, she was gone moving swiftly from branch to branch, tree to tree, in a circle around the hunting lodge. She was dark shadow moving swiftly, leaping, running, climbing and dropping down again but never touching the ground.

Each time was just a little different. The first time, he watched her in surprise, in the middle of fetching a bucket of water for the horses as she had to stretch her then-short body to make the gaps between trees. She'd stayed in the circle, close by the house, with three hard-eyed men watching her. He'd worked extra hard on learning to climb trees after that visit. The second time there had been only one man watching her closely, walking the circle as if holding the long creance line of a hunting bird being trained to the lure, and she'd had a little more finess, but still it was only the curcuit around the lodge. He'd begun practicing jumping close branches between trees after that visit. He wasn't too much smaller than her, after all. Somehow he managed to not get any broken bones in his falls.

The third time she'd come, he'd finally figured out there were eyes watching her from inside the house, but she'd stayed in the circle still and flew from branch to branch, tree to tree. That time, he'd timed her and his goal when she was gone was to get up to that speed. The fourth time, and since then, she did the circuit around the hunting lodge once, then disappeared into the woods away from the road. His father would come home from his chores as the Viscount's forester and talk about having seen her fly past him in the tree tops, a large light brown bird with black tail flying behind that grew longer with each visit.

It was her eyes that drew Thayne as he watched her in flight, when he could catch a glimpse of them. They were hard when she was on the ground, almost like flint. When she was in flight they were alive and wild, like the hawks and falcons that came through to poach the rabbits from the Viscount. When she returned from her flights through the woods, they stayed that way until the Earl and his men left, taking her back to whatever cage they kept her in. Each time they returned, her face and eyes were harder, smoother, more refined, more regal.

His mother died when they were there. It was probably the third time she'd been gone out on flight away from the house. The Earl's men decided that since they didn't have their young overseer, they could play a little harder, tease a little meaner, fight a little more seriously. All the temporary staff had been frightened and even Thayne and his mother had tried to stay out of sight. It hadn't been enough. Someone had to come to the master's call and when two of the three maids had been released from duty, it had been his mother who had left the house late. The Earl's men woke late each morning, since in their regular line of duty most of their work was done in the dark of night when evil things could happen away from the eyes of good hard-working folk.

One had seen the falcon take flight shortly before Thayne's mother walked out the kitchen door to return to their cottage. He'd followed her and grabbed her when they were out of sight of any eyes, covering her mouth hard enough to leave bruises to be seen later when she'd been found by Thayne's father, her clothing torn off, her body bloody, her neck broken solely to keep her silent so that the man who'd decided he was going to have 'fun' wouldn't get into trouble with the young falcon or his lord. Thayne had been hiding in the stable, taking care of the horses, so hadn't known until suddenly his father's voice called out his mother's name. The sound was so full of anguish, pain, and anger that Thayne had frozen in place for two seconds. He'd seen a flash of shadow in the trees and that had woken him up. He'd run out the door of the stables to look after her.

She'd lept down out of the trees and run behind the house, a look of horror on her face. Thayne couldn't move. The cry combined with that look made his legs completely stop functioning. He'd sunk down to his knees right there. He hadn't seen human death until that time, hadn't known that kind of evil until then, but just having these people come and invade three times a year was sufficient foreshadowing. He didn't need to know, didn't need to see, to know he didn't have a mother to hold him, a kind voice full of love to encourage him, a happy home any more. He'd dropped his head to cover his face with his hands. No tears came then, just an overwhelming feeling of horror to match her look, the feeling of 'why'. Why his mother? It could have been any maid. Why did it have to be the one who held the men in this woods lightly together when they were all alone for all the rest of the year except these few incursions? The hatred had begun to build then. Hatred that made him rise to his feet and run towards the lodge. Hatred that was going to make those evil, dispicable, horrid men pay for trespassing into his home to take from him his mother who had done nothing but serve properly.

He'd broken out from the stable and into the clear space between it and the lodge to be suddenly captured in strong, thin arms. His arms had been pinned so he could only struggle to get free. "Stop!" It had been whispered in a hard female voice. It was the first word she'd ever spoken to him. "I'll take care of it. I promise. I can't bring her back, but I can make them pay. Don't die, too. If you want revenge, live, and I promise I'll give you the opportunity...as many times as it takes until you're satisfied.

He was breathing hard, but her words were words he could accept and he went cold and hard as she spoke them. By the time she was done saying them, he was still and as cold as an iron bar in winter. He'd nodded once and she'd slowly released him and stepped back cautiously, making sure he didn't try to run again. "If you want to see what I'll do, come behind, but don't enter the main room. You might not make it out alive, though. If you'd rather wait, go to your house. We'll be coming back there." A nod and she was gone, leading his father by the elbow again towards the lodge.

Thayne's eyesight came back enough at that vision to see the abject grief on his fathers face, the unseeing eyes that were shedding tears so freely they were blinded by the liquid that spilled down his cheeks. That sight finally broke his own barrier and with a sob, he turned and ran for his own house. He threw himself on his parent's bed, in his mother's place as if to hold her with them, to keep her from leaving them, but she was already gone. Already risen from bed, dressed, done her work, and been stolen from them. She wouldn't walk that floor, dancing with the broom, only to have it replaced with the husband who loved her and would dance just for her, even if clumsily. She wouldn't run her hand through Thayne's hair, toussle it, and call him funny names any more. The smells of her cooking wouldn't rise through the air to call them home at the end of a day walking the woods to count the animals, see if the foxes had kits, and what trees had come down in the last storm.

His sobbing had continued until the door to their house opened again and they had come in, his father, the young falcon Queen, and his mother. Behind them were the two other maids, either of which could have been the one to be dead instead of his mother. He wanted to hate them, but they were white and afraid, and apologetic, understanding that it well could have been one of them. The tears were also dripping down their faces.

"Put her on the table, Foster," the Queen ordered. Thayne stared at her. For the first time ever there was something soft about her. Her words, even the tone of her voice, the hand on his father's shoulder. It was a thing he wouldn't have thought of her. She helped Foster lay his mother's body on the table properly. "You two," she addressed the maids not quite so softly, but not harshly either, "clean her properly. Foster, find us her favorite dress." She led his father to the small wardrobe and pulled things out until his father had nodded dully. Leading his father by the arm again, she'd taken the dress back to the maids. "See she's dressed in this." The maids nodded and took the dress and returned to their work. Placing Foster on the bed next to Thayne, she'd said. "Sit here with your son. I've another task to start, then I'll be back." Thayne nodded for his father, who couldn't move, see, or comprehend. A soft touch to his head and she was gone.

He'd followed her, to stand at the door and watch. The men of the Earl and the Viscount were standing outside the Lodge around a headless body on the ground, it's severed head next to it. Some were still looking at it, but most were looking warily at the young female headed their way. Within three minutes every man was on the ground holding one body part or another. The later men tried to defend, some to run, but no one could see her move, and who her target was couldn't be told by anyone watching. When she was done, she was in a crouched pose, splayed on the ground, grown men and older teens writhing in pain. "Am I clear?" she asked, her voice deadly. "Yes, Missus," her own had answered immediately, even if groaned. The Viscount's men were a bit slower but she accepted teary nods from them. They weren't her own, but it was clear - she wouldn't put up with any such behavior from any of them.

"Dump him. The rest of you'll go dig her grave in the garden in the place you wish your own mother could have been buried in if you'd bothered to love her enough to not become what you are today, and you'll do it now. Then, you're all confined to the lodge until we leave and you'll be doing your own cleaning, cooking, stablehanding and laundry until we're gone. You'll also do your lord's work. Not a single servant will set foot in this house until we are gone again. If the lords complain you'll call for me. Barraka, see the grave's done properly. Landras, the head's to go where it can remind you lot what will happen every time you decide to let your common sense get buried by your evil desires. This day you've created another one of you just by breathing. You'll see he's cared for like your own, but you'll not taint him. He's mine."

"Yes, Missus." It had taken several days before Thayne had realized she'd been talking about him, and then they were gone so he couldn't ask her what she meant. At that time, she'd risen and walked straight for him, taking his arm without looking at him as they reentered the little cottage. Together they walked up to the table where the maids were working, their faces drawn and white still.

"You'll not go back into the lodge," she told them. "The men will take care of the chores for the rest of this visit. Tell all the servants they're to go back. I'll bear the burden of the punishment and pass it on to the men." She looked at Thayne. "That goes for you and your da' as well. You'll stay in the house or the woods, but the men will care for the horses. Your dad's going to need to just grieve for a few weeks, likely. Can you handle the cooking if he can't?"

Thayne blinked and his face fell. "We won't starve, but...neither of us's good as Ma."

"Not starving's as good as a lot get it." It was cold words, but not said as cold as they could have been. He could only nod. She'd passed him off to the maid and sent the second one to sit with his father while she finished cleaning the wounds and put the dress on his mother - a bright yellow one with little white flowers on it that made her feel like summer sunshine in the middle of winter. Looking at her laying on the table like she was sleeping in that dress had finally made the tears fall again from his own eyes. He wanted so badly to see her get up from that table, twirl in her dress, and smile at him, even for one last time. The maid sitting with him held him as the sobs welled up from inside and spilled out whether or not he wanted them to. It was just easier to let them.

-o-o-o-

The next time he'd seen her, she'd been in the front of the group of men, riding near the Earl as they came into the lodge courtyard months later. The Viscount had come out to greet them, welcoming the Earl. As the Earl dismounted, the Vicount looked at her. "Are you going to steal my servants from me again this time?"

"No. You're going to send them home. If you brought them, you've not learned your own lesson properly yet. We'll handle it, just like last time." Her voice was calm, cold, hard, her eyes completely unafraid. She hadn't left the back of her horse and neither had any of the men. "If you love your comforts that much, get your business done. We'll wait here." Her eyes had gone to the Earl and if anything went harder, almost daring him to cross her.

The Earl, in response, gave her a curl of the lip. He turned to the Viscount. "The Missus is anxious to be on the road already, even though this is her only playground." Thayne would have hit someone to say that. The willowy teen ignored him and looked towards Thayne instead. Silently she appraised him. He looked back, silently taking her measure as well. Apparently that was enough of a message to the lords. "I told him we'd take care of it before we came," the Earl said.

She looked back at them, looking the Viscount in the eye. He nodded. "Just me and the men."

She immediately dismounted, though completely uncaring in her attitude. The rest of the men did as well. A toss of her head and her horse was walking to the stable on its own. She headed straight for Thayne, ignoring everyone else. "How's Foster?"

"Living," Thayne answered. "Spends most of his time out in the woods. I've learned to cook decent enough."

"Is he out now?" Thayne nodded. She gestured, "Put the bucket by the door. They'll get it." She waited for him. "You still been practicing?" He stared at her, then nodded. "I'll go slow. Try to keep up. We'll see how you do."

She was running. He took off after her. She ran up the tree to the first branch, then swung up one more. He was up the trunk and in the first branch right behind her. She nodded and it was a game of tree-top follow-the-leader. He didn't know where his father was, but she swung around a curve, then headed a determined direction. They were quite a ways out when she paused. He landed behind her in the same tree. He'd spent a lot of time up in the trees since the last time she'd been there. He looked where she was looking to see his father. She'd come right to him. Motioning for him to stay put, she dropped to the ground, making just enough noise to alert Foster she was present.

Foster turned and looked from the ground, expecting an animal, up her body to look into her face. His face went just a little hard. He knew what seeing her meant. "You don't have to come home for three days if you don't want. I'll watch over the boy." A nod from Foster and she was back up in the tree. They held still until he went back to his work, then they returned to the lodge as quietly as they'd left it. She put him to his paces, though, and taught him what he hadn't been able to learn on his own in the trees, then in the brush until she was satisfied. "When we leave here, we're going to Lyrias. I want you to come with. Think about it. If you're willing, find your da' and let him know. We'll drop you back here on our way back through. Likely about two to three weeks from now."

That had been the first time he'd left the Viscount's forest hunting lodge. His first time out to see the world. It was big, wide, days to travel by horseback to the large university city. The small villages they had passed through had been large and exciting to his eyes then; Lyrias overwhelming. He stuck to her side like a bur, just trying to get his senses to comprehend so many people in one place all making noise. Light laughter, yells of playing children, haggling vendors and customers. No one from her group complained. Only the few men who were allowed to talk to her talked to him, except the Earl who ignored him after one appraising look from him when he mounted his horse at the lodge and rode to stand next to her, keeping his eyes as cold and distant as hers were. Of course, he couldn't help his excited eyes in towns and his nervous ones at Lyrias.

-o-o-o-

Now, though, he'd been here not just to visit briefly with her, learning the ropes of who and what she was and how to fit in to both sides of the people who followed her. This time, he'd stayed when they left, to help with building the fighting arenas she was having them put in to be money-making practice and recruitment halls. He didn't know a whole lot that first time out, and he still was learning, but he'd yet to meet anyone like her. She was one of a kind. Light and dark, hard bitten but a polite negotiator that got her way in the daylight with courteous words that never lied. In the night, she could put down any nightwalker that decided to cross her and fewer did these days. By now, the whole city left the Queen alone and in the day her Family thronged her if she smiled.

That had surprised him. Her first smile in his presence. It had sorrow and hardness behind it, but it was still genuine. So was the kind hug that had accompanied it. The person she gave it to was a man who looked like he'd been kicked by a mule and had just tried to put a knife in her side. He'd received a broken arm for the trouble and then a five minute therapy session while being bound by her own hands along with an apology for her lack of control at that moment. The smile had come at the end, after the tears of the man had changed his countenance from one of bitterness to one of calm relief. They'd dropped him off at one of the House centers for food and watchful eyes to be on him. By the time her business was done there, he was asleep in the corner, a thin blanket over him. "He'll be fine, Missus." A nod from her and they were out the door. There hadn't been a smile before that, nor one after for that man, but it had stuck with him. Most of her smiles after that came around that kind of time, and were just as brief. Thayne stuck even more tightly next to her after that.

Then she'd introduced Thayne to the Family. She'd woken him up early, a finger on his lips. Early for the Earl and his men meant a normal morning waking time for the rest of the world - and she'd still let Thayne sleep in some. A wink once he was up and she was leading him out the door. He'd had to look at her several times to make sure he was following the right black braid. They were accosted by two children as soon as they'd stepped foot out of the inn. "Mother, Mother!" and arms were around her.

"Hey. And how are you doing this fine morning?" It was said calmly but with tenderness. Thayne had looked around for who was talking, then looked around again for the person he'd been following up until now. All he could see was an older teen girl chatting kindly with two younger children. He'd stood there, mystified until she'd finally turned teasing eyes on him. "Keep up, Thayne," and she was off. Only the fact that she'd called him kept him trailing after her.

She was stopped regularly and always she had a kind look and a pleasant voice. Like in the night House where she was always addressed as 'Missus', out in the day she was always addressed as 'Mother', regardless of the age of the person who had stopped to talk to her. That trip wasn't too different from the others. A walk around town, stopping at various places to check in with proprieters, only these were the ones that normal people would visit. As before, she would test him - his memory of their names, the shop names, what they sold, where they were located. Those things were the same, so he started to settle a little better. Having her talk to one of them in an ally to let them cry was like her, too. He'd learned that side for the next several trips out until he knew everyone in the night House and everyone in the day Family, and they all knew him. He'd learned a lot following her about the world, people, her secret coded language, how to listen, and he'd watched a lot of people while he was here this time too but, no. He really didn't know anyone like her.

-o-o-o-

Thayne arrived at the usual inn at the same time the Earl and his men did. He stayed out of the way of the Earl, but several of the men he knew greeted him. They had high turn-over (many ending up here in Lyrias those first years), but some had managed to hang on. He greeted them with nods. Meet me on the roof. He took off for the roof and waited there. It was a while before she came, sinking down with a sigh, arms resting over her knees. He looked at her, made easier because her eyes were closed as she breathed the fresher air of the top of the roof than down in the press of bodies. She was woman now, just passed into her twenties, but he wasn't sure just when. He was in that same range himself, but looked younger. He'd been running with her about seven years.

"How long this time?" he asked her.

"Mmm...," she looked up into the sky. "A long time, actually. All winter."

His eyes widened. "He's getting married on the return trip and doesn't want me or the men in the way. Wants her to believe he's on the up and up, at least until it's too late to do anything about it. It's supposed to look like I'm here for education one more time, though I'm done." She looked over the city and towards the university. "I'll be over there a lot. I've got my own thing to do while I'm there, but it isn't that kind of research. I'll come out at night, though."

Two other bodies landed next to them, smiles on their faces. "Hey." "Welcome back."

"Scamp, Scoundrel," she said with a nod. "You'll go in with me, the three of you. I'll need help with the reading. We're going hunting for people treasures in the stacks and among the up and coming. It's time to build up the other half."

The three of them nodded. She hadn't kept it a secret that income building was her next goal. That was why she was having the arenas built, after all. No one was quite sure why she was doing it, but it didn't matter. It was what the Queen wanted so it was what they were doing. She'd made sure the three of them had learned to read, and she had them go into the University Library to read for her at least once per trip out to Lyrias. "Do any of you need clothes to get in?" They all shook their heads. She'd bought them day clothes the last time she was out. They'd been outgrowing it before this time around but had settled pretty much for now in that department.

"Will you come look at the construction? First one's about done. Second will have the exterior done by the full snows," Thayne said. Winter had already arrived, but the deep snows that came to this high altitude region hadn't come just yet.

She looked that way. "After a bit. Let me know when the first one's ready. I'll be here long enough to see them both operational." She rose and dusted off her pants. If not for her braid and the fact she'd finally grown a bit in the womanly department, she'd really look like one of them - a thin street-rat vagabond who lived on scraps and scrapped to live. Probably because she did. They rose and leapt down from the roof with her and sauntered after her - the Queen Mother and her three city guards. Well...she used them as runners and errand boys, but they took the unspoken duty pretty seriously. There were a few night Houses she wouldn't be able to stand against alone. Of course, given how many of her Family and House there were in Lyrias now, she wouldn't have been alone long. Still, they stuck by her side unless she sent them off to learn something in particular.

The research began and kept going. The arenas were finished and her christening tournaments were spectacular. Even the best of the opposing Houses couldn't best her in the knife ring, and she took out the ones who wouldn't abide the rule of 'marking only' until everyone played nice. She did have to go back to the street fighting ring three times to make it to the top, but she was obviously enjoying the challenge. She went back another three to make sure she knew she had her skills properly learned, then just went to watch on occasion. Her part of the city settled down and enjoyed having her around long term for once, and life found a pattern for a while.

Then came the day the news ran through the University library: The Wistal Court Pharmacists are coming - for a two year stint. She'd missed them the first time and the panic of the closing of the city for the unknown plague, though she'd heard about it on the Family information line. The newest news caused such a stir in the library she headed for the pharmacy itself and got the full story from Head Pharmacist Shidan himself over tea that night. She was thoughtful after that, but the patterns continued. Then there was the day the court pharmacists arrived. She hit the roof of one of the buildings that let her see who went where between the scholar's apartments and the university and tracked the plush black wool cloaks embroidered with the symbol of Wistal. Her face got hungry and a hand clenched. "I want them," she said under her breath.

"Are you going to get them this time?" Henry asked.

She shook her head. "They'll be hard to catch and reel in. They've already given their hearts to another - or so it sounds like from talking to Shidan."

"Looks like they're staying fairly plush," Marcus whistled appreciatively as they were taken by the University guide to one of the upscale student apartments and shown to singles. Most students had to room in at least doubles to be able to afford the cost, even if they were children of lords.

"The King's ordered them to come," she said, no emotion in the words. The three nodded. If the King was footing the bill, then he wouldn't care so much for the cost. They watched until the pair, a young red-haired woman, still in her late teens, and an even younger black-haired teen boy that was slightly stout, had entered the University grounds. The Queen sat on the roof and mused, but they'd seen her eyes follow the boy with particular fondness.

"You know him from before?" Thayne asked.

She nodded. "Long time ago. They should treat him nice, with the King's backing and all. He looks happy at least. That's good." She rose, not explaining herself, though that wasn't too surprising. They recognized the look and sound of Mother for one of her own Children. "Set a watch on them round the clock. A finger gets laid on them..." It didn't need to be finished.

They dropped into a deep snowbank and immediately began a snowball fight to muss up the bank and hide the evidence they'd come from above, throwing just as many snowballs onto the roof as at each other. They were just a bunch of students blowing off steam. The guardianship rotations were set by the time they left and went to dry off at one of her favorite Family restaurants. Her Family fed them without pay since she paid in other ways, but she rotated through them so as to not cause them undue strain on their wallets and the too many people who arrived when they learned where she was going - both students who wanted to ask her questions about their research and Family members who had free time on their hands.

"Hey, hey! Have you heard it, the Court Pharmacists have arrived!" Three students descended on her. "You're not going to get to just visit with Shidan any more, are you?"

She mock scowled at them. "If he calls me, I'll go, but I've other things to do. He's a busy man with or without them. Sheesh. Why you think I've got a crush on the old man, I have no idea."

"Well, he's the only prof you'll talk to, right?" one pestered.

"He was my major prof. Students move on and when they come to visit, they visit. Nothing more, nothing less. Get on with it."

"Were you here last time...," and they had to hear the stories told all over again. The Queen was good at turning the stories, though, to hear perhaps a new thing here or a suddenly remembered detail there. This time, it came out that the red haired female had a second black haired person with her, that had also come from the castle, helped to solve the riddle of the plague, and returned with her. Her eyes glittered and she turned the conversation to get everything about that one out into the open. When they left, the look she gave Henry and Marcus was one they knew well. They disappeared.

Several hours later they met up again at the knife arena and sat behind her, leaning over the shoulders of her and Thayne, one on either of her ears and gave their report of everything they could learn about that one. Thayne had seen desire in her eyes before - the desire to have a highly qualified researcher, or a well trained artisan, even the desire to win a particular battle. The desire that hit her eyes and face that night when the name of the man was given was completely different. He was looking at the desire he knew, but it was on the face of the falcon who had run through the trees of the woods he had grown up in. Her fingers on both hands even clenched like talons as if she would descend on him and snatch him up for herself.

"But...there's no word if he'll come or not this time. That time he was outside when the gates were locked, but he was let into the garrison. No one on the streets or in the University is sure why, except to protect Red." The Queen nodded. That was sufficient for her. "Shall we keep an eye out for him?" She nodded again, seemingly unable to even open her mouth. She'd gone into full hunting mode...and the man wasn't even in the streets. That was enough for Thayne. If she wanted him, they'd find a way to get him for her. From the day he'd been claimed by her he hadn't regretted it. It wasn't possible for anyone to not want it, in his mind. He knew his companions agreed with that sentiment, though if they'd asked the adults, they might have been a little more tempered.

A watch was kept, but it wasn't easy to see just another black haired young man and know who it was coming in. The cloak would give it away of course, but...that was if he came in the day. False alarms came in regularly for a while until she set the law to wait until one showed up that actually talked to Red and followed her around.

-o-o-o-

Intruder into Court Pharmacist's room. The alarm came after dark one night not too much later, maybe a couple of weeks. Black hair, fox mask. We're closing in. Thayne had never seen Mother move that fast. She was three roofs over by the time he was at the edge of the first and she didn't slow down. He moved as best he could, the other two keeping up a little better. He's recognized we're here and is backing down, but not leaving. Claiming no harm.

Observe, stall. Came her reply.

They arrived in time to hear a voice say quietly, but in the night piercing way of the night walker, "If you're here to harm, I'll have your heads."

There was a bit of a silence, then one of the House chuckled and said, similarly, "That's our line."

The man went still, uncertain, looking around. "Who's House?" It was asked suspiciously, cautiously.

"Do you know the Houses of Lyrias?"

"Yes." He was still looking around cautiously. He could sense where they were all hiding further up on the roof of that building and on the others, as well as below in the street. He was definitely a night walker.

Thayne looked around and finally found the Queen. She was frozen, a little further back from the front line, and she had the same hunting look in her eyes. What do you want us to do, Missus? he cautiously walked up to her, though from the front corner, not directly, wanting to let her see him without blocking her view of her prey.

Tell him the House. Her eyes never left the man on the porch roof.

"Then, it's the House of the Queen of Night."

The man slightly relaxed, surprising many of them. "Why's the Queen protecting Mistress and Little Ryuu?"

The Queen tensed as if preparing to descend on her prey. Tell him to step into better lighting for identification and get his name.

"Answering that depends on who you are. Let us see a face and hear a name, then we might tell you."

There was a pause. He looked around one more time, but the battle intent wasn't in the air any more. It was just parlay. He finally nodded, then did a backflip off the porch roof to land in a lit spot of snow on the ground. His fine cloak was marked with the sign of Wistal and there was a general intake of breath, anticipation rising from the watchers. The Queen even rose as if preparing for the descent, but held it.

A young adult hand reached up to remove the fox mask from his face, lifting it over his black hair that stuck up, cut short. The Queen slid to the edge of the roof and Thayne grabbed one arm and Henry the other, preventing her from going to ground. It wasn't safe just yet. His eyes had immediately moved to the motion, but couldn't see because of the torch light. When he faced them, Thayne could see his features were very similar to the Queen's. Darker of skin, just a little. Eyes of similar shape and probably tawny shade. The black hair made the resemblance all the more uncanny. She moaned slightly and his eyes narrowed to see better, trying to pierce to her position directly. He took a step to turn their direction and was ordered to stand still, being brought to remember there were many more around him than that one.

"I'm here to follow Mistress while she's here studying. I'd appreciate the pass for the next two years or so. ...Ah, and Master's given me my own work to do at the garrison as well. I've been up here before, but it's been a few years. Obi's the name." He'd spoken to the slight moan, not to the voice who'd been talking.

Thayne could feel the Queen shivering under his gloved hand as if she weren't clothed at all. He tightened his grip and she finally shook herself back. Pass. Guard. If he's touched a city block will die. He. Is. Mine. Never had Thayne felt such raw emotion from her. Not once. The burning desire, need, anguish seared him, standing as close as he was.

"You've the pass," her Voice said calmly.

"Thank you very much," Obi put his mask to his chest and bowed to the Queen, then turned to sit on the porch under the roof. Thayne was glad two of them were holding her. She nearly fell off the roof as she swooned. They carefully got her over to the opposite side of the roof, laid out until she was able to rouse enough they could get her two more roofs over and to the ground. They took her back to the safest of the House holes and put her to bed. She curled up under her blankets and sobbed herself to sleep. This was a side to her they had never seen. Not once...and not only them. None of the House, nor none of the Family either. Henry and Marcus went and asked since information was their charge and role.

Thayne watched over her, sitting near her. He knew those sobs well. They were the sobs of one who has lost a loved one, dear to their heart. His father had cried them, and so had he. When she would moan in her sleep, or reach out, he would put his hand in hers, or on her shoulder, just to let her know she wasn't alone. It was all he could do, and what she needed most. He knew that, had lived it, too. He worked out a few things while keeping vigil that night, but there was enough he didn't know that he couldn't work it all out. When she woke, he asked her. "Will you talk to him?"

She gave him the loneliest, most lost look he'd ever seen on a face, even of all the faces of those she'd comforted and brought light back to. It tore him to see it on hers. "I can't. If I do, he dies. If he dies, I die."

Thayne blinked. "Who?"

"The Earl."

Thayne's breath caught and he felt like he'd been punched. The one person that was untouchable made her feel this pain, separated her from her own source of light. Marcus and Henry decended to roost next to him. "What's the plan?" "How do we get him, and you, free?"

Thayne wanted to throttle them, but instead of defeat, her eyes lit up, just faint embers but the falcon was there. "Slowly... slowly... but not too far off...," she whispered. "It's been almost eighteen years. Only a few more... a few more and the noose can tighten by the hand of another... then... then freedom and reunion." She held that thought, then took a deep breath, shook and returned to looking at them, her face going hard, as hard as at the hunting lodge. "I won't be able to stay away all winter. When it gets bad, chase me off him until I cool off. Orders." The three of them nodded. "I need to understand the full relationship between him and Red, too. I know what I've heard from the castle, but I need to see it with my own eyes before I have to go, or I'll give it away when I'm back with the Earl again."

-o-o-o-

They spent the rest of that winter doing their usual routine, never crossing paths with Red or her guardian or the boy genius. But there were plenty of times she watched over them, many times the look in her eyes went back to that desire to have, the look on her face to one of loss and loneliness, and they had to chase her off, across roof tops until she was so tired they caught up and held her down until she'd cried herself to sleep. Those times were very difficult for all of them, and Thayne vowed that if ever he could make it possible for the two of them to be together, he'd protect the two of them with his very life, and even more, their relationship, whatever it was. The Queen of Night needed her Sun, and Obi was it. The House and the Family needed their Sun and that was her. It came as no surprise to him when, two years later, she named Obi Father and told the Family to protect him all across Wilant. From then on, Thayne did everything and anything she ordered him to do. She was finally on the last part of her hunt and he - Father, Obi, her Sun - was the goal.

It thrilled him to be one of the first collected by Father. The first to be his guide and translator. The first to be called 'companion'. The first to follow after him. The first to be called to walk with him. To be the first to betray Mother's goal cut him like he'd never thought he could hurt again after his own mother's death. But he was then also the first to be forgiven, even if he couldn't forgive himself. The first to offer his life for the life of another for Mother's sake under Father's knife, wishing for his death, and being punished for that wish. The more he walked with Father, the more he understood why he was Mother's light, why she needed him walking with her, why that was worth protecting with everything he had. The evening he and his partner were called in to finally stand in her presence again, to be fully assigned to walk at Father's back and protect Mother's heart in doing so was the fulfilment of all he could desire, and had desired since she had give her light to him and his father when they needed it most.

"Second Son...what may I give you...?"

"Mother, it is my wish to follow Obi all of his days. ...Please grant this major wish to me, that I might protect the heart of Mother Ilena so that she may be strong for all of her Children."

"It will be as you desire. You may remain in your position for all of Obi's days. May you find happiness in living out your dream."

"I am happy, Mother. I'm even more happy because you are happy."

The light in her eyes and the joy and peace on her face for having Father by her side was worth all he could have ever wanted. After all, all he'd wanted the day he learned who she was was to see his own mother standing next to his father again.