In due course, or within seven months, again, Meaghan gave birth, as she predicted to identical twin daughters. Charlemagne was delighted with two miniature versions of their mother, and spoiled them even more outrageously than he did his sons. However, as the Magog world-ship came ever closer, he had less and less time to spend with his family as he was needed in planning defenses. Increasingly, he was away from home, sometimes for weeks at a time. Meaghan tried not to mope and spent a great deal of time with the children. Elsbeth plotted mischief of a Nietzschean sort.
"You cannot go on that raiding party against the Dragons, Elsbeth," Meaghan said for the umpteenth time. "Charlemagne wouldn't like it."
"Since Charlemagne isn't here," the Nietzschean woman pointed out. "He can neither state his likes nor his dislikes."
"It's utter insanity," Meaghan persisted.
"It will be fun," Elsbeth declared, grinning at the way Meaghan rolled her eyes at her. "Besides, there are quite a few of us who owe the Dragons. The time for payment has come."
"Divisive action right now is sheer folly." Meaghan kept trying. "All the people, no matter what race need to stand together or we will fall to the Magog."
"We won't be starting a war, Meaghan," Elsbeth said lightly. "Just reclaiming something that was always ours and that the Dragons have no right to."
"And that's not the way Nietzscheans start wars?" Meaghan inquired wearily. "Please, Elsbeth, don't go. I.., I.., just have a very bad feeling about this."
"Don't worry," Elsbeth tried to reassure her. "I'll probably be back before Charlemagne is."
As Elsbeth walked out the door, Meaghan murmured, "I'm sorry, Elsbeth," and closed her eyes.
&&&&&&&&
Charlemagne arrived home a few days later, and, after receiving exuberant greetings from the older of the children and his second wife, it occurred to him that someone was missing.
"Where's Elsbeth?" he asked Meaghan as they left the nursery.
"She went on a raiding party against the Dragons." Meaghan hung her head, as if she were somehow responsible.
"She what?" Charlemagne exploded. "What possessed her? Why didn't you stop her, Meaghan?"
"I tried," she answered. "I talked and talked till I was blue in the face, but I couldn't make her listen to me. Charlemagne, if everything went as planned, she should have been back by now."
One of the security staff came up to Charlemagne and handed him a message, then stood, waiting impassively. Charlemagne read the message, then threw it as far from him as he could.
"Elsbeth?" Meaghan asked softly.
"Her raiding party never made it to Dragon territory," he said dully. "They've just now discovered debris from the ship, but have yet to determine how it was destroyed. It must have been the Dragons, though, word of the raid must have leaked out." He turned to the security guard. "Alert the entire staff and be ready to assemble a strike force." As the man turned to obey the order, Meaghan broke in.
"No! You can't!" Her vehemence brought both men to a standstill. "Don't you understand, love? This is a trap, set to entice you into doing exactly what you are doing. The Magog may be the creatures of the Spirit of the Abyss, but they are not his only agents. Do you think he would hesitate to send one of them to stir up precisely this kind of trouble? I wouldn't be surprised if the information that sent Elsbeth on that raid was planted by one of his people."
"But, Elsbeth..," her husband choked out, surprising himself at the depth of his feeling for her.
"Is gone," Meaghan said gently, standing near him, stroking his cheek. "And it hurts, and we will mourn. But if you start a blood-feud now, we will be so weakened that the Magog will win."
"Sir?" The guard was still waiting for confirmation of Charlemagne's original order.
"Back to your normal post," Charlemagne forced out. Then, once he had passed out of sight, he pulled Meaghan into his arms, holding her so close that he nearly crushed her, just holding her and letting her very presence help dull the grief and begin the healing.
&&&&&&&&
A few months later, Charlemagne readied to leave with the united fleet to meet the Magog. And, once more, when he most wanted a little peace in his own home, what he got was rebellion and discord.
"You're not going, Meaghan," he uttered with finality. "And you're not going to be able to get around me this time, either. I spoke to Captain Hunt, and there will be no Bekka Valentine to whisk you away from where you belong."
"Where you are going is where I belong," she insisted. "I wouldn't ask otherwise, I'm not..," She bit off her words before speaking Elsbeth's name. "Do you think I like the idea of going into a war zone?"
"It's just as well that you don't like the idea," her husband said. "Because, and I do not intend to repeat myself again, you are not going, Meg." He paused briefly, then added. "The children need you, my darling. They've already lost one mother."
"And if I don't go, a lot of other children will lose theirs," she intoned wearily. "Not that they'll be in any position to notice, since they'll be dead too."
"Dammit, Meg!" Charlemagne exploded, then he grabbed his things and headed for the door. "I'll sleep in the ship tonight instead of waiting till the morning."
"Charlemagne, wait, please." His wife ran after him with tears streaming down her cheeks. "You can't leave like this, not when we don't know if, I mean when we'll see each other again."
He paused, but did not turn around to face her. "If I stay, it is on the understanding that the subject is dropped. Is it?"
"Whatever you say, my love." She sounded so completely heart-broken that Charlemagne immediately dropped everything to sweep her up into his arms. "I couldn't bear to have you leave angry with me," she mumbled into his shoulder.
"I didn't want to," he confessed. "But, Meg, my love, you infuriate me sometimes. And sometimes I think that's why I get so angry with you because I love you so much."
And then, Charlemagne took his wife to bed and made love to her, and kissed her good-bye the next morning when he left.
&&&&&&&&
Meaghan watched him leave, spent some time with the children, then went to a quiet, secluded spot and closed her eyes and concentrated.