The torchlight was barely bright enough to reach the floor, but it was enough to see that the floor was covered with broken dark glass. Wine bottles. Someone had tried to clear a path to the stairs on the far side of the cellar, plies of glass shards mounded on either side of a path of exposed flagstones.
An elderly goblin stood motionless at the end of one of the racks. His clothes were dark and formal, and looked like a uniform of sorts. They had been carefully mended, and were as neat and proper as they could be, but they had clearly seen better days.
The old goblin stood straight and dignified.
Tears stood in Tam’s eyes. “Barrett.”
The butler indicated the wooden tray he held holding a single bottle. “The king appropriated the silver and the crystal, and either took or destroyed all of the wine. However, I managed to hide a case of your favorite port. I didn’t think you would be inconvenienced by partaking from the bottle.” He bowed slightly from the waist. “Welcome home, Your Grace.”
Tam crossed the floor to Barrett in three strides, taking the port in one hand, and wrapping his other arm around the old butler’s thin shoulders, pulling him into a hug.
Barrett’s voice was muffled against Tam’s chest. “Sir, this is unseemly.”
“Yes, it is,” Tam agreed, his voice thick with emotion, hugging him harder.
A voice came from the shadowed stairs.
“Will I get such a warm greeting?” said a low, feminine voice from the shadows. She stepped forward, the torchlight illuminating a silken sheet of hair so black that it had blue highlights. Her dark eyes shone with a sharp wit and keen intelligence. The goblin woman held herself with exaggerated dignity, as if she was uncertain of the reception she was going to receive—or undecided on what reception she was going to give.
Tam released Barrett, but other than that, he didn’t move.
“Mother,” he said quietly.
Chapter 7
“I am glad you are home.”
“Are you?”
“I am.” Her half smile came tinged with sadness. “Though if I were not, could you blame me?”
Tam didn’t hesitate. “No.”
No one said anything for one long and very awkward minute. At least. Anything I could have said wouldn’t even have put a knick in the tension in that air, so I kept my mouth shut. And yes, it is possible.
I didn’t need any kind of link with Tam or to be a mind reader to hear the words between the words. Tam had hinted over the years at the damage done to his family when he embraced black magic, and again when he’d been forced to flee Regor after his wife’s murder.
Wordlessly, Tam gave the bottle of port back to Barrett and walked slowly toward his mother, stopping just out of arm’s reach. Wise man.
“I have shamed my family, my family name, and the ancestors who gave it to me,” Tam said. “I do not expect nor deserve forgiveness for my choices and actions. I have come home to offer my service, my devotion, and my life if need be. I only ask that you would do me the honor of accepting it.”
Lady Deidre Nathrach took one step toward her son and, for a few silent moments, did nothing. Then she gently put her hands on either side of Tam’s face, drew his forehead down to her lips, and kissed him softly. With a trembling sigh, she touched her forehead to his.
Tam’s breath shuddered.
I sniffed. A couple of others sniffed from the shadows.
Tam’s arms remained by his side, and he bowed his head farther.
Deidre Nathrach’s hands dropped from Tam’s head to his shoulders, wrapping her arms around her son in a fierce embrace. With a soft cry, Tam returned the embrace, lifting his mother’s feet off of the floor.
“Candle smoke,” Nath said, noticing my sniff. “There’s no accounting for cheap wax.”
I dabbed at my eyes. “So that’s what it is.”
Deidre released Tam, but their heads remained close, whispers between a mother and son that no one else needed to hear.
When they parted, Tam introduced Mychael, Piaras, and me. No doubt, Lady Nathrach knew Imala and Prince Chigaru.
Once again, he stopped when he got to Talon.
Talon was standing in the shadows, as close to the door we’d come in as possible. Tam glanced at him and winked. The kid didn’t move. If he hadn’t still been standing upright with his eyes open, I’d have said he’d quit breathing. Tam seemed confident of his mother’s reaction to a half-breed grandson. Talon was only going to believe it when he heard and saw it.
“Remember when I was eighteen and went to Brenir for the summer?” Tam asked his mother.
“How could I forget?” Deidre said. “A few of your more memorable antics nearly caused an inter-kingdom incident.”
“That’s not all,” Tam said.
Terrified or not, Talon’s sense of drama wouldn’t let him pass up an entrance line like that. “He got an unexpected souvenir.”
Talon’s bravado ended there. Oh, he still stood straight and tall, his trademark devil-may-care expression on his face, but the truth was that Talon did care. Nath had accepted him readily enough, but Lady Deidre Nathrach was a woman whose opinion and regard Tam clearly cherished. Tam had accepted Talon, risking his reputation, high social standing, and even his life to protect him.
Talon was terrified of losing all of it.
Terrified that if Deidre Nathrach rejected him, Tam might be forced to do the same. I knew it was ridiculous, but what was running through Talon’s mind right now had nothing to do with logic and everything to do with keeping his knees from knocking together.
Tam’s mother didn’t move. “Come closer,” she told Talon.
Talon did. Reluctantly. He’d been standing in the shadows. Between him and his new grandmother was light, not a lot of it, but enough. Deidre noted Talon’s light skin and his aquamarine eyes. He inclined his head to her and clearly thought about leaving it there. But he took a breath, raised his head, and unflinchingly met his grandmother’s sharp eyes.
She spoke to Tam, but her eyes stayed on Talon. “Is he impulsive, stubborn, arrogant, and believes himself irresistible to women and impervious to death?”
Whoa, that sounded familiar. I bit my bottom lip to stop a grin.
Tam suddenly looked like a schoolboy who’d been caught doing all of the above. “Yes, ma’am.”
“And how much trouble does he either create for himself or attract on a daily basis?”
“All of it.”
Deidre looked at Talon, her lips curling slowly into a crooked smile. “If that is the case, you are most definitely your father’s son.” She turned to Tam and smiled until her fangs showed. “Payback is indeed hell, isn’t it?” she all but purred.
Tam sighed. “You don’t know the half of it.”
“I’m quite certain that I will be finding out.”
Tam gave his son “the look.” “You won’t find out because there will be nothing to see since Talon will be on uncharacteristically perfect behavior. Do I make myself clear?”
“Perfectly,” Talon replied without hesitation.
The kid’s eyes had a twinkle that didn’t bode well for any promises, stated or implied. Tam had merely asked Talon if he’d understood him. The kid understood just fine; it didn’t mean he was going to do it.
It wasn’t like Tam to not cover all contingencies. Seeing his mom again after a couple of years must have rattled his cage. Though anything Talon promised not to do was going to get done anyway if the situation presented itself. Tam should have simply saved his breath.
Besides, Talon keeping his nose clean would signal the end of the world as we knew it.
Unless Sarad Nukpana and the Saghred beat him to it.
Imala and Tam were greeted with smiles and handshakes. Prince Chigaru was welcomed with respectful bows.