Neko-laus 3: A tale of two kings

Epilogue

A year to the day of the coronation of the king, the kingdom of Shangrilla was overrun by the Shambles.  The last place I wanted to be is stilling in this skull decorated throne while the rest of the party raged on around me but every time I tried to make a break for it Umas got in my face and shepherded me back like the balking little kitten I was.  There were days this being king sucked.

Grim finally tore himself away from my mother and came up the dias.  I could tell that it killed, absolutely killed, him to do it but he bowed before me and stayed there until king babysitter number one, Bar___, told him to rise and approach.  He had gotten a little greyer since the last time I seen him.

“Your Highness.”

“Fuck that, Old Man.”  I hopped up and grabbed him in my arms in a tight bear hug which thankfully was returned.

“I know I accused you of lording like a king over the Skullz but I never really thought you were.”

“How was the trip?”

“Long and weary on these old bones.  This kind of forced march is best left to younger bucks.”

“You’ll still be things you shouldn’t long after I’m wretched.”  I slapped him on the shoulder.  “So what were you and my mother chatting about?”

“How the hell you survived out here in the Wild and back in the Shambles.”

“You didn’t tell her I was making payments.”

“What kind of doddering fool do you take me for?  She’s a mage. Arthur is scared of her.”

“I think that is more of a mother-in-law issue.”

Grim rubbed his hands together. “So, where are they?”

“They who?”

“The kittens.”

“They are babies, not cats.  I finally got Mags to stop calling them that.”  At least in public.

“Well?”

I waved and caught Mags eye.  B___ had ripped me a new one about having the throne vacant during an event at the palace.  It would be tantamount to declaring the throne up for grabs.  Didn’t need to sit through that lecture again.  I let my eyes drink in my Queen.  He hated that title but I think it suit him far better than King Tiger.  At least being called Queen left him time to laugh, and learn and love.  The light from the fading day was an orange gold but the lights from the torches and the ingeniously built support columns left the interior of the Hall a bright natural light that made his golden hair glisten and shine.  It was down past his shoulders now and if the truth be known inside the marriage bed, I did...

“What?”

“I said what are you and Sergeant Pepper up to?”

“Kitten watching.” Grim piped up with a grin.

You could see Mags chest puff up with pride. “Don’t wake them.  They were cranky and tired with everyone poking in on them earlier today.”

“I’m just not anyone.”

Mags just shook his head then arched an eyebrow at me. “The dancing starts soon.”

“Won’t be long.”

Grim was quiet and that meant he was the most dangerous.  He was cataloguing and plotting as we walked along.  If you wanted to feel safe, you wanted the Grim Reaper talking to you.  I glanced over at him and found him watching me with an unreadable expression on his face.  “Spit it out, Nicky.”

“You like my mom?”

Grim staggered to a stop.  “Uh, I find your mother to be a very interesting woman.”

“So?”

“You know that my tastes don’t run to the feminine persuasion. And what kind of low life do you think I am to chase your mother after I’ve had you in my bed?”  Grim was right incensed with indignation.

“Keep it down.  I’m as pure as the driven know around here.”

“You’re young, wild rabbit but you just might have found the love of your life.  The way your mother did.  The way I did.  I like how your mother put it.  Once you had the best…why bother?  No one else will ever measure up and if you do allow someone close you do them a disservice because you are always comparing them to your ideal.  It’s better to have fleeting lovers.”

“Memories don’t keep you warm.”

Grim landed a hand in my hair and ruffled the hell out of the elaborate do I had to sit through.  The only way they got to pretty me all up like a burra was I kicked off the crown after the opening welcome.  “Get this damn thing un-braided.”

Grim let loose a laugh and started to work my hair back to the free and wild state I ran with out the Shambles.  “It’s gotten longer.”

“Administration takes up most of my time.  I don’t get to run the woods.  Besides, I’d rather hold the babies when I can get any time with them.  Between nurses, their grandma and my wives, I don’t get to hold them much.  Come here.” I waved Grim into the nursery

“Your Majesty.” The young woman jumped to her feet as we walked in.  I waved her off and walked up to the cribs.

“Old Man, come here and meet my son and daughter.  Jade and Copper.”

“No ‘N’ names?”

“It’s not the name that makes my kids special.  Besides how many Nicky’s can you have running around a palace.”

“Jade is a beautiful name for your daughter.”

“That’s my son.”

“You’re son’s name is Jade?”

“It’s a very precious commodity.”

“Then you named your daughter Copper?  Jade is a girl’s name.”

“Jade is his color.  Copper is hers.”

“You named your children after the color of their auras?”

“I like them.”

Grim leaned over Copper’s crib and a soft smile crossed his face.  “Anything is better than being an experiment in a lab and only being known by a number.  Any sign of that enzyme beginning to break down?”

I shook my head. “Not yet.  We are doing what the Doc said.  I can see them trying to speak even if nothing comes out.  They laugh and cry.  There are times I want to see MI burn all over again, but if they didn’t exist, neither would Jade and Copper.”

I was horrified to hear that it was common practise to basically freeze the voice box so the scientists didn’t have to listen to the cries of children there were experimenting on.  Slowly as the baby grew it would begin to break down until full usage returned when they old enough to start to get useable data from the children around five.  Useable data.  More along the lines of ‘that hurts’ or ‘that burns.’

I stiffened slightly as Grim swept my hair off the side of my face and then he pressed a gentle kiss to my temple.  “You have beautiful children”

“I’m glad that you got to see them, Old Man, but you better spit it what you’ve got to say.  This is about the only alone time that we are going to get.”

“Arthur has been moved off the deceased list and back to missing.  You have been charted as AWOL.”

“And Grant?”

“He’s still listed as dead.”

“They really like to kick a man when he’s down.  Grant is actually a damned good mage.”

“I thought you’d be surprised.”

“Too many Shambles and Border Guards saw us.  It was bound to make it back to the right channels eventually.  It would be nice if we could get a communications station set up here.”

“You don’t have electricity.”

I arched an eyebrow at him.  “Like that would stop me.”

“True.”

“What else?”

“You know that I’m not getting any younger.  There have been questions of naming my successor and your name has been mentioned a couple of time.”

“Hell no.  I can barely keep this place moving.”

“I already knew that so I’ve decided to make Karvan my successor.  I raised him from a little five year old kid so he is like my son.”

“What?  I thought he hated me when we were making payments.”

“Karvan was less than kind to you because I had made a decision without asking then realized that my feelings were not returned.  He caught me in a moment of self indulgence when I threw my own pity party.”

“I thought it was because he wanted to be the one making payments.”

Grim stared at me with a look of disbelief on his face.  “He’s my son.”

I shrugged and ran my hands through my hair.  It felt good.  “There’s something else on your mind.”

“What do you mean?”

“I had a little talk with a certain princess about that boy of yours.  Actually she cornered me and scared the crap out of me as she talked at me.”

“Yes.  Karvan has brought up the subject.”

“Technically she’s my third queen, if I ever get around to marrying her.”

“You see that coming in the near future?”

“Hell no.  I’d rather face her on the battlefield than in a marriage bed.”

Grim let out a chuckle.  “That was my impression of her as well when you sent her as your envoy last summer.  One look at her and Kravan was smitten.  When she finally got the business done that she had come to do for your Kingdom, she took him down to his knees.  She can dish it out and she can take it and that has impressed Kravan more than any of the others who caught his attention.  He wants her hand in marriage.”

I gestured him out of the nursery and started back towards the hall.  Music was filtering down the corridors and wrapping around us.  “I have been informed by my said princess that she was marrying Kravan.  She would not play third fiddle in my harem because it was too far beneath her talents which could be better serve Shangrilla as envoy in the Shambles.”

I turned and looked over at Grim.  “And, she also said that there were émigrés from the Shambles who could re-populate a decimated farming community.”

“We can benefit from this marriage; both of our kingdoms.”  Grim held up his fist the flat of his knuckles towards me.  I tapped his hand with my own and nodded.

“Have you seen the missus?”

“Which one?”

I snorted. “The pregnant one.  Jade and Copper will be having a little mage as a brother or sister soon.”

“Arthur’s?”

“Grant.  He’s my...her...our concubinius.  I don’t get it but somehow I’m kind of married to him as well.  Whatever the baby is, it will be considered mine.”

We rounded the corner and walked back into the main hall.  I could see the lay lines, the power lines, the river of light pulsing through the floor with life.  Music and laughter rang from one end of it to the other.  People were happy.  A’lois was snuggled into the throne with every type of pillow imaginable as Grant stood beside her hold her hand.  The stomach bump was cradled so lovingly.  Since we got back from the Shambles the dreaded eyepatch was making less and less of an appearance and tonight at the biggest celebration of the year it was missing. Grant leaned over and whispered something which brought that magnificent smile to her face.  My wife was a beautiful woman.

There was a round of clapping and loud carouse of mugs and steins as a handsome, stunningly handsome man with golden hair that hung just down to there, just below his shoulders.  I wanted to see that caress his butt.  I wouldn’t be hard to imagine him laying on the winter furs in nothing more than strands of gold.  His smile was easier now.  His eyes brighter as if the constant fear of killing everyone in sight was taken from him.  Well it was.  Once those overabundance of red stones were gone, he progressed through his lessons with the speed and class of...well, a King Tiger.  Mom taught him now so we was truly the Witch of the West.  Everyone liked him.  He wasn’t a social butterfly but he could handle crowds and meetings better now.  The kittens loved him.  Especially yanking on his hair.

“Watch out, Nicky, your love is showing.”  Grim teased with a nudge to the arm.

“I don’t care.”  Laying my hand over my heart I sent my love our silence greeting by setting my tattoo...no, our mage marks on fire. 

Mags eyes sought me out as he lay his hand over his own chest. “I’m here to sing a couple of songs for you tonight and then we’ll get into the dancing.  This is dedicated from one neko to another.” 

Watched and listened to the purity of his voice as he sang a couple of simple traditional tunes.  There was a lightness within him now.  A King Tiger saved a neko and a neko saved a king tiger...and this neko needed that king tiger in bed now.  He loved to sing.  You could hear it.  You could feel it.  The Empire had taken that away and suppressed it.  His natural talents were discarded if there were of no use as a killer.  So I wasn’t going to rush him.  I wasn’t going to push him.  He had endured more than enough of that growing up.  Mags coming to me when he wanted something was a joy.  I frowned at bit as my chest warmed even more.  It wasn’t coming from the mage mark, it was deeper, below my ribcage.  I was...happy?  A tear burned at the corner of my eye.

I was happy.

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End of Neko-laus trilogy