horrified and hopeless expression. Her heart went out to him as she remembered all too well how strict her sister could be. “Anyway, I seem to recall you begging for asylum not two days ago. Are you in so much trouble again so soon?”
“But, Aunt Legna, you are my Siddah. You can tell her not to spank me.”
“Daniel, it is because I am your Siddah that I should encourage your mum to discipline you. When it comes time for your Siddah to foster you, she will be very strict with you. I promise you, dearest heart, that I will be a very stern teacher. And my first lesson to you is that you must face up to the ramifications of your mistakes. All good men do.”
“But I am not a man. I am a little boy. I am only six years old.”
“True,” Legna acquiesced with a nod, “you are just a boy. But how often have you told me that you wish to be a man as brave and strong as your uncle? You claim that one day you will be King of all Demons, like your uncle Noah. Correct?” She waited for his reluctant nod. “Now, what kind of King would you be if you cowered away from your own wrongdoings?”
“I don’t suppose I would be a very good one,” Daniel said, lowering his huge blue eyes to the floor so his aunt could not see the tears in them that matched the quaver of his voice. “But I did not mean to be a naughty child on purpose.”
Legna sighed once more, taking pity on her precocious nephew.
“I know that. I truly believe that you wish to be a good child in your heart.”
“One can only hope that my son will learn to follow his heart one day,” came a dry observation from the entrance of the arboretum.
Legna stood up to her full height, smiling at her sister Hannah as the other woman moved into the room to scoop her errant youngster from the floor, setting him high on her shoulder.
“For now, though, as long as he insists on giving in to mischievous impulses, such as hiding under the Great Council table during session, he must take his punishment.”
“Oh, Daniel, you didn’t.” Legna tsked at the child, making his chubby cheeks turn a brilliant scarlet color.
“I didn’t mean to. I was just playing hide and seek with Uncle Noah.”
“Yes, well, next time perhaps you ought to begin the game by actually informing your uncle he is part of it instead of having him find out the hard way, eh? For now, it is home and to bed with you, where you will think about your behavior until your father returns. Then you will discuss the matter with him, because it is clear that my discussions with you have no effect.” Hannah set her child onto his feet and gave him a light whack on the bottom to propel him in the right direction. “Off with you. Find your li-li-ni and travel home.” Hannah reached out with her powerful senses for a moment, searching for the location of the child’s nanny. “She is in the nursery with your sisters. Perhaps if you are in bed and quiet by the time I come home, I will rethink telling your father how naughty you have been.”
“Yes, Mummy,” Daniel promised, his head and voice as low and contrite as a young boy could possibly manage. He shuffled out of the arboretum, casting his aunt one last pleading look before he meandered across the Great Hall, clearly hoping to put off his confinement for as long as possible.
“Daniel, I have seen snails move faster,” Hannah scolded, having not even turned around and still knowing what her progeny was attempting to do.
Hannah’s mothering instincts were a marvel to Legna. Her sister’s seemingly unending patience was even more of a miracle considering Daniel was the second youngest of six siblings. Hannah and Legna waited until Daniel had gone up the main stairs to their brother’s castle, well on his way to finding his li-li-ni, before exchanging amused looks.
“He is quite a handful, my sister,” Legna remarked, laughing softly as she turned back to the small bonsai tree she had been pruning so patiently. “I hope you plan to wait some time before adding to your brood as you repeatedly insist on doing. I do not think I could be Siddah to any more of your children.”
“I would never do such a thing, sister.” Hannah laughed in return. “I fear that Daniel and Eve will be quite enough for you to manage in the coming century. Take solace in the fact that they are a good seven years apart in age. Also, Noah is Siddah as well to them both. You will not be alone in their training. No one is.”
“That will make it easier, provided I am still under our brother’s roof when the time comes for you to foster them to us.”
That got Hannah’s attention, and the tall woman, her black sheet of hair with its red highlights so much like their brother’s, went to touch her sister’s shoulder.
“Legna, are you trying to tell me you are considering leaving our brother’s household? Are you unhappy here?”
“Unhappy? Noah is King, most revered of all Demons, as well as one of the most powerful Fire Demons in all our history. You know well enough that in spite of the volatility of his root element, he is most loving and attentive, his power and responsibility making him incredibly sensitive to the needs of those around him. I am busy here, as both his chatelaine and an invaluable diplomat of his court. I could never be unhappy under my brother’s roof.”
“Very well, not unhappy, then. But perhaps…wanting?” Hannah queried, touching her sister under the chin to encourage her to look into her eyes. “Legna, I may not be a Demon of the Mind and a great empath, as you are, but I know my sister well enough to know when her emotions are troubled.”
“Truly, you are mistaken, Hannah,” Legna insisted, leaving her sister’s touch to concentrate once more on the plant she kept studying but had yet to prune since the conversation with her sibling had begun. “I lack for nothing here, and I have no tremendous desire to leave. But it will be five years, give or take, before Eve reaches the age of Fostering, and longer still before it is Daniel’s turn. A great deal can occur even in that short span of time. I was only musing aloud. It is nothing for you to make a fuss over.”
The indelicate sound Hannah made broadcast the likelihood of her believing her little sister’s claims, but at that moment Noah entered the arboretum.
“Hannah, I swear to you if you do not take that little scoundrel of yours in hand, I will do it myself.”
“Noah, please, you know Daniel does not mean any harm. He is just a boy,” the mother argued for her child, waving off the matter as if it meant nothing to any of them, quickly forgetting that she had been just as perturbed with him.
“Hannah…” Noah warned, his tone as close to scolding as he dared, knowing his sister, as a female Demon of Fire, had the temper to match his own.
Legna turned to glance from one sibling to the other, as usual wondering which of the two Demons who boasted connection with so hot-blooded an element would be the first to lose their temper, as they often did when they came head to head with one another. Luckily, Fire Demons were rare. Unluckily, it was quite volatile to have two in the same family.
It often fell to Legna, the empath and consummate diplomat, to discern who was getting hot under the proverbial and literal collar quickly enough to defuse the situation. Hannah and Noah dearly loved one another, but often the love was strongest when they were not too close to each other and definitely stronger when they were not arguing opposite sides in a contest of wills.
“Hannah, the boy may have heard things that will disturb him,” Noah
