Chapter Twenty-One

**

Ah, finally, I think, as I shut the heavy ironwood doors behind me with a soft shushing sound. I love spending time in Gwen’s library; it’s quiet, removed from the hustle and bustle of the household and somewhere I can sit and think sometimes. This week has been so damn hectic, trying to get all the midwinter plans set up, getting ready for high-ranking guests and their entourage… plus working out details on negotiation tactics with the Samos. That, in itself, has been a migraine.

I walk over to one of the shelves that stretch from floor to ceiling, and browse rather mindlessly, looking for something to catch my eye before taking it down from the stacks. Books from PrimeLine, as well as my time line, line the walls in orderly rows. A bibliophile’s wet dream, I think, smiling. I’m about halfway down the middle row facing me when I suddenly become aware of someone else in the room.

"Gwen?" I turn, looking over at her favorite high-backed, leather-clad chair by the fireplace. I’ve found her curled up there many an evening, often with two or three small children perched on her lap, listening raptly as she reads to them, her voice almost hypnotic in the dark room. Great way to get kids ready for bed, I think, irreverently, and walk over toward the chairs.

Expecting to see Gwen’s mahogany-red hair, and long, aquiline, tanned face, I’m startled half to death to see someone else. There’s a woman, dressed in Draka black, sitting in Gwen’s chair, looking at me out of wide, grey eyes. Her white blonde hair is short, cut in a bob, and shades her forehead. Twin ruby Draka glint from her collar, and I recognize the Archonal signet ring on her left hand, her thumb.

"Ah, your pardon, ah, uhmis…I thought there was someone else here… please forgive me for…" I look again into her eyes, from my hastily-assumed kneeling position, and freeze. Where have I seen those eyes before, my mind yammers. Oh, jeezie petes, Erin, it’s…

"Well, Erin Kane d’Ingolfsson. My daughter’s favorite. She would pick a damnyank, now wouldn’t she?" The woman’s voice is elf-light, haunting. The rhythm is peculiar to my ears, and I remember watching vidclips of PrimeLine Draka history, and the odd way they spoke… it’s… it can’t be; she’s dead, over four hundred years ago…

"Do you know who I am, wench?" An amused smile plays across her face, and I recognize it. It’s the same odd, closed-in curve of a smile that Gwen uses. It’s true, then… it’s crazy, but it’s true? The woman looking at me is Yolande Ingolfsson?

"Uh, uh… uhmis, I’m not sure…" I stutter, my face turning deep red. My knees are trembling; if this is a hologram, it’s a god-damned good one. I can see her shadow. Her fingers make a slight rasping noise as they shut a volume of poetry, leaving a silken ribbon in place as a marker. Her shoes make a tapping noise as she moves smoothly to stand in front of me, hands on hips. The amused smile is still playing over her face, and I duck my head down, back into the proper position of reverence.

"I think you do know. Who am I, pretty-girl?"

I glance up, and feel a trickle of cold sweat work its way down my spine. "Uhmis, this serf thinks you’re the Archon Yolande Ingolfsson."

"Quite right." She holds my chin in a small hand, tilting my head up to look at her. The touch of her hand is cool, almost cold, but her fingers are almost as strong-seeming as Gwen’s are. Or any other Draka’s. I shiver. "You’re quite interesting looking. I expected a great beauty, which you’re really not, but you’re not bad-looking, either. Interesting, indeed. Come sit with me for a few moments, why don’t you."

She lets go of my chin and walks back to the chair and the fireplace. Alog pops and I jump as I stand; she chuckles softly, like tiny bells ringing in a forest clearing. "Come, little wench, sit here by the fire. I don’t bite. Hard."

"Um, thank you, Uhmis the Archon." I sit on the floor, by the grate of the fireplace, and wrap my arms about my knees. My heart’s going a mile a minute, and I wonder what to say.

"Gwen’s told me a lot about you. She thinks very highly of you, human. You should be honored."

I blink for a moment, and then nod. "I am, Uhmis the Archon. I live to serve."

"You’re quite the bright girl, Gwen says."

"Thank you, Uhmis the Archon, I’m sure."

Yolande shifts in the chair, drawing her legs up underneath her. I wonder why that seems familiar, and then realize it’s another Gwen mannerism. Gwen must have copied a lot from her mother, I think, but hopefully not everything. I remember the datadisk Gwen gave me on Yolande, and what she did to that poor Marya woman… jeezie petes, get me out of here, someone, I think silently to myself. The fire, usually so calming, is merely drying the fear sweat that’s running down my sides. I shiver.

"I think from your reaction that Gwen didn’t inform you that I’d be here."

"No, Uhmis the Archon."

"Hmm… perhaps she was going to surprise you. You’re allowed to wander in your Mistis’… I mean, your Muhmis’ library, at will?"

"Yes, Uhmis the Archon. Gwe--I mean, Muhmis has given me permission to do so, when I have all my work done for the day."

"You have permission to call her Gwen?" A coldly raised eyebrow daunts me, and I duck my head.

"Y-y-y-es, Uhmis the Archon. But only when we’re in private. Forgive my transgression, please. I’m kind of nervous right now, please…"

"Yes, indeed you are. Breathe deeply, wench, or you’re going to pass out on me. Do it."

Her voice has the hardness of command in it, and I obey, slowing and deepening my breathing until I feel calmer. My hands are still trembling, though, and I still feel icy trickles of sweat making their way down my back. The cedar logs in the fireplace smell good, I think, and try to focus on that to help me relax. I look up into her face, seeing the pointy-chinned, broad-cheeked beauty of her, and try to think of something to say.

The doors shush open and Gwen strides in, wearing a long blue robe with a sash. "Sorry I’m running a bit late, but the paperwork is unbelievable around here, Mother… oh. I see you’ve met Erin. Erin, my mother, Yolande Ingolfsson."

"Yes, we’ve met." Yolande turns back to me, since I’ve stood up as Gwen walks toward us, half hoping to escape, maybe. "Sit down, wench. Stop shivering. You can’t be cold, sitting almost in the fireplace like you are. Is she normally this silly, or nervous, Gwen? I wouldn’t have thought it."

"No," Gwen chuckles, settling in a chair opposite her mother’s. "She’s just not sure what to think of you."

"What do you think of me, wench?" Yolande turns her wide grey eyes to me, after smiling warmly at her daughter.

"I’m… Uhmis the Archon, I… well… I’m not sure what to think. How’d you get here?"

"By aircar. I didn’t fly in on a broom…" she laughs, and Gwen joins her, their voices blending, one elfin and high, the other huskier and more sensual somehow. I blush.

"But… are you a hologram, Uhmis the Archon? I mean no disrespect…"

"A hologram? No. I’m a… what are they calling us, Gwen? The Resurrected?"

Gwen’s chuckle deepens. She reaches out, gesturing to me to move next to her chair, and I scoot over, looking up at her for reassurance. I lay my head on her knee, and feel her hand stroking through my hair gently. "That’s a good name for it. That might spook the humans a bit, though. They don’t have quite our sense of humor, Mother. Erin, she’s… well, the closest thing I can come to in your version of English is android, although that’s not quite right. She’s a living being, flesh and blood, with the memories of my mother implanted in her brain. Basically, a copy of my mother, although she’s drakensis abilities, not just human ones."

"Oh," I say, in a tiny voice, my eyes widening as I look over at the woman in the chair.

"Yes, I still have to get used to combining human memories and drakensis abilities, dear. I squashed a perfectly good glass of claret earlier today, completely by accident. This is an interesting experience."

"It must be." Gwen’s voice is warm, and the two Draka reach out to hold hands in the flickering firelight as I watch, bemused and somewhat confused.

**

"What do you mean, Yolande’s here? I thought she was, well, dead, y’know. What’s up? Gods alive, you’re white as a sheet, sheila!" Alice wraps her arms around me and holds me close; I’m still shaking from the evening spent sitting next to Gwen, listening to her and her mother chat. Her ressurected mother, no less. I shudder even more, remembering the huge grey eyes.

"Hey, shhh… it’s okay, darling. It’s all right, you’re here with me. Alice, remember?" Her gentle kisses bring me back to the here and now, and I look up into her cool blue eyes with a sense of relief. Alice can calm me down like no one else, sometimes not even Gwen and her pheromones.

"It’s just so… weird… Alice."

"Yeah, sounds like it. But you’re here, with me, and dinner’s ready. C’mon, let’s eat some of this wonderful steak I fixed, working me fingers to the bloody bone for you…"

I laugh out loud, despite my nerves. "Worked your fingers to the bone? How, by unwrapping your linen napkin?"

"Oh, so your sense of humor’s returning? Then you must be getting better." She gives me a playful swat on the fanny and we sit down to eat. The steak is well-done, the way I like it, and the salad’s fresh from the Household gardens. I tear my homemade bread apart and use it to sop up some of the steak bits, relishing the fresh-bread taste and texture. The smell is divine, and somehow comforting. It must remind me of Mamaw, I think, as I sip at my second cup of coffee.

"Your appetite isn’t slowed down any, either, is it?" Alice comments, chewing the last of her green beans hungrily. She grins at me, and winks.

"No, not noticably. That, or other appetites…" I caress her firm calf with a toe, under the table. She giggles, and smiles sexily back at me. Sometimes being alone with her, in our own place, is sexier than anything else, I think to myself, and rising from the table, I take her by one hand, the bottle of wine and a couple of glasses with the other, and lead the way into the bedroom.

**

"Oh, that was… intense. You’re usually not so… assertive. Been learning from Gwen?" Alice stretches and then pulls the covers up to snuggle in. The evening has gotten cold; even in the former Kentucky, the winter does pack a nip or two. I nestle down next to her, grinning unrepentently.

"Oh, just a thing or two…"

"Hey, let me catch my breath first, wench!" A friendly wrestling match ensues, with me ending up on top.

"Hmm… interesting perspective. Usually, you’re up here, tickling me unmercifully." I look down into my wife’s face, noticing for the first time the streaks of grey coming into her blonde hair, by her temples. Crow’s feet by her eyes, too, and the lines by her mouth have deepened. A surge of protective love washes through me, and I gently caress Alice’s face with both hands.

"I think that rejuve has made some pretty major changes in you, love. I don’t mind, not one bit." She smiles up at me, holding my hands in hers. "It’s kind of nice, actually."

"We talked about it before it happened… are you wanting to change your mind? About not being jealous?"

"No, I’m not jealous. It was Gwen’s decision, lover, not really yours. I think even if you’d thrown a fit and said no, she’d still have done it. You’re that important to her, and her plans."

"But you’re important to me, Alice, all her plans or no."

"I know," she sighs. "I know, and I feel like the luckiest woman in the world. I know I am, being with you. After all the shit I went through, to finally end up with someone who loves me for who I am, and doesn’t mind my past…"

"Past, schmast. It’s done and over. I love you. For you. Period." I lean down and kiss her firmly. "Truly."

"Please don’t worry about me being jealous. I’m not. I’m not sure I’d really want the rejuve, actually."

I sit back, then slide off her, to sit down on my side of the bed, my hands still touching hers. "Really? I figured the Shopping Queen of the Known Universe would want a rejuve, just to expland her shopping horizons. Imagine all the sales you could find, the bargains, if you didn’t have to hurry…"

Alice traces my grin with a finger. "Nah. I love shopping, but I think two lives, mine and the one Gwen’s granted me, is enough. I don’t think I want an unlimited one. Even though that means one day you’ll be without me."

"I know. I’m not looking forward to that, believe me."

"It’s gotta be hard, sweetie. Knowing that. I mean, you can make friends with Draka, as much as we can, but even they can get killed in stupid duels and what-not. You’re the only one, human or servus, or even what-are-they-called… kawtuh… that’s got an unlimited lifespan. Like our Overlords."

"Mh-hhm." I nod, my eyes beginning to fill with tears. "Believe me, I know."

"Hey, darling, it’s… I’m sorry. Please don’t cry. Please… hey…" Alice sits up and hugs me close.

"It’s okay. I’m just adjusting to it, Ally. It’ll take some time. I’ve talked with Gwen about it some. I’ll be okay. In time."

"On top of all that, you got to meet Yolande Ingolfsson. Man, what a week you’ve had."

"Jeezie petes, Ally, that was so weird. I mean, to be browsing in the library, and then see her just sitting there. I thought I was seeing a ghost or something, or that one of the kids was playing a joke on me with a hellacious hologram…"

"Is she staying here?" Alice shivers.

"Yeah, she’ll be here for several months, at least and that’s something we need to have a Household staff meeting over. Gwen told me via transducer to schedule one."

"Why?" Alice wraps the quilt around us both, and we lean back against the headboard of our bed, one of our favorite talking places.

"Yolande’s used to more deference and stuff than the everyday, run of the mill Draka is. And they’re kinda hard to please, anyway. But she’s different. The way I understand the file Gwen sent me as I was leaving them this evening, Yolande has a drakensis body, and basically they grew her brain. Implanted memories via transducer. She’s not exactly Yolande Ingolfsson, but she’s damn close. And she’s got the same attitudes she lived with, on PrimeLine."

"Like whips and torture and all that? Good god!"

"Well, no… but she doesn’t really trust us the way Gwen’s generation does; and, she’s not used to being in a drakensis body. She was complaining about smashing a glass of wine this evening, when she forgot her own strength. She’s doing some major adjusting, to this timeline, as well as being conscious. She’s the first one that’s turned out to be viable, according to the file. The others sort of, well, didn’t wake up. So she’s a stranger in a strange land, and we need to tell the staff that she’s got expectations of them that may be… more stringent… than they’re used to."

"Is she going to have staff of her own?" Alice runs a hand through her shoulder-length blonde hair in distraction. It’s a gesture I know well; it means she’s planning, or thinking.

"Yeah, Gwen thought maybe some of the younger kids, children of Household staff, could begin to train for that. Their youth will give them time to adjust to her, and vice versa. She’s not going to be overly sadistic or anything… no more repetitions of that controller cuff thing, but still… her attitudes are different, especially about us damnyanks."

Alice chuckles. "She still thinks of you that way?"

"Yep." I grin. "Once a damnyank, always a damnyank, according to her. She said something about that when she met me this evening, something about her daughter’s favorite being a damnyank."

"Oh. Are you going to have problems there, do you think?"

I shrug. "No, I hope not. It’s kinda out of my hands, you know? I serve Gwen to the best of my abilities, cause it’s either that or nothing, and maybe I can moderate their impact on us, that kind of thing, but Gwen and I have developed a friendship over the years, too. I can be a little proud of that, because there’ve been times I’ve wanted to just scream and whack her on the head, and I’m sure those feelings are mutual. But we manage, and it’s worth all the work and frustration."

"Yeah, you are really close to her. I mean, you can predict her moods and all, read her really well. Better than anyone else. I’m surprised Andri’s not more jealous than he is."

"He’s still jealous?" I roll my eyes in exasperation. Her former favorite, a handsome servus man, is known for his jealousy, but I thought we worked all that out the last go-round we had, years ago.

"Oh, well, it’s just little things Tom says he says, y’know. Nothing serious."

"Hell, he’s her favorite servus. I can’t help it if I’m her favorite human. Not like we get a lot of choice there, either. Maybe I need to talk with him again."

"Erin, no… the last time you did, he wandered about in a daze, like an Abo on walkabout, for two weeks. He was scared silly of you. Too, you’re her favorite, period. Human, servus, or kawtuh. That’s something he’s not used to dealing with."

"I didn’t do anything to scare him… jeeze… all I did was try to explain that if we work as a team, many hands make light work. Then he acts like I threatened to geld him, which I didn’t… Gwen starts wondering what’s going on, and finally solved that whole issue by boinking the living hell out of both of us for an entire day and night. I was barely able to walk, afterwards."

Alice laughs wickedly. "Oh, yeah, I remember that. But you were in better shape than he was. More stamina, or just more cussedness."

"Probably the latter." I grin.

"Probably!" We laugh and snuggle; Alice caresses my head until I get sleepy. When I’m settling down to sleep next to her, head pillowed on one of her thighs, I look up into her face, lit by the moonlight streaming in the windows. Alice has a blank look on her face, telling me she’s working via transducer, scheduling the meeting for the Household staff. I sigh with contentment and fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.

**