Chapter 13

Round Table Talk

 

The tension between royal mother and daughter was about to spoil Paul’s careful plans.

Brigit Cullen was sitting as far from her mother as a round table would allow. Paul could see the rigid lines of contracted muscles in Brigit’s forearms as she kept her arms crossed over her chest.

Meanwhile, Queen Elixia sat ramrod straight, her hands gripped together in her lap.

While they were waiting for Dr. Stuart to arrive, the two had continued arguing about a fae named Torfa. Paul had no idea how to intervene. His one attempt at trying to calm them had resulted in a blast of cold magic being thrown at him by both mother and daughter.

The cloud didn’t harm him, it was only an unpleasant puff, but it was a clear warning for him to back off.

Brigit narrowed her eyes and tightened her mouth as her mother continued her condescending narrative, “Humans are fine for a playful interlude, but it’s time to grow up. All of your other sisters are established—”

“I’m not entering an arranged marriage like Saffo and Dianne.”

“Saffo was able to establish a court! Are you telling me that match isn’t successful?”

“She’s married to a toad!” here, Brigit turned to Paul, telling him, “Literally, a toad.”

“What about Dianne’s bond partner? He isn’t a frog! Handsome, well-connected, a gentleman—”

“With a bossy mother,” Brigit slapped her palm down on the table for emphasis. “Her mother-in-law, the queen, controls everything Dianne does—what she eats, what she wears. It’s like being in prison, despite all the jewels and gowns. Not what I would call a happy union. If they lived in the human lands, I’d plan an intervention.”

“Happiness? What does that have to do with it? You're a princess. You marry to establish yourself, to build alliances.”

“Ha! That’s rich coming from you! You and dad were a love match.”

“Because I established my court. When I started my Questing Journey no one knew how that would turn out. Most die in their attempts to find a genius loci that will bond with them. I was three years younger than you, and the Perilous World was much richer with magic. It was a wild dangerous place then. With the way things are—”

Brigit leaned forward over the table, her fists clenched. “The way things are? I didn’t know how things were until an hour ago when you dropped your little bomb on me. Why didn’t you tell me all of this earlier? You should have called me back home so we could—”

At this fortuitous moment, there was a knock on the door. Paul stood up to open it.

“Dr. Sebastian Stuart.”

There was a moment of silence heightening the drama of his entrance. Being the chancellor’s dragon, Paul saw many dramatic entrances. He’d give the man a score of seven out of ten on this one, mostly due to Stuart’s presence.

The scientist was a bear of a man: over six feet tall, a moving mountain. He filled up the small meeting room and dwarfed the petite Brigit. Even Paul felt a bit smaller by the presence of the human. But the Doppelgänger put his feelings of inferiority aside. He would think over this later. Right now, the air teemed with enough magical tension as it was.

“Your Majesty, your Highness,” Dr. Stuart acknowledged the queen and princess during their introductions. Unlike Bandemer, he didn’t kiss hands but instead did a short military bow that required no touching.

The scientist took his seat, and the hotel chair strained under his bulk. Paul would have liked to have called him fat, but the scientist was just muscular. Stuart was almost as big as that wrestler, Granite, Brigit’s bondmate and a fae eotan.

“You may know Dr. Stuart from his documentaries,” Paul began, only to be interrupted by Brigit’s eager, “Yes. I’m aware of his work.”

Brigit’s attitude had changed from aggressive to interested when the famous man entered the room. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Stuart. You may not remember the name Brigit Cullen, but I wrote you a letter last year.”

“Indeed, I do remember it. When I received the letter from Chancellor Bandemer, I knew the symposium would be a good opportunity to meet with you and offer my assistance.”

“Explain. How you can help us?” asked Queen Elixia flatly, showing a borderline dislike for the human just on principle.

Paul, still standing with his hands clasped behind his back, gave the details, “Dr. Stuart explores diverse environments located in remote areas across the human lands. He examines ecotones, where biological communities come together. Being interested in extremophiles, Chancellor Bandemer thought he might be a good choice since the Perilous Realm is also a unique environment.”

Brigit’s dark eyes gleamed with excitement. “He’s studied bacterial life inside a volcano, mother!” She practically bounced with excitement, but Queen Elixia made a skeptical noise even though Brigit added, “He’s good, mother. I think Dr. Stuart could help us.”

“Why don’t we discuss the problem, heh?” said Stuart.

From Elixia’s demeanor, you would never imagine she had been shouting at her daughter just moments ago. On the contrary, she was everything a queen should be: remote, gracious, and frosty.

She had the attitude of a prospective employer interviewing a candidate they don’t quite feel would work out, but is the son of the boss so an interview was required. “Tell me about your experience.”

Stuart took charge of the room. He gave hair-raising details about his research: rappelling into the mouth of a volcano to collect samples; an avalanche that left everyone but himself and one other dead; and the experience of being bitten by a poisonous snake in the heart of the Amazon.

“Climbing a Norwegian glacier to study the bacterial life in an isolated lake underneath the ice, we lost my fellow scientist Hans Haugen when he fell into a crevasse. But my quick thinking saved his journal. I gave him a posthumous credit on the research paper I published about it.”

Paul’s desire to punch the blowhard was growing. Probably the fact that each of these stories was true made it even harder to bear. However, dislike or not, if the man had answers for the queen, Paul would ignore the grandstanding.

While the exciting adventures might have made the ladies gasp, it was his research that made Brigit nod her head. Much of it involved the pathology of disease in organic material subjected to bacteria.

After some time describing his research, Dr. Stuart asked Brigit to update him on what they knew at this point about the disease affecting the trees in the Perilous Realm.

“I’ve run tests and examinations myself. The disease in our trees does seem like an infection of some sort. Not a fungus or an insect attack.”

Queen Elixia’s face did not reveal her thoughts as she said, “I do not see how you can help us. Magic and science do not work well together. They negate each other. Believe in science, and you cannot believe in magic.”

Of those in the room, only Brigit was willing to contradict the queen directly. She’d been doing it all of her life, starting with a toddler’s first screamed “No” when faced with a bowl of prune pudding.

“Don’t you see, mother? We need a systematic approach if we want to discover what is killing our trees. Science provides that framework. Once we figure out what is happening, we can make a plan to counteract it. Even if it is rooted in magic, the Perilous Realm still must obey logic.”

Her mother gave an exasperated snort. “Do you think a microscope can see magic? What nonsense!”

“Not the magic itself, but the result!” protested her daughter. “If we examine the symptoms, we might find the cause or at least some treatment we could try.”

“Perhaps we should take a step back,” suggested Stuart, calmly. “I can’t say I can help until we discuss the problem in depth. What are the physical symptoms?”

Brigit leaned forward, her arms on the table. “Our trees grow very slowly in the Perilous Realm. So we didn’t notice immediately that the Elder wasn’t producing offspring. The saplings that were already growing became stunted. Now, the withering has moved to the mature trees. They are producing no offspring, and their leaves fail in the bud.”

“Magic?” suggested Paul. “A death spell or hex?”

Queen Elixia scoffed at the Doppelgänger’s suggestion but was too aware of her nobility to roll her eyes. “Do you think that wasn’t the first thing we checked? No. Whatever the cause, it is not magical, or if it is, it’s too subtle for detection.”

She frowned at Dr. Stuart as she added, “Besides, should we trust any humans?”

“Don’t be so biased, mother.”

Elixia countered, “How can you say that, when Prince Torfa just told us that alarming news? It has me re-thinking what is happening to our grove.” She paused and said in a dramatic stage whisper, “We have been told there are humans destroying our courts.”

This did not provoke the shock Elixia hoped for as Paul responded calmly, “Chancellor Bandemer is well aware of this. He plans on—”

Queen Elixia said vehemently, “He can plan all he wants! Meanwhile, my Elder is dying.”

“Mother, we haven’t had a human visit since before I was born. Other than Logan. I doubt what Torfa said applies to us—”

Elixia angrily cut off her daughter. “You don’t know what vile treasons those creatures are capable of committing. That first bard had guest-right and yet murdered his Lifemate. One of my ladies-in-waiting. My sister! To gain their ends, humans will plumb the depths of any evil.”

“That happened long ago, mother. Stop painting all humans with the same brush. This is the real reason you refuse to like Logan.”

Before her mother could speak again, Brigit returned to discussing the problem with Dr. Stuart.

“Our Grove is similar to the aspens found in North America. It’s a singular organism, bound together through the root system. Each tree is a clone of another. For a new one to emerge from the ground, the conditions need to be right—”

Queen Elixia reached across and gripped her daughter’s hand, the intensity of her grip and her expression silenced Brigit. “Stop. We do not discuss this with humans. And if we did, I will decide when and what.”

Brigit bowed her head and acknowledged her mother’s command with a subdued, “Yes, mother.”

It was the first time Paul had seen the girl treat her mother like a queen.

The table was quiet for a moment before Brigit began speaking again in a more subdued voice, “I’ve taken samples and examined them using lab techniques available here in the human lands. I’ve tried to see if anything would grow in Petri dishes, but there were no definitive results. None of my research has shown evidence of insects, fungus, mold, or bacteria. I’ve reached a dead end with what I can do. Perhaps you can help me find a new direction? What I could do next?”

“I would like to review what you have done so far. I would assume there are lab facilities on campus we could use?” Dr. Stuart asked Paul.

“Yes,” the Doppelgänger said, “the chancellor extends all of our resources to help Queen Elixia. Her husband, King Ladislas, is brother to Queen Titania.”

Queen Elixia seemed irked with Bandemer’s man mentioning her sister-in-law. She explained frostily, “My lifemate is visiting his sister while I attend this conference.”

The queen stood up, clearly ending the meeting. “Work with my daughter, Princess Brigit. She knows what a human needs far better than I.”

Brigit eagerly told Dr. Stuart, “I want to meet as soon as possible. Can we do it tomorrow morning?”

“I won’t be available until the day after as I’m a keynote speaker. Perhaps you can bring your notes to the luncheon? Let me have a chance to review your research?”

“That would be awesome.”

The party broke up, and Brigit, with a happy smile on her face, touched the leaf embedded in her skin.

“We will cure you. Don’t worry.”

The meeting broke up and Brigit was the last to leave the room. She cupped her hand over where the leaf rested in her skin and whispered to it, “Everything is going to be okay. You’ll see.”

The leaf tried to warn Brigit. But their union wasn’t complete, and the dryad didn’t understand the message.