Sons (Book 2) by Scott V. Duff Page A

just not exactly what I’m used to.  That makes me wonder if my original assessment of the binding lasting for a full month is safe.  That is my main concern, Lord, that you would pay the price for my error in judgment.”
    “What brought this up tonight, Shrank?” Ethan asked.
    “The water nymphs, Master Ethan,” Shrank answered.  “I was flying through a field of what appeared to be Esteleum when two water nymphs came by playing in a stream.”
    “What was odd about that?” I asked.
    “We didn’t bring over any water nymphs,” Shrank said.  “Or any kind of nymphs, actually.  They were the newborn offspring of a brownie clan a few hills away.”
    Ethan met my stare, showing the same alarm I had.  Still Shrank wasn’t nearly as alarmed as we were.
    “Where were you, Shrank?” I asked the pixie, expecting him to give me directions.  Instead, since I hadn’t closed the link I’d forged from Fuller’s dining room, he pushed the nymphs’ presence across the link and I found them myself.  It was an odd sensation, knowing something—no, two “somebodies”—so intimately that you can pick up their presence from miles away.
    I shifted the three of us across my realm to the Esteleum field and watched the two water nymphs as they played in the stream’s slow-moving water.  Chittering and chattering together, one would toss a twig or a leaf into the stream and the other would hop along the bank, waiting for it to come close to snatch it up and run back to the first to start anew.
    “I don’t see anything ‘wrong’ with them either, Shrank,” I said.  At the sound of my voice, the nymphs panicked and jumped into the water, disappearing into invisibility below the surface.  The pixie giggled and flew over to the bank.
    “You should not hide from Lord Daybreak, children,” he squealed in the Fae common tongue, chastising but only lightly.  He flew back to me as the tiny heads of the two nymphs popped up out of the water, nervous and scared.
    “Shrank, you’ve scared the daylights out of them,” I said calmly.
    “We did that already,” Ethan said laughing softly.  “Aren’t they a bit small for nymphs?  Even children?”
    “Yes, Master Ethan, but larger than their parents by far,” answered Shrank.
    I squatted down and waved the two nymphs to me.  “Come here for a moment, please?  I’d like to look at you,” I said smiling at the pair.  They glanced at each other, more nervous now, then rose slowly out of the water and walked to me. 
    First I looked at the geas in both of them, seeing the trio of rings around their bodies and souls, binding them to the land and its power.  It looked correct and strong, gleaming with golden power as if I’d just placed it there.  Their souls were lit with jubilant light, a joie de vie , that seemed to inhabit all of the smaller Fae and skip elves completely.  Their bodies, a boy and a girl, were healthy and still growing, which made sense as they were indeed children.  I wondered vaguely about genetic problems if these two started mating—they were originally of the same clan but they bore no strong resemblance to brother and sister.
    “Well, you both look perfectly healthy and happy to me,” I told them, smiling.  “You two be careful and tell Shrank if you need anything or if you have any problems, okay?”  Their eyes turned to perfect circles of awe that I’d spoken to them.
    “Yes, Lord Daybreak, thank you,” they chittered together.
    I stood and turned to Ethan.  “Did you see anything?”
    “No, nothing odd, anyway,” he said.  “Other than size, they looked like you’d think a nymph would look.  Of course, that’s never having seen one, but you know that.”
    “Yeah, me neither,” I said, distractedly looking around us.  The moon was fading below the horizon but the bright starlight lit the area nicely.  With my spell-enhanced vision and, no doubt, some Daybreak modifications as well, I could see the forest