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"I'll see that Lissa gets this," Radomir said and folded away.
* * *
I was standing at the edge of the Green Fae village, again, watching them go about their daily business. Fall gardens were being tended, seedling trees planted, bread baked—I could smell it from where I stood. No sign of Redbird, though—she was probably inside one of the homes, taking care of Toff. Roff had an arm about me, seeing and smelling what I did. Corent stepped around one of the small houses and walked toward us.
"The child is doing well," he came to stand beside me. I nodded; I didn't trust myself to speak. Right then I might have wept if I tried to say anything. So many terrible things were happening, and I felt it was all heading toward an awful end. The worst part, too—was that I seemed to be at the center of it. I'd come to the Green Fae village, hoping to get a glimpse of Toff. Roff refused to be left behind—he wanted to see the child they'd stolen from him. That's where Radomir found us—standing beneath the trees surrounding Corent's new home. As soon as Corent learned the Green Fae had come to Le-Ath Veronis, he'd joined them.
Radomir knew I was close to tears. He silently placed a small box in my hand. I should have known what was inside—I opened it anyway. Roff's ring lay nestled on a scrap of satin. Amara must have packed it up; I couldn't see Griffin doing anything that considerate. "Honey, this was yours," I pulled the ring from the box and offered it to Roff. I was crying by that time.
"Do not weep, my love." Roff's wings unfurled and Radomir and Corent were shut out as he wrapped them about me. Only Roff and I existed inside the shelter of those wide, soft, leathery wings. The ring was lifted carefully from my palm as I tearfully held it out to him, and he accepted it, slipping it onto his left ring finger. It fit. That could be attributed to Griffin, I think. He held the power to resize it to fit Roff's larger hand. It should never have been taken away. What had Griffin thought to accomplish by taking it? Was that his final assurance that Roff would have no memory of his children—or of me?
"Lissa, come with me to the winery," Roff whispered, as he wiped away my tears.
"All right," I was trying to stop the tears from falling. Roff leaned down to kiss me, pulling his wings back. Corent and Radomir were both gone, although there were a few Green Fae staring, not far away. I folded Roff to his winery. I'd never been there—too many things had happened surrounding its building and operation, most of which involved Roff's forgetting me.
We walked up wide, stone steps into the place; I was amazed at how automated most of it was, but then Merrill and Adam had a hand in building it. I shouldn't have been surprised at all. Bottles were filled by one machine and corked by another. Two comesuli were there, supervising all the other comesuli employees. Roff led me to them.
"Roff, how are you?" The older of the two nodded to Roff. He had dark hair and his scent shocked me speechless. The one standing next to him only deepened the shock.
"Markoff, you may stop being polite, I have my memories back." Those were Roff's first real words with his brother, I'm sure, since Shala had staked him. I stood there like a fool, staring at Roff's brother and nephew. I shouldn't have been surprised, however; I had vague memories of Roff telling me, when he and Giff had come to Merrill's from the future, that his brother and his brother's child had stayed behind on Kifirin to take care of his business. I was wondering why I'd never met them before.
"He did not wish to take advantage," Roff was doing a good job of reading my mind. And the fact that he'd remembered was also a huge surprise.
"Honey, when did you remember?" I asked.
"I already remembered some, but all came to me when I saw the ring," he twisted it on his finger. "Lissa, this is my brother, Markoff, and his child, Dariff."
"I am so sorry I haven't met you before," I held my hand out to Markoff. He took it, smiling shyly. Markoff was slightly younger than Roff—about fifty years if my nose was accurate. Dariff, his child, was Giff's age, which was close to ninety.
"Giff has been spending time with Markoff and Dariff, whenever Rolfe has been away," Roff explained. "Markoff has kept me updated, though I had no memories for the longest time. I wondered, at times, why he was telling me all these things. All is clear to me, now."
"I welcome you back, brother," Markoff's smile widened.
"Markoff, where are you living?" I couldn't believe this had slipped past me for so long.
"I have a very nice home near the light half; Roff made sure of it early on," Markoff replied. "Dariff and I live there and visit the capital twice a month. Roff arranged for our numbers to be the same." He tapped the bracelet that he wore, which indicated his two bite dates.
"Please come and have dinner with us, when you're in Lissia next time," I said. "Both of you. You're family." I was feeling terrible by this time, and the fact that Toff's situation was what it was made me feel worse.
"We would be honored to have dinner with the Raona," Markoff dipped his head. "I have heard that Toff is now on the planet, even if he has no memories of us." Well, the whole memory thing was getting to be an epidemic, looked like.
"Lissa, you had no hand in this, I did not mean to make you feel bad," Roff put his arm around me.
"I'll just need some time," I said.
"There are some things that I should check on here, and other things to discuss with my brother," Roff bent down to kiss me. Yeah, he probably had plenty to talk about with his brother.
"I'll see you at the palace," I said, preparing to fold there and lock myself inside my suite. I had a meeting in the afternoon, but that was three hours away. I could wallow in misery until then.
"Lissa, do not look so sad, I beg you," Roff had my chin cupped in a hand.
"I'll be fine," I said, and folded away from him.
* * *
"Lissa, there is another pile of stuff to go through," Grant was standing outside my suite, waiting to ambush me, I think. He had a smile on his face, at least, and he smelled like waffles. Grant was already getting into the solid food thing, I could tell. I didn't want to look at piles of stuff; I wanted to huddle in a corner, somewhere. I sighed and followed Grant instead, as he headed toward my study.
"Little Queen," Rigo met us halfway there. Thurlow joined us quickly.
"Lady, is there something I can do?" Thurlow asked. Well, he probably knew how I was feeling, even if the others didn't. I rubbed the space between my eyes—the headache was coming on. "You need to eat and relax," Thurlow said as we walked through the door of my private study. Heathe was there, waiting for us.
