Episode 240: Warning Label (Talise)

Talise held Caspian close to her. She would only have a few moments like this, focused on her third set of twins. Soon, her life would be chaos. She’d die. Things would change. For now, she had brown curly hair a top bright blue eyes and Niels’s lips. His little fingers rest on her chest.

Someone knocked at the door.

“Come in if you dare,” she said, not too loud to piss off the babies but loud enough to be heard.

Corban came in. His hair was black and spiky but the white roots were showing. He hadn’t had time to dye his hair lately.

Spence followed with a bag of delicious-smelling stuff and a bottle of watermelon soda.

“Hey.” Corban sat on the edge of her bed. “Did Konrad tell you he retired?”

“No.” Talise growled. She didn’t mean to, but what was Konrad thinking? Retiring before a crisis?

Actually, she envied him and his ability to just quit, whenever.

Spence sat on the side of the bed and began setting up food on a little end table. He set out enchiladas and the sodas and fries covered in brown gravy. He stole one of the fries and kicked his legs up.

“What happened?” Talise asked.

“He just got married to Nell and Rylena and I think he’s shifting priorities a little, to side project stuff.”

How cryptic.

“Okay. So.” Talise met his eyes. “Then.”

Corban had come to tell her.

“You’re not my guard anymore, are you?” Talise asked. “Ach is?”

“Yep. Fat lot of good he’s doing.”

“Hey,” Spence argued.

Talise laughed.

Corban turned to pick Alde up. Apparently her reaction meant it was safe for him to have a baby in his arms. She loved that about Corban: some people would hold something fragile to say hey, don’t hurt me, I’m holding something breakable. Corban accepted whatever reaction.

He’d been her guard since she’d gotten pregnant with Ella and Jax. She didn’t know right away, but he’d been there in the background – following her, protecting her.

“So you’re the head of security,” Talise restated.

“Spence and I are splitting the responsibilities,” he corrected. “He’ll be doing palace security and I’ll be doing military more. Sharing the same men, where possible.”

“So you’re into Ach and he’s into Jace?” Talise joked.

Spence and Corban laughed.

“Talise,” Spence said, all serious.

“I get it, sorry,” Talise replied.

Spence shifted to a more I’m not just here for the food I brought you position. “We wanted to talk about the attack tonight.”

Oh good.

“Tomorrow night,” Corban corrected.

“Yeah,” Spence said, like he didn’t make a mistake.

Talise wasn’t sure if he had, Spence was careful. He was hiding something.

“Okay…” Talise said.

“The attack will create additional heirs,” Spence told her.

“What does that mean?” Talise asked.

Corban met her eyes. “What Ulysses is doing – the reason it benefits us so much – is that he’s making extra Dragons. Pulling them from other realities. So, in a generation, we’ll have an entire Dragon army.”

Talise swallowed.

Corban had more: “Right now, what that means, is dozens of four-year olds.”

Fort and Emma were four.

Talise closed her eyes. She counted back from ten. She opened her eyes and they were still there, so she gave Spence Caspian and she took the enchiladas and a long drink of watermelon soda.

“Four year olds,” she repeated. “Like Fort and Emma.”

Four year olds, as in her own kids, from other realities, somehow.

“And.” Talise muttered. “Okay.” Her skin was hot and icy and she wasn’t sure what was happening, except she felt sick.

She ate some enchiladas. Either they would hasten the puke or she’d feel better. Either way, she got to taste enchiladas.

“Some are mine,” Spence offered. Likes he needed more Spence kids to make Ach feel like a wombless guy.

“Some belong to Niels.” That she could live with.

“And some are neither of ours, but still yours.”

“And they’re all heir sets,” Corban added. “Fort won’t be the only heir.”

Fort was going to be relieved and crushed.

“Can we cancel the attack?” Talise asked.

“Yes, if you want,” Corban said, all snide and lying.

“Duh,” Talise replied. She laughed a little, and the edge of panic wore off her.

“Talise,” Spence said, all serious again. He traced his finger over Caspian’s jaw. He was such a good dad. “Ulysses is doing this becomes we need an army.”

“No we don’t,” she argued.

“Imagine an alliance of enemies,” Corban suggested. “Attacking us at once.”

“Fine.” Talise looked up at the ceiling this time. Then back at her boys. Not just one of the last days with them, before things changed, but one of the last days with them, before she had too many kids.

It wasn’t even a choice. Not just because she needed the army, apparently, but also because Ulysses was somewhere and the spell wasn’t her choice.

“Fine.” said again.

If she needed an army…. “I don’t want to meet them, if their purpose is to die.”

“Fine,” Spence mocked. “You don’t have to meet any of them.”

“Who said anything about dying?” Corban asked. “They’re Dragon.”

“I’m Dragon,” Talise argued. “But apparently I need an army.”

“Well I’m not going to make you,” Corban said, like he could call it off. “This has to be your decision: to protect against it or let it happen.”’

“Yeah.”

Talise loved her kingdom more than most things. If they were Dragon, weren’t going to die, then there was hope. The kingdom needed these heirs, luck magic said so.

“Yeah. Well I’ll think about it. And then we’re cancelling it.”

Corban passed Alde to her. “Sounds good. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Yeah, because that’s your job.” Talise wasn’t sure what she was arguing.

“Yeah,” Corban replied. “So before I go, do you need anything?”

“A condolences card,” Talise joked.

Spence laughed. Corban laughed.

Talise laughed. She was going to have to agree to the spell, and they both knew it as well as she did.

“Wait here,” Corban said. He ducked out of the room, into Zero’s office.

“So,” Spence said. “This morning Ach and I gained twelve new kids and tomorrow we’re gaining more. Should we move out of the apartment?”

Layered jerk. Like, yeah he was sharing the burden, she got that, and she didn’t want him to leave.

“Probably,” she joked.

“You know what you don’t mean?” Spence asked.

“I don’t want a million kids,” Talise argued. She latched Alde, and he nuzzled against her. His hair was darker than Caspian’s, straighter, his eyes a more crystal blue than Caspian’s.

“There won’t even be a hundred,” Spence assured her. “You’ll be fine.”

“How will I be fine?” she asked. She’d lose time with her kids she already had, and she’d have to share her time, and she’d have to balance it all while being the future queen.

She’d have to prepare them to fight in a war she knew little about, a war that was bad enough to require a bunch of new Dragons.

And there was the matter of other guys and who those were.

“Four is an amazing age,” Spence reminded her. “Of fun and discovery and group activities.”

Emma and Fort were pretty easy. They wanted goodnight stories and they wanted to play games with her, and other kids. It wasn’t as much about the one-on-one stuff.

Before Talise could reply, Corban came back in. He handed her a card he had made. In his elegant script, it said, our thoughts and prayers are with you.

Talise laughed. “Thank you.” She displayed the card on her end table, beside the food.

“Did it help?” Corban asked.

“You forgot to add for the loss of your unwanted body guard,” Talise teased. “But yes.”

Corban laughed. “He will be missed.”

He sat closer to her and took her hand. “The kids are being pulled out of other probabilities, depending on who else you might have had heirs with.”

Okay. She could handle this talk: make a plan, put her ducks in a row. Ach liked ducks in a row and when he managed that, everything worked out.

Usually.

“Who else might I have had heirs with?” Talise asked.

Spence grinned. “Life is full of possibility.”’

She gave him puppy dog lips. “That’s not helpful, Spence.”

“Rhyss,” Spence offered. His half-brother.

“Me,” Corban added.

Talise cleared her throat. Kids with Corban. She’d had a big crush on him years before, but now he was just…brotherly.

“Ach,” Spence said.

Talise felt heavy in her chest. What had happened in that reality? Kids with her twin…

It was gross.

“Anyone else?”

“Niels,” Spence teased.

“You said that,” Talise countered.

Corban squeezed her hand to get her attention. He grinned a little.

Yeah, this was really funny.

“Dacey, Jace, Konrad, Nell, Sawyer, Zero, and this guy Zero found in Babylon, Liam, you might’ve met him.”

And a guy from Babylon. Talise laughed a little, because there was just a guy somewhere out there, that she didn’t know much about, and in two days he would have kids with her.

“I haven’t. Is that it?” Talise asked.

Spence and Corban shared a look.

“One more,” Corban said. “Meldrick.”

Talise shook her head. “No. Gross.” The whole thing was gross. She didn’t need a million kids, with a million guys.

“Think about whether you want us to tell the dads, or you,” Corban said.

“I.” She looked between them. “They should be prepared, right?”

“I think that’s up to you,” Corban offered.

Talise felt somber; tired. She was stressed.

She was shocked Daddy Drey didn’t make the list. “Yeah. Okay. Can you make a list? And I can think about who should know ahead and who should know after?” and who should never know, because there was a mistake about their name being on the list.

“Sure,” Corban stole her card from across her and began writing the list. “Or we can all tell all of them together. About the kids, the dragons, the rules.”

“One at a time,” Talise insisted. “It matters.”

“Okay.”

“So.” Talise looked at Spence. “Can you double check, and then I can tell them?”

“We’ll take care of it.” He nestled a sleeping Caspian in his bassinet and adjusted the oxygen so make sure it was flowing well. He moved back to Talise and kissed her forehead. “You’re doing amazing.”

“Thanks.” She was freaking out, but it was nice to have an optimist in the room.

“Can you send Niels in first?” Talise requested. “And I need like… however many kids we are having in shrimp stuffies like this one?” She lifted the stuffed shrimps he had gotten her for Caspian and Alde.

Corban laughed. “I’ll get those.”

“Thanks,” Talise said.

She waited until they left to cry. Julius nuzzled her, his fluffy tail curled over Alde like a blanket. She moved Alde to his bassinet, checked the oxygen, and laid in bed.

She cried more.

She wasn’t just dying. She was losing the life she knew. She was losing every minute she wanted to spend with the kids she had, because they’d be different minutes; shared minutes.

She cried until Niels held her, and her body stopped trying to be awake.

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