Free Blood Reunion by Connie Suttle

hands through his light-brown hair, which now looked wild. Ry and Tory stopped dead just inside the wide door into the library.
    "Is Mom sick?" Tory almost whispered the words.
    "Young ones, come and sit." Karzac pointed to the sofa they'd sat on the night before.
    "It is not bad news." Uncle Reemagar came up behind them and herded both boys toward the sofa. Ry and Tory sat as instructed. Even Ry felt cold and shivery—something not normal for him.
    "Your mother has managed to get herself pregnant, when we all thought that was impossible. Even she thought it impossible." Karzac sighed and sat across from Ry and Tory. "You had surrogate mothers, as you know—the Larentii manipulated donor eggs with your mother's genetic material, making them her eggs in every way. Your sister was conceived using the same method. And now this."
    "The Wise Ones say that since your mother is what she is, that the eggs will only be released in her body after great lengths of time," Reemagar knelt next to Ry's side of the sofa. "They also say they know who the father is, but they will not announce that information at this time. They tell us that it will come later."
    "You mean one of us could have a full brother or sister, and not a half?" Tory asked, his eyes wide.
    "Yes, that is a possibility," Reemagar smiled, causing the blue skin around his eyes to crinkle just a little. Ry remembered that his mother always said that when a Larentii smiled, it was like watching the sky smile on a sunny day.
    "So, when?" Tory didn't finish his question.
    "In about seven months," Reemagar was still smiling.
    "We will have to be careful with your mother—she is not built for this," Karzac grumbled. Ry looked at Uncle Karzac—he could be the father too, and Ry had only just thought of that. Kevis, Karzac's only son with another mate, was a year older than Ry and Tory. He came to visit occasionally, when he wasn't in school.
    "She is small, with a thin build, and being what she is," Reemagar explained Karzac's statement. Ry and Tory both nodded. Their mother was five feet tall, if that, and both boys towered over her, as did all their uncles.
    "It won't hurt her, will it?"
    "We will make her as comfortable as possible through this," Reemagar replied. "And we will monitor things with her. These Council meetings and any other business that she tends to may have to be cut back, or others may handle them for her. It will not be the first time."
    "It will be the first time in fourteen years," Uncle Drake pointed out. He and Uncle Drew had just walked in. Ry knew that they'd come from their mother's suite.
    "Who took the prisoners to Evensun?" Tory asked quietly.
    "Aurelius and Aryn escorted them," Drake answered the question. Tory nodded at the reply.
    "Will we know if they—you know."
    "We'll know." Tory nodded at Drake's reply.
    "Can we go see Mom?" Ry wanted to know.
    "You can see her, but she is asleep at the moment. She was frightened at the news at first, so a healing sleep was placed. Connegar is with her now, as are Pheligar and Renegar. They will wake her shortly—she does not need to go without eating." Reemagar rose and motioned for the two boys to rise too. Reemagar didn't ask them to walk down two flights of marble steps and then traverse endless corridors and hallways to get to their mother's suite in the residential wing. Reemagar folded them in.
    "Go ahead, she will not wake." Connegar sat in a very large chair next to their mother's bed. He'd brought something in with power—the chair didn't match anything they had inside the palace.
    "She always looks so little in this huge bed," Tory whispered.
    "Your mother presents a much larger image to those around her—she is powerful, you know," Connegar said gently. "It is only when she sleeps, or on the rare occasions when she relaxes that she shows herself as she truly is."
    Ry nodded and sat on the side of the bed. He took his mother's left hand in his; there were rings on nearly every finger of both