Visitor

Outside, the wind howled, whipping snow across Jinx's small cabin.

Inside, a fire crackled, and Elanor, who had grown uncommonly huge, shifted uncomfortably in front of it. She fixed Jinx with an accusing gaze, and protested, "You never told me you were part elephant! Though I should have guessed."

"Please, Queen Elanor," said First Lord Hugo, "this is important."

First Lord Peter gave him a speculative glance. "You've got much better at tolerating our Elanor, Hugo. Not long ago you'd have been cherry red at hearing such remarks."

"Ahahaha, my Lord Peter," replied Hugo, "one can but try. Anyhow, it's hardly the first time we've had royalty that... well... Have you ever read the history of the Renellinian lineage, some two thousand years ago?"

"You know that sort of thing best, Hugo. Wasn't that the bloodline that led to the crown temporarily passing to a small group of Lords?"

"And their dogs. Ahem. Anyhow, our Elanor, as you put it, is comparatively innocuous..."

"What?" interrupted Elanor. "Are you saying unkind things about me? Don't you dare, I'll have Jinx chop off your head! Jinx, go right now and hit Hugo for me!"

"No, no! I promise, Queen Elanor, I wasn't saying anything unkind. Not about you, anyway. Ahem." Hugo glanced nervously at Jinx.

"Settle down, Elanor," said Jinx wearily. His black-panthress mate, never especially easy to manage, had become a holy terror in her advanced state of pregnancy, and it was some sort of mercy that as her mood became increasingly explosive, her body became increasingly ungainly, depriving her of the ability to get the jump on anybody. This, in turn, didn't help her mood.

However, this time fortune smiled on King Jinx of Rainmoor, as Queen Elanor, easily exhausted and warmed by the fire, sniffled forlornly and tried to curl up and nap, succeeding with neither. Jinx would have felt very sympathetic, if he didn't have greater troubles.

"I have called this meeting of the Cabinet," continued First Lord Hugo, "in hopes of finding some answer to the problem that faces us..."

"Me, in other words." added Jinx, with irritation. Behind him, First Lord Mick quietly went over to pet and console Elanor.

"My liege, it is not you. Our problem has to do with where you are, not who you are, sire."

Jinx snapped, "I've visited the damn place three times! What more do you want of me?"

"No, listen, Jinx," said Peter. "Hugo is right. We're lucky we got Rainmoor back, just the way it was, but it failed the first time because you abandoned it. In all the history of Rainmoor there has never been an absentee King. We're right to be worried, and you are placing us at risk by remaining apart from your home."

"This! is my home." hissed Jinx.

"We know that," said Peter. "We're not doubting it for a moment. But Rainmoor is a home- happens to be our home- and Jinx? It is yours. That makes it your home. P'raps not in quite the same sense..."

"So I'll go and visit it again, all right?"

"We need you to go there and stay." said Peter, and Jinx sagged, glowering resentfully.

At this, Sean turned to Jinx. "But surely there's something we can do to make this easier for you? We've been over all this before and I'm sure we're all sorry to take you from here, but... it's just a house, mate. We all have to move on from time to time."

"It's real," said Jinx sulkily, knowing that was an argument he always lost.

"So's Rainmoor," said Sean, "otherwise we couldn't live there. Is it that you want to be uncomfortable?"

"What's so uncomfortable about living in the real world?" said Jinx, to which Elanor promptly replied, "It's cold out, there's all that snow everywhere, the roof leaks..."

"It does not!" protested Jinx. "Not now, anyway."

"That's because everything is frozen! Why do you insist on staying here?" pleaded Elanor.

"Elanor, you have to stay at home until you have the baby." said Jinx.

Elanor didn't reply right away- but when she did, Jinx was shaken. "This isn't home. It's just where you are."

"But..." said Jinx.

"And I love you more than home."

All the First Lords looked back and forth between themselves in silence, abashed by the sudden honesty- but for Lord Andrew and Lord Sean, there was an edge to their glances as they realized the implication, and Andrew was first to say it.

"My Queen Elanor- may we ask that you come and live with us- in your home of Rainmoor?"

"Yes, and I'd love to, but I just can't." said Elanor sadly. "How can you ask me to do something like that? You mean, leave Jinx here and go away. Don't be silly!"

"He already visits Rainmoor, Queen Elanor, and we must have royalty that truly values Rainmoor. If you love it, you'll help to save it."

Elanor didn't know what to say. She tried to get up, but didn't manage it- too heavy to move easily. At length, she said "I don't like this. I have to leave my mate? And live somewhere else?"

Mick volunteered, "Actually, I was going to suggest it. You need to be near your doctor. It's getting to be time. It's getting to be time."

Jinx looked back and forth between them. "It won't work," he said. "I'm still staying. I guess I'll be visiting a lot more, though."

There wasn't a lot to say to that, and the meeting broke up amid a frustrated mood. Peter lingered, while others headed for the door, goaded by their King's apparent hostility.

Outside, Andrew pulled Sean aside. "You're more familiar with these mage types than I am, my lord Sean. Do you think it would work?"

"Me? Just because I rub elbows with Peter? You're asking the wrong lad, Andrew. I know you don't like Mick, but he'd be able to tell you. Or what about that bloke from your own troupe, Carl? Wouldn't he know?" said Sean.

"Know what?" asked a tall, skinny man with black hair and hooded eyes. It was Carl himself, and Andrew remarked, "Speak of the devil! What on earth brings you here?"

Carl shrugged and replied, "I needed to track you down to settle some conflicts over practice schedules. Gordon's refusing to practice with everyone again- insists on sleeping in."

Andrew blinked. "That's no reason to come out here and ask me. You're his superior, Carl, you tell him. Lower his rank."

"It already is," said Carl, "he's already a simple Guard. Any more, and we'd have to drop him from the Rovers entirely. And what was this I was supposed to know?"

"And we can't do that, we've got to make some allowance for his martial virtuosity. All right, Carl, I will talk to him. And as it happens, it's lucky you were here, as we have a question for you. Our King, as you know, refuses to live in Rainmoor proper..."

"Yes, and that's a serious insult!" said Carl.

"Well," replied Andrew, "at any rate it's a serious problem. We've had him visiting from time to time, but that's a stopgap measure. As it happens, Queen Elanor, who is living here to be with her husband, is greatly homesick for Rainmoor, and as she is pregnant, there is also reason for her to be near Lord, ah, Mick, who serves as her physician."

"Are you asking what I think you're asking?" said Carl.

"I am asking whether the stability of Rainmoor could be secured by our Queen Elanor's residence there. She is not King- but she is royal by marriage, and genuinely homesick..."

Sean snorted with amusement. "I wouldn't call it that. How would you posh types describe the truth? Royal by what, dalliance?"

A smile twitched the edge of Andrew's serious expression. "That, my lord Sean, is hardly unprecedented. But you've made a point- we had better arrange a formal wedding." Another flicker of smile- "Or at least an official one, our Royals aren't the formal type."

"I'll say!" chuckled Sean. "Elanor's slowed down quite a bit with her pregnancy though."

"Thus," said Andrew with a perfectly straight face, "reducing the chance that she'd try and consummate the wedding on the spot to no more than one in three."

Sean laughed. "So we'd best move now, while she's encumbered! What's that, Carl?"

"I said, perhaps so."

Andrew regarded him. "That sounds encouraging, Carl, but perhaps what, exactly?"

"Perhaps Queen Elanor can succeed King Jinx..."

"No," reminded Andrew, "our King's not dead. We're asking if she can furnish stability to Rainmoor through being Queen, even though our King will not be resident."

"That's most improper." said Carl.

"We are not concerned with that. All we are interested in knowing, is whether our home can remain stable through the residence of only one Royal. I'm surprised at you, Carl. Personally, I think it rather inspiring of our King to insist on living in the wild- it is only the problems this creates for us that I'm concerned with. Well?"

Carl didn't reply at first- he appeared to be thinking hard. Finally, he spoke. "Yes- returning our Queen to her home in Rainmoor will resolve our problems. It may be just the thing to do. Yes, sir. I am certain this course of action will be for the best."

Andrew clapped his thin, studious subordinate on the shoulder, startling him. "Well then! We'll start arranging for the wedding, and before long our worries will be over! Come on, you lot- let's head home."

They set off, with Carl trailing them, apparently lost in thought. Inside the cabin, Peter glanced out the window, and addressed his petulant King.

"Jinx, you'd better think this over- for your own sake."

"No. I still won't change my mind, so you might as well let Elanor stay here, it won't work. I got along without her for a long time, you know." said Jinx.

At this, Elanor turned her face away from the two. Everyone else had left, and she lay alone by the fire. Peter gazed at her in dismay for a moment, and then lost his temper. He strode over and caught Jinx's hand in a stern grip, ignoring Jinx's protests, and hissed with silky anger, "Do you see what you have done?"

"No! Let go of me, Peter!"

At this, Peter led Jinx over to the fire, and with unyielding firmness pulled his hand down, wiped it across Elanor's face, and released it. She didn't object- and then Jinx realized his hand was wet, that his mate was weeping bitterly in silence, and the bottom dropped out of his world. He understood Peter's anger now, but he was horribly at a loss to understand how he'd brought things to this pass.

"Oh." said Jinx.

Peter continued staring at him- perhaps with a bit of sympathy now, but still unyielding. He seemed in no hurry to explain things to Jinx, instead leaving the hapless tiger-King dangling in his misery without a word of support. Finally, Jinx couldn't stand it any longer, and yowled, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! But... what did I do? What do I have to do to keep this from happening any more?"

Peter sighed- but there was more than a touch of sympathy in it. "Grow up, Jinx. It's time." He sat, heavily, facing Jinx. "Did you realize that until a moment ago, there wasn't a single thing on your mind beyond yourself? Rainmoor? It meant nothing so long as you got to stay in your cozy home. Your mate? You were ready to let her leave you if you couldn't get your way. All of us didn't matter a tinker's damn next to your selfish wishes. Is that still true? Does getting your way still seem that valuable?"

Jinx sniffled, but didn't reply.

"And no," continued Peter, "right now it doesn't. But do you see what happened to you? There are people you care about, things you appreciate, you've got a life now- but you don't know how to have one, and for a while there, in your imagination we all played out little roles and did what you wished- if we didn't behave as you expected, you had an explanation for that too, and Jinx? It was rubbish. I saw you as Andrew talked to Elanor. Your ears went back, Jinx- it's not so hard to get a sense of your mood as you might think. Andrew asked Elanor to come home- to her home, which isn't here. She as good as said that she stays here for love of you, but she understands what will happen to Rainmoor if we can't stabilize it, and she's ready to save it- and you took it as a rejection! She's carrying your child, she's going to be a mother very soon if I'm any judge- do you think that this mother cat wouldn't protect the things she cares about even at great cost to herself?"

"I'm safe enough here." said Jinx weakly.

"No- you are the cost, Jinx. You won't go to the aid of Rainmoor and its people, never have- Elanor must. She knows it. She has once already when we evacuated Rainmoor, and is ready to do so again even if she must give you up to do it. It breaks her heart, but I don't see her arguing with me, do you? In many ways she's far more adult than you are. And so she should be, now that she is a mother."

And when Jinx found nothing to say to this, Peter finished him off with an angry outburst- "And what is your response? Oh, you say, I got along without her for years!"

At that, Jinx wept himself, like a child, helpless before the knowledge of his unforgivable faults. "What do I do?" he sobbed. "Tell me how to fix this!"

Peter's gaze was troubled. He took Jinx's hand. "But I've told you- grow up. That's a lot to ask of anyone, but I think you're ready to- I promise, it will help. For now, Jinx, I can say two things, and then I think I'd better go and leave you two alone."

Jinx gave him a stricken look.

"No, you'll have to sort it out for yourselves- but it's not as bad as you think. First- you must somehow come to terms with what you are, King of Rainmoor, and you must rejoin it eventually. You didn't ask for that, but there's no avoiding it this side of the grave."

Peter's voice softened. "Second- until you're ready, Elanor will fulfill your responsibility. She will go to Rainmoor in your place, and that ought to work. If you can understand why she's ready to do that, you will have grown up- but until then, understand that she does love you, Jinx, very much."

At that, Peter cleared his throat, uncomfortable. "I'm not much for these little talks, Jinx. Julia and I have not had children, and I haven't much practice. But I suppose one learns by doing... just as you do... my liege."

With that, Peter rose, and departed, closing the door gently behind him, leaving Jinx and Elanor alone.

Silence fell, but before it could build up for long, Elanor said in a clear if forlorn voice, "Jinx, please, please come and hold me." Feeling deeply unworthy, Jinx did just that, hoping he could somehow make things better, stop Elanor's crying or at least his own.

Instead Elanor sniffled, began to speak, shuddered, and sobbed, "I'm going to miss you so much!" And at that, she wept worse than ever, and Jinx wept with her- but, while he didn't understand, he did believe her. Eventually, Elanor fell into an exhausted sleep. Much later, Jinx slept too, still confused, but somehow still believing her.