Slaves of the Night

Chapter 7

Kaisa

I have categorically determined that all this person does is walk around having meaningless sarcastic conversations with his manservant and hide from his parents and pet his dogs. For example, the most recent memory I stole:

"Aren't they precious?" kneeling in a whelping box with a litter of puppies, petting the snowy white mother dog as she licks her pups.

"Just a really wonderful reason to be up at six in the morning yes I agree," Rax of course; he's always here. He's leaning in a corner of the stall, holding a little white puppy and encouraging it to nurse from a bottle.

"She's not letting that one feed at all. I'll have to bring him in with me," Eero says, petting the mother dog, "She's got enough on her plate with these seven."

"You have a dinner tonight, I'll mind him," Rax says, still looking down at the pup. I have no idea when this memory is it looks fairly recent though by their ages.

"Oh I was hoping to get out of that."

"Because of the puppy?"

"Yes---?" weakly.

"That's never worked! You could come up with something better. Or actually go and I'll feed it."

"Do you know how often to feed it?" he asks, suspiciously.

"Yes I think I'm capable of keeping one puppy alive. Anyway, the girls will help me."

"I don't want them getting attached if it should die," Eero cautions.

"Death's a part of life---they're old enough to understand that," so this is fairly recent the girls are old enough to play with the puppy. "I'll explain it's sick and it might die at any point exactly like Uncle Rax."

"Shut up, you're not likely to die."

"You---you have seen my daily routine. I'm not likely to keep living."

"I'm not talking to you if you're being ridiculous. I've forbidden you from dying please understand if you die I'll have you executed as well as imprisoned for life."

They go on like that. Eero doesn't want to think about anything important apparently. Fine don't answer my questions and help me solve the mystery. I'm reading someone else's mind. Someone who isn't Rax he's got far too much magic in him.

"Where have they gone?" Eero sighs, the library is shut fast. "I guess I should just go wake people up to help me look."

"Why don't you want to?" I ask, cautiously. I can't count the number of times we woke the whole house up looking for one of my nieces or nephews, servants and all, along with the King and Queen, looking under shelves and things for the missing children. Who usually had a load of candy and were in some bushes out in the garden. 

"The nannies are less than lenient with them, they're just being kids," he says, shaking his head a little.

"If you don't like the nannies why have them?"

"My mother employs them," he scoffs, as I touch his arm. Please come on. It has be a different memory of some significance he's clearly thinking about his kids.

"Did you murder the nanny?"

"I really couldn't say."

"RAX," Eero hisses, walking into a lovely nursery. Rax is lying on a thick rug, and the two girls, not more than babies, on either side of him tucked under his arms as he casts spells to make stars dance across the ceiling.