"Well, of course," Cali said and smiled back at Daelyn, "he's the lord of the house, and we approve of him."

  Sean came out with more food then and set a plate of bacon in front of Cali, who happily attacked it, then set a second plate of it in front of Roxy. Then he sat back down with a third plate of food for himself.

  "So, what's on the agenda for today?" Sean asked them.

  "Well, I'm gonna run down to see Garth," Daelyn said. "I ordered the raw materials to build the design you gave me for the tag machine. I'm going to take some of that changed silver with me, as well, and see if we can get something for it."

  "Think it's worth anything?" Sean asked. "I'd hate to think we're ruining all this silver and not getting anything back on it."

  Daelyn shrugged. "It's not something I know all that much about. I'm more into building and fixing stuff than into metals and their value. But Garth'll know, he has to do a lotta buying and selling for the stuff at his factory, after all."

  "Don't forget," Roxy told Sean, "we need to talk to those folks who came down from the northern council before they leave."

  "They're still here?" Sean asked, surprised. It had been several days since they had arrived. "I would have thought they'd have left when we had to go to Sacramento."

  "No, they stayed. Even the annoying one, Rudolph," Roxy said with a snort. "They wanted to talk to you before they left, and I think being able to spend a few days talking to people while you and the rest of us weren't around to ride herd on them undoubtedly seemed like a good idea."

  "Well, as long as they're satisfied, I don't have any problems with it. I need to go into town and talk to Steve about setting up that cleaning business."

  "And a casino," Roxy reminded him.

  Sean sighed. "And a casino. You are most definitely coming. Who else wants to go?"

  Sean smiled as Cali waved her fork.

  "I'll go!" Peg said, bringing a tired-looking Jolene into the room and helping her sit down.

  "I better get you some tea," Sean said, getting up.

  "And toast, I want something plain," Jolene said. "If I'd had any idea morning sickness would be this bad, I would have said no," she grumbled.

  "Liar," Roxy whispered after Sean left.

  "Trust me, I'm gonna make him pay for this," Jolene grumbled. "Any idea how long this lasts?"

  "My mom said it only lasts through the first trimester."

  "Oh gods, you mean I have eight more weeks of this?"

  "Don't worry; she gave me a list of things that'll make it easier on you. I would have shown it to you sooner, but," Roxy shrugged and looked a little guilty, "I didn't think anyone else would be showing symptoms yet."

  "Probably all that 'exercise' we got last night," Roberta said with a wink.

  Sean came back in and gave Jolene her tea and some toast, then kissed her on the top of the head.

  "Well, I'm going to look in on our visitors, after that, I'm heading into town."

  "I'll join you," Roxy said, getting up.

  Sean went around the table and gave each of them a kiss, then went to find the emissaries with Roxy.

  "So," Sean said as soon as they got outside, "is it me, or is Cali becoming my self-appointed bodyguard?"

  "Ah, you noticed!" Roxy chuckled.

  "Of course I noticed!" Sean said, grinning back at her. "So, was this her idea or…?"

  "All of ours, but mine mostly. Cali's probably the only one here, other than me, who's as ready as I am to do whatever it takes to protect you. She's fast and deadly with those knives of hers, she doesn't hesitate, and she can see magic."

  Sean stopped and turned to look at Roxy, who also stopped.

  "She can see magic?" Sean asked, surprised.

  "Didn't you know that?"

  Sean shook his head. "No, I didn't. Damn, how'd I miss that! So she can see it when I cast a spell?"

  Roxy shrugged. "I'm not sure exactly how it works, you'd have to ask her. But she can see magical spells that have been put on objects or the ground. Apparently it's a skill a lot of elves have, and she's good at it."

  "So she can see magical traps?"

  Roxy nodded. "Seems like."

  "Well, that would explain why she got turned into an assassin." Sean shook his head again. "If I'd known that, I could have brought her with me and avoided that trap! Definitely going to have to remember this."

  "So just what are we going to do with her sisters?" Roxy asked, changing the subject.

  Sean shook his head. "Damned if I know. Maybe wait until a couple of our sons are old enough and let them marry 'em."

  "Really?" Roxy asked, giving him the eye. "You sure about that?"

  "Well, it's not like they're actually going to be that much more mature in sixteen or eighteen years than they are now, if you think about it. Then there's the fact that both you and Jo are carrying lions, who are the only ones here, other than me, who can give them children."

  Sean glanced over at Roxy and winked. "And I don't want to be the one giving them children. They're way too young for me."

  "Yes," Roxy agreed, "they are."

  They arrived at the building that had been set aside for visitors and went inside. Sean couldn't remember if he'd been in this one or not. There had been a lot of changes around here in the last couple of weeks, and there were still more that needed to be made.

  "Good morning, everyone!" Sean said as he came into the common room. The five of them were sitting round the sole table in the room. Obviously they were discussing things.

  "Morning," they all replied and nodded to him.

  "I'm very impressed with what I've seen here," Maya said, the first to speak up. "I had no idea you had so many wolves living here."

  "You're got what, three hundred wolves?" Terry asked.

  "Closer to five hundred," Roxy told him. "We've got almost two hundred living at another location, and once we get our building downtown rebuilt, we'll move at least half of the ones here into it so we won't be so crowded."

  "Why so many?" Dax asked.

  "Several reasons," Sean told him. "First is because we captured them, a lot of them don't want to go anywhere else. Well, at least not yet. They're still getting used to the idea of being free. Second is because I don't have to waste time asking the local packs to send someone over to help if I already have people here. Third, well, the local packs are having their resources stretched thin, having to integrate all these new folks into society at large. I'm starting several new businesses to give them jobs and teach them skills, so they can provide for themselves."

  "And so you can make a lot of money in the process too, right?" Rudolph asked.

  Sean rolled his eyes.

  "Sean's an enchanter," Roxy told Rudolph, "one of the best in the world. He's already made millions of dollars off of his work. Money, which I'll point out, he's been spending on taking care of everyone here."

  "Thanks, Hon," Sean said and, leaning over, gave Roxy a hug and a kiss.

  "Keep that up, Rudy," Luke muttered, "and we are all going to be eating elk for dinner tonight."

  Sean noticed Rudolph turned red and he didn't reprimand Luke for calling him Rudy.

  "Rudolph," Sean made a point of saying his name correctly, "does bring up an interesting point, however."

  "I did?" Rudolph said, looking a little worried.

  Sean nodded. "What are we going to do with the people we free in your territories? I don't want to bring them back here; that would be too much of a change for most of them, I'm sure. I have several ideas for businesses and such that I can discuss with the full fellowship. If necessary, I'll even put up the money to start them, but someone up there is going to have to run them. So far, it seems the Vestibulum are the only ones who teach their lycans anything beyond fighting. But then, they have so many of them, they have to do something with them, so they don't become a total burden."

  "That makes sense," Luke said, and they all nodded in agreement with him.

  "So what are your current plans involving us?" Maya asked.

  "I don't know, yet," Sean told her. "Right now, we've been forced into dealing with Sacramento. Once we get things dealt with there, we'll have two options: go north, or go south. While north sounds easier to me, I have to discuss it with my advisors.

  "Again, as I told you before, I really need you to send someone down here who has up-to-date intelligence on the situations in Eugene, Portland, and Seattle. I need to know what we're facing. We've been doing our best to make it clear to the magic users that we're not looking to kill them, this way they don't feel like they have their backs up against the wall."

  "What's to stop them from killing their lycans to spite us?" Rudolph asked.

  "That's part of why I need that intelligence," Sean conceded. "The Ascendance in Reno wanted to do that, so we struck quickly and blocked them before they could."

  Sean stopped a moment and sighed, thinking about what had happened in Las Vegas last week. "However, if they should kill our lycan brothers and sisters before we get there," Sean looked at the five of them sitting round the table, "I'm more than willing to kill all of the magic users involved as a warning to the other councils."

  "Would you? Really?" Maya said, looking shocked.

  "Yeah, I would," Sean said with a heavy sigh.

  "He's done it before," Roxy put in. "I was there."

  There were a couple of muttered 'damns' at the table, and they all looked at each other before looking back at Sean.

  "We'll head back home in a little while and make sure everyone understands," Dax said. "I don't know how soon we'll be able to send someone here to give you what you need, but I'll be surprised if Dawn and Steven, who run the packs around Eugene and Portland, don't send you someone as soon as they hear about this."

  Sean nodded. "Thank you."

  "No," Dax said, standing up and smiling for the first time since Sean had met him, "Thank you," and stuck out his hand. Sean smiled back and shook hands with him.

  The others all stood up then, and they each shook hands with him as well.

  "Well, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Sean said to Roxy after they'd left.

  "It's hard to argue with success," Roxy said with a smile.

  "Oh, I'm sure Rudy would try!"

  "Probably, but I think he's learning not to do it when you're in the room!"

  "Let's go see Oak before we head off."

  "What for?"

  "I need him to pick out the likely candidates for learning to fly those two helicopters we just bought, as well as see who we can get trained to maintain them."

  "You know Dae isn't going to be able to resist the urge to take them apart and soup them up."

  "Just as long as she can prove to me that she knows what she's doing." Sean shrugged. "I'd ask how one 'soups up' a helicopter, but knowing Dae…"

  "She'll find a way!" Roxy finished with a chuckle.

  "Actually, maybe we should get her to put some armor on them. Sure could have used that the last time."

  Roxy nodded and considered that. If Daelyn couldn't do it, she'd know a dwarf who could.

  "Hey, Roxy, Sean," Oak said as they entered his office. "What's up?"

  "Those two helicopters I just bought. We're gonna need somebody trained to fly them and maintain them."

  Oak nodded. "Way ahead of you. I've been working on that since you told me to build a hanger for 'em for the future."

  Sean smiled. "Awesome! Do you want to coordinate with Claudia, then, on picking them up?"

  Oak nodded. "Sure, not a problem, Sean. I've already talked to Deidre about the budget for sending some of our guys out for training and gotten them enrolled in the local A&P school."

  "Great! Is there anything you need then, as long as I'm here?"

  "Well, as long as you have a few minutes," Oak said with a sly smile.

  An hour later Sean and Roxy finally got done with all the things Oak wanted to talk about and headed back to the main house to get Peg and Cali to head into town.

  "I'd be angry about being ambushed like that," Sean sighed, "but I am the guy in charge, so I guess I've got to learn to put up with it."

  Roxy snickered. "Just think how much worse it would be if you didn't have all of us helping you. Like it or not, Hon, you've got a multi-million-dollar enterprise, five hundred employees, and a war to fight."

  "Ugh, don't remind me. I think after we run by Steve's, we should stop by Chad's and see what he's been planning for our next trick."

  "Probably should stop by your lawyer's office, as well."

  "You think so?"

  "You need to remind people who they're working for, Sean. If they only talk to your underlings, they might forget who you are, and what this is really all about."

  Sean nodded. It made sense.

  Desperate Measures

  Harris looked around the room; he had the senior council gathered there, as well as a few other key members of the Sacramento Council of the Ascendance. Kurt was glowering, but then, since his wife had packed up and left him for Art up in Reno, that was about all he'd been doing.

  Harris had to give Art points for that; Sarah was a fine-looking woman, and that wolf had been putting it to her on the sly for years apparently. Then again, Harris knew Kurt had been putting it to several young female wolves himself over the years. Maybe if he'd spent a little more time with his wife, and less time with the animals, she'd still be there for him.

  "Okay, so what do we know about this lion up in Reno?"

  Ray Collins sat up in his seat and opened the folder on the table in front of him.

  "Here's what we know. His name is Sean Valens, and he's twenty-one years old. His father was an enchanter of some fame, and was assassinated by Harkins because of something he was working on for the lycans."

  "Wait," Kurt sputtered, "a kid is running this? A kid?"

  "We believe he has help," Ray sighed, "we think he's just a figurehead. Lycans hold lions in some sort of mystical regard, so it only makes sense that whoever is really behind this would take advantage of that."

  Kurt grumbled, "Do we know who the real force behind this is, then?"

  Ray shook his head. "Not yet we don't. Unfortunately, when Harkins and most of the Reno council were murdered by the Vestibulum, we lost a lot of our information. What we do have, we got from Dave Thompson, who's now in charge."

  "How many lycans do they have?" Harris asked.

  "We're not exactly sure. We know they had a fair number, possibly as many as two hundred, when the strike team set the building they were in on fire. From what we learned from Kurt's son and the other two who came back, no one escaped the building prior to the fire department's arrival and the team's leaving."

  Ray looked around the room. "I took the liberty of driving up to Reno myself yesterday. The building is still unoccupied, but it's being rebuilt. There's a car detailing place in the parking lot, and I think it's being run by lycans. Talking to people in the area, they told me there were quite a few dead bodies pulled from the building, but nobody knew exactly how many.

  "Then they were hit by the Vestibulum at their new place, which is somewhere outside of the city. Again, this information comes from Dave; he said the council of Sapientia's leader was pretty upset because the Vestibulum hadn't invoked the silence and there were a lot of dead bodies on the ground when the local police showed up. Somehow, and no one knows how, they were able to hide the bodies from view, but the general indication was there were a lot of them."

  "Which means what?" Harris asked.

  "Well, the Vestibulum had probably two hundred lycans up there; we know they like their armies big, and we know a lot of them died. Rumor is about half, and they probably took as many of Valens' with them when they did. So while they grabbed whatever was left, I'd say they had maybe two hundred left after the battle, probably less."

  "But they now have ours, that's another hundred and twenty," Everett Kane, one of the other members, pointed out.

  "True, but how many of ours were fighters? Only about eighty of them. If that ratio holds true for what they've got of the two hundred we think they had after the battle, when we add in the ones from here, they've probably only got two hundred combat-effective lycans at the most. Probably less, because remember, Valens took in everybody, but the combat ones are where the casualties are. And unlike us, he can't just go buy more."

  "Yeah," Kurt grumbled, "he has to steal them from hardworking people like us!"

  Harris wondered if Kurt might have a point there.

  "What about the local lycans?" Harris asked. "We all know Reno has a decent-sized population of unclaimed ones."

  Gus Stone spoke up, "That's only a problem if we give them time to respond. If we roll up there in one large group and attack a couple of hours before sunrise, they won't have time to call anybody. I've been working on a plan with Kurt and a couple of my people, using what Ray got us when he drove around Reno yesterday."

  Harris looked at Kurt. "You've been working on a plan of attack?"

  Kurt smiled, and Harris was reminded of the vicious and unrelenting man who had helped him in his own rise to power.

  "Of course!" Kurt told him, "but we didn't want to bring it to you until it was finished. Garrett, as always, has laid out some interesting ideas on how to get up there without anyone here realizing we're gone. It wouldn't pay to have the Vestibulum take advantage of our absence, after all."

  Harris nodded. "Well, I'm all in favor of doing something; my biggest question is, do we have the manpower to pull this off?"

  Kurt nodded to Garrett, who replied.

  "If we load up with all the wands and other one-shot items we have, we can hit them hard in the initial assault, before they even realize what they're being attacked by. We have enough four-wheel drive trucks and cars among our members that we can drive out there and cut across the ground to hit them.

  "Once everybody has unloaded all their wands and other items, we'll regroup. If we think we hurt them enough, we'll press the attack. If not, we'll just retreat and come back later. As Ray said, their supply of lycans is limited."

  "So the goal of this attack isn't to capture them and bring them back?" Harris asked, surprised.