I looked up as the Osiris twins sat themselves down at the table. They looked well-rested, even though we really only had a couple of hours to ourselves in the rooms.
As the waitress brought out our starter salads and our water goblets, Connor looked at me with something akin pleasure.
"How long were you down here? If you had called us, we would have come down much sooner to accompany you."
Corwin reached out and tucked a stray hair behind my ear. "We were sitting around waiting because we didn't want to interrupt you in case you were resting."
Simon cackled. "I feel like I'm hanging out with a couple of love-sick cows. Ow!" He yelped as Corwin kicked him in the shins.
"I was talking with Sir Henri Montblanc about the missing primates," I said as I studied my menu. "Ah, there's monk fish on the menu!"
"Wait, what did you say?" Corwin asked.
"There's monk fish!" I grinned at him. "Seriously ugly face, but very tasty, almost lobster-like in texture, and when it's not overcooked, it is amazing!"
"Trust the thaumaturge culinary expert to fall in love with an ugly fish. We men have absolutely no chance." Connor laughed.
"Hey, I have to use my cooking degree for something," I smiled and winked at him, but I could tell Corwin was not amused
"Nana. What did he say?" Corwin asked again in a quiet voice that brook no arguments.
"Sir Montblanc asked me why we were traveling this way, so I told him the truth—that we were looking for a large group of primates."
"Should we trust the man?" Corwin pressed. "We barely met him today."
I looked up from the menu. "I know what I want. Grilled monk fish and finger potatoes, with steamed asparagus tips and artichoke hearts. Hmmmm. That sounds heavenly!"
"Oooh! They have ribeye steaks and sweet potato fries!" Simon jabbed at his menu with an excited finger. "And they have chocolate layer cake. I've been dying for chocolate cake for days now."
"Are you ignoring me?" Corwin asked, giving me a pointed stare.
"Yes," I said, throwing a crouton at him. He barely glanced at it, as the crouton hit an invisible wall somewhere between my fingertips and his face.
It hovered for a moment, spinning in lazy magnificence before flying back and landing into my salad bowl with a juicy splat, spewing a large drop of salad dressing onto my face.
I should've known better than to throw something at a wizard.
Simon roared with laughter as I sighed with exaggerated distress.
Corwin reached out and gently wiped my cheek with his dinner napkin but his eyes were serious.
"Look, Corwin," I tried again. "A large group of primates cannot be hidden for long, even with magik. It's not as if we are able to conceal something this big."
"But this is a top-secret mission."
"Sooner or later, they will be discovered, and if he knows that they exist, he will be able to find them and inform us, which means we will also be able to find them that much sooner."
"You can trust Sir Montblanc," Abe said without hesitation. "He is a man of his word, a man of high integrity and honor. I would not bring you here if I did not trust him implicitly. After all, you saved my life."
Corwin nodded, but he was not looking too pleased that I had spilled the beans on our mission. I wasn't sure why he was so put out.
Truth was, I had not had any word from my scouts, and if I could garner the help of friendly locals, it would increase the chance of success.
The drive we had just taken through the vast scrub grassland and then up into the redwoods struck home to me the immensity of the area. Not only was there dense forests, but the hills were not so much hills as they were small mountains.
And the actual mountains…they were MASSIVE WORLDS in and of themselves.
Even if we were able to somehow locate the primates, I was not sure how we would be able to get to them, let alone corral them all together to be transported back to Topaz City—if there was even a Topaz City left to return to.
We needed help—serious help—from those around us who were sympathetic to our cause.
Dinner that night lifted our spirits, partly because we had not been eating properly in awhile, and partly because Simon and Connor were such clowns.
Connor proved to be a deft magician simply because he had a knack for making real magik look fake. Simon, on the other hand, had a knack for acting like he did not know any magik at all.
Between the two of them, they had the entire group of diners sitting outside on the veranda fall off their chairs with laughter.
Simon assisted with the 'magic' spells as the straight man who was being used as the guinea pig, while Connor used wild, grandiose hand gestures and mumbo jumbo chants to hide the actual basic boring power Commands.
It was so hilarious to me because these were such simple commands that either of them could have done with a discrete gesture of a finger. Instead, they were going all out to entertain us with these outlandish, over the top actions.
My favorite was the "Alah peanut-butter sandwiches" routine which made me laugh so hard, tears were running from my eyes.
Feather dusters appeared out of Simon's armpits, and flapping parakeets popped out from under his baseball cap squawking and calling Simon all manners of nasty names.
The 'fake' real magik caused the tables around us to roar with laughter and clap their hands with delight.
At the end of the night, all the diners made their rounds and threw serious tip money into their baseball 'magic cap', which made me laugh.
Connor and Simon were high level mages who did not need to work for human currency. Yet, here they were, making money simply by making all of us laugh and giving everyone a good time.
I was impressed with their openness, and did not hesitate to tell them so.
"Really?" Simon guffawed. "That was a lot of fun trying to act like I was SO AMAZED at basic transmutations that Connor did with those lousy Commands."
"Hey, it was hard to come up with good fake Commands okay. I did the best I could."
"And you guys did an amazing job! I was laughing till my belly hurt." I slapped both guys on the arm.
We chattered for a bit until Simon yawned and informed us he and Tarzan were going to head up and take a nap. Even Abe had already left by the end of the Connor and Simon Show.
Connor tapped Corwin on the shoulder. "I need to talk to Nana for a bit. You go on ahead. Don't wait up."
He looped his arm around my shoulder and led me towards the beach, away from the crowd on the hotel deck.
As we got closer to the water's edge, the sounds of the night life from the hotel's deck grew more distant and the roar of the ocean grew louder.
As warm as the day was, the night had a bit of a chill. Above us, the palm trees rustled as the wind blew through the leaves.
He pulled me behind a large hibiscus bush filled with huge red blossoms. "Did you enjoy the magik show?"
I laughed. "Absolutely! You were the star of the show. You made everyone laughed, Connor."
He reached out for my hands. "I don't care about anyone else here. I was actually trying to make you laugh."
"Well you succeeded, and quite often too!" I laughed again. It was so easy to laugh around Connor.
He sighed with happiness. "I love the sound of your laughter. If I have to be a clown for you for the rest of my life, I would do it in a heartbeat just to hear you laugh every day."
"I'm normally quite happy and I laugh quite a bit on my own, so you don't need to act like a clown, Connor. You just need to be yourself." I poked at his chest.
"But I have to admit, your magik spells are hilarious!" I cracked up again.
"Oh, you mean like this?" He waved a finger and a large red hibiscus flower appeared in his hand.
"Here we have a very rare flower which I have procured from a far-away land, so I can offer it to the most beautiful woman in this realm."
He tucked it into my hair and magiked it on so that it would stay tucked in.
I laughed. "We are standing next to a huge bush of that same rare flower, Connor." I reached out and plucked one of the rare blossom and then tucked it over his ear.
"See, just because you can do magik doesn't mean you have to do it for everything!"
"Hmmm, I hear and obey." He reached out and pulled me into his arms. "You have me completely spellbound. There is absolutely nothing I would not do for you."
Connor reached up into the night sky filled with stars and pulled down a glittering chain full of diamonds. "I would give you the stars in the sky if that is your desire."
Reaching around me, he placed the sparkling diamonds around my neck. Then he kissed the tips of his fingers and touched the necklace.
I felt a tingle of an energy current run through the necklace and gasped.
"Wow these are beautiful!" I touched the diamonds on the chain. And that was an amazing sleight-of-hand magik trick you did. It looked exactly as if you really plucked them out of the night sky!"
Connor smiled. "As long as it makes you happy, that's all that matters to me."
"What was the magik that you put on the chain, Connor? I felt a little zap of energy."
"Oh, it's just a little identifier so that I can find you if you should go missing. It's not a soul bond, but the spell is what's normally used for that purpose."
"So Corwin didn't need to go that far just to locate me."
"No. Soul-bonding is something that you should enter into with full understanding of what it is."
I stared at his chest feeling a bit lacking.
"You've given me two pieces of jewelry already and I haven't given you anything in return…"
"I don't need or want anything except my Baby." He leaned down and touched his lips to my forehead. "But I'm willing to wait for you to be emotionally and mentally ready for me."
He gathered me into his arms. "What we have is too precious to rush, Nana. I want to give us enough time for our love to grow."
Standing there within his embrace, I felt safe in the warmth of his arms. His heart was pounding so hard, I could hear the loud thumping it generated.
And as if it was a gentle afterglow, I could smell the scent of orange blossoms which I noticed he magiked around me.
I smiled and was about to comment on how much I loved the scent when Corwin stepped in between us.
"I need to talk to you." He pulled me out of Connor's arms and toward his side.
"Wait, what's wrong Corwin?" I asked, puzzled at his insistent demeanor.
"Hold on there, brother," Connor put a hand out to stave off Corwin's arm on me. "I was talking to her. You can be rude to me all you want, but show her some respect."
"I'm not disrespecting her. I just need to talk to her," he said, ignoring Connor's indignant scowl.
"Wait, Corwin. I was talking to Connor. Can we talk a bit later?"
"No, this can't wait. It's important. I need to talk to you, now!"
I looked over at Connor standing there. His crestfallen look was more than I could bear.
"Look Corwin, whatever it is, it can wait." I pulled my arm from his grasp and turned back to Connor.
I had barely taken one step when I was hauled away by Corwin, this time magikally.
I couldn't walk back to Connor because my feet were no longer even touching the ground.
"I said I need to talk to you." Corwin ground out behind me.
He looked upset. It most likely had to do with the primates and my conversation with Sir Montblanc.
I might as well face the music and get this over with. I would not be able to escape this man's insistence.
I sighed and turned back to look at Connor. "It's ok. I'll be back."
"Don't wait up." Corwin called over his shoulder as he threw the black metallic sliver up into the air with a careless flick of his wrist.
Not missing a beat, he grabbed onto me and rose up onto the board. With a whoosh, we ascended into the sky.
In the span of a heartbeat, we were alone with the stars and the deep dark night.