When she gave me an almost predatory boots-to-eyes appraisal, I took an instant dislike to her.

“Oberon, this is Blaise,” Freda said. I couldn’t help but notice the chill that had crept into her voice. Apparently she shared my feelings about this woman.

“Introductions?” came a man’s cheerful voice from behind Blaise. “Someone new here?”

The man goosed Blaise, gave a grin at her indignant glare, and ducked around her with a swirl of red.

“Aber?” I said, staring. He dressed as he had in his card: red from head to heel.

“That’s right!” He gave a laugh, stepped forward swiftly, and seized my arm in a firm grip, pumping it. “And you, I gather, must be the long-lost Oberon.”

“That’s right. Call me Obere.”

“Let me save you from these old hens, brother.”

He pulled me toward the back of the wall, where a cart filled with several dozen bottles of liquor sat. “Care for a drink?”

“Gladly!” I glanced back at Freda and Pella, and beyond them to Blaise. “Care to join us?” I asked politely.

A little sulkily, Blaise said, “Aber knows what I like.”

“Apple brandy,” he said with a grin and a wink at me. “Red wine for Freda and Pella. And you, brother Oberon?”

Brother again. Why did he call me that? I wanted to ask, but what I said was, “Whatever you’re having is fine.”

“Whiskey, neat?”

“Perfect. It’s been quite a day.”

He poured quickly and I got to pass out the drinks. The five of us formed a little semicircle around the liquor cart, Pella and Freda chatting about people I had never heard of, Blaise pretending an interest in them, Aber sizing me up behind his drink. I sipped my whiskey and returned his inquiring stare with one of my own.

“Good whiskey,” I said.

“It’s imported from a distant shadow at great risk and effort… my own. Best I’ve ever found.”

“Believe him,” Pella said to me. “He used to roam farther through Shadow than any of us. And he always seemed to turn up something delicious to bring back.”

“All for you, dear sister!” he said with a laugh. Then he raised his glass in a toast. “To king and family,” he said.

The others raised their glasses, too.

“To Dworkin,” I said, “for rescuing me.”

It was only then that I caught a glimpse of the five of us in a long mirror hanging on the far wall. I was the tallest by a head, then Aber and Pella. But what truly caught my eye was the similarity between Aber and me. Our eyes were different colors, the shape of our faces and noses not at all the same—but there was something about us that struck a familiar chord. Our cheekbones, I thought, high and broad—and the similarities had to be more than coincidence.

We looked like brothers.

I had been denying it all along, but suddenly I realized how the women and I also shared many traits. Just as we shared them with Dworkin.

Almost choking, I set my drink down. But my father is dead. He was a naval officer.

So I had been told all my life.

But now, faced with overwhelming evidence, a different truth suddenly made sense.

I was Dworkin’s son.

I had to be.

It all fell neatly into place. Dworkin’s interest in my mother and me. All the lessons he taught me during my childhood. His unexpected return last night to save me from the hell-creatures, just as he had saved Freda and his other children.

I was a part of his family. Just as these strangers were now a part of mine.

Both Freda and Aber already knew. They had both called me “brother.” I assumed Pella and Blaise knew as well. Apparently I was the only one who had been kept in the dark, too blind or stupid or naive to guess my true heritage.

Why hadn’t Dworkin or my mother ever told me? Why had I been forced to think of myself as an orphan all these years? It wasn’t fair! All through my childhood, I had longed for a father and brothers and sisters, longed for the sort of family everyone else had. Now it turned out I’d had brothers, sisters, and a living father all the time—only I’d never known it. I had been robbed of the family I could have had.

Why had my mother hidden the truth from me?

Why had I spent my childhood lonely and alone?

The next time I saw my new-found father, I intended to ask some hard questions. For now, though, I tried to hide my sudden realization. My siblings all acted as if I should have known the truth about my parentage. Well, let them continue to think so. I seemed to get more information when people assumed I knew more than I did, as with Freda in the carriage.

Suddenly I realized I’d missed an important thread of conversation. My attention snapped back to Aber.

My new-found brother was saying, “… and that’s what Locke claimed. I’m not sure he’s right, though.”

“Time will tell,” Blaise said.

Pella laughed. “That’s what you always say, dear. It hasn’t been true yet.”

Blaise, bristling like a cornered wolf, opened her mouth to say something I knew she’d regret, so quickly I jumped in with, “It’s nice to finally meet you all. How many more of us are here in Juniper now? Freda said something about a family gathering.”

“Nicely done, brother,” Aber said with a grin. “To answer your question and ignore the bickering”—he looked pointedly at Blaise and Pella—“there are fourteen family members present, including all of us.”

“Fourteen!” I exclaimed, unable to help myself.

Freda said, “I know it seems like a lot, but I’m sure you’ll have no trouble remembering all the names.”

“When will I see them?”

“Tonight at dinner, I’d imagine,” Aber said. “Fresh blood brings them out of the woodwork.”

“Aber!” Freda gave him a sharp look.

“Out from under the rugs?” he amended.

With a sigh, Freda said, “There is Anari.” She raised her hand and beckoned, jeweled fingers glittering, and an elderly man in red-and-white livery hurried to her side.

“Lady?” he asked.

“Take Lord Oberon upstairs and find him appropriate rooms,” she said. She fixed me with her brilliant smile. “I am sure he wants to rest and freshen up before dinner.”

“Yes, please,” I said. Much as I hated leaving the liquor cart, a nap and a wash basin sounded more appealing right now. It sounded like I’d need to be ready for a long evening tonight, with fourteen new-found relatives waiting to inspect my every word and gesture.

And Freda had called me “Lord Oberon,” I noticed. It was a title I knew I could get used to.

“This way, Lord,” Anari said, heading toward the door.

“Until dinner, then.” Giving my four siblings a polite wave, I turned to follow Anari.

Behind me, I heard Blaise’s tittering laugh and an almost breathless exclamation of, “Isn’t he precious?” that made my cheeks burn. No one had ever called me “precious” before. I wasn’t sure I would have liked it coming from a woman I’d bedded, and I certainly didn’t like it coming from my sister—or half-sister, since we could not possibly have shared the same mother.

Still, precious or not, I had done my best here. I had been raised a soldier, after all, and I wasn’t used to niceties of polite society or court life, whether they were mine by blood-right or not. As always, I’d do the best I could and they could either accept me, rough edges and all, or not. Either way, we would still be a family.

“Please follow me, Lord,” said Anari, turning to the left and starting up a wide set of stairs at a slow, deliberate pace.

“What’s your job here?” I asked.

“I am chief of the domestics, Lord. I manage the house and servants.”

I nodded. “How long have you served my father?”

“All my life, Lord.”

“No, not my family… just my father, Dworkin.”

“It has been my privilege to serve Lord Dworkin all my seventy-six years, as my father and my father’s father served him before me.”

“That would make him…” I frowned, trying to add up the years. “More than a hundred and fifty years old!”