Ancient Kings (The Young Ancients) (23 page)

"Now, how will my son
dying
help the world again? No builder can do that, they'd tear themselves apart first. You should know that better than anyone, father. You're the one that taught me that."

"Normally true. Tor can do it however. The device he made to deny the Larval from all the lands of the world save one, it holds billions of fields dear. Maybe even much more than that. The healing amulets are more complex, true, but I think that Tor has a trick that I simply never learned at all." There was some pacing then, as if he wasn't certain the two things overlapped, though they really did. It was the same thing, except that eight hundred thousand things that were as large as the end of his pinky were going to take a lot more space to house than nano dust did. A whole lot more.

"I need to sleep though, and someone to compress the earth and make the tiles for me. Also, Burks, I wasn't joking earlier, I need these back. We'll have to destroy them or something. Can you make certain everyone knows what a poor idea it would be to have too many left after this?" It seemed like he should explain more, but the man just agreed with him again, instantly.

"It's good to see you being more responsible, finally. I half expected it to take you doing something incredibly stupid first, before you realized the impact of what you've been doing."

"You mean like creating a device that got a young girl blown to pieces before my eyes? That isn't enough?"

They didn't talk for a bit, but when they did, it was Laurie who started, changing the topic to Gerent, who still wasn't willing to spend any gold from the vault.

"I was suggesting to him that he rent some plots along the city wall here and use those for garden space, while he learns and experiments. He informed me that he couldn't afford that yet. Perhaps you two could talk to him? Set his heart at ease on the matter?"

That, or get Trice to do it. Tor looked to the right to see the young girls from earlier coming back toward them. Followed by two larger figures who were also floating along. He had to stare for a bit to make out who was there.

The Count and Countess Ward. Sort of his friends, now. He guessed. It looked like they were in pursuit of the girls, but they stopped when they go to the edge of his lawn and settled, walking up the path. Both of them looking more than a little hostile. Toward him.

That was hardly fair. He hadn't even seen them in months after all. Sure, they were having some problems with the King, but that would work out. As long as they weren't planning on attacking his house to get at the people inside. That would be all sorts of awkward if it were the case.

"Marvin! Maria! Sorry I haven't been down to visit. I was a bit surprised you two didn't come to the party tonight. I haven't offended you have I? I know that I should be around more often, but things keep coming up. First Larval Assassins, now the Gray Plague. Hey, if I give you some healing amulets can you see to having them shipped to your County? I need them back, but first I think almost everyone will need to use one of them."

The huge and very good looking Count let his face soften and bowed, but his wife, who was very pretty, in a selfish and self-centered way, glared at him.

"Oh? You think you can just smooth everything over with some
amulets
? We all know that you're in as thick as thieves with that louse, Richard. The fastest way to turn someone into your enemy is to not believe they're your friend, no matter what they do to convince you." There was a fussy little foot stomp with the words that reminded him a bit of Tiera when she was a little girl. Not that she was vastly old now, but the Countess was in her twenties, if only just barely. Old enough not to be acting like this and saying bad things to him about the King.

Making himself smile he just shrugged back at her, not certain what it was she wanted from him. A fight, clearly, but why that was he didn't know. Even when he read her field it was hard to tell what was going on really. She seemed nervous though, not angry, which meant this wasn't about what she was saying really. It was some kind of plan to... do something or other.

Furrowing his brow he wondered if he was supposed to fight back, or to help her make a scene, but instead he shook his head and sighed. It was too tiring to waste effort on things like that. Intrigue and all that kind of thing.

"Sorry, I'm not in on whatever it is you two are cooking up. Take the amulets and go. I don't want to be mean, but I need to get things around in order to make seven hundred and sixty thousand more of these or so in the next week. This..." He waved his hands in the air at Maria, including Marvin just for good measure, even though he wasn't doing much yet, just trying to glower a little and tower over them all. "I don't have time for it. I need to go sleep, and then get the work done. Can we make an appointment for next week instead? Then you can yell at me or whatever it is that we're supposed to be doing right now. Or... I don't know, you
could
go in and cause a scene. Kind of hard on my guests, but if you really must, I suppose we can arrange that."

It had to seem insane to everyone else there, except that no one acted like it. Maria seemed to be considering it as an option and Marvin just bowed, his deep voice rumbling as he spoke.

"Forgive us then Tor, we didn't realize that you had such a task to perform. Is that real? That number of amulets... I'm not totally certain that Noram has that many magical items at present, to tell the truth." He glanced at Count Lairdgren, who nodded his head, just a little. It was probably pretty rude, over all, but the man was incredibly old, even if he did look younger than Count Ward.

"We do, but it's a lot closer to that number than not. If we don't do something however, then most people in the world will be dead by this time six months from now. As it is, I highly recommend that you two take those healing fields Tor offered and make arrangements now. Keep one for yourselves and use it daily through the crisis. Laurie, you need to do that too, for Two Bends." As if proving his point the man walked to the purple Fast Carriage and carefully opened the back, where the trunk was. A little over two thirds of the fields were gone already, when it was opened. Then Count Lairdgren suggested they dump out all their coin bags and fill them as full as possible with the tiny devices instead.

To his credit Marvin didn't even blink, literally just emptying his purse onto the grass of the lawn and trying to do exactly that. When he was finished he looked at Maria, who was following his lead, if a little more slowly.

"I guess, if it's for our people. A bargain no doubt, even for the rental of them. Are things truly so dark then? I know that the Wizard Tor would give away all he had to save even a single life, but this seems...
excessive
." She didn't gesture to the gold and silver decorating his lawn, but rather to the case with its piles of glowing devices. "Do you know what you could sell these for? Especially if people need them at the cost of their lives..."

It was nearly funny, because even a year before, he wouldn't have been able to see what she meant. Not really. Not that he'd ever charge people for something he could easily give freely in a case like this one, but he
understood
the economics of it now. In the past his Rhetistics would have made it so all he could see was that it was needed in the moment. So, the result was the same, but his thoughts weren't. He had a choice.

Though no one would ever choose to let the world die, would they?

Instead of answering he just nodded.

"So, next week some time? You can do whatever it was you had planned." Tor tried to not sound like he was about to fall asleep, but he really was. Being up for several days at a time did that to him.

Interestingly Marvin chuckled a bit and shook his head, then slowly started to walk to the front door of the house, with everyone else following.

"We'd best do that other thing, actually. Count Lairdgren, mind if I push you down for show, on the way out? Maybe Maria could do something similar to you miss?" He smiled at Laurie but didn't try to touch her at all, even as she lowered her eyes a bit, flirting. "I don't think we've met before. Are you one of Tor's sisters? Tiera mentioned having several when she last visited with us."

That nearly got a formal introduction, but Maria cut it off, trying to look mean again already.

"This is Tor's mother. We need to get to this, before it looks like we just came to collect another round of prizes off of Tor here. Wish us luck." As she stomped to the door Tor heard her mutter something about making sure their shields were on. They both had them now. It was interesting, since the design was his, but he was nearly certain that Timon had done the copy work on them.

A few minutes later a commotion started from inside the place. It was mainly yelling, and sounded a bit harsh, but it wasn't that unusual for a party where there were noblemen. They liked to drink and that often led to things like this. Tor hurried into the house anyway, to prevent any real violence from happening, if he could.

From the bodies flying back against the walls already, that didn't seem like it was going to happen. On the good side, it was taking place in the space where everyone was listening to the musicians. On the bad, Marvin was scuffling with several Royal Guards already, and while they hadn't started pulling weapons yet, they were clearly working together in an attempt to overwhelm the man. Shield or not, it was starting to work, with the giant being pinned down pretty well.

There was shocked silence from everyone else and Maria moved on the King, her right hand made into a fist. She didn't cock it back to start hitting him at least, but she was screaming the whole time.

"You! This is all your fault! I hate you! You and your cronies, trying to ruin us, after we pledged loyalty to you? That has to go both ways you know!" Then she tried to hit him, only to be grabbed by Karina, which wouldn't have been a problem, except that they both had shields on and the forces dissipated into the ground when they tried to hit each other. It meant they started falling all over the place, in a decently comic fashion.

That
might
have been fine, but they started to crash into a row of chairs that held worried looking Austrans, all in various colors of jumpsuit, none of them having a shield on at all.

Tor moved in then, taking down Maria's shield with a thought, so he could grab her. Karina, not knowing that was the plan, if she was in on anything at all, promptly clipped the pretty blonde on the jaw, sending at least two teeth flying and causing her to lose consciousness so suddenly that everyone in the room froze.

It wasn't a good thing.

Tor waved at Count Ward then and growled, trying to save at least a little bit of the situation for his friends. Whatever it was they were playing at.

"Take her and go.
Now
. You aren't welcome here until you two can manage to act in a civil fashion.
Go
!" He was ready to push the man, even though that wouldn't do anything at all, but it wasn't needed. Scowling the Count picked up his much smaller wife and stalked off.

"This is all your doing, King Richard. We won't forget it." The parting words did not sound friendly at all.

"Well, that puts an end to my party, doesn't it?" Tor stared past Count Lairdgren to look at Collette, who was busily assuring everyone that this kind of thing didn't happen all the time. She did it in a sweet voice that sounded almost perfect, but the only ones buying it were the foreigners.

They didn't end things there though, the orchestra, which had ten members, started playing again, doing it very well in fact. They all wore bright orange outfits with golden yellow trim, and matched perfectly, since they were a very high end group. The name had been given, but Tor hadn't really caught what it was, his mind on other things, like how to juggle everything and save the world, all by himself.

Except that wasn't what he was going to do, was it?

No, he decided right then to just make the healing devices and call his part mostly done. If they needed gold for the effort, they could go and beg it from Collette, or better still,
Gerent
. Staring at the Count, his grandfather, Tor let himself actually smile.

Then he explained what he was thinking.

Laurie was hovering, trying to hear him whisper the words and her face went hard and cold, since, even if she was his mother, she still wasn't thrilled with him. Most likely because of something that he hadn't even been a part of. In the moment that meant she didn't like his light and easy ways toward the health and safety of the world, even though she'd questioned her own father about the needed work earlier.

That was it, he realized. She wasn't mad at Tor at all. Or she
was
, but it hadn't originally been his fault. He just happened to remind her too much of her father. The man that had stolen her life away and made her live as a drudge in the country for over twenty years. Except, of course, that wasn't truly fair. Glost Serge had tried to kill her and escaped, because the Count couldn't bear to kill the man, like he should have. Not after killing seven kids. Even if they were Larval clones and not naturally born children. There was almost no difference between the two things after all.

So, having failed to do that, because he couldn't bring himself to at the time, the Count had hidden her instead. It made sense, but she wasn't ready for it. Not really. It would be like taking a less tough version of Princess Karina and forcing her to move to the woods and become a pig farmer or something along those lines. Not what anyone in the world would expect, given how she was raised. It was why it had been selected, since literally no one would think to look for Conserina Lairdgren in Two Bends, would they? It had worked too.

Except the part where she hated her father for it. Which really meant hating what he
was
, not just what had happened to her life situation. After all, the Count had to answer to his Ancient instructions, his Rhetistics. He'd probably suffered years of nightmares after killing the young larval pod that had come for him. Tor had experienced that kind of thing too, before the Rhetistics that contained Cordes had ripped that pattern apart in his own mind. It was just about as bad as anything a person could imagine, without horrible pain being involved. Everything stank of rot and corruption, nothing was comfortable or good and the dead talked to you, making you explain why you'd done it, over and again. It was really his own subconscious mind providing the words, but even knowing that, it was still hard to deal with.

Laurie though was still a little angry, on a level that was so deep she probably couldn't recognize it herself. Since Tor was identical physically to her father, that meant she had a hard time with him as well. It wasn't a fun or good thing, but there was little enough he could do about it. Even asking her to fix it, if he turned out to be right, wouldn't work, because you couldn't correct things you didn't have the awareness to notice about yourself.

This all came in a flash, which probably meant it had been fed to him by Cordes he realized. The situation was saved when Denno came over though, gesturing to the back of the room, so that they wouldn't bother anyone's listening enjoyment.

His mother tried to betray him then, sounding more than a little mean about it.

"Tor says that he's not going to help, after making the healing devices, except by providing coin for the effort. It seems selfish and lazy to me. I thought that I raised my children better than that. I have half a mind to disown you-" She stopped when Denno winked at her and raised his left hand gently, touching her lips.

"Please Lauralie. We're already asking Torrance Purple to save the entire world. We don't need him to do
all
the work by himself. I can't even see one good reason for him to do what he's going to attempt, after everything. Let's not push him into withdrawing his current, quite sufficient, support for the effort." There was a soft look then, that took in the room behind them, where most of the people sat and listened politely, some tapping along a bit. "I'd like to point out that of those that don't hold command over a continent, Tor and your other children are the ones that are doing the most to help with this. I'm very pleased that Kolb and Doris seem to be willing to aid us. Don't imagine that's because of any great fellow feeling for Green or I. No, that's because they know and trust your kids. I don't doubt that Green set things up that way on purpose, just in case such a need arose." He looked over at his Ancient brother, who smiled with a lopsided grin and shrugged.

There was no speaking for a bit, but finally, without being asked anything more, the man nodded.

"Not that I knew anything specific would be happening, but I did dig them out about twenty years ago, when I knew that you were one of us Tor. Seventeen years ago? It's easy to lose track. We certainly can't count on help from Aaban or Dae. Not that they have skills that would aid us anyway. Frankly I'm a bit surprised that Orange is being as helpful as she has been. That's just because she was promised a space fleet. I think the idea tickles her a bit." There was a glance in the direction of the woman, who was wearing very modern looking Noram style clothing, her long blonde hair a honey color that was in a single braid down her back. She was better looking than almost anyone else in the room, except for Collette and Connie...

Tor had to take that back, looking around, he realized. There were seven or eight women in the room that could have given her a run for that first place prize, if they were to have a contest. Including Varley and his own mother. The younger Princess looked like the Queen though, if in miniature. It was a lot closer than it had been now, since the girl was going to be tall, he thought. She had to be at least five-ten already. All the Blues would have been in that group too, even if they were part male. They still looked good. Just because sex with one of them would be disturbing for
him
, that didn't mean they were less than lovely to look at.

Tor shook his head, just to clear it and spoke gently, not really angry with his mother, even if she wasn't really being totally fair.

"I need to get to work on that next I think. Do you think Alice would be willing to stay here for a month or two, while I finish doing that? Or... I'll probably work up at Ali's house, by the school. It isn't as interesting though and we don't have any servants there yet. I haven't really been around to hire any."

He was thinking out loud, but after a bit Burks tilted his head and seemed to be about to say something stern. It wasn't his normal way, but the man relented almost instantly too. His face relaxing into something a lot friendlier.

"That's as good a plan as any. I'll see what she wants to do. Or rather, we can as a group. We'll see to getting the needed tiles set up for you. About the same size as the others you made? Do you have a compression unit we might borrow?" There was an easiness about him suddenly that for some reason Tor didn't know if he should trust.

"Yes, but... We who? You can't go, you're still needed here for the Council of Counts. Alphonse is too, or I'd bring him in to help out. For a Prince he's a remarkably hard worker. While I'm sure Rich would love to get out of that mess, I don't think it will be allowed either." For some reason, thinking about who would be needed for the Council of Counts reminded him that he'd need to set up someone to check on Sandra. He'd do it before he went back that night. It might be annoying to the girl, but he didn't have a lot of other time to see to things like that.

It was like there was simply no end to the things he had to do, wasn't it? Sighing he tried to seem content with his lot in life, but there wasn't a lot to really make everything worthwhile, was there? Even the women he knew might all end up being off limits to him in short order.

"Oh, right, I nearly forgot, can I get checks done on Ali, Collette and Trice, to make sure they aren't related to us? Sooner would be better than later. I know it's selfish and all that, but as soon as possible... Eventually one of them is going to want to do something other than have me hold their hand and right now I pretty much can't bring myself to, just in case." That got a strange look from his mother, which he thought he could guess at, but she turned out to be having a very different thought, which shocked him.

"That would be a good idea, I think. I'd like all the children done as well. It's very clear that something has been done to several of us. Would it be possible to test for what, exactly?"

Tor looked over at Princess Veronica, and shook his head just a bit.

"Also, I'd like Alison to be checked out as soon as possible. Can you check for Rhetistics too? Cordes mentioned something that kind of made sense, given everything. What if someone was trying to recreate an immortal version of him to rule Noram? A Royal baby would be just about right for it. Sure, that would take some regicide, but if it were a later version of the man, well, if the version in my head could think that up, couldn't a later one do the same thing?" His voice clearly carried too much, since the Princess turned and stared at him, looking at least a bit frightened. No one else did though, but the idea that her hearing might be a bit better than normal wasn't lost on him.

His was decent, but Tiera and Tim both had very good hearing that way. He could see in the dark a bit better, he thought, but that didn't come up as much as he would have once thought. Not now that he could make lights. Who knew what could have been built into Varley. Or her baby.

It was Denno that answered, his face going still, "yes. I'll get Blue to help. We should have this done in a few days." Then he walked over to the Ancient of the Antarctic and pulled her away from the festivities.

The music only lasted for another hour or so, which gave an excellent end point to the whole evening. No one even had to stand by the door and look sleepy or anything. It was almost as if Collette had planned it that way. Most of the guests were either staying at his place that night, or had someplace else to go that wouldn't take too long to get to, so he didn't feel too bad about the whole thing even if it was one thirty in the morning by the time everyone had left. There were a small host of transports hidden around the back of the building, which meant only a few people had to take old fashioned carriages to get back to their beds. Tor actually liked horses, but the boxes they were forced to pull around weren't his favorite thing in the world at all.

Before they left he managed to signal George and Kara with a wave and a smile. They hadn't talked all evening, so it was only polite to say a few words. Not that he was really doing it to be politic in the moment. No, he had ulterior motives. It kind of left him feeling a bit bad, like he was just using them, instead of being a real friend.

"I was thinking that I'd go and check on Sandra now. I know that doing that in the middle of the night is..." He killed the moment by yawning, of all things, which got Kara to laugh at him. It was a husky thing, a bit more relaxed than what he normally associated with the dark haired and slightly hawk faced woman.

"No need. We've had Sam Builder down each day to check on the cell. He's not as good as you are, but he can tell if she's making something easily enough. It's killing his morning meditation schedule, but we needed to get someone in and weren't certain when you'd be available. Besides that, you're the kingdom's Magics Counselor. It seems like that kind of job should be shunted off onto the attaché, don't you think?" She kept scanning the room, as if expecting an attack to come without warning. After the little dust up they'd had earlier, he couldn't really blame her at all. He was doing much the same, he realized, and didn't have a fraction of her training in that sort of thing.

It just made sense.

"Alright then. As long as I'm not leaving her to escape justice... I..." He didn't know what to say really. It wasn't as if they'd been close particularly. Sandra had never been his
friend
overly, just a colleague. They hadn't been lovers either, so there wasn't that hanging over his feelings like a sword about to fall. No, it was all just about him not wanting to see a woman be hurt.

Except that one already had been. Regina.

Shaking his head would have to be enough he realized, because Tor wasn't going to make sense of how he was feeling that night. Conflicted, as usual, of course, but that didn't get Sandra out of trouble
or
help him want her dead in particular.

Instead he bowed to the two Royal Guards and then waited for the King to reach the front door with his people. Connie was by his right hand, which was a bit awkward for him, since he wasn't exactly ready for a private talk with her at the moment. Thankfully Karina was right behind her and she managed to save the day, by pulling her brother along.