Ancient Kings (The Young Ancients) (26 page)

One of the girls got him a plate and a large bit of product, which was a little bit too overdone. He ate it, since he was starving, but she was looking at him eagerly, as if she wanted praise after the first bite.

Instead he looked at Sherri who shook her head, probably about his question to her about the amulets.

"Not really. Those relatives of yours have been in and out of here all week. They're not demanding or anything, but only the man, Dan, bothered to stop and chat. He's very nice. Do you know if he's married?" That got the others to giggle, since they were young women and that was a job requirement it seemed.

"Not a clue. I'll ask and recommend you to him if he isn't? You do know that he's hundreds of years old, right? Not that it should
stop
you, since who else is he going to date? Just so you know ahead of time."

Tor walked out of the room then carrying the food, munching at it absently. The product would have to be redone if it was for a grade. He didn't want to tell the girl that overly, but it was a little off. It hadn't been allowed to proof enough and was a bit too solid. It had dried, being over baked at a low temperature by about fifteen minutes and the caramelization on the outside was
just
shy of being burnt. If he were running the class she'd have to do it again, wouldn't she? He didn't know how to tell her all that though. She'd seemed so eager to please.

It took a bit for him to get to his room upstairs and find where all his amulets had gone. He had a shield on, around his neck, and a clothing amulet, but there was no need for the rest, like the slightly bulky communications device, so it had been put on the table that was set up to the left of his bed. There were a half dozen different amulets there that had multiple fields on them. They were all similar, being rectangles, with different glowing bits on them. Sigils that said what they were. To him at least. His own code, after a fashion, made up of random shapes.

Not waiting to put them on, he hit the one for the Capital on his communications device and stood to wait, knowing that he'd need a shower or bath soon. Sitting in your own stink for a week always tended to make a body feel itchy. Eating the dry and not overly well done thing in his hand was something to do, and was finished before anyone got on the line for him. It could take a while to get anyone at the Palace to pick up.

"This is the Palace, how may I aid you?" The voice was firm and a bit sharper than it had reason to be with him, he thought. Almost prim, which wasn't what he'd expect from the Queen on any given day. He hadn't been
rude
to her after all. Unless he had been and was just too stupid to realize it? Some social rule he didn't know, like once you accidentally screwed a relative you had to beg and grovel on the floor for a certain amount of time to undo it? That seemed about right to him, but how did they know which one was supposed to do the asking for forgiveness? She'd certainly done more than her share of pursuing him after all. Then, he wasn't the Queen, so maybe that decided it?

"Hi Connie. I have those healing devices. Do you know what we're supposed to do with them next? I mean, get them to the public, but who's in charge of that? If it's me I'm going to..." He sighed and let himself smile, even if it wasn't going to be seen. The sound of it could be heard in his voice. "If that's the case, then I'll do it of course, but I'll sulk and feel put upon after it's done. Just to keep you forewarned."

"Tor! So good to hear from you. We've been worried, the situation is much worse than Denno's doctors thought it would be. Your brother is slated to take our amulets to your family for distribution. I'll get with him as soon as the line is clear. The rest, the things going to other lands, are mainly being handled by our friends at the school there, since you were kind enough to give them all those Fast Craft already. Not too many have those, so we had to beg their aid. Sir Kolbrin and his instructors?" She said it as if Tor didn't get that the Secret Army was in on this. Who else would it be?

"Great. I'll get them in on that as soon as I can find them. How are you? I know that things..." What did he tell her? It was awkward, but Richard had the right of it, leaving it alone or hiding from what had happened wouldn't help. Worse, in a lot of ways, he still loved her and not like a family member. It was gross now, but that didn't make it all go away.

"We're all well here. There have been outbreaks in the Capital, and a few of the staff have hidden the symptoms, not wanting to risk a day off of work, but it's been controllable here. Other places haven't been so lucky. We've had word that Tellerand has been hit very hard already. There isn't a lot we can do for them I fear, since their religious beliefs are going to prevent a lot of them from using what you're providing. They truly mistrust magic in all its forms there. As to the other thing... I'm surviving. The situation is far from a good one, but things like that really do happen and I hope that we can be friends. I... know that I pushed you, more than a bit, originally. We all did, the girls and myself. I hope that you don't feel too uncomfortable with us now?"

The polite thing would be to lie, of course. Tell the woman that he was fine with it all, treat it as an amusing joke and then never speak of it again, but the words just kind of popped out from his lips, how he was really feeling. It wasn't what he wanted known, to tell the truth.

"A bit uncomfortable. A lot really. I'll live and it isn't anyone's fault, except whoever changed your parentage without permission like they did. Even then, they didn't have any real reason to think that
we'd
get together, did they? So, I'm not blaming anyone. It's just that the rules I grew up with are so different than what you all have. Ali was telling me the other day that it wasn't such a big thing really, and that I shouldn't worry about it, but I feel wrong. Dirty. It's worse than that, since I really like you all. I mean, I see you and my first thought isn't 'Hey look, that woman that's older than me and yet, interestingly enough, is also my daughter' you understand? My thoughts are much different than that, and it...
sickens
me. Because that kind of relationship is wrong and I'm not supposed to want it. But I do." It was about the wrong thing to say, he decided, as a soft sob came from the device in front of him, making him wince more than a bit.

It wasn't fair of her to cry about it. He felt bad, but there was nothing he could do to change things, except keep his mouth shut in the future. It had been stupid of him to speak, hadn't it? He was about to apologize when she cut the line, not adding even another word. He didn't blame her, but it wasn't easy for him either. What could they do about it all?

Nothing, as far as he could see.

He took a fast shower, just to knock the worst of the dead skin and sweat off and slowly walked out of the house, headed almost true north, trying to jog a bit. It wasn't late in the day really, though after noon. There was still light out, which meant there were many large bodies practicing in the fighters Square. It looked about the same as he remembered it, except that this time when he looked in, there was a tiny woman trading thunderous blows with Baron Havar. It looked and sounded painful and they were both grunting as the staves they fought with connected with unshielded arms and legs. There were spots of blood coming through the clothing they wore, neither in even leather practice armor, just wearing what seemed to be light tan canvas. It was fast and brutal and the Baron wasn't pulling his blows much, Tor didn't think.

The man was winning, that was true, his skill level clearly higher than the smaller form's. That wasn't stopping Tiera from charging in and taking the blows as she delivered her own though. The funny thing there was that no one else even watched them overly, except Karen, who seemed to have a considering look on her face, instead of shock.

Tor would have pulled a weapon of his own to shoot the man who was beating his little sister, but Kolb waved to him as he came through the gate and started to walk over easily, as if nothing could possibly be wrong. He did notice where Tor was looking and nodded at the pair practicing like insane people.

"Every day nearly, they meet and do this. This isn't even their official work time, they're staying late, just for fun. Not that I disapprove, but I'd like to see them doing at least a few other things. Tiera dropped her other classes, except meditation, which leaves her with very little else to do. We should find something else for her, to keep the girl busy."

Nodding, Tor stared as the people did enough damage to one another that he didn't think he would have been able to do it himself. He would have run away by then.

"Tiera! Havar! Take a break, we have work to do." Tor called it out, not knowing if they'd actually do it, but after a few more blows the large man jumped back and the tiny girl with her very short black hair stepped away to glare at him. After half a second she smiled though and jogged over.

"Are the healing amulets ready?" Her voice was only slightly breathy and while a rivulet of blood moved down her left cheek, she didn't seem upset by it. Not at all. The stick in her hand was carried, held on a shoulder, ready to go again at a moment's notice. It had a red stain on one end. Havar blood, Tor figured.

"Yes. They need to be checked, but they're good. We can start moving them out as soon as you all get people around for it. I'd like a word though Tiera, before you run off on me."

That got a suspicious look from Havar, but Kolb called in the rest of the Instructors and had Karen dash off to signal the others.

"Like we planned. Everyone knows their duties, let's get it done. The world is dying in front of our eyes, we don't have any time to lose.
Run
!" The large bald man bellowed the words, then did just that, heading off for Ali's house directly. Not having a better plan himself Tor patted his sister's back, noticing that she appeared to have healed already from her practice session. The amulet was inside her, on the right hand side of her ribcage, Tor noticed. The idea was a good one and really seemed to work pretty well.

He was staring he realized, but she didn't say anything about it, just looking at him rather blankly. It was hard to remember that her friend had died like she had, since instead of sulking or mourning even, Tiera had thrown herself into her schoolwork. It probably wasn't the healthiest thing she could have done, but he didn't have a better option to offer her. Standing back a half step he tried to make himself sound sympathetic and not like he'd just spent over a week in a deep state that would have probably killed him, if no one had been around to make sure he had water. He could have come up for that every few hours if it was needed, which was how he'd survived making all the fields he had for the anti-Larval device. That had taken over a month, but the actual fields on each particle of dust had been simple, compared to a healing device.

"So, how are you doing? Do you need anything? Did you manage to get with the Blues, or did that fall through?" He didn't know how space travel worked, precisely, or if he was being led around as a joke by Burks and Brown on that score.

If so, his little sis was in on it too now.

"It was amazing. Seeing the world from up there... It really puts everything in perspective. I can't describe it really. You'll have to go and see for yourself. On the good side I was able to use the computer on the Lunar base and set up real time tracking for forty different people on the ground. Gray and her immediate known family, as well as a couple of people in Noram." She grinned, a thing that lasted for several seconds, finally falling suddenly, turning into a sly expression as she crossed her thin arms. "You don't know what most of that means, do you?"

"Nope. I can't even guess very well. What's a computer?" He'd heard the term before, but Cordes answered for him, with a rush of information that shook him enough that Tiera took his arm to hold him up. "Alright, I have it now. So, you set things up to watch people? That's handy. Were you able to get a location on Gray? Not that I care that much about her at the moment. I'm not wild about her putting out this virus, but she
is
family and that means we need to try and help her. In this case help her fix what she's done. Not that we can." Most of what he said was just to cover how shaken he was from the information. He didn't simply know what a computer could do, or how it worked, he could fix the ones on the moon, if he had too. At least if they were the same type that they had been about two thousand five hundred years before, which wasn't that likely. Blue or one of the others would have changed them by now.

Tiera nodded at him, but seemed at least a little glum.

"Right, just like how you managed to get the King put into our family suddenly as an in-law, so I wouldn't go after him? We don't really know Gray at all. I've met the King of Noram twice and I'm almost certain he knows who I am by name. The Gray Ancient is a lot less friendly than that. At the summit all she did was yell at people and act superior to all the men." The smile that came onto her face was at least a bit teasing then, rather than mean. "Which is true, clearly, but not something that should be rubbed in. She might have hurt someone's feelings after all."

Tor let his mind range for a few seconds, remembering it all. The way that the woman looked exactly like their mother for one thing, and how she was so aggressive that Laurali had actually seemed ready to hit her at one point for being mean to Timon.

"No one had bothered to get too worked up though. By the way, you can trust me on this one, I had
nothing
to do with all the new family members. You wouldn't have hurt Richard anyway and it's more than a little inconvenient for me, if you want to know the fact of the matter."