Ancient Kings (The Young Ancients) (27 page)

It was probably a sign that his little sister was growing up, but she didn't needle him about why that was exactly. No, she just nodded a few times and then started walking toward Ali's place.

"I was going to. Hurt the King. He's protecting Sandra." Her right hand waved at him, commanding silence, but she didn't give him a chance to say anything, doing no more than adding a half seconds pause. "I know what you've said, but I can't help but feel that it's all a trick to let her get away with it all. He let her get away with interfering in a
duel
. One held on the Palace grounds. That was an act of war. A real one. I know that you don't get that part yet, but Count Morris wasn't just forcing me to fight him with his insults, but he nearly caused Lairdgren County to have to as well. He could have killed me in an honest duel, and no one could say anything about it, since I accepted. Or he could have given up and surrendered at any time. No one would have thought he was doing anything except not killing a little girl even, so he didn't have to try and save face. Even as a Count, Morris could have begged on his knees for forgiveness and the others would have applauded him for it. Most of them. He didn't though, and let his daughter and several of his military men attack me to save him. That isn't allowed." Her arms were crossed as if daring him to doubt her.

The thing there was that he didn't really care at all. It had happened, and it wasn't the King's fault. Morris was an ass and probably didn't deserve any good words Tor could think of for him anyway. They weren't the same issue though. Not really.

"Well, we can't have that kind of thing right now. You were the one that told me about the... Um, problems." They were on the school grounds still, if near the edge. Just because he didn't see anyone, that didn't mean that they were out of earshot if someone wanted to spy.

"I know. I'm not stupid, but I won't let her get away with it either. I can hold my hand against the King, for a while, but Sandra and her father are dead. One way or the other. I know that you can't understand why I'd do that. I probably seem like a monster to you, wanting to kill someone when there might be another choice, but Tor... If I don't kill them, they
will
come back for me. They destroyed Reggie, and won't be stopped by a few harsh words or a slap on the wrist like little naughty children. The only reason there hasn't been blood already on this issue is that..." There were no more words then, Tiera just shook her head and let her mind go blank as Tor read her intent.

"Because you went to those other people and offered to help them?" He expected to stop, or maybe have to explain what he knew, but she kept walking, with nothing showing on her face at all.

After a while, almost to the front door of the house, which had people running in and out loading Fast Carriages and leaving as soon as they had their allotted amount of packages, she shrugged once.

"That would be why, yes. I'm supposed to wait until Sandra is released and the Council is done before I act, so that I won't be making war on the King directly. But then the others might move, if I'm successful. That was all said to keep me in the dark, as if they were being clever or something, but I don't really mind. I'm just some little girl to most of them. Why should they trust me?"

A thousand things tried to come into his mind then, but Cordes did something rare and special, taking over his mouth again. It wasn't fair, since the man in his head didn't have to deal with the fall out of what was said. That didn't stop him this time however.

"They'll trust you after you slaughter the Morris family. Are you planning to just take the Father and the eldest girl, or the rest of them as well?" Worse, the jerk didn't even use his own accent, so he sounded almost identical to Tor.

Tiera went wide eyed anyway.

"I was... thinking that just Sandra and the Count need to die. Her little sister has never wronged me, and the Countess is actually nice, for all Morris doesn't deserve her. Do you think I should kill them too?" There was a strange quality to the words, almost as if she expected him to scold her for them. The Ancient King just chuckled hollowly and spoke with a deeper voice than Tor normally used.

"Yes. If you leave them alive, they'll be bound by honor to order your death. This is already a war, so they can do almost anything. Take that option away. For that matter, kill all the other heirs as well, until none will come forward. Only then will the situation be safe. I know that this sounds hard, but if you let a real war come of it, then you'll cause the death of thousands. Maybe more, given modern weapons. Do it this way, and no one will challenge you at all for a long time. It should get you in with the..." Then the voice stopped, leaving Tor in charge again, thankfully.

He nearly told her to disregard what he'd just said, but it
kind
of made sense, if in a bad and slightly too practical way. The stupid, and probably evil, Ancient King was messing up what he wanted his good little sister to do. Jerk.

In his own voice he finished the thought, "those who you wish to claim as friends now. That's probably as good a plan as any. I can't like it, but..." He felt horrible already for telling her to kill, and to take out innocent people on top of that. She just stared at him, and didn't respond at all as a Fast Carriage that looked white and rather clean took off from in front of them without a sound, headed due south.

Then a brown craft was loaded, people almost running with their loads of tan canvas bricks. Color coded, he realized a short while later, as David Derring set up a solid black craft. Tor didn't ask if he was allowed to make a change, just adding in a large, slightly glowing, golden cross to the bottom of the thing, so that it would match the religious symbols used in Tellerand. Then he waved the rather tall young man over, smiling at him. Without saying anything at all the clothes he wore changed, Tor not even touching him. They turned black, but had holes in several places, along with light smudges on the knees and an off-colored patch on the right elbow. Then a simple brown cross appeared on a plain copper chain that was around David's neck. After a bit Tor shook his head and altered that to looked like thick twine, so that it didn't seem too rich.

"There, that will work better in Tellerand, I think. Bow a lot and remember to pray constantly. If you don't know the words, just lay on the floor like you're begging forgiveness and close your eyes. It will make you seem like a follower of their religion. Normally I wouldn't say that you should lie like that, but we don't have time for them to refuse our help." It was a horrible reason to abuse their faith, but what else could they do? Be honest and simply let most of them die?

The combat giants from the school ran to do the loading, which still took a while, even with several of them helping. Havar finished the last of them, carrying about two hundred pounds of amulets in his arms, which a tall, plain featured but sturdy looking girl got into the back of the craft for him. The man looked at David and then tried to change his own outfit to match. It wasn't perfect, but it had the right feel about it. Shabby, but in a way that said the person wearing them was very pious. They didn't wait, driving away with Havar doing the flying, about thirty seconds later.

Tiera wrinkled her nose and let her thin arms cross over her chest protectively.

"No one wants
me
to go along with them. I think it's jealousy, since I got to go into space. Did you know that you don't weigh anything up there? You just float around. It's relaxing. You weigh a little on the moon, but not like here. Blue explained it to me. It means you have to do a lot of things differently. Like using the restroom or drinking water. Otherwise it can make a mess." They didn't help with the work, since there seemed to be an actual system in place, and the large bodies moved a lot faster than he was used to seeing them go, outside of a fight. At least they were taking this seriously.

Tiredness settled on him, even as he just stood, watching other people do all the hard work. Not that he didn't have a good reason for it, having been up for over a week, but no one else would think of it that way, would they? To other people his work probably seemed restful. Like a very long nap. It wasn't at all. It was hard work that required attention on a level most didn't think possible. Tor decided that he wasn't going to feel that bad about not helping this time, since no one was stopping to stare at him or even giving him dirty looks as they worked.

His little sister stopped talking and just watched for a bit too, finally shaking her head and pointing up at the sky, where a mirrored silver craft hung, waiting for a spot to clear in front of the house.

"Tim's here. We should get together and chat soon. He knows a lot more about the world now, and what's really going on, than I think anyone realizes. You can help me pry his secrets out. It's annoying, but I think he might be smarter than I am." She grinned and pushed his shoulder gently. "Since I'm more intelligent than you, that must really be hard to take, huh?"

Shrugging he didn't deny her take on things. It was probably closer to say they were all doing well that way, just in different ways. It wouldn't shock him to find that most of his family was brilliant though. That didn't mean much anyway. Life wasn't about being able to think well, the trick was acting on things and
doing
stuff that affected the real world. The rest was fine, but not helpful to anyone overly.

"Hey... Can you do me a favor? It might be kind of hard, so I'll understand if you don't want to..." On some level Tor wanted to present the idea he'd just had playfully, but it didn't come out that way at all. It sounded like it was some dark and serious mission instead. A thing that should send fear into the heart of brave men, and leave little girls quaking in their well appointed sandals.

There was a head tilt in response that he realized wasn't her showing boredom, but mild intrigue with his idea. It was the kind of thing he would have simply missed from her before his old Rhetistics broke down.

"That depends... Do I get to beat anyone up?"

This was teasing, after a fashion. There was an edge to it though, under the slightly sassy tone. She was still very sad and angry about everything. His little presentation to her about the King being family now wasn't having a lot of effect, he didn't believe. That meant having to watch her a lot more closely than he'd really been thinking. She was family though, so he wasn't going to let her throw away her life on a vendetta as misplaced as hating Rich for something that Sandra and her da had messed up.

Not if it was in his power to stop, which he wasn't certain of at all.

"There's a girl inside, that made some cinnamon rolls. The fact is... She didn't do a great job. They're for a class at the school I think, but we can't let her put them in like they are now, or she'll get a poor mark. Can you help her fix that? I didn't want to tell her that the work she'd done wasn't up to standards, but you can do that, right?"

After a half second his sister made a face at him that seemed to be saying he was ridiculously stupid. She didn't try to hit him though, which was better than it might have been, given everything.

"That's... The
dumbest
thing that I've heard in days." She turned to point at the people carrying canvas wrapped sets of healing amulets out, making a stabbing motion with a single finger that would have been considered very rude, if anyone else had noticed it. "We're trying to stop a possibly world ending virus, and you want me to help with baking instruction? Are you
trying
to insult me or just doing this because you honestly think I'm useless?"

Now she was angry, but Tor just sighed and looked at her, his own face a bit sad.

"It's... I'm trying to keep you busy. The fact is that I think you've lost it sis. Not forever, and I can't blame you, but if you do half of what you seem to be setting up, you'll be dead in a year. I can't let you do that. I know that things are really dark for you right now. I can't even imagine how bad it really is. You might be smarter than I am, but I'm older and have seen a few things that you don't know about. Like what a person seems like when they're about to do something monumentally stupid." He didn't try to stop her from speaking, but her crossed arms and clamped shut lips said a lot more than words would have anyway. She was so angry there was a light tremor to her shoulders as Timon finally settled his craft into place.

Tor tried to calm her down, but realized that it wasn't going to be easy.

"So... yes, do some baking. Help people. Make new friends and
don't
go after the King. If you do... I don't want to have to kill you. It isn't needed here. I know that it seems like I'm bullying you..."

She snorted a bit and then shook her head while making a face that just looked funny.

"No. You never seem like that. I think that you're too protective of some people that don't deserve your goodwill, but I know you mean well. Even when you helped Sandra kill..." Her breath caught and she stopped suddenly. "I
know
that isn't true. You were just trying to do the right thing. It isn't normal to kill people over pranks, even if they were meant to be more than that. I was overreacting. I even know that King Richard pretty much had to help a Count over a schoolgirl. The thing with the duel doesn't make a lot of sense still, since he should have backed up the rules there, but I get that he isn't evil. Not really."

Timon walked up while they were talking and looked at them closely, while Petra got out of the Fast Carriage and ran to the back, opening the doors there so that things could be loaded quickly. The good looking boy stared at Tor and then Tiera, even as she let her voice falter.