Ancient Kings (The Young Ancients) (38 page)

Tor rolled his eyes, not bothering to hide the fact that he was doing it. The Headmaster looked at him, not even seeming mildly amused at the slightly upset lady in her nightdress.

"Counselor Baker?" It was probably more polite than he deserved, since he was being a bit rude. The man didn't call him on it out loud at least, leaving him that much dignity. He stopped then and made his face serious.

"Chest of gold. I have no clue what's in it, but it should be enough to get started."It wasn't a huge thing, but was filled to the top and about two feet long and at least that deep. It was about a foot high too, which meant it had a few hundred coins in it, not all of them gold though. "I can get more in a few hours. Now, as to what people will need? Comfort, is my guess, this time. In the future we'll want to have things ready to go for real emergencies, but baked goods and sandwiches are a good idea right now. Things that people can nibble at and not have to worry about cooking."

The women huffed at him, but didn't call him names directly, so there was that much consideration given.

"You couldn't have warned us that this was coming? My girls are good, but we would have had something prepared which would be preferable, if we knew ahead of time." She seemed personally wronged by the idea, but Tor just nodded.

"I agree. I keep telling the bad guys they should send letters first, but they never do."He smiled and shook his head. " That sounds like I'm mocking you, but I'm not, I swear. I really do wish we'd get more warning about things like this. In a way, that's what this is. Find out what works, and what doesn't, and use this to set up emergency plans. We need to be mobilized and ready for anything inside half an hour I think. We should also have everyone practicing with some kind of weapons too. Just in case."

Not everyone knew about the coming war yet. It was funny, but he picked up from the crowd that most kind of did though. No specifics, really, but people weren't totally ignorant. Not all of them were comfortable with the idea of fighting though. Like most of the girls and women around him. Some of the boys too. Tor could understand that himself. It was his least favorite thing to do on any given day. That didn't mean it wouldn't be good for them to learn how to do it. The really bad part about war was how it could be foisted onto innocent people without warning.

There was almost no reaction from the people around him to the words, and the Headmaster took possession of the amulet for the floating case without comment. The woman didn't let him go though, glaring at him with a stern look that perversely left him feeling that he was about to get poor marks. After a few seconds she took a deep breath and turned to Ali, her face a bit kinder suddenly.

"Very well. Miss Baker, would you be so good as to lend your off campus dwelling for this task? We'll use the kitchen here as well, but that will greatly increase the space to hand. I have no clue as to how we're going to deliver anything, but I'm sure we'll muddle through." She nodded her head politely to the older man and then cast a sidelong look at Tor that seemed pretty unfriendly.

She was just scared though. For herself, but mainly for her students, some of whom could very easily get caught up in dangerous situations if things like this kept happening. Plus, it was pretty clear that she was one of those people that really didn't like him, if only from reputation.

He'd just have to deal with it.

"Thank you, ma'am. I'm sure that everyone will be most grateful for your aid in this." It came out with a bit of flowery appeal, but he might have just as well called her a bitch for the expression on her face as she stalked off.

Oh, well.

"Tor? Is there a problem?" The voice came from his right hand, where the communications device was. It sounded awake and alert, but wasn't anyone that he needed directly either.

"Hey Kevin. There's been a large explosion in Lairdgren County. I'm... sort of familiar with the kind of weapon that would make that happen, and it won't be harmful to anyone directly, I don't think." Then he had to go over everything for the Royal Guard, who clearly sent for someone before the end of the conversation. The King would want to know after all. The Heir too, since he was more familiar with the situation on the ground at the school.

Kolb jogged over, still giving off a deep blue light. It was actually a good look for the bald man.

"We have six teams going and six more staying here in case of attack, or to pursue the... target, if needed. Fines assigned a builder to each of the groups of seven going out. I'd like one with each of the teams staying back as well. Not my section though." It was leading and the man wasn't even pretending that it wasn't. To make that work though, some of the others would have to take up the slack. Half the student's that could do magic weren't in the working group after all.

Tor had a few seconds while he was waiting for someone to come talk to him, so he gestured, and jogged back to where a rather confused and lonely clutch of young builders stood, clearly at a loss for what to do. There were only five of them left, all very young. There should have been several more than that, but they'd either been given something to do, had a plan... Or gone back to bed. Builders were often kind of lazy outside of their specialty. Some were even within it.

"You're all builders." It was a statement, but no one said it was a lie, even though one of the boys stuck his hand up for attention. He was tall, and clearly noble by blood. Still young though and aware enough that he wasn't the highest in the land that he managed to sound decently humble.

"I... I just started a few months ago. I can make copies, from templates, but..." He seemed ashamed of that, as if it were some lack, being new. Tor wondered how huge he was going to get though, if he was that tall at fourteen? He had to be over six-six already.

"That's fine. If we need copies made for this, you'll learn to do it without a template fast enough. You have the needed talent or you wouldn't be here. You
all
do. If you didn't you wouldn't be here. Right now though we need you to go with Instructor Kolb. He'll introduce you to your new working group of fighters. Six of
them
, one of you to handle any magical needs that come up. Make friends, since their going to be your new partners and you
will
be working with them in the future." It left them a body short, but if it came to it Tiera could do copy work. She didn't like it much, but it was an emergency. She'd deal.

Without so much as a harsh word the large instructor got the new kids moving as if they belonged in the task and it was only natural. That meant that Tor just had to wait for someone to come back to the device, so he could fill everyone in. It took a while. A lot longer than normal for some reason. When he heard the collection of voices, they did not sound pleased at all. It shouldn't have been that big a deal though, not really.

"Attack! The Capital is under attack. From the sky... some kind of... streamers of smoke and light? The East wall has been breached!" This came from a distance, but Tor didn't wait to find out what it meant.

"Kolb! The Capital is under attack... Rockets I think from the sound of it." It was his voice, but the words weren't his at all. Cordes had taken over suddenly and started barking commands as if he had a right to do it.

"Fighters ready, we leave in two minutes. Kolb and Karen... I want you to take in the first wave, in Fast Craft. Everyone else get ready to move. If you can fight at all I want you over here and ready to get in a craft for transport now. No one flies in without a craft around them for now. We need data. Food services... We' need to increase production. Get ready to feed people and prepare for wounded. We won't have them here, be ready to move everyone to the battle site at need...
Move
!" His hand lashed out to push a boy that just happened to be standing too close. Not hard, but it got him to run a bit, toward Kolb, even though he looked more like a math student than a fighter.

Finally someone spoke to him on the communications device. It was Connie, though Alphonse was right there too.

"Hello? This is Queen Constance, we're under attack. The city is under attack. The weapons seem to be of... Austran design, but that hasn't been confirmed. The palace shield is up. We request aid, if at all possible." She sounded scared and regal at the same time. A tiny, very inappropriate, feeling of warmth for her touched him for a moment, until his lips started moving again on their own.

"This is Cordes. I mean,
Tor
. We have forces coming. We'll get word to the flight base and the people at Wildlands. Help is coming. Estimated time... twenty-six minutes." Then almost without warning Tor was in control again. There was a sense of apology from the Ancient King at least, if not a real one.

"Ali! I need my Carriage, do you still have it?" She ran to him her right hand coming out, setting the thing up, a large purple rectangle soon, only to find others doing the same. It was strange, but several people ran up to them then and started climbing on board. Out of all of them only Ali was really familiar to him at all. He nearly ordered her to stay, but then stopped and stared at her for a few seconds. He didn't want her in battle, but she was an adult. Married and everything.

"Ali, would you stay here? We could come under attack. I know that it might seem like I'm saying you aren't ready for war, but it isn't that, as much as..." How did he explain it to her? There wasn't time to say what he really meant, was there? "It's that I don't want you to die, really. Not that I want anyone to, but that, thinking you were in danger, would be too much for me. I have to be able to fight without worrying about you too much."

It sounded lame to him, but there was a somber nod from her then and she just leaned in for a kiss and then climbed out, not saying anything. He was, no doubt, going to have some issues there in the future. It was his job to protect her, but it was hers to make certain he wasn't an overbearing jerk about it. He kind of feared he'd just missed that mark somehow.

The trip was tense. Worse than he would have imagined by several times. Especially when they finally approached the Capital itself. There were indeed rockets still occasionally bombarding the place, coming from the south and east at the same time. There was no battle line that he could tell, the lines of fire and light seemed to be coming from four separate areas. They were very clear cut as to what they were, the things coming and leaving long white streamers. It was still dark out, though the sun was just starting to peek over the horizon. Men and women from the city were out in that direction in loose groups, desperately trying to reach the attackers. They were hit with rockets themselves occasionally, dying as they ran, desperately trying to save their people.

Tor realized a minor flaw in the craft he'd built then. They didn't have weapons of their own at all. He had some on him, but nothing that could be used without slowing down so much that these people on the ground could hit him. What could he do though?

Turning in place he looked back at the scared faces with him, half of them girls that seemed so out of place it was a horrible sight. He'd have been better off with Ali by far. The rest of the kids were males, but looked to be the soft and pampered sort. One of them was the ringleader of the group that had humiliated his little sister in public by dumping a jug of piss on her head. For that matter he was nearly certain the girl that had actually
done
that part of things was back there too.

Singers, he thought.

Still, they'd gotten on the craft to go to the war, hadn't they? They weren't even armed, he didn't think. That took real courage. That or monumental stupidity. They wouldn't know which until the day was over though, most likely.

"Everyone hang on. I'm going to ram one of those platforms. Then we'll need to get off and fight. Please tell me that everyone here has a shield on?" He waited for at least one of them to have forgotten, but no one said anything. A brief check showed that, by some part of fortune, they were all covered. He nearly cried, it was such a happy thing. "Good. Don't get hit by a missile if you can help it. The shields are decent, but that will still kill you. Once we start fighting, I want everyone to keep going, understood? Don't stop until the enemy is taken out." He liked how it sounded, brave and all that. He doubted it would look that way. He just had to hope that, if it worked, some of the others would see and do the same thing.

The Fast Carriages had many admirable traits, one of which was a by-product of what they were made out of. They were basically a shield, if one made visible. That meant that as he hit the funny looking metal wagon that carried the projectiles, the people on board weren't instantly killed at all. Thrown around, sure. That couldn't be helped, but between the craft and the shields they had on, they lived.

In Tor's case he was almost certain that survival was with mild spinal damage from being whipped about, but other than the piteous moaning from the seats behind him, no one complained, after the craft stopped, about ten seconds later. Then he had to right the thing and move it back into place. It left a vast line in the ground, dug out with such force that dirt was still falling from the sky fifteen seconds later, but the
vehicle
was fine.

"Get ready to attack. Be aware of your surroundings and remember, just because
these
rockets are down, that doesn't mean there are no threats left. I'm going to drop the craft as soon as I stop in three... two... Now!" He didn't explain what he meant, but there was no way that he was leaving his Fast Carriage open to all the people trying to escape. For one thing they made too good of a weapon.