Ancient Kings (The Young Ancients) (60 page)

"Thank you, Counselor Baker." He whipped his own hand, the leather straps, long things that seemed tanned to make them hard and sharp making a dull thud.

"There has been a misunderstanding here, based on the idea that our orphans were fair game for anything that people wanted to do. As we have just learned, this isn't the case. I'm not of a mind to be overly merciful, but I know that most of you that openly reported here didn't see the harm in what you were doing. For some it was coming from traditions different than what's recognized in the military of Noram, for others it was that trading a bit of extra food or a blanket seemed a kindness, and a return favor was to be expected, to preserve their pride. None of you, standing here, are true monsters that meant harm. To that end I give you an option. Ten lashes from my hand, right here and now, with no record made of it at all, or a black mark with notation in your records." He hit his hand again and smiled, an evil and hard thing that would have made Tor want to shake if it were aimed at him personally.

"The correct answer, in case any of you are slow, is to take the beating today, and not make the same error again. In two weeks you won't feel the lash except as a warning. Your record will be there for years, hurting your advancement and chances for clean release when time comes. The choice is yours."

It seemed almost too kind to Tor, but surprisingly to him, they all just started taking their tunics off for the beating. It took a long time and Godfrey drew blood on each of them, leaving some to cry out in pain, the lash much louder against their skin than against the palm of a hand.

No one complained or called him names though.

When they were finished the Major turned to him and bowed, then did the same with Ali and Sam. He gave a half salute to Sara though, which was the polite greeting for someone that was recently out of the service, Tor thought. The men and women all stood with their shirts still off waiting to be released.

The Major spoke loud enough for them all to hear, but faced Tor, Ali and Sam directly, looking a bit grim.

"These are the good ones though. They came forward, clearly not thinking they did great harm. None of these will do it again, I give you my word. There are others though ,and that's a problem. By not coming forward they mark themselves as knowing what they did in full right. I shall seek to find them, but I can't guarantee that no child will resist a bit of candy or whatnot for something they don't think of as more than a bit of work." The rust colored short hair didn't move in the breeze at all, but it was Sam that answered, stepping toward him.

"There will always be someone doing that, but now it's known to be wrong here. We'll try to increase the food at meals and make certain the children are better cared for. I didn't know they'd feel the lack of anything enough to sell themselves. For half of them it's probably just habit. It might take a while to get the coin in place, but it will be seen to."

Tor had the first bit though, which he pointed out, giving three hundred for the shopkeeper Serta and another hundred to the major, in case things came up. Then the man marched the bloody and disgraced soldiers away.

"In all, that went much more smoothly than I thought it would." Tor muttered, only to find a few people nodding. A few kids had been watching the whole thing. One of them was Mardy, from the day before.

Her first words were different than Tor thought they would be really. He figured she might be glad, that someone was standing for her and her fellows, or maybe mad at him, for taking away a source of income in a situation that was a bit lean for them otherwise that way. She didn't mention anything like that.

"Can I be a Wizard too? I didn't know that peasants could do that. I thought that the great Tor would stand ten foot high and have a great gold beard." She giggled at the idea, but Tor nodded, looking at her and then the other kids.

"It takes work and a bit of talent, but yes, if you show the basic skill, and work hard, you can learn to be Builders, which is the proper name for a Wizard."

The girl in her gray cotton outfit that, Tor realized was military in style looked doubtful.

"Even orphans? Doesn't it take lots of silver and gold to do that proper?"

Sam stepped forward and looked at the kids, some of whom were no more than a few years younger than he was.

"Even then. There are scholarships, if you have the skill and are willing to try hard. If you can pass some tests people will pay for you to have that kind of education. It isn't a joke though and is harder than anything anyone ever told you of. Magic only looks easy from the outside. It's worth it though. I'll come back on my next break and show any of you that want to learn how to pass those tests how to do it. Then, when you leave here, you can go to a good building school, like Lairdgren."

The kids laughed at him a bit, but a few seemed to think he might not be lying to them. On the whole they were a jaded bunch, but that was probably what their world had taught them. At least now, thanks to Sam and Ali, they had a chance. If they could make themselves take it.

After that they got to actually go home.

For the first time in days Tor felt like he wasn't about to lose everything at a moment's notice. The world really wasn't different than it had been, he just knew more about it now. That didn't fix anything though, and he'd been serious earlier. He was going to fight against things as hard as he could now. Even if that meant failing over and again. It was hard to change what you were after all. He could try though.

The respite lasted a whole three hours, two of which were spent making sure his new Fast Carriage build was coming together and pushing it into growth. It hadn't started to do that on its own yet, but the new field hadn't faded too much, even if he
was
half a day late getting to it.

Then he got a bit to eat and was debating going to bed at five in the evening, when a pounding started on his front door. Tor got a shield on and answered it with an explosive weapon in his right hand, ready to fight, thinking perhaps Havar had come back. It was a loud boom of a knock after all.

It wasn't that though, just Tiera.

A clearly livid, red faced sister, who looked ready to kill him.

"Why did you beat up Havar? Sir Kolbrin sent him to help you and he came, and you left him in the street, like trash!" There were no fists flying behind the words at least. For a while Tor let her rant, considering the idea of not explaining it all, but he realized that she really needed to know it all, eventually.

Thinking hard he tried not to be mentally lazy, keeping that bit of advice in mind, but couldn't find a good reason to hold the information back from her, even if it made him look a bit bad in this situation.

"Come in and I'll tell you all of it that I know." There was an exhausted sense to him, he knew, and his sister, blessedly, shut up.

She was still clearly angry, but she let him talk, which was a new thing.

"It started thousands of years ago..."

Sometime while he spoke, trying to lay it all out in order, Sara and Ali came in, and when he looked away from his younger sister, the story over, they all had wide eyes.

Sara got what it meant first though.

"Which is why they're all like that? I always thought they just learned to be like that as children... Not really thinking of the rest of us at people. But it's
born
into them?"

That got a conversation going, that lasted for hours, until he grew too tired to keep going. There was no escape though, since his little sister still sat, looking miserable now, instead of like she was going to hit him. Tired or not, you didn't leave someone in pain like that. Not with the losses she'd had recently.

"So... Havar doesn't like me? I thought we were friends." There was a plaintive tone to the words. A hurt thing that almost made Tor want to simply lie to her about it all. To protect her. It was probably what Green and Rich had felt about him too, wasn't it?

"Well, sort of. He hates
me
, personally, but you're kind of his pet. The only thing there is that, deep inside he isn't thinking of you as a girl he likes, even if it's a bit inappropriate, or even just one he tolerates because you might be fun in bed later. He literally thinks of you as a pet. Like a cat or dog. Yes, one he wants to have
sex
with, but not as a real person. I agree that I didn't have a right to tell him to leave you alone. That came from my own anger, but you might not want to count him a real friend, given all of what you know now. Or, if you do, at least insist he try to see you for who you really are. that will be hard for him though. I don't know if he even can really."

She didn't say anything, just stomping away instead. He knew he was supposed to follow her, but he
couldn't
. Not then. It was just too hard, and he needed to sleep.

Which he did alone, at least for hours. At first he thought that Ali was making a statement about his poor behavior of the day before, but then he recalled that she actually had school the next day, which explained why she was gone when he woke up in the dark. Sara was there, but in a different room, all alone. She was entitled as a guest, and they had the space, but it was a little odd. Hadn't she come to see him?

It was early when he got up, well before darkness had fled the world, so he sat in the front space and worked, legs crossed under him on the ugly sofa. It was comfortable, if a bad color. At least he had that much left of the world, didn't he? His work. For the time being, until he had to give it up, to keep the world from destroying itself. Or... Well, if he was behind it, that wouldn't be the world's fault really. Just his.

Tor kept working for about six hours, until Sara came down the stairs, her travel bag over her shoulder. She froze when she saw him, he knew, feeling her do it. There was a moment of panic, having been caught sneaking out, as it were. She was intending to fly back to the Capital that day. Without saying goodbye.

Largely because she couldn't understand how Tor could stand her. Any of them.

"Tor?" The word was soft and melancholy. That came off of her so clearly he could trace her outline behind his own eyes using nothing more than that. It made a blue outline of her in the darkness of his head. "Are you working?"

"I was. Just finished." It was just stuff, almost picked at random, magical houses, both big and small, Not-flyers, and more follow along trunks, since those went faster than he expected. Also flying rigs and water pumps that could be used to water plants with a fine spray. He'd meant to get Taman to do that work for him, but hadn't been around to see her yet and needed to do something. These were a bit more technically advanced than he'd originally planned, but if they worked they would give just about the right amount of moisture to the soil each day, without needing a person to turn them on or off.

He opened his eyes and smiled at her.

"We didn't really get to have much of a vacation here, though I understand that you need to get back to your life. Let's have breakfast first and I'll take you back to the Capital. It will be faster for you, and I need to go down anyway."

"Um. Right." She set her pack down, a nice leather thing that was soft and had a military mark on the side, along with her name. "I guess. Don't you hate me now? I'm not a noble, but I've done things to you, and made things worse for you. So many times... Even my tears are a kind of violence against you, aren't they? Nothing is fair here. I love you, I don't want you to be hurt by that."

Tor stood and stretched, then gestured toward the kitchen.

"I know. I love you too. I don't know if that's me though, or that I secretly feel like I have to, because you want it and I know it so strongly. Really, I don't think it matters. At least it's a good thing and not you trying to do something wrong. I feel it. But I do for Trice too and... I think she kind of accidentally
ordered
me to. When she didn't want to marry Count Overland she said I should ask her to marry and tell her parents that I loved her, because that would make things better for her. At the time I thought I was just trying to get out of having to get engaged to a Sorvee, but... before that I was attracted to Trice, but it wasn't until after that that I kind of loved her. You didn't do
that
, but I can feel what you do inside, if I try." He smiled, since being a curmudgeon right now wouldn't help anyone.

That wasn't a good reason for him not to love the woman though. She'd actually and legitimately loved him longer than anyone he knew. Even Connie, though he was refusing to allow that one now. It didn't count, even if there was no logical way to set it aside like that.

"So, breakfast, and I love you. It's as real as anything, I think. Pancakes?"

They ate about twenty-five minutes later, in silence except for the cutlery on the plate, There was a soft sense of misery in the air, but Tor didn't let it overtake him. Life was hard, but he was blessed in too many ways to complain about. He had enough gold to pay for what was needed and not just a place to live, but places, plural. He could go where he wanted and set his own schedule, after a fashion. His biggest real issue was having too many people that loved him.

Hardly something to cry over.

Sara was about halfway done with her food when she spoke, tentatively and without making eye contact.

"Can I... come and visit again? I understand if you don't want me too, given everything, but-"