Envoy to Earth (34 page)

"Sandy Millis? Good, I'll be
in touch then! That will probably work better anyway. Thanks, by the way. I
didn't know how to get that part done. Now all I have to do is figure out how
to get things passed out once I get to each land. Um... Right now Tellerand
might be hard to manage. I mean, I'll try, but we haven't opened that up yet.
If anyone from there can help with that, they should find Terry Baker and see
what he has planned. He's their new immortal. Just assigned to that today, in
fact."

There was a low and slow whistle
as the lady shook her head.

"They have a new Revered
One? That's good. After Brown died... Well, Austra hasn't had anyone, have we?
Things are hard back home, and without our leader... It's part of why I moved
here. I couldn't even keep my family fed back there. When do we get a Revered
One to see to us? Or... Do we?"

Gerent shrugged.

"Timon Baker. Again, just
officially assigned a few hours ago. By me, in fact. It's real though, and he's
taken on the job. None of them can get back there for a long time though, so if
you have ideas, or can help with anything, get with him on that? Or for any of
the other lands, really. Just tell them that Gerent sent you and it should be
fine. If not, or if they can't see you and you hear of someone with a good
idea, then just get with me directly, day or night."

"I'll... do that...
sir." she looked at him funny for a while then glanced at the door, at
first he figured that she was telling him to leave and let her get to work,
which was probably fair, but when he glanced at the space it was filled with a
large, bald, muscular man that had a single scar on his right cheek. Kolb. He
looked intimidating and like someone was about to die. For half a second or so.

He raised a hand in greeting, and
smiled warmly enough, considering they'd only met once or twice. It changed
everything about him in an instant.

"There you are. I think that
Princess Veronica is looking for you? She's in the back of the wine shop. This
way." The man patted him on the shoulder to move him along, and spoke
gently as he passed. "How are things going? I noticed that a lot of
responsibility has been dumped on you suddenly? Are you certain you want to
take it all on?"

Gerent had to stop and think
about that for a bit, and that meant moving to the side so they weren't
blocking the door to the guard area. Not that anyone else was coming and going,
just that it was rude and if there was an emergency he wouldn't want them to be
in the way. Kolb apparently agreed with him and didn't seem confused by it when
he stepped to the side, into a little yellow square on the floor. It took a few
seconds for him to understand that it was one of the places where people were
supposed to go and stay while begging for work, or for forgiveness. There was
no one in it at the time, but he moved out with a sidestep anyway, just so no
one would get confused.

"I... Really, it's only temporary,
you know? I'll play messenger for a while, but I think I'm dumping work on
everyone else pretty well so far, don't you? Oh, speaking of that, I have
something for you, too, if you don't mind?"

"Oh?" He raised an
eyebrow, but didn't seem suspicious or anything.

"Yeah. Get with Patty, um,
Ducharina Baker, and ask about it. In private? She doesn't know that I'm
sending you along, but she'll work it out. We shouldn't talk about it
here." Even someone like him knew
that
much.

The man got it too and merely
started walking again, since there was a job to do. He didn't accept or
decline, but that was fine. Gerent was having fun, anyway. He was saying things
that were basically nonsense and people kept doing it. It made for an
interesting day.

It took a bit to get everyone to
the ship, but only about half an hour, since they could call everyone directly.
The slowest person was Ambassador Eto, since she wanted to stay with Tor. Her
land's new Great One. The problem there wasn't that Tor didn't want her around,
or even had a problem with it,
or
that she had to fly right back to
Vagus to make things happen, since they really did have some time that way, but
rather that she didn't know how to ask if it was all right with anyone.

Gerent however, was in some kind of
strange category in her mind. Not a Great Brother, and not a mage, but clearly
someone useful. A person that the others had all taken direction from. So the
Ambassador let him know what she wanted, and he simply asked Tor, who was right
there with Eto listening to her say the words, if that worked for him.

"Just for a few days
however. We'll need to get her back to her people soon. You have things to set
up. You know, that new class of mages for you to train? You should get with
Timon too, since Austra should give that a try. They haven't yet, have
they?" They did things using technology and had a long tradition of not
even believing in magic, so that made sense, when he broke it down.

Tor took the communications
device from Eto's hand and stared at him.

"A
class
of
Mages?" He didn't really glare, but there was a clear sense that he wanted
more information.

"Or, more like a school,
since we need all the lands in on it. Like we discussed at the meeting? We did
talk about that right? Or was that me hiding it from you in fear... Well,
whichever. The Mages from Vagus are coming in a few weeks, so we need a real
place for them. Eto is here to set that part up. Don't forget everyone else.
Afrak too. That's, um, Farlo Ross? I don't know if we can get anyone from Soam,
and Tellerand..."

There was a soft grunt and Tor
looked away then.

"They can't even turn a
magical amulet on, much less make them. It's their religious teachings. They
block it all out somehow, due to their beliefs. Black built that in, thousands
of years ago, not even knowing magic was real. They fear it though, which is
why we're having all these problems with them now. Poor Terry." He sounded
like he meant the last bit, and then he smiled. "What the heck, right?
I'll build something for them and set up a class schedule. We need an official
building section anyway, since everything here is based on that. It's a good
idea. Still, next time, ask first, will you?"

"Um..." He nearly
apologized, but then grinned and shook his head a little, trying to let his
bafflement show. "I
am
asking. Right now? You said yes, too. Good
work. Keep in touch with me on the progress and all that? That way I can tell
people on the ground what's happening. So,
that's
taken care of."
Well, except for the part where they hadn't really done more than talk about
the idea yet. Still, his part was started, which was a good thing.

After that they just had to wait
for everyone on the ship. It was, for all that she'd been the one to call for
him, Princess Veronica that came in last. She hadn't wanted to leave her little
girl. That was sweet, and she wasn't too late, just a few minutes.

The trip back was uneventful, for
all that it was incredibly interesting, working a space jump like he was. They
were back above the Capital not twenty minutes later, though he decided to land
in front of Tor's Palace, not the King's place. There was just more room there.
People were in the way, so he settled very slowly, which took a lot longer than
it should have.

If they had an actual landing
place for craft like his, it would have been a
lot
faster. In Vagus they
had a space port. A real one with lights and all. That got him thinking and
finally he looked around the front view screen, and shrugged.

"We could make a real
landing area on the north of the city, about three or four miles away. Then
just set up regular carriage runs from there into the city. I'm not really
certain why no one has done that yet. Probably the lack of ships wanting to
come, but if we build it, I bet traffic picks right up here."

Princess Veronica looked over at
him and seemed to think for a moment, before saying anything.

"This area is owned by the
King directly. If you want to do that you'll need to get with him about the
idea. I think everyone has just been too busy to do anything like that, to be
honest with you. It's a good enough plan. Most of the major cities should
probably give that a try. All over the world. Get on that for me, will
you?" She smiled at him charmingly, clearly playing with him.

"Or, and this makes
more
sense, you should get with Sam Builder and set that kind of thing up for Noram.
You're his assistant. Good work, getting a plush job like that, by the way.
That's pretty impressive." He meant it, he realized, but the girl didn't
say anything, just looking at him like he'd gone insane.

Dorgal chuckled a little and Misha
tilted her own head.

"I should do that for Austra
too then?"

"I don't know... that makes
sense to me, but really, that's probably your job to consider things like that,
don't you think? You should get with Prime Minister Foley and work out who you
need to contact about all that. You might want to mention the part about them
having a new Revered One, too. Officially now, that is. I think that will go
over pretty well there. In fact you might want to do that now. We can head that
way as soon as Princess Veronica is safely back home. I'll run you back first,
if you like Princess?"

Her and the man out in the
hallway, who was her guard, but no one that Gerent knew. That wasn't amazing,
since he hadn't asked.

As they drove through the city,
the man sitting inside the Tim-craft with them, since it was basically a shield
and escape vehicle all in one, he did that, getting the man to answer, blandly.

"Elrice, Prince
Gerent." There was no stopping in the scanning of the world around them,
not even for a moment. Gerent did the same thing, until they got to the gate of
the Palace, where he let the Princess and the muscular looking guard off.

The girl actually ran around the
vehicle, smiling and giggling a bit, and had him open the shield window on that
side. When he did, she leaned over and kissed him warmly and for a long time,
her hands on his head, lovingly.

"Thank you so much for the
trip, Prince Gerent. I hope we can do it again sometime?"

He might not be a real noble,
knowing all the tricks and trappings of their world, but he knew how to run a
con. That this one was just a precaution didn't mean he could afford not to do
his best, did it?

"Any time you want. In fact
I'd just keep you with me now, if I didn't have to run off and see to other
things. I'll be back tomorrow, early? To talk to your father?" He meant
about the mess with the old Count Rodriguez, but the girl looked flattered for some
reason.

"Oh? You mean about my space
port idea? You really like it?"

It was her idea now? He nodded.

"It's
brilliant
, in
fact. We should see about doing it as soon as possible."

She promised to ask about it, and
kissed him again. She was good at it, he decided. It didn't even look too
wrong, since she was about sixteen and he looked only a year or two older than
that anymore.

Then, being very careful and
still watchful, since Elrice had left him feeling a bit lazy that way, he went
back to his craft and managed to spend the rest of the day making trips all
over the place. Austra, Afrak and Vagus, to let those people know what was
going on. Not Tellerand or Soam, because they were just too hard for him to manage
yet.

In the end, as twilight fell, he
didn't know where to go anymore. He could head back to Tor's he knew, but there
was nothing for him there except a bed, which he had right there on the ship.
They needed a full complement of water and some sand or dirt, to use for making
food, but that was easy enough to come by.

In the end he parked the craft
off the ocean near Warden, so that his crew could actually get out and stretch
their legs a bit. It was just turning to evening by that time, but the ship was
pretty safe, hovering a few hundred feet over the water. Instead of spending
gold in the city, they all ate there, but everyone went with him, when they
left, except the new people. Kimi was left in charge, while the others slept.
They'd been invited, but the Tellerand woman, Monnette, suggested that she
needed to catch-up on her prayers, and Deng, the Vagus man just muttered sleep,
and walked away.

That meant he had Wallace, Erid, Misha
and Dorgal with him, as they strolled through the rather gaily appointed city.
There were plants everywhere, and a soft breeze that came from over the ocean.
Yes, it had been beaten down, but there were signs that the place was healing
already. It wasn't until they got to the center of town, following Misha, that
he realized they were going to end up on Count Ward's doorstep. The man was
friendly, but given that he was trying to hide things from him, about his own
sister, Gerent kind of wondered if it would have been the better part of wisdom
to avoid the place. Not that he was going to get a choice in the matter, since
they were noticed right off, even as they walked past in the distance.

By Countess Ward, who waved to
them from the front table, which was set up on a raised stoop made of white
stone.

Misha grunted a bit, and looked
at the others, her short blue hair just visible in the light outside the
torches that provided it for the people at the party.

"Well, this will be
comfortable. Family though, so I
have
to check in, if I'm here. Let's
see if she kicks me out again this time?" There was no sense that this was
a joke, and looking around, he noticed that everyone was changing clothing.
Wallace went into a nice purple and blue velvet outfit, the fabric seeming to
flow as he closed his eyes. Erid did something similar, but his suit was white
and had gold trim that looked like metal, since that was the sign of a High
Servant. Dorgal presented himself in rust red and black and Misha matched her
outfit to her hair, and sighing, made a daringly short skirt, heeled sandals
and a skimpy top that made it look like she had breasts.