Envoy to Earth (35 page)

Gerent looked at them all, closed
his own eyes and ended up in a rather nice, but standard, dark green outfit.
Then he thought about things and stared a bit.

"I didn't know you all had
magical clothing."

He looked at his First Mate, but
Wallace was the one that explained.

"Yeah, they have a magical
item shop in Harmony. You can just walk in and take things, if you need them.
Almost everyone there had magical clothing. I got my own communications device
too. The girl in the shop insisted. I tried to tell her it was too expensive,
but she practically made me take it. I swear. It wasn't theft..." He
looked slightly awkward about it all, but Erid nodded.

"That's the way it's done
there. As long as you aren't hoarding anything you can have as much as you want
or need. Most people stopped being greedy about it when they realized there was
enough of everything. The first days were hectic though. Now it's almost just
like a real shop. I've seen regular people forgo luxury items just because they
know they don't
really
need them. Not everyone does, but a lot more than
you'd think do."

Misha, looked down at her outfit,
and nodded.

"This should be good enough
for them. It..." She stopped and then started walking, making a funny
sound, and lightening her voice, which was more womanly than normal. "
Ward
doesn't care at all that I dress like a man, and really, I don't think his
family does either. Maria... She thinks that I'm just doing it to be different
or get attention. Not that she minds, but it's like she assumes I'm being
pretentious
all the time. It's annoying. So girl clothing for the night. I hope none of you
mind?" It was a strange thing to say, but Dorgal handled that one for
them.

Pretty well too. It was a mature
and reasoned answer at least, which was better than the stammering that Gerent
felt like doing.

"As long as it isn't
bothering you too much,
we
don't mind. If it gets to be too much for
you, we'll all leave. We're a team."

Gerent nodded, to show that he
agreed, and moved to the front of the group. He'd named himself ship's Captain
and if that was the case, he had to act like it, even in the face of nobles. He
must have looked grim, because Maria and her husband both stood, and everyone
else looked at them from the side of their eyes, as if expecting trouble. Not
that he did things like that. Mainly.

When they were in front of the
table, ten feet away, he bowed, going decently low. Everyone else did it too,
so at least he had company. At least the ones in his group. That marked them as
all being with him, he thought.

Count Ward bowed, as did his
wife, and the Dowager Ward, who was next to them. They went pretty low,
considering it was their county. Almost matching him, he noticed. That was
very
respectful of them.

Count Ward stood first, so they
all did, and then spoke, his low bass voice rumbling a little in the air,
carrying to everyone.

"Prince Gerent. To what do
we owe the honor of this visit?"

For a moment nothing came to mind
really. Gerent had picked to come in near Warden because it had simply been the
closest place in Noram when he was coming back from Afrak. He could have gone
to Printer just as easily, but hadn't, mainly because Petra was there. They
were supposed to be married soon, but he didn't want to be too clingy. There
had to be a balancing point to their relationship, he figured. Some amount of
time and attention that was the correct value, instead of too much or little.
More would be better than not enough, for him, but he wondered how she'd feel
about it? It was hard, but he had to assume that she didn't really want him
around all the time. Not yet. After all, they didn't really know each other. If
it weren't so important to her class of people, she probably wouldn't have even
spent time with him, much less asked if they could get married after that short
of a time.

Still, he didn't want to blow it
either. Guard Kara had mentioned that people liked to be in the know, hadn't
she? It wasn't the same as having someone right on top of you all the time. That
didn't give a good explanation as to why they were there however, so he made
one up.

"We, my crew here, and I,
are planning to stay overnight. In the morning we need to get to Printer, since
Wallace here needs to return to school. I wish I had some deeper answer, but Misha
figured that we should drop in and say hello, being that she's family." He
made it sound relaxed and calm, instead of how he felt inside, which was
nervous and worried.

It wasn't likely that he'd let
anything slip to the Count that would end up with the man going into a rage,
but what about Wallace? Or Erid? Dorgal... Well, he wouldn't. That was almost
certain.

"Excellent! Come join us. Misha,
Prince Gerent, would you join us at the main table?" The Count excluded
everyone else, probably not even realizing he was doing it, but there were only
two places left, so maybe it was just a practical consideration? "There's
food and drink, if you wish?"

That was said to the others, but
Gerent turned to them and shook his head a little.

"Eat if you want, but don't
get drunk, please. We're on duty." It sounded official, and even if they
could sober up pretty fast using healing amulets, he didn't really want to try
and deal with any of these people when they were in their cups too far. Folk
could go violent or loopy when they drank, but you could never tell which would
happen.

It was better for them not to
make a problem that way. Wallace looked a bit disgusted by the idea, but at
least Dorgal and Erid just seemed to accept it, and when Misha and he moved to
the table, a long thing with two places next to Maria on the outside, they
managed to move away quickly enough. That got Maria to start talking.

Which after ten seconds seemed to
be a very poor idea. Letting her talk, that was. She was being less than
perfectly kind to her sister after all. Misha just sat, and looked at the
table, turning red.

"I see that you've decided
to be a girl again! Wonderful! Are you sleeping with Gerent? If so he must be
good if it's enough to get you out of pants. I always thought that was a bit...
Juvenile, for you. You're nearly thirty. We should see about getting you a
husband, don't you think?" The thing about what she was saying, was that
while all the words
could
have been kind enough, or at least most of them
could have, they simply
weren't
.

She kept it going too, even as
they watched people dance and the Dowager Ward tried desperately to change the
topic.

"Prince Gerent, do you think
that the food relief effort will be enough for everyone? I don't know the situation
in all the other lands. Things have certainly eased here, in our county,
however. Perhaps you could tell us about that?"

He did, covering things in brief,
mentioning the various problems that they'd had.

"Tellerand and Soam are the
major ones. The rebellion here is almost easy compared to that. There was a
surprise in Harris, if the story I was told was correct." He took a sip of
fruit juice, which was what Misha had too.

Maria seemed distracted, though
she reached over her sister and touched his arm. After a moment it occurred to
him that she knew. About Petra and the plan. Her voice gave that away to him,
if not her words. "Really? Is it something serious?"

He shook his head a little and
then rolled his eyes, smiling. "Not that you'd think. It just turns out
that I have relatives there. I thought I was an orphan, or well, I
am
,
what with both my parents being dead, but that's where they were from. A, um,
Daniel Harris? Apparently he was half insane and kept on the family estate, but
got a serving woman pregnant. That was me. Illegitimate, of course, since no
one would let them marry, but it sounds like they both tried really hard to
keep me. Then they died and before anyone could take me in, the games keeper
walked off with me. You know, he was the kind that liked children, and as a
midget that meant he'd have a tiny person to...
use
, for a long
time." He'd never spoken of that to these people before, but the reaction
was very different than Gerent would have expected.

Count Ward looked at him, his face
closed and a bit brooding.

"I... see. Are we riding out
to kill him soon then, or have your Harris relations already seen to it? Or...
Did you?"

Gerent felt a tear come to his
eye, when the words hit him. The Count found out that he'd been abused, and his
very first reaction was to seek justice for it? Even if that would have meant
doing it himself? That was a lot more than he would have expected. Misha
cleared her throat, however.

"Thanks Marvin, but if that
needs to be done, us crew will handle it."

It wasn't a real point anyway,
but it was nice to hear that he had people that would back him up like that.
Really, it hadn't occurred to him before that moment that he did.

"He died years ago. When I
was about fifteen. So, about that many years back. Nearly. What's done is in
the past, but yes, thank you, Marvin. That really was very kind of you."
Changing the subject a little, he went back to the part he felt was important,
that no one else would even find a very good story. It was boring of him, but
he couldn't help it. "So, I have a family. Another one now. I went most of
my life with no more than passing friends and suddenly, in these last years, I
have people that claim me, for the first time. Ones that aren't just using me
as a curiosity to draw crowds." It was a good thing. A great one, in many
ways.

Maria, since she seemed to have
only one note left to play that day, started suggesting that they get Petra to
step aside and marry him off to Misha, which, if he understood the whole thing
well enough, was
really
rude. Everyone else seemed to be a bit upset
about the idea at least. Misha, because she was a man inside, and Ellen, the
Dowager Ward, because it was being suggested that her daughter lose out on a
good marriage match.

Gerent looked past Misha and
shook his head at the Countess.

"Not me. For that you'll
need to find a girl. In a few weeks we're... Timon Baker is going to change her
pattern, and turn her into a man. All the way from the bottom level of being,
so it will be real. Not just a seeming. Probably able to father children and so
on." It served to get her to shut up, for about ten seconds, then she
looked at her sister and snorted softly.

"You... aren't serious, are
you Michelle? I mean... being a man... That... Can Tim even do that?"

Gerent shrugged, and pulled out
his communications device and without speaking contacted Timon directly. He
should have been asleep, if he were sane, but the boy answered, looking fresh
and awake, regardless of the hour. Seeing Gerent he didn't speak, but seemed to
be looking around, assessing things in that way of his. Ger took the device and
moved it side to side a bit, slowly, so that he'd have whatever information he
needed to work with. How he did it, Ger didn't know, but almost nothing got
past the boy.

"Timon! I was just telling
Maria Ward that Misha, her sister, is coming to Harmony in a few weeks so that
you can turn her into a man, using magic. She wants to know if you can really
do that. Maria.
Misha
doesn't doubt you like that, of course."
Which was true most likely, but the woman did sit there, not speaking, looking
a bit upset. Between them her fist turned white, below the edge of her chair.
The other one, the one Maria could see was relaxed, and in her lap.

Timon spoke almost instantly.

"That's... right. It's
relatively easy to do, compared to some things. We just change the basic
pattern and hand her a healing amulet, and the work will be done in a handful
of hours. If she doesn't like it, or even just wants to do both from time to
time, we can always reverse it later. You're my assistant Misha, so schedule
the time in for that, when you're going to be up here. I have a new project
that I'm doing, but it's an organic grow, so I should have enough time left
each day. It will take about five hours of work, so keep that in mind." He
looked away and the face on the flat surface of the device shifted.

To Patty.

"Hey Gerent. You said Maria
was there? Could I talk to her? In private maybe?" She seemed happy enough
in the moment, not sent into misery by seeing him. Or at least she hid it well.

Then, the bad feelings that were
left might all be his, he knew.

"One moment." He tried
for cheery himself, given that being a sour face wasn't useful in the moment.
He handed the device to the Countess, who removed herself, carrying the thing
with her, even though she could have used her own for the purpose. That was new
though and she might not have been used to the idea yet.

The conversation was much nicer
for a while, and when the pretty blonde countess came back, she seemed subdued,
rather than happy, or like she'd been visiting with an old friend. When she
settled at the table her hand came out, to deliver the turned off device. Then,
on the other side of doing that she hugged her sister a bit, which got a flinch
from Misha that went unnoticed.

"Trice told me that I've
been being more than a bit unkind to you, Michelle.
Misha
. Apparently
becoming a different gender isn't unheard of on Harmony at all. Timon does
about two a month. I guess we should... I really don't know what to do. Is that
something you really want? I
suppose
it would give father a son,
finally. Do you think he can accept that kind of thing?"

The hand that had been a fist had
relaxed a lot and bumped up against Gerent's leg. But when Misha turned to her
sister, she seemed thrilled, not just a little either, relieved and like this
was incredible news.