Envoy to Earth (40 page)

The boy that had spotted for him,
who he didn't have a name for yet, pointed out the window.

"To the right, about thirty
degrees? It looks like we have someone down." There was a lump on the
ground, and after a bit Gerent saw that it had hands, which were desperately
scrabbling against the stones outside the low wall. There was no way he could
fit the craft there however. The buildings were just too close.

"I'm going out. Who can
pilot this thing?" He tried to sound happy about it, but no one
volunteered, not even the Count. That he didn't have his own was an oversight,
wasn't it? He could just call up Timon and ask for one...

"Fine you... um... Sorry, I
don't have a name for you?" He pointed at the spotter, who shrugged.

"Danny."

"Danny, you're the pilot
here then, which for now just means that you don't do anything. If you have to...
pull straight up and practice flying above the clouds. Otherwise, just seal the
hatch after me and open it when we get back."

"Will do!"

It wasn't hard to get the woman,
who, when he retrieved her and she got inside, turned out to be an instructor
at the school. Her dwelling had blown out, losing a wall, and she'd ended up
being forced outside. It was insane, the power of the storm around them.

Dean Hardgrove patted the woman
gently, and saw to her wounds.

"Thank goodness you were
spotted, Ethyl. We need to keep our eyes out, everyone. Can we make the sides
of this transparent?"

They could, and that led to about
three more hours of emergency work, without much of a break in it. Near the end
Gerent and a group of students that had shields, which apparently you got when
you were old enough, by the look of things, all went out into the town, since a
lot of buildings just weren't making it. It was a desperate thing, and finally
he had to put people on his space craft and get help from the Space Fleet
students to save the ones they could. It wasn't just the little town there,
either. The one closer to the port was nearly gone and it was clear that a lot
of bodies were in the rubble. Most of the trees that surrounded the area had
damage, or were actually all the way down.

It looked like the world had
simply ended. Without warning, and showing no mercy at all.

Finally, hours later, the storm
started to weaken, and Hardgrove used his communications device to contact the
King. The man was shocked by the devastation. Kyle showed it to him, simply
turning the device around and taking it all in with a few slow sweeps.

The King didn't make any sound
for a moment, then started right in on plans.

"We have food, thanks to the
aid from Harmony, we'll have to bring some of those units in. We can start
rebuilding, using focus stone construction. I'll set up the people for that as
soon as I'm done here. I..." He looked over at Gerent, who was on the
screen, if to the side, and bowed a bit. "Prince Gerent, do you have any
magical housing solutions? People shouldn't be outdoors, if we can help it, in
case a second event takes place."

"No... I can get things for
you, however. You should contact... um, Sam Builder. He's your new Ancient. I
can get back there directly. I... need to deliver some messages too. Can I
visit there later?"

There was a blank expression and
then a nod. "Certainly. I'll leave word."

Then he got off the line,
apparently to get with Sam.

At least the boy was talking to
Gerent, on his own unit, not five minutes later.

"I'll have those houses
ready... um, four hours? Sorry about the delay..."

"I'll be there. Have them at
the docks?'

"On it."

Then he was contacted by a string
of people, which seemed slightly strange.

The first was a purple woman, for
instance. She was, it seemed, stuck on an island, made by a similar storm, off
the coast of Austra. Except that it wasn't
supposed
to be an island and
hadn't been, the day before. No one there could reach them, since
communications were out. They didn't even know to try and they had several very
important people with them. He got the location, as best as he could, trying to
memorize the little map that the woman, Fornia Stergis, showed him.

After that it was Princess Karina
that called. About the same thing, since people had contacted her it seemed, as
well.

"I'm on my way, right now. We
have a rescue crew with us from Noram. Tell everyone to hang on."

That crew of people was made up
of students from the school, and one of their instructors, Remy. It was a bit
of a strange name for a teacher, so he figured that it was his last name.

The man looked young, but took
over almost instantly.

"We should go in from above,
which I see you already have planned. Let me do the flying? I memorized the map
and can get us there with less error." The man traded places with him, and
actually had a good grasp of what to do, getting them to the right place even
with the heavy clouds in the way. Gerent had to admit that he would have been
about fifty miles off, or more.

As soon as they were over the
building, Gerent stood.

"I had to leave my fast
craft, so we need to set this one down. I'm going to change the size, back off
a bit, since I have to dump some water first. Sand too." If that seemed
like a strange thing to the Instructor, he didn't let it show, just doing what
he was told and hovering about three hundred feet over the waves. Three minutes
later they had a very different set up to the interior of the vehicle, with
nothing more than rows of seats and a single storage room to the side, where
everything he hadn't just gotten rid of was stored for the moment. It would be
a mess in there. They'd need to sort personal effects for the crew, if they
ever got a chance. Everything they owned was in there.

When they got into place, it was
clear that the people, about twenty of them, were all inside of what remained
of a mansion. It has probably been nice, the day before, but now it was wrecked
and falling down. That led to the next problem, since the storm here hadn't
died down yet here. It was nearly as strong as the one in Lairdgren had been,
almost exactly on the other side of the world. None of the people on the ground
had shields though, and they were being injured every time they tried to stick
so much as a finger out. Finally he had an idea.

Boxy.

"Come on boy! We need you to
save the day." He got his pet box out, and then asked him to grow, rather
than telling him to. Of course he did it from across the room, which was
different too. The black stone looking thing started to become bigger, then let
the sides go transparent. He was just a floating box, but pushed until he was
the size of the back of a wagon. Then he started to float to the wall. Waiting
for them to make a hole for him to go and get the others. That took a call over
to Fornia Stergis, and them making a hole in the wall, but it worked. At least
after he explained the plan to his friend.

"Boxy, there are people over
there. We need you to go and get them, then bring them right back here. Do you
get that?" He didn't know if he could do something that complex. Normally
he just floated after Gerent and sometimes nudged things, if they got in his
way. Now though the box tilted, seeming to bow in understanding. Gerent sighed.
"Thanks. Good boy, Boxy."

Everyone except Mr. Remy seemed
to think that was strange, but he just made the needed hole and formed an
airlock so that they wouldn't be hit by the storm. It took a while, but not too
long later, ten injured people rode back, inside Boxy. They needed help to get
out, but the box went back instantly, for the rest. Not even needing to be told
to. He was very smart.

When the last load of people got
in, Fornia Stergis being with them, they had to go and repeat a lot of their
previous rescue work. This time however, he had the strange lady with her
purple hair and skin contact Timon directly. That the boy answered meant that
he was probably finished with Misha.

The woman started to speak, her
voice worried and high pitched, but Timon just held up a finger.

"We have aid already being
put together for that area. Our observers show that those two storms are the
only ones for now. Is the forecasting up there yet? Tor wants to know.
Obviously not, or no one would have been stuck like that. I'll get with the
Prime Minister on that one myself. Mike Coltress, my assistant, will be down to
oversee things for me."

Gerent caught the name change,
and nodded. Good, at least one person would be getting something they wanted
that day. For his part, he simply felt like it was all too much. Then again, he
just had to keep going, so it wasn't that big of a deal. Everyone was helping,
he just had to do his part. The only problem there was that everyone calling
seemed to think that his next move should be helping them, personally. Not just
the people in the emergency areas either.

Sam called and seemed half
panicked that he wasn't there yet, and Queen Constance almost ordered him back
to Noram, to give what aid he could there. In the end he just sat for a moment.
Considered what to do and shrugged.

"We need the things from
Harmony first. Let's go. I'll pilot, since we need to jump."

Remy moved smoothly out of the
central chair and shifted over one as almost everyone else stood around,
looking baffled. They'd all been healed, but clearly hadn't counted on being
taken that far away.

Too bad. It wasn't a pleasure
trip either, so when they got inside, he ordered them all out to help get
things loaded as fast as possible. He helped too, and so did everyone else.
Fornia Stergis looked amused, after a bit, as he slapped at another young
woman's arm and yelled at her to hurry.

He didn't get it, until about five
minutes later when the young woman turned to him, her box loaded onto the ship.

"I didn't sign on for a
beating." She rubbed her arm which couldn't possibly still hurt, and
seemed ready to yell at him. He smiled at her, looking down a lot.

"I know. No one did. It's a
special perk, just for you. Don't make me do it again, hey?" He winked at
the girl, who scowled and stomped off. But kept working.

Fornia moved over and shook her
head.

"Well, don't count on ever
being invited to one of
her
movie premiers. That's Kincaid Rue you know.
She's one of the most famous people in Austra." The woman seemed to think
it was mildly funny anyway, but Gerent just hoped that it wouldn't end up in a
war. They really did need to hurry however.

After a few seconds he shrugged.

"Well, I'll invite her to my
wedding. I guess that's going to be a pretty big thing? Everyone seems to think
so at least."

The woman loaded another box,
guiding the floating thing into place at a jog and then came back to him, her
purple face pleasant.

"I do love a good wedding,
myself. Who are you to wed?"

"Petra Ward. She-"

Everyone stopped working, which
was fine, since they were done, but they all looked at him as if amazed.

Kincaid walked over, the
piercings through her left cheek glinting a bit, and went wide eyed.

"You're marrying Conserina
Petra? My god, that's
huge
! We need to get in on the planning for
that... People will want to see it."

Gerent looked at the woman and
then wondered if she might just be a bit out of touch with reality. She was thinking
about his wedding, when they'd just had two devastating storms to deal with?
Then he shrugged. It might not be perfect thinking, but she
might
have a
point. After all, they couldn't stop living, just because they needed to
survive. He'd lost enough of his life to that kind of thinking, hadn't he?

"Sure. Well, we need to do
this first, but maybe you can help me with that part of things, later? In a few
days. I still have some other things to do, for a while."

A long while, he was willing to
bet.

Gerent pushed himself as hard as he could for days. Barely
sleeping and skipping meals, just to make certain that everyone in the storm
areas had what they needed. This time, thankfully, he thought, Austra hadn't
taken the hardest hit. The group that had been in that house had been about a
fifth of the people really put out by the storm, which was just as vast and
horrible as the one in Noram, only mainly over the ocean. Given the rest of
what they'd been through in the last years, that was a favor.

Lairdgren County had been hit hard however. Some whole towns
were simply gone. They couldn't even find many of the bodies. When they finally
got to talk about it, Prime Minister Foley showed him readings that said that
both of the storms had actually had winds of over two hundred and thirty miles
per hour. Those were the gusts, not the steady part, but it was so bad that a
lot of places just weren't there anymore. The school was half gone, for
instance and those buildings had been built to last.

The only place that was really safe was the capital,
Grenwyn. All the houses there were underground, and when Gerent finally got
there to take a peek, it seemed that everyone had survived. The trees in the
area weren't standing anymore, in the main. The people however, were.

That kind of fit what the weather predictors in Austra had
claimed, really. It wasn't that these were regular storms, not in any way. They
were, rather, the world trying to right massive imbalances. No one knew what
the future was going to hold that way, either. It wasn't even two separate
events, or at least some of the scientists believed that. It was one thing that
simply showed on opposite sides of the world, being so massive that the entire
body of air had been involved.

Gerent didn't stop to visit with anyone there, just checking
with a few strangers to make certain they were getting food, and that no one
was suffering. There were some small problems, but he gave a man that seemed to
know what he was talking about a small box with twenty healing items in it, and
five of the large food production magics that Timon made.

"You're in charge of these things. Can you make sure
everyone has what they need here?" It sounded like he was being bossy and
more than a little short with the man, even as he handed off the tools that he
needed. That was mainly tiredness and nerves. He'd been using the device Ali
gave him, but was having to do it more often, with less effect each time. If he
could get a half days sleep, he'd be fine, but until then...

The man looked at him and seemed to be letting go of the
fact that Ger was being a pain in the rump.

"I can. Don't worry, we're fine here. We'll make due.
Thank you for coming to check on us." He sounded bland, his white hair and
wrinkled face calm and thoughtful, which was better than Gerent was managing he
was willing to bet. So much so that it wasn't even close.

"Thanks. I have to get going. Back to Harmony, for the
third time today. At least they're helping." Without explaining that he wandered
back to his craft, and took it over to the waiting space vessel. It was getting
hard to pilot now, since he was so far gone, but he had to at least make the
jump back, since no one else on the crew could do it...

Blinking, he floated to the bridge, using the low hovering
Not-flyer feature of his shield, and waved everyone else over to him. They'd
all had sleep in the last day, so were fresh and ready, compared to him.
Without waiting he signaled to Dorgal, then explained how to do a jump. Again.
He'd done it before, but hadn't let anyone else try it yet. That was silly
however. After all, what if the man needed to steal a ship sometime?

"So, take a seat and try to take several small jumps,
so we don't end up in the Moon. Then take us down. On the way back here, you can
do it, Erid. Then Michael, unless you two want to switch? That's just
alphabetical order." Gerent was pretty proud of himself for figuring that
one out on the fly. It was right, he was almost positive.

No one claimed otherwise at least.

Without pause, or at least too much, Dorgal got into the
main seat which was cream colored and soft looking right now, and put his hand
on the plate below the normal control bobble. It was what you had to do in
order to take a ship into a jump. It took about seven tries, but he got them
into orbit and managed to land far more smoothly than he'd jumped. He'd get
better. They all would.

"I'm off to bed then. You three can handle things for a
bit?" They could, he knew, but that didn't mean anyone would let him
sleep. Well,
they
would, but the people on Harmony weren't always good
about realizing that not everyone was on their schedule.

The trick there, he knew, would be to hide away in his room
and not let anyone get in touch with him. So door shut and locked, with lights
off, he did just that, deciding not to come out of the bed until his bladder
forced the issue.

It nearly worked, until his door opened about ten hours
later, and someone came in. He knew for a fact that he'd locked it. Which meant
that it was someone very comfortable with magic that had forced the thing open.
Tor wouldn't have woken him, or if he had it would have been with pounding and
calling out that there was a real emergency that took priority over rest. While
there were probably twenty people around that could have done it, especially
where they were parked, being in Harmony at the moment, his guess was that it
would be either Tiera or Tim. Yes, the others could do it, but again, if they
wanted him, they'd pound on the door. Like people. Not just go and invade his
space.

The room was still pitch black, but he knew it wasn't a
dream. For one thing, while he'd had several that night, all of them were
decently nice. Safe and boring things that had him just being out of place at a
party, perhaps naked, or making a fool of himself in public. No one beat him,
or tried to kill him. So it wasn't happening now either.

He opened both eyes, and looked toward the sound of whoever
was breathing, and spoke, his voice a bit sleepy still.

"Hey. If you've come to kill me, can you try again in a
few hours? I need the rest." It got a chuckle, and it was one that he
recognized, being Tim.

"No, sorry, I kind of need for some things to be
delivered to Austra... To my people, as soon as possible. After we talk about
Petra."

He sat up, not hitting the light sigil at first, then, after
making sure he was going to touch the right one, which was the lowest
brightness, he tapped it carefully. It was enough to see by, if you weren't
really picky about how you defined
seeing
.

"What? Um, you mean how you'll kill me if I hurt her,
but then tell me that that's just joking, because she can do it herself? I
already figured that one out. I think that I might be a little smarter than I
used to be. It helps with things like that." He managed to sound happy, if
sleepy still, and Tim managed a sober, but heartfelt, laugh.

"Too true there. I meant about Count Rodriguez, and
those guards. I've been keeping an ear to the ground. By which I mean I've been
bugging Aunt Connie at least once a day as to how things are playing out. She
loves that by the way, being that I'm her favorite. Thomson was hit by the
storm too, as you know, but you already got them taken care of. The rest of
your working group is ready to go after the others now, but I'm sensing reluctance
there. Do you have any clues as to how you're going to proceed?"

It was a bit annoying, but the honest truth was that Gerent
did know. The two non-Jimson guards that had hurt Petra were in known
locations. It would just take a visit, and then dealing with whatever came. One
of them was working for a Duchess, which could be a problem, if she decided to
protect him. The other man was just a tavern patroller for now. Meaning he
worked as a city guard in the low rent district.

"Of Galasia, as you probably guessed, since
that
makes sense. I don't want to go there, but I kind of need to." He flashed
back to the cell where he and Patty had been kept. It stank, like all places
monsters keep you always did. Of shit and piss, body odor and sour ale. He
could, for an instant, hear her whimpering in fear, before the door to their
pit opened.

Then he was back, and tabbed the light up a few notches,
even if his eyes did ache from it a bit.

Timon looked at him carefully, his chiseled face looking
nearly as pretty as Tor's. Not quite, but he looked like a man, for all that he
was young. The eyes were dark brown, and gleamed a tiny bit as he stood there,
by the bedside.

"That... I can't do it for you, but if you have to,
hire the work done. It's probably best if you do it yourself, or at least get
your Counts and Countesses to see to it. From what my sources have told me, no
one there suspects that you killed the last baron. Really, if anyone even saw
you, they kept it to themselves. Not that I can blame them. You did Galasia a
huge service, when you took that piece of trash out for them."

He hadn't really known that Tim knew all that, and tensed
for a bit. It would have been a bigger reaction, but he decided against it,
since it
was
Tim. There would be no blackmail, or threats about the act.
If he wanted something, he would have simply asked. Gerent would have given it
to him, too. Even if what he wanted was Petra. Not that Ger didn't think the
boy could just take her, if he wanted. They were close, Petra Ward and his
adopted brother. So much so that a lot of people had questioned if it were a
completely wholesome relationship.

The fact was however, that he didn't have anything that
Timon would want. Not that he couldn't get on his own faster. Plus, he was
right. If Galasia knew that he'd killed Rico Gala, they might go to war over
it. Or they
might
just throw him a party. The man had been that evil.

"I'm almost positive that at least one, if not two or
three, guards saw me leave. They might not have been able to make out my face,
but that's hardly protection, since there weren't a lot of flying midgets and
still aren't. I suppose they could have blamed some child, so at least
that
didn't happen."

Tim moved back toward the door a few steps, burning off
nervous energy, rather than leaving yet.

"My best guess then is that they probably worked out
who you were, and realized that if you wanted the man dead, it was just going
to happen. As it stood, if you hadn't acted right then, the Assassins' Guild
would have taken him out in the next days. I was told that our man on the
ground was no more than three days from removing him. Your way worked too, and
faster, so I'm not complaining. So, not to be one of
those
people, but
can you and your crew take some messages around for me? Oh, and pick up Kincaid
Rue, and possibly some other people, at their main dock... In about two hours?
I promised people some help and some trips to various places."

Gerent stood up, and stretched...

"Make a list of what I'm doing then. In little words. I
still don't read that well. I should practice that. I..." He stopped and
then made a face and tabbed the lights up to full, which was about like
standing in the sun on a clear day on Earth. Bright enough his eyes watered.
"Do you think I should... Go to school? I'm old for it, but I look younger
than my years now, so that won't be that bad. I..." He was going to say
that he'd need to be in with little kids, most likely, not knowing a lot of the
basic skills, like math that didn't have you counting on your fingers. Reading
too, and a lot of other things.

Tim made a face, but it wasn't mean or even him being funny.
It was just a sign that he was thinking, and wanted Gerent to know that.

"You probably should. We'll hire you a tutor for it, to
start with, then you can work from there. Most nobles do it that way, you know.
Have special lessons for everything. I'll set something up and send people by.
You'll probably want to get an alcove here, so that they'll be able to find
you. If you try to live on your ship all the time, you'll end up playing
messenger forever."

They talked for a while after that, about things that mainly
involved business and the fact that people were going to be waiting for him in
Austra. More than one or two, it sounded like, meaning it would be best to get
there, and then come directly back.

It took a while, and for the second time in a week Kincaid
Rue managed to rub him the wrong way, almost instantly, as they stood on the
docks. The problem there was that she expected them to leave instantly, which
had been his plan, too. It was the wrong idea, clearly, since he was approached
almost instantly by about twenty people, each asking for something different.

Finally, not able to hear them all, but seeing that some had
bags and tech devices with them that were bigger than a handheld, he waved
until everyone shut it.

"Good morning! Let's speed this up? Everyone that needs
a lift to Harmony, please get with Dorgal." He gestured, using his whole
hand, even if that did still feel unnatural. It was considered polite, so he
tried to remember to do it. "If you need some kind of personal help, for
your family or friends,
or
your city, please go over to Erid. He's the
High Servant in the white robes. Everyone else, feel free to come to me
directly, and we'll try to get what we can done now." He figured that it
would make sense to do it that way, but Kincaid practically growled at him over
it. She did glare and finally, leaving her two bags where they'd been put by
the man that had driven her there in a wheeled ground cart, stalked over and
tried to push him.

It didn't work, because of the shield, but was still a bit
much. It wasn't like they knew each other, which she instantly pointed out.