Goddess of the Moon (Young Ancients: Tiera) (4 page)

Not
thinking about it, and not even considering for the moment that with the lights
off in most places there would be one on in the room, she pulled the door open
and started to usher everyone inside.

It
wasn't hard, since the kids moved quickly, and filled the space without
hesitation, with Havar coming in right before Kolb. It was, most likely, a bit
embarrassing for Karen, who was an Instructor at the school, and Sam Builder,
who was a student there, since they were busily cuddling on the bed. They had
their clothing on though, and no one as much as snickered at them for it. A few
of the kids went wide eyed, including, she realized, Terry, her younger
brother. Her second heir too. She didn't question what he'd been doing there,
since it became obvious to her what he'd been up to. Piloting.

"Sam,
Karen... Good." She had no plan, but spoke anyway, as if it just made
sense that she'd be in charge. Havar stared at her, but didn't speak at all. No
one else did. No one except Sam even breathed too loud. Karen swallowed,
because she looked like someone had just jumped into the bath with her, but the
rest were using good noise discipline. Including Terry. That probably meant he
was with the new group, didn't it? There were ten short people and Havar, like
she'd been told, which meant a lot, didn't it?

She
didn't mention it.

"We're
going on a night operation. This is unknown territory for some of you, so
you'll want to get with one of the tall people as a guide. We're moving off into
the woods for the night. No light, and no sound. Hide, and don't let anyone see
you. People will be around to try and find us, so be ready for that. In the
morning, at first light, everyone will meet up in the weapons square. Do that
without being seen if you can. Do you all understand the mission?" She
whispered the words, as if it were a secret, but no one asked any questions.
She waved at two of the kids. One of them was her brother.

"Terry,
you and your buddy will be with Sam. He's a full builder and a good one, so use
that, if you can. No real skill at hiding or combat, so a burden that way. It's
up to you two to guard him and keep him safe. He knows the area however, so use
that too." She glanced at the two small girls in the group, and nodded at them,
deciding that a tiny bit of propriety might be in order. Not a whole lot, but
they couldn't have been older than nine or ten at the most, so no one would
bother them about it really.

"You
two are with Karen. She's a Knight and has been in real combat before. Follow
her lead." Shifting she selected two others and pointed at Havar, and did
the same with the remaining four, leaving her with two very different looking
small boys. They were both tiny and probably the youngest in the bunch by a
year or two. Otherwise they looked pretty similar, having black hair and
slightly Vagish features. A lot of people from Austra did.

"My
team and I will go and set up the searchers. The rest of you have an hour to
get in place and get anything you can come up with together. We have shields
and so will the searchers, so if cornered,
fight
. Attempt to escape and
not be captured before morning. If taken, it's your job to try and get free and
hide again. It everyone clear on that?"

She
looked around and only Sam looked baffled. She smiled at him, attempting to
make it a little flirtatious, but he gave her a little glare back.

"I
have a build tomorrow..."

She
nodded. "All right. I want you to try doing that while Terry and..."
She looked at the other boy, who was a light blond.

Terry
filled in the name, staring at her more than a little too. "Gary."

"Terry
and Gary will be responsible for you then. I expect you to have something for
us when we meet in the weapons area." It was being all kinds of high
handed, but other than the highly disgruntled look he gave her, he didn't speak
again.

Probably
because of her being so tall now, she understood. He nearly had to do what she
said, given that. It nearly made her pull that bit back, but she didn't,
because Kolb nodded at the man.

"I've
heard of Tor doing things like that, so we need people that can do that on our
side too. Good thinking. Tiera, I want a fresh build from you too. We have nine
hours. Less after you get the searchers in place."

That
got several new stares as well, mainly from Sam, who didn't know she could
build anything, and Havar, who actually blinked a few times.

"Tiera?"

She
got it then. He hadn't recognized her at all. The jerk. Well, she did look a
bit different, being taller like she was. He was also a bit blind to short
people, she was willing to bet. Even the ones he liked. That left her feeling
slightly upset and bitter for about half a moment, but she let it go. He really
didn't have the ability to control that part of himself. Not on his own.

"Argh."
She said the word with no particular inflection, but the meaning passed along
well enough, and some of the kids smiled at her. Most seemed a bit sad, but
then they would, wouldn't they? "Let's move out then. Sam and I have
builds, meaning our buddies have to watch out for us more. One hour."

Possibly
more, if she couldn't find anyone willing to search for them all night. Ideally
she'd get people from the fighters section... Or, if she wanted to really be
ideal, Tiera would get full working groups. Six fighters and a builder in each.

That
was a decent plan, so she sighed and moved to her gear, since she had an
unlocked trunk at the foot of her bed, with some amulets in it, as well as some
blank bits of focus stone, a few of which she handed off to Sam for his project,
not really knowing what would be needed.

Kolb
looked in, over her shoulder, but didn't comment on the fifty weapons that were
stacked off to the side. It was tempting to hand them out to the kids, but she
didn't know if they could handle them without practice. It really did take a
bit of focus to make them work right.

"Buddies,
with me, please." She smiled at her two, who gave her blank looks back,
and shouldered their packs, which looked to be enough for the night. Hopefully
they had food too, or at least they could liberate something on the way into
the woods. She was starving.

The
boys moved with her, and she didn't wait, touching each on the shoulder and
pulling them gently toward the headmaster's offices. He lived in a set of rooms
behind where he worked, so that he could always be found. It was very
efficient, but didn't leave him with much of a life, she didn't think. He lived
alone, and didn't have any family at all, for instance. If he had any vices of
note, she'd never heard of it at all. No one claimed that he made them have sex
with him, or dress up as a maid and clean his rooms or anything, even. That
last one was probably even fair. Well, the cleaning at least. The costume
might
be too much, if he was getting noble students to do it.

Her
two kids followed along silently, their feet not making much sound at all on
the hard stone, since they had soft shoes on. She checked, but her assumption
that they all had shields was correct. New ones too. The good kind that had
flight fields in them, Tor-shoes, and could clean and make air. That gave her
an idea as to where to hide for the night too. She'd never tried it out,
herself, but she was willing to bet it would work.

When
she got to the Headmaster's place she moved around to the side door and tapped
gently. Just three times. It took doing it twice before the man noticed, and as
soon as he opened the door, she put a single finger to her lips and waited for
him to wave them all in.

Servants
or not, the interior was very tidy. Dark too.

When
the door closed he turned on a magical light however, which was still a sign of
wealth and power. Most couldn't get anything like that, unless they knew the
right people. Kyle Hardgrove
did
though, didn't he? Tor, and the
Lairdgren Group came to mind. Their army of super builders, trained by her
brother.

The
man bowed to her gently, as if they were equals, even though this was his place
and he was in charge of her there, and then did the same with the kids. It was
both cute and probably about correct, since they were the guests.

Tiera
smiled. She tried not to look blank about it either, meditating or not at the
moment.

"We
have guests in. A special military crew." She gestured at the two with
her. "Of short people. They're hiding in and around the school grounds. The
rules said that they should be in the woods for the night, but if they don't
all break that instantly, they deserve to be caught. We need searchers to try
and find them, in an hour. I was thinking a couple of the combat groups? Only
people with shields, since they have orders to fight in order to prevent
capture. That, and escape if they can, if taken."

She
didn't have to say anything else, since the man bowed again.

"I
think I understand. One hour then, Countess Baker. Are you on the side of the
searchers?"

"Nope.
Sam Builder and I have been assigned projects for the night, while our buddies
keep us safe. We get about nine hours to come up with a full build. I don't
even have anything planned."

Her
building at all was so new that the man looked at her skeptically for a moment,
but she realized it wasn't that at all.

"Then
go. No spying on me to see what my plans are." He made hand motions at
them to get them to clear out and everything.

Tiera
had a sneaking suspicion that he was about to change the rules of the exercise,
a lot. Not that she blamed him at all. Military commanders did that. The good
ones at least. You had to outthink your enemy and not be afraid to break a few
rules, if you wanted your side to win.

She
jogged off, heading toward the woods, but patted her new friends after a bit
and moved close to them, her words soft.

"We're
going straight to the weapons area. Use your shields so that you have air.
We'll hide in the little pond there. Under the water. Can you do that?"
She realized that they might be terrified of water now, what with giant waves
having nearly killed their entire world and all that. The two kids just
whispered back at her.

"Yes,
ma'am. We can do that. Baron Havar has us swim every few days."

She
smiled, but didn't say anything else. They got the idea. They'd go and sit in
the pond all night and she could do her work. That was a different problem,
since she wasn't a fast worker really. Not yet. Her one real build had taken
nearly three days for instance. It was nicely complex, true, but nine hours
wasn't a lot of time to do more than make some copies.

Still,
some builds weren't a lot more than a variation on someone else's work, were
they? She could do that and it would count, she was willing to bet. What she
needed to do then was something simple enough to manage in the time allotted.

Tiera
had no clue what that should be however. She knew that some things were needed,
like a new communications network that Tor couldn't tap into instantly, but she
probably couldn't do that at all, much less in a few hours.

She
and her new friends moved to the practice area, then, with their shields on to
keep them warm and dry, sank themselves under the water. They were close to
her, she knew, since both of them had an arm over her, she noticed. Then they
held her down, gently, even though she wouldn't float anymore. Except that she
would, she realized, since there was a lot of air trapped around her. For some
reason she'd thought it was a tiny amount, but the bubble was a good two and a
half feet from her body, around everything but her hands. That meant the kids
were pushing down on her shield, so she could work without flying a bit toward
the bottom constantly. It was really clever, and meant they understood a lot
more than she would have guessed.

She
couldn't talk to her friends though, since the sound would carry through the
water, and possibly be heard above them. In space you couldn't talk at all,
since there was vacuum between people all the time. That gave her an idea for
her build at least. It wasn't actually
that
simple of a project either,
but she thought she could do it. Maybe.

She
held a little tile in her hand and let her mind go very deep, with her eyes
closed. It was simple enough, really, once she had the right pattern in mind.
Then she simply had to hold it until it took. There was no sigil on the tile.
Not yet. She couldn't make them glow like Tor did, either. The others could be
etched though, if it worked.

Just
as morning broke, she finished the project and managed to make some copies of
the thing, which would be needed to demonstrate that it worked. If it did. She
was hopeful, because it really was a good idea.

Speaking,
she started to try and sit up, the boys still managing to keep her in place,
helpfully.

"I
think it's time to get up. Did you get any sleep?" She made that sound
cheery enough that she got a response, from one of them.

She
couldn't tell which.

"Yes,
thank you. Should we wait longer? I don't want to get there too early, and
lose."