Lord of the Sky (The Young Ancients: Timon) (18 page)

After that a woman he didn't know took her turn, beating him at least as well as either man had managed. That was it, thankfully. As soon as she'd had her fun, or the time ran out, which was probably the actual case, even no one looked at a watch, everyone moved in and started patting him on the back.

George actually sounded happy about it.

"Life isn't fair. That's part of what growing up means, learning that. Seldom will you find an even fight, and when you do, it will almost always have a trick or lie in it. Don't forget that. You did... Well enough. You need to improve your fighting skills." Then he moved back, smiling and the second man snorted, taking his place.

"You can't plan for the unexpected, if you can't think of it first. Use your mind and
assume
that. Find scenarios that let you win, and always presume that failure can come at any time. It isn't a fun way to live, but it may save your life."

Then, because there was a pattern to the advice being given, the big guard moved away, letting the woman he didn't know come forward. He'd seen her before, but it wasn't time for them to make complex introductions, clearly. There was a ceremony going on after all.

"Pain, loss, and sorrow
will
come. By knowing that ahead of time you can be prepared to carry on, even through the hurt. These things are true for all people, of all stations. Being an adult means being willing to stand. For yourself, and for others. It means doing your duty, no matter how hard and unfair. Today you are a man. What you will be tomorrow is uncertain, but we all have high hopes for you." Then, without saying anything else, they all left. Kara lingered at least and handed him his amulets back, and his weapons.

"Best stay armed for now. That was rather pitiful."

He mumbled a bit, past the fat lips.

"Well, I don't know how to fight."

"I
know
. A bit of an oversight on your part. You should fix that."

Then she walked away too. That only left him and Count Peterson in the practice area, the larger man looking a bit disgruntled. Timon shook his head and put his gear back on, then triggered his healing amulet. He didn't speak for a few minutes, his breath coming in short panting gasps as the pain ripped through him again. That meant the damage was worse than he'd thought. When his right arm cracked, the bones resetting, he nearly blacked out again, but held on.

Five minutes later Peterson grimaced.

"What the hell was
that
? You're only a boy, making you fight like that..."

Timon laughed, but it came out as a snort, which made him look goofy. Like a child that couldn't control his reactions.

"Apparently I am now a
man
. My parents will be
so
pleased to know that." He looked at his clothing, which had blood on and in it, real or not. Cycling his clothing amulet caused a dry powder to come off of him, and then let him have a clean black outfit again. There was blood in his hair, which wouldn't do for the rest of the day. "Seriously, I've already had several showers today. I should just sit in a tub until it's time for me to go and stand next to Trice."

That got the man to nod.

"We'll try to make sure that isn't needed. Let's go see what the Queen wants to do to you first. After that we'll get you that bath you need. You know, when I was fourteen my father just provided a woman for my present. No beatings involved at all, and I come from a military family."

"The Royal Guards aren't exactly regular people, are they? It's what I get for being nice to them. They got confused and think I'm family now or something. Well, you can't pick your relations. We might as well go in."

It was tempting to linger, but he really doubted that Aunt Connie would have a beating in mind for him. In fact, when they found her she actually looked scared.

"Why is there blood all over your face? Is it yours?" She didn't touch him, but moved close, examining him for a long time.

Count Peterson cleared his throat and actually winked at her, which got her to stand up straight and give the man a questioning look.

"Did you know that your Royal Guards require their youngsters to fight when they become an adult? Three of them. One directly after the other. Don't concern yourself, all your guards are unharmed."

There was a long silence and a concerned look, but that faded after just a moment.

"I...see. Well, we can let you clean up then and get ready. Do you want to eat first, or do you have butterflies in your stomach?" If she meant it in a mean way, she was hiding it pretty well. She actually seemed almost nice about the whole thing.

Timon didn't trust it, but he knew enough about life not to let her see that. After all, she was his Aunt
and
the Queen. Those things would last for a long time, and making her hate him more than she did would be a mistake. It was one thing for her to find him inconvenient and annoying, but she was powerful enough to really make his life hard, without ever overtly attacking him, if she wanted.

It was actually harder to find him an empty room with a tub in it than it sounded like it would be. They had a hundred such things around the King's Palace, but even this year, with few people bothering to travel, enough had come to stay for Noram Day that all the rooms were in use and a lot of them had more than one person staying in them. In the end he was taken to the very interior of the building, along a densely packed corridor of rooms and allowed to use a cold shower that the Royal Guards all took turns using.

As the water hit him he winced, until the temperature control amulet he had on fixed things for him, making it seem comfortable, if not warm.

When he got out and dressed again, he looked at Count Peterson, who was taking his job as guardian of the claim pretty seriously it seemed and made a face.

"I get it. The Royal Guards are all hard and live without regular comforts. What I don't get is why? Does that actually make them stronger, or does it just cause them to be surly all the time? I mean, would a room temperature water tank be that expensive? I could hook a warm tank up in about ten minutes." Not that he would. After all, this had to be done on purpose, keeping them like that all the time, so they wouldn't be too soft or something. It was most likely part of their training. Like putting them in the very little rooms he was walking past. Some of the doors were open and showed that the space inside was barely big enough for a small pallet and a candle holder.

For half a second he actually felt sorry for them. They weren't allowed any quality of life at all? They were probably given low quality food too then, or at least plain stuff all the time, so that they wouldn't mind if they weren't given something tasty? What kind of monster came up with their rules anyway?

Timon had a strange feeling that would be his grandfather. There was probably a reason for it, but seriously, what was the point? Wouldn't letting them have a few luxuries serve to make them stronger in the end? Wouldn't feeling loved and respected draw them closer to the King than this?

Peterson didn't respond, but walked away quickly, as if afraid to be there for too long. They were being watched, no doubt, but Timon didn't really care about that. It was their job to protect the King, which meant knowing what people were saying and doing. He was only getting clean, himself. It probably wouldn't offend them.

By the time they were back to the Queen, several things had changed. She was busily walking around a large room that had many comfortable sofas and chairs in it, all done in a cream color that had to be impossible to keep clean for the servants, making a point of talking to
everyone
. She did it well, Tim had to admit. She was a professional at what she did and everyone had to feel like she was spending more time and attention with them than anyone else. It was part timing on her part, and the fact that she had a lot to say to each person that was perfectly correct. She even spoke to the Austran Ambassador as if they were old friends and made a point of touching Kincaid Rue on the arm gently. It wasn't exactly flirtatious, but it would make the woman who looked to be about fifteen, but was older thanks to some kind of medical procedure, feel welcome and wanted.

Even if Constance had no clue who the heck she was.

For her part, Kincaid lit up when she saw him.

"Tim, over here!" She waved and moved the last few steps between them to give him a quick hug. "So, are you still claiming that you're only twelve? The Revered One said you were, on the trip over, but I'm not certain he isn't having me on. After all, the age of consent is fourteen here, right?" The woman let her eyes narrow as if someone were playing tricks on her, then smiled brightly, and flipped her fake red hair out of her eyes.

The Queen, for her part removed her hand from the woman's arm and bowed slightly.

"It's rare, but with parental permission, a younger person might marry below that age at need. It isn't spoken about normally..." She leaned in, her voice going low. "In some cases of pregnancy, if a woman is without a husband, it can be done. We don't allow women to have children unwed, as a rule. That can be... difficult at times for those with enough station, you understand?"

Timon had to keep from rolling his eyes, since it really was about what they had to be telling people, given the matter at hand. It wasn't like Trice could openly claim that she was marrying him out of love or something. Or to avoid an unpleasant marriage to Rico Gala. That left very few reasons that would work. Claiming she was pregnant would do it. Then in a few months, when she wasn't showing, they could claim she "lost" the baby. That or her cycle had played a trick on her. Really, that would be the one they should go with, Timon thought. Someone like Trice was too smart to let herself accidentally get with child after all. It wouldn't ring true. Being late, that could happen to any woman and the cause wasn't always known.

Strictly speaking, Tim wasn't supposed to know things like that, but a life time of paying attention had let him figure some things like that out.

Kincaid nodded back and whispered herself.

"So I hear. It's very noble of him to step in like this then, isn't it? Or... is there some kind of intrigue involved here? I'm sorry, I'm not very well versed on things like that yet. I practiced a bit for my part, but that's mainly trying to learn the accent and mimic Noram body language."

She actually had those down decently too, Tim noticed. They weren't exactly like Karina, perhaps, but she was doing pretty well, seeming like a Noram noble.

Timon was the one that answered, since everyone else was acting suddenly awkward.

"In general you don't ask about intrigue in public. After all, it means that you don't
know
already, which puts you at a disadvantage. The answer this time is that I'm helping out a
friend
however. Now, did Denno stick around, or has he managed to run off and hide? Not that I'd blame him, but I was hoping to chat with him before things took place today. What time is that happening anyway?" It was, he thought, about five in the afternoon already. No one had given him a schedule, they just kept throwing him in rivers and beating him...

Which, he realized suddenly, was meant to be a kindness, keeping him distracted. The Royal Guards weren't sane, thanks to their training, so they had strange ways of doing things like that. He had to admit, it worked. He was far more worried about the next beating than he was about standing in front of some people and saying that he agreed to be married. Hopefully he wasn't supposed to have a whole wedding speech ready.

If so, someone needed to tell him now, and either hand him the words to parrot or let him write something out. Otherwise it wasn't going to be well done at all.

He didn't get to ask, since he was taken by the arm and led away then by a girl that was about five inches taller than he was, with shoulder length brown hair. There was a little red in it, and she was pretty enough, wearing a flowing mint colored gown with a funny conical hat on her head that had a veil on it, which was pulled back.

Princess Veronica.

"Hello, I need to help you get ready. That's my part in this for the day. Sorry mother, Miss Rue. Ambassador, would you attend us? It's traditional for the groom's friends to stand by him for the day, even if it means they just stand around waiting for most of it."

Timon hadn't known that he and Ambassador Hallis were all that close, but the man lit up and then bowed, very properly, even if that wasn't the Austran way. He was dressed in a deep blue suit with black plastic buttons. At least Tim thought they were made of that material. It was a common thing in the man's homeland, but looked rare and fine in Noram, where they didn't have anything like it. The point was a simple enough thing; the Princess was trying to be diplomatic and include the people from the land of their old enemy in the events of the day.

To that end he nodded.

"Yes, David, would you? Normally, given my age I'd have mainly family members around for the day, so that fits." It was probably over the top to proclaim the man as that close, but he was kind of
their
Austran, wasn't he? That had to count for something.

The older man, with his silver hair and slightly large stomach bowed again, which got the Princess to laugh and wave him into movement before he could start a speech.

There weren't a lot of spare rooms for sleeping, so instead of one of those being given over, they were supposed to use one of the smaller sitting rooms. Considering the whole exercise was really about making certain that he didn't run away, or so it seemed, as well as getting him dressed in a nice outfit that would match whatever Trice, Petra, and her mother were coming up with, they didn't need a lot more space than that.