Lord of the Sky (The Young Ancients: Timon) (30 page)

There was no answer for a bit, as he held the control hand piece all the way forward, moving off into the dark twilight sky.

"
Wrong
. So wrong I can't even laugh about it. I'd
never
do anything that stupid. I have three different plans in the works that will end with Rico dead and
none
of them lead back to me like that. I bet Karina wasn't trying to help me at all, and just trying to make sure you were free to marry in a few years. She's a lot harder than most people think, you know that don't you? She cut off my arm once." The hand that got waved looked real enough to him, but that was the point. It wasn't, and Timon knew it. She didn't even have to explain.

"Sure. You didn't rub that in at all, did you? Or point out that if Rico were dead, our little arrangement could really be undone by the King without any problems. You worked her into place and she probably didn't even notice you doing it overly." He winced and put the craft into a hover, so that the healing amulet could come out from under his shirt. It smarted while it did its work, but in a few minutes the whole thing was healed.

Not the damage it had done to their relationship of course. The physical part had been.

"Seriously, never again. You understand that? I'm not some child for you to school and thrash into obedience and if you can't handle that we can turn this crate right around, and head back to your Uncle tonight. I
know
that I'm too young for this, but if you act like I am, then there's nothing in this for me at all." It was just the truth, but she frowned at him and crossed her arms, it was a hard move that looked sullen and a lot younger than her years.

"I
said
I was sorry. What's the big deal anyway, you healed. I thought you were supposed to be tough or something. All immortal and that sort of thing."

"You can crush stone with that hand, and nearly did that to my elbow. I
don't
bruise easily and you... You know, I'm not having this particular discussion. You
know
why a giant woman hurting me, even a little, isn't going to work with me. Just like how I know not to leave
you
with scummy jailers." It was a low blow, bringing that up, but she was asking for it.

Rather than fight then, she teared up and looked out the window, swallowing every few seconds. It was loud enough to hear in the rather quiet cabin of the craft.

"I know. It hasn't been easy for me and this thing with Rico and having to get married. I'm really grateful to you, but I would have picked someone else if I had a choice. Waited at least. You aren't even able to hug me without shaking. I know it isn't your fault, I really do. I just..." She sobbed, but didn't let it get too loud. "This isn't going to work is it? I can't help but think that I should be in charge, being larger and older and you... You're smarter than I am. I hate that. It isn't just a bit either. Or only in one tiny area, like building. You're just brilliant all the time and I feel like my brain is stuck in thick mud, sinking slowly the whole time. You're always two steps ahead in everything. The things you know, it's like magic sometimes. People think that you're reading their minds most of the time. You really aren't, are you?"

"No. I don't need to. People let things slip and give plenty of clues. As for this working, well, it's like everything else. There are two of us and if we decided to make it work, we can. The real problem isn't that we can't do that, but that it takes effort that neither of us is really committed to making yet. You have to treat me as an equal, years aside. For my part I have to remember that you're a good bit smarter than most." He smiled and tried not to point out what that really meant, but she was intelligent enough to work it out without straining.

"So I'm the smartest of the monkeys in the menagerie? Good to know. I'd hate to be the slowest and too moronic to know it." There was a bit of attitude in the words, which was deserved. She was his wife after all, which meant he really
should
try to get along.

"That's not what I said. Not at all. I said you were brighter than
most
. Clearly,
Tor
is the smartest monkey in the circus, and Tiera is right in there with him. Maybe Princess Veronica. She's decently bright. Terlee, Count Lairdgren, my mother, as much as I hate to admit it, Taman, clearly, is smarter than I am... You're kind of a step down from that. At least from what I've seen so far."

She was still crying, but managed to give him a look that said she hated him without the words coming out. It was a good trick really.

"Oh, gee... That's better. I can't even call you a liar. I know that you're all smarter than I am. It doesn't leave me feeling easy at night you know. How am I supposed to do my job when everyone I know is ten times smarter than I am?"

Timon just flew for a bit, thinking, then shrugged.,

"About thirty percent smarter than you are. Tops. Well, for the rest of them. I
might
be twice that, but I'm clearly not bright enough to hide that from you, so don't tell anyone I said so. For your part, there are probably about ten thousand people on the planet that are much smarter than you are. That's not a lot. You won't ever run into most of them and the ones you know are largely on your side. It really shouldn't be a problem. You married me after all, so if it comes down to it, I have to help you figure things out, if I can."

He meant all this to sound charming, but it really just seemed like he was busily hating her right back. It was a stronger thing than he was used to feeling, to tell the truth. Then he got it. She'd slipped her dragon off and had it sitting on the seat next to her and was busily goading him into a combat rage, using her own power to push him into it. That had to mean she was honestly angry with him, but it didn't make sense. They both had shields, but if the craft crashed at full speed that might not save them.

What did she gain by doing that?

After thinking it through silently he thought he understood. She'd hurt him. It wasn't a bad wound and she hadn't meant to do it, but she had and knew it was wrong. She wanted him to attack her now, so that they'd be even. Because that made sense.

If you were unbalanced and a trauma victim.

"Trice, could you put the dragon back on?" Tim waited, and she did it after a minute, her face looking hurt, as if him asking her not to send him into a homicidal rage was an insult to her or something?

There was a low sound then, that he could just barely hear at all.

"Sorry." Clearing her throat she tried to sound happy and bright. It was a good effort, even if fake. "Well, most people make it whole weeks before getting to their first fight. It's a good sign, I'm sure. Why at this rate we'll be taking knives to each other by the end of the honeymoon." Then, fake cheerful or not, she moped for a long time, not even looking at him.

They were heading over the eastern ocean and coming around carefully in the dark. It was a lot harder to get to Printer at night that way, but he did it carefully and only had to search up and down the coastline twice for it before seeing the pattern of lights that had to be a large building in the dark, along with some oil lamps along the streets. It wasn't the best lit city in the Kingdom at night, but several places had red magical things going, which let him find a street that he recognized from the air. They were, of course, supposed to come in and land like a boat. Or at least pretend to be one. They could actually go into the water, but it was silent to ride above the waves and no one would notice them too much if they did that.

Unless there was a watch out for strange things? That might get some attention then. Feeling a bit upset still, he reconfigured the craft into a credible looking boat, a nice white and blue thing that had a wooden deck and could pass for a real boat in the daylight, even among people that knew such things. They had to move up the new staircase to the top level and the pilot house there, but Trice didn't seem to mind. Maybe the fresh air would help cool her down a bit?

She leaned on the new railing arms crossed and holding herself at the elbows. She had to lean down a little bit to do it, the railing only about four feet high. It was just there to keep people from falling off the side after all, not lock them in like a prison fence. The top looked like slick and polished pine, a light color that matched the deck. It was visible in the half moonlight, the sky wasn't perfectly clear. Off to the ocean side of things, on the east side of the boat clouds gathered on the horizon.

"This is amazing. I didn't know that you could do this. Really, I was impressed that you made something magical at all. You haven't even gone to school to learn how. I've never even been able to make a copy, much less something like this." There was a softness to the words, an almost breathy quality that made her sound gentle and kind. Scared too. That was the main thing he was taking away from her body language at the moment, even she was trying to hide it, turning away from him as she spoke like she was, meant she wanted to express herself, but not the confrontation she had to suspect was coming. Her legs were spread shoulder width and firm, but her arms were crossed in front of her. She was keeping something back from him. It was almost certain.

Timon didn't want to fight either, since it almost never actually helped to make anything better. Action sometimes did, but there were risks to everything. He'd need information before there was any real way to know what to do about the woman he was stuck with.

"Tor always puts out so many incredible things that I think everyone forgets that other people can be good too. Not
him
, he won't forget. I guess I mean me, don't I? It's not fair." There was no hint of a whine to the last line, which meant she wasn't talking about herself.

Timon waited, not knowing where she was trying to go with the conversation at all. They were just resting in the water, not moving, except for a gentle rocking as the boat stabilized itself in the waves.

There was no turning around at all, her gaze only on the coastline ahead of her.

"I shouldn't have gotten you involved in this. I just didn't know what else to do. Killing him won't actually fix anything, as much as it feels like the only option left. I should have married Count Overland, I was afraid that he'd die before the deadline and I'd still be stuck spending my twenty-second birthday running through the woods naked, fighting for my life as a team of soldiers hunted me down for sport. Rico has his men do that with girls. I've had spies on him for years. That doesn't mean I should have gotten you involved."

"I know. Which is why you need to make it worth my while." Timon sounded rough and cold, which was how he felt inside now. It wasn't constant, but it took work to seem like a real person anymore. Sometimes it was too much work to bother with. "Do you think I didn't know what you thought you were getting when this started? A replacement Tor, since he was already out of your grasp. A malleable child that would do whatever you wanted, without thinking about it, because he didn't know any better? Except that it had to be clear that I was never that."

It was to him at least, but she laughed and then finally turned to look at him, over her shoulder.

"Make it worth your while?
How
? Sex? The first thing you said to me was that we wouldn't be doing anything like that for a good long while. Give you secret information about the King, or my parents? I can't. It's against the rules for one thing. On the other side of it, you always seem to have already figured everything out by the time I learn of it anyway. Gold? You have more of that than I do already, I'd wager. You even have as much loyalty from my own family, after giving Mark a job like you did. What can I give you at all that has value to you?"

Timon shrugged. Then, forcing himself more than a bit, he joined her at the rail and put his hand on her back, trying to be comforting. She leaned into him gently, as if for warmth, it was really for comfort.

"I don't really know yet. I haven't decided who or what I want to be yet. It was clearer before, but Tor messed that one up for me, didn't he? So... For now you could try being a good wife? Actually pretend to mean it? I know that it will be hard for you, but we either need to fix this some other way or learn to live with each other, because I'm not going to be one of those nobles that sets his woman up on a country estate and forgets about her. My parents would disown me if I tried it, for one thing." It was a joke, since they really wouldn't do any such thing, but instead of chuckling at all, Trice started to weep a little. It was nearly silent, the line of moisture making a single track down her soft brown cheek.

"I should have just killed myself, shouldn't I? After Galasia and what happened there... No one would want me, would they? Well, Gerent, but..." She paused and took a large shuddering breath, looking away again. "I can't. I... He's a good man, but he's so warped, physically. It isn't fair. I should love him. He fought so hard for me, in those cells. They... The jailers raped him too.
Because
he tried to fight them, to protect me. They would have left him alone if he'd just done what they'd said, but he fought, even though it meant he was beaten and...
Every
time. Each time they came for me he tried, even when he couldn't hardly move at all, his arms and legs broken. He's the best person I've ever met and..."

She stopped, glanced at Timon, checking to see if he was going to be offended by the statement. He wasn't. Anyone that couldn't see that Gerent was a better person than Timon, was a fool.