Lord of the Sky (The Young Ancients: Timon) (35 page)

Bushes too it seemed, from what the others said. It was a dry area, so they used water from the floating river that ran the Capital's wall as a decoration, but the plants were taking well enough, even in mid-winter. It rarely froze that far south after all.

"Well, we can look at that on our way out today. It's good to know that Gerent has been keeping busy." Timon said it as if he didn't know what the plan had been all along. It wasn't true, naturally, since Gerent actually talked to him, or had, before Timon had stolen his lady from him.

There was also going to be a decent sized pond with fish in it, and a walkway so that everyone could enjoy the garden, like a park. On the northern side of it Gerent had food gardens planned, so that the poor could have the space to grow things to keep their families fed. It was going to end up being a lot bigger than anyone knew, but no one wanted that property really, so the rent for it was cheap. At least for now. The King would be a fool to let the rates go up for that part of it, but equally one if he didn't set the prices for the area's just past it higher almost immediately. It wasn't on the river, but it would be one of the nicest places in the whole kingdom inside three years. At least given the location, so close to the seat of ultimate power. The rest of the city was dust and a few plants tended by people for their own use. This would be a forest one day.

If one that needed magic to survive.

The conversation shifted several times, but finally Alphonse took another turn, his words sounding no different in tone than the ones that everyone else had been using. So that probably meant he wasn't
trying
to be a jerk at all. He just managed to do it by accident.

"So, you two should consummate the marriage, since it's real. I can see having waited, since there was a chance that you could get out of it before, but now I don't see the point." There was a silence that came across the room then, but the only person that looked at the Prince instead of at Timon or Trice, was Princess Veronica.

"Brother, you need to think before speaking." She sounded ready to fight about it, which got her mother to look away and the King to wince.

Karina made a face too, then blushed a deep red under her slightly dusky skin.

"Oh,
crap
. I'd forgotten about that."

No one required an explanation at least, but it put a bit of a pall over the rest of the conversation. Trice glared at the Prince for the rest of the meal, but he was clearly embarrassed by his slip. It wasn't that big of a deal, was it? The failure to get over things faster wasn't fault of the red haired man down the table, it was his. Trice had been raped, a lot worse than he had really, and she was bouncing back a lot better than he was.

It left him feeling bad for her, stuck with a child that couldn't even pretend to be a real man. A husk of a person that shouldn't be married to anyone at all, much less a Ducharina. A part of him wanted to get up and storm away, to pretend to be insulted to hide the fact that he was less than everyone else in that essential way. Timon didn't, managing not to act like a child with hurt feelings. The man hadn't meant anything by it, odds were it had just slipped his mind. Hopefully that meant it didn't show all the time.

They made their excuses after the last of the food was done, and moved to the vessel that sat outside the door, in the normal space for such things. Awkwardly enough the Prince followed them, looking horribly troubled the whole time and standing about twenty feet back.

"Timon..." Alphonse bowed, his frame bent low from its nearly seven feet- ten inches, the skin going red, either from the exertion of being doubled over or the way he felt about it all. "Please forgive my lack of couth and manners in there, I spoke without thinking and want you to know that I meant no insult to you. I know that it might be hard to forgive that sort of thing, but if you cannot, I hope that you won't take it out on my people, instead leaving it between the two of us?"

He bowed back, which let the Prince stand up, a look of relief on his face. It was a minor enough thing really. The Prince knew that he'd spoken the truth, which didn't take the sting out of the words, but did make apologizing for it all more complicated. He couldn't lay on the ground and beg, since he wasn't wrong, but Alphonse had to let it be known that harm wasn't his intent.

"Thank you for thinking of me, but I really wasn't planning to hold a grudge over it. Things are what they are. Oh... You wanted to get some craft from me?" He gave the Prince the same basic speech that the Duke had gotten, except that he also had to find someone to train the new pilots. It would work best to put them on part time, they decided. The funds for them would come out of the treasury however, since they weren't long term employees of Timon's service.

"I really just don't need that many people yet. With the six new ones we have already, we're probably over capacity for a good long while. I'll get you the craft. You know how to use them?"

The man didn't, which meant a nearly two hour tour of their craft along with instruction on how to fly the thing. Then he took the ten amulets for it as they landed back at the Palace and Timon was finally able to be free of the place.

He really wanted to complain about something, just to make himself feel better, but it was useless. What was he supposed to do, hash over how hard things were for him, after what had happened? To Trice? She knew how he felt, and probably would be just fine never going over it again. That she wasn't all that mean about it yet was probably just her being kind to him, wanting to start things out in a peaceful fashion.

They did stop right outside the wall to look at the work being done to the east of the Capital. It was an area that had to be nearly a quarter the size of the city itself, places almost directly on top of the battleground that had been there. That wasn't on accident or even meant to cover up the damage there, but was rather a monument of sorts to the dead. A living one that would sooth the minds of those that saw it and help them forget about the harm done by a mindless few that thought they had a right to force their will on others.

That was Gerent's intent at least. The trees looked good. There were six hundred and seventeen of them so far, at least that Tim could see. Mostly hardy, but small trees, meant to hold up after being dug from their original homes and placed there. The bushes were harder to count, but someone had done a lot to get all of what had been done finished like that. The pond was bigger than he'd thought it would be, and not filled yet. The bottom had been finished, in focus stone, so that any water put in would tend to stay, rather than run away into the ground instantly.

"We should think about getting a space out here. This could be our front yard and we wouldn't have to do all the work ourselves." Trice spoke and then shook her head. "I'm really sorry. I thought that things would go differently today. Alphonse wasn't trying to goad you with what he said. He
wouldn't
. Even if you were just some kid that had wandered in by mistake, that wouldn't have happened." These were just statements of fact. Things that his wife totally believed with all her heart, so she didn't bother trying to back them up with evidence.

You didn't, when you knew a thing to be true. You just thought that anyone that said otherwise was insane.

"I was thinking the same thing. It would mean setting up where people died, but the bodies have all been moved. So if that doesn't bother you, I think we should do it. We can hook the house water pump into the wall river for now. Or, if you want, we could set up our own wall with a river on it in miniature. Feed it out of the King's River? Or is that too outrageously gaudy?"

There was a considering look on her face as she looked around.

"It's an idea, actually. That way we could both mark our place as special and at the same time be protected from minor attacks. It's
horribly
tacky, of course. Can you make it glow brighter than the one Tor built, do you think? If we're going to do it, we should make an effort to do it right. People will complain, but if they're busy going on about that, they might not notice that you're as young as you are, until it's too late." She tilted her head to the side and waved at an area about a quarter mile from the edge of the worked land, toward the river a bit. "There? We can set up now, and rent the space for a year or two in advance. If you want to, I mean."

Timon didn't bother to speak, just seeing to it all over the next hour. He even had a water flow going to it, reaching over the new garden area in a clear stream, returning to the feed in a different line when it was done. He expected a very large wait, because the last time that he'd set up a house it had taken a few hours, but the man that took the taxes was there before they went in to start making furniture and curtains appear.

"Countier Lairdgren! Lady Baker. Are you setting this up for the week, or..." There was a slightly leading tone then, and the man, who was a bit older and dressed in plain gray, with a nice vest that day, tried not to smile about it all.

"Hello! We're setting up for a time. Call it a year? I can pay today. This would be six lots worth right now, but we're going to put in a wall. Magical, so it can be taken down, but we'll want double that at least. What would that run?"

The man winced a bit, and did the math out loud, twice.

"Near on forty gold, sir. That's after the ten percent discount for paying in advance."

Timon wanted to hesitate himself, since that was a lot, but he had it, and could get more. Trice went to get it and came out with it all in a nice blue velvet sack. The man looked apologetic, but counted it anyway, smiling at the extra two gold.

Trice winked.

"That's for your time, coming out so quickly."

"Thank you, ma'am!" He pocketed them right there, and then looked around the mess that Gerent had started to make. "If you don't mind me commenting, this is a good spot. The little Lairdgren told me that this would be for everyone, but it will make the lower folk rest more easily knowing that someone is here to guard us as we sleep. After the attack coming from this way, a lot of folks have felt like it might happen again at any time."

That the man thought that he and Trice were the people for the job didn't make a lot of sense, but his wife smiled at it and gestured toward the back.

"We'll have guards. It only makes sense for them to watch the whole area. I think we should set up their barracks back there. Do you think Mona is up to running a place this large?"

"No. She can barely manage my smaller place and still tries to boss Gerent around. Still, she works hard, so we should see that she has a good job with us." Tim felt ridiculous talking like that, but the tax collector just nodded and smiled, as if they were doing things exactly right.

He took off a few minutes later, since carrying that much gold seemed to make him worry a bit and his little cart, while sturdy, wasn't all that fast, his lone donkey having a bit of work ahead of him.

Tim nodded at it and gestured lightly, to indicate what he meant.

"Do you like animals? I was thinking that we should have horses or something. People to care for them too. I hate doing that part of it, but if someone else is scooping up after them and making sure they're fed, I think I might like it."

Trice smiled and shook her head a little.

"I can ride of course, and hunt, but we might want to hold off for a few weeks on setting up a permanent house here. Just in case things change again. Are we staying here tonight?"

Really, it seemed like as good a place as any. They could set things up inside, and make what plans they had for the rest of their vacation. To that end he just followed her in, happily enough, not even thinking anything was out of place with her until she spun on him, her eyes looking slightly wild, as soon as the door shut on the empty and cavernous three story place. It was all one room at the moment, since they hadn't bothered to put anything inside of it yet, except for a blank stone floor of polished black marble.

"Can you believe them? 'It's a good marriage, the Count has spoken against it ending' like that should be enough? Not even Karina stood up for us, that little witch! Even Aunt Connie was in with them on it! Well! Let's see if I make her more of my special perfume for next Noram Day then, shall we?" She crossed her arms and actually tapped her foot on the floor, clearly not faking her response. Then she glared at him, like he had something to do with it. "Why aren't you more upset about this?"

Superficial charm was one of his strong suits, so he bowed to her and smiled, as if he was more than slightly pleased.

"Well, I do get you in the bargain, so it isn't a
total
loss, now is it?" Besides, her initial response, in the small dining room, had been correct. Fighting with them all about it wasn't going to help at all. It would have just gotten them to be even more firm in their resolve. Things had worked to get them where they were in a complicated fashion, and it wasn't going to be undone by any action of theirs. Not unless she wanted to have him killed. That would be harder than it sounded like, he suspected. At least he hadn't died so far. True, the same could be said for her, but there was no reason for
him
to feel like that towards his wife. After all, he could have any lover he wanted that would have him, which would, hopefully, be very few for now, and at the same time Timon could live where he wanted, with or without her and no one would even really think it was a problem. Most marriages for the high nobles were little more than for show anyway.