The Mask of Omegon (Gwen Farris Book 6) (11 page)

Which
was
the socially
correct thing to do, after finding out that the polite Western Kingdom folk had
taken to calling their enemies Horse Fuckers. She was a single woman after all.
Not all that old either. At least Katherine wasn’t. Gwen didn’t mind the
language, but it was harsh for the people there. Not in the press either. Not
that she’d been keeping up with that a lot.

Ethyl actually nodded, instead of
telling her that she needed to make a greater effort to learn manners. It was a
first in the education discussion.

This time she smiled and clasped
her hands, after putting the pictures down.

“Wonderful! Especially if you plan
to travel? We can press Doctor Professor Grainger for a place in one of his
classes. Or at least whatever comes before his efforts. Languages as well. As
the heir to the company, you might also consider business courses? If you wish,
I mean.” It was a lot different than what she’d been talking about a few years
before. Then it had been about learning manners and history. Both were good ideas
still, but Gwen wasn’t certain she totally cared anymore. Not that she wanted
to be rude to anyone.

Everything just seemed a bit too
hard to bother with. Even Tomas kind of was. Except that there weren’t going to
be a lot of chances for her to find anyone. Becoming Katherine had opened up
the world to her that way, but she’d been standing in her own way the whole
time. Because of fear. The idea that she was going to be rejected at every
turn.

Only that wasn’t real. Not here. If
Gwen walked up to most men and got on her knees, they’d have probably been her
friend. Now at any rate, in Kat’s body. Even if they were married and told her
no
.
That was how it always worked in porn anyway. Which, she understood, might not
be the best metric for such things. Then again, if it was what men really
wanted, then it was a good start on understanding that kind of thing. The best
she had, other than sit-coms.

Even without being crass like that,
she had a bit of time to work things out. Losing out on a nice guy, who was better
looking than she really had any reason to dream about, wasn’t a great idea even
given that.

Not just because she felt too tired
to go on.

The truth was, she kind of did.

Too tired by far to bother with
almost anything.

It was tempting to go and find that
newspaper man, Stev Hess and beat him until he left his job for a better
occupation. Something involving plants, perhaps. Growing things that lived and
improved the world simply by being. That or teaching. He could read and write
after all, as well as take pictures, apparently.

Instead of doing that, Gwen decided
to actually be the grown up for once and take the win that she’d already pulled
out that day. That meant changing from her nifty day suit into a dress. That
one was an older style and not one of the new things that she’d commissioned
before Katherine had taken over, years before. It was loose on her, all over.
Then, she’d always been thinner than Katherine had.

At least until the other woman had
been tied to a bed and fed low calorie drugged gruel for a few months. Then the
pounds had come right off the other girl. The signs of that were still deeply
marked on their shared body. It was a bit of a shame that she wasn’t back in
her own world, Gwen thought, as she re-applied her makeup. This time she went a
little heavier than she had for Stev. After all, the goal was to make her look
better, if she wasn’t going to be fighting the man.

If it had been her world, Gwen
would have been very close to being a super model, at least in looks. Her skin
was flawless thanks to the healing she’d gotten. All her ribs still showed as
well. Here, in this world that was at least twenty or thirty pounds under too
thin to be truly pretty. Which she could have whined about, if only inside her
head, but the truth was, she could gain the weight. It just took her having a
reason to eat a bit more for a while. Which she decided to do. After all, being
too thin wasn’t going to help her in life.

Rather than complain about
anything, she made a list. One that was actually written out on a notebook
page. She’d carried that kind of thing for a while, because it had fit her
junior detective role, working with Bethany. The truth was however that the
world she was in just held too much new data for her to
not
do that kind
of thing. Looking down she noticed that almost everything on her page would
require her to call people. That or visit. For once she decided not to be
remote and stand-offish with everyone. She could travel easily enough. At least
if she wasn’t pulling people along with her.

The first trip on her list was to
the local air field.

At least she thought of it that
way. It was actually the Vernor shipping yard, and not something open to the
public at all. The place was huge though, so it had taken her a while to
understand that part. Mr. Vernor owned his own fleet of balloon like
dirigibles. Airships that were capable of traveling all over the world, if the
weather was right. If it wasn’t that could stop things pretty handily, but that
kind of thing was simply built into the system there. If a shipment took four
extra weeks to get in, no one would starve. It did cost money, but that was
just part of the business.

So careful planning and hard work
were important at every step, for each cruise. As well as a bit of luck.
Possibly magic. Gwen hadn’t heard of anything like that taking place, but it
kind of made sense to her. If you could curse a person with bad things, or even
just so that a person would have bad luck in cursing other people, you had to
be able to protect ships. Somehow. If that was possible, then she didn’t doubt
it was part of most businesses.

Perhaps with attacks on other people’s
work that way. It was creepy to think of and might not be that common, but if
she could imagine it, these people probably already had.

The fact of the matter was that
Gwen needed to learn a whole lot more about how magic worked. She had some good
tricks, thanks to her training and the fact that she was rather fluid as far as
coming up with new ideas. Really, she needed to work out a few more things like
that as well, now that she was bothering to consider it. That wouldn’t be too
hard, if she did it right.

That still didn’t get past the fact
that Gwen Farris didn’t know enough about her world. She never really had, but
back home it had been a very small thing comparatively. She’d lived inside of
her house most of the time. Working from her living room, making web-sites for
people online. When she went outside, it was mainly to her classes. Learning to
fight. That or the store. Even doing just those things and not going out at
night at all, she’d been attacked four to six times a year.

Which didn’t make her want to go
and explore all that much. It hurt too much, for one thing.

Now, in this place, the rules were
different. She realized that was just the truth, when she teletransported
directly in front of the large hangar that the Peregrine should be inside. It
took walking to see the giant silver thing in the light colored building. It
was tied in place, the back hatch open to the world. Nothing was being loaded
yet however. That wouldn’t happen until about one day before they left.

She didn’t act shy, just walking
into the cave like place, the light from the giant open door behind her really
helping to make it easier for her to handle. Otherwise it would be pretty easy
to freak out. Terror ripping through her mind.

She made it all the way to the
engineering section before anyone even noticed she was there. That probably
shouldn’t have happened, given that she was looking all cute in her little
dress like she was. Even wearing a jumpsuit, one of the men should have said
something to her. No one was there however, until she found Gloria, who looked
to be stripping one of the maneuvering rockets.

Gwen just stood, waiting to be
noticed. Right next to the table, but the internal workings of the thing were
small and distracting the women might cause her to lose her place, or possibly
drop something inside the housing, which would be a pain to fix. It was clear
from the shift in her body language that she got the fact that someone was
standing there, however. Not that she even looked up from what she was doing
for several minutes.

When she did that part, the woman actually
smiled at her.

“Curly! Groundling mentioned that
we got you for the next run. That leaves us a man down. Unless you’re here to
beg off?” She waved at the dress and probably the makeup. The other woman had
some on, but it wasn’t much compared to how Gwen was gussied up at the moment.

“Nope. I’m in. I’m just going to
see some people in a bit about another project. Do you want another man for the
loading crew? Totally raw and probably lazy, but still no worse than Darnell.
Better in most ways. Just green.” She just waited. Gloria wasn’t the god of the
ship or anything, but the engineer could say yes or no to things in her
section. Technically she was Groundling’s boss, as far as that kind of thing
went.

“That would be good. Where did you
find this wonder? One of the Westmorlands on holiday?” She didn’t even smirk at
the idea, or say no, if that was the case.

They clearly needed the help. Then
most of the able bodied men had gone off to war already.

Gwen smiled and shook her head.

“He’s a young Baron. We’re dating,
but he gets that we aren’t going on this trip as a lover’s getaway. Tomas is
getting ready for some military training, so needs to toughen up a bit first.
That part is all a secret though. Like with Groundling?” Meaning not hidden
from Gloria, or the Captain. Just everyone else.

That reminded her to get with
Admiral Welk, if Gloria didn’t turn the extra help away right then.

Instead the woman sighed, took a
deep breath and rubbed her hands on the front of her tan jump suit.

“I… We need
someone
. It’s
nearly impossible to get anyone to take on the work. I’m half tempted to put in
a crew of kids, once summer comes. Get with King Ferdinand and have him set
that up for us?” It was a question, not an order.

Gwen just nodded. If things were
that bad, then they were.

“I’ll do that when we meet later.
It really might not be a bad idea. At least the more locked away ships are good
practice for the Air Navy. We can use that as a sales point. The Students
Service should be in on that, if we can get that back together. Not that I know
that it isn’t still. The truth is I haven’t checked.” She felt bad about that
for a bit.

The large woman, who looked like a
linebacker, if one with golden hair, laughed.

“You
were
a bit distracted.
I think we all get that. Get your Baron in here then, in two days? We need to
start loading early, if we can. No improper behavior though. Also… You have a
boyfriend?” She lit up then, her face pleased. “About time! A Baron, too. I’d
be jealous, except…” She turned a bit red, and looked away.

Then maddeningly didn’t let
anything else drop.

Gwen tilted her head, figuring out
what was likely going on then.

“You and Groundling?” It sort of
made sense. As unlikely as it might seem, the man was probably her closest
friend in the whole world. They’d worked together for years. Plus, Gloria
hadn’t
been at the Vernors the other night. If it had been about just getting her to
go and work, then the woman
would
have been there.

That they were bothering to keep
things secret meant that they felt there was something to hide.

“We’re getting married. In three
months? I’m… The whole noble thing is hard, you know?”

She kind of did. Groundling was a
Duke, which was high up as far as that kind of thing went. A Baron wasn’t that
bad comparatively. Gwen was attached to people that were probably more wealthy
than all the Barons in the kingdom, combined. It wasn’t a thing that made sense
to her, but seemed true.

“Yeah. Don’t let it worry you.
You’ll make a great Duchess. I mean, the airships in that area will all be
running on time and the palace will stay tidy. Or
else
.” She grinned
then, not really feeling it. Then she shook her head. “It’s worth it, Gloria.
All the headaches and effort. We all need to have people. Being alone… I’ve
done that. For decades. It warps your mind. If you have a chance to have a
friend… Take it. Don’t let yourself…”

She giggled then. It was fake,
forced and probably sounded really contrived to the other woman.

“I just realized that I’m giving
that advice to myself, not you. I’m just… Tired. Of everything. Like I’m going
through the motions of life, but there’s nothing there, inside?”

It was probably her being weak, of
course. She knew that, on a pretty deep level.

Gloria took another deep breath and
let her face go serious.

“You’ve been in the war. For years.
First those magic fuckers stabbed you, not even minutes after you got here.
Then you had to fight them off for us, barely recovered from that first battle.
That little bitch, Katherine… She stole
years
from you, while doing the
rest of us up the hind end. You never got a real break. You can’t get one now,
either. That’s why you feel like that. Fights, battles, they wear a body down.
There
are
things you can do about it. Having good friends helps. Keep
that in mind? You aren’t fighting for everyone. Just your pals. Me. Groundling.
Ferdinand. This new fella of yours. Your Westmorland buddies, too. Speaking of
which, I heard that Bethany is with child? That’s new, isn’t it?”

That gave her a topic to speak
about for a while, which was nicer than anything else she could think of at the
moment. The larger woman got a hug. It was warm enough that Gwen had to pull back
first. She just wasn’t normalized to being close to people. It was a weakness,
she knew. A thing that she doubted would be outgrown in the remainder of her
life.

“Now, I need to get off to the rest
of the things for the day. I just came to soften you up about Tom coming in
with me. Worst case, we can always just send him home. I hope it won’t be
needed, but you know how those nobles are.” She grinned then, since the ones
she knew weren’t half as soft and pampered as it had always sounded like they
should be.

Gloria seemed to think that was a
real possibility, however.

“We need the help. For real. Even
if he half does his part, it’s better than not having anything getting done for
that crew slot. Let’s be hopeful anyway? It can’t hurt.”

Gwen winked then, looked at her
pad, then sighed. She needed to either go back to see Adam Westmorland again,
or head off to Western University, to see about enrolling in some classes.
She’d met the Dean of the school before, though knew that he used to have a bit
of a crush on Katherine. That would probably mean her having to date the man on
the sly to get in or something. Or, possibly, her killing the man for trying.
Which wouldn’t get her into college at all.

Instead she decided to head over
and see if Doctor Professor Grainger might help her out that way. Waving to
Gloria she left the room, calling out over her shoulder.

“We’ll be here in two days. If
anything changes that way, I’ll get with you as soon as possible. It shouldn’t,
but there are some things that might not be in my control coming up.” That was
life all the time though. Most of it was outside a person’s ability to control.

Gloria muttered something, which
sounded like. “Better not.” Gwen wasn’t certain of that one, but it did seem
like what the other lady would be saying. She could be a bit hard, since she
worked with ship’s crew all the time. She’d also been in the Air Navy for ten
years or so. Possibly longer, but she wasn’t that old. In her late forties or
so, at a guess. Then again, Gwen had never simply asked people their ages. It
could be that everyone was older, or younger, than she thought they should be.
They had magic after all.