“What? Do you want me to apologize for being a short, child-like moron that kisses like a dog?” Tor asked, sarcasm dripping from him. It occurred to him that he might want to be a little more genteel with the King, considering the man could just as easily order his death as have another chair brought into the room. Still, it took him by surprise. His main point, well other than wondering what he’d have to apologize for in the first place, was simple enough.
“Why?”
That was the big thing in his mind. Varley started to take his arm gently, but the force fields collided. Instead she stood next to him, nearly the same height now that he was floating. Her dress, a nice light blue thing with a lot of frills and puff, managed to spread out along the edge of his shield. He looked down at the effect for a second, as it looked like the cloth wanted to ride along and around his own field, wrapping it in hers. He’d never thought of that happening, since he always wore pants. Could one field be wrapped in another? It didn’t have any ready purpose, he didn’t think, but it looked kind of cool.
Looking at him seriously, the King gave him a single nod.
“Precisely so. We’ll send an apology just like that, if you can’t come up with something better, along with some of your own devices. Things normally too expensive to simply get rid of or give away. That way, when Patricia does get rid of them, or gives them away out of spite, it will make it look like she hates you in truth. She’s not certain that the Wards and their friends are really buying her story yet.”
Blinking Tor suddenly felt really tired. Drained almost really. Like getting some sleep would be a good idea. He felt his eyes starting to close, but forced them back open and shook his head a little. Burks looked at him, blue eyes taking in everything about him it felt like for a minute, then finally the man gestured at him.
“We can do that, if you have anything lying around to send of?” Then the servant turned and stared at the King. It was unblinking, almost stern. “However, I think for now, at least a few weeks, we need to ensure that Tor takes a break. Such an “apology” doesn’t have to be in person. Better to use an intermediary actually, because that would seem more realistic right now. Ideally one reading from a note. Now, if we could get you to pen that, in your own hand, it would be good. Not absolutely needed, since the Wards probably don’t have a sample of your writing, but definitely harder to refute later if they check.” Waving at him a bit the man suddenly got a strange look on his face and stopped dead.
“Oh, of course… No one’s told you yet. Brilliant move that, Ricky, leave the one man who single handedly could destroy everything we’ve done in the dark, bumbling for a light.”
No one said anything for a while, but Tor remembered the King once telling him that he didn’t want to be called Rick or Ricky. Even now the large man winced when he heard it, but he didn’t challenge the other man at all, letting it pass instead.
The large man in black pseudo military garb took a deep breath and then exhaled, but nothing else came out at all. His mouth even opened a few times as if he wanted to say something but didn’t know how. All of Tor’s friends looked down, including Ursala, leaving only the Dean and Varley making direct eye contact with him.
“Well?” Tor asked softly, hoping someone would answer him.
The cute Princess did, sounding a little worried as she spoke, but plunging bravely ahead. Varley was good at doing things like that, at least with him. Too bad she was going to end up so tall, Tor thought and he looked into her eyes and held them for a second.
“This… I don’t know much here Tor, but my guess is that Trice has gotten inside with Ward and his group. However she’s done that, what dad wants you to do is goad her now, so that she has a real reason to publicly mock and rebuke you, which will make it look like she really hates you and that all possible ties between you are cut, but…” Turning away slowly, the girl started to pace. It was only a few steps before the wall forced her to turn back, but she did it several times before she turned to face him again.
“The thing is Tor, that this could end up being really, really public. Maybe. We know that she’s probably worked inside Ward and that she’s trying to get proof that she and her parents didn’t try to kill you, but we don’t know how far she’ll be willing to go in order to get that done. She could… Well, you think it’s bad so far, but if you did this, she could possibly push you into attacking her or her parents and no one here wants that either…”
It didn’t make a lot of sense at first. Trice was with Ward now? Well, he was certainly tall and good looking enough and probably didn’t kiss like a dog. About as close to the opposite of him as possible. She definitely wouldn’t feel like she was making a move on a child when she was with him at least. But he was supposed to poke her with an obviously fake apology? Like what David Derring did to Count Rodriguez when he apologized for existing?
OK. That he could get. The problem though would be like having poked a bear. In her hatred and anger at him she might attack. True, with words and lies, or maybe just unpleasant truths, but it could really hurt him and everyone knew it. But it might help her take down the Wards?
“Why would I want to help her do anything? I mean, especially if it gives her a chance and reason to come after me again? I guess I can buy that the Wards are somehow behind all this, even attacking me, but how do we know that Trice wasn’t with them all along?”
“We don’t.” Rolph said quietly, shifting in his wooden chair in a way that caused it to creak under his weight.
“All we really know is that the Wards, particularly Maria, may be behind this. I guess… It might not make sense to you right now, but we’ve all known Trice for longer than you have and, well, it pretty much comes down to that. She told the King that she didn’t try kill you, and that she intends to take down the people who did. Even that she really does love you. She’s working on credit from her past with us, but I can see how that might not be enough for you personally, not after what she did. She’s kept to her story with us, that she just said those things to get attention from anyone that dislikes you, but…”
Well, as long as he could see that Tor might be a little uncomfortable, then that made it all OK, didn’t it? Tor had to fight not to roll his eyes. Trice supposedly loved him now? God he’d hate to think what she’d have done if she’d really hated him then. The discussion that followed was hard, because he was exhausted, so tired he could barely pay attention to what everyone else said, he forced focus so that it wouldn’t look rude, but it was hard. The King never tried to order him to do anything in particular, but it was clear that almost everyone in the room thought it was a good plan, giving Trice something to use when she needed it.
Tor settled to the ground and paced himself for a while. It was a plan. Not a good plan and it had a major flaw, in that it required Trice to not only be able to get information from the Wards that would show they were guilty somehow, but actually be trying to. For all Tor knew the woman would just use his apology against him personally and nothing good would come of it ever. Not that he was all that worried. If people hated him because of what she said and no women would have him, well, the sum worked out to be the same. Zero. No women wanted him anyway. So what did he lose by doing it? It was a risk, sure, but not one so big that he couldn’t take it, just in case the Wards really had tried to kill all those people.
Still, it seemed wrong and more than a little stupid for him to give over the keys to his personal destruction, at least socially, to a person he knew first hand hated him. Tor pointed this out. Several times. The whole room, except Burks, seemed to be on the side of his helping her out anyway. Well, Burks and Varley who at least seemed concerned for his feelings in the matter. That… was really pretty nice of her. There was no rule that said a Princess had to come to his defense at all, was there?
The servant just smiled at him calmly and waited to see what he’d say. Tor just looked around, until, finally Ursala spoke. Her voice was very quiet, so much so that if Tor hadn’t been walking directly behind her at the time he’d have missed what she said all together.
“They killed my parents. My child.” Nothing else came out. It wasn’t wheedling or begging or… anything. It was a simple, dark, statement.
Heartrending.
“ Alright… But when I’m even more of a social pariah and no women will talk to me and all men revile my name, I expect you people to be on my side. I’m talking hugs and cuddles all around here, pats on the back, the whole game.” Tor let his voice be quiet when he spoke too. This, he knew, probably wouldn’t be fun at all. He’d be better off just flying over with a few men for back-up and killing them all. Or maybe making a giant air choke that would do it from a mile away. In the night. They’d never wake up at all. The only problem with that would be filtering out the servants and others so that only the Wards were affected.
“You… can do that?” Rolph’s eyes went wide and he half stood for a second, then sat slowly, lowering himself into the chair instead of just dropping. It was more dignified and also probably saved on furniture, as big as he was, Tor thought suddenly, surprised he could think about anything other than the impending destruction of what little respect he might have left in the world.
Oh well.
If the price of getting justice for Karen, Ursala’s people and the rest was his dignity, as small and tarnished as it already was… Could he refuse? It sounded like a good deal over all, except for the part where he’d be the one suffering for it in the end. Then again, his suffering, no matter how great, was tiny compared to the universe as a whole. Nothing to get worked up over. Not really.
Funnily enough, it took almost everyone a while to understand that he’d just agreed with them. Agreed to risk whatever it was they were asking of him on the off chance that a person that might hate him more than anyone else in the world, could use it to catch some bad people. The only thing he could really hold out for himself in all this was that he was pretty sure that when it was all over he could move to some little town in the deep woods that didn’t have a baker already and start over.
What amazed him was that even after he agreed, Varley kept arguing that they shouldn’t do it.
“No. I won’t let this happen. He’s suffered enough in all this. He’s been poisoned, humiliated and maligned when all he’s ever done is help people. We can find some other way. Assassination or… We can call a forum and present overwhelming evidence… I don’t know. I guess that’s what this is about, trying to get that evidence, but we can’t ask this of him! Not after all he’s done for us. It’s… wrong. This isn’t asking some man or woman to spend their life heroically gaining honor in the process, this is… The exact opposite! “Hey Tor, let us strip you of all honor and dignity, oh, by the way, you get to live with the fallout from it forever. Have fun with that.” No. I… I forbid it.” Arms crossed her chest as she looked at them all defiantly, no one spoke for a long time and the room started to feel too close to Tor, not warm, but like there just wasn’t enough air for all of them with the door closed.
“Princess Veronica,” Dean Hardgrove spoke gently, his voice pleasant but serious at the same time. It was very nearly deferential; something that Tor hadn’t really noticed being there before, not even when he’d been speaking with the King a few minutes before.
“I’m not saying you’re incorrect, but please don’t think this is suggested lightly. Not every sacrifice a person is asked to make for the kingdom is one of honor. If you get a chance sometime, ask some of the Royal Guard what their oath is. I think you’ll find that nowhere within it does it assure them honor in the eyes of others, or that anyone will ever think well of them at all. What we’re asking for here, from Tor, is more than we would ever ask of any normal man, true. But he is no normal man. I think you can see that, can’t you?”
Varley spun on the man aggressively enough that for a moment it looked like she planned to fight him. The idea was ridiculous of course, or would have been if the Princess wasn’t sitting behind a fairly decent shield and probably had weapons actively on her person. Probably better equipped than most of the military commandos were, all things considered.
“Tor isn’t a Royal Guard! He’s not in the military and until two months ago, he wasn’t even a noble, not really. Would you ask me to sell my name and honor in the eyes of society just to catch some murderers? No offense Ursala… know that if you need me too, I’ll go and kill them myself… But please… don’t do this…” Her voice suddenly held tears, which were matched by Sara and Ursala after less than ten seconds.
Tor shook his head.
“Easy there Varley. I’m already considered an evil troll that’s probably responsible for all manner of bad things and can’t get a girl, which probably means I like to sleep with men or animals or children in the minds of some people. What’s the worst that can happen? No one talks to me again ever? I’m hunted to my death or out of the kingdom and no other land will have me? I’m willing to bet that not even a tenth of that actually happens. If it does… Well, I can survive almost anywhere now, If I work at it a little. I don’t think some words and aspersions will cut too deeply now, not when I know it almost has to happen. Let’s do it and see though, right? Once you get past the fear of death, everything else is just another thing to deal with.”
He hoped it sounded about right, because if things really went too far south, he’d probably really regret those words. It took everyone and more than a few hugs, but the Princess finally gave her permission. Tor wasn’t sure what would have happened if she hadn’t, but no one seemed inclined to push her that far on the point either. Not even the King or her own brother. It wouldn’t have been war, he knew that, she didn’t have her own army, so what could she do? Kidnap him away until the whole thing blew over? Right now, since she was the only person standing up for him in all this, Tor thought that might be tolerable. He grinned at her, dropped his own shield and put his arm half around her.
Leaning in, he whispered very near her ear.
“It means a lot that you tried to protect me. Thank you. I won’t forget it.”
She turned and hugged him, which got an amused looked from most of the people in the room, except Burks who just yawned and rubbed at his black hair, and Sara, who looked strange. But then she did that sometimes. It was like Tor made her sad sometimes. He couldn’t think of anything he’d done to make her feel that way, but it seemed likely anyway. If he could, he needed to make that right between them. Hopefully before he became the most evil being ever in the eyes of the whole kingdom.
“Wait. Sara, this destruction of all that is Tor that’s coming no doubt, will it hurt your family’s business? Or the other people doing business with me? Lintel and Sorvee now, plus anyone else you lined up contracts with? I don’t want to ruin lives that way either. You know, making it so no one will buy anything that I had a hand in. I suppose we could change the names and look of the devices and stuff, but…”
Blond hair got pushed at, even though it was too short to really be in the way at all now.
“Not likely. I wouldn’t expect a lot of party invitations to come in maybe, but people would buy your stuff if you were known to, well, think of the worst thing you can, then double that. Rumors won’t hurt that. Top builders are supposed to be eccentric; it’s part of their charm. Especially since you’ve taken pains to prop up about half the current war effort yourself. Actually, I’m not really certain this will damage you at all. Someone bad mouthing you right now will pretty much just seem insane or evil themselves. I’m… more worried about what it might do to Trice. I can see this all splashing off you perfectly and landing back in her lap, leaving you almost untouched and her an evil Doretta that no one ever talks to again. That kind of thing can follow people for decades. This might work, but it’s risky that way.” Sara took a deep shuddering breath, as if she expected him to yell at her. When he didn’t she started talking again.
“I mean, I know that she hurt you, but this kind of thing… We’ll, you may look and feel bad for a while, but she’ll be known as a Doretta forever, I think. You aren’t… well, you’re Tor. Every person at school remembers you and probably will every time they sit to a meal for years. You’ve saved more lives than anyone I’ve ever heard of, from the most common of people, to high ranked nobles like Ridley and his family. You’re everyone’s friend now. I know she really wants to show you that she didn’t do this and her parents didn’t either, and that she’s willing to do about anything to do that, even lose you, even die, but god, I just hope this ends up being worth it.”
So did Tor.
Was he supposed to tear into Trice again now? Sara looked like she expected it, but for all that he still hurt from what she’d said about him and would probably hurt again when all this stuff hit, he found that he just didn’t have it inside to wish her harm. Not even damage to her reputation like this might bring. She’d been his friend, even if he didn’t feel like it sometimes, right? Everyone else seemed to think so at least.
Tor felt himself nodding off, so asked if he could get back home and work from there, checking to make sure he had the right idea.
“So, I send her a note, like we talked about and something, a gift that she’ll just give away or destroy or whatever? I think I have an idea…” It wasn’t anything big, but maybe if he coupled it with a few other things it would work?
Varley wanted to go back to “Tor Base” with them, but she was too needed there, at the palace, for now, the King informed her, gently. Escorting guests and dignitaries in didn’t seem like a huge deal to Tor, but he could kind of see it in a way. If the King and Queen were too busy to come see someone, having one of their own children escorting some high-muckity around could smooth a lot of feathers. No one could complain that they’d “only sent a Princess” to see to their needs, could they? Rolph was actually in the planning sessions, he had to be in his role as heir. God forbid something happen to Richard, but if it did, Rolph had to be ready to take over seamlessly. Karina was working with Connie nearly full time on whatever Queen’s did during wars, social projects in support of the effort, Tor thought. So that left the junior Princess kind of stuck picking up all the meeting and greeting herself.
“Well… It’s true, even if it’s mainly a boring job that a monkey could do. Still, can I come up in a few days or a week or so? Don’t try to disappear into a work trance or something before I come and visit for a bit!” Then she pulled him outside the little room and on to the stairs.
“Tor… be careful and make sure to eat, all right? I’ll be there in a few days and if not… well any extra break you take is probably a good thing.”
She gave him a tight hug and a lingering kiss like she had been doing each time they met or parted. He kind of worried about slobbering all over her like a dog, but she didn’t seem concerned about his obviously poor skill at the task. She didn’t relent until Sara cleared her throat and suggested that they shouldn’t block the stairs. There was, at least, a chuckle in her voice.
The ride back was fast enough. Godfrey had just waited for them, which Tor thought was kind of him, and needed because Ursala didn’t have flying gear yet, or, as far as he knew, skill in flying at all. So far she’d been getting rides in the people transports. That wasn’t a bad thing, Tor knew that as hearty as she was pretending to be, poisons like that could and did take a lot out of you for a long while. He was still feeling the effects of nearly dying himself for instance and it had been a while. Months now, he thought.
He spoke to Sara, who decided to sit right next to him on the trip back, even though there was room for each of them to have several of the already large benches. She didn’t try to touch him or anything, but sat as close as she could without the shields bumping so that they could talk. Her voice was pitched low and soft, so that it wouldn’t carry, not that Ursala couldn’t have heard them anyway, the space wasn’t big and the whole thing flew with an eerie silence, even the air rushing past not making a sound. The woman seemed to be lost in thought and sat at the back, as if knowing instinctively that the other blond wanted Tor alone for a time.
“Tor… Um, so… what are your plans?” It didn’t seem to have the air of a casual question, but what she meant Tor had no clue. Not really. What plans should he have?
“Well, right now, I need to get back and maybe eat some more, then climb in bed. Baking starts early in the morning as a rule and I told Sorlee I’d help her learn enough to do her job, that one at least. After that? Well, I want to test the Sky Rivers for Afrak, but that’s going to be a bit, because I need to make copies of it first and I have no idea how long that’s going to take. I need to build back up physically and maybe, I don’t know, get some exercise? Then… well, I have a half dozen projects that are all screaming at me to get done and I guess that if I don’t get back to making copies soon a dozen generals are going to descend on the compound and start pestering me. That’s… about all I have for now.”
Her breath caught in her throat, half way through its cycle and she made a sound that at first he thought might be a sob, but it wasn’t. She laughed. Not a huge laugh, but more than a polite chuckle.
“No… Not what I meant, though I agree that you need to take a break and get your health back right now. I… well, I kind of mean what are your plans in regards to Trice…”
Ah. That.
How was he supposed to answer? Sara and Trice were still friends and as far as Tor could tell the blond girl was pretty certain that her friend really hadn’t meant to hurt him with her words at all and really had just been trying to do what she’d claimed later and get whoever had attacked him to approach her, looking for an opening to get to him. It would have been a good plan really, except that he’d found out, and broke everything off in public like he had. That pretty much got her out of what she’d been complaining about, right? Going after him once the engagement ended would just seem insane. But he had nothing for Trice now.
Shifting on the bench a little, his field bumped into Sara’s, who’d taken to copying him and wearing her shield all the time. Ursala hadn’t started doing that yet he realized, which he’d have to fix.
Suddenly it occurred to him that she probably didn’t own a shield at all. There was a war on and she was at least as good a target as anyone, being a royal and the future wife of the heir. Plus, his friend. That last wouldn’t make her more of a target, but it did mean whatever small protections he could drum up with would be coming. Anyone that thought differently was too stupid to live. They’d get his friends when they crawled over his dead body to reach them. Even then, he decided, he’d make it so that his people were protected as much as possible.
“I… Sara, I know that everyone keeps saying that Trice isn’t like that, and that she must have had some other plan in place. Maybe. I don’t know. But that all seems predicated on the idea that she didn’t just hate me to begin with. I mean so far in life, every woman I’ve ever approached has done that to me eventually. Publicly humiliating me like that, telling everyone how little they think of me, how bad I am. So… what am I supposed to do here? Am I… supposed to just trust her anyway? I guess I should if everyone else says so, but I’m not really ready for that yet. I’ll work on it. I promise, all right? For now… I’ll send a letter and some gifts like the King wants and then get back to work. It’s all there is for people like me, you know? Work. That’s all stupid little trolls are good for.” Did he sound bitter? A little. Couldn’t be helped though, could it? What he’d said was just the truth after all.
At least this time her eyes didn’t fill up with tears, and she didn’t look like she pitied him either. Sara snorted at him instead, sounding an awful lot like Rolph at his most derisive.
“Just… stop that right now Tor. I’m getting sick of your stupid “no women will have me” line. Yeah, you’ve had some hard knocks, but it’s still bullshit and you have to know it by now! My mom seriously tried setting up a marriage for you and I, you know. Because I asked her to. This was even before you were Countier Lairdgren of muckity-whatever or even “The Tor”. Just my friend. Do you think that Ursala wouldn’t have married you when you asked, if they’d all known it would have been within the three steps? Hell Tor, she’d marry you now I think. I know that Rolph was worried about leaving us alone with you when he left, because you might steal both of us away.”
Now it was his turn to snort.
While it was kind of her to say, it wasn’t true, he knew. Rolph, for one thing, didn’t worry about having girls stolen away from him and didn’t have too. He was, well… him. Even if his friend hadn’t been the Prince of the realm and all that nonsense, all the girls would still like him. Everyone did. Besides… Trice and Maria had both said that Tor wasn’t good enough.
Trying to hold his voice to wry, he mentioned that.
“So? Trice would do anything she had to in order to protect her friends and family, anything, if that means losing you, you know that she’d do it. You two are just alike that way. Granted, she should have told you first. I get that now, but back then, after the thing with Maria, I doubt she thought you could handle it. It was stupid of her to think that way, true. I mean, we both saw how you went in to that middens after that boy, and she’d seen you fight a man three times your size, who was in a full combat rage, to save a woman you didn’t even know. There’s probably not a lot that you can’t handle if you know to prepare for it, but in her own way she was probably trying to protect you….” Sara, brushed her hair back, a habit developed from a life time of actually having some. Right now her hair didn’t even hang down into her eyes. It was a sensible cut for her current line of delivery person at least. It looked cute enough. Rolph hadn’t complained at least.
“But… Tor, that’s beside the point. The fact is, you shouldn’t listen to them. Even if you don’t want me or… Ursala… or even want to play with your new little friend Sorlee, not one but two members of the royal family have shown extreme amounts of interest in you. Enough to get people to talk. Right now you’re really bordering on being cruel yourself with a bunch of people you know.”
From the back of the transport a voice holding a low chuckle chimed in.
“Darn straight! If you don’t want to do us all, well, that’s… Actually kind of silly. All of us are wonderful in our own ways, even Sorlee is more than worth having sex with I bet, I’d give her a shot if she offered… But it’s your decision; still you need to at least make sure you aren’t being unkind. At least learn to play back a bit even if you don’t want to engage. You did manage to kiss Varley well enough, but really, how do you think the rest of us feel, you doing that and ignoring all the signals we’re sending out?”
“Um, signals?”
They were sending him signals? How? Smoke? A tapped military thing? Some secret code no one had ever taught him? He wondered for a second if this was all some kind of game they were playing with him right now. Luckily at about that time the transport landed, a much faster thing this time, since they were expected and all that, plus no Royal Guards were hanging around waiting to take the transport out of the air if it moved too fast. Not that he knew of at least.
It was, at least nominally, his house. True Rolph owned the property, but he was kind of renting it, in exchange for his work with the military, wasn’t he? So you’d think that any arrangements like that would be run passed him.
He laughed at himself when he finished the thought.
Right, even if everyone agreed with him, when would they have done that? It wasn’t fair to require people to ask for his permission to do things if he wasn’t going to really be able to talk to them for days or weeks at a time. No one seemed to really, agree with him, all of them still calling it a military base, worse “Tor Base” a name which made him shudder a little when he heard it. Maybe if he made a sign and hung it out front? What could he call it though? “Tor’s house” was just as bad as Tor base. Nearly at least.
Rich people named their houses sometimes, didn’t they? It was in the stories at least.
Maybe the compound needed a name. What could he call it though? There wasn’t anything around that really stood out, just a bunch of empty lands. He’d have to think about it. Tor asked Sara and Ursala if they could come up with something better than “Tor Base” before he crawled into his bed and tapped the light plate stuck to the wall over the head of his bed. The plate, just copper with acid etching of course, making a green design in the middle, sat recessed into the wall. Someone had carved that out while he’d sat right there working?
Amazing. He’d never even noticed at all. They would have had to sit on his head or something while they worked practically. For a few seconds he envisioned exactly that happening, some military guy sitting on him while working with a hammer and chisel, but it was more likely that they’d just moved him out of the way first, then used a specialized cutter for the job, taking only a few minutes. When he worked he was pretty much gone, Tor knew, so it wouldn’t have been hard.
When he got up the whole place had gone dark, so pulling shoes on carefully, his light plate set to its lowest level, Tor made his way out carefully. He could hear heavy breathing coming from behind the other screens as he moved. He didn’t know what time it was really, but it felt like time for all good little bakers to be getting a start on the day at least. No one seemed to be out and about that he could tell, so he used the restroom and then went to the bath house. Inside the lights had been left on, which made sense. After all, there was no oil wasted, and the place didn’t have windows, so even during the day it would have been pitch black without them.
The tub gurgled full pretty fast. At this point in the system a pipe, one about four inches around emptied directly into the huge bath. It was so big that it had to have a bench all the way around the inside of it and really, as long as the people weren’t as vast as the biggest nobles, three or four people would be able to soak in one at once. He’d seen people sharing a few times, which Rolph had assured him were a normal bathhouse thing. You showered first, then shared a tub to warm up after. They hadn’t done that at home or at school, but they didn’t have tubs like this either.
Right now though, he didn’t have to share with anyone at all. The tub, big as it was, filled in less than a minute, a lot less. He selected a warm setting for the water, tapping the plate on the side, and after getting his clothing off he gingerly climbed the little ladder that let him get in. As easy as baking was, given his health at the moment he found himself more than a little sore from the previous day’s labors. Kolb would have beaten him back into shape most likely at this point. Since he wasn’t around he’d have to buckle down and do it himself, an idea he dreaded. For the moment though, a hot soak was better than nothing and he had a few minutes to just sit and enjoy the water before he needed to get to the kitchens.
Eyes closed he heard other people coming in, and the showers towards the back get turned on. That took guts he knew, because the showers didn’t have heaters yet. Even with the weather being decently warm, the water felt cold enough to make a body shiver. Really, he just needed to make a plate or two for it like for the tubs and the roof cistern could be warmed easily enough. It kind of surprising to him that no one had just stolen one of the heaters from a tub to do that with already. That… he could do it later in the day. It would only take about an hour after all, and people in a hurry shouldn’t have to freeze. Tor thought that he could get to it after lunch without anyone getting mad at him, if he was quick about it, even if he was supposed to be taking a break from hard work.
Could he manage a griddle or two for the kitchen too? It would be tricky, because if he tried to do too much work, the girls would probably… Tor had no clue what they’d do to him. Douse him with water so that he couldn’t work properly? That wouldn’t be enough to mess him up, unless the water was really cold. Or hot. But burning him might be counterproductive, if the goal was for him to not damage his health any more.
Some of the other tubs started to be filled with water, the sound a lot softer than when he’d done it. Ah! Right, they only had the flow of one little stream to work with and the water pumps didn’t work if there was no water to put out. Another reason to test the new rivers he realized. His little house here needed more water, and so, most likely, did the bigger base where the flight training was going on. That map pointer guy had mentioned it as a growing problem already even.
After about half a minute Tor felt the water in his tub suddenly rise as someone climbed in to share, and before he could even open his eyes a second body joined the first. He nearly panicked for a second until he realized that assassins or robbers wouldn’t climb in with him. Robbers would have just lifted what was sitting on the little bench, and assassins would have slit his throat from behind. The idea wasn’t comforting, but as Varley had pointed out, inside like this, well, they did have guards and stuff, right? He could live without any pleasures, sure. He’d done it. But if he couldn’t even have use of the little joys and comforts available to him, what was the point of being anymore?
“This is the best part of this job. In the city we’d just get a cold bucket out the back alley to scrub up with after the night.” The voice was entirely too feminine, causing Tor to freeze suddenly.
Worse the next voice that spoke was just as womanly.
“Same where I was. I’ve got to say though, I was a little afraid at first, what with this place not having proper bouncers and all, but all the costumers are right gentleman, aren’t they? “Please miss, if it’s all right, might I do you from behind?” and “If it’s acceptable, would you please use your mouth?” at first I thought they were just putting us on, but they’re all like that. One got a little rough with Glari the other day and the other blokes came boiling out and thrashed the man right proper, and then, get this, without them even threatening him or telling him he had too, he apologized to her and gave over all the coin he had! Really, no one even said he should. It wasn’t even that big a thing, didn’t bruise her or nothing, just made her gag a little much is all.”
Apparently, he realized quickly enough, he’d come at the time of day that the women of… rettry, got off work and was invading their normal bath time. Well that was rude of him, wasn’t it? It kind of made sense, the end of their shift being near the beginning of his today given their current professions. Now he was kind of stuck, wasn’t he? If he opened his eyes, they’d all be there, naked. That wouldn’t be proper at all. Well, there was only one thing for it; he’d have to keep his eyes closed until they left to preserve their dignity. His own was… well, given everything, that didn’t matter, did it? He was the one in the wrong here, not them.
“The lady of the house told me that everyone is so nice here because the base commander, that fellow they call Major Godfrey? He told them all that the Prince himself said that if any of us is mistreated in any way he’d get Tor the wizard to come out and thrash them himself. No one wants to cross him.”
From the sound of it, this came from a tub down a ways to his left. From just slightly closer another voice spoke, this one a little breathy and younger sounding.
“One of the men here told me about how there was this Count from down south, who’d challenged a little noble boy to a fight to the death, just to punish the kids da, and Master Tor went and made him fight him instead and humiliated the man into apologizing to the boy, just by pointing at him. How fierce and powerful a man do you have to be to make a Count grovel just with a hard look and some gestures? Makes me shiver just to think of.”
Tor nodded. It did sound pretty bad, when put that way. It wasn’t that he’d just pointed at the man, he’d had weapons in his hands, they were just all on copper tubes, and smaller than the normal ones, so that they’d be cheaper. That could have looked a bit like he was just pointing to some of the rich people that had been watching, used to seeing large silver weapons as they were.
Further down, in what must have been the last tub; a more familiar voice spoke quietly.
“S’Tor’s n’s hi’s… Tor… is… nice. He baky, baked… with me yesterday.”
Sorlee.
Well, that made it even more important that he keep his eyes closed, didn’t it? He’d see her in a little while off in the kitchen, and have to be able to look her in the eye. He’d already probably blush.
One of the women in his tub spoke then.
“What’s that Sorlee? You baked with him? Is that a country euphemism for fucked? I guess I can see it, the whole “bun in the oven” thing, baking… I kind of like it!”
The girl down on the far end chuckled.
“Na… real baking. Making the meal bread and desserts. I didn’t know it was… Master Tor. It is why the food was better. The master is also a real baker, not just a wizard. He went later to house and lady bow and lower to him. Set it up so I do both now, practice up like last night an larn… And learn to take a large man without pain. The nice women wot d’Prince… The ladies of the Prince? They came and gave me hints for sex.”
Sorlee spoke slowly and had to get some help with words every now and then, but the other women were certainly being kind to her about it, even taking pains to help her learn it seemed.
“And… then the big woman told me about using oil so I won’t hurt too much. I don’t know her name…”
“Ursala. Countess Thorgood.” Tor spoke, keeping his eyes closed tightly and head tilted towards the ceiling, in case his eyes opened by accident or something.
“Hey, you speak! I thought you might be being all hoity and saying you were too good for us, refusing to even look our way and all even. Didn’t jump out like were tainted at least, so that’s something. Some get like that around whores.” This came from the woman to his right. Her voice didn’t sound angry about the perceived slight. Sighing he figured he’d better explain so he wouldn’t offend them by not looking at them. Moving to a cave suddenly started to make sense to him; all these social rules were hard.
And annoying.
“It’s not that. Nothing like that at all. I just have to keep my eyes closed so that I won’t give offense, looking at you naked. I didn’t realize that you all used the bath house this time of day and was just getting ready for work myself. So, I figured that I’d just sit here with my eyes shut so that, you know, we preserve your dignity and all that.”
The room went silent.
After a few seconds everyone laughed. It wasn’t an upset sound at least. His right arm was suddenly nudged a little from the right.
“You’d worry about preserving the dignity of a bunch of whores?” At least the voice was amused sounding.
The question baffled him at first. He thought about it for a few seconds and then felt even more confused. Tor tried to explain, knowing he’d probably sound like a hick again. At least he could get the accent right, he figured, so made an effort to sound quick proper about it all.
“Well, you aren’t at work right now… Why shouldn’t your dignity be as important as anyone else’s?” He said quietly. Suddenly something warm and soft pressed up against his arm and he felt a kiss on his cheek.
“That’s about the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard. Acting like were actually people still and all, instead of just something warm to stick a cock into. Well, keep that up and I’ll just have to do you for free.” Her voice sounded bubbly and a little sexy in that saucy kind of way that the street walkers in the Capital had used the one time he’d had any of them speak to him.
He heard a soft padding of feet come towards him.
The words that came were slow again, but this time very near his ear.
“You’d do him anyway Farra… Lady said. This be’sert… I mean this is… Master Tor.” Suddenly in a great rush she spoke in their normal regional dialect.
“Didn’t know you were in here Master Lord Tor! You coming to bake with me today again then? I didn’t know who you were yesterday, I hope it… didn’t offend you or anything?”
He answered the same way, a small smile on his lips.
“Yeah, I’ll be in as soon as I can vacate the tub here. I don’t want to be staring at everyone, it wouldn’t be correct, you know? But I don’t know how long everyone will want to soak, so it could be a bit. Unless you could hand me my clothing? I know that I’ll look like a moron, and probably be laughed at, but as long as everyone else is fine with it? I mean, if they won’t be offended… And we work together and all, so you know, call me Tor. I’m not a master yet, and certainly not a lord of anything.”
Sorlee, slowly but with good humor, made an effort to explain all this to the women in the room, who went silent again. Finally a voice from a few tubs down chuckled.
“Girls, we need to pack it in early today it seems. It’s the only way we can leave the gentleman his own dignity I think, which would be worth doing even if he wasn’t the owner, no? Preserve our dignity? I… honestly, I think I may just break down. In the last five years, I’ve been doing this no one has ever done something like that for me, being concerned with my feelings…” There was a lot of splashing for a while, and then the sounds of drying and dressing, at the door a few of them called out their goodbyes. The last one that spoke said something a little strange, but polite enough, he figured.
“Thank you for your kindness sir.” It was a voice he hadn’t heard speaking in the room before, soft, and almost shy. The woman sounded awfully familiar from somewhere, but he couldn’t place it at all. Maybe one of the girls from the city then?
When he was sure they were all gone he called out just to check. No one said anything at least, so he hazarded opening his eyes. He was, it turned out, alone.
Good. Now he could just start blushing and stroke out in peace from it. That had been incredibly awkward.
As he dried off quickly, Tor decided that he needed to get the women their own bath house pretty soon. What would have happened if he hadn’t been as polite, or even if he hadn’t had his eyes closed at first? Sure, he knew what they did for a living and from what they said they wouldn’t have cared if he saw them, but it was his job to make sure their dignity and even their honor, was taken care of, wasn’t it?
They were, more or less, his guests.
That being the case he really hadn’t done much for them yet at all had he? He lacked time to get to know them and see to their persona comfort individually. That was just a fact. Still, that didn’t mean he shouldn’t try to do right by them…
The baking went well enough, so he had Sorlee start her own loaves of bread, a small batch of ten, when she got in about eleven, looking sleepy and puffy eyed. She needed to get the recipe down as well as the baking times. The young woman did a pretty good job, but the large batches seemed a little overwhelming to her. It was, he knew, just a matter of getting used to it, like most things in life it would be easy to her after a while of doing it. Then he set her to making pies for the afternoon.
Her idea of a pie crust made Tor want to cry.
Seriously just sit on the kitchen floor and sob. It was basically just bread with a little extra sugar in it. It could work, but it had almost no relationship to what most people here would think of as pie at all. He had to walk her through how to use butter, flour and salt, cut with a knife, because they didn’t have a pastry cutter, to make the dough, then she had to learn how to roll it out, not just spread an uneven lumpy mass in the pans.
They ended up working until about one in the afternoon just to get the fifteen pies they needed. They had a mix of apple, pear and berry at least, so there was variety. She did alright, he told her, for her first time, but he expected her to improve a lot in speed, once she knew what she was doing.
He crossed his arms at her for a few seconds, tapped his right foot, and then smiled.
“Right. Tomorrow you do all the pies and bread. Can you get here a little earlier? I know that you’re up late…”
“Same kind of thing there really. If I do up a bunch of costumers quick like at the beginning I can get into my proper bed early. You know that we each get two beds here? One for work and one just to sleep in? None of the other girls have ever had that before. I didn’t know it was strange till earlier when they told me. I’m getting more used to that standard talk. They’re all helping me now that the others know that I’m not all polly priss on em and just need to get my legs under me a bit.”
The whole thing still left Tor feeling a little odd, sending the girl back to a whorehouse for her “real” job. A matter of honor for her though and, his backwoods morals aside, why shouldn’t she make coin that way? Her honor was just as valid and his and besides, men were willing to pay for the service, so that meant it was legitimate, right?
The idea that Two Bends wasn’t the center of the world or the only measure of what was right wasn’t that new an idea to him. He’d been away at school for a couple of years at least, before he had to consider this in the here and now. It was a good thing really. If he’d walked straight out of Two Bends to this situation he wouldn’t have been nearly as able to adapt.
Trying to be kindly, he patted the girl lightly on the back, not making contact, because his own shield stopped him. She seemed to get the general idea. Just to save everyone time he took luncheon in to Ursala and Sara himself, only to find that Sara had left to go out on a delivery. It was, he knew, kind of her job, getting large cargo loads off to the Capital and various bases around the area.
Technically, even though she slept in Tor’s place with the rest of them, she’d joined up with the military. She was actually Sergeant Sara Debri now, given that high of a rank because of her level of schooling, and the fact that she’d brought her own flying gear and shield. When the military had less than two thousand people outfitted like that, anyone coming in already knowing how to fly and with their own gear kind of got to ask for what they wanted.
She wanted to be here for some reason.
As they ate cold sandwiches and boiled eggs, Tor got to thinking about Ursala. She really should learn to fly, if she was going to be way out at his house like this. What if she needed to go somewhere, or just wanted to get out for a while? As they finished eating he packed away the dishes in the compressed earth box the meal had come in, to go back for washing. Then he dug into the chest of fields kept under his bed. Pulling out a flying rig and shield Tor handed them to her with a little grin, hoping she wouldn’t be offended by it. After all, giving a woman a present that a lot of people considered valuable, while they were alone like this, could be taken as being an invitation to something very different than what he currently intended. Someday he’d try to work up the nerve to think about intending something like that with her, if he could. Maybe. Just thinking that made his face warm a bit, but the new beard helped to hide it, he hoped.
“Flying rig and shield. Both yours. That you don’t have them already was an oversight on my part, sorry about that. Do you want to try it right now?” He said shortly but with a smile, knowing that she didn’t exactly have anything else to do, but might want to change first. Trousers really did work a lot better than skirts for the purpose after all, especially with all the men at the base. Even the Princesses wore pants for flying, he told her.
The men might want to peek up her skirts he knew. Tor did, as inappropriate as it would be, so who could blame them for just glancing up? She went to change and apparently had to dig through her own trunk to find something that would work. It took a while at least. It wasn’t until they got outside that he realized she was clearly scared half out of her mind.
“Oh! You rode in the transport so well yesterday that it didn’t even occur to me that you might be afraid of heights or flying… I…” Tor didn’t want to shame her in public or anything. She should learn to fly anyway, it was a good skill to have, and when you noticed a fear it always paid to face it down, but maybe they could go a ways beyond the wall to practice, so no one would hear if she screamed or cried or something.
“It’s not that. It’s just… I know I kind of said that you needed to pay attention to people that were making overtures towards you but I didn’t mean you had to give me a gift like this. It’s… Thousands of golds worth of stuff Tor. I just meant that you should flirt back a little, or have sex with a few people. Or at least hint that you might be interested… Give out a few more hugs or something.”
Tor shrugged.
“Relative value Ursala. To me what you’re wearing represents about a quarter silvers worth of materials and about twenty minutes worth of time, once I break it all down. A few pennies of leather and some twine. Less than that really. A nice flower arrangement would cost about the same or more in the Capital.” He grinned.
“Besides, if you’re willing and Sara isn’t back when we finish up you can explain some of this sex stuff to me. That’s certainly worth this little bit of junk, information is priceless after all.”
For some reason that Tor didn’t understand, his attempt at “playing back” got a low and meaningful chuckle from the girl.
“Alright. I think we can work something out in… trade, that way if you want.”
Tor didn’t know for certain, but he suspected she wasn’t talking about the same thing he was at all.