Tor grabbed the bridge of his nose, as if his head hurt, which amazing enough it didn’t. Well. He didn’t want to draw this out, because if the King had to kill him over this he didn’t want Varley to wonder if she was responsible. Quickly he explained the whole thing with Kolb and the organization he kind of started out of the back of the Wildlands Station. Instead of yelling, or even getting all serious looking the King leaned forwards and… smiled.
“And you plan on supporting them? With your devices and such? How are we supposed to pay for this? I mean, I could order it done, but openly paying for something kind of defeats the purpose of a secret organization, doesn’t it?” He stroked his naked chin but didn’t say anything.
“Well… do I get anything for making all those devices for the military?” Tor asked, not really expecting anything in particular. Why should they pay when he’d been willing to do it for free? The King surprised him then.
“Gods yes. Full market rate, you just haven’t asked, so we haven’t said anything about it yet. War on and all you know, so there’s a pinch, but we have the golds, if you want them. They’re yours, holding them just lets us use them as collateral at need. It’s quite a bit by now I think. Actually I know. I’ve seen the accounts.”
Tor wondered at the amount, which wasn’t given in specifics, just stated as being a lot.
“OK, then we just have the treasury send over a slow monthly draw on that, and I’ll use it to pay them. If the money just disappears, well, everyone knows I’m bad coin, just giving things away all the time. Really I didn’t even think I was going to be paid for the items I made for the military. I probably shouldn’t tell you that, you’ll want them free now.” He smiled but the King didn’t.
“Oh, definitely not. That would destroy the economy. Bad enough all that gold is going to one person. Be sure to spend that will you?”
“Alright. At any rate, I can give some away too, spread it around a bit. That way no one guess the actual point.”
Richard smiled and shook his head.
“An expensive way to get things done, but yes, I agree, that would hide it all nicely.”
“The reason that I wanted to go over this with you, well first of course, was so you’d know that it wasn’t something sinister, not me building my own army or anything, since I can’t have one. Second though, is the chain of command. Your whole family needs to know, since they’re it. They tell these people that they want someone dead as a joke, or offhand statement, and those people will die. Ask for the moon and they’ll start trying to get it for real and won’t stop until they have it or are told to give up, that kind of thing. They’re already some of the best fighters in the land and armed and armored like we can get them, I don’t know that a lot of people will be able to stop them. Especially once they get past the whole idea of being honorable warriors and all that.”
“So, it’s me, Connie, you, Alphonse, Karina then Varley? Or, are you before the Queen?” His voice sounded slightly strange suddenly, suspicious or un-trusting?
Tor grinned and shook his head.
“I’m not in the chain of command at all. Not a member of your family and I think that “by marriage” shouldn’t count for this. Lowest man in line outranks me there. I’ll back their plays, and I guess pay for it all, but other than that, I don’t even really need to know what’s going on. Safer that way. At least until I’m older and more stable emotionally. Smythe may be a prick, but he wasn’t wrong there. I get that now. Um and really, all the kids basically have the same “rank” as far as this goes. I guess you could set that up differently, but I didn’t think about it at the time. So you know if Varley and Rolph countermand each other you or Connie will have to settle it.”
Seeing that he wasn’t going to be killed Tor sat down and swallowed.
“So, um, I didn’t come to ask to marry Varley. I figured that would just be a good thing to hint at in order to get someplace safe to talk. I… What do I say? I mean, of course I’d like that, but should she do it? Is that really what’s best for her? Or, I mean, is this one of those polite refusal things you guys are supposed to do? You say sure, so that I feel all right about it, but she has to decide, then she confesses she really loves Count so and so and I have to step aside honorably? If so, it’s all right to just say so, I won’t be mad or anything. I wasn’t even asking really. It would be great, she’s incredible, but, well, I’m just me.”
As vexing as it was, Richard smiled and shrugged. Then he leaned towards Tor and whispered.
“Ask and find out? I told you the truth as far as I know it, but she is a woman and they do change their minds. Today she likes Tor, master of the mighty, tomorrow she might like Varro the gardener… Of course, she can actually marry you, so I say risk it. Let her sleep with Varro if she wants and who’s to mind? Certainly not Varro, he’s eighty if he’s a day and really, quit the coup for him, no? The worst that happens is that she, very politely, puts you off. None of my children is a Doretta in any way. That simply can’t be afforded at this level of the game.”
Putting his hands flat on the table he pushed himself up, taking more effort than he’d thought it would. He leaned on his hands for a moment, hoping it looked confidential not weak. It was a little weak, but that was probably just shock.
“Alright then, I put forward my bid, knowing that she’ll probably find someone better in a few weeks or throw me over for the gardener. If she does. I’ll step out of the way. Is that proper? I don’t want to trap her, if she, you know, needs to be doing something better for her? I guess… well, I’m a little leery still, after Trice. Make sure everyone knows that they don’t have to rip me apart publicly or anything to get rid of me, all right? Seriously, I’m good with a note, come to that.”
The King stood chuckling slightly and went to the door behind Tor and called gently up the stairs that they were ready for everyone now. Varley got to the bottom of the stairs faster than anyone else, floating down using her Not flyer, wearing a lovely white gown and a wrap of gossamer material, that reminded him of the stories he’d heard about faeries as a child, and what he imagined their wings to look like. The girl landed on her feet lightly, the hard soles of her white shiny leather shoes touching down with only a little tap. Smiling she ran to him, hitting her shield to turn it off. Laughing he did the same, as per their prior agreement. She half tackled him and pinned him lightly against the wall with a sudden twist. Then her lips touched his.
“Yes.” Varley said, her voice low. “Yes. I will marry you.”
“Marry?” Tor said with a grin. “Who said anything about marriage? I was just asking your father if I could borrow you to be the new apprentice baker at my house. We’re really in a bind right now that way. He suggested that you also clean the stables, but we don’t have any of those, so it looks like you’re going to luck out there.”
She laughed and kissed him again, which made him giggle a little.
“Well, all right, I guess we can do that marriage thing if you really want to.” Tor said when she back off a little, laughing.
Richard, standing back behind the table still, laughed himself, a deep bass thing. Tor couldn’t help but think that he wasn’t really being helpful. This one at least, if he wasn’t going insane and imagining it all, was a real marriage. Not something just to keep someone else from getting the girl. He didn’t think so at least. It might be hard to tell with royals, but he was taking it as real anyway. Even if he was really just acting as an acceptable place holder for this Varro guy. He’d get with Rolph later to make sure, one way or the other.
Nearly a minute later the other three members of the royal family came down. Since all of them had Not-flyers on, Tor assumed that their walking down the stairs was meant to give Varley time with him for some reason. Nice of them.
When they all got into the room Tor pushed the door shut and latched it from the inside securely. It was Rolph that broke first, grinning.
“So am I going to be calling you brother Tor or not?” He asked genially. Varley smiled and nodded.
“I told him yes! This is so great. I’m going back with him to his house and if I come back pregnant you can all just deal with it.”
Connie hugged the girl and then Tor with a single movement.
“Oh no you don’t young lady. No getting pregnant until at least a full year after the day of the wedding. You know how to prevent such things. No shadow of scandal please. Also… children, your father and I have something to tell you… it involves Tor, and his family.” She glanced at the King who waved his hand with a smile.
“You were all taught the old legends, how long ago ancients that survived the end of one world, took the best of it, and built anew, forming on each continent a nation of power, based on a single premise. Magic for us, genetics for Afrak, spirituality for the Tellerand and technology for the Austran. But behind all this was an underlying principle, that the failures of the old world not be brought back. That the world not be unbalanced again, that the population not be allowed to grown to unmanageable levels. That we don’t use up the world we live in, just live.”
Karina snorted, an unladylike thing to be sure, “Right, but I always liked the one about the faerie Princess that lived in a giant gourd, it always sounded much more fun. “Bodabink- you’re a rabbit!” I always wanted to be a rabbit as a child you know. That or a bird. Of course, now I can fly, so half way there. Tor, if you could get to work on the rabbit part of things when you get a chance?” She grinned at him and gave a wink.
Tor blinked. Well, he couldn’t turn her into a rabbit, could he? But… well, if he could make a light, could he make her look like a rabbit? Shaking himself he tried to hold his focus on the situation at hand.
With a serious look, Rolph hovered his large hand over the shield on his sister’s shoulder.
“Don’t worry, there’s a tie in here. Wait for it…”
Connie nodded regally at her children.
“Indeed there is. So you know the stories, how the ancients, six of them back then, lived, and didn’t age or die, so that they could stay around and keep setting the world right from the damage done by the old ones. Well, some of them have had children. The process, a genetic one, that gave them their long lives, doesn’t always breed true. In fact it rarely does. In Noram, there are only five that we know of that show the trait. One of them is the ancient of magic. Count Lairdgren, Burks Green.”
No one said anything for a few moments. Then the King spoke, his voice gentle.
“The others are Tor’s Uncle Dan, his mother Laurie, Tor, and possibly his younger sister Tiera. That last is still uncertain, but Tor’s been checked out already, special blood examinations taken by a highly trained doctor after he was poisoned. The thing is, well, the Green men with that trait, they aren’t exactly highly fertile. So it might be hard to rapidly have a child with Tor, Varley. It shouldn’t be impossible, but if you marry him, well, chances are good that you won’t have his child. Normally not a big issue, but he’s not exactly overly tall… So some care would be needed in the selection of lovers if you decide to have children.”
Tor hadn’t known that. He hadn’t known a whole lot of it to tell the truth. He’d have trouble having kids? It… kind of made sense for someone that might live for a long time. He hadn’t really thought about it much, because so far it seemed unlikely that he’d live long enough to grow old normally, but if he could, he might not age? Right. He’d believe that when he saw it. His mother certainly hadn’t had problems producing offspring for her part, but then, Connie had said the Green men. What really got his attention was that Lairdgren was named Burks.
“Um, just to clarify, the Burks that was here the other day, that was Lairdgren?” Tor wanted to make sure he wasn’t just confusing two different things.
“You didn’t know? You seemed pretty casual about him, so I thought…” Rolph shook his head a little.
“No big thing, we’ve met many times, he just neglected to mention the whole part about being related. Anyway, I didn’t know some of that stuff, about the kids and all, so if you want to back out Varley, I’ll understand.”
Rolph stared at him, then shook his head.
“Tor… You look just like Count Lairdgren. I mean, I figured out the connection before we even went to Two Bends based on that. He’s a little older looking, but not even all that much. In the right light, I’d swear you were the same person.”
Tor made a face, mouth screwing up just a little.
“Except for the fact that he’s really good looking and I look like this. Kind of a major point, don’t you think?”
No one said anything for a second, Karina started to speak, but was silenced when the King waved his hand.
“Tor also has some other information for us.”
That got Richard talking, which he did excitedly. Connie seemed pensive, and Varley kept coming back to the other topic, clearly more interested in that than having a share in her own secret military force.
“So…Tor is extra magical? Is that why he can do so much more than anyone else?” The girl asked, interested, but not, thankfully, scared.
Connie answered that one.
“No, according to Burks it’s more likely that he’s normally gifted, and just works that hard. It’s not that he’s extra magic, but extra disciplined. I think what Lairdgren was getting at was that we could all do what Tor does if we weren’t so lazy. But when I pointed out that he doesn’t do what Tor does either, he stuck his tongue out at me. You’d think after three thousand years or more he’d have learned better manners.” Her face took on a lovely smile, showing that she wasn’t really put out by the whole thing at all.
It turned out that Varley, for all that she announced openly her intent to go back to Wildlands Station with Tor, couldn’t. Whatever duties the Princess had at the moment, they were actually deemed far too important to lose, even for a few days. That was fine with Tor, since he didn’t really have a place for her yet, not something nice enough. It was one thing for Rolph to stick his future wife in a room with his lover and Tor, who was mainly just over in the corner working anyway. It would have been a lot different for Tor to do the same thing. At least it felt like it. It wasn’t that his hut looked bad inside, but it was a bit crowded with three people and even more with four, adding a Princess and whatever protections she’d bring to the situation at the same time would probably be too much.
So something else to add.
At least he was learning enough to see how important getting other peoples’ help was. It still ripped at him, asking other people for aid, but he just couldn’t get everything done on his own. Well, not fast enough anyway. He should probably stick to building for a while, and leave the real work to everyone else.
Somehow in all of the excitement from Veronica, Connie and Rolph, Karina forgot to question him all that closely about why he’d picked her little sister and not her to marry. That was good, because he couldn’t explain it. Not at all. Sure, he liked Varley better than her. But what did like have to do with getting married? He’d tried that and look where it got him. This time he was going to do it right and treat it as a strict business deal, not letting his heart get him into trouble.
What it came down to though, was simply that Varley, now that he could see what had been set up by the girl, had been working him into place for this for a long time. Since what, their second meeting? How she thought back then that she’d make it work he didn’t know. Then again, given her being a noble like she was, she might have had twenty plans like that going on at once. She might still have them going on. Another reason for him not to get involved except as a pure business deal.
With kissing.
She was good at that.
It made him smile for a second until he realized that getting good at things normally took practice. Well, that wasn’t her issue; she was right for her station and part in society. Torrance Baker was the backwards hick that needed to catch up. Maybe Ursala would be willing to help him there? Or, and he cringed a little inside thinking about it, maybe Sara?
She was Rolph’s girlfriend though, so he didn’t want to make trouble there. Maybe, if needed, some of the professional women would help him out? It felt wrong to use their services, but at least it wasn’t because of his prudishness this time. No, it was just because they were under his protection.
They talked for a long time, including the river going up and how he’d like a message as soon as any of them heard about it from any source, including, he added, an indication of exactly when they heard about it and who told them.
“Oh! I also… If you want to keep using the Not-flyers we need to get everyone wearing them. Two girls floating around in brown dresses stand out as much as if they were walking around in full regalia. I’ll try to send some around in about a week or so, but until then…”
Karina crossed her arms, still dressed in her brown servants dress, which, Tor noticed now that he had time to pay attention, wasn’t heavy canvas at all, but a soft looking material that probably breathed in the heat, not that she’d need it yet. It was decently comfortable outside right now. Enough that during the day Tor didn’t even turn his equalizer on at all. The Princess pouted a little.
“Great. Varley gets a decent guy to marry, but I have to dress in a shipping sack and Tor wants to send me off to the kitchens to “learn the value of hard work”. What next, cut my hair and join a religious order? Now I can’t even use my Tor-shoes?”
Everyone laughed, except Tor and oddly Richard. Tor shuddered a little at the use of “Tor-shoes” for the Not-flyer, but let it pass for now. Instead he tilted his head and regarded the girl, pretty in her brown dress, with her bright, long hair. Her incredibly rare and distinctive copper colored hair.
“Well, no. I mean no religious order needed for now, but if you’re going to actually hide who you are when you’re out and about, you have to lose the hair. You too Rolph. I’d suggest a brown dye for Karina and about the same for Rolph, with a military haircut. Put him in blacks instead of brown servant garb and he should fit in. None of your servants are as big as him, but some of the guards are. Not that I know of anyone watching that closely. I was just… thinking, you know?”
Tor realized something odd. His mind had actually slipped into the same state he went into when working on a building project. There was no overt field problem here, which baffled him for a moment. Laughing, both of the kids grabbed at their heads as if to protect their hair. Like hair was important? He chuckled along, but the King started nodding a pensive look on his face.
“The Royal Guard has been after them to do the same thing, basically, for about a week now, on the premise that looking like the people around them will lend safety, not any specific threat. If Tor can see the same thing though, that probably means that it’s not just their natural paranoia coming into play. I won’t order you children to do it, but I highly recommend you take it under advisement.”
They both went still and frowned. Finally Katrina glared at her younger sister and pointed.
“Fine, but only if Varley has to cut her hair short. I mean like a military bob.” She made waving gestures around her ears.
After a few moments of silence everyone laughed, Tor joining in to be polite. It was a family thing, clearly, this obsession with hair. They were probably pretty safe, as long as they stayed with the Royal Guard all the time in the palace. Well, unless the Austrans just bombed them.
A cold chill ran down Tor’s spine. It was more than just a bit of fear that something could be done, it was like a strong field of cold came over him, a warning. Either from his own mind, or the field potential of the future, this was real. Enough that he needed to act on it at least.
Right. Something else to work on then. Could he even stop an Austran bomb with a shield? Or, was there some other way to protect against them? Maybe he could shield the whole palace complex? It was huge, and he couldn’t protect against everything, that would take more field building that he had in him. What did their kind of explosives do really? He needed to find out more.
He came too with Connie gently shaking his arm.
“Tor… is everything all right?”
Walking over to his friend, the Prince nudged him, which worked, because his shield was off, sending the much smaller man tumbling a bit. He smiled up at Rolph and shrugged.
“It’s that work thing he does. Probably figured out a faster way to make cheese or how to breathe like a fish underwater or something. He does that. We should probably load him up and send him home now. Actually, I’ll take him, if I can be spared for a few days? I have some things I need to get done and Tor still has his… thing to do, and he might need my help with that.”
Thing to do?
Oh, the letter and stuff to Trice. Right. He’d been putting it off for a few days now. It shouldn’t take long to write, but the whole subject hurt too much to think about. He’d promised to do it so he had to now, but that didn’t mean Tor wanted to, or really thought it would work. In his mind it just seemed like throwing water on an oil fire.
Even the King knew how well that worked now, didn’t he?
It sounded like it should work at first when really it was just going to make it all worse. But worse for him right now might be better somehow in the long run? That had to be taken on faith. How anyone could trust Trice now he didn’t know, but if the King said to trust her he would. At least as far as his actions went.
Thank goodness the King hadn’t decided that the marriage wasn’t off or something like that, trapping them both into something neither would be able to take for long. Cringing, Tor wondered for nearly the first time if he’d been being fair to Trice. Gods. What if… What if she really had just said all that for the reasons she’d told them? Would she have thrown him to the wolves as bait to flush out the people that tried to kill him? He knew she would have. If she’d have asked first, would he have told her to do it, even if it made him look bad? Of course. How could he not?
So was it fair of him to blame her for it now?
That was harder. He still hurt, but if she’d really done it for him and her family, if she was still doing it for them, then he had to change how he was thinking about her. Didn’t he? The thought was uncomfortable to say the least.
Rolph sat beside him in the back of the transport, while Godfrey sat in the front section, “piloting”. What the military man called driving a transport. They could have flown themselves, but it really was faster to ride, and this particular transport had padded seats, soft pillows all in a heavy red cloth that made it fairly comfortable. Plus it had to go back anyway, Godfrey couldn’t fly without it… which was ridiculous. He needed to have his own personal gear as soon as possible too. The man was a base commander after all.
Tor stretched a little as he sat, arms going above his head and then twisting from side to side. When he stopped the blood rushed from his head and the world got sparkly in a thousand colors for a few seconds, mainly blue and black.
They spoke about what Tor should write to Trice which according to Rolph needed to be a lot different than what he’d thought.
“No… Tor, look, if you write something snarky and sarcastic like that, of course she’d have to reject it. That might work a little, but if you really want to give her something to play off of, you need to make it seem like you really love her and abjectly apologize. Show what work you’ve done to fix yourself and really seem like you’re trying to get her back. Maybe… mention that you’d be willing to throw over Varley for her, if she’ll have you? That… We’ll if she goes after you then, that should about do it. Especially if she takes it public. I’ve been thinking about it and I kind of wonder if it will be done that way though. I mean, if you send in Collette as a go-between, and it goes directly to Trice at the Wards estate, it should only be seen by them, right? If they take it public, then when they try to kill you for her, it would be too obvious. If they’re quiet about it…”
“Are they that smart? I’d guess Trice is, but the Wards?”
“I… don’t know. Really I tend to think of Marvin Ward as a bit of a mental midget, but that may not be fair. He’s always had the looks and position to not have to try very hard and his dad didn’t really push him like my parents have me. Maria… I don’t know her hardly at all, except as the bitch that hurt my friend, and a bit from school. I really thought she was some cute scholarship girl that got in or the kid of some merchant family that just didn’t know “the rules”. It wasn’t until later that I figured out that country rules wouldn’t actually allow for things like that either. Collette Coltress isn’t like that… not that we’ve met personally.” Rolph grinned a little.
“You know, when my mom met with her to apologize, she punched her? Collette I mean, punched mom. Left a bruise on her face for a week. Told her it was one thing to snub a nobody like her, but to go after a hero like you… Well, the things she’s said about you in public match that. I know it’s been work for her to put up with Trice and Maria and the kinds of things they’ve been saying about you. She’s done it, because of orders from the King, but otherwise I don’t think she could have managed.”
Collette struck Connie over him? And more, Connie just took it? That was… odd.
“Really?” It was kind of hard to believe on half a dozen levels. Wouldn’t that have caused a war or something? An attack on the Barony of Coltress at least?
“Yeah, I know. Mom felt like it was deserved though, after what happened and took it as just punishment. That’s why she locked herself in her rooms for all those days, waiting for the bruise to heal enough to go out in public. You know, it’s a little scary, thinking about one day being King, having parents like mine as an example. I mean now, if some merchant kid ever comes and beats me down for being a jerk, I have to actually stop and think about whether I deserved it or not. Seriously, it hardly makes it worth being the heir at all.” The straight face he had held for all of ten seconds then he had to laugh, a big, joyful sound.
“Of course it didn’t hurt that Collette did it in defense of the big hero Tor. You know, I love you, and I’d die to protect you, but you could really give a guy an inferiority complex.”
Waiting for the laughter Tor wondered if he could throw one of the pillows from the seat at his large friend, but they seemed to be tied down under the seat with fairly thick brown string. Oh well, that would have been childish of him anyway. When Rolph didn’t say anything else, but kept looking at him Tor finally shrugged.
“Me give you an inferiority complex? How’s that supposed to work? You’re kind of what everyone in the world wants to be. Tall, good looking, great with people, rich and, you know, let’s not forget, heir to the kingdom. Oh and smart. You even have a great family. Women throw themselves at you, I’m sure a lot more than I realize, and probably were even when you were at school pretending to just be Rolph Merchant. Thanks for not rubbing that in by the way, but me give you an inferiority complex? Don’t make me laugh.”
Rather than laugh, his giant friend blew raspberries at him rudely. He tried for one of the pillows himself, but stopped when he noticed that they were fixed in place. He crossed his arms instead and pinned Tor with a look.
“Granted, I’ve got a few edges over Bill the tanner or Howard Turnbull, but really Tor, if you’d only done one of the things you have you’d still be famous. Make people fly? God, that alone could get you laid in any city in the world right now. There are sitting Counts that would lend you their wives just to get you to come to dinner, and a couple that would offer to do you themselves if they thought it might work. Maybe more than just a few too. And that’s just because of the devices you make.
“Look at the rest of it… Little kids stuck down in a collapsing pit and you climb in after them knowing it was collapsing. You. Personally. You didn’t try to order someone else in, or just stand and watch. Don’t think I didn’t hear that workman tell you that you could lose your foot either. You did it anyway and never even complained about the pain from the break. I would have been demanding drugs and crying into my pillow for half a month if that happened to me.
“Then with Duke Winchester, everyone else was too afraid to try and do anything, even me and the Royal Guards. You waded in and made him let Lady Priscilla go, even though I know that you fully expected to die for it. No one else got that Tor, they thought you were just being brave, doing something a little dangerous, but that you knew you could handle even with a broken leg. I saw the look on your face afterward. You handed me your shield as a sign that you were willing to go to your death for having saved her. I know you too well to not get that stuff now.”
Rolph didn’t look at him, facing forward. The only sound he made for a minute was breathing. A bit heavy, not exactly a sigh though.
“You always do the right thing, the brave thing, no matter how hard or how unfair it is that you have to do it. So yeah, inferiority complex big time. Worse, I know, somewhere inside, that in most of the cases I’m talking about I could have done the same thing, but didn’t because I was too afraid.”
“You’d have never fit in that hole.” Tor said seriously. Getting a strange look from Rolph. It was a slightly sad look, one that said he felt mocked. It wasn’t meant to be at all.
“As to the rest, well, you did what you had too. If you started fighting with Winchester to save Priscilla, you probably would have killed him, or just as bad, the Royal Guard would have gotten involved to protect you and they would have done it. Besides, I’m not really certain that “too stupid to know better” is the same as brave.”
The laugh that came out of the other man was dark sounding.
“Great and now you feel like you have to make me feel better about myself. You get my point then?”
Ducking his head Tor wondered what he could say. There just wasn’t a real comparison between them. He did some cool things occasionally, maybe, but Rolph was that way all the time. Really, by definition he was the standard for the term as it applied to men. At least in Noram. Probably a few other places. Not Afrak maybe, but that was what it was and Tor wouldn’t be accepted over there either. Wrong gender for it he suspected. He stumbled over trying to explain this until Rolph finally sighed loudly.
“Oh, I’ll live Tor. I can’t even hold it against you, I mean you really are just that great, you know? Let’s stop the whole bit about how I’m god’s gift to women too, huh? Oh, true, you and I go to a tavern and I walk out with more women, hands down. Being Prince has its perks. But what about the women we know? I bet if we gave Sara and Ursala the choice between spending the night with me or with you, they’d both argue to get into your bed. Maybe even both at once. Notice how I never give them that choice?
“Sara didn’t come here, join the military and take a job as a goods shipper just to have me warm her bed you know. She came for you. I’m pretty sure she didn’t even know I was there. The look on her face when she realized… Oh, true, she didn’t turn me away, but did you see how she looked at you when she found out you saw us having sex? I thought she was going to cry, and trust me, that is not what women normally do after having sex with me.” Looking towards the front almost stiffly Rolph smiled.
“That’s usually more like… “Oh, Alphonse, I love you… no other man could ever compare to you, marry me…” which I know isn’t really about how great a lover I am, just girls trying to get into a position of power, but it really is good for the ego.”
It took only a few more minutes to land and get back to the little hut, which looked a lot more like a simple shed now than it did before, the compound having grown around it in shining focus stone, glittering a little in the sunset like a jewel. It was kind of pretty. More than just a little, he realized, really nice. Well, it was probably just as well that he was living in what looked like a storage building then. No one would think that he was taking all the best for himself at least. He didn’t even get his own room.
When he and Rolph got to the front of the hut a curtain had been hung up over the door. It was a heavy canvas piece in green. He hadn’t put it there, so couldn’t explain it to Rolph. A door, obviously, but more than that he didn’t know. Cautiously they worked their way inside, leaving their shields on. Not that assassins would come and make improvements to their dwelling normally, but just in case, they wanted to be ready.
The scene inside was odd. Possibly even stranger than if assassins had come to redecorate.
The place hadn’t been changed or anything like that, but all the chairs at the table were in use, there was a nice wooden box on the top of the focus stone table they used for eating and Sorlee was crying softly with Ursala patting her back.
Sara looked up when they came in eye getting big.
“Tor, good! We didn’t know where you were. Um, a letter came for Sorlee and she started crying but we don’t know why. She showed us the letter, but none of us can read it…”
Next to the chest was a letter that had clearly been scratched out in haste or by someone that had pretty poor penmanship. It took a minute but Tor realized what it said. It was just written phonetically and in backwoods, not standard. Easy enough once he got the idea. Tor read it out loud.
“Dearest Sara Lee,” He had to read slowly because the writing was sort of hard to make out at first. “I write with dark news. Due to bills from the doctor and the rent on the farm coming due to the Count, we will be dispossessed at the end of the month, if we cannot come up with a sum of seventeen golds. Your brothers have all gone to look for other work for the winter, but it does not seem we can manage this in time. If possible, I will write again soon and let you know what happens to us all.
“A nice young man from the Two Bends fast delivery has agreed to take this message to you for free, because it is close to where he has to take another package. Know that we love you. Mother.”
This started a round of back patting and hugs for the girl. The woman next to her wasn’t anyone Tor recognized, but since she wasn’t a giant he figured her for one of the other industrious women and left it at that for the time being. She was pretty enough in a girl from down the lane kind of way. Feeling awkward he got Rolph to help him pop the box open, which turned out to be the first payment from Sorvee house. Timely as promised. The box didn’t have a lot of gold in it, just forty, but it did kind of provide an answer to Sorlee’s problem, didn’t it? Almost like an omen really, showing up at exactly the same time as the letter did.
Plus he was supposed to be bad with coin, giving it away and everything. This was almost perfect for that, wasn’t it?
Without thinking about it Tor counted out seventeen gold and put the stack in front of the girl, then as an afterthought put another one beside the taller stack. She’d have to pay to get it there in time after all. Sorlee had her head buried in her arms on the table, but the women next to her gasped suddenly and clutched at the girls arm.
“Sorlee look…” The voice held awe.
That he could get. Seventeen golds was a big part of what a farm would bring in during a year. He didn’t know what the women made working as they did, but it didn’t seem to be that much, if the other woman’s response was indicative. She got moist eyed, but smiled at Tor as she shook the smaller girls arm gently.
“S’wha?” The girl, small and brown haired, red shot eyes and running nose looked up, but it was like she couldn’t see what was in front of her at first. The woman next to her had to point and finally put her hand on the stack before the girl understood.
“To save the farm? But… this is too much. I won’t ever be able to repay this. Not even if I spread my legs for the entire military here for years!”
Tor answered her in proper speech, which only they could understand at the table, since it was the way she’d spoken to him anyway.
“Well, I don’t think that’s actually right, if you got all the men to sleep with you, it should be possible, but we can’t afford to lose you from the kitchen for that long, so this is a gift.” He laid his hand flat on the table, fingers spread, a single, well defined movement, to show that the matter was finished. She glanced at the hand and given that they came from places with similar customs actually got what the move meant. So a first for the last few years of his life.
“There are no debts between friends.” He said softly.
Crying softly the girl stood and put her hand out to shake, leaning in from a far ways away.
“There is no debt between friends.” She answered back, her voice thick with tears still.
No one else really got what was going on until Tor asked if anyone knew the fastest way to get the money to the Farmers. It turned out that Sorlee would need to be taken into the Capital so the Two Bends rep could question her personally about where the package needed to go. Rolph pulled out a small, very nice, box for the gold to go in and then they sealed it for delivery. The girl sat and wrote a note to go with it. No one asked what was in the letter, since it was obviously private.
It meant that she had to wait until the next day and that someone would have to go with her. The natural choice being Tor, since he could actually understand her and translate. It meant that they’d have to get up extra early in order to get all the baking done before they left, but he wasn’t going to leave his friends family stuck just because he wanted to sleep in late. All told that left a tiny bit of time left to work on the problem he’d thought of before bed, if he could find out anything about Austran explosives.
Tor needed to get back to Kolb, since he was as close to an expert on how other military organizations fought as they had. At least he got to bring good news to him along with the questions once he found the man. The King was sending along money so that Tor could pay everyone in the new unit. Sure, it was out of his private funds, but they got a little something for toiletries and clothes, as well as what pleasure items and services they may want. It had surprised him a bit, but the King and Rolph both suggested two golds per week for each member of the new unit.
That, they said, meant that they were better paid than the military, but wouldn’t be so well paid that everyone would notice that it seemed special. Most of them were nobles, so that would get them a bit of slack money wise, no one being able to tell if it was part of an allowance from home or just their normal pay. Some of them actually got allowances from home even, so it would further confuse the issue. Tor had figured on paying them a lot more than that, but didn’t argue. He was pretty bad with money and Rolph was trained as an accountant already, mostly. He knew gold.
It turned out that the new shield would only have to hold against raw kinetic force traveling through the air, physical debris, heat and fire. It was a lot because of the size the shield needed to be and he hadn’t learned how to handled force in the air like Kolb described to him yet, but it gave him a starting point at least.
The next day started even earlier than normal but they managed to get into the Capital by ten in the morning, which being Monday meant that the pickup wouldn’t happen for another day. Normally. Since it was one of the six short vacation weeks that kids got off of school not one but two “agents” came to pick up outgoing packages from the Two Bends office while Stewart was working out the complicated directions to Sorlee’s family farm.
“So, it’s a town called Forrest Far? Past the two white top mountains, near the big clearing? And our agent should go into the village center and find the school mistress, S’Lalia? She’ll know where to go then? I see. Is she good with standard do you think? Because I don’t know if any of our delivery agents can speak like that…”
From behind them, as they stood working at the little counter, a young female voice spoke clearly, in nearly unaccented standard. Royal standard.
“That’s all right Stewart. We can all understand the regional dialect there.” Tor spun around causing the girl to look at him questioningly for a few seconds.
“S’Torrents!”
Not one, but two, forms hit him then, wrapping him in familial warmth. The very nicely dressed young lady in front of him was Tiera. He knew she was twelve, but she looked even younger than her years, like he did. Younger than any of the other kids had at that age. It made sense now, if she and he both had the same kind of gene plan or whatever it was called. Did they just age slower than the others? He really needed to get with his mom or maybe with Burks and learn about this kind of thing, since it would be affecting him.
Next to her, standing as tall as the girl, was a young man in the same type of clothing, leather and silk flying gear with deep green shirts. The hair was short on the boy, professional looking, nearly military. When he pulled back a half step Tor realized it was Timon, not the next older boy Toller.
“Tiera! Tim! Weasel I mean… I didn’t expect to see either of you here today. This is great. You both know where I’m living now, right? About an hour’s flight from here-”
Timon grinned.
“Giant black walls, shiny like a wet river stone in the sunlight? Kind of hard to miss. Wildlands Station it’s called? I did a delivery there yesterday. Box from here and a bunch of letters from all around. People wanting to get word from home to their soldiers. Penny a letter. More for packages though. But yes, we know where you live now. If you want we can send someone by every week or two and see if any packages are going out? Not really big enough for it, but you being family we’ll all want to visit anyway, when we can. Plus, if we could overnight with you occasionally, that would mean we can change the delivery hours for the Capital. A lot of business is starting to come in from here and if we could guarantee an early pick up once a week or so a lot of people would be grateful.”
That made sense to Tor, after all, they were his relatives, they were always welcome in his home. With this bit of warning he may even be able to work up a room for them. It seemed more and more like he needed to get a proper house soon. At least a room for special guests and all when they came to visit.
His little sister dimpled at him and winked, gesturing at Sorlee with her head. Ah, right, he’d failed to make the introductions. Before he could speak Tiera asked him if this woman was his new lady then, since they’d all heard about the last bit going south. She clearly had been coached not to make a big deal about it by their parents, or at least someone. Tiera generally loved to tease people if she could get away with it. It was the worst thing about her personality in general. That and how she acted like girls were always better than boys. Then their mother did that a bit too, so it was no wonder where she got that from.
“Na, I just work for him. Sorlee Farmer. My folks ran into some trouble after da’s accident and the farm is about to go under, so Master Tor here is putting up the money for us… He said it was because he and I are friends…” She looked down at the ground suddenly, as if embarrassed.
Both the kids stood a little straighter and nearly as one they both murmured, “There’s no debt between friends.” Which got a nod from Tor even as Sorlee blushed brightly. It was just true though, wasn’t it?
“Sorlee Farmer? Then it was your ma that asked me to deliver the letter for you the other day? Not good news then? Sorry about that.” Weasel gave her a serious look that spoke of having seen things that Tor didn’t know about at least. All of his siblings had probably seen a lot, doing deliveries like that. He’d never even considered it when sending them off into the world like that.
“I know where it needs to go, and can get it there directly. Is that OK? Tor, can I come back and visit in a week or so? It might be two or three… Maybe overnight? Ma will say yes if you OK it. Though she’ll want to know if you have a new girl lined up yet. Its fast I guess, but she thinks you shouldn’t wait too long. Worries about you and all that. Probably because you’re the only one not right there for her to watch all the time.”
Patting the boy on the back his shield stopped the contact, but the younger boys didn’t. He stared at him for a second and got only a baffled look in return. Patting his sisters back he got the same reaction. A blank look.
“Why don’t you have your shields on? And for that matter Stewart, do the people that work here have shields at all? I know that the military is taking them all, but I can give them out. Which… probably answers that question, doesn’t it? It’s war time though, so we need to take precautions all the time. I’ll make some up and have one of these two bring them down within the next week or two, or bring them myself if I can.”
He switch to standard quickly, and then back without pause.
“Anyway, tell mom I already have another engagement set up. This one even seems more real. I’m not holding my breath though, but all the asking and stuff is done and she’s said yes. I’m guessing that mom and dad will be OK with it too, since they know her parents.”
He waited for one of them to ask who it was, because even in Two Bends the name would be recognized, Varley being a Princess and all. OK, so it was name dropping a little, but the idea that she was willing to even talk to him made him kind of proud. This whole thing was incredibly flattering. Yes, he did feel a bit like a troll that forced the lovely beauty to marry him, but that wasn’t his fault. Really, he hadn’t even asked for it. Of course that meant that he had to remain valuable to her for the whole thing to be worth it to her, but that, at least, was possible, as long as what she wanted were devices and not poems. Tor knew that would be a fiasco, since the only ones he knew involved roses being red and opined that violets were blue, when, by retution, they were actually violet.
There were hugs all around, which included Sorlee to her surprise, but not Steward who just smiled looking at them. It was clear he hadn’t understood most of what had been said at all, but that was fine. It wasn’t his job to understand them really, this was the Capital, so if they wanted to be understood, they needed to speak like the local people did.
The amount of packages that were pulled out nearly made Tor blanch. Sorlee and he stood blinking into the sun as the two headed off, followed by four large cargo containers all filled with things people wanted delivered. It was impressive.
The man that flew the transport for Sorlee and him turned out to be named Haper, which could have been his first or last name, Tor knew. It turned out he was actually a slightly better pilot than Godfrey. Most of the military people went by their last names all the time, unless you were a close personal friend. That seemed to be the rule at least. He’d really had this driven home when Godfrey had come by one day trying to find out when Debri would be around for a delivery to the other base. It was strange hearing her referred to that way, but at least the “other base” made sense.
That was the flight training one, which didn’t have a name yet, except for “flight school”. It seemed that the flight school wanted to start a transport fleet too and Haper was slated to go and be their first instructor. No one wanted to lose the man, because there weren’t enough pilots to get them around that way as it was.
The dark brown man impressed Tor a bit when he showed Sorlee how to fly the transport and let her control it on the way back. She seemed to do all right to Tor at least, since they got back alive and all. Haper nodded towards her before they all climbed out.
“Would it be all right, do you think, if we trained her to be my replacement sir? She actually did slightly better than most of the flyers do, for some reason once you learn to fly outside on your own it seems to mess up good control of the transports. It can be done, but it’s better to start fresh like this. Plus, you know, if a little girl is doing it, it gives the men a reason to try harder while they’re learning. We can have her come in near the beginning of training and shame them into doing better and not giving up if it gets a little hard. Maybe have her teach a class or two if she’s up for it?”
It was sound thinking and since Sorlee would only have to work at it about two hours a day, making runs to the Capital in the afternoon to start with while Haper made sure she knew what to do, she readily agreed. For a few seconds Tor felt a flash of jealousy.
Not because the country girl might sleep with the man instead of him. That would just be stupid to even think. For one thing, she had sex with a lot of guys, for all he knew Haper was a regular client. Besides, Sorlee would have slept with Tor or done almost anything else he could think, of and probably a lot he couldn’t begin to dream up, right then.
He knew because she’d told him so on the flight down, several times. He’d winked at her, but didn’t plan to take her up on it. That would be too much like buying her. Tor felt bad enough about the thing with Ursala already, he didn’t want to compound the situation with Sorlee.
No it was because he’d never gotten to fly a transport at all. Haper said it was harder for flyers to learn to do, but the controls were designed to be instinctual for him personally. If anyone had an edge there, he should. If not, he could still give it an honest shot at least, right?
First things first though. When he got back he had to do some of the hardest things he ever done, then work out how to do some others that might even be worse.