There was something about being stabbed that Tor hadn’t considered at all. It hurt. It wasn’t just the immediate pain, but the lingering follow-on that really got to him. That it would hurt even after the fact was something that anyone would have known. He’d known it. It was just, as he lie on his side in the partial dark of his screened off area, the bed deforming under him, that he hadn’t realized how much it would hurt.
His leg had been horrible when he broke it, but after the initial pain it was more of a dull ache. Constant and never ending, but muted. This was still sharp and biting, even after the doctor had sewn him up. The wound still wept a little, even hours later, and sleep, while it did come, eventually, was weaker than the discomfort. He woke up with a start each time he moved more than a fraction of an inch. Instead Tor opted to make large batched of copies, driving himself much deeper than normal and trying for a batch of one hundred flying units instead of just fifty. He didn’t even really care that much if they worked at all, he just wanted to escape from the pain.
That worked, as long as he kept going at least.
After ten full batches, not even knowing if they’d work, he made himself try a simple-ish novel build. He got food and water while he worked, he thought, but other than that he didn’t notice much for a blissful two days. The build itself was just an attempt to block out sound from a dome about ten feet in diameter.
When he finished he made ten copies of it, just because he wanted to keep himself distracted from the pain. It was probably just that he was a wimp, but hey, if he kept working, who’d complain? Finally he had to come back to the surface and test it though, which showed that the wounds still hurt, if not as badly as they had at first.
Hitting the sigil on one of the copies, all the little sounds from outside the half dome vanished. He hadn’t even realized there was noise before that. Little things like a rustling of cloth and a repetitive clicking from near where the table was set up. Tor nodded, bead work? Well, the little sounds were gone, at least directionally. Now to try the other side of it.
Taking a deep breath Tor tried for loud, but it hurt, causing him to groan in pain instead, a low moan that should have gotten attention from the others, he thought. No one came at least.
“Hey, anyone hear me?” He asked as loudly as he could manage. “Anyone? Um, free gold if someone answers? Um, you’re all over-tall. Eating eels is gross? Anyone at all?”
Nothing.
He dropped the field and tried again.
“Um anyone there?” He said, a fraction of as loudly as before, because yelling hurt and even loud talking was a little much for the moment.
Sara and Ursala both ran over, at least one of them knocking something heavy over in their haste, probably a focus stone chair from the sound. Well, the field seemed to work then.
“Tor!” Sara yelled as she swung around the screen. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, um, sorry, not trying to scare anyone, I’m testing a new field… Um, hey, Ursala, could you go out by the table and start yelling? I mean really loud? And Sara, if you’d come over here, just sit by the bed please? You don’t even have to sit…” Tor didn’t want the cute blond nearest him to think he was trying to take advantage of her. Not because he wouldn’t, Tor decided, just because right now that would hurt too much to really consider.
The Countess started yelling loud, mainly nonsense words, but loud ones. She could really belt out the noise Tor noticed. Smiling up at Sara he activated the little medallion. Silence. Sara’s eyes went wide and then she grinned.
“That is so neat! Can you hear me?” She asked in a normal tone of voice.
Tor winked, a bit of pain shooting through his side under the loose black silk shirt he didn’t remember putting on at all. Someone changed his clothing while he worked? Well, that was potentially embarrassing. He tried to work out a way, a person that would make that feel normal. Nope. Just awkward all the way around. God, he just hoped he hadn’t soiled himself. Tor really didn’t want to ask, since he had to live with these people for at least a bit longer.
“I can hear you, I think what we need to do now is check and see if Ursa can hear us. If not, then it works.”
Once they got her to stop yelling Sara took a turn, standing next to the bed. It worked perfectly according to the Countess. Then she walked in and out of the field.
“This is so interesting! The sound just stops totally on the other side of the field. Nothing else happens, just, no sound. I can see you both fine, no distortion or anything.” After a few seconds she raised a single eyebrow and gave him a sexy look that conveyed something else he couldn’t name at the same time.
“I get it… This is so you can hold secret… meetings without being heard? As long as the price isn’t too high, I bet a lot of royals will want one. Have private discussions that are actually private… Do other things without worrying about being indiscreet. Hmmm. Too bad you’re still in pain or we could test it out. I’ve been known to get a little loud at times.”
Sara laughed, so Tor smiled. Even chuckling hurt too much.
“It should sell, but why did you make it? I mean I can see uses for it, but it’s not exactly a shield or even a room cooler.” Sara looked at him curiously.
“Oh, no, it is a shield. A part of one at least. I’m just trying to build this one piece by piece. Create all the needed parts separately, then merge them into one at the end. I’ll… Let you know when I’m done. It shouldn’t take too long, but…” He smiled at the blonds and then winked again.
“I don’t want to wake up being beaten in the head, so this way I can stay closer to the surface while I heal up. Eat occasionally and sleep like a regular person. Maybe get a shower and some of that sex I hear so much about.”
It was a joke, of course, he really hurt too much for more than a peck on the cheek, but at least the girls both responded as if he’d said the right thing. Maybe he was getting better at this kind of playful banter?
Later that day Tor used a Not-flyer to get to the showers, since it was a personal goal of his to never reek any more than he had to. It turned out to be empty this time of day, just after breakfast, so he didn’t have to wait or feel too awkward about how he looked. It was hard to shower without pulling at the stitches, and he realized quickly that he’d have to forget washing his back. He also had to be really careful with his bar of fatty lye soap. It worked well, but getting it in a wound would be agony and stay that way, probably for days. As he rinsed under the hot water he shut his eyes and let the water hit his back for a while. He may not be able to scrub, but at least the warm water would wash away a little bit of the oil and dirt, he hoped. Tor heard someone else come in and turn on the shower across from him.
He opened his eyes and had to fight slamming them shut again when he saw who it was.
Petra. What he noticed first was how muscular she was. Not like a man, but like a powerfully built woman. She looked hard and had better abs than he did.
Looking down he realized that wasn’t really true. His abs weren’t bad at all, he was just pretty skinny and had some small wounds on his left side. Looking back at the slightly older girl she noticed him and smiled.
“Well, someone tried to kill you… but that’s pretty low… Underhand blow?” She pantomimed the motion, a stab from her own hip moving outward. It would make sense, given their height difference, but he shook his head. She’d heard his description already, but either didn’t understand or just wanted to talk about it.
“No, um, overhand. She was, um, kneeling in front of me at the time…”
Instead of acting shocked the large and powerfully built girl just soaped her arms, chest and then under her arms. The scent of her soap, something soft and floral wafted across the room on the moist air. After she rinsed she turned, soaped up the lower parts of her body and rinsed again.
Then she faced him and sunk to her knees slowly.
“So… Like this?” She made a move that, had she been closer to him, instead of ten feet away, would have lined up nearly perfectly with the wounds.
“About my size then?”
“Little smaller, about two inches I’d guess. But basically just like that. Only, well, closer. Um, obviously.” Tor had to fight not to duck his head in shame, just saying something like that, but made himself hold steady.
She went back to washing and started in on her short hair, which wasn’t in a military woman’s cut at all, but was even shorter, a true fighters cut. She faced away while she washed and Tor struggled to not stare at her behind. Her body was interesting. Muscular and a little blocky looking, compared to say, Sara, but still very worth looking at. He just didn’t want to make her feel uneasy. She may be a royal and used to communal bathing, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be ogled in particular while she did it.
“That sucks. Um, no pun intended there.” The girl grinned at him as the water fell around her shoulders. “Well, I promise that if I’m ever doing that with you, I won’t pull a knife.”
A lot of things ran through his head then, the first being to mock himself and talk about how inadequate he was, but frankly, he realized, she already knew that. As in could look across the room and see for herself. So if he wasn’t good enough she wouldn’t have said it that way. It wasn’t really an offer either, not exactly. Was she testing the waters? Ursala and Sara had kind of hinted at something like that before. Putting out a signal they called it. Or was it just an offhand comment? What was it he was supposed to do then? Ah, right, give one back that was slightly more explicit, but not outrageously so. Because going in too strong could kind of force the other person into a corner. You flirted, but didn’t make people do anything they didn’t want to.
“Right, definitely sticking with my friends from now on for such things. It made sense at the time, I mean, all the women seem so nice… But one of them wasn’t apparently. I need to get to know people better first.”
The woman her hand rubbing over her stomach, stopping just before she reached the thick brown hair below her flat stomach shrugged.
“Oh, well, we don’t really know each other all that well do we?” She said, actually sounding a little sad about it. Either good acting or a verbal cue.
He took a half deep breath. About what he could manage without too much pain. This was the hard part for him. That could mean “We don’t know each other well and you were misinterpreting an innocent comment” or “reassure me here”.
“I don’t know… If I woke up to find you in my bed I wouldn’t assume you were there to kill me or anything like that, so I’d guess good enough friends.”
As soon as he said it he knew he’d gotten it wrong. He’d been trying for something along the lines of telling her that he trusted her, not that he wanted to have her perform sex acts on him. He didn’t take it back though, because she smiled warmly at him instead of acting offended.
“Well… Good! I guess when you’re feeling up to it you should go and ask Kolb if we can get together then? It’s a strange rule. Talk about putting a crimp in the social life. All the military guys seem to think Kolb will kill them if they even look at one of us funny or something. Does that even apply to you? I mean this is kind of your house and all, right?”
Did that apply to him? He didn’t think so, because they already knew each other. Shrugging he told her that, but then decided that he’d ask Kolb himself. After all, if everyone else had to shouldn’t he? Otherwise it would be like him getting special privileges.
Her look was a little coy and she actually finished faster than he did, since all his moves were slow. On her way out she called back to him, looking over her shoulder.
“It’s a date then. Don’t forget.”
Well, that went well. He’d really have to work on this stuff fast. Right now all he knew about that particular act was what Trice had said just before the stabbing. Don’t grab her head, and don’t get too thrusty. Check. Now what that all really meant, he had no clue.
Over the next week he carefully built the palace shield template, which went up faster the way he was doing it this time, mainly because only two parts of it were new. The rest he’d had from his second shield build. The big part was making smaller fields that would link and could be turned on and off from the inside remotely.
Then he made five hundred of the little fields. It took less than a day, to his own amazement.
Doing things in large batched was so much better. Harder, but still… He kind of wanted to kick himself for not trying it sooner, but what could he do about it now? Tor just kept working, and on the eighth day started making himself get up and walk each day. Not run, just walk the outer wall, over and over again.
The rest of the time he ate or worked. If he could keep it up for a bit, he felt like he might even eventually gain some weight. Maybe.
It was nearly two weeks later when Rolph came, using his flying rig, along with Tovey. At first Tor didn’t recognize his friends. Tovey looked like himself, except that he wore the uniform of a fairly low ranking officer in the army. A captain, which was only one step up from the very bottom for the upper ranks, if Tor had that right. There were no particular marking’s on the uniform he wore, just a light gray splotch on the shoulder, which was for safety he told Tor. No officers were wearing normal insignia, since about two weeks before a number of highly placed generals had been attacked. The attacks came over a two day period, with Tor’s being the third in a line of fifteen.
It wasn’t funny, but Tor chuckled slightly anyway, his side only just tolerating it now without pain. “Hmm. Well, a bit of a mistake on the Austrans part then. No one sane would mistake me for a general. I’m not even in the military at all. Really, I doubt they’d let me in. Too short. Wrong haircut too.”
Tovey laughed.
“Well, not everyone in the service is tall Tor. You’re just used to seeing what amounts to elite forces. Even the people stationed here building furniture are all handpicked. Those groups have a lot of nobles in them, people that can afford their own gear or have had years of training and schooling already. The regular forces tend to be a lot shorter on average. As to the Austrans making a mistake, I don’t think so…”
Behind Tovey came a familiar dark laugh. The man doing it wasn’t anyone he recognized though, a guard for Count Thomson it looked like one of two in the room. The man was obviously of royal blood, huge, about the same size as Rolph and hard looking. He had a short military haircut, barely a dark brown fuzz on his head the same length all over and dark skin that would have looked about right on Count Ward. The complexion was smooth, but something about him was familiar.
After a second he got it.
“Rolph!” Tor grinned looking at his friend. It took a lot less effort now than it had before, so Tor got up, a little stiffly and walked over to look at him.
“Is this make-up? You look good. I wouldn’t have recognized you at all if you hadn’t laughed you know…” Reaching out, Tor rubbed at the brown hand that clapped his shoulder. Tried to at least. He had to drop his shield to make contact.
“It’s a skin dye, so it won’t come off too easily. I figured I might as well do the whole thing if I was going to do the hair up. Blame Varley though. She kind of forced Karina’s hand, so I had no choice but to follow suit. Couldn’t let the girls show me up by that much, now could I?”
Varley, it turned out, had accepted Karina’s challenge and had all her hair cut off. Shorter than what Sara had even, Rolph informed him. In turn, Karina grudgingly dyed her own hair and had it cut to about shoulder length, so she looked a proper kitchen girl. Even the Queen cut her hair in a show of support for the girls, and for the military, which started a trend.
Count Thomson got a serious look on his face then.
“It’s… almost scary, really Tor. You walk through the streets of the Capital and almost everyone looks like their ready to run off and join the military. Man, woman and child. Even your friend Debbie cropped her hair off to show her support for the war effort. It’s certainly effective! If I were the Austrans I think I’d seriously consider calling off the war about now. If we could get them shields and weapons, I think that the school kids of Noram would seriously be starting their own offensive about now.” The smile Tovey gave him was proud and spoke of a deep patriotism. Not just the normal royal sense of things, but like he’d personally back up those school kids. Tor didn’t know if he could get them enough weapons and shields, but after he got the military squared away he’ give it a try.
Stupid Austrans.
Who went around declaring war anyway? It was about as dumb a thing as you could do.
As they all sat at the table in the central area Rolph explained how the attack on the generals, and Tor, was part of the reason that he hadn’t been around for a while. The Royal Guard was none too keen on the idea of the heir running around unprotected and felt that the palace was about as well as they could do. It was only by pointing out that the bombs wouldn’t care if the palace was protected by them or not that they finally relented enough for Rolph to temporarily escape their clutches.
“Then, “Sergeant Wilhelm”,” Rolph gestured at his uniform with a single, sweeping motion down his front. “Isn’t half the target the Prince Alphonse the ridiculous is. I do worry about my family though. The palace is good against all normal threats, but the Austrans won’t bother with those, will they? I think it’s only a matter of time before they start attacking the Capital and the palace is kind of an obvious target…”
Standing again, a little slowly Tor headed towards the back of the room, in the stack of chests along the back wall, all with flat tops so they wouldn’t topple if piled to high. They were two deep now all as big as his luggage trunks and were taking up a whole lot of otherwise useful space.
“Sergeant Wilhelm? If you and your friend there would give me a hand please?” He tried to pitch his voice seriously, as if he were really just talking to a real military sergeant that had come into the room, like half the people he met when he walked out for his daily strolls. They all kind of outranked him a little, since he wasn’t even in the service, but everyone was really polite to him anyway.
“Yeah, sure, not a problem.” Rolph answered getting up quickly. Not quickly enough to avoid the slap to the back of the head that the slightly older man with them aimed without hesitation.
“What? You trying to get us all killed Wilhelm? You don’t say “Yeah, sure, no problem” like that to a dignitary! This is Master Tor! Not only is he half the war effort right now, he could kill us all and eat our souls as an appetizer to his supper! It’s yes sir! And be happy he’s not one of the uppity ones that you have to use fifty-seven titles for. I’ll let you off this time, but do it again and it’s kitchen duty for a week. You’re only getting slack now, because you actually managed to hop-to pretty well…”
Rolph hung his head for a second, shot the man a sour look, then clicked his heals together as he stood very straight. “Yes sir, Master Tor sir!”
Standing near the trunks Tor had to fight to keep a grin off his face. He could see Rolph having a little bit of a hard time remembering to keep his act together with him. They’d just been friends for so long. After a second Tor realized something and pointed at the man that had just hit “Sergeant Wilhelm”.
“Heh… Now, start hitting him just like that again, getting a little harder each time… until he gets his shield on…”
Slapping his shield instantly Rolph laughed, but then tried to fight it and make his face go straight again. Tovey didn’t wait though, slapping his own shield on almost instantly. That was good, because he was going to be next.
“You have a shield too, don’t you, sorry, didn’t get your name…”
“High Staff Sergeant Stamos sir. I haven’t been issued a shield sir. Most of those are being given to the ground troops right now along the south eastern line. There hasn’t been a lot of activity, but when it comes, that’s the most likely, and traditional, target that the Austrans will hit.”
Tor pointed to a little box, open at the top, sitting on a low shelf behind the table. “In there, shields, temperature equalizers, Not-flyers and hand lights. Also a few new things that don’t even have names. Tovey, do the honors and make sure Stamos is actually equipped properly please? I can’t believe the military is letting people fly without a shield on. Get things for your other men too and anything that you don’t already have. Wilhelm here can help me with the palace shield.”
“The what?” Rolph said, sounding slightly incredulous.
“It’s what it sounds like. Shields for the entire palace. I don’t mean the personnel, I mean the whole building. I’ll work on others, for the rest of the Capital, as I can, but this thing has nearly six hundred separate field devices to make it work. I’m not even putting one up on this place, just the big building that Kolb built out back. Kind of a special shelter in case we’re ever attacked.”
They all listened, fascinated, when he described how Kolb and his forces spent two days testing it, building a small structure and then using everything they could to approximate Austran bombs to take it down with the shield up. Petra had even gone and sat inside while they did it. Tor had blanched at first, but the girl was perfectly fine. It was a good test, but showed a little too much faith in his work from the girl for his taste. After an hour of things that Tor had never even seen before, rockets and lobbed explosives as well as the thing being hit by the explosive weapon he’d built and gave to Kolb, the girl walked out with a grin on her face. Thank all the gods that Tor had put a field on to stop that kind of explosive too. It hadn’t been in the original plan.
She was happy and agreed that the whole thing seemed to work, telling them about how she’d barely even heard anything inside at all and the ground hadn’t even shook too much, but Tor was shaking, and felt like wetting himself. He decided right then and there that if any testing like that was to ever be done in the future, he’d always go first, himself. After all, if he wasn’t willing to test it personally, it wasn’t safe enough.
He did remember to ask Kolb to give him that “introduction” to the girl. Kolb raised an eyebrow, but passed the word along to her. Tor didn’t know if it was proper of him or not, since he was engaged already, but that was… impressive. It showed a trust in him that he didn’t feel he’d earned at all. One that Tor wasn’t sure could be earned. It certainly went beyond a little bit of flirting. He’d set up a date with her for when he was better, like she’d said. For the time being he just wanted to make sure she knew he hadn’t forgotten her.
“So, anyway, it works.” He finished, then pointed to some of the other boxes. “I also have two thousand more shields, the same on flying rigs and lights. The rest are odds and ends, sound dampeners, heat plates, water heaters and griddles, stoves and what not. Godfrey, the military commander here? He’s working on another two hundred transports. We already have more of them than people that can drive. As it is right now Sorlee has been setting up her own training school for anyone that wants to learn. When I get better, I’m going to take some lessons myself if I can. Ursala has already been soloing back and forth to the Capital each day for the last few. I think she’s practicing up so that she can personally take troops in to attack Ward.” Tor took a deep breath but didn’t let his worry show. If anything Ursala’s honor was more important and worthy than his own. She was a Countess and all.
She’d even discussed with him plans for a huge transport, one that could carry hundreds of people at once. It wouldn’t even take new fields, he assured her, just more of the lift plates like the regular ones had. The shields would have to be reworked, something similar to the palace shield, especially if they were taking it into combat. She didn’t tell him her plans specifically, or mention fighting at all, but then, she didn’t know that he’d put aside hundreds of fields for her people either.
Torrance didn’t know what the Wards had as far as defenses and weapons, but he didn’t want to risk losing his friend or her people. Tor was glad he hadn’t mentioned all this to Rolph, because the big, now dark skinned and haired, man looked constipated suddenly just from the mention of Ursala learning to fly a transport.
“What?” The words came out a bit more explosively than Tor had expected, but he could kind of see it. Tor didn’t want Ursala going off to war either. The very idea made him nervous in fact. Scared even. But who was he to tell her she couldn’t have her revenge?
They killed her family.
If someone had killed his family, or his friends, what would he do? Probably the same thing. If with a less aplomb. Ursala was like ice on the subject, hardly mentioning it at all, just quietly making her preparations each day. Tor knew he would have been spazzing out constantly, ripping at his hair and probably building super-weapons that were way more powerful than anyone should ever have.
“Don’t worry, she’s going to wait for the King’s orders, but when they come she doesn’t think that Count Ward and his wife are just going to give up and surrender. I don’t know how such things work really, but it makes sense to me. The guy has his own army, what, twenty thousand strong?” Tor had never actually heard that himself, just that someone he’d run into did… Wait, that was that Duke from the party, Winchester. So if a Duke had twenty thousand, then what would a rich Count have?
“Closer to eighty thousand… Some of them are off supporting the actual war effort, thank god, so anything that happens will be smaller, but they have military gear that’s decent. Not current standard, but solid stuff. Luckily they only have about five hundred outfitted that way and again, half are on the front.”
That earned a nod. So the ground forces were big, but the “elite” shielded and magically armed forces were a few hundred? The only thing that didn’t really answer was if the Wards had managed to get anything going in secret. Tor was doing all right making things, and had even become kind of popular for it, he knew. Mainly because people could get his stuff. There were a lot of other builders that made really effective devices too, just slower. He’d learned that the hard way himself, with those pain gloves that Smythe had. He still didn’t know how those worked at all, but they were obviously high quality. It was just possible that Ward managed to buy up something that no one else knew existed yet. Tor had to try and get ready for that, which was, by definition, almost impossible. Who knew what could be brought to the party?
Almost anything. So he’d have to do whatever he could to protect his friend, that was all.
They managed to load Stamos and then everyone else in the little group that had come, most of whom turned out to be standing at the door outside, up with everything he had. They all hung around looking pleased and more than a little awkward for a while, but then agreed to act as delivery men to the military for the fields. It would, at least, let Tor clear out most of the fields from inside the hut, leaving room for more. Besides, he pointed out, it would make their disguise look legitimate. No one would send the heir, or a sitting Count, to deliver military supplies, would they? If anyone watched and wondered, this should throw them off a lot.
“Only you would, Tor. But I doubt the Austrans know that yet.” Rolph winked at him as he grabbed a trunk and took it outside.
Count Thomson got him alone and asked when he thought he’d be recovered enough for the next attempt on his life. Oddly enough, the very tall man didn’t seem to be joking, or pleased about the idea. He seemed grim in fact. For a bit Tor was afraid he was going to tell Tor that he wouldn’t back the plan. It was his right of course, but it didn’t make sense. Didn’t he want the Wards caught, if it was really them at least? Tor had gotten into the habit of thinking it was them, but that didn’t make it so, did it? He’d thought it was both Wensa and Trice already too, and that was wrong. Obviously it couldn’t have been them, unless everyone was just in it together. If that were the case, he really would have been dead by now. He probably wouldn’t have lasted through the first bath or shower, when he took all his amulets off. Another reason to get friendly with Petra? She could watch his back while he bathed. Wash it too.
And then he could watch hers, so it would work out all the way around. Tee-hee. Tor felt a little ashamed for having even thought about it, but it was kind of a good point, having a guard in the shower and bath at least.
Count Thomson assured him both that he’d back his plan, and that if Tor died, he’d kill him. The logic of it was a little short, but Tor nodded anyway. After all, if he was going to be staying in Tovey’s house, he had to follow his rules, right? So no dying. Check. Really, Tor could both agree and endorse that rule fully. Maybe he should have a similar policy for his place?
They set the date for everyone that was going to arrive at the Thomson Capital house in a month and thirteen days, which would put Tor going into town just in time for the Queen’s birthday. Two days before really. That shook him a little. He remembered Rolph sending clothes dryers to her for the last birthday and it was nearly back around again? Then he realized something else. Somewhere in there his own birthday had already come and gone. He’d been eighteen for months already.
Plans set, Tor hunkered down and got to work. It was incredibly boring at first but he forced himself to hold to the best pace he could manage while still recovering. At nearly a thousand copies a day, the military had stopped complaining, and after a few weeks of work even stopped asking for new flying rigs. They wanted a lot more shields, and oddly, the faster Not-flyers; since those were so easy to use they almost didn’t require training. That reminded him to send a few hundred of those to the Capital too, for the palace servants and guests that wanted to give them a try. Some would disappear, he knew, but that wasn’t a big deal to him and really shouldn’t be to anyone else either. If some street kid ended up with a Not-flyer…
Why not? It would only serve to confuse things even more, right? Tor loaded an extra four hundred in to just be given out on the street, those were the old fashioned kind that went a lot slower, to cut down on accidents and injury, since shields weren’t being given out with them. No one else should have to ride in a carriage either and most of the people that got free ones probably wouldn’t have anyway. That took gold.
So no one got hurt by it, not even carriage drivers. After all, it was just some stuff he’d made, right?
In the end he had enough stored in his hut to outfit a small army. Actually an army that wasn’t all that small to tell the truth, locked up in six trunks that just sat in the back along the wall, waiting. The tops were marked with orange and black stripes, marking them in Thorgood colors. No one else seemed to notice it at all, not even Sara, who spent a lot of time watching what he did and trying to be helpful when she was around. He hadn’t told anyone, not Rolph, not even Ursala, what was in there either. The big Countess, no longer big, just tall and nearly lean from all her work outs with the combat giants out back, had become quieter as the days moved closer to them going and she started looking at Tor more and more strangely.
Finally he had to stare back at her for a while. It was that or move out.
“Alright Ursala, what? Did you start a new rumor that I was a troll? I swear, I’m going to have to start walking around with a club all the time at this rate.” He shook his head in mock sadness, then smiled at her and, feeling daring for once, walked around the dark focus stone table, feet scuffing a little on the plush hand-woven red and blue rug at his feet and tapped his shield off, getting her to follow suit. Then he kissed her warmly. It led to a very nice afternoon in which he didn’t get a lot of work done, but they did manage to laugh a little. It was nice, even if the Countess was distracted the whole time. When they’d finished and moved back to sit at the table Ursala sighed.
“Tor… could I buy some gear off you do you think? I mean military stuff, shields, and flying rigs, maybe other things? I’ll pay going rate for whatever you can spare. I’d offer to marry you too, so you could have a title, but Count Tor doesn’t sound any better than Prince Tor really…” She didn’t smile when she said it, sounding oddly serious for some reason.
“Um, on top of your birthday present?” He asked, trying to keep his voice smooth. Really he didn’t have a clue when her birthday was, but he surely missed the last one, right?
She blinked at him, baffled.
“That’s not until the beginning of true summer…”
Tor shrugged.
“Well, I’ll give you part of it now, if you promise to remember it later. OK?”
Taking her hand he led her to the trunks along the back wall and freed up the ones with orange and black strips painted on the top. They weren’t huge things, just a few lines about the size of his index finger in thickness, but it was enough. There were six of them in all.
“Happy birthday.”
“But..” She started opening the boxes, getting a little more frantic with each one. “But…” The blond managed to say that single word seven more times before she got to the last box, which held things she didn’t recognize at all. “Um…”
Tor fought a smile from his face and pointed at each case in turn.
“Shields for two thousand, flyers for five hundred, not-flyers for a thousand,” this got them through the first four boxes at five he hesitated for a second. “Miscellaneous really, earth moving gear of two types, the normal kind and the really powerful ones I made for Afrak. Lights, temperature plates, water heaters, stove and grill plates, ten of the anti-sound things, just because you’re known to get a little loud from time to time, and compressor units for both building and fine crafting of focus stone.”
Tor waved his hand at the last box.
“That’s the special one though. It’s everything you need to make the massive transport you talked about, with shields made for war on it. We have to build the body ourselves, but that can be done. I suggest we pick Godfrey’s brain on the topic first though. You know, to get the doors right and whatever. I really have no clue how those work.
“As for the rest, weapons and the second half of this stuff, well, I need to get with the King to see what you’re allowed to have in regards to that. Whatever it is, each of your outfitted people will get that too.”
She looked at the boxes and then at him and tears came into her eyes. No words came for a while and Tor was a little afraid that she’d refuse the gift, but that didn’t happen. Then he wondered if she’d kiss him or insist on something else, but that didn’t happen either.
“How long have you been planning this?” Ursala asked instead.
“Um, honestly? I don’t remember. A few weeks? A month or two? Time is so fluid in my head any more, what with all the work. But anyway, not that long and the military hasn’t been asking for half this stuff for a bit, so I’m not taking away from them or anything for it. Not much at least.”
“Oh.”
Tor couldn’t read her at all. He didn’t know what he really expected from her, but this felt like a bit of a letdown really. She nodded and stared for a bit, but it was a calculating look.
“Obviously this comes with strings.” The Countess said, softly, her voice odd, as if far away, drifty and a little sing song. It was weird.
Tor almost denied that totally, but he realized it had to, didn’t it? He nodded instead, which made her flinch.
“Right. Obviously. You kind of have to agree not to go to war with the kingdom of Noram using this gear, right? I mean, not that you were ever planning to, but if you do, you kind of need to do it without the stuff I made for you, alright? And then, I believe the tradition is that half your well armored and armed troops support the war effort directly. It shouldn’t cost that much though, because that’s only food and housing for them right? You’d need that even if you sent unarmored troopers. If you think it’s a good idea you could start a support group, kind of like the one here, to make needed things. Dams and bridges, roads and houses. Oh, and a transport squadron. If I were you I’d snap up Sorlee Farmer to head that up before the King’s army does, or at least as someone to train your transport drivers. And I’m saying that because she’s good, not just because I’m trying to get her out of being a whore.”
Out of all that the only thing that got a response from the woman was the last word.
“You said whore. I don’t think I remember you ever saying that before.” She was blinking strangely.
Tor just shrugged.
“Lady of industry. Sorry, my backwoods roots were showing for a minute there.” He grinned.
So did she. But then, without speaking, she refastened the cases and pushed them back into place, then walked to her bed area and didn’t come out for the rest of the night. Tor heard a scratching sound that he recognized as pen on paper. He felt a little bemused, but let it go. Apparently weapons of war didn’t make that good of a present for a lady? Well, he’d have to do up some flowers or something with the second part. He decided to keep that in mind for Connie’s gift. No weapons and nothing too practical? That could be done.
The next day, sitting on his bed, lights dim and Ursala primed to feed him and lead him to the restroom if need be, he started working on the Queen’s birthday gift. What he had in mind, well, it was about useless really, but he hoped she’d like it anyway. Being careful not to tell anyone what was up, he worked non-stop, building the field one piece at a time, so that he could eat dinner each night and sleep for a few hours before getting back up. It was a bit of a complicated field device, but it wasn’t massive in any portion, well, not too massive, compared to a thousand mile long river or something, so he didn’t have to risk dying to do it. He even ate and exercised enough that Kolb didn’t yell at him overly. Instead the bald man just gave him hard looks and raised his eyebrows a lot to try and get him to do more.
It did let him get ready for the trip to the Capital a little, practicing his fighting about an hour per day, running too. He didn’t rest enough, but something had to give in his schedule and he did sleep some. So it was better than a lot of the work he’d done over the last year that way. He didn’t even come close to dying for instance or even scaring anyone overly.
The trip to the Capital was uneventful, thankfully, though Tovey came to get him and had Sorlee fly him down rather than letting him just fly himself. Then, as if trying to make him seem a near invalid, two of the combat giants carefully helped him out of the back section of the craft, nearly carrying him to the carriage, for the ride to the Thomson place. It was David Derring and Petra that were tasked with helping him, which was fine, except that Petra kept grabbing his behind and making him laugh. He had to drop into a trance just so that the chuckling wouldn’t make him seem too lively.
That didn’t stop her, but she did shift where her hands went a little, enough that Tor began to suspect that the girl might actually like him or something. Finally David whispered at her to stop, his voice low and dangerous sounding.
“Petra, give it a rest, at least till we get in. Tor is supposed to be near death, not getting ready to bed every girl in the Capital…” David glared at her a little but Petra yielded and started treating him like a revered elder, too sick to stand on his own.
They made it in finally, the house nice and cool at least, Tor had left his equalizer off, so that he’d look slightly distressed. Acting had never been a real skill of his, but letting himself suffer in the early spring heat would get the job done. That and the fact that he always looked a pale compared to most people, especially if he stood next to someone like Petra with her smooth dark looks. It probably worked, at least from the worried looks the staff was giving him. They offered to carry him to his room even. Tor nearly lost it then, barely keeping the laughter in.
Did he really look that bad? Apparently. Tor insisted on shuffling in under his own power, hamming it up for them, barely lifting his feet.
The next days he spent doing nothing more than copying fields for a military that had more shields now than they ever had before. It wasn’t a vast number, but instead of nearly ten thousand with shields of one sort or another, he had them up to nearly twenty-five.
Still, he had nothing else to do and no one would let him even leave the house. That was a good plan, he knew, since he needed to be available to be killed and all that. But it wasn’t exactly interesting. He couldn’t even work in the kitchen or clean rooms, or have interesting visits with Ursala. So he worked and pretended that was all he was interested in doing.
Nothing happened of course. No, that would be too exciting by far. No one even made noise in his section of the house. They even under-spiced the food, so that it wouldn’t be too much for him.
For two days the only thing that kept him going was an hour long afternoon visit with Petra, who sat with him underneath an invisible silent dome in his room. They couldn’t do anything, of course, because, well, first, it wasn’t that kind of relationship, bored or not, though by a couple of days in Tor didn’t doubt that even his natural shyness would fold under the desire to do something. Second, there were eyes on them constantly. The boredom was bad enough that he could have let go of worry about being watched by Tovey’s people, that was what it was, if they wanted to watch him have sex, more power to them. But if any of them were spies, vigorous activity on his part might give the plan away, right? That also took out weapons practice for the same reason.
So instead, they sat and talked.
It wasn’t inspired for the most part, talking about new types of devices Petra thought she’d like, some of which Tor thought he could actually do, like a device to merge cloth together without sewing, it would take some practice, but if the fibers could be coaxed to move together and intertwine… Well, that was doable, he thought.
They chatted about what she did for fun, which lately had, oddly enough, a lot to do with clothing styles of all things. The large girl that he’d never seen in anything but fighting leathers or real student browns that he remembered, not silk or velvet certainly, had a keen fashion sense and enjoyed designing her own outfits. Her family, well, the ones that talked to her, didn’t have a lot of money, but she used a bit of her pay each week to buy up material from the Capital, mainly the fine stuff from Afrak and Tellerand. Finally, on the third day, they talked about where she’d grown up.
That was enlightening to say the least.
“Um, well, most of my life I lived in Warden. The County Ward capital, of course. That was back before my dad died, you know? Once Marvin married Maria that was pretty much done. She’s too jealous to let anyone else be around that might influence him at all. He’s… look, Tor, I know that it’s likely that Maria’s behind the attacks on you, and that it’s probably my fault, but Marvin isn’t a bad guy, or at least he wasn’t before she came into his life.” Petra sighed and shook her head slowly while Tor looked baffled and just tilted his head at her, at least it got her to keep talking.
“A lot of people think he’s just dumb, but he’s… Well, he’s just really trusting, not stupid. The problem is, when they got married a few years ago, she started telling him that we were all out to tear him down, to destroy him and put James or even me on the seat instead of him. But neither of us really wants the job. James is a bit like him, not slow, but too trusting by half. The only plus there is that his wife is really smart, and a good person. As for me… Well, I like to think I’m bright enough, but really nothing special in the brains department, you know? My mom’s pretty smart, but dad was always, well, he was a Count and a good man.”
Ah. Tor had to piece a lot together then, so he started to ask some questions.
Petra smiled at him and nodded while she sat cross legged on his bed. Her clothing was all tough looking tan and cream leather with brown boots the same color as his own shoes.
“That’s right, Petra Ward. Ellen’s my mom, I’m kind of a late in life child, she was nearly fifty when she had me, which took everyone by surprise. Especially her, I hear. Didn’t you know that? I… though Kolb would have told you if, you know, Karen hadn’t. I… wasn’t trying to hide who I was from you or anything. I just thought everyone knew really.”
Tor shook his head, considering the whole thing for a bit.
“No. I guess that doesn’t matter though really, does it? If you were a secret agent for your brother and his wife, I’d be dead by now. But how is Maria coming after me your fault at all? I thought she just didn’t like me for asking her out once or for getting in the Count’s, your brothers, way when he and Rolph were in a fight that one time. Combat rage thing on both parts, so, not pretty, but no one got hurt… The King and Queen were both happy enough with the way it ended I think, except for the damage to the floor. No one said anything about it, but stone work like that must cost a bundle.” He shook his head and wondered if it was still there. If it was, he could probably fix it now, by using a stronger version of the concentrator they used on dirt. It wouldn’t do much to rock or stone, but it should seal cracks together without a seam showing. Maybe compact sand and gravel? He’d have to check when he could.
That got a downcast gaze at the bedspread and nothing else from the woman for a long time. Finally, wetting her naturally red lips with her tongue she nodded.
“It was a while back really, before, you know, that incident with Maria in your first year? Um, well, I kind of mentioned to her that I was going to ask Alphonse if he wanted to, you know, do something with me, just like really do something, not have sex or anything like that. That would be gross, since were too closely related by blood for that kind of thing. She didn’t know before that who he was, so she decided to set her sights. We were kind of friends back then, since I’d known her sister Collette before she graduated. Well you know all this right?”
Tor shook his head, because really this was the first that he’d heard about it at all. Petra took a deep breath and tightened her face up into a silly looking expression. Then she carried on. It seemed that Maria wasn’t just pursuing Rolph as a friend, or even sexual conquest, but decided to hit him full out, asking for marriage after the first time they slept together. That of course was more news to Tor. Why hadn’t Rolph mentioned any of this first? Then he wouldn’t have wasted time trying to ask her to that party at all.
“So, obviously she knew who you were too. Everyone did, even back then, at least the ones that knew who Rolph really is. We all had orders not to say anything to give him away, from the King’s own hand, written into a letter for each of us. Well, the signature was his at least. So, we all knew that, you know, you were special. Smart, even Alphonse said so, and that you had connections or something, the King only has what, six or seven scholarship kids at Lairdgren? You have to really show something to get one. But Maria didn’t know that. When Rolph tried to put her off, she, you know, didn’t get it, I don’t think. You know how pretty she is. I don’t think anyone had ever told her that they weren’t interested in her before, especially when she was offering herself in marriage. From what she said, Alphonse was very proper and courteous to her the whole time, but she was really insulted and couldn’t cope. I’m sure that the Prince was nearing the realization that he’d have to call in a go-between to calm her when you asked her out.”
Leather normally wouldn’t have been half comfortable in even this early spring heat, but Petra looked cool and dry. Then she openly had on a half dozen amulets, all things he’d made and given her. The pretty brown hand didn’t make contact with his leg when she reached out, both of them had shields on after all, all Kolb’s people wore them all the time as a rule, now, so she hovered there, palm flat, about an inch away from him. After a second she pulled back, realizing that it just wouldn’t work.
“So… I don’t know if Alphonse put you up to it or not, but when you, his roommate, walked up to her and asked her out, so very, very properly like that, with a flower arrangement that was obviously professionally made, something no normal student would be able to afford for something casual, she… kind of flipped. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the girls is and always has been, kind of a bitch…”
But not, as a rule, a Doretta. Anything but, according to Petra. It seemed she tended to ere on the side of accepting anyone that showed interest in her. The only one she’d ever done anything like that to, of course, being him. Well, that made him feel special at least. Tor had to suppress a sigh, but did it so the Petra would keep talking.
The tale that unfolded was one of anger, an illogical kind of rage even, on Maria’s part, but one that made a certain kind of sense, if you were a fourteen year old girl that felt like she’d been unfairly spurned, and then insulted, by someone she’d made only honest overtures to. A person that, due to his station as Prince, Maria couldn’t touch at all. Ever. She couldn’t even call him names openly or say she didn’t like him. That would have been too dangerous.
“So, you know, she went after the person closest to him that she thought she could get away with hurting. You. So, she… said those things. That you and Alphonse were together first, which no one cared about. It was school after all. If the Prince wanted a boyfriend, no one would bat an eyelash, right? Plus, who could blame him for liking you? He was supposed to be trying things out and making good connections with others anyway. When that didn’t have any effect, she said that you liked children, trying to smear your name. No one credited that either you know… It was clear sour grapes. Even if you did, how would she have known anything about it? Besides, you’d asked her out, which kind of showed interest in other places, yeah?”
She didn’t get up and pace, but she got really quiet again for a while and finally nodded.
“Then, when she did it, well, most people knew about what had happened by then, but a few of the boys liked her enough to take what she said seriously and wanted to kill you for it. It was ridiculous, given everything, but she was pretty enough that her going around claiming that she acted like that because you’d tried to force her the night before, well it carried some weight, even if it was an obvious lie.”
Force her? To do what, Tor wanted to ask at first, but he already knew the answer.
Rape. She’d gone around and claimed he raped her? Or tried to at least? God, they’d only even talked the one time! Anger rose in him then, he felt it rise, spreading out through his mind as his heart beat faster and faster, Petra’s eyes went wide and she rocked back suddenly as if he’d hit her or something.
“Tor?”
She didn’t move out of the silence field, but rose so that her hands were on the bed and feet on the floor, ready to run if she had to. He didn’t move at all and closed his eyes instead.
It was the past. Let it go.
It took a minute, but he drove his mind into as deep a state as he could, into and then past what he used to make copies even, finally, without really shifting position at all, Tor opened his eyes and nodded. Alright. He’d already known from what Rolph had told him that the girl had said some vile and evil things. It pretty much had to be something like that, didn’t it? Claiming he liked men, animals or even children was clear name calling. Well, at least the animals and children had been.
There were men around that he could have been going after, even though at that time he hadn’t even really known such things were physically possible. Tor was still a little unclear how it would work, but Ursala had told him some of it. Guys had mouths and hands too and behinds, but he still didn’t get that last reference.
Right. So accept that it had happened and move on. It took him a while, but he finally nodded.
“I… didn’t know that.”
“Um, are you all right now? I… you were showing aura and then you pulled yourself out of it? I… didn’t know a person could do that. Not once it started deeply enough to start showing externally… Um, well, yeah. Anyway, people finally let it go as being a lie, but it took a bit.”
Well, even the rumor of such things would probably explain why no women ever even looked at him at school. Who could trust such a thing? Once the words were said, the damage from the lies would tend to spread. He certainly wouldn’t have told any girl to go hang around with the guy that had rumors like that floating about him. Still, even in a deep trance state he felt it, just lightly. The desire to go and destroy Maria and everyone associated with her that had helped her damage his name. He drove himself deeper and tried to let it go.
“So, it probably would have died there, as far as you were concerned, except that, you know, I…” The girl moved back to the bed and sat as close as possible to him, shields bumping slightly. “I told her, well, I told people that told her, that I liked you, and was planning on asking you out. That would have been fine, except, well, she hates me now, doesn’t she?”
It took a while for Tor to put it together, but when he did things finally started to click into place. Everything that had been happening, almost literally, had links back to Maria. Maybe it was the trance state, so close to his work mode that did it. That was more than possible. Or, just as likely, his shutting down his emotions for the time being let everything show more clearly, but it lined up.
Ursala getting pregnant which would have destroyed her marriage to Rolph, David Derring, brother of Karen, a girl that had attacked her, being challenged by a sitting Count, one that was probably her lover Tor bet, even the people closest to Rolph showing a lot more combat rage… The people being poisoned just after Austra declared war and the generals later… That wasn’t normal. In war, poison was almost never used as a weapon, because you have to get too close to make it work…
The links were there. It was a shadowy and amorphous thing in his mind, but there was something to it. He could feel it. Feel the shape of the field that had been built in society from the actions taken. It… he didn’t have any proof of course.
“Maria, she’s working with the Austrians, isn’t she? Probably to punish Rolph and the people around her that she views as having hurt her in the past. Even killing me, or trying too, is probably just meant to hurt Rolph. It really has very little to do with you, if I have it right… wait!”
Tor looked at her, realizing something she’d just said, causing him to blink.
“You were going to ask me out? You told Maria that? When?”
“Oh, um, yeah. Well, I’ve been watching you for a while now, so, I guess I started thinking about it nearly two years ago? You were so shy back then though, and I didn’t know if you, you know, would even talk to me really, I didn’t really tell her myself, I told my mom who mentioned it to her, just after the clothing dryer test? I’d been wanting too for a lot longer than that… I was nervous though, so I kind of went too slowly.”
Duh.
Tor had just assumed that, since he seemed to be the target himself, that it was actually about him. But it wasn’t at all. It was about Maria’s hurt feelings, her sister in-law and Rolph, who she thought had insulted her. He started laughing then. It made sense. Petra started to look worried, then her face clouded briefly. Oh! He realized she must be thinking that he was laughing at her for thinking to ask him out. That, he assured her quickly, wasn’t it. In fact that part was really nice, and sweet, and not only would he do it now, but really wished she’d tried earlier.
“Not that I would have gotten it, so, maybe this is as close to when you could have mentioned it as possible anyway? No… It’s just that I understand now. A little. I think…” Tor closed his eyes then.
“Maria Ward isn’t after me at all and never was really. She’s going after Rolph and his family. Everyone that knows him, to make him pay for spurning her. In her mind, she’s Count Wylde and Rolph is the evil Doretta. And…” The next bit made sense, but he didn’t want to credit it. It was way too dark, even for something as serious as this. It fit though. Too well to be happenstance.
“And she’s working with the Austrans to try and destroy us all, to punish him for being so cruel.”