“Torrence Green Baker!”
The voice ripped across the dueling field and sent a chill down his spine. Taking a deep breath he turned slowly, fighting the urge to run away. Flying away would be the better option he knew, since his leg was still a little gimpy from the break. When he finished the turn he was glad he hadn’t tried that. His mother stood next to Baroness Morgan, and both of them wore flying gear. The good kind too. He did leave the shield on, just in case.
That the Baroness was dressed in nice flying clothes of leather and silk was natural enough and she looked pretty in it too. He’d even seen her in them before so he recognized her instantly. His mother he’d never seen in anything other than a skirt or dress, and all those in country blah, a kind of blue-tan-gray, that plus the fact that she looked way younger than he remembered her ever being threw him for a few seconds. He put it all together, the whole not aging thing of course, she was pretty much immortal after all, but blinked a few times first. She looked like she could be going to school here, not nearly old enough by half to be his mother. Actually some of the other students looked older than she did.
“Hell…” He started trying for a greeting, but got a sudden harangue that stopped him cold. Tor decided to just listen and glanced at the clothing she wore, brown leather pants, new looking tan boots and a green silk top, a deep green that looked almost black. Mercy had on deep blue. House colors? The King had purple and gold, which Tor liked, because purple was his favorite color, but deep green wasn’t too bad. It worked with his mom’s black hair and pale skin, so it would probably work with his too. At least the house colors weren’t pink and yellow. The idea nearly made him laugh. Lairdgren. In proper country speech that just meant “Lord Green” which made sense. Heck, Tor’s middle name was Green. It all kind of clicked into place suddenly.
“Your father and I did not send you off to school to get into fights like some kind of common ruffian! I’m of half a mind to send you home right now young man. Of all the irresponsible, lame headed, hare brained things to be doing! Well, I hope you haven’t been neglecting your baking skills, because after this little display you’ll be lucky if anyone will let you do even that. Hmph!” Her voice was just as shrill and harsh as he remembered it at least, so that hadn’t changed.
Looking around he saw that Dorgal Sorvee had walked over, probably enjoying the fact that Tor was being chewed out in public like this. Well, it was embarrassing, but she was right. He should have watched what he said and let David deal with it. But still…
“Ah, ma’am?” Dorgal said in a genteel voice, bowing slightly. “Now, normally I’d be all for watching the little baker boy here be taken to task for, well, pretty much anything, since he bugs the crud out of me most days, but he wasn’t in the wrong here. Count Rodriguez challenged a first year student to a duel to the death because he was mad at the kid’s father. Tor got him to challenge him instead. Then handled it without killing him, which was rather smoothly done. That weapon Davie Derring has is… Well, that plowed looking field next to us? It was grass earlier.” The greasy seeming boy shrugged.
“He would have killed the Count and that wouldn’t end well for anyone, probably starting a war, and wars are messy, don’t you think? Bad for business all around. Now, if it pleases you, knowing all that, do continue ripping this guy a new one. I’ll get some snacks and take notes for later use.” Dorgal bowed and stepped back with a smarmy smile, far enough away that the glare from Tor’s mom barely scathed him.
“Friend of yours dear?” Mercy put in, obviously trying to change the subject.
“Ah, no, kind of the school bully actually. Little shocked that he didn’t find some way to use this to his advantage yet. Not that he’s the violent type. He just says things, you know… Related to Meredith Sorvee I think. Good thing Trice asked me to marry her first.” Standing about fifteen feet away Dorgal blanched. “Though really, I’m sure Meredith is a great person… I just couldn’t risk it, in case she’s a relative of his.
“So, if you’re not here to see this debacle, why have you both come? It’s not… Trice hasn’t decided to break off the engagement already, has she? She didn’t mention anything to me about that…” He knew he hadn’t been a very good fiance yet. Since they’d been back he’d spent almost all of his time working on one thing or another, not paying attention to her like he should. Sure the whole thing wasn’t really real, but on the off chance that he could win her over, shouldn’t he try? Or at least… Well, he should make himself look as good as possible to her, so that she might recommend him to other women as a decent person, after she was done with him. He’d make a point of working on that, if the whole thing wasn’t up already. Had she met some other boy? Well, he’d certainly given her time to, so who could blame her?
Mercy shook her head. “Nothing like that. In fact she was just telling me how happy she is with you and how she hoped you didn’t die out there. It looks like you took more of a beating than it seemed though, did your shield fail or…”
Tor touched his face. “No. These… a Royal Guard kicked me down some stairs last night. I took her prisoner and locked her and her troop up in a holding cell after. I guess I get to go deal with that now. Do you think that the King would have secretly ordered my death… or I don’t know, would Connie have done it? I thought we were all friends, but… No one’s talking about why Wensa keeps trying to kill me. She’s claiming that she didn’t do it last night, but it sure seemed like her.” Tor rolled his eyes. “Sorry, I’ll handle all that later. Now, to what do we owe the pleasure?”
The reason they were there surprised Tor a little, but not in a bad way. Terlee had decided to come and visit Count Thomson. They were flying over and saw the gathering of people so they decided to land and see what the situation was. Probably hoping for jugglers or a party.
“Imagine our surprise…” Laurie began dryly, still glaring at Tor a little.
Terlee was over by the Count, who stood in a small group of people around David Derring, it was a good enough excuse to drag everyone over, since it was his sister after all. Besides Trice stood next to her as well. His sister looked… good. Royal, if tiny. Her hair was pulled back simply but her face had been made up like the ladies at court did, but with less color, so it looked more natural. She wore an outfit similar to his mothers, but that pulled in at the waist a little more and pushed her bust line forward. Courting clothes. David smiled when he walked up and started making introductions.
“Tor! Tor, this is my father, Count Derring, of course, and my mother.” The man and woman looked at him as if he’d done something special. The man bowed slightly towards Tor.
“I was just saying how lucky it was that David didn’t fight Count Rodriguez.” The man said, his voice a little prickly for some reason. Tor shrugged and agreed.
“Yes. David’s at least five times better than I am at fighting and really didn’t have as much reason as I did to let the man off easy.” Tor spoke softly, trying to pitch his voice so that the Count alone would hear him.
The Count looked surprised.
“Oh, yes, well… I did rather mean that weapon that you gave him. That was impressive. The fool should have surrendered on his knees right there. Still, we are, of course, just as glad that it all ended without any death. Right Davie?” The voice was dry and a little smarmy sounding to Tor’s ear, which couldn’t be right. Wouldn’t any father be simply happy that their child was unharmed in a case like this?
“Of course.” The kid sounded so subdued suddenly that Tor wondered if his father had ordered him to kill the man outright or something. If so, he’d make sure that David knew to blame him for it. Tor hadn’t known of any plan, after all, and who could expect some country bumpkin like him to get a complicated plan like that anyway? So far, as nice as both Davie and Karen were, their father wasn’t making a very good impression. He felt creepy. On a field level, not just his looks or something basic like that. Torrence looked up at the man his neck twinging a little from the extreme angle. Huge and creepy. Almost evil.
The Countess Derring, a sweet looking, if large, mousy blond in her mid-forties, meaning she looked younger than that, moved in and gave him a hug. Tor was baffled for a few seconds.
“Thank you for my son.” She whispered directly in his left ear so softly Tor almost couldn’t hear her. It didn’t sound like thanks for saving his life, which he hadn’t done at all. The boy really would have won pretty easily. If Tor managed it, he would have. Probably by leaving bits of Rodriguez all over the back of the field. So, was it thanks for making sure her son didn’t have to kill the Count?
David smiled and continued the introductions.
“You know Karen and Count Thomson of course…” He gestured with his right hand, a move far too elegant for the heavy canvas clothing he wore. He didn’t sweat, which meant that he had on a temperature equalizer too most likely. “Next to him on the left is my cousin, Ducherina Patricia Morgan. She goes to school here, I don’t know if you’ve met? On the other side of the Count,” he continued without pausing so Tor couldn’t explain anything. No one else tried yet, so Tor let him continue. “Is the lovely Counserina Lairdgren, Tamerlane.”
Tor blinked at that, but didn’t say anything. It made sense, if his mom wasn’t hiding any more, and Terlee wanted to try and catch Tovey, she had to do it as a Counserina. It was real enough, but still felt a little like lying to Tor. Still, he wouldn’t ruin it for her. She was obviously trying really hard and wasn’t even hiding behind her hair while being talked about. That had to be hard for her. Tor gave her a small bow that wasn’t even ironic.
Then David smiled at the other women.
“I recognize my aunt, of course, the Baroness Morgan, but the other lovely lady…” Davie sounded smooth, like he’d said things like that all his life. Tor wondered if he really had. Did they learn to say things like that with a straight face while they learned to walk? Of course, since the lovely woman was his mother, Tor might be a little jaded. She did look nice, nearly as good as Terlee, he had to admit. Maybe better, it was just so hard to separate her from his mother, as ridiculous as the idea sounded. The creepy Count apparently thought she was lovely too, because he fairly stared at her. It surprised Tor enough that he jumped when Count Derring stepped towards her suddenly.
“Laurie? Oh my! Of course that only makes sense… David, Maggie, this is Counserina first, Lorali Lairdgren. I haven’t seen you in years, not since school…” He didn’t say any more, and no one told him anything. It was kind of pointed.
So, Tor inferred, the man wasn’t an old friend exactly. Funny, Tor could see that somehow.
Still, maybe this just wasn’t a good day for him? After all, someone had tried to kill his son already, if nothing else, and that had to tick the guy off. Tor felt a little rough and surly himself and was hoping no one blamed him for it, so maybe he should extend the same courtesy to Count Derring?
“Hello Daniel. Yes, I’ve been living the country life and only recently decided to venture forth and visit with some people again. Since my son Torrence is attending school here, and… some other reasons,” She cast a sidelong look at Terlee and Tovey with a smile. “We thought we’d make this the first leg of our little tour. Next we’re going to visit with my father, then head down to the Capital and look up Richard and Connie. We’ll probably be leaving later today or early tomorrow at the latest.”
It took things a second to click in place for Tor. Slow from lack of sleep probably.
“Hey, not to be a pain, but do you think you could wait an extra day or two? I want to send some things down for Connie and her family. Also, I guess I should send a few things for Count Lairdgren since were related and all? I’ll let you tell me what kind of things he might be interested in though.” It wasn’t like they’d ever met or anything, so how would he know?
They worked out that they could stay one extra day and not be too far off schedule. Tor suppressed a groan and kissed his mother on the cheek, then gave Terlee a quick hug. Trice got that he was about to disappear, probably for the next day at least and pulled him into a hug. “Remember to eat. I’ll be by with some food in a few hours.”
He took off pretty quickly; it was early still, so if he could manage a batch per hour… Blowing out air in a big puff Tor flew faster. It was going to take longer than he had as it was. Eh. Well, that was everything lately. He rushed back and got to work without delay, tired or not.
Oddly enough, no one expected him to go to school on any day he’d fought in a duel, no matter how lame the actual events were. At least he though that’s what Rolph said to him as he got through the eighth set of ten poison detectors. He’d rebuild the weapons to make them more suitable for school use later. They didn’t really need anything that would instantly destroy, well, a battlefield or almost anything else that got in the way.
For Count Lairdgren he put in two copies of everything he had, including water pumps, since he didn’t have to make them. The design wasn’t perfect yet, but it let you pick where the water needed to start from with the first plate and where it emptied with the second. They worked up to about two hundred feet apart. The effect was a lot like a miniature version of the Falcon’s river, which was neat enough, he guessed. A pipe of water that floated in the air. What wasn’t to like?
Tor kind of wished he had some water heaters ready to go, but he just hadn’t had time to work on that yet at all. He made his way outside to the central court yard just before everyone was planning to leave, trying to hide the fact that he stumbled a little every ten steps or so. He felt bleary and drowsy, but managed to smile at everyone anyway. He’d gotten Rolph to help him carry the chests out. They were heavy enough that Tor didn’t want to try it alone, not walking down the stairs. Each had float plate on the side but that didn’t help him carry them… which spurred yet another idea.
He’d been putting them all on the bottom until Sara had pointed out the fact that doing it that way made it harder to get at them and it didn’t make any difference at all as far as actual flight performance. The field surrounded the box anyway, making it lift itself. Duh. He’d felt stupid when she mentioned it, but made the change instantly. A good idea was a good idea after all. Resisting it would just make him look even more stupid.
Tiredly Tor pointed at the boxes.
“Lairdgren has the green top. Cordes the purple. Odds and ends in the green one, I made a list and it explains how to use it all, it’s in the chest. The other one has a hundred poison detectors and the templates for the new weapons. I figure I’ll let the King decide what to do with them, if anything.”
Then there were hugs all around, which included Rolph. Tor had kind of gotten that his mother, once out of Two Bends, had become all royal again, so when she gave his friend a warm hug, it seemed, well, not normal, but just friendly, not like his mother was going to start doing something wrong with the guy. What amazed Tor was that Terlee hugged the Prince as well. He hugged her back happily enough that Sara raised her eyebrows and grinned at both of them knowingly. It took Tor a second to realize that if Terlee was a good enough option for Tovey, she was also likely in the potential marriage pool for Rolph. Things were still rough with Ursala after all, after getting pregnant by Count Ward like she had. Then marrying a man that didn’t exist to keep things from being less than honorable. Tor blinked the thought away and tried not to let the shock show on his face.
Tor waved as they left, rising into the sky with all the luggage. Then he hugged Trice for a while, using her mainly to hold him up as she laughed about it. But he still didn’t get to sleep. He had to go to class. As it was no one should be cutting him much slack. After all, he’d just been making copies of stuff, not doing novel work. It made a difference. In his mind it did anyway.
It wasn’t until after lunch that they came for him, as he walked to the practice yard to meet with Karen. Kolb led them to him, which Tor accepted as being his duty as a Knight, not him being a traitor.
Freaking Knights and their duty.
The Dean. Proctor Campbell, and two Royal Guards in full livery that wore flight gear on their left hands. Tor slapped the shield amulet on his chest, earning a small smile from Kolb and a worried look from everyone else. The two Royal Guardsmen in particular. Their severe black and purple uniforms looked too warm for the weather, which was just starting to cool enough to be pleasant outside in the weapon court.
Kolb stopped about ten feet away. “There you are Tor! We’d heard that you hadn’t slept in a while, but these men came all the way up from the Capital to be of assistance in our little guard problem here. It seems that everyone is getting uneasy, since half the Prince’s retinue of retultors is vacationing in the holding cells. Plus, you understand… any day now we may need the space for some drunken, malcontented, student. So we need to get that cleared up, don’t you think?” The tone was jovial as if the whole thing was just a lark or something. Then again, they probably would need the cells for drunks soon. Royals did like to drink.
He’d forgotten about the whole situation while he worked, of course. That was kind of a given. If he’d been focused on that, no work would have happened at all. Tor wondered what they expected him to do about it though? They’d make their decisions and he’d deal with the aftermath, no matter what that was. That was just the way things worked, right?
Apparently, for the first time in his life, that was wrong.
They expected him to come up with what was to be done. All on his own. Like that was a wise plan or something. He’d opened his mouth to ask whose brilliant idea it was when one of the guard mentioned that it came directly from the King himself. Tor nearly laughed, but didn’t feel like explaining to these people that could kill him without thinking about it and get no more than a hard look from their superiors for their trouble.
Tor yawned. He couldn’t help it.
“Sorry, I’ve been up for two and a half, nearly three days now. So, I guess we should go and see if we need to kill all those Royal Guards or just Wensa then. Let’s go.” His words probably didn’t thrill the men with him, at least they all looked a little less than pleased with him at the moment, but what did they expect him to do? Give them all hugs and tell them to play nice from now on. He nearly laughed again. If it wouldn’t end in his death, he’d be willing to try it, just for the comedic value if nothing else.
Half an hour later he ended up facing Wensa and the other four Royal Guards through the bars of the cells. One he recognized when his right arm twinged as the Weapons Instructor that had kept hitting him there in a practice session about half a year before. Even back then they’d been gunning for him? Oh, probably not. No need to be paranoid. They didn’t have a reason to back then. Then again, they didn’t know either.
“Alright, you four there, why did you attack me the other night after Wensa tried to kill me?” He leveled the accusation squarely and glared a little, sullenly. They’d had time to get their stories straight, so he doubted that anything they said could be trusted, still, he needed to give them half a chance to prove that they weren’t part of some bigger plot.
One of the men, a man that taught music, of all things, just shrugged and grinned.
“Really, we didn’t know what was going on and just saw you taking out Captain Wensa, so we scrambled. It seems like it was just a misunderstanding as far as I can tell. Conflicting mind sets is all. With a bit of help from someone outside this room, trying to frame Wensa. Well, either that, or you dashed yourself down the stairs to frame her, but… We all agree that probably isn’t too likely. It’s hard to damage yourself like that after all. Reflexes kick in, force you to protect yourself. Still, we’ve all heard about how you climbed into that middens and had them yank you out by your ankle. If anyone here other than one of us could pull a trip down some stone steps off with intent, it would be you.”
Tor answered by lifting his shirt and turning around. He still had the shield on, but Rolph had told him that the painful bruise had made a wonderful boot print outlined in blood blisters; purple on blue-black he’d been assured. None of the people in the cell hissed in shared pain like almost everyone else had, but Kolb stepped over, had him drop the shield and scrubbed at the wound vigorously. It hurt, but Tor got it, he was proving it wasn’t make-up, after a second everyone else got it too.
“OK, so that’s real and you didn’t do it yourself, which lends a bit of credibility to your story…” From the second cell there came a rustling and Wensa held her shoe through the bars. It was flat soled, where the boot print had a heel, at least from what Tor had heard. The Dean put the shoe up to his back and grunted.
“This is considerably smaller than the bruise. We can expect some spread of course, but it would seem that it’s still made by a larger foot.”
Shaking his head Tor let his shirt drop.
“Not really, all that proves it that a bigger boot was worn. If it was smaller, then it would be significant, larger could mean anything from a bigger foot in the boot to just good planning on her part before the attack. Granted, I doubt she did it just to get the lady into bed, but really, who knows what her motives might be? Gold most likely. Let’s beat a confession out of her.” He deadpanned the last bit tiredly.
Oddly enough even though three people in the room other than him had heard that before, Wensa was the only one that laughed. Everyone else looked at her meaningfully as she snorted in an undignified fashion.
“What? It’s funny. All we really have so far though is that someone dressed in a gray skirt, around my height attacked you Baker. Lots of people could fake that. They wouldn’t even have to be as tall as I am, stoop a little and you can shrink by three or four inches without even calling too much attention to yourself. Wear lifts and high heels, which that boot print could be showing, and they look up to three inches taller. That’s a seven inch spread. Really, is that enough to even hold me on?”
The woman didn’t seem smarmy at least, her face, thick with lines and hair a bit greasy made her seem tired, but not like she was being smug. Then again Royal Guard could mean professional liar as well as a lot of other things, thief, assassin, whatever was required. Tor mentioned this casually. The Royal Guards on both sides of the bars looked angry about it, but no one tried to deny it.
“Besides, you’ve already tried to kill me, and threatened to as well, so why should I believe you’re innocence now? And don’t tell me that if you tried to really kill me I’d be dead. Even a Royal Guard can run afoul of poor luck now and then.” He looked into her eyes, which turned out to be a light bluish gray. Not a pretty color at all, but it worked for her face, giving her a half insane look that matched her actions.
Wensa smiled.
“Easy enough. I didn’t try to kill you at all. Ever. Let me list this off for you.” She held up her right hand and started counting from the thumb, a big thing that would have made Tor feel a little inadequate if it weren’t for the fact that he was more than a little pissed at the woman already.
“At the shield test; if you remember I’d been observing you for nearly a week before hand? I don’t think you managed a single test of the device that I didn’t witness. I knew what you were preparing for. So on the day of the test I simply helped out, because Kolb wasn’t aware of all the work you’d put in. I already knew it would work… Well, at least I had good reason to believe so. You could have still died or been injured if the work hadn’t been quality, but if you weren’t ready to test the device you shouldn’t have been out there at all.” She gave him a single slow blink as she finished saying that.
The other guards and Kolb nodded, but the Dean and Rolph looked slightly horrified. It was Kolb, his voice low and rumbling that spoke first.
“I figured it was something like that. I did note that there was no move at the time to capitalize on the obvious weaknesses, which honestly she wouldn’t have skipped if the intent had been death.”
The gray woman tilted her head towards the large weapons instructor. “Just so, after he succeeded there so well, it was clear to me that he could prove to be an asset to the kingdom, so I made an effort to make helpful suggestions as to other devices he could make, and observed him to see if I could suggest any possible improvements to his work.
“I have to say, I was more than a little surprised when you spoke of who I was to those students and their friend. It took nearly half an hour for me to convince them that I really was just a jealous lover and that if they got in my way I’d have them expelled. No doubt why they keep glaring at me every time we meet. Also a bit surprised that I could pass off a force lance and an immolator as calculating tools for geometry. What the heck are the students here learning?” This she addressed to the Dean who simply shrugged.
It made sense, in a way, but just because she had her story right, that didn’t mean that she wasn’t out to get him for real and just smart enough to hide it. Still, what could he do? It was just possible that she was telling the truth, right? If she was, then having her killed or even locked up long term wasn’t fair at all. Kicking her out of her position, if he was allowed to do that, wouldn’t work. A fanatic like her, and all the Royal Guards were fanatically loyal to the King as a rule, an actual job requirement, wouldn’t be stopped just because she’d been asked to go away politely.
Finally, after standing for far too long thinking about the whole thing, Tor made up his mind.
“Fine, everyone can go, except for Wensa, she needs to meet me outside. Now.”
The looks he got were serious and dark, but the woman followed him without comment. The other guards stood back, but didn’t leave. The art and music instructor started twice to ask what he planned, but Tor just held up a hand for silence once they were out in the court yard. The cobble stones were hard and slightly uneven under his feet. Taking several deep breaths, feeling more than a little panicked, Tor removed all his amulets and weapons and handed them to Kolb, who looked more than a little shocked at the action.
Tor took a deep breath and then forced himself to relax.
“Kolb, please hand Wensa that tube there…” He pointed to the copper tube with four distinct notches near the bottom to act as a makeshift activation sigil. Tor held up his hand before Wensa took the weapon. “Don’t trigger that unless you want me dead. It’s an explosive weapon.”
The Dean put a hand out towards Kolb, “Are you sure…”
With a massive shrug the Knight handed the tube over and told the Dean that the King himself had put Tor in charge of the disposition of this matter.
“If Tor says to give over what’s possibly the deadliest weapon I’ve ever heard of outside of legend to Wensa, then I will. Be careful though Wen, you could destroy the campus with this thing in about half a minute without even feeling it…”
The woman took it, a curious look on her face. Taking another shaky breath Tor closed his eyes and spoke softly.
“Right. So I can’t live looking over my shoulder waiting for you to kill me all the time. If you want to kill me, orders or not, do it now and we’ll call it good, all right? No one will do anything too you over it, or bother you at all because of it and you can just go about your life happily guarding or whatever it is you do. If you are going to kill me, baring orders from the King later, then I just ask that you do it now or not at all. Does that sound fair?”
He stood silently for a second, wondering if he’d just die as a matter of course. The woman wasn’t any kind of friend to him at the very least. If she was really trying to get him, he’d probably never get to open his eyes again. Instead, after about fifteen seconds, he heard laughter. Wensa first, then all the Royal Guards after a few seconds.
One of the guards, the dark haired female Weapons Instructor that had kept hitting him on the right arm before, walked over and patted him on the back.
“Oh well played! Perfectly done.”
Tor opened his eyes as the voice spoke. Wensa handed the weapon back to Kolb with a grin. “So, is the weapon really all that powerful?”
Rolph looked at it and turned more than a little white, his right hand pointed at it. “So powerful that the template was sent off earlier today, to my parents directly, not set up for manufacture anywhere that they might accidentally get into the wrong hands. I… didn’t know that Tor had one himself… Did you have it during the duel with Count Rodriguez?”
All the Royal Guards stiffened and stared at him, but Kolb spoke before anyone else did anything, holding out his right hand towards the guard to forestall speech. “Knight Esquire Brown, Countier four Lairdgren, was challenged by Count Rodriguez to a duel to the death after the man dropped his spurious claim against Countier David Derring. You all know about that of course, stupidest thing I’ve heard of in a long time and I’ve heard some winners. Tor baited the man into fighting him instead of the boy, who was armed with another one of these,” He hefted the copper tube, with two fingers. “Rather saved the Counts life by the way I think. Tor just held the man down and made him squirm for a while until he gave up, leaving him unharmed. Then settled the matter with apologizes all around so the Count could save face. Probably stopped a war between Derring and Rodriguez.” Kolb stared at Wensa directly. “Those two really need to calm the heck down. Derring’s kids have twice the intelligence of the man himself when it comes down to it.”
Wensa looked at Tor for a few seconds, then bowed. She held the move until Rolph walked over and nudged him. “If you don’t want to bow back you should at least say something…”
Right. He was supposed to be a royal now and all that. God, he was so not trained for this. “Um, so Wensa… jealous lover?”
Everyone laughed and the woman stood up, smiling. She shrugged and winked at him with her left eye slowly. “Well, you are good looking, if a trifle short. Lairdgren… Well, that explains the lack of size at least, I… can you become a Countier by appointment or…”
Shaking his head Rolph summed it up in a few words.
“By birth, his mother. Counserina first. She’s been in hiding from an old threat. Just decided to come back into circles, figuring everything is probably calmed down by now.”
Taking another deep breath Tor looked at Wensa, still shaking a little. “So, are we good here? Do I need to be looking over my shoulder still?”
The older woman nodded, her face going serious. “Yes, obviously. I didn’t try to kill you, but someone did, and it was done with enough intent that the person doing it wore a mask and tried to mimic my general form. They should have used a weapon though. That speaks of, well, at least forethought. Even if not meant to kill you, it was obviously a serious attack. You need to remain vigilant. I promise though, short of an order from the King or Queen, I’ll not kill you myself. Not without a good reason at least.” She gave a short bow again and stood up nearly instantly.
That, Tor knew, was both correct and probably the best he could do with the situation. He held out his hand to shake on the deal. It was a country thing, a handshake sealing a bargain, but the woman didn’t flinch away from it, merely taking his hand in a hard clasp.
“Deal then. I’ll keep trying to watch my back and you don’t kill me without a decent reason. Better than I expected to tell the truth. I kind of thought you’d just kill me really.”
For some reason the other guards all laughed at that. For a bunch that he’d been raised to think of as humorless killers they sure laughed a lot. Maybe it was just him? Did they find him funny? Probably. Oh well, what could he do about that? For their world he was probably exactly wrong. Too small, too country and too naive in general. That could lead to laughter he figured.
Maybe someday when he learned more he’d get the joke?
He got his weapons back from Kolb and all the amulets, then handed the explosive one back to the large man.
“That one’s for you. Being your Squire and all I’m supposed to…make sure your weapons are ready and all that anyway, right? I also have a shield for you, and flying gear. Force lance and air thingie too. I probably should have given that to you already. Sorry, I’m kind of new to all this Squire stuff. Well, if this is over for now I need to get back to my work out, or Karen’s going to have a fit and probably beat me half to death, and who can blame her? I’ve hardly been showing up at all lately.”
They let him go, and he tried to keep his eyes open in case of attack. Would anyone other than Wensa want him dead? Why? Maybe Count Rodriguez, but the attack on the stairs had come before the duel and the man hadn’t even seemed to have known who he was until he told him. Sure, that could have been an act, but over all Tor didn’t think so. Rodriguez seemed at least as genuine in his apology to David as he was in his anger in the first place. More so to tell the truth. Something definitely hadn’t been right with that situation. Was Count Derring really such a jerk that killing his son seemed just to the guy until he was called on it? If so Tor felt sorry for Davie and Karen.
Had he insulted anyone personally? We’ll, he’d been at court for a while and it could just be that someone didn’t like having him around, a dirty little country hick. Offended by his existence? No one had said anything directly to him about it, but then, would they? He tried to think back and kept coming up blank. Some people might be annoyed with him, he wasn’t perfect after all, but who’d try to even just bang him up like that? Dorgal? The guy was a bully, most of the time at least, but he’d never tried to hurt Tor physically. He was about words and intimidation as far as anything Tor had ever seen. And really, if he was going to try, he and his buddies could have just jumped Tor at any time and not gotten into any real trouble, being rich and all that.
After the weapons practice and exercise, which included a little slow running to start building his left leg back up, and a lot more gentleness from Karen than he’d expected after being called away like that by Kolb and the others. She didn’t hold back with him at all when they worked together, but she didn’t yell at him either, except when she had him on the ground beating him with her sword. “Get up Tor! Roll out of the way! Anyone you fight with will knock you down in a few seconds, you’re too little for them not to, you need to stay ready for it…” She added in a few stomps for variety.
Then she had Petra and a few other people take turns doing the same thing for a while.
It wasn’t comfortable at all, but she didn’t seem angry about anything, just pensive. Finally, just before it would normally be time to leave, she gestured to him.
“I… didn’t know that you were a Countier before Tor.” The large woman looked ashamed, as if it could somehow be her fault. She bowed towards him and held it.
“If I ever did or said anything to give offense, please-”
Tor patted her on the shoulder gently, which got her to stand up, looking shocked, but only for a second.
“You’ve never been anything but perfectly courteous to me. Besides, we’re friends, so if you had, I would have mentioned it before.” He nodded at her firmly, knowing that his Two Bends logic might now make a lot of sense to her very royal mind, but it got her to grin happily enough.
“Oh, good then! I couldn’t think of anything, but, um, well, and please don’t take offense, but I kind of thought you weren’t a royal, before I met your mother and sister. I definitely don’t want hard feelings to fester there. Especially since Davie and Petra would gang up on me in my sleep if they thought I had. They both kind of think you’re great by the way…”
He blushed a bit and looked away shyly.
“Um, thank you?” Tor hated things like this, never knowing what to say.
Karen just smiled and patted him on the shoulder, more of a solid thump than a proper pat.
“Good then. I hate having to grovel anyway. So…” She looked serious again. “If we’re friends, does that mean I can get some of those weapons from you like Davie has? I can’t afford to buy them, but…” Her look went slightly wicked then.
“But I can let you borrow Petra if you want? I don’t think that would hurt her feelings at all. My too of course.”
Thinking about it for a few seconds, he nodded. They could both probably use the weapons and gear. It just made sense.
“I don’t think I’m allowed to hand out those explosives. But if Kolb OK’s it, the rest should be doable.”
“Really? I was kidding, about the stuff, I mean, you can have me and Petra anyway, in the evenings after lessons maybe? That would be a good time.”
Shrugging Tor figured it was her way of making sure he got enough practice in. Maybe it was rude to just yell at a Countier and tell him to get his but to painful extra training? But if he needed it, she had the right.
“I don’t know when I have the time, really, but let’s make sure you all get those weapons anyway. Oh, and please tell Petra thank you for me? You too of course.”
For some reason Karen seemed really pleased with the fake deal. That he needed work on his weapons skill was clear after that. He didn’t have to do it that night at least, which was good. Karen hugged him as he left the training square though, either happy about the free stuff, or more likely, trying to make him feel better about needing extra lessons.
It was really sweet of her. Especially since she could have just hit him in the head with the side of her practice blade and ordered him to show up.
There were other things to do first though. Hard things. Royal things that he wasn’t prepared to handle at all.
Tor sat in his room later trying to think of anyone in the world that might dislike him enough to do something like that. Kill him, or even just push him down some stairs for fun. That was what he was doing when Rolph, Sara and Trice came in. Standing, he gave Trice a hug and then, feeling more than a little awkward about it, a kiss on the mouth. It wasn’t exactly romantic, he knew, but he really did want her to know that he appreciated her efforts so far. She kissed him back for a few seconds, far more warmly and expertly than he’d managed. She held him and sighed, her chest pushing softly into his through the slightly shiny black blouse she wore.
“Now that’s more like it. What’s up?”
It took a while for Tor to explain everything that had happened, but less time than he’d thought, since Rolph had already filled them in. They’d actually come to help him work everything out. They all had ideas too, ones that, oddly enough, fit their individual backgrounds more than the situation at hand. The idea that they all walked around in different worlds took him for a few seconds. Everything overlapped, of course, but did Tor actually live a different existence than they all did, even while in the same space? That… actually made a lot of sense.
He saw things to be fixed, by making a device, or a plan, or just by working hard. Rolph, for all that he was a great guy, really just kind of expected everyone to fix things for him if he asked. Being a Prince, that worked for him, most of the time at least. Trice was more calculating, but her world made her guarded, suspicious and more than a little un-trusting of people she didn’t know well.
Sara thought like what she was raised to be too, naturally enough, but what she said was still news to Tor.
“It could be one of the other merchant houses… Your stuff is taking a lot of the high end market right now and probably will for years to come, even if you don’t add anything new to your line… And really, how likely is that? You have a half dozen things that no one’s even making yet, ready to go. Stentli house for instance, used to have all the shield contracts for the military. What they offer isn’t half as good as the second Tor-shield, which is what’s in production right now, and even if someone copies that, you have three versions that are better, ready to go right now. But…” The girl shook her head. “They wouldn’t start with something like that. They’d probably send in women to ply you with sex for a while, try to find what you need or want and provide it to win you over, soften you up first, or… possibly just come and beg you on hands and knees to work with them instead. I’m a little surprised they haven’t yet, to tell the truth. Debri would be if you’d gone with Sorvee back at the beginning you know. They… might even spread rumors about how evil Debri house is or how we’ve been cheating you, which… Well, it’s not the long term plan, but that argument could be made until we start getting the money from the military for the shields and flying rigs they’ve been buying up. It’s probably destroyed their business, your new work… They couldn’t have been ready for you to just show up like that at all.”
Tor took a deep breath, a sudden and shuddering thing that rattled in his chest. It made him feel young, and stupid, and he couldn’t help it. His work had taken business from other people? He’d never even thought of that. To Tor, the idea that he might even make money from anything he’d done seemed like an abstract thing, so of course he hadn’t considered what might be happening anywhere else. Why should he?
Tor stopped and shook his head. Could he fix it at all? They had people to feed and workers that needed their jobs too. Looking down at the floor he wondered out loud if Stentli house would be willing to except a couple of his other devices, ones that Debri house couldn’t make right now due to the new military contracts anyway, to replace the coins that he’d taken from them and their workers?
Sara chuckled at him. “Tor… I’m… sure they would… Do you have anything in mind?”
No one was making the heat equalizers or the poison detectors yet he pointed out. He couldn’t keep making them all himself and a few more people might want some. Sara smiled, moved across the room and sitting next to him draped her arm over his shoulders and planted a warm kiss on his lips that made him sit up straighter, worried what Rolph and Trice would think, though they both just smiled at him.
“Debri will let go of the heat equalizers to keep the peace, and the water pumps, but the poison detectors… Tor, if you want me to sleep with you, or for that matter every woman in Debri house to be lined up at your door, just go ahead and suggest that one to my mother. I’m pretty sure that you don’t really want that though. Well, me maybe, if I’m lucky, but not all of the women in my house are exactly good looking…” Then she leaned in and kissed his cheek and started stroking his back with her hand gently. Seductively.
Blushing Tor shrugged her off and held up his hands, grinning but feeling awkward. “Alright, stop that before Rolph and Trice both start kicking my butt. Fine, can we get them the equalizers and… water pumps to start with? I didn’t know that I was hurting anyone…”
Sara pointed out that it really wasn’t likely that they’d be trying to kill him over that, which he already knew. Obviously. Getting them something to replace what he’d taken wasn’t about protecting himself, but protecting them from the damaged he’d done.
It was only fair.
For some reason saying that made Sara chuckle, but not the others. So for once she was just being weird? Good. He’d been starting to feel like everyone in the world got everything and only he was missing it all. The gold haired girl shook her head a bit, smiling.
“It’s a good thing you’re a builder and not a merchant Tor… I’ll see to it though.”
They all kept brainstorming. The ideas came, but most of them were nonsense really. Would his instructors be mad enough at him to do it, because he hadn’t gone to class enough? Rolph roared with laughter at that and rubbed his knuckles on the top of Tor’s head. It kind of hurt.
“They could just tell you that you had to go to lessons first, don’t you think? Or, if they were really all that put out they could just tell you to turn your shield off and beat you in the commons. No one’s even suggested that you’re not getting good marks yet Tor. Well, Kolb isn’t that happy with your progress I hear, but the rest of the instructors all say you’re getting top grades. I checked the last time I went around telling them all you wouldn’t be making it to class so you could work.”
Tor smiled and shrugged. He’d have to work harder in the afternoons somehow. Karen was always there to help him out he knew. She’d said that at least, that he should spend time with her and Petra. Maybe some extra practice wouldn’t hurt? He kept trying to put together who’d dislike him that much though.
“No one from Two Bends hates me that much, I don’t think, plus, how would they even get here? It’s kind of a long way to walk over some old grudge from grammar school, isn’t it? Plus no one there’s that tall. So what does that leave? Wait, that Duke? Um, Winchester? I guess that he could have done it; I mean we got in a fight, sort of… Not him personally, of course, he’s way bigger, but he could hire it done, or get a friend to do it maybe?”
That didn’t seem very likely according to Rolph. Sitting on his own bed cross legged he looked lost in thought for a while, then he shook his head.
“I’ll have it checked out, but I really doubt it. If anything the Duke probably thinks of you as his personal hero and friend, you saved him from harming an innocent woman in public and then didn’t even shame him about it afterwards, you even named him a personal friend, which takes a lot of the sting out. Everyone kind of accepted it as his buddy Tor stepping in to keep him from making a social error, so really the only looked a little bad in the whole thing, and like his friends cared enough to step in when things got hot. Nearly perfectly played by the way. No one can even belittle him for “losing” to you now. He wouldn’t have wanted to really harm his friend, would he? Even during the event, after getting his attention all you really did was stand there and let him beat on you. It’s kind of hard to take offense at that and it really is what a very good, and powerful, friend would have done. Still… Just in case I’ll get a message off to… No, let’s go down in person. We’ll beat a message down if we fly anyway… and we can go down for dad’s birthday celebration week. Mom will like it and we get a break from school anyway.” The large redhead nodded and started to speak more excitedly. “Of course we wouldn’t be expected to show up for it normally since it’s only a weeklong event, but the fact that we can fly down in hours means that I should go at least. That gives us a week to plan for it even.” Rolph seemed pleased by the idea at any rate.
The King’s birthday? Tor had totally forgotten about that. Yeah, they got the week off, which he’d planned to use as free work time, but now that he knew the man, was even on a first name basis with him, he’d probably be expected to get him something. He still didn’t really have any money and didn’t expect any from his work for months yet. Looking at the others his eyes went wide and he stood suddenly.
“Do you… I mean, would it be too tacky, if I made him something? I don’t know what he’d like, but… Well, how about water heaters for the palace and guest house? For baths. Or would that be too bland? What do people normally get a King anyway?”
The Prince gave him a wry look.
“Honestly? Generally useless crap that he never touches after the party. A water heater for his bath would probably go over well, at least with the servants that have to use a fire to warm the tub for him in the winter if no one else. For that matter if you decide to do that, get me one too. I’ll pay you.” Everyone else chimed in that they would too, but then Trice kissed him, pushing Sara out of the way with a gentle nudge, slipping in between them and wrapping Tor in a tight embrace from the side, her right breast pushing into his side firmly.
“Wait, I get one free, right? Being that were going to be married and all?” She laughed, but Tor shrugged. Fiction or not she really would get one anyway, they all would. He dared to kiss her back, because it seemed to be the way the game was played. He’d miss it, he realized, when the whole thing was over.
It was nice even if it was make believe. As far as he knew Trice hadn’t even been sleeping with anyone else. Then, being discrete was, generally, supposed to be a big part of things in her world. He’d probably only learn that they were breaking off the engagement when a go-between came or something like that. How was that done anyway? Tor had a strong suspicion that he’d find out within the year. He suppressed a sigh and hugged the tall girl beside him for a while, hoping it wouldn’t seem desperate. After she was gone he probably wouldn’t get a lot of contact with anyone, so it seemed like a good idea to save it up now if at all possible.
They had a plan at least. It wasn’t a good plan, as far as finding who had kicked him down the stairs, because they all knew Duke Winchester probably hadn’t even thought about the events of that night after he’d made his apologies. From what Rolph said the guy was normally pretty even headed and nice, not the kind of person that would hold a major grudge over a fight that he’d gotten into with a stranger that was helping him and who’d allowed him to save face, even though he didn’t have too.
The next week was spent largely working, locked in his room. The water heaters for baths didn’t take that long, because he already knew how to pull heat from the ground. It just took figuring out how to localize it in space, so that it would only heat water outside the body, but inside a specific space, big enough to heat even a very large tub. It wouldn’t do to cook people from the inside out after all. The unit was built to allow for temperature control of the water, just by hitting one of the five sigils on the hand sized silver plate.
It cost a lot more to do the work in silver, especially since he made six of them for the gift, but it was a present for the King specifically. The rest of the copies he made in copper like usual. Trice told him to make up about a hundred of them and took off with one of the first ones for herself just after he finished them. That left him with four days in which to do school work. Thank goodness Sara brought him the first of the supplies from Debri house or he wouldn’t have had any material to work on at all. She assured him that it was all his to use however he wanted, not just on house projects.
Tor made up some things that he thought people might like at the palace, complicated devices that he turned in for class credit with his novel build instructor. Fines smiled when he showed them to him and told him to keep up the good work with a pat on the back.
He didn’t know if anyone would really like them or not, but they seemed like fun to him and gave him something to hand out that would probably never be sold anyway. Just little doodads with no market value. Plus, if it helped get him a good mark in class…
On the morning they were set to leave, actually a day before classes were officially released for the holiday, but a fairly useless day anyway, since most of the students wouldn’t be concentrating on work at all, but rather on parties and getting drunk for the next week or whatever useless things that the real kids did when no one else was looking. It meant that all the instructors, except Dorris, the meditation teacher, had been willing to let him out of lessons early. For some reason she seemed to feel that such distractions, and striving to overcome them, would be beneficial to her students. She was probably right of course, which was why she had the job. They left just after that, so he felt pretty centered and relaxed while they flew along headed south.
He actually had two chests this time. The one Rolph had lent him before and a new one that Debri house had sent with the work materials. He’d had to off load most of that in his room, but kept a few things just in case he needed to make copies of anything for someone, or, just as likely, he had an idea and managed to get a little time to work on it.
It was chilly aloft as they flew, thousands of feet off the ground like they were, but not so bad he needed to use an equalizer or anything. Even moving as fast as they were the ground moved slowly enough under them, a bare crawl it seemed. The forest finally gave way after the first two hours in the air and Rolph gestured for them to land in a city that Tor had never been to before. It was big. Not as big as the Capital, but large enough that it had its own wall around it. That was a mud brown, but it had a crisp feel to it, like it had been built either a short time before or that it was cared for religiously. The sides were shear and smooth and reached at least twenty feet high.
There wasn’t a good place to land near one of the gates, so they used a central courtyard area. One that as they descended seemed to be nearly as big as the whole school campus, which meant his sense of scale had been way off as to how big the place must be. Youch. It was a lot closer to the Capital in size then, if with a lot fewer people about. The cobblestones were flattened on the top, an almost polished looking shine that meant a cutter had been used on them at some point and then weather and years of walking feet had dinged them up a little. They were pretty, marble or something that reminded him a little of a gem, sitting in the mortar. Impressive and expensive to use as paving material.
The scent in the air, cinnamon, clove, and anise seed all mixed together hit him as they touched down. Some kind of sweet confection? To let his nose lead towards an outdoor stand that seemed to be serving something that looked like festival food. Maybe they had a big King’s week celebration here? People certainly looked happy enough. Rolph smiled and headed over to the stand, coming back a few minutes later with a small tray that held four giant sized rolls, each bigger than both of Tor’s hands put together and smothered in rich looking white frosting.
They sat on the edge of a fountain near the center of the space, sitting on the edge of the pool. It had a statue of a man in the center, but Tor didn’t bother looking at it other than to note it was there. After all, he’d never had a festival cake like this before and he wanted to analyze it. The anise seed was the principle flavoring, though otherwise it was a cinnamon roll like he’d learned to make as a child. It had a sugary caramel on the bottom, which meant that they hadn’t stinted on the filling for it. The frosting was too much, and he had to covertly scrape most of it off onto the serving tray. It was good, very much so, he just didn’t want to make himself sick on the sweetness of it. Just the little he’d gotten was pushing it already. He smiled and leaned in to Trice gently, bumping her arm with his shoulder.
“A little strong on the licorice flavor, but other than that these aren’t bad. Is this an annual thing, do you think? For King’s week?”
“I don’t know… If it is these people certainly have a love of Uncle Richard. It looks like they have jugglers and singers coming out over there… We probably need to be going soon, but…”
Rolph winked.
“Hey, we can stay for a bit, an hour or so anyway. After all, we’re making really good time thanks to the new flying rigs. I don’t want to leave the luggage just sitting, but…”
Just then a group of people, all dressed in finery and looking more than a little nervous, walked over to where they sat. At first Tor wondered if the festival was supposed to be a private thing. If it was they could leave of course. He didn’t want to mess up their tradition or whatever. The man in front, a slightly older man with blond hair and eyebrows with a square jaw that made him look important, wore three different colors of mustard yellow. The shirt was a little poufy but had a good solid looking workman’s vest over it. The covering made sense for this time of year. It wasn’t cold out, most likely, not that Tor could tell, but it wasn’t the heat of summer anymore either.
The man smiled and bowed to everyone.
“Hello! I’m Baron second Ferdinand Gala. Thank you all for coming to join us for our celebration! We weren’t expecting any important guests, but everyone is welcome…” The man seemed to run out of things to say, allowing an older woman that looked vaguely familiar to Tor to step forward.
She wasn’t pretty, a little broad faced and slightly hard lived, but her smile grew wide making her face seem alive. Light blue eyes glinting over her own red outfit that, other than the color, looked a lot like what the Baron second Gala wore, except that the vest was a tasteful brown, which worked well with the almost burgundy colored shirt under it.
She bowed towards Rolph and held it. It was a long enough action that everyone else followed suit after about ten seconds, eyes going wide.
“Prince Alphonse! So good to see you.” The woman announced this, Tor realized, as more of a warning to anyone in earshot about who was there than anything else. Clever of her, and something he should remember just in case a similar situation ever came up in the future.
The woman then bowed to Trice, who had stood when Rolph had. No one seemed upset, but it was probably a good idea to meet strangers on their feet, so Tor stood up as well when Sara did. He got ready to slap his shield on just in case, but tried not to look like a spas about it. So far these people had seemed polite enough.
“Baronetta Morgan?” The woman hazarded, her voice a little tentative.
“Ducherina Morgan, but please, call me Patricia.”
The woman went wide eyed and bowed again. It was well done on Trice’s part, since she’d have been in her rights to chew the woman out over getting her title wrong. That she’d treated the whole thing casually made her look good he knew. It would have to him at least, if he’d been the one making the mistake.
“Thank you… Patricia.”
Sara grinned and moved forward to give the woman a small hug.
“Aunt Betty! This is my aunt, well second aunt really. She leads Debri house in Galasia. So, that must be where we are.” Sara chuckled and stood back so that she could be introduced.
“This is Sara Debri, daughter of Heather Debri and the woman that personally arranged for Tor to make the miracle that saved the city!” Aunt Betty yelled this rather loudly, her voice sounding joyful enough to Tor. It was kind of true, in that Sara had passed the message to him herself and explained what was needed, plus he’d done it because she was his friend and asked. He nodded a little. Yeah, it was fair.
The crowd had grown a bit while the introductions were being made and a large cheer went up, almost making Tor trigger the shield for real. People surged forward to try and touch her, as if her good deeds would give them luck or maybe just trying to cop a feel if the look on some of the men’s faces could be interpreted by someone like him. After a half minute both he and Rolph started laughing and slapping at hands a little, forming an impromptu honor guard of sorts around their pretty blond friend.
Ferdinand smiled and stuck his hand out towards Tor, indicating that he got that the smaller man was probably some country guy. Tor took the hand easily and shook, leaning in from a distance as was appropriate.
“Don’t want to forget anyone. May I ask who you are sir?” The tone was polite and interested, kind even.
“Oh, me? Torrance Baker. I’m just the guy that helps with the luggage and whatever little projects come up.” He waved his hand towards the boxes behind them. It was literally the truth after all. He’d even nailed the plates to all the chests himself earlier.
The Baron second smiled and patted him on the back as the crowed started chanting Sara’s name.