Ancient Kings (The Young Ancients) (65 page)

Really, it was a pretty good plan.

He kissed Trice like they were still lovers, which was his plan, if he could swing it, and gave Karina a kiss on the cheek that was probably too close to mixing his signals. They were, as she'd pointed out, not so close they couldn't get married under the noble rules, sort of cousins or not. To her mind that probably meant they were still going to do things in the future. Tor wasn't so certain, but didn't want to insult her either. It might pay to have her as a friend someday. Like if he needed a place to stay after Ali kicked him out.

The Prince walked him to the side door of the Palace, where the transports normally landed. Nothing was there at the moment, so there was plenty of space for his Fast Carriage. He made it glow a little more brightly and tried to remember not to get in trouble with the City Guard from now on. Hours ago he'd been the kingdom's Magic Counselor. Now he was just Tor again. Well, he'd done that before, so he figured it would be manageable.

"So... Tor." His giant friend reached down and hugged him, hard and with a bit more warmth than was correct for two men, but there was a sense of desperation, rather than desire in it. "Why do I feel like this is the end? That you're never coming back or something?"

Tilting his head Tor gave a lopsided grin.

"Probably because you know the kind of hours a working baker has to keep. If you want to see me I suggest frequent visits." It was a joke, but this wasn't an ending at all. It was the beginning of him learning to be himself. Finally.

"Heh, and here I am, stuck here, being the Heir. What if I need my friend though? What if everything starts to fall apart, who will I call on then?"

"Me of course. You can be the first Prince in history to call on your friend the country baker for assistance. I can bring treats to all the emergencies. It will be fine."

They went on like that for a while, but in the end, Tor had to leave. That was just the way things like that went. Almost everything from his old life had an answer now, and some things never would. That was the way of the world.

As he flew back, Tor wondered what the next day would bring, but he already knew.

Peace.

Laughing he shook his head at the joke.
Peace
? With all those Austrans taking his likeness down on their compacts and trying to interview him for some reason? He wondered how much the information that he was a nobody now would impact that? It might be fun to try he decided.

He nearly called Burks and mentioned that he was quitting the whole Countier thing, but that would be cruel to Ali. It was one thing not to be a Knight, or the Magics Counselor, but that bit was what meant she was married to a noble. If he took that away there wouldn't be any reason for her to stick around at all. Not that way. Maybe for love, but he wasn't as certain of that as he might have been. Really, he tried not to read her overly most of the time. It seemed unfair somehow. Like cheating in school or something, seeing the answers when the other person in the relationship couldn't.

Then again, it really took some of the guess work out of things, and he was at a disadvantage that way. The old, and now broken Rhetistics had left him blind to about half of what people did in regards to him. It also had forced him to feel ugly and stupid, which now he understood was for a reason. It was so he wouldn't value himself at all.

Burks had done that to him, but honestly Tor doubted he could understand it that way. The real blame belonged to some scientists thousands of years before. It was a little too late to be bothered to hate them now though, so he let it go. The biological part of it was bad enough, but an information field, or whatever it really was, that forced him to be a slave was even worse. Now he had at least a small chance.

He didn't bother landing at the house though, knowing that his own nerves about telling his wife about all he'd given up that day was too much to put off. If they were going to have a fight, it might as well be handled as quickly as possible. To that end he took an extra five minutes getting his floating trunk out of his Fast Carriage in the school commons, and taking it down with slow and controlled movements, until he realized it was starting to draw attention. Even strangers were realizing it seemed strange.

Right.

Off to face his fate, whatever that was.

When he knocked on the room that Ali shared with Sherri he heard a familiar-ish giggling, the one that normally meant his wife was entertaining a friend, or possibly two. It was a flustered Sherri that came to the door though, blushing when she saw him.

"Ah... Ali isn't here right now Tor... She's over at your house, working. We didn't know if you'd be home tonight, so..." She had all her clothing on at least. Whatever she and the person with her had been doing it wasn't his business. In fact, it was probably a good thing. Sherri deserved friends, she was a nice person and the noble rules kind of encouraged her to have about as much sex as her body and schedule would handle. Almost a job requirement.

Of course there was a downside to sensing fields all the time like he'd been doing, because he knew that a slightly freaked out little sister of his was behind the door, trying to blank her mind and hide from him. It wasn't working at all, since she wasn't half good enough for that yet. She was doing decently though, considering she'd only started meditation no more than a month or so before.

"Well, I'll go and see her then. Thanks Sherri. Bye Tiera." Then, without waiting for a reaction he turned and left. He hadn't really known they were that close at all. It was strange, but the idea didn't bother him like he would have thought it might. Even though it was clear to him that Sherri was far from free of that commoner bias thing. She
tried
to be open minded, and that effort paid off.

He walked home, to find his wife in the kitchen, instead of building like he thought Sherri had meant. She was, in fact, making a cake and not doing a half bad job of it. It was a fruit cake with nuts, so very dense and rich, and she was making a butter cream frosting for the top, like that wouldn't be too much sweetness at once.

"There you are sweetie! I'm making dinner. I have a roast in and some potatoes as well as some greens. Is that fine? We could get something else if you want. I didn't know that you'd be home, but I made it, just in case. So far I haven't even burned any of it." She seemed really proud of that too, so he smiled and hugged her, hating to break her good mood.

"It smells
wonderful
. So, anyway, since we're on the topic of me resigning all my titles, I did that earlier. I know it seems odd, but the truth is I'll need the time to work on another project. Well two projects. It wasn't in anger or anything, but..." Yelling was a possibility, or shock, but his wife just made a strange face, lips pushed out but tight.

'
Determined
.' Cordes put in before he could read the feeling in her.

It was the correct call though he thought once it was pointed out.

"Is this about those space monsters coming to kill us all?"

"In part, though we don't know that they're monsters at all, even if they turn out to look different than we do, and they might just be coming to say hello for all we know. If they're coming at all. But yes. That and I'm opening a bakery. I don't know where yet. Close to here, if possible. That way I can stay near you. If you want me to, I mean." There was a jagged burning in his stomach suddenly that hadn't been there when he spoke to the King or the others. It wasn't pleasant at all, but he held on while she thought things through.

Her upper lip got chewed a bit while she thought, so he checked the cake, getting it out just in time. She was badly conflicted and there was a sense of loss, but she finally seemed alright again. Almost excited.

"I get to stay in school? I mean, you won't need me right away at the bakery, and you can sell your work, so we'll be fine. Can we afford school now though? I think I have a little silver coming from some sales, but I don't know. Oh, what about the orphans?" That came with a worried flash and a lot of possible conclusions that all ended badly for hundreds of youngsters.

"We're still
rich
. Even after letting the kingdom spend what's in the main vaults. Really, we probably need to get rid of that too, the other funds. I'm not sure, but my guess is that we'll need to spend most of what comes in each year from now on. I
am
going to have to stop building. But not totally and I can still make sure we'll always have enough to do what we need to. I just need to be careful. You and the rest of the Lairdgren Group probably will as well eventually. I'll try to talk with them about it." Then he had to explain why, but she just got up and checked the roast, bending over to do it. Her student browns weren't exactly sexy clothing, but she really filled them out nicely, actually having a figure unlike most noble born girls her age, even if she was growing faster than a lot of them.

Then she closed the oven, turned and kissed him.

"We can do it then. I'll just have to learn to spend more. It's hard, when you already have everything you need."

"I've noticed that! Anyway, if you aren't going to beat me into submission and make me crawl back to the Palace to beg for those titles back, we've been invited to Austra tomorrow evening. Denno says that he has the Larval problem in hand and wants me to check it out, so that I'll feel safe, probably. That or to make certain I don't activate the killing fields I placed in all of them. I don't think he knows about that yet though. Timon swears it's safe, if that helps. Plus, they really aren't after you anyway. Do you want to come?"

"Yes! I haven't been to a different land like that. Not just to visit. Even if it's just a day, that's something I can brag about. Not that I
brag
. Well, except about the fact that I'm married to you. Then it happens. A little." She kissed him again really well, her lips tickling his, followed by a bit of tongue.

When they broke he let go of a single laugh, which sounded a bit sour.

"And now what's to brag about? No titles or anything."

She looked at him and just seemed radiantly happy then.

"You know? None of that has ever come up anyway."

It was good to hear.

Very good.

Ali and Tor spent a very nice evening in. It wasn't all cake and roast either, which he'd been a little worried about. More, he could tell that, while his wife wasn't feeling certain, or even good about his decision, she wasn't afraid either and didn't think less of him, which had been a real concern for him. Even if he hadn't realized that until after it was over.

She had to get back to her own room, so he walked her there, not wanting to leave her alone on the dark streets, even if they were pretty safe. They were slightly uneven he realized, the stone underfoot cut smooth, but worn over the years since the work had been done. In this light they all looked gray to him, but clean enough. A single old horse, ridden by a woman that he was almost certain owned the flower shop in the little town neighed, so Tor waved and called out.

"Good evening!" It was a happy thing and the woman, who was at least forty-five or so, waved back. The sound of hooves was sort of relaxing really.

"We should get a dog. I've always wanted one, and as long as the bakery is away from the house it shouldn't be a problem. Do you like dogs?" It was a strange thing not to know but she surprised him then, a lot, suggesting plans for it.

"We could get a Rosshound, Farlo mentioned that her Grandmother's bitch just had a litter. They're the cutest things, and
very
loyal. Or maybe one from the Royal kennels. They have about twenty hunters. A bit high strung though. What should we look for? Sport, or a guard for the house? Decorative properties?"

"Um, I was thinking friendly, to tell the truth. The fetch playing kind?" The streets were very quiet, except for them, but other than a single person watching from a shop as they passed most of the people were in their houses, eating dinner.

"My favorite." Her fingers locked with his until they reached her door, a few minutes later. Then they kissed a few times and he let her go, since one of them actually had something to do in the morning.

The walk back was relaxing, even though he felt watched the whole time. It didn't have any kind of darkness to it, but he wasn't certain what was going on at all. No one announced themselves though, so he just kept moving. His multi-weapon finding his hand comfortably enough.

"It's only me." The dreamy voice said from directly behind him.

Doris. He
thought
. She looked very young now, and
different
. Pretty for one thing. Gorgeous really. Her eyes were wide though and not hooded, and she seemed alert for once, her voice normal after the first words.

"Would it be alright for me to go home with you? I don't need to stay long, but I have some information that might help you, I think. Just some things I picked up the other day."

Anything other than yes would be ungracious, but it was a strange meeting, wasn't it? He'd barely seen her outside of her classroom in all the years he'd known her and never looking like this. Worse he still couldn't tell what she was thinking at all.

"Please do, we have some excellent cake that Alyssa made earlier. Sweet, but good. Maybe you'd like a piece?" That was polite right? An invitation to desert? He hoped so, because no matter what she looked like, he wasn't touching her. No matter how you sliced it, this woman was way too close to being a family member of his.

"I'd like that actually. I haven't had cake in years. It just hasn't come up."

"Seriously? You like it though, right? I don't have to make a cave for you back in the woods so that you can sit there meditating, and eating spiders while reviling cake, do I?" The whole thing had to seem bizarre to her, but the pretty woman, who still had stark white hair and slightly pearl like skin just smiled.

Once they were inside the door she simply stood, until he pointed her to a sofa and ran to get them each a piece of cake, since making her eat alone would be bad form. It made people feel watched. It did him at least.

She took a bite, her eyes closing the silver fork leaving her lips sensuously. Slowly. Promising... a lot more than cake.

Which got him to slap his shield into place. It flared with a scattering of purple flashes that didn't stop.

"So, you seem to have a pheromone effect too. Is that why you meditate so deeply all the time, to control that?"

"And hold a slightly darker skin tone. It's a useful skill. Now, I should go soon, or this might be noticed. I came in this form so that no one would think much of it. Perhaps that a youthful man is seeking company for the evening, but the others are watching."

Then maddeningly, she stopped talking. Instead of prompting her Tor tried to figure out who she might mean, it was hard to work out. Ancients most likely, but not all of them. Most wouldn't
care
. The
others
though, it sounded slightly wrong when she said it. Tor decided to hazard a guess, not knowing why he said it, but feeling his inner self guide him to it. Not Cordes, that deeper part of himself.

"The other clones? The ones that were made to take over?" He felt surprised when he said it but the calm woman licked her lips a bit, and shield or not his body responded, which it shouldn't have been able too at all. Not after the evening he'd had with Ali.

"I didn't know that you were aware of them. I was told that the cover story was something to do with an alien invasion? Of course, Four-Ten or what have you, it's clear that they can monitor us. Not that it matters, except for the fact that, as mentioned, I have news."

A small silver device was produced, a thing much like an Austran compact, but the screen was small and the woman had to control it with flicks of her finger above the surface of it. There were small pads she hit as well and the whole thing was fascinating he realized, because he could do that on a unit too. It would let a communications device hold thousands of names, if he did it right. He nearly lost himself in the idea of how it would work, when the woman handed the device to him.

"See there?" She pointed at a silver box that seemed to be buried in something, but was still made visible. "That's a class seven runabout. Forbidden tech for Afrak, but if that doesn't belong to Lara Gray then I'm the pope." Tor didn't understand what she did then, but the path was tracked back to near Two Bends the day of the light in the sky. He understood what the numbers meant, because Cordes provided the information for him. Carefully, without intruding too much.

"I think she ran, got to about the capital, and then vanished. She's somewhere near there at least. Normally I wouldn't involve myself, but I don't care for her ways overly. She doesn't try to mold the biological form, she bashes it into submission and then complains that things don't work right. At least that's what she used to do, when we were girls. I grant, she might have changed a little, given the time frame." There was a soft glance and a reaching out, for her plate of cake.

"This is good. I should have it more often." After she finished it, she stood, stretching boldly, her chest pressing out toward him.

"I always get so aroused in this form. Do you want to have sex?"

Tor shook his head, feeling just a bit mean, "No thanks, I've already had sex with enough relatives this century."

"You're not holding
that
little thing against me are you?"

Tor looked down at the not inconsiderable bulge in his trousers.

"It isn't little, and I'm not holding it against you at all. That's my point."

At least it got a laugh. She looked down and examined him for a bit, then made eye contact.

"That was a thing back then, when we were first created. Unreasonably large penises for the men. The program directors were all for having variety in women's breast sizes, but that? No, not so much. It didn't work out that well for all of them."

Then she handed him the plate and left, moving silently. There was an almost ghostlike floating about her, something a little other than real that tickled at the back of his mind.

The whole thing had been weird, so Tor decided to clean up the plates and get to bed a little earlier than normal. It wasn't midnight yet even.

As he lay back on his nice bed with silky sheets and soft pillow for under his head he tried to figure out what she'd meant about the clones. He
got
the part where Lara Gray was around the Capital, most likely, but he doubted they were going to find her very easily. It didn't make sense for her to be there at all, did it? What was she doing?

That thought was still on his mind as he woke up, but he couldn't do a lot about the topic really, so he got some materials from outside and got to work. What he needed were templates though, really good ones that almost anyone could use. The tricky part was forming a connection for the base stones, when new ones were made. The hand held portions were actually easy, now that he knew how to organize them. By noon he had a dozen new base units put together and a few hundred hand pieces. It was hard to try it out alone though.

Thankfully, not long after he had a sandwich on some two day old bread, made with roast from the night before and some leftover greens from the cold box, Tim got there. Tor felt him coming from a ways off, which meant that he got to the door in time to watch him carefully land. He left his Carriage up, a mirrored rectangle like always and he seemed only a bit shocked when Tor walked out and handed him the tan square of focus stone made from some dirt out back.

"It's set up already, and has your name. Can you figure out how it works?" It might be too hard, or too new, but Timon had it down already, in about the time Tor was speaking. His own handheld blinked with a brilliant blue light. It was hard to miss. The old kind just glowed, this was meant to get attention, being brighter and moving. He hated waiting for people to notice him, personally.

Timon moved off, but spoke normally.

"Very nice. When did you work this up, last night?" The voice coming from Tor's hand was perfectly captured.

"About half an hour ago. Anyway, I figure that you can pass these out to people that want them. I have templates so you can make more and once you get used to the handheld it isn't that hard to use. You can spell out a name if you know it, or search for them. It's a bit slow that way, but the number of units is potentially pretty big. I figured we could take some to Denno. At least until the treaty is back in effect." It was a bit presumptuous of him, but Timon seemed happy enough.

"Sure, we split the profit, half and half?"

Tor nodded. He hadn't been thinking they'd make much from it, but Timon had a better head for things like that. In that his little brother was more than a bit greedy. Merchanty at least. Still, almost everyone thought he should be more like that, rather than less. Why that was he didn't know. Was the worth of a person measured in how big their coin purse was? If so, why hadn't he won already?

His brother surprised him though, asking him to get about twenty of them into a sack for him, then flying them both over in his silver craft to the commons. Tor loaded everything for him, which was a good idea he realized, when Timon started stopping people at random.

"Hello! These are the new Tor-communication devices, would you like a free demonstration?" It didn't take but five minutes of this before about thirty people, all students but one, gathered around to have a go. Finally, as people always did in situations like this, someone asked what they would cost. His little brother gave the boy that said the words a huge grin.

"Tomorrow? Several hundred gold apiece. Well worth the price too. Unless you're in the Lairdgren Group or know one of them
really
well, if you take my meaning..." They
did
and didn't even snicker at the idea. "Since they might be able to make a good deal for you,
eventually
. Right now though, each of you with five gold in your pocket can have one today. The first twenty at that price. Past that, I can't guarantee anything. Sorry. There's a limited supply."

It sounded mean, but people got competitive trying to get them, even if that was a pretty high price, and ran to their rooms for the funds. No one had that much on them, but the one Instructor in the crowd, Kolb, walked forward and put his right hand out.

"Is there a family discount at all? Green doesn't pay that well."

Tor set one up, not out of Timon's tan sack of loot, but from the back of the vehicle. The man figured out how to work it faster than Timon had, but it was mainly that he'd used such things for a very long time and it was sort of basic as far as that went. The thing there was that others in the fighters section came then, and after a few minutes the kids were coming back, panting and holding various cloth sacks out, waiting to be hooked up.

Timon didn't hand out free ones to his friends or anything either, but had someone get a sheet of paper and wrote all their names down. He didn't say why that was, but as soon as the first twenty people were walking around talking to each other, he packed up and moved his vehicle back to Ali's house to wait. They had to sit outside, since Tim wouldn't leave his carriage unsecured. It seemed a bit paranoid to Tor, but it was a good day to get some sun anyway. Not warm overly, but clear and blue, with a clean scent to the air. The early fires for cooking had started of course, so it wasn't the same as the forest in midsummer, but it wasn't bad.