Envoy to Earth (3 page)

Collette seemed skeptical, as if
he'd lie about something like that?

"Alone, for the most part. I
know, it's hard to believe, being that I'm ever so popular, but believe it or
not, almost no one wants to live in the middle of a desert and plant with me.
On the good side, nearly a third of it
is
planted now. That took some
doing. Help too. We're out of seeds for now, so..."

She took his arm and made sure
Boxy followed them all the way inside. The case did of course, since that was
its job. Turning a bit she eyed it for a second, and then nodded.

"Let's take your friend here
past the kitchen? Mother will want to see you, I think. Especially bearing
gifts."

Not that Glaren was the kind of
person that was more impressed with gifts than people, he didn't think. The
woman wasn't in however, which was baffling, until one of the undercooks
explained. The lady was about thirty, which meant his own age, more or less,
and short, compared to either him or Collette. Merchant tall, for a woman, so
about five-eight, or about that. Not a noble, most likely. They tended to be
larger. Not always, but enough that they were referred to as noble giants for a
reason.

The cook was polite, but
explained efficiently.

"Ma'am is off to visit her
clothing shop, Miss." She looked down, but then went back to her work,
looking at him only slightly, from the corner of her eye.

Collette shrugged.

"Well then! We can unload
some of this, if you want, Gerent? Unless you need to save some of it as gifts
for others? That might be best. We could go visiting after lunch, since you
have your Fast Craft with you. If you don't mind? I have some places I should
really go and see to, but haven't for a while."

That would probably be a lover or
close friend, he knew. Collette was popular, being so pretty. The high noble
rules as far as relationships went were... Pretty different compared to the
ones in small towns. The rural rules were even stricter, hardly allowing for a
man to even look at a woman that he wasn't married to.

Gerent had lived most of his
early life floating from one small town to another, hitting villages between
times, as a low player. Not always with a troop, either. That was a bit
dangerous, since people would try to take advantage of a small man on the road,
when they could. He didn't think about it for the most part, since that never helped.
The past was, in the end, best left buried.

"That sounds good. I've been
alone for a while now."

She nodded, and eyed Boxy, as if
understanding what it all meant. If so she was a good bit more clever than he
was, since he wouldn't have gotten the idea, if the roles were reversed. It
didn't take long for him to unload about half of the contents, the kitchen
staff all stopping to stare as it happened. After a few moments, one of the
women, who was the one that talked to them, took charge.

"Humphries, get the potatoes
sorted. We'll bake them for the Lord's luncheon. We'll only need a few..."

Gerent looked at everyone, and
then shrugged.

"Why not save it for dinner
later? The rest I mean. You can all have some." If all they'd been having
was what the Timon food devices made, it would be a treat, he hoped.

There was a combination of
obligatory denials of the idea, combined with hopeful looks at Collette, who
nodded, after a bit.

"That sounds good. Still, separate
out a bit for luncheon, too. We probably won't be here later."

Then she took him by the arm and
led him and Boxy from the space, grinning. It wasn't until she was almost
across the entire place that she stopped. The main room was done to look like
polished marble, with gold silk on the walls. A sitting room, rather than the
main one, he supposed. The place was too big for that kind of thing. It seemed
to be the one she used though, near the front of the house. She pointed at a
large sofa, and when he sat, moved in alongside of him, pressed nearly to his
side.

"So, already buying the
goodwill of the staff? Mother will be pleased, if she doesn't miss out on the
meal. We should try to get a Tiera food device, but those are impossible to
find. No one is letting go of them, and even with all the gold in the vault
here, we probably couldn't afford to buy one." She looked at him, her face
wry. "I know, why don't you call her up and ask if she has a few sitting
around?"

It was a joke, but Gerent sighed
and then nodded. Even if he weren't going to call and beg for things from her,
he really
did
need to get in touch with everyone. Vanishing like he
had... True, no one had called, but they were busy people. It was up to him to
do that kind of thing, he thought. To that end, he patted his black silk left
hand pocket, and sighed, pulling the tiny brown unit there. He had two personal
communications devices, but that one was designed to talk to the people that
Timon liked. His family and friends in space, mainly. That, and Gerent.

Looking at the front of it he
nodded, and hit the sigil for Tim himself. He was the one that Gerent was
closest to, really.

Collette was wide eyed, but then
relaxed when she worked out who he was calling. Not the Queen of the Moon, just
her friend, Tim. He was only fourteen, and not intimidating at all. Except for
the fact that anyone sane would be scared out of their mind by the kid, if they
thought about it for even a moment. He was a wizard and had created the magic
that had killed the Ancients. If he wanted, he could kill everyone in the world
inside a few days. Or even just the ones that he didn't like, Gerent didn't
doubt.

"Tim Baker here. How may I
help you?" The voice was deeper than he remembered, like his own. Manly,
for all that the boy was just turning old enough to think of that way.

"Hey, Tim. It's Gerent. I
thought I'd check in and see how all those magics that you and the rest of the
wizards in Harmony are making for us down here are going? Collette was hoping
to get one of Tiera's new food things, and people, being ungrateful, want more
than apples from you. Not that anyone has
complained
, but I brought some
onions to Tor's, and the kitchen staff all got to their knees and made up a
little song about how I'm truly the perfect being..." Okay, so he was
joking, but Tim would get it. He was one of the smartest people, after all. Not
just on Earth, either.

After a second a low chuckle
came.

"Oddly enough, we have some
things for you. It's a matter of shipping it off, more than anything else.
Tiera mentioned calling to beg you to handle distribution for us the other day.
You should get with her about the particulars. I've been working for the last
month, myself. Remaking the new space stations. I'll give you one of those, if
you want? Alice told me that you've been avoiding her, which is rude, since
she's been planning out a nice wedding. I'm supposed to tell you to fix that,
if I hear from you, so, you get the idea, I don't want her to beat me, so, you
know, do that."

Gerent blinked, and then shrugged
a bit. Alice was one of the old Ancients that had survived. There were a few of
them that had. For a while they'd lived together, before Gerent had gone and
killed most of her family. She hadn't really blamed him, being a warrior, but
it was hard to look her in the eye still. Or had been. Maybe enough time had
passed? He should at least go and visit with her. Even if she was kidding about
getting married. The woman was kind to him, but that was all she really wanted
from anyone, right now. A person to joke around with, so that the others would
think she was normal, and not half insane with age.

"Right. Well, that sounds
good. How's everything going?" He wouldn't ask about Patty, even though
part of him wanted to assure himself that she was well. Just because she
couldn't love him, that didn't mean they weren't friends. It all just hurt,
both of them. Him because she didn't want him that way, and her, because she
wanted
to, but didn't. Of course, now she was married to Tim, so that was done anyway.
There was no way he was going to try and steal his adopted brother's wife, even
if it was the only woman he'd truly loved.

"Trice is fine. She's
started a magic shop here. We pretty much just give things away, but since Tor
has a bakery and Alphonse is doing the fine wine shop there wasn't much left
for her. You and Collette can see all that when you come up. Anyway, I'll get
off the patch here, and let you get with Tiera. She has some things for you to
do. Try to get up here in the next few days. I don't want to miss you. I have
some things to discuss."

Then, abruptly, the device went
dead and the glowing sigil that said Tim's name stopped floating above the
milky brown focus stone, and moved back inside.

Gerent regarded the thing for a
moment, and then looked at Collette.

"Well! That was cryptic. One
second, I better get to this next bit, before I lose my nerve."

He tapped Tiera's name, which
didn't have a title listed. None of them did. The names just appeared inside
the stone as new people got devices. There were about thirty of them now. He
was a bit surprised that Collette didn't have one. Petra Ward, either. Sure,
her family were a bunch of King hating traitors, but nice enough people other
than that. The woman herself was pretty loyal too, as far as that went.

The last that Gerent had heard
about it, at least.

"Go." The voice was a
bit sharp sounding. Tense and older than he remembered her being. More like her
mother, Laurali, than the young woman he'd been trying to get in touch with.

"This is Gerent. I've called
to demand tribute? I
wanted
dancing girls and cattle, but I hear that
I'll have to settle for food units and ships. Is
that
right? Hardly my
due, but I guess I'll just have to suffer it, this time." He was teasing
outrageously, but it got a sudden, far happier sounding laugh.

"Gerent! There you are. I
was literally just about to remember that I'm supposed to think about calling.
I think we can work out a trade though. If you'll pass out some things for me,
I'll let you have a jump ship and all the food units that you can carry. As
amulets. In your own hands, I mean. Not in the jump ship. I can't make that
many. Deal?" She sounded actually worried, like he'd say no.

"We need to work out the
details, but tentatively, yes. Tim said I need to get there soon. In a few
days. I don't think that the Space Fleet ships can do that. It's a weeklong
trip each way, if anything is headed that way." He knew that one for a
fact. Living on a ship for four months had taught him a lot, actually.

Enough to know that, if she was
serious, getting a Jump ship was a big deal. It meant taking two minutes to go
to the Moon, instead of a week of steady travel. The only downside was that
then he wouldn't have an excuse to avoid Patty. Which was probably part of the
new Queen's plan. Not that she thought he and his friend needed to get
together, just that she figured the best thing for
him
was to face the
woman.

Tiera sighed.

"I... Think you can get with
Captain Debri on that one. She should be coming here tomorrow. Trying to remind
Tor not to be a stupid-head. She loves him, and he still treats her like a
sister, half the time. Can you get with Richard first and let him know that we
have things in place? He's been hinting at the idea of us sending aid there for
a bit. We can't back him militarily against his rebellion, but we can send food
and some healing amulets. It's a bit of a bother, since I have Alphonse and
Karina both breathing down my neck about it all, daily." She paused, taking
a single breath before continuing. "You know Sara, right? I think she's at
her mother's house in the Capital right now. Get with her and see about setting
things up?"

Then, like her slightly younger
brother had done, she just disconnected. It was rude enough that Collette made
a face.

"It looks like I'm going to
have to send along a book on etiquette to them, doesn't it?" She looked at
him carefully, her face schooled into a totally blank expression.

So he shook his head.

"Nope. You can just take
them aside and tell them yourself. Quietly. I'm planning to take you along with
me, since otherwise it will look like I'm talking to Boxy far too much. I don't
want everyone to know how strange I've gotten. Not that I
haven't
, mind,
just... Well, there are limits." He smiled, and she nodded slowly.

Still with no expression.

"All right, if you insist.
I've never been to the Moon. I did manage a trip into space. A few actually,
and have the newest Tim-shield, as far as that goes."

Gerent did too. They allowed you
to go into space and still breathe. Not forever, but for a long time.
Technically you could use them to go from space to the planet, too. He'd done
it, but it was
terrifying
. Really, he preferred using a ship for that
kind of thing, if he got a choice in the matter. It was too much like simply
falling for his taste. Diving straight toward the planet, the ground rushing at
you for minutes until you got close enough to need to slow down.

Luckily they had flight units too,
so you could, but still... it was freaky.

"Great! It will make it so
much more believable when I tell them all about how you're my girlfriend now. I
don't want them to think that I've been here the whole time, just stewing in my
misery, alone." Off in the desert. Playing with dirt, mud and plants.

Collette didn't call him on that
part of things, smiling instead,
pleasantly
. "That sounds like a
plan. Well, who do we get with first? We can call the palace from the other
room. Sara Debri though..."

He just tapped her name on the
device he held. Collette glared at it, as if it had personally betrayed her.