by P. S. Power
Someone had set up several magical events, so people jumped into the air trailing streamers of light behind them with sparks of color, doing dances after a fashion. There was music too, off in the distance in the cool night air, as well as several large bonfires. Those weren't real, he didn't think, since they were all exactly the same size.
In all it seemed like everyone was considering it a happy enough event. For his part... Well, it was done now, wasn't it? A fine thread of dread ran down his spine, and for a moment it felt a little hard to breathe. He took off instead of talking, his wife sitting next to him silently, looking at the scene in front of them. Not knowing what else to do, he set off to the south, the craft moving at full speed into the darkness of the night. After the glowing river was over the horizon, he set the craft to be totally black, matching the cloudy sky above them. No stars showed and the moon was no more than a faint glow behind them.
After about twenty minutes he just stopped, letting the vehicle hang in the air, unmoving.
"So..." It made him feel like a little kid, but he sucked his top lip in a bit and bit it, feeling oddly nervous about the whole situation. "I was thinking we could go to Soam first. It's very pretty there and I saw a nice waterfall... From the air. It's pretty isolated, but it might be worth looking at. We can just stay here for now, I think. Or move over the ocean, so that we can set up some water? That's probably..."
"Thank you." There was a hesitation to the words, but Trice kept going, not making him ask why she said that. Not that he didn't get it. "I know this isn't what you wanted at all. I won't get in your way. I'll help you too, if you want. To take over the Assassins Guild, if that wasn't a joke, I mean. I just hope everyone will forgive me eventually. I... Really, I should have just had him killed years ago, but we grew up together, when we were little. Rico isn't a good person, but..." She shrugged and didn't say anything else.
Timon looked over at her anyway, and managed to make his face look pleasant, which showed in the dim light that came through the window, from the hidden moon above, after it reflected off the clouds. Trice had to be pretty much blind, he realized. He could see her and in that moment she looked younger than she normally did, and worried.
That almost didn't make sense. It wasn't like he was going to force her to do anything. He couldn't. Oh, he had a right to insist, but had no illusions that she couldn't kick his behind if he tried too hard. Plus, that wasn't the agreement. Especially since he couldn't even look at her too hard without having the scene from Nora's torture chamber come back to him.
So it wasn't that. It was...
Really, he didn't have enough information to be able to tell what it was.
"Well, we should have him killed anyway, as soon as we can manage it without being suspicious. I figure that will be about two to six months. It would be better to go longer, but if we wait too long, then even the King won't be able to annul this without rousing suspicion." Looking at the side of her face, he noticed her eyes suddenly going wide and a look of terror coming across her features. She schooled the response after a few seconds, but it was definitely there.
"Um... Tim... we can't have this annulled. Divorce is out too. I thought you knew that? Even if Rico was to die, we'd have to stay married, or else everyone would figure that one of us set it all up. Gala isn't the most militarily powerful Baron in the land, true, but until this whole rebellion is over Uncle Richard can't take the chance that he'd throw in with the other side in anger. Even if things were peaceful right now, he probably wouldn't. Not when there's a nice solution already accomplished. I... who said that we could have it undone like that?" The tension in her voice made it almost harsh after a few seconds.
"Oh, no one. It was just an idea I had. I can see it was wrong. Not a problem. We should still kill this fellow. If he's bad enough that you're willing to tie yourself to me forever to avoid him, then we shouldn't let him take power. I'll be alive when the current Baron dies and don't want to bother with him later."
That got a low chuckle and Trice reaching out toward him. She wasn't close enough, but he took her hand, even if it did make him uneasy.
"That sounds good. We should wait. That two years you mentioned at least."
"Alright. So, this is the point where normally I'd get you into bed, but that isn't happening. Sorry about that, but... Well, you know. I do seem to be getting better, so by the time you're forty, fifty tops, we should be good that way." There was a playful tone in his voice, but she was bright enough not to flirt with him, even if it would be the common response. It would be too much and it should have been clear to anyone that he was only making light of it as a deflection. He felt bad, for so many reasons it wasn't funny at all. Sad and scared, on a deep level. It was all about him, but there was no reason to take it out on Trice. She'd just done what she had to in order to survive and do her job.
He wouldn't have done anything less himself, would he? True, in his case it would have been running far away, but she had a bigger duty than he did.
"I know, let's set things up in back? This thing has almost everything that one of the good magical houses does. It isn't as big and the furnishings are simpler, but we can make beds, rooms, other living facilities and all that kind of thing. Lights too... Here." letting go of her hand, he touched the arm rest of his seat, just below the control hand piece and caused the entire ceiling to glow in the back. It made it about as bright as a cloudy afternoon in the empty space behind them.
The Ducharina let a single eyebrow go up, and managed to look inappropriately sultry then.
"Hmmm? Not even married a few hours and you already want to set up house? If I didn't know better I'd think you were trying to tell me something." She winked and stood then, stretching, her hands going over her head easily as her back bent, pushing her chest out. "I do know better. Now, let's see what this thing will do?"
It killed nearly an hour, touching the walls of the craft and thinking hard about things that they wanted to fill the space. The look wasn't as classy as one of Tor's big houses would have been, true, but it ended up looking nice and having almost everything they could want. They needed water, but the world was covered with oceans, and, he assured her, the pumps would strain the salt out of the sea water automatically.
Then it was time to sleep. He didn't know what he was supposed to do, other than say goodnight and pick a room, so that was what he tried for. Trice gave him a look and kissed him gently, if on the cheek, so that it wouldn't be too intense for him.
"Dream well. If you hear me screaming, don't be scared. I have nightmares..." She said the words seriously enough that he made himself give her a hug. It wasn't a close thing, but he tried to be friendly about it at least.
"I do that too, most nights. See, we already have things in common."
She didn't laugh, but they were able to separate then and despite what they'd both said, there were no loud screams or howls of pain at all. Not that he noticed.
The bed was nice and he had a window in his room, which was actually very good sized. Morning came early, since they'd pushed a long way south, so he flew on for a while, then lowered over the ocean, so that they could both bathe and brush their teeth, when Trice finally got up. She slept for a long time, not stirring until nearly ten, a full two hours after he'd bathed.
"Good morning! Did you sleep alright?" It was what you said, at least most of the time, but he wondered if he was supposed to be more kind about it or use some term of endearment? Shrugging he winked at her. "I mean, did you sleep alright... dear? Honey?" Shaking his head he frowned, since those sounded so forced. "I'll work on that. We should see if we can find some food soon. Do you want to get a bath first? I think we can find some in Soam. You're good with fruit, aren't you? That stuff just grows on trees there, if you can believe it."
She smiled and rolled her eyes, looking a bit puffy and sleepy still.
"A bath sounds great. Are you going to join me?"
"Not this time. That isn't about you, by the way, I'
ve just already done that this morning. I can run along the coastline for a while and see if I can find anything, while you do that."
She stared at him for a bit, but then just walked out, headed toward the bathing chamber. It was pretty clear that she didn't understand why he'd pass up a chance to see her naked, even knowing what she did about him. Clearly, to her mind what had happened to him shouldn't have anything to do with her. That was even correct really. It wasn't her fault at all, so why shouldn't they act like normal people? Even if they didn't have sex, bathing together was a regular noble activity, and didn't mean anything to her. He'd managed it with Judy and Petra even, so he should be able to handle it.
Well, that would have to come later, wouldn't it?
There was a lovely beach on the eastern coast that had lots of fruit bearing trees not too far away. He collected some things up, bananas, coconuts and mangos, only knowing what they were from his travels, and prepared them in the kitchen they'd made the night before, then realized he didn't have a plate at all, or even a tray. Using a cutter he had the delicate flesh turned into skinless bite sized portions fast enough, but no place to put it all, other than the counter.
That problem was solved by putting the fruit into coconut halves. It looked almost decorative he decided. He chilled it in the cooling box, since it was a nice day outside here, warm and sunny compared to the winter chill of back home. They could eat on the beach and have drinks of coconut milk to go with it. It would have been better if they'd had some citrus fruit to add for that, like they often did in Warden, but he hadn't seen anything close to the craft when he'd gone to look. What they really needed was a nice shopping trip. That meant going back to Noram, if they were going to use coin for it. Since there wasn't anything of note to trade, it made sense.
Trice took a while and he nearly went to look for her, wondering if she were angry with him for not joining her. She looked relaxed and smiled at the food.
"Not bad. Do you think we can catch some fish for dinner? I've never done that before, fishing. We need nets or something, don't we?"
"Normally. We can cheat, and do it with an explosive weapon, since that's just the way we are. It's not fair to the fish, but then, neither is eating them." Nibbling on a piece of decently firm mango, he handed his new wife her share and waved at the door to the right hand side. "Shall we?"
"Certainly, good sir." She managed it with a straight face even, for a while.
The sound of the waves was fairly relaxing and the beach was the white sand kind, at least in the area he'd landed. Water pumped in and out of their vessel leaving two long streamers of pure liquid in the air, making pretty lines that traveled hundreds of feet. He hadn't worked up a way to carry water with them for use, but that should be doable. It was something to work on after they ate.
There was one thing that was certain in all of this that he'd never considered before. The average marriage vacation had to be incredibly boring. At least it was if the goal wasn't to have sex as many times as possible with your new mate. They needed to have a real trip if they were going to stay even halfway entertained.
Trice ate a piece of mango herself after sitting on the soft sand, the vehicle making just enough shade for them to use for the moment.
"Hey." She stopped then and sipped the coconut milk from her other half shell. She had to trade the two things around and leave one at a time nestled in the sand so it wouldn't tip. "I don't want to ruin the vacation or anything, but I kind of need to pass some messages for Uncle Richard back in Noram. It won't take long, but I should really do it today. Tomorrow at the latest. Is that... I..."
Timon smiled and turned to look at her. She was pretty enough, with light tan skin and dark curly hair. A bit thin really, but given the she was twenty-one or so and a noble woman, that meant she'd still be growing for a while. Her mother tended towards that kind of build, so it might just be the way she was. That was fine with him. Nora had been bustier and had more curves. That thought made him shudder a little, the image of the giantess hovering over him suddenly taking up the main portion of his mind. His breath caught, and along with it a bite of coconut meat tried to stick halfway down as he swallowed.
The problem there was that Trice picked up on the reaction and went wide eyed, getting that it meant something and that it wasn't good, probably not exactly why it had happened.
"We don't have to... I could go alone if you want, I have a craft with me and..."
Shaking his head he just had to hang on and breath through it, forcing his mind as clear as possible as the image lingered and phantom pain wracked his entire body. He'd done this before, but this was stronger than it had been in a while. Tim had really been hoping the worst had passed.
Nearly ten minutes later a fine sheen of sweat having popped from his skin, he managed to calm down and take a few deep breaths that actually seemed like breathing and not panicked gulps.
"Sorry. I started to think about some things." He really didn't want to talk about it, but knew that hiding what was going on wouldn't help their future relationship at all. You had to let the people closest to you in, or they wouldn't know you at all. If Patricia had been Petra, he would have told her, wouldn't he? That was just the truth, so he nodded and took far too long to start talking, the silence becoming almost oppressive while they waited.
Trice just sat, trying not to seem scared or too worried.
"I told you about the torture and what Countess Alan did to me. How they used that Austran poison to create incredible amounts of pain and did... other things to me at the same time? I... really can't go into all of it right now, but it was linked to sex and probably meant to warp me into something crippled and too damaged to be normal anymore. I just kind of... went back there in my mind, by accident. It wasn't a good thing."
"Flashback. It happens to people that have been in prolonged combat and stressful conditions. Not everyone, but the worse things were, the more likely it is to happen. I have the same thing." She started to try and say more, but Timon didn't need her to. It was clear that his new wife had been in more than her share of bad situations over the years. Way more than her loving Uncle should have sent her into.
He rallied and forced a smile, then ate for a bit to hide the fact that he was about to do it again and start shaking. Really he should do some building work, he decided, make a useful copy, since this was pretty close to as bad as things were going to get without being hurt, but that would be unfair to Trice, who'd just disclosed something important to make him feel better.
"Where do you want to go? We should get a good shopping trip in anyway. We probably should have done it yesterday, but hey, I'm new to all this marriage stuff, so forgive me if I flounder for a bit." As if trying to seem romantic he held out a piece of pale yellow fruit playfully. Trice leaned in and took it between her lips, which tickled his fingers gently. It nearly caused another of those events to happen, so he pulled away, but slowly, breaking eye contact without jerking away from her. It was far from perfect, but it didn't seem like a rejection of her, just him being a little coy. At least that was the plan.
After she finished her mouthful of food there was a pause, accompanied by a face. It was the kind of thing that said she needed to tell him something, but she didn't know how. So, most likely, it was related to some kind of spying or at least a secret operation that wasn't common knowledge. Given who she was, if her plan had been to run off and visit a lover, she wouldn't have had a good lie ready for it.
"I need to go to Warden. It's in County Ward."
Timon cleared his throat, which sounded pretentious he realized. The waves and the ocean breeze both interacted to set the tone, along with the bright sunlight. Some birds were making unusual noises in the background, now that they got the idea that the strange new thing that had flow in wasn't looking to make them into breakfast.
"I have a base of operations there, actually. I suppose you want to get in touch with Marvin and Maria? That whole thing where they're pretending to betray
the King in order to get in with the rebels?"
His wife glared at him suddenly, then looked out at the ocean.
"Damn. Do you know everything that goes on in Noram? Tor reads minds, and doesn't get half of this stuff yet." She stopped and gave him a tense look, because you normally didn't use a person's brother as your go to example like that. Of course you normally weren't married to the relative of someone you loved either, were you? At least not in Two Bends or most of the common places in Noram. Nobles were insane that way, but it worked for them, more or less.
On the good side she could, by her own rules, keep on with that and no one would care at all.
Even Tim didn't really.
She was going to be in for a surprise with his brother, since if anyone was going to have a problem with that sort of thing, it would be the mighty wizard of the backwoods, wouldn't it?
"I know a bit, from some things that people let drop in front of me. The thing with the Wards isn't much of a secret, is it? They've been cleared a dozen or more times and shown to be loyal to the King. For them to suddenly flip on that and become his hated enemy... That isn't very likely. Even if I hadn't seen the other signs, I probably would have gotten that one. It's a bit obvious for you to go in, isn't it? The King's niece..." It wasn't like anyone would even think she was less than loyal.
"Not such a problem. Maria and I have been lovers for years and I get along well enough with Marvin, so the idea of me sneaking in to try and talk them out of being all evil should work, a few times." She grinned and started to touch his arm, but stopped and pulled away with a smile. "Even the idea of bringing you along works. At least if people don't know you very well yet. We could set you to playing while the rest of us retire to 'talk', without you being any the wiser, since, you understand, you're just a child." She pursed her lips, and then forced a happy expression onto her face.
