by P. S. Power
That didn't seem to make him happy. Not at all.
Dinner was called then and as often happened, for no apparent reason, he got sat next to the Queen. Of course, now it almost made sense, having had sex with her, he was kind of her lover, right? If she wanted him to be. Not that he could do anything about it at the moment, which sucked. A lot. As soon as he settled she touched his right arm and looked past him.
“I hope this is all right? Trice suggested it… If it's a problem we can fix it, but it would take some doing to save face.”
He followed her gaze to the seat next to him, making him suspect the worst.
It was just Maria Ward though, with her Count on the other side. A little louder than he intended he spoke to the Queen.
“Oh, good. Maria, Marvin and I are good friends now.” The words came out quickly and half the table looked at him. He just meant that they were friends, forgetting that “good friends” meant more in the Capital than in Two Bends. There it told people that you'd back up someone totally. Here it had a different flavor. It kind of said they were lovers.
Eep!
Worse he couldn't explain or take it back, not without humbling them again. The Queen smiled at him and seemed happy about what he'd said though.
“Oh, wonderful! So good to set all that behind us then. Are you staying with Tor and Alissa then for Postern?”
It was the Count that answered, smiling openly, teeth shining a bright white against his dark skin.
“We were thinking of asking Tor down to our celebration actually. Alissa too of course. In fact, everyone is invited.” He glanced around the table, still smiling. Very few smiled back.
That could happen when you had recently declared war on a whole country, even if they had taken it back within a month. Inside two weeks actually. It was a mistake.
From across the table Rolph smiled and shook his head.
“Sorry Marvin, we can't ask anyone to miss the biggest Postern celebration in history. I suggest we get Tor to set up a few more houses and invite your people up here. With the availability of civilian transport now, we should probably set up more than a few places for all our friends that will want to visit. Lets actually register for this though, instead of the traditional procession of Kings week. Noram day was awful this last time.” He sounded so happy a pleasant buzz went up around the table.
Tor turned to Maria and smiled a bit, trying to look cheery instead of just exhausted. Her eyes looked worried for some reason. It was so frustrating not reading people on the field level. How was he supposed to know what the problem was. He couldn't ask, not here.
“Not to… be a pain Maria, but would you help us with this? The planning for it and all? I can't do it alone at all and really, it's important. Now more than ever. Please?” He wheedled a little, which got her to blush and duck her head.
“Honored. Who else is working on it?” Her voice was meek. Almost subservient.
Gods and monkeys it was hard to tell what she was thinking at all. He didn't let himself shrug, turning to look at Connie instead. She generally knew this stuff better than he did.
“Um, your majesty?” It was his turn to sound meek.
“Well, alright, since you're asking…” She winked, a playful thing that got a laugh from the whole table, the room having gone silent to listen.
“I'll be helping you Maria, and will volunteer my family, if they aren't otherwise occupied. Anyone else want to lend a hand? It's quite rewarding really…”
For a long moment the room went silent, finally a single voice from the far side of the table, the very end, spoke with a familiar tone.
“I think I might be available to lend a hand.” Burks Lairdgren said, sounding pleased enough about the whole thing.
Chapter Sixteen
That actually got about five more responses from around the length of the table. After all, if the royal family and that weirdo Lairdgren were going to be working with the Ward bitch, then why not? It would be interesting if nothing else, right? They collected Countess Ross, Ursala and to Tor’s amusement, Abbie, who smiled brightly about it.
Countess Thorgood had enough control not to grind her teeth at the table. It was clearly taking effort though.
Tor bowed his head and committed all the names to memory. Then he spoke to the Queen quietly. “Sorry, I ended up accidentally turning this towards business. Do you have plans for the water garden this year?”
That, as quiet as it was, got everyone to move back to polite dinner conversation as if he'd scolded them instead of whispering the words. The food was incredible, as always, though he just couldn't eat it all. Not more than a few bites of each thing. He tried, it was just too much still. After desert, a lovely dish that had flaming berries with brandy, which he didn't touch at all. He was a bit surprised when Sandra, down the table, looked at him and quickly followed suit. Builders didn't drink alcohol, but that wasn't why he wasn't having his, he was just too full.
Count Morris and a beautiful looking woman of about forty, tall and lithe, sat near her, the resemblance was more than passing of course, her parents after all. Sandra sat straight and made small talk with the people around her, not looking overly unhappy even. Of course, she'd said that her father didn't get along with her, but that didn't mean they'd fight at a dinner at the King’s table.
When the meal broke up Tor floated over, getting even more strange looks from the room. He knew he looked odd, but really, he couldn't sit any more, the sores just wouldn't allow it. It was this or stand and he really didn't think that would work for more than a few minutes, so Not-flyer it was.
He tried to start things on a positive at least, “Count Morris, so nice to see you again. I haven't forgotten-”
“Master Tor! Wonderful to see you, I wanted to thank you for the timely delivery of devices. I hope that sending the payment to your residence here was sufficient? Countess Printer wasn't certain when she made the delivery…”
Tor put it together, so didn't feel too silly at least. The Countess had “borrowed” a few million gold worth of his property, the King said she could keep it, but had to pay for it. It was a lot and since it turned out that she didn't have to destroy Count Ward after all, for the death of her husband at least, it seemed she'd decided to spread the pain of that judgment out a little.
Good. Tor had completely forgotten about it until he saw the Count.
“Oh, that sounds fine, thank you. I haven't been to my own house for a while though. I was planning on staying there tonight. Do you have rooms?” He addressed this to the Count, who nodded.
“Yes, the Queen saw to that for us. Sandra…” The man looked slightly worried at least, which Tor took as a good sign.
Tor nodded to the girl.
“Is part of my working group, so stays with me. In fact, we're using my residence as headquarters when not up at Lairdgren, on breaks and so on. She'll be needed there a lot, since the students are, well, students, but on holidays and breaks we should all be around here, if not needed on other tasks around the kingdom.” It was all kinds of pushy, but she really was needed for duties with the crown.
Shrugging Tor said that out loud too, including that he knew he was being bossy. Her parents should be proud. He was after all.
The Count wasn't though. He just frowned and shook his head.
“I do appreciate your humoring her, but really her efforts at building haven't amounted to much have they? Her single building project so far is a children's toy. Barely an amusement even. I suppose it's as good a hobby as stitchery or perhaps horsemanship, but she should be out looking for a husband of good birth, don't you think?”
Right, Tor had forgotten what an over bearing jerk the man could be. After a few second Tor just shrugged and turned to his colleague’s mother.
“Countess, have you spoken to my mother? I have five brothers, four of whom are unmarried, all Countiers. Some far too young, and there is some competition for them, but it may be something to think about. Sandra is a catch a
nd I know that I'd be honored to call her sister.” He turned to the Count and winked, getting a small smirk from the man back.
“Now, not to be rude, but as to your daughters building career, you couldn't be more wrong. She's good. As it stands at this moment, she could go and make a living anywhere in the kingdom starting with nothing more than a few rocks. That little toy of hers has a full feedback mechanism, that senses both balance and the passage of time. OK, the toy is a little misplaced, since few children could afford such, but the work isn't just a toy. She didn't get named the leader of the Lairdgren group because she's a noble. She earned it.”
Mainly be being the oldest person in a group of volunteers, but hey, that counted right? Tor grinned at her parents.
“My point here is that you need to live a nice long time now Count Morris, and love your job, because we need her. The kingdom needs Sandra now.” His voice wasn't nearly as strong as he'd have liked, but a voice came from behind him then.
“Simple truth. Do you know that she ran out a batch of fifty shields earlier? In two hours, by herself. I tested the fields on them, very high quality work. There are less than six people in the kingdom that can do that.”
Tor turned and tried to smile. Lairdgren again. It was true enough though, and really, other than the guy not being exactly forthcoming with him, there was no real reason to be mad at him. Not yet.
Sandra looked horribly shy suddenly. Burks was pretty good looking, so maybe that was it? He was back to looking older, about thirty. It was a handy trick. Half the problems Tor had were because people didn't take him seriously. It wasn't that bad yet, because well, he was still under twenty, so no one would have anyway. Not for a few years. When that happened though, looking a bit older would be nice. Spending forever locked in what looked like a child's body would be hard to manage. Doable, but a pain.
Lairdgren did a much better job bolstering Sandra than he had though, making her seem like the best thing since cream was discovered, which was kind of what he'd been trying for, but missed. He just stood and nodded with a smile, backing the Ancients play. By the end of ten minutes even the sour and entitled Count Morris had to admit that there may be some value to his little girl becoming one of the better builders in the kingdom.
Tor grinned, “Also and don't take this lightly, think how much you can save on devices, what with the family discount… You could save ten, twenty percent even.”
The funny thing was that the Count and Countess actually seemed pleased by that, as if their own daughter wouldn't just give them what they wanted?
Tor yawned and shook his head a bit.
“Sorry, I need to make the rounds and get to bed. Um, Burks, do you know if Denno is around?”
“Guest house. Are you staying here?”
“Nope, my place. We have room, if you want?” Of course, Tor was also planning to kidnap Denno Brown, so his brother might not want to be seen as helping with that.
He agreed to come though, and they collected a few other people as Tor and Sandra said their goodbyes. Including the Wards, who'd been planning on getting a room at an Inn, not feeling overly welcome at the palace yet, and Ursala, who glared at the Wards, but not Tor. That… Well, they hadn't poisoned her, but they had set her up to get pregnant and just to lash out at Rolph, so it was kind of fair. It had really ruined her chance to be Queen one day, hadn’t it? Well, maybe he could get her into make-up sex with them, so none of them ended up in his bed? Not that he'd be using a bed for a while still. The nap he'd taken laying flat had kind of hurt. It got him up quickly enough but that night he was just going to float again. That was really comfortable.
At the guest house they found Denno easily enough, looking like the servant he pretended to be. Greg. Tor just pointed to him with his left hand and raised his right, like the royal family did, not knowing if it would work at all. He had some Royal Guard friends, so hopefully they'd help out.
“I'm stealing Greg. Get someone to cover his shift please. Actual kingdom business, not just to scrub my floors or anything. Come on, Greg.” Tor didn't wait for the man to make a decision, just walking out. For some unknown reason he followed. It was foolish of him, but then, the guy had to know that. He probably also knew that Tor wouldn't be beating him.
He still didn't have a real plan as to what he was really going to do.
The flight back to his house was short, about three minutes and that long mainly to make sure the Royal Guard saw them all leave. No one spoke on the way back. He landed smoothly in front of the house and tried to be quiet walking in. Really, he didn't know who, if anyone would be there and what they might be up to. As long as it wasn't group sex in the front room, it should be all right. Instead he was greeted by Collette, who ran to him, a graceful shuffle so her dress wouldn't trip her up, soft slippers a whisper on the stone floor. It looked like marble now, but in a different color than he'd last seen it, gray shot with white, polished to gleaming.
She's come from the dining room off to the right, except, from what he could see, it was a sitting room now, with several people in it. Not all of them people he recognized instantly. Several men…
Which would have been jealous making, except one of them was her father and the rest looked like merchants of some kind. At least they had the height for it. After a second he got that one of them was Kris Debri, a friend of his, after a fashion, and his mother Heather sat near him. That was all he could see from where he stood.
“Tor!” He was gently hugged and given a soft, slow kiss on the mouth that didn't get a reaction from his body at all. It was still nice.
“Collette. I brought people with me. Is that all right? I notice we have guests?” It was the best he could do, short hand wise. She stood a little straighter and then bowed to… Everyone. Oh, right, all nobles, except “Greg”.
“Honored. Will you be staying?” She noted that the Wards had luggage. And probably that the rest of them didn't.
“Well, Maria and Marvin are your family, so of course they're staying. Burks and Denno are mine, so that gets us stuck with them for the night, though Brown needs to be back to work as soon as he can walk again…” It was a pointed statement and the man tapped the sigil around his neck, making his disguise vanish. It got a gasp from the doorway to the sitting room, since Bonita had come to look, when she heard his voice.
Denno bowed to her, “Ma'am. Don't be alarmed, I always look like this. Well, not so much lately, but my little brother is to blame for that.”
He said it like that made any sense at all. Nita closed in for more hugging, hitting up Burks first and then him, but circling around to cover Maria and Marvin too.
Tor stood looking into the other room, wondering what the protocols where here. Did he just go in, or should he ignore that people were there, in case it was secret or something? Finally he just leaned in to Collette and asked.
“Oh, well, yes, it's a little secret. Trying to share information about what happened at Lairdgren and find out if anyone knows more, if we can put the puzzle together at all.”
Tor tilted his head and thought for a second.
“OK. Well, if you warn them that a bunch of noble types that might have to report any information they hear back to the King are coming in, we should go say hello, then get out of their hair, so that proper planning and all that can be done. Is that… acceptable? I don't want to be rude, I just don't know what to do in a case like this.”
Collette hugged him again, “I think that will work wonderfully, one moment then?”
After two minutes she waved them all in, setting off a bunch more bowing. Then people started hugging each other, since a lot of them were close friends and relatives.
He got one too, from Kris' wife of all people. She was a bit plain looking but had a kind smile, which she turned on him full force. It was a little warm, considering they'd only met once before and hadn't spoken more than a few words. Nice of her to remember him though. Kris didn't look overly pleased about it, but not upset either. His
wife, Meredith caught the look and smiled at him lovingly. Kris was a nice looking fellow and a good catch all around for a widow like her.
“Dear, you asked who arranged all that gold for me?” She sounded happy and sweet about it. Enough so that Tor felt a little bad about not having accepted her marriage proposal once. She'd had the wrong last name then or he would have.
Tor shrugged.
“Well, I provided part of it, Dorgal did the rest. Definitely a combined effort. Though I have to say, his leaving a mysterious chest like that makes a much better story than what I intended, which would have just been passing it along to you. All's well on that front? With Dorgal I mean?” Tor hadn't seen the man in months after all.
Some friend he was.
“Oh, yes! Business is good and his mother is planning to send a go-between for him. Lyn Cooper? I don't know if you know the name?” She smiled when she said it, but it was hard to read.
Tor winked.
“Yes. Her mother lives here in the city, the cooper by the south wall. Collette knows more I believe.” He looked back at her.
“Oh, yes, I can take you there if you want, so you know where to send his mother. How exciting! I do love a good wedding.” Collette smiled at him with a twinkle in her eye.
“So if she says yes, I take it your paying for it, as her sponsor?”
“Seems reasonable. We'll have to set some gold aside for it. Speaking of marriages, anyone know where my wife’s gotten too? I want to check in with her. I should have already.” It was a good excuse to get out of the room at least, so that people could plot in private. As long as it wasn't against him or the crown, it wasn't really his business. Hopefully it wasn't about him. That was possible, since Collette's father, the Baron, might not be happy with how poorly he'd been doing finding his daughters murderer.
Tor took a deep breath. Crud.
He moved in front of the man, who'd stood to hug Maria, and oddly Sandra too, and bowed low. Not going to his knees, because he couldn't and float like he was, could he? Hopefully the man would understand.
