by P. S. Power
“Attend all!” Kolb bellowed loudly.
Tor did at least. The guy looked ready to give a speech or something, dressed in more finery himself than the man had in the whole time they'd known each other.
“Attend all to the news! Glost Serge, the leader of Austra is dead. Daria Serge, his likely successor is also dead! Austra has declared peace. The war is over!” It was loud at least and took a few seconds to sink in.
The war was over?
Tor stood, stiff and uncomfortable from the hour and a half of sitting already, and cheered. It was a hoarse and weak thing, but heartfelt.
“The war is over!” He screamed as best he could, several times.
Then everyone else did too.
Chapter Twenty
After the first eight rounds of cheering, with people running after the Masker parade to spread the news, Tor managed to get a little closer to the royal box, by actually standing in front of it, just off to the side. After all he knew everyone and no one blinked at the idea. Plus if it was a trick or anything, he could tell. Denno might lie to them, but no one else there would.
Really though it was really pushy of him to interject himself, so he didn't say anything. He was a Knight though, so he pretended to be a guard and no one sent him away. Go figure.
“Situation report?” King Richard said calmly, fighting a smile until he knew what was actually going on it seemed.
Kolb nodded.
“The mission to Austra was successful as planned Sire, afterwards we opened a…dialog with the remaining rulers of the country, the parliament, and suggested that we would be pleased with a simple ceasing of hostilities, rather than surrender or enslavement of their people. They took a vote, and decided it was a good idea. We could not return with either of the heads however.” Kolb looked at Karina and bowed.
“But I assure you that they were verified personally. They are also being held in Austra for further authentication, as we may demand. They took a vote on that too. They seem to enjoy it, voting.” The large combat master smiled.
“Their votes became rather more friendly as soon as the Serges were out of the picture Sire. Indeed after a few tense moments early on, there was hardly any problem at all. Especially when they realized we weren't demanding reparations or calling for criminal action against anyone still living.”
People applauded. It was a loud thing that led to cheering and more people leaving to spread the news.
Along the street, directly in front of the palace, all of Kolb's people were lined up, Petra was three carriages back, with Karen and Davie Derring. It occurred to Tor that if they wanted to keep the secret group any kind of secret at all, they needed to get them off the street fast. Not that they weren't already seen. It was a bit of a challenge though. How could they get rid of them without being insulting? Especially since they'd just ended a war by themselves?
They were the hero's of the day, but they couldn't be. It wasn't fair.
Tor took a deep breath and caught Kolb's eye.
“Um, Instructor Kolb, sir?” He said softly, humbly and as if he was trying to avoid real attention.
The King and Queen both looked at him then, and that meant everyone else would too. Grand.
“Yes Tor?” Kolb said in a more gentle voice than he normally used with him.
“Um, well sir, did you bring these instructors and students from the school to act as messengers to other cities? Most of the Counts are here, but I can see that people would want to know about this. It's an excellent plan.” But it would help if someone would catch the hint and help. Tor couldn't say that though.
Richard, bless him nodded.
“A wonderful service to our nation Sir Martin. Thank you all. I won't hold you, since you seem eager to spread the news. I would like to have a private audience with Dennorian Brown, Kolb would you attend as the Knight of record here? Karen Derring as well please?” He waved his right hand regally.
“Everyone else, spread the good news and celebrate!”
That got a cheer too. Even Tor cheered along.
“Except you Tor. If you'd see to getting the word to other parts of the kingdom as soon as possible?” The man smiled at least. As if it would be a treat or something.
“At once Sire.” Tor did too, pulling his little hand unit, he started getting in touch with each capital. Most of the time he got either no answer or a servant, but funnily, the second he told people that the war was over and Rolph got on with him saying it was true, the people on the other end did most of the rest.
The streets were packed, so once that was done, an hour later or so, just as it was starting to get dark, Tor set up a carriage to get everyone going back with him to his house. The combat giants didn't get sent off on errands yet, because they all needed to sleep and rest first. The public transport people did it instead. Not all of them were even ladies of industry any more, Tor noted, as the word spread and the drivers came running to fly off and get the word out. From there word spread pretty well.
Tor just had to get to dinner then and make sure Lyn was provided for and all that.
Everything else was done.
Ali sat next to him, beaming happily as they flew back to their house along the river.
“Does this mean you can just work on what you want now and not do shields and weapons all the time? We could go back to school maybe or rehabilitate the Wildlands?” She sounded so excited he couldn't help but grin himself. She'd spent most of the day just sitting quietly and hardly doing more than looking his way every now and again. This was much nicer.
It was the violence earlier of course. Her whole life told her that violent people would hurt her. He wasn't like that, but she had no way to know that yet, did she? He'd killed a man. That idea was one that would be with him for a long time, of course, but he hadn't realized when he'd done it that it would be with her too. After he landed he heard more voices, in his head, not just Count Derring and Baron Rochester either. Daria and Glost were in his head too.
Seriously?
He sighed. Yeah, that made sense, didn't it? He'd set up the deaths himself, hadn't he? It had even been his idea in a very real way and he intended for them to die when he did it. Well, that wasn't good. Was he becoming some kind of evil murderer? He'd have to watch that.
No one liked the bad guys. Too much more of this and people would think the whole troll thing was real.
On the good side the Serges were just rambling as far as he could tell and the words barely made sense at all. Kind of soft and mumbled.
If he had to make up his own ghosts, that was the way to do it. Much better than the dreams would be no doubt. It was a little odd, to tell the truth. Actually, it was incredibly strange, that every time he killed anyone his brain would provide ghosts for him to deal with as a punishment, but that wasn't what caught his interest. No, it was that, as far as he knew, Afrak style genetics shouldn't be able to do something that specific.
Make him more prone to simple guilt? Yeah, that made sense, but this very high level, specific kind of thing almost had to be magically based. Only, from what little Burks had said about it all, the old Ancients didn't have magic hardly at all. Some field reading, but even that was looked down on. It had taken hundreds of years for Burks to come up with the first workable magical techniques that anyone could learn. Before that Noram was mainly just mud huts and decaying old style “technology” like what they used in Austra.
In the moment though, his little wife was probably more than a little scared of him. Tor put his hand out to her, which she took easily enough, and led her inside. The place was… a mad house, of course.
“Woooo!” A large form, Johan the combat giant, Gersh's brother, ran up to them and hugged Tor, spinning him around, then he did the same with Ali.
“We won!” He ran off, a little drunk already.
Collette was the only one not looking happy, standing in the center of the room, hands at her side. She was crying. For half a second Tor wanted to just ignore it
and pretend he hadn't seen, but that made him feel too low, so stiffly, taking Ali's hand again, he walked to the pretty blond and hugged her too.
“Alright love?” He whispered into her ear, Ali joined in, and kissed her cheek gently.
The woman nodded, “I… just, if the Austrans killed Ginger and now we have peace, she'll never be avenged, will she? I know it's selfish of me, but…” Tears fell hard enough to hit the floor.
He straightened. Right. He hadn't thought about that at all, had he? Distracted by being happy. To buy time he hugged her again, then took a deep breath.
“I need a room. Something quiet?” He tried to look confident and smiled at her a bit grimly.
“I… know that it isn't fair to you right now Collette, but we need you to manage this mess, Lyn's people are coming at nine, and I invited Debbie and her brother Box to dinner, just the one for everyone else. I know holding two meals like this is a lot of work, I just…” Hadn't been thinking about anyone else? Was that true? Tor kind of feared it had been. Well, that wasn't really true, he’d thought about a lot of people.
Just not her.
He drew another breath, but didn't bow to apologize. He hadn't failed her yet. He didn’t intend to either.
She dried her eyes and took her own big breath, and gave him a hard look. Not stern, but confident, like a person readying for a battle, but knowing they could possibly win.
“I'm on it. Quite right. I shouldn't have let my emotions get the better of me.” She sounded a little sad, but did point the way to the same quiet room he'd used with Lyn a few days earlier.
He made a chair, a soft and comfy thing that was sized to him and covered in soft fabric that would have been impractical if it had been real. It would tear and stain far too easily and wear poorly over time. But it wasn’t real, so it worked. For a second he was tempted to make it purple, but opted for black instead. Deaths color. This was serious business, not something for his enjoyment.
Then he pulled his communications device and signaled the Palace. Not a second later a voice came into the room, almost startling him.
“Tor?” It was Richard. “I was just hitting the plate to get with you.”
“Oh? Good. Um, I… Would it be possible to talk with you? It won't take long.”
“I can have the room cleared at once… If…” From the background he heard a lot of voices, most sounding pretty happy. Tor felt like a heel, having to bring everyone down. He sighed though, which obviously carried into the room because the King made a noise in return.
“Is everything all right?” This came over at barely above a whisper. Tor doubted that the room there heard it even, unless they were trying too.
“I was just talking to Collette Coltress and she expressed concerns that the investigation into her sister, and the other murdered ladies deaths, would stop, and that if the perpetrator is an Austran agent they will escape punishment.” It was high handed of him to even question it, he knew, but the room on the other side of the device went silent.
“I… don't know honestly, Tor. I can I get back to you on that? The peace is new and fragile; we may have to eat the deaths as part of it. I don't…” It was rare for Rich to actually sound like he was both upset and uncertain, but in that moment both things were clear in his voice.
“If I may your Highness?” A voice spoke softly and no reply was heard from the King.
“Tor, Denno here. I can assure you that no Austran agent did this under any kind of official orders. They might kill, or even do the other things that were done for a specific reason, I'm not claiming that they're saints, but they didn't in this case.” He stopped for a second as people rustled in the background.
“What that means in this case is that, if the person or persons involved is an Austran, agent or not, they face full punishment for it. If desired I can have all of the agents here turn themselves in for questioning on the case, before going home?”
It was the voice of Smythe that came then, sounding far away and a little bemused. Gentle almost.
“You'd send in your spies for questioning? Honorable, given everything, but aren't you afraid we might harm them or abuse the privilege?”
There was another long pause and finally the King murmured something, which sounded like “honored” probably meaning that the Ancient of Austra had bowed or something.
“I'll make it happen, though if I can assure that their safety, if not responsible for personal crimes, is seen too? I'd not want anyone beaten or harmed for merely following orders. They don't really get a choice you understand? So, to that end, if my brother, Torrance Purple could see to their protection?”
Torrance Purple?
Gods that was awful.
No one laughed though, or even asked who the heck that was.
“Thank you Dennorian Brown. Do you need anything to expedite this?”
That was a very polite way of suggesting that whatever Brown was going to do, he not dawdle on it. Even Tor got the idea, tired as he was.
“I have gear with me this time, so I can see to it directly, would it be all right if I were to visit with Purple and Green later? At your place Tor? We have… family matters to discuss as well I think.”
Tor almost wanted to tell him that the morning would be better for it, since he was exhausted, but didn't. If it was as important to Brown as digging out a murderer was to the rest of them, it probably wouldn't pay to put him off.
“OK. Try not to leave it too long though, I've… had a bit of a day.” He thought he sounded all right, but a low chuckle started on the other side of the unit in front of him.
Then he was able to say goodbye, managing it with a decently polite “royal” accent for once and with a word from Smythe coming just before he hit the plate on his end.
“Baker?” The man’s voice was firmer talking to him. Then it wouldn't surprise Tor to find out the man kind of hated him.
He had tried to kill him after all.
“Would you and Miss Morgan be available in the morning?” He didn't say why, but he was the boss, so Tor shrugged, knowing it wouldn't be seen.
“I am. I'll see if I can find Trice and meet you, at your chambers? When would be good?” It was the polite thing to do, after all, go to the older man when asked not make him come around calling on them.
“Ten in the morning? Use a transport I think, at the east side entrance? I doubt we'll be passing on the streets easily even then.” There was a pleased chuckle to his voice.
Then Tor got away from the device and sighed. Now all he had to do was let Collette, and her family, know that vengeance wasn't to be denied them. They still had to make it happen, but it wasn't forbidden at least. If the monster happened to be from Austra, that wouldn't protect him at all. Even the Austrans agreed. Or they would.
If Tor had to go and ram it down their collective throats himself.
So far it didn't seem like that was needed at all. Really, who liked raping murders that hurt young women? No one, that's who. They probably didn't even like themselves.
Now all he needed to do was get bathed again, dressed for a dinner meeting, and talk to all of the Coltress family. In no particular order. Tor was shaking his head as he limped to the door of the room, wondering how to make all that happen. His head didn't hurt, but he felt like it should. This was all just verging on too much. Still, at least the news wasn't horrible.
He bumped shields with Sam as he walked out the door. Laughing, then both stepped back, the boy had been reading while walking, which wasn't exactly safe given the amount of people in the room. It was just a sheath of papers, hand written.
“Lord Baker.” He said politely.
Tor gave him a half grin and sighed, “Lord Sam.”
The boy paused for a second and then grinned himself. “Yay, a promotion. Can I get anything for you? You look half done in.” He waved at the fact that it seemed Tor was holding himself up with the door frame of the room for some reason.
He nearly said no, but then shrugged
, Sam was his friend right? He did need the help, and not asking was rude with a friend.
“Um, actually, could you get some people for me? I… Check with Collette, you know her?” It wasn't a small point with everyone around.
“Incredible looking vision of loveliness? I think I could pick her out of a crowd at need, yes. We haven't really spoken yet though. Kind of different social circles and all that.” His accent was there but a lot softer than it had been when they'd worked the flood, months ago.
That…
Tor shook his head.
“Not really, you actually know a lot of people in common. Me and Rolph and his sister Kari? Rolph's parents too. Well, the ones disguised to look like them at least. You did pick up on that, didn't you?”
The boy huffed and made a sour face.
“No. Kind of embarrassing too. Lyn had to tell me about it later. There I thought Kari might really like me too. Should have known, high merchant girl like that wouldn't be looking my way.”
Tor had been there, so he got the idea, a poor scholarship boy didn't get a lot of attention from the girls at Lairdgren.
“I don't know, I'll ask if she remembers you though. She's actually better looking out of her disguise. Still, got a pencil?”
The kid did and took the names down, then ran to get them. It took the better part of an hour, so Tor managed a quick shower, dressed in his “official” military style outfit in all black, with a purple trim at the cuffs and was actually waiting in the quiet room for everyone when they were led into place by Sam, who'd shifted his own clothing. He looked like an overgrown version of a page from the King’s palace. That move had Collette written all over it.
After all, if he was doing page work and summoning Barons and Countesses, looking “official” couldn't hurt. Tor gave him a bow when he came in, not even thinking about it. A simple half bow between equals. He bowed back the same way, which got the attention of everyone in the room fast.
Well, not the Count and Countess Ward, who just accepted it. Or Trice. She hadn't been asked to come, but apparently had followed along anyway.
