by P. S. Power
Gray froze for a second, a darkness behind her eyes lifting, then she sighed, as if horribly put upon by the world. She finally smiled a bit, but the look was off somehow. Not as focused as what he was used to seeing in his mother. A little dreamy perhaps. Like a person in love might have.
“Tsk. That Green charm. I never could resist it. Fine then. I apologize for my lapses, please forgive me. I'm old and sometimes forget that I don't actually rule the whole world. Even though, clearly, I should.” She swept them a low bow and before anyone could say anything rushed forward to hug him.
“Take the letter anyway?” She asked, her mouth pressed nearly to his ear. He nearly shook her off then, since he could feel the dampness of her breath on his skin and that was way too intimate an action coming from a family member. He was already going to have to have a fight with Burks about this whole mess. Possibly a physical one, which would mean a beating for him of course. He didn't want to mention it out loud, because it was all so embarrassing. Sure, the patterns were different, but Lara was essentially Burks' sister. Maybe not by blood, but close enough. She definitely was Tor’s direct grandmother though and she was holding him like a lover.
Gah.
“Fine, but same as I said last night. Only if I can deliver it safely. I also don't guarantee the time perfectly either. Could be two months, could be eight years.” Tor Shrugged.
She handed it over and started making the rounds of everyone else with hugs. Well, at least it wasn't him anymore, he decided, as she managed to press up against all the others the same way. Maybe that was just how they hugged here? He hadn't seen anything like it, and the one he'd gotten the night before from her had been far less cuddly when she'd though he was Burks, so Tor didn't know what to think.
Mutta, dressed in brown work clothes that looked a lot like his own student browns from school, drove up in a large wagon heaped with evenly sized boxes, bare wood crates. Two strange and huge animals pulled it all, like cows only about five times heavier and with massive horns coming out of the sides of their heads. They were a pleasant dark brown with black on the underside and looked really sturdy.
She waved at them as she hopped down. She half hugged the blue haired woman as she walked by.
“Tor, this is my mother Fiaria Mutta. Your niece. Everything went well then? I don't see any blood. Here, I brought food for the week!”
It didn't look like a enough to Tor, having recently tried stocking enough food for the trip. It had gone just as fast as he'd thought. There was a little waste, but not much, since the big people were always at least a little hungry it seemed. Mutta assured him that these high energy rations would sustain them all very well. Tor grinned. It sounded like they'd taste horrible when she described them, bars of animal fat pressed with nuts and seeds, dried meat and a bit of dried fruit added for flavor. Yum. Everything you needed in a hot desert environment.
Well, he'd eaten giant sea insects so these couldn't be psychologically harder to eat at least.
He pulled one of the magic chests out and resized it to match the wagon, then he and Rolph started unloading. Kolb moved to help, but apparently Lara wasn't done apologizing to him, since she took him by the arm and held him in place. It was fair enough, since of everyone not related, she'd been rudest to the large bald man.
Playing with maps and nattering?
God. That was the entire plan he'd had on the table and if Kolb hadn't done half the work plotting the actual river courses alone it was because he'd done more than that. The Ancient woman almost managed abject when talking to him in particular. Good. At least the bald and scared man wouldn't have to go to war with these people by himself.
The scary part there was that he just might be able to win. Against an entire people.
That could explain the extra effort Tor realized. Lara not wanting to risk something like that. She knew that he wouldn't get mad at her and then attack her people over it, probably as well as anyone knew anything about him at all. She'd grown up with Burks after all hadn't she? The Prince she'd kind of dismissed for some reason, as foolish as that was, since Rolph could probably take on her continent too, but Kolb, he could do anything, couldn't he?
Everyone else started working too, even Karina, who wasn't lazy by nature. Still, loading and unloading carts seemed like a place she'd have drawn a line really. Just about the lowest manual labor possible. At least in the world of a Noram royal. She didn't even blink, just getting to work instantly. The boxes weren't big, but must have weighed forty pounds each, the raw wood giving them all splinters, he could tell, because everyone kept stopping to try and pull them, working at them with their teeth or fingernails. The work went quickly, there were only about twenty boxes, and the trunk he'd expanded let them all fit easily enough. He had to climb inside to organize things, but… a tiny wizard in a box, who didn't like that? Karina mentioned it, but with that wicked grin she used when she plotted some kind of sexual misadventure for him.
He pointed at her. Rudely.
“Don't. Whatever you're thinking, no.”
“No promises. The girls on the ship are getting restless.” She kept working and looking at him with a grin when she thought he couldn't see. He could feel it though.
Fiaria talked with Mutta as they worked, commenting on everything in that way only mothers and people that didn't know you understood them could. So, Tor reflected, honestly, but without a lot of tact? That sounded about right.
“So the pretty one with long hair is my uncle? Good thing you told me, I don't see the family resemblance at all. He does look a bit like mother, that lovely pale look, and their hair is the same. If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have made an offer for him. You need a husband to care for you too dear, you work too hard. The big one isn't bad either, either of them, though Gray seems to be trying for the one with no hair. What kind of price do you think we'd have to offer for the copper haired one?” With a head nod she indicated Rolph.
Mutta lifted a box and then stopped to pull a splinter after handing it off to Tor.
“Honestly? Well, if he wasn't already spoken for, I think I could pass myself off as being royalty from here, even though we don't have that. Close enough really, our ranks are about the same, actually I'm probably equal to the girl there by their system of thinking. Second in line. They wouldn't require anything of us then, but I'd have to move there. He's to run the whole land one day. Not for a time though, the rulers of Noram tend to step down when the heir reaches forty or so, as a tradition, and he's only eighteen, I think.”
The mother clicked, a unique thing that had taken Mutta half a day to teach him to do properly, It required causing suction at the back of the mouth and then freeing the tongue from the roof. In this case it basically meant something was funny, like a chuckle, Tor thought. That had been a little hard for him to pick up, since there was no direct analog in Noram.
“Crazy! I suppose we should make an offer then, if the large boy isn't married yet. They'll need someone sensible like you to help him if that's all they have to lead them. A man… hard to understand these tall people.”
“Mother! He's spoken for already. I don't know, but that may be unbreakable there… not like here where anyone could come in with a better offer up to the day of signing.” She didn't seem put off by the idea, she just didn't know what the rules were.
Tor kept a smile off his face and answered in Afrak, the language a lot easier now that he'd heard others speaking it so often. It felt like he should have known it all along almost, which just pointed out how stupid he was, taking that long to learn it.
“Well, It's not impossible, so an offer might be a good plan. After all, if you point out that Mutta is that high ranking here, which I don't think anyone knew before, it will improve the deal, and you're certainly pretty enough. His current betrothed is already married, but to a man that doesn't exist. Technically Alphonse and Ursala can't be married until that man dies, which should be any time now honestly. If you act fast though there’s a time w
indow for you, a few months. If you're serious, write up a letter and I'll take it to his mother.” Tor held up his hand.
“And yes, the part about her being married to an imaginary man is real. There was a problem and they needed a fictional marriage to fix it. It's no longer a problem though, so I wouldn't wait too long.” That had been Ursala's pregnancy, but she'd lost the child due to poison.
Austran poison.
They chattered back and forth excitedly for a bit, the tone alternately playful and serious. Well. It wasn't just idle chatter then? Good enough. He loved Ursala, but Mutta was family. If he could help her out he had to.
It was a rule.
It meant having to find a husband for the Countess too, probably, but that should be doable. She was wonderful after all. Maybe his younger brother Todd? He was only a year younger than Tor was, so seventeen now, if he hadn't found a girl for himself, that would work. He was good looking and pretty bright even. True, the boy was more interested in baking than most of the others, so he might actually want to skip the whole “being royal” thing, but who was to say he couldn't' do both? He'd have to send a letter to his mom and ask her what that situation was then. Blinking Tor realized the Todd was even a Countier, so well within the three social steps that royals required for their marriages.
When they left from the ship, Mutta sat in the comfortable blue cushioned seat behind Tor making eyes at Rolph so obviously that the Prince finally asked what it was about. He smiled when he asked and his tone was polite, playful, as if he half expected a joke, but he was curious, that much was clear. Tor shrugged and Mutta smiled up at the giant red haired Prince, his color having finally returned to normal.
She didn't say anything though, looking down instead, so Tor did.
“It turns out that Ambassador Mutta is roughly a Princess here, about the same as Karina is. Possibly a little more than that. Her mom is basically the heir, the structure is different, but that's about the size of things. So she and her mother are planning to send a go between. Me actually, to plead for your hand. It's a good match and I think she's serious. She's already agreed to move there full time and everything. Worth entertaining the offer, I'd say. You already know each other even, and you have to admit, her exotic looks alone would make it an intriguing idea. Plus she's really smart and already has training in leadership too.” If a foreign kind that would take some rounding out. In Noram she'd have to learn to accept that men were equals, which might be hard for her, but if anyone from Afrak could do it, Tor would place his gold on her.
One of the great things about Rolph, Tor thought, was how open and kind he really was. He reached out and took her hand gently and smiled.
“Please do! The offer is kind and welcome. I'll speak to my mother for it, if you want?”
They chatted about agreements and plans for the rest of the trip and if the Prince wasn't enthused by the idea Tor couldn't tell at all. Being daring he reached out and felt the attraction blossoming between them. It was incredible to sense like that, a warm feeling that made him like both of them better too. He broke off before he started making them both feel that way about him by accident. That would be awkward all around.
Very awkward.
The trip took ten hours, Wensa and her crew moving to the first installation route without pausing, setting the whole thing up before the original site was reached at all. Tor and a few others would have to start digging the return river as fast as possible and probably end up doing it in the dark. It was stupidly dangerous, but they needed water.
The second he landed Tor jumped out and grabbed the box in the back with the earth moving equipment. The small stones with their leather thongs attached to the back of either hand he hit the flight control sigil and started digging. The right hand had to point out where the earth was and start the stream, the left pointed up slightly and out, making a huge dust cloud. It was the only way he could fly and not crash while making the earth moving equipment work too. The river of dirt flying through the air was impressive, but Tor kept feeling like he was about to die. The whole thing was just so unstable doing it this way.
It hit him that the flying carriages could be used for it with some modification, so the operator wouldn't have to fly themselves at the same time, but that would have to come the next day, the river was flowing towards them already, he knew, Wensa had waved to him in signal as she and her group had flown past, about half a mile away on his right. It was a constant balancing act and the amount of dust made it hard to see the ground at times, but this first line only had to go to an existing river half way to the coast that should carry the flow well enough. It was summer here, Mutta had said, so the water flow was lower than normal. That meant there shouldn't be any severe flooding. Tor hoped so anyway.
The work was fast, messy, and accompanied the whole time by a terrifying sound of thunder that made Tor want to wet himself at first, and feel like he couldn't control the forces involved at all. It was like fear itself lived in the deep, loud rumble. He got used to it though. Most things in life were like that, weren't they? Do it long enough and you started to think of something as normal.
Hours later he found himself flying back in the dark, not knowing if he could find the camp at all. Being a flat sandy desert for the most part, a fine dust rather than real sand, the few lights put out guided him in perfectly, and he descended so slowly that he barely tapped the hard ground under his feet when he landed. Being focused really helped. So did the fact that he knew for certain there were no trees to crash into and, while it would be embarrassing, if he landed on one of the Not-houses that had been set up, it wouldn't hurt anything either. Other than his pride.
Tor was glad he'd managed to find a flat piece of earth though.
The water got there half an hour later and everyone rushed to hook up the water pumps on the little houses to the stream that was equal in flow to the secret river that ran to the military bases north of the Capital. Tor was supposed to get word from the King on that as soon as he heard a report that it existed. Either that had been forgotten or the whole kingdom needed to freak out, that river was huge and nearly twice the flow of the King's river. Someone had to have noticed it and reported by now, didn't they? The flight training school would be getting almost all their water from it for goodness sakes. They'd be flying over it daily too.
Maybe they just didn't know it was supposed to be reported officially?
All the houses had been set up, but no one had bothered to save a spot for Tor. At least no one ran out to wave him in. He could have walked into any of them and demanded a place, of course, he literally owned them all, but it didn't matter. Tor just found a spot and dug through the faintly clicking amulets on his neck, the noise of stone and in a few cases metal clanking together as he found and untangled the right one.
An emergency house.
The idea was simple enough, it was basically a tent, meant for situations like this, or even ones where you had to hide. His flight from Ward with everyone in tow had spurred the idea in him. It was about ten feet across and hid itself by blending with the surrounding environment, pretending to be a small hill. In this case one made of dirt. That was the real point. You didn't have to build the disguise yourself, so that if you were tired, working in the dark, or just not artistic, you could still vanish into it almost seamlessly. There was a bed inside and a dry toilet, as well as a little shower that could be hooked up to water, letting a holding tank fill and then the water line would shut off to hide itself, only turning back on to keep the tank filled. It was basic, black and brown inside, the ceiling glowing softly so he could see everything. Once the water was hooked up he showered and headed to bed. Then at a single touch to a sigil on the wall, things went dark.
The light increased when daylight hit, signaling it was time for all good little bakers to be up for the day. No cooking today, of course, but he wanted to try reconfiguring the carriages and see if that would work out at all. No one else was up, so he made a flat platform, small, j
ust big enough for one giant to stand on, inside a strong cage that came to his shoulders. It had to be that high for the larger people, though he could use it by putting his hands through the bars if it came to that. Almost directly underneath the cage, a little to the front for visibility was the drivers station. He made it bright pink so that it would be easy to see in the air. Good enough. Now he just had to get someone to try it. His vote this time was Trice, who was a better magic carriage driver than he was, along with one of the guys slated to do the excavation work anyway. Looking around he saw a sleepy looking Trice walk out of a stone house with several contented looking men following her.
Really, it didn't take a genius to figure out what had been going on in there. Well, at least those guys wouldn't be all sexually frustrated the whole time. Seeing him she ran over and gave him a hug.
“Tor! You made it back. We were all a bit worried about you. What's the plan?”
Food first, then try the new idea he had, he shared with her, accepting a kiss on the lips hoping she'd brushed her teeth at least after doing whatever she had with all those guys. It wasn't a disease problem, sexual diseases hadn't survived the great change, which was probably due to genetic changes made to the people that survived back then, maybe on purpose. That much he'd gotten from Mutta when she was talking about medical matters. That there used to be diseases for sex was interesting. No, it was just that he didn't want to taste five other guys on her breath this early in the day. Or ever.
Yeah, he was a prude. He knew it, still…
The taste was of cinnamon. His own toothpaste was the same still, though when it was gone he was switching back to the normal anise flavor.
His own body started to respond, so Tor let go of her and winked. They didn't have time for that now and she was probably tired of it anyway for the time being. Instead they went to the food area where a box of fat and nut bars had been opened. A pack of crackers in waxed paper sitting on the top left hand side. People took them but ate slowly as if it was a chore, after the first bite he could see why. The flavor was bland, but not bad, just a slight nut flavor with a very light hint of berry and shreds of chewy meat, all coated in fat. Yum. They were dried, the nuts, meat and berries, so the flavors didn't carry well in the mouth. The texture was waxy, and probably had to be, to not melt in the heat, and sickening after the first few bites. One the good side, he decided, a few bites would really do the trick for a while and they could carry them along, eating when they got hungry.
