Ancient Kings (The Young Ancients)

by P. S. Power

  Tor nearly said no, but surprisingly, everyone else started nodding then and Green, for some reason, acted like he was relieved.

  "That would be most welcome Alice. I should have thought about that before. Tiera is very like you in many ways. How you used to be. If anyone can reach her it will be you. Thank you." He looked at Tor, his face bland then, expecting a fight.

  Like he had anything better to offer? His plan had been to send her into danger to try and buy her life from treason charges. Having Orange do it might not make things better that way, but the rest of them seemed to think it was more important, over all. When he mentioned that Brown shook his head.

  "No. She isn't in actual danger from your King. I've met Richard on many occasions and if anything I'd have to say he's one of the more level headed and calm leaders I've ever met. We'll send Burks in to explain things to him and the man will understand. He probably would if you or I did it as well. He won't throw away a potential resource like your sister just because she's had some hard knocks lately. Not if my take on this is correct. What do you think Green?"

  The man looked at the others and nodded, his face still fairly well set.

  "I agree. I'll go and do that in the morning. Alice, thank you. Well, we should be about our tasks then, if no one has more to add?"

  They didn't seem to, which meant, finally, Tor was going to be able to get back home. He had Ali with him and the others. Dan, Alice and Four. Along with Olivia, who'd been standing outside for nearly forty minutes, not certain where she was supposed to go.

  "Back to school with us, though next time, if I were you, I'd make an arrangement with Gerent. He has enough beds for a guest or two." Tor didn't really mean it in any particular way, just that his new brother had the space, which Tor did as well, but Ali smiled dreamily and patted the other girls arm gently.

  "He does seem very kind, doesn't he? Short, but that's kind of intriguing, isn't it? I'm not allowed to sleep with him myself, since he's a family member, but you can." They were flying, with Dan Green at the controls, and Blue Four in the front passengers seat. His Uncle had flown a Fast Carriage before it turned out, and was far better rested than he was. A better driver too, Tor thought. He didn't even notice the take off, it was so smooth.

  Olivia sat next to his Aunt Orange, who, surprisingly enough, seemed to be a Gerent supporter as well. It was heartening to see really.

  "I have to agree there. The new family member is definitely someone worth watching. Did you see the way he helped change the topic earlier? It was brilliant. Good timing too, since my thought was to start pummeling Denno. He should have warned his people not to bring that up, especially after what happened over it in Vagus." She sounded almost angry about it, but Ali shook her head and smiled, looking at him in the dim interior of the vessel with slightly shining eyes.

  "No, that would be wrong. It isn't a big deal anyway. No one there cared about it at all. Except Torrance. It's cute that it worries you dear, but there's no shame in it. There wouldn't be even if you'd really had to do those things to get Denno free from his captors. No one in the world will think less of you over it." She cuddled into his right arm, hers already wrapped around it.

  "Still, Gerent realized that it made me uncomfortable and sacrificed his own dignity to protect me. That says something about him, doesn't it?" Again, he was just making small talk, but Dan, sitting in the driver's seat, called back, clearly working an agenda.

  "He's single you know, Olivia. He has very good prospects too. A girl could do worse."

  There was a bit of a laugh then, but it wasn't mean sounding. The fairly pretty girl ducked her head a bit.

  "Alright... you can stop fixing me up now. He didn't say so much as two words to me all night, so I think I might be being put off. Really, I'm almost certain the Ducharina Morgan put him up to even that. They seem close though, don't they?"

  They really did. Close enough that Tor felt a slight, very unworthy, line of jealously move through his soul. There was no reason for those two not to enjoy each other, or even to be in love. Yes, things hadn't worked out perfectly for himself and Trice, but that might end up just being a good thing, right? After all, if she was his daughter or first cousin or the equivalent , what would he have done if they were already married? It would be bad enough if Ali turned out to be, but neither of them could have children and, while she was brilliant in her own way, the truth was that he was only just coming to really love his wife. If the situation changed on them now, it would be easier to deal with.

  If that had happened with Trice things would have been a lot messier, emotionally speaking.

  Tor kept all of that to himself and rode the rest of the way back in silence, since it wasn't a long trip, over all. Dan let them all out at Ali's house and offered to take Olivia back to her boarding room, so she wouldn't have to walk in the dark. It was probably safe enough, but the thought was a kind one. The rest of them went inside, and Blue Four suggested he go to bed immediately.

  "You require rest, I understand. We'll begin to ready the materials you need while you do so, and set them up. What location would you want them in?" She watched him without expression, which was very much like her and the rest of the regular Blues. She was nice enough though, for all that. She clearly didn't intend harm at any point, she was just a bit flat seeming.

  "Probably in here. We can reconfigure the room for it. Just leave me someplace to sit."

  Then, before he could say more, Ali pulled him up the stairs to their room, seeming a little too happy about it for his current mood. At first he thought she was going to insist on having sex, which he was kind of required to perform, if that was the case, even if they did end up being related. On the good side that wasn't going to happen, he didn't think. She'd been right on that score. They looked too different, and there was no way anyone would have known to set that up. It was all about his own fear, which he decided not to give in to.

  The real problem then was that he fell asleep on her the instant his head touched the pillow of that magnificent bed they shared. It had nice smooth satin bedding and formed to him perfectly. He knew that the material was actually like shining gold, but he couldn't tell in the near dark of the room. He did get a rather cute girl to sleep next to at least, or so he thought.

  When the morning light woke him, shining through the window to the east, she was gone. He didn't go looking for her at first, taking time to shower and brush his teeth instead, since there were guests around. After about half an hour he was ready to face the world, dressed in his plain black uniform of office. It was a bit military looking, but fit his mood. The next bit of work was kind of important.

  When he went down the stairs his front room was gone. Or rather there was still space there, but it was filled with small canvas wrapped blocks that he could only assume were the tiles he needed to work with. Ali was carrying three of them in as he got down the stairs. The room was filled in the center with tall stacks of the things.

  "There you are! We were going to let you sleep until you didn't need to anymore. You should eat first. Sherri is running the kitchen for us, should I put an order in?" Alyssa waited for him to answer, as Blue Four took the three blocks from her and began to carefully line them up with the others, making a tight rectangle.

  "That sounds wonderful, if it isn't a bother? I can just have some cheese or a crust of bread." That seemed fair enough to him, since Sherri was his wife's school roommate, not his personal servant. Ali seemed amused by that suggestion though and ran off to set it all up.

  The Blue pointed at the tan wrapped bundles, each making something about the size of a paving stone, if about four times as thick.

  "Each package contains one thousand of the small tiles. We have forty seven left to bring in. At the current speed we will have that completed in ten minutes. Is that sufficient? We can push that to a faster rate, at need."

  "No, that's great. I probably won't be ready until a bit after that." It would depend on what Sherri thought hi
s meal should be, of course.

  That turned out to be elaborate enough that it took nearly an hour to make and eat, with Four watching him closely the whole time. It wasn't that she seemed hurried, but rather that he wasn't meeting the time schedule that she'd internally projected. At least that was what he was going with. She also might have wanted something from him, or just felt safest looking at him, rather than the others. Orange ate with him, though Dan decided that sleeping was in order, if he didn't have to be around to help with anything for a bit.

  That meant that Tor started before nine in the morning, sinking so deeply into his working trance that the world vanished. It took seven and a half days for all the fields to set correctly and wasn't really hard at all. It was time consuming, but once you had the trick of it down, it was simple enough. He mainly didn't realize what was happening. Tor knew that at least once or twice he was led away to the restroom, and several times he was fed and, obviously, given water. He had to rouse a good bit in order to do those things, so it was notable to him. That part was actually hard to comprehend really, since it seemed like he was being fed or relieving himself almost constantly, and at the end of that, he was finished. It seemed to be about an hour all told, but that wasn't the case. It had been about the week he'd thought it would take.

  The first thing Tor did was the same one he almost always did as soon as he came to, sitting in the front room of Ali's place, with the same cube of stacked canvas wrapped bricks tied like paper packages sitting front of him. The chair he was in was different, softer and larger, even though he was sitting in much the same position, with his legs crossed tailor fashion. There was a pitcher of water next to him, and a poison detector, which he used, then drank the whole thing from the glass provided. It was real, being made of focus stone in a nice milky brown color that reminded him of the hot chocolate he'd had in the past. The second thing he did was a bit out of the ordinary, since it involved trying to find someone.

  Tor stumbled a little but used his own legs instead of floating around, needing to get himself used to moving again as soon as possible. Doing anything else was foolish. It had taken time to get used to the idea, but it was really just common sense. If you want to keep your body sharp, you needed to use it and the fact was, doing copy work like he'd just done was horrible for staying in any kind of shape. Even baking was better, since it let you move around a lot more.

  "Hello? Is anyone here? Hello..." He felt strange and awkward, but his voice worked, which was different than most times after a long work session like what he'd just done. Tor was nearly positive that he could hear someone in the back of the place, but there was no answer to his call. Trying again he walked toward the sound of cooking going on. The familiar rattling of pans, and, he was almost certain, the scent of baking. Bread and cinnamon rolls. It reminded him how hungry he was.

  When he got to the kitchen he found three girls working away. They weren't old, and had on student brown, so they probably also weren't the new servants or anything like that. Or if they were, they would be working part time. It wasn't a horrible idea really. Some of the kids in the homemaking section would need to make some extra coin, just like anyone else and Ali lived at school most of the time, not in the house. He was staying there, but didn't need a lot and would be traveling around from time to time, so it wouldn't be hard for the kids to do. Plus it would be practice for them, if anyone wanted the job.

  One of the girls was Sherri, so Tor decided that she was probably in charge. That was based on the fact that he knew her, not anything else, since they weren't talking much at all as he walked in.

  "Hey." He knew he'd sound a bit abstract, almost drugged or slightly drunk, but that was just from working like he had been. It was hard to come all the way out of a trance after too long in one.

  "Tor!" Sherri didn't run over to hug him or anything, but she seemed pretty pleased to see him. The other girls looked a bit worried though, like they weren't supposed to be there or something. "We're just borrowing the kitchen. It's nicer than the one the school lets us use and Ali said it would be alright. I hope you don't mind?"

  It took him a few seconds to catch up mentally, but finally he shook his head, trying to clear it and smiled, rubbing at his furry face. He hadn't been shaving after all.

  "Of course not. Feel free to use it any time. Unless Ali says differently of course, this is her house. I'll get you one so that you can set up a practice kitchen in that case. I think there might be one left at least. You can set that up, right? I'm planning to be lazy for a bit. Say... Do you know anyone that would want a part time job here? Light cleaning, cooking sometimes... I don't know what else. We don't need real servants here, but maybe someone would like to earn some extra silvers for their off days or whatever?" The second the words were out he realized that he probably sounded far too presumptive and like he was full of himself, assuming that the rich kids that went to the school would need coins from him. Before he could stammer or take it back, Sherri looked at the others.

  "I can see to that. Do I get paid too? I shouldn't ask, since we're so close, but I can use some of the coin for land rent, to set that new kitchen facility up." She wasn't very old and they weren't, as far as Tor knew, all that friendly. He liked her well enough, and she was even cute, in a tall, slightly too thin way. Her personality was pleasant though, and after a second he realized what she was doing.

  Trying to impress the other girls, by claiming a closer relationship to him than really existed. It seemed a strange thing to be proud of, but politeness said that if a woman made a claim like that, you backed it up, no matter who she was. Sherri was his wife's school roommate too, so that almost made it real, after a fashion, didn't it?

  "Well, you know, you can just get whatever you need, by way of golds, like always. The answer is yes though, I'll free up some coin for you. You'll arrange the hiring then? More to the point, do you know who's in charge of picking up the finished healing amulets? They need to be checked, but I don't want to wait too long. Also, can I have a roll? I'm starving." They smelled pretty good and had a slightly uneven appearance, like an amateur had made them, but the icing on the top looked about right. They didn't seem to be half dough in the middle.

  One of the girls got him a plate and a large bit of product, which was a little bit too overdone. He ate it, since he was starving, but she was looking at him eagerly, as if she wanted praise after the first bite.

  Instead he looked at Sherri who shook her head, probably about his question to her about the amulets.

  "Not really. Those relatives of yours have been in and out of here all week. They're not demanding or anything, but only the man, Dan, bothered to stop and chat. He's very nice. Do you know if he's married?" That got the others to giggle, since they were young women and that was a job requirement it seemed.

  "Not a clue. I'll ask and recommend you to him if he isn't? You do know that he's hundreds of years old, right? Not that it should stop you, since who else is he going to date? Just so you know ahead of time."

  Tor walked out of the room then carrying the food, munching at it absently. The product would have to be redone if it was for a grade. He didn't want to tell the girl that overly, but it was a little off. It hadn't been allowed to proof enough and was a bit too solid. It had dried, being over baked at a low temperature by about fifteen minutes and the caramelization on the outside was just shy of being burnt. If he were running the class she'd have to do it again, wouldn't she? He didn't know how to tell her all that though. She'd seemed so eager to please.

  It took a bit for him to get to his room upstairs and find where all his amulets had gone. He had a shield on, around his neck, and a clothing amulet, but there was no need for the rest, like the slightly bulky communications device, so it had been put on the table that was set up to the left of his bed. There were a half dozen different amulets there that had multiple fields on them. They were all similar, being rectangles, with different glowing bits on them. Sigils that said what they were. To
him at least. His own code, after a fashion, made up of random shapes.

  Not waiting to put them on, he hit the one for the Capital on his communications device and stood to wait, knowing that he'd need a shower or bath soon. Sitting in your own stink for a week always tended to make a body feel itchy. Eating the dry and not overly well done thing in his hand was something to do, and was finished before anyone got on the line for him. It could take a while to get anyone at the Palace to pick up.

  "This is the Palace, how may I aid you?" The voice was firm and a bit sharper than it had reason to be with him, he thought. Almost prim, which wasn't what he'd expect from the Queen on any given day. He hadn't been rude to her after all. Unless he had been and was just too stupid to realize it? Some social rule he didn't know, like once you accidentally screwed a relative you had to beg and grovel on the floor for a certain amount of time to undo it? That seemed about right to him, but how did they know which one was supposed to do the asking for forgiveness? She'd certainly done more than her share of pursuing him after all. Then, he wasn't the Queen, so maybe that decided it?

  "Hi Connie. I have those healing devices. Do you know what we're supposed to do with them next? I mean, get them to the public, but who's in charge of that? If it's me I'm going to..." He sighed and let himself smile, even if it wasn't going to be seen. The sound of it could be heard in his voice. "If that's the case, then I'll do it of course, but I'll sulk and feel put upon after it's done. Just to keep you forewarned."

  "Tor! So good to hear from you. We've been worried, the situation is much worse than Denno's doctors thought it would be. Your brother is slated to take our amulets to your family for distribution. I'll get with him as soon as the line is clear. The rest, the things going to other lands, are mainly being handled by our friends at the school there, since you were kind enough to give them all those Fast Craft already. Not too many have those, so we had to beg their aid. Sir Kolbrin and his instructors?" She said it as if Tor didn't get that the Secret Army was in on this. Who else would it be?