by P. S. Power
They didn't watch them leave, but Ali didn't head for their Capital house, going due north instead. That could mean the school, but also lots of other places too. Regardless it was going to be safer for them, he thought.
They ran to the front door. Or rather the other three ran, at about forty miles an hour and Tor lifted into the air and floated along with them. They were all so fast. Out of breath too, so when they got to the front he went in first, his Multi-weapon out. The place was silent but there were guards and servants all over the place, unconscious he hoped, rather than dead. They couldn't check them all and it wouldn't help if they did. Or at least it wouldn't have, if he hadn't thought to try a healing amulet. Feeling like a moron he got his out and revived a woman they found in the hallway. A Royal Guard, which meant she came up swinging and tried to promptly kill them all as she roused. She did a very skillful job of it too really, even if it didn't work. Denno stood back as the blows all stopped against Tor's shield.
"Shhhh. Be silent!" Tor wanted to calm her down, but didn't think he could explain in time really. "We're under attack, and need you to revive everyone while we find out where the Royal Family is. Where are the Charges?" That was Royal Guard code for whoever they were protecting, wasn't it? He hoped that she'd respond to that and forget that he wasn't a guard at all.
The woman stopped and stared at him, then the others, hunched down in the hallway.
"Lord Baker?" She sounded hesitant, but Tor nodded. The title was a bit dated now, but only by a day. Given everything he thought he could let her slide on that one this once.
"Call me Tor. We don't know who's here, but it seems like all the guards are down. Staff too. Take this and heal them, then arm yourselves and ready an assault, this could be anything. Get the staff to safety too." He nearly cringed at the fact that it was an afterthought to protect the servants.
The woman took it and whispered back, her lips nearly on his cheek.
"Throne room. That where they'll go, the Charges. It's the emergency fallback position."
"We have that then."
He started to jog along, going first, and waved to his sister, who actually took the lead. He really wanted her extra shield amulet, which was handed to him with a baffled look, until he gave it to Denno, who put it on, but clearly didn't realize what it was. He didn't believe in magic, not even when he saw it. It worked for him though, so that was fine. Tor activated it for him with a single thought.
His sister led the way a lot better than he would have and they didn't see anyone at all, until they got into the throne room itself. They were all there, the whole Royal family. Most of them just stood in place, looking very tense, which made perfect sense. After all Karina was in the middle of the room trading unarmed blows with a boy that looked about fourteen. He wasn't a giant at all, and once Tor got a clear look at his face, he was clearly Denno.
Tor looked at the spectacle as the boy battered Karina horribly. The Princess was a good fighter and did everything right, but the person hurting her was better by a factor that he couldn't do the figuring on. Probably five or six. Tor wasn't great at math. Alphonse was though, and the fear in his eyes was deep and pure. Next to him Trice gasped at a particularly brutal blow that had to have knocked the Princess out, teeth flying. He started to move, but the King shook his head.
"No... It's a duel. We can't intercede." There were tears in his voice, which made sense, because his daughter was clearly about to die, and by the noble rules there wasn't anything they could really do about it.
How it had gotten set up he didn't know, but he could tell that the person on the floor wasn't Denno at all, but Lara Gray. It was a clever and complete disguise and, Tor realized, one that she probably had a pattern for just sitting around in Afrak. Inside she still felt the same though, which he picked up easily.
"So much for her being in Tellerand. I guess it makes sense to copy you though. that way she could keep all her physical abilities. Anyway, Trice, be a dear and let me borrow your dragon please?" Tor had made it for her after all, it made sense for him to check his work, didn't it? She looked down and gasped when she got the idea, throwing it to him as hard as she could, which meant it hit his shield, right over his face. Then Patricia Morgan slapped at her chest, to turn off her shield and stared with intent at her bleeding and largely broken cousin. Fear poured off of her. It was nearly terror really. The feeling that her cousin was going to die horribly. Tor did the same then, taking down his own shield with a thought, to monitor what was happening as closely as possible. He could read people through it, but it got in the way a bit.
The change in the fight started slowly, with a few sparks and Karina getting a single broken arm up to catch a blow. It was twisted with a crack, but the other came up, and slowly one after the other, punches came. They had no power at first, and the girl was pummeled the whole time with thunderous blows to her neck and face, but as the sparks grew in the air they got stronger. It seemed to take forever and Lara was still the superior fighter by a huge margin. She was doing damage too, since Karina didn't have a natural shield when she went into a rage. The girl got strong though, and could keep it up. He'd seen her do it for nearly an hour once.
The idea that he couldn't act to protect her ached in his very bones, like it must have for everyone else there. The fight went on, the Princess being battered into an unrecognizable state. She kept going though, and finally nearly fifteen minutes later, a single blow changed the tide. He wanted to tell her to press her advantage, since any chance to recover would be too much to give someone with thousands of years of practice, but in her state the girl couldn't do that at all anyway, plus it was against the rules. All they could do was stand and watch.
Well, they could gasp and moan a bit too, but that never helped. Tor re-shielded and got his Multi-weapon ready, because Lara Gray wasn't leaving the room as anything but dead or a prisoner. On the good side Timon and Tiera both followed his lead, waiting for Karina to win or lose, but not getting in her way. It was the tradition, so they had to follow it.
With a sudden crunching sound, that Tor was nearly certain came from the very bloody Princess's hand, Lara suddenly went still, a limp mass on the floor, and Karina stood up, blinking a bit.
"Gah." She spoke like a person that had been beaten pretty badly, but Trice was next to her after a few seconds, holding a healing amulet to her arm. It took a while for her to heal up, but she moved out of the combat rage almost instantly. About the time that she was able to see out of both eyes, which were still blue meaning they hadn't been destroyed or anything, Gray stood up.
"You lost." The King spoke calmly, but rage filled his body posture. "The terms were that you'd heal our people if Karina could best you in fair combat. I believe she did?"
Gray laughed, her face looking so much like a beaten Denno that Tor actually felt bad for her. Of course the other alternative was her looking like his own mother in the same shape, so it was just something for him to live with. There was silence in the room then.
"I lied, there is no cure for this disease. They'll all die anyway. You'll all die."
Tor snorted.
"Seriously grandmother? Everyone is already being healed as we speak. Oh... here Trice." He got a hand back by passing the dragon pendant back to its owner. The tiny form that looked to be red and blue now, waved at him, then blew a tiny flame. It was only a seeming, made all of magic, but without anything to be attached too physically. It was kind of good work, if he did say so himself. It's job was to prevent Trice from accidentally setting off combat rage in other people. In a way that was her own rage power. On the good side it had finally been useful. That had to be a banner day for her, or it would be later, when she recovered from the shock of it all.
"Boy?" The word got the Royal family to stare a bit. That or the guards running into the space as Karina finished healing. "You don't know what she did. How she did it. She killed my daughter, and she has to die!" The voice didn't sound sane, but no one sounded great after
being knocked out in a fight that they'd started, did they?
"I do know. After Daria murdered her friend Yardley, in hot blood, but still unneeded, Karina had her given a fair trial, or would have, except that Daria Serge escaped justice, due to threats made by her father. So she saw to it that the monster didn't go free. That's all. She was sentenced to death, and that was carried out. We don't allow certain things here, grandmother." There was no anger in his words, just the calm tone of something being explained to a madwoman. She wasn't really though, he could tell that for certain.
"She killed my baby!"
"No, I killed your baby. It was my plan, my forces that went in and did the actual deed, paid for with my coin. If you seek vengeance for this, you should look to me as your target."
That got a weak step to be taken toward him and the woman who looked like a rather attractive young man at the moment, her disguise so perfect it was real, reached out for him.
"No, no... Boy... Tor... You and Green, and you Brown... You can't be held responsible for what you do. The slaves actions are owned by the master. She ordered you to help her, either directly or through her need. This girl is the monster and I'll have my revenge. You might hold me for a day. Or a week, but I'll be back. I made a mistake here, playing with her to make her suffer, rather than ending it in an instant. I won't make that error again." She didn't take another step toward Karina though.
Prince Alphonse did toward her though.
"I'm a bit confused, are you Lara Gray then? You look slightly different, but you clearly aren't Denno Brown. We could all tell that the whole time, since he isn't prone to violence."
Gray didn't answer him at all, just looking at Karina.
"You will die. By my hand. I promise you that."
Tor tilted his head, the old habit a hard thing to break. They were just habits now though, and he was his own master, he was nearly certain of it.
"Lara, grandmother, I have a few questions. First, why did you release a plague to kill most of the world's people?" It seemed a reasonable thing to ask, but he expected no answer. Why should she bother? She didn't even know him really.
"In order to clean it. If we get rid of these bits of genetic trash, then the pure and perfect can have a real society again. We can live how we will, and regain what we once had. This sad and sorry thing we have now is no more than a place for humanity to die. A stagnation. We must remove the cancer, so the whole can live and prosper. Surely you can see that?"
It was a bit much for her to assume, his ability to see her personal insanity, but Tor asked his next question anyway, since she admitted to that one nicely enough. There were others involved he thought, but most of those were in Afrak and only one was an Ancient. He couldn't tell which one, but it was clear that the thing with the Clones had been being worked on and set up. The difficulty there was that it would take a real emergency to activate the automated systems. Not just a few Ancients getting their dreams in a twist.
"The attack here? Did you set that up with Count Morris?"
"Certainly, the fool practically begged for my help. I got him in touch with the remaining Larval. Unfortunately they died of the virus I had them spreading. Willingly, I might add, in hopes of removing you. Fools. They weren't thinking clearly by then however."
He did end up having one more query, once he thought about it. It couldn't hurt to ask, since she was in a talkative mood already. In a way this was the best conversation he'd ever had with her even.
"Alright, why didn't you seal the passage you used to escape from the cells out back? Anyone else would have."
The answer to that surprised him. More so because she really seemed to mean it.
"And have that nice Little Person that was running it punished for letting me go? It seemed unneeded and cruel."
"Ah, I'll be certain to let him know you said that. It seems a bit strange after you set a death plague on him, but it will comfort him to know he was personally thought of. Do you have any last words?"
"What?" She seemed amused, even given the dire situation, it felt real and almost comfortable for her. "You can't kill me. Even without Rhetistics, even with the copy of Cordes I placed in you at birth, you're still a slave, and myself and the others, are the Kings of this world. The Ancient Kings that will rule you forever, as we always have. Put your weapon down now, boy, and kneel to me." She said it softly, with no sense of harshness about her at all.
"Perhaps." Tor took a deep breath and let his right thumb find the fifth sigil on the weapon. It was an imploding weapon, so would be safer for the rest of them. "But a good King or Queen knows not to betray the trust of their people by killing them all."
Then in an instant, with a single sound much like a wet clap, the Ancient of Afrak folded in on herself, dying without even a scream. The mess wasn't even that bad, half of her body a tight knot around a small point in the middle. There wasn't much blood at all, which was good, he thought.
It was hard seeing Denno's misshapen face staring at him in shock, but again, it made it easier in a way than her actual appearance would have.
For some reason no one spoke. Death, any death, was a dark business, but this one had to be done.
"She was dead the moment she admitted to setting the plague on us. It was the judgment of all her peers. I stand by the act." He sounded strange, but it was him, not Cordes speaking. Trice walked over to him and hugged him for a long time, but didn't speak. Then Karina did, getting her blood on him, since it hadn't all dried yet. Then, for some reason she hugged Timon too. She stayed there, her hand in his. It was a strange place to seek comfort, but the boy didn't turn her away or act offended.
Tiera moved toward the form of the dead woman that looked like a boy, and then turned to the King.
"We should hide the body. Don't let anyone know about this. Afrak is a whole land, and someone might take offense at us killing their ruler here. We should sneak in and bury her there."
They discussed plans then, but Tor moved toward the door. He didn't feel much at all. A little remorse, since that happened when you killed, and a sadness that there wasn't another way, but it wasn't even as hard as killing the Larval had been in battle. Maybe because, ultimately, Lara Gray deserved it more? The Larval had been her tool all along, as had Brown, even though he hadn't known it. Green too most likely, but it was done now. He was done.
All that was left was the funeral and getting on with his life, which, for the first time, he thought might actually be his.
Yes, there might be a plot left to uncover, but he didn't think it would amount to much without Lara. It took a special kind of crazy to try and kill a whole world just to replace everyone with copies later. And sure, he had some work to do, building space worthy craft. That was just a thing though, another task for another day. One that might not even be needed now. Then he'd start making those changes to himself and his family. If they wanted.
After all, he couldn't change the whole world, or even all the nobles of Noram, but if he changed himself enough, and the others, maybe together they could eventually help the nobles too? If nothing else it would be easier to protect the commoners that way.
It was a good enough place to start from, Tor thought.
Then he went outside, tried to set up his Fast Carriage and realized that Ali had it.
Laughing he got to his communications device and got in touch with her. She seemed scared still, but he wasn't, so he explained it all, even as Kevin and his lady friend the Royal Guard yelled at him for a situation report.
"I can see you've been healed. Everything here is... fine. We won. It's over. It's all finally over."
Then he had to fly home, since everyone else was busy and that was where his life was now.
It was insane, no doubt, but Tor could just leave the rest of this to others, unless they really needed him. Tim was strong enough all on his own, and the rest of his family would get along. His mother worried him a bit, but if Lara hadn't done the work herself, giving him the Cordes Rh
etistics, then even her thoughts had been a lot more controlled than he thought even an Ancient could manage after a fight like that.
Chuckling as he flew, feeling happy, even after killing someone, Torrance Baker headed off into the night.
Chapter twenty-two
Tor stood behind the counter of the little bake shop, wearing a white apron that looked clean and tidy, with a nice, but understated, set of clothing underneath. Nobles didn't make your pies, and real people wouldn't trust them if it happened. The place had good light, and smelled of yeast and spices, as well as warm fruit. It was a festival day, of a sort, school was out and most of the kids had gone home for Noram Day, which was the biggest celebration of the year. It wouldn't be for two weeks, sure, but it was a long held tradition to get a month off for it. Some had stayed, either not having families of note, or because the war, or plague, made travel unadvisable.
It wasn't the best time of the year to open a shop, of course, but it wasn't as if they needed the coin. It looked good inside at least, since he'd remodeled a lot after he got the space, and, well, he was a builder. The inside of the place was magical enough that people had been coming in just to see what he'd added already and a few had asked him to make things for them. Not just pies either. He actually sold enough magical items in the first three days to buy the place sixty times over. He also sold some bread in that time.
He worked, making a lot of variety, intending to just give things away to people, since it made him happy to do it. Some of them didn't trust him yet, the old proprietor having been in the little town next to Lairdgren School for nearly two decades. It was a stroke of luck for him that the man, a widower with no minor children, had been offered a position teaching orphans to bake at Wildlands Station the same day that Tor made his offer for the shop.
