Duty

by P. S. Power

  It probably didn't make sense for such words to come from him. Both of the High Servants glared at him. Then ate, since they had all that tasty bread and cheese to get through. It was actually nicely done, he had to admit. Terlee, the Countess Thomson, had made it for them. With her own hand, as she stood there, just as hungry as they were. Getting her own last, after everyone else had sustenance for the day.

  At least of the people that had made it back in, the night before.

  They were missing a lot of people. Ones so tired that they’d just laid on the ground to rest, he didn’t doubt. They were going to need to eat, as well. Soon, too.

  Before they could go back to work, making things to be taken out to people, on his suggestion, his handheld buzzed at him. It was a strange sound, not being what he had it set to at all. It meant that someone was doing something strange. Someone powerful, who could control the unit he had. He wasn’t shocked when it turned out to be Terry.

  The man spoke, his voice sounding fresh and relaxed. No doubt from his comfortable life, not being awake constantly for days, then sleeping by accident on the ground. Albert smiled, since that was how he lived most of the time as well, so was hardly going to hold it against the tall man.

  “Mr. Benoist! I finally have those handhelds for you. They’re staged at the Space Port, here in Tellerand. I know that I promised them days ago. I was caught up, doing a special ceremony for a hundred boys and girls that have just turned sixteen. Normally that would be done by the local day leader in their own areas, but they’d gone on a march, so that I could do it for them, myself. I hope it doesn’t become an annual thing. Not that I’m complaining, but it took a bite from my schedule, let me tell you.” It sounded like he was complaining, if only a bit.

  Then, some strange foreign man had come along and gotten him to make up a whole lot of handhelds, as well. That probably affected what he could do as well, day to day. Worse, Albert didn’t have a ship to go and get them yet. After a moment, he just nodded.

  “Um… Praise the All High.” He was from Second City, so had met a lot of people from Tellerand, in the past. From not too far off, sitting on the ground, a small group of men and women, all with pale skin and dark hair, spoke up.

  “Praise the All High!” Each of them spoke the words, loudly. That kind of person wasn’t shy when it came to heaping praise upon their one god.

  Terry grinned.

  “Are you at a morning meeting? I wouldn’t have expected that, to be honest.” He seemed happy enough to hear about it, even if it wasn’t the kind of thing he expected from Albert.

  Which was correct, so got a head shake.

  “These are volunteers. From the Moon and Mars. We’re in County Thomson. There was a massive set of fires here. Criminals set them, we think. As cover for a kidnapping operation. Didn’t you get the message from Comp?”

  There was a nod.

  “I did. I just didn’t know that you’d be at the scene there. Or that the fire was big enough to call in someone like you. Do you need more help? I can come, or send people.”

  The words had Terlee over, tucking in alongside of him in a way that probably meant they were friends. At least that she felt comfortable enough with him to think that touching him wouldn’t cause him to do anything unfortunate to her, with her brother watching.

  “S’Terry! Albert set the whole effort here in motion. Alison is leading the investigation, so we have that in hand. She has military backing, from King Richard for it. We… I don’t want to turn down help. Your people don’t travel quickly yet, though. Not the ones that live there. Would you be willing to stand by for us, personally? There are things taking place, that might require all of us. The whole family, and some of our friends.” She spoke furtively, her voice going quiet, even if Albert was right there to hear, and didn’t know what she might be talking about.

  The response didn’t give him a clue, either.

  “Understood. Do you need me to get in touch with the others? Tor and Tim? Tiera and Taman?” There was something almost sly about the words.

  Given that that was very close to a list of the greatest wizards to have ever lived, it was probably about that portion of things. Terry, clearly, was also in that grouping. Which was why Albert was going to have to find a way to get a ship to Tellerand, soon.

  Being right there, he simply spoke. Even if he didn't get their secret message that was being passed.

  “Tiera will be here, in a few hours. We have four locations to restock and rebuild. I need to get with Tor on that, so will do that next. Tim… He does the big food units? So, I can call on him as well. I… Honestly have no reason to be bothering your sister Taman. I do need to get with Dare Canton if I can though. To see if he’ll go and get those handhelds for us? For some reason I never learned to pilot a space ship. Silly of me, of course.” Which was true, now that he thought of it. He lived on the Moon, after all. He’d even been in deep space itself. It was different moving around using a shield there, since it was easy to stay far from other people. The idea of flying on Earth was simply terrifying, compared to that. Even if the controls were the same.

  Terry simply snorted at him then.

  “You should get on that then. I’ll just stand by, given all that.”

  Albert nodded, since that made sense.

  “Come in at Thomson Fire One, if you need to. I’ll try to be at that location, if I’m here at all. Thank you for the hard work on the other project. I’ve been distracted. Hopefully things are going ahead that way in the test zones. If not… Well, then I’m behind, aren’t I?”

  There was a polite chuckle from the Ancient of Tellerand.

  “I know how that goes. Trust me. On the good side, I’m not the one slowing everything down, all on my own. We can share the blame on it, which always makes it easier to live with yourself.”

  “Agreed, now that you mention it. Not that we probably have to feel too bad yet. This wasn’t even caused by my intractable drunkenness, so… I think we can be tolerably pleased, so far. At least on that project. I failed, yesterday. But…” He shook his head, looking away.

  Everyone looked at him then, probably because there were tears of weakness in his eyes again.

  Terry’s face, youthful as it was, went hard.

  “How so?”

  That was a question he didn’t really want to answer, but he did, anyway.

  “When they, the criminals, rushed the transport huts, I couldn’t stop them. I tried, but…”

  One of the black clad one god believers stood then, walking over to where he stood with Countess Thomson.

  “Excuse, me, please… High Day Leader. Not to call this good man a liar, but that wasn’t strictly true. He called for aid and got there in time to make one of the evil men drop the young woman he was packing away. He tried to fight, doing as well as any might. The fiends, all of them, had shields on. The good kind, else they couldn’t have used the low flying aspect to them while carrying those poor ladies as they were. Even at that, the big one nearly didn’t make it to the tiny house. No one else was able to get there in time, being too broken by battling the blaze to stand, for most. If this man failed in his duty, then so did a thousand others, myself included. The All High would not ask more of him than what he did.”

  Then, without giving his name at all, the older man, who had a full gray beard, moved back to where his friends were. They all started praying. From the sound of it, that was for the return of the women and for those that had died in the last days.

  Terry simply nodded.

  “That’s hard to deal with. If you need to talk about it, I’m here. Know that I’ll do what I can to help those women.”

  With a nod, the other man broke the connection. Leaving Albert standing directly next to Terlee Thomson, in what had to seem a cozy fashion, just as her husband the Count and a dozen other people flew in, landing not far from them at all. The woman didn’t even bother stepping away, simply smiling.

  “Tovey! We have some news.” T
hen, only after speaking, did she move to the man. Holding him around the middle, for long enough that it was clear she was fond of him.

  In that same group where also Tor Baker and Tim, the wizards. Albert waved at them, then looked at the others.

  “Food. This way, for those at need in that regard. Tor, Tim… A word?”

  The men, both in need of a shower, came to see what he wanted first, which meant standing by the food units, while he worked, making things for others. Neither man took anything, or looked at the food longingly, even as the plates of eggs and toast, along with cooked ham, went to others.

  He just started in, asking for things that were probably impossible to get. That seemed to be his current place in the world, after all. Then, both of these men were very good at doing impossible things, so that was probably what they considered their own tasks, most days.

  “We’re going to need temporary housing for three towns and a small city. I was thinking that we’d set up magic dwellings first, then have the King’s military forces in to do the work on real places, like we did in Ross. Tiera Havar is coming to work on replacing the physical goods they’ll need to get through winter, in a few hours. Tim… Do you have any large food units we can borrow for that effort? I have the little ones, but…”

  There was a blink then, from the tall men. Both of them at once, in near unison. Tim smiled though, which was good to see.

  “I can get some, for that. Tor, do you have any houses?”

  The man actually wiggled his right hand in the air.

  “Not on me. I can make some of those. Call it… A hundred? That will take a bit to get done. I need to eat first, if I can.” He looked almost upset for a second, even as his stomach growled loud enough to hear. “Is it pressing? I can forego that, if it’s…”

  Albert just made a plate of food, and passed it over.

  “Eat. If we can get places to stay tonight, before the rain comes in, that will be good enough.” There were no clouds in the sky, that he could see. The smoke had mainly clear, leaving a hazy blue above them. At least where they were.

  Timon Baker just looked up, his face strange for a moment.

  “That’s a good point. Here… You have our backing on this. You should get with Richard and see if he can spare those men. This will take some time. All of it, will. We can schedule when the work will be done, instead of having to have men taken from their daily tasks with no notice. I’ll get my own food. You get to that part.” There was a knowing expression then.

  What was known, Albert didn’t have a clue of.

  Still, he got his handheld out, then didn’t get with the King of Noram at all, hitting up Dare Canton, instead. The other man answered almost instantly. Then, he nearly always did. He was walking when he did it, though he looked around at what was happening, taking it all in, instantly.

  “Albert! What can I do for you?”

  “See, I need to get in touch just for fun more often. I do need help, so I won’t lie to you about it. Can I schedule a trip to the Tellerand Space Port with you? It’s to pick up a lot of goods. Handhelds, from Terry Baker.”

  There was almost no pause at all then.

  “Oh? He’s coming through for us then? I figured he would. Great man, Terry. I don’t have the public units yet. Those are being done as an organic grow, so it will be a few weeks, still. Most of a month. They aren’t hard to make, really, but my classes get in the way of working, from time to time. Let me… I can get away after school today? Call it six in the evening, Thomson time? That’s later, here, but we’ll get to Tellerand just as the sun is rising. People won’t be out for the day yet, so won’t be as afraid of a strange craft landing there. I’ll pick you up?”

  He thought for a second, then shook his head. That didn’t really make sense.

  “I have transport pods here. I can go to where you are. You go to school?” That wasn’t a thing he would have suspected, to be honest. Secret Kings getting a normal education seemed off, somehow.

  “At Printer, the academy there. Use the Weapons Square location name, to come in. It’s the first one set up. Well, the second, but they were put up on the same day. I’ll meet you there. I have to run, I’m afraid, or I’d come help now. Math class. You know how it is. If I don’t show up, I won’t learn today’s trick and then I’ll be spending half a week begging the other students to teach me what to do.”

  Albert smiled. It had been a long time since he’d attended classes. He’d never attended higher schooling at all, either.

  “See you then. Thanks, Dare.”

  “Later, Albert.”

  Then, without moving, he tried to put in a call to King Richard. There was a man there, to answer the device, who was polite enough, but who didn’t have a handy King in his pocket for some ridiculous reason. What that was, other than size and common sense, Al didn’t know at all. What the fellow did do was took a message, complete with what the topic at hand was.

  “Um… There are three towns and a city in Thomson County that were destroyed by fire. I’m calling to beg use of his focus stone building military troops, if that’s possible? Here, let me kneel down and sob for a bit. You can put that I did that in the message?” His voice came out slightly glib, even if he was actually willing to do that. It wasn’t his favorite thing in the world, but without good houses, winter would be impossible. Technically they might be able to leave some or all of them in the magical dwellings that Tor provided, if he came through that way, but gifting people vast palaces that could become almost anything didn’t seem like a good long-term plan. Plus, from what he’d heard, the things only worked for about ten to twenty years. Then they’d fail, and people would need new homes again. Focus stone should last for hundreds of years, if the construction was done correctly.

  The polite young man on the communications device bowed slightly as he wrote.

  “I can do that, indeed, sir. Let me just note that and… There we go! Is there anything else you need added to this today, sir?”

  He thought for a moment, nothing coming to him. It probably would later, of course. In the middle of the night, when the King was certain to be sleeping.

  “That should do it for now. Thank you. The King as well. Bye.”

  The other man had a speech he was forced to make, which took several minutes to get through. By the end of it, Al had to admit he felt pretty welcome and loved by the man he didn’t know the name of whose job it was to answer the device.

  When that was finished, Albert turned to find that the two ancients were sitting on the ground, next to Count Thomson, his wife and the group of men and women that had been fighting the fire the day before. Each balancing a plate on their knees or laps as they ate.

  Well, not Terlee, just the others.

  She’d already eaten her bread and cheese. So had Albert, though he settled near the others anyway, since no one was trying to get more food at the moment.

  “Okay… What am I missing? We have some support coming for the towns that need it, housing, food and some supplies for the winter… The volunteers here are waiting, in case another fire breaks out, but we should send them back home, I think. At least if they aren’t going to help with the search for the women and girls who were taken. Or, is that wrong?” It was a different fire than the one he’d been to before and he didn't know what might be needed there.

  The Count didn't seem upset with him for asking questions, at least.

  “That all sounds wonderful. Tamerlane was filling me in on what you’ve already set into motion for us, Albert. My understanding is that you need to collect the fire fighting magics that were brought in by Ancient Farlocenian Ross? We’ve been keeping an eye on where it all went, so loses shouldn’t be too great. Some will happen of course. In this kind of thing, items always get broken and lost. I asked that anything that could be recovered be sent along, as proof that we aren’t simply stealing from the Ancient of Afrak. That should be available inside the next hours. That portion of things should end your part of t
he work here. I hope so at least. I hear that you’ve barely rested and missed your own work to be here?”

  That was true, though he’d called in and spoken to Serro about it. It wasn’t that hard to find someone willing to sweep floors, as it turned out. Not in Second City. People didn’t have to work, but some, about twenty percent, really were eager to find something to do that wasn’t simply playing each day.

  He grinned, anyway.

  “I can do that. Get those things back to Ancient Farlo. We might want to push out a message to all the handhelds again, about the men and women that were kidnapping those women. Comp doesn’t think that I have the clout to do that on my own. Can you believe that? I mean, just because it’s normally kept to world leaders and Ancients… Silly of her, don’t you agree?”

  He glanced at Tim Baker, simply based on where the man was sitting. Tor spoke though. Laughing as he did it.

  “That’s about right. At least for now. We really need to make sure that no one is going to be doing that without checking with at least one other person. Even the Ancients. Though, that… I think Gerent should be in charge of seeing to that kind of thing. He did the initial assignments, as far as who was with what land.”

  Timon stopped for a moment, then made a soft, considering sound.

  “That… Is probably about right. He’s also in charge of plants for the Ancients, as a group. Abbey is doing animals. You mentioned that you and Albert were working on putting in an atmosphere on the Moon, Tor? We should get all of you together for that, then. Soon. Al, you’re working any emergency aid projects that come up for us? That’s a great idea, really. We tend to just help out when we get a call, but no one really has any central authority to mobilize things on our end. Still, you’ll have to check in with at least one of us, before setting major things in motion. For now. Anyway, this Moon project you’ve ordered?” The man looked at Albert very seriously, as if it had been a thing that had actually happened that way. With him commanding Tor to made the Moon lush and green.