by P. S. Power
Again, the Prince nodded, playing along, as if it were their real plan.
“If you wish, of course. That really is enough of an insult that one could be worked up about it. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a stable boy, or cleaning up after others. Getting your title wrong like that, on purpose… well, that might just do the trick. He should have at least asked if you were the owl keeper. Though… you might be well enough satisfied by having him defeated in battle, might you not? Unless you wish to try conclusions with him, Baron? It might work better than anything else you can do today. Albert did mention being unarmed, which is his normal habit. That could well be your best chance, given everything. Well, except surrendering. That would be the wiser choice. Regardless, you should pick which you are going to do fairly quickly.”
Then he gestured, his hand sweeping to indicate the people behind them. Floating toward them still, weapons out and pointed.
When the man looked over his shoulder, he didn’t notice anything, at first. Finally, Albert cleared his throat.
“Try looking up? It works better, when dealing with flying people.”
The wise move truly would have been giving up. Albert would have soiled himself and then started begging for his life, personally, if faced with a force like the one that had come for the Baron Pence. That wasn’t what happened. The Baron grabbed at his own pocket, pulled something and started trying to harm people with it. The flying troops were immune to its effects, by and large. So was Jeffery, when he was targeted. Smiling, a sinister thing that didn’t belong on the face of a human, the man pointed at Manly and Ankh.
One of them, the woman, turned to a fine red mist, scattering backward, away from the man. Then, as the sky tried to descend on them all, dressed in military black, the magical device was waved at his own head. Removing any trace of it from the world.
He didn’t scream, but Albert did swear, as the woman in brown settled.
“Damn it! We needed her!” It was obvious to him, anyway. The Forten, Ankh Ness, was the only one that knew where the others, those already sold, might have gone. Even a hint from her could have been enough to make a difference.
Alison waved, with the weapon in her right hand.
“You there, guards of Pence! Remove your weapons and lay on the ground. Do it now, or die!” Alison managed to sound hard, even if it didn’t really fit her pretty face.
Even outnumbered twenty to one, most of the dead Baron’s men decided to fight. The din was deafening for about a minute. Great gouts of dirt and rock flew through the air, along with smoke and a scent that could only be burnt human meat.
It was in the confusion that one of the guards managed to grab Niles and drag him upward, into the air. Awkwardly, since it was an old-style flying unit, with hand controls, instead of a shield. Worse it was the man that he’d spent the extra time on, healing. Making the whole thing his fault, if in a backhanded fashion.
At several hundred feet up, the floating guardsman screamed down to them. He managed to sound fairly commanding about it. Unlike before, when he’d been bellowing in pain as Al had saved his life.
“Stay back. Leave, now or I’ll drop him!”
As ridiculous as it seemed, everyone stopped where they were. Even the people in the air did that. Niles managed to be nicely stoic about it all, his voice sounding stronger than it had before. At least as commanding as the other man had managed to sound.
“Shoot us both! I won’t be used as a hostage.” Then he started to fight. Struggling, making the flying man shift from side to side in the air. Still, no one moved, even as they started to fall. To their deaths.
Jeffery pushed him on the shoulder then.
“Get Niles! Fly! I’ll take down the guard.”
Terror gripped him then. It was the serious kind that generally made people freeze, he had to imagine. There was no time for it, not even enough for him to breathe or consider the meaning of bravery and cowardice. So, even being in danger of wetting himself and vomiting, both of which tried to happen at one time, Albert used his shield to do something he’d never dreamed of trying on a planet. Especially while headed directly at a human being. He flew. Straight at the two men who were going down, both listing to the side, as they fought for control of the guard’s right hand, where the control module was strapped in place. Faster than was sane or safe at all.
Reaching out, he managed to grab Niles by the jacket, his hands unshielded so he could make the connection at all. If anyone started casting magical weapons fire, he was probably going to die. Immortal or not. Still, he noticed that his grip didn’t loosen as he moved toward the ground. Trying to be quick about it, since the jacket wasn’t one, being more of a loose tunic that was trying to pull off of the other man as they got closer to the ground.
“Almost there. Hang on for a few more seconds… And there… now I’m going to be sick.” He was gasping, his breath refusing to come properly. For a moment, a long one, he honestly had to fight against an instinct to heave and double over.
Even Niles was doing better and he’d been being half strangled by his own shirt as they’d settled on the grass of the well-groomed lawn.
Looking up, to see the guard trying to fly away, Albert noticed that Jeffery was on the ground. Pacing the man in the air. On foot. Just running after him. Finally, he jumped some forty feet into the air and grabbed the fugitive, pulling both of them to the Earth with a mighty thumping sound. Almost instantly Jeff got up and walked back toward them.
Smiling, even though it was very likely that the other man was well and truly dead.
They collected in the center of the grass, with Alison pointing at Baron Pence.
“Arrest him. Everyone here who isn’t a prisoner, who’s still living.” Again, she sounded pretty hard about the whole thing. Pence blanched even, getting that being arrested for running a slavery operation wasn’t a good thing.
A thing that showed he honestly wasn’t as simple as he’d mentioned being, earlier.
Albert waved at her. Still struggling for air more than his body needed him to. It was all in his head. A reaction to having flown that near other people. The irony of having done that to save the man that had crippled him once, while flying, wasn’t lost on him.
“As odd as it sounds, he’s innocent. We should… check that, first thing?” He didn't know how, not in a way that would hold up in court or under judgement.
Plus, his voice was shaking, from the terror of having done the worst thing that anyone could ever do on a planet. Fly. At least he’d managed the grab in time. If it had been his task to save Niles and he’d frozen and failed, he’d probably never forgive himself.
The girl, looking well and truly in charge of the situation, walked over to them, in a firm and commanding fashion. Instead of informing him that she, and not he, were in charge there, she simply got a Truth amulet out.
“In most things, having Lord Benoist vouch for you would be enough, of course. Given the high crimes we’re dealing with here, I’m certain you understand the need for total clarity?”
Niles nodded, glanced at where his brother had just died, swallowed and put a hand out for the device. It activated, the white and gold surrounding the man’s hand when it was handed over.
“I don’t know about any of this. This… I don’t understand.”
The light stayed pure, meaning that he was telling the truth. Then Alison double and triple checked everything. She was, very clearly, not an idiot at all.
“What do you know about the slavery going on here?”
The thin man shook a bit in reaction still, but didn't bother lying to them.
“My brother set up a new program, years ago. Nearly four now. Sending men, women and children, mainly women and girls, to the Forten, for rehabilitation. I was asked not to go and bother the people over there, since some of them were having a hard time dealing with things, even if going away to the strange space people was better than dying or being locked up. It’s grown over time. That’s
simply what businesses do, of course. I honestly don’t know much more than that. I’ve seen some people and heard the cries, but no one ever mentioned it being anything except what I was told.”
It took hours for everyone to be accounted for, and they had more work to do, getting the people who were taken off world back. Their actions that day were a starting point, which was enough for the moment. At least he hoped it was.
Because those poor people needed to be saved. Once that was done, or possibly before, Albert needed to hear some good answers about things closer to himself. If he didn’t get them… Well, then he wasn’t going to be very happy at all.
Chapter thirteen
He rode back to Printer with Dare, since there was no transportation booth in County Pence. Jeffery went with them, since the same applied to him. He was trapped, if someone didn’t give him a ride home. When that was mentioned, in passing, Jeffery shrugged.
“Not really. I have my own Jump Ship, after all. A fast craft as well. On me, of course. The good Timon made kind? Several Tam-cars… Well, I made all of them, since it was part of my studies, but I wouldn’t be stuck, even without those. In a few hours I could make something to get me to the right place, if I had to. Besides, Alison would get us home if it came to it. She’s rather a darling that way.”
Feeling more than a bit nervous, which he hadn’t really thought was possible any longer, Albert cleared his throat.
“So, um, Jeff… I couldn’t help but notice that you have a different name now? Plus, you get to call Alison by name instead of Princess Alison? That means you’re dating, right?”
He managed to sound almost flip, on the last line. Jeffery actually laughed at it.
“Strangely enough, no. She’s related to me. Which explains my familiar behavior there. You too, right Dare?”
The big man was at the controls, but called back, his voice firm.
“Not directly. Close enough genetically that we shouldn’t have kids. We could date. It’s never really come up. How about you, Albert?”
The words weren’t making fun of him, even if they could have been.
“I was thinking that I’d ask that nice Admiral Orange out, actually. She likes my face. That’s rare enough to mean she’s probably fairly special.”
Jeff snorted.
“That… Honestly, you should do that one. Ask her out, at the very least. She’s a little rough around the edges and cares nothing for social standards. A bit like you, actually. Now, I think you were actually asking me why we’ve been roommates for three years and I neglected to mention the part of things where I’m not exactly who I said I was? For that we need Trice. Serro? I don’t know if you caught that one yet.”
Albert nodded.
“You mean the part where she’s actually the woman who runs the magic shop in Harmony? How do you two have the time to live two lives like this?” It was abrupt of him, but he kind of wanted to know the answer.
“Oh… I don’t sleep much. I can set that up for you if you want? Other things too. I would have already, but that would have given away my cover. We’ve been setting this up for a long time. Courting Space Force members and High Servants in particular, to get them into the club. Making it easiest for them to work from there, for meetings and to pass information. Before you ask, not all of them are actually in on this, though Carissa managed to give us some great leads, even if she doesn’t know anything about what’s really been going on. She’s inside without really being there.”
That sounded off. Incomplete.
“Wait, so Erie is in with these… Monsters? She was the one I liked, too. Plus, you’ve been dating her… That’s…” She was young, but old enough for that kind of thing. Jeff wasn’t exactly ancient or anything, himself. It just seemed wrong to trick her into bed then send her off to prison or the gallows.
His friend possibly the best one he’d ever had, laughed a bit.
“Her real name is Sara. She’s being trained to be a spy for her people, so this was used as a training opportunity for her. We haven’t been sleeping together at all, just using that as a cover for other work. Like you said, two lives. That… Well, that’s a different story, that I’ll tell you all about, some other time. She actually became a High Servant to get to the heart of this. It isn’t over yet, of course. We stopped this part of it, but the whole thing is vast. Tens of thousands have been taken, Al. From all over the world. As for your part in this… well, like I mentioned, we need Trice for that. Before you ask, she’s my Aunt. By marriage. So if you want to date her, you won’t be stepping on my toes there.”
Dareg called out again.
“Mine too. It’s part of the reason that having you around works so well, Albert. You aren’t related to everybody. Plus, you get things done. Now, not to be a pain, but I have to get back to school. I have class in the morning and Countess Printer and Headmaster Butler insist we sleep in our own beds each night. It doesn’t always happen, but rules are there for a reason.”
That sounded right, so Albert waved out the window.
“We can use the transport hut here, in the weapons area? That’s an odd place to have that sort of thing, isn’t it? Handy I suppose, if you’re going to school here.”
As they landed, the tall, black haired man, with his fairly light skin, moved outside with them. The silver of the craft reflecting the light from the town near the school. The city, really. It was a large place, set on the ocean. That didn't make the air sweet, but it had a sense of life around it.
“I know. It’s a good program here, over all. I graduate next year, so might find another home for the school’s transport hut, then. It was just where I set it up, originally. I hadn’t really meant to leave it there. Then the placement just kind of stuck.”
With a deft move the vehicle turned off and the amulet it was on, a small red glass tile was snagged from the air, almost instantly. Fast enough that Albert wasn’t certain he saw it happen at all. Dareg waved then and started to walk off.
“You know where I am, if you need me! Night!”
“Goodnight!”
They both called that out, in unison. Jeffery didn’t go directly into the stone enclosure, pulling a handheld out first. Then, without talking, he tapped a few times. After about fifteen seconds he spoke, not letting whoever was in his hand go first.
“In the back of the magic shop, in Harmony. Call it fifteen minutes.”
Then he did it again, but his face transformed, before the other person could pick up. He had orange hair and eyes, as well as a slightly warped face.
“Alice? We’ve taken down the Pence compound. We recovered four hundred kidnapped people. We have a meet set, in fifteen minutes. Back of the magic shop.”
Three more calls were made that way, with only two different faces used. One of them was the one that Albert thought of as Jeffery. His friend. Probably one of the most important people in his world, who suddenly wasn’t that at all.
The trip to the Moon wasn’t a long one. Even once they got out of the bright red, slightly glowing, box, they just walked through the door directly to the right and moved past the man at the counter, who had pale skin and red hair, with enough freckles to not be putting the look on with a disguise, into the back. Where Albert had been changed, the night before.
This time, instead of Timon, there were several other people. Serro was there, out of her makeup, Along with Alice, Max and Four. All of them looked at him, as if he were the one in the wrong place. That got him to grin.
“So, Trice, Alice… What are your real names?” He tried to seem pleasant about it.
The man from Noram spoke first.
“I’m actually called Max. Maxwell Tolland.” The man bowed a bit, standing to do so. Meaning Albert did it back, being from there as well.
“Oh? I’ve met your family, then, I think. Betters and Missy Tolland?”
Alice guffawed at that.
“No doubt. That was… Brilliant, in its scope. No one will draw a vast program back to the ide
a of one family getting some coin. Plus, you even have them off earning it, which makes it legitimate, even if the watchers think to look in that direction. Of course, now you have to run a program to get people inexpensive handhelds all over the world. It’s something to do, at any rate. Just to keep you informed, both these two, Max and Four are still under cover and on operation. That means we need to keep the club open and functioning for the time being. Got that, Trice?” She said the words as if Serro wasn’t going to do her job. That didn’t seem likely at all.
To back that up, the woman that was his boss, even if she wasn’t Serro, rolled her eyes.
“Of course. Anyway, Four here is actually Blue Four. The Ancient of Antarctica. Since the entire population there is pretty much her, that’s extra special. So… We need to wrap some things up, here, I think. Which we won’t really need all of you for. Just Albert. Then, once the screaming and begging for forgiveness stops, we can go over everything that happened today at Barony Pence.”
Alice shrugged, as if it wasn’t important at all.
“Then why call us into a meeting this soon? We can wait in the back, but… Not the best use of our time, really. I have a fleet to keep an eye on, you know that, right?”
Jeffery, looking all orange again, smiled.
“Albert wanted to ask you out on a date, so I set up a meeting. I’m incredibly kind that way.”
For the very first time in his life, when confronted with a woman that he was being teased with, Albert simply nodded. There wasn’t even any blushing about it.
“True. I was thinking we could take in a play and get a meal? If that’s too boring we could also go and find High Servants, tie them up and return them to their High Commander. That one comes with food, too.” Otherwise it wouldn’t be a proper date at all.
Alice, looking far too good for him to be bothering as far as asking for a date, laughed at him. Gently. There was a smile to go with it, so he didn’t instantly lose all hope.
