by P. S. Power
Screw that. They weren't forcing him out of his home. That was a mistake, because it was his. Tor tapped his Not-flyer and rose into the air, if only four inches. In the air those men were faster of course, but they wouldn't be able to do much to him if he stayed among the buildings, he didn't think. He kept blasting the men on the ground and screaming at them to leave as the flying men hovered jockeying for position. No one had even started to head towards the front gate yet.
OK.
Tor took a big breath and moved towards the front. He dug into his inner pants pocket and got one of the explosives out, then, without so much as hesitating, he blasted the right hand side of the front wall. It made a deafening roar and made the wall disappear into dust and pebbles. With a single slow sweeping motion from right to left he destroyed the front half in less than eleven seconds. Everyone froze.
“I said leave. What part of that don't you get? Do it now, or I start killing people. I am done playing games with you.” It was loud, but a growl for all that.
No one moved for a second, but then one man, the captain that had only one shoe now, but two feet, held up his hands and told everyone to move out. Tor moved so that his back was to the front wall of his hut, just under the eaves, so that the flyers couldn't catch him from behind easily. They were still hovering over him, too high up to hear him tell them to leave. He'd have to do something else about them. It took nearly an hour for them to all leave, or at least get out the gate. Some of them tried to take the transports, but Tor only let them have half of them. He personally owned half, he told them all clearly. Major Godfrey owned the other half. Since it was all they were getting they could deal with him for them if they wanted. Tor wasn't making them anymore. Not for the military. Not after the way they'd attacked him in his own home.
They didn't have near enough transports to carry everyone, but Tor didn't care. The flight training base was only about a fifty mile walk. They could follow the river that floated behind the compound to it. They deserved to walk. Maybe it would give them time to reflect on what they'd done? Probably not, people were generally too stupid to realize when they'd messed up, but that was up to them. Their failure to learn from experience wasn't his problem.
Staying hidden was the hard part, since it got boring, but the men hovering didn't move much, watching and waiting for him to make a mistake. It ticked him off. They were using his own devices against him. Finally he shrugged. Tor didn't want to murder anyone, but if they left him no choice, what could he do? He pulled the little metal piece that looked like a poison detector from around his neck and got ready to use it, pointing it up at the flyers and stepping out just as the transport flew into sight. It wasn't one of the ones that had been taken, because those were all out front being loaded. It hovered briefly, then set down just inside the gate, near the open portion of the front wall.
When the side opened, Rolph stepped out, his skin too dark and his hair a deep brown still. He looked like a military man, lacking his long red hair and normal light tan skin tone. Kolb, bald head shining stepped out, followed by Godfrey. They all looked around, their gazes slightly panicked. The one shoe wearing captain, a blond man Tor realized having actually missed that part before being distracted, his left leg still covered in dried blood ran over to them screaming something. This time it didn't sound nearly so manly. Kolb held up a single hand, but the man kept screaming anyway.
Rolph saw him and slowly walked over.
“Alright there Tor?” He asked, stopping about ten feet away. “Why do you have your poison detector out… Crap! Tor…”
Rolph knew what it meant as Tor pointed the device at the flying men and shrugged.
“Their shields are too good for anything else I have, and they won't leave. I'm making the military leave. They attacked me… First they wouldn't let me in to my own home, mocked me and threatened me. I could have let that go, but then they physically attacked me when I managed to make my own door to get in. I don't care if it's reasonable or not, they're going. Then they told me I didn't have a right to ask them to leave! Well, I've got the right for them if they really want it…” Taking a deep breath he pointed at one of the flying men and started to activate the device.
“Stop! God, please Tor, stop. No need to kill them… They'll go, see… They'll go!” He waved at them frantically to move off, but they didn't budge. They probably couldn't tell who the Prince was or even what he wanted really. A large man waving at them right now didn't hold a lot of interest for them it seemed.
“Kolb!” Rolph yelled. “Can you get your people to get them to move off, Tor's going to kill them all if they don't!”
The words weren't even all the way out of the Prince’s mouth when nearly twenty people appeared in the air and told the six military flyers to move on. Tor wanted to be angry at them for not having helped him earlier, but then he'd been the one to set up the chain of command and exclude anyone other than the royal family, hadn't he? Great, he'd handed an incredibly dangerous weapon to people that probably were going to use it against him, or at least attack him, for the second time in his life. He kind of deserved to die, didn't he?
Giving weapons like that to his enemies. Too stupid to live. Duh.
Though, come to think of it, Petra and the others had actually helped him out once that day already. When it had looked like a simple fight between him and a few men. They didn't back off until later, when it would have been them against the military without orders if they tried to help. So, no blaming them, not really. Tor sighed.
At least it worked for now. Kolb's people didn't even hurt them, just flew over calmly and explained, waved to Godfrey who nodded grimly, then they flew off, landing out front with the other men. Tor put the massive death weapon away, but pulled out one of the force lances. He wasn't standing around unarmed. Who knew what these monsters were going to try and do next? He waited while everyone else walked over. Godfrey looked half freaked and half pissed off, but Kolb just tilted his head. Tor grabbed the initiative.
“Your men barred me from my own home and then attacked me Godfrey. You all have to get out. Now. You aren’t welcome here anymore. Not if you’re going to do things like that. I don’t know what kind of orders you gave them, but this…” Tor growled softly. Menacingly.
While holding a better than decent force lance on the man. Ready to use it.
In return Godfrey told him that it was a military base and only the King could tell them they had to leave. Tor tilted his head at the man and then shrugged. He looked at Rolph, hoping for support from his old friend, knowing that it wasn't very likely. The Prince nodded slowly at Tor, agreeing with the Major. It was in his brown eyes, his face.
Well. If the Prince of the freaking realm said it wasn't his house any more, then it wasn't. It wasn't fair. It had been his. He'd built it. Well, his little hut. Others had built the rest, but they'd all said it was his place. A real home to call his own.
Crud. Rolph owned the land it was on and they didn't even have a real contract or anything. He'd said it was all right, but if a royal changed their mind, then it kind of became law. After a fashion at least. There was nothing someone like Tor could do about it anyway. Totally unfair. He looked at Rolph, feeling betrayed again. They were supposed to be friends, weren't they?
“Alright then. Just give me all the devices that the kingdom hasn't paid for, and I'll leave. You can freaking have it.” Tor was breathing hard and Rolph looked off into the distance.
“What hasn't been paid for?” The Major looked baffled and sounded confused as if he really didn't know. Kind of an oversight, since he ran a base that basically ran on things he'd built.
Tor just smiled. Really they hadn't paid for anything. Some of the shields and flying rigs, but not even most of those. None of the building gear or transports at all. Or the rivers that provided water. They hadn't signed a contract with him either. They could try to keep it all, he guessed, what was he going to do if they decided to? Take on the entire Noram military? That wouldn
't work he knew. Too many of them were too well armed and shielded, at least until he developed a way to remove their devices from them, or destroy the fields at a distance. He could do it. It hadn't occurred to him before, but really, that was within the bounds of what could be managed. The devices were all on physical objects. A thrill of excitement ran through him then. All he had to do was create a field that used feedback to locate a certain kind of field and then destroy the metal, wood or stone it was on. It wouldn't even be that hard. In an instant most of it sprang into his mind.
Rolph didn't touch him, but did wave a hand in front of his face. Tor started and then grinned.
“Sorry, I just figured out how to take out all the magical devices in a given area. Selectively or even just anything magical at all. So yeah, go ahead and steal my home, try and take my work without paying for it, we'll see how that works out for you all…” Tor went into his hut and started packing.
He couldn't take everything with him, lacking space in his luggage, so he started tucking all the amulets into cases and making sure the boxes were flight ready, then he took his clothing, toiletries and such. The follow along floats wouldn't navigate the stairs or the hallway, a winding stone privacy screen with three switchbacks, so Tor had to carry them all on his own. Each trunk weight hundreds of pounds, except the clothing one, so he had to drag them out. It took a long time to get the six trunks he wanted. He had the rivers for Afrak ready to go and their excavating equipment, as well as his chest of gold, and another couple just filled with amulets of nearly twenty different sorts. The rest of them, well there were thousands of things in there still. He didn't want them stolen by the military… They seemed to like stealing his things for some reason. Them and the King.
He'd stolen his fiancee away. He didn't even want her for himself, it was just to punish him or make some weird kind of point to someone.
Tor mentioned this in a dead sounding voice as he lifted in the air. Pulling out one of the explosive weapons, a smaller one on a brass tube, cheap compared to normal weapons which were put on solid silver as a rule, but just as effective. Actually a lot more effective… Rising into the air with his cases following, thanks to the floats on them, he pointed the weapon.
“I'd get away if I were you.” He said darkly.
“Tor! No! I have stuff in there, so do Sara and Ursala. It's not fair to destroy their stuff, even if you're mad at me and dad…” The Prince sounded scared. Right well, girls did liked stuff, didn't they?
“Fine. Then all the amulets…” What could he do with them? The military couldn't have them and no one else around here was trustworthy enough to keep them out of their hands. Well, no one that would be able to stand up to the army at least. Petra would have been a good choice, but she had to do what Kolb said, which was what the King ordered. For that matter he did as well, that whole pesky knighthood thing. He could have said no and not knelt, but he had, so he was honor bound to do what Richard said too. But only if he heard it. From now on, Tor just wouldn't listen, that was all. Sorlee Farmer would have been fine, but Tor didn't think that she'd know she could tell the military to leave her stuff alone. If they asked for it she'd probably just hand it over without even requesting to be paid. That's what you did when powerful people wanted your stuff, right? It was kind of what powerful meant.
His family in Two Bends? They didn't need the money, now that their quick delivery service had taken off and it would probably just track the military to their door. Who did he know that he didn't care about that would at least make some money from it? It hit him like a ton of bricks. There actually was someone like that.
“Fine then… Everything of mine in there, take it and give it to Dorgal Sorvee. Tell him that half the proceeds are to go to Meredith Sorvee directly, he can keep the rest. I can count on you to do that much, can't I?” Tor asked, his voice suddenly sad instead of bitter as he had intended it to be.
After all, Rolph had been his best friend. For him to have helped betray him like this, to take away his home…
“Sorvee… Tor, you hate that guy! More than once I've heard you say that you wished you could test your new devices on him or his bully friends…”
“Yeah, he's a jerk, abusive and sarcastic for no reason, using his intelligence as a weapon rather than to help people. But notice, as far as I know, he's never actually tried to destroy my life and then hide it from me. He's an ass, but he never hid that from me or worked against me in secret pretending to be my friend, did he? You all knew. Your dad was the one that told Trice to do it, made her, and Connie… I told her I had feelings for her and she hide this from me? Am I the biggest joke ever or what? Varley, Karina… you. No one told me. Instead you all made Trice eat my anger for all that time alone. I nearly killed her over that Rolph. I don't know if she ever liked me at all, or if it was all just following orders, but that's still too much to heap on her. Sara and Ursala too. All of you kept me in the dark and let me go on hating Trice, when she didn't even have a choice in the matter. Why?” Tears came to his eyes then. “I was actually happy you know. For once in my life I was happy, even though I knew the whole thing was only a joke to her. A girl actually willing to spend time with me and not tear me down and you all took that away from me. Screw it, do whatever you like, you royals always do anyway!”
Tor took off then, in a direction. He didn't know where he was going or why really, but staying here wasn't an option. Tears streamed back, after they dripped off his face enough to leave the shield. Well, he realized after a while. That was done. No one would want him back now. That was fine. He didn't need them anyway.
After all, he could be alone… alone.
He didn't need other people for that. No one did. If they weren't his friends, well, he wished them luck and decided not to even destroy all the things he made for the military or anything. That was as non-petty as he could manage right now, but it would have to do.
He flew for hours, just following the coast line once he hit it. Tor thought he was going east at least. Oh well. As good a direction as any, right? He kept going until it started getting dark, the edge of the world growing first pink as clouds caught the sun, a stark line of them against the light blue, then a darker line of blue-black behind it. Looking at it he felt small and insignificant for a while, until he looked down and realized that he'd hit another ocean. Tor blinked and shook his head. Well, that made his decision for him didn't it? If he kept going, the only thing under him would be water for thousands of miles. The air was humid from the damp expanse in front of him, but Tor didn't mind. He wasn't feeling the heat at least.
Looking around he saw a city to the north, close enough that he might be able to reach it before nightfall if he hurried. Maybe he could get something to eat? Even worked up as he still was, hunger had finally started to call to him. It had been a day since he'd eaten, or near enough at least. That long since he had water too, he realized, thirst suddenly ripping at his throat with the attention. He flew faster towards the early lights in homes, seen through the windows.
Like many of the cities he'd gone to, this one had a large clearing in the middle. Instead of a central square, this place had a park with manicured grass and funny looking tall plants, about twenty five feet high with leaves like giant fingers at the top, spread in greeting. So friendly trees at least.
Tor waved back.
No need for him to be rude after all.
The trunks looked smooth and bare of green, except for the lines that ran around them every foot or so. Tor settled by the edge, hoping that it wasn't against the rules to land here. Things like that varied from place to place. There were people and they looked at him, but smiled in a way that felt friendly, a few even waved to him. Possibly inspired by the trees?
Almost all of them wore simple clothing, made of a light, airy looking material. Most, but not all, of the women wore white dresses that flew outward as they spun, not rising high enough to show more than leg. Mainly at least. A few had darker flashes showing in the mor
e athletic moves. People smiled at him and called out hello, so he waved back to them too. It certainly seemed to be a friendly enough place.
A man wearing light blue clothing and a funny hat that looked like a helmet, who had a club on his right hip, walked over to Tor, also smiling.
“Stranger! We don't have a lot of people flying in these days, do you need directions any place…” His voice tapper off. “You're covered with blood! Are you hurt? Do you need a doctor… or anything?”
Tor looked down. It was dried blood, brown and crusty, but blood none the less. Ah. He should probably explain before this guy flipped out and called in a team of surgeons or something.
“It's not mine. I cut the foot off a man that attacked me earlier, he's a Noram kingdom soldier, I got the blood on me when I put it back on.” Tor lifted a hand as the man stiffened. “That sounds bad, but I cut the foot off by accident and I did fix it, so that should count for something right? He has both feet now and they work fine. I managed to heal it.” His voice sounded just a bit desperate, but, oh well, he was telling the truth. He couldn't think of anything else to do.
The man laughed, either thinking Tor was joking or that anyone that would both cut off and then repair a man’s foot was worth chuckling over. After a few seconds Tor joined in, probably sounding just a little maniacal. It was a good point. Who did that anyway? Not anyone that was being sane and reasonable. Finally several other people walked over, most with deep brown skin that reminded him a little of his friend Petra and her mom, Ellen.
“Ah! So, did you come for our festival then? If your dressed like this, flying, and claiming to have been fighting Noram soldiers… Let me guess, you must be Torrence Baker? Here to save us all maybe?”
Tor blinked.
“Um, yes… how did you know?”
