Light Bringer (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 2)

by Power, P. S.

  "That's right. We can get that to her... Call it three hours? Are you taking it up yourself?"

  "No. I'll off load those with you, if that's all right? You have lots of stripes on your sleeve, so that means important, correct?" Those were orange, and he had four of them, which was a lot. In Alice's colors, too. It was sort of a way to mark him as chosen by her, Dareg bet.

  The man nodded, his gray hair short and tidy above his lined face.

  "Captain. The Winter's Kiss. Normally I just do transfer runs, but I'm on a training rotation. Teaching pilots this section. So that should be fine. Leaving the ships with me. I'll get you a receipt? We have no paper. Do you have a pad?" He picked up his own stone sheet, to show what he meant, but the answer was a simple no.

  Dare had used one before, once, but that was all.

  "Sorry, no." His eyes felt heavy, and he nearly nodded off, right there, standing in the training center.

  That didn't get mentioned, thankfully. After a moment, he pulled his communications device, tabbed Alice, and hit his disguise amulet almost all at once.

  "Orange, go."

  "Dareg. I'm in your training center with the ships. This man..." He held the device so it would show him, the Captain behind the desk, "has them, or will. Sixty jump ships. This is the receipt, so make a note of it."

  Rather than yell at him about it, there was just a sound of clicking for a bit.

  "Got it. George Howell, Captain. Sixty craft. Confirm that George?"

  In order for that to work the man needed the tiles, so they had to be liberated from the chest, and counted. They'd been delivered in a silk looking bag, since it was made of magic, and the transfer had been in a magic shop. That didn't take long, so when the tiles were, very carefully, put back in their sack, the older man nodded.

  "I have receipt of the craft, Admiral. We should have them to you in... Two hours and fifty-seven minutes. Give or take a bit."

  Alice laughed, seeming pleased about the whole thing.

  "Good work, Canton. I'll be with you in the next few days to set the schedule you want. I need to move some people around..." The device went silent and dark. Without bothering to say goodbye.

  Rude of her, really.

  The Captain smiled at him, and moved back, thinking they were done. Not having anything more, Dare just bowed to the man.

  "Thank you. I'll be leaving now. Oh... The two women on the gate? Are they available to act as crew on the Saturn trip in a few days?" He had to give their names, but the man made a note on his pad, so that he could check that out later. Not that they'd volunteered, but it made sense to him not to have just the people of Harmony doing all the work.

  It was a real drag, getting back to the ship, and Dareg just headed back to the Capital, needing sleep so suddenly that it probably wasn't totally safe to be flying. Twice he found himself just waking up, hovering in the air. When he landed, the ship was taken down finally. Then he headed back to his pod house, and regretted having hidden the door earlier. His fuzzy brain didn't want to let him focus enough to get in.

  That meant it was nearly ten minutes later when he got inside, stumbling to his bed again. There were people outside, but he didn't know what time it actually was any longer. Dare didn't know how long he slept, being woken up by his communications device buzzing at him. It was in his pocket, so he pulled it out, the room around him nearly pitch black. When it came on he saw, to his surprise, that it was King Richard.

  That got him to sit up.

  The man had a vastly deep voice, and his red hair was without a crown at the moment.

  "Hello? There's no picture?"

  Dare touched the wall turning the lights on, and squinting as it happened. It was too bright, so his eyes just closed on their own.

  "Hey. I was just taking a nap. Is everything all right?" He fought to stand up, the covers from the bed off of him already, since he'd failed to get himself under them in the first place. He was still dressed, and even had all his magic on him, if he was needed. It would be good to brush his teeth, but if there was an emergency, he could go from there.

  "Dareg! No one has been able to get in touch with you. We do have a bit of an issue. Baron Loxley, in County Riven? His lands are being flooded. There was a storm... Not one of the old killers, thankfully, but we need to get some emergency workers to him. Unfortunately all of the Noram craft are busy for the time being. I was hoping I could..." He hesitated, staring a bit at Dare's sleepy face.

  For his part, Dareg grinned.

  "Right. Let me get to that. Where are the workers? Plus, I need a map, so I can find this place. Riven? That's straight up, in the north, right? The frozen lands?"

  King Richard smiled, and then shook his head.

  "All the way to the south. Just above Soam. It's warm there. The men and women are up at Wildlands Station. That's about two hundred miles straight north of us here. Tor owns it, but we also have the focus stone manufacturing unit housed there. I'll have them standing by. Can you fly in the dark?"

  "If there's a marker on the ground, I can. We'll go up into orbit first, then sink down. Otherwise we'll have to wait for light."

  It was the truth, but didn't daunt the King, who, as soon as Dare could actually see him again, looked a bit sleepy himself. That probably meant that this call was coming in the wee hours of the morning. That was fine though. He moved toward the door of his tiny pod, then stopped.

  "Oh, right. Can I get a meeting with you tomorrow? Prince Tenet, Princess Tess and the Ancient of Soam, Taman Baker, asked me to set up a get together with you and Queen Constance. They can do it whenever you like, but I'm off to Saturn for a week in two days. Not that I have to be there for it. I think they mean it as a family get together, rather than a secret meeting, but you never know with those royal types."

  The King smiled, a bit sleepily, and reached to his side, to pick something up. A book, which he read for a few seconds.

  "Would... Dinner be all right? We don't have anything official planned, but I'm certain we can put one together for such esteemed personages. Or does this need to be private?"

  Dareg shrugged, too tired to think about how rude that probably was, while dealing with a King.

  "They're bringing you a present, and don't seem to want anything other than to say hello. So if they're planning intrigue or anything they didn't mention it to me. I doubt that though. Tenet and Tess both seem nice. Taman, too, of course. I... Think that treating them like family will work? That's how it was all presented to me."

  That got a small, polite nod.

  "I can work that out. Dinner then. I should get with the base commander at Wildlands. A man named Jones. Captain Jones. Can you set up right in front of the base? That will be fastest I think."

  "On that now. I should be there in about fifteen minutes?" He felt a bit low, thinking it, but really wanted to brush his teeth first. There was a flood though, so as soon as King Richard tabbed off, he tucked the device back in his pocket and stumble ran to the wash room. He moved fast and it was all a little sketchy he didn't doubt, but better than nothing.

  He ran once the door was hidden. Slapping his ship up, he flew fast, hoping he would be able to tell where the right place was. Thankfully there was only one dark blob that had magical lights near the correct location, and what looked to be several hundred bodies standing under the bright lights. There was a hasty, kind of oddly shaped, circle of brilliant blue on the ground too, which was just about big enough for a full sized ship to be put up.

  He landed in the center, about a thousand feet from the lines of people, and let the craft grow larger. It wanted to, so it wasn't hard. The biggest thing with that was not letting it fold out to the mountain sized thing it desired to be. The color stayed black, which was a bit of a mistake, if they were going in at night. So instead, after a few seconds of thinking about it, he made it glow purple, with a gold stripe down the middle. Then he opened the side so people could load up, and created seats for about four hundred people. Large, co
mfortable things that sat in four rows of four seats. Lots of them. Way more than they had a need for he bet.

  The men, and women, charged into the ship, with a medium sized man with short blonde hair jogging to where he was sitting up near the front.

  "Captain Jones. Royal Army. Are you our ride to Loxley?" The man didn't smile, even as hundreds of bodies ran into place. Before he could answer, the space being a bit noisy, the last body came in, and yelled about it.

  "Last aboard! Go, go!" The man sank into a seat, so Dare took them up and turned the craft south.

  "Right. To Loxley. I'm going up high first. Do we have any kind of marker on the ground there?"

  It was the Captain right next to him that answered, his voice a bit stressed.

  "Three small green lights? They weren't ready for floods, I guess. We need to build a levee wall. We have the equipment, but are going to need light."

  Dareg took them straight up, moved south, and lowered a lot. After about five minutes of sinking, Captain Jones pointed his face tense.

  "There we go, right there. Three lights. Green. Or close enough. One is blue, but I bet that's it. Shall we?"

  Nodding they sank toward the light, to find a clutch of men standing on top of a stone structure that was long and sort of road like. Also surrounded by water. Meaning there was no place to land easily.

  It was clear that the thing was made of focus stone, once he closed with the structure, though it seemed older. It was part of a city wall. Both sides had water on it however, though inside you could just make out the buildings.

  They were clearly supposed to land...

  Nowhere. Before Jones had an issue with that, Dare worked out what to do.

  "I can let you off on the wall. Then I'll move over to where the work is needed, and make the ship glow brighter, so you can all see what's needed."

  The men and women in black had all charged onto his craft, running the whole time, while carrying their gear. Now they carefully moved onto the top of a wall that was about ten feet thick, as he hovered right next to it. There was a drop of about two feet, but knocking the wall down probably wouldn't go over that well.

  As soon as the first bodies were on the thing, one of the green lights moved away, waving in the direction they all needed to go. Captain Jones piled out, going last.

  "We're here for the duration. Can you get us that light until dawn? We were told that there would just be a drop off? I didn't know we'd get anything past that, from what was said."

  "We can do that. I have things to do later, but it won't be a problem for now."

  That got a wave from the man, who was merchant tall, but didn't seem to look down on him or anything. Then, the man hadn't bothered to ask his name either. He was just the pilot of the day. Apparently that was enough, since the man had seemed shocked that there was more than a ride to the disaster area.

  He had to follow the line of bodies to get to the work area, but it was very clear to see what was needed. A large wall along a big river had broken. Water was pouring through the thick thing, which was responsible for all the flooding that was visible. Yes, there was too much water, but the real issue was that one thing.

  Dare could see it as soon as he made the ship light up appropriately. Like the sun itself. That meant going upward, since otherwise people would be left blind if they looked up. He had to dim the shield window just so he didn't end up sightless himself. It was hard to see what the men and women on the ground were getting up to, but they moved around, and after many hours of this, as the sun came up, he was able to dim the light and see what had been going on.

  A lot, as it turned out.

  The construction crew had sealed the breach, using magical devices to move damp earth, and concentrators to turn it into focus stone. There were other cracks that had opened up, which meant those had to be fixed up as well, but just stopping the constant flow allowed the city inside the wall to empty out through the other side.

  After a while Dareg lowered the craft, to get some water. His stomach was rumbling, and while the ship had the ability to turn pretty much anything into food, or clean water, it needed something to work from. So he pumped a tank on the bottom side full, with thousands of gallons, and moved the ship down to the wall carefully, causing one of the walls to drop totally. The inside had to be shifted around, making tables for people to eat at, and chairs that were comfortable, but not the cushy things from before.

  Dareg started putting out plates of food, all of it egg toast with honey, and fried eggs, on a long counter. There was sausage, too. Also a knife and fork on each plate. It was what he wanted, and he'd managed about twenty of them when people figured out what an array of filled plates likely meant. No one asked if it was for them, until the first fifteen or so had theirs and were tiredly consuming food at the tables.

  It was Jones that walked over, smiling when a plate was taken from the glowing hole in the wall and shoved into his hands.

  "Eat. I need to soon, myself. You look to be nearly done here?"

  That got a head shake. The man didn't move to sit down, just taking some sausage and eating it while standing there. Each plate had four of them, and they were nearly identical, since that was the image that Dareg had for such things. Crispy on the outside, but not over done.

  "We need to cover the second breach still. This was the worst of it, but whoever built this mess to begin with was a moron. We'll be here until mid-afternoon. That's if we make good time." There was no hinting that it would be nice if the craft stayed so they'd have food, water, and nice restrooms. That reminded him to set that part up. He touched the wall, making it happen, and noticed that nearly a third of the people saw it and stood up, leaving their food where it was, in order to seek that kind of relief.

  Nodding, he started back up making things to eat. It was all the same, but so far no one was complaining about that. It was decently well done, after all.

  "All right. I don't know my schedule. I need to get in touch with some people from Harmony. We have to be at the King's Palace for dinner tonight, so they need to be ready. They can get there without me if it's needed though. Clearly a disaster comes first." That made sense to him. Probably to King Richard too.

  Captain Jones had mud and damp spots on his black outfit, which seemed to be real, being made of heavy cloth and not magic. His boots were dingy too, now. All the dampness had been hard on everyone, it seemed.

  The man in charge, who looked to be in his late twenties or thereabout, just sighed, and shook his head.

  "Is that where you're from? I was just told that we didn't have transport available, then the General called me back ten minutes later and said to get everyone out front for pickup. I guess that makes sense. They have most of the good ships, right? Are you in their... Army? I don't know what that would be there. Ships, so, navy? Fleet?" The man seemed too tired to be embarrassed by being wrong about what he was saying. That or military men didn't hold to those silly standards about things they didn't know yet. The nobles often did, but that had never made sense to him. It made a lot more sense to just say that you didn't know and learn about it, to him at least.

  "Oh... Yes. Sorry. Prince Dareg, of Harmony? King Richard got in touch with me to set this up. One of my jobs is making sure that people get help in emergencies." Or close enough.

  The man looked at him, then bowed. It was awkward, holding a plate of food, but he went fairly deep. After clearing the latest plate of food, he did it back.

  "I see. Well, please forgive me if I was rude at any point? I should have known, but I really just didn't think about it. Busy, you know?"

  That one got a nod, since flooding seemed a bit distracting to him, personally.

  "Good point, and no, you were all fine, the whole time. Let me know where we need to be, and I'll ferry everyone to the other work site? Maybe that will speed things up, and I can get to dinner on time? I'm going to need more sleep soon. You can wake me up when you're done, right?" He was trying to joke, but the Captain
actually just assigned a woman that had a watch to do exactly that.

  After they ate, they got right back to work. All of them.

  Chapter three

  Thankfully his part in things was both rather hemmed in at the moment, needing to clean up and watch his ship for the time being. That meant about ten minutes of work, cleaning plates by tossing them into the working materials for the ship, and brushing a lot of crumbs. Tired soldiers were a bit messy, it seemed. So was he, but that wasn't an excuse not to make certain things were tidy, after the fact.

  Then he sat for a while, resting, and getting in touch with everyone. It was daytime now, so he called up the people on the Moon first. After all, he had no clue what their schedules were, but had been woken up in the middle of the night himself. Sure, he had his stepmother's wonderful waking device, on him even, but being a little low energy he hadn't wanted to risk pushing himself yet.

  They were all still awake however, and excited to be going off to visit later. None of them were even upset when he suggested they had to get themselves to the Noram King's Palace before nine that night. Tenet just listened to him, and nodded.

  "Do you need help? There? We can get a crew together. That doesn't sound too different than an air breach, so I bet we have some tricks that will work for it."

  Tess and Taman hadn't mentioned that sort of thing, but they were women. That made a difference as to what kind of help they might think to offer, Dare thought. It was possible that they'd just figured Dareg would handle it however. They weren't bad people after all, from what little he'd seen. Sure, Taman had tried to make him have sex, but that was just so she could get pregnant. It sounded horribly creepy, and was, but she'd let Timon fix that for her, or so it seemed. The honest truth was that he hadn't been able to check so far. She hadn't jumped him at luncheon, but she wouldn't have, with the other right there, watching them like they were.

  "We should be good here, but if that changes, or is different than I think, I'd like to keep that option open? My bet is that I'll even be able to be there tonight, if I can get a bit more sleep first." His eyes were heavy still, but he didn't yawn for once.