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

by Power, P. S.

  Which would put him in at two in the afternoon. That wasn't exactly morning at all.

  For a moment he sat, then decided stretching was in order, to be followed by food and a shower. He cleaned up first, then got more food from Tam-Unit than seemed prudent, but he really did feel fantastically starved for some reason.

  Then he thought for a minute and checked with his media friends. That just meant calling Tomas Early, since he was, more or less, in charge of that part of things.

  When the fellow picked up, he looked a tiny bit bleak.

  "Prince Dareg? I wasn't certain we were still doing this today. I heard a rumor that Channel Seventeen Lima had been put in as the official crew. The government did it?"

  "Not that I've heard of. It doesn't matter anyway. You and the rest are going with me. It's my ship, and the satellites were given to me for you to use. I can't imagine this other group has the right things to make this work. They can come if they want, if it isn't a set up. No one asked me about it however. I was just getting in touch to make certain you knew to get there at the right time. Two, I guess? That seems late to me, but fine. I'm just getting up now, myself. I'll probably sleep the whole time. Most of it. I'll get with Mike Coltress and make sure that they know not to try and rob my friends of their trip."

  That part made him feel mad, which seemed to show on his face. Tom winced anyway.

  "I don't want there to be trouble on our account... Not that I won't show up at the port anyway. Bags packed." There was a bit of straightening, his hair blue and purple at the moment, with a decal or tattoo on his right cheek that looked fresh, and sparkling. Probably a new look just for the special trip, since it was of Saturn, or at least a stylized version of it.

  "No trouble. I'm just not certain where these new people come in. Let me check."

  He said his goodbyes, and found Mike Coltress much faster this time. He was shaking a bit, in rage, and had to try and force himself to go back toward normal. The look seemed to carry again, and the man actually seemed frightened. That was hidden, but not perfectly.

  "Prince Dareg?"

  "Coltress." It came out almost as a hiss, "I was just on with my media man. Tomas Early? He mentioned that the government there is trying to place spies on my ship? Or, he was more polite than that, but isn't it enough to have twenty-odd of their scientists coming? They want to remove my friends? Without asking me first?" There was shaking in the words, which got an intake of air that came out slowly.

  "I... Had not been informed of that. It might just be a rival crew trying to grab some of the ratings, did they have a name?"

  "Channel Seventeen Lima?"

  "Right. Let me check on this. I'm sorry about any inconvenience. It's most likely just a rumor that grew legs. That's a real thing here. Not physical legs, of course, but things to spread. Can I get with you in half an hour?"

  "Do it. Please. Forgive my bothering you." He stared at the man, who nodded, twice.

  "That's my job. I'll see about this directly."

  Dareg settled back, in his chair, and looked at the box of things he was taking with him. Most of what he needed was on amulets, but he wanted toothpaste, some soap, and a toothbrush. It made a small pile of things, and decided that putting it in a cloth bag, or a magical one that looked like that, was good enough. The rest of his things were amulets. Magical things that didn't take up much space. He had his shield on him, which reminded him of something.

  An annoying thing, in that he needed to get shields for all of the people going with him. Grimacing he knew that it was going to force him to spend an hour going to the Moon, in order to find that kind of thing. Instead he tried to be lazy, and called Tenet first, in case he'd gone back to Harmony for the night.

  The giant face smiled when the hand unit was picked up.

  "Dareg! What may I do for you?"

  With a sigh, it was clear the man was not only not on the Moon, but was actually there, outside, at the port.

  "I need to get shields for the people going, but forgot until now. I was hoping you could pick some up at the magic shop, but I guess I need to make a run."

  His newest uncle shook his head, but still smiled.

  "Nope. I can run those up. We're meeting in an hour and a half? That's a rush, but... I'll have them. See you in a bit?" Then he tapped the screen, shutting the thing off, a vast finger being the last thing visible.

  It was a bit of a shock to his system, being told that the complicated shields were a thing that the man could just sit down and make like that. In less time than seemed normal. Not that he knew about magic. It had the feeling of a thing that should take weeks at the very least, but apparently not.

  So he sat for a bit, not knowing what he was really supposed to be doing at that point. People would be there at seven, and it was about four-fifteen. That probably meant Tenet was wrong about the time, being thrown off, coming from Harmony. For a moment he considered telling the fellow about it, but didn't, since being a bit early wasn't going to be a huge problem.

  Time moved by at a normal enough rate, but no one else got in touch with him. In fact, it became a bit odd after a little over an hour and a half. Going outside he saw Tenet sitting on his doorstep, holding a blue silk sack as he turned to look up at him.

  "Here you are! I have those shields. It didn't take that long. I think I might be getting a bit faster on my copy work. This is just a hundred of them. I don't think we need more than that?"

  "We shouldn't. That's a lot, isn't it? A hundred at once?"

  There was a look that spoke of something Dare didn't understand, but it came with a head shake.

  "See, that's what I keep trying to tell everyone, but no, Tim and Tor both do a thousand at once anymore. Even when they don't need to. I don't even know what Taman does. She won't tell any of us. Honestly I think that's so we won't sit around crying about how poor the rest of us are doing. You have her blue units here, so you've met them. That... No one else can do it. I think that Tor and Tim could, but they haven't. I tried, and can't repeat it. No one else can yet. I'm going to try the time thing soon. Tor walked us all through it last night. I think I can get it, now. Possibly." There was a sigh, and the man stood, to get out of the way. "Maybe. So, where is everyone?"

  "Coming in an hour, like they were supposed to? It's only six right now. I'm waiting for contact from Mike Coltress. He's in Austra. There seems to be some kind of problem with our media team? Someone else claiming that they're supposed to be going instead of the hand picked team I put together. That can't be right though. I mean, no one got in touch with me. Mike said he'd be back with me in half an hour... A little over an hour ago. Austrans are late a lot though, right?" That had been his personal experience in life. Then he'd only dealt with a few of them, and a lot of those had been in their government.

  Tenet tilted his head slightly, standing next to him, about six feet away.

  "Not particularly. Compared to the people from here they tend to be prompt really. Mike in particular. I can't remember him ever being late for anything. Ever. That probably means something is going wrong with this."

  Shrugging, Dareg pulled his handheld out, handing the shields back, so he could have his hands free to tap things out. It was that, or set them on the stoop, which seemed rude, considering the value. They weren't just shields, but ones made by a prince. That had to up the price.

  After a moment he tapped out the right name, and had Baron Mike Coltress's data coming up. There was no answer however. That wasn't impossible, since it happened if the device on the other end was in use at that time. Tabbing off, after a minute, he didn't know what to do.

  When he tried getting in touch with Tomas, the same thing happened. Finally, starting to get worried, he got in touch with the only other person in Austra he knew well enough to bother with that kind of thing. That had a handheld he could reach anyway.

  The Prime Minister. Foley.

  That got a response, from the man himself. Looking at his hand, the man winced.


  "Ah. Hello, Prince Dareg. There seems to be a small difficulty here. We rather sold the media rights to a rather serious news group, and they are not pleased that you have your own team as well."

  Dareg tilted his head, and furrowed his brow at that news.

  "You sell media rights? How does that work? Also, what does it mean here? I didn't sell anything, and you don't own Saturn or my ship, so..." He tried not to sound upset, but a bit of that came through. "Also, no one got with me on this?"

  The man shook his head, and then sighed.

  "Technically the idea is that we didn't want another problem like we had with the event a month ago. So we sold the rights to the highest bidder. It's how we normally solve problems here. No one thought that you'd have a plan in place as well. The problem here is that the sale already went through. We can't just refund their money here, since that would undermine any future action like this. People won't bother settling things peacefully if the process doesn't work. It isn't about the money, as I'm sure you understand."

  He did, though it left a problem, for him.

  "Okay. The difficulty here is that I gave my word to my friends, first, as far as I know. So, we have a real problem here. I can't go back on my word. From what you said these others won't simply let both groups go?"

  "I'm afraid not... We don't know what to do."

  Dare thought for a second, then laughed.

  "I have an idea that might work. That, or cause a war."

  That was everything though, anymore. There was a time, not long before when no one cared about what he did at all.

  Things had, it seemed, changed.

  Chapter five

  It wasn't possible to get things set up from where they were, it seemed, since half of the needed people, while in place on the ground, weren't answering any kind of device at all. It wasn't down to people calling in their friends with war ships either, as far as Dareg knew. That one almost made sense, but also didn't. This was, in the end, going to be important to about thirty people in the world.

  Karina was early, which got Dareg to hug her for a bit, before explaining anything. The situation was tense, but if worse came to worse he could simply leave the team he'd picked behind. It wasn't what he wanted to do, however.

  Tenet hadn't really said much about the issue, going silent, and just looking a bit annoyed. What that was about was hard to tell. Probably something along the lines of Dare not doing the right thing, or, possibly, that he'd not managed things well enough to prevent it from happening in the first place. It was, of course that one that was the real problem.

  If he'd known to keep things like that from happening, he could have not made the mistakes he had. Not that Karina saw it that way. She merely listened to the whole tale, then crossed her arms over her chest. She was in a Noram royal outfit that was black, with elements of purple and gold, for the trip.

  "Ahg. You know, I shouldn't have said anything in the first place. I thought that a simple distraction would work to keep them off you. I didn't realize the government there would think they owned your work. Slavery isn't legal in either land, so who knew they'd do that?"

  That got Tenet to close his eyes carefully.

  "I know. It's conflicting systems here. The Austrans used their own method of forestalling problems, which is suddenly going up against Prince Dareg's very honor. They aren't animals, but the idea of not just going along with the highest bidder is unheard of there. Once a sale is made, it's iron clad. You can't just get Tor to deliver a bundle of gold for this. I... Don't know what to do. Not that will get us out of this without bloodshed."

  Dare had an idea, though it might not really work.

  To start with, he had to get his ship set up, making it big enough for the three of them. After they all climbed in he explained the first part.

  "I'm making it full size, so we can get water from the ocean. Not that we'll need that much. Then, after we get there, I'm going to have a chat with some people." The way the words came out it sounded like the discussion might be fatal.

  That was due to the combat rage though, and nothing more. He started taking deep breaths and closed his eyes. Going off like a madman wasn't going to help anyone. Worse, it was going to leave him exhausted he was willing to bet. When he looked around both of the others nodded.

  It was enough to get him going upward. There was a protocol to it, which he followed, even feeling dangerously ready to fight. Upward two thousand feet, and ten miles to the west before getting underway. Then, after a quick rise into orbit, and a single jump, he brought the craft down over Austra, halfway across the world. Really was a bit away from the southern end, so the missiles wouldn't get them.

  Tenet sucked air into his lungs like it was a big deal. Karina didn't.

  "He's good at this, isn't he? There's a reason he found Saturn. Here I'd figured that getting to Mars the first time in a month's worth of jumps was special. I still need to get those lessons, by the way. In jump piloting?"

  "Of course. I think it's just resetting what you focus on a little bit, to be honest. Let's see. I'm thinking big, and... White instead of black this time? Maybe..." What he envisioned was different than anything he'd ever heard of, unfolding upward, as much as it would go, and turning a nice cream color. The ship was rounded, though fatter at the bottom, with shield windows for almost every room. The hard part was tracing all the plumbing and power, actually.

  After about five minutes, the now vast ship settled on the ocean and tried to drink it all. That happened in ten locations, rivers worth of water rushing into the bottom section, which had been built just for that. It took nearly half an hour to fill, the space just being that big. Once it was done and the pumps put away, he moved toward the docks very slowly, letting the entire trip take about twenty minutes to cover the fifteen miles or so they had to travel.

  Then it was time to change his clothing and hair. He used his disguise amulet, and altered his hair color to blue and purple, like Tomas had going on, and placed a more realistic view of Saturn on his cheek, just above his beard. To his surprise Karina did the same, except that when she was done her hair was all done in purple, gold and red, and there was a picture of Mars on her face.

  It was weird looking, but Tenet chuckled, clapped his huge hands and opened his eyes a bit.

  "Perfect. Let me see then?" After a moment he changed too, looking like a creature of living stone. All in gray, but with his own face and clothing. Then, on top of that he made his hair purple, gold and silver, and had an image of the Moon on his left cheek.

  That would work well enough.

  "Right. I'll settle at the docks. Everyone try to follow my lead, and don't kill me for it. This is risky." He didn't cover the plan, since they really would be bound to stop him.

  Just outside the door, standing in loose lines, and taking pictures of the craft, were about ten thousand people. The ones closest however were the scientists, and his friends the media crew. There was a collection of others there too, right next to them, seeming calmer than he would have expected. Probably due to Mike Coltress, who turned when people stopped making noise, and looked directly at all of them. It took the man a while, but when they got closer he bowed deeply.

  "Karina! I didn't know you were coming. Dressed for adventure, I hope? Not to start a war? I've been trying to work things out. I..." He looked at Dareg then, and seemed half panicked. "I told them that you might have to cancel the mission, due to breach of contract? That... Really would be better than killing people until things worked out."

  Dareg could see that one. Killing probably wasn't the best option most days.

  He spoke loudly.

  "There's been a bit of... An issue here. It seems that the government here mistakenly decided that I'm their slave now." It took a bit of effort to care to make his voice loud enough to be heard more than ten feet away.

  The crowd had gone as silent as a big group of people could, and several black orbs, along with two small rectangles powered by magic,
moved much closer to him, capturing what he was saying.

  "Now, I'm certain they aren't really saying that, though it seems like that to me. Selling the product of my labor, without permission, that isn't a good thing where I come from."

  Helpfully a man, who looked a bit older, and was standing with the scientists called out right then.

  "Here either! That isn't the way we do things." That got a mixed muttering, since some of the people really wanted to go to Saturn it seemed. That was what the general muttering was saying, as far as he could hear.

  When they slowed down a bit, Dareg went on.

  "So, just to fill you all in... I invited a crew for this, which leaves me bound... By unbreakable contract, to take them with me. The government of Austra, believing no doubt that they were acting in good faith, sold the rights for this event. What they didn't sell, or have right too, or knowledge of, was the new magics that will allow real time pictures from Saturn. Satellites, and what is going on in the ship. You have that ready, Jan? Nimbus?" They were, rather handily, dressed exactly alike. The whole group was, which made them all seem like they belonged there, while the other crew didn't so much. They were led by an attractive man who seemed about thirty. One who moved forward, so that he could speak and be heard.

  "But... My station won the bid..."

  To that, Dareg nodded.

  "I know. That has to count, but won't get the live footage back here. I'm suggesting that your people work with Tomas and his, so that you'll be able to share in the effort?"

  That was his big play. The fact that one team was clearly better provisioned for this mission than the other. They were Austrans however, so he figured that they were going to fight and start tossing shoes about in protest. Instead the good looking man with his gemlike green eyes pulled a strange handheld and held up a finger.