by Power, P. S.
The face, older and lined, smiled politely.
"Table for one today, sir?"
The last word reminded him of how Will had kept calling him that. True with a different accent, but it caused the thought of the man exploding, or whatever that was, to come up in front of him again.
"Um... Really, I don't know. Sixteen at last count, but there could be a lot more. Or less. At least three?" That probably wasn't helpful, but the man just nodded. So deeply it was nearly a bow.
"Understood, sir. This way? I think we can bring another table over." There was no activity to that end directly, the man leading him to the back left side. It was away from the door, which would make it harder for anyone to sneak up on him. If they attacked from the front there was no place to run however. So a tradeoff. Which way was the right one, or at least better, he didn't know at the moment.
Running, rather than being beaten, made sense to him. That meant more practice. Both flying and running on his own feet. Neglecting either could get him killed. Especially now that he didn't have a ship anymore. That part was sad.
Worse, Tim had trusted him to have it, and he'd thrown it away. Into the Sun. There wasn't even a chance to recover it now. Not that he could think of anything that would have let him keep it and still live, so, if he had to make the trade, he would.
The nice gray haired man that was helping him pulled a chair out for him, then moved back.
"Would you like anything to start with, sir? A drink perhaps, or would you prefer to wait for your party?"
"Ah... Well, not to be rude, but I'm starving. Could I get the..." He tried to think, but the only thing that came to mind was the dish he'd had the last time he was there. "Chips and cheese? I don't know what it's called. Marissa made it for me and Tenet the last time I was here."
He nodded then, and smiled.
"I know just the dish. It won't be a moment. Would you like anything else?"
Thinking he nodded.
"Um... yes. Do you have Austran protein drinks here? There was a thing, and... I had to do a lot of healing."
The man changed then, staring at him and going still at the same time.
"Right." Then he turned and simply started yelling, which wasn't fitting the rich and well appointed space at all. "Colville! Prince Tenet's dish, along with a large protein shake. Expedite it!" His words sounded more Austran suddenly, but softened when he turned.
Bowing he spoke gently.
"It won't be but a moment. Please forgive the raised voice. My old military training came out."
"Thanks. I am hungry. It probably isn't that big of a deal. Yet."
Before he could even think of what to say next, a man, who looked to be about thirty or so, and who was incredibly well groomed, though he did have bright green hair, walked toward them quickly, holding a large covered platter of something and a tray with a pitcher and an empty glass on it. The whole thing landed in front of him swiftly. It was uncovered as if the man were nearly dancing, and the glass was filled, leaving an inch of space free from the top, which was a bit lower than normal, but made sense. After all, if he were injured or recovering he could be shaky. Which he was.
That was due to almost dying, but it worked the same way. He upended the glass, drinking it all without bothering to taste it. It was different than what he'd had before, being both thicker and far colder. There were in fact, bits of ice in it. The flavor was a bit better however, and had a rich, nearly coffee like overtone, without any hint of bitterness.
Taking a breath, half of it being gone, he looked at the men and tried to smile.
"This is very good. Thank you."
Then they walked away, almost as if he'd yelled for them to go. That would be really rude however, and he simply hadn't. What that meant he didn't really understand. Probably that both of these men had training about what happened after a person was in a fight. An emergency, at any rate. No one came back, leaving him to eat as fast as he could in public, not caring much about manners for the moment. He did keep himself clean, which was good, since a few minutes later everyone came in.
Way more people than he would have expected.
He stood up, since the Queen was there, near the front, and bowed toward her, then moved it over to hit everyone else. It was a group and he'd gone low, but Tor didn't bother doing it back moving in and hugging him. With a bit of manful back pounding, but warmly enough that he got the idea. The man, his father, had actually worried about him. For real. Not just trying to show everyone that he was a good person that didn't abandon his kids all over the place.
After a bit others tried to joining in, which meant he was kind of smothered in Baker family members, until Petra, Gerent and Count Ward got there. Then there was a combination of back poundings and hugs. Marvin did both, then stood back and took a deep breath.
"You seem whole and healthy. Eating, I see? We should get you more than that." He turned, but before he could call out, not one but several tables were brought over. There wasn't really enough room, but apparently when the Queen walks in and needed seating for a small mob, others took the hint and left her alone. Not all of them did, and some of the Austran looking people had handhelds out, getting pictures of everyone.
Count Ward, being helpful like he clearly was, waved and got Marissa to jog over. The all black woman looked just as exotic as always, and close up he could see she was smiling at them all. Not even with a look of panic on her face at the sudden explosion of people.
Thinking that caused him to recall the vast wave of darkness. How it literally had absorbed the light of the Sun, if only for a while.
"Miss, would you be so kind as to get more for our friend here to eat?" He didn't say what, and the woman didn't ask, just spinning and moving away at a run that was both intense and a good clip faster than most people could go. Then, she was an immortal, if he had it right. A lot of them had special abilities like that. For that matter, so did he, as little as they'd helped him that day.
Tor moved in, directly beside him, and looked nervous.
"We need too... Do you remember anything?"
That let him smile, nod, and sink into his chair, then drink the last of the protein stuff in a few large swigs.
"Almost all of it. Not when we fought, or, well kind of, but like before? That part was short however. Does anyone have a Truth amulet? We might as well get this down. We can use a handheld for that?"
Several people still were, after all. Realizing that Timon waved at them, his face serious and almost unpleasant.
"Sorry folks. We need you all to leave. Marissa, please lock up the front, then join us. I'll record it." He moved then, as if to enforce his ban on regular diners, but they all got the idea and removed themselves. A few groused a bit, having not finished their fine meals, but they left.
Tor fished out a Truth Amulet, and passed it over, without questioning the idea. Which was, of course, that Dareg intended to only tell the facts, no matter how he looked doing it. As soon as everyone had a place to sit, and the food started coming, he set the thing going with a tap.
A white aura that had a single yellow stripe down the center covered him totally.
"You all know how the Truth device works. If I lie, a black section will appear. So, this is what happened." He started at that morning, and covered everything.
His fear of dying. The worse one of losing everyone, or anyone to a battle, and the strange feeling that Will that had come wasn't just a scout. Then he went over everything else, not adding anything to it, and went on to the point when he finished healing and came inside at Harmony.
Then he blew out.
"So. I lost my jump ship." Then a bit dismally, needing the food, he ate for a while.
No one spoke, and Tim turned off the recording. Reaching up, Tor touched the amulet around his neck and helped him remove it. Turning it off in the process.
It was Alice who spoke first, smiling. Hugely.
"You fought a worse threat than we faced before. By yourself
, alone, and destroyed it utterly? Not bad." That last bit was casual but seemed nearly chipper. "In two fights, we've had one hundred percent success in driving them back. This time one on one. That will have to get them thinking about their plans. Unfortunately, it probably won't stop them."
Dare shook his head.
"Not really. Of the known fights, we've won. When people lose, we probably won't know any more than that they died. It was close. If he'd been... Really, he should have attacked on the ground, or even better, attacked me alone. He seemed confident though. Like fighting all of you wasn't the real issue. That could have been playing, but... I can't see this as much better. Worse, it seemed that he died then that dark thing happened. It was hard to tell. He was far away, but there was a flare first, like he was glowing from the Sun burning him. Most people don't have ships to throw away like that. Even if I did, I would have died, if not for the jump shield Timon gave me. This was so..." He didn't know how to say the words, but several people up and down the table seemed to understand.
Tess, who hadn't said more than she was glad he'd lived, spoke then, her voice mellow.
"We need to find out how powerful, or at least large, that blast, or whatever, of darkness, was. I wonder if any of the observatories in Austra, or the space based ones, caught anything?" She didn't do anything toward finding out about that, just mentioning the idea.
It wasn't a bad one.
Not that it would fix anything. For the moment though, Dareg decided to relax. If he ever could again. Shaking his head, he picked up a strange, fluffy looking meat sandwich, which was delicious. Enough that it actually distracted him for a second.
"This is very nice. Thanks Marissa." He took another bite and swallowed before he went on. "We should get with the Austran's on this and check. I... Um, have some contacts? The people that I'm supposed to take to Jupiter in a month. We'll have to plan something else for your party, King Dorgal. Sorry about that." He sounded sad about it, and was, but Tim just waved at him a bit.
"Don't worry. I have a new batch of the things that will be ready before then, so that won't be a problem. I need to send this report out. We should... Dareg, do you want to stay here?" He didn't mean the nice restaurant, though his plans did involve it until he ran out of room to place food in.
Dare shook his head.
"No. I'm good. I need to get to that afternoon practice. Tomorrow I need to check on Austra, and see if their port is doing all right. I've totally fallen down there. After that... I want to work on the green belt project. Around those." That meant going over that part again, since he'd just mentioned that Will had come up with a few good ideas toward that end. Gerent whistled softly when he finished going over it.
The tall man, who wasn't even close to as good looking as most of the others there, not being a Baker by birth, looked at him from well down the large table. It was all a glossy black focus stone, if in four different sections.
"That is good. I'll come in and help with that part? We need to get with Abbey, too. She's in charge of animals for us. If we have ponds we should at least have fish. Some other things as well I bet."
It seemed like a plan to him, but a small woman, his grandmother, if he had it right, who looked disturbingly young for that, and like she could be his slightly older sister, slapped the table.
"I don't think so! He nearly died today! All of you did. We need to keep him safe. We should have him come live here." She looked at him and seemed very worried, which was interesting to see, given they'd only met twice before. "Just for a while. Until it's safe."
Alice cleared her throat, and got a scowl from the other woman. It wasn't just a warning not to contradict her, but seemed to be filled with actual dislike. Which was strange, given that Alice was a nice enough person, as far as he could tell.
"I must disagree. This boy is one of the very few who has successfully fought against this new kind of opponent. We need to study his tricks and make sure we all have them available. That one, tossing them into the sun, worked rather well today. I have to guess that it won't always be as easy to get them to go along for the ride, but it could come up. Can we get more ships? Perhaps a way to call back the amulets they're on before they go into the fire?"
That got several of the people to start planning things right then, and there was no more talk about him moving to Harmony. Which was fine with him. Because the real truth was that they were all in danger. Everywhere they went. It seemed to be only happenstance that Will had come to him, looking for a way into the place. He could have simply walked into Sam's palace and done his thing.
Standing outside the King's palace could have worked too, depending on what the effect was. How big and powerful. Unless it did something else.
The only thing that they could hope for would be that it didn't happen every time one of the more powerful enemy was killed.
Otherwise, even if they won, they lost.
Chapter eleven
The next day he woke up without anyone waiting for him at the door. Then it was still dark out, so that would have pretty much indicated an attack coming. To Dareg's mind, anyway. As with the last big event, no one did anything about it, since there was nothing to do. The plan was still to collect information and pass it to the people that were supposed to be dealing with it.
Not some kid no one knew.
It had been William Smythe that had suggested to him that his part would be in providing information about what had happened, instead of being in on the planning. That was fair enough to Dare. For some reasons the others, some of them, seemed to think he was planning some kind of big... Thing. To fight all of the Adversaries himself.
Proving that even brilliant people could be fools at times.
They hadn't tried to order him around though, so he woke up in his own bed, and cleaned up quickly, then went running. The day might be hot, later, but before dawn the air was crisp. Almost cold. That meant he had to run faster, to keep warm. Instead of doing one, or even two trips back and forth to the Capital, he ran fast and did three. Then he got some food from Tam-Unit, and moved straight off to the far coast. Flying into space using his shield, jumping across the world carefully and landing before anyone was out in the practice court.
Since it was a few hours earlier back at his house, as far as the sun was concerned. That meant he hadn't slept long at all. It was the fault of the nightmares, so that part wasn't something he didn't get. Bill kept coming to his door, and trying to fight him. Most of the time he managed to run away, but in some of the visions he just died.
Over and over. For hours, until he got himself going for the day.
Thinking to what he'd done the last time, he started working with the stones, doing twenty repetitions with each one, and all the exercises he could recall having done. Then he worked on the pell, as hard as he could, battering the fresh, very thick, upright log until it was about half gone in the middle.
Other people came, eventually, but not that many. Just three.
Baron Havar, Countier David Derring, and some boy who was a bit pudgy and who seemed upset about something. Angry, rather than sad or weepy.
"I missed a class. Singular. It happens. I just didn't feel well." The kid, who was probably older than Dare was, whined. Not a lot, but it was clear that Baron Havar was annoyed. That was easy to see, since he sneered at the boy.
"That isn't an excuse. We have healing amulets here. Being lazy also isn't an excuse. You miss a day, you come in on your off days. Two for one." The large man, who had wrinkles by his eyes and a hard looking form under his tan work clothing, smiled at Dareg.
"Dare! Come to damage our pells? That one was fresh, yesterday. Good work." He gestured at his head, and nodded firmly. "Good fighters cut. No one is pulling that. David and I were going to beat Willet here. Taking turns. Full force."
The pudgy fellow winced, but didn't speak again. It wasn't a fun thing to be beaten by anyone. Especially if they were larger and stronger than you were. Stilling his mind, Dareg read a
ll of them, which took a good bit of work still. They were there, so that was a good sign. Will hadn't been. Even Tor had said so. Timon too, though that was later, after everyone was starting to leave. It was the name, Willet, which was a common enough one, but too close to Will for him not to be certain of.
So far he'd checked everyone that way, trying to get into the habit. It showed that his skills weren't totally up to the task, since it took him way too long, or had so far. He might be able to do it, after a rough fashion, and make copies, but even being in the same room as Tor, Timon and Queen Tiera had showed him that he knew almost nothing that way. It wasn't just about the power to do something, there was real skill involved in creating things that worked with the world, and made things happen.
He tried to smile, and bowed to the Baron, who did it back, going just a bit deeper.
"Right. I'll work with Willet here first, then we can decide how to best take you two on, together?" It was a changeup, but Dare had worked with these men before, and both had beaten him easily, and hard.
He had abilities too. Better than average strength and speed, for instance. Willet didn't seem to. Really, he was so heavy and soft looking that he clearly didn't practice anything physical too often. Well, other than eating. It was impressive in a way. Dareg had seen a couple of chubby people in the past, and a few who were actually fat, but never this close up.
Willet, instead of taking his offer up, sneered at him. That got Dare to grin. If he took off the amulet that stopped his pheromones from assaulting the kid in front of him, he wouldn't have done that kind of thing.
The boy, who had sandy colored hair, managed a credible glare then.
"Do you know who I am?"
Dareg didn't, so bowed, going low, just in case it was important. They normally didn't do a lot of that in the fighting square, but he'd kind of started it.
"Forgive me, I don't. I beg forgiveness if my offer to take part of the beating for you gave insult, sir." He didn't hold the bow, since he really hadn't meant anything by it.
