by P. S. Power
Tor shifted in the air, so he faced the girl and tilted his head a little. His left hand rested on the table after the turn, helping to steady him, not that he was wobbling before.
“Um, I don’t get it… They want me to apologize to Count Ward? For… giving his mother some stuff? Or… you don’t think they mean Maria do you? That was a while ago, and I’m willing to let things go, because we were both just kids and sometimes people do stupid and cruel things without realizing what they’re doing really, but I’m not apologizing to her for it. I didn’t do anything wrong after all, so I don’t think it would seem genuine anyway.”
His large redheaded friend cleared his throat.
“Ah no, Tor, dad wasn’t suggesting that.” Looking uneasy Rolph finally shrugged slowly.
“He means to have you apologize to Trice.”
Chapter thirteen
“What? Do you want me to apologize for being a short, child-like moron that kisses like a dog?” Tor asked, sarcasm dripping from him. It occurred to him that he might want to be a little more genteel with the King, considering the man could just as easily order his death as have another chair brought into the room. Still, it took him by surprise. His main point, well other than wondering what he’d have to apologize for in the first place, was simple enough.
“Why?”
That was the big thing in his mind. Varley started to take his arm gently, but the force fields collided. Instead she stood next to him, nearly the same height now that he was floating. Her dress, a nice light blue thing with a lot of frills and puff, managed to spread out along the edge of his shield. He looked down at the effect for a second, as it looked like the cloth wanted to ride along and around his own field, wrapping it in hers. He’d never thought of that happening, since he always wore pants. Could one field be wrapped in another? It didn’t have any ready purpose, he didn’t think, but it looked kind of cool.
Looking at him seriously, the King gave him a single nod.
“Precisely so. We’ll send an apology just like that, if you can’t come up with something better, along with some of your own devices. Things normally too expensive to simply get rid of or give away. That way, when Patricia does get rid of them, or gives them away out of spite, it will make it look like she hates you in truth. She’s not certain that the Wards and their friends are really buying her story yet.”
Blinking Tor suddenly felt really tired. Drained almost really. Like getting some sleep would be a good idea. He felt his eyes starting to close, but forced them back open and shook his head a little. Burks looked at him, blue eyes taking in everything about him it felt like for a minute, then finally the man gestured at him.
“We can do that, if you have anything lying around to send of?” Then the servant turned and stared at the King. It was unblinking, almost stern. “However, I think for now, at least a few weeks, we need to ensure that Tor takes a break. Such an “apology” doesn’t have to be in person. Better to use an intermediary actually, because that would seem more realistic right now. Ideally one reading from a note. Now, if we could get you to pen that, in your own hand, it would be good. Not absolutely needed, since the Wards probably don’t have a sample of your writing, but definitely harder to refute later if they check.” Waving at him a bit the man suddenly got a strange look on his face and stopped dead.
“Oh, of course… No one’s told you yet. Brilliant move that, Ricky, leave the one man who single handedly could destroy everything we’ve done in the dark, bumbling for a light.”
No one said anything for a while, but Tor remembered the King once telling him that he didn’t want to be called Rick or Ricky. Even now the large man winced when he heard it, but he didn’t challenge the other man at all, letting it pass instead.
The large man in black pseudo military garb took a deep breath and then exhaled, but nothing else came out at all. His mouth even opened a few times as if he wanted to say something but didn’t know how. All of Tor’s friends looked down, including Ursala, leaving only the Dean and Varley making direct eye contact with him.
“Well?” Tor asked softly, hoping someone would answer him.
The cute Princess did, sounding a little worried as she spoke, but plunging bravely ahead. Varley was good at doing things like that, at least with him. Too bad she was going to end up so tall, Tor thought and he looked into her eyes and held them for a second.
“This… I don’t know much here Tor, but my guess is that Trice has gotten inside with Ward and his group. However she’s done that, what dad wants you to do is goad her now, so that she has a real reason to publicly mock and rebuke you, which will make it look like she really hates you and that all possible ties between you are cut, but…” Turning away slowly, the girl started to pace. It was only a few steps before the wall forced her to turn back, but she did it several times before she turned to face him again.
“The thing is Tor, that this could end up being really, really public. Maybe. We know that she’s probably worked inside Ward and that she’s trying to get proof that she and her parents didn’t try to kill you, but we don’t know how far she’ll be willing to go in order to get that done. She could… Well, you think it’s bad so far, but if you did this, she could possibly push you into attacking her or her parents and no one here wants that either…”
It didn’t make a lot of sense at first. Trice was with Ward now? Well, he was certainly tall and good looking enough and probably didn’t kiss like a dog. About as close to the opposite of him as possible. She definitely wouldn’t feel like she was making a move on a child when she was with him at least. But he was supposed to poke her with an obviously fake apology? Like what David Derring did to Count Rodriguez when he apologized for existing?
OK. That he could get. The problem though would be like having poked a bear. In her hatred and anger at him she might attack. True, with words and lies, or maybe just unpleasant truths, but it could really hurt him and everyone knew it. But it might help her take down the Wards?
“Why would I want to help her do anything? I mean, especially if it gives her a chance and reason to come after me again? I guess I can buy that the Wards are somehow behind all this, even attacking me, but how do we know that Trice wasn’t with them all along?”
“We don’t.” Rolph said quietly, shifting in his wooden chair in a way that caused it to creak under his weight.
“All we really know is that the Wards, particularly Maria, may be behind this. I guess… It might not make sense to you right now, but we’ve all known Trice for longer than you have and, well, it pretty much comes down to that. She told the King that she didn’t try kill you, and that she intends to take down the people who did. Even that she really does love you. She’s working on credit from her past with us, but I can see how that might not be enough for you personally, not after what she did. She’s kept to her story with us, that she just said those things to get attention from anyone that dislikes you, but…”
Well, as long as he could see that Tor might be a little uncomfortable, then that made it all OK, didn’t it? Tor had to fight not to roll his eyes. Trice supposedly loved him now? God he’d hate to think what she’d have done if she’d really hated him then. The discussion that followed was hard, because he was exhausted, so tired he could barely pay attention to what everyone else said, he forced focus so that it wouldn’t look rude, but it was hard. The King never tried to order him to do anything in particular, but it was clear that almost everyone in the room thought it was a good plan, giving Trice something to use when she needed it.
Tor settled to the ground and paced himself for a while. It was a plan. Not a good plan and it had a major flaw, in that it required Trice to not only be able to get information from the Wards that would show they were guilty somehow, but actually be trying to. For all Tor knew the woman would just use his apology against him personally and nothing good would come of it ever. Not that he was all that worried. If people hated him because of what she said and no women would have him, well
, the sum worked out to be the same. Zero. No women wanted him anyway. So what did he lose by doing it? It was a risk, sure, but not one so big that he couldn’t take it, just in case the Wards really had tried to kill all those people.
Still, it seemed wrong and more than a little stupid for him to give over the keys to his personal destruction, at least socially, to a person he knew first hand hated him. Tor pointed this out. Several times. The whole room, except Burks, seemed to be on the side of his helping her out anyway. Well, Burks and Varley who at least seemed concerned for his feelings in the matter. That… was really pretty nice of her. There was no rule that said a Princess had to come to his defense at all, was there?
The servant just smiled at him calmly and waited to see what he’d say. Tor just looked around, until, finally Ursala spoke. Her voice was very quiet, so much so that if Tor hadn’t been walking directly behind her at the time he’d have missed what she said all together.
“They killed my parents. My child.” Nothing else came out. It wasn’t wheedling or begging or… anything. It was a simple, dark, statement.
Heartrending.
“ Alright… But when I’m even more of a social pariah and no women will talk to me and all men revile my name, I expect you people to be on my side. I’m talking hugs and cuddles all around here, pats on the back, the whole game.” Tor let his voice be quiet when he spoke too. This, he knew, probably wouldn’t be fun at all. He’d be better off just flying over with a few men for back-up and killing them all. Or maybe making a giant air choke that would do it from a mile away. In the night. They’d never wake up at all. The only problem with that would be filtering out the servants and others so that only the Wards were affected.
“You… can do that?” Rolph’s eyes went wide and he half stood for a second, then sat slowly, lowering himself into the chair instead of just dropping. It was more dignified and also probably saved on furniture, as big as he was, Tor thought suddenly, surprised he could think about anything other than the impending destruction of what little respect he might have left in the world.
Oh well.
If the price of getting justice for Karen, Ursala’s people and the rest was his dignity, as small and tarnished as it already was… Could he refuse? It sounded like a good deal over all, except for the part where he’d be the one suffering for it in the end. Then again, his suffering, no matter how great, was tiny compared to the universe as a whole. Nothing to get worked up over. Not really.
Funnily enough, it took almost everyone a while to understand that he’d just agreed with them. Agreed to risk whatever it was they were asking of him on the off chance that a person that might hate him more than anyone else in the world, could use it to catch some bad people. The only thing he could really hold out for himself in all this was that he was pretty sure that when it was all over he could move to some little town in the deep woods that didn’t have a baker already and start over.
What amazed him was that even after he agreed, Varley kept arguing that they shouldn’t do it.
“No. I won’t let this happen. He’s suffered enough in all this. He’s been poisoned, humiliated and maligned when all he’s ever done is help people. We can find some other way. Assassination or… We can call a forum and present overwhelming evidence… I don’t know. I guess that’s what this is about, trying to get that evidence, but we can’t ask this of him! Not after all he’s done for us. It’s… wrong. This isn’t asking some man or woman to spend their life heroically gaining honor in the process, this is… The exact opposite! “Hey Tor, let us strip you of all honor and dignity, oh, by the way, you get to live with the fallout from it forever. Have fun with that.” No. I… I forbid it.” Arms crossed her chest as she looked at them all defiantly, no one spoke for a long time and the room started to feel too close to Tor, not warm, but like there just wasn’t enough air for all of them with the door closed.
“Princess Veronica,” Dean Hardgrove spoke gently, his voice pleasant but serious at the same time. It was very nearly deferential; something that Tor hadn’t really noticed being there before, not even when he’d been speaking with the King a few minutes before.
“I’m not saying you’re incorrect, but please don’t think this is suggested lightly. Not every sacrifice a person is asked to make for the kingdom is one of honor. If you get a chance sometime, ask some of the Royal Guard what their oath is. I think you’ll find that nowhere within it does it assure them honor in the eyes of others, or that anyone will ever think well of them at all. What we’re asking for here, from Tor, is more than we would ever ask of any normal man, true. But he is no normal man. I think you can see that, can’t you?”
Varley spun on the man aggressively enough that for a moment it looked like she planned to fight him. The idea was ridiculous of course, or would have been if the Princess wasn’t sitting behind a fairly decent shield and probably had weapons actively on her person. Probably better equipped than most of the military commandos were, all things considered.
“Tor isn’t a Royal Guard! He’s not in the military and until two months ago, he wasn’t even a noble, not really. Would you ask me to sell my name and honor in the eyes of society just to catch some murderers? No offense Ursala… know that if you need me too, I’ll go and kill them myself… But please… don’t do this…” Her voice suddenly held tears, which were matched by Sara and Ursala after less than ten seconds.
Tor shook his head.
“Easy there Varley. I’m already considered an evil troll that’s probably responsible for all manner of bad things and can’t get a girl, which probably means I like to sleep with men or animals or children in the minds of some people. What’s the worst that can happen? No one talks to me again ever? I’m hunted to my death or out of the kingdom and no other land will have me? I’m willing to bet that not even a tenth of that actually happens. If it does… Well, I can survive almost anywhere now, If I work at it a little. I don’t think some words and aspersions will cut too deeply now, not when I know it almost has to happen. Let’s do it and see though, right? Once you get past the fear of death, everything else is just another thing to deal with.”
He hoped it sounded about right, because if things really went too far south, he’d probably really regret those words. It took everyone and more than a few hugs, but the Princess finally gave her permission. Tor wasn’t sure what would have happened if she hadn’t, but no one seemed inclined to push her that far on the point either. Not even the King or her own brother. It wouldn’t have been war, he knew that, she didn’t have her own army, so what could she do? Kidnap him away until the whole thing blew over? Right now, since she was the only person standing up for him in all this, Tor thought that might be tolerable. He grinned at her, dropped his own shield and put his arm half around her.
Leaning in, he whispered very near her ear.
“It means a lot that you tried to protect me. Thank you. I won’t forget it.”
She turned and hugged him, which got an amused looked from most of the people in the room, except Burks who just yawned and rubbed at his black hair, and Sara, who looked strange. But then she did that sometimes. It was like Tor made her sad sometimes. He couldn’t think of anything he’d done to make her feel that way, but it seemed likely anyway. If he could, he needed to make that right between them. Hopefully before he became the most evil being ever in the eyes of the whole kingdom.
“Wait. Sara, this destruction of all that is Tor that’s coming no doubt, will it hurt your family’s business? Or the other people doing business with me? Lintel and Sorvee now, plus anyone else you lined up contracts with? I don’t want to ruin lives that way either. You know, making it so no one will buy anything that I had a hand in. I suppose we could change the names and look of the devices and stuff, but…”
Blond hair got pushed at, even though it was too short to really be in the way at all now.
“Not likely. I wouldn’t expect a lot of party invitations to come in maybe, but people would buy your
stuff if you were known to, well, think of the worst thing you can, then double that. Rumors won’t hurt that. Top builders are supposed to be eccentric; it’s part of their charm. Especially since you’ve taken pains to prop up about half the current war effort yourself. Actually, I’m not really certain this will damage you at all. Someone bad mouthing you right now will pretty much just seem insane or evil themselves. I’m… more worried about what it might do to Trice. I can see this all splashing off you perfectly and landing back in her lap, leaving you almost untouched and her an evil Doretta that no one ever talks to again. That kind of thing can follow people for decades. This might work, but it’s risky that way.” Sara took a deep shuddering breath, as if she expected him to yell at her. When he didn’t she started talking again.
“I mean, I know that she hurt you, but this kind of thing… We’ll, you may look and feel bad for a while, but she’ll be known as a Doretta forever, I think. You aren’t… well, you’re Tor. Every person at school remembers you and probably will every time they sit to a meal for years. You’ve saved more lives than anyone I’ve ever heard of, from the most common of people, to high ranked nobles like Ridley and his family. You’re everyone’s friend now. I know she really wants to show you that she didn’t do this and her parents didn’t either, and that she’s willing to do about anything to do that, even lose you, even die, but god, I just hope this ends up being worth it.”
So did Tor.
Was he supposed to tear into Trice again now? Sara looked like she expected it, but for all that he still hurt from what she’d said about him and would probably hurt again when all this stuff hit, he found that he just didn’t have it inside to wish her harm. Not even damage to her reputation like this might bring. She’d been his friend, even if he didn’t feel like it sometimes, right? Everyone else seemed to think so at least.
Tor felt himself nodding off, so asked if he could get back home and work from there, checking to make sure he had the right idea.
