by P. S. Power
Over the next week he carefully built the palace shield template, which went up faster the way he was doing it this time, mainly because only two parts of it were new. The rest he’d had from his second shield build. The big part was making smaller fields that would link and could be turned on and off from the inside remotely.
Then he made five hundred of the little fields. It took less than a day, to his own amazement.
Doing things in large batched was so much better. Harder, but still… He kind of wanted to kick himself for not trying it sooner, but what could he do about it now? Tor just kept working, and on the eighth day started making himself get up and walk each day. Not run, just walk the outer wall, over and over again.
The rest of the time he ate or worked. If he could keep it up for a bit, he felt like he might even eventually gain some weight. Maybe.
It was nearly two weeks later when Rolph came, using his flying rig, along with Tovey. At first Tor didn’t recognize his friends. Tovey looked like himself, except that he wore the uniform of a fairly low ranking officer in the army. A captain, which was only one step up from the very bottom for the upper ranks, if Tor had that right. There were no particular marking’s on the uniform he wore, just a light gray splotch on the shoulder, which was for safety he told Tor. No officers were wearing normal insignia, since about two weeks before a number of highly placed generals had been attacked. The attacks came over a two day period, with Tor’s being the third in a line of fifteen.
It wasn’t funny, but Tor chuckled slightly anyway, his side only just tolerating it now without pain. “Hmm. Well, a bit of a mistake on the Austrans part then. No one sane would mistake me for a general. I’m not even in the military at all. Really, I doubt they’d let me in. Too short. Wrong haircut too.”
Tovey laughed.
“Well, not everyone in the service is tall Tor. You’re just used to seeing what amounts to elite forces. Even the people stationed here building furniture are all handpicked. Those groups have a lot of nobles in them, people that can afford their own gear or have had years of training and schooling already. The regular forces tend to be a lot shorter on average. As to the Austrans making a mistake, I don’t think so…”
Behind Tovey came a familiar dark laugh. The man doing it wasn’t anyone he recognized though, a guard for Count Thomson it looked like one of two in the room. The man was obviously of royal blood, huge, about the same size as Rolph and hard looking. He had a short military haircut, barely a dark brown fuzz on his head the same length all over and dark skin that would have looked about right on Count Ward. The complexion was smooth, but something about him was familiar.
After a second he got it.
“Rolph!” Tor grinned looking at his friend. It took a lot less effort now than it had before, so Tor got up, a little stiffly and walked over to look at him.
“Is this make-up? You look good. I wouldn’t have recognized you at all if you hadn’t laughed you know…” Reaching out, Tor rubbed at the brown hand that clapped his shoulder. Tried to at least. He had to drop his shield to make contact.
“It’s a skin dye, so it won’t come off too easily. I figured I might as well do the whole thing if I was going to do the hair up. Blame Varley though. She kind of forced Karina’s hand, so I had no choice but to follow suit. Couldn’t let the girls show me up by that much, now could I?”
Varley, it turned out, had accepted Karina’s challenge and had all her hair cut off. Shorter than what Sara had even, Rolph informed him. In turn, Karina grudgingly dyed her own hair and had it cut to about shoulder length, so she looked a proper kitchen girl. Even the Queen cut her hair in a show of support for the girls, and for the military, which started a trend.
Count Thomson got a serious look on his face then.
“It’s… almost scary, really Tor. You walk through the streets of the Capital and almost everyone looks like their ready to run off and join the military. Man, woman and child. Even your friend Debbie cropped her hair off to show her support for the war effort. It’s certainly effective! If I were the Austrans I think I’d seriously consider calling off the war about now. If we could get them shields and weapons, I think that the school kids of Noram would seriously be starting their own offensive about now.” The smile Tovey gave him was proud and spoke of a deep patriotism. Not just the normal royal sense of things, but like he’d personally back up those school kids. Tor didn’t know if he could get them enough weapons and shields, but after he got the military squared away he’ give it a try.
Stupid Austrans.
Who went around declaring war anyway? It was about as dumb a thing as you could do.
As they all sat at the table in the central area Rolph explained how the attack on the generals, and Tor, was part of the reason that he hadn’t been around for a while. The Royal Guard was none too keen on the idea of the heir running around unprotected and felt that the palace was about as well as they could do. It was only by pointing out that the bombs wouldn’t care if the palace was protected by them or not that they finally relented enough for Rolph to temporarily escape their clutches.
“Then, “Sergeant Wilhelm”,” Rolph gestured at his uniform with a single, sweeping motion down his front. “Isn’t half the target the Prince Alphonse the ridiculous is. I do worry about my family though. The palace is good against all normal threats, but the Austrans won’t bother with those, will they? I think it’s only a matter of time before they start attacking the Capital and the palace is kind of an obvious target…”
Standing again, a little slowly Tor headed towards the back of the room, in the stack of chests along the back wall, all with flat tops so they wouldn’t topple if piled to high. They were two deep now all as big as his luggage trunks and were taking up a whole lot of otherwise useful space.
“Sergeant Wilhelm? If you and your friend there would give me a hand please?” He tried to pitch his voice seriously, as if he were really just talking to a real military sergeant that had come into the room, like half the people he met when he walked out for his daily strolls. They all kind of outranked him a little, since he wasn’t even in the service, but everyone was really polite to him anyway.
“Yeah, sure, not a problem.” Rolph answered getting up quickly. Not quickly enough to avoid the slap to the back of the head that the slightly older man with them aimed without hesitation.
“What? You trying to get us all killed Wilhelm? You don’t say “Yeah, sure, no problem” like that to a dignitary! This is Master Tor! Not only is he half the war effort right now, he could kill us all and eat our souls as an appetizer to his supper! It’s yes sir! And be happy he’s not one of the uppity ones that you have to use fifty-seven titles for. I’ll let you off this time, but do it again and it’s kitchen duty for a week. You’re only getting slack now, because you actually managed to hop-to pretty well…”
Rolph hung his head for a second, shot the man a sour look, then clicked his heals together as he stood very straight. “Yes sir, Master Tor sir!”
Standing near the trunks Tor had to fight to keep a grin off his face. He could see Rolph having a little bit of a hard time remembering to keep his act together with him. They’d just been friends for so long. After a second Tor realized something and pointed at the man that had just hit “Sergeant Wilhelm”.
“Heh… Now, start hitting him just like that again, getting a little harder each time… until he gets his shield on…”
Slapping his shield instantly Rolph laughed, but then tried to fight it and make his face go straight again. Tovey didn’t wait though, slapping his own shield on almost instantly. That was good, because he was going to be next.
“You have a shield too, don’t you, sorry, didn’t get your name…”
“High Staff Sergeant Stamos sir. I haven’t been issued a shield sir. Most of those are being given to the ground troops right now along the south eastern line. There hasn’t been a lot of activity, but when it comes, that’s the most likely, and traditional, target th
at the Austrans will hit.”
Tor pointed to a little box, open at the top, sitting on a low shelf behind the table. “In there, shields, temperature equalizers, Not-flyers and hand lights. Also a few new things that don’t even have names. Tovey, do the honors and make sure Stamos is actually equipped properly please? I can’t believe the military is letting people fly without a shield on. Get things for your other men too and anything that you don’t already have. Wilhelm here can help me with the palace shield.”
“The what?” Rolph said, sounding slightly incredulous.
“It’s what it sounds like. Shields for the entire palace. I don’t mean the personnel, I mean the whole building. I’ll work on others, for the rest of the Capital, as I can, but this thing has nearly six hundred separate field devices to make it work. I’m not even putting one up on this place, just the big building that Kolb built out back. Kind of a special shelter in case we’re ever attacked.”
They all listened, fascinated, when he described how Kolb and his forces spent two days testing it, building a small structure and then using everything they could to approximate Austran bombs to take it down with the shield up. Petra had even gone and sat inside while they did it. Tor had blanched at first, but the girl was perfectly fine. It was a good test, but showed a little too much faith in his work from the girl for his taste. After an hour of things that Tor had never even seen before, rockets and lobbed explosives as well as the thing being hit by the explosive weapon he’d built and gave to Kolb, the girl walked out with a grin on her face. Thank all the gods that Tor had put a field on to stop that kind of explosive too. It hadn’t been in the original plan.
She was happy and agreed that the whole thing seemed to work, telling them about how she’d barely even heard anything inside at all and the ground hadn’t even shook too much, but Tor was shaking, and felt like wetting himself. He decided right then and there that if any testing like that was to ever be done in the future, he’d always go first, himself. After all, if he wasn’t willing to test it personally, it wasn’t safe enough.
He did remember to ask Kolb to give him that “introduction” to the girl. Kolb raised an eyebrow, but passed the word along to her. Tor didn’t know if it was proper of him or not, since he was engaged already, but that was… impressive. It showed a trust in him that he didn’t feel he’d earned at all. One that Tor wasn’t sure could be earned. It certainly went beyond a little bit of flirting. He’d set up a date with her for when he was better, like she’d said. For the time being he just wanted to make sure she knew he hadn’t forgotten her.
“So, anyway, it works.” He finished, then pointed to some of the other boxes. “I also have two thousand more shields, the same on flying rigs and lights. The rest are odds and ends, sound dampeners, heat plates, water heaters and griddles, stoves and what not. Godfrey, the military commander here? He’s working on another two hundred transports. We already have more of them than people that can drive. As it is right now Sorlee has been setting up her own training school for anyone that wants to learn. When I get better, I’m going to take some lessons myself if I can. Ursala has already been soloing back and forth to the Capital each day for the last few. I think she’s practicing up so that she can personally take troops in to attack Ward.” Tor took a deep breath but didn’t let his worry show. If anything Ursala’s honor was more important and worthy than his own. She was a Countess and all.
She’d even discussed with him plans for a huge transport, one that could carry hundreds of people at once. It wouldn’t even take new fields, he assured her, just more of the lift plates like the regular ones had. The shields would have to be reworked, something similar to the palace shield, especially if they were taking it into combat. She didn’t tell him her plans specifically, or mention fighting at all, but then, she didn’t know that he’d put aside hundreds of fields for her people either.
Torrance didn’t know what the Wards had as far as defenses and weapons, but he didn’t want to risk losing his friend or her people. Tor was glad he hadn’t mentioned all this to Rolph, because the big, now dark skinned and haired, man looked constipated suddenly just from the mention of Ursala learning to fly a transport.
“What?” The words came out a bit more explosively than Tor had expected, but he could kind of see it. Tor didn’t want Ursala going off to war either. The very idea made him nervous in fact. Scared even. But who was he to tell her she couldn’t have her revenge?
They killed her family.
If someone had killed his family, or his friends, what would he do? Probably the same thing. If with a less aplomb. Ursala was like ice on the subject, hardly mentioning it at all, just quietly making her preparations each day. Tor knew he would have been spazzing out constantly, ripping at his hair and probably building super-weapons that were way more powerful than anyone should ever have.
“Don’t worry, she’s going to wait for the King’s orders, but when they come she doesn’t think that Count Ward and his wife are just going to give up and surrender. I don’t know how such things work really, but it makes sense to me. The guy has his own army, what, twenty thousand strong?” Tor had never actually heard that himself, just that someone he’d run into did… Wait, that was that Duke from the party, Winchester. So if a Duke had twenty thousand, then what would a rich Count have?
“Closer to eighty thousand… Some of them are off supporting the actual war effort, thank god, so anything that happens will be smaller, but they have military gear that’s decent. Not current standard, but solid stuff. Luckily they only have about five hundred outfitted that way and again, half are on the front.”
That earned a nod. So the ground forces were big, but the “elite” shielded and magically armed forces were a few hundred? The only thing that didn’t really answer was if the Wards had managed to get anything going in secret. Tor was doing all right making things, and had even become kind of popular for it, he knew. Mainly because people could get his stuff. There were a lot of other builders that made really effective devices too, just slower. He’d learned that the hard way himself, with those pain gloves that Smythe had. He still didn’t know how those worked at all, but they were obviously high quality. It was just possible that Ward managed to buy up something that no one else knew existed yet. Tor had to try and get ready for that, which was, by definition, almost impossible. Who knew what could be brought to the party?
Almost anything. So he’d have to do whatever he could to protect his friend, that was all.
They managed to load Stamos and then everyone else in the little group that had come, most of whom turned out to be standing at the door outside, up with everything he had. They all hung around looking pleased and more than a little awkward for a while, but then agreed to act as delivery men to the military for the fields. It would, at least, let Tor clear out most of the fields from inside the hut, leaving room for more. Besides, he pointed out, it would make their disguise look legitimate. No one would send the heir, or a sitting Count, to deliver military supplies, would they? If anyone watched and wondered, this should throw them off a lot.
“Only you would, Tor. But I doubt the Austrans know that yet.” Rolph winked at him as he grabbed a trunk and took it outside.
Count Thomson got him alone and asked when he thought he’d be recovered enough for the next attempt on his life. Oddly enough, the very tall man didn’t seem to be joking, or pleased about the idea. He seemed grim in fact. For a bit Tor was afraid he was going to tell Tor that he wouldn’t back the plan. It was his right of course, but it didn’t make sense. Didn’t he want the Wards caught, if it was really them at least? Tor had gotten into the habit of thinking it was them, but that didn’t make it so, did it? He’d thought it was both Wensa and Trice already too, and that was wrong. Obviously it couldn’t have been them, unless everyone was just in it together. If that were the case, he really would have been dead by now. He probably wouldn’t have lasted through the first bath or shower, when he took all his amulets off. Another
reason to get friendly with Petra? She could watch his back while he bathed. Wash it too.
And then he could watch hers, so it would work out all the way around. Tee-hee. Tor felt a little ashamed for having even thought about it, but it was kind of a good point, having a guard in the shower and bath at least.
Count Thomson assured him both that he’d back his plan, and that if Tor died, he’d kill him. The logic of it was a little short, but Tor nodded anyway. After all, if he was going to be staying in Tovey’s house, he had to follow his rules, right? So no dying. Check. Really, Tor could both agree and endorse that rule fully. Maybe he should have a similar policy for his place?
They set the date for everyone that was going to arrive at the Thomson Capital house in a month and thirteen days, which would put Tor going into town just in time for the Queen’s birthday. Two days before really. That shook him a little. He remembered Rolph sending clothes dryers to her for the last birthday and it was nearly back around again? Then he realized something else. Somewhere in there his own birthday had already come and gone. He’d been eighteen for months already.
Plans set, Tor hunkered down and got to work. It was incredibly boring at first but he forced himself to hold to the best pace he could manage while still recovering. At nearly a thousand copies a day, the military had stopped complaining, and after a few weeks of work even stopped asking for new flying rigs. They wanted a lot more shields, and oddly, the faster Not-flyers; since those were so easy to use they almost didn’t require training. That reminded him to send a few hundred of those to the Capital too, for the palace servants and guests that wanted to give them a try. Some would disappear, he knew, but that wasn’t a big deal to him and really shouldn’t be to anyone else either. If some street kid ended up with a Not-flyer…
Why not? It would only serve to confuse things even more, right? Tor loaded an extra four hundred in to just be given out on the street, those were the old fashioned kind that went a lot slower, to cut down on accidents and injury, since shields weren’t being given out with them. No one else should have to ride in a carriage either and most of the people that got free ones probably wouldn’t have anyway. That took gold.
