A Simple Darkness (The Young Ancients: Tiera) (39 page)

Not that
she
would make a mistake like that, but it could happen.

The meeting was a lot different than she thought it would be. It started with King Richard calling them all to attention, and then asking for everyone to swear to him again.

That went poorly.

Timon went first and started the problems, which made everyone seem edgy.

"I'm not working against you or yours. I have my own projects and concerns, but am loyal, at this time." It seemed about like what he'd said before, but everyone copied him, more or less, which left a strange tone to the whole thing. Only about half reaffirmed their pure fealty. Tiera didn't, but that was because she knew it wasn't a thing for her. At any given moment her feelings were more than a little dark about the King after all. He kept getting in her way.

So she said that.

People did not think that was good enough at all.

"Sire! Do we have a traitor in our midst?" This came from someone too tall and shrouded in darkness on the other side of the fire, but Tiera knew the voice.

Count Morris.

"No, I'm loyal enough. I
am
going to kick your ass for saying that though, you moronic waste of space." She started to round the blaze, a large thing that she suspected wasn't real, having seen one before. It was a Guide bonfire. The creation of the boy from school. Her arm was caught by someone though, who laughed at her. At first she didn't see who it was, but she thought it was Count Lairdgren, looking younger than he had been. Except he was currently across the fire.

"Tor?" She waited, knowing that anymore that could be someone in disguise, and the man had just walked up, so it could be anyone short enough.

"Yes. I heard there was a small problem with a rebellion? Now, stop getting ready to kill Count Morris. He's loyal enough and we need everyone we can get in on this. For your part Morris, don't mess with my little sister again. I heard some of what you said to her and if you start that again then you're a fool. Next time I won't ask her to let you off the hook, like I did this last time." His voice was harder than she was used to, but the whole circle erupted then, sounds of happiness and near glee coming.

The King, smiling like they were all saved suddenly, walked around the blaze to give him a hug, actually picking the smaller man up into the air.

"So, the threat of the Larval has passed? We found a collection of them, but they vanished before we could get the army into place."

There was silence for a few seconds and then Tor shook his head.

"No. I still have to take care of them. They aren't here anymore however. In Noram or Soam. I can't speak for most of the other places in the world. The only continent that will soon be left to them is Austra. If Brown doesn't have anything in place to capture them, I'll have to unleash the second part of my plan. They're insane, not evil, as hard as it is to believe. At least I think that Afrak, Tellerand and the Antarctic have been taken care of?" He looked at Tiera then, his eyes on her alone.

She just made a face and shook her head, trying to think about what she actually knew, instead of her excitement that her brother might get to be back now. Mother would be pleased. She'd had a bit of a falling out with him
right
before he left. It had been over a stupid prank, but instead of apologizing to him, she'd tried to bully her son. That wasn't going to work as easily now that he was a bit more mature and his own person, it seemed. He'd disowned her, but Tiera wasn't overly worried about that. If he didn't shape up soon, she'd drag him back home and make him get along with her. They were family after all, so he
had
to.

For some reason everyone was acting like his being back meant something more than getting a few extra hugs though. Even the older people that should have known better. She half expected Timon to call them on it, since he clearly understood that it wasn't a fix for the situation, but he was strangely silent, just looking at his brother darkly.

That left it up to her, since no one else bothered to say anything.

"Stop being stupid!" It was an order and for some reason the words actually got most of the people to glare at her, which, while not perfect, was at least a sign they'd refocused on the task at hand. "Tor came to help, but he can't fix this. Not on his own. We still need to find the people working against us and stop this if we can. There's a war coming, right this instant, and if we don't work together and do it fast, it's going to be a lot worse than it should be. Do we know who's behind this? Does the Larval being removed from Noram, if they truly have been, mean that they can't support the effort against us anymore? What should we do to stop this? Move on the highest level ring leaders with covert techniques before they can act?"

That made sense to her, and oddly enough, even if they all thought she was a rude little bitch, most of the people seemed to consider what she was saying instead of calling her out for her behavior.

Count Peterson spoke, his voice rumbling from a few places down from her.

"I can't speak as to who leads this for certain, but I know that I haven't been able to find Kedrin Cordes for some time. He owes me some coin, so I didn't really think much of it at first, but he'd be a natural person to put on the throne, being the King's brother. Few of the common people would even notice the difference, after the smoke cleared." He sounded less than pleased about the idea at least, but didn't say why.

The King did though, "that would be less than optimal, but not totally unexpected, if it's the case. He could also be in trouble however. He was doing charity collections for Alyssa Baker and Sam Builder's orphan project. It gave him months of travel all over the realm without much oversight at all."

That started questioning and debate about who was actually working against them. Some of the names were known, such as Count Kern and Countess Lovejoy. They were so clearly in on it that no one spoke to doubt the idea, even their own relatives.

Tiera kept a running tally in her head, not really worried about it, more excited about her brother being back than anything else, until about ten minutes into the whole thing. It was her own brother-in-law, Count Thomson that said the words.

"One of my Barons seems to have subtly been feeling my loyalties out for the last two years. Nothing so overt that I'd bothered to call him on it at any point, just hint and testing. You all know the way of it. Nothing that I could take action on. Landless, but he has a decent reach in the business world, running a major lumber concern. Baron Helmsley."

Tiera felt her blood run cold then. It was possible of course. Regina couldn't pick who her father was after all. Or it could have been that there was simply more than one Baron Helmsley. It wasn't likely, but there were two Joneses, so maybe it was just something she'd missed before? She wanted that to be the case, but even that idea was taken from her seconds later.

By Karen. The traitor.

"His daughter is a friend of Tiera's from school. We may be able to use that connection, if we're careful." She didn't say how, but the idea was so clear that she didn't have to.

They wanted her to spy on her own friends? On her lover? That made her blood run cold, but she didn't speak, no one else really seeming concerned by the idea at all. Except Timon. He stepped around the circle of large bodies and moved close to her, his hand reaching out toward her tentatively. It was odd, but she noticed that he was taller than her now. He had been, of course, but in the last weeks he'd grown even more. He was only twelve, but stood nearly five-five already. That wasn't huge for her family, but it was a sign he wasn't going to be that short all his life, if it kept up.

"Tiera... How close are you to this woman?"

At least he bothered to ask. She didn't know what to say at first, feeling embarrassed as everyone focused on her tightly, no one tried to speak for her at least, so she answered even as the blood rushed from her head.

"I love her." It was the truth, but the only person that seemed to think it was really important, oddly enough, was the King.

He stood, with his head held high in the firelight.

"Then I won't ask that you act against her, or her family, on mere suspicion. We can find another way, there must be a thousand avenues to explore here." Then he started trying to outline them.

The meeting moved on and no one even said the name Helmsley after that.
Her
name was mentioned, but other than Count Morris, no one questioned that she was totally loyal. He did it slyly, but Count Thomson snapped at him loudly, backed up almost instantly by Count Peterson and more humorously, by Countess York.

That got Richard to walk over to her and put a hand on her back gently, as if to protect her, like she needed it from Morris?

"We shouldn't be bickering amongst ourselves. Put the past behind us and move on. It isn't always easy to do, but the other course leads to ruin." He didn't say for who.

Tiera already knew that one though. Ruin for everyone that acted against her.

A slow anger built then, but she contained it. Part was at Reggie's da, who might be working against the rightful King. Part was directed at Tovey, since he might be wrong in his suspicions about the fellow. The rest was at herself, for letting things get that far out of hand. She didn't know what she could have done differently, but there had to have been something.

A plan, of sorts, worked itself out in her head as she stood there, wondering what to do. She'd spy on Reggie, but only to show that her father was innocent. Barring that, she'd prove that her friend
was
and protect her from any harm that might come. If they had to they could runaway somewhere. It wasn't the best plan in the world, but nothing else would come at all. She needed to find proof. Somehow.

That would mean getting closer to the Baron. On the good side she was already invited to his home in a few weeks. The time between that moment and when she'd be free of the oppressive weight of worry was going to be forever, but she'd live. There was no choice, since it was clear that no one else was going to stand for a fourteen year old girl that was unknown to them.

When they left the fireside everyone scattered in different directions, except Tor, who instead of putting up his own craft asked if he could ride with her. It didn't seem that odd really. He wanted to see Ali as soon as possible, since she was his wife. The woman was at school, and that was where she was headed, wasn't it?

"I hope she hasn't forgotten me already." He laughed a little about it, but there was a darkness to the words, as if he thought she really might have.

Distracted, Tiera didn't speak for a long time, but finally shook herself a bit as she flew, knowing that she needed to be paying attention if nothing else.

"What? Sorry... Ali
dotes
on you Tor. I'm certain that her yelling will wake up half the campus when you get there. If she isn't working on some building project. Mainly copying still, I hear. Multiple devices at once though, so that's impressive."

Smiling he moved up alongside of her and patted her shoulder.

"Thank you. I can tell that you're worried about your friend. Regina? Is she nice?"

"Yes. She's the greatest person in the whole world." There was a simple and pure sound of truth to her words.

Her brother nodded, smiling a bit.

"Good. I'm glad you have someone that makes you happy."

Then they kept flying back to the school, the cover of darkness protecting them from prying eyes. If imperfectly.

Tiera was actually right, as it turned out, and Ali was very pleased to see Tor, if not all that loud about it. That part was interesting, since she acted suddenly suspicious and like she needed to be ready to fight someone at any moment.

Until Tor explained the whole thing.

"The Larval situation isn't finished yet, but they've been driven from here. I'll be leaving in a few months to take care of that. I need to give them time to travel back to Austra. Maybe more than just months, since they might try to hide someplace else first. For the time being I was just planning to work from the house here, if that's alright?"

"
Alright?
That's wonderful! I'm so happy that you're back and safe. I worried constantly for months. Oh!" She fairly vibrated with joy, which was a wonderful thing at least. Tiera gave each of them a hug and then walked away, going back to her own room. The meeting had taken all night again and she didn't think she was going to get any sleep anyway, but it was really too early to go running through the woods, at least if she wanted to pretend she was still sane at all.

Karen followed her, grinning the whole time, her face a lot happier at the idea of Tor coming back than it should have been. After a while she nodded, looking at the giddy and large warrior next to her as the door to their little brown room closed.

"You and my brother are lovers?"

There was a frozen moment in time then, as the larger woman spun on her and finally shook her head.

"We...
Once
. That isn't something you should ask though. Kind of rude, and against The Rules. It's hard to be discreet with people pestering you for indelicate details that you don't want to give." There was a sigh then and another shake of the head, one that barely caused her to move at all. "Or more correctly, it's wrong to ask about what your
brother
has been doing. People will think you're interested in him, if you do that too much and even in noble society that's considered wrong. Not unheard of or undone, but people will talk if they think that, even if he is incredibly pretty. Actually
that
would make it worse. If he was ugly people wouldn't think much of it at all."

"Ah. Right. That crap again. Sorry, not trying to pry, you just seemed really happy. I didn't know you two were that close, that's all."

The words sounded distracted, because of course, they were. She wasn't focusing that well at all, since her entire being was screaming for her to go and see about her friend. Her love. To protect her from the allegations and slanders of those evil people. Except that they might not be wrong. That was the part that worried her the most.

What would she do if Baron Helmsley really was a traitor? Just being related to the man would destroy Reggie then.

Nothing much came to mind. The first thing to do was to find out. Or at least the first thing on that topic. At the moment she felt herself at loose ends and kind of wanted to just sit in the dark, brooding. That wouldn't help at all, so she decided to go to the practice square, even if it was the middle of the night. She broke the pell again and then, after fixing the one she'd been using by herself, did it
again
. It took hours of pounding on the thing and she was using a heavy metal club in each hand. She was on the third one when Mitchell found her after first light, covered in sweat, but not blood this time.

"Now, what did those poor pieces of wood ever do to you?" He laughed at his own joke, but at least he was sober this time. His grin was meant to be infectious, but she was so worried that she had to force herself to even look at him. He was a jerk and a moron.

On time though, so she couldn't fault him there. He even had his flight gear on.

"Help me carry the new firewood out back?" They'd need to cut it up into smaller chunks, but that was decent enough training, so it got done pretty quickly at the school.

The taller boy did it, but he kept looking at her as if there was something wrong with what they were doing.

"Most people are kind of proud when they have a breakthrough on the pell. Why are we hiding the evidence?"

"We aren't, I just don't want to make a mess. We should sweep too, before whoever else that's coming gets here." She knew that she sounded sad and sullen, but that was just what was going to have to happen. Only it couldn't.

She had a duty to perform, teaching her little class. More, if she wanted to find out the truth about Regina's da and protect her from the whole thing if it was needed, she had to seem normal. That or happy. She tried for that.

For an hour they worked at cleaning the space, moving quickly and with good energy, even if it was fake. Then she patted the boy on the back, making him wince, just as the group of people walked toward them, right after the morning meal. She hadn't eaten, but that wasn't a big deal for her.

They were horrible again, but she managed to isolate a few of the problems and had everyone practice moving in all different directions, first just hovering over the ground about ten feet and then at five hundred or so, doing them all faster. Finally they tried them at full speed, flying forward and then shifting back, up, down or on the diagonal, both turning at the same time and not.

Most of them could do it at least by the time they were done, but a few still struggled.

"Don't worry, you'll all get it. We can meet again soon. In the mean time keep practicing together and help one another." It sounded friendly to her, but a few of the people grumbled at her. Like they had better things to do?

She wanted to go and hang out with Tor that evening, but she remembered her promise to Roland, since he'd made a point of inviting her again after they practiced singing. He was most polite the whole time and acted like he actually wanted her to go with him, though she had a feeling from the slightly strained tone to his voice that he actually was just being nice to her out of a sense of duty, rather than really wanting her around. That would have to do though, since sitting in her room, or even her brother's house, wouldn't cause people to like her any better. No, for that she'd have to risk being in public with them.

The tavern in town had a name, since there were two of them. This one was the "Green Shepherd" as if that made any kind of sense. It had a painted green sheep on the sign, which was playful and kind of cute though. The inside was functional, and decently clean, but that was about all it had going for it. There was no music playing and while people sat and drank, the main activity seemed to be flirting and talking in voices that were more than a bit too loud.

Reggie held her hand and seemed very young suddenly, but Tiera just smiled at her, knowing that she was loved. It was such a wonderful sense of things. Someone actually loved her. Just for being herself. Moody little
her
. It was brilliant and shining, but she didn't let the giddiness she felt show, just finding Roland, who was sitting alone, looking a bit nervous for some reason. He did wave to them however.

"Hello! I didn't know if you'd come. Can I get you something? The ale here is decent." His voice cracked a bit, but there was a certain charm to it, so Tiera nodded. She'd asked Karen about the whole thing and it had been explained to her that she was supposed to buy every other round. That way no one would end up paying for more than themselves, but it would seem friendly and like she was part of the group.

Since she'd invited Reggie, that meant she was paying for her too, but at a copper per drink she could afford it. Even if she ended up spending a few coppers on other people it was worth the good will, she figured. Karen had warned her not to go over that though, and to refrain from making grand gestures, like buying rounds for everyone in the place, since that would be seen as desperate.

The boy signaled to the server, who was familiar looking. After a few seconds, looking past the plain brown dress, she got it. The girl was one of the ones from class. Her afternoon singing one. In disguise, but it wasn't done very well. She had her blonde hair covered and carried a pitcher of something directly toward them. Her right hand on the handle. From the look on her face, which was nearly evil, the idea wasn't pouring them a drink.

Everyone in the place had turned to look at them as the yellow liquid flew. It largely bounced off of her, the momentum of the liquid not letting it touch her skin, but it splashed onto Reggie, who gasped and then started to hyperventilate. From the scent it was urine. It was ripe and pungent too, and had soaked her friend, a bit of it finally working through her own shield, making her damp as well. That part didn't matter though.

Across the room she saw Sandra Morris staring at her, laughing. The rest of her singing class, or at least half of them or so, was too.

"I see." She stood and helped Regina out the door, apologizing the whole time. No one followed her, but they laughed as she left and made catcalls.

Instead of taking the girl back to her room to hide, she went to Tor and Ali's, since they had magical means of cleaning there. Good showers and baths. After she knocked on the door it took a few minutes, and even though Reggie was sodden, she patted her gently and held her close.

"They meant that for me. It wasn't for you. I'm so sorry. Going there was a mistake. I should have known. People are evil and awful sometimes." She was proud of how she sounded, which was calm and loving. When Ali got to the door she looked happy at first, but seemed to get the idea fairly quickly. Without waiting she ushered them both in and took them straight to a bathing room. It took a bit to get cleaned up and when they came out, they were met in the front room by Tor, along with Alyssa and her friend Sheri.

Her brother sighed.

"That was a mean trick. Ali filled me on why it happened. Also about all you've done to fix things. I'm sure that they won't try it agai-" He stopped talking as she started walking out the front door. He didn't ask her where she was going at least, just jogging alongside her.

"Tiera! We can't afford for you to do anything rash. Not right now."

"They threw piss on Regina. I understand that it was meant for me, but that doesn't excuse the act. They have to pay.
Now
." She felt so much rage that she sounded calm. Her brother grimaced and moved back a bit.

"What are you going to do? Are you even certain who acted?"

"No. I also don't care. If I kill them all it won't matter in the end, will it?"

She didn't look at him as he moved along with her silently. The Green Shepherd wasn't far after all. She didn't wait to confront anyone with words when she went in, just running at Sandra Morris, who was still there, letting their shields crash together hard, stopping her momentum. Then Tiera focused her rage and forced the other girl's shield to drop, along with everything else she had on her, leaving her naked for just long enough that Tiera could grab every amulet the dark skinned girl wore and rip them off of her.

"You were behind this. Bitch." The backhand lacked a giant body behind it, but Tiera twisted into the movement, adding momentum to it, hitting the other girl hard enough to take her off the bench she was sitting on. She went down with a twisting motion and hit the floor with a solid thunk.

The beating that followed was brutal enough, but she almost wasn't aware of what she was doing. Not until her own shield triggered off for a bit and she was grabbed by her brother and several other of the boys that had, no doubt, been in on the attack earlier. Tor had a shield, naturally, since they were his invention and he'd been hunted by killers for moths. Sorenson didn't. Activating the cutter in her right hand she took off the boy's fingers, which got him to scream. It didn't hurt of course, not at first, but it was enough to get Tor to stare at him, meaning she had time to make a swipe at the bleeding girl on the ground.

That got Tiera knocked back off her feet by a Force Lance, since Sir Kolbrin was standing in the doorway, pointing one at her. Jerk.

"Tiera,
no
!"

She couldn't focus enough to keep the cutter on, but she did manage to find a chair and bring it down where Sandra was, making it so that the girl didn't move. Then she jumped forward to finish the job. Tor got in her way, and he had a good shield on, so she tried to bat him out of the way, which, it turned out, was a mistake.

Out of nowhere she was hit by hundreds of beams of force, his shield coming alive and pummeling her even through her own.

She wasn't being hurt, thanks to the fact her shield was good enough to stop it, but she couldn't move toward him at all. She was just pushed back. Even when she threw the remains of the chair it was driven into the wall to the side, instead of at the girl she was targeting.

"Tiera, what are you doing? It was a
prank
. Not a good thing, but you don't even know if she had anything to do with it." Her brother sounded pretty reasonable, but she didn't care.

"It doesn't matter. She
laughed
. That's insult enough. Now back away Tor. This isn't your business.
They
picked this fight with me. I'm going to end this here and now."

She backed up, which confused Tor for a second, but the point was clear to her. If she moved backward the field that was attacking her would focus on where she went, by shifting targets and running to the other side of the room suddenly with the jerks that had helped set her up in the way, they'd take the brunt of it. That meant that Tor would have to shut it off, or risk killing half the room. It took him a bit to realize that and Tiera had forgotten something on her own part, which was that Sir Kolbrin was there. He moved in on her, trying to lock out her left arm using his whole body. It was working, which made her angry, since it was a technique that she'd showed him.