Ancient Kings (The Young Ancients) (22 page)

It was just an attempt to make them all feel at ease, but it started a conversation that turned on him almost instantly. Really, Tor reflected as he realized what was about to happen, watching it in almost slow motion, since that was the way all catastrophes seemed to go, it wasn't that Kincaid was trying to destroy his life or embarrass him, she just didn't have all the information. That was a mistake and no doubt his own fault. He hadn't thought that anyone would speak of such topics at the dinner table. In the main the Austrans had always seemed to be a little prudish in a lot of ways.

"Oh, well, The Tor is famous. He's so good looking and the traveling sex museum piece has toured the whole country. It was pulled months ago, but the new one has been doing very well. It isn't about the same subject, showing the Revered One and The Tor doing it, but it's very exciting. His bright shining ship and all the explosions. It's
very
life like."

There was a bit of a quiet then, spreading down the table, as people looked at the girl, most putting their drinks or forks down suddenly, so that they could hear her describe the original piece in greater depth. It was a disaster of course. Tor felt the blood rush from his head and wondered if passing out would get him away from the table.

Denno, bless him, did try to interject, even though it was far too late to undo the damage.

"It was just a solid hologram that Torrance Purple made, when he came to rescue me about a year ago. It really is a wonder to see, but the new show is a bit more family friendly. Fornia, you were speaking to me of that earlier, about how you think that a more plot driven adventure would do good business?" Of course the people from Austra knew enough from the hints the spies had given them not to talk about things like business at the table, so she, very artfully, turned it back to the sex show.

Things got quiet and tense then, with half the room staring at him and the other half looking away, so as to not see his shame. That was nice of them. It didn't get him out of the room though did it? Running away was out of the question too, since he was the host.

"Gah!" The sound came from Gerent, as he managed to spill a glass of pale white wine all over the front of himself, stood too suddenly for the heavy chair and managed to fall backwards over it, rolling out of the move in a manner that was far too comical to have been real. Slowly he worked his way to his feet. "I'm so sorry! I...
such
a clod. Forgive me please." He cradled his right arm to his side, which got Trice to start scrabbling at her neck, no doubt looking for a healing amulet. She always made a habit of being well prepared after all.

"Gerent... Are you injured?" She sounded so concerned that no one bothered to smile at the tiny man's mistakes. It wouldn't do to insult him after all. Not after his recent trauma.

He gasped a bit as if the air had been knocked out of him, bending just a bit, trying to catch it and clearly failing.

"Fine... I'm sorry... everyone. Tor... would you help me for a moment?" The look was a bit pleading, but not so over the top that it seemed fake. Not to most of the people there. Trice looked suspicious suddenly, but took Gerent's arm to help him as Tor moved around the others to give his own aid.

"Of course, don't let it worry you, things like that can happen to anyone." Just to check for injury he touched his new brother's field and found him to be perfectly alright. He wasn't even feeling the sting of everyone's sudden regard. His right wrist was perhaps a little bit twisted from landing on it wrong, but it wasn't a huge thing.

It did get him out of the room though. He lent a hand as the man faked a bit of a limp, and led both him and Trice into a side hallway, out of the dining room proper. The blue eyed and pretty curly haired girl fawned over her friend for a minute, until Tor clapped him on the shoulder.

"Thanks Gerent. Hopefully the topic will have changed by the time we go back. How did you know that was something less than fun for me to hear?"

The other man stood straighter then and nodded toward the woman with them.

"Patty mentioned something about it not long ago. How it was a very brave... and
noble
thing that you did, but that it made you feel sad for others to know about it. Because you were from the woods and people do things different there. I figured that it was on me to save you then, if I could. I did it wrong didn't I?" The man was looking away, and hadn't cycled his clothing amulet yet, which was good, because that would dump wine all over the floor. The place for that was in the bathing room, where drains had been set up to get liquids safely outside.

Tor grinned, actually feeling happy about it now that he got the reason behind it.

"That was
brilliant
. Maybe a bit bigger than you had to go with it, but no one would doubt it being proper, if they knew. You can bet I'll be inviting you to the next dinner party I throw. I might need you to defend my honor like this again. It's a bit of a mess. The folks from Austra just think that it's a career option, I think, and the nobles here either don't care, or think it sounds like a wonderful lark. The only people that might care in a negative way are my family and most of them know, but it wasn't exactly correct for it to be talked about in front of
Taman
, was it?" That point nearly made him feel angry, but Trice snorted.

"From whose perspective? Hers? My bet is that she either doesn't get it or won't care. Best not to buy trouble there if you don't have too. Let's get cleaned up and back to the party then, we should only be gone for a few moments or people will think you're really hurt, Gerent."

"Would anyone care?" The man's voice was a bit sour, but stronger than it had been a few days before, a lot less shocked sounding. More like he was a real person finally.

Tor shook his head, trying to negate the thought behind the words.

"Yes, they really would. I think you've been underestimating how important family is to the Bakers. By a lot. Let's hurry and see if we can start a conversation about your new gardens. Any plans there yet?"

It really didn't take long for the cleaning to be done and for them to be back at table. Perhaps three minutes. Gerent blushed a bit, but no one acted like anything unusual had happened. Not even the strangers from Austra. They also didn't bring the topic of his fame in that land back up, thankfully. The dessert was very good, and the people were treated to some live entertainment in the drawing room, where a small orchestra had been commissioned to play by Collette, because she was incredible. As most of the guests moved to leave the room, Laurie, Douglas and Burks all closed on Gerent suddenly, along with the Queen.

It was Tor's da that got there first, looking more than a little concerned for his new in-law.

"That spill you took, you weren't hurt too badly were you?"

Shaking his head there was a mumbled response that no one could hear, except Trice who was standing directly along side of him. Not quite touching him. After less than ten seconds Tor moved in on the other side, closing ranks. Not that any of the others were trying to hurt him, but it was good to have familiar faces around at parties, wasn't it?

"He staged it, to rescue the conversation." Tor winked at Connie, forgetting for a moment that she was practically his daughter. Then he just felt gross, remembering every time they'd ever done anything at all, including holding hands. "I mean that too. It was artfully done. I would have broken something if I tried it."

Count Lairdgren straightened his jacket, which was a slightly darker green than usual. It was made of some kind of sturdy looking material that Tor wasn't familiar with, but that had a nice sheen to it that had nothing to do with silk or satin. He could recognize both of those now.

"I thought that was the case. Very well done then, Gerent. We should all go and listen to the entertainment, but I'd like to pry Tor away for a bit first. It's rude of me, but some things need to be looked into. It will probably take too long for politeness, but I'll try to hurry, so that we don't lose all the music." There was a courtly bow then, since the King was hanging back, standing next to his daughters and his Heir. Tor waved to them all, which got a chuckle from the Prince.

"Gerent, come sit by us. You too Trice. If we hurry there might be a chair or two left. No offense Gerent, but I'm going to look a bit foolish if I have to sit on your lap." He smiled in a friendly way and waved to the rest of them, as if trying to get them to follow along. Laurie didn't budge, even as her husband did and Ali looked a bit torn herself, hesitating, not wanting to leave without him.

Because they were all great that way. Well, his mother might not have been doing it to be any particular way. Or she might have. Just because they'd argued a bit a few times, that didn't mean she'd written him off as a lost cause, did it?

She was still his mother, even if he had said she wasn't anymore.

"And why, precisely, am I being left out of things again? It isn't as if I'm totally useless you know. I have skills, some of which might even be useful to the situation at hand." She crossed her arms, but her face didn't look half as upset as her body language was.

Burks shrugged.

"Alright, let's all go for a walk then. Outdoors. Is your Fast Craft out front still, Tor?" He didn't wait for an answer, just moving that way across first the carpeted floor of the dining room and then the cool white and blue polished marble of the front area. There were six golden wood tables that had vases on them, only two of which were alike. They were all real though, he realized. Not the tables, but what they held. It seemed that they had stuff in the house now.

"The Fast Carriage was there when I left it, but someone might have taken it. I hope not, at least without unloading the back first. Some of the healing amulets are for
here
after all."

The purple rectangle was there when he went out, hovering about a foot from the ground, with two young girls trying to move it by pushing. That didn't work at all. It was structured so that it would try to stay in place in the wind and the kids weren't big, so it just wasn't happening. About ten or so, maybe a bit younger.

When they saw the people coming they stopped and stared, not even bothering to run away.

"We was told we could play here, until mama gets done for the day. She works for Master Timon, who's really important." The obvious plea that was left unsaid was that they shouldn't be beaten. Since Tim might get mad if they were. It was enough of a reason for Tor, since he hardly ever got into fights with small girls in his yard anymore.

Now, in
taverns
....

"That's fine. Is your mother Mona then?" He smiled at the slightly older looking one. They were clean, but very plain looking kids, both with slightly red hair and dark freckles on their tanned skin. There were a few stains on their dresses, but nothing that made them look horribly poor, just like they weren't the kids of nobles.

"Yes sir. This is the Wizard Tor's grand palace though. Master Timon is his brother. He lives next door." It wasn't a very helpful rundown, but Tor smiled anyway, since she wasn't wrong.

A single hand got held up so they would wait.

Jogging to the front hall, inside the door, Tor scrambled in the little wooden box there, looking for a couple of regular Not-flyers. Luckily there weren't three small girls or there wouldn't have been enough. He also got them some shields and quickly explained how to use them.

"Now, go and play, and try not to get into any trouble with those, or your mother will skin me alive." Or at least try. He had very little confidence in her good will toward small people, now that he'd seen how she was treating Gerent.

They rose into the air a few inches, four to be exact, and moved off at about twenty miles per hour. He hadn't given them military grade amulets for that after all. The shields were, but that should be fine. Unless they took to a life of crime, then he'd really be in for it.

"So... What do you need?" Tor watched the Count carefully, wondering if he'd really just wanted to get out of the crowd for a bit. It was a lot nicer outside in the fresh air.

The man looked around, but didn't insist they walk off or anything of the sort, looking up at the sky for a bit before he started.

"We need more healing amulets. Many more. Do you think you can keep up the pace you have? What you've done is nothing short of incredible, but we'll likely need one for every thousand people on the planet, and each day more people are dying from this. Not a lot so far, but from what Brown projected, by the end of next week we'll be losing ten thousand a day, worldwide. A week after that, nearly sixty thousand a day. In a month a million. We functionally won't be able to control this at that point. " He looked back at the house and then at his daughter, his face going hard. "Gray has really messed up this time. While I agree we need to make certain it is her, I don't think she'll survive it. Not after millions or more die at her hand."

Next to Tor his mother furrowed her brow and snorted, "the world has what, eight hundred million people, more or less? How many amulets does that work out to? Eight hundred thousand? I'm sure my son will just whip those up in the next day and save us all." She didn't sound that certain of it really. Not at all.

Tor tilted his head side to side, trying to figure out his own math. If he let himself have minimal sleep, and worked with one large batch, he should be able to do it in about nine days. Maybe less, but he didn't want to count on it. Not with the world at stake. When he told them that something strange happened. Burks acted as if it seemed perfectly reasonable, and Laurie stepped in front of him.