Ancient Kings (The Young Ancients) (67 page)

For a moment, sitting in the silence, he wondered if they were going to laugh at him. Call him a fool or liar, but Tiera just looked away.

"Can you get rid of this anger I feel all the time? I don't mind not feeling fear that much, but I don't want to hate everyone. Not over stupid things. I can't stop it though. The best I can manage is controlling what I do."

The thing was, if Tor had actually done what he thought he had and it stuck, that wouldn't even be that hard.

"I think so. We need to make sure that I didn't accidentally do something that will cause me to die or something stupid like that, but if so... I think we can do that. Maybe even help Tim with his problem."

There was a nod from the driver's seat then, followed by an amused voice.

"You mean having a brother that's always better at everything than I am? Please, get to work on that right away." There was a certain charm to the words, but also a bit of a dark cast to them.

"Well, sure. I can fix
that
right now actually, by pointing out that it isn't
true
. You're smarter than I am. You might actually be the smartest person on the planet. I meant adding in a slightly different emotional pattern for you, so you can feel guilt and remorse."

"I knew that. I just can't think of a good reason why I'd
want
to feel those things. It really sounds unpleasant. I could do with being taller too though. I should make six foot, but I don't know, a bit over seven or so might help a bit. Tiera too. She's going to be a fighter, so being a bit bigger will only help that way."

They talked about things like that for a while, but decided to keep it simple in the main and go slow. First it would be Tor, acting as the test, and then Tiera's anger. After that they'd start on physical things, growing taller would take time to do safely, but they had the time. Timon didn't seemed thrilled by the idea of having regular emotions though. He did allow that he might be willing to get rid of a few of the more negative ones, if that would help them feel better about him.

That left only the one very obvious point of course. Tor mentioned it, his face sliding into a relaxed but considering expression in the dim cabin.

"What are we missing? If you can just change yourself like this, why haven't the others done it? Or
have
some of them? Is there a hidden drawback we can't see, being too young or something?" The others didn't know anymore than he did, but from deep inside his mind there was a, it wasn't really a noise, but it was the sense of a person clearing their throat.

Cordes.

'
We were told not to at the various institutes we were created at, as children. The basic idea was that an individual with that ability would eventually move too far away from being human. There is a bit of sense to that. Today you change one small piece of yourself, tomorrow you realize how helpful it would be to have twice or four times the intelligence. Then, eventually you come to understand you no longer need others, and grow a prehensile tail and move to Mars to do research. Some have done it, but it never became a big issue, as far as I know. I'm missing a few thousand years of information. So, take that with caution.
'

After a few seconds Tor related all of that to the others.

Tiera just shook her head a bit sadly.

"I don't think that's enough to stop me, if you're willing to help, Tor. Maybe we're
supposed
to do all those things? Move away and become whatever makes the most sense? What's the point of being alive forever if you never change at all?"

Tor kind of agreed with that himself.

"Plus, tails are cool. Who doesn't want a tail?" They didn't laugh about it, because that might wake the others, but there was kind of an agreement hashed out to really try, if it might work. Tor thought it really could.

After all, he knew that Count Lairdgren, his own grandfather, a person so clearly in charge of Tor that even the King would have problems challenging his word on the subject, wouldn't really want him to do these things, at least as far as he was concerned. Even trying to imagine this carefully, Tor realized that the idea wasn't impacting him at all. That might well mean he'd actually been successful already.

If so...

He was actually free.

It needed more testing, but they'd be able to do that soon enough. A simple trip to the Capital would be enough to get that done. Face down a few bossy giants, and see what that did for him. In the mean time they had things to do, didn't they?

Getting into Austra really was more complex than he thought it would be. They actually had to settle in the water, about ten miles from the shore, and go in like a boat.

"Otherwise their automated system will try to shoot us down. I don't know if it can or not, but I haven't wanted to risk it yet." Tim didn't even go in that fast, taking about ten minutes to do it. He knew which dock to go to, but stopped in the water and worked around to a pocket, pulling out a small black communications device. One of really nice Austran ones. Tor almost felt a bit jealous. He didn't have one after all. Touching the screen made it change, but Tor couldn't tell how from the back seat, even though his younger brother had twisted so the people in the back could see after a fashion.

Then he put it to his ear and waited. That didn't take too long at all, since it was probably about ten in the morning already. People were up and about. Even on the dock already, wearing white suits that looked like a tunic and trousers, but were all one piece. Jumpsuits they called them. One of them, a woman, waved. Ali was awake and she and Sherri pushed into the front section, waving happily back, but Tim held his position in the water, even though they
looked
like they were being welcomed.

"Hi Denno. Tim here. Tor, Ali, Sherri Bonner and Tiera are here with me." There was a bit of intent listening for a moment and a slight head nod from the boy. "Just for the night. Oh? Sounds interesting. Thanks. We'll be there in... call it half an hour, as long as no one catches on to who's here at least. See you then."

Then, with a bit of focus Tim touched the front panel and caused the shape of the Carriage to change, leaving an open space to the front, for some reason.

"Hello! Visiting, we have some produce for friends and presents for the Revered One." Turning he explained to them what that last bit meant. "It's what they call Denno Brown here. Technically all the Ancients are Revered Ones, including us, but when they say it, they mean him."

The dock, as Tor remembered it being, wasn't in great repair. It was made of some kind of fake stone, but metal spikes could be seen in it, holding it together. The water was a bit choppy that day, but the sun was bright and the wind felt nice and smelled of the sea. The place was a little gray and flat for his liking, but the people on the dock, a good twenty feet above them here, though some of the others sections were much higher, smiled and waved them up. They'd seen the trick before it seemed, so only a few of them pulled out their little compacts and took pictures.

From his last trip Tor knew that they liked to share them with others, or even sell them at times, if they were special enough. These people actually looked a bit guilty about it though and had their devices put away before Timon opened the door to let a light haired tan woman in white look inside.

"Good'ay, I recognize Tim, but I need to make a note of who the rest of you are for the records." She had a board with a silver piece on the top to hold the paper in place, which was useful since the wind would have ripped the sheets right away from her otherwise. She just went in order based on who was closest first, and smiled at Tiera, not prompting her more than that.

His sister gave her name and reason for visiting, which she stated honestly.

"I came to make sure that the Larval Assassins aren't a threat to my brother anymore. We were invited by Denno Brown to check his controls for them." It wasn't technically true, since only Tor had been invited, but the woman just went wide eyed and touched her cheek, which had an emerald diamond tattooed on it. Everyone in Austra did things like that, decorating themselves one way or the other. Even little kids.

Sherri gave her name and said she was just visiting.

That left the woman seeming more positive for some reason. Then, Tor thought he got it. After all, the Larval Assassins were kind of creepy, and
loved
to kill. Most Austrans kind of fear them from the time they were little children. The idea that there were nearly fourteen hundred of them in the world no, couldn't have been comforting. Especially not after he sent them all running back to their own continent, unable to control themselves at all.

When Ali gave her name though the woman nodded at first and then smiled and let her cheeks puff out with air, which looked pretty funny. She wasn't old, about thirty or so, but the lines next to her eyes crinkled in merriment then.

"No, seriously, I need your real name. Alyssa Baker is the girl from that story. I saw the museum set up. Or is there more than one girl by that name? You're way too tall for one thing. What are you, five-ten?"

Tor felt her stiffen, not in anger, but slight fear that the lady wasn't going to let her into the land. That would be awkward. They'd have to call Denno again and have him vouch for her or something. They didn't need to though, since Tim handled it, knowing the woman.

 "Same girl. The friend of Princess Karina that helped her plan to take out the evil Serge family. Daria and her father. I know people don't think about it that way here, but it was really all about the girl and how she killed a friend of theirs, Yardley Principle, and almost got away with it. Ali simply grew. Noram nobles do that. She'll be taller than this soon." Now he managed a decent level of charm. It felt a little off to Tor, like he didn't mean it at all, but the smile and eye contact attracted the woman's attention pretty easily.

"Oh? Well that's something then! I should get an interview with you to sell on the wire. I don't suppose you have time for that right now?"

Timon chuckled.

"Sorry Henna, not this time. Due to see Uncle Denno. The other guy is my brother. Don't freak out and scream like a little girl,
please
."

The woman looked past Ali and finally noticed him and didn't do what Tim asked at all.

"Oh my god! It's The Tor! Tim, you have The Tor in here!" She stopped after a few seconds and started writing fast.

"Did you come to kill the Larval then? I saw the dimensional play, 'The Tor Versus the Assassins' I was so scared, people have passed out watching it, it's like a nightmare made real. And I'm babbling, I should... Here..." She wrote something, which he was pretty certain just said The Tor, like that was his name or something. It was an Austran thing he thought. That or they thought it was a title. He'd never been certain, but mentioned his full name, just in case.

It was harder to get away from the woman than not, since she wanted to take them to their destination herself, which had Tim rolling his eyes at her and finally waving her away so he could close the door. It would have been funny, but he felt a bit embarrassed by the whole thing. For one thing she kept trying to make eye contact with him and licking her lips. In Noram that would have meant she wanted to have sex with him. Tor kind of thought it meant the same thing here, but Austran rules were more like Two Bends that way. You didn't have sex with married people, and if you were married, you didn't offer yourself to others. Green had told him that at least. From the ring on her finger this woman was being very bad then.

Timon moved the craft carefully, not flying, just traveling with the strange wheeled craft along a paved street, traveling slowly with the flow. It was early, so a lot of people were out and pointed at them as they traveled.

"You have to be careful here, because sometimes people will just jump out in front of you trying to get pictures. Every time I come I almost hit someone, and I'm pretty careful. They think their compacts protect them. It removes them from reality a bit most of the time, and they forget that dying hurts."

No one tried that though, but they did smile and wave, which had the girls doing that back, even Tiera. It was a winding route, and flying would have been much faster, but no more than half an hour later they were at a walled house. It was kind of ugly, but most Austran buildings were. They probably would have thought the Noram ones were too though. Gaudy and overdone for the wealthy, too plain and simple for the poor. Everyplace had its own way, so Tor didn't judge Denno too much.

Brown did meet them in the front of the place, as plain as it was, and there was a little grass and a few shrubs. Not a lot, but enough to point to the place as special. Most plants here, in the city, were in pots or looked very lonely if they were in the ground. The man, who was still very good looking and deeply tan in color, like Petra Ward was almost, smiled at them with brilliantly white teeth.

"So good to see you all. Come, let's get out of this heat, it's spring here. I know you must be anxious to see what I've done Tor, would you like to go and look at that now, or do we have time for refreshments?" The words held an odd tone to them, a leading one that was so subtle that he very nearly missed it. Brown clearly wanted to get to work right then, but knew that the people from Noram had pretty strict rules about how you treated an honored guest.

"Larval first, if you don't mind? Then we can do whatever is on the schedule. Are they very far?" It was possible, but the man winked at him and tilted his head.