Ancient Kings (The Young Ancients) (68 page)

"Not at all, at their original base, here in town. Why don't you and I go look at that and the rest of you can go and see the sights?" It sounded very reasonable to Tor, but Tiera actually moved in front of him like a guard, and took a fighting stance. A group of people in tan moved then, eight of them, pointing strange weapons at the girl. She wasn't intimidated at all. Tor was a bit, but as large as they were, all over six feet, except one woman, he didn't feel a need to grovel or anything. It was just the tension of conflict.

Denno held out his right hand calmly.

"Hold... hold. This is my niece, Tiera. She means no harm to us as long as we don't try to harm her, I'm certain. Is there a difficulty in my plan?"

She looked ready to do her best to take out Denno's people anyway, but she spoke calmly enough. A bit clipped mainly, but a bunch of people
did
have her at weapons point. That could explain it.

"Why are you trying to separate us?"

"I'm not really. You're all welcome to join us, it's just that the facility is a bit drab and boring right now. What we had to do, in order to pacify the Larval, well, too many factors were driving them mad. What I had done isn't a peaceful sight, so I thought to save you that. I did show Timon. I promise it isn't a trick, or trap. We're family after all. If I had a problem with any of you, I'd invite you to a meal, to talk about it, well before I bothered with any crazy machinations."

Tor read the man as closely as possible with his eyes open, and if he was lying, he believed it on every level of his being. Shrugging he turned to the others and tried to seem calm himself.

"I know, Ali, why don't you and Sherri go with Tim and look at that museum thing? You can tell them what they have wrong. Tiera can stay with me, so that no Austrans molest me or anything." Tor was about to explain about the woman at the docks, but the armed men and women just put their weapons away and chuckled a bit.

"Good plan. For that matter we should get the work done before the press catches on to you being here. Let's move. If that's the plan at least?" This came for the shortest one, a woman nearly as tall as Ali, who had short drab colored hair. Like slate faded by sanding.

That got them moving at least, he and Tiera with Denno in a black shining thing that had decently comfortable seats, and Tim with Ali and Sherri in his Carriage. They left first, to draw off watchers, and a few people did take images of them, not that they could be seen, due to the special windows which were too dark to see through.

The trip was tense, his sister clearly a bit uncertain about their Uncle Denno, relative or not. It was a good idea, he realized. Not because the man wasn't trustworthy, he actually was, more or less. She didn't know that though, and the rules here were just
different
. Anything could be made to happen and sitting in a prison cell would be annoying
and
a waste of time. If anyone tried to take or hurt them, Tiera was ready.

 The fence around the military compound was high, and had a sloping bit at the top to make it harder to climb in. Not out, because no fence would stop the clones inside from leaving if they wanted to. No, it was to keep children from accidentally being killed. Or possibly just for show.

"They're all inside. We can just walk in, they won't attack. They can't." Denno seemed saddened by that, but it didn't cast even internal blame toward Tor at all. "We did track the initial Cordes nanite infection to what seems to be Afrak. There was a clearly biological design system at any rate. That's Lara's signature style. I don't know why she did it. The..." He stopped and looked at both of them, his brown eyes looking a little misty. "There's something you need to know. I haven't mentioned it to Timon, but it doesn't seem to affect him as far as I can determine. The Green and Brown lines were both created to be slaves originally. It was illegal then, as it is now, to hold someone captive for their work, without paying them for it. To that end we were designed not to see ourselves in that light. You may both be in possession of that basic genetic pattern. The Rhetistics you had would make it far worse Tor, but even without it, you and your brothers and sisters might be unduly influenced at times. I... Think Lara might have done that to me, suggesting the buildup in Larval. The treaty only allows for three pods of seven at any one time, but she pressed me, I think. I can't even be certain, because it was a good idea at the time, as far as I could tell. You have to be on your guard with that." Then he started forward, his feet moving faster than before.

Tor ended up speaking to his back.

"We know. Tiera and Timon don't have it at all and never did. I... Altered my pattern earlier. To take that out. It seems to be working, but I don't know for certain yet."

The man stopped again, but only to open the door. Once they were inside he closed it firmly and touched Tor's arm, whispering in his ear.

"Go carefully. That's a dangerous path." Then he acted as if nothing had been said at all and went in to a large space where hundreds of black eyed, nearly identical men stood, all wearing green and tan single suits. Brown was in a dark tan thing that looked nearly the same as far as that went.

"Gentlemen? Tor Baker has come to visit. The Great Unknown Factor himself. Have at him, if you will." The Ancient waved at him, and stepped aside, as if to let tell them to have to, and rip him apart, but they all just stood, waiting. A bit slack jawed. "They're all like this. We try to keep them comfortable and are working to find a way to help them, but it's nearly impossible to remove Rhetistics or even change them, once they're in place. To last through millennia they were designed to actively resist being tampered with. These men are all, as you can see, harmless. We have fourteen hundred and two of them here. That leaves fifteen unaccounted for. We're fairly certain that nine of that number died while trying to get here. The rest are simply missing. I know that isn't a complete success, but the honest fact is that six Larval aren't a real threat to you or yours."

"Unless they're behind the rocket attack on the Capital last week. It would make some sense. How did they get around the fields I put in place though? If they breathe the air they should all be infected with it. The things were built to seek them out after all. It seemed to work for the rest of the world at least." Tor walked to one of the men, his creepy black eyes staring hard, but the fellow didn't seem to realize who he was. Or he didn't care anymore.

Brown dipped his head.

"That could be. My best bet would be that Gray helped them. She rather stole them from me for some reason. I haven't worked out why exactly. What would she gain by it?"

They did a bit of a tour and Tor counted each of the identical men, getting exactly the number that Denno said he should. That done they just left the whole thing really was a bit of an anti-climax, after fearing that they'd come for him or his friends and family, at any moment. That was real life though wasn't it? How often did the real solutions come about well away from where you were, when you didn't even know about the problem?

"This will hold them?" Tor didn't really want to wake up one day with all of these killers at his throat. If it wasn't relatively certain, he could kill them all, right at that moment, with a thought. It was the only safe thing to do, but Brown, rather perversely, thought of them as his own children. His own deadly and insane kids. The man had practically begged Tor not to hurt them already.

"It should. Barring outside tampering. We have precautions in place, but if someone is actively working against us... I can't promise this will work forever. No." Brown did not seemed happy to be making that admission to him at all. The set of his shoulders was tense and closed in, ruining his normally good posture.

"Alright. Try to fix them as quickly as possible, and keep them safe then. We can always kill them later, if we have to, but I feel a lot more comfortable with the idea of just leaving them in a peaceful state." He wasn't a wanton killer after all.

Death toll aside.

Denno sighed, "I'm so glad to hear you say that Tor. I was worried. We'll fix this shortly, I'm confident. They won't be a problem for you at all. Thank you for seeking a safe solution to this for us. They can't thank you, but please know that
I
certainly do."

It just fit with his personality though didn't it? Who killed hundreds of people, just because they were mentally ill? Worse the whole thing had been someone else's fault to start with. He couldn't like the Assassins, not on any level. That didn't mean they weren't worth giving a chance though. That was his way, a part of himself that he didn't want to lose. That little bit within himself that argued for life to win in the end.

It would have made a nice and soulful speech, but Denno clearly wanted to leave, and his sister was acting like they were going to be rushed at any moment. She kept a rather powerful explosive weapon in her hand the whole time they stood there and had her shield on. The one that was lodged under her skin. She also had another one around her neck. Why she had two, Tor wasn't certain, but didn't get a chance to ask at the moment.

They ended up meeting back at Denno's place, which was strongly influenced with brown tones inside, just waiting in the front room, sitting on the soft fabric of a very plush sofa. When Ali, Tim and Sherri got back, a few hours later, they were given a few minutes to clean up in their rooms and were almost whisked out the door to go to dinner.

Oddly, Tim picked the restaurant.

"The King's Table. They have Noram style food, and more than that, Kincaid is meeting us there. You'll recognize some of the people, all those spies you had kicked out of the kingdom?" That was addressed to Tor, but he sputtered and waved his hands meaningfully.

"That
I
had kicked out? Denno called them back home, that's a totally different thing! Do they think I lost them their jobs? We had to find that murderer and it could have been one of them. How was I supposed to know that Daria Serge had contact with the brother of a local baker and tried to turn him into a..." There was really no good word for it. Turn him against his land? Get him to work for her? To steal magic or whatever the insane girl had wanted?

Ali murmured something then, her face more than a little.

"Lily killed Yardley. They call her Daria here, but she was never called that back then. Not on the streets. She was just
Lily
. Lilith DeGray. I told the woman that ran that museum, but she didn't seem impressed. It was almost like they were happy with the tale they had, and didn't want to know the truth."

Brown patted her leg, a little familiarly. Ali all but moved into him then, pleased by the contact. Tor just rolled his eyes and smiled. It was bound to happen that his wife would like the Ancient, he was the culmination of both a well designed pattern and thousands of years of practice.

Something occurred to him then and Tor stopped, his brow furrowed suddenly as he looked at his wife. She pulled back, clearly thinking he was angry about her touching Brown, but that wasn't it, not at all.

"Wait... She called herself Lily 'Dagree' didn't she? One word? The way you said it sounded like "Da Gray" I heard it differently before, at the Palace, which was it?" It was important enough that everyone in the back of Denno's vehicle stared at her except Sherri, who didn't get it at all.

Ali stammered, holding her arms over her large breasts, and looked scared suddenly.

"Da-Gray. Why? Is that important?"

Tor had to take several deep breaths. After a minute he tried to explain, his voice still slightly panicked sounding.

"Possibly. Her father loved our mother, when she spurned his affections he tried to kill her. That was Glost Serge, the old Prime Minister that had grabbed power here somehow. I've never heard of a mother though, and she called herself Lilith DeGray. Maybe it's just me being too used to home speech, but that seems to be saying 'the Gray' really clearly to me, when pronounced the way you did Ali. I..." He didn't know, it was a stretch really, but he could check, if there was anything of the girls left that carried her field pattern on it. He couldn't remember her well enough to do it that way from memory, not years later.

Tor explained and looked at Denno, who nodded firmly.

"I take your meaning Tor. I always hated that girl, but I never heard of a mother either. Glost indicated that he hired a woman for the task of having her, but didn't go into it. I know that sounds strange, but people to that here from time to time if they don't have a partner, and he was a difficult man at the best of times."

Sherri patted his leg, to get Tor's attention.

"At that place, the museum? They... Um, I don't know if it's what you want, the whole thing was too grisly, so Ali and I didn't go into the room, but they said they have her head frozen there. Would that have her pattern on it?"

There was no chance to say yes, since Denno ordered the vehicle to turn around and drive there directly. It wasn't that far away, but it seemed to take forever. The place wasn't huge and was directly next to several tall buildings, having the same flat, dull gray color that a lot of the place did, with a sign in bright red that glowed.

Even with the near panic he stopped dead when he saw it.

"
Seriously
? The Karina Cordes Museum? I thought that Austra hated Noram. No one has ever said why really."

Denno didn't stop moving, just walking in, even though there was a place to pay. The girl watching it didn't try to stop them either. Tor stopped though and ran to her, digging out a coin. It was a gold, but what was at hand. He passed it to her, explaining as he moved away.