Envoy to Earth (17 page)

Gerent didn't let anything show
on his face. The truth was, he'd always figured that the Guild was a tall tale,
meant to amuse the masses. To give them a glimmer of hope. A way to make it
seem that a corrupt Baron or Knight might be made to pay, if they got too bad.
That normally didn't happen, so it wasn't really true. Unless it was. Which
seemed to be what Tim was suggesting to him.

Timon Baker could lie. Probably
better than he could, and Gerent was an old master at the craft. This didn't
seem like that however, so instead of waiting for the punch line to be
delivered, he changed the topic. It was either true or not, and if it ever came
up, he'd probably help a powerful merchant anyway, just to make friends.

Still, after Timon chatted with
him about how things had been going and made a regular time for them to visit,
each mid-week, if only by communications unit, he wandered out of the ship
through the open back section. That meant he was just standing there when Tor
arrived, Petra and her mother beside him, Patty just behind, looking nervous.

That wasn't something she
normally did, but it was definitely about him. She kept looking at Gerent, and
then away, her head tilting downward. Her hair was a deep brown in tight curls,
and her eyes a cornflower blue that reminded him of crystal.

Luckily, before too many negative
things could come to mind, Tor distracted him. He was actually shorter than
Gerent now, he realized, by nearly two inches, and the man bowed to him before
winking.

"Gerent! Sorry about making
you late. I know that you wanted to get things moving fast. Still, here you
go." There were several boxes behind him, floating. They weren't very big
at all, but there were seven of them.

They were a nice purple color,
but he didn't know what to make of them, really. Each one could have been
easily held in both his hands. Comfortably even. Finally he just shrugged.

"Thank you? They're very
pretty boxes. Not as good as my pet box, of course, but it's hard to hold a candle
to Boxy." It was a strange thing to say, but Tor was clearly in a trance
state and barely seemed to register the words. He did that, at times. All the
wizards did.

It made them seem distant and
weird, but no one said anything about it, since they were also powerful. Tor
nodded, probably reading his thoughts.

"These are part of a nano
cloud, which will judge the weather all over the Earth. The Austrans have
techniques to be able to tell what will happen, weather wise, if they have
enough measurements. This will get those for them. Better than what they had
before. There are interfaces too. If you open one box in each land, that should
give good coverage. Then just take the readers to Austra and explain the idea.
They can hook the units into their computers. It
should
work."

"Got it! Magic for Austra.
Open a box in each land. Take them the amulets for their comps."

There was a slow nod.

"Close enough. Computers,
but they'll get the idea from the hookups. So, how are things going back home?
No one really tells me much, anymore."

Gerent snapped his fingers, and
pulled out the last piece of paper he had. It wasn't a letter, since those had
all had been taken away earlier, for delivery. It was just a folded sheet of
paper.

"A list of things that
Debbie needs for her shop? I can pick that up in a few days, if you can have it
ready?"

There was a strange look on Tor's
face, and then he shook his head, slowly. For a moment Gerent wondered if was
going to refuse to help, but then he just rose in the air and floated off, a
lot faster than a man could have run.

Petra grinned and the Dowager
Countess watched him leave carefully. When he was all the way out of sight, she
turned to her daughter and sighed.

"He's filling out nicely,
isn't he? Not so short anymore." Her eyes still lingered on where he'd
been, for a long time. When she finally refocused it was on him, not the door.
"So, Laurali Lairdgren
does
wish the ceremony to be held here.
Petra was saying that you should be able to bring everyone else... Which I must
say this does look like. I saw your new vessel from outside, through the
windows. I dare say you have room! It's a very impressive gift that Queen Tiera
bestowed on you. Nearly as grand as what the rest of them have managed for
Earth."

Patty stepped forward, and
cleared her throat a little.

"Hey, not to be indelicate,
but I don't think I get a lot more time with Gerent here. Would... I don't want
to steal him from you, Pet, but... I haven't seen him in nearly a year."
Her words sounded a little stressed, which, he understood a bit more now.

She would need him to deliver
some message or something. Like Tim said. Spy master for the entire land. It...
Part of him wanted to wonder about her intentions the whole time they'd
traveled together, he wasn't important or anything, but... Well, he'd been sort
of claiming to be the Wizard Tor, or at least the Troll of Galasia. Had she
just been there to stop him? If so, she'd done a horrible job of it. Come to
think of it, he knew that wasn't the case. Tor had told him, when they first
met, that he'd known about the false claim to his power, and hadn't cared. He
wasn't the sort to be jealous over things like that.

Names and titles didn't mean much
to a man that could make things appear out of the ether, did they?

The other two women looked at
her, skeptically. Probably assuming theft or kidnapping as being the actual
plan.

Finally however, Petra shrugged.

"I can understand that.
We'll go and find our rooms. Near the bridge?" Because she knew how to
find that, from Sara's ship.

"That sounds good. I have
the first one, but you can shove in there, or next to it? If you want, I mean.
There isn't a lot of space right now. In my room. Filled with packages for
delivery. Try to save a space near there for um... High Servant Erid. He's helping
out." It occurred to him that if people were going to do that, he needed
to get the food units out and ready for them.

Petra nodded, and both the very
tall women walked away. Her mother was taller, but Petra would probably end up
about the same, which was nearly what Gerent was, at the moment. There was
still some action going on, with people traipsing in and out, some waiting
outside the back hatch, for some reason.

Waving a hand in that direction,
at the twenty or so people there, Patty turned, so they couldn't read her lips.

"Your new helpers, I bet. I
won't be long. Just two things. First, could you get something to my parents
for me? Just a letter. I know, everyone has one for you, but..." She
looked hopeful, and given that if she'd asked for his right hand, he would have
seriously considered cutting it off, he just held out his hand to take it. That
was a lot less messy.

"Naturally. What's the other
thing?" He waited for her to ask him to spy for her, or deliver a person
in the night, but she looked away and then leaned in, kissing him warmly, on
the mouth. She didn't stop after the first moments either, not even after he
started kissing her back.

When she finally did, she held
him, arms locked tight around his middle.

"I didn't forget you. Not even
for a moment." Her words were perfect, but he had to think for a while,
and she didn't seem to want to let him do that, her face saying that he'd
better respond quickly, if he didn't want to insult her.

"I always think of you. Too
much, if you need the truth. I tried not to, but that didn't work all the
time." Then he kissed her again, knowing that he might never be allowed to
again. If Tor wasn't going to let Ali sleep with him, because of him being an
adopted brother, Timon might well do the same. It would be fair, and
everything. She was his wife, and in some parts of the world, like where Tim
had come from, that meant more than in others. City folk were often more
understanding that way, with a husband or wife taking a lover or two over the
years, without anyone batting an eye. Nobles practically insisted that their
spouses not bog them down with too many demands on their time that way. The
country people were strict though, in some places. Lairdgren was like that,
outside of the major cities. Thomson too. Down the coast, into Harris, or Ford,
things were different.

More open again.

She responded, her lips soft, and
accurate, doing exactly what they were supposed to, from long practice and
possibly even exacting training. She was a spy, and what that meant, as far as
things like kissing went, he didn't know. At a guess it probably meant his own
efforts weren't nearly as skillful that way. He tried however, and a few
minutes later, When Tor found them he rolled his eyes and tapped Gerent on the
shoulder, so that he could hand over a floating case amulet to him.

"This isn't everything
Debbie asked for, but it will give her something to work with while I do up the
rest, and collect things for her. There are some other people that need things,
but
I
need time to come up with them. You said I had four days?"

He seemed to be ignoring the fact
that Patty had just been doing something very bad with him, by his country way
of thinking. It was strange, really, but Gerent didn't let that bother him. If
Tim had a problem with it, well
that
could be bad. Tor though, well, if
he wanted to be jealous he could at least wait for Gerent to flirt with his own
wife. Otherwise it was probably poor form.

"That should be right. It
might be five, but probably won't be less than that. I have to return the
helpers and all that, when I'm done. I'll make the trip, regardless though, so,
yes, four days."

Tor put his hand out, to shake,
and then looked at Patty, his face a bit sad.

"Trice..." Then without
explaining anything else, he turned and left. Tor was good looking, but his
face had seemed almost ugly in whatever emotion had shown there. It was a thing
that Gerent knew, of course, but it was hard to credit it as being on his
adopted brother.

Envy.

Not, he didn't think, jealousy, but
the plain desire to have something, knowing that he couldn't. Except that, if
they were going to be honest, the only thing stopping him from being with Patty
was his own feelings and concern for Tim. Which probably made him a better
person than Gerent was. Not that it was a thing in doubt. He winced however,
and then shook his head.

"I suppose Timon will hate
me now?"

His friend shook her head.

"Over a kiss? No. Not even
just sex. Or love. He wouldn't even hate Tor, if we, you know, were closer.
It's a complicated thing, but not so much so for you. Just keep that in mind,
later, when Tim is stealing away with Petra. Honestly, I think that if I hadn't
needed help,
she'd
be marrying him about now. We can't get bogged down
in what might have been. That never works out. I was engaged to Tor, but had to
leave him, for politics. He married Alyssa, to save her from her father, who
was a true monster. Then Tim ends up with me, to save me from Rico Gala, who
was a monster of a different sort." She paused and looked around, but no
one was near them. No one could hear anything. She leaned in anyway, her lips
nearly to his ear. "I think that Timon had Rico killed. I can't explain
how, not right now..."

It was an idea, even if he had to
pay
for the Assassins Guild to do it. Not understanding why he spoke at
all, Gerent leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.

"No, he
didn't
do it,
Patty. I can swear to that."

She gave him a baffled look that
was probably a little slow on the uptake, but didn't ask him how he knew. She
was a noble, and when it came to things like that, there were some questions
that you learned not to ask, he didn't doubt.

Gerent decided to do something
special for Ali, his sister-in-law, just as soon as he could come up with an
idea. One that showed the breadth and depth of how he truly felt for her now.
The little magical device she'd given him, in trade for some simple delivery
work, was truly a miracle. For two days after he'd gotten the aid from Harmony
for everyone, he didn't sleep.

That probably would have been the
case no matter how he'd felt, but the device left him relatively clear headed
and not feeling bad, or like he couldn't handle things. It was far superior to
the dragging and yawning he would have done otherwise.

The situation was different
around the world, depending on various factors. A lot of that was in how hard
people had been hit in the attacks of the Ancients. Austra had been crippled,
in a lot of ways for instance. When he landed, over the ocean so that his giant
craft wouldn't scare anyone too much, it was clear that only about half of that
entire continent had real buildings left. Gerent had seen it before anything
had happened, so knew what it should have been like.

Petra had already gone back to
her school, and her mother returned to Warden, for wedding planning duties.
That portion of things left him wanting to gasp for air, but he didn't let
himself, given how much work there was to be done.

In Austra everything took twice
as long as he'd thought it would, because only officials were allowed to use
motor vehicles on the roads, and flying was pretty much prohibited. Not just by
law, which he might have broken if it had just been stuffiness causing him to
slow down, but by their missile system. Some people had Timon shields there,
left from a massive drop of them when a giant killer wave had been about to hit
them. That meant they could fly, but if they went above about two hundred feet,
it meant being shot down.
Fatally
, as it turned out, shield or not.

His big space craft might have
been enough to withstand that kind of thing, but he honestly didn't want to
test it, which meant spending half a day asking people to find the Prime Minister
for him, as the common people on the street all kept looking at him like he was
being a fool. After a while he shook his head, and simply tried to understand
it all from their perspective.

"I think I understand. If
you went to the Capital, and asked for the King to come out and play with you,
it would take a while too." There was a smile to go with the words, as he
stood on the largely destroyed docks. They were made of a strange and badly
damaged smooth stone. It was pale and gray, with a soft yellow undertone to it.
In places metal bars showed through. They had ridges. Why that was, he didn't
know. Rather than ask, he got Erid to come over, from his Timon craft, which
was just over the water, hovering, and make some food using one of the new
units.

Gerent had to admit that it was
impressive to look at. The thing was huge, to start with. The size of a large
house at least. The shape was a rectangle, but it glowed in a soft blue, with a
single line of silver all the way around it. There was a gap on either side,
but it also had written directions all over the bottom part of it. Including an
arrow that said "Material In Here" on one side, and "Food
Here" on the other. The controls to make it work were all about four feet
from the ground, so that even short people could reach the sigils, which all
glowed in a darker blue.

He let Erid do the work, since he
looked kind of official in his white outfit. A robe that was largely unadorned,
but pristine. It was magic, so that last bit made sense. It could have been
more decorated however. Gold metallic trim or something. It was allowed even,
but Erid didn't go in for that kind of thing, actually taking the position of
High Servant seriously. They used a water pump and the sea to provide the
needed material, but explained that anything would work. Dirt, rocks, waste
products, or even air.

Gerent looked at the huge thing
and grinned at that one.

"Except that it takes a long
time to do
that
. Water's pretty good. The magic will take it apart and
put it back together on the other side, as whatever you select from the
menu." That was an Austran word. They used that kind of selection screen a
lot, so everyone listening understood the idea. You touched a word, and put
stuff in one side and got your meal on the other.

Or, in this case, a ton of
whatever you asked for, every few minutes.

He started with bread, since
people could take it away and eat it out of hand. They clearly had gotten some
food, but they all looked thin and needy, after a year of hard living. More
than a few even refused to eat. At first he thought that it was because they
wanted to save it. Take it home to share with their families, or friends, but
one man, who looked to be about thirty and sun toasted to an even and dark
color stepped forward, a full large loaf in his hand. He was staring at it the
whole time, too.

"I... Don't have anything to
pay you with." Then, slowly, he tired to hand it back to Erid, looking
sad.

That could have been a real
problem, Gerent knew. In Austra, by tradition, they didn't have the concept of
charity. Or if they did it was a very different kind of thing than in Noram.
There a man would turn down bread, even as he starved, shame filling him. Here
it was turned down because it hadn't been earned. It was a subtle distinction,
but one that was real enough. Erid pushed the bread back into his hand, and he
took it, but Gerent smiled.

It was a forced thing, but not
hard or too fake. There was also honor in not taking things without giving
something back.

"It
isn't
free! Not
past these first samples. If you want regular food from the devices, you have
to help distribute it to everyone else in your land. Half an hour a day to earn
your own fair portion. Not just you here, but everyone. If they can't work, due
to illness, age or injury, then it's your job to make certain they get a full
share each day anyway. This man..." He pointed at the fellow that had
tried to give the bread back, and whispered. "Say, what's your name?"

"Scott Limic." He
looked down at the ground for some reason.

"Commander Limic here will
set that up. Everyone works though, if they can. Don't make him do all the
work, but take his lead and get these devices in place. Commander Limic, can
you afford the time to see to this? If not..." Well, then he didn't know
what to do. They could leave Erid, but Gerent had sort of promised to get
everyone from Harmony back in four days time.

"Yes! I can do that. I...
I'm not working right now. Economic downturn. Do I get to draw a salary?"

Gerent blinked, and then shook
his head a little.

"Nooo, but you don't have to
work at it full time. Plus all the food you can eat. Here, let's go over it
all, everyone gather around."

It still took them some time to
get the idea of exchanging work directly for goods, but he had boxes of the new
food units heading out in the back of large yellow Tam-craft not two hours
later. Each one of the cases held about three thousand of the units, which had
Limic nodding. He did some calculations on a scrap of paper and smiled, after a
bit.

"Yes... Yes! We can set up
manufacturing using these nano assemblers of yours and... Can we keep using
those vehicles you brought? That will let us move food around, distribute it to
shops. I... It's going to be hard, organizing people to do it in exchange for
work. Really, it might be more efficient to have some of them do other things.
Rebuilding and all that? Is that allowed, or do you want everyone on
food?" This was said to Gerent, with Erid standing right next to the man,
looking interested rather than annoyed.

A voice from behind them all
answered however.

"Spreading that out might
work best. We can pay for some of the delivery drivers out of public funds, for
now, since this isn't a revenue generating program." The man that stood
there was dressed in brown, and looked tired. Gray of hair, and slightly of
face too, but not grim. No matter what had become etched on his face over the
last year and a half, this man made himself smile. He was thin, like everyone
else, if not as much so. A hand came out, to shake, which was a thing that
Gerent knew, having been deep enough into the countryside that it was a common
greeting. That meant he was able to reach down with only a bit of awkwardness
and return the gesture properly. "Prime Minster John Foley. I appreciate
your help here, sir. May I enquire as to who we owe for this... Miracle?"

There was a gesture at the
device, which was making large amounts of various foods. Fruit at the moment,
which was being loaded into boxes, cook pots and even large flat pieces of
plastic that took several people to carry away. People did work and spread the
word easily enough, about what was required as for payment. In fact, several
signs were put up, to explain that part, as more people came from the
surrounding area.

Gerent bowed a little and then
gestured back at the craft. His bigger one was there over the ocean, about five
feet above the water, glistening like a cream colored jewel in the bright
sunlight.

"Queen Tiera, of Harmony.
The Lunar base and the people there. Also, the High Servants of Noram." He
tossed off a tiny bow to Erid, who bowed back, but didn't smile about his role
in things. "I'm Gerent, and this man is Erid. Oh... Wait, I have some
things for you, personally. Gifts..." He really did, even though it meant
digging through some cases to find the right things. He pulled out ten of the new
communication devices, which got the man to smile, when he realized what the
basic idea was.

"Handhelds? Ones that don't
need to be charged and that can connect to the Moon? Amazing. I should see if I
can reach Queen Tiera then, and thank her for all this. It would be good to
speak to our new Revered One, as well. Timon Baker? Have you any word of him?
Is he safe? Denorian Brown instructed us to guard him, if we could, but he's
been tucked away in space. The nano set that killed Brown will remain active for
some time, and has a genetic key, so it will kill any of the Revered Ones that
come to Earth. It was most...
Rending
. Losing our Revered One like that.
He was old, but also vital. A constant in our lives. Do you think that Timon
would speak to me?" There was a wistfulness to the words.

"Probably. We can check. If
he isn't busy working. That involves a lot of trance states and other stuff. I
don't know what. Chanting and scribbling arcane markings? I've never seen it
done, to tell the truth. Tim told me it was actually more boring than that.
Um... Let's see..." He pulled his own unit out, making sure he had the
right one and connected with Tiera first, since she was the Queen, even if this
man obviously had a puppy crush on Tim for some reason. Not that he wasn't good
looking enough, but it seemed a little more than the older man just wanting to
get him into bed. Hero worship, came to mind.

Then he passed the unit over and
let the man speak for a while. He was good at it and said all the right things,
meaning that Ger could see to the actual work. Until it got dark. Erid had
taken his craft back for more loads of supplies several times, but eventually
it was time to go. He bowed, and shook hands with Foley again.

"If you need me, just get in
touch. Gerent Lairdgren. Feel free to bother Erid, too. He's a High Servant, so
if people are in need, any people, it's his job to try and help them." It
was the actual rule there, even if most of that type didn't seem to think so
for some reason.

His High Servant friend however,
young looking and fresh faced, bowed deeply.

"True. I have one of those
units as well. Terrence Baker provided all of these."

Gerent winced, having forgotten
to mention that part.

"Yes, he did. Taman Baker
built the delivery vehicles for you. Timon did the large food units, and the
healing amulets came from Tor. I think that Sam Builder did the multi-amulets...
The ones with self heating cook pots and refrigerating ice boxes." There
was more than that, but the Prime Minster started crying, for some reason.

"That's... truly a wonder.
That they all thought of us, here. You gentlemen as well. We won't forget this.
I promise you that."

It took a long time to get free,
but they all bowed and shook hands and got the people that were helping back to
the main ship, which then got steered toward Afrak.

That wasn't really true however.
They tried to make a delivery to Tellerand first, but the people there ran at
them, screaming, and throwing rocks. Their beliefs made magic out to be an evil
thing, and it was night there still. After about half an hour of searching for
a good spot, they set down near a forest on the southern side of the land, and
unloaded the gear into a magical house that was made to look plain and
unassuming. If people stole it, well, as long as it was
used
, it would
be enough. He has a sneaking suspicion that they wouldn't even find it though.
The whole thin looked pretty remote. That would require them coming back,
later.

He moved on quickly, finding the
main port of Afrak instead. It was untouched looking compared to poor Austra.
Not that he could see much of it, except in the glow from his Tim-Craft, which
they loaded with things again, since no one had built ports big enough for the
space craft yet. They were over the water, so that no one would be killed by
accident. There might have been a large field or meadow they could have hovered
over, but if so he couldn't find it in the night.

 It took a while for anyone to
come and meet them, but thankfully they had Kimi with them, when that happened.
She was young, nearly black of skin, like the night, and short enough to pass
for a commoner in Noram. She also spoke Afrak, being from there originally, and
Standard, meaning she could take charge and communicate for them. Still, she
wasn't a bigot, like some of the people there were, thinking that men were only
a joke. She took his hand, and led him to the woman that seemed to be in
charge. She had bright blue hair and orange eyes, made clear by the glow of his
craft. There were no lights other than that. Except for what seemed to be
glowing guards that each of the four women carried with them.