Slave Line (The Young Ancients)

Orange Cat Publishing

Electronic Publishing Division

2012

All rights reserved.

Orange Cat Publishing books by P.S. Power:

The Infected:

Proxy

Gabriel

Cast Iron

Gwen Farris:

Abominations

Monsters

Dead End:

A Very Good Man

A Very Good Neighbor

A Very Good Thing

Keeley Thomson:

Demon Girl

Keelzebub

The Young Ancients:

The Builder

Knight Esquire

Knight of the Realm

Ambassador

Counselor

Slave Line

Stand alone titles:

Crayons

Unrelenting Terror

Slave Line

P.S. Power

Chapter one

Tor had been angry before in his life, but it had never been like this. Not exactly.

Rage swept through him, a red-hot thing that made him feel like he wanted to kill someone. Like he had to and there was no real choice in the matter. Honestly it was a lot worse than that, because it didn't just feel like he should kill a single person, but everyone on the whole planet. His heart raced with it, his body shook and he felt like he couldn't breathe it was so bad.

The feeling was one he'd had before, but again, this time was different.

Once, nearly two years before, he'd gone into a combat rage and nearly destroyed part of the Capital, just because his fiancé had been calling him names in public. It had been petty and silly of him to let something that small get to him, but it had at the time. At the moment though he knew there wasn't any kind of excuse at all. He had to bite his lip and turn away from the woman standing beside him, so she wouldn't see the pure rage on his face.

Because his oatmeal was cold.

Tor forced himself to take a deep breath and blanked his mind like he did when a combat rage was about to take him, not speaking to the serving girl for nearly a minute, even though she stood right next to him anxiously, obviously understanding something was wrong, if not what. Finally he made himself smile and shook his head, a thing that he hoped wasn't too negative. He still felt severely upset, but really didn't want her to know about it. It wasn't her fault and even if it had been it was only cereal.

He'd asked for the meal to be ready at seven and it had been delivered perfectly on time, but then he hadn't come down to the table until nearly half an hour later, because he'd been too sore to move, so soaked in the bath for a longer time trying to use heat to loosen himself up. It had even worked to a small degree, so he really couldn't complain about the effect. Even if it did mean cold food for breakfast.

"Um... Thanks. Sorry I didn't get down here when I said I would." There. It didn't fix the anger totally, but it let the girl actually get back to the kitchen so he wouldn't accidently yell at her or something rude like that.

It was a bit scary, but calming down before speaking had probably saved her life, he realized. More than a just a little bit too. He'd been really close to lashing out at her, an innocent. He wasn't a killer, so feeling that way, like he'd strike at someone who was only trying to do what had been asked of them was crazy. Real, honest to everything, flat out insane.

Tor took a bite of the food, sticky and dry now, thanks to sitting about for the extra time he'd taken and choked it down. It tasted like death, which got him to calm down more once he noticed that part of things. After all, cold death was slightly preferable to it being warm, wasn't it? The flavor wasn't real, just something his subconscious mind had cooked up for him, to punish him for having killed several people. To his way of thinking he only deserved it for one of them, but that didn't seem to matter to his deeper self. Death was death and killing, no matter how needed, was murder.

The thought got a voice to whisper in his right ear. It was a soft thing, menacing and female. The voice of Daria Serge, the now dead daughter of the equally dead Glost Serge, who until three days before had been the Premier of Austra. Tor had pretty much collected the data for the plan that killed them both and suggested how it could be done... to people he knew would act on it. That meant it was his responsibility. His guilt to bear.

The girl from his subconscious mind laughed at him.

"Oh? Am I the one you don't think deserves it? I can't for the life of me see who else it could be."

Tor didn't respond. It was just a voice in his head after all. Talking to it would look worse than just hearing it did. At any rate she was kind of right, wasn't she? It wasn't so much that Box, the brother of his friend and business partner Debbie, hadn't needed to die as much as that death shouldn't have had Tor involved at all. He'd reacted and executed the man, a confessed murderer, to keep Debbie from being forced to do it as his only local family member. That didn't mean Box was innocent. Tor knew for a fact that the man had raped and killed women, some of them just girls. He'd confessed. It wasn't coerced even. Tor had been there for the whole thing.

Shaking his head he ate the oatmeal, not leaving any, even though he probably didn't have to be that careful about it anymore. It was just habit not to waste anything if he could help it. After he finished Tor didn't bother moving at all, since that would hurt. Instead he just sat, wondering what he was supposed to do for the day. Get some gold for his ship's Captain, Petra Ward, and probably check in with the King. As long as he could calm the heck down first. Otherwise he needed to run off to the woods or at least go hide where no one innocent could find him. Otherwise he was going to murder someone else and things would just get worse. If the scent of rot and death in his nose got any stronger, Tor was probably going to have to take a cutter to it, or maybe remove his head at the neck. It was awful already, he couldn't stand it if it got more powerful.

The girl came back and hesitated at the door of the room, just waiting for him to leave, or say something to her. That would be the polite thing for him to do, especially since he was the one being a jerk and getting mad for no reason.

"I'm finished. Thank you." He looked at her for a few seconds as she moved closer to him, her eyes averted for some reason. At first he figured it was just so she wouldn't have to look at him, being as ugly as he was, but then he made himself remember that he wasn't really. That was something that existed only inside his mind. People claimed he was nice looking even and the mirror showed that he was no worse than average. It was a built in thing to keep him from being too vain or something. His grandfather, Count Lairdgren, had it too.

Unless he was lying about the whole thing. That probably wasn't the case, but Tor just couldn't help being suspicious of everything for some reason. The man may be him for the most part, if a vastly older version, but that didn't mean they were exactly alike. For one thing, Burks had probably just eaten his own breakfast like a normal person and not sat at the table brooding when it was finished.

That thought got Tor to stand up and stretch, which hurt a lot worse than it should, producing a wave of red pain that washed over him. Trying to cover the wince he smiled at the new serving girl and took a half breath to steady himself.

"Sorry, I don't think I know your name yet. If we've been introduced and I've forgotten, I apologize in advance." He smiled at her again, which got her to blush a little, even if she wasn't looking directly at him.

"Forgive me my lord. I'm new here. My name's Sandra... Mills, sir." She sounded humble and even a bit contrite, though that shouldn't have been the case. Of course she was new and didn't know to just call him Tor, like everyone else.

"Nice to meet you Sandra. If you need anything while I'm here, please let me know. I mean, you know, if you need help settling in or anything. Well, or gold, that kind of thing. I mean, not to waste, but if something important comes up. An emergency or something." He felt stupid for having said it as the girl turned a deeper red, but she didn't run away or do anything except start clearing the dishes. His bowl got knocked into his lap by accident, which oddly enough made him feel better, even as the girl started to panic and made a grab for it. Dropping his water cup on him at the same time. He'd left a swallow in the bottom, which now slopped onto his lap, leaving a cold wet line of slightly darker brown.

That got the cup snagged from his lap as he yelped a bit.

"I'm so sorry. I... My lord..." She looked mortified at least, but it was funny. At least nothing had been too hot. And here he'd been angry about it being cold. That showed him, didn't it?

"Don't worry about it. I need to change for my day anyway. Here..." He didn't close his eyes to make the clothing amulet shift to his work clothes, which was basically an all black military outfit, though done in what looked like velvet and silk. It was probably a little showy for everyday wear, but he liked it and it was free. He'd made the amulet himself.

Sandra gasped.

"Magic." She said it as if it was unusual, but the whole mansion they were in was made of the stuff. Almost everything in the place was too. Still, she seemed impressed. That would fade in a few days, Tor figured.

"You don't have one of these yet? How about the rest of the staff?" He watched as she shook her head.

That probably meant they didn't have anything else either, like temperature control devices or shields. They should have those if they were working for him, just in case anyone tried to kill him for some reason. It wasn't common, but it had been known to happen now and again. The day before in fact, as an example. Tor would have to get on that.

More to the point he'd have to get the Lairdgren group on it. It would be good practice for them. Farlo could do it. She was the slowest at making copies still, so could use the practice. Not that it was his job to assign her duties, but he knew her boss... Sandra Morris.

Tor laughed again and reached out with his mind, using his own field pattern to sense the girl next to him. It wasn't something he should be doing, field reading like that, but it happened almost as a reflex, even if he was damaged at the moment.

"You even gave me your real first name and you almost fooled me! Impressive. The shocked look over me using magic was probably a little overdone, but in all not a bad job."

He didn't even get through the last sentence before the girl tapped her chest, using focus to turn off the disguise, and shifted into her normal form. It made her better looking, darker skinned and about thirty pounds lighter. It was always easier to add weight than take it off with the devices. After a few seconds she screwed up her mouth and shook her head.

"Well, That's two golds gone. Sam bet me I couldn't fool you for half an hour. I barely made twenty minutes. You didn't even have to read me first. Hardly a good job." She didn't seem too upset about the loss though. Then she shouldn't. If she wasn't rich yet, it was only because she'd spent most of her time working for the Kingdom instead of moving out into the world and setting up shop. Most of the kids had deals going on the side though, making enough coin to keep them all fed and housed plus a good bit.

Tor shook his head, but didn't comment on the bet. It was probably a sign that they were getting bored. That or Sam had a plan he hadn't shared with Tor for some reason. A thing that might need the others to be able to pass for different people on command. That was fine, since Tor had one for him too.

"We need to have a meeting, as soon as everyone has breakfast. Could you see to that? I mean, since they're your crew and all." Tor didn't want to boss her around, but the Lairdgren group, made of school kids or not, was kind of working for the Kingdom at the moment. He was paying them for it too and everything. He was even the Kingdom's Counselor of Magic, which sounded official and everything. It was a made up title the King and Queen had come up with when it looked like he was going to die, but he'd managed to survive, which meant they were stuck with him now. At least until one of them decided he was too much of a pain in the rear to bother with and suggested he resign.

"Got it. Say in an hour? I can hurry everyone along if you need." She smiled a bit at him and put a hand on his left arm. It was too much contact for him at the moment, having recently been enraged like he was, but he didn't pull away from her. She meant well and was just trying to be his friend. It wasn't like he had so many of those he could afford to alienate any of them.

"No, an hour is good. In the side sitting room?" It was the only one Tor knew how to find for certain. They had more, but they could change location from day to day, depending on how Collette decided to decorate and where she wanted the rooms to be. She always left that one though. Probably figuring that he'd get lost otherwise. She was right if that was the case. His house was changed nearly every day.

Sandra nodded, then took the dishes away with her to the kitchen, her disguise going back on with a flick of a finger. Hopefully they wouldn't be too upset about losing their new worker on her first day. Then... it would be a good thing for Sandra to at least finish the shift. After the meeting of course. She was a Conserina first, which meant she didn't exactly have a strong working background. Her position was about as noble as you got without being one of the actual royal family after all. Between that and building magical devices for a living she'd be half useless in any kind of real situation as things stood. She needed some training in that kind of thing no doubt.

The whole group did. Including him. It wasn't like he was totally prepared for everything was he? At nineteen he wasn't exactly the worlds expert on anything. He did OK making magic, most of the time, but at the moment he was so damaged still that doing anything active would probably kill him. He could read fields, if he didn't do too much of it, but other than that he was pretty much useless as far as that kind of thing went. At the rate he was going he would be for months longer too.