Slave Line (The Young Ancients) (21 page)

"So, what if that was the trigger? Not a coincidence, but something built into the Morgan line and triggered in Trice to cause exactly what happened? It worked on other people, but the effects were always strongest with me, weren't they? The overload should have killed me, but I managed to survive. I thought that was thanks to my brilliant discipline and internal strength, but what if it was all just part of someone else having planned it all out. A very clever person that 's way too good at intrigue. It would pretty much have to be one of you, wouldn't it? Or more than one of you. The prime suspects would be Lara and Green here, but it could have been any of you others. Or all of you. If that's the case, I suggest you come clean now and explain yourselves? It will save loads of time later." He waited, but no one came forward to throw themselves on his mercy, or even suggest it was to help him or someone else that wasn't in the immediate picture.

They just looked blank.

Well, it had been worth a shot.

Tor felt very small again. Even as a child he'd been larger, and by the time he was in his teens he'd been over eight foot tall. His skin had been darker too. Not black like Sandra or Abby, not of African descent at all, but a deep tan that was pretty close to that, for protection against the sun. He could remember what he looked like in the mirror. Not nearly as pretty as Brown or Green, but good enough for most things. The height spoiled the delicate features a bit, which made him look a bit hard. Women seemed to be fine with it though, except White, who was afraid of him for some reason. That was built into her Rhetistics, since she kind of feared all the command line people. All the other ones. She was one after all.

Tor shook himself and tried to stay in the present, since those memories weren't his. Not really. The only thing that was really clear to him about the whole thing was that, once the pieces came together, it was clear that someone had planned for this to happen to him all along. Probably from before he was born. A complex plan with so many levels that other family lines had been influenced, just to reach the point where Tor came into existence. It probably didn't have to be him even, just one from the old lines with Rhetistics in place that could be influenced.

"So..." He looked at Lyn, suddenly realizing they'd been good friends once. Lovers for a while, which was odd, since Tor had never been particularly attracted to her at all for his own part. She felt important to him now though.

"The information was probably planted in Greens blood, lying dormant for who knows how long. Then passed to me. His information was the primary influence, the one that showed, but was just a mask over the rest of this information. We can get Blue to check that out for us. That means..."

The idea was obvious to him, but no one else seemed to make the connection. It had to be though didn't I?. There was only one person that he could be, that could have set this whole thing up like it had been. Well, two, but he wasn't turning into a copy of Lara Gray, thank everything in the universe. She was probably the physical agent though, and intended to do something similar to Laurie, her daughter. The plan had to be old then, if he was right. Thousands of years at least.

Denno raised his eyebrows.

"Means what Tor? Don't drift off on us now. Kind of curious as to how all this could come about, aren't you?"

"Oh... Yes, I really am. I just kind of figured some things out. It all makes sense. Well, OK, it doesn't, but everything is forming a picture. An Ancient did this to me, possibly several, but I doubt most of you suspected anything in particular, being manipulated into it. You didn't even see it happening at all. Can't blame you there, I didn't either and wouldn't without these new memories."

Lyn stomped her foot cutely, like she used to when they were dating as teens. Tor leaned forwards an kissed her hard, licking her upper lip just a little, like he used to. It tickled and she liked it a lot more than was strictly normal. It got her to take a step back as if shocked, hands touching her lips. She didn't seem mad about it or anything, just a little shocked.

"I... Cordes?"

Everyone else looked at her, baffled. Tor shrugged, another slave line habit he'd have to break.

"Back and in the flesh, so to speak. Still Tor too though. He's a good kid you know, we really should save him, if we can. I honestly didn't think this plan would ever pay off. It isn't supposed to be like this though. I won't steal this boy's life from him like this. Not if I have a say in the matter." The words were Tor's, but he wasn't saying them directly. It was... strange.

He kept speaking.

"So, which of you had me killed? I always figured it would be Black or Orange when it happened. The rest of you would have had a hard time trying to get it done."

Shaking her head Lyn leaned in and kissed him, which was warm and sweet, though a single tear fell down her face as she did it.

"In the end it was all of us. We all killed you Cordes. We had to."

The others just nodded.

Chapter six

"Everyone killed me? Not exactly what Tor here remembers from history, is it? That had me being taken down by an angry mob, upset that I was putting social rules in place restricting sex. That doesn't exactly sound like me though, does it? So what was it really? Did I try to take over the world or something? Enslave the populous to my will with strict controls. Religion maybe? I always thought that was a good way to go. Black had the right idea there. Turn the people into willing slaves to some kind of higher power that can never be proven or disproven and so can never be overthrown."

Green froze, but finally shook his head.

"No... it was... you started to view the common people as cattle, just to be used. You... Well." The words seemed to freeze in his throat, and the other two looked away, not explaining what it all meant. There was a flash of irritation from Tor. He hated it when people did that, stopping a sentence half finished. He shook his head and tried to regain his sense of self. He wasn't that far gone yet.

"Right, so what did Cordes do then? If he's trying to take over my mind I kind of need to know. If I should be fighting this, tell me now, because from I can perceive about him in here... he... seems fine. Nicer than me even. He actually feels friendly and happy all the time, and loves everyone. I caught some of that leaking through earlier. It's pretty different than the way I am most of the time. Hard to think of someone like that doing something very wrong." It was kind of alluring, though Tor didn't mention it. All that love and actually feeling good like that. It was tempting to just give in to it and let go. To be happy for once. Maybe forever.

They played it off and didn't explain. Not really.

Lyn whispered the words as if trying to hide them from Cordes, but tell Tor about it at the same time, even though the idea was clearly silly.

"He went insane. It wasn't some little thing Tor, it was bad enough that we all decided to take him down. Really, you need to fight now, just in case. Stay ready to at least. I don't want to tell you the whole thing, in case it sets the copy inside you off, but it was bad."

Burks walked over and patted him on the shoulder gently, letting his hand linger.

"Remember what Count Derring was doing to his children? How it was so horrible that even Richard and Connie couldn't believe it at first? It was magnitudes worse than that. He left half the land of Noram in shambles, the people broken for generations, a quarter of them died outright. He wasn't stopping either, he was going to try and take the whole world. I don't know if someone as young as you can understand it. Not really. For that matter I lived through it and still don't know that I totally comprehend it. It was one of the first times that the rest of us actually got together and simply killed one of our fellows as a unit. It was hard to do. He'd been my best friend for nearly a thousand years at that point. Then I went away to think for a while and sixty years later he was gone into an insanity so severe he couldn't come back at all. I tried so hard to help him. It didn't work. Nothing did.

We hid that it happened, changed the history so that no one would remember him that way. No one except us." The words held old pain, but it seemed real for Green, even two thousand years later.

That didn't mesh with the Cordes in his head though, the memories of the happy child that made friends easily and laughed often, really meaning it. Tor had always thought of the Cordes King as being a myth, and kind of rough, a barbarian ruler or something, but the memories he had were gentle and kind. Almost sweet. He was physically and mentally strong, or had been, but cooperated with almost anyone that wanted too, thinking before taking action and taking responsibility for what he did without hesitation.

In short, a lot better at being a person than Tor was.

People could lose it though, couldn't they? If the Cordes in his head was going to end up a monster, then he had to stop it. Even if it meant Tor's death. Luckily there was a little time left before it reached that point. Tor thought so at least. He still felt like he had free will. Not that an old enough being might not be able to fool him on the score. If that was the case the whole thing would be a lot harder.

"So, what now? We need help with this, and Blue won't get to Vagus faster if we rush over, will she? We have Tor's mission to finish too. You know Brown, he's really taking your request to guard your people to heart. I mean, I'm taking it to heart? This is so strange. Do you think I can talk Cordes into not trying to take over my mind like that? I don't think I'll hurt anyone, not yet. If it comes to it, I guess one of you..." Tor shook his head.

"No, I'll get George to do it. If I start to lose control, he'll take me out. Not kind to him, but it will hurt him less than the others or if one of you had to do it. I guess that should be the first thing I do. Just in case this moves faster than I think it will." Tor stood and started to walk away, then stopped, staring at the others closely, one by one, trying to figure out if one of them had really had anything to do with it.

"I'll be back to help with dinner, could you help with that Denno, just to cover for me and keep an eye on things if I forget myself? I guess we should just tell everyone about all this rather than trying to hide it, but how do we explain? Well, I'll think of something. Possibly running away. I'm good at that."

He was too. His go to move in a fight. Or at least what he'd been trained to do. Come to think of it his fights had never really had him running away, had they? Tor always charged in, often without concern for himself. The Cordes part of him seemed to admire that about him, finding it brave.

It was just too strange to handle. Tor had to try and stop this from happening if he could, but didn't have a clue as to how to do it. Could he hold it off using meditation? If he wasn't so weak it would kill him at the moment, Tor might have been able to removed the memories as they formed. That would probably damage him though. Maybe forever. Still, before he did whatever it was the got Cordes killed, he'd try it. If that didn't work he'd take a cutter to his own neck and make sure no one else had to do it for him.

The rooms had name plates on the doors, which meant that Tor was able to find the one that Kara and George shared easily enough, only about six down from his own, but no one was inside. It turned out that most of the people were on the main deck, chatting and watching the gentle waves from the railing as they powered through, leaving a large wake behind them. The Royal guards were all taking time to practice unarmed and weapons combat.

They were good at it. Better than Tor...

Except that wasn't true, or not totally at any rate. It was another thing his old programing had put in place. He was actually good at fighting. These people were all just bigger than he was. Good too, and
possibly
better, due to years of constant practice, but it was a lot closer than he'd imagined before. He could see it now. Of course Burks could still kick his behind, a lot of them probably could, since being big helped in that kind of thing, so Tor didn't let it go to his head. There was a lot of room to improve still.

He watched for a while, enjoying the skills being displayed. After a while about half the people stood watching, as if it were an entertainment. The Royal guards ignored them all perfectly. They didn't change what they were doing at all, or try to throw in flashier moves to impress people. They just did the best they could at any given moment and kept doing it. Tor figured there was a good lesson in there about always doing your best. Really, that was their power. What truly set the Royal guard above ordinary soldiers or even most fighters. Practice... and trying as hard as they could all the time.

When George called a halt Tor went to the set of pitchers set up on a low table along the black wall of the upper deck. The ship was smooth and glassy looking, shining slightly in the sun, but the bench looked like unfinished and slightly weathered wood. He poured two large focus stone cups of water, which was still pretty cool and had bits of ice in it, and took them over to Kara and George.