Slave Line (The Young Ancients) (22 page)

They drank smoothly, not gulping it, even though they looked to be covered with sweat. They exercised nearly perfect control of themselves all the time, in every way it seemed. When they were finished he took the drinking cups back and asked if they needed more. They decided to wait a bit, because it would be more efficient. You could only absorb so much water at once after all. Kara had taught him that, come to think of it.

"OK. So... Um. A bit of a situation has come up." Tor didn't know how to explain it, or if he even should try, but they needed to know, just in case, right?

"It's hard to explain, but I seem to be turning into the original Cordes. Mentally I mean. I won't get any extra height out of the deal or anything cool like that. It's some kind of lost Ancient trick to force memories and thoughts into place. We don't know how it got there, but it's already caused personality changes... and well, if I have it right Cordes kind of turned into a raving monster at the end. It wasn't like what the history books said. If I start to do that I need one of you to kill me." That should be enough, Tor decided. Who could possibly need more than that?

Kara raised her eyebrows, slightly thick and dark, but shaped like the ladies of the court did theirs. Her hair was jet black and she had a great nose, one that was slightly hawk like. She wasn't that old, about thirty by looks, maybe slightly more than that. It was clear she thought he'd gone insane already. He could tell by her expression, which seemed shocked.

"What? I... are you drunk Tor? On drugs? Or hit your head maybe?" It wasn't sarcastic or mean, just concerned.

"Unfortunately no. I seem to be the lifelong victim of some kind of Ancient plot. Yay. I'm finally interesting. On the good side this seems to have broken that old programming that made me seem like a moron and troll, at least to myself. On the bad side, no one knows what may happen at all in the coming days and weeks. So, for the duration I'm not wearing a shield or carrying a weapon. At least until I have a handle on this thing and know I'm not going to be a danger to everyone else. If I flip... Well, I don't know, to tell the truth. I'd say kill me as fast as you can, but I'd kind of like a chance to survive this. Remember Cordes had full combat rage and could control it, even better than I can. I have all the shield and weapons information I've come up with too, so don't think that I'm really unarmed if it comes to it. I've made high powered weapons and even flying rigs and complete shields before in a rage. There will be a lag though, before I can build anything, even with direct effect. About thirty seconds or so, depending on what I make. Use that time if you have to." Tor smiled, not even having to force it, actually feeling relatively content. Almost happy even. It was a bit of Cordes bleeding through. That was a good sign though, since it was only a tiny strand. Way less than before, not more. It affected him, but it was clearly being damped down.

Tor wasn't doing it, so that meant Cordes was.

"If I feel myself going and have any control left I'll try to take a cutter to my neck. Don't let anyone stop me if I do that, alright?"

He didn't get to say more, because Ali ran over wearing a ships uniform in purple and gold. His favorite colors. She looked cute too. Busty and with just enough weight on her to support the growth her body was about to do in the coming months. A little young to be married, but not so much so that Cordes felt bad about it. It was a different culture and those rules tended to be arbitrary anyway.

Tor smiled, and tried to stuff Cordes down inside his memories. He wasn't a real personality yet, so it was easier than not. If it would just stay that way Tor might manage to live through the whole thing. Maybe not though. He'd have to see. It wouldn't hurt if the Ancient in his head tried to help with that though. Just thinking that got the internal thoughts to go very quiet suddenly. Almost as if he was being listened to on the idea.

"Ali! I see that you're the first mate now? Congratulations." She had the right uniform and insignia on the shoulder.

"I am. Petra let me pilot the ship by myself for an hour, as a test. It wasn't hard I just had to hold the heading and not hit anything. Since it's the middle of the ocean, that wasn't too difficult. Normally it would take a harder test, but apparently she actually wants to sleep at night part of the time. She'd been planning to use drugs to keep herself awake originally, but I think this will work better. I need to go get a nap if I can. Hey, um, husband, would you save me some dinner? I took something so I can sleep and won't be going." She looked down, embarrassed for some reason.

Tor actually understood why. The idea of being able to relate to another person almost caused his mouth to drop open, but he controlled it. She was putting him on the spot and still thought of him as important, not someone to ask favors of. How he hadn't seen that before Tor didn't know. Or, really he did. It was the Green pattern thing. It made it hard to see himself as valid and real, even in other people's eyes. Luckily being without that hadn't turned him into a heel. He still had a life time of habit to fall back on after all, if he got confused as to what to do.

"I can do that love. What time do you need to be woken up, so that you can eat?"

"About eleven? Petra said she'd send someone for me, so I wouldn't oversleep." The cute blond yawned hugely, patting her mouth. It was only about four in the afternoon or so, which gave him some time to walk her to their room. He took her hand gently, trying to enjoy the time they had together, in case it ran out soon.

"You're amazing, you know that Ali? First mate on a ship and everything. I've never been anything but a ships cook." He nudged her with his shoulder.

"Well... and a ship builder, which is decent I guess, but first mate is pretty fantastic. You know I've never steered this thing myself? I don't think anyone except Petra has. Not on a real mission like this. I love you. I really do. I know that I haven't always seemed like it, but that doesn't mean you aren't special to me. Remember that, will you? Whatever happens." He kissed her but just on the cheek, doing anything more would get her going and keep her from getting the rest she needed. Plus, his body still wasn't participating properly. That kind of made it hard. Or rather lacking in hardness made it difficult.

A bit unfair too. If he disappeared in a few weeks it would have been nice to spend some time doing fun things with his wife and Trice. Possibly at the same time. He'd never done that, not with them.

He felt a little guilty over the idea, but realized that had to do with his country upbringing, nothing else. Sex was fun and not bad or evil. People were made to feel that way because of ancient control systems used to keep them feeling guilty. Jealousy itself was largely manufactured, though people in Two Bends probably couldn't see it that way, having lived it their whole lives.

The information came from the new memories of another time, but it felt about right. He didn't have to feel bad about sex, not with anyone.

It was still off the table for the time being. Maybe later though? He hoped so. It was one of the good things in life. Too much so to ignore or have issues about.

His wife laid on the bed and murmured that she loved him, getting a hug and another kiss as she drifted off. Tor changed her amulet so that she ware a loose shift of silk, all in white since it was her favorite clothing color and then backed out of the room slowly, watching her sleep, head resting on the pillow full daylight coming through the giant window. It was a four foot diameter circle of shield material, but it kept the rooms from being claustrophobic. Not that a space that large would set anyone off. The rooms were huge for a ship.

The Austran vessel Tor had been on had tiny rooms, about an eighth the size of the ones here and those had to be shared with several individuals too. He'd gotten his own, but had noticed that the ones for the crewmen seemed to be even smaller than what he'd had. That had been a military ship though and with more people on board.

The door was shut gently, so as to not wake her. She was going to be responsible for them all while they slept, so he wanted her well rested. Otherwise they might end up in Tellerand or Afrak.

Tor walked quickly toward the kitchen at the back of the ship, not wanting to shirk his duties, even though the whole being taken over thing was kind of a big deal. To him at least. People still needed to eat and really, sitting alone and worrying over the whole thing wouldn't save him. He had to know more, and just didn't. It would have stolen his breath away before, but the truth was he felt... good. Better than he ever had.

There was no worry, or self doubt, just... him. From what he could tell it wasn't Cordes showing through either, not yet, that would feel different when it happened, if he didn't just blink out of existence. There had already been a taste of that when the man had spoken through him.

No, this was just natural Tor. What he really would have been like if he hadn't had that crap put in his head by Burks when he was just a baby. He might even have had a real life this way, he thought. Not just a bunch of events that his own angst and feeling of responsibility for everyone else had gotten him into.

The idea didn't make him feel angry though. He was capable of it, but whatever had been setting him off before was gone, at least for now. He didn't have a lot to be angry at for the time being. It was like the world had changed in the course of a few hours. It was only inside himself, but he had to like it. Most of the worst things in his life where gone now. In the span of a few heartbeats. It didn't make him perfect, probably less so than before, but he sure felt better.

All the Ancients were sitting in the dining area, with Trice as well as his mother, brother and sister, apparently talking about him. They all looked at him with scared expressions at least. Trice spoke to him first, walking over and giving him a hug that got an impolite growl from his little sister. Tiera wasn't Trice's biggest fan, because of the way she'd made fun of him in public, causing him to break up with her. It seemed kind of petty now and unimportant. He could remember the feelings and why he'd felt them, but it wouldn't be the way he'd have responded to it if it had happened now. He probably would have gone to her table and joked about what a bad kisser he was. That or started making out with Sara Debris and letting her tell the others if he was all that bad or not. Sara would have backed his play, even at the time, had he done that. She loved him after all.

It was so clear Tor nearly lost track of the conversation Trice was trying to start with him. How he'd never noticed it before he didn't know. Sara really loved him and had for a long time and he'd ignored her, more or less. He was really going to have to apologize to her sometime soon.

"Tor! What are we going to do? We should take you home... or, I don't know, what should we do? I don't have a plan for this."

Smiling he shrugged, enjoying the feeling of her body against his for a moment, but not too much, since his family was watching. Talk about awkward.

"First I need to find out what's really going on here. I may not be able to do anything about it. It may just end up being an extra set of memories, not me being taken over, which is probably about the best case with this. If I start to go all monster crazy... I've set it up so that some of the Royal guards will try to take me out, if I can't do it myself." He held out his right hand as his mother and sister reacted to that. They didn't seem pleased, looking tense and concerned that he'd made a bad choice no doubt. Oddly enough Weasel just looked hard suddenly, jaw clenched and lips a thin line. After a few seconds he nodded firmly.

He, it seemed, got it.

Tor spoke to his mother directly, but reached out to snag Tiera's hand for a half second.

"That's the very last thing that I'll try, I promise. There are a dozen other things to go through first, like getting with the Blue Ancient and seeing if she can help me fix this, or if one of the others has an idea. After that there are a lot of things to look into. If I have enough time, I might be able to remove it with magic for instance, or maybe Lyn can, if the clock starts winding down before I heal enough for that to work. Or maybe I can just learn to live with it? So far it really does just seem like memories for the most part. I can sink into them and kind of "pretend" to be Cordes, but it doesn't feel like I'm being buried, not yet. Unfortunately that could happen, even if the rest of this isn't a threat. Even if the Cordes copy in my head helps and tries not to take over, well, he was what, a thousand when he died? I'm not even twenty yet. Weigh that on the scales of life and I could find myself gone pretty quickly. It's not a given though. I'm definitely not giving in yet or even thinking it's going to the worst case. If it does go that way though, make sure that George has a good chance to take me down before I kill a bunch of people." The man was a better fighter than Tor, flat out, so if magic wasn't used on his part, it could really make a big difference. The Royal guard would be armed... That reminded Tor to take off his shield.

He handed it to Trice, along with the Multi-weapon in his pocket. At least she didn't ask what he was doing. It was just common sense.

"Did you try asking this Cordes in your head what he's planning to do?" Timon looked at him, his eyes bright, but face blank, almost steely in a way. He looked young, maybe ten or so, but was getting taller every day. Somehow he seemed to be growing a lot faster than Tor had. Then he wasn't anyone else, just himself. What made him up also made him immortal, but Gray had never had a son before. It could be that something along the line had altered her basic pattern so that her boys would end up taller. Maybe about six foot or so? Tor wasn't, but he wasn't Gray's son. He was Green.