Slave Line (The Young Ancients) (23 page)

It might make a difference.

"I haven't. Not at all. I should probably do that, shouldn't I? It just feels kind of crazy to try. I don't know if I get to have an actual conversation or anything, or if Cordes would tell me the truth, if the plan is to do bad things to me he wouldn't, but not asking won't help will it? Good idea." Closing his eyes he made an effort to think at the Cordes memories, tried to get a response that made any kind of sense. To his surprise he got one.

Cordes didn't know.

It was really clear that he didn't want to harm Tor, or steal his life from him. If it came to it, the presence was willing to be destroyed to save him. No questions asked, no hesitation. It felt real too, not like a trick or anything to buy time. The set of memories would seek its own destruction if it had to, just to save one boy.

Tor spoke this out loud and then looked at Lyn, her eyes an emerald green right now, though they'd been brown when they first met, Tor thought. She was using a disguise amulet to change her appearance, not a lot, just dressing it up a little.

It worked better than make-up.

"So, what do you think, is he lying to me? Is this part of some vast plan to steal my life and take over the world? A way to buy time?" He didn't bother to fill in the blanks, they all got the idea.

"I... how could I say? He wasn't a liar in life, not overly. Good at complex plans, but that doesn't let us know what he'd have done in a situation like this, does it? You said it seems like the memories are growing in chronological order as well... At the end he was different. Not well at all. If that's when he set this pattern up, then all bets are off anyway. We can't let that back into the world again. Especially not coupled with you Tor. Yesterday I thought you were potentially the most deadly person on the planet, but today you're ten times as dangerous. An insane Tor really can't be allowed to live. The world might not survive it. I'm not sure we could take you at that point either. Not for certain." She sounded so serious that his mother glared at her. She didn't say anything though.

Tiera did.

"But... that's not fair. Why should Tor have to pay for this, this is some kind of Ancient trick, so you old people should all fix it." The crossed arms and scared face worked enough so that no one pointed out to her that they were going to be trying that. It was the plan after all.

It just probably wouldn't work.

"Of course that assumes that I've got the only copy of Cordes in my head. Or that if there are more they're all the same. If it were me doing it, I'd have put out tens of thousands of the things, just to make certain some of them took. For all we know that's how the work got done to begin with, some other copy of him putting this all together. If that's the case we don't know how far this reaches. Cordes could already have control of the whole world for all we know. Maybe I'm just step three hundred and twelve or something. This doesn't seem like a random thing to me. Of course that could just be me being self important." Tor also didn't have enough information to go on yet. It was a mystery. A real one that had so many layers and possible players it sort of made his brain hurt. He couldn't trust that anyone was who they seemed to be, could he? Literally anyone could be some version of this Ancient King. Or even someone else. If Cordes could do it, who was to say some other Ancient hadn't done it too? Or more than one. There had been hundred of kids in the special programs. Maybe thousands. About a quarter of them had some form of extra longevity even. Hundreds or thousands of years to plot and plan.

No one had a lot more to go on than that, but an argument started then, between Burks, Tiera and Laurie. Denno tried to interject some sense, but got shouted down by Tor's mom.

"I don't think so Brown man! This is your fault too. If you hadn't sent assassins after us for years, who knows where we'd be now? Possibly safe at home or school, actually living our real lives and not stuck on a boat in the middle of an ocean going to the stronghold of our enemies! Which I might point out is your homeland." Her fist curled, which looked pretty violent, but Denno didn't shy away.

"Those Larval weren't sent by me. Rest assured that none of us will let this go lightly. I'm certain we all will want to have Tor strong and ready to face the coming threat, even Cordes will want that, if he isn't insane. He really wasn't a bad person. Not selfish or petty either." He was trying to sound placating, but Trice whistled, a shrill thing that used her fingers to make the sound louder somehow.

"Wait, what threat? Tor, or I mean, Cordes? I don't think that's really that big of a deal, not as long as we follow what Tor wants done. He seems to have a decent plan. Not one I like, but it really should stop him from hurting anyone. He even disarmed himself..." She held up his weapon as if shoeing them something they didn't know.

Tor looked at her and shook his head.

"Nope. Not me at all. Um... short handing it, there are three groups of craft coming from space and they may or may not be friendly. Some ancient mathematician worked out that anyone that can cross the far reaches of space would probably be hostile, so we have to get ready. They're about nineteen years away though, so we get a little time. If you want to know more, I suggest getting with Brown later and getting the whole run down. It can't hurt." Keeping it secret was foolish anyway. He was about to mention that to Brown when the man simply agreed with him.

"That might be for the best Patricia. It's a real enough thing and largely an unknown, but being unprepared is the worst thing we could do and I'm not certain we aren't already too late. We don't have much time and most of the world isn't technologically advanced enough to stop invaders from space. They could just hit us with some rocks and we'd have to give up."

Tiera piped up, her voice a little higher than normal.

"Like a meteor storm? Or a comet hitting us? Only a lot of them?"

Denno looked surprised.

"You know about meteors?"

The girl flipped her hair back with a wave of the hand and rolled her eyes at the man.

"We have schools in Noram you know. You keep acting like we don't know what basic things are. I also know that space is a vacuum and that storks don't actually bring babies. Any other questions?" It was funny, but also horribly rude of her to say. Tor laughed anyway, not overly worried about how Denno felt at the moment.

"Apologize Tiera, you're talking to your Great Uncle. That isn't proper to be flip with him, even if he did kind of deserve it." He didn't sound mean about it, but the girl flinched as if he'd raised his hand to slap her if she didn't comply.

"Alright. I'm sorry I was rude sir. Still, we really do get some of this stuff. Just, why would anyone want to leave Earth? It's just about perfect, isn't it?" She seemed baffled, but no one explained the idea to her, she'd heard it before.

Tor decided to change the topic.

"Alright then, if we can all agree that I'm not going all insane monster right this second, we should get to work. We have dignitaries on the ship and all that. Besides, I'm thinking we should hold a baking contest in a day or two. See who actually has the right to claim the title of head baker on this boat." Maybe it would get their minds off things?

Tor didn't think it would work and he was right, but they all got to work without any more problems. No one mentioned the growing thing inside his head, but they watched him closely when they thought he wasn't looking, everyone but Carlos. He just gave orders. Not being short about it, but also not excepting any incompetence. Then he was used to working in the royal kitchen. You didn't go in there to play. By the time the meal was done and everyone had their fill, Tor was exhausted. He made up a plate for Ali, making sure to take her an extra piece of cake. It was a spice walnut that Tiera had made. Enough for everyone, but it was mainly eaten by the Royal guards and musicians. The Lairdgren kids each had some, but they all seemed gloomy about something.

Well, he really had warned them they'd be washing dishes. Maybe he should duck his head in and take a turn too? He sat next to Farlo for a moment, and just asked what was wrong, in case it was something he hadn't thought of yet.

The girl, who was already a foot taller than he was and rail thin, turned to him with tears in her eyes.

"Trice told us, about the thing. We don't know what to do."

It wasn't exactly enough information to go on.

"Um, which thing Farlo? The fact that the Ancient King Cordes might be taking over my mind or the possible attack coming from space? Or was it some other thing? Like that some of us are going on to Vagus and you're staying for a bit with the Ambassador and her people in Austra to keep them safe?"

It made a difference as to how he'd respond and a convenient excuse to fill them all in if anything had gotten missed. Better to have it all out early. That way if someone cut his head off, they'd understand why and not try to take retribution for his death. That these kids would if it came to it was something he understood now. They were his friends.

"Both!"The voice was a little high pitched and loud, getting attention from everyone else in the room.

"What do we do?"

Tor looked down the table and took a deep breath. It was obvious, wasn't it?

"Well, first we get with the Ancients and try to figure out what we'll need to stop an invasion like what might be coming. Tomorrow though. I want rested minds on this. After breakfast. As for the situation with me... Well, stand ready to help if you can, and if I need to die, make sure it happens. Let George or Kara do it if you can, but if they can't, if I'm too strong, or run away too fast... make sure it happens, no matter what. I don't want any of you to have to kill anyone, but better one person dies than a thousand or more." He put an arm around Farlo and hugged her to him, which reminded him to have a chat with everyone in the group and actually learn a bit about them. They were worth it, even if it was his last day alive.

"Though so far so good. It may not be a real problem, or I might end up being a different person, but still alive and not bad. As long as I'm not evil, try not to kill me!"

Then he waved, picked up his plate and walked out of the room, wondering if anything he'd said that day made any sense at all. It didn't feel like it, but he still wasn't feeling the dread he should be. He was about to be... consumed by the mind of an Ancient madman that was so bad his own lovers and best friends had killed him. Tor wondered for a minute if his current feelings were being controlled somehow.

That wasn't what was happening though, at least he didn't think so. This was still just a side effect of not being forced to be a slave. That was what had happened to him. His entire life he'd felt guilt over things that most people wouldn't even have noticed. Every harsh word had impacted him as if it were fully deserved. Every dark glance he felt as a slap and each blow he felt as a personal failure. He'd always put other people ahead of himself.

That wasn't a bad thing of course. Good people tried to do that, make sure they did for others first, if they could. The difference was that he hadn't had a choice in the matter. Worse, Burks still didn't.

Of course if they could remove the Ancients Rhetistics it probably wouldn't help him at all. Not after three thousand years of living that way. It felt good enough though that Tor wanted to share it if he could anyway.

It wasn't like anything he could describe. He just felt... Like a real person finally. He could make his own choices and decide what was wrong or right for himself. True, he'd be influenced by the rest of his life, and that was fine, but maybe it would mean more when he did something good now? Before it had always just made sense to give away what he'd made, or hand out gold, because other people needed it. Now it would be a true gift when he did it. If he did. He was free.

It was hard to see, because he hadn't understood that he wasn't before, but it was true. Even if he died in a day or two, or in a month, or year, it was fine, because whatever happened would actually be his decision, not the will of some nameless doctor from before the great cataclysm that had mainly been showing how wonderful his skills were.

Smiling as he did it Tor opened the door to his room slowly, taking care not to tip the plate in his hands. That would mean a cleanup for someone named him, since the staff really was a little light on the ship. He should have hired some more people for it, but the idea just hadn't occurred to him. Next time though. Or he could bring his house staff. Maybe they and their families would like a trip sometime anyway? It wasn't like he needed to hold onto his gold that closely. That part had just been him he realized.

Giving away all that gold, starting businesses with people just so they could have a jump on the future, that made sense for so many reasons. He needed to do a lot more of it in fact. Even the giant parties that the finance minister liked so much. The only difference now was that he could do it because he wanted to, just to be nice and helpful, rather than feeling guilty over not doing it. That would have been hard to explain to any of his friends, how driven by guilt he'd been before, but it was so clear and real to him now.

The room was finally dark, but he could hear her lying on the bed, the light from the moon coming through the window just enough to outline her form. She was actually alone, sleeping like she'd said. It wasn't always a given with her.

Tor found the light plate and activated it with a thought which made it glow brightly from its place on the wall. The nimbus of brightness was as golden as sunlight on a cloudless day. The whole room was suddenly too bright, so it got moved back a level the glow receding enough to not be painful. The food was placed on the table with its single chair and both nice looking but serviceable instead of artistic. Someday he needed to remake the ships design, making it prettier inside and perhaps a bit larger. It wasn't like it had to put in at a dock or anything. Even this one wouldn't fit in most.