Slave Line (The Young Ancients) (44 page)

"Could you get Ali some flowers from me? I know it isn't the same as getting them myself, but she should have flowers. All this time and I never even got her any damned flowers. How bad of a husband is that?" Ok, now he sounded bitter, but it was all about him and his failures, not anything other than that.

There was so much else to say, but Tor saw the dust coming towards him in the glow of his craft. It was hard to tell how many. They moved fast, but on the ground. About as fast as a military Not-flyer could go. They could have missiles and weapons though, so he needed to keep that in mind. Coming from the same direction though was a black rectangle, flying high in the air above them all. It had a single green glowing light on it. Burks.

"Got to go now Rich. After I kill these I'm leaving directly from here. I won't be in touch again. Or, I mean, I will be if I can, but if so expect it to be coded and secret, coming from a strange source or something. I'll try to signal that it's from me by..." His color was purple so he almost said that, but Cordes flashed a warning to him that it would be a little obvious.

"By making it white and brown."

"I... I'll make sure everyone knows." Then the sigil faded to its normal cream color because he shut it off.

Tor set down slowly as the vehicles stopped and the Larval exited fast spreading out to surround him. They had weapons indeed. Powerful ones that rocked the Carriage hard. It didn't give yet, but the air pressure changed so much he nearly passed out after the first volley. Then a horrible buzz filled the space around him. A sound weapon of some kind. He heard it, but most of the noise was taken up by his shield. It resonated in him though, painfully. The design would try to shunt the force into the ground normally, but that meant having contact with it. Without that connection it tried to reflect it back directly, but it didn't work very well with the air itself.

Tor had a plan of sorts. Nothing too brilliant, but staying where he was wouldn't help and flying away, though prudent in the moment, didn't kill the Larvals. He didn't try to fool himself there. He had to kill them. All of them. At least if Denno didn't figure out how to reprogram them using nano's like he'd planned. Make them too tired to care or whatever it was. If that was going to happen it had to be quick, since he was running out of time.

He sighed and dropped into a trance, one as deep as he could manage on short notice. He fought as the bombardment kept going, watching the men, who were all exactly the same, start moving toward him weapons still firing making different patterns in the dark. Brilliant yellow streaks for the missiles and the faintest blue shimmer for something else that didn't seem to be having any effect at all.

Above them the black craft Trice flew moved into place, pulling part of the weapons activity, just as he slapped the floor of his craft, and using a focus bit of will... turned it off.

He dropped to the ground, which seemed to take forever, firing his weapon in the explosive mode. The Larval moved on him faster than a regular man could have by far, but they also died everywhere he could aim. They blew apart in great bloody gouts of mist in the air, even as black ash dumped from Trice's craft, almost unnoticed. The fight didn't last long, since they couldn't make it all the way to him, though he lost his footing several times when the ground was blasted out from under him, sending him spinning through the air. It didn't hurt too much though, except the force of his brain slapping against the inside of his skull. It was enough that he was bleeding from the nose when the remaining Larval all just sat down.

He didn't notice that part of things at first, figuring it for a trick or a new combat technique he simply didn't know about. A different firing position perhaps? He killed most of the remainder before he heard people yelling at him to stop. It sounded distant and remote. A world away. Deep and slow too. Which made sense. He was watching the world move in slow motion. A trick he'd learned to help him fight a giant. Pulling himself out of it he kept the assassins covered as well as he could and waited for the others to come for him. Denno got there first.

"We had them going into conservation mode, why did you keep firing?" He sounded horrible, like he was asking Tor why he'd killed his puppies, not realizing they were actually rabid wolves. It was just who the man was though, so Tor ignored that part of things.

"Combat trance Denno. I didn't realize what was happening. Not exactly at least." It was true enough. Burks got there next, followed by Trice and oddly enough Orange, who moved in on foot from the side, stopping about ten feet back.

"I found more in town. Ten of them. They no longer live either. Good enough fighters, if a little weak."

Tor looked around counting the piles and spots of blood carefully.

"Fifty-seven gone then? So that gives me a start. Three left here. Can you control them Brown? Can I count them out of the list or do I need to assume they'll always be a threat?" He felt cold but his voice seemed normal enough. No scent of death even. Oh, it would get to him, Tor didn't doubt, since killing was wrong, but it wasn't that overwhelming horror at what he'd done he was used to when he killed. This was better. Far easier to deal with.

Brown looked sad, but stared at the black eyed men sitting dumbly in place, not even paying attention to the carnage around them.

"I can handle them. All of them. It will take time, but you don't have to worry Tor, I can do this. I just need to... figure out how."

Burks started to speak at the same time Trice did, getting them both to stop. Green gestured for her to go first, which she did, more hesitantly now.

"I'll go with you. We can fight them together." She sounded brave and strong when she said it, but Tor shook his head anyway.

"No Trice. I don't know where I'm going, but it won't be Noram and I need you to take care of it while I'm gone. I won't be forever. Denno will figure this out, and if he doesn't, I'll take care of it. I have a plan for that." He gestured to the dead on the ground, not mentioning that all of their people were still just fine. Well, he allowed, he was a little shaken and abused, but he'd taken worse beatings before. He probably would again.

Denno seemed almost panicked though, getting what he meant.

"No, no, I'll fix them, please don't kill them all. It isn't their fault."

"No, it isn't. It's a mess and no one person's responsibility. Still, if you fail, they'll kill me. Maybe a lot of other people in the process. After that's done they might just move on to the next person. Possibly everyone. We don't have a lot of time to fix this Brown. I'll try to lead them off for a while, but I'm not waiting decades to get my life back. We have those ships coming and should at least go say hello, even if they do come by every fifty years or so to visit..." He didn't know that, even the Larval Cordes hadn't said it that way, but Denno winced.

"It
could
be a problem though, we've never seen three fleets like this. No more than one at a time and it's normally a much smaller group for those."

"What?" Burks looked surprised. It was rare that he did that. Enough so that Tor blinked and stared a bit himself.

"This has happened before? I suppose that you and Blue have been in radio contact with them?" He looked ticked and crossed his arms, so didn't notice the Larval struggle to his feet, weapon coming around slowly. It was almost confused and ponderous seeming.

Tor killed him instantly sending bits of him all over the Earth around them.

"Fifty-eight. Sorry everyone, not the time or place for this. Do I need to keep working on the drive for the space craft or what?" He set the Fast Carriage back up and made it stop glowing, then turned it a night sky black, which was really a deep blue and not black at all.

Denno sighed.

"Please do. I... Have a bad feeling about this one. I really will fix this Tor. I promise." He held out his hand, which Tor shook, then did the same with Green. It was the polite thing to do after all.

Trice got a hug, a close thing that lasted for a lot longer than was proper no doubt, but no one cared about that here. The Ancients didn't care and really, after everything, he didn't either. He loved Trice, which is why she needed to be far away from him until this was all taken care of. He really would sacrifice his life to protect her if it came to it and the Larval couldn't be allowed to know that. From that point on he had to convince them that he didn't have a heart at all, no matter what that meant he had to do. Or how much it hurt him.

"Where will you go? You don't even have any gold with you..."

"Like I need gold? Take care of Ali and the others for me Trice. Noram too."

"All of it? That's a bit much to ask isn't it? I'm just the one woman after all."

Tor shrugged and climbed up into the craft that was almost invisible in the dark away from the city, only the front lights of the Larvals four wheeled ground transports showing them anything but Halifax in the distance.

"Of course it's too much to ask of any one person, but you don't have to do it alone. No one does. You have friends, and everything will turn out in the end." Even if he did have to kill an army of assassins to make it happen.

"I love you Tor." Her words were soft and nearly got missed in the ringing his ears was doing. He heard it though.

"I love you too. I always have. I have to go now. If... well, there were ten more in town, we don't know where they've gotten to. You all stay safe. Tell everyone that I'm fine and will be back. Eventually. If they see me, make sure they know to pretend they don't. I mean everyone, everywhere." He had a plan after all. If people knew to look for him, even if they tried to hide that they knew it was him, it would get back to the Larval.

He could draw them in using rumor and a bit of bumbling no doubt. All Tor needed to do was the worst bit of hiding ever, at the right times.

Then he got in the Carriage and took off going straight up, heading off in a random direction as fast as he could go when he got to about seven or eight thousand feet. It was due South he thought, but that didn't matter. In the morning he'd fly to Tellerand and make sure he got "lost" for a while. Making a point of being loud and calling attention to himself in the strange land. In the end there was only one place in the world that he could really hide though, which even the Larval should realize with a few minutes thought.

Noram.

He couldn't blend in anywhere else and probably didn't have time to learn how.

The trick, of course, would be spreading the killers out enough so that he could find them before they got to him in a vulnerable moment. He could do it.

He didn't have a choice.

Otherwise he might end up running forever as his life faded away without him.

It occurred to him, as he flew off into the night, that for perhaps the first time in his entire life he was truly free. Nothing dictated his thoughts or actions, no one was around to tell him what he should do or who he had to bow to.

There were no friends either, no people to care for and help, no lovers to hold him when the night got cold and dark. It would be lonely for a while, maybe centuries, but he had to do it to protect them. Everyone he loved.

After a few minutes he noticed that there was a single star visible to the right, then a second one. He steered toward it and watched it until it faded as the sun rose.

Being free was nice... but kind of sad.

It wouldn't be that way forever though. For now he just had to hang on and stay one step ahead of what was coming.

Whatever it really was.

First he had to get past the Larval and then there were some Ancients that he needed to talk to.

Alone.

After that he had some work to do, because no one was stealing his life, or planet, without a fight.

He wasn't a slave after all.

Not anymore.