Slave Line (The Young Ancients) (6 page)

"Help! Help! The palace is under attack!" He tried to think of what he was supposed to say if something like that happened but didn't know at all what to yell.

Trice did.

"To arms! Defend the King!" It got a response. Not a huge one, but it was real enough. The Royal guards that were watching the spies boiled out of the dining room along with Quavel and Kenner. The others stayed behind, which was probably wise. Except Denno Brown, who ran out as well. Sam and Lyn came down the stairs with Guide and Weasel following hard behind. It wasn't exactly an inspired combat group, but they all had shields and weapons. Well, the Lairdgren group and Trice did. Tor grabbed the box kept by the door noticing that it was back out already. The light tan thing looked plain, except for the glowing stone pieces within. It didn't have weapons in it, but had an assortment of nearly everything else.

"If you don't have a shield get one from me now. We're going in hard. Two waves, guards and builders first... everyone else in the second wave. Go!" Tor didn't wait to see who was getting what, just passing the box to Quavel the spy. He started handing things out as Tor floated over to the front door faster than a person could run. He had his Fast Craft set up with a few deft movements and a thought to activate it, climbing in painfully, the door still open. Ten seconds later it shut, all the guards inside along with Trice, the Ancients, and Sam, who was clutching something hard in his right hand.

It was a good point and Tor reached in to his own pocket for his multi-weapon. Having it out just made sense, not knowing what they were facing on the other side of this thing. He should have thought of it himself, but he wasn't a warrior. That Sam had... Probably meant something about the life he'd lived. Tor didn't have time to figure out what, but it almost certainly wasn't good.

"Shields on, we're going in hard and fast if we can. Hang on!" He yelled the words, which got most of the people to actually grab something. It wasn't needed though. The whole thing moved as a single piece and slowed the same way. It didn't feel like you moved much at all when it took off and he landed it faster than he ever had before, not bothering with a slow settling that was the normal protocol at the palace. The trip normally took several minutes even though his house wasn't far. This time it was done inside ten seconds. Tor was kind of surprised they didn't smack into the ground. When he hopped out, running for a second before he triggered the Not-flyer with a thought, he realized that they had. The craft was buried nearly two feet deep in the lawn. He hadn't even heard a noise from it. Interesting.

Then he flew, not waiting for anyone else to catch up. He couldn't make all the corners going full speed, but went as fast as possible anyway, hoping it wasn't too late.

It really wasn't at all, thought the scene in the main audience chamber was surreal. A dozen men stood, pointing weapons at each other, screaming, while two other men, both vast giants, hit one another so hard the air itself shook. Since one of them was the King and his guards were trying to subdue the other men it didn't take long for Tor to take sides. He flew at the man attacking the King first, hitting him at nearly a sixty miles per hour. They crashed into the stone wall behind the thrones so hard it knocked a stone block loose. It wasn't a small thing either. Twice the size of Tor's head at least.

His man wasn't getting back up quickly, though he was trying his best, which meant he probably had a shield on of some sort. Not one that he'd made, obviously, or the guy wouldn't have moved at all. Tor spun in time to see Sam crash into three of the blue and gold liveried guards at a run, sending them flying. He didn't go down, his shield stopping that from happening, but the men on the ground didn't just stop trying to fight, hitting this new threat with several different kinds of weapons. They didn't touch the boy, of course. He just walked over to them and pointed what he had in his hand at them. Tor wasn't certain, but he thought it might be an explosive device.

"Everyone stop!" He bellowed the words, his throat suddenly raw from it. Without waiting, since no one actually did anything but keep fighting, he started kicking downed guards. Trying to take the weapons from their hands. It took few minutes, but no one seemed overly harmed at least.

Other than the blood pouring from the King and the man that Tor had subdued with the aid of the back wall. They looked a little worse for wear. Then, both had been beaten by a giant, which kind of had to hurt.

Taking out his amulet, one of the three he wore under his shirt, he handed it off to Rich and pointed to the right sigil.

"Hit that one there." It was green and had the shape of the outline of a man. The King didn't wait to see what it was, just doing what he was told.

After a half minute he handed it back, deactivated.

"Thank you Tor. We should probably heal my brother and his men as well if they need it. Bit of a misunderstanding... Perhaps..." He didn't move toward the man that Tor had hit, who was still alive at least. Thank goodness. Tor had just assaulted the fellow pretty hard. If it had been a bar fight, Knight or not, Tor would probably be off to execution about then. The King's brother... As it was, since the man had been hitting the King like that, well, they'd probably cut him a little slack.

He took back the healing device and approached the man as he tried to stand again, attempting to raise his hands to fight, or at least ward off the blows he expected to be delivered. That was pretty tough minded, since the man looked like half his teeth had been knocked out. Either by Richard or the wall. Tor held up the device in his hand, showing what it was and carefully activated it for the man, catching just a bit of the healing field as he passed it over. It left him feeling better, but stressed his biological field too much to let happen. If it went on for another minute or so, it would probably kill him, he was so weak that way right now.

The big man in front of him just held the amulet hard, shaking silently as it repaired the damage, even regrowing the teeth that were missing. About ten minutes later the man handed the amulet back, sighing.

"Well. Remind me never to get in a fight with you again. Make my brother look like a little girl. Still, thanks for the healing there, I can get back to thrashing this thief again then. Might as well be at that now." He moved toward Richard who just raised an eyebrow and pointed toward the back of the room, where a good three dozen people stood, holding weapons, slowly moving toward the man.

It was an odd group, made up mainly of young people, or ones that looked young, most of whom were dressed in purple and black outfits not so different from what Tor was wearing, if slightly more colorful. He really did like the purple, even though his was in a stately solid black. Behind them came a larger man, Smythe of Westend, who also had a weapon out and a bunch of Royal guards. Behind them though, looking most professional stood an armed Quavel and Kenner the communications device answering boy.

The King, distracted, pointed at them with another raised eyebrow, getting Tor to shrug.

"They heard you were being attacked, so came to defend you. Representatives of their land and all that." It was, as far as he could tell, just a simple fact. Oh, true, Quavel had probably come to make sure the Queen was safe, since she'd been his whole job for over ten years, but the basic idea was the same. Tor ignored them then, as if having enemy spies running around with weapons was perfectly normal and turned back to the King's brother.

"I don't suppose you'd like to explain to me why you were attacking the King and calling him a thief? Before we lock you up in your room without supper or whatever punishments the royal brother gets when he messes up. A spanking maybe?" Tor wasn't trying to be funny, but almost everyone laughed.

The man, who Tor had never met, was a giant. Well, a lot of people around the palace were, but he was bigger than most of them, bigger than the King even, by a bit, about two inches or so, making him about nine feet four inches tall. Not the biggest man Tor had ever met, but close. Oddly enough the man looked at Tor when he spoke, except for a few fleeting glares at the King every few words.

"He, is a thief, because he's keeping my stipend from me. Claiming I only deserve half of it for some reason. Probably pocketing the rest. That's my birthright, and keeping it from me is against the law. One he can't change either. Written that way to stop things like this. I'll go to war over it. Stupid..." He turned as if to start fighting again, which made Tor pissed suddenly. It wasn't his fight, but still, attacking the King over gold was moronic... and trying to hurt your own brother was even worse.

"Stop that." Tor moved in front of the man, not knowing his name. He glared though, trying to remember it. Something Rolph had told him once.

"Kedrin, is it? Alphonse and the girls Uncle?" He waited for the man to tell him he was wrong or something.

"That's right. I'm sorry, you are...?" This came out in a gentle enough fashion, almost polite even.

He was well trained if nothing else, at least when it came to people not his family. Then, for all Tor knew it was only his brother than he'd fight with like that. Shameful though.

"I'm Tor. Friend of the family, which makes me your friend too I suppose, so don't make me order the kitchen to only serve you cold potage for supper. I'll totally do that by the way." He would too. That or end the man where he stood for attacking his friend. The only thing stopping him was the idea of the man screaming at him all night while he tried to sleep like the others had done the night before. It wasn't very restful.

Oddly, for some reason Kedrin smiled and spread his hands.

"Of course. Pleased to make your acquaintance. Excuse my... displeasure. I simply came to get my annual draw and found that it was being kept from me. I've rather spent a lot of it already and owe several, shall we say, noble individuals, recompense for work already done. True, I won't be harmed if I fail to pay in a timely fashion, but I gave my word and this one seeks to undermine me out of spite." That he meant the King was clear, but the whole thing barely made sense.

Everyone standing at the back of the room looked tense still. Actually it was everyone altogether that looked that way. The man kept looking at Tor though, his thick brown mustache moving when he smiled.

"Wait, you wouldn't happen to be the Wizard Tor, would you? The Counselor of Magic? The one banging my sister in-law? Not that I blame you there. Well worth the effort. She used to be most flexible if I remember right. Took her virginity you know. Bit of a strumpet back in the day. Used to spend most of her time with Laurie Lairdgren. Now she..." The man went down with a thump, groaning as he did. It was the kick to the groin that had done it, Tor figured, not even realizing he'd moved. As sore as he was it surprised Tor that he could kick that high without screaming himself.

Richard laughed.

"Yes, that Tor. Torrance Baker. Laurie Lairdgren's son. I'd point out that he's also kicked your behind twice in the last ten minutes. Keep it up dippy and we'll see if you aren't stuck in a small room with only a cold bowl yet. At any rate, as I said earlier, I'm not trying to keep your stipend from you, we simply can't afford the whole thing this year. I just asked that you defer a portion of it this time and let us repay you later. It isn't theft, I'm asking a favor, moron. I'm half tempted to cut you off totally and have you in irons for what you've done already here today. It would save golds all around."

He was answered with a groan from the floor. An upset and angry sounding one, but it was clearly pained. To his credit the man didn't answer the King's insults at all, just standing and bowing toward Tor instead.

"Um... Ow." He said first. Then he took a deep breath, followed by a bit of panting.

"Forgive me for the insult there. I didn't know that Laurie was your mother or I'd have kept my mouth shut. On that bit at least. I was needling my brother with the fact that I was more popular as a child than he was. At least with the girls. Not nearly as much with the Count or the instructors. Well, anyway. No hard feelings?" He had a charming way about him, when he wasn't trying to be a complete prick, Tor decided.

"Right, well, things are a bit heated. Now, how much gold are we talking about here?" Tor figured it would be a lot, Maybe a percentage of the treasury. The guy was a prince after all. Not in direct line for the throne now, but still, it had to be expensive to keep someone like him.

"A thousand gold annually. Due the day after Postern. And look, here it is two days after and nothing..." He glared again, getting Tor to roll his eyes and nearly offer to just pay the man out of pocket to shut him up. Just giving away funds was a bad idea though. Everyone said so. It made people feel entitled to things. This situation kind of showed where that could lead, didn't it?

He glanced around the room then, understanding that some kind of resolution was really needed though. Otherwise Kedrin would probably attack Rich again, which would make his men start fighting and then they'd be taken out by the new people that came. It was very clear exactly what would happen, down to when everyone would move even.

"I see. Well, even Prince Alphonse and the Princesses were down to half allowances this year. I don't think it's meant to be personal, everyone has been tightening their belts, since we've been at war and that only ended two days ago. It would be good if you'd give the Kingdom a little time to recover. In the mean time, how would you like a job?" He didn't know what to have the man do, but there had to be something, didn't there? He was the King's brother.