Ancient Kings (The Young Ancients) (19 page)

Then Kincaid took over, walking through the room with the others following her, gesturing to the furniture behind her as people scrambled to move their lens boxes and lights. Her words were smooth, as if she'd rehearsed them already a dozen times, even though that couldn't be the truth.

"The technology of Noram is very different than our own. They call it magic, but the fact of the matter is that it simply functions in a different manner. Using direct mental interfaces and quantum effects to produce incredible results. Conserina Ward, you said that you'd demonstrate the healing device for us? Can you explain how it works to the people at home?"

Tor wondered what she'd say, because he was halfway certain the Petra didn't have a clue as to what it actually did. He'd never gone into detail about that part of things with her. He was a bit surprised then, when she started speaking. She held up the amulet, one of the first ones that he'd made, being on glass instead of focus stone, with its green glowing silhouette of a man on it and smiled, holding it out for the boxes to see.

"Certainly Kincaid. Call me Petra though. This is a healing device made by the Wizard Tor. It causes the human body to heal at a faster rate of speed than it normally would, and return to a base state of health in a few moments. It can't re-grow limbs, but it will allow a person to correct wounds, disease and poisoning in a matter of minutes. Here, allow me to demonstrate."

Out of the people in the room, only Tor really knew what was going to be coming next. Petra made the sleeve of her jumpsuit vanish, and pulled a knife, then slit her forearm to the bone, near the elbow. The blood didn't spurt, but it poured out as Kincaid gasped. Then the large, good looking Conserina held her arm out and tapped the sigil on the amulet, allowing a man with a lens box to come very close, so that the healing was visible to him. It was both gross and fascinating at the same time.

"Oh my god... did you see that?" Kincaid wasn't having an easy time of the demonstration, but Brown played off of it as if it had been written down for him.

"I
did
Miss Rue. I've used this device myself before and can guarantee its efficiency. Unfortunately they're difficult to manufacture and only a small handful of people in the world can do so. Also, due to other situations, they're normally not allowable in Austra. The ones we have coming are all the personal property of Torrance Purple. This is a great kindness considering he cannot come to our land himself, since a small problem with the Larval have caused them to hunt him as their primary target, as most of you know. That situation will soon be remedied however. Tor, would you say a few words to the people of Austra? I'm certain they'd all love to hear from you."

He went blank, mentally. It wasn't fair, to put him on the spot like that, was it? Kincaid was still staring at Petra though and neither of them seemed ready to resume their speaking parts. He walked over, so that the men and women with their boxes wouldn't have to turn around to see him. It bought him a few seconds if nothing else. When he got to Denno he contemplated hitting him, but turned to the correct direction and looked at the lens like the others had been doing.

What would he want to know if someone were trying to explain this to him? After a full second he tried to just speak as if someone were actually there.

"Hello everyone. As Denno Brown said, this is a dangerous, but very survivable situation. We all need to work together and do our parts, naturally. In the next days and weeks there will be opportunities for all of you to help those around you. To be there for your friends, families and neighbors." Which was a great thing to say, if he were talking to a Noram audience, which he wasn't. Austra was a far greedier place and didn't think overly much beyond their immediate kin. What would get them interested? "Also a chance to travel to other lands to help there, on my coin. We're going to need a lot of people, in many places, so please consider volunteering. There will be an announcement when this comes around, but it won't be long, so stand ready."

He had boats and could make more after all. Soam and Tellerand would need help, he thought. They were good people, but they didn't seem to do a lot of traveling. Not the fast kind at least. Vagus either, but they had their own builders and magic now. He should be able to just send some things to them and let them do a lot of the work themselves.

Denno beamed as if he'd said exactly the right thing.

"Is there a chance for people to meet you coming soon too? I
know
that will be popular." The man was pushing things for some reason and in a way that meant Tor would be trapped if he wasn't careful.

"That's the plan. Of course I need to actually
make
the healing devices first." That and hunt down Gray. It would mean a trip to Afrak was coming soon. That part would be less than fun, because she was family, but you didn't try to kill most of the people in the world and just walk away.

Tor smiled and wondered if Denno was going to try and dump more on him. He did, mentioning that there would be some rewards for volunteers, such as produce. That seemed strange to Tor, but the good looking Ancient called over Tim to expand on the idea.

It was about then that Tor realized that there was a cable leading out the door, and when he tracked it with his mind, the field led to a device outside, which was sending a faint signal up into the air. Putting the message out instantly? That was impressively fast work.

Denno ended the whole thing with another speech about being aware and taking sensible precautions, such as washing your hands regularly and reporting to the nearest medical center if symptoms came up.

The second the lights went off Tor sighed.

"So they all saw this? What are the odds that people aren't headed over to see their doctors this second?" He was a bit tired, but Brown shrugged and waved a hand in the air lazily.

"Almost a hundred percent. Every person with a cough or the sniffles will be going by the time this had played twice. We couldn't afford to wait however. The first real wave of this has already started. Inside a week we might lose millions, even with our best efforts. The same goes for all the lands."

Which meant he needed to get to work right then, didn't it? But he wasn't doing it there. He wanted to see Ali first and get her those flowers. It was too selfish of him though. He nearly got mad at himself, feeling so conflicted.

"I'm off to Lairdgren then. If you need me in the next few hours, use the communications device, after that I'll be out of touch for about four days. Then I'll need some things picked up for delivery."

It was going to be a pain.

"Someone find Gray and kill her, will they?" He was half joking, but Timon nodded and looked at Brown.

"On it." There was a coldness to the boy that sent a chill down his spine then.

Not that it didn't need to be done.

He took off for the school and landed in the dark, then got a compression rig from around his neck and a cutter. It took hours to come up with the tens of thousands of little tile squares he needed. They weren't as big as normal, about half that size. Any smaller and he'd have to worry about people losing them too easily. As it was they were going to look like they were miniatures anyway. They didn't have holes for a string either, but they weren't meant to be worn. He used a resized floating box, created out of the same material the craft were, to hold the things and arranged himself in the front room of Ali's house. It was a bit rude of him to take up the space, but he didn't want to change the house more than he had too. As it was he needed to make all the furniture in the room vanish, except for a comfortable and soft chair. Then he floated the box in, making the front wall go away for a bit, and reforming behind it.

The box was made into a platform, so that the shield material wouldn't stop him from interacting with the tiles and he settled into a very deep state to get things done.

The trick was in a combination of things, such as using a very deep mental state, and allowing the initial field to infect the things around it. Kind of like a disease itself. Once he had that going it was just a matter of making sure everything took. That was the part that required time, since otherwise the results could be a bit hit or miss.

The world went away for a while, but it felt like only a minute or two to him. When he came back and opened his eyes, Ali was there, sitting next to him in a chair, reading a book.

He smiled.

"Hello." For once his voice didn't sound like a frog croaking at all. He stood and stretched, but didn't get halfway through it before his wife grabbed him, surging up from her chair, school book flying.

"Tor! That was faster than I thought it would be. What are you making? They look like healing amulets..."

"That's right. No one told you about the illness?" He looked at her. She was in her normal school browns, made to look like humble canvas and had her shoulder length hair pulled back. She was taller than he remembered her too. About five-ten already. She was going to end up being big.

"Illness? No. I was working for a few days... I
did
it. I created my first build and then made some copies. It works!"

Tor hugged her and picked her up off the floor. She was taller than he was, but not that heavy.

"Builder Ali!" His smile was so big it nearly split his face and tears came to his eyes. He'd been a little worried that it might not work her first time. Traditionally people failed on their first attempt. Half the Lairdgren Group needed help that way even and they were the cream of the crop.

So, apparently, was his little wife.

"Can I see it?" He had no clue what it would be, but she had one of them around her neck and it was handed to him instantly. She didn't speak, just watching him closely, which he took as a sign that he was supposed to activate it.

It had an etching on the metal, one that was just a single hash line. Basic but efficient. When he tapped it though, nothing happened. At first.

Then the room filled with the scent of apple pie. It was a rich and full scent, with undertones of yeast and strangely, pine trees. He didn't blurt anything out, tracing the effect itself first. It took him nearly a full five minutes to work out what was happening, since it was so subtle.

Then real tears fell.

"It's incredible! You created a field that will cause anyone near it to smell their favorite scent? That's
really
complex. No wonder it took you days of work. There are people that have been full builders for years that couldn't do this level of work." He wasn't just saying that either.

It earned Ali a kiss and then two, before he stood back, his eyes going wide, realizing something.

"Oh! I haven't had a chance to tell you everything. I'm not sure I should at the moment, you did such a good job on your first build, I don't want to steal your moment. This is... I was kidding before when I said that I could quit building and leave it to you. Now I'm not so certain I should have been. You really
can
do it. I'm so proud of you. I mean, I was before too, but this is huge." He kissed her again, then sighed.

"Still, there's some things. A big plague that might kill the world, hence all the healing amulets, and the fact that someone has been messing with some things."

It should have been awkward, explaining things to his wife, about how Connie and Varley were so closely related to him, that Trice might be and really he wasn't totally certain that other people weren't, since he couldn't trust anything like that now, could he. She just tilted her head at him, copying something he did all the time.

"So? You can't have children and your family line isn't prone to weak blood anyway. I know that it would be hard for you, with Princess Veronica, or even the Queen, being so close to you that way, but Trice would be no more than a cousin, and honestly, she isn't even that. Count Lairdgren didn't bed her mother, so if someone else came and did it, then it doesn't really count. Not in any real social manner. I don't think you need to worry about it at all. The fact is, they
aren't
related to you. You're similar in a way, but not family. Not from that direction. You should talk to the Count about it. I'm sure with his age and experience he could explain it better than I can. As for us..." She let her arms go around his shoulders and kissed him again, very warmly. "I don't
care
. The chances that we're related are tiny and if you were my brother I'd
still
be married to you. Too late to undo that now."

Which was a fact that he hadn't even considered at all. There wasn't a real way out of that, not at this point.

Plus, she was very tall, and blonde, with dark blue eyes. It was a good sign they weren't related, wasn't it? Of course Varley had blue eyes too...

"You do make good sense. So, how long was I out?" It was an important part of things, since he'd promised no more than four days. It turned out to have been only two though. Or really two and a half. It was late in the day and he was starving, but they hadn't missed the party at his house yet. Ali knew nothing about it, but clapped her hands anyway, since she did love a good party. Tor had to call and make certain people were still there and going to show up, but it turned out that they were, even if he couldn't be there. Since he could it would just be that much better.

"We should stop by Two Bends and make certain everyone has a ride. Hopefully not too many will want to go, because this mess is going to take up some space." He kicked at the tiles with their new little sigils on them and then caused the box to form around them, leaning in to touch the platform they were resting on. It was a lot of healing amulets. They were little, but it would take some room.