Ancient Kings (The Young Ancients) (37 page)

It was hard to take, but, as someone had told him once in regards to something much different, he wasn't a different person for knowing what really was. No, it was just the same old Tor, only a little better off, because at least now he knew what was real. Trice had said that, he thought.

It sounded like her at any rate.

There was a half moment when he lost focus then, thinking of his life, of everything that surrounded him, and he could feel it all. The house, the people, the thoughts that they held in their heads... It was a feeling of being one with everything, the world itself. He shook himself and started walking to the front of the place, where they'd set up. The Lairdgren Group was outside already, waiting for them.

Ali set up his Fast Carriage and drove home, with everyone else chattering about things that were important to them. Little things though. Guide wanted to see if he could make a Fast Carriage and wanted Tor to help him with it. That got Instructor Fines to shake his head and smile a little.

"No. You need to feel the field and do the work
yourself
. The information is all right there. You just need to find it." It was his standard line, or at least that's what Tor remembered. It wasn't really true though, was it? You couldn't easily tell what you were looking at without a bit of information. Or could you? He let his thoughts find the craft itself and it wasn't hard to tell it was growing still, if much slower than before. The organization of space that made it so fast was still increasing. Not nearly enough for space travel though.

It took a bit to come back to normal.

"Um..." It wasn't that he was drugged or anything, just too focused on the deeper portions of reality, the faint traces of information that made everything what it was. "Sorry. The field grows. That's a bit subtle to get from the amulet itself. Examine some trees and plants, you should be able to get a feel for the right kind of pattern. Then it takes a month or so. Not constant work. That would kill you. You set up the growth and let it go, just making it so that the pattern holds from one day to the next. About an hour or so."

It was Sam that answered, his voice a bit awed.

"No wonder I couldn't get it. I was sitting there for nearly two weeks trying to force things in the regular way. It really did nearly kill me. I don't know how you do those really long work sessions, Tor. No one else can manage it."

Almost by reflex he started to say it was just practice and that anyone could do it, but that wasn't true, was it? Not really.

"I have the Ancient pattern. It means that, at least for me, my endurance is a lot greater than most people's. I don't know for certain, but I think it's let me survive some things that other people might not. That just means that you need to use other techniques, like how you'll grow the new carriages. I need to do the same. Working for weeks on end isn't very smart. It
works
, but I think that's what the Green Man meant when he said I needed to use more finesse and less brute force. I've been pushing my field far too much, for way too long. The same has to hold true for the rest of you, even if you are all smart enough not to get yourselves killed. Not like me." He sounded pretty abstract, a bit like he was drunk, but no one asked him anything else in particular. Ali seemed a bit worried about him though, which had to do with the fact that she was the one flying, as strange as that seemed. She liked being in control, but it wasn't what she was used to. It made a difference.

There was an efficiency to how she moved though, landing in the central commons, next to Tiera, who'd led the whole way, their craft matching with a faint purple glow. It was late. He didn't know what time it was, but doubted that there would be many hours left before it got light again.

"Thanks everyone. We should get together soon. Have a picnic or something." Tor knew that it wouldn't sound right, but no one seemed upset at him at least. Their patterns were a bit tired, but also excited. Especially the new people. He hadn't bothered to really learn their names yet. It was an oversight, since he'd named two of them that day, but he wasn't in charge of them. Fines was now. The man was good though. Not just someone that knew how to build at a high level, but an educator. A person that knew how to
mold
young minds and that sort of thing, instead of just having one himself.

It was better this way. Sandra had been a mistake. She was too young for the responsibility that she'd held. Too untried. Given the position mainly because she'd been at the right place and was someone the King knew by name. There had been too much just handed to her. For things to have value, they had to be earned, didn't they?

They all moved to walk back to their own places. Ali going with him, since it was an off-day now and that meant she was allowed to sleep in her house, not just her school room.

She moved close to him, even though it wasn't a dangerous place at all. They all had shields on too, so it wasn't about that kind of comfort. Her shoulder bumped his arm as they walked, every third step, but she didn't move away.

"I...I'm really sorry that I yelled at your grandfather. You aren't mad at me, are you?" She sounded like a little girl, young and worried that he'd blame her for protecting him.

Like that was going to happen? He wasn't blaming the King or Burks overly, so why would Tor blame
her
?

"Not at all. I thought it was pretty well timed, to tell the truth." He reached out and took Ali's right hand. It was warm and soft, though everything felt that way. He had a temperature equalizing amulet on. So did she. That didn't stop him from feeling her. Even the emotions, which were calmer now that they were getting closer to home. It wasn't a long walk, only a few minutes, even in the very dim light afforded by the few lamps left burning in different places. Ali's house had magical lights, but everything was off, since they hadn't planned on being back that night. Tor focused and turned one on from a distance, about three hundred feet off. It was just a matter of concentration and right now he could feel it all. That meant he could act on it too, he realized.

They walked in together, but only needed enough of a glow to get them safely off to bed, which was the first door on the right, up the stairs. There was no one else in the dwelling at all, but there was a strange scent in the air. Almost like something had been burnt and then left to sit on the counter instead of thrown out immediately. How that had happened while he was gone, he didn't know. He could guess, but blaming anyone for it wouldn't help. Besides, it wasn't like the house could burn down.

He was so sleepy and out of sorts that he didn't do more than change for bed and brush his teeth. Ali did the same, but then climbed in next to him, holding him close enough that everything she was thinking practically raced through his own mind as well.

"Tor?"

"Yes?" He needed something to call her. Sweetie or Honey maybe. So far he didn't have anything like that.

"I, um, bought some stuff and didn't tell you about it." They were between the sheets, in a pitch black room, so only the feel of the smooth fabric, slick to the touch, and the weight of the covering held his attention, other than his wife.

"Oh? Alright. What did you get?" That was hard to tell, but he was pretty certain it wasn't anything too small. There were flashes of an image, which was huge and brown.

"A few things. It's that... you weren't here and I was afraid it was too much to spend. I stopped right after I did it and hardly got anything at all though. I haven't wanted to tell you, since I don't want you to yell at me."

"Like I yell? What did you get? That farm land in County Bonner?" It kind of fit at least.

"You
know
? When? I didn't say anything about it. I..." She was almost terrified suddenly. Tor had to wonder why that would be. She was his wife after all. It wasn't like she couldn't get things if she wanted them and from what he'd heard it was seeing decent use, housing bunches of orphans and helping them survive.

"It was mentioned earlier in that council meeting. By the way, how is the project at Wildlands Station going? Are the kids learning to make useful things out of focus stone?" It was something he'd need to see to himself, since all the kids needed to have compressor units when they graduated. It was his present to them.

"What? Oh, yes, that's going well. We should go and see it soon. You need to look into your house there too, or everyone will forget who owns it. Both houses. The women there would love to see you, I'm sure." There was none of the normal lilt of teasing in the words, which sounded a bit breathless. "It's... Tor, I spent a lot of our gold on the land. I know that you'll be mad at me when you hear... I still can't believe that I did it." Ali pulled away from him then, but he could feel her tense, ready to flee it seemed.

That was strange, because even if she'd spent all of their funds, he could get more. If they were in debt, well that wouldn't be
good
, but they'd live, he thought. That wasn't her point though. No, she wanted him to ask how much, so she could let the sum out in a rush and have it done with. They were married though, which meant partners. He had to do his part too.

"How much?" The words sounded light and unconcerned in the darkness. Maybe a little sleepy too.

"Fifty-three thousand gold." She was back to sounding like a tiny child again. It was cute, but misplaced.

Why, that only left them with millions of golds sitting around in various places. Hardly a threat to survival.

"Good. Well, let me know if they need anything in particular to make their jobs easier. Is there more?" That didn't seem likely, from her sudden bafflement.

"Tor... I just said that I spent fifty-three thousand gold for some land. It's good land and there's a lot of it, but that's a vast sum. I thought that you'd beat me or..." Her mind locked down and didn't tell him what the
or
was.

Given her past, he was thankful for that.

"It's yours too. If you want land, then we get land. If you want to hire every orphan in the kingdom, then we give it a shot. We don't really need coin you know. We never really have."

She moved back into him with a hug, which was very nice, and comfortable. They didn't move for several minutes, until they saw the flash from outside. It was like lightening had struck, but was a strange white color, with no hint of blue at all, and lasted for several seconds. Then a deep rumble came that just didn't end for a long time, even as they both flew out of bed and ran to the window.

Whatever it was came from the sky.

And it was huge.

Tor had three simultaneous, and very different reactions to the thing he was watching out of the window. The first was to stand there staring at it like a moron, with his mouth hanging open. For about three seconds he did that pretty well, so he moved to his second action, which was to move in front of his wife, using his body, and the shield he'd worn to bed to protect her.

Tiera's friend Regina popped into his head then, since his sister done almost exactly the same thing, when an explosive weapon was used. It hadn't worked. Then again, the girl hadn't had a shield on herself. That was a mistake of course. One that he'd made. All the way around.

Her death was, in many very real ways, his fault.

He'd trusted Sandra Morris to act like a reasonable person and not go around blasting people with weapons of war in the commons of a school. It was also his failure in that he hadn't made certain that the girl, so connected to his own family, had a shield of her own. True there was a lot of blame to go around on that one, but it hurt suddenly, even as he should have been standing there in awe and slightly gibbering as the sky stopped glowing finally.

The third thing that occurred to him was that he
knew
what the thing in front of him was. Or at least Cordes recognized it.

"That's an EMP. An Electro-Magnetic Pulse. A very large one." Tor moved back from the window and took his wife's hand gently. "It... really it isn't a threat to us, as scary as it looks and sounds. It's meant to take out technology, like what they use in Austra and the Antarctic? My guess is that Orange and my Uncle Dan did it to keep Gray from running away. Or something like that. Notice how it's off to the south and east? She was probably running from Two Bends, or... given the location a spot closer to us than that by a few hundred miles." It made sense, but he turned the light in the room on, not even walking to the touch sigil by the door. A bit of focus and extended concentration did the trick, the world suddenly becoming brighter then.

Ali just stood, her body slightly stiff and a bit of fear trickling out of her, which was probably a good sign for what other people would be feeling too, not knowing what the strange thing was. They'd probably blame him for it. After all, it seemed like magic, didn't it? That or one of the Lairdgren Group. They were the ones with new magic in the area after all.

It made sense after a fashion, too.

"Honey? We should head to the commons and see if anyone needs to be calmed down. People might be worried. This really won't hurt us though, I don't think. We should get with Kolb and Doris too, if possible. They'll know about this kind of thing and having a unified front will make it seem safer, don't you think?"

Tor suddenly found himself wrapped up in a hug.

"You're really
not
mad about the gold then?"

It was such a strange thing to say that he laughed and kissed her, finally free to really do that, knowing they weren't related at all. That made things a lot more comfortable.

"No, not at all. In fact we should do more of that kind of thing. I hadn't thought of farms before myself. That's brilliant really. At this rate we'll run out of orphans to hire for the work... We are paying them, aren't we?"

She shook her head, but started to walk on her own. After a moment, without closing her eyes, her clothing melted over her, moving from light pink silk trousers and tunic to her black velvet looking Lairdgren Group uniform. It was a good idea, since it seemed a lot more official than his pajamas, so he copied her, still leaving off the purple stripe that ran down her leg. Otherwise it was the same. Plain and military looking in cut, but different in material, not being made of canvas.

Lights turned on as they moved, with Ali touching the wall of the place, just running her hand along it like a soft caress, so that she could set things off as they went.

"No. They get part of the profit from what they grow, but we aren't emptying the banks to give them coin or anything. I thought that made sense, because... well, it does. Alphonse told me that I shouldn't let anyone just have gold, or they'd think I was weak and at least one of us has to seem like they'll put a foot down... Oh..." There was a flare of angst then, but she didn't take the words back, even if they were a bit insulting.

"Right. Good plan then. It makes it seem like I'm an idiot, instead of just generous, but there we have it. Even the Prince of the Realm thinks that you're better that way than I am." He smiled though, a bit lazily and then patted her back. "Not-flyers I think. No need to scramble just yet. Maybe no one will even show up? Most people will be asleep at this time of night after all, or at least they should be. I know we should." Without meaning too, he yawned, hurriedly slapping a hand of his mouth. "Oh, sorry about that."

Ali, being secretly brilliant it seemed, already had all her amulets on. They were separate ones, not worked down to the few multi sigil amulets that he had yet. It meant that she looked a little lumpy, over her rather ample chest. She was thinner than when they'd first met, and taller, but that part hadn't changed at all. He wouldn't have noticed it if she wasn't fighting to find the right magics down her top at the moment. There was a hand piece too, for the Not-flyer, but she kept it around her neck on a string. The field was military grade at least, so fast enough if needed, but Tor really thought she shouldn't have to spend a minute searching for it like she was. He just lifted into the air, his special Not-flyer being controlled by his thoughts.

It was easier and looked better, as well as being a good bit faster. No one else had them yet though, because he'd failed to make them for anyone. Gerent had one. No one else, though there were a few in his room. He hadn't even given one to a person that could make copies of it. He'd need to do better that way, at least for his friends and family.

Especially if a real war was coming. A few seconds might make a huge difference sometime.

After about a minute and a half Ali was ready and they were both able to move outside, to find that the streets were filling up with worried looking people already. He'd thought the school might be alerted, but it seemed it was going to be the whole town. That was more people than Tor had been considering at all. Probably because he was a little narrow minded. Thousands of people, or more than that, would have seen the light and heard the roaring it caused. A few had probably even been close enough to feel it, and would be woozy and out of sorts for a few days.

Just being woken up suddenly could do that, right?

In the stone paved commons they found milling people, with Instructor Roberts wandering around in night clothes, muttering at people.

"We don't know what it is... Stay calm, everyone. Stay calm." It wasn't all that helpful, but was having some effect. Kolb and about twenty of his "Instructors" and top students boiled into place, all with some kind of weapon out, ready to fight off an attack. That was a bit of a slow response, but they'd mainly been asleep, at least from the looks on their faces. The large man called out, not seeing him in the rather dark space.

"Situation Report!" The loud bellowing got almost everyone to start trying to explain what they'd seen, which was a bright white light, followed by thundering that sounded funny. Tor just floated over, rising about three feet in the air, and making his clothing glow a nice bright purple to get everyone's attention as he did. It was flashy, true, but worked. Half of them apparently already thought he was a showboat anyway, so why not own it?

"Quiet please." He didn't bother yelling, since those that heard him started repeating it after a few repetitions, some yelling. He seemed pretty much in charge after all. When the growing crowd was quiet, he waved for Kolb to come closer. Doris was at the edge of the group, barely visible in his pale glow.

"It was an EMP, at least that's my best guess. I had word earlier that Dan Green and Alice Orange, two of the Ancients, were attempting to find Gray in or near Two Bends, which is to the south of here." Kolb at least would understand what he was saying, he thought. Doris too. The explanation to follow was for the rest of them. "What this means is that, while scary sounding, what we saw is a weapon that is designed to shut off old technology machines. It won't hurt
us
. At least not those of us this far away from it. We'll need teams to make certain that anyone living in the area of the blast itself is safe and has help for a few days, as well as healing. We don't know if there will be continued... hostilities. We should set a guard and get teams together now."

For a few seconds, no one spoke, but Kolb recovered first, bellowing again.

"Six teams for search and rescue. I want combat students for that. Each one take a builder with you. Lairdgren Group, get with Tor. Fighters with me. Everyone else go to the Head master." Then, without waiting, he moved off toward the right hand side of the area and made his own clothing glow a brilliant blue color. There was a green light from the other side, leaving the purple one in the center.

The Lairdgren Group was all there though, except one of the younger new girls, that had gone over toward the green glow, clearly confused. That or feeling she wasn't really part of the group yet.

"Builders over here! All of you! If you can make a copy at all, get your butts over this way!" It wasn't like they needed anyone to make magic for them, not overly, but there was too little sense of community for that section. His yelling got nineteen people in all, about half of them looking completely baffled at his words.

"Lairdgren Group, and anyone past third year, get with Kolb for the forward search groups. Ali... I want you to stay with the headmaster here. If he needs anything made at all, you can handle it. We need some fighters to stay here too. The rest of you... Stay here for a bit while I get things set up. There shouldn't be a lot of damage from anything, so consider this an emergency drill. We need lights set up around the commons here. Then we need to make certain that everyone here has a shield on. Got that? Don't wait to be told what to do, just start working." It was a bit vague, but it seemed like a plan, or at least close enough that most of them actually seemed to think that they could figure something out.

He took Ali by the hand for a bit, but they walked over to the Headmaster, who was standing and glowing still. He seemed more than a bit at a loss as to what to do exactly. That made sense, they didn't know the situation on the ground at all.

"Headmaster Hardgrove! We should see to food for the area that might be under attack. No one should be hurt, but people will need the reassurance. Can we set up some care packages? Baskets with a little something in them to hold people through a day or two?"

"Oh, yes, I think we can do something like that. I... don't know how to pay for it, it would be different if this was a real emergency, but I'm to understand that it is more of a drill now?" He touched his white beard, that was still flat on the bottom, but longer than the last time Tor had seen it. He was wearing night robes, but they seemed to be real.

They weren't, the man was loaded with magic. He even had a communications device on him, which was something Tor had forgotten to do, leaving his in his bedroom. They really needed a lot more of the things, he decided right then. Tor hadn't given the man the device personally, which meant that the king had. That was interesting, but not all that important at the moment.

Contacting the palace would be his job after all.

"I'll cover it. Get with the shops in town and keep an itemized list of things. I'll open the house here for extra kitchen space. Um... Find Sherri and have her set that up. She knows how and works with the homemaking section, who should be in charge of that part of things, I think. Instructor Hendrix? I don't know the people in that area too well."

Ali nodded then and turned to wave at some people, they all just stood there though, looking scared and milling a bit, not dressed for the cool night it seemed, with a lot of the girls clutching themselves as they huddled together for warmth.

"Everyone, over here! Instructor Hendrix, Sherilyn! We have a task." She sounded nearly excited that they were being included. Then it was her old section and her friends after all. She had a lot of friends it seemed, since way more people came over than if he called.

That got taken care of without him, and Ali seemed fine, so after a pat on the back, a small squeeze to her shoulder to let her know he was leaving, he headed back to his room at a pace faster than even Tiera would have been able to run, floating about three feet off the ground as he did it so that he wouldn't hit anything in the dark by accident.

Five minutes later he had his communications device in hand and activated, moving back toward everyone else at decent speed. Behind him, keeping up easily, was a large case that followed him, just hanging in the air when he stopped in front of the Headmaster.

The amulet for it glowed with a green sigil that looked like a rectangle, on nice white focus stone, the string was plain hemp though. He handed it over to the man who was busily listening to an older woman that seemed hard and a bit angry about something.

"We have neither the time nor facilities to do this. I don't even know what's needed! Should we send staples? Flour and canned eggs, potted meats and jellies? Or will they need finished goods? Not knowing the situation on the ground it's ridiculous to do anything."