Envoy to Earth (21 page)

She paused, not knowing the whole
story, it was clear. Then she hardened her face, clenching her jaw until muscle
stood out on the side of her cheek.

"I can do that. It's about
time. Half of the reason I'm against the King now is his lack of action there.
That
thing
hurt my friend. If you need my word, or
hand
, in this,
you have it."

Petra hugged her, and then
looking away, described the rest, so that she'd know. It was horrible to hear,
and more in-depth than what anyone else had gotten from her so far. She ended
with the instruction that her brother wasn't to find out, which got a simple
nod.

"People say many things
about Marvin Ward, but he loves his sister. If he knew about this, then I'm not
certain anything would stop him from killing thousands, or more, over it. I'll
do what I can."

Gerent hoped so, because there
weren't too many other people that would come over to their side that easily,
he didn't think. No, past that point, it would be down to bribes, blackmail...
and threats.

The only good thing was that
Petra was able to leave with him after that, to go to her old family home.

Gerent was sleepy when they
hovered over the ocean near Warden, but he
had
to stay up, having given
his word to Collette. Everyone else was put to bed, except for Dorgal, who was
a bit baffled at the idea that he'd be needed for anything, even knowing the
score there, and Erid, who insisted that he attend to Gerent. If there was work
to be done, he had to be there, since it was his task for the day.

That didn't turn out to be wrong,
since the brilliant man loaded up the amulets for the people of that far off southern
county, and took them along. Gerent helped load it all, but remembering their
real job showed something there. He'd gotten sidetracked and so focused on the
idea that they needed to set up a meeting for Collette that he'd actually
forgotten the fact that people needed food. They'd had that horrible storm, and
been the hardest ones hit, too.

They were getting good at
unloading however, so managed to land his Tim-Craft on the front lawn of the
Ward estate before anyone came out to see to them. When that happened, there
was a bit of a shock, since Countess Ward walked out, dressed in a white gown
that hung off her shoulders and didn't have sleeves. Her face was smiling, and
she all but pulled Dorgal away by force, not even bothering to explain her
reasons why. There was a full meeting set up inside, but Gerent, it turned out,
wasn't
needed for it. That made sense, given that he barely knew Dorgal,
but Petra explained the actual reason behind it, which was a second shock.

"It's that you and Collette
are close. Maria won't want you there, in case it's painful to see her passing
to another man.
I
should probably head in however, since getting those
two put together makes great sense for me, personally. So, are you staying here
tonight? You can sleep in the craft here? I have to work in the morning, but if
you stay..."

What they could do if that
happened he didn't really know, but he nodded.

"Right, if I stay, then you
can sleep with me. Which given the days I've had without rest, will end up
being a massive snore fest. Still, it sounds more romantic than me just running
away, doesn't it?" He yawned, which was real, since Gerent hadn't used
Ali's new device in a while, so he'd be able to sleep when the opportunity came.

The Tim-Craft was a lot easier to
use than most of the other houses, having pre-set rooms and bathing chambers in
its make-up. All he needed to do was touch the wall and think about wanting a
bed and it arranged itself for him, the vehicle reforming inside instantly. It
had a lot of silver in the pattern, but Gerent didn't care about that at the
moment, so he didn't bother changing it. He just made sure they all had spaces,
and took the first room. His had a name on it, formed with a lot of
concentration, but he didn't know how to spell either Erid or Dorgal, so he
left the others free. If they both ended up in the same room by mistake, well,
they were grown men. They'd handle it.

Still, hours later, he woke as
Petra came into the space. She didn't insist on having sex, even though he was
willing enough in spirit. His body was willing too, but his brain just couldn't
rouse enough to do more than move over in the large bed. It had silk sheets on
it, or seemed to, and the pretty woman touched his arm as she drifted off. She
didn't try to cuddle to him, which he was grateful for.

His life had left that kind of
thing being too uncomfortable for him. As it was he slept a bit less than
restfully just having her with him. It was tolerable however, and when light
finally came through the window over his head, she rolled over and poked his
arm a few times.

"Gerent? Are you alive?"
She wore a grin when he cracked an eye, her face a bit puffy with sleep.

"I think so. We can be over
to Printer in a few minutes. Or... If you don't need to be there right now, we
can go and get the space craft first? Then I can just go from there to the next
County."

"That one. I have about an
hour." She touched his arm lovingly, as if suggesting that an hour was
plenty of time to do a
lot
of other things.

It was pretty darned tempting,
but if she wanted to meet her class in time, and perhaps eat something first,
they needed to hurry a little more than that.

Gerent was willing to let
everyone else sleep for a time, but Dorgal got up when they did, and sat in the
back as Gerent piloted back to the ship and set things up for the day. It took
about fifteen minutes to be off the Coast of Printer, and Petra was fed and
bathed, or at least showered, before she had to leave for the day. The odd
thing there was that she pulled him along with her, using his Tim-Craft, making
it almost tiny, and landing off to the side of the stone weapons area that the
school had. Without asking, she took the thing down and handed it to him, then
reached over and changed his clothing from green silk to look like a brown
workman's outfit.

The woman smiled at him, as she
used her head to point out that the kids were coming. Not all of them were
children, however.

"The class size is down,
since some of the parents decided that they didn't want to risk Holly grabbing
them up as hostages. Anyway, I was thinking you could get a work out in? A few
hours of exercise a day is important." She seemed to want him to stay,
which he figured was a trick, but she didn't abuse him
too
much. No,
here she had people to do that for her.

There was stretching, lifting big
stone things with handles, and hitting wooden posts with swords, clubs and
sticks. It was hard, but only painful. Even the unarmed fighting practice,
which was done with a large fellow that stood four inches taller than he did,
but looked to weigh twice as much, wasn't that brutal. He just had to do what
he was told and not forget and drop his guard. Not that he did. Keeping himself
covered was sort of sensible. His entire life had taught him that when taking a
beating, it was best to have an arm or leg in the way. Doing it Petra's way
just meant he could be more effective with it, which was sort of interesting.

Better, working with the large
man like he was, Gerent was not only allowed, but expected, to fight back. Most
of his life that hadn't done a lot for him, but now when he landed a blow, the
padded man actually
moved
. True he hit back, but nothing that landed was
all that solid, since he just moved his arms or legs a bit to push things
aside. A few struck home anyway, since he was far from perfect, even having had
instruction, but it was better than just covering his head and hoping that the
fellow stopped before Gerent died.

At the end of the bout, he got
another person to work with, who was much smaller than he was, but the boy
didn't let that stop him, and cheated nicely, pulling a wooden knife about
halfway through. That let him kill Gerent, but even the kid himself just
shrugged at the end.

"You're not too bad. Almost
everyone else has whined when I've done that to them. Instructor Ward said that
I should though, to remind people that real fights don't have rules. So, you
get the idea, it wasn't personal. Um, I'm Wallace?" A quick bow came, that
was a bow between equals.

Gerent did it back, matching the
angle.

"I know
that
one from
experience. Unfortunately. Should we go again?" It was hard, being slashed
at with a knife like that, but Ger managed to get a bit better over time. Half
an hour later Petra pulled him aside, and smiled at him.

"You need to work with a
blade, too. Magical weapons and shield as well. When you get to Harmony, you
should look up Kolb and work with him. Keep this up at least four or five days
a week. Still, you did pretty good for your second fighting lesson ever."
She said it loudly enough that the other students turned to look at him, with
Wallace walking back over, looking confused. That, or disbelieving.

"Eh? You're joking with us
to make me feel inferior,
aren't
you?" There was a pleading to the
words, as if the boy really wanted it to be the case, but Petra laughed and
patted him on the back, looking at the young man who was a bit gawky and big
eared.

"No. It's his second ever
lesson. You did well enough for today, but keep that in mind. There are always
good people out there. You have to work hard every day to keep ahead of
them."

Gerent thought of something and
frowned at the boy.

"Wait, are you... Wallace
Eager? Um, Baron First?" That last bit was dangerous, since getting it
wrong could be a problem, but the boy tightened his jaw and nodded.

"Yes." It was said with
a grudging expression and a dark look to his eyes. Like he expected to be
punished for having that name.

Gerent smiled.

"Oh? Good! I know you then.
After a fashion. Right now I'm heading to some other counties to pass out some
relief aid from Harmony, the Moon Colony? But we need to get together and set
up some things for other lands. Right now the big concern is Tellerand.
Possibly Soam, as well. You need to get teams together for that. Countess
Printer and your father have volunteered you for that. Or at least they agreed
to get some students from here on it, so, you know, I'm electing you. Um... For
now if you need to get in touch with me you can get Petra here, or Countess
Printer to do that for you. Keep in touch. If I get back through here in the
next few days, which I doubt will happen, I'll get you a new communications
device." It made sense to him, but he sighed and then shook his head a
little as the kid looked at him, seeming a bit upset. "That won't work
will it? You need to be set up first. I..." He really wanted to get things
going for the day, but shrugged and turned to Petra. "Wallace and I will
run to the ship and do that, then head out for the day. Can you... I don't know
if he's allowed to miss classes."

After all, he hadn't gone to even
little kids' school, much less one like this one. Petra however just smiled,
and patted the other man on the arm. It was a firm thing, that rocked the thin
six foot plus kid a bit, and earned a glare from some of the other students. It
was pretty clear that most of them weren't wild about the idea.

She winked, making it a broad
thing that everyone could easily see.

"Do it. I'll get you cleared
for the day, or longer if needed. No one will have a problem with you doing
that. Are you taking him along with you to Harmony when you go? That's tomorrow
you're heading back, isn't it?"

From across the way a young woman
who looked average through the face, but tall enough that she had to have noble
blood, sneered.

"Why would that traitor be
allowed to do
anything
? He should be strung up by the neck, not put in
charge."

The tone was annoyingly snotty
and entitled sounding. He turned and smiled, not wanting to start a fight, but
it was clear from the way that Wallace turned red that he knew
which
traitor was being discussed. Gerent hadn't really known that people would think
that way, but didn't back away from the boy. Instead he shrugged.

"Like I said, we need to set
up those teams of people for the aid missions." He looked at the boy
himself and didn't let anything show on his face. It was easy to blame and call
names, and most people that weren't very bright could use that trick to seem a
little smarter than they actually were. That kind of person rarely got much
done in life, however. He'd been on the outside looking in for too long to have
not seen it happen over and again. The loud angry man, or woman, could push
people around, but in the end they only damaged the good people, and rarely
helped anyone other than themselves.

It was pretty clear that Petra
wanted the boy to have that bit of a break, but the truth was that Gerent
didn't need him to go along and didn't feel like babysitting. It wasn't that
Wallace had done anything wrong, just that it might be a hassle to be moving
extra bodies around like that.

Which probably meant he was being
selfish, and a bit snotty himself. Not wanting to be like the little princess
over on the other side of the practice area, who hadn't been working very much,
mainly just standing and chatting with her friends, Gerent nodded.

"
Or
he might be over
in Tellerand. They wouldn't take any aid at all. I know they don't like magic
there, but they'll need food and supplies just like anyone else. I don't know
what to do. Maybe Queen Tiera or one of the others will have an idea. If that's
good with you, Wallace? We won't be gone long."

The boy looked miserable, but
that seemed to be about people not liking him, rather than the idea of leaving
his studies like Petra had suggested. There was a somber nod, which meant that
Gerent didn't feel too guilty loading the boy onto the still tiny and green
square that the Tim-Craft had been made to look like, taking him to the bigger
ship which floated off the coast, about five hundred feet above the water. It
was huge still, but didn't really need to be.

"When we get in we should
set that thing to be smaller, since we don't need all that space right now.
Then we can get in touch with everyone we need to for the day. You can do that
part. Your father is in on the rebellion, right? So you know all the right
people for that? Most won't have the right communications devices, so we need
to just show up. King Richard
does
have one though, so you can pick his
brain on how to get food into Tellerand. I just don't have a clue there."
He chattered at the boy, who finally sighed and glared at him, as they landed
in the bigger craft. He goggled a bit as he looked around the loading bay in
the back, but didn't comment on it.

Instead he shook his head just
about the smallest fraction possible, and looked down at his feet. He was all
in brown too, so they matched, more or less. Magical clothing for both, Gerent
guessed. That, or the kid had put on brand new and totally perfect clothing
that morning before going to work out and people never did that, he was willing
to bet. Not even the rich and powerful. They used old things they didn't care
about. Doing anything else was wasteful.