Envoy to Earth (23 page)

 The older woman looked at him,
her own eyes going wide. Then she regarded Erid, a bit of a tear forming.

"I believe I understand.
Well, I think I need to start taking you more seriously then, Erid. Forgive me,
for not doing it before?"

They hugged again, but when they
finished the woman didn't make them wait long for her decision.

"I'll give my blessing. The
man isn't a Count any longer, after all. Do what is needed to save lives. Thank
you for asking, boys. Too often people forget that we who rule in our own areas
should be consulted. Of course you'll still have to liberate him from his
prison cell for this to work. Do you have a plan for that?"

Gerent nodded, then looked at the
others.

"We do. We have an inside
man in the King's Palace. He doesn't know that he's helping yet, but he
will."

"Oh? Who is that? Or is it a
secret? Some deep spy you placed long ago, perhaps?"

Ger smiled, it wasn't really a
secret after all. Even if this woman hated the man.

"The King. He doesn't want
to risk harming the old Count, based on the idea that others might see him as
willing to punish the rebellion with death. I'm not part of any of that. He'll
do it, if you all give your breath to it. Justice shouldn't be denied just to
keep the peace. Not that I blame him for trying, but he probably should have
simply contacted you all about it already." That was naive of him to say,
but the lady seemed happy to hear it, rather than upset about who their inside
man really was.

"That sounds like him. You
seem to have a better take on this one however, Prince Gerent. I'll throw in
with you on this. When do we do it?"

That, he explained, would take
some time. The first part, getting at the guards, would be faster, if he could
make it happen, but after his return in a few days, from Harmony. He still had
a lot of other things to do and organize. When the whole thing was explained,
the other Counts and Countesses, she simply sat, and took a deep breath.

"So the plan is to not let
Marvin know? You need to act quickly then. He and his wife have spies to watch
their watchers. It's rather a talent of Maria's. Half of what I know I learned
from her. If you've told that many, she, at least, knows of it. I'll try to get
word to her and explain, to hold things off. I urge alacrity, gentlemen. This
will need the speed of the wind, if it is to work as planned. That no one
mentioned that..." She glared a bit, but at the wall to the side, not at
any of them.

Ger bowed.

"Understood, Countess. If
there is nothing more at the moment, we should go and see to this at once. May
I call on you later? Oh, the gifts!" He passed the correct things to her
and showed her how to connect with Erid, who grinned about it, but didn't speak
until they were out of the room and well down the hallway.

"Well, there goes my last
bit of peace. I'll be woken twice a night with her checking on me, no
doubt." He seemed pleasant about it, and didn't try to hit anyone, so
Gerent figured it was just an offhand statement. "She raised me, more or
less. My parents... Well, they tend to live from place to place. Visitors, you
know?" There was no sense of pride in the words. Shame was more like it.

Wallace swallowed, but didn't
speak about it.

The thing there was that Gerent
actually had no clue what that meant. He knew that some people went visiting
from time to time, and that it was a noble thing, but the way Erid made it
seem, his parents did it for a living? Was that even possible? The one thing
that he was certain of was that asking would be a horrible idea. If it had been
something truly minor, then Wallace would have said something about it. One way
or the other. The very lack of words on the topic was instructive.

He just didn't know what the
lesson was supposed to be.

"So, we need to hit Baker
next, and then head off to... Actually I don't really know. Anyone have
thoughts as to the best order?"

Erid didn't really have a clue,
but Wallace cleared his throat, and then looked around the hall they were in,
heading toward the front door of the once grand place, with two guards following
not too far behind.

"We should head up to
Sinclair next. They're supposed to have gone against the King, and then back
again. Like Montblanc, except that the royal larder hasn't been opened for them
the same way. They aren't on the rebel side, but... They're being slowly starved
anyway, to keep them weak. It's a good enough plan, except that the soldiers
never starve, do they? It's always the old and poor first. It would be
undermining the King a bit, but so is going and handing off these magical
devices to his enemies, so I'd guess the same idea should hold true. After
that... Well, Harris, comes to mind. They're squeezed into the middle of a
group of loyal Counties, so things have been going hard for them for the last
months. Have you been there before?"

This was said to Gerent, which
got him to snort at the boy, if softly. He didn't really want to go over
everything for Erid too, or whoever the Countess Callwood had watching them. To
that end he shorthanded the whole thing and then shrugged.

 "Galasia is there. Before
that, I lived there for about half of my life. When I was young, before I
really took to the road as a player." It wasn't a thing to be proud of,
since in most places a low player basically meant talented beggar, but neither
man with him commented on that either.

Not until they were back to the
ship, in the control section, on the bridge. Dorgal was still there, playing
captain in his absence. The man looked pretty natural in the position, really.
Older than the rest of them and fit looking. Not hard, like a soldier, but
still lean and relaxed, like he could spring into motion at any time without
warning. It was probably just his imagination, Gerent knew, but the man just
felt deadly, now that he bothered to notice it.

Wallace spoke, his words
harkening back to the old conversation.

"I... Could take the
supplies into Harris, if you want? I know that you may want to avoid that
county. Erid and I should be fine doing it. Or Mr. Sorvee could help us?"

Dorgal looked curious about why
he'd be invited anywhere, but Erid simply nodded.

The High Servant, it seemed, was
well aware of the situation involving him and Galasia, at any rate. Part of it.
So his asking if Ger had ever been there had been a chance for him to deny it?
To disavow anything having happened there at all? That was strange, but sounded
like a noble enough sort of thing.

"Is it the entire county, or
simply the one city that you feel averse to? I don't want to drive you away
from your sworn duty, but I can understand the reluctance..."

It was strange, but Dorgal looked
at him and shook himself a bit. Then he glanced at the others, and affected a
large and sad sigh.

"No, Prince Gerent is needed
for this mission. He should go, even if it's difficult for him. The county seat
is well away from Gala however, so I doubt it will be an issue there. We might
not want to talk about it too much. I know that if those things had happened to
me, I might not wish it to be a topic of casual conversation." There was a
cold and slightly angry look to his face. Erid blushed, and Wallace looked
away, then changed the topic.

"Agreed. Sinclair first,
then Harris? Or, I guess it should be Baker, Sinclair, Harris..."

They all roughly agreed to that,
since they were, Gerent reminded them, both running out of time, and starving
innocent people for every moment they dithered. That got Dorgal to take the
ship up, going very slowly and with decent control, to move south a ways, and a
bit east, landing outside of a large, but well put together seeming city. It
had a
couple
of large palaces, but the one for the new Count was marked
by being in the colors of the place. Deep forest green, and sky blue. It worked
well together, for a walled compound. Possibly less so for clothing, depending
on who was wearing it.

Taking a deep breath, he didn't
ask for the others to go with him on this leg of the journey, planning to just
load up what Terry had sent and drop it off, like a good delivery boy should.
Without speaking to anyone in particular or asking for a tip. That last bit got
him to smile, since he didn't need coin anymore, he didn't think. He hadn't
fired it up, but Tiera had given him a device that would, with minimal labor,
make almost anything he could think of. Baubles and gold, jewels and even, if
he needed them, things like wax, paper and pens.

That meant, he realized, that he
was pretty well set in life, at least until the device eventually stopped
working. That would be years at least. It was on stone, after all, which proved
its quality that way.

"I won't be too long, I
hope. We need to move out to those in need, but we
are
right
here..." He jogged to the back of the ship and left quickly, noticing that
several guardsmen were coming out of the city on horseback to look at the space
ship. He was in his fast craft, with the boxes for the Count in the back, and
simply flew over them, not moving too quickly. No one pointed weapons at him,
which was nice. At least until he landed inside the wall of the Count's place.
Then, as soon as he got out, four men in sharp looking outfits descended on
him, each pointing a small white wand at him.

Shield stripping weapons. He
actually had one of those too, and had for a long time, since Tim had stolen
one for him from Tiera. Not that it was
real
theft, but it hadn't come
from his adopted sister herself.

"Halt! This is the residence
of Count Baker, Lawrence Morris. May I ask your name and intent, sir?"
That was pretty polite, but the weapons didn't move away from him, being
pointed steadily. No one seemed all that worried however, once they saw him.
Not that they knew who he was.

"Um, hello. I'm Gerent
Lairdgren? Uh, Countier Six, Baker, if that helps me to not be attacked? I have
a delivery of goods from Terrence Baker, Countier First, for the Count. Magics
to help the county?" It was, perhaps, lacking in conviction, but the man
in front put his little pale pen shaped stick away, and smiled. No one else did
that, or relaxed, but it was reassuring, after a fashion.

"Do you mind if we take a
look? Not that we disbelieve you, but it would..." He stopped, not certain
what to say, Gerent was willing to bet. Not trusting him, an unknown man, was
sane and probably the fellows main job.
Saying
that could cause a
massive problem however, if he was, as he'd just stated, a Countier, standing
in his own county. Which he actually was.

The whole thing boggled his mind
for half a moment, but he covered with a graceful motion at the back of the
Tim-Craft.

"You may! In fact, if you'll
help me unload, we can kill two birds with one blow. I'm on a tiny bit of a
schedule, making aid deliveries from Harmony." He didn't go into where
that was, but it also didn't seem needed, since the men just looked slightly
surprised, rather than like they didn't understand him. Of course, their old
Countess was the Queen there, and their first Countier lived there as well. It
might, he realized, but pretty normal to them, as an idea.

He popped the back open by
brushing his hand lovingly over the side of the green rectangle, which was only
about ten feet long at the moment. That allowed him to show the cases, which
took up most of the interior. Removing them, one at a time, the man whistled to
the others as he sorted through them.

"This must be nearly a
million gold worth of magic, if not more. I guess we should have you stay and
talk to the Count? He's not in at the moment, seeing to a minor dispute on the
western border. Good man that way. Always goes himself when he can."

Gerent shook his head, and showed
the man how to work the speaking devices, so that he could show the Count
later.

"Like I mentioned, I really
need to be to the next place already. With this however he can speak directly
to Terry and find out what all this does. Or me, of course, if he needs to
arrange a visit, or I guess, if he has orders for me. Um, let him know that, if
he
does
, to try and keep it kind of easy for a while? I'm set up running
errands for Queen Tiera for the time being. I don't want to stint my duty to
the county, but..." He looked a bit chagrinned, but the man in charge
winked at him, in a friendly enough manner. It was probably improper of him,
given that Gerent was a noble now, but also pleasant to see. This then wasn't a
man that feared nobles too much. Meaning that his Count wasn't harsh, or
needlessly cruel, most likely. That varied, from place to place, but working
this closely with the man, at his own home, the guard would have acted
differently if he'd been mistreated. Or possibly if anyone had been.

There were people that you didn't
push, or take chances with.

"I'll pass that along if I
can, sir. Thank you, for taking the time to see to this for the county. I don't
know what the effect will be from it, but given the Count and his wife, this
will be well used to help everyone. Good people." There was meaning to
that, and the rest of the men seemed uneasy, but Gerent understood. The man was
risking punishment, being familiar with him, personally, to test and see what
the heirs were like. If they were mean or spiteful. Demanding high treatment at
all times.

He just closed the back of the
vehicle with a touch, and started to climb in, really feeling time slipping
away.

"That would be great!
Thanks, everyone. If you need anything, just use one of those devices to get in
touch, or ask the Count or Countess to do it for you. Gerent Lairdgren. It's
marked there."

Then, closing everything down, he
lifted off, heading back to the ship.