Goddess of the Moon (Young Ancients: Tiera) (2 page)

In
the end it had been Gerent, Tiera's adopted brother, that had assured the fleet
Admiral that the work would happen. He wasn't even a tiny fraction as good
looking at Timon was. He'd started out a midget, and had health problems. Now
he was...

Well,
not
tall
. He was going to make it to over six feet though, and a lot of
the asymmetry of his body was coming around. That thought got Tiera to freeze
in place, for real. Not for long, but she blinked at it and then smiled again.

When
had being over six foot become not tall to her? True, she was over seven
herself now, but almost her entire life she'd been less than five. Tor had
changed her, so she could grow, because, as he'd explained it, Cordes, the
Ancient King, was a moronic ass.

Actually,
she realized, he hadn't put it that way, being kinder than that most of the
time. No, Tor had explained that the man had tried to improve the world and end
war, by making a two tiered system in Noram. A slave class that would follow
orders and do what anyone tall enough told them to, and a ruling class that
would look at the small people and have an overwhelming desire to protect them.

That
last bit hadn't gone so well though, and the genetic changes caused the tall
people to look at the little ones as less than human. Like they were property,
or slaves in truth.

Common
trash.

So
her brother had made her and Timon grow, in order to give them a chance to
change things, being at the top, instead of fighting against prejudice all the
time. It made a difference in noble circles. Tiera had felt that one already.
In common ones too, which was less than fun. She didn't really want people to
grovel when they saw her, after all. It was too hard to change everyone though,
and Tor was only one man. Timon might be able to do that kind of thing, eventually,
but so far he hadn't. As far as she knew. If so, he hadn't mentioned it.

Shaking
her head a bit, and sinking back into herself, she jogged forward, looking for
the bit of shiny that had the dragon field on it. It wasn't that hard, since it
had purple glowing letters on it that said, helpfully enough, Dragon. It was in
Tor's handwriting even, though the glowing letters were magic, not ink.

It
was on a piece of metal however, which was unfortunate. Tiera made a face, but
it was Kolb who spoke, standing behind her suddenly.

"Damn.
I was hoping that he would have made it on Focus Stone, so that we could match
the soil type." That was basically just highly compressed earth after all.
After a few seconds she got the idea and nodded. Kolb kept speaking, looking at
the magical device, but not touching it. "We should destroy that. I'm not
willing to leave it, or take it with us. Can you imagine that kind of thing in
a town?"

She
nodded, because she really
could
, and without the ability to turn it off
knew that it would make a pretty effective economic weapon. A lot of people had
good shields now. It wasn't everyone by a long shot, but in most places the
things would be met by people that wouldn't be instantly killed when they got
in the way. The buildings, roads and sewers didn't have that kind of
protection, and this thing had looked ready to lay waste to all of those,
having huge and wickedly sharp looking claws, as well as being so heavy that
any hollow space in the ground would have been in danger of collapsing as it
walked over.

"It's
a good sign though. Tor didn't do half the things with this that he could have,
if he'd really wanted mayhem. It can be turned off for instance. Not easily,
but it's no harder than a shield, from the outside. That means he made it that
way on purpose, I bet." That, or she was being too hopeful and was in
denial about what her older sibling was actually doing. That was possible she
knew. She really didn't want him to be taken over by the evil Ancient King.

That
would not end well, for anyone.

Kolb
seemed to get that, and pretty wisely kept his mouth shut about all the other
possibilities. Like Tor just not having thought of that at all, since only a
tiny handful of people in the world could turn a shield off from the outside
and most of those had a range that was under ten feet, which would be death,
against this beastly creation. Or the fact that her brother might have lost it,
due to exhaustion, and not really known what he was doing at all. The only
saving grace in the whole thing was that building had been done. It was her
understanding that Cordes wasn't up on magic at all. Not that he might not
learn, being a smart person, but it was Tor that was the Master Builder. Not
the Ancient King.

Not
as far as anyone knew at least. The dragon's field felt like him, at any rate.
She could tell
that
without even trying.

Pointing
her little white weapon, she used another field, which, again, wasn't
impressive seeming at all. Except that the metal melted into the sand almost
instantly. That was all though. No fire, no heat of note even, it just became
liquid and then flared slightly, on the base level of reality, as it lost
organization, and the field dissipated.

Kolb
gave her a sidelong look, but didn't shake his head or ask about it. Tiera
grinned, the move not reaching her eyes at all.

Then
she sighed softly.

"It
has four fields. All original, though it's probably hard to tell. One turns off
any magical device that can be turned off with intent, which is what I used on
the dragon device. The explosive is mine too, which isn't that big of a deal,
except that I can mentally increase or decrease the power level. This just
makes things with fields on them melt and lose their form. It works on anything
with a magical field, but will leave living things alone. Hit a battlefield
with it and it will make the magic go away, but not harm anyone." Then she
shrugged, which wasn't a very noble thing to do at all. "The last, well,
it isn't as neat, just being a force lance, of a sort. It has a tighter
diameter than what most use, about the size of the tip of a finger. Otherwise
it's about as strong as what the military uses."

The
man started to nod, then stopped.

"Lethal?"

Now
she smiled for real, and started to walk back to the little craft, since it
hadn't been moved at all. It was just a tiny rectangle at the moment, big
enough for the two of them, one sitting in front of the other. She climbed in
the front seat without asking, since it was literally hers. Not a thing she
made, or even owned, but the one that her brother Tim had given her to use.

"If
you increase the force enough. I figured it might not hurt to have a control on
that too, since I built it into the thing anyway. It isn't as complete as Tor's
weapons, but-"

She
stopped, not knowing what to say next. The fact was, she wasn't as good as he
was and might never be. This was her first build though, and was decently
complex as far as that kind of thing went, so she decided to be proud of the
effort. All her constant meditation had really helped that way. She hadn't had
any real lessons or anything even. Not in magic.

The
Weapons Master grunted and climbed into the softly padded seat behind her. It
wasn't real, so she'd made the seats cushy and form fitting, so that their
butts wouldn't fall asleep on long flights. She could have made the thing bigger,
but crippled or not, the
Others
, the enemy, still could watch them from
space. Half of their network being up was still
half
, after all. Small
things were easier to hide, so that was what she'd used for the mission.

There
was an inhalation, from behind her and the man spoke softly.

"Mental
feedback controls, power level selection... I agree that it could use more functions,
Implosion, immolation, an air choke would be handy as well, but that's a good
starting place. I don't suppose you have an extra I could examine?"

Tiera
nodded, knowing that it would show over the back of her seat, and took off, as
soon as the side door was closed by Kolb.

"I
do. In fact I have one for everyone in our section at school, if you think
they're good enough to bother with. This was the first field test. I mean, in
combat. I
tested
it, of course, I'm not stupid after all, but it seemed to
work well for me. It does take a bit of focus to use, but not that much. Enough
that no one will accidently cause it to go off in the shower or anything."
She handed the white bit of glass like stone back, going over her shoulder.
"Notice the handy ring at the end? It's so we can put it on chain or
string and wear it while in the bath."

Because
going unarmed right now was stupid, but it was hard to hold on to things in the
shower. Soap made things like that awkward.

"Good
thinking, I'll test it as soon as we get back to Lairdgren. If it works out,
I'd like the combat group to be given a chance to work with it. We won't just
hand them out to everyone yet. I know, it seems like we should all be armed,
all the time, but the truth is, that will end up with more death than any
possible attacks on the school would, most likely."

Tiera
didn't know if she agreed really, but nodded. It wasn't her call, after all.
She was a Countess now, true, and could carry what she wanted, as long as the
King himself didn't insist otherwise, but she tried not to stand on that at the
school. It made it too hard for the Instructors to teach, if people did that
all the time.

There
were more than one or two high ranking nobles at the school after all, and you
couldn't functionally spank them. Not really. It was technically in the rules
that students could be beaten by any of the school staff, if they felt the
need. In the commons. That part was put in on purpose.
Abuse
happened in
private, but most wouldn't overstep if others were there to watch. Not too
much. Still, a person with enough power was dangerous, when it came down to it.
Armies could be marched on the place, if say, a Baron was insulted too much to
bear.

That
meant most of the nobles that misbehaved too much were simply asked to leave.
It was the tradition that they simply go and not attack anyone over it, if that
happened. As far as she knew that was what took place too. She'd seen a few
people be asked to exit that way so far, and had nearly been put out herself
once, so it was a real enough thing.

Kolb
was in charge of that though. What weapons the kids got to carry around, and
given his age, it made sense that he might be just a bit better at his job than
she was. If he said they didn't need that kind of thing, war or not, then he
was likely correct.

Still,
she wasn't parting with her own. Putting her hand back, she took it from over
the seat, and tucked it away in a ready pocket that was near the front of her
brown student uniform. She hadn't bothered to change when they'd left. Kolb had
gone in fighting leathers, but that was what he wore most days, too. They were
gray and looked hard used, but like her own outfit, were actually made of
magic. It was pretty much like the craft they were in. There, but not
really
.
Virtual particles, as Denno Brown and his people liked to say.

"Straight
back there?" Tiera knew that was the plan and didn't really need to stop
back in her County really. Not on the way back from killing people like she'd
just been doing. Not that their deaths bothered her at all.

"Right.
We both have classes in the morning after all. Say..." There was
hesitation in the word, which didn't sound like him at all. It got her to sit
up a little and focus on him. She wasn't reading his field, not on purpose, but
a little leaked out anyway. He was slightly apprehensive about bringing the
current topic up, and it had something to do with...

Baron
Havar.

That
got her to blink, and suppose she was wrong until Kolb spoke.

"Havar
is coming in tonight, with some of his new students. Orphans from Austra
mainly. Ten of them. I know that you and he have been a bit estranged of late,
but do you think you can swallow that enough to work with him, and the little
ones? This is a bit of a treat, for his top performers. I was thinking we'd
work out some little training for them, or some such?" He stopped then,
knowing why Tiera and Havar had been at odds for a bit. Sort of.

He
thought
so anyway, she realized. That he was totally wrong surprised her
however.

She
picked it up from his mind with just a bit of focus, without trying really.
After all, holding your mind clear was the first step in field reading, and
anyone with a bit of focus could learn to do it. She'd been living that way for
months, so it pretty much meant it had to happen.

There
it was though, in color and everything, coming from the man. Tiera was very
pretty, even now that she'd grown taller, since Tor had ensured that for her,
and it was natural enough for Havar to have made a pass at the girl, who was,
after all, his favorite student. The Instructors in his section weren't
supposed
to do that, of course, so naturally Tiera would have rebuffed the fellow, and
probably rudely, since she was well known to be a bit of a Doretta. A mean girl
that would turn others down for no reason.

That
got her to smirk, and roll her eyes.

"He
didn't
make a pass at me." The words came out as if they'd actually
been talking about things, and not like her sneaking a peek into his head.
"He just has that noble problem, with commoners, and I wasn't very tall
before. He thought of me as a pet. Yes, his
favorite
one, and even Tor
figured that he wanted to sleep with me and was just being good, because of his
job, but
that's
the problem, not anything else. If he'd asked for sex, I
would have just said yes. Karen would beat me otherwise. I suppose I can work
with him. It's no better for me to hate him for being what he is than for him
to not see me as a person, because of who I am, is it? Or who I was, anyway."