Goddess of the Moon (Young Ancients: Tiera) (27 page)

"Fleet
Admiral Orange here. Go."

"Tiera
Baker on this end. Can I get transport to the Moon in a week or so? We don't
have a specific plan, but I hear it takes a while to actually get there? Karen
Derring and I are going to go and see about getting those lazy High Servants in
shape, and deliver my little brother there, to be their builder. Make magic for
them, not be responsible for the structures." It was a lot to ask, but the
woman didn't even hesitate at all.

"It's
about time. Every report I get about those lazy pieces of shit makes my teeth
hurt. The next ship going is... " There was a rustling of papers and a
long pause. So long that Tiera was about to ask if her Aunt had gotten bored
and walked away or something. Then she spoke, her voice firm. "Winters
Kiss. We got your new food machines too, Hellion. They're going over pretty
well, we have to hide from most of the crews what we're feeding into them, but
other than that..."

Alphonse
cleared his throat. "We'll bring sand? A nice big load of it?"

Alice
Orange might not trust very good looking men, but that effect went down a lot
if the man in question was closer to average, it seemed. "Prince Alphonse?
Are you going along to see to this then? Good. Maybe we won't have to kill them
all, in that case. I think they believe that no one that cares can touch them
there. Slapping them with a giant Prince will disabuse them of that. Get with
me on the numbers going. We may have to reconfigure the ship."

Then
she cut the line, because that's what she did. She was finished, so the
conversation was. Tiera snorted at the device, and then hit the sigil for her
mother and father in Two Bends.

Unlike
with Alice, who kept her device on her all the time, her parents took a long
time to pick up. When it happened, it was actually
Tess
, one of her
little sisters, that answered.

"Tessalyn
Baker, how may I help you today, sir or ma'am?"

For
half a second Tiera was silent, but not beyond what was polite. "Hello
Tess. This is Tiera. I need to talk to father and mother? Terry too?"

There
was a pause, and the little girl huffed a bit. "Right, but not Tenet or
me? Or even Tara?"

It
was a bit bratty, for one of her sisters, but she got it. The girl was being
left out of a lot and knew it, if not what. Tiera made a face at Sam, since he
wasn't related to anyone there at all, but still would have to put up with them
for a long while.

"Actually,
that would work as well, if you're not busy? I just assumed you'd all be
working right now." Because
that's
what children did, but it
sounded right.

Her
little sister wasn't fooled, but she was mollified enough to run the device to
her father, and managed to get her ma around in a few minutes. There was a lot
of chatter about what was going on, but not into the device yet at all.

Finally
Douglas spoke to her, sounding younger already. Still like him, but his voice
was less rough.

"Tiera?
Is something wrong?"

She
could have told the truth, but lying sounded better, at the moment.

"Only
a bit. The High Servants on the Moon are being a bit lazy, so Karen Derring and
I are going up with Terry to set them straight. It's a big deal, but not
dangerous. Some others are going too, and the Queen suggested that we take the
whole family along, to help Terry get settled. After all, who else gets trips
to the Moon?"

The
woman was right there and by law could have had her put to death for saying
that, but she just leaned in and spoke, her voice mellow and slightly cheery.

"Indeed
Douglas, I'm sending Karina and Alphonse along even. It should be a merry
outing. I was hoping that you and Laurie would keep an eye on everyone? I
wanted to go along myself, but unfortunately I can't right now. Matters and
such. If you can't have a treat yourself, you might as well share with
friends."

There
was dead silence, and then oddly, her father, who was a humble baker, at least
in her mind, chuckled.

"Connie!
So good to hear from you. We should get together and chat soon. Perhaps before
we leave?" He was smart enough to know that the Queen didn't
really
get in touch just to suggest pleasure trips for little kids, it seemed. He
also, apparently, called the Queen of the realm, Connie. That was...
Interesting.

The
Queen clapped her hands once.

"Oh!
That would be wonderful. You and your family can come to dinner? In say, three
days? We're having a little ceremony here. Really it's Tiera's. Your son
Terrance will be needed for certain, but if everyone wishes to come, I know
that Richard and I would love to host you all. You can stay with us for the
evening?"

That...
Really, if Tiera didn't know better, she would have thought that Connie was
hitting on him and trying to arrange an overnight... Tiera blocked the thought
out. It took a bit of chanting in her head, but luckily her mother came in soon
after and the whole thing was repeated. She really expected there to be
arguments, and people saying they couldn't go at all, but her mother seemed
instantly in love with the idea.

Even
if the moon did sound a bit primitive yet.

The
next few hours was all about setting up who would be going, and it was both a
large group of people, and a strange one. Most of the Ancients that Timon had
made
and
her family was going, which made sense, because they'd need to
be shown that it could be done, if they were going to be moving there.

Smythe
of Westend tried to beg off, which Tiera figured was about him being too busy
with the latest war effort, but the King shook his head.

"No.
I know this is embarrassing to you, what with the Reid Smythe issue, but it
must be done. We need a presence there that will tell our people that they are
not freed of their vows, merely based on distance."

The
old man bowed, and then stood up very straight.

"Yes,
Sire." His face went sly then. "Should I... see to an accident for
the man?"

The
King frowned and looked at the rest of the room closely.

"Acting
Magics Counselor Builder, what say you, should the criminal Reid Smythe be
executed?"

Tiera
had forgotten about that part of things. Sam, boy that he still was, had a
position of real power. Even if she hadn't thought of it as real at all. In a
way he was one of the most powerful people in Noram, wasn't he?

"What
did he do?"

Karen
cleared her throat. "He's the High Servant that was found to be in
dereliction of his duty. There was a trial and he was sentenced to three years
of forced labor, on the Moon."

Listening
closely, the builder closed his eyes for a while, and then opened them and
looked at Smythe directly.

"A
prisoner sentenced to a punishment should not be killed, or abused, if that was
not the sentence. If he has committed no new crime, then I have to suggest he
not be killed. However, after that, if the others are derelict of duty, it
might serve well enough for some of them to, um, have an accident or two?"
He didn't flinch away, and the large Military Councilor seemed upset, but
didn't call him on it.

Instead,
after a bit he bowed. Not low at all, and seated, but enough to announce the
boy as his equal.

"Agreed.
I'm sure my cousin Ethyl will be pleased if her son lives through this, though
I don't know why. He's a waste of resources. Ever since he was a child, in
fact."

The
rest of the group going took more time to work out, since it had to be made a
bit smaller, which was hard. The whole fighting section wasn't going to be
allowed to visit, but half of them were. Mainly the older students. Remy Two
was going to stay, which seemed strange at first, but Tiera didn't bother
working it through. Someone had to teach the others after all.

Maris
was going, and Doris too, along with her own top students. No one had any real
reason for that to happen that made sense however. Until Sam waved his right
hand a bit.

"Are
we going to teach the High Servants to meditate? Perhaps that will aid them, in
their work?" It was enough for Karen to glom on to it. They could learn
mental discipline, which might help them with their sense of duty.

Finally,
at the end of the whole thing, Count Lairdgren pulled a paper for her to sign,
and then did the same himself on another one. The only difference there was
that the Count took his along with them, and waved for the people with him to
stand.

"We
should head back to the school now. You have classes in the morning, after all.
A pleasure trip of this nature won't free you from that." He sounded
serious and didn't smile at all. On the good side he did land in the center of
the school commons and shewed them all away. Even her, which Tiera hadn't
counted on for some reason. It was almost like she wasn't special or something.

That
thought got her to smile, right up until Kolb found her, at the door of her own
room. Now he, clearly, wanted to talk to her, alone. Which he did rudely,
taking her arm by force, and yelling at her.

"I've
a mind to beat you naked in the commons! Skipping classes for days on end like
that is not allowed. If you don't have a good reason, you're out of the
section!" Then, gently, considering his tone, he pushed her into the room
and reached back to grab Karen, pulling her in too.

"Sorry
about that. I actually know why you haven't been around. Are you up to a bit of
recon tonight? We've located something going on in Afrak, near the Northern
tip, but heavy clouds have come in so the new satellites are useless. It will
be a tight timeline, but I'd love to get eyes on the thing. It's huge, whatever
it is. It suddenly showed up, this morning. That speaks of magic, to me. What
kind is a thing that we need to figure out."

There
was half a moment where Tiera felt like telling the man to go do it himself,
alone. Not out of anger, since she was too deep for that to really happen. Not
even out of tiredness. It was the beating that did it. He
hadn't
been
wrong in what he'd told everyone. They weren't ready to face their enemies. Not
in person. Not one to one.

Calling
her half trained was a fiction even. She was hard working, or liked to think
so, but she wasn't enough to stop a person that had thousands of years of
practice and time to get ready. Even the idea that Timon's plague would be more
than an inconvenience to them seemed off suddenly. Like a joke.

Or
a trick.

That
idea stuck with her for a long moment and she didn't speak at all. She didn't
know what was wrong with the plan, but something
truly
was. Tiera
swallowed her words and then looked at the Ancient in front of her. Possibly
one of the best warriors that had ever lived. Why did he need a little girl to
go with him? Or Karen? Sure, she was a better fighter than most of the kids at
the school,
and
a Knight, but what was she going to do against a
thousand evil and insane clones?

It
just didn't all fit.

She
held her tongue however and finally nodded.

"We
need Mags then, I think. She can pilot us in."

Kolb
looked at her strangely for a bit, "Mags Helms? From the afternoon
section? Why would she be able to do it? Does she even have a Fast Craft? I was
thinking we could take yours."

That
was telling too. Tiera tried to work it all out but couldn't do it. Not really.
It was so clear that she wasn't needed at all that it was almost a sound in the
air. A low rumbling, like thunder. For a moment she thought it was the blood in
her head, or some kind of attack, but it proved to actually just be thunder,
since a small storm had come in.

She
looked at the man and shook her head.

"Mags
has a Space Ship. Don't let that get around." She watched Kolb, but he
wasn't surprised by that news at all. In fact, he didn't respond much at all.
It was off. Not totally, but enough for her to be suspicious. It didn't really
take a lot anymore to cause that to happen, did it?

Taking
a chance, Tiera reached out, found his mind and realized what was wrong. He
wasn't her
Instructor
at all. It was Cordes. That explained the
differences nicely enough, didn't it? She really wanted to roll her eyes then,
but kept her face straight, and moved to pack her gear.

"Kolb,
can you go look for her? I need a second to pack up." She got out her
little weapons first, and started to put a few in her pockets, while the
Weapons Master regarded her coolly. At the door, he turned, smiling gently, but
with a bit of a lopsidedness to it. It was what Mitchell had always done too.

He
cleared his throat, and then glanced at Karen pretty hard.

"I'll
be right back." When he turned Tiera pulled her weapon and slapped her
shield on, then shot him in the back with an explosive burst that was just
large enough to take his head off. It hit the base of his spine perfectly too.

She
felt a little sick, having just killed her friend like that, and Karen was
horrified, but Tiera waved for a bit and managed not to hurl.