Goddess of the Moon (Young Ancients: Tiera) (47 page)

Tiera
looked at the world and spoke quietly.

"Goodbye.
Thank you." She meant it for the ones that had sacrificed their lives for
everyone else, keeping the evil Others from fleeing in time. Though it wasn't
really needed, she knew. It had been a sign that they were all too tired to go
on.

They
hadn't just sacrificed the ends of their lives, but
all
of them.
Thousands of years trying to hold things together, and fix the world. And now
it all had to be done again. It looked to her like they were doing their best
to get free of the duty. She couldn't blame them either. They'd earned the
right.

It
was a mess, and the whole thing might still be lost, if they didn't guard it
well enough. Maybe even if they did.

That
was always the chance you took though, wasn't it? Life itself meant you had to
be willing to wake up each day and fight, even knowing that you may not see
another. Most people got through it by not thinking about it, so she decided to
do that too. Why argue with what worked? Take one day at a time and keep going.
Eventually things would work out.

Or
not.

Probably
that second one, in the very end, since that was what it sort of meant. As long
as humans lived though, they had a chance. They could go on.

Kolb
just stared and didn't turn to look at anyone else. Hiding his tears, she
thought, though no one really would have blamed him. In a way, he probably
envied the others that were done now. Tiera did, and she hadn't seen even a
fraction of what the man looking out the large windows at the blue jewel of a
planet had.

She
was wrong though.

Kolb
spoke, his voice slightly soft. Gentle even.

"We'll
be back. In a hundred years no one will remember what happened this day, other
than us and some historians. In five hundred, history will be whatever we
claimed it was. That's what happened last time. We hide it all, to cover our
own shame. How we caused it all to happen. Let it. At least this time it wasn't
you that did it. It was me, and mine."

Ah.
Tiera didn't let herself nod or agree, but she saw the sense there too. It had
been Gray and Cordes, which wasn't the fault of their new world at all, but the
remnants of the old.

Ali
looked too and sounded odd, even for her.

"Are
we... Do we go back to the Moon now? We can't go back home." She gestured
at the world, but Tiera knew what she meant.

"Oh,
no. We have to stay here until..." She waved at where Tor and Timon sat in
comfortable chairs, facing each other. There were waves of intent and focus
coming from them both. She tried not to pay attention to it, just in case that
messed the incredibly intricate work up. "We can't afford to take Cordes
back with us. We'll just stay here until it's done."

No
matter what happened. It would, she knew, be a while.

She
took to sitting there, in her Captain's chair, watching the world below them
spin. They were actually moving around it, like a tiny moon, but the result was
similar. Ten times a day she could see where she came from as a spot of green,
which from her looked to be right next to the ocean. It was so far away that
she'd never been to it until she was twelve, and doing deliveries near there.
It was a different world that way, now.

The
world seemed smaller, somehow.

Days
passed, with Trice and Alphonse feeding and at times, cleaning, her brothers.
That was distasteful, but no one complained. This work had to be done the old
way. Constant and unbroken focus. After the first weeks, first Tor and then Tim
stopped taking food.

Kolb
fixed that with a rather elegant solution, by showing her how to make nutrient
drinks to keep them going. That saw them through another month. Both lost
weight, and Kolb made special needles and bags of food that went directly into
their veins.

Finally
Alphonse called his sister, Karina, to make sure she knew that things were
going all right.

"They
aren't moving, but have food and water. It's scary, but Kolb says they can live
for years like this. So... I'm not giving up on them yet."

There
was a long pause and then Karina started to tell them about what they were
missing. A few ships had been in with colonists, and they had a lot of new
workers. Thousands, as it turned out.

"The
city is growing so much already. We have an Austran group that's making shows
here, since we have an excellent tax system for their kind of work."

Tiera
actually roused from her vigil for that one.

"We
have taxes?" She hadn't ordered any, but then she'd also been gone for a
lot longer than she'd been there.

"Nope.
They love that, too. We're
also
giving them all they need to do their
work for free. Sam figured out a way of running their electrical equipment
using magic, so they're pleased, I think. Several other groups are asking to
come in and do the same thing." There was a pause, and then she chuckled,
someone in the background speaking too softly to be easily heard. "Oh,
right, Tiera will be glad to know that we have the first six full lakes going
in. Not
up
yet, but Lake Two Bends is full and working well enough for
everyone so far. Kurt has his shop up and is doing good business. Of course, we
don't charge for anything, so he's had to put in three full time shifts. I've
been running the food shop myself. I'm sure that will make mother and father
proud." She laughed at that, but her brother did too, which sounded
different.

"You
think they won't be?
They'll
probably just be glad that you aren't
working in the whore house full time. Save a job for me? Shopkeeper sounds like
more fun than ditch digger."

That
got a strange click to happen, which Tiera didn't get, but Sheri spoke then,
her voice happy.

"Oh?
I have room at the whore house, if you want?" There was giggling then,
from several other people, some of it sounding suspiciously young. As in, her
younger brothers and sisters. "Or... If you
want
, you could take
over the wine shop? It does good business. Not nearly as much as you might
think though, given that it's all free. People stocked up at first, but now
things are dropping off, since the new people have come to realize that there's
always more."

They
got to speak pleasantly for a little while, until Smythe got on, and wanted to
know what Tiera wanted done with criminals, since they'd never encoded anything
into law. The biggest problem so far was vandalism. It was really hard to
assault a person that had a shield on all the time, and why would anyone there
steal?

After
listening to the cases, it was clear that most of those people hadn't even been
trying to just damage things, but had made mistakes, not understanding how
magic worked yet. That was easy.

"Um,
we have a rule for that. The second one? If you make a mistake, fix it. If
someone does that on purpose, then... I don't know, make them fix it and...
then stand by whatever it is in their free time, apologizing to everyone they
see? That would be bad enough that
I
wouldn't do something twice."
She hated being humbled like that.

"Very
well then. I'll see to that."

Then
he walked away, as everyone else that lived in the First House came by to say
something it seemed. Even people she barely knew.

It
was nice. Very... homelike.

They
made plans to do that again, and once people realized she was mainly free, they
called her at odd times, to see what she wanted done with whatever came up.
Since her days were mainly about that, listening to people on Earth and fight
practice with Kolb for six hours a day, she kind of found it helped to keep her
sane.

Sara
left, but
did
visit occasionally. She even brought Varley up, to visit
with her daughter, which meant that Count Peterson came too. He was...

A
sight for sore eyes, if she was going to be honest. Alphonse had been so
preoccupied with Tor and Timon that he'd barely slept, or bathed, which was
getting a bit cloying, and Count Peterson was a noble, which meant it was fair
for her to approach the bearded giant and ask if he wanted to go have sex,
while his wife was busy.

"Oh?
That sounds like fun. Things have been a little tense lately, so I haven't had
a lot of time for that. I do think we have a few hours?" They did, and
ended up in a large tub, filled with very warm water. Varley came and got in
with them, which was friendlier than Tiera would have expected, given
everything.

Though
she stopped halfway in, her eyes going innocently wide.

"Oh,
unless you two need it for something else?"

Raul
shook his head, looking content. "No need, I don't think. We already took care
of all that. Now, do you have any idea how long you'll be here? No one minds,
but there have been some questions in Court. It's been put about that this
isn't a Space Fleet vessel and that things could be dropped on people."
There was a deep sound as the man sunk into the hot water and leaned back, his
eyes closed. "The problem there is that no one knows whose side the Queen
of the Moon is on."

She
wanted to sputter, but managed not to, holding on to that much grace.

"Well,
that's
a step up from 'That Mean Little Bitch' isn't it?"

Varley
nodded her face somber.

"It
is
. Of course that answer doesn't really tell us if we need to dig new
emergency shelters or not."

Or
if their enemies did, of course.

Tiera
debated saying anything at all, but realized that fairly decent sex and bathing
aside, this wasn't just a visit to see their little girl. The Count had barely
even looked in on her. Which was bad. It was important for a girl to know that
there was a strong man to watch out for her. That and fend off inappropriate
suitors. It wasn't like Alison had brothers for that yet.

Blinking
she moved back on topic.

"Well,
I... Don't need to
drop
anything, do I? This is a war craft, with full
armaments. From here, inside ten minutes, I could destroy most of the
planet." The others looked at her as if angry, or wondering if they should
be, so she smiled. "I made it to stop the Evil Ancients if they won, and
nothing else would work, so that isn't aimed at anyone else in particular. In
fact, it's the exact opposite. Because of what that means, I won't be taking
sides at all. It's too dangerous and war shouldn't move out here, if we can
help it. That's probably too late, but we can try."

Count
Peterson stroked his great beard, which was a dark brown, being wet, rather the
red color it normally was.

"So,
we can't expect military support from Harmony, but what about other things?
Magical aid, of a non-military nature? Magics? I don't know what else you have,
to be honest. This is a great location to see things from. Space Fleet won't do
that for us. The Admiral is standing on the fact that they're a multi-national
organization. I can't say I blame her, but it would help."

She
thought before speaking, not wanting to make anyone angry with her, or worse
her people. That made her wince, which got Varley to seem shocked.

"If
we gave offense..."

Waving
that away she explained. "No, I just realized that I'm thinking of the
Moon as mine. Her people as mine. There was no
vote
, just me being bossy
for a few weeks. I didn't win it, no one else wanted to do the work. Still,
reasonable magical aid might well be forthcoming, and materials. We can make
almost anything there. I...
Spying though
..." It was a brilliant
idea, she just didn't know if she was really in with King Richard or not.

Except,
it hit her then.

She
had to be. There wasn't a second choice. Well, there was, if she wanted to walk
up to him and end his life and then her own. If she was going to live, then she
couldn't work against him. Not even in secret. That kind of thing didn't stay
that way with builders around. Not forever. Two of his children were already
immortal,
plus
a grandchild. If the man wanted to piss in her face,
she'd have to stand there and hold still, due to that. She couldn't risk
angering the others.

That
was... Fine.

She
didn't love Richard, but she understood that things were hard and sometimes
there was no perfect answer. Sometimes you did the wrong thing and little girls
died for it. If she lived long enough that would happen to her too. She dreaded
the idea, but it was there, thick in her mind. For a moment she wondered if she
could take her shield off, and get to and airlock before anyone noticed?

The
only good part was that she likely could. It gave her hope, in an odd way.

"We
can work out an observation deal, I think. No combat for my people however. If
attacked, they'll have orders to leave. Just run, I mean, not leave the planet.
In exchange for that..." She didn't have anything she
personally
needed at all. Not that going home wouldn't provide.

The
other two held very still, looking at her as if she were going to ask for
something huge and costly, but she just didn't need that. Not at all.