Light Bringer (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 2) (10 page)

The man narrowed his eyes a bit,
but was fighting a smile, instead of seeming annoyed.

"You can just call up the
King like that? I always could, but not everyone can I hear."

He nodded.

"I can try. If nothing else
I need to report in anyway, about the flood. Which I should do right after I
find Karina. If you aren't about to fall asleep and not get up again, I'm going
to do that now. I'll get with you if you shouldn't come. Bye."

"Bye. See you in a
bit."

He figured that Karina would be
away in space, on one of the Martian Circle space stations, since no one lived
on Mars yet. Instead she was about five miles distant instead, in the Palace
already. That, or she'd made her room in space look exactly like one of the big
sitting rooms in that place. Which was possible, of course. Magic was good that
way.

"Prince Dareg? I thought you
weren't taking my calls?" She seemed annoyed by that.

Instead of trying to smooth
things over, he nodded.

"The device was in a box, so
I could sleep. Which I did for most of a month. Thank goodness Tam-Unit was
just outside. I'm still not really back, but I managed to get out of bed, which
is a good sign that I'm not going to die. Are you here? I was going to see if I
could get you to come to dinner tonight. At your parents. I assume they'll let
you come, anyway? If not we can both skip out and sit in a nice dark room,
napping.
Together
though. That's romantic, right? A nice...
Nap
."

She laughed at least, then
ignored his wonderful idea of how to spend the evening.

"I'm at my parents, and yes,
I do get to come to dinner. I suppose, if you aren't avoiding me, that I could
be your partner for the meal? I'm glad to see you're doing better. We've all
been worried. Mother nearly ordered Sam to take your door down so she could get
in. The only thing that stopped him was that he'd rather she be mad at him than
you. I can't see why. You're very sweet."

He nodded, smiling. "I
know
!
I mean, hey, I got you that
present
and everything."

That got her to nod, as if she
wasn't concerned.

"I didn't know about
that?"

He smiled, and then winked at the
screen.

"Yep. I've set up a new
transportation system, that will have regular, daily, ships coming and going
from Mars. Well, to the stations there at first. Everywhere else too, so it
will make it a lot easier to get workers out there. They can come and go, but
that should help more of them feel comfortable with the whole thing, and be
willing to give it a try."

She stopped, stared at him and
then smiled brilliantly.

"Really? That
is
a
good present then! It's been an issue out here for a while now. Living on a
space station isn't horrible, but it feels different. Not really comfortable.
Letting people come and go like that might really help. Thanks. I didn't get
you anything."

He snorted.

"
Sex
. The answer is
sex, thank you. Though not just yet. I wasn't kidding when I said I wasn't
totally back, health wise. Soon, I think." There was, he hoped enough
playfulness in his tone that she wouldn't really feel pressured. They were
supposed to be getting married though, so the idea of sex wasn't off the table,
even before then.

Better, she was a noble of Noram.
That meant her response to his teasing was just to nod, seriously. As if it had
been a simple, and desirable, suggestion.

"Let's do that? We can get
away in the next few days, if you'd like? Even if you need to sleep most of the
time, we should get together. Do things. Talk."

He made a face that he hoped was
considering, rather than anything less than that. Including over eager. The
Princess was cute, in a lean and tall way.

"Would you... Like to go to
Saturn? There's a whole science trip that was planned. Day after
tomorrow."

"Oooh. Presents
and
a
trip? A chance at romantic napping too? I think I'm in. If you're serious, I
mean? I don't want to be a bother, but if you want the company?"

He felt relieved, actually. They
weren't exactly close, but at least they'd spent a few hours together.
Otherwise he wasn't going to know anyone at all on the voyage.

"That would be really great,
thanks. We'll have my uncle Tenet too, so you know, don't run off with him.
He's great looking. Tall, too. If it helps I hear I should end up being like
nine feet tall. Not a joke." Eight or nine feet, actually. Taman had said
it that way, so it would be between those he didn't doubt. Still he sighed and
shook his head. "Well, within a foot of that. Eight feet... I never even
considered that I'd break
six
. The point is, I shouldn't end up shorter
than you are, if that kind of thing matters to you?"

She shrugged.

"Well, I don't care, but my
father will be glad to hear it, I bet. You know how parents are. Always
worrying about their black sheep children." She was smart enough to not wince
too hard when she said the words, but there was a gasp from behind her, in the
distance. It sounded like Constance. She enjoyed being concerned that he was
always going to have major problems with the fact that his mother had died. It
was far from his favorite thing in the world, but he did have a father now,
himself. So far he hadn't noticed that kind of thing however.

"Right. Parents. I asked Tor
to come to dinner. Can we fit him in? Alyssa as well? If not I need to call them
right back and let them know."

Those words got Connie to move
into view, over her daughters shoulder. She looked no more than a few years
older than her child, but that was down to good use of a disguise amulet.
Apparently she'd just prevented herself from aging however, and really
had
looked that good when she was younger. Dare had seen her without anything on
her face, and the basic structure really was there.

"Tor and Alyssa are coming?
How wonderful! Yes, that would be marvelous. After everything we hardly spoke
after the return. Thank you Prince Dareg."

He screwed his face up, and
looked at her directly.

"Or, you
could
just
call me Dare? I hear we're related, in a strange fashion." Enough he
should have felt bad about Karina, but he didn't. The blood link was fine, he'd
been told, and that was all that really mattered. Even
Tor
was all right
with that part of things.

Probably because Dare was going
to end up being eight feet tall, and just plain different than Tor had been
made. That part was true for both of them, if by different means. Tor had been
a clone of his grandfather. Laurie, Tor and the others mother, was a copy of
her
own
mother. The Gray Ancient. The evil one that had nearly destroyed
the world.

Whereas
he
was a magically
created natural child of Tor's. The emphasis was on the magic portion of things
too. He was clearly Tor's child, but also different enough that it was never
going to be a problem.

Instead of seeming put off by the
idea that she had a new little brother, if a half one, the Queen smiled hugely.

"Indeed! Well, Dare, I need
to get across the room and ignore what you two are saying now. See you at
nine?"

"See you then!"

Karina laughed, hiding the sound
totally, though it showed in her eyes.

"I should go too, I suppose.
See you in a few hours?"

"All right. No promises
though, I've been just falling asleep without being able to control it. So if I
don't show up, just assume I'm sleeping in a ditch somewhere. That way I can
rest in my comfy bed for a while longer, before anyone finds me. Clever plan,
don't you think?"

"Hmmm. On that note, I'll be
going. Later."

"Later."

After that he had hours to wait
and absolutely nothing to do. It was tempting to lie down and nap for real, but
he didn't need to and if he fell asleep there was
no
way he was going to
get back up anytime soon. Just thinking about lying down made him feel sleepy,
as insane as that sounded to Dare at the moment. So the better part of valor
was probably going to be doing something for a bit.

Working at cleaning up the
outside world, while probably needed, was out for the time being, since he didn't
think he could manage it for long and it would make him dirty to pick up trash.
That would lead to more showering and while that wasn't a sin, it seemed a
shame to ruin being clean when he had something to do in a few hours.

Instead he sat in his chair,
trying not to nod off. That was what he was doing when the handheld in his side
pocked buzzed at him again. This time it managed to do it three times before he
got the smooth focus stone thing into his hand. Activating it showed a person
that he didn't know at first. Rather, the
angle
of the thing was off,
showing a view that pretty much exposed the underside of a smooth tan chin. The
light in that other room sparkled a bit at the top of it. The whole thing came
into focus when he understood the idea. The handheld was on a table or counter,
and the person was looking into a mirror.

Not that he could tell who it
was. Who
she
was. There was something about the image that clued him in,
though not a thing as easy to see as breasts or ruffled clothing. Really, it
was workman brown as far as that went.

"Dare? I got a message from
Queen Constance. You're heading over to the party later? She wanted me to make
certain you weren't going to just leave us all feeling lonely." The voice
wasn't that familiar to him, but he had heard it before, though not as strained
sounding most of the time.

Petra Ward.

Yet another aunt of his. This one
not by blood however. That made her fair game, for many things. Only one of
them was actually important to him at the time being however.

"Hi. I
should
be
there. If I can stay up long enough. Hey... I'm setting up lessons to learn
some things from Timon. I need fighting, too. The situation there has changed."
She was the one that had brought him Kolb, after all. She knew the score.

Her friend and old school
instructor. She was one now however, so, even if she didn't want to risk bothering
with him herself, which was
totally
fair, it was possible that she might
know someone that would be willing to work with him. Even if he was a bit
backwards that way, not having had tutors his whole life.

Oddly enough, poor kids weren't
really given lessons in how to defend themselves against super beings, for some
reason. An oversight, as it turned out, since they needed people that could do
that now. Millions of them. If not more.

Really, if Bill and Straughan
were any indication, then their side was simply going to lose anyway. The two
of them, mere scouts, had taken out some of the best fighters in the world,
armed with the best shields and weapons.

They'd been outnumbered three to
one, and if it hadn't been for the fact that the three best wizards humanity
had were right there at the time, then they would have won. As it stood they
nearly had anyway.

 There was no talking going on,
but the woman had stopped doing whatever it was that she'd been busy at,
probably brushing her very short hair, and smiled. There was a tinge of sadness
to it, probably about the deaths, but then a head nod.

"You have a lot of options
there. I'd say you should spread out on it a bit. Bug Tiera and Orange first,
then glue yourself to anyone willing to work with you hard enough to be worth
bothering with. Maybe Sara Debri? You know her, right? You have a ship, so that
should be doable. Are you ready to start soon? You sound a bit under the
weather still."

He just nodded, looking into her
nice brown eyes. She had makeup on, which probably meant she was coming to the
dinner later. It was that or a disguise amulet coming into play, and since the
magic shop had plenty of those, for free, he was guessing that was the case.
The woman lived on the Moon at least part of the time. Though from the way the
light came through the window behind her she was on Earth. Given how she was
dressed, probably in Printer, where she worked.

"I do know Sara. I should
get with her soon. She's... A
very
good friend of both my father and
Karina. That means girlfriend, right?"

His new aunt was probably many
things. Tough came to mind, and brave.

She was also a teacher, and
didn't shy away from what he would have thought of as rude questions. At least
not if they were alone, more or less.

"That's the case here. It
can mean a bit more,
and
less than that. In general it's a declaration
of love however. I hadn't really considered you in that mix before, but yes,
that's something for you to think about. The big problem there is that you
either have to not have much to do with her, which will be hard living out on
the Martian Circle, or..." She stopped, and looked at him, more curious
than anything else. "I think everyone just assumes that you will, at least
part of the time. With Karina? Is that what you want though? As the husband
it's up to you to pick where the houses are. Then, it's
also
up to you
to buy them, or the land for them. You probably have the resources, if you
hustle a bit, to get a few nice places going. Um..."