Light Bringer (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 2) (16 page)

"Before I go to school? That
should start after the mid-winter holidays, I think?"

That got a call from down the
table, from Countess Printer.

"That's right! Do it with at
least a week or two before the end of that, for the honeymoon. Where are you
going for that?"

That was a good question. A thing
that Dareg had never considered at all. They could, of course, go anywhere in
the whole world. Or even farther away than that.

He shrugged, wanting to pick
someplace special for the trip.

"I was thinking that we'd go
to the next star over?" That wouldn't be hard to do really. He just needed
to know which one it was in the night sky, which someone would know, he was
certain.

Karina nodded, "that, or the
coast? Or both?"

He nodded, trying to be very
serious about it all.

"Both works for me. Whatever
you want, of course." For some reason that got a chuckle, which ended as
the next course was served.

The rest of the meal was a bit
like that, only they took turns being interested in other people with each
course, and while he and Karina had to go twice, it wasn't that bad. Toward the
end he had to fight to keep his eyes open, which was noticed, but no one
commented on it.

When the meal was over, the King
stood, and smiled.

"Queen Tiera, Tor, and the
Baker family please attend me in the meeting space?" They all got up to
leave, as did Karina, and Baldur. His retired Queen didn't though, staying in
place.

So did Dareg, though he waved at
Karina and Tenet.

"Seven tomorrow, in front of
my pod house? At the space port?" That got a nod from both of them, before
they all vanished through a door off to the side.

It was a bit strange, but the
rest of the bodies all stood, and moved back to the crystal room, to mingle and
chat. That meant he could take the chance to escape, he realized. He wasn't the
only one doing so, he noticed. It was a trick setting up his craft, since he
needed it to be small to begin with. He didn't know if it would work, but
before he activated it, he visualized it being about the size of an outhouse,
if more rounded and glowing like a dim sun through the clouds.

He still expected it to come into
being like it had the last time he put it away, but it actually did what he
wanted, causing a flare of pain across his brain on activation. That got him to
jump, but not so much anyone else reacted.

The entire side had to open to
let him in, but the craft itself responded like it was supposed to. Rising up, slowly,
he moved first to the back of the city wall, then moved up and to the East,
moving toward the port like he was coming from space. It was a pain doing that,
but the extra few minutes it took were worth it, if it eventually stopped
accidents.

He managed to land right behind
his home, the tiny place being sort of surrounded by other ships suddenly. The
front half of the port was filled in fact. Part of those ships would be his new
family, but there were several new ones there as well. In fleet colors. It made
the whole place seem wild and alive, the businesses down the way still being
opened to serve drinks and girls. Boys too, he guessed, not having really
checked into that.

It was hard to keep his eyes
open, so he ended up stumbling a bit as he walked back to his place. Tired or
not, he moved to the right, until he touched the blue box with Taman's face in
it.

"Night Tam-Unit!"

"Good night, Dareg. Do you
need anything to eat, or drink, before bed?"

"Not this time, thanks. I
ate at the palace. We should get one of you in there. That way there would be
people to talk to all the time." He stopped, and then smiled, not
mentioning what he was thinking about.

"I need to get into bed,
before I fall down.
So
, tired." He made it sound sleepy, and happy,
which got a giggle from his friend.

"Sleep well."

Waving he moved the thirty feet
to his pod, and took half a minute to get the door to show up. He could do it
faster, normally, but it took energy, and his had run out again.

Inside he brushed his teeth, then
fell into bed, dressed in loose flowing silk. That was a soft powder blue, for
no particular reason. The lights went out with a thought and a touch on the
wall. Then... Dareg was out. If he dreamed, nothing remained of it when he woke
the next day. He didn't have a clock, but there was one on his handheld, if he
brought up the correct sigil. In this case it was listed as Time: Noram
Capital. That told him it was four in the afternoon already, which meant he'd
been in bed for nearly sixteen hours. Changing to Austran capital time it said
that it was ten in the morning. That didn't make a lot of sense at first, since
he was supposed to get there at eight that night, his time.

Which would put him in at two in
the afternoon. That wasn't exactly morning at all.

For a moment he sat, then decided
stretching was in order, to be followed by food and a shower. He cleaned up
first, then got more food from Tam-Unit than seemed prudent, but he really did
feel fantastically starved for some reason.

Then he thought for a minute and
checked with his media friends. That just meant calling Tomas Early, since he
was, more or less, in charge of that part of things.

When the fellow picked up, he
looked a tiny bit bleak.

"Prince Dareg? I wasn't
certain we were still doing this today. I heard a rumor that Channel Seventeen
Lima had been put in as the official crew. The government did it?"

"Not that I've heard of. It
doesn't matter anyway. You and the rest are going with me. It's my ship, and
the satellites were given to me for you to use. I can't imagine this other
group has the right things to make this work. They can come if they want, if it
isn't a set up. No one asked me about it however. I was just getting in touch
to make certain you knew to get there at the right time. Two, I guess? That
seems late to me, but fine. I'm just getting up now, myself. I'll probably
sleep the whole time. Most of it. I'll get with Mike Coltress and make sure
that they know not to try and rob my friends of their trip."

That part made him feel mad,
which seemed to show on his face. Tom winced anyway.

"I don't want there to be
trouble on our account... Not that I won't show up at the port anyway. Bags
packed." There was a bit of straightening, his hair blue and purple at the
moment, with a decal or tattoo on his right cheek that looked fresh, and
sparkling. Probably a new look just for the special trip, since it was of
Saturn, or at least a stylized version of it.

"No trouble. I'm just not
certain where these new people come in. Let me check."

He said his goodbyes, and found
Mike Coltress much faster this time. He was shaking a bit, in rage, and had to
try and force himself to go back toward normal. The look seemed to carry again,
and the man actually seemed frightened. That was hidden, but not perfectly.

"Prince Dareg?"

"Coltress." It came out
almost as a hiss, "I was just on with my media man. Tomas Early? He
mentioned that the government there is trying to place spies on my ship? Or, he
was more polite than that, but isn't it enough to have twenty-odd of their
scientists coming? They want to remove my friends? Without
asking
me
first?" There was shaking in the words, which got an intake of air that
came out slowly.

"I... Had not been informed
of that. It might just be a rival crew trying to grab some of the ratings, did
they have a name?"

"Channel Seventeen
Lima?"

"Right. Let me check on
this. I'm sorry about any inconvenience. It's most likely just a rumor that
grew legs. That's a real thing here. Not physical legs, of course, but things
to spread. Can I get with you in half an hour?"

"Do it.
Please
.
Forgive my bothering you." He stared at the man, who nodded, twice.

"That's my job. I'll see
about this directly."

Dareg settled back, in his chair,
and looked at the box of things he was taking with him. Most of what he needed
was on amulets, but he wanted toothpaste, some soap, and a toothbrush. It made
a small pile of things, and decided that putting it in a cloth bag, or a
magical one that looked like that, was good enough. The rest of his things were
amulets. Magical things that didn't take up much space. He had his shield on
him, which reminded him of something.

An
annoying
thing, in that
he needed to get shields for all of the people going with him. Grimacing he
knew that it was going to force him to spend an hour going to the Moon, in
order to find that kind of thing. Instead he tried to be lazy, and called Tenet
first, in case he'd gone back to Harmony for the night.

The giant face smiled when the
hand unit was picked up.

"Dareg! What may I do for
you?"

With a sigh, it was clear the man
was not only not on the Moon, but was actually there, outside, at the port.

"I need to get shields for
the people going, but forgot until now. I was hoping you could pick some up at
the magic shop, but I guess I need to make a run."

His newest uncle shook his head,
but still smiled.

"Nope. I can run those up.
We're meeting in an hour and a half? That's a rush, but... I'll have them. See
you in a bit?" Then he tapped the screen, shutting the thing off, a vast
finger being the last thing visible.

It was a bit of a shock to his
system, being told that the complicated shields were a thing that the man could
just sit down and
make
like that. In less time than seemed normal. Not
that he knew about magic. It had the feeling of a thing that should take weeks
at the very least, but apparently not.

So he sat for a bit, not knowing
what he was really supposed to be doing at that point. People would be there at
seven, and it was about four-fifteen. That probably meant Tenet was wrong about
the time, being thrown off, coming from Harmony. For a moment he considered
telling the fellow about it, but didn't, since being a bit early wasn't going
to be a huge problem.

Time moved by at a normal enough
rate, but no one else got in touch with him. In fact, it became a bit odd after
a little over an hour and a half. Going outside he saw Tenet sitting on his
doorstep, holding a blue silk sack as he turned to look up at him.

"Here you are! I have those
shields. It didn't take that long. I think I might be getting a bit faster on
my copy work. This is just a hundred of them. I don't think we need more than
that?"

"We
shouldn't
. That's
a lot, isn't it? A hundred at once?"

There was a look that spoke of
something Dare didn't understand, but it came with a head shake.

"See, that's what I keep
trying to tell everyone, but no, Tim and Tor both do a thousand at once
anymore. Even when they don't need to. I don't even know what Taman does. She
won't tell any of us. Honestly I think that's so we won't sit around crying
about how poor the rest of us are doing. You have her blue units here, so
you've met them. That... No one else can do it. I think that Tor and Tim could,
but they haven't. I
tried
, and can't repeat it. No one else can yet. I'm
going to try the time thing soon. Tor walked us all through it last night. I
think I can get it, now. Possibly." There was a sigh, and the man stood,
to get out of the way. "Maybe. So, where is everyone?"

"Coming in an hour, like
they were supposed to? It's only six right now. I'm waiting for contact from
Mike Coltress. He's in Austra. There seems to be some kind of problem with our
media team? Someone else claiming that they're supposed to be going instead of
the hand picked team
I
put together. That can't be right though. I mean,
no one got in touch with me. Mike said he'd be back with me in half an hour...
A little over an hour ago. Austrans are late a lot though, right?" That
had
been his personal experience in life. Then he'd only dealt with a few of them,
and a lot of those had been in their government.

Tenet tilted his head slightly,
standing next to him, about six feet away.

"Not particularly. Compared
to the people from here they tend to be prompt really. Mike in particular. I
can't remember him ever being late for anything. Ever. That probably means
something is going wrong with this."

Shrugging, Dareg pulled his
handheld out, handing the shields back, so he could have his hands free to tap
things out. It was that, or set them on the stoop, which seemed rude,
considering the value. They weren't just shields, but ones made by a prince.
That
had
to up the price.

After a moment he tapped out the
right name, and had Baron Mike Coltress's data coming up. There was no answer
however. That wasn't impossible, since it happened if the device on the other
end was in use at that time. Tabbing off, after a minute, he didn't know what
to do.

When he tried getting in touch
with Tomas, the same thing happened. Finally, starting to get worried, he got
in touch with the only other person in Austra he knew well enough to bother
with that kind of thing. That had a handheld he could reach anyway.