Light Bringer (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 2) (29 page)

Tiera grinned at him, and then
bowed toward Hess. It was a subtle thing, but the being bent awkwardly in
return.

"Ambassador Hess. Would you
be available for a visit soon? Not today, perhaps, but we can send Prince Dareg
to bring you here, or some other location? I know that everyone will want to
meet with you. All of you."

The being opened its mouth,
laughing.

"I would be most pleased to
do such. So would all here, I'm certain. I... Did not know that Captain Dareg
was a prince. Alphonse is a prince... That means... Ruler?"

That got a conversation going
about what prince, and princess meant, then King, Queen and some other titles.
Tiera spoke for a bit, but Hess seemed to be picking it all up with very little
correction being needed. It was a bit hard to tell, given the differences. One
of the mechanical people managed to slide near them, holding her own handheld
out.

Recording the interaction.

It was fast, and meant that the
being had worked out how to use the thing in very short order. Then, none of
these people seemed to be stupid, in particular. Oh, they didn't all seem to
get along perfectly, but that was, as far as he could tell, about bickering,
not open warfare.

Hess and the other Ysidril spoke
easily with Tiera, then Dareg suggested the being get in touch with King
Richard. Surprisingly the man picked up, himself, and acted like the scaled
green and purple being was expected. That was due to Alphonse having just been
in touch with him, Dare was willing to bet. Or more to the point, the device in
his hand was held out casually to pick up what was going on.

So it wasn't a shock to him in
the slightest.

"Greetings." The giant
man bowed, and smiled politely.

Hess did it back.

"I greet you as well. From
the Ysidril, and the combined fleets. Several of your people have come to us, and
it was suggested we meet?"

The King smiled a bit more
realistically then.

"We should. Can you come to
a meal here? Any time, day or night, of course. We can cater to your
schedule."

That caused demurring, and a
subtle suggestion that any time would work for them, since the Ysidril didn't
sleep. It was an interesting bit of news to Dare. Finally after about ten
minutes of people out politing the others, he cleared his throat.

"I need to get a jump ship
for Hess here, and give some lessons. Then you can visit whenever you both
like? I'll see to that as soon as we work out who wants to trust us that
much?"

As it turned out, everyone there
was fine with putting their lives in his hands.

It sped things up considerably.

Dareg felt ragged by the end of
the day. It lasted so long that by the time he could reflect on it all, it was
a whole twenty four hours later, and he was waking up in his own bed. At the
Noram Capital port, sitting up and half falling out of his bed.

With a snort he flailed wildly
and answered the strange ringing. It was his handheld, and of course, was in
his pocket, on the right hand side. Where it lived now. That was, clearly, a
major mistake. If he wanted good sleep, the thing was going to have to move
back to its little box. Except of course, that if he did
that
, then no
one would be able to reach him, if there was an emergency. Why anyone would
need him for one of those...

Well, that was easy. He had a
ship, and had volunteered to help people out, in order to keep himself on the
list of people that were needed.

So he pulled the smooth focus
stone and hoped that whoever wanted him was going to at least be interesting.
Hess came to mind, since the being had been polite and gentle, despite the way
it had looked.

Instead it was a woman's face in
his hand in the dark space, when he answered. Looking up, at the wall of the
pod, it cleared under his regard, showing him the outside world. It was still
dark out, which meant this call was coming in very early.

Looking at it, his brain slowly
waking, the thing came into focus.

"Petra? Do you need me?
Where are you? Should I collect people?" His words were a little mumbled,
Dare's lips feeling thick and his tongue trying to stick to the inside of his
mouth.

Annoyingly there was a smile.

"You need to get to Printer
for morning lessons. Fighting. I thought I'd give you a few hours head
start."

"Ah?" It was tempting
to ignore her and go back to sleep, but he really did need to practice.
Fighting was, now, a distinct possibility in his world. That he'd survived the
one real battle he'd been in was nearly a mistake. Others had carried him, as
hard as he'd tried.

If it wasn't for Kolb sacrificing
his life to save him, Dareg would have died. So, he nodded, knowing the truth.
School term or not, he had to be ready.

"I'll run first, here. That
will take about an hour?"

That got a laugh, but Petra
didn't say no.

"Come directly after that,
we're three hours ahead of you, and I see the sun trying to peek over the
horizon already. Talk to you soon."

He did brush his teeth first, and
showered, even if he were running right after, because he hadn't for nearly two
days. Then he drank some protein drink that Tam-Unit made him, and
threw
himself into the six mile run. He'd done it before, but this time he didn't
hold back, trying to push into a dead on, full sprint, for as long as he could
keep it up. It was less than the whole thing, but a lot sooner than he would
have figured possible, his lungs burning, he gasped his way back to the port,
and set his ship up. Still panting. Then he got in and sat for a few moments,
made the ship very small, with only one seat, and waited until he didn't feel
like he was going to throw up any longer.

Then he carefully lifted and flew
the exit pattern from the port facility, glowing brightly, so that anyone
coming or going would be able to see his tiny craft. Then, moving fast he went
straight up, got out of the atmosphere, and set up a jump to the eastern coast.
The big trick was that he didn't exactly know how to find Printer. That meant
he ended up over Canton, where he was from. Still in space he steered toward
the south, along the coast, lowering into the world, trying to find something
that looked like the right spot.

There was a large city that way,
which was probably close to the correct location, being about three quarters of
the way down the coast. There was even a place that had magical lights, so he
moved in on that, carefully. Then he got his handheld back out, and searched
for Petra Lairdgren's name. She was under Petra Ward, he recalled, so tabbed
that, and got a response after a few moments.

"Is the sun-like glow
you?" There was a bit of strain to the words, but Petra did indeed see
him.

"That's me. So I'm
close?"

"You are! Dim that for us?
If anyone notices it they'll be frightened. We've had air attacks here
before."

"Ah? Dimming now. Can you
still see me?" He didn't just dim the craft, but made it a soft blue color
that would, he hoped, be friendly seeming.

"Yes. Facing west you need
to move to the right about three miles. Then float inland until I tell you to
stop..."

It was a bit more complex than
that, but she talked him in, and Dareg was able to land in a square made of
focus stone, that only held two people so far. Then, it was just becoming daylight,
and for all he knew it was an off day from school.

The other person was lifting heavy
stones with handles on them. The lanky fellow stopped for a moment, and waved
at him when he got out and put his ship away.

"Dareg!" There was a
bit of bass to the the whole thing, since the man was a giant.

"David!" They'd met a
few times after all, so it made sense for him to be polite and call him by
name.

His sister, Karen had died in the
fight against Bill and Straughan. Thinking of that reminded him of blood and a
head being thrown around. In vivid, real life full color. He froze, reliving
it, but no one asked him what was happening. Petra smiled at him, in fact.

"Good, you know each other.
You've already run?"

"Six miles, faster than I
have before. It's less fun than it sounds like."

She nodded then.

"Stones and pells then. Then
we'll review what you know, and work until you can't stand any longer. Sound
good?" She was being mean, on purpose. At least, she was trying to seem
that way.

Dareg took a deep breath and
nodded.

"No time for anything else.
Let's go."

It was hard, through the first
bit, since the skin on his hands blistered and broke open, while doing both the
stones and pells. That last was just hitting a post with a heavy stick however.
An iron bar, really. They had him heal his hands with an amulet, which left his
muscles feeling better, then he got to go over everything he knew, and was shown
twenty new moves, all with regards with stick fighting, and had to fight with
both Petra and David, beating each other until he literally couldn't stand.
Possibly not have children any longer either, since he'd been blasted half a
dozen times in the groin by Petra.

Gasping, blood coming from his
lips and face, he crawled toward her, trying to hit her in the legs, which he
managed a few times, making loud slaps against her skin. The sun had come up,
and others walked into the practice court. Only three or four of them just
started working however, some stopping to watch what was going on.

Jumping back after a while, Petra
grinned.

"Work! Unless one of you
wants to jump in and work with Dareg? Warning, that's full force, and he's
stronger than he looks. Faster than any of you, too."

Oddly enough, there was a taker
on that one. A boy that wasn't all that large, either, compared to David or Petra.
Clearly noble however, being at least three or four inches taller than he was,
and had very light blond hair.

"Ma'am? I'll have a go, if
you think I can manage it?" He was very gentle sounding, and polite.

Dareg forced himself to his feet,
using the end of his stick to help him stand. As soon as Petra nodded, the boy
threw himself at Dare, unarmed.

It was almost fair, until the
tool in his hand was pried away. Then Dareg was just beaten, until he couldn't
see any longer. He didn't go down however, but his face was so swollen and
bloody that there was nothing he could do but lash out blindly.

Except that wasn't true. He might
not have been the god of building, but he had the ability to feel things, and
people, at a distance. It meant he had to still his thoughts, which was hard to
do while being hit every few seconds, but he managed well enough to gain a
rough sense of his new partner. Even what he was doing, which was very vague
but allowed him to get his right arm in the way of the fist that came in.
Slowly. That was being done on purpose, too. The other boy trying to give him
something approaching a chance.

"No." He shook his
head, his words half mush. "I can't risk that. Full speed. Faster than
that."

The request produced a sense of
surprise, but was answered with a series of moves that would have seemed fast
to him, if he hadn't been beaten by Bill that one time.

In the end he was on the ground,
unable to keep defending himself.

Petra's voice came then.

"Healing amulet. Three
minutes, Dare. Then we go again." That got a gasp from the other kids,
which seemed right to him, given that it was clear what the plan was. A full
force fight against almost everyone there.

Dareg got that, and over the
course of the next hour, so did almost everyone else. Except one girl, who ran
away, or started to. She was laughing, and Petra called her back, before she
got to the wall. She was taller than Dare, but thin.

"All right, Wendra. That
actually isn't a bad plan for you. Kolt, you're up next. I suggest you cheat.
Dareg is smaller than you are, but about three or four times stronger, and at
least twice as fast. Maybe more. He's tired, but that isn't as big of a deal
for him as it is you. He's capable of combat rage, but has been holding that in
very well. Right now he's functionally blind." She stopped suddenly,
looking puzzled, and turned toward him. He could feel her regard coming at him.
"Some kind of field reading?"

"Yes. I haven't been able to
see since that first boy."

"Kent. Kolt's brother.
Younger
brother, so no pressure on you, Kolt. The point is, there's magic in play, and
a being that isn't strictly human. How are you going to play this?"

There was a pause, then a soft,
almost kind voice spoke.

"With as many people as I
can get, and weapons?"

"Go then. Don't wait
long."

Dareg got that the rules were
about to change, and tried to think fast. It was hard, holding his mind as
still as he was, not even trying to open his eyes, since that wasn't happening
at the moment.

"Um... Countier Derring? How
about we form an alliance?" He didn't know if that was going to be
allowed, but Petra didn't countermand it, so he pushed his luck, and called out
again. "Wendra? Kent?"

Kent actually howled, and ran to
his side, holding something. It was a weapon, which was a short club, which got
handed to Dare, pressed into his hands. A lot more slowly, Wendra, the scared
girl that didn't want to fight him, moved in behind, holding something longer.

David moved in, too.

In front of them there was a gang
of eight people, but his side had more size. The battle was either very brutal,
or comical, which was a thing that he couldn't determine. In the end his side
lost, but it was close. Technically Petra called it, before he was beaten to
death.

She said as much, but he shook
his head.

"Nah. If I was that close my
shield would trigger. It would, if I ever felt threatened. I can't hold it off
that well." That was the rule after all. They did that automatically. He
just knew that he was safe there.

Petra and David both laughed. It was
strained however.

Dave cleared his throat.

"I see. We should get you
healed up again, Prince Dareg." Something small and smooth was pressed
against his arm shortly after. It caused blistering pain to run through him,
but he only had to gasp in pain twice. After about five minutes he could see
again, and smiling didn't hurt. Through all of it he hadn't even broken a bone
or lost any teeth. That was a surprise, actually.

When it was done, Petra moved
over to him, her large tan hand slapping him on the shoulder.

"You did
not
do well,
skill wise. This is what, your fifth lesson?" She looked at the people
around her, without expression. A few of them winced, hearing that.

He sucked in a lung full of air
and nodded, feeling slightly glum.

"That's about right. Fourth
really, I think. Close enough." Fifth if they were counting a fight that
should have ended in his death.

Petra looked at everyone else
there, still holding his shoulder.

"Get that? I won't put most
of the students through this, but you, here, the core of the fighting section,
need to do better. There are things afoot, that... Frankly, I don't think any
of us are ready to face. I don't know what I can tell you about it..." She
looked at him then, like he would know more.

He shook his head.

"No one has even suggested
we can't tell people everything. I think it's mainly just that... Well, there
doesn't seem to be a lot that we can do yet. Get ready, and learn, but..."
He sighed and looked at everyone else.