Light Bringer (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 2) (30 page)

Then he stopped, and shook his
head again.

"Okay. We're facing a very
dangerous enemy, that comes from someplace else. There was an attack, about a
month ago, against two unarmed beings. They'd infiltrated almost perfectly.
When we fought..." He didn't know what to say then, but David stepped forward,
his voice dark and brooding when he spoke.

"It was, in the end, six or
seven on two. Two
Ancients
died in that fight. One of them was probably
the greatest fighter that has ever lived. The other was my sister, Karen. She
was at least as good as Petra. From what I heard, she had... Her head ripped
off, in the first moments of the fight."

The man couldn't keep going, so
Dare did, trying to describe it as well as he could. Before he could barely
remember it, but now huge pieces of it came back. He shook as it did.

"Tor fought with High
Servant Straughan. Kevin. We were in the study of Sam Builder's Palace. It
was... Brutal. Tor was just being beaten, punches and kicks coming out of
nowhere, thousands at once. He had a healing amulet, so just turned it on, nearly
dying even with that." He looked at the others, who seemed baffled.

"I... Was just frozen at
first. Sitting on a sofa, as Karen died. Kolb was tossed across the room, and
High servant Johan moved in to fight. Against Straughan. High Servant Erid, he
wasn't a fighter, he froze too, for a bit, then tackled the man. He wasn't
really Human. Erid was knocked back... By..." He glanced at David and
shook his head. "You don't need to hear this." His voice was low and
sad.

Petra looked horrible for a bit,
but went on.

"Bill, the Squire, who
looked like a commoner, threw Karen's head at Erid so hard he was blasted
backward. Probably hard enough to kill him, if he hadn't been wearing an active
healing amulet. Go on Dare."

"Yeah. So, Bill and I
started to fight. It was... Everything happened at once. Not like it was fast,
I... It was being hit hundreds of times, at
once
. Tor worked out how to
do that too, to stand sideways to time itself. None of our magic was working
against them. No shields, no weapons. Or, they worked, but not on Bill or
Kevin. I had a shield on and it did nothing to stop, or slow, Bill. So we
fought. I was healing the whole time, but it wasn't enough. In... I don't
know... a minute or two, it seemed like hours, I went from fine, to exhausted
of all resources. I mean, I
had
to turn the healing amulet off, or it
would have killed me."

No one spoke. They stared at him,
but didn't even shift around too much.

"That's a bit out of order,
it's really hard to recall now. I've been getting bits of it back. Anyway,
Kolb, he was pulled into that sideways time thing by the Wizard Taman Baker.
Timon Baker was there, and he helped Tor kill Kevin Straughan. Kolb managed to
end Bill. I tried to help with Straughan, but he'd seen what Kolb had done, and
blocked me when I tried to copy it. That... Again, it's out of order."

He looked down, tears in his
eyes.

"Then... People died. Some
were dead, and others didn't make it. Even with amulets on, and wizards trying
to hold them to this world. We tried. It just didn't work. High Servant Johan,
he lived. Erid didn't. He wasn't even a fighter. He should have run away."

Petra looked at the other then,
and nodded.

"You understand? A room
filled with fighters, builders, and immortals, many of them far more than human
in a battle... And they died. We're working out how to fight, but these two
were just
scouts
, they said. We have to assume that the fights to come
will be more intense. So we start with basic skill. Then we need to get
everyone we can trained to do that time warping thing. You're going to be
learning that, Dareg? Can you get lessons for the rest of us?"

He nodded, not knowing if that
was even possible.

"Yes. There's more. We have
allies. They call themselves... The
Allies,
so it isn't hard to remember
or anything. Three groups of peoples from the void of space. The Mechanical
people, The Forten, and the Ysidril. The first two originally came from
here
.
About three thousand years ago. The Ysidril are from far away. Real Aliens.
They're
the best, however. Very kind and polite beings. Different and they
look
really fierce, but they aren't fighters. The Forten are a warrior people, and
the Mech people can be impressive that way. They've come to tell us about these
things. The darkness they call them, or the Adversaries. Their fleet is about
seven years away though, at the speeds they can travel. They don't have jump
craft yet." He tilted his head. "Well, they have three now, from
Queen Tiera. They just got them, yesterday."

For a long time, no one reacted,
until a blond boy, who wasn't Kent, but looked similar, if a foot taller,
spoke.

"Is that real, or... Part of
training?" Then he looked at Petra, who scowled at him, and David, who
looked away. He got the idea that calling Dareg a liar might not go well, but
Dare got it.

"It sounds insane, I know.
So, what we're going to do is go and see the Allies fleet. Now. Let me get that
arranged. I'll call it in. One bit."

He pulled his focus stone
handheld, and put in Hess manually, spelling it out. The device picked up
almost instantly.

"Dareg? Have you need of
this one?"

"I do, Hess. Can I bring a
group of people to see your fleet, without scaring anyone? Just a group of
fighting students, who need to know that this is all real. Um, these..."
He held the device out, so everyone would be visible to the alien. There were
nearly twenty of them in all.

The alien, sounding pleased,
spoke in very good Standard, loud enough for them all to hear.

"We can have a meal, or host
them for a time?"

Dareg shook his head.

"Not needed for these people.
Some of them will be working with you, but later. This trip is just to get them
used to the idea that you're all real. I just don't want anyone to be scared.
So, you're on Planet Ship Seven?"

"Yes! When will you be
arriving?"

"Ten minutes? Then we'll stay
for ten or so, and come back here. I think this is a school day." He
looked around, and Kent, who had come to stand beside him, nodded.

"That's true, um, sir?"
He sounded hopeful, and Hess laughed, getting him to wince, thinking it was
hostile, since it showed a lot more teeth than was normal for a living thing.

Hess sounded pleased however.

"Most of your kind can't
tell if a Ysidril is male or female. That is a very good guess. I am male. We
tend to be slightly smaller than the women, and have narrower faces. It's very
clear to me, but the poor Forten never get it right."

Dareg bowed a bit to the alien.

"We probably won't do
better. Is it all right to ask, or would that give offense?"

"Oh, asking is always
welcome. About anything."

He nodded then.

"Good. We'll try to hold to
the same rule with you and yours. So, we'll be there, gawk rudely for ten
minutes, then be gone. I'll make the ship glow... Um... green? Your ships do
that. Is that all right?"

"Perfect. I will arrange
with the others, so they know not to fear the arrival. It was pleasant speaking
with you, Dareg. Again, soon?"

"Yes. You can call on me at
any time." As long as he wasn't being beaten, of course.

He didn't mention that however,
having a sense that Hess would actually worry about him. The others too, even
if he didn't know them.

They said goodbye, quickly, but
politely, and Dareg set his craft up. Petra, looked around, and then waved at
David.

"Can you stay in case the
next class comes while we're gone?"

There was a simple nod.

"Got it. Pells and
stones."

Then the Instructor yelled.

"Move! Onto the craft. Don't
ask questions, this isn't a pleasure trip. Pay attention and don't speak unless
spoken to. Go!" She ran into the craft, as Dareg was still making it
large, setting it up. The others followed her, moving just as fast.

Dare went in last, at a jog, and
climbed into the pilot's seat. Looking back, he waved at the tall thin girl,
who
had
to be Wendra. She looked scared.

She still came up to him, and
didn't speak as he gestured to the seat next to him.

"All right, I'm going to
talk through this. This is the control bobble. From here we can go straight up,
which is done just by pulling it. The higher you go, the faster it happens.
Like this."

Then he walked her through the
jump, describing how
he
did it. Teaching her how to do it right, from
the start.

Ending near Planet Ship Seven,
making the side of the craft clear, which got a response from about half the
people. Then, they didn't all have shields, he realized. Taking them there
without them was against the rules of space.

Still, he let them look at the
vista, with people pointing rudely, and climbing up on the seats, while leaning
on each other to press near, or against the side.

At nine minutes and thirty
seconds, he left, taking them back to Earth rapidly, making the whole thing
happen in about five minutes, not have complicated landing protocols to follow.
As soon as he landed, he waved people off.

"There, tell everyone else.
We can't let fear rule us. We have friends and we
can
fight. Some of you
have handhelds?" That got a nod, from two people, ones that he didn't know
by name. "Good. Get in touch with me if you need me outside of practice. I
need to go and get some things now. Can I borrow... Um, Wendra? For the
day?"

Petra didn't snicker at him
wanting to take the girl away. She looked to be about sixteen and was fine enough,
even without makeup, or disguise. Her skin was tan, and clear, and her eyes a
deep blue color that was striking.

"Return her before class
tomorrow?" Petra sounded very matter of fact about the whole thing, as if
him stealing students was a sensible course for the day.

"Yes. Can she borrow a
shield?"

Petra nodded, and jogged over to
a low table picking up an amulet. On the return, working past the others who
were still getting off the craft, she passed it over.

"That's space worthy. A
Tim-two. So don't try flying from the Moon with it. You'll die."

Wendra nodded, still not
speaking. No one had yet, other than while they pointed and exclaimed. The tall
thin girl just slipped the thing over her head, and settled into the front
passenger's seat.

He went over how to work the
craft again, then went up about ten thousand feet, and came to a standstill,
just letting go of the control bobble.

"All right, trade me places.
Remember, if you let go, the whole thing will just stop. You can't hit anything
up here."

"Um... Is that all
right?"

It was a strange thing to say,
but he nodded.

"This is my craft, so
yes
.
Go ahead. It's fun."

She did it, nervously, and wasn't
perfect by any means, but did manage to fly around, and land about twenty
times, and then learned to jump, moving around the Earth, going to different
cities, based on his description. He sort of lied to her, letting the tall girl
think that everyone could do that kind of thing easily. Like it was the first
thing everyone learned, and more simple than docking even.

For that they needed to go to the
Moon however, or find a ship or space station. He didn't know anyone on one of
those however, so described Harmony, and had her imagine coming into lunar
orbit, a good way off.

She froze then and looked at him
strangely.

"Isn't that really hard to
do?"

"What? Go to Harmony? No.
Not even a little bit. Now, when we get there, the landing will have to be done
really carefully, but we'll do that by going very slow. That's expected. Just
recall, let go and you'll freeze in place."

She did it in one jump, because
that was all she'd practiced, and came in a bit closer than
he
would
have liked, but she'd found a city. It was the other one, Second City, which
got him to smile.

"Close! You'll want to come
in a bit further back, next time. Also, that's the wrong city... We want, let's
see... Back behind us? That way? We can just fly over. I can see you picking
this one however. It's pretty isn't it?" There were glowing emerald
spires, and lights all over the surface. Harmony was boring on the outside, not
having a large above ground section at all.

Turning the craft, she spoke, her
voice soft.

"It really is wonderful.
Thank you. Um... Why did you pick me?" She was, oddly, flirting with him a
bit, as if that were his intent, rather than the fact that she'd run away
rather than beat him earlier. Making herself look bad, rather than harm a
beaten opponent even more. That seemed kind to him. She wasn't a coward, after
all. She'd fought well, when they'd gone against the others together.