Light Bringer (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 2) (31 page)

"Why not you? Here, see that
green glowing wall? That's for us. They'll try to match the color of the ship
you're in. Right now
we're
a pale green. Remember you can't go too slow,
and people will only mock you for
hitting
things, not taking forever to
get in. This isn't a race and they
will
scream, if you take less than
twenty minutes."

She did go faster than that, and
had a few false starts, needed to stop and reset several times. Then he had to
walk her through how to connect with the glowing red tube that was the airlock,
when it pushed against the side of the craft. She nearly dumped all the air, by
mistake, but Dare slapped the side and saved it all. It would be a pain to have
to make more of it.

"Careful!" He smiled at
her, since she looked half panicked, which was the best thing that could
happen. "If you lose air here, or do anything to cause it, you have to
work to replace it all, yourself. Even if it takes months to do. No one is
immune to that, either. Now, we need to get along to the magic shop here and
pick some things up. This way. The ship will be safe here."

The girl nodded and moved along
with him, taking his hand when they got to the end of the tunnel. It was a bit
strange, but not unpleasant. She was probably a bit nervous, and wanted to
cling to the one person there she knew.

They walked off into Harmony, and
she gawked a bit as they did it. They were both in student brown still, and his
had splotches of darker brown, from blood, and looked messy, but he cycled his
so it would look nicer. She didn't, not having magical clothing. So that they'd
match, he kept to the same look that she had. It was fine, and they weren't the
only two in the main walkway dressed in a very similar manner.

Apparently kids on the Moon wore
brown tunics and trousers to school, too. That meant they were able to blend
in, for the most part. By the time they got to the magic shop they were being
watched, and followed, by ten or so people holding up handhelds.

"Prince Dareg! Over
here!" This came from a woman that had bright green hair, and a ring
piercing her lip. She was wearing a flowing dress however, and while plump, had
a nice enough figure under that.

Other than that, he knew nothing
about her, and nearly scowled, but realized that she was either recording the
memory of seeing him, or was sharing it with others, right then. He'd been on
camera for a week straight, so realized what it could mean.

"Hello!" He waved, and
smiled. That got
everyone
to come over, not just the one woman that had
spoken. Several of them started asking questions, in loud voices that carried
and probably annoyed the innocent passers-by.

"Is this your
girlfriend?" This came from the same curvy lady.

That was a hard question he
realized. He was holding Wendra's hand, which did look close, so he could see
that as being a valid thing to ask. If he said no, then it might insult the
girl however, saying she wasn't good enough. If he said yes, that would be
presumptive.

So he shrugged, copying Tor.

"We only met a few hours
ago. We came to see if we can get some shields and handhelds for her
classmates, on Earth. It's for a work project, which might help Harmony, so it
could pay off. I was just going to go and beg, inside. You probably don't want
to see that."

Those words got most of the
people to move closer, with a few actually barring his way, using their bodies.

Then a man, dressed in all black,
pushed in, with a floating camera rig, the new magical kind, right next to him.

"Are you cheating on The
Revered One of Mars?"

Dareg tilted his head, and worked
out what that meant. It was implying he was dating, or having sex with, someone
other than Karina. The thing there was that no one would think that, back home.
So he said that.

"What? That's an Austran
thing, right? We can each date whomever we like, of course. Or both date the
same
person. Different rules, for different places." He smiled, but didn't
really mean it. Then he spun in place pulling poor Wendra around with him.
"Now, clear the door, please?"

They all had shields, so pushing
wouldn't work, so he tried charm instead, and winked at the ones in the way.
They moved, if slowly, letting them get inside. Thankfully no one stopped them,
or followed them inside.

Behind the front counter,
helpfully enough, were two people. One looked to be a ten year old girl, who
was restocking a small display with amulets, a thing that set on the smooth
stone surface. The other one was a tall brunette woman who had on a nice black
outfit that looked like silk, and had silver buttons.

His Aunt, Patricia.

"Dare! You found a friend?
Good. I was worried for a bit there, spending all that time alone. What can I
do for you today? I... Have you come to stay? We have a spare room you two can
use." There was a singsong lit to her voice, half playing, and half
curious.

"Nothing like that. We've
come to try and liberate some magic. We're trying to start a group to,
um..." The honest thing there was that he didn't really know the answer.
So he made something up. "Really, I want to put some people in with the
incoming fleet. Openly, and part time, but kids might be less threatening than
adult fighters or ambassadors."

There was a pause, then a nod
from Patricia.

"That's probably a good plan,
if you can pull it off. I heard that Tor and Sam went in, with Sara, but not
what else happened. Do you know about that? I
hate
being kept out of the
loop."

Dare did know about that, but
tilted his head, and held his hand out.

"Do you have your handheld
on you?" That got her to nod, and make a face that was, he thought,
considering rather than annoyed.

She pulled it out from under the
counter, and slid it over.

"Need to make a call?"

"Sort of. Let me see here...
I bugged Hess once today..." This time he got in touch with Leslie, since
he was there when her name was put in.

She answered quickly, and didn't
sound tired, which was nice to know. At least part of the fleet day overlapped
with Harmony time then.

"Misdial?" She looked
out at him, her sharp face questioning. Not that he understood what the query
was.

"Leslie? I'm Dareg. We met
the other day? You might not remember me."

"Of course I do. The pushy
one!" Her voice was happy about that, so he nodded.

"That's right. I wanted to
introduce you to my aunt. Patricia Baker. She'd like an update on what's going
on there, and I figured that going to the top would be faster. Oh... I want to
put some people with the fleet there? To observe you. Openly though. Kids.
Fighters, but good people. I'm training one of them to run jump ships, so she
should be ready as soon as we can get her a craft to make the trips back and
forth. I have to beg Timon for that, I think, directly. Feel free to assign
them various tasks, and put them in harm's way as needed. Within reason. I
mean, we have to return them when their done."

"Oh? That's an idea. How
many do we get?"

He counted in his head, then
shrugged.

"Up to seven, in three
sections. I'd also like for some of the Ysidril to come here. Possibly going to
Austra? They're our people that have technology still, and that might be more
comfortable for the newcomers to take. They're horribly nosey, but other than
that not bad people."

"Hmmm. That will take some
work on my side. We
have
to fear infiltration. Can you bring them in with
food units? That and some of your lights, at least for them. We live in the
light out here, and that's iron clad. It might be superstition, but there's a
thought that being in the light protects us from the darkness. We have... Well,
legends
."

"I can do that. Lights,
food. We can bring in water, and rock for working material. You'll want mentors
for them on your side. We can do the same here, if you want to send a team? Not
that you don't already have spies, but that isn't the same thing. Learning without
worrying about being caught or killed has to be easier."

"A score. Right. Let me talk
to this aunt of yours?"

"Here. She's fairly
important, but I need to loot her magic shop, so keep her busy for at least ten
minutes?"

"Agreed. Starting...
Now?"

"Now." It was cute, in
a way, but he had a strange feeling that Leslie was dead serious about doing
her best that way.

Patricia answered the device with
a smile.

"Ha. The shop is free, and
he already
asked
for what was needed. Leslie? This is Patricia Baker.
Ancient, which is our term for long lived, not old. I'm in one of the power
structures here. We kind of... Influence the rest of it, behind the scenes? So,
I have need of data, and oddly enough, all my best sources are either sleeping
or working and can't be disturbed..."

Dareg got a bag amulet and tapped
it, then went to the largest section the store had, over by the door. Shields.
Everyone on the Moon had one. Some had four or five, in case they had to hand
them out. Dareg filled a pocket with them openly, since he had a ship, and then
loaded thirty into the bottom of the bag. They were class two shields, from
what the sign above them said. Probably in four languages, though he only
understood two of them. Standard and Austran Standard, which had some spelling
differences, but was understandable.

Then he picked through things,
and got sundries for everyone. That didn't provide any big, or even Tiera made
food units, and the nicest ones weren't available in the store. There were some
that claimed to be good enough for home use, but the sign admitted weren't
restaurant quality. The small girl scampered over and waved at them.

"Those are
fine
.
Everyone wants the ones Queen Tiera makes, but these make
lots
of stuff,
and it's good. Hundreds of meals. You can't make your own, that's all. You just
hit a sigil and get the food." Her voice was high pitched, and held a
strange accent, but was easily understandable.

"Thanks. I..." He was
about to lie, but then decided that keeping secrets wasn't his job, unless it
was mentioned to him. "I need to outfit over twenty people, maybe more, so
they can live on their own, very far away. So food, water, ways to keep warm or
cool, shields..."

Instead of telling him that
sounded stupid, the girl snagged the bag from his hand and started going
around, filling the thing with thirty of the food units first. Then hitting
clothing, which he hadn't considered in the slightest. He had magical clothing
and it was the thing he used most, out of all magics, but he hadn't thought
about it for the others.

The store didn't have ships, but
there was almost everything that one could use for making a home, including
underground house making amulets. He took a few, but not one for everyone,
since they weren't all that useful on ships, he was willing to bet. Not even
big ones. There were emergency shelters however, which the shop girl assured
him would be more than enough to keep a person alive for several days, with
both heat and light, even in space.

"They're small, but work as
well as a shield and have gravity, so you don't get sick. Magnetic fields too,
for the same thing."

All things he wouldn't have
thought of on his own. Those got loaded up, making the bag grow. It was getting
a little weighty, but no one stopped him from getting things. There was also an
array of entertainments, that were incredible. Screens on stone that showed
plays in living shape and color for instance, and others that were basically
handheld communications devices, but they only played music. Thousands of
different kinds. Musicians could add their new songs as well, so it was always
growing and changing.

He looked at Wendra, and smiled
at her.

"I'm getting one of these.
You should too, so I don't feel guilty. It's one thing to get magic for a real
job, but just for me..."

Laughing, Timon Baker moved into
the shop, and held out a hand, like he wanted to drop something.

"I thought I felt you
nearby. Here you go." The thing that hit his palm was on focus stone. The
sigil was just like the ones on the regular shields, but a different color.
Light yellow on this one. Dare held it, and closed his fingers.

Then he cleared his mind, and let
his eyes shut, so he could focus. It was a bit confusing, and did feel like a
shield, only there was something different about it. It took him a bit to
realize it was familiar to him.

"Jump shield?"

"The very one. Not bad. I
heard that you already learned to make copies and are getting lessons for
building?"

Wendra looked at him, her eyes a
little bit wide, and the shop girl looked up at Timon, clear hero worship on
her face. Actually, if she'd been even four years older, it would have been
closer to a come-hither expression.

Tim ignored that, and waited for
him to say something.