Light Bringer (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 2) (54 page)

Timon was intelligent, and
watched him carefully, his mind going so still that there seemed to be nothing
to read from it, even though he was still trying too.

"To their laws, we were both
guilty of murder. The President was
trying
to let me run away, even if
it broke their laws, since he knows the truth, but their legal system couldn't
do that. Lynd was just... Stuck. So I kidnapped him, and forced him to come
with me. It's my fault and responsibility. I tried to rework the shield, so we
could both jump, and it kind of worked, but I realized that I wasn't going to
be able to land on Earth from orbit. So I came here. Thankfully Kimi saw us and
let us in almost instantly. We would have died otherwise." He bowed, still
sitting in her direction. She was breathing hard still, and sweating a bit.
Mainly with worry for them still.

Timon nodded.

"I see. That sounds hard.
Good work. I'll need to talk to some people, but first we should get those
things off of you both. I think it might be best if you stayed here for the
time being? You aren't a prisoner, Lynd, but it would be easier for me that
way. Is that all right with you?"

The other man stared at Timon,
then snorted just a little.

"I have nowhere else to go.
Do you think the law here will... Send me back? It would mean imprisonment and
a work crew. I broke the law, so I can't blame them. It had to be done. The boy
here, he isn't responsible for it."

Dareg started to shake his head,
but Timon, not looking very old himself did the same.

"He
kidnapped
you.
Taking you from custody, of his own free will, knowing that it was illegal
there. That means we'll have to have a hearing about it. Until then... I
imagine you can't leave. It will give us time to figure that out. Of course, as
a
Prince
of Harmony I have to assume that the hearing won't go against
him too easily. Nepotism is a tradition, even here. Let me..." He moved
behind the muscular silver haired man, and after a few moments did something
that sliced through the links of the chain, freeing the arms to move in front
of him. Then very carefully Timon made two cuts on each cuff, pointing at them
with his right index finger. The look and sense of focus was fierce from the
man, but it worked.

Then he did the same for Dare,
freeing him. A bit of the cuff on the left hand side was part of his flesh, so
he and Lynd pulled it off, tearing the skin open again. It hurt, horribly, but
he knew it would heal, which helped a lot in getting it done.

Then waving to them to sit and
wait, the man left.

Kimi was in the center chair, her
face flat and expressionless. It wasn't until she spoke that Dareg really
understood what was going on in her head.

"You... Killed that beast?
Like the ones that killed my Erid?"

He nodded, slowly. Then he turned
to look at her, sinking in right beside her.

"We did. We didn't want to,
but I didn't know what else to do. I was afraid that if we fought openly,
trying to take him prisoner, we all would have died. What we, what Lynd and I
did, was evil, and bad, but..." Dare didn't know what else to say.

He was happy that they'd lived.
That they'd
won
. At the same time he felt horrible that Lynd had to
leave his home and life behind for it. Dareg didn't know what else he could
have done. Perhaps he could have managed it alone, killing the other man
without help. It would have worked, he thought, as long as he had the right
weapons for it. At the time he hadn't known that for certain.

So he'd let the other man come
along, in case he needed help. It was probably cowardice that had let him do
that. Fear of failing to save the others. Doing that had, in the end, cost the
other man his life in a very real fashion. At least if he couldn't fix the
situation now.

Not that it was the real issue.

Looking at the others, he
shrugged, trying to stay calm inside.

"I... Merriland the
Forten... It's kind of clear that she's the real thing. That means my mother
wasn't. That she was... One of the Adversaries. Only, I'm Tor's son. We've
tested that in a lot of ways, and that's
real
. I don't know what this
means for me. They... The people here... They might have to kill me for that. I
don't know. If so..." He looked over at Lynd, who was watching him very
carefully suddenly, and frowned a bit. "If so, I'll tell the Forten that I
made you do it, somehow. That I used magic to force you to do my will. I
actually have the ability to do that. In fact I have to use special magic not
to. I can back that up if I have to. Then kidnapped you, using my command
abilities. Will that get you out of things?"

The man stopped for a second and
teared up, his eyes filling, but nothing coming down his face.

"Probably not. Our laws
aren't built for magic like that. It's really the problem we had with you
there. No one knows what you can do. Forten are always held responsible for
their own actions however. No matter
why
a thing was done. The honest
truth is that I probably won't be able to ever go home. I could tell your
people that I forced you to help me escape? Would that help you? As the adult
it would have been my responsibility to protect you anyway. Plus, you saved all
those people..."

As they spoke the airlock wall
opened smoothly, and several people moved inside at once, with Timon. One of
them was Gerent, with the other two being Queen Tiera and Smythe. That last one
was a surprise, since he would have figured the man would have been on the
ground, in Noram. He was some kind of government official for King Richard.

Tiera moved over directly, and
gave him a solid hug.

"Are you all right? This
news isn't good. Remember, you're still
you
. You're still human,
and
my nephew. We
know
that, for certain. The rest of this is... Different,
but doesn't reflect on you at all. Hold to that. This won't change anything for
you. Understood?"

He nodded, a bit numbly, since
that was both nice to hear, and probably not true. His mother not being what
he'd thought she was the entire time he'd known her made a vast difference.
Plus, she might still be alive. That, or in her grave, like she was supposed to
be. If that was the case, he didn't know what to think. It was possible, he
guessed that the women just looked alike, without there being any real cross
over at all. That could happen. There were enough differences that it might
have simply been his imagination.

Only he knew that wasn't the
case. Sighing, he shook his head.

"I need to know.
I'm..." He stood up, which got Smythe to step toward him. Instead of
pushing him down, or restraining him the man, who was older than the twenty or
so he looked, helped to pull him up.

"We'll go with you. Timon
and I. It's dark work, having to exhume a grave, but I can see the need for it.
Can you get us to the right spot?"

He nodded, since the space,
unmarked as it was, had been burned into his memory for all time. Tiera put her
hand out then, and shook her head.

"We... Need to handle this
more officially than that. Richard will need to be involved in this. Tor, too.
Especially him. If we don't do this right, we'll end up with people being hurt
or dying. First, we need to get with the Forten and let them know about how you
stole their man from them, and that we need to hold him here for the time
being. Then we'll change his genetic pattern, to hide him. That should keep you
safe, forever. You can do that, Tim?" It wasn't really a question.

Dare could feel that, since the
man knew it was possible. It was a request, that his sister was making an
effort not to simply order.

"I can. Dare, too. I have
some things planned there anyway. The ones we discussed Dare? Come on, both of
you. I'll work better at my place. You can both stay with me for a few hours.
We'll get the rest of this together for you Dareg. Tiera, can you get with
everyone for this?"

They moved out then, but he
stopped, bowing to Kimi first. He didn't know what to say, so after they both
stood up, he hugged her, even if it wasn't appropriate.

"If you ever need anything,
let me know." It was a dangerous thing to say, since she could ask for
anything
,
and he was honor bound to try and get it for her, no matter what it was, but
she just hugged him back, very briefly.

"Thank you. I'll be
fine." Her words sounded a little bit lost, but strong enough.

Gerent moved in and patted her
shoulder a bit, then Timon led Lynd and Dareg away. They walked to his place,
which was empty when they got in. Dareg felt exhausted, but all he had to do
was sit and wait, while Timon altered him. It was work, for the other man, but
after five hours or so, he stepped back, grinning.

Then he locked eyes with Lynd.

"So, hiding you. I don't
suppose you'd mind being a woman? Taller, too. With a different color... This
will change your DNA. You know what I mean by that?" It was a good
question, but the man just snorted at them.

"Of course I do. We all do.
If you can change that... Well, let's do it. I never wanted to be a woman, but
a warrior will do what they have to in order to survive, and this seems my best
path. Try not to make me too weak? In case I need to fight." That part
sounded serious.

Timon just agreed.

"Not a problem. I can make you
stronger in fact. I just did that with Dare here. Let me see..." He
started to work, then stopped and looked over at his nephew.

"Healing amulet? It will
itch. The end result won't be that different looking, but almost everything
about you will change. Well, you'll see. The sooner you heal the faster the
changes will take place. Go ahead." Then he moved slightly, his focus
sinking back down.

The man wasn't totally incorrect
however. After a few seconds he did start to itch a bit. Then it became
horrible. After that he felt both like he was on fire and freezing at the same
time, which became pure agony. It lasted for a long time. Longer than he would
have guessed it might take, to be honest. He was still undergoing things,
breathing hard, like he was sprinting full out, when Lynd was handed an amulet
for his own change.

That one didn't seem to hurt as
much. The man got taller over the course of an hour, and the form melted and
reshaped, like the wax of a candle. Soon enough he was clearly not a man any
longer, and about the time the pain receded for Dareg, a rather attractive blue
haired woman sat there. She was thin, and probably about six-six, with curves
and a mid-sized bust line that simply hadn't been there before.

"Ah, well, this is
different, isn't it?" The voice certainly was, since it had a nice, but
very feminine tone to it. Timon had just been sitting, watching them both, and
waiting.

"We should call you
something new. Linda? I can change you back, or just shift the gender, when you
want. You'll need to be careful if you have sex however, since you
can
get pregnant. Your strength and speed are probably about fifty percent better
than before. You were pretty high end that way. You'll need to eat. Both of
you." The wizard, and there was no doubt that was what he was at that
moment, moved to a desk on the other side of the room, and got an amulet, which
he tossed toward the new lady.

Dareg watched it float across the
space. It took him what felt like a few moments to realize that it wasn't
actually doing that by magic. His perception of it was just different. He heard
the words normally however, which was interesting. Everything just looked a lot
slower. When he moved to the desk, next to Timon, it felt like he was doing it
normally, but picking up a writing stylus, and dropping it, the thing moved
like it was a tomato in oil. After watching it fall for a long time, as it got
near the ground, he reached out and snagged it with two fingers.

"I see. Interesting."

Tim smiled at him, very slowly,
and shook his head.

"That's
way
too fast
to understand. Speak more slowly." That part was very strange, but he did
it, even if Timon speaking felt normal to him. Which made his brain hurt to
watch, since his lips were both tracking with the sound, and seeming to take a
long time to move at all, but it
sounded
right, anyway.

"Iiiiiii ssseeee."
That
part was going to get old, he decided. He got the idea however. It wasn't true
time distortion, but a strange kind of physical speed that would allow him a
slightly better chance at survival. There was a real cost to it however, since being
a human, he needed to interact with everyone else too, and that had to be done
in a way that would make sense to them.

Timon shook his head again.

"I nearly got that. Slower.
I
think
that will work for you."

They had to practice for about
half an hour, before he could carry on a real conversation. The thing there was
that the real time that had taken place was more like two minutes. At the same
time he felt like leaving there and going running. Full speed. His body wanted
to jitter and move constantly, though he forced himself to stay still. Not that
it worked totally.