Light Bringer (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 2) (56 page)

"Aren't we? On Earth there
are only two cultures that war with any kind of regularity. Even the Tellerand
are peaceful, if a bit hard to deal with at times. Noram is built on the idea
that the mighty control things. Austra is less warlike, but their system is
still built on the idea of a strong defense. That's why it took so long to get
them to allow ships to land at the port there. Before that they'd hit anyone
trying with rockets, or so I'd heard." It was possible that had been a
bluff, all along, but if so, that
still
showed the kind of cunning that
warriors would have used.

Tor just grunted, softly.

"True. That might help us
understand the Forten a bit better then. We shouldn't make guesses though.
Getting with people that have real information is going to be key. Later though.
I... This could be hard for you, Dareg. Digging up your mother? Maybe you
should stay here."

It was clearly meant to protect
him, but there was a real reason that he had to go. If he didn't, then he
wouldn't know for certain that his mother was in her grave, the way she should
be. Not that her being absent from there would mean she was an agent of the
darkness. There could be many reasons for a body not to be in the ground. Grave
robbers, people that loved the dead coming to steal away with her in the night...
Medical doctors taking bodies to practice their craft on...

None of those were likely
however, or felt right. She would either be in her place, in the ground, or
not. If it was the later, then, well, everything would change. For the second
or third time Dareg hoped beyond all that was that they'd find her there.

"I have to do this. If I'm
wrong, I need to know that. Sending you to do it for me would always leave me
wondering if you lied to me, either way. Not that I have anything against you,
but I can see that as a possibility, so it would affect me, even if neither of
you would ever do that." His voice was soft, as they got to the door that
would let them into an airlock. It was different than the ones on the port,
being made of stone and softer materials, rather than magic.

Which made sense. Magic faded,
eventually.

Timon seeming darkly amused shook
his head then.

"Well, that
was
my
plan. To lie to you, so you could sleep easy at night. I guess we have to do
this the hard way, then?"

Dareg watched him move to the
hatch and work the large wheel that would open it.

"Almost always." He
spoke the word slowly, but so softly he didn't know if anyone else could hear
him. Then they went back to Earth.

Back to Canton, the city of his
birth. If he'd been born. At the moment he really couldn't be certain of that
one at all.

Canton was nearly identical to
when he'd left, which had only been about six months before. The wharf was
still there, and everything still looked well enough maintained. The trip in
from space had taken twice as long as it should have, since he managed to lose
both of the wizards on the jump. He'd come in right over the city, if in space,
and they both moved in like they were in ships. From a long way off, instead of
doing it the faster way.

When they landed he had time to
survey the whole city, though he landed in the graveyard perfectly. In fact, he
managed to settle no more than ten feet from the spot his mother was buried in.
Where the grave had been put. It had been two and a half years, but he could
still see the mound of it. That was fading however. The others were still
behind him, though he'd flown back toward the Earth normally. Except of course
that it really wasn't. It had to have seemed like he was flying full speed at
the ground, or nearly so, the entire time, only pulling up a bit at the end.
His shield had taken the brunt of it, but there was a divot under him as he
stood there, waiting.

"Sorry, mother. I don't want
to disturb your rest. I have to know, though. I
have
to." It would
be all right, he decided. Even seeing her body again, rotting and moldering, or
just the bones that were left in her shroud. That would be enough. Not to prove
it was her really, but he could accept that, even if it were just an imaginary
thing.

The dirt was solid there, holding
a lot of clay in that area. It made digging harder, but sealed things in well
enough. That was the idea, or so he'd been told as a boy. By his mother, oddly
enough. He stood, for a long time, waiting and lost in thoughts about her.
Recalling what she was like. Her shining eyes and how she always kept her hair
back. How she seemed to live her life the way she wanted, rather than doing
what anyone else expected of her. In the time it took for Tor and Timon to get
there, following him, Dare relived most of the life he'd had with her. It
hadn't been perfect, not having a father, when all the other children did, but
she'd always been there for him. Day in, and out. Until finally she just
stopped moving.

That part troubled him when he
recalled it. He ignored the fear, the knowledge that he was going to die there
with her, but other things came to mind. Her body had moved, several times. At
the time he'd figured she was simply being pushed at by the rising water, but
now, seeing it again, that seemed wrong. If anything, it held the look of a
person trying to get more comfortable. Just doing so incredibly slowly.

It was, he thought, the opposite
of what he'd been seeing before from the dark beings. A similar power of time
warping however. She had been
trapped
. So had he. His body had been in a
small gap, but hers hadn't been. Only this time, from his current perspective,
he could see that the heavy part of the structure hadn't really touched her at
all. It should have, but there was a gap above her. One that looking at it now,
got smaller over the course of days.

As the building collapsed on her.
Slowly. Never touching her even as the men from the city came and used stout
pieces of wood to free them. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and turned, half
expecting it to be her, but it was Tor. He looked grim.

"We don't have to do
this."

Dare took a slow breath, and
spoke when his lungs were full.

"Yes. We do.
I
do. Shall
we?"

He was willing to do the work
himself, but Timon moved in and used an earth moving device, which was attached
to the back of both his hands. The work had been done in leather and focus
stone, and had glowing brown sigils on it. Once started it created a stream of
dirt that flew through the air, making a pile where his right hand pointed. The
whole thing moved at a snail's pace, but after a while, which felt like hours,
a dirty brown bit of material showed.

Dare almost wept with relief as
it was uncovered. Right until he realized that it wasn't a body wrapped within.
Tim kept going, uncovering it. Showing it to be a log, wrapped up in cloth. One
that would displace
just
about the correct amount of dirt. It was pine,
but well preserved by the lack of oxygen or things to eat it.

No one spoke for a long while.
When someone finally did, it was Tim, and his voice was flat. Emotionless.

 "Well. That's unexpected.
I'm not certain where we go from here. I just don't know."

Dareg let himself breathe for a
while, as the others looked at him, filled with obvious concern.

"I do." He really did,
too. "We go and try to set things right with the Forten. Then we get Tam-Comps
for every ship, every city, hamlet and hidden island. We'll search every person
in known space and find who the doubles are. After that... Well, we find them,
and kill them all, one by one, without warning." It had worked once, and
might again.

"We can start with my
mother."

That had to sound cold, but it
was needed. She'd abandoned him after all. Tricked the world into thinking she
was dead, and left him to fend for himself. That meant she wasn't who he'd
thought she was. She never had been, most likely. His entire life had been a
lie.

They were going to need help
however, and even if the Forten wouldn't work with a killer like him, they
clearly had people in their midst that didn't belong. All the groups might,
including the Ysidril. That was the first thing he really needed to do. The
second
,
actually, he realized.

The first thing was to finish
crying. He hadn't realized that he had been, but the tears were running off his
face. Making slow, damp tracks, as he stood over the empty grave.

He nearly asked the men with him
how he was supposed to go on, knowing what he did now. That his mother hadn't
even been
human
. Then he didn't. Tor patted him on the shoulder, and
Timon looked at the log in the hole, either in shock or collecting information
that might help them later.

Either way, the answer to his
unasked question was clear. What he had to do then, was keep going. Nothing in
his world had changed after all. Except that now he knew about it. It made all
the difference, but also meant nothing at all.

Not that counted.

"I need to get back now.
I... Really, I need to get to my fighting lessons. I'm going to be late."

No one told him not to go, or
that it was too dangerous, with his new speed. It wasn't really. Not even for
the others. He could control himself well enough to move slowly for them. If
not, he'd learn.

Then without saying anything
else, he lifted up, and flew south.

He had things to do, and not much
time to do it in.

That much was clear.

So at least one thing was.

To
find out more about what's going on in the fast paced world of P.S. Power
please go to" pspowerbooks.com (Also, come joint the forum! It will be
fun.)

Other
books by P.S. Power that you might like
.

(All
books are in the suggested reading order by series.)

Young Ancients: (The First Cycle)

The Builder (Tor's first book)

Knight Esquire (Tor)

Knight of the Realm (Tor)

Ambassador (Tor)

Counselor (Tor)

Slave Line (Tor)

The Dark Half of the Sun (This is the first book with Timon as a
main character)

A Simple Darkness (This one has Tiera)

Ancient Kings  (Tor)

Lord of the Sky (Timon)

The Silence Within  (Tiera)

Kingdom of Stars  (Timon)

Goddess of the Moon (Tiera)

Envoy to Earth  (Gerent)

 Strange Land (Sara)

Young Ancients (The Second Cycle)

Lineage (Dareg Canton)

Light Bringer (Dareg Canton)

The Infected:
(The super-hero stories)

 (The Beginning Arc)

Proxy (Brian)

Gabriel (Denis)

Cast Iron (Marcia)

Proxy: Reunions (Brian)

Cellophane (Penny)

Goblin (Tobin)

Reunions (Brian)

 Ghost Girl (Becky and Scott)

Impulse: A Whole New Day (Bridgette)

War Day (Brian)

Dead End:
(Zombies, people with powers and the end of the world. Everything
Jake!)

A Very Good Man

A Very Good Neighbor

A Very Good Thing

A Very Dark Place

Dead End: Stories from the End of the World the Definitive
Collection (This has all of the above books, plus a load of short stories from
other perspectives.)

Gwen Farris:
 (The story of a woman who wakes up
in a magical steampunk world. Into a better life than she ever dreamed of.
Which is still pretty darned dark and gritty.)

Abominations

Monsters

Strangers and Lies

Tremble in the Dark

Friends and Enemies

Keeley Thomson:
 (The Greater Demon Universe, in
suggested reading order. There are several sub series, marked in bold below)

Demon Girl

Keelzebub

Mistress of Souls

Demon Trap

Demon Bait

Related works
: 

Christmas of the Vampire

Friendzoned (Becky Hoader. This book takes place in the Greater
Demon Universe, but isn't supernatural, and is instead a coming of age novel.
You'll recognize a lot of other names however! Also there are some things that
will be very different once you know what's going on...)

Other Places:
(Zack Hartley)

Shortcuts

Road Blocks

Detours

Alternate Places:
(Zack Hartley, but a totally
different one! These were the first three books written by P.S. Power. Then
everything changed.)

Mr. Hartley

Between

On The Line (Kaitlyn's first book.)

Eve Benson:
(Everything Eve!)

Finally Dead

 Dead and Everything

Dead Certain

Tyler G.:
(All Tyler!)

Living Proof

The Living and The Dead

Among the Living

The Lament:
(This is a stand alone, complete
series.)

Without Rhythm

Off Center

Missing Elements

The Greasepaint Chronicles:
(Mystery series. It's
about a clown that solves crimes. The whole thing is rather dark.)

A Fear of Clowns

Stand Alone Novels:

Josh and Amy: Something to Think About (Soppy author insertion
love story, clearly, as written by a person that clearly has issues with their
past, and a strong fantasy life.)

An Unrelenting Terror (The worst book that P.S. Power ever wrote.
An experimental horror novel. I'd skip it, or at least read it in a dark room,
all in one go.)

Gratitude: A Thanksgiving Tale  (Because Thanksgiving has no other
good stories. Now it has one!)

Cheat (A science-fiction novel. Strong MGTOW over tones.) (MGTOW-
Man Going Their Own Way.)

Countess of Desire (Young Ancients Romantic Moments) (Um, this one
is Young Ancients porn. So if you don't like that kind of thing, just give this
one a pass. On the other hand if you
do
like that kind of thing...)

Ijime: The Bullies (As Dan Abe) (Literary novel with an
anti-bullying theme. Very different.)