Light Bringer (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 2) (7 page)

Taman smiled at him then.

"Right. You
have
to
be going into a heavy growth period. From your genetics my guess is that you'll
end up being eight or nine feet tall, so you're going to be hungry for a few
years. Ten or so."

That was news to him.

People had suggested that he
might end up being on the large side, since Tor had really disliked being
little, back when he had been. Since it had been his inner mind that set the
parameters, that wasn't too bad, Dare guessed. A few had suggested it could be
something insane, like fifteen feet or so.

"Ah? That's big. It will probably
less than that, after this little set back. Not that it will matter that much."

Everyone seemed to pick up on
what he meant, since functionally he'd been starving for a while, no matter how
much he ate. There was no buffer of fat on his frame, though he hadn't lost all
of the muscle he had yet. Some, since he'd mainly been sleeping for a long
time, but less than he would have thought.

Marisa came back, her face still
fixed into her single, if happy, expression.

"Dessert? I've been working
with a lovely sponge cake." She sounded nearly hopeful, but he had to
shake his head.

"After that? Not this time!
That was good, by the way. Different. Thank you." He felt like there
should be more than that, since she'd done all the real work. There was a
chorus of thanks from around the table then, and the woman beamed at him, and
then the others, as if it were a gift to merely be acknowledged for her
efforts.

"Come again soon? Robert
was..." She stopped and took a breath, as if stealing her nerves.
"Would it be possible for him to visit his home? Austra? I know that his
accent might throw you off, but he's from there." She glanced at the man
that was near the front then.

Dare nodded, and stood up.

"That's my signal then,
isn't it? I'm going to set up regular trips for everyone, with space fleet?
Right... Now, actually. Then I'll see if King Richard wants to meet with us?
Tenet, regardless, we'll need to have you get your schedule clear for the
trip." He sounded tired to his own ears, but everyone nodded, and stood
too, so that they could hug him. It was a bit different, since Marisa did it
too, even though they weren't related.

So he patted her back a few
times, politely, and looked at her when he stood back.

"You should come and visit
soon? After the Saturn trip, unless you want to go with us? In that case set it
up with Tenet. We'll have the room, so that won't be a problem." It was
just making small talk, and she didn't say no,
or
yes, then stood back,
smiling still.

After that he moved away, being
followed to the door. In the main hallway, which
was
a lot brighter.
Oddly enough it was Tess that grabbed him again, holding him tightly for a few
seconds.

"Keep in touch? I mean
daily, or at least once a week or so. The others, too,
if
you don't want
us to all descend on your doorstep? Now that we know you don't hate us all,
that's
bound
to happen." She winced a bit and let go, but didn't
deny her words.

Then, when he looked around,
Taman was staring at her with narrowed eyes, which he didn't get. Tenet pounded
him on the back a few times. The giant man reaching down a lot to make that
work.

"She isn't wrong on that
score. Tam will get that screen going. Maybe something that plays in the air?
Like a theater. Anyway, I'll make sure I have everything ready. I can bring
people, right? Fifty or so? People are going to want to come along with us."
He was, from his smile, joking.

Dareg knew that the man, no
matter how gentle and sweet he seemed, was also a noble, so put his foot down.
With his own tired, if pleased, expression.

"Two? Any more than that,
and we'll need more people to crew for us. Plus, make sure they're the kind
that gets along with others? We don't want big arguments the whole time."

That got a serious nod from the
man, and a smaller one from both of the women, understanding what he meant.

Then, not looking back, he left.
It was a bit of a trudge, getting back to the ship. On the good side he didn't
have to chat with anyone to get free of the dock. It just kind of happened. The
red tube disengaging as soon as the wall of his ship was put back into place.
Then, the far wall, behind him, vanished. He had to spin the ship in place, but
went very slowly, so no one would be hit, if they were in one of his many blind
spots.

Ten minutes later he eased out of
the docking bay, taking the ship into orbit rapidly. From there, he set up the
jump he needed, which placed him outside of the atmosphere, but directly over
Lairdgren. He
thought
that was the case, at any rate. It took a few
minutes of watching to figure out where the space fleet school was there.
Luckily for him, a large ship took off, so he could trace the movement back to
the right spot. There was an orange glowing river around the place, so he
headed that way, making sure he was a good ten miles to the east when he did
it. That was the rule for the other space ports.

Thankfully so, given that as he
moved toward the place, at a few thousand feet, another craft dropped directly
down into the central landing area of the walled compound. It was a huge place,
but there would have been a collision if he'd tried doing the same thing. His
ship had been made relatively small, so he just landed in a field, not too far
outside of the place, and then set the door so it was hidden. The idea that
someone might be able to steal his ship went way up in that location, given how
many pilots this place probably had.

That would be both funny and
horrible, since he kind of needed it. Losing a ship would be a huge problem. So
he protected it, as best he could for the time being.

It was a bit of a walk for him to
get to the front gate of the place, his nice blond wood magical chest floating
behind him. There were two black garbed guards on the door, but they just
looked at him when he walked up. They were both women. One was very small
however, and had the look of a commoner. She looked down, shyly, then forced her
eyes back up, having a job to do.

The lady next to her looked at
him more boldly. She was taller than he was, by about five inches, and seemed
like a young noble, though both were dressed identically.

"Halt." It was the tall
one that spoke, though her voice lacked command. He did it though, since
fighting these two sounded like way too much work. Especially given he was just
making a delivery.

So he said that.

"I have something for Alice
Orange? Sixty jump ships, from Tim Baker. She's expecting them. On the Ranford?
I need someone from here to take these up to her however." Then he waited,
expecting a lot of trouble over the whole thing. He could call up Alice though
and let her deal with these two, he decided, wondering if just getting that
going was the right plan.

Instead there was just a smile
from the tall girl, who looked about sixteen or so.

"You'll want the main
command building. That's to the left. Second building over. Just walk in and
they'll help you get set up. That's exciting, isn't it?
Sixty
ships? Is
that for the new exploration fleet?" She seemed interested, so he answered
her, making direct eye contact. That got a larger smile from her.

"These are slated for the
new port duties. We're trying for daily trips to and from everywhere in the
system. All the lands, the Moon, Mars, and so on. Space stations, too."

That got a nod, and she still
seemed interested. At least she gave her name.

"I'm Lissa, and this is
Narma. In case you have time later? We should get off in about an hour and have
the evening free? We could go to the tavern?"

Her friend blushed, but didn't
say
no
about it.

Honestly, is was kind of
tempting, but he yawned.

"Sorry about that. I'm about
to fall down again. Could we set something up for later? Tomorrow, maybe?
If
I don't end up having to go to the palace. I need to call them and see...
Sorry." He shook his head, explaining. "Dareg Canton. Prince of
Harmony, Countier Baker Seven, Countier Lairdgren Thirteen. I think. So the
stuff with the palace is real. I'm basically just playing secretary though, for
some of my family. After tomorrow I'm going to be gone for a week or so. To
Saturn? Say, you two can't get away for that, can you? I mean to work, but
you're fleet, so that makes sense, right? You know not to vent all the air, right?"

They laughed, clearly thinking he
was just putting them off, which, to be honest, he was. Not to be against them
however. Both of the women seemed pleasant enough. They let him go then, and didn't
make any plans with him, which was a bit off. Then, they probably figured he
was either way above them in station, or was a liar.

Inside the wall, that had a river
around it, floating in the air almost invisibly, except for the orange color of
it, there were seven large palaces. They all looked the same, and of course,
were pretty orange. A pumpkin tone, with brown highlights. Except for the one
he wanted, which had a bright blue front to it. Keeping close to the wall,
where there was a focus stone pathway, meant to keep you from being crushed by
ships, he walked up the steps and into an office that was tiny, considering how
huge the building itself was.

Inside the place there was an
older man, who sat looking at a handheld, which was talking to him. Several
voices were going, but he looked up and tapped the thing when Dare got in front
of his counter. The whole thing looked like marble, and was polished to a
shine. Being made of magic, that just meant it had been formed that way
initially.

The man's voice was a bit
clipped. Clearly being Austran.

"Ah. What can I do for you
today? Come to join up?" His eyes went to the chest, which could have
carried a lot of clothing in it, after all.

Shaking his head he patted the
thing that was following right behind him.

"I have some ships. Jump
ships. For Alice Orange? She's on the Ranford, I think? Um...
O-Seventeen?" He didn't know what was needed, but the man pulled a focus
stone sheet over, and tapped on it with a stylus that was also made of brown
material. After a moment he looked up and smiled.

"That's right. We can get
that to her... Call it three hours? Are you taking it up yourself?"

"No. I'll off load those
with you, if that's all right? You have lots of stripes on your sleeve, so that
means important, correct?" Those were orange, and he had four of them,
which was a lot. In Alice's colors, too. It was sort of a way to mark him as
chosen by her, Dareg bet.

The man nodded, his gray hair
short and tidy above his lined face.

"Captain. The Winter's Kiss.
Normally I just do transfer runs, but I'm on a training rotation. Teaching
pilots this section. So that should be fine. Leaving the ships with me. I'll
get you a receipt? We have no paper. Do you have a pad?" He picked up his
own stone sheet, to show what he meant, but the answer was a simple no.

Dare had used one before, once,
but that was all.

"Sorry, no." His eyes
felt heavy, and he nearly nodded off, right there, standing in the training
center.

That didn't get mentioned,
thankfully. After a moment, he pulled his communications device, tabbed Alice,
and hit his disguise amulet almost all at once.

"Orange, go."

"Dareg. I'm in your training
center with the ships. This man..." He held the device so it would show
him, the Captain behind the desk, "has them, or
will
. Sixty jump
ships. This is the receipt, so make a note of it."

Rather than yell at him about it,
there was just a sound of clicking for a bit.

"Got it. George Howell,
Captain. Sixty craft. Confirm that George?"

In order for that to work the man
needed the tiles, so they had to be liberated from the chest, and counted.
They'd been delivered in a silk looking bag, since it was made of magic, and
the transfer had been in a magic shop. That didn't take long, so when the tiles
were, very carefully, put back in their sack, the older man nodded.

"I have receipt of the
craft, Admiral. We should have them to you in... Two hours and fifty-seven
minutes. Give or take a bit."

Alice laughed, seeming pleased
about the whole thing.

"Good work, Canton. I'll be
with you in the next few days to set the schedule you want. I need to move some
people around..." The device went silent and dark. Without bothering to
say goodbye.

Rude of her, really.

The Captain smiled at him, and
moved back, thinking they were done. Not having anything more, Dare just bowed
to the man.

"Thank you. I'll be leaving
now. Oh... The two women on the gate? Are they available to act as crew on the
Saturn trip in a few days?" He had to give their names, but the man made a
note on his pad, so that he could check that out later. Not that they'd
volunteered, but it made sense to him not to have just the people of Harmony
doing all the work.