Strange Land (The Young Ancients Book 15) (14 page)

Tor nodded, "though they can take lessons before that, so they'll be ready when their birthday comes? It's not that bad of a deal."

The tone was placating, but it was clear that Clemance realized it was a trick. Age being used to keep him from doing something adult and fun. That was the way of the world though, and it was best that he learned it young.

Terlee smiled about it though, and pretended that it was a good thing. Clasping her hands she gestured for Todd to walk to the side hatch that had the airlock hooked up.

"Tor has invited us to his house. It's very late here, and he has to go to work soon, so we might wish to hurry along?
Ambassador
Debri and her Attaché need to see to their devotions before they sleep."

Tor looked at her sidelong, as if to say he was impressed with the news, but she just yawned again, smothering the wide open mouth with her left palm.

"We really do need to do that. Publically. Soon too, or I'm going to fall asleep. Is there a meeting place here?" She addressed that to Roget, who lived and worshiped there after all.

"Yes, on the third level. No one will be out this time of night." He seemed hesitant about even trying. Probably because it wasn't very humble.

That wasn't her goal though. She wanted the people from Tellerand to see an outsider or two taking their religion seriously.

"Right. Let's do that here now, and go visit for morning prayers? Or noon. I don't know when I'll be awake after everything." That was just honest.

Roget looked away, but was fighting a grin of his own.

"I too, might well sleep the day away. It is wicked, but the body demands it. Come, and we will away to a public space, so none will think I take advantage of you both."

Gemma nodded, her face serious.

"Can't have that. Of course no one here would think that would they? If it bothers you, we can just tell them that we're all married. They do that in Tellerand, don't they? Multiple wives?"

That got a stammer from the small pale man.

"
Nooo
. Why would you even think that? A man can have but one wife in his life."

Gemma shrugged.

"Really? I'd always heard it was one of the perks of being a leader there. Ten or twenty women? Or... Well, what I don't know about that land, yes?"

The others were all carefully escaping, Sara noticed. Probably so they wouldn't have to pray too. It was a good plan, but there was work to do. More kneeling, without any payoff,
or
her getting a turn too.

That thought got Tor to laugh, but he didn't mention why. It got everyone to look at him, but he shook his head, refusing to say why he was acting strange in front of the kids.

"We should go. You must all be exhausted. Sara? Can you find me when you wake up? I should be at the new school then, for afternoon lessons. After you talk to Tiera? Unless you plan to avoid her. I know I would, if I were you."

"I can do that. See you." She knew that she didn't sound as hopeful as she should, but him leaving already hurt, and he wasn't even gone yet.

He kept looking over his shoulder as he and his family all headed down the white stone hallway of the hangar bay.

They all walked together for a while, but Roget stopped as soon as they found an interior corridor that held several other people. Most of those were dressed in bright colors and strange styles that seemed to be a combination of what they wore in Afrak and Austra.

They were all small and dark, but like Noram commoners, not people from either of those lands. Apparently that was enough to protect their virtue and reputation, so Roget sank to his knees right there, in front of the people who looked on, if carefully.

Then he let his voice raise.

"Praise be the All High! The mighty one that watches over us all!"

Sara did the same thing, and after a few more lines, so did Gemma, though she was late in mimicing the words.

"Praise be the All High!"

Then, shockingly enough, a few of the others in the hallway did the same thing.

One of them, an older, tiny woman, nodded.

"Yes. We should give praise to Queen Tiera. That is a very good idea."

Sara nearly laughed, and Roget turned a brilliant color of red through the face. So she explained the concept to the people with them.

"No, not Queen Tiera. The All High is the One God of Tellerand. We should try to show our support for those of that place by praying with them, and trying our best to mean it. It is what we have to do, so that they'll let us help them."

That got some questioning looks, but to their credit, meaning it or not, the people
all
knelt and prayed with them then. That got a strange look from Roget, but he didn't stop them from trying it out. When they stood, released for the night, Sara spoke again.

"You should all do this as often as you can, and learn the ways of the people of that land. They need our help, but aren't certain of our good will. If you can believe in their god, or seem enough like it, then you can go to them and make certain they have food and good, strong houses to protect them from the storms. I know I can count on you all to think about it." That was all she said. After all, these weren't her people to order around.

There were a few nods from the people there however, as they moved off. Whatever that really meant. It was hard to tell with the common people of Noram. She was pretty tall, and a lot of them would defer to someone like that. As long as they were around. Then, later, when there was no virtual giant standing over them, they'd do whatever made the most sense to them. It was a good thing as often as not, since that type was modest in their needs and desires. They were better than the nobles that way, now that she thought about it.

Without waiting, she waved to Roget, and then Gemma.

"This way Squire. We can go and hassle your Knight after I get some sleep. Or you can just go on your own and push her around a bit. Finding her on the Moon makes a statement that even Trice won't miss. Not that she would have anyway. I can't believe she forget a whole Squire though. She normally takes better care of her people than that. Well, we can have fun-" That was interrupted by the need to take a few deep breaths to prevent yawning again. "Oh, sorry there. Sleepy. Back to the ship. Plotting later."

It only took a few minutes to get back inside the ship, and Sara was careful to not change the internal size of it when she made two little rooms and a restroom for them. She did take time to get a water line flowing, since that would make the morning a lot nicer. She'd always liked bathing, but now was seriously considering making it her primary hobby for a while.

They didn't talk much while she touched the wall of the jump ship, making it reform to her will, more or less. Gemma stood silently, watching it all happen, as the walls melted, pushed into the room and ate the chairs that had been there. Then soft beds came into being. Little ones, but each big enough for a single woman. It was a sign. One that Sara was sharing with the other girl.

She wasn't looking for company that night.

Not that the girl wasn't cute enough.

She really was, in a slightly round faced way. Not fat, but she had high cheekbones that changed how she looked a lot. Clear tan skin too, and hair that was a lot like her own, Sara knew. Or like it had been, before it had grown into a wild mess for months. Now it was longer than she'd been keeping it, and a bit shaggy. Really, even if she wanted to grow it out again, she should get the ends trimmed off.

In the morning though. Harmony had a hair shop, that for some reason painted finger and toenails too. That was an Austran thing, but the place was owned by people from Noram, she thought. She'd never gone before, but it would be free, like everything else there was. Given that she didn't have any coin on her, that was a good thing, for the time being. Everyone was both poor
and
fantastically wealthy, where she was at the moment.

"Night, Squire Gemma. Try not to wake me up until... I don't know, three days from now, or whenever people come and try to invade? My bet is that first one, but you never know around here."

"Thank you, Ambassador. I'll try to make certain that you're left alone to get that rest." She patted her side pocket, which was a thing that armed people did when letting the rest of the world know they were serious.

Feeling good about things, she went to the back sleeping chamber, which wasn't huge at all, and tucked herself into the deep black that was hard to find anywhere but on a ship like hers.

Sara slept, hard, until thirst and a screaming bladder forced her to get up and take care of things. She had to check her watch to find the time, and then translate what it said to local time, which took some doing, having been reset to Tellerand schedules for too long.

Nearly one in the afternoon. So much for noon prayers at the meeting house then. She'd need to go later. It was a constant pain, but the effect it had on the people from Tellerand was too powerful to ignore.

There were voices coming from the front area, where the controls were still up, and two chairs sat side by side. She ignored them, sneaking into the restroom first, then, back to her bed chamber. It took a few seconds to make a shower in there, but ten minutes later she was clean, and nearly dry enough not to feel awkward about things. She did put on a nice light blue outfit. It was classy, without being so much so that it seemed like she was letting her position go to her head. She was still the Ambassador from Tellerand to Noram for, oh, whole hours yet.

That was what she was thinking when she went out to find who was making noise in her parlor, as it was. Two chairs, but four people sat there, two of them on the floor.

Since she was awake, she touched the wall without speaking, and made the rooms go away, except for the restroom at the back. That kind of thing was just handy to have all the time. Then she made the whole thing look like a proper sitting room, complete with several green sofas and soft chairs made to match. Not that she really figured that Queen Tiera or her little brother Terry had come to cuddle with her. That Timon was there, talking to Gemma, and sitting next to her on the floor was a bit of a surprise. The boy even smiled at her when she looked over at him, and stood, his tall form lean and hard looking now. He was getting big. Six-ten or so, and if she heard right, not even close to being finished with his growth.

"Ambassador Debri! I was just helping Squire Gemma plot against my wife. More to the point I was begging her to not actually make Trice's life
too
difficult, because I'll catch most of the fallout from that. The poor beleaguered husband always does." There was a small smile on his lips, and he walked over to her, not bowing like she expected.

Instead he closed in, and hugged her for a long time.

When he spoke, his voice was a good bit harder.

"Now, do you want Tiera and I to hold Terry here while you spank him? Mother almost disowned him, after it was found out that he'd made you
beg
and humble yourself for months like that. Karina has refused to talk to him for over a month. Alphonse does, but he keeps shaking his head sadly at him every time they meet. Isn't that right Ter?" There was no hint of teasing to the words either.

It was funny, but she'd never thought to blame the boy for that part. It had even stopped feeling humiliating after the first few weeks. Things did if you had to perform an action enough times.

The boy, who was attractive, but not all that tall yet, being just about five-six, stood up from the chair he was in as the Queen looked on. Then he got to his knees, his plain brown outfit standing out against his very pale skin. She would have thought it odd once, but now she was kind of used to it. Almost everyone in Tellerand was that color. A lot of them were even lighter, like Tor was.

"I apologize, Sara. I tricked you into going and doing that. It was petty of me, and showed a lack of faith in you. I'll hold my shield off while you beat me." There was no sense that he didn't mean it. None at all.

She shrugged.

"Except that there's no violence here. I don't want to mess up that nearly perfect track record. I know, you can go and pray with the people from Tellerand here for the next, say, six months? That works. You can't bribe them to take things they aren't certain are within their religious views, but showing them that you share them makes all the difference. Now, get up and let's get to business while I'm still important enough to be in the same room with all of you."

No one said anything about that, but Terry gave her a hug when he stood up. It was warm, and not all
that
familial, she noticed. So did everyone else. At least they grinned about it. He rather leaned into her chest a good bit, which wasn't that uncomfortable for her. He was young, but good looking already. Not that
she
was the kind of pervert that would do anything with a twelve year old.

Tim cleared his throat.

"So, Tor told me that we were supposed to get jump ships around for Gemma, her brother, Clemance Thomson and eventually his little brother, Dumas?" He was looking at her, but talking to Tiera, clearly. "Sara volunteered to teach them how to fly."

Tiera grunted, her face blank. Tired looking, even if she seemed well rested to look at. It was a subdued thing. Almost depressed seeming.

"That's a problem. Nothing against you, Gemma, or Gerald, but you're both sworn to defend Noram, and obey the King directly. I don't really think that we should be handing over powerful warships just yet. Not when there's a rebellion on. There's still hope for a peaceful resolution. Nearly bloodless, as such things go."

Sara nodded.

"Sure, but if we tell King Richard that he can get some people with ships out into space, that he controls, as long as he swears not to use them for war, I bet he agrees to it. Just as a spying platform that would be a boon. Relief efforts, or even just to have people coming and going more often." She shrugged, and noticed that Terry glanced at her chest. Then away, quickly enough that it wasn't too much, even given his age. It was pretty clear that he wasn't a little boy any longer though. Not that way.