The Builder (The Young Ancients) (25 page)

Burks came with more clothing and helped him dress; an outfit that made him feel ridiculous, with heavy gold colored brocade on the shoulders and the King's personal livery on the front, covering his whole chest. It stood out on a background of purple, but the main color was black, more velvet and silk than he'd ever seen on a man before. At least one his size. The servant had to tie him into it then hide the strings with a heavy jacket of more black material.

He blushed looking down at himself, but Burks assured him he looked splendid.

“Right. But you'd say that if I looked like a fish, wouldn't you? Kind of part and parcel to your work?”

To his surprise the man shook his head with a serious look on his face. “Oh, definitely not sir! If you looked like a fish, or anything other than the best I could manage, I'd tell you instantly so that we could work to fix it before being seen in public. You cut a fine figure however. No one will think you dressed as anything other than proper I don't think. Especially since you're dressed in a fashion that declares you in the King's service directly, acting as his hand or voice. I don't think anyone will question your right to be at this meeting tonight. Do be careful not to start a war though, since the King would have to back you in it, even if he doesn't agree with you on the reasoning.” He continued and explained that it was the livery on the front. This outfit had, after all, once belonged to the Prince. On someone like him it basically meant that whatever Tor did, the King backed him fully.

It was nice to know in case he used the wrong spoon or something, which was probably the actual point. Someone figured that he'd mess up and this would make it... Well, not OK, but less embarrassing. Maybe.

Before Rolph came to collect him he pulled a few more of the room cooling systems and heat exchange amulets, then slipped his shield on as well, the latest version, the fourth one that he'd created. It still wasn't perfect, but it took care of a lot of problems the older ones had. As silly as it sounded, he still kept expecting Wensa to jump out at him and try to kill him at any given moment. She hadn't back at school, but that might not stop her now. The woman had kept watching him, if more covertly and from a greater distance after her attempt to end him at the shield test.

As a Royal Guard she might just show up in the palace, right?

As they walked to the main residence, Rolph told him to make certain that he didn't eat first tonight. In fact, he should wait for Trice to eat first, but go before Count Ward if possible.

“It's... Well, what you did last night was considered a good faith gesture, and one that won over mother, I have to say. But in general, the host or hostess takes the first bite, to prove the food isn't poisoned. Then down the table in order of rank, until the guests with the highest risk, in this case Ursala and Ward, so that everyone else would be risking death first.”

Tor had to ask why Ursala. Count Ward, well, someone could be angry at him, sure, but the girl? She didn't do anything worth death had she? She'd loved in the wrong place but... Rolph winced and shook his head.

“No, but... Well, if I was just some guy or even another Count, then no one would care. Marriage is arranged, but people can have lovers as they will. Even Ursala and I. It's different than in Two Bends that way, from what you've said? It's just possible though, that mother or father could decide that the easiest way out of the whole mess would be for her to either die, or lose the baby. Um, that will probably be brought up, so be forewarned. I know that the idea of killing a baby is against how you were raised, but it happens sometimes in cases like this. Don't challenge the Count to a duel over it or anything, alright?”

Oh, yeah, Tor thought, I'll just run over and challenge a Count to a duel. Not only would the guy probably kill him if he tried, but even if Tor won he'd be put to death. That would show the man not to be irresponsible and get good women pregnant like that. He'd be better off just killing himself in protest. Maybe that would get the guy's attention at least. Instead he looked straight ahead and told Rolph he'd try to keep that in mind. His voice sounded a little surly when it came out, but then he was more than a little tired. The big man grunted and said that he'd do the same.

Funny, but his voice sounded kind of angry as well.

The inside of the palace nearly made Tor want to run back out. He'd thought the guest house was nice, but the palace... There were whole rooms lined with gems and at least one done all in gold. Not gold silk or paint or even gold colored wood. The room, as big as the dining room in the guest house, was lined with real gold. The effect was... kind of ugly. But impressive for all of that. Rolph made fun of it as they passed, but he also made fun of one of the crystal rooms, one done in white quartz that Tor thought looked kind of pretty, if a little rough around the edges. He bet no one hung out in there if they valued their skin. Not close to the walls at least. They looked sharp.

The dining room, one that Rolph assured him was one of the “cozy” ones inside the residence, was bigger than the entire guest house. It was done in polished wood of at least three kinds, light colors that made it appropriate for the heat of summer. The Queen was already in the room when they got there, and waved them over to her as she spoke to a warm looking older man with white hair who kept bowing every few seconds.

“That should do Quavelle. I think.” She turned to Rolph and gave him a brief hug and a kiss on the cheek that missed by about an inch, then without missing a beat she did the same thing to Tor. He blinked and ducked his head, which had to look bashful, he knew.

Connie spoke, as if asking a question. “If we take the cooling plates from the living chambers and put them in here, will that be enough to lower the temperature in a space this large do you think?” She didn't look at anyone in particular, so Tor looked around and nodded.

“Probably, but...” He lifted the bundle in his left hand. “I brought a half dozen for that. I also brought along ten of the heat exchangers for personal use.”

The Queen's eyes lit. “That will make an impression indeed, do we need both though? If the room is cool that should be enough...”

“Sure, in here, but the servers have to run back and forth to the kitchen and out into the warm night and stuff on odd errands, do I have that right? Their outfits are all heavy too, which has to be hot. This way they can stay cool the whole time. I don't know if I have enough for all of them...”

Quavelle provided that it would nearly do, there being fifteen servants standing by. Shrugging Tor turned off his own amulet and handed it to the man, along with the rest of the bundle. It was uncomfortably warm in the room without the device, but he'd live until the temperature plates could be turned on. The Queen's man seemed to be in charge, so he could deal with who got what as far as the staff went. Nodding to himself Tor decided that he needed to make up more of everything. Just this one building had so many people that could use a bit of relief from the heat. The poor people in the kitchen must be half dead by the end of each day.

With a chuckle Rolph doffed his own amulet and so did the Queen. That would only leave two people hanging. The older man bowed low to Tor and said that he'd manage it so no one had to suffer too much. How that would be made to happen Tor didn't know, but he hoped it would be alright. Leaving even a couple people out left him feeling bad already.

They weren't to be seated until everyone had arrived, which was some kind of rule. Rolph made sure he understood how important it was, but very covertly, so that he wouldn't be embarrassed.

When she got there Trice looked beautiful, in a dress of light violet that nearly glowed somehow. Her long hair had been put up; leaving a few ringlets of dark brown that neared being true black trailing down the sides artistically. Her blue eyes sparkled as she looked over and saw him, but she didn't wave or acknowledge his presence. Instead she walked over, flowed towards them somehow, hardly looking like she walked at all, more like she floated gently, it was so graceful tears nearly came to his eyes. She bowed to the Queen and then to Rolph.

Looking at Tor she held out her hand, which he took, but didn't know what to do with. After about ten seconds she took it back with a smile. Was he supposed to kiss it or something? He swallowed, feeling so very out of his depth. Looking at the others she finally spoke.

“Cat's out of the bag then?” She gestured with her head towards the short man.

Connie smiled.

“Kind of hard to hide the whole palace dear. Let me catch you up on the situation before everyone gets here.”

Trice listened closely and made appropriate noises, but didn't seem nearly as concerned as Tor felt she should be. Were things like this that common or did she just not like Ursala? The Counserina had seemed fine to him earlier, nice even. Trice's face didn't show any response to the information at all until Connie mentioned Tor's offer to marry the girl earlier. Then her eyes flew open.

The Queen nodded.

“Yes. Amazing really. Our Tor didn't even know who she was; he just sought to do what was proper and noble without thought for himself. Of course it can't be allowed, not yet at least, class differences and all that, but the offer had impact. No one hearing it will say that we did less than our best by her, I don't think. Worse comes to it, we may be able to swing a low title for him. I think we have a few empty ones lying around.” Her voice had gone low and teasing, which made Trice look around carefully and then, her back to the room, stick her tongue out.

“Aunt Constance! It's not nice to tease people like that.”

Rolph shook his head. “You think it's teasing... but by the end of the night it may be the only thing we have. Besides, I think Tor would make an excellent Baron or Duke, don't you?”

With a wave the Queen set the issue aside, causing a wave of relief to flow over Tor. He would marry Ursala if that was the best answer. He'd already offered to make it right. But a title? It would be a little odd for him to be lord something or other the village baker, wouldn't it? Oh, maybe some money would come in eventually from his little devices, but until that happened he'd have to earn a real living and he only had the one skill. It would hardly be enough to support a royal wife, but he'd manage somehow, no matter what he had to do. Join the military maybe? They needed bakers and it should pay a little more to begin with.

Ursala came in with two older people, who came to greet the Queen, bowing like Trice had, and then they bowed to Rolph. Uncertain as to what to do they turned to Tor next and smiled, but didn't give him any indication as to what was expected. Was he supposed to bow? Before he had the chance, Ursala stepped forward and gave him a brief hug.

“Father, mother, this is the man I told you about earlier, Torrence Baker...” She smiled and the older woman, not nearly as heavy as her daughter, stepped forward and hugged him too.

“Oh! That's a good story. If nothing else in this comes out right, at least we'll have the tale of your nobility.” Her eyes moistened, but she smiled and stepped back. The man stepped in and shook his hand, clapping him on the shoulder, murmuring something that sounded like “good show.”

Rolph put a hand on Tor's back. “Tor, this is Count Horace Thorgood and his wife, the Countess Marigold. You both know of Tor already it seems. He's agreed, along with Patricia here, to aid us if possible in coming to a sensible and honorable solution to this current situation.”

Richard came in a bit later getting bows from everyone but the Queen. When Rolph bowed Tor did too. After all, this was in public, right? The King wouldn't think he was being mocked if everyone else was bowing and all that, would he? The huge man clapped the Prince on the back after giving his wife a kiss on the cheek. Then he followed by giving a head nod to everyone else, finally standing just behind Tor, who'd ended up between the Queen and Trice somehow.

“Hopefully we'll be able to come to a solution to this tonight. There's a situation in the Ford district that needs seeing to as well and as lives may be at stake, we really shouldn't leave it too long. Drought. It looks like we might lose the mid-summer crops, and if this lingers the late summer harvest too.” Looking at Tor he added some information, probably getting that geography wasn't something the younger man had a lot of knowledge of.

“Generally dry and warm there, directly west of here, near the Pacifico so the moisture is there, but they can't irrigate with salt water. Bad for the plants. Plus we'd have to bring in a river's worth of water to do it, since the good crop lands are hundreds of miles away from the ocean anyway.” He shook his head sadly.