The Builder (The Young Ancients) (36 page)

Smiling she commented that the new river, temporary or not, needed a name. Most were calling it the “River Tor” already.

“If you have something else in mind, I suggest you let us know quickly, things like that tend to stick.”

Tor definitely didn't want it to be named after him. That would be... well even the King's River was named for the job, not the sitting King at all, right? Still the “Broken Student's River” didn't have much of a ring. Well, a bit of a ring, he reflected, but it was a mouthful.

“How about the “Falcons River” after the statues that have the fields on them? That's on the royal crest even, right? Falcons. So people will know that the King's looking out for them, helping out with drought relief and all that?” It sounded about right to him. He tried thinking about it like he was still just a kid from Two Bends. A sky river the King had made to save crops for farmers? That would go over pretty well. A lot better than if it was named after some kid that they'd never even heard of.

The Queen smiled and took his hand. “But it wasn't Richard that did it. He didn't even ask for it to be done. You just found a need and fixed it...”

Tor smiled and shook his head. He didn't want to tell her she was wrong, but he distinctly remembered the King telling him there was a problem in the Ford distract that had to be attended to, and that they'd need a river of clean water. It was Rich's idea even really.

For some reason Connie chuckled when he mentioned that and squeezed his hand gently. She looked at him long enough that he started to get a funny feeling in his stomach. If she'd been younger, or even just not married, he'd have been very interested in her. She really did look like she could be Rolph's slightly older sister after all and had obviously gotten the job of Queen in part based on her good looks. Or, well, given the way these people selected mates for their kids when they were little children, maybe that had been luck of the draw? However... it had really worked out for the King at least. She was fine.

When the Queen finally let his hand go after a while, and he felt a sense of relief. He knew that she was just being nice to him, treating him like she might her own son, if Rolph were injured, but falling in love with the Queen would be bad on so many levels that he couldn't count them all. Even a puppy crush would be a silly thing to let happen. At least she probably wouldn't be as mean about rejecting him, if he were so foolish as to ask anything of her, as Maria had been. Not from what the others had said at least. It made Tor feel safer around everyone here in a way. The idea that his giving a device he made to someone wouldn't have them throwing it in his face calling him names in public was a good thing, even if he did end up being rejected over and over again.

Look at him...

A little attention from a good looking woman and he was suddenly imagining himself in love? Even if she hadn't been totally out of reach, totally inappropriate, and completely not interested in him, it wouldn't have worked out, because he'd still just be him. Duh. He smiled at her, and got one in return, which was better than he deserved most likely.

“Well, if I'm not going to inspect my work on the water system I should probably get to rebuilding the floats. I mean making the fields larger for cargo hauling in the air? I told the people from Debri house that I'd do that as soon as possible.”

Her eyes went dark then. Not angry, but concerned, as if he'd just told her he needed to go back to the front lines of a war or something instead of lounging around in bed for days at a time. He'd have gone running, he told himself, trying to think about what would be good for him, but the broken leg meant he could skip that without even getting in trouble with Kolb. Crippling himself wouldn't help keep him in shape after all. Kind of the opposite by definition.

Yep. Perfect reason to slack off.

Tor wondered then if the woman had some mind reading ability, a real possibility given her royal blood, he guessed, because she narrowed her eyes at him and told him, in no uncertain terms that he would not use a broken leg as an excuse to work himself to death. She softened her statement with a gentle touch on the arm which made him uncomfortable again. It would have been fine if his mother or one of his sisters had done the same thing, so he ignored it and asked if he could have some water instead.

She nodded and got it herself, from a cool pitcher sitting in an insulated box next to the table. The box made him think of something, causing him to chuckle. Right, his totally superfluous idea of making cold boxes that didn't need ice. Tor avoided mention of the idea itself, since he knew it might be considered work, but he did ask if there was a spare box that could be put in his room, like the one next to him. The Queen raised her eyebrows, clearly knowing he intended something other than just keeping some water cool, but nodded and raised her hand about shoulder high. She didn't ask for it to be done out loud, but he knew it would be anyway, in that eerie fashion that things happened at the palace.

After about an hour of chatting cozily and sometimes awkwardly on his part, a woman came into the room, a slightly older lady, who seemed a year or two senior to Connie and who looked somehow familiar. Dark brown curly hair, strong features and blue eyes that glinted a little bit when she saw the Queen sitting with Tor at the table.

The clothing he wore was comfortable, but not really appropriate for meeting new people, he didn't think, based on the way the woman smirked gently when she saw the ensemble. He struggled to his feet, because that's what you did when a woman came into the room, at least if she wasn't related to you. Her eyes went wide when she saw the splinted leg, but she didn't wave him down. Instead she greeted Connie, who'd risen from her own padded chair, with a hug.

She really did look familiar, like he should know who she was. Had they met? Tor didn't think so, he'd have remembered her. She was very good looking. Obviously one of the royals, being so tall, six-seven or eight at least. About the same as Connie. Well, that and the whole walking into the palace and just hugging the Queen. Everyone else bowed, even Counts and Countesses. That meant that this woman must be important. Family or a close friend?

“Connie! We just got in to town. Normally we don't come down this time of year, but we were close anyway and wanted to see the floating river. How often do you get to see a spectacle of that nature? It's incredible. Eric and I even drank from it, just in case it has some miracle properties to the water. Came here directly of course, after that. Have you seen my youngest around anywhere by chance? She sent a note that she was planning to come down, but travel times being what they are she may not be back from school yet.” The woman didn't ask about him, but did sit so that Tor could, covertly glancing at his left leg again.

“Oh! Yes, I've seen her indeed. She's off to the river wall market with Karina and Varley today, as well as her friend Sara Debri. They should be back here in a few hours, planning on dinner with us I think, if you'd like to stay? A bit of a party tonight, so come if you can. Fancy dress. I think they even have my son traipsing along playing footman for them. Well, good for him to be useful, even if he does have to stand about while they look at materials from Afrak all afternoon.” She smiled and touched the woman on the arm gently, like she had been with him all afternoon.

It took a few seconds for Tor to shift gears, having been working mentally on the cold box idea, since he should be able to knock that out in a few hours, and claim it as simple entertainment. Maybe eight hours, if he built a template for it instead of just a one up field. He didn't know if it would be useful to anyone really, but a lot of people liked cold drinks and chilled food at the palace, so maybe someone would like something that didn't take a lot of ice? Sara had mentioned that this time of year the price of ice was measured in silvers for a ten pound block in the Capital. Sometimes gold. That meant that even the chilled water he drank had to have cost about three pennies. More than some made in a day’s work. He swallowed thinking about it.

Tor shook himself, wondering if the injuries had affected his mind, his attention going back to the woman in front of him.

Right! Two great looking women here and he was thinking about ice? Brilliant. No wonder women didn't have any use for him.

“Excuse me is this...” He didn't want to jump in and be wrong, so he hesitated, waiting for someone to fill things in for him. Connie obliged winking at him with her left eye.

“Baroness Merciful Thorgood Morgan. Wonderful person and accomplished singer, you really should hear her if you get a chance.” Connie smiled over at the woman who thanked her softly and touched her on the shoulder playfully, almost a push.

“Also my sister, as you may have guessed since no one else would treat the Queen like this, practically knocking me from my chair... Seriously!” They both laughed and started pushing back and forth like children, which made Tor chuckle. It really reminded him of how he was with his own brothers.

“Mercy, this is Torrence Baker.”

The Baroness looked interested at the simple introduction but didn't ask for any more details. Tor had a sneaking suspicion that the Queen was teasing her somehow, being mysterious about him to make her figure out who he was. Since he had to look like a little kid sitting around in night clothes like this, he couldn't imagine what she'd guess.

Most likely that he was some little kid sitting around in his night clothes in the palace. Well, given everything he couldn't blame her if she did.

The conversation went on with Tor mainly listening. These women were way more interesting than he was after all, so best course for him was to shut up and pay attention. It seemed that the northern orchards on the Baroness' estate were doing well, a bumper crop in fact. She feared that she'd lose half the apples and peaches before they could do anything with them, just rotting in the bins waiting for wagon transport. His mind boggled when she mentioned that they had over ten thousand trees. That... was huge. Tor tried to keep his reaction off his face. The Baker family had ten apple trees behind the house and they managed to have apples almost all year for everyone. It took a lot of canning to make it happen but… ten thousand trees? How would they ever manage?

“Oh, Connie! Eric asked me to see if you had any connections at Debri house? They have a new whole foods drying device that we could use to save part of the crop, possibly, except that our local representative from that organization told us that they aren't making them right now, focusing on other more pressing and lucrative manufacturing first. You mentioned a Sara Debri earlier?”

Connie smiled, “yes, she's the child of Heather Debri, second in line to the empire if I have it right. A good friend of your own daughter, her roommate at school this year, so I think you might want to start there if you intend to apply leverage. Or, possibly, I'm given to understand, with my son. He and Sara seem to have grown... close, of late.”

“You're Trice's mom?” Tor blurted a little loudly. He surged to his feet, well, tried to surge, it was more of a slow standing up that looked a little awkward. The woman's eyes went a little wide.

“So nice to meet you! I didn't know... didn't make the connection. Duh, Morgan. You just look too young to be her mother, so it threw me off. Sorry.” He bowed to the woman, again a clumsy thing, but the best he could do at the moment.

The Queen chuckled behind her hand, her eyes showing genuine mirth at his reaction.

“Oh ho! Well, that's special!” She turned smoothly to her sister and leaned into her slightly, mock whispering. “You should feel honored, he doesn't even bow to Richard you know. Not in private like this.”

Tor flushed and sat back down. Should he explain the deal with the King, how he'd gotten trapped into being rude all the time to the man, so that he wouldn't think he was mocking him now? He didn't think he could explain it, not and still seem halfway sane. The woman just smiled at him, probably thinking that Connie had been joking with her. Well, good. Who wanted to be known as the ill-mannered guy anyway?

He went back to listening, his mind flying off in a dozen directions as the women spoke. Apple and peach crops, along with some pear... going to waste, flying rivers which brought up flying guardsmen and how Eric, Mercy's husband, the Duke, Patricia's father really wanted to try out flying himself if he could get a hold of one of the devices.

Tor tilted his head.

“Well... I have a couple of spare sets if you'd like to try it, with shields, so it's not even that dangerous. Of course he could borrow Trice's too, I'm sure, but this way you can all go somewhere together, which is more fun...”