The Dark Half of the Sun (The Young Ancients: Timon) (41 page)

It really wasn't.

When they landed at the Count's house, not far outside his door the man stepped out, his soldiers behind him, carrying heavy looking chests. Three of them, stacked so two men could share the load. One of the men Timon realized was actually a hard looking giant woman that was at least a head taller than Judith and had that heavy boned structure that made some of the noble women look like men if they weren't in a dress. Her breasts gave her away. The other guard was a man, and shorter, but looked to be hard enough to make that not be all that important. He was still big, most of it muscle and scar tissue it seemed.

The Count was huge too, nearly the size of the woman, but larger across the shoulders. The others were in guard uniforms, black and gold. The noble was in gold, trimmed with fur. It was real clothing for all of them, not magical, unless they were masters of disguise at least. While fine, it all had that appearance of being used and not something meant to impress, as much as travel in. That made sense, but was a poor plan, since they'd be landing in the Capital in a lot less time than they thought.

Or they would have been.

Timon bowed, Judith doing the same automatically. The Count managed a credible bow back and eyed the girl in a way that was more than a little telling. Slightly plain or not, he liked what he saw there.

"Well met, Count Rodriguez. This trip you and your people will be the only passengers, so you'll get a direct flight to your destination. That will take about an hour and a half, more or less. We'll be able to see the Capital at night from the air. It's impressive." That part was true enough. The glowing purple river wasn't exactly something you could see anywhere else.

"Wonderful!

"We can just set our baggage inside?" He sounded nicely polite, so Timon ran and opened the hatch at the back for that, nodding.

"Certainly. There's a special compartment in the back. Normally I'd load those for you, but I think that your people might be better suited for that right now." He gestured upward at them, which got a pleasant grunt from the woman.

"Some advantages to being tall." Her glance went to Judith who made a face that said she understood the hardships too. Timon didn't get it personally, but they almost had to be there. There were benefits and drawbacks at all extremes.

The guards were efficient and had the trunks loaded in seconds, the Count getting in, his face happy, about the accommodations it seemed.

"Very nice. The Wizard Tor made this, didn't he?" The man looked around and nodded. "A very mighty person in many ways. I foolishly challenged him to a duel once. He helped me make a great fool of myself. Then he invited me to the Postern event, to stay in one of his homes. We'd parted friends after the duel, but I figured those were simply words. It turned out that words from him mean something."

The man seemed almost pleased by the whole thing and the idea that Tor had proclaimed him a friend nearly got Timon to call the whole thing off. Until he remembered that the man had been Petra's
fiancée
and still had her tortured. If you were going to be a real friend you couldn't hurt and kill the friends or family of those that you were supposed to be close to. It was so basic it wasn't even a rule. It just
was
.

Tim forced a smile.

"My brother. Shall we go? There's a basket of snacks and drinks for you, I think there's enough for you all." He waited for the last guard to settle in, shut the door for them and then took off at full speed. He wanted to get out of sight of anyone on the ground before landing, so got Judith to pour some cups of a fine golden wine, each taking one. No one drank, so he smiled and suggested that Judith have some too. After she drank half a red-black focus stone cup of the stuff the others smiled and followed suit. They ate after she did too.

As if that would protect them from him?

As soon as she was sitting next to him, munching a delicate looking sandwich with a tangy scented cream sauce, Timon slammed the walls up with a thought and drained the air as fast as it would go. The whole thing was made of shield, but the three in the back managed to pound hard enough that the whole thing reverberated with the shock of it. After four minutes the sound stopped. After another two he landed the craft, hoped out and got ready to jump back after he opened the door.

"OK, I'll do the search, if they start to come around, use your force lance. It shouldn't affect me. Not through this shield."

The giantess nodded once, pulling the lance and setting herself in a ready stance. "Set."

He moved fast, stripping the three of all tools, amulets and blades as fast as he could move. They were all starting to wake as he finished with the giant woman, doing her last, since she scared him more than the others. From the way her fists where smashed he figured that it had been her doing most of the banging. The others looked almost peaceful and undamaged.

He locked the door down into place before anyone could do more than crawl toward him feebly. They didn't speak, hurrying toward County Alan then, moving fast and hard. The trip was tense and Timon had second and third thoughts, certainly, but he didn't voice them and decided that his plan was clear.

It wasn't so much that he thought hurting people was a good thing. It was clearly a horror. It was just that he was more pro-revenge than anti-torture, as it turned out.

Before they landed in front of the house he'd set up earlier, the chains ready to go inside, he cut the air to the back again. There was more pounding, but it was a lot softer this time. Then they had to work fast, taking the others one at a time. First the Count, closing the others inside as they struggled to move the huge man in. Then the rest, taking the vast woman last. He had to knock them out by taking away the air each time, which couldn't have been good for them.

Then they waited for the others to awaken. Rodriguez came to first, growling angrily at them.

"I'll have you both killed for this! There won't be a rock big enough to hide from me, no pit deep enough!" He kept on in that vein for a while, the guards joining in after a time, though the poor giant lady seemed a little worse for the wear.

Timon just watched to see if it looked like they could break the chains that wrapped under the soft beds they were on. They wouldn't take those out, being made of magic, but the heavy metal seemed to stop them pretty well too.

He finally held up one finger.

"You're here to answer some questions for me. Not yet though. Now, I'm going to go and see to some things. My friend here is well armed and if anyone seems to be escaping, or even insults her too much, she has full right and duty to kill you. Don't try her. I picked her for a reason." Which was that she'd been at the right place when he needed a helper. He didn't mention that part.

He walked out, as was the plan, since it was late enough to go to the Capital and see if Mark had managed to get anyone to come with him. If not... Well, Timon had a good idea of some other things that might work as far as creating pain went.

It took clearing his mind totally to not worry about the three escaping and ruining everything. He flew as fast as he could, but it felt like the craft crawled through the night. He landed at the palace, expecting that at least Denno would be taken there. That turned out to be the correct reasoning, because mixed with the Royal Guard stood Petra, Brown and for some reason Smythe the Military Councilor.

They all got in without asking any questions. Including the Royal Guards, six of them. It made for a full load of people, so he reconfigured the seats for it. Not all of them were giants after all. Once he took off Denno spoke softly, tapping a small case in his hands.

"Ten doses. You asked for this... I don't know if you realize what it can really do. The pain is designed to be the very worse that a being can survive. Some don't, the raw pain causing their own body to attack itself." His voice did not sound happy about the request at all.

Timon grunted once.

"I know what it does first hand. Three days of it. That's why I asked for you to bring it."

Sitting next to Brown, Petra grimaced. "I wasn't told what this was about. Who are we going to be... questioning?" There was hesitancy to her voice. It made sense, the woman not being evil or anything. No good person that had experienced torture wanted it for anyone else. Sometimes it might have to be done, but that didn't mean it was a good thing.

He didn't turn, staring straight ahead instead.

"Count Rodriguez and some of his guard. We're holding them in an isolated cottage. I don't want to be gone long. They can't be allowed to escape and if it starts to happen my person on the ground will kill them first."

Petra changed then, her face hard suddenly.

"You... have Will? I..." There was a deep shuddering breath, but no sobbing. "Thank you."

He just flew. The rest of the people were silent the whole time and they were out of snacks. It felt slow again, but it wasn't. If anything the craft moved more quickly now than it had before. Not a lot, but enough that the clock said it was only just approaching one in the morning when they got in. He climbed out first, opened the door and called out, seeing Judith standing and looking stern, like she was supposed to. The others looked like they were in the correct places too.

"It's Tim. I have the others. Plus a few, sent by friends." He wasn't going to be any more exacting than that himself, intending for the Royal Guards, Denno and Smythe to stay outside, but they all walked in, as if expected.

Petra saw Judith and looked... Proud. She didn't say anything, but there was a single nod, as if the second she saw the girl it only made sense that she'd be there, holding the evil count.

Smythe moved to step forward, to take control, but Timon held up his right hand, shaking his head, then held out his right hand to Denno, who gave him the curiously textured brown case. It took a second for him to work out the little clasp on it, made of the same material. Inside were ten needles, filled with the pain mixture, whatever it was. He took one, and remembered what the Larval had done, removing the sheath that covered the needle and holding it point up, depressed the little plunger until a tiny bit of liquid shot out.

Then he walked to the bound Count and felt for the large vein on his neck, angling the thing just as had been done to him, knowing that had worked pretty well. A few seconds later he had the silver bit inside the man, who grunted in pain, then emptied the clear container that wasn't made of glass at all.

"Now, this is going to hurt. In a few minutes you'll be in the worst pain you've ever felt. Then it will get worse than that. In an hour or so, I expect that you'll be begging for death. It won't come. No, the pain will just keep getting stronger, until it's all you know." He smiled as the man made a small moan, the first of the burning and searing pain hitting him.

Then he held up the healing amulet Collette had given him.

"In moments this can take that pain away, make you healthy and whole again. All you have to do to move past this first round of questioning is answer all our questions truthfully. Here, this will help. No use lying to us. Either suffer silently, or talk honestly." It took a bit to get one of the Truth amulets out, which he activated and held in his own hand, moving so the Count could see him clearly.

"You know how this works? The glow that matches Smythe's robes stays clear as long as you tell the truth. Lie and a black line comes across it. I suggest you tell only the truth, since I'm going to kill you if you don't start working with us immediately. Right after I let you suffer agony that you cannot possibly imagine."

The field didn't change at all. Smiling he set the cord of the amulet around the man's neck, so it wouldn't slip off as he writhed.

That started a few minutes later the man gasping. Then Timon gestured at the Military Counselor.

"If you will?"

The questions came hard and fast, no answers coming at all, no matter what was said. Denno finally had to go outside, to sit in the Fast Craft, though the others all stayed. The large giantess started crying, a horrible weeping. Her hands looked ruined, but Timon used the healing amulet on her, fixing them in a few minutes.

"Don't worry. If you aren't traitors you won't be harmed. If you know anything and wish to end this part of things for him, you can, by letting us know what it is. I can promise that if you do, you won't be harmed, or even put to death. Not even if you're guilty of treason. You might have to move to another land, but I can see to that." It was just meant to weaken the Count's resolve, and not a promise to him, but after the healing was done the large woman shook her head, looking at Petra.

The Conserina didn't look back, ignoring her.

"Save him... Please Petra? I know I have no right to ask, after what they did to you..."

Petra gave her a hard look, her eyes wide.

"That's right, you don't! You think I don't remember you breaking my arms and legs Merta? Or you Stile, pissing into the pit while you laughed? You're as responsible for all this as he is."

For half a second Timon wondered if Petra was going to take her revenge on them then, possibly with fatal results, but she just ground her teeth, not moving.

Timon did it instead, pulling another two needles. Everyone stared at him as if they couldn't believe what was happening. He didn't go through the speech he had before though. This time he just waited, holding the healing amulet up as they started to squirm. The Count started screaming a little later, so Timon held the amulet in front of his eyes, swinging it back and forth.