Lord of the Sky (The Young Ancients: Timon)

by P. S. Power

  "Don't worry, I know lots of things we can do that are perfectly legal, and still enough fun to be worth trying out. Tomorrow? About seven in the evening, or did you want to do something earlier?" She, it seemed, was ignoring the threat that Ali had made to show up en mass. She also pitched her voice to sound a bit throaty and seductive. It was so clear that she was playing to the crowd that Tim just nodded.

  "That sounds about right. I'll make snacks. Bring a change of clothes." That part was over the top, but, then again, for the room they stood in it wasn't really. He was under age, but also technically an adult. It was an uncertain area for some. Not for him, but at least a few of the people, mainly women, watching him, seemed a lot more interested suddenly than they had been earlier.

  In that kind of way that made his skin crawl and suspect treachery now. Thanks to Nora.

  He did a good enough job of seeming like he meant it that Trice actually blushed, but then nodded, as if she'd really be spending the night on Noram Day Vigil. Tor actually huffed at him and turned away, as if watching what someone else was doing, even if he had to get at least part of what Trice had planned. Maybe more than Timon did, if he was reading her field closely. That could explain his reaction. If so, his brother was becoming a better player than he'd ever managed before. As far as Tim knew at least.

  After that, mercifully, they managed to get outside, which meant they were able to leave. He had to find his floating trunks first, but that wasn't too hard, since they were in the same small room they were left in. Heather picked up her clothing and started to change, taking both amulets off at once, before even picking up her carefully folded gown.

  It was very different, but nobles just really didn't care about nudity as much as rural people did. They hardly cared at all in fact. He tried to look at her a polite amount, but that caused him to become aroused, which reminded him instantly of things he didn't want to think about. In the end he had to look away, but forced a smile, hoping his regard had been enough for her not to feel insulted. She was attractive, but explaining that it was all him probably wouldn't be enough.

  She dressed efficiently however, and no one stopped them as they left, not even to chat. She kept brushing at the front of her clothing, the dirt not wanting to leave where it had touched. It probably wouldn't, without water. The soil in the area of the Capital was fine and a nice light tan color, but it got into everything. Including the small nooks and crannies of fabric.

  After setting up his craft, which just appeared in total silence, just like it always did, they climbed in and moved out of the area carefully, not going too fast at all. When they were about ten miles away he pushed the palm sized control piece all the way forward, making sure to climb high enough he wouldn't accidentally hit a mountain or anything. The pressure change wasn't too bad, but some people didn't like it at all.

  Heather just stared into the night, her face not moving for a long time. Finally she moved to look at the side of his head.

  "You were made uncomfortable, when I took my clothing off. Is it me?" Her words were light enough, as if she didn't care if that was the case, but it was a trap. Even he, with no real relationship experience at all could hear it in her voice.

  "No. I... You know that I killed Countess Alan? Do you know why?" It was possible that everyone in the world knew. He'd really thought that the whole thing had been pretty well hidden, but apparently not so much.

  "Not at all. We were just told that you did it. Didn't the King just order it done?"

  "Uh, not at all. She and a Larval Assassin kidnapped me and..." It felt, for a moment, like the words were just too big to come out, especially to a stranger. He forced them to anyway, trying not to care about anything at all. They didn't shame him, it was just that thinking about it all reminded him of it. "They tortured me. They used a rack, and a special pain inducing Austran chemical that's supposed to be the very worst pain a person can feel. It was three days. It felt like weeks. Nora... abused me the whole time. Raped me. Then she used a knife to cut my manhood about halfway off." He dared to glance at her and actually managed a small smile. "Don't worry, the healing device fixed it, but when I was trying to escape, I built a cutter. It wasn't a big thing, but I was so damaged that I couldn't reach the chains on my legs. I cut them off. My legs I mean, so I wouldn't die a prisoner. My Grandfather and his people came and got me about then, and managed to save me. Now all the scars are just the ones on the inside, but..."

  Tim stopped talking and glanced at her again, expecting pity. It wasn't there. Instead he looked into the face of rage.

  "Why? Did they need your secrets so badly that they did such barbaric things?" There was a hiss after she spoke, followed by another.

  "Not at all. They didn't even ask me to tell them anything. They just wanted to use my communications device, the old style one, to get in touch with Tor, then they were going to make me scream, to get him to come and save me. He never answered. I could have told them that he wouldn't. In fact, I'm pretty certain I did mention that, early on. Anyway, that, the torture and abuse were linked inside my mind, so now, if I even start to get interested in a woman, I panic. Especially very tall women. So, no, it wasn't about you at all. Except that you're too attractive. Probably best to keep your clothing on around me for the time being." Plus he was too young, but he didn't bother mentioning that. She wasn't offering herself to him, just making sure she hadn't been offensive. Possibly seeking to reassure herself that her looks hadn't faded yet at the same time. They hadn't.

  There was still a lot of anger inside of her it seemed. She didn't hit anything, but it was clear she wanted to.

  "Damn her. I knew that not everyone that held bad feelings towards the Cordes family were totally savory people, but I didn't think I was crawling into bed with monsters of that scale. Did Count Rodriguez play a role in that? Is that why you captured and... questioned him?"

  Timon looked straight out the window.

  "Tortured. I used some of that Austran pain medicine on him and two of his people. I know it works after all. It was out of revenge, but not because of that. Count Rodriguez had taken Petra hostage and tortured her for three weeks. They nearly ruined her, but some friends of mine and I were able to get to her, and help her heal. That's why I went after him. To hurt him for doing that. She was supposed to marry him. It wasn't just him grabbing someone to try and question her, some random person. She was his, and trusted him. She was at his house to spend time with him and he betrayed her so... evilly." There was no heat in the words, but he meant them all the same. His right palm was a bit damp, from the contact with the shield material that made up the hand control. That and stress. It wasn't a comfortable line of discussion.

  "I think I understand." Slowly a hand came out and touched his right shoulder. It was all he could do not to tense up or pull away. "Thank you for offering myself and my people your protection. I didn't know what that meant, before. I really thought you were mocking me, saying I was too weak to defend myself and my people. I half wondered if the Queen had gotten you to do it. We've never gotten along that well. I didn't know that you were a person to be reckoned with. I apologize for my error." The strange thing there was that she really seemed to mean it.

  He nodded.

  "No offense taken. It is kind of a funny idea. Everyone probably thinks I'm just going to use you for sex or something anyway. Drain the banks and run off with your coin. I won't." He meant the coin, but the other thing wasn't happening either.

  She let it all go, for about two minutes.

  "What are you going to do with Cousin Patricia? She seems to have plans for you that way. I know at least some of what she means to do, but if you can't stand the sight of a woman without clothing, I'm not sure if it will..." Heather suddenly looked out the window to the east, falling silent as if she had worked something out for herself.

  It was kind of nice in a way, since that meant she stopped talking about things that might make him feel uncomfortable. Instead of letting her start a
gain, Tim pointed out that he had communications devices in the back, where the cases floated, looking like black blobs in the mainly dark interior of the craft. He could make lights, but they made it too hard to see out.

  She was fairly docile really, just taking directions from him, and once she had the right unit in hand, hitting the sigil for Petra. The new units were harder to use, kind of like an Austran compact in style, working off of magic, instead of technology. Each one could reach hundreds of others now, instead of the sixty or so the old style ones had. They also flashed with a much brighter light than the original ones did, making them harder to ignore. If you were in the same room at least and hadn't stuffed the thing in a box.

  Petra hadn't. After a few minutes a very sleepy sounding tall girl answered, her voice rough.

  "What is it? Do you know what time it is? Grrr. I swear, if this is another person asking me what I'm wearing, I will hunt you down and kill you." She didn't sound like she meant it totally, but as tempting as it was to push her on the matter, Timon let it go and refrained from asking her about her clothes.

  "Pet? This is Tim. Countess Montblanc came over to our side, in exchange for some help. You can check with the King on it, but we need to get a full complement of healing devices to County Montblanc as soon as possible. Sorry to wake you, but..." It wasn't a fun idea, but every second they were at dinner, people had been dying. There wasn't a lot he could do about that, so he didn't dwell on the idea. People would die. More would die if they were slow. Now it was pretty much up to Petra to get the items there and Heather and her remaining people to handle distribution and recovery of the things after they were used. Tor was being very careful with them, he hadn't said why.

  For any normal person it would be about all the gold he could make off of them, but Tor didn't care about that. It had to be something else. There were several things it could be, but given his brother, it was probably something deep and important. Healing people would have some negative effect, or at least that was a possibility. Something like that. It wasn't that the amulets weren't stable, the fields were strong and would last for decades. Tim had felt that for himself.

  From the device in the Countess's hand, his friend spoke, her words a bit clearer, thanks to the urgency in his own voice.

  "Really? That's great. How did that happen? Did the King, or I don't know, Tor..."

  "No, it was Timon. He knocked on my door and then forced me to see reason. I was there, and honestly don't know what actually happened. I do know that he's baking for me and doing house chores for the next few weeks. That was part of the deal. He still hasn't mentioned who exactly sent him. The King seemed shocked to hear what he was saying when he called earlier." She sounded almost chatting, as if talking to an old friend.

  "Heather? Where are you?"

  "Coming from the Capital. It was, as you might imagine, humbling and humiliating. We can go over my fall later. We should get off of this thing so you can contact King Richard and confirm that this is all honestly happening. I'm not certain, but I think there's a party tomorrow at my home? Alyssa Baker claimed she might bring people, but I don't know if that was real or not. It seems a bit crass, given all the death in my County, but Patricia Morgan pointed out that having visitors will make this whole thing seem more real. You're in good with that lot, aren't you?"

  Petra was clearly forcing herself out of bed, the thing squeaking as she did it.

  "Yeah. Um, let me get with the Palace on this. If I can I'll have everything there by first light. If not..." What she would do wasn't said, not in any way they could hear. The line just dropped out. Turned off, since the things didn't go silent like that otherwise. You could drop them, or put them under water and they still worked just fine. They were basically on pieces of solid glass after all. No one had managed to even break one yet.

  The rest of the trip back wasn't that long, but it felt that way, since they didn't have a lot to talk about. For one thing they just didn't have that much in common. They were from very different worlds after all, for all that Heather had spent the first twenty-six years of her life as a Conserina and he was of roughly the same basic rank. That didn't change the fact that every other thing about them was vastly different. Here they were anyway, trapped in a small space together, forced to be polite. Or, really, no one was making them, but doing otherwise would be foolish. She was a Countess, if one that was kind of out of favor now. With pretty much everyone, too. The rebels would feel betrayed by her, and the King's people would hate her for having turned on them in the first place.

  On her part she probably didn't want to make him angry either really. After all, he could have the healing devices "lost" without any problem at all. It wasn't like he was going to lose sleep over anything like that. Honestly he couldn't imagine anyone having that sort of problem at all. Oh, he had bad dreams from time to time, but only ones about torture, or Nora coming back, not ones that made him feel bad about anything he'd actually done.

  The silence would have been oppressive, except for the fact that he was too busy fighting to keep his eyes open already. It wasn't that bad, but it took focus to make certain he wouldn't accidentally plow the craft into the dark earth below. That wouldn't leave him looking good, would it?

  He landed next to his little cottage, and as soon as Heather got out started to unload the cube, late or not. Leaving the Fast Craft sitting out was an invitation for someone to take it after all. He didn't need that at the moment, so a bit more work was required before he rested. No one contacted them again, which either meant there was a problem or that Petra had fallen back to sleep. Or, and he realized that it was far more likely, the woman had gotten in her own vehicle and was loading it at that moment instead of wasting time.

  "Do you have enough people to pass the healing devices around when they get here?" It wasn't hard to use them or anything, but it had to be done one person at a time. People would still die while waiting their turn, but acting too slowly, or leaving things just sitting around in a box wouldn't get them fixed faster.

  Heather held her hands in front of her rather unclean white dress. In the dark it was hard to see her, since her skin wasn't very reflective. His showed a lot better that way.

  "We do have a system in place. The original plan was for us to send a third of the shipment to each major city, and pass them that way, spreading out to the countryside. Then, due to... mistakes, the items weren't delivered. I suppose I can understand why, but this attack is still monstrous. Since when did the crown punish the common people for the actions of their leaders?" It was pretty clear the woman didn't expect and answer at all. That made sense. After all, if you talked to a thousand kids his age at that moment, most wouldn't know anything about the situation at all. A lot of them would have to ask what she meant, as far as that went.

  Timon just looked toward the pale shapeless form of her legs.

  "The crown didn't." It was the kind of thing that she'd probably find out eventually, so it was better for him to say it, then let her feel extra betrayed later, right? Of course she might hate him after she knew, but that was probably what she should feel. "My Grandmother, the Gray Ancient, made the plague to kill most of the world. Tor made the healing devices to undo that. It was a heroic measure too. He made more devices for this in a week than all the builders and copiers in Noram could have made in twenty years or more. The decision to withhold them wasn't the King's, or my brother's."

  There was a soft inhalation that he couldn't see. It sounded baffled, rather than shocked. After all, she already knew that the things hadn't been delivered as planned. It was hardly news to her.

  "No, I did that part. I took the ones that were meant to go to you, and to all those that were announcing themselves at war with us. It was to weaken you all. So... all the death of your people, that comes from me. It really is barbaric. Even Tor called me that when he found out about it. It's a horrible thing, but then, I'm pretty much a horrible person, so I can do things like that."

  Timon wa
ited to be called names or even be attacked, but it didn't come. Instead there was just a soft sobbing from where the giant woman stood. It only happened once, and then there was the sound a very deep breath being taken.

  "Am I supposed to believe that? A single boy can thwart the might and will of the entire Kingdom, and that no one could stop you? I don't know if you took the devices initially, but even if you did, the King could have ordered you to bring them back. Your brother could have. No, it doesn't matter whose hand did the stealing, it was King Richard that made the final decision. I hate him for it, but it's already done, isn't it?"

  Things suddenly felt awkward. After all, demanding that she blame him for his own actions didn't make a lot of sense, but there wasn't a lot of logic to her words. Was it his responsibility to fix what she was thinking? Could he?

  "I told you the truth. I also get that you already have problems with the King and his family, or had at least. You need to make certain that you don't go back on your word, or I'll look pretty bad." He smiled, not meaning it, but was glad that she couldn't see it. That kind of thing just made you seem unbalanced. "We should get some sleep. The devices will come, or not. Being exhausted won't help us either way."

  She murmured something that sounded like she was wishing him pleasant dreams, rather than cursing his name like she probably should have. She walked alone to her front door, some twenty yards away over the soft grass of her lawn. It wasn't perfectly cared for, being winter. He didn't feel the cold, but realized, after it was too late, that she had to have been freezing the whole time. With that thought he went into his own little dwelling and secured the door, then changed into other clothing and slept until the noise from outside woke him.

  No one had knocked and the sun was already up when he stepped outside. Nearly a hundred people were there, filling boxes with healing devices, that or packs, and loaded them onto horses, riding away as if it were a race. Petra called out instructions and pointed to a man that looked more like a thief than an official of some kind.