by P. S. Power
That meant he could try clawing his way back to the surface reality with everyone else instead of having the personality of a doorstop and the empathy of a rock. Wensa was talking as they hovered trying to make a plan.
“And there goes the light. So, we need to find some way to get them off the roof, and do it without killing them all or getting ourselves killed. We can't take passengers flying this way, personal rigs, and a boat might work, but they'd have to be athletic and the older ones seems a little stiff. I don't think they're up to an eight foot drop right now.”
Tor literally had to shake himself.
“Ah… um… right so… we use a flying carriage and reconfigure it so the top is open, they can just walk in. I can drive it well enough for that I think. Probably. Someone will have to hold the light. Wensa? It was your idea.” Pulling the small brown river rounded stone from his pocket didn't cause a stir, everyone was too tired for that.
He still wasn't up to speaking much, that was one of the first things to go in a deep trance state, for Tor and most of the other meditation and building students at the school too. Instead of worrying about the words he pulled out the craft from around his neck and fixed it to hold everyone, with two covered areas in the back, that had clear but secured fronts, in case the dog and pig weren't friends without their people holding them. He had to land to do it, but the whole thing only took about five minutes and then got everyone but Wensa inside, sitting on the large and comfortable seats. Smiling a little blankly, but trying to seem sociable, Tor even left a place for Wensa up front, so that she could hold the light for them while he drove back to headquarters.
When Wensa activated the light, a brilliant beam shone from her right fist, spreading in a cone that was many times brighter than the sun when the sky was clear. The whole world below suddenly turned to day it seemed. It sent the light out so that it didn't go into the holders eyes, but Tor didn't know If that would be enough to leave her comfortable or not. It worked though. Still, Wensa wouldn't have complained if it left her blind, not when there was work to do. It looked about right sitting next to her. Hopefully good then. Tor nodded to her and got a soft nod back as the craft settled next to the sloped roof.
The people climbed on muttering thanks and looking like they might be in shock, cold and hungry. They didn't have food for them, but they could get warm easily enough. Once they had the dog and pig settled in their own cages, Wensa lowered herself into the front second seat, flying herself into place carefully, pointing the light in the right direction without being told to. Royal Guards practiced team work from early childhood and never really stopped, so her first thought was about what worked for him as driver, Tor figured, plus Wensa was a quick study. She pointed the light forward and down, so that he could tell where the ground was.
“Nice light. Just happened to have it in your pocket? Might have mentioned that earlier.” She said softly, her voice light and playful.
Rolph snorted from the back.
“On a stone I saw him pick up off the ground after you mentioned wanting exactly that kind of magic just before we took off this morning? Right.” The voice didn't sound amazed, just tired and a little proud.
Sam's voice was different, suddenly more awake than not.
“Um, sorry? You created a novel device, while flying through the air and searching for people in the water? In hours? That's… not possible, is it?” His voice had gotten soft.
Tor took a turn to snort and chuckled weakly.
“Of course it's possible. Either of you could do it with practice, and will. There's nothing special about me that you can't match or beat. Don't try it now though, I may need one of you to drive.” Tor yawned and made himself smile, then realized no one could see his face.
“Getting a bit sleepy you know.”
He just drove then, watching the ground for signs of where they were, and distance above the ground, hoping he didn't crash. That would look pretty stupid and besides, he really wanted to get some sleep. Being dead may or may not be restful, but a nice bed had always worked for him in the past. Maybe with a cute girl in it for warmth. He was married to one, if she didn't already have company. Or given the situation, if she wasn't just too busy herself to sleep.
Rolph yawned loudly. It was no fair because now Tor wanted to yawn too. The control indicator in his hand got depressed lightly as he did, his head going back.
“Stop it!” He chuckled, trying not to sound panicked at the suddenly loss of altitude. It was horrible control of the vehicle and Tor didn't really want the already worried farm folk to panic. They all seemed a little uneasy so far. It wasn't like they'd been flying before, was it?
“We’ll be back in a few hours, don't make me yawn though! I don't know, somebody talk or sing, something like that?” They were flying at a crawling pace, light or not. Tor really couldn't risk going faster. It just wasn't safe.
The farmers they'd gotten from the roof of their barn told the story, which took about an hour. It amounted to; “a flood came and we lost nearly everything but a dog and a pig. It was scary.”
Still, if they felt better talking about it, Tor could listen. He made encouraging sounds and fought to stay focused. He didn't want to mention it, but he nearly fell asleep several times before they got back, eyes closing without him being able to stop them briefly. Wensa watched him, but said nothing and didn't seem worried outwardly.
Right.
In her world, Tor was the driver, and as such wouldn't fail to do his job as long as he lived. It was a level of confidence that made him uneasy, but he just nodded and fought harder to make sure he did it. Wensa wasn't his friend really, but she didn't make a lot of overt mistakes either. If she thought he could do this, she was right, and one little Torrance Baker had better just do it.
The whole trip took about three hours and from the gentle snoring coming from the back, it sounded like almost everyone was asleep when Tor saw the lights ahead of them. Wensa was awake, but she had to be, to hold the light for him. Without her doing that, the best he could do was set down as slowly as possible and hope he wasn't over the river or on top of a tree.
“Over there, can you set down in a space that small? It should be easy enough for you.” Her voice was teasing and wry, trying to hide her fear of crashing most likely.
“Not a problem.” His voice was exhausted, but also held focus and determination. Confidence wasn't there, but it would have to do. A smile did come to his face at least, which had to count for something. Even if no one else could see it.
Really, it was only hard because he couldn't see directly below himself. Other than that it was just a matter of going slow and settling instead of powering towards the ground full blast. The craft didn't even bump when they landed. A few more hundred hours of practice and he might even get good at this, he decided.
Then he fell flat on his face when he tried to lightly step out of the craft. Tor had felt his foot catch on the small lip on the floor that made sure the door fastened securely when it had a top, which this one didn't. The fall was only from about a foot up, but he really wasn't ready for it and landed nearly flat on his face. The only thing that saved him from harm was his shield kicking in and sending the force of the impact into the ground. A low chuckle rose around him, a tired sound but not too mean. Tor stood up and even though he didn't get dirty, brushed himself off. Oh sigh. Tor grinned and realized that him looking a little bad just didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. The universe wouldn't notice that he'd tripped and wouldn't have cared if it did.
That was oddly comforting for some reason, knowing that ultimately he wasn’t being judged for the little things like that.
Then without acknowledging that he'd done it, Tor helped the family in the back out and handed them off to a local man in a light tan uniform that seemed to be making sure everyone had a place to sleep. That was a good plan, otherwise it would be tempting to just curl up on the ground. There were rows of new magical houses to the left, but Tor and the oth
ers were all staying in a decently large, very old, gray stone and wood dwelling off to the right. They managed to find beds and started sleeping almost immediately. Tor wanted to look for Ali, but after only a few minutes gave up and just grabbed a single bed, a device he'd made for sale, instead of one of the things from his emergency pack.
Who would have thought about beds?
Apparently Ali would, and that just showed that she was even smarter and more wonderful than he'd thought before. Tor yawned and then sank into it comfortably, letting it hug around him gently. The bed came with sheets and blankets, and, if you knew what you were doing you could make it grow or shrink. It was handy that way.
Tor wasn't too surprised when he woke up with a few other people sleeping next to him. Alissa was tucked into his front, held together like spoons. Behind him was a warm form curled around him that he feared might be Rolph or worse, Ridley, but was only Wensa. It was odd, but not as bad as he’d thought it would be. Rolph was flat on his back next to her and Trice was laying with her right arm drifting over the edge on the far side, looking like she was slowly slipping off the slick white sheet below.
Tor heard people moving around, but they were trying to be quiet, so it was probably safe to sleep a few more minutes. If they came in yelling then it would be a real problem. Drifting off he dreamed that he was flying, the air beneath his feet tingling for some reason, so he landed on a tomb, one made of pure and glossy marble. Ah, one of those kinds of dreams Tor understood, feeling a little reluctant about the whole idea. Well, he'd been warned by Burks they were coming, hadn't he? Because, even if it was all his imagination, the dead would haunt him, if he killed them at least.
Well, dream time then, goody.
It couldn't be happening in his waking life, not really, but he knew who was there. Tor had only done one thing that would set this up, so far at least. Only killed one person. The dead Count Derring. Ah. Well, this had to come, didn't it? His pattern's makeup, his “genetics”, and innate “programming”, as Burks had said, made it so he'd have to pay for each person he killed, one way or another. Monster or not, Tor had directly paid for the Counts death. With enough gold that decent sized villages couldn't have afforded it, even if they collected up all they had. Most full towns would have been hard pressed.
So no denying it was his fault.
Nodding, he readied himself for what had to come. A hand from the ground or a door opening to the tomb, for him to fall into. Instead the man was just there, not looking dead or decayed even, just smarmy and like he thought he was better than everyone else.
Normal for a Count really.
“Mr. Baker! And how are you doing?” He said, far more politely than Tor would have expected, even in real life.
“Um, hi Count Derring…”
“Oh, do call me Robert. Not really Count any more, am I? Being dead kind of cancels that one out. So, not to rush you, but you're about to wake up to an emergency, thought I'd give a heads up.”
That didn't sound right to Tor at all. Count Derring wouldn't have warned him of anything, would he? It didn't seem likely. He asked why the man had come to the sound of cheery laughter.
“Just to find out why you killed me. That's all. I don't suppose you have a good reason, do you? I never did. “I felt like it” was about the best one I ever managed myself.”
Not wanting to just gloss over it, Tor took a minute to think, it was in dream time, so a lot faster than ordinary thinking.
“It was because you had to die. Really, if you lived, you'd have kept doing those awful things to people, hurting them, raping them, all those other things you did that are too evil to even talk about. I still can't let myself think about most of those things you know. You weren't going to stop, were you?” Was he? Had Tor had him killed the day before his reformation or something?
“Oh gods no. I would have kept going, until I died anyway. Really, from here, I can see you did the right thing. Bit inconvenient, being dead like this, but the worlds better for it. Well, no real time left, you need to wake up now and get to work. Remember, work smarter, not harder.” The man chuckled and waved, a strange and almost silly look on his face.
With that Tor woke and sat up.
What the fudge kind of haunting was that? The man just basically agreed that he needed to be killed? It was true, but even Tor's own subconscious mind should have been harder on him than that. Making sure he knew killing was wrong and not to be taken lightly or something… Was he doing this dream thing wrong? Then again, maybe he just knew that the man had actually been unstoppable in any other way and what he'd done was just right?
By the time he'd scooted out of the bed and got dressed the men came in yelling, it still took a second to understand what they were saying, too many voices echoing in the stone hall they'd been given for sleeping.
“The dam is breaking!”
Right, that emergency that was mentioned. Handy that, in a way, since it meant he'd gotten a chance to wake up a little and get dressed first.
Tor grabbed his trunk of stuff and ran out into the cool morning air. After a second he didn't feel it anymore, but his breath made clouds in front of him as he ran. He needed to see the dam to know what to do, but didn't have a clue as to its location.
He needed a map. Fast too. A dam going on top of the existing flooding would be… bad.
Very bad.
Chapter Three
The dam was only about ten miles away, half an hour by horse, the man in tan told him. Of course if what they said was true, they didn't have half an hour. They may not have ten minutes even. Tor got the man to point with a single finger and flew that direction as well as he could using a flying rig and hoping he didn't get too disoriented. After a minute the muddy water glinted enough to see pretty clearly, so Tor just followed it, hoping it was the right branch and he wasn't going to end up over the North Pole or something. It was tense flying, desperate and as fast as he could go.
When he found it, Tor understood why the men had come in clearly frightened. The thing was huge, almost two hundred feet high, set between two small mountains of well rounded stone and it's gray material was cracking as water poured over the top.
Tor considered the situation and realized he just couldn't build a new one fast enough. Given a week, or better, a month, he should be able to do it. Right now, all he could do without dying would be watch it fall. The thing was huge and must have been the size of the King’s palace in the Capital. A little smaller than his own magical place had been during the King’s week festival.
That got Tor thinking.
Could he use one of the new forms of magical house for this? Would it hold? Well, it was basically a shield, no matter what it looked like and if he layered walls closely together inside, it might do. Windows lined up from front to back so the water could spill out? Shrugging Tor pulled out the right amulet and hovered in front of the dam, not a foot over the water. Then he activated the glowing house sigil with a single thought, not having a spare hand to physically tap it.
The house was small to start with, like always, so he focused his mind and filled the space completely. The building grew and shifted, altered in creative ways, so that it got bigger at the top and slowly formed a wedge that was smaller at the bottom. Focus and desperation made it solid, filling the interior with walls and removing any air gaps. It looked like the house was crying from its windows when he stopped. Keeping his mind clear, Tor tried to feel the structure with his eyes, tried to find out if it was holding or not. So far it seemed all right, but he needed to be sure it didn't get away from him any time soon.
Having nothing better to do then, still waiting for it to hold or fail, he turned the hundred plus foot tall, three hundred foot wide house a lovely purple color. It looked bizarre, but it was backing the dam well enough for the moment. Tor moved to the bank and waited. If this was going to fail, he needed to be on hand to try and fix it. After half an hour, a bit of water leaked past stone on the left side, almost imperceptibl
y. Before anything bad could happen Tor expanded the whole thing until the feedback from the device actually hurt his head a little inside. It was a burning in the back of his mind, a low thing he almost didn't recognize, until it got worse.
Hoping it was a sign off a tight fit he waited again. For hours.
As it neared noon, the sun directly over head, white and gold beating down, he got up, to just start back to the base. This wasn't a permanent solution, but hopefully it would get them through the worst of the flooding and a ways beyond. Possibly years. Once above the tree line, mainly evergreens like he grew up with, but smaller and a bit more twisted by the wind near the coast, Tor saw the nearly twenty people flying in, at what had to be top speed. It took a minute but everyone slowed eventually then dropped slowly, so he did the same. It wasn't like he had more pressing business, right?
Rolph had been the first one there, but wasn't the only one of his friends in the group. Most of them were. Including Sam and Guide. He nodded to everyone, smiling a little.
“Tor! Gods above. I thought you'd be dead by now, trying to hold back a river with your mind. It's exactly what you're not supposed to do… is that a house?” The voice went from worried and slightly scolding to incredulous in three words. Not a record, but the best he'd ever gotten from his friend.
Running over to him Sara jumped into a hug. She'd been crying for some reason, but seemed happy enough to see him at least. Hopefully it wasn't anything major.
“You blocked the river with a house? I… that's brilliant!” Trice tried to hug him too, but had to share with Sara, since she wasn't letting go.
The explanation didn't take long, but Kolb set a detail to watch it for leaks or anything else that might go wrong. Baron Havor got the job along with David Derring and Gersh's brother Johan. Apparently the snap judgment he'd made about the man, that he could be a combat giant, wasn't lost on Kolb either. Tor had worked with him when they were organizing the younger students training. He was decent with a blade, better overall than Tor, but nicer too, letting the smaller man win about half the time, so that Tor wouldn't feel bad about himself or look bad in front of the others. He'd made Tor work for it, but not so hard it was impossible.