by P. S. Power
That magic could be used was a real point too. The height thing as well. He could make him look taller, but shorter… It didn't seem possible. That probably meant it was a brilliant idea if he could work something out. Tuck one of these giants into a commoner body and no one would ever find them.
As they walked back into the work room Tor remembered that they hadn't fed the Count yet, which had to be all kinds of rude, when you had a royal guest. Tor held his breath after mentioning it to Trice, who just shrugged, a sullen and unhappy thing. Tor winced.
“That bad?”
“No, well, normally yes, if you refused him food it would be a big deal, especially if you had it and I can smell the kitchen working already. But he left on his own, probably to avoid seeing me humbled.” She walked to the door of the room and stopped.
“I know that, things between us have been a bit… less than perfect. I accept that you may require me to do things to win your trust. I…” Her voice caught, like it did when she was starting to cry, “I'll do what you ask. Who do I have to beg?” Her face looked so forlorn it nearly caused him to start chuckling, but he knew better than to let that happen.
“Oh! I'm… That was just a turn of phrase Trice! I want to see if we can get Countess Cannor in as go between for Sandra. It may be hard, since she hasn't seen my mom since, well you know all that. But she should, and really, if we can get her around for it, it should be done even if we can't get her to act in that capacity.” He shrugged. “In that case I was thinking of Countess Printer. Really, she should start a working group at her academy too. I should bring that up.”
Tor moved in and gave Trice a hug. It wasn't all he wanted to do to reassure her of her place, but really, sex was just out. He wasn't even sure he could function at the moment. Nothing happened from pressing his body against hers and that normally did the trick all on its own.
“Don't worry, I love you. It's, well, I'm not holding any grudges. Honestly, I… don't think I can.” It was really almost an alien concept. He knew it happened, people getting mad and even staying that way for years, or even the rest of their lives.
How they did it just didn't work mentally for him at all.
Mary Cannor answered her communications device herself, sounding excited and happy. She even offered to start that day cross country by carriage to perform her task.
“No time for that Grandmother Cannor.” Tor said, using the words for the first time. Step-grandmother was too big a mouthful. A happy sound came from the device at least when he said it.
“So, what I'd like to do is send in Patricia Morgan in with a fast carriage. Those fly, but are really safe, far safer than a regular ones with those unpredictable horses and all those divots and bounces along the road.” He was leading the conversation, having a feeling that the Countess had never flown before.
“Oh, I can handle it. I want some of that flying gear though, if you’re looking for a birthday present for me.”
Tor tilted his head and shrugged.
“I… have a few to catch up on. I'll send some things, if that's all right?” She was family after all.
When the connection was broken, only ten minutes later, Tor started writing.
“I need the dam there checked on too, if you can? Also check to make sure no one is struggling that much? After the flood… I’ll get you some gold just in case…” He didn't want to meddle, but if they needed something, the kids would need some time to get everything around.
Trice surprised him then by giving him a big hug, standing over his chair, warm breasts pressed against his face. It was still fun, half broken or not.
“I love you. I guess I never realized how much you really did for other people before.” It was followed by a kiss, which was warm and very well done. He responded as best he could.
From the door a throat was cleared.
“Breakfast is ready. Unless you two are planning to skip it?” Collette didn't sound displeased by the idea, but Tor knew he needed to eat.
“Tempting, but I need to grab a quick bite and get to county Cannor and back to Two Bends, so kind of a hurry today.” The little dragon stared at Tor and nodded firmly. What that meant he didn't know, but it was cute. It had turned a reddish purple color. The eyes were ice blue though.
He knew that because her right breast was still looming over his face.
“Um, Collette? Not to be bossy, but can the ice manufactory keep working if you spend the day with me?” She was a business woman too, after all. He had to remember that.
“Oh sure! It's the slow season. People hardly buy ice at all this time of year, even here. It will probably pick up a bit for Postern. Not much though. The hot festivals, now those are good for business. So, yes, the workers don't need me most days at all. I just check in once a week or so.”
Tor nodded and stood, which forced Trice to step back, smoothly though, with more grace than not. Her grin was infectious and Tor caught it.
They all ate together, but as promised Trice hurried, leaving half way through. Ali and Maria had plans to go to the palace for the day, so they'd be taken care of too. Reminded Tor jumped up from the table.
“Um, excuse me for a moment, I'll be right back.” He paused but they all smiled gently and murmured that it was fine.
When he got back he set a small pile of amulets next to Maria.
“New shield, flying gear, old style military not flyer, force lance and an air choke.” He pointed to each in turn. “Those are for you. To see to your safety.”
Now all they needed was to get the names of everyone else that didn't have the new shields and get those off. Hopefully the King and Queen would be passing out the gifts from Sandra already too. He was going to run out of things way before he could get back to work himself. He had a bunch of stuff made up, but the desire to do things was eating at him already.
Maria held the little amulets, all on focus stone, with glowing sigils as if they were more than trinkets.
“I…” She started crying then. Tor scrambled for something to short circuit her on that. Eep. Too many tears by far in his world.
“Oh… We should see if Glaran will go with you. I don't know how well you cook or bake Maria, but Ali needs a bit of practice for large crowds and the Queen, while a wonderful organizer, might push her staff too hard, trying to save coins that we're trying to spend, instead of hiring people. Is that all right?”
It was, since in one of those odd turns that Maria often had, she liked the woman better than her own mother. Tor had never met her at all. Given everything the woman was probably a delight. Maria had fought with both Collette and Petra for years after all, but loved Bonita, which made little to no sense. Not that Nita shouldn't be loved, that was clear, just that the others were wonderful too.
That taken care of and a nice kiss from Ali, they managed to be gone shortly after the meal. That meant all Tor had to do was use the communications device he had to talk to about fifty people. It had to be done though. If he left anyone out they might feel slighted.
That would be bad.
Collette wasn't too worried though, reminding him that, as long as he had room for people, and they were going to, and as long as he basically let anyone stay with them, his part was taken care of.
“People will just show up when they hear though, that were putting up everyone, so we probably need housing and food for twice the number of people it seems like… We have enough houses. The only thing is… Well, we need to rent the length of the south wall to the river. Then we can let people set up shops and stand rent free, between the temporary structures.”
She shrugged.
“That's going to cost. About three hundred gold for the week. It's a huge space.”
“Do we have that to hand? I know that Count Morris mentioned sending some golds, but I don't know what we have available at all.”
The golden blond beamed at him and looked down at the table.
“Oh, yes, it hasn't just been him. Everyone has sent funds, we have
nearly a quarter million gold locked up in the safe room. I told everyone to invest it locally for you, instead of sending more. That of course means that people are starting more businesses, I think you actually own several hundred concerns outright now, managed by the people on site. You also own a lot of property. Martya has been buying up a lot in Warden and most of the other capital cities too. She and I… If it's all right, we're planning ice manufactories in all of the major cities. We don't have the devices for more than six right now, but, I was wondering, what would the Lairdgren group charge us for their efforts? I know that they're busy right now, but if we bought them ten at a time, for say, five thousand gold? Do you think that's fair? The price is low, but it's not original work. We could pay you, but we figured that if we left you part ownership…”
Tor laughed. It was a fine idea after all.
“I know they're busy, they have school work to do too, but we'll ask during Postern, I've invited them to stay here. Actually I invited all of them, the whole school, and Two Bends. If we could put those next to each other and maybe the place for the Counts and their families on the other side…” Tor looked down.
“But all of that is up to you, of course. Me trying to do it would be silly.”
They started calling then. It was a lot harder than Tor thought it would be.
By far.
Chapter Eighteen
At first it all went fine. Really well, Tor thought. People were pleased enough to hear from him, and either said yes, or in a few cases, made polite excuses, generally having their own plans for events. In those cases Collette gave them contact information for the rest of the Postern committee, so that they could get in on whatever mobile events that were planned. There were some magical fireworks and transport rides available for instance, as well as some of the Kings week events that, while they were needed back for that, were being lent out, so others could enjoy them.
The Waterfall mountain might be a little cold, but by just using some water heaters at the right points it should be able to be kept toasty enough. Then it would need to be cooled on the way out, but a careful hand could do it.
No the trouble came when they got to Countess York.
Tor didn't know her at all, but she, apparently, knew a whole lot about him. It wasn't that she was rude, or even cold, just a bit stiff. At first. Finally she got to her issue, which wasn't really hers at all.
“I… received some troubling information a few days ago. I don't know how to proceed on the matter. One of my Barons, Rochester, has set writ, declaring his intent to seek a duel with you for cause? I had to sign the papers, you understand? It's traditional if there is any cause at all and he claims that you beat him quiet soundly? No reason was given…” She tried to lead the question, but didn't ask outright.
“Oh, yes. Well, I can't say, promises were made to that end, to protect his name. To him. So telling you now would be cause all on its own. Well, that's unfortunate.” Tor felt a lot worse than that about it, but held his voice steady.
It was never a good day when someone wanted you dead.
“At least he registered it as a duel without encumbrance, so it shouldn't be too the death.” The woman’s voice was concerned and after a minute Tor got it. She was worried that Tor would kill the guy. Ah.
“I take it that he's been restored to health then?” He asked with a smile, letting it carry into his voice.
“Oh my yes, we have a wonderful traveling doctor in the area with one of your healing devices. He did charge Brian through the nose however, I believe it was something like five hundred gold? Worth it though. Perfectly fine now. I told him he should count himself lucky and let it go, but he didn't listen. He often doesn't. A bit of a hot head, not that you heard it from me.”
Tor sighed and made sure she knew that she was invited to stay in one of his houses for the event and that they could send a transport around if desired. She accepted with a bit of excitement. More than the others had even. She'd always wanted to fly after all. Even before it was something actually possible.
The instant the connection was broken Collette jumped to her feet, looking ready to fight the Baron herself right then.
“That… monster! He must have heard about your current state and wants to capitalize on it. What are we going to do?” She sounded really worried.
“Um, tell him no?”
“But then you'll lose face and people will look down on you…” Her words were flat though, as if she thought it was a good idea, but really didn't want to be seen as coaching him to that end.
Thinking for a while he finally stood himself, a laborious thing that took the better part of fifteen seconds.
“Well, or he can wait half a year for me to just heal up. Either way works for me. I mean, I get that he might have some hard feelings. That isn't really my issue though is it? Plus, maybe we shouldn't jump to conclusions. He may just be looking to pay me back, not knowing that anything is going on with me at all. When he's told he might just withdraw his claim, or at least wait. If not, then, well. Tough. It's too stupid to worry over and if people want to think I'm not fighting because I'm scared, well, that's the truth, isn't it? I really don't want to be beaten to death if I can help it. It's my least favorite way of dying after all. Other than burning, or being buried alive I mean.”
That actually got her to calm down and they managed the rest of the day’s work pretty smoothly. Count Rodriguez was a little cool to him at first, but warmed up when he got his invitation.
“I'd heard from sources you were having everyone in, but I didn't think I'd make the list. When we last met it wasn't under the best circumstances.”
It hadn't been. It was the only other duel he'd been in. Well, except for the fight with the seven Larval assassins. He'd gotten the guy to withdraw, mainly by torturing him into it. As a seated Count he couldn't really just be killed, not in a duel. That would cause his county to cry foul and go to war. He'd challenged David Derring to a fight to the death, to try and punish his father it seemed. Tor had kind of recklessly gotten him to fight him instead. It probably saved the Counts life. David had orders from his dad to “accidentally” kill the man if he didn't withdraw in shame first.
“But we left as friends. You don't leave your friends off the list if you can help it, right?” His words sounded innocent, even to him.
The Count went silent.
“Um, you can't see it, but I'm bowing to the little speaking plate. That's… rather more than I expected. I would be honored to attend. Thank you.”
“Wonderful! See you then.”
The next few days were similar, but got a little easier, thanks to him getting his health back. The only hard part, for Tor, was that nothing new was coming in from Denno. He'd said it might take a while and that seemed to be playing out. He did have some information, for instance there were fifteen agents in the kingdom, spread out some, but most in and around the Capital. Only half were women. That couldn’t account for anyone that had been enlisted by Daria as she acted as an agent though. Only the ones actually from Austra.
No one could explain the murders directly however. It certainly wasn't procedure. Daria Serge was definitely still in Austra however, working with her father regularly enough that it would be hard, but not impossible to get to her. The information about how to do that was heartening.
Because it meant that it could actually be done.
That meant another trip for Tor himself, first to the palace to get Karina and then Lairdgren to pick up Kolb. He'd taken notes and drew out maps by hand, based on a book he borrowed from Rolph, showing the best routes in and explaining what was known about her daily habits.
Tor didn't mention what his plan was and didn't let the others talk past saying hello. Karina seemed down and dark again, but Kolb just looked hard and like he could take on small armies by himself. Since he literally could, armed as he was and with his skills, that worked.
They hovered then, in a carriage that could get them anywhere in the world
in less than a day, hanging over Lairdgren school about six thousand feet up. This craft was purple, and shaped like a teardrop, just because that's the shape it had been in when it was taken to Austra. Tor had made it bigger, and changed the color from blue, but that was it. Holding the thing steady, Tor passed the stack of papers back to Sir Kolbrin and waited for him to look through them. Karina didn't say anything, or even shift overly.
It was a royal thing, he knew, the King’s family in particular, learned to wait for people to get up to speed and accepted that sometimes they didn't get to know what was really going on. It had to happen and they were there too often for it to be left out of their early training. When he'd been learning his letters and helping out in the bakery for half days, this girl had been learning to fight off multiple opponents, lead a battle charge… and to wait. She was good at it.
The large bald man, smiled.
“How good is this information?” He spoke conversationally, it was friendly sounding even.
“Gotten from someone that claims to have a personal reason for it to be done, that I don't think wants to have my ill will. Who he got that from I don't know. My guess is from the Austran spy network or military, maybe both, so you know if it's possibly avoid killing that sort, since they might be our friends, even if they don't realize it.” Tor shut up and let the man think for a bit, which he did for nearly half an hour, then he passed the papers to the Princess.
“If it's good, we can go on it. Assassination of a leader is a dangerous practice, but the Austrans took that restraint off the table when they bombed the palace last year and sent assassins to attack the Queen’s day celebration.” He let the girl read then.
Finally she sat up and nodded.
“I… see it as valid. Why though? I mean I don't love Glost Serge and think he needs to be killed, but it isn't common practice. We normally act with greater honor, as a kingdom.”