Slave Line (The Young Ancients)

by Power, P. S.

  He took back the healing device and approached the man as he tried to stand again, attempting to raise his hands to fight, or at least ward off the blows he expected to be delivered. That was pretty tough minded, since the man looked like half his teeth had been knocked out. Either by Richard or the wall. Tor held up the device in his hand, showing what it was and carefully activated it for the man, catching just a bit of the healing field as he passed it over. It left him feeling better, but stressed his biological field too much to let happen. If it went on for another minute or so, it would probably kill him, he was so weak that way right now.

  The big man in front of him just held the amulet hard, shaking silently as it repaired the damage, even regrowing the teeth that were missing. About ten minutes later the man handed the amulet back, sighing.

  "Well. Remind me never to get in a fight with you again. Make my brother look like a little girl. Still, thanks for the healing there, I can get back to thrashing this thief again then. Might as well be at that now." He moved toward Richard who just raised an eyebrow and pointed toward the back of the room, where a good three dozen people stood, holding weapons, slowly moving toward the man.

  It was an odd group, made up mainly of young people, or ones that looked young, most of whom were dressed in purple and black outfits not so different from what Tor was wearing, if slightly more colorful. He really did like the purple, even though his was in a stately solid black. Behind them came a larger man, Smythe of Westend, who also had a weapon out and a bunch of Royal guards. Behind them though, looking most professional stood an armed Quavel and Kenner the communications device answering boy.

  The King, distracted, pointed at them with another raised eyebrow, getting Tor to shrug.

  "They heard you were being attacked, so came to defend you. Representatives of their land and all that." It was, as far as he could tell, just a simple fact. Oh, true, Quavel had probably come to make sure the Queen was safe, since she'd been his whole job for over ten years, but the basic idea was the same. Tor ignored them then, as if having enemy spies running around with weapons was perfectly normal and turned back to the King's brother.

  "I don't suppose you'd like to explain to me why you were attacking the King and calling him a thief? Before we lock you up in your room without supper or whatever punishments the royal brother gets when he messes up. A spanking maybe?" Tor wasn't trying to be funny, but almost everyone laughed.

  The man, who Tor had never met, was a giant. Well, a lot of people around the palace were, but he was bigger than most of them, bigger than the King even, by a bit, about two inches or so, making him about nine feet four inches tall. Not the biggest man Tor had ever met, but close. Oddly enough the man looked at Tor when he spoke, except for a few fleeting glares at the King every few words.

  "He, is a thief, because he's keeping my stipend from me. Claiming I only deserve half of it for some reason. Probably pocketing the rest. That's my birthright, and keeping it from me is against the law. One he can't change either. Written that way to stop things like this. I'll go to war over it. Stupid..." He turned as if to start fighting again, which made Tor pissed suddenly. It wasn't his fight, but still, attacking the King over gold was moronic... and trying to hurt your own brother was even worse.

  "Stop that." Tor moved in front of the man, not knowing his name. He glared though, trying to remember it. Something Rolph had told him once.

  "Kedrin, is it? Alphonse and the girls Uncle?" He waited for the man to tell him he was wrong or something.

  "That's right. I'm sorry, you are...?" This came out in a gentle enough fashion, almost polite even.

  He was well trained if nothing else, at least when it came to people not his family. Then, for all Tor knew it was only his brother than he'd fight with like that. Shameful though.

  "I'm Tor. Friend of the family, which makes me your friend too I suppose, so don't make me order the kitchen to only serve you cold potage for supper. I'll totally do that by the way." He would too. That or end the man where he stood for attacking his friend. The only thing stopping him was the idea of the man screaming at him all night while he tried to sleep like the others had done the night before. It wasn't very restful.

  Oddly, for some reason Kedrin smiled and spread his hands.

  "Of course. Pleased to make your acquaintance. Excuse my... displeasure. I simply came to get my annual draw and found that it was being kept from me. I've rather spent a lot of it already and owe several, shall we say, noble individuals, recompense for work already done. True, I won't be harmed if I fail to pay in a timely fashion, but I gave my word and this one seeks to undermine me out of spite." That he meant the King was clear, but the whole thing barely made sense.

  Everyone standing at the back of the room looked tense still. Actually it was everyone altogether that looked that way. The man kept looking at Tor though, his thick brown mustache moving when he smiled.

  "Wait, you wouldn't happen to be the Wizard Tor, would you? The Counselor of Magic? The one banging my sister in-law? Not that I blame you there. Well worth the effort. She used to be most flexible if I remember right. Took her virginity you know. Bit of a strumpet back in the day. Used to spend most of her time with Laurie Lairdgren. Now she..." The man went down with a thump, groaning as he did. It was the kick to the groin that had done it, Tor figured, not even realizing he'd moved. As sore as he was it surprised Tor that he could kick that high without screaming himself.

  Richard laughed.

  "Yes, that Tor. Torrance Baker. Laurie Lairdgren's son. I'd point out that he's also kicked your behind twice in the last ten minutes. Keep it up dippy and we'll see if you aren't stuck in a small room with only a cold bowl yet. At any rate, as I said earlier, I'm not trying to keep your stipend from you, we simply can't afford the whole thing this year. I just asked that you defer a portion of it this time and let us repay you later. It isn't theft, I'm asking a favor, moron. I'm half tempted to cut you off totally and have you in irons for what you've done already here today. It would save golds all around."

  He was answered with a groan from the floor. An upset and angry sounding one, but it was clearly pained. To his credit the man didn't answer the King's insults at all, just standing and bowing toward Tor instead.

  "Um... Ow." He said first. Then he took a deep breath, followed by a bit of panting.

  "Forgive me for the insult there. I didn't know that Laurie was your mother or I'd have kept my mouth shut. On that bit at least. I was needling my brother with the fact that I was more popular as a child than he was. At least with the girls. Not nearly as much with the Count or the instructors. Well, anyway. No hard feelings?" He had a charming way about him, when he wasn't trying to be a complete prick, Tor decided.

  "Right, well, things are a bit heated. Now, how much gold are we talking about here?" Tor figured it would be a lot, Maybe a percentage of the treasury. The guy was a prince after all. Not in direct line for the throne now, but still, it had to be expensive to keep someone like him.

  "A thousand gold annually. Due the day after Postern. And look, here it is two days after and nothing..." He glared again, getting Tor to roll his eyes and nearly offer to just pay the man out of pocket to shut him up. Just giving away funds was a bad idea though. Everyone said so. It made people feel entitled to things. This situation kind of showed where that could lead, didn't it?

  He glanced around the room then, understanding that some kind of resolution was really needed though. Otherwise Kedrin would probably attack Rich again, which would make his men start fighting and then they'd be taken out by the new people that came. It was very clear exactly what would happen, down to when everyone would move even.

  "I see. Well, even Prince Alphonse and the Princesses were down to half allowances this year. I don't think it's meant to be personal, everyone has been tightening their belts, since we've been at war and that only ended two days ago. It would be good if you'd give the Kingdom a little time to recover. In the mean time, how would you l
ike a job?" He didn't know what to have the man do, but there had to be something, didn't there? He was the King's brother.

  The man stared for a minute and then laughed.

  "Well, I have no building talent and don't really have any great skill in the bedroom, for all my early popularity, so... what would you have me do? Dig ditches?"

  Tor nodded, since that would be hilarious, even letting the guy think it for a few seconds was funny. They'd have to build him an extra large shovel just to make it work for one thing.

  "Of course not. I do own a whore house though, but it's on a military base, so not a lot of women for you to service there and most of the men wouldn't be interested. Well, not past once or twice for the novelty of getting to use you. No, I was thinking about having you act as a figure head for the new public works project. Helping orphans and street kids. You basically just have to sweet talk some nobles into not being pains in the rear and collect some golds to keep kids from starving in the winter. I'll pay a gold for every day you do useful work for the project and double that if you go over two hundred days in the next year. So up to seven hundred and thirty golds just for helping some people get a fair shake in life. It probably won't be that hard. We'll even cover transportation and reasonable lodgings. I'll give you a magic cottage for that and a carriage. I mean if you aren't arrested and locked up for attacking the King like you just were. Over gold too. You should be ashamed of yourself. That's no way to treat family." He crossed his arms and glowered at the man who... hung his head.

  Then he knelt on the floor, bowing at the waist. Towards Rich.

  "I'm sorry. Your friend here is correct and chastises me fairly. It was wrong to strike the King, but worse to lash out at my own brother like that. Anger got the better of me. I hope it can be forgiven?" He stopped talking then. Most of the time people carried on for a while, listing how they'd messed up and what evil people they were, but Rich simply bowed back. Not kneeling, but then, he was the King. He did help his brother up, which was the polite thing to do in a case like this.

  "I apologize as well, for not having your full draw ready for you. It honestly isn't meant as a slight brother. We will have it to you as soon as possible. Now, perhaps we should move to another room and see to some refreshments for everyone? It's good to know that I have such staunch defenders." He bowed to the people at the back of the room, then turned to Sam and bowed again, gesturing for him to move closer to them, now that he wasn't needed to subdue Kedrin's guard personally. He reached out to shake his hand as he walked up, instead of bowing.

  "Thank you for your assistance. I don't believe we've had the pleasure?" Everyone stared at Tor for a second, since Sam was clearly one of his. That made the introduction his to make. It was what he'd come for though, so kind of handy that the King was getting to it right off.

  "Rich, this is Sam..." The next part was dicey. Sam didn't have any other name, not even a family one, being an orphan. His name wasn't anything else either, not Samuel or Samwell, just the one syllable. He'd need something a bit more impressive for work in the palace though. Even the servants would mock him with just that. Quietly and in private, but it would happen.

  "Sam Builder of Lairdgren. Attaché to the Counselor of Magic. He's my replacement for when I leave to Austra and that meeting of Ancients. While I'm gone he'll hold my proxy and all my funds to use for the Kingdom. Plus, obviously if you need anything made or copied, he's your man." Tor leaned in a bit and whispered. "I'm hoping to get Smythe to look out for him at first, if you could suggest that to him?" The King nodded.

  "A full Builder? Young for that, but I'd heard a few had made it in their first year at Lairdgren. Amazing and humbling." He turned back to Tor, ignoring everyone else for the moment.

  "Do you know when you'll be leaving?"

  "Late tonight or very early in the morning. Probably call you from the ship if all goes well. Petra Ward is setting that up In Warden for us right now. I need to get some gold to her. Or... Well, I need to go see to that, I just wanted to introduce Sam and Lyn to you. Connie too if she's around? Alphonse already knows them both and so does Princess Karina. Old friends in fact. Honestly I'd get them to hang out with Sam for the week or two we'll all be gone, but I didn't think about it before. Where is everyone anyway? I know Alphonse was in here earlier, he was the one that asked for help, so we all came, did the Royal guard hustle everyone away? It would explain why there were so few of them in the room with you all."

  That, it turned out was exactly what had happened. They couldn't exactly run up and start beating up on Kedrin, and his men, though sworn to protect him first, were still Royal guards, so extremely dangerous. Moving to open combat would have meant death for someone. It had been close though, when Tor and the others came in. Sam blanched when he heard that but didn't say anything. Tor didn't blame him, since he didn't know these people at all. Royal guardsmen wouldn't hold a grudge for him having taken them down though, but how was he supposed to know that? It wasn't until the Prince was summoned back in with Karina that the boy said anything and that was only a whisper in Tor's ear.

  "Um, why is your roommate here Tor?" Sam made a small gesture with his head, noticing the clothing on Rolph, which was nice, but still just a clothing amulet, exactly like what he used at school. It was what they all used now, since Tor had handed them out to everyone to help cut costs for the year.

  "Oh... Right, well, since you're going to be around here a lot, I guess I should explain. Rolph is Prince Alphonse. You get the idea, a second identity for school, so that people won't try to kill him there? That or to keep the girls from wanting to date him too much. I've never really been certain which it was, but it works both ways."

  Sam just nodded.

  "Alright. I can see that." He stared at the Prince for a second and shook his head, then looked at the thin girl behind him and smiled, earning one back.

  "So you're his sister Kari then? I don't suppose you remember me from the one time we met?" He bowed to them both a bit, then nearly panicked did the same to the King and his brother. Tor hadn't bothered earlier, so he hadn't thought of it no doubt. Everyone bowed back, though Kedrin looked to be doing it ironically.

  "I do remember you Sam. Flirted with you fairly outrageously if I recall correctly, and here you are come to visit! If I didn't know better I'd think you actually liked me or something. No flowers though, so must be all business. Well, sigh oh put upon and heartbroken sigh." She giggled though and touched his arm, which really was pretty flirty considering everything that had just been going on.

  The boy blushed and fished in his pocket for a second, pulling out a bit of metal about the size of his finger. It was silver with black glowing bands around it. Tor had to admit it looked fine. With a small movement of his thumb he activated it, causing a full flower arrangement to pop into being, a delightful thing that looked just about real, but didn't have any scent as far as Tor could tell. It was good work though. Karina took the arrangement and went wide eyed.

  "Magical flowers? Did you make this yourself or..." She looked at Tor who shook his head and looked back at Sam.

  "Not mine, his I believe. Attaché Sam is good, and doing his own work now. Which is why he'll be around here while I'm gone. Will you two watch out for him? Make sure he doesn't use the wrong fork or eat at the out of turn?" He felt bad for having said it that way, but Sam smiled and nodded.

  "That would be most welcome. I've never been to proper meals before, except for what Tor has been feeding us, so I probably don't know all the rules. Any help I could get would be a godsend." It was a slightly odd way of saying it, but then the kid had mentioned being raised by the Sisters of Faith. They probably had a bunch of strange sayings like that.

  Anything you weren't familiar with was strange though, right?

  Karina didn't seem to mind, smiling at the younger boy agreeably. Good, maybe they'd be friends? It would certainly be worth it for both of them to try. Sam was going places in the world and Karina was already there. If
they couldn't see the mutual benefit Tor would have to think less of both of them.

  Looking around he noticed Lyn standing with Denno and Trice and waved them over. Technically Lyn shouldn't have been in Noram at all without being introduced to the King almost immediately, being the leader of the largest land on the planet. He kind of had a feeling that she'd snuck in and tried to avoid Burks as well as she could, just to learn building. She was good enough at it to make that a valid reason at least. There could have been others though.

  Like finding him to set him up for death?

  That didn't make sense, but then neither did seeking him out to learn how to make magical devices. There were some twenty schools that taught it all over the Kingdom, coming to him would just make it more likely that Burks would notice her. Especially since the Count owned the school she attended. When she got up to them Tor stepped back and gave her a half bow, so that everyone would get she was important. Rich smiled at least and looked at her directly, without speaking.

  Tor opened his right hand to her, which was the polite way to indicate someone very high ranking.

  "This is Lyn Red. The Ancient of Vagus. She's been around for a while though, learning building at Lairdgren, and is one of the best new students there. I don't know why she didn't announce herself exactly, but I think she was avoiding Count Lairdgren." Tor looked at Kedrin and raised his shoulders ever so slightly with a small smile.

  "Her brother. I'm sure you understand things like that?"

  The man laughed and bowed, even though Lyn looked about fourteen at the moment.

  "I truly do. I may have to avoid my own family for a while after today. Master Lord Baker here too. I don't suppose I could borrow that healing thing again could I? That or get some ice. Even a cold brick would be good." He smiled about it, but grimaced too. Tor could sympathize having been hit in the groin before too. He was half tempted to say no, after what the man had said about Connie and his ma, but decided to let it go. Kedrin had apologized after all and even seemed to mean it. It was rude to ignore a good apology.