by P. S. Power
She saw that in him, knowing him at least that well.
"Is something wrong?"
"There were some deaths. The men that hurt Petra? Count Rodriguez, the old one, is dead. Two of his guard. By their own hand. They'd been lied to about it being an order, so took their own lives. With what honor we could give them. The Count hadn't ordered it either, but I castrated him anyway, since he still had her tortured. Then the rest of the Counts and the King took turns breaking his arms and legs, leaving only the right hand, so he could kill himself. It isn't really a problem, but I'd sort of hoped we could get the man that made it happen before quitting. It won't be any easier doing it tomorrow, but that's what everyone wanted. I guess." He didn't know what to expect from her about what he'd said, but she just seemed suddenly pleased.
"You all took down Rodriguez? Together? People from the Rebellion, too?"
"Yeah. Well, not everyone was there for that. No one wanted it to seem like a party or game. So just the ones needed for it." He listed them off, which got her to smile, especially later when he covered the rest of the people involved. Then he got a low whistle. It sounded appreciative.
"Damn, Gerent! I think you may have single handedly broken open the rebellion on your own. If nothing else this really shows that Uncle Richard isn't going to let people be abused under his reign. Having them all in like that is brilliant. How did you think of it?"
"Tim told me to try it. I was kind of surprised at first that everyone just went along with the idea, regardless of personal feelings. I guess no one wants that to become the way things are played, really. They said as much."
"I can see that. We've... Well, I hope things will calm down now. We can't really count on it, but it's a start. Say, can you take some messages around for me? Just letters, but I'd rather they weren't read by anyone else other than their intended recipient. I have a few..." She pulled three envelopes out of her side pocket, the black tunic sealing behind itself as soon as she did it. That was a mental command, but one that had come almost instantly, reshaping the magic of her clothing as easily as a person might breathe.
The names were all familiar, but some seemed a little off. Count Lairdgren, for instance. He knew she meant Kyle Hardgrove though, so just nodded. He'd kind of been avoiding the man, he realized. There wasn't a real reason for it, but he had anyway. Ridley Dens was, he thought, at the King's Palace and Baron Coltress was Collette's father. It would take more work to get them all into the right hands directly, but he probably had time.
"Are these vital? I can go now, I think. It won't take too long, if I hurry." Plus, then he wouldn't have to look at her, standing there, acting like he was her friend.
That still stung, more than he thought it would.
"That would be perfect, actually. Oh, um, the transport business? We're using that for part of the delivery system, so you'll want to get with Collette on that. We've been talking about it. It will make tracking people and letters a lot simpler if we control that part of things." She seemed pretty happy about that, but she was the spy master, so it made sense.
With a wave he sent her back to the restaurant.
"Tell everyone that I went to... Um, actually, do some deliveries for you? It's the truth, and none of these are people that you aren't allowed to talk to, so..."
She rolled her eyes. "Always taking the simple way, aren't you Ger? I can do that. Don't take too long. Petra will have my hide if you aren't back by bed time."
That part might have worried him, except that he was secretly pretty happy about it. Petra and he hadn't been that close yet, but it made sense, didn't it? To draw them together, if nothing else.
The trip to Earth was done in one big jump, which sped things up by about a minute, and he was around the planet and settling down outside the Lairdgren School at the Space Training Center, not fifteen minutes after that, having caught the orbit decently for that. It was still light out, so he had good visibility, once he got under the heavy spinning cloud layer. It was clear they were having a massive storm, from above. The thing was vast and fast looking. It didn't change how he flew, but when he got down he moved directly to his little Tim-Craft, which was in the rear of the larger ship. He hovered the space craft over the forest, about a quarter mile from the school, being that it was too big to land at the base, and left directly from there.
He'd been to the school before, but hadn't really learned the layout. Given the high winds, everyone else was inside no doubt. For that matter he wasn't totally certain that Kyle Hardgrove had stayed on as the Headmaster of the place. He was a Count now, so may have relocated to Grenwyn. That normally wouldn't have been too hard to figure out, since he could just ask one of the students about it, but no one was out in the storm. It was bending trees nearly sideways with its force and bits of the buildings were starting to come off, in several places. Looking over he noticed that one of the dorm's had lost its top completely, the thing blowing away and taking out part of the wall of the structure next to it. There was a mighty crashing sound, and then, as he moved his craft over in that direction, scared faces popped into view through the hole.
Young ones. Students of the Lairdgren School. And here he was, Countier Lairdgren the lowest... That sort of meant he was required to help them, if he could, before they blew away. Others dared to come out, from different locations trying to help, but he just settled the craft and turned his shield on. It kept the worst of the wind off of him, and would protect against flying objects.
Then, carefully, he made the craft grow and added soft chairs for everyone, then he darted out, making a door on the left hand side.
"In here! Come on, everyone in. Put your shields on, if you have them! If you don't, well, everyone make sure you have someone near you that does." It sounded like a silly idea, but just trying to move from inside the dwellings to the craft, several of the smaller kids tried to fly away. Not under their own power, either. The wind was just that strong. At one point he ended up flying out to grab a girl in brown silk that was nearly picked up and tossed into the building next to the one she came from.
She clung to him and sobbed when he set her down inside.
"Oh! I nearly died! You saved me." It was a bit too dramatic really, but he patted her arm gently.
"Get a seat, toward the back if you can, away from the door here. This wind is a bit brisk."
Over the course of forty minutes they managed to get everyone inside, and not lose anyone. A few had broken bones, and one young man, who was about his own size if more muscular, had a piece of timber from one of the buildings lodged through his stomach. It should have been a fatal wound, but Gerent carried a healing device, so it was just a bloody mess and some manly sounding grunts of pain, instead.
Sighing he got on his communications device and contacted Petra, since it was pretty clear that he wasn't going to make it back in a timely fashion.
Everyone gathered around the device on the other side, and the forty or so young people with him seemed to be pretending not to eavesdrop. Poorly, as it turned out.
"What happened?" Pet asked, sounding concerned at least.
"Massive storm in Lairdgren. I... don't think I've ever even heard of anything this big before. I'm at the school, it looks like they've lost two or three buildings. I'm sort of providing emergency shelter for the ones that need it right now, which kind of changes the plans a bit. Personally, I blame Patty, or would if I hadn't figured that I could have this all done in about an hour. Silly me. Well, I guess we can set up a food unit and use building pieces to make snacks."
That got a chuckle, from the other side of the unit. No one there did however. They were all still scared and tired looking. Exhausted by nearly dying.
That always took it out of him, too.
"Take care love. We have things handled here. Get back when you can?"
"I will. Thanks for understanding." He meant it, but Petra gave him a wrinkled nosed look and rolled her eyes.
"What's not to understand? You're there,
so you have to help. I'll get off the communications device. Have you reached anyone there yet?" It was clearly a hint as to what he needed to do next. Smiling he shook his head.
"Of course not. It only made sense to talk to you first, right? I'll do that now. Later."
She just disconnected, which he hoped was due to expediency, not annoyance at him being late. Or leaving without telling her first. He really didn't know her well enough to understand what she might be thinking, did he?
He tried for Count Lairdgren next and was in contact with him almost instantly. Wherever the man was, it was clear he was close, since the wind howled through the building he was in.
"Hardgrove here, go!" The man had to scream the words, and was holding on to a wooden pillar, one that seemed to be outside. He clearly had a shield on, since he wouldn't have been alive otherwise. There were two scared looking boys with him, too. They clung to the pillar next to him.
"Gerent here, where are you?"
"Weapons square!"
"Right, we're coming to you then, hang on!" He sealed the door and called out to everyone else, even though they were actually fine. He just liked to know what was going on, himself and figured they might.
"The Headmaster and some kids are in the weapons area, which way is that?" A tall boy, who looked like he might be sixteen, jogged up to the front of the craft, he was all wet still, and his hair was a mop that made him look unkempt. It was too long for any of the fighting students there, he thought. They kept their hair pretty short, so people couldn't use it against them.
"That way, sir. This craft should fit, if you're careful. I'll try to spot for you?"
They worked together, with the boy running from side to side, looking for a good place to land, and to keep them from hitting anything. It took a lot longer than it should, since the heavy rain turned the air nearly gray outside. Still, he was able to get out, along with two shielded students, and grab the kids that had nearly died. Hardgrove was fine, but neither of the others had shields on. They were very young too. Maybe first year students? Ones dumb enough to get caught out in a storm like that.
They actually needed the healing device, it had been so bad. Mainly because of things hitting them. Wind driven objects, and the cold water having sapped their bodies of heat.
He didn't get to do more than settle back down before another building lost its structure, collapsing almost completely. He winced, but the headmaster just waved at it.
"One of the storage sections. Hopefully no one will have been in there. Luckily for us you happened by." His tone was a bit exhausted sounding, so Gerent passed him his waking charm. It did seem to perk the man up, so he passed it back to the others. That made sense, given that being awake and alert was better than not ready for what they had to do next, whatever that was.
The boy that had spotted for him, who he didn't have a name for yet, pointed out the window.
"To the right, about thirty degrees? It looks like we have someone down." There was a lump on the ground, and after a bit Gerent saw that it had hands, which were desperately scrabbling against the stones outside the low wall. There was no way he could fit the craft there however. The buildings were just too close.
"I'm going out. Who can pilot this thing?" He tried to sound happy about it, but no one volunteered, not even the Count. That he didn't have his own was an oversight, wasn't it? He could just call up Timon and ask for one...
"Fine you... um... Sorry, I don't have a name for you?" He pointed at the spotter, who shrugged.
"Danny."
"Danny, you're the pilot here then, which for now just means that you don't do anything. If you have to... pull straight up and practice flying above the clouds. Otherwise, just seal the hatch after me and open it when we get back."
"Will do!"
It wasn't hard to get the woman, who, when he retrieved her and she got inside, turned out to be an instructor at the school. Her dwelling had blown out, losing a wall, and she'd ended up being forced outside. It was insane, the power of the storm around them.
Dean Hardgrove patted the woman gently, and saw to her wounds.
"Thank goodness you were spotted, Ethyl. We need to keep our eyes out, everyone. Can we make the sides of this transparent?"
They could, and that led to about three more hours of emergency work, without much of a break in it. Near the end Gerent and a group of students that had shields, which apparently you got when you were old enough, by the look of things, all went out into the town, since a lot of buildings just weren't making it. It was a desperate thing, and finally he had to put people on his space craft and get help from the Space Fleet students to save the ones they could. It wasn't just the little town there, either. The one closer to the port was nearly gone and it was clear that a lot of bodies were in the rubble. Most of the trees that surrounded the area had damage, or were actually all the way down.
It looked like the world had simply ended. Without warning, and showing no mercy at all.
Finally, hours later, the storm started to weaken, and Hardgrove used his communications device to contact the King. The man was shocked by the devastation. Kyle showed it to him, simply turning the device around and taking it all in with a few slow sweeps.
The King didn't make any sound for a moment, then started right in on plans.
"We have food, thanks to the aid from Harmony, we'll have to bring some of those units in. We can start rebuilding, using focus stone construction. I'll set up the people for that as soon as I'm done here. I..." He looked over at Gerent, who was on the screen, if to the side, and bowed a bit. "Prince Gerent, do you have any magical housing solutions? People shouldn't be outdoors, if we can help it, in case a second event takes place."
"No... I can get things for you, however. You should contact... um, Sam Builder. He's your new Ancient. I can get back there directly. I... need to deliver some messages too. Can I visit there later?"
There was a blank expression and then a nod. "Certainly. I'll leave word."
Then he got off the line, apparently to get with Sam.
At least the boy was talking to Gerent, on his own unit, not five minutes later.
"I'll have those houses ready... um, four hours? Sorry about the delay..."
"I'll be there. Have them at the docks?'
"On it."
Then he was contacted by a string of people, which seemed slightly strange.
The first was a purple woman, for instance. She was, it seemed, stuck on an island, made by a similar storm, off the coast of Austra. Except that it wasn't supposed to be an island and hadn't been, the day before. No one there could reach them, since communications were out. They didn't even know to try and they had several very important people with them. He got the location, as best as he could, trying to memorize the little map that the woman, Fornia Stergis, showed him.
After that it was Princess Karina that called. About the same thing, since people had contacted her it seemed, as well.
"I'm on my way, right now. We have a rescue crew with us from Noram. Tell everyone to hang on."
That crew of people was made up of students from the school, and one of their instructors, Remy. It was a bit of a strange name for a teacher, so he figured that it was his last name.
The man looked young, but took over almost instantly.
"We should go in from above, which I see you already have planned. Let me do the flying? I memorized the map and can get us there with less error." The man traded places with him, and actually had a good grasp of what to do, getting them to the right place even with the heavy clouds in the way. Gerent had to admit that he would have been about fifty miles off, or more.
As soon as they were over the building, Gerent stood.
"I had to leave my fast craft, so we need to set this one down. I'm going to change the size, back off a bit, since I have to dump some water first. Sand too." If that seemed like a strange thing to the Instructor, he didn't let it show, just doing what he was told and hovering about three h
undred feet over the waves. Three minutes later they had a very different set up to the interior of the vehicle, with nothing more than rows of seats and a single storage room to the side, where everything he hadn't just gotten rid of was stored for the moment. It would be a mess in there. They'd need to sort personal effects for the crew, if they ever got a chance. Everything they owned was in there.
When they got into place, it was clear that the people, about twenty of them, were all inside of what remained of a mansion. It has probably been nice, the day before, but now it was wrecked and falling down. That led to the next problem, since the storm here hadn't died down yet here. It was nearly as strong as the one in Lairdgren had been, almost exactly on the other side of the world. None of the people on the ground had shields though, and they were being injured every time they tried to stick so much as a finger out. Finally he had an idea.
Boxy.
"Come on boy! We need you to save the day." He got his pet box out, and then asked him to grow, rather than telling him to. Of course he did it from across the room, which was different too. The black stone looking thing started to become bigger, then let the sides go transparent. He was just a floating box, but pushed until he was the size of the back of a wagon. Then he started to float to the wall. Waiting for them to make a hole for him to go and get the others. That took a call over to Fornia Stergis, and them making a hole in the wall, but it worked. At least after he explained the plan to his friend.
"Boxy, there are people over there. We need you to go and get them, then bring them right back here. Do you get that?" He didn't know if he could do something that complex. Normally he just floated after Gerent and sometimes nudged things, if they got in his way. Now though the box tilted, seeming to bow in understanding. Gerent sighed. "Thanks. Good boy, Boxy."