Ancient Kings (The Young Ancients)

by P. S. Power

  After about two hours of just sitting and chattering about nothing important, Tor remembered something. It wasn't like he ever could forget it, but he decided to talk about it. Not with Tiera though. She had enough to worry about at the moment.

  "So, I can't prove this, but there's a small chance that Lara Gray put her mind into ma a long time ago, before we were born. A changed Rhetistic set, most likely, which is why she isn't as bad as Gray, but, well, until we know for certain, don't trust her with anything too important." It felt like he was being evil saying the words, but his brother didn't respond at all. Almost like he hadn't heard him.

  "It's nearly three, Ali knows to come here?" He had a watch that he pulled out of a little pocket, but didn't seem concerned. Classes got out when they were over, especially in the afternoon. She could be as late as four and have it not mean anything at all.

  As it was she got there with Tiera and Sherri about three thirty. They all had bags with them. Small ones though. They didn't really need a lot anymore did they? A toothbrush and a few other things for comfort and hygiene. It was how he was packed too.

  It was rude to dump guests on a person, but he could take some gold with them for lodging. Or possibly trade some work? He was about to ask Timon, but the boy just opened the side door, and gestured for them all to get in. It was clear that he actually had a plan in place, since there were just enough seats already set up in the back and some boxes that he pointed to behind that, next to a tiny restroom that looked like a light blue wardrobe with sturdy wooden door.

  "In there we have food. Not just for us, but, well, you'll see later. Mainly produce. I brought in a load of cream and some meat yesterday. This isn't the official shipment for this week." He didn't bother explaining at all past that, but did offer everyone something to drink.

  "In the basket. Wine, a nice apple pear blend, or water. Please help yourselves. I'm going to take us up now. Please let me know if there are any problems." He was being professional with them but something was wrong. Tor didn't get it though. Even reading his field the only thing that he could work out was that it had to do with Tiera, and Sherri.

  It wasn't anything visible that Tor could see, but he could tell Tim wasn't reading them, he'd just worked it out based on tiny clues and of all things, where they weren't looking and how much they blushed.

  "Noble rules Tim. Don't let things throw you." Tor didn't let his voice get loud, but his brother started flying right then, so he wouldn't have to answer. He did it really well too. It was smooth and nearly perfectly controlled.

  "I know, I know. I'm working on it." Then he flew, not talking for a long time.

  Sherri did that for all of them. She was pretty good at it, making just the right amount of small talk, measuring her audiences interest closely and trying to come up with interesting new topics when things dulled.

  "Oh! We were a bit late, because people were showing us their new communications devices. You know about that, obviously, since they're the new Tor's, but I was wondering, is it possible to see one sometime do you think? I can't afford hundreds of golds myself, but my father might want one. It could be very useful, talking to people that are far away, for business and things like that." She seemed well at ease with the idea that she wouldn't have one of the things herself.

  Tor was about to dig in the trunk that had the new handhelds when Timon spoke softly.

  "We should all have one. They do in Austra, or close enough. No one will think that it's strange really."

  That was a bit odd, since it meant not getting any coin from Sherri at all, but Tor got three of the things out and pulled around the central node that each had to touch against physically once the names were put in. Tiera, who had something that worked on a similar principle got it first, and showed the others.

  "I see. Here, you just touch the arrow sigils and it will tell you all the names. Can you put them in too, or do you have to search each time?" She didn't wait, finding a name that she seemed to recognize and then tapping it in by herself, simply starting it with a touch and a bit of intent, like any magical device.

  A few moments later Kolb spoke back, his voice as clear as if he sat in Tiera's lap. Which was a hilarious image.

  "Tiera? I should have known you'd manage to get one of these. Are you coming to the late practice tonight?" It was matter of fact and direct, but not as gruff as Tor remembered the man seeming when Tor was the student. Then, Tiera was more dedicated than he was, wasn't she? At least if asking her to extra practices was normal.

  "Can't today. I probably won't be in tomorrow either. We're headed to Austra right now. I'm with Ali, Sherilyn Bonner, Timon and Tor. Seeing about the Larval. Supposedly they're fixed now, but I couldn't let Tor go in alone. You know how he is." She sounded dry and matter of fact, as if her statement made sense at all.

  How he was? Tor nearly said something about that, but Kolb spoke first, "yes. Skilled, but lacking in basic aggression at times. Inconsistently so. That's a family trait. Count Lairdgren is the same way. Threaten someone in his presence, and he'll walk through fire and death to stop you, but slow off the mark when personally threatened. Good thinking going along then." Then the voice stopped and there was a clearing of the throat. "I take it that he's right there listening to this?"

  Tor sighed and leaned to his left a bit, over Ali, even though it probably wouldn't be needed.

  "Well, these particular carriages aren't that big, so of course I am. By the way, if you haven't talked to Doris in the last day or two, you should get her alone. Someplace you won't be overheard by even the best listeners." That might have been too subtle, but Tor thought it was clear enough, even if they hadn't talked about things like that before. Listening from space and all that.

  Kolb had been around long enough to hear about it no doubt.

  "Understood. Talk to you all later." Abruptly he disconnected the line.

  The flight was a long one, even going as fast as they were, so that left a long time to talk about things, including his newly title reduced existence. Sherri seemed to think he was being incredibly noble for some reason, setting aside such things in order to do secret work for the kingdom that would gain him no accolades. Really she kept going on about it enough that Timon finally stopped her, his voice a bit stern.

  "Please let it drop now. Of course there's a big and wonderful reason behind it. We all know that. If Tor wanted us to talk about it, he would have gotten the King to announce it publically though. Why don't you tell us about your classes instead?" It would have been a good deflection, except for the fact that Tor heard it as him practically telling her to shut it, or else he'd drop her over the eastern ocean.

  Sherri seemed to pick up on that too and stopped talking for a long time, which was actually a shame. She was the only entertainment they had really. After about twenty minutes Tiera started telling them about her trip to the moon to cut the silence, which was fascinating.

  "There's a large complex there, about the size of your house at the Capital Tor, and a lot of things I didn't get a chance to learn about. It's not really nice, but you only weigh a fraction of what you do on the Earth, so you can make big jumps and kind of fly, in this big room they have there. The air outside isn't breathable. Way too thin. Blue really went on about that, like I wouldn't believe her that there was any air at all or something. She's weird. Aunt Cynthia. The others too. Cordes Blue is nice though. Hard to believe that he went mad and tried to enslave most of Noram."

  The words made sense to him now, and even Ali nodded, but Sherri had actually gone to school and had a completely different tale.

  "Wasn't he overthrown for trying to tell people when they could have sex, and with whom?" The girl brushed her short sandy hair out of her eyes. There was a bit of curl to it, so it was really longer than it seemed, Tor was willing to bet.

  Ali went over it all for them and got it close enough to correct that Tor didn't interrupt. Timon figured out what it really meant first, of course but once again didn't bothe
r explaining to the others, just speaking to Tor.

  "Tiera and I aren't like that. I don't think Todd is either. Terlee... Yes. And Taler. Someone altered the line, didn't they?"

  "Doris. I didn't pick up on Todd, but you're right I think. She did it to help you and Tiera, but there can be problems there, so make sure you remember to be good people." It was lecturing, a bit, but they had to know, didn't they? The situation wasn't fair, but what could they do about the way they'd been made? Tor wondered though.

  There was something that Burks had said about Lara Gray, that she could change herself to seem like almost anyone. If she could do that, why couldn't he be changed too? It wasn't a new thought, just one he'd been too busy to examine before. A thing the old Rhetistics hadn't allowed, probably. The idea was based on what Princess Abbey had done to herself, with her bird red hair that stood straight up and ice blue eyes that didn't exactly match her deep brown, almost black skin. There was no reason that he couldn't do the same thing, changing his own pattern, his biology, on the base level.

  Honestly it should work even better than the genetics the others were using. It would take caution, so he didn't accidentally kill himself, but life had risks. It could be done.

  And Tor was going to do it. Maybe even make himself taller, so that he wouldn't look so funny standing next to his wife at parties. That was vain, but almost anything was possible, wasn't it? He could be made stronger and faster, like Timon and Tiera were, change his eyes to see in the dark or any of a thousand alterations that would make his life, if not better, at least more convenient.

  The first thing to try though was getting rid of his desire to please anyone he thought of as being in command. That bit of things was the largest hardship in his life, wasn't it? Then he could think about what else he wanted to be, with a clear head and know that it wasn't just to please people in a way that didn't really matter.

  Really, all he needed was an example of a person that didn't have that, or two, so he could get the feeling of the field down, and then apply it. The process wouldn't even take long. Not the initial change. The body would have to grow into the pattern, that was clear. So it probably wouldn't be something that happened in minutes, would it? How much that would really take, how long it would be to get to freedom, he didn't know.

  The hard part there was that, the people around him were all a bit different. Ali and Sherri both had the basic set of information that made them look down on people smaller than they were. It wasn't that bad yet with either of them, since they were only a bit taller than he was, but it would scale up over time, as they got larger, he thought. It was probably why so many of them thought nothing about abusing children, even though they knew it was wrong, socially. They just couldn't see it as a real issue.

  If Tor copied that he'd end up thinking he was better than five year olds, and that wasn't going to help anyone. Of course he could, and would, most likely, make himself taller. The idea that he had to look like Burks Green wasn't his after all. A nice tall version of him could help rule Noram just as easily as a short one. More easily, if he had everything worked out properly.

  Now, Tiera and Timon were both totally free of the genetic pattern that told them to bow down to all large people. They were both also crazy in their own way. Not really, but Timon didn't process emotions the same way as most people at all, and Tiera was so aggressive that being like her would be more of a trial than he was willing to attempt.

  Between the two of them though it was possible to get the right pattern, omitting those parts that would be inconvenient to him. Then all he had to do was close his eyes, drop into a deep state, and try to apply it. No one was talking and they had hours left to travel, so he gave it a shot. It seemed safe enough after all. Hopefully he wouldn't die at least.

  The world sort of blinked. It was him losing track of everything, even what he was doing, except the single idea he applied. When he opened his eyes though, they were still flying and Sherri and Ali were both sleeping, his wife's head gently resting on his shoulder. Tiera looked over at him, noticing the movement as he checked the work within himself.

  It felt like it had worked at least, if that meant anything.

  "Were you working on something or just meditating?" His sister whispered the words, and Tor, looked down at Ali's soft features in the slightly dim passengers section, didn't shrug at all. It would disrupt her and they might as well be well rested, since they should get to Austra in the morning, their time.

  "Trying to change my pattern so that I won't be a slave anymore. On the base level."

  From the front Timon called back, his voice showing that he was in a bit of a trance himself. One focused on controlling the craft. It made sense for long trips. It was too easy to get lost in thought otherwise and become distracted.

  "Did it work?"

  "I think so. I feel like it, but there are no really intimidating giants around to test it on yet. It might also take a while for me to learn not to act that way, no matter how I feel. I still have mannerisms from the old Rhetistic field I had before, you know. Things like tilting my head oddly and like that, because they're my habits. I have a lifelong pattern of deferring to giants, so, until I make myself grow a few feet taller that will probably hold, unless I fight against it. I think I can now. We'll see."

  For a moment, sitting in the silence, he wondered if they were going to laugh at him. Call him a fool or liar, but Tiera just looked away.

  "Can you get rid of this anger I feel all the time? I don't mind not feeling fear that much, but I don't want to hate everyone. Not over stupid things. I can't stop it though. The best I can manage is controlling what I do."

  The thing was, if Tor had actually done what he thought he had and it stuck, that wouldn't even be that hard.

  "I think so. We need to make sure that I didn't accidentally do something that will cause me to die or something stupid like that, but if so... I think we can do that. Maybe even help Tim with his problem."

  There was a nod from the driver's seat then, followed by an amused voice.

  "You mean having a brother that's always better at everything than I am? Please, get to work on that right away." There was a certain charm to the words, but also a bit of a dark cast to them.

  "Well, sure. I can fix that right now actually, by pointing out that it isn't true. You're smarter than I am. You might actually be the smartest person on the planet. I meant adding in a slightly different emotional pattern for you, so you can feel guilt and remorse."

  "I knew that. I just can't think of a good reason why I'd want to feel those things. It really sounds unpleasant. I could do with being taller too though. I should make six foot, but I don't know, a bit over seven or so might help a bit. Tiera too. She's going to be a fighter, so being a bit bigger will only help that way."

  They talked about things like that for a while, but decided to keep it simple in the main and go slow. First it would be Tor, acting as the test, and then Tiera's anger. After that they'd start on physical things, growing taller would take time to do safely, but they had the time. Timon didn't seemed thrilled by the idea of having regular emotions though. He did allow that he might be willing to get rid of a few of the more negative ones, if that would help them feel better about him.

  That left only the one very obvious point of course. Tor mentioned it, his face sliding into a relaxed but considering expression in the dim cabin.

  "What are we missing? If you can just change yourself like this, why haven't the others done it? Or have some of them? Is there a hidden drawback we can't see, being too young or something?" The others didn't know anymore than he did, but from deep inside his mind there was a, it wasn't really a noise, but it was the sense of a person clearing their throat.

  Cordes.

  'We were told not to at the various institutes we were created at, as children. The basic idea was that an individual with that ability would eventually move too far away from being human. There is a bit of sense to that. Today you change one s
mall piece of yourself, tomorrow you realize how helpful it would be to have twice or four times the intelligence. Then, eventually you come to understand you no longer need others, and grow a prehensile tail and move to Mars to do research. Some have done it, but it never became a big issue, as far as I know. I'm missing a few thousand years of information. So, take that with caution.'

  After a few seconds Tor related all of that to the others.

  Tiera just shook her head a bit sadly.

  "I don't think that's enough to stop me, if you're willing to help, Tor. Maybe we're supposed to do all those things? Move away and become whatever makes the most sense? What's the point of being alive forever if you never change at all?"

  Tor kind of agreed with that himself.

  "Plus, tails are cool. Who doesn't want a tail?" They didn't laugh about it, because that might wake the others, but there was kind of an agreement hashed out to really try, if it might work. Tor thought it really could.

  After all, he knew that Count Lairdgren, his own grandfather, a person so clearly in charge of Tor that even the King would have problems challenging his word on the subject, wouldn't really want him to do these things, at least as far as he was concerned. Even trying to imagine this carefully, Tor realized that the idea wasn't impacting him at all. That might well mean he'd actually been successful already.

  If so...

  He was actually free.

  It needed more testing, but they'd be able to do that soon enough. A simple trip to the Capital would be enough to get that done. Face down a few bossy giants, and see what that did for him. In the mean time they had things to do, didn't they?

  Getting into Austra really was more complex than he thought it would be. They actually had to settle in the water, about ten miles from the shore, and go in like a boat.