by P. S. Power
“I think it will! Come in. I have a nice basket I can pack up for you. Sorry, I didn’t get your name?”
“Oh… Dareg. Canton. I… That isn’t my given name. I was born Dareg Merchant, but after my mother died and I left home, I changed it, since everyone thought that sounded too fake. Her given name was Smalls, like yours? Merry Smalls? I didn’t know that, but she showed back up earlier, and mentioned having had a brother Darren and a sister, Debbie, so we put two and two together. You know how that goes.” He smiled, and then winked at the woman, as the small thing in her neck started to work, her panic sending out a signal, that did seem to reach into three separate directions at once.
Strange ones, that he didn’t know how to block out at all at the moment. What he could do was remember what it was doing, to work on later. It wasn’t strong in response yet though there was a tiny answer in time distortion, as the masters started to get her ready to fight. Locking eyes with her, he reached up and tapped the right side of his neck with two fingers. Indicating where the thing in her neck was on her.
“Can you relax a bit? I promise, no one here is going to harm you. I won’t let them, and they don’t want to. Believe it or not, you’ve managed to make some real friends here already. Good ones, that care about you. We have a plan in place, to free your people. As it turns out, they might be my family as well, so I have a personal reason to do that. Even if they aren’t, it’s still a good idea.” The others were all tense then, except Eva, who nodded helpfully.
“True! We’re the good people after all, and from what I’ve been told, you are as well?”
Almost instantly the woman closed her eyes, and the trickle of time distortion ended, cutting off instantly. Then she made a face and stared at Dare.
“Is that true? Merry is still alive? We were told that she’d be killed if we failed in our tasks. After Box was captured here, and allowed himself to be killed, I wasn’t certain if she and our parents would be destroyed, or sent into action here. You said she died? Is this a copy of her? I was told that there were more of me that could be put in here if I didn’t do things the way they wanted. They did that to her?”
Dareg had to shrug then, and smiled.
“She lived, and faked her death. From me and the people in Canton, not her masters. If the timeline makes sense then she was brought in after you and Darren? Also told that you were being kept in another world, as a threat. That… You could still be from different worlds. The important thing right now is that, if we can hide you from them, turn off the tracking device in you, and help you protect your family, is that enough to get you on our side? I don’t have a way to do either of those things yet, but even if you aren’t a direct relative, trying for all of that is a good thing in my book. It’s a risk, but if it works, we can free a lot of people that are being enslaved.”
The woman froze. Tor did the same thing and Count Ward nodded a little, seeming tense, considering that his friend wasn’t gearing up to kill them all. She just seemed scared, but was holding the device in her neck off at the same time. To Dareg that seemed like a positive thing, really.
Finally, after a bit, she wiped her hands on the front of her apron and swallowed, hard.
“I don’t know? No one has ever defeated the masters. They work in secret, and will hurt and kill anyone, to get what they want. Can you beat that? Can you, Tor?”
The man was honest at least and shook his head.
“Not alone. The thing there is that we aren’t alone. We have help in other worlds, and some of our people, our new friends, have won, in their realities. One of them has even been cleared, as far as we can tell. The entire place is safe now, as well as millions of realities around them. So it can happen? Are you… Willing to help?” He looked away then and winced, but didn’t say anything. Debbie did the same thing, and looked hard suddenly.
“I honestly didn’t know. Not until she walked into my shop. I swear that, Tor. In my reality you aren’t my brother at all. Box… You got that one, didn’t you?”
The man was honest about it all and shook his head.
“No. He looked like he could be one of my own brothers, but not close enough that I saw any of them in him.” There was a head shake then, as if the man couldn’t see any kind of point in what she was saying.
She smiled then, and nodded.
“Gerent? When he showed up a few years ago, and grew, I nearly passed out. I’d honestly thought that he was sent to kill me. Not that they have to send anyone in to do that. At any time they can just put out a signal and kill any of us.” She tapped her own neck then, with two fingers, copying Dareg exactly, indicating the thing in her neck. “But they do things like that, or at least it was part of the rumor in the training camp. A test to make certain they always have the best resource they can get on the ground. They’ll drop someone on you, and you have to fight, to the death. The stronger person taking over in that world.”
It sounded like a poor use of resources to him, but she’d just said that it was a rumor. It was possible that the whole thing was a lie, meant to keep the people far away and out of direct control in line all the time. Then, it might also just be the truth. Gerent was one of them however, being from the world that they were in. Dare had checked him out so many times that it only made sense that he wasn’t fooling them all.
The rest of the story didn’t make a lot of sense, and looking away, his face hard, he spoke. Softly.
“I… Years ago, I was working with Debbie in her shop, and we sort of had sex.”
Dareg could see that being an issue for him, given that Tor was a bit sensitive that way.
“Oh? Well, that isn’t a big deal. She isn’t your sister. She just looks like her. While that could be troubling for you, it just isn’t the same thing. She isn’t your sister, and you aren’t even her brother in her world. So we can let that part go. On the good side, you’re in with us, Debbie? At least if we can pull off what we’re promising? If we can’t, then it would be stupid to do that. No one would expect you to die for us. Or risk your family. If we can do it though…”
The woman looked at him, and then nodded tensely.
“I… Yes. I can’t keep living like this. I report back, once a week. So far I haven’t had much to tell anyone, but I keep expecting orders to come in. If I miss that window, or get too far away from where my assignment is without explaining, they’ll know. I could go into that pod, say, but I’d need to be back in Noram to report, in three days. If not, then they might just send in a kill signal, or at least someone to contact me and make certain that I haven’t been compromised.”
Dareg thought about it for a long time, and spoke almost instantly, smiling.
“Then stick here for a bit? Tell them that… You have a chance to move to Mars, which would put you close to Prince Dareg? If that’s what they want. Or… Wait, tell them about the transport pods and how you have access to one. That would be a good thing to let them know. They’ll want to have that information, and hiding it won’t work anyway, I bet. Someone else will tell them anyway, so it might as well be you, right? Then we can try to concentrate them on me.” It made sense to him, though Count Ward looked at him strangely.
“I don’t… Why would that be good? Shouldn’t we seek to protect you? You’re a Prince, and the son of a friend of mine.”
Eva smiled at the large man and bowed in his direction.
“If they mainly focus on him, then we can control where they’re looking, to an extent. That will free up Tor and the others to work against them without as much scrutiny. So far when agents have been sent in against Dareg, or around him, they’ve died. So… If we can line up Merry and Debbie to get close to him… That might be too dangerous, actually. You’ve reported that you ran into Countess Thomson and Tor?” The dark haired magical woman looked directly at Debbie then, searching for information.
“Yes? I’ve avoided being where the Countess is, though no one here has ever mentioned me being her. Not until today. They remarked on the r
esemblance, but that was all. Tor is the prime mover behind the new technology here, but I didn’t have a good way to get to Queen Tiera. They’re interested in her, as you might expect. It’s the jump ships…”
That made sense, from what little Dareg knew.
“So… Muffins? I think you should hold here, and then report that you were invited to move at least part time to Mars, so that you can come and go as you please. Countess Thomson isn’t exactly around all the time, believe it or not. I need to go and visit her actually… Really, we should make sure she and Count Thomson get in on the Jupiter trip. You’re still coming, right Count Ward? There was a disruption in the schedule…” He didn’t go into why that way, and the man didn’t mention that part of things.
“Am I still allowed to attend? I wouldn’t want to presume.” The words were honest, and not cold at all.
“Yes? I didn’t think that we’d have to reissue all the invitations. I guess I need to do that personally. It was my… Error, that ruined things the first time. If anyone has to scrape and bow to fix it, that has to be me. I’ll go and get on that. Oh, anyway, you should consider a bakery? Harmony has one, and it seems to do good business, so Mars might work that way as well. I can get you a store front for it? Helpers too, possibly?” He glanced at Eva and Samantha, but it was Sam that smiled and stepped forward.
“That sounds fun! I could help with that? I’ll need to learn how to do it, but I have the time. There are a thousand of me after all, which means I can do a lot at one time.”
Everyone looked at her funny for a moment, so Dareg nodded.
“Right. Eva and Samantha are both magical people. They look and feel real, but are actually floating amulets, with shield material bodies around them. They have other skills, and are people, but are also different.” It was hard to explain, but oddly enough Debbie nodded.
“Really? So, sentient energy beings that have a hive mind? That’s special. I’ve heard of things like that, but never met one before. I’d love the help? If I set up a shop there part time. Maybe I could go back and forth? Would that be allowed?” She looked at Dareg, as if it was up to him really.
“Sure? Whatever you want. Though if you have to turn us in and break open our plans, please let us know about that first? We don’t really have most of what we need yet, so that could end up being needed. I think we can do it, if we can examine you, or Merry, enough? Just meeting her and you have increased my ability to find people like you by a hundred percent. I can just look for the devices in you, even if they’re dormant… I can also find the worlds that the signal goes to. So if we can figure out how to stop that…”
Tor nodded, smiling.
“I noticed that part as well. I’ll work on that portion? If we’re sending them after you, it might be better if you worked on the time and space distorting things. That’s what they want, correct?” He asked Debbie, who nodded at him.
“We were given instructions to find anyone that can do that kind of thing. Moving from world to world, time travel, teleportation, communication at a great distance... All of it. The masters can do that already, but there seems to be a missing step that will allow them to move from where and when they are to an earlier point. They could move me, or you, but that isn’t the same thing. So they’re looking for the world, the reality, where that kind of thing can be learned. They have to be able to move one of them, at the very end of everything. It’s basically moving an entire reality, really. Then, once they have that, everything will end.”
Dareg could see that, at least as being possible.
It would explain why they sent scouts in, if nothing else. They were looking for something. If they found it, then they won.
So the goal had to be, for him, in getting them to think that he might be the one, without ever becoming that for them. At least one of them should do that, if possible. If they could control who was being watched, then the rest of them might have a chance to stop the others.
If that was even needed.
Chapter eight
There was a really strange thing that happened after that. Tor wouldn’t go away. The good part was that the man didn’t seem to think that Dare was somehow tainted by being related to all of those evil Adversaries, but some misguided impulse made him think that his son needed him to be there for him. Emotionally. Oddly enough, he really didn’t. Not even a tiny bit.
That shocked him a little, since finding out that his mother was still alive and with the enemy really had bothered Dare, but the news of the day wasn’t all that important to him. They might be able to use it as a way to gain information and resources, but… Inside, he was fine.
It occurred to him, about twenty minutes later, as he settled into the restaurant next to the inn with Tor across the table from him that it might just be the other man that needed to talk about things. It even made some sense for it to be Dare that he did it with. After all, he’d been there for the whole thing. Finally, after placing an order with a very friendly Samantha, who had what seemed like a glittering pink box on her face, he looked at the other man and shook his head.
“I know that Debbie is your friend and that my mother is… Well, you get that one. We can’t trust them. I know that I want to, and that it’s a risk letting them go like we did, but short of killing them there wasn’t a lot that we could do at the time. We can’t assume that anything they told us is actually true. Not yet. I should have been reading them to see if they were being honest, but I mainly worked on the implanted devices they both had. How about you?”
There was a sad expression, but it didn’t last too long. It was mainly pity, of course. Dareg was the one being hit hard in the whole thing that day. Unless the women were both being truthful with them, then they well might be feeling a bit of extra stress too.
Tor finally spoke, his voice low, but relaxed.
“As near as I could tell they meant what they said. Debbie… She’s a lot less certain about things. I have a sense that she isn’t as deeply a part of the plans that are going on as Merry is. I didn’t get the specifics. Just enough that, if they were normal people, I’d have just trusted them. I take your meaning however. What do you think we should do?”
It was a brilliant thing to ask, since when you had a problem, the best person to ask for advice was the fourteen-year-old child. Not that he didn’t feel older than that. At least fifteen. That thought, as dour as it felt at first, actually told him a lot however. They needed, not him, but the people that actually dealt with important issues. The leaders and their people.
“We… Should report this. To everyone. The world and planetary leaders. King Richard and Queen Tiera… All the Ancients, and whoever is going to be running this place.” He glanced around, and noticed that Hess, Erath and Neesa were sitting on the other side of the room, along with Leslie Camp, and the two guards with silver hair. One of the men glared at him, which got him to stand up and walk across the room, planning things out.
He waved at Eva and Samantha, the ones that ran the place for them, and pulled his handheld out, trying to find the right name on the device. Tor was behind him, hovering a bit, or so it felt. Karina’s face came up almost instantly, and she smiled, seeing that he was doing that as well.
“Dareg?”
“Hello! I was thinking of holding the first planetary election here. There are only three people that actually live here so far, but you do have an official residence, so… You know, that plus being the Ancient should get you a vote as well, don’t you think? Or… Do you think that you shouldn’t be allowed that kind of thing?” He really didn’t know, but she shook her head a bit, and stuck out her tongue at him, playing.
It was kind of childish, if meant to be funny.
“I guess a vote sounds fair. Sara should get one too. Do the people on the Martian Circle get to vote as well, or are we having separate governing bodies?”
“Um… Separate, for now. We should see about unifying that in… Call it fifty years? I agree though, for now. Sara should get a vo
te. Just like you should in whoever rules there, eventually. Not me, but you, being so important.” He meant that part, which came across in his voice, thankfully.
Hess and the others looked over at him, staring, Leslie Camp smiling at the people that walked over.
“Well! This is monumental! Who are you electing? With five people it’s a bit more of a selection, isn’t it? Still, it’s your system. Just be careful. A bad leader can destroy a new operation like this.”
Dareg looked at his hand, knowing that it was a bad idea, most likely, but liking it anyway. It probably meant he was insane, or that the day had just warped him that much.
“I was going to put Hess of the Ysidril forward for it? He’d have to give up being an Ambassador. We can’t have our people being torn that much. Normally we’d have to ask if that’s what he wants, but he’s a Ysidril, which means if called on he has to serve. Like an Ancient. I think that’s the rule anyway. Nessa, is that about right?”
Hess looked to be laughing, as if it were a joke he was playing, but Neesa nodded hugely.
“That is the truth. If called on to do our part, it is that we must do so. I did not know that was the same for any humans however… It is a good thing. I can recommend Hess as a good leader, at least as far as our people have such.” Then she went silent, as Karina looked baffled for a bit, and then slowly, nodded.
“All right. Leader of Mars, for two years. You can only hold power for twenty years however, and have to win a vote each two years. Those have to be done openly as well. Secrets are an illness. I’d love to eventually get rid of them.”
That nearly got him to laugh, but instead he looked over at Eva and then Samantha.
“All right. I vote for Hess. Do either of you have a recommendation of anyone else?”