Knight of the Realm tya-3

by P. S. Power

  Well, Tor had an awful thought that she might be disappointed in him when she found out what he really wanted. Then again, if he hurried… No. That wouldn't work, there just wasn't enough time. It wasn't fair, but it was true. Even if he could somehow finish this faster than anything he'd ever done, they'd probably all have to leave as soon as it was daylight. Laughing it occurred to him that she probably just assumed he was afraid of the storm like a little kid. It was sometimes hard for royals to remember that he wasn't way younger than his actual years.

  Still half an hour…

  That meant he had time to get some work done.

  He isolated his own field and pulled out the parts responsible for his basic form, that of his limbs, organs and shape. Leave out size, he reminded himself. One size fits all. It had too. Just the most basic stuff. Then he added in the feeling of healing, and increasing the speed of that. It wasn't enough he knew, but he held that much already when he heard a knock on the thick oak door, pale gray with age, or some treatment he didn't know about. Tor walked over as if in a dream and opened it.

  Petra stood, wearing a lovely gown that wasn't shear and didn't hug her tightly, but hinted nicely at what might be underneath. Not silk, but something that shone a little even in the dim light of the room. After she stepped in, her feet bare, she turned away and let it drop, looking at him sweetly over her shoulder. A robe then, not a night dress? She wore nothing but a smile then. Not thinking about anything but gathering information about her, he felt his body move with her towards the bed. It wasn't rushed and for the most part he ignored it, focusing on her deeply. Almost not aware that he moved at all. On what made her a woman, what that meant field wise… It was fascinating.

  He was kissing her, and apparently doing a good enough job of it, laying next to her, naked now. Tor couldn't remember getting that way. They did a lot of things, and it took a long time, but he kept making himself work, even as he finished. He realized, since he was examining her so closely on the deepest levels, that she hadn't yet. Not quite. So he kept going until Petra didn't need any more, her moans lovely in the dark room. He let his lips touch hers again and noticed how different the field for her brain was. Not the thoughts, but the physical organ itself. Fascinating.

  “Stay with me.” He murmured into her ear before she could collect her things and leave, which was her clear intent.

  Taking the single stone he had, Tor sat and plunged his mind as deep as he'd ever gone. It felt like he only took a single breath, but it was morning when he opened his eyes and he held a basic healing device that he could only hope would work.

  Dawn was just breaking, but he didn't need his eyes to see now, not in this state. Not really. Next to him Petra slept still, clutching her pillow a little. Setting down the device, which had a forest green glow to it, the sigil on the front a complex one of a person in silhouette, Tor leaned over and kissed her cheek. Even asleep she was pretty, he longed to run his fingers over her face again but let her rest. As he dressed, trying to be quiet she rolled over and mumbled at him sleepily.

  “Sneaking out lover?” She was half asleep, but smiled, a lazy thing with eyes mostly closed.

  “Yes. But I'll be back inside half an hour or so. I have work to do.”

  “'Kay, wake me up when you get back?”

  Tor promised he would and hurried to the beach, which looked horrible. Water had clearly been driven higher than the edge of the rock expanse, which would have buried his little magic house if he'd left it in place. The walkway he'd made wasn't visible at all, under layers of new rock and sand. Almost on top of where he would have been sleeping there was a large tree with no bark that had somehow washed ashore, as he looked he notice that it wasn't alone. There were at least twenty of them along the beach and more than a few trees down in the woods along it. For a second it occurred to Tor that Swarley had been right.

  If he'd been out in that, he would have died.

  Tor hurried and stuffed stones into the canvas bag he'd brought, loading it as full as he could and still carry it. He picked small stones, but wasn't as picky about their shape this time. If anyone cared about looks now, that was their problem.

  It took till mid morning for someone to come for him, Trice as it turned out. She didn't knock, just walking in as if he wouldn't possibly be doing anything interesting or naked. Well, until last night she would have been right. Tor felt guilty. And excited.

  He'd had sex. With a girl and everything. He hadn't even had to pay her, which given everything he'd kind of wondered if his first time, possibly all his times, would be gold transactions. Or at least silver. Petra had done it just because she liked him.

  “There you are sleepyhead! I was just telling everyone how lazy you always are…” Looking at the piles of glowing stones, four hundred of them, she grinned. “Yep, as I figured. Well, let's get these in a case and get some food, we need to move as soon as possible.” Trice grinned at him, a different look than he was used to seeing from her. Not happy as much as… accepting? Like she'd known this was what he'd be up to if left alone?

  A lot was broken and scattered around the town, but the people seemed alright, mainly. The first one they found that wasn't had already died, an ancient man that had been trying to save his little house from flooding, piling bags of dirt in front of it. Tor couldn't tell what had killed him. Heart attack or drowning? When he touched the corpse's field, which left him with a curiously blank and empty feeling, not the gross and slimy one he'd expected, he still couldn't tell. It seemed like something had broken in his brain, like a bruise or something maybe?

  They passed out water purification devices and made large public cisterns out of focus stone that fed with pure water constantly for anyone to use. Petra and Trice set up emergency houses along the beach and then on the opposite side of town, using the water from two different streams for those. It took hours, but was way faster than trying to build new houses on the spot, even out of focus stone. It wasn't until nearly two in the afternoon that an old woman hobbled over, cradling her right arm which was visibly broken, though not bleeding, thank the universe. If it had been she'd have died already. Feeling his breath freezing in his lungs, Tor walked to her and held the healing amulet over her injury, then triggered it, touching it very lightly to her flesh. There was an audible pop, and she screamed, but even as he started to pull the green glowing field away, he saw the healing taking place, the bruise fading and finally the woman gasped.

  He handed her the stone and walked away for a moment, relieved that it hadn't killed her outright. It had to work for him, and for Petra for that matter. But it worked for anyone? A general healing field. Just as planned.

  He fought a grin. It was a good thing, but going around acting happy when people had lost their homes and wondered where their next meal was coming from would be rude. A minute later, his face schooled, he went back to the woman to collect the stone. She hugged it to her chest and refused to give it back for a moment.

  “I'm better now… I mean, everything is better, not just my arm. I can walk, my back is straight again, and nothing hurts. You don't know what that's like, not hurting… Not until you’ve lived with pain for years.” Tor nodded, but held out his hand, reluctantly she gave the device back.

  He could make more, he had more on him, and could even afford to give them away for free, but until he got a chance to test it, he wasn't just handing them out. What if they killed every third person or something?

  They didn't.

  Everyone just healed, including a father that had gone out in the storm early to rescue his daughter, a twelve year old girl that was sitting by him and crying forcefully. A tree had blown into him and crushed his legs and middle, he was bleeding but still alive when Tor and Holly got there, Kolb coming over when he saw them, Swarley trailing behind, looking less cowed around the fighter than Tor, for some inexplicable reason.

  Honestly Tor expected the man to die from the healing attempt and told them all that, but the man chuckled almost
imperceptibly and said something Tor barely caught at all.

  “What the hell?”

  Well, that made sense, if you were dead anyway, why not take the risk of the treatment killing you?

  The healing worked though, completely, if painfully. The man screamed and hollered for about three minutes. Then he sat up and looked at his lower body, which was nearly healed. They left him with the field for half an hour, but it seemed to hold just fine. No one relapsed later that Tor noticed, so it seemed that field really worked. Yay. Most of the injuries were minor, but it was faster to heal those with magic than treat them otherwise and the people could be put to work within minutes instead of taking days to get healthy, so it was efficient.

  The outlying areas were largely better… or massively worse depending on the location. A few full families were dead, their houses washed away or crushed, one just collapsed. But the rest were nearly untouched. The day lasted until after dark, when they decided it was too dangerous to work. Tor and Varley set up four houses which gave everyone on the working team a bed. He shared with Varley, Trice and the red-headed guard woman that had attacked them all the first day.

  Yvonne was her name, she told them, a bit warily. Tor didn't mention it, but wondered what she thought they were going to do? Beat her up for spying on them? All she did was sleep, which was really all Tor was up to as well. It occurred to him that the women might have carried a grudge over being stopped like she had been, but apparently that wasn't a huge issue to her. Of course he'd given her pie too, so maybe that had already smoothed things over?

  Who didn't like pie?

  Varley crawled in next to him, but even though she tried to rouse his interest, he fell asleep anyway. It wasn't as much fun, but he didn't have a lot of choice in the matter. Work trance wasn't really sleep, for all it could look similar, and he'd been up for a long time. Too long. Besides, she probably only wanted to sleep with him so she could claim the child was his. Since that didn't matter to him, or likely anyone else, she could save the attempt if that was her game.

  Then again, if she wanted to have sex, he wouldn't say no. It was fun. It didn't matter that she was pregnant, not really. He'd marry her like he was supposed to, and do his best to claim the child, even if it was obviously a royal giant or had the wrong hair color. For all he knew that could be why they were trying to marry her off to Peterson. Maybe he looked more like the real father? A funny thought passed through his mind, that the man, best described as fierce, intimidating, and verbally clumsy, may have managed to get the girl into bed. They clung together as they slept.

  In the morning Trice looked over and shook her head as they sat up.

  “Now I'm jealous. I admit I thought about climbing into bed with you Tor, but I guess I missed that chance… Well, dibs on tonight.” All the girls laughed, which Tor kind of understood, since sleeping alone had to be more comfortable, even on the soft shield material beds.

  They all got warm showers and hot breakfasts, since both he and Yvonne could cook. Tor had to run out and make the pots and pans, using an earth compressor, a light tan focus stone here for some reason, compared to what he thought of as the normal red-black color. It was just as strong and heat resistant, so it would work.

  That was the pattern for the next two days. The damage finally got fixed and they all returned to town to find that rebuilding was going well, but food was a little scarce. A lot of the fishing boats had gone down when the main dock lost a section that kept things tied in place. On top of that about half the stored food had gotten damp and just started to rot and mildew, before Tor could get a room drier made. Once he was told about the need he had a large batch ready to go inside an hour. No one had even thought to ask.

  Tor didn't shake his head, because that made sense. You dried food in the sun, or by letting air run over it. Everyone knew that. The same with the rest of it though, he'd never even seen a fishing boat before, but realized that if he had an example, maybe he could help. It wouldn't hurt to look into it at least, right? No one knew to ask if he could do it though, so they didn’t.

  Holly looked at him sadly when he said that, jaw clenching, as if it were an insult she didn't feel she deserved or something. It was one of those baffling things that didn't make a lot of sense to him. How would his helping her people be an insult to Holly? Was he not supposed to help? Or was it that she thought they owed him already or something, and here he was compounding the debt? That…

  Tor didn't know how to explain it to her, but that it was an emergency and besides, there were no debts between friends, right? So of course anything that could be done to help would be. Even if it made her mad at him.

  Inside her house she had plans and pictures of boats, a lot of them huge, but she assured him that the fishing craft were smaller, and powered by the wind. Tor realized that he could use a similar rudder set up to what was already used and something like the flight field for a cargo lift that would let people move almost the way they were used to in the water now and control their speed on purpose without rigging and sails. Maybe at least. If he didn't just mess it all up.

  Later that day they went to the docks and Tor tried to memorize the way the brown wooden ships looked, their rough size and how they worked to collect fish. That part was important. A nifty craft that went where you wanted would be nice, but unless they could use them the way they were used to, people wouldn't. New things were treated with suspicion in most places.

  For good reason. New things could have flaws, or dangers you wouldn't know about, since they were, by definition, new.

  The boats he came up with were like the houses, not real at all, but they looked and felt right. Solid and correct to the touch, textured exactly like smooth wood. They didn't have sails, instead they had a single lever that controlled speed next, to the big round driver's wheel boat captains used. They gave the first one to a man named Jaime who, spat when he heard the idea, grumbled and groused about the evils of magic and then took off, and went out when no one else could. Hours earlier. Before they got to the end of the wooden peer to look for the next person to test it, three more walked over and asked to try one too. In all Tor handed out twenty that day. By night fall they had enough fish for everyone and a good bit of shellfish and giant reddish insects too.

  Lobsters, the monsters were called. They even had a menacing name.

  That led to an unexpected problem that everyone wanted Tor to solve himself, even Holly left it to him, smiling. Not as if it was funny, just like it would be a happy thing all around.

  No price or fee had been given to the fishermen who used the boats. Holly suggested half their catch for the use of the craft, which they all agreed to readily. Tor didn't need that much fish personally, not even to give to his friends, but for the time being he could just give the fish away, right? People needed it, and while the free stuff would go first, hopefully that meant everyone would eat.

  Another ten fishermen, all of these with intact boats, wanted to rent his as well. They were too good to pass up, weren't they? One of the men chuckled about it a little with Tor when he came to see about getting one.

  “Jaime said he had his up to near forty knots! Didn't even stress the haul and that was into the wind. Even if he was lying and no man has ever said they heard Jaime telling tales, if it does half that it's worth the fish. Can't get a better rent than that, can you? Fish don't bite, we don't pay, and none to say against it? Sign me up admiral!” The man had a gray beard and was thin and hard looking in body, but Tor gave him an amulet too.

  If they were careful they could take them out without ever getting in the water, he thought, though that part of it was a little trickier than it sounded. It helped to be flying at the time. Tor had learned the hard way. Twice. Well, he knew how to swim at least and it provided amusement for the hardened fishermen when he fell off the docks trying to lean over far enough for the boats to go in.

  Five days later, leaving most of the fields behind for Holly to use, Tor had to figure they were
gone, if not into some other project of Holly's, then into the pockets of the people using them. That seemed to be the rule, people just taking the things he made without even bothering to ask about it. If it kept up he might have to start thinking they were valuable or something.

  It helped for now, with the clean up and rescue operations. A lot of people didn't have other houses than the ones they'd handed out any more either, and the water system they set up was kind of supporting the whole town. It was about all he had to offer really for the time being. The rest had to be up to each person, caring for themselves and their own.

  Staying wouldn't help anyone, so Tor loaded his one case, the one he'd gotten from Sara Debri a long time before, and flew off with Petra and Trice, headed to Warden. This time he could just follow Petra, who actually knew the way, which made it fast and… well, not any more direct, just more certain. A thing he would have lacked going alone. It made him feel a bit better about it, because just setting off and flying long distances was always a little spotty until you knew the way.

  The city was pretty in the daylight, he decided. White and green were the main colors, with a smattering of rust red and yellow just to keep things interesting. It radiated life. Friendliness.

  They were all shielded and armed, the fields were all on stone, which was cheap for him, but high quality, because the fields would last longer. Regardless, these shields would stop light and electricity and using what he'd learned from that, he made it so that it wouldn't just stop death dust and other tiny particles. It created controlled fields of hyper intense heat to cook them before they could make contact. Searing, but on such a tiny scale you almost didn't notice it, except that the shield flared purple to let you see it happening. He'd built that in, to let them know if an attack started. It was kind of pretty, since there were little things in the air part of the time, and on rare occasion one would hit you by chance. He'd nearly freaked the first time, thinking it was the Austrans, but it seemed to be everywhere. Every now and again you'd notice a single little flash or two.