by Power, P. S.
"I think I understand. We'll be back in... One hour. Or is this more pressing than that even?" It could well be. Baron Riley wasn't a name that he recognized immediately, but no one knew all the lower nobles anyway. Worse, if he was right and she was from space, then they couldn't just tell the man that he was holding someone he wasn't supposed to.
The King might be able to do that kind of thing, but that wasn't in play at the moment, or they wouldn't need him. That meant...
Constance broke in, her face slightly brittle looking.
"It isn't the best thing. Richard has asked the Baron not to bother her incorrectly, but she was found in his barony, which means that there is a limit as to what we can require of the man."
"We'll be there directly then. Dr. Grainger, can you make certain everyone is inside and ready to travel? We need to be set in ten minutes. Before people scream, please let them know that it's a life and death matter. If we fail in this, a good person may well not make it through the day."
It was a bit melodramatic of him, but the fact of the matter was that it made for good media to hurry along like that. Much better than leaving in a slow and sedate manner. Enough so that he had to rethink what was going on. After all, the Queen of Noram wouldn't need him to get a girl from a baron. Even if they needed a magical strike team, she would have asked Tiera, or Tor to aid her, not him.
Still, she looked up, worry, or possibly mock concern, on her face. It was the young looking disguised version, which was a little stiff, making it more difficult to read her. That was actually something handy to notice, actually. The amulets would, at least in potential, let a person hide more than just their base appearance then.
"Please come here, as soon as possible? We need to plan."
"I'll get the science and media teams back. Set up to leave! We leave in five minutes! Emergency!"
He faked a bit of fear, but a commanding type that got action. People ran to do things, instead of begging him to stay for just a few more hours, even if it was a bit early. He'd been dreading that part of things.
The instant they had a head count, he took them back to Earth, and then Austra, so that the Scientists could grab their gear and leave. Dareg had that down in ten minutes, and dumped most of the mass they were carrying. He collected the crew onto the bridge, along with Tenet and Karina, then made the craft just large enough for them. They each got a chair
"I'll get you all back to Harmony now. Can you move a bit faster than these people did?"
Lenn, the small, powerful looking crewman who'd ended up being in charge of things the whole time, nodded at him.
"Do you need us for this? We can stay with the ship, if that works."
Dare narrowed his eyes at the strange looking man. He had silver hair and eyes, and spoke with a strange accent, but was also a hard worker and likable. Then, he'd liked Bill, too. The big difference there was that Bill had seemed to fit in better than Lenn did. This wasn't the kind of person that you sent in to act as a spy directly. He'd be caught almost immediately. Unless you were incredibly clever... Or desperate.
So in all the odds of him being with the Adversaries was small enough that it was as safe to trust him as anyone else.
"Not that I know of, but I can call on you for future work? We can set this up as a real job, if sporadic. I need help with the Jupiter thing for certain. Maybe other things, as well. Can we all keep in touch? Lenn, will you be in charge of that for me?"
The man nodded, and then smiled a bit.
"I will. Thank you."
Dareg shrugged.
"As long as you aren't with the Adversaries. You do seem pretty different, but open enough about it."
Karina, who was in the passenger's seat, got ready to fight, but if this man were against them that way, Dare had probably just doomed them all.
Instead of fighting, there was a low grunt.
"I'd figured I was passing pretty well, too. Oh, well. Forten. One of the forward arm. I've been put in to guard you and Queen Tiera, if I can. Not that it will help anything. Still, if there's a girl taken, I can help fight. We aren't horrible that way, my people."
The princess stopped, not getting out whatever weapon she had, though she was tense. Dareg just guided them upward, back toward Harmony. As soon as they were in space, without an atmosphere around them of note, he jumped, then moved toward the city faster than was normal. Luckily there were no other ships, or worse, people around to get in the way.
He nodded however.
"I don't think that's the case. If I have this right... Queen Constance was trying to get Karina and I back in time for dinner at the palace. Without something like this we would have had twenty pushy Austrans to deal with, and probably an extra several days of doing whatever it is they'd been up to. Researching the Ring makers, most likely. That was the most interesting part of this. I mean, real aliens? They aren't even trying to kill us all or anything."
That got a chuckle from the muscular short man, who stood up.
"We can all just go through a personnel hatch, so you don't have to dock. Come on everyone!"
One of them, a Tellerand woman who was pale and had a cross around her neck, stood rapidly, but looked at Lenn briefly, then down at the floor.
"Excuse me... What is a Forten?"
Lenn froze, so Dareg spoke for him.
"People that had left Earth about three thousand years ago. They, and some of their friends are coming back now, and will be here in a few years. Lenn came first, to make sure we're friendly. Which we are, amazingly. It's part of why we need to get Mars ready, so that people have places to stay when they come. Not all of them probably will want to, but some might, so it's worth setting up. We need to make them comfortable, after all." He was ready to say he was joking, if the woman freaked out, but she just smiled gently.
"An amazing thing then! Yes. I will help you? We all will. Guests must be cared for before we think of our own well being. It is in His book."
Before he could ask who he was, Lenn got everyone toward a wall, made an airlock and got them out with all their gear. It was a lot faster than landing, so Dare decided to do that again in the future. In his imagination that meant tossing recalcitrant, and strangely tall, people out by force, but it would work pretty well, even if they went out on their own. It took a lot less effort to fix the wall again, once everyone was out and away than almost anything else would have.
He glanced at Karina, who was the only one left, Tenet having gone with the crew, and wrinkled his nose.
"Now to see if my guess is right. If not then we need to get to saving someone. I hope it's just a talented way of asking us to dinner and getting us free of clingy Austrans."
She nodded, seeming more than a little bit tense on the topic. She was in all black that day, to his soft copper, both in what seemed a bit like military outfits without really being them. They weren't dressing clothes, but they had helped to set the idea of them being in charge on the ship.
She didn't speak, not wanting to distract him. That meant he was, two minutes later, settling over the palace in Noram. Slowly, since it was important there. He'd heard a rumor that if you went too fast the Royal Guard would slam up a shield and shoot at you with Austran weapons that could, in theory, kill anyone in a ship that was hit. Not destroy the vessel, but those inside could be in real trouble if they underwent enough strikes.
So, emergency or not, he went slow. As soon as they were down, he started to climb out, Karina placing a hand on his arm.
"Go slowly. We don't know what we're going into here. There are guards, but that's normal. Don't spook them, and be ready to move if it's needed."
He gave her a nod.
"Right. On three then, we get out at quarter speed?" That came from his training, where sometimes one person would move slower than the other, to make the fight more fair. It was nearly impossible to really do, but his princess got the idea, clearly having had similar training.
She did the count for them.
"On
e, two... Now." She said it calmly, and moved with grace that would be hard to match.
They left the ship up, hogging the good landing space, just in case they had to run or evacuate the building. That wasn't going to happen, but Karina had been right. They'd been invited to attend the King and Queen due to an emergency. If it wasn't a stealth way of getting free from his last duty, it could be a real issue. Working on that idea, if carefully so as to not make problems, made a certain amount of sense.
On the ground the two, only two, guards smiled at them, and bowed. He didn't recognize them, but they weren't kids, and it was clear Karina got who they were.
"Varen! Lydia! We heard there was a problem. Any news on it?"
That got two head shakes. The larger one, the man, Varen, was about six-five or so, but vastly muscled. His voice was soft when he spoke to the princess. Like he was talking to a child.
"Nothing that I've heard of. It could be that high level? Just secret enough that even the Guard doesn't know? That happens." The way he said it indicated that he didn't think it did all that often.
They walked into the building with a purpose anyway, not running to find the King or Queen, but moving as fast as long legs could go. That meant five minutes later they were taken to a side room. A small space that had a feeling much like the rooms some shop keepers had behind the store. A private place, that was actually real. It was nice, and held several women, each of them holding something on their lap that they were working on. Sewing projects, mainly.
It was the Queen, Countess Thomson, and Sara Debri. She was doing beading work however, covering the outside of a tiny bag with yellow and blue pieces of painted or dyed wood. They were all dressed up, but not like they were going either to war or a ball.
The Queen went wide eyed and tried to stand up.
"Karina! Dareg! I didn't know that you'd be here this soon. You were at Saturn..." She looked a bit worried, and slightly wild about it.
Tamerlane covered a silent laugh, her tiny hand pale and delicate seeming.
"Oh, my. Well, I guess we need to be careful when we tell some people that there's an emergency." She looked at Dareg and wrinkled her nose cutely. "It was my idea. No one has been taken, I just thought that it might be easier to get away if you had a reason to. Forgive me?"
She didn't seem worried, but was watching him carefully, like she did.
"I figured that might be the case. Still, we hurried along anyway. After we took everyone back to their places, or we would have been here within ten minutes or so. We do have news however. One of the people from Harmony that was working in my crew turned out to be one of the Forten. I need to get with Lyone and check his story out." That caught attention, the ladies seeming not to know what the meant.
Except Sara, who started to pack her things away, speaking while she did.
"That's pretty big then. Here I figured that going to a new planet would be the biggest news of the week. We've been watching you both almost the whole time. They put in a screen here for it. It's like being there with you, except the part where you kept ignoring us as we called out. That was rude. You'll have to work on that." She grinned, directing that at Dareg, but as soon as she got up she hugged, then kissed, Karina.
Reminding him that these two had basically been together for years. As in a real relationship. It left him feeling a little jealous, but he managed to let most of that go after a second. It was just how things were.
It wasn't like no one had mentioned it to him before. Interestingly, he got a hug too, from the blonde Ancient, and while it wasn't as warm, perhaps, it was clearly meant to show everyone that he, Dareg, was being added to their group, rather than shunned or snubbed as an interloper. At least that was how he took it. So he hugged her back, trying to return that part of the feeling, and not imply anything more than that. It was hard, since the woman was pretty enough to be distracting.
Sara shrugged, which reminded Dareg of what he'd seen Tor doing, the few times they'd met.
"I need to get to that. Dare, can you go with me? We should take Karina too, but there are limits that way. We'll be back for dinner? Unless Dareg isn't invited?" She didn't seem embarrassed to say it that way.
He still snorted at her, smiling.
"Oh, that's nice of you. What if they didn't want me to come? Now Queen Constance will feel all awkward about it." He smiled at the woman warmly. She hadn't stood, but there had been no bowing either, which he had to figure was a sign that he'd been accepted as family. "Not that you should of course. Totally fair to keep me out of the good parties and secret meetings. In fact, I probably shouldn't be invited that often. Karina needs enough space to keep her sane, after all, and we just spent a week together. So far she hasn't stabbed me, but that could just be down to me having had a shield on the whole time." He smiled, making sure it was clear he was joking with them all. At the same time it would give Constance a way out, if she needed.
In fact, she did look at Karina, her head shaking just a bit. It was nearly subliminal, it was such a tiny movement.
"Do you need some space dear? That does sound fair."
Princess Karina actually rolled her eyes.
"No, mother. If you don't want him at the meal, just say so. Really, I find him remarkably easy to take. At least over short periods of time like we just did. The only one I wanted to stab at all was Grant Bugler, from Channel Seventeen Lima. Talk about a smarmy git." She made a low, angry, growling sound under her breath. "Next time I suggest we accidently leave him when we come back."
Their experiences had been different that way, Dare guessed. Not because the man had been sweetness and light the whole time. He hadn't really, being needy and demanding about almost everything. It was that, for some reason, he'd avoided Dareg for the most part. Possibly understanding that Dare could actually strand him out there if he'd felt the need and it would have been legal. There were no laws, after all, except what the captain said. Not that far away.
It was strange but everyone in the room seemed to agree with that, including Tamerlane.
Her voice was soft, and shy around the edges, but easy enough for him to hear.
"That man was insufferable the entire time. I thought that poor Jan was going to strike him down, more than once. He kept belittling her. Subtly implying that she only had the job at all due to her being her station manager's daughter. Which is the case, I gather? Still, she did good work, the entire time. I think we should organize a campaign to snub that man."
Queen Constance smiled then, her lips a bit crooked, and mean seeming.
"Done. I didn't enjoy him much either. Perhaps we can invite your friends to visit soon? I don't know how else to show disapproval for this Bugler. If you think of anything Karina, you'll let me know?" She looked at her daughter, who returned a smile that held nearly the same level, if not slightly more, malice.
"I bet we can work some things out."
Dareg looked at the Queen, and bowed a bit. Going about halfway down, since she was sitting.
"So, I take it I shouldn't show up for the meal? That's fine. We should get together soon however, and chat. Just to make sure you don't hate me or anything. I'm going to be going off to fix the ports soon, or oversee that anyway, but I can get back whenever you want." He yawned and shook his head. "If I'm not sleeping. That has gotten better. I'm only sleeping away half the day at a time now. I should be back to normal soon."
Sara cleared her throat.
"I doubt that? You're nearly two inches taller now than when we met, a month ago. That shows heavy growth happening. It's work, even if you don't know it. Which means we both need to get going then. If we're seeing to this latest situation. I'll be back."
She tugged on his arm, then walked quickly toward the landing area. It was a bit of effort to keep up with, but he managed it. Barely. In fact he was nearly certain she was slowing down so he didn't have to actually run the whole time. She didn't say anything, until they were out of the wonderful palace, and sealed in his jump ship.<
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"Right. There's a secret meeting going on later. They'd let you in, but the gist of it is that people are starting to become aware that things are happening, their spies talking about all the deaths from the attack. No one bothered to hide it, but it doesn't scan for most. I mean, a soft High Servant and a Squire that hadn't even had two training sessions taking on, and killing, a room full of knights, builders, and fighters? That makes no sense at all, so people are coming up with ten thousand tales to try and make the world fit back together. I think the best bet is to just tell them the truth, but the fact is, there's almost nothing that we can do about it. Not yet."
That got him to nod, having been thinking the same thing himself, more or less.
"Agreed. I've been trying to put together a way to test people, but we only have two of the Adversaries to go from. Any similarities between them could be down to happenstance. Though we might be able to check their DNA, or magical fields. Or... Well, they were both kind of unglued from time, or could make themselves that way. I wonder if there's a way to check for that?" He shook his head, not knowing at all if that would work. If any of it would.
Sara started to nod as he moved them around the city, took them up a bit, and came back from the east. When he started to land it was in the spot closest to Sam Builder's palace there. One of two magical dwellings left, the others having been replaced by nice looking tan focus stone places.
It wasn't that late, and the sun was still up in the sky, even if it was pushing toward evening.
"Those are actually all worth looking into. We'll need Tor and Tim in on the time portion of things. Can you set that up with them? I'll do the part on field reading. That will... Well, I did run into Bill a few times. Maybe I can tell something from that, if I go deep enough. I don't know who to get for the genetics portion of things. Do we have any samples to work from? Hair or something? They both vanished into smoke when they died."
He didn't know, but he did still have a hairbrush the squire had used. He had to, but there could be hair on it that wasn't his. It wasn't like he'd cleaned the thing out. Then, he hadn't used that one either, since things had happened.