Light Bringer (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 2)

by Power, P. S.

  Instead of telling him that sounded stupid, the girl snagged the bag from his hand and started going around, filling the thing with thirty of the food units first. Then hitting clothing, which he hadn't considered in the slightest. He had magical clothing and it was the thing he used most, out of all magics, but he hadn't thought about it for the others.

  The store didn't have ships, but there was almost everything that one could use for making a home, including underground house making amulets. He took a few, but not one for everyone, since they weren't all that useful on ships, he was willing to bet. Not even big ones. There were emergency shelters however, which the shop girl assured him would be more than enough to keep a person alive for several days, with both heat and light, even in space.

  "They're small, but work as well as a shield and have gravity, so you don't get sick. Magnetic fields too, for the same thing."

  All things he wouldn't have thought of on his own. Those got loaded up, making the bag grow. It was getting a little weighty, but no one stopped him from getting things. There was also an array of entertainments, that were incredible. Screens on stone that showed plays in living shape and color for instance, and others that were basically handheld communications devices, but they only played music. Thousands of different kinds. Musicians could add their new songs as well, so it was always growing and changing.

  He looked at Wendra, and smiled at her.

  "I'm getting one of these. You should too, so I don't feel guilty. It's one thing to get magic for a real job, but just for me..."

  Laughing, Timon Baker moved into the shop, and held out a hand, like he wanted to drop something.

  "I thought I felt you nearby. Here you go." The thing that hit his palm was on focus stone. The sigil was just like the ones on the regular shields, but a different color. Light yellow on this one. Dare held it, and closed his fingers.

  Then he cleared his mind, and let his eyes shut, so he could focus. It was a bit confusing, and did feel like a shield, only there was something different about it. It took him a bit to realize it was familiar to him.

  "Jump shield?"

  "The very one. Not bad. I heard that you already learned to make copies and are getting lessons for building?"

  Wendra looked at him, her eyes a little bit wide, and the shop girl looked up at Timon, clear hero worship on her face. Actually, if she'd been even four years older, it would have been closer to a come-hither expression.

  Tim ignored that, and waited for him to say something.

  "Training to get ready... For that harder training you have in mind. Petra started me on combat lessons again today. If beating me for hours counts as that." He grinned, not really caring about that part of things, but Wendra nodded.

  "It was... Brutal. He had to fight everyone. He was beaten blind at one point and wasn't even allowed to heal for over an hour, just going without end."

  Timon looked at the girl, noticing her for the first time, at least as a real person. Then he examined her in a way that she probably thought was sexual, but that was more than that. Including magically. Dareg could feel it happen. He thought. It was still very light, but there was something there.

  In the end, Tim looked back at him.

  "You're training her to be the groups pilot?"

  "Right. She can jump already. I'll let her fly back on her own as a test, and land at the Printer School. I'll use the jump shield. We're setting up an exchange with the incoming fleet. They host some of the school kids and we do the same with some of their people. If they go for it, we'll need to find some mentors for people." It sounded kind of silly, but Timon nodded at him.

  "I can see it. I... Don't have any ships left, and you probably aren't ready to do your own build just yet. I'll walk you through the grow pattern after your first normal build. Sam said that he was in charge of you, since you're a Noram citizen. At least for magical training. I hear he's working up a whole program, just for you. Get with him, and Petra, to set up schedules for tutoring. Also, don't forget to keep in touch with Karina. She gets lonely."

  He crossed his eyes. It was a real and good point, and being too busy wasn't a great reason not to at least talk to people. Not when he had, on his person, a magical device that let him do just that, at any time. It was just a strain, connecting like that.

  "Got it. I'll do all of that."

  Before he could get away, Timon looked at Wendra directly.

  "I should have a set of jump ships coming in twenty-six days. I'll earmark one for you. What's your name?"

  "Wendra... Sir." For some reason she grinned, and looked away a bit.

  He nodded.

  "I thought I recognized you! I didn't do the work on you... It's quality though."

  "Um... Master Tor did it. I came up, years ago and asked."

  "Ah! Well, good to see you. Do you have a handheld?" She didn't, and they hadn't loaded the bag with them, being too large. That got the girl that worked there to scamper for them, walking back with thirty-odd in a blue magical sack, and one that was out, which she handed to Wendra with a smile.

  "Everyone should have one of these."

  Tim nodded, happily about that.

  "They should. We need an outlet in Noram, and one in Austra for it. Set that up with... Tess, on that one. Will you Dare?"

  He didn't know how to do that, but took a breath, and then thought about it for a bit.

  "I'll see what I can do."

  Timon clapped him on the arm, then looked at him, seriously.

  "Also, don't let people push you into work that you don't want to do. I mean, be helpful and kind, but if it's too much, say no. You too, Wendra. Tell your parents and Stara that I said hello, if you see them?"

  Dareg put that one together, since Stara wasn't exactly a popular name. This girl was taller, and looked noble, but he could see the basic idea, around the eyes.

  He didn't mention it however.

  For one thing, he could be wrong. Uncommon names could repeat, so it might not be this girl's sister that had serviced him that one time. That was someone that he wanted to look up, if he got a chance. Stara had been nice, if only pretending to be a whore. In order to spy on him for Countess Thomson.

  Timon patted them both and wandered off into the store, to see who his wife was talking too, letting them walk off toward the dock, carrying their ill gotten, if legal, loot. It still felt a bit like stealing, carrying tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of golds worth of magic like he was.

  At least it would be worth that when they got back to Earth. Here it was valuable, but not expensive at all.

  "So, you heard the plan? Undock from here, carefully, then head back to Earth. I'm going back another way. Don't worry, I'll be watching you." Not that he'd be there to help her, so really he was just making her stress level higher. "You get to carry the new things. I don't want my hands to be full the entire time." That was a bit lazy of him, but he smiled at her, looking up a bit.

  She took a deep breath, and touched his right arm.

  "What if I do it wrong?"

  "Well, the worst case will have you killing a lot of other people. Most likely, if you move slowly, and deliberately, then everything will go very well. When in doubt, stop and think about what you want to do. I'll meet you at the weapons area?"

  She nodded, swallowed and shook, ever so slightly.

  "I can do it. I'll be fine. I can do it." She seemed to not believe it.

  Dare nodded.

  "You can. Actually, you can do a lot more than that. I believe in you, or you wouldn't get to borrow my ship like this."

  She smiled at him, nervously, and went wide eyed.

  "What if I stole your ship, and these things?"

  That was possible, but he shook his head.

  "When you can get your own to use legally in a month? Once you have that, you can come back here and get a lot more magic than this. No, that makes no sense at all. Besides, you're a good person. After all, you didn't take a turn beating me when yo
u had a chance. It's not because you're a coward either."

  He was certain of that one. A coward wouldn't have been able to fly the ship as well as she had. Not on their first try.

  Then, after handing her the things he bowed a bit, like friends might do on parting.

  "Let's go. I'll follow you out." Hopefully the new shield worked as expected. It probably did, but if not, he was going to end up stuck for a while.

  That part, went well, to start with. Honestly, Wendra did very well, going slowly, and smoothly enough that he couldn't tell she was an old professional pilot. It was her exit into space that was a little off, since she simply moved, as if no one else could be in the way. Except that there was a ship coming in at the same time. They both froze, the other craft doing the same thing she did. Then they both tried to go, and then let the other ship go first, several times. Finally, the other ship, a fleet vessel, started to glow a bright orange, and went ahead.

  Wendra held her ground, and move hesitantly after that. Until she got into orbit, from where she jumped in a way that was amazing. Dare had never actually seen it happen like that before. He was miles away, but had a good view of the whole thing. It just, wasn't, any longer. It had been there, glowing a pale green, in kind of a mint color, and then was gone.

  He set up a jump, just like he normally would for a ship, even though there was no special place to put his hand. That one was simple to figure out however. The shields used mental controls, but the idea was familiar enough. Using the same two dots and a dotted line, the whole thing was easy. A good piece more so than with a ship, actually. Enough so that it would be important for people to learn that first, to make sure they didn't have problems doing it by mistake or going to the wrong place. For him the end point was right over Printer, in near orbit.

  Behind him Wendra was closing, dropping down about twenty miles to his right, over the ocean a bit. There was a bit of adjustment needed, but she had it under control. He followed along, moving nearly as fast as the ship was, due to her going slowly, rather than the shield being faster than his old one. It still only took about ten minutes for them to land.

  Well, two minutes for him, but Wendra was taking a test, so had to do it all under control. Plus they had to get kids out of the way, since it was still class time. Petra walked over to him as he made a point to wave people out of the weapons square.

  "This is... A surprise? Who's with you? Gerent?"

  "Wendra. What did you think we were doing? I taught her how to fly a jump ship. Timon is getting her one, in a month. Provided she proves she can do this on her own without killing anyone. I mean, that would be a deal breaker there. Oh. I also sort of promised your students, the ones from earlier, for an exchange program with the new fleet. The Allies? Can you host one of the groups of people from there coming in? I mean, mentor them and all that? If it happens."

  The ship landed like there were eggs under it, and not one of them was going to be broken if Wendra had anything to say about it. Which she did. When she climbed out there was applause from the others there, from outside the walls. They'd worked out who was piloting, at least when one of their fellows got out.

  She had the bags with her, and handed them over, though Petra was the one they were handed to.

  "Gear?"

  Dareg nodded.

  "From Harmony. For the ones going with the program. If we have one. My thought is to have them go on their off days, so they don't miss any classes." Petra nodded and looked around. Most of the kids from earlier, the core students, weren't there at the moment.

  "I bet they love hearing that. Then, if they want to do the interesting things, there has to be a cost."

  That was kind of close to what he was thinking, plus, he didn't know what was more important. School might be so useful that keeping them from it was too much to ask of anyone. If it cost seventy-five gold a year, then it had real value. Most people didn't make that in a decade.

  Petra looked at him for a second, her brow furrowing.

  "Wait, if Wendra came back alone, in your ship..."

  "New jump shield. I tested it for Tim. That... It's really sensitive on the jump. I'm not certain that regular people will be able to handle it. Builders might, and people with a lot of training. Speaking of which, I need to... Gah." He didn't know.

  There was too much for him to do, and that meant his brain was locking up, trying to work out how to do it all at once.

  Which never worked.

  So, nodding at nothing he spoke slowly.

  "Really, I need to go home, and rest for a bit. I feel okay, but it's getting late. See you in the morning?"

  The weapons Instructor nodded.

  "Yes. I'll be at the salle on Harmony. It's past the bakery and the wine shop? About noon, our time, which is the evening work out there. So you can sleep in and everything."

  That didn't seem likely, but he agreed with his expression.

  "See you then. Oh, I need to get you and Sam together to plan out schedules for tutoring?"

  "I'll handle that. We're old friends, after all."

  That was nice to hear, because it sounded complicated to him at the moment. Not that it was all that late. In fact, after getting his ship back, and getting back to his current home at the Capital port, it was still before four in the afternoon. Meaning he had half a day left to fill up. Taking a breath, he decided that calling around to get things done, and do that suggested checking in was a good plan.

  After he showered and scrubbed. That was needed, thanks to the fact that he had dried blood on his face, and not just a little bit. No one had mentioned it to him, so now he felt embarrassed. Worse there was some in his hair, which took about half an hour of standing under the water just soaking to pry loose. Then, feeling clean enough, he climbed out, and went to see Tam-Unit.

  Even she, his best friend, had work for him.

  "Not to be a pain, but the people in Austra haven't been that good about filling me up. Part of that is just that no one had really been using the port yet, but they come to use me and take things away. I've tried to complain to the guards there. We have people, just nothing like the dirt children here. Oh, also, the port personnel here need to be paid. It's a bit late... No one has wanted to complain, but... I hear things."

  Dareg nodded, and sighed. Then had to think about what to do toward that end. People needed funds, and he did have enough for them all, in his chest. It had been floating in the corner, filled with more coins than he could really feel good about. The thing there was that Tor had said that he'd pay for the port personnel.

  All of them really.

  It was going to be very late in Vagus, but the coin he needed was in the big palace that Tor kept on the other side of the city. That was cared for by Collette Sorvee, who was, Dare thought, Tor's girlfriend. She lived there with her husband, who, strangely, used to be the King of Vagus. Feeling like he didn't know what to say, he found the correct name, which was under Collette Coltress. Luckily he'd bothered her before, so knew that off the top of his head.

  She smiled at the handheld, a thing that seemed to be of long practice.

  "Hello? Dareg! I have your monthly allowance ready. I was going to come and find you, in a few days. I..." She looked away, and a bit of rose coloration came to her cheeks. "Honestly, I don't know how well we're doing. I know I was rude to you, but you haven't been in touch for so long..."

  He wanted to shrug, knowing what she meant. She'd kind of doubted that Tor was his father, and he'd taken offense. Now he didn't care. Half of Austra figured him to be a con-man, which was their way of calling him a liar. That had changed his set point for being offended.

  "I believe we, you and I, are doing well? I was just recovering. You're up to speed on that? People have been keeping silent, but that won't help anything."

  She looked at him, and nodded.

  "I had word, from my source in the palace. About the main threat, and that we have some visitors coming?"

  "Oh! Right. Can we host a part
y there in a month or so? At your house? I'd do it here, but..." He moved the camera around for her, so that she could see that he lived in a tiny home. "I'm planning to have some people from the new fleet come and visit. Maybe stay for a while. I'll work that out, depending on who is coming."

  There was a pause, and an excited look of surprise.

  "That's an option in the works? How exciting. Yes, of course! Have you gotten with King Richard on that?"

  "Nope. I came to you first. Well, Petra, since we're sending some of her school students the other way, but yeah. I can get with him though. Your man in the palace? Will it be faster for you to do it?"

  She laughed then and shook her head.

  "I don't know what you mean. It isn't him. Just a friend of mine."

  One named Richard. It was so clear that he didn't bother to call her on the lie. She looked shifty, until he changed the topic.

  "Tam-Unit was telling me that I need to actually pay the people here? I have funds, but Tor mentioned that he'd cover that part? Or is that wrong? I can-" He didn't get to finish, being interrupted.

  "I have that. Set up already, I mean. With pay packets for everyone individually. You need to set up a pay day for them, so they know when to come to you for that. Better, pick someone you can trust, and I can pass it to them."

  He nodded, thinking about it.

  "That one? I'm not going to be here a lot, and people shouldn't have to suffer if I can't make it back in time. I'll... Find someone? You know, I wonder if I can get Brice or Lyone to do it. Have you met them yet? They work for Sam Builder."

  "I... The house boy and the house matron?"

  "Yes. They're actually machine people from the void. Honest folk, though. Let me see if I can set that up with one of them? Lyone by preference, just because she looks older. I don't know if that's the case. I've never asked, actually. I'll head out and do that now. If I can... Do you have time to come meet them, tonight? Or in the next few days?"

  "Tomorrow works for me. I have a dinner here tonight. Marvin and Maria are in town. I know, why don't you come? At nine, but we won't go too late, I promise."