A Simple Darkness (The Young Ancients: Tiera) (40 page)

Which he'd learned to defeat by shaking, so that the shield would keep pushing the other person away. It worked like a charm, allowing her to get away from him about ten seconds later. While that had been going on Tor had to scramble to turn his shield off, because it was randomly hitting the fleeing bodies in the way. Sandra was still moving however, scrambling for her amulets, trying to fight. That or at least get a shield back on.

Tiera rushed her, focusing as hard as she could on Tor, not attacking him at all, just turning his gear off long enough for him to look at her funny. She lashed out as he got in her way, trying to protect the Morris bitch. It was a mistake after all. She kicked him as hard as she could in the middle, a stomping blow that sent him flying back into the tables behind him. He was still moving, since shielded or not, he was
Tor
, but he didn't jump back to his feet instantly or anything. That meant she had whole seconds to return to pummeling Sandra. There were several cracking sounds as things in her face broke under Tiera's shielded hands.

She didn't stop, even as Tor turned off all her gear, leaving her naked, her bare flesh striking the girl. It hurt a bit, but that was what regular people did all the time when they fought. She was used to hitting wood, so soft girl flesh didn't stop her at all. Finally the woman under her went totally limp, which she took to mean dead. Without pausing she tried for the others, starting with the witch that had thrown the urine on her. She lost her legs at the knees, the hard way, having them beaten into destruction with a table leg. She left her alive so that she could do the rest of the people, but found herself blown face first into the far wall of the tavern her shield not working anymore. She was naked too and had been she realized. It meant she had nothing to protect her head at all, so passed out almost instantly, as soon as her body stopped tumbling.

She didn't know how long it took her to come to, and then it was several minutes before she could heal enough to move. She didn't wait for it all to be done, getting up before it seemed like she could, still hurting and bleeding, ready to resume the fight.

Only to find her own brother holding her at weapons point when she sat up.

"Stop. If you get up I'll use this. Shield or not, you won't survive it. Then
I'll
probably die when mother finds out I killed you. I made this one to take out the Larval. I can't let you kill these people Tiera. I know that you're very angry, but it isn't right."

She growled, her voice rough, almost as if she'd been screaming the whole time. If so that was poor form. You weren't supposed to do that while fighting, tales and songs aside.

"I have a right. Morris surrendered, I gave them
terms
. Because
you
told me to. Now this... No, I'm going to kill her. If you think you can stop me, then do it, because otherwise she will die. Right now."

She rolled to the side to stand up, and sprinted toward the tavern, only to find it empty except for a scared looking man and two women that were glaring at the wall, as if the hole there was what had damaged their business.

Looking around she had to stop, since she didn't know where the girl had gone at all. Sir Kolbrin was gone too and most of the people from the tavern. It wasn't lost on her that the ones that hadn't run away were probably the ones that at least thought they were innocent, therefore felt like they wouldn't be harmed by her. Since they were probably right, she just started walking back to her room, leaving the scene altogether.

She didn't speak, just trying to figure out what to do next. She was at war again after all. Possibly against her own brother. Moron. You were supposed to back your family in emergencies, not strangers.

She put clothing back on, and noticed after a bit that Tor was following her.

"Go away! You
aren't
my brother anymore. You helping them is the same as if
you
attacked me. This was an act of war and you're supporting my enemies." She knew that he stopped walking, but a few seconds later he panted up, jogging after her.

"Stop being stupid Tiera. It was an awful thing, but no one was trying to start a war with you. We don't know that Sandra had anything to do with it. I keep saying that, but you keep ignoring me..."

It was clear that he just wasn't going to allow himself to understand the reality of the situation. It had been an insult. It was Tor's way to just take things like that in the main. Not hers. She sighed and shook her head, letting her own steps falter for a few seconds.

"No. Listen to
me
. You think that I'm being unreasonable, but this was an attack and my
friend
was harmed by it. I know that you believe that you're right and I'm wrong, but it isn't the case this time. When people attack you, it only makes sense to defend yourself. I have the right to self defense and since Sandra doesn't have the right to attack me or even enjoy someone else doing it, I have a right that no one can take away from me to stop her from doing it again. You need to back off or this isn't going to end well, Tor."

 Her brother didn't say anything for a long while. He just stood there, looking young and disturbingly pretty. She probably did as well, so to anyone watching the whole thing probably seemed surreal. Like two strange characters arguing over things that didn't make sense, in a dream.

"Tiera... You will not go around killing people. Not if they aren't trying to kill you first. I'm your older brother and you have to do what I say. At least if I'm being reasonable. Do you really disagree that that's the part of reason? Even in this case? Sandra is a good person. She might be angry, but she didn't come at you with a new kind of weapon that would kill you instantly, but with a
prank
. If it was her at all. You destroyed big chunks of her County. She might even be under orders to have done it. You should have at least asked first, before taking it to violence."

If it had been ordered then she decided to kill whoever did it, just to make certain it was all fair. At least she had a good idea where to look for Count Morris, didn't she? The Council of Counts would be going on for weeks longer. They had votes, and arguments to hear. Wars to mediate and start.

Once that was done it would be fourteen months before the next one. It was a dumb way to run things, but that was the tradition, so it had to be done.

She started walking again, not bothering to speak. Nothing she said would change her brother's mind and nothing he said was going to get her to calm down. Not until she killed some people.

First she had to distract her brother and then find the ones that had wronged Reggie. An idea came to her then and she smiled.

"Alright. I won't kill them. We need to find them however. Right now."

She looked at him, smiling and meaning it, which he clearly didn't trust at all. It probably looked insane or something, but she didn't really care. The only thing that was needed at the moment was for her to find them all.

Tor, of course, wasn't going to help. Even asking him to would be a waste of time. He couldn't , since, rightfully so, he suspected she was either lying to him or had something equally dark in mind.

It was the second one.

She found all the kids, huddling in the Headmaster's office along with Sir Kolbrin. He didn't actually huddle as much as stand between the kids that had come after her and the door, when she stood in it. She waved at him, smiling still.

"Tor has asked that I not personally kill any of you for what you've done.
Fine
. You're all under arrest as of this moment. Sir Kolbrin, please see them all to a secure location. One not too easy to escape from please. We'll have a trial in the morning and see who's actually guilty. Then we'll see what the punishment for such assault is, won't we?"

Everyone else looked shocked, except for Tor who seemed confused.

"You can't just proclaim people arrested Tiera. That takes an official or something."

She nodded, understanding what he was getting at. She'd been kind of surprised when she'd first learned about it all too. Not that the idea existed, they knew that, but that it applied to them.

"Correct. But as Conserina Lairdgren, at Lairdgren school, standing in County Lairdgren, I
can
do that, can't I? It was a real assault and when I attempted to subdue these people earlier, others unlawfully got in the way. A mistake, since I should have announced my intentions more clearly at the time." Or, had better ones. This was a far more elegant solution after all. The penalty for assaulting a noble was harsh. Probably not actually death, she knew that, but there might be loopholes for Sandra, who she had stripped again to make sure she didn't have anything hidden on her, then gave her back her clothing amulet.

It wasn't like she couldn't make other things, but she stared at the girl hard.

"If you try to escape, or make a weapon of any kind, I'll kill you. I won't ask about it, or let anyone talk me out of it. Twice now you've attacked me and gotten away with it. No more. Do you understand?"

It took about ten seconds of glaring but the woman, her brown eyes glaring down, answered firmly.

"I understand you."

"Good. Now, I'm not certain what the outcome of this will be, but I plan to preside over it myself. In the morning however. I have other things to do right now."

Then she stomped out, not paying any attention to what was being done behind her. Tor stayed with them at a least. She stopped at his house and got Regina, holding her close as Ali watched. It was her front room after all, so of course she did.

"I put them all under arrest. After Tor protected them. I was just going to kill them, but he and Sir Kolbrin got in the way. Tor's paying for the new tavern. If he would have left me alone there would have been no more than some broken chairs and benches. He knocked me through a wall. That was a mistake. It showed me that he's more willing to help my enemies than his own sister." That reminded her to finish healing all the way. It stung a bit, but wasn't too bad and a few minutes later she was totally well.

Reggie was frightened, not knowing what would come of it all, and Ali went so quiet it was like she nearly wasn't there.

The orange eyed and pretty thing in her arms whispered to her softly.

"What's going to happen?"

"Seriously you mean? Probably nothing that bad. I'm upset and it was a huge insult, but not physically harmful. It will be hard to prove actual assault. Most of them probably didn't do more than laugh about it. We'll find out their intent though and go from there. It didn't happen on the school grounds even, so they probably won't be tossed out or anything."

Standing across the room Ali took a deep breath.

"That sounds right. I don't want to see anyone be killed over this."

Tiera nodded.

"The only one in real danger would be Sandra Morris. If
she
set this up it was an act of provocation, which, since she and her father already cheated in a duel, and then surrendered to me in our little war, would mean that she's open for the death penalty for it. Only if she did it though." Tiera smiled, trying to make herself seem fair and reasonable. She wasn't going to falsely accuse the woman after all.

It made Ali less than happy again, but she and the older woman were friends, so it would be natural for her to worry.

It was very odd, but Tiera was so tired that she almost had to go to sleep, even if it wasn't all that late, it was only ten in the evening after all. She managed to get back to her own room, Regina with her, and tucked into bed before she couldn't keep her eyes open anymore, but it was a close thing. She didn't open her eyes again until nearly seven in the morning, feeling better, but a little drifty for some reason. Relaxed.

Almost like someone had put her to sleep or something.

"Tor." She growled the name and got up instantly, figuring that it had to be him. He'd used some magic she didn't know about to make her calm down. Probably that thing that he'd made to use on the Larvals. If it was that at all. Well. That wasn't very nice of him. She walked directly over to his house, only to find it empty, or at least that no one was answering the door. "Alright. The next step would be to thwart me somehow."

Stealing her prisoners would be the most likely thing to have done, but when she checked on the school cells, where they kept the bad kids that got in trouble, they were all there.

She didn't even bother talking to them. If they weren't there, then that would mean... what? Who would Tor go to in a case like this? Count Lairdgren could overrule her, of course, and so could the King. No one else really had that power, legally speaking, she didn't think. She took a deep breath and tried to think past what was coming, but nothing jumped to mind. Her brother wouldn't have put her to sleep and then left like that if he didn't have a plan though, would he?

One that he
knew
she wouldn't like.

That just meant she had to hurry, since as long as she followed the law, nothing she did before orders to the contrary came could be disputed. Not that she was a legal expert. She didn't know who was for the area either. It was a dilemma, since waiting would probably mean that nothing got done at all. She had to struggle along, asking people almost at random as to who would be in charge of such things, which took until nearly noon. She was almost certain that everyone was drawing things out on purpose. Because they knew...