Kingdom of Stars (The Young Ancients: Timon Book Three) (14 page)

Timon wasn't exactly a trustworthy person in all things,
after all.

"Tiera? Would you get with Sir Derring, and see to
that? If you want them, I mean, Timon. I'll understand if you don't." That
was nice of the man to add, since a lot of people really wouldn't want a group that
was made up mainly of castoff second and third sons and daughters that no one
else wanted. Except that putting it that way made him realize something. If no
one else wanted them, maybe he could bring them together for his own purposes.

"If we have work for them, I'd want them in various
locations. It won't be easy all the time. They'll need to learn other languages
and customs... But if they're willing, then I think we might have use for some
of them."

Monroe started nodding happily and spoke as if there weren't
a king on the other end of the communications device, moving toward Lyn the
whole time he spoke.

"Ah! They can help us build the new lunar base! We'll
need a work force, yes? Tim and I have to find a way to stop micro-plasma, and
that will take most of our time. These High Servants sound exactly like the
people we need. After all, we need their help, and you said that was what
they're supposed to do, right?" He was addressing the King, and chatting
along as if they were not only fast friends, but had been talking together the
whole time.

King Richard just pretended that was the case, being good at
that sort of thing. It was a valuable skill to learn, going along with things
like that, Timon decided. He needed to work on it himself.

"That's true. Tiera will see to that part of things.
Now, I don't mean to be rude, but I'm being signaled that I need to attend to a
meeting. Is there anything else needed for the moment? I can assign someone to
this project for you, if you feel it's needed, Lyn?"

The small woman smiled a bit and then shook her head and Deshi
frowned for some reason. It was on the words from the King and since the man
wasn't against being helpful, he doubted it was that. That left the name,
Lyn
.
It was probably a bit too casual for him, since she was also the Great Mother.
Tim understood a bit more now than he used to about that title. It wasn't
saying she was their Queen, or anything like that, though she had that kind of
power and more. It was the more that made it different. She was, in a very real
way, their living
god
.

To make it all worse, he was one of the
Great Brothers
and Tiera was probably a Great Sister or something along those lines too.
Because that was exactly what they needed to hear to keep them humble and not
full of themselves. He decided not to mention it to her. Tiera was, in many
ways, a better person than he was. A hot head at times, or at least she used to
be, and a bit too willing to think of him as a boy still, as in a truly little
one, but other than that, she was generally kinder than he was.

Still, she was also very nearly the Gray Ancient. He didn't
want to fill her head with delusions of grandeur at fourteen if he could help
it.

Monroe looked at the focus stone device and seemed to be
reading the visible names off of it, even though Red was holding it so they'd
be upside down to him.

"This is interesting... That was the King of Noram?
Richard? That's about halfway around the world and I didn't perceive a time
lag. Some kind of sub-three dimensional space technology?" Leaning in the
pure black man moved to touch the thing, but stopped himself, looking directly
at Lyn. "Oh, and hi. I'm back from the dead. I suppose hugs and cuddles
are in order?"

Then they both squealed and did just that for several
minutes, dancing a bit as if it were something unusual, seeing an identical
clone of a long dead friend.

Red finally pushed him back a bit and then scowled, her face
pinching in a less than attractive fashion. It was a thing she did when she was
pretending to be mad at a person that didn't really deserve it.

"Now, what's this I hear about micro-plasma? That
shouldn't exist at all, and only a tiny handful of us ever knew how to make
that. I don't suppose Hegian has been brought back too?" She crossed her
arms and actually tapped her right foot at him. It made her look a lot younger
than her years.

Everything did, since she was in her thousands. She didn't
look older than her mid-twenties however.

The other man looked away, as if he'd been caught taking
half a cookie from the plate.

"Cordes and Gray had me make some for them. I was told
that the remainder of you had gone insane. Not that I could say no anyway.
Timon and I are going to try and undo that, if we can. It might not work,
but-"

The woman sighed gently and hugged the slightly larger man
again.

"But if no one ever tries, it will never happen. I
know. Well, you could do worse than Builder Timon as an aide in this. Deshi,
will you go with them? It will mean living in space. In a sky house, far above
here. Or perhaps on the moon? I know this seems a flight of fantasy to you, but
I assure you, it's very real. Will you do this for us? No one else has come as
close to mastering either magic or the tongue of Noram, as of yet. It is unfair
of me to ask you to leave your home and go into danger like this." That
was it. She stopped there and didn't beg or try to sell him on the idea at all.
Behind them the large and glowing red dome gave them plenty of light to see by,
and looked nice, but the glow made the robes the mages wore seem a little
dingy, given the colors.

"I will do what I can to aid your brother, Great
One." Then Deshi bowed, which was a low thing and held for a long time.
All the way until Lyn clapped once.

"Thank you Mage Deshi. Timon will see to your care,
won't you Tim?"

Like the man was a child? There were some similarities,
Timon supposed, looking at the scene for about half a moment before nodding.
Red was so old they were all like babies to her, no doubt. Well, not Monroe, or
Kolb, who was standing away, almost in the dark, talking to someone on his
communications device. That would probably be either Brown or Orange. Most
likely the latter one.

The weapons master didn't seem to have a lot of use for
Denno Brown really. It wasn't hate, exactly. More like he just didn't think of
the man as a real person most of the time. Like he was a joke, or someone from
a story that just didn't matter. The man was nicer to Green, but then Lairdgren
was his boss
and
a Count. That might not mean all that much, not to
someone that was as old as they were, but he was still more polite and
attentive there.

He
doted
on Tiera though.

Seriously, Tim would have thought the man was interested in
her, if it weren't for the fact that he never made a move that was visible to
him at least. It would be legal, since Tiera was of age, but he didn't do
anything of the sort. That meant he just focused on her fighting skills.

Timon looked into the night, seeing where Kolb was standing
and talking and then he made himself seem happy about things. It was a bit hard
to manage, having had a hard enough day already, with several people trying to
kill him, for no apparent reason.

"I will, though I'm certain that you meant to have Deshi
look after
me
, since he's an adult. We can take turns that way. It will
be fun. Or at least mean that we all remember to eat, eventually."

That got Monroe to pat his own stomach, smiling, Tim
thought. It was just so hard to see him at the moment.

"That would be good. I know that I have no right to
ask, but would it be possible to have something?"

Lyn didn't respond, not in Noram standard. She used
Cantonese and asked for a feast to be provided for the visitors.

Timon shrugged.

"Um, really, we don't need to put anyone out that much.
As soon as we can we need to get things going and a feast is probably too much
to ask on short notice." He wasn't trying to be polite about it, just make
sure they weren't stuck there for two days causing all the Mages to lose work
time, seeing to their comfort. Or even a single day.

Kolb walked over then, holding his mobile device in his left
hand, and put his arm around Lyn's shoulders gently.

"Orange is coming, along with a full crew. Can we mark
a landing area with lights for them? Something in red? Alice asked for Orange
originally, but I told her that was a bit much."

It meant that the small woman, after brushing a wispy bit of
ash blonde hair from her golden colored skin, had to take back her order and
call for some lights instead. Kolb asked for red, but what they had were white,
and it would have to be enough, since it was all they were getting. No one was
all that blunt about it, but it was the unspoken undercurrent to things.

Timon walked with the ten people that were going to set that
up. The group had Monroe in it as well as Tiera and Deshi. The others were all
mages, or at least trainees, which was basically the same thing so far, and
very silent the whole time, as if they were afraid to give offense. That or
meditating like Tiera was the whole time.

Which, he reminded himself, he was supposed to be doing too.
It was work to keep up all the time, but if she could do it, he could.

They set things up quickly enough, jogging a bit so that
they outlined a very large and pretty rough circle, using about fifty lights,
just setting them on the stone. They weren't all the same brightness level and
had a lot of different makers. Good lights had been one of the first things
everyone learned to make here. That and cutters. Then water pumps, and copies
of healing devices.

The important things. Vagus had lived hard for so long that
it was about all anyone there knew. They rode horses with plain blankets and
lived in houses made of mud and sticks. It worked, but the treaty had forbidden
them the use of metals for some reason. Timon wasn't certain, but he thought it
was as a punishment for what that part of the world had once done to the rest
of them.

Something about a war that was so horrible that no one would
really talk about it. The Cataclysm. There was a trend there. It seemed like
the Ancients did that a lot. Hiding things in the past, instead of reminding
people about them. Maybe it was to hide how they did it, of course. Or it could
just have been that they didn't want everyone to know they were, in the end,
only people, just like everyone else.

The orange and green glowing craft wasn't pretty, but it did
settle in the right area and moved slowly enough that the one young Mage girl
that had been inside the circle of lights managed to scamper out a good five
minutes before it set down.

It was an impressive thing to see.

Really, he wondered what the others were thinking about it,
since the space ship was so vast it nearly equaled four or five of the great
dome houses. That's what they called the school, which was a dome, like a
beehive sort of, but glowing red. No one ran away, or screamed, so he decided
they were no more than casually impressed.

Jaded, now that they had magic too, or at least pretending
to be like the people in the Capital when they saw new magic in the street.
They looked, but pretended it wasn't all that odd. That, or the people of Vagus
actually had a sense of color, and realized that the eight sided thing was
hideous.

One or the other.

One very nice thing about Alice Orange, other than her
rather shapely form and habit of wearing trousers that hugged her behind in
ways that made Timon more than a bit uncomfortable when standing behind her,
was how efficient she was. In less than five minutes she was out of her craft,
and had fifteen men and women standing behind her. They were lined up and
wearing matching uniforms, which were black and looked like canvas, rather than
softer or more comfortable materials. They had blue trim on them, in the main,
but some had other colors. Red and gold. It was around the cuffs and collar,
but seemed to be how rank was decided.

Alice had orange on, which Tim was willing to bet meant she
had the highest rank. She didn't seem shy about that kind of thing at all.

"There you all are! So, I hear that we're finally
putting up a long term mission? About time. We've had a space fleet for months
now. Nearly. This collection behind me is going to be your first crew. I'd
introduce you, but we don't have time, I hear. For now Bering here is in
charge. Samantha Bering, temporary Captain of the Ranford. That's the name of
your ship." The tall and rather attractive blonde woman waved at another
female, who was standing to her right hand side.

The woman was fit looking enough, and not that old, seeming
to be in her mid-twenties or so. Clearly of noble or at least high merchant
origins too, since she was about five-ten. Common women were shorter than that.
That was made clear, since they actually had some in the back line. Three of
them. It was a bit of a surprise, since they would have to be part of the first
class. The future instructors. Most of the people looked to be in the middle
height wise. So merchant class most likely.

Timon corrected that thought when Bering spoke, her rather
plain face unadorned, and not made up at all. It was a kind of military service
after all, so that just made sense. She did look like she'd be able to use a
bit of smoothing and color to look better than average, if only just. It was
her voice that gave her away though.

Her clipped and heavily accented Austran accent, to be more
exact.

"We expect to be using this crew assignment for at
least two weeks. This first group is made up of some of the finest space farers
in the world, and collectively have more time off world than any other group of
regular humans. We have full dining facilities, a recreation area and exercise
rooms. Our entertainments are a bit lacking otherwise, but I've been led to
believe this is intended to be a working cruise?" She was speaking
directly to Timon, and ignoring almost everyone else for some reason. He smiled
at her slowly, trying to work out what that likely meant.

Her body language was being artificially subdued, with her
hands being held behind her back, and her spine held fairly rigid, like the
others behind her. It made it seem like she was thrusting her chest out at him
a bit, and that her feelings were open and honest, but that was an illusion and
couldn't be counted on. The most likely answer was that Orange had told her to
do it, as if he were in charge. It was kind of her, but not what he would have
expected at all. Aunt Alice was predisposed to think anything with him involved
was a prank or joke.

He was too good looking for her to take him seriously.

That, he understood, was the real answer then. She knew that
about herself, and so did the others, so this woman was basically in charge of
making sure he was taken seriously. That showed up as her slightly overdoing it
right now.

"We have several potential projects in the works. Some
of which I believe will be secret. Monroe and Mage Deshi here will be
instrumental in those. We can discuss what that actually means in space, if
that's allowed?" She was the Captain, and that meant, once they were off
world, on her ship, she was in charge. They had to follow her rules to the
letter or she could legally toss them off. Given where they were going, that
would probably mean death. Vacuum was hard to breathe, he'd heard.

"Very well, Sir. If you'd come this way? Do you have
gear or baggage?" She looked at the others, and seemed surprised that they
really didn't need much. Not for their own persons.

It was Monroe that spoke, his voice mellow and a tiny bit
subdued, as if he hadn't expected to be included in the whole thing. Not for
real.

"Would it be possible to get some things from Austra? I
need some lab equipment. I don't have any way to pay for it."

That got the woman, Captain Bering, to look slightly
troubled, but Timon shrugged. In Austra
everything
was paid for. If you
did something for people without doing that, they'd feel awkward and like you
wanted something from them. No one paid for others unless they were required to,
like parents with their own children.

"I have a good stockpile of Austran funds. If it isn't
enough, we'll collect it from Denno."

That didn't get the tense seeming lady to relax, but she did
nod, at least.

"Very good. We can do that directly, or in the morning
and spend the evening in orbit. Whichever you gentlemen choose. It might be
best to call in an order now, if you have the correct contacts?"

Timon shook his head, but Tiera, who was standing behind
him, started speaking a bit later, clearly calling Brown's house. He'd still be
asleep though, Tim knew. He didn't get up before nine or so, most days. Tiera,
sounding a bit slow and quiet, spoke for a few moments, then moved to Monroe
and pulled him away by the arm.

"Tell this man what you'll need. He'll see to getting
it into place for us. For you, I mean. I need to get back to school. I have
class in a few hours. So does Kolb."

That kind of thing was why she was being left at Lairdgren,
and Timon was going off to hide in space. She hadn't slept, but was going to
stay up all day to make certain she did her school work. He would have probably
just sent a note and rested. As it was, he sort of planned to try and do that
anyway, if he could. Just thinking about it made him yawn.

No rest for the hunted though, he knew. So he waved his
hand, after covering his mouth with it and smiled.

"In the morning, most likely. We can be in orbit soon?
I need to rest, if I can, but if we could speak first?"

The Captain seemed to think that would be fine, which meant
it only took about ten minutes to work out who was going where, with whom. He
took down his Fast Craft, and put the silver amulet around his neck, which had
Monroe staring at him for some reason. Deshi ran off to get a small sack of
supplies from his room, and Orange offered to use the space craft she had with
her to get Kolb and Tiera home. That didn't take long, but there was saying
goodbye to Dorgal and Lyn left.

Surprisingly, Dorgal pulled him and Tiera aside before they
could vanish.

"So..." The man started, sounding a bit shy
suddenly, which wasn't like him at all. "We're family?"

"Somewhere along the line."Tim didn't know who was
related to who exactly, but fixed the man with a hard gaze. "I'm taking
over from Count Lairdgren, eventually. In about twenty years or so."

Just in the family business, the Assassins guild, but the
man in front of him smiled charmingly and smoothed his stupid looking little
mustache.

"That makes sense. Is that why you're doing so much in
the merchant area? Sorvee House could use a few large projects. Perhaps you
could speak to Denno Brown about putting in a space port in Austra as well? One
that won't have the ships attacked when they come in to land? That only leaves
Soam, Tellerand and Afrak, I think. I don't know how to get in touch with
Tellerand. I-" He paused as a white hand touched his shoulder.

"I can speak for Soam, however and believe that we
would love to participate. We do not use gold or money there, but it would be
nice to have a flow of new people coming and we have many wondrous natural
things to share. There is value in it, I think." She didn't move her hand
away, running it down his back suggestively. It wasn't strictly groping, but
she was almost petting the man.

It was enough that Lyn wrinkled her nose at the women when
she walked over, seeing the scene.

"Seriously Julie? You can't even keep your paws off of
my husband for a few minutes? You have a perfectly good Monroe here now, why
not abuse him instead? You always used to seem to enjoy that."

White didn't move her hand, and actually moved slightly
closer to Dorgal.

"Oh, come now little sister, I'm not harming anyone,
and never do. Just because people like me, that's no reason for jealousy. We
aren't children anymore."

Timon felt the world's focus shift and everyone around them
started to look at Julie. Even him. Well, Tiera didn't, but the rest were being
held suddenly, their entire world having only the White woman in the center of
it. She was perfect, and...

Enslaving them.

"Shields!" He slapped at his front and without
thinking Tiera did the same, then she moved and tapped Kolb on the back, her
concentration clear enough to set his amulet off too. It wasn't a real threat,
but it was there.

Red didn't act for a moment, so Timon reached out and did it
for her, and then hit everyone else, one by one. They were, it seemed a well
provided for group. Deshi had a full shield on, and so did Dorgal. The only
person that didn't, who was close enough to be influenced was Captain Bering,
who had been walking over to them, probably to see why they hadn't loaded up
yet.

She kept coming too.

"Deshi, Dorgal, move the Captain to a safe location.
Julie, cut that out right now, or there's going to be a problem here." He
didn't want to make threats and really wasn't. The front of his trousers were
getting tight, and if anything he desperately wanted to take the woman to bed.
It wasn't going to be that simple though, since Red was starting to recover her
senses already, thanks to the shield she had on.

"You
bitch
. I should end your life right here
for that. This is
my
land, and I won't be made your pawn!" She
moved forward, which caused White to move back a step, her arms going open, as
if to embrace.

"Really Lyn? You'd seek to do me harm for merely being
what I am? That doesn't seem like you at all." She wasn't smiling, but
didn't seem scared overly either. She was slightly larger than Lyn, about half
a foot or so, until the Great Mother started to shift.

She became taller, her body stretching upward suddenly, but
her mass staying the same. Veins stood out and her skin turned gray, leaving
her looking almost like a black talon possessing skeleton, rather than a cute
short woman. A nicely tall one, who stood over seven feet high.

That, of course, if Tim had it right, was on purpose. Julie
White had a deep and unconquerable fear of tall people. It was a thing that had
been mentioned, since it meant she couldn't really visit with King Richard at
all. The man was about nine feet tall. Timon had always figured that if exposed
to such a thing Julie would be uncomfortable, or perhaps shake a bit. She was a
sensible person, and while it was built in to her, using Rhetistics, which
meant she couldn't just work around it, he could see no reason to have ever
made it worse than that.

Maybe it wasn't, if she were prepared, or if the giant
coming for her didn't really mean her harm, but in the moment the woman
screamed and did something very unexpected, which was to hunch down and start
to vomit. At least it seemed like that at first, but the liquid that came out
was clear, and even through his shield he could feel a very sudden attraction
growing for the woman again. Since what she was doing didn't lend itself to
that sort of thing, being sort of gross, it had to be a chemical defense of
some kind.

Timon took a deep breath and then another, after a few
seconds he forced himself to move into a trance state, and managed to clap
loudly.

"Lyn, stop that. This isn't the time for it. Julie, get
a hold on yourself. We need to leave. Now.
Move
." He had to clap a
few more times and finally move in front of Red, and wave her back. She glared,
which, with her all red eyes was a lot more intimidating than normal, but she
did it and after she got about fifteen feet away finally started to change back
to her normal self. She started old, but slowly moved into her younger form,
her breath coming fast and hard, since she was more than a little upset, it
seemed.

"I hate that bitch. It's always the same thing when
she's around.
Always
. Doris isn't like that, and they're practically the
same person. White always loved taking people over like that though. Then it's
going to be 'oops, I couldn't control myself.' I swear, one of these days will
be the last time." She was clearly angry and also, Tim saw, being honest.
It wasn't an idle threat, or something to take lightly. She
really
wanted the woman dead.

"Not today though. Please. We need to get her out of
here. I... guess we can get her back to Soam. I really don't want to be trapped
on a ship with her for weeks, if I can help it."

"No doubt. I wouldn't either. I... We have some bad
blood between us. Most of us do, one way or another. It's part of the reason
that we all like you new kids so much. You weren't supposed to
be
,
really, but now that you're here, it makes a lot of sense. At least it will if
you can avoid the mistakes that we made, initially. You probably can't though.
Not really. Unfortunately, you're all still human, which means that you have
the full range of normal problems. Greed, anger, jealousy... and will be prone
to thinking that you're superior to others. It's mainly true, which makes it
worse. You have to be better than the rest and still remain truly aware that it
doesn't matter. Not in the long run. It's a harder thing to balance than it
sounds like."