Kingdom of Stars (The Young Ancients: Timon Book Three) (22 page)

It was then that Tim realized his big error. They couldn't
talk to anyone. They had air to do it, but sound didn't travel in a vacuum. He
wanted to wince, but just moved to the wall that was going to go away in a
moment. Some of the people looked panicked, but most of them actually seemed to
get the basic idea and followed along. That was pretty trusting of them.

The complaining nobleman refused to do it, and actually
walked to the door of the room. As if he thought he was going to be allowed to
use
it. When he tapped the glowing sigil next to where the door was supposed to be,
it just didn't open at all. The man just kept hitting it, his movements
becoming more and more desperate, as his anger grew. On the nice side of
things, Timon couldn't hear his yelling or carrying on, so just turned to
everyone else and started to pantomime what he wanted them to do.

The easiest way to get things done, he soon discovered, was
to first do them himself, while making a simple hand motion. For flying he used
the motions that would have worked if they all had standard flying rigs on.
Lifting his left hand up and rising at the same time for instance. One woman
picked up on it first, and followed along, clearly acting as if the hand motion
controlled hers. Still, she rose into the air about six feet, just like he did,
and hung there. Timon motioned her down and did it again without the hand
motion, then landed and used the lifting gesture to indicate she should go up.
It took a bit, but after seven tries she got it well enough.

Everyone else, except the angry noble that was trying to
cause problems still at the door, watched with rapt attention.

A few even managed to lift off when he included them in the
exercise. In all, after only two hours, they had the basics down, and a set of
hand gestures they could use to communicate movements with each other at a
distance. Then, pretending that he was being bold, Timon went outside, not
gesturing that anyone follow him at all. The first woman to have gotten things
followed anyway. She was in fact right behind him. The woman was tall, so of
noble birth, and lanky, which could mean she was young, though her face didn't
seem to speak to that at all. She was probably in her forties and had short
cropped hair that barely brushed her collar. She did however have enough sense
to make her white robe into a white tunic and trousers for flying about, which
confirmed the idea that she wasn't new to flying.

The woman looked scared, as they exited the relative safety
of the ship, which was just hanging in a stationary orbit over Noram. They
were, more or less, over the Capital, which he pointed to as soon as the planet
became visible underneath them. The Ranford was slightly in the way, which, he
realized, was a good thing. Not because it was frightening, being so far above
everything, but because the awe he felt overpowered him for a few minutes. The
woman next to him too, it seemed. At least she just hung there with him for a
while.

Where the sun hit them darkened visibly, and he could look
right at it without going blind, which was a good thing. He didn't get too hot
either, which had been a major fear for him. Then, carefully, he started to
move, the High Servant coming along with him, almost as if they were tied
together somehow. It was comforting, even if it meant they'd both probably die
if anything went wrong. Nothing did however.

After landing on the cooling vanes on the dark side of the
ship, Timon waved at the woman to follow him back inside. They'd been out long
enough to prove it was safe and that everything worked, and just flying off
into the black on a lark was stupid. Oh, it could be done, but there was no real
reason for it. They did need a speed check though. So Timon stopped before
getting back to the door, and held both his hands up. The woman nodded, seeming
a lot more at ease now.

Without pausing in particular, he turned and flew away as
fast as he could. It seemed like he was barely moving at all, but after a few
minutes he noticed that it seemed like the Earth was moving under him a bit.
Doing the math, he had a range then. It was rough and probably wrong, but he
should have been moving at a few thousand miles per hour. That wasn't going to
happen with air around him, he bet, and wasn't fast enough for real space
travel, without a ship, but it was enough to do things outside, in a pinch, if
people were careful.

Also enough to allow him to land, he bet. Not that he was
mentioning that idea yet.

When he got back, the others were still just standing around
the large open room, and had to be coaxed outside. The only good part about
that was that he, personally, didn't have to do it. The woman, the High Servant
that had gone with him before, got the others moving, as if her bravery meant
she was in charge.

Timon shrugged. It worked for him at least. There was more
to being the lead High Servant than just being willing to do the job, and she
might be a moron or something like that, since there was probably a reason that
Karen Derring had sent her along with the others, but as far as he could tell
without talking to her, she was about the best they had.

Wistra floated toward her and then froze in place, staring at
Tim. Monroe was still back by the far wall, where he'd been told to wait, but
the commoner girl was willing to go out ahead of everyone else, orders or not.
Her control was still a bit shaky, but Timon waved to her, so that she'd move
over. For the Nobles there, that was about the same as having a tiny child go
first and they all knew it. It got Captain Peterson to move away from the far
wall himself, even though he was supposed to stay inside, since they actually
needed him for something important. Or might. It was a powerful lever however,
and the High Servant woman that had already been out smiled.

That got most of the others to try it, even if they were
terrified. Two, both women, stayed in, out of fear. One was even crying she was
so scared. Timon could see that. If he were afraid of high places, this would
give him nightmares for the rest of his life. The annoying man though wasn't
scared seeming at all, he was just being a pain, because he thought he was too
good to be risked at a task like this, even though he'd taken oaths that
basically said he was willing to do anything to help others.

It made Timon mad. Not so much he was willing to kill that
man yet, but enough that he wouldn't mind him being banged up a little.

Still, that wasn't his job, was it? He gestured for Monroe
to go, since it seemed pretty safe, then flew over the heads of the two women
that couldn't make themselves move from the open wall area and got in front of
them.

"It's all right. You don't have to go. We can find
someplace else for you." He could hear himself, though it was a strange
and empty thing, but he had air around him. The others couldn't, but he bowed
and smiled at them, gesturing for them to move back.

Then something amazing happened. The crying one, who was
about eighteen or so, if he had that right based only on looks, and had lovely
blonde hair, closed her eyes and
flung
herself outside. Blind, which was
stupid, but it was also brave of her. Seeing that, the slightly older scared
one swallowed and did the same. Tim floated out with them, going backwards the
whole time. The others were off to land on the vanes on the dark side of the
craft, so they didn't run into anyone at all.

Neither one of the others froze, except when they saw the
Earth. Unlike him, they didn't seem
awed
as much as terrified and he was
almost certain that the younger one wet herself, hanging there like she was. He
ignored that. She'd shown her bravery for the day, as far as he was concerned.
Instead he just stayed with them, and, after the others had gone in, the wall
still down, they stayed there. It took hours, but finally the two women were
able to move around, and even went away from the craft with him, then landed on
the vanes, and did a circle of the whole ship.

Only then, after they'd done all that, which was more than
anyone else had done, did they go inside.

As soon as they were in the Captain made the wall return,
and then the air. Then, without hesitating at all, the giant turned on the
annoying noble and started yelling, very nearly at the top of his lungs.

"That, was the sorriest, the weakest willed, display of
cowardice that I've ever seen! If you were in the Noram army, the Flyers Corps
or
the Space Fleet, I assure you that I'd toss you out of here without that fancy
new miracle shield and let you try to breathe vacuum for a few days! I have
half a mind to do it anyway!" The man paced and seemed to truly mean his
words, which had most of the others looking away. Scared.

Timon just felt tired, but listened to the Captain anyway.
He wasn't
wrong
really. Oh, Timon didn't think that the man was a coward
in particular. He wasn't backing away from the larger man after all, just
smirking at him, as if he had the right of things. It was a bad plan however,
because Peterson, no matter what, or who, else he was, also had the Captaincy
of the Ranford at the moment. They weren't in Noram any longer either. The law
there was pretty much whatever the giant made up.

The snooty and bothersome man in white sneered a bit, and
then started talking back, sassily.

"You can't do anything to me, and you know it! The High
Servants outrank all but the Knights of Noram, and Space Fleet has no power
over our ranks. Just be glad that I'm not going to complain to the King
directly about this... display. We aren't here to die,
or
slave for you!
If you want things built on the moon, I highly suggest that you hire workmen
for it. It's what they're there for. Get some common trash to risk themselves,
not the nobility."

The big backhand from the Captain didn't land, since the man
had his shield on still. Wisely it seemed. It looked like the man was holding
off on purpose, as if the annoying guy was right, and the bigger giant knew it.

Timon sighed.

"There seems to be a problem here. Captain Peterson,
would you have some of your troops come to aid us? Everyone else... We need
some chairs. We're going to have a trial."

That got some attention at least. He was just making it all
up, but left to collect some things, after taking away the annoying man's new
shield. His old one too. It meant he had to turn it off, and then have the man
stripped, since he had a lot of magical devices on him, including a force
lance, which he tried to use against the three middling sized Austrans that
were doing the work. It was odd, but
they
didn't seem to care that the
man was a noble at all.

It took a bit to set up and was a huge waste of time, but he
wanted to make a point. Several in fact.

When they got the tables ready, with one in the front and
two facing them, along with chairs for the High servants, and all the crew that
could attend for the moment, they let the man have his clothing back. Sort of. Timon
set it to look like he was in a prison gray smock. Even the people not from
Noram got that one. There was a woman from Afrak there too, on the crew. She
looked horrified by it all, but Timon smiled at her and waved, which seemed to
make her feel a little better about it.

She probably thought they were planning to kill the man.

Smythe.

That got Timon to feel bad for a bit, when he heard the
name, since Smythe of Westend wasn't just the Military Counselor for Noram, but
also
a friend of his. If this was a relative, even a distant one, then
it could be an embarrassment to the man. He was honorable enough, in his own
way. Powerful too, but that wasn't going to help Reid Smythe here at all. Baron
Third.
That
wouldn't do the trick either.

Tim set up communications devices, so that everyone that
needed to be there sort of was, if only as a voice sitting on the front table.

Then, as if
he
were anyone important at all, he
plunked himself down in the middle, making his chair sit on a raised bit of
floor, so that he would be level with the others. In this case it was the
Captain and Sexton Breen, who was the sister of Count Breen, it turned out. The
High Servant that had gone out with him first. One of the only ones to have
volunteered for the duty, as it turned out.

"This is a dark day. One of the High Servants, Reid
Smythe, has failed in his duty. Let it go on the record that this is
not
a charge of cowardice, which is not a thing that can, or should, be leveled
against a High Servant, but one of attempting to use his position and secular
power to avoid his sworn duty." Timon looked at the other High Servants,
trying to make the point. It probably just seemed like he was bored. At least
he didn't sound like a piping little boy anymore. His voice came out sounding
like a smooth tenor, for the time being. Then he glanced sidelong at the others
and at the devices in front of him, which were all silent, waiting for him to
finish.

"If he had refused out of simple fear, that would not
be at issue here. The High Servants aren't warriors, and shouldn't be expected
to act like they are. That said, they're the High
Servants
. Refusing to
do their duty out of laziness, or presumption that a task is beneath them goes
against their oaths. I have that right, Sir Derring?" Tim waited and almost
instantly a very cool voice came over one of the devices.

If nothing else it would let them all know how serious he
was. He'd bothered to wake the woman up at three in the morning for this after
all. Then again, it was her job. She wasn't a High Servant herself, but rather
a Knight of the Realm, even if she was in charge of the new unit.

"That is true. This isn't the first issue we've had
with Servant Smythe either, along these lines. The entire board of Counselors offered
their resignations over similar actions already, and the Magics Counselor
resigned
in disgrace for this very reason." She moved from sounding a bit sleepy
and upset, to nearly livid in the course of a single sentence.