Light Bringer (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 2) (48 page)

The rest of them did it back,
including Neesa, who seemed a bit stiff about it. Like her middle didn't bend
all that easily. Dareg sized the brown haired new comer up. He was about
Dareg's own size, being about five-six or seven, and was thinner. It was a
rangy kind of thing, rather than the look people got when they were starving.

"Gentles? I'm Alec Strom. If
I may have a word?" Then he looked down, but not all that humbly. It was
about right really, for a merchant class person.

Sam smiled at him and spoke
politely.

"Certainly. What may we help
you with?"

The man glanced at Neesa, since
she was different, but his topic was totally different.

"I've heard that the port
was hiring planting crews? Work has been a bit hard to find lately. I have
seven years experience working farms and two on a tree crew up in Thompson. We
logged, but spent part of the year planting too, for the future." Then he
went silent, not asking for anything directly.

Trying to still his mind, working
hard at it, though it was a good bit easier now than it had been the day
before, thanks to all the recent practice, he felt the man. He seemed real.
Like a whole person that belonged there. That could mean he simply wasn't ready
to attack however, for all Dare knew. It was paranoia. The kind that was hard
to stop, once it got going.

Neesa bobbed in place a bit,
getting Dareg to look at her.

"You have something,
Neesa?"

Her mouth opened wide, smiling,
and Alec stepped back a bit, but smiled and looked down when she started to
speak, not noticing it.

"We, the home ships, have
botanists that would love to come and be part of planting on a natural planet.
Is that a thing that would be allowed? Even if the Ysidril cannot come, seeming
too scary or strange, it would be..." She went silent, and stilled a lot.

Having been reading Alec, to see
if he were an insane killer from wherever the Adversaries came from, it was
easy to switch over to her. It turned out that she was feeling embarrassed, or
close enough to that kind of thing he got the idea. It was linked to asking for
even
more
from these people, who had done nothing but give them things
so far.

Dare nodded.

"Can you set that up? Alec,
this is Neesa. She's a Ysidril. They come from a different world, off in space?
They're
also
very kind and gentle beings. We keep trying to hire someone
to run this, but it hasn't worked out, so far. If I put you in doing that, can
you work with Neesa's people on that? You'll be in charge of doing the actual
physical work, and getting crews around for it, but they might have ideas that
we wouldn't. There will be travel involved. Do you have a family?" The man
looked old enough to, being in his late twenties or early thirties, but he just
shook his head.

"No, sir. I had an
engagement, but it fell through. She found a man that was heir to a tannery.
That's hard to beat, when you do pick up labor most days."

Dareg could see that. If you
didn't have resources, you didn't get a woman. That was just the way things
always were.

"This will start at a silver
per week. That goes up to a gold a week, if you do a good job, after two
months. Possibly with perks, like magical items, every now and then." He
waved at Brice, who, instead of setting up the light for an example, handed one
of the tiles to the man, with a bow. Making it a gift.

Sam grinned, but didn't say
anything, probably expecting Dareg to bristle at it. Instead he turned it into
a lesson on how to use the thing, and then waved at Neesa, being mean.

"There. Alec will be the
head of the work crew, if your people decide to come help. If not, that's fine,
too. We still need people to do the work. Alec, Lyone here is in charge of
payroll, she's also one of Neesa's people, from space. Some of them are human,
like we are, but some are actually machines. Kind of like Austran technology?
She's actually one of those, which is weird, but she's a good person, so it
isn't that big of an issue." That let him pass the man over to her, and
Neesa to get back to her ship, after getting a handheld and shield off of Sam.

Actually, she got a box of both.
A floating case of them, which followed her on to her craft. From the window
she waved, getting Dareg to do it back.

"What a nice girl. Now,
Alec... You should coordinate with Lyone here on hiring. I figure that we need
at least fifty people here. Not all the time, but there will be need to go
other places. Speaking of which, I need to go and review the other locations
soon. Which..." He groaned a bit, and shook his head. Then he looked at
Sam. "How long can a man go without sleep?"

Sam shook his head, "about a
week. Why?"

"Because I need to go and
check some things out finally, and this is my off day. The rest of today and
tomorrow." He yawned, and Lyone rolled her eyes, looking just like a
pleasant city woman. Even in skin tone, and very clear of eye.

"Sleep, then do the work.
Damaging your health won't get the projects done. Not well at any rate."

Brice nodded along, but then, he
would, Lyone kind of being his partner, or boss. Sam did too however.

"Agreed. Get at least six
hours. We'll leave you alone, so you can get to that. Good work, by the way.
See you in a few days."

They all walked off, leaving him
to go and climb into his bed, for several hours, uninterrupted. Nearly eight,
until his handheld went off, insistently buzzing in his pocket where he'd left
it.

"Dareg here." He was
answering it in the dark, shadows on his face from the small image in his hand.

The picture was that of Hess, so
he smiled.

"Dare? You are in resting
period? Forgive me! I must have gotten the time calculation off... I can get
back to you later."

Before he could hand up, Dareg
smiled, sleepily.

"Nope, I'm just getting up.
I... Was up for a long time, and slept strange hours today. What can I do for
you?"

"Ah. I sent Neesa earlier,
to get a shipment of lights from you? We have received them, by the way. Very
incredible! She admitted to me that she spoke... Out of turn, and perhaps
pressured you into allowing some of our science crews to come there? Botanists.
There is much interest on this side in doing that, but we didn't know how many
will be allowed to come, or if Ysidril are going to be allowed?"

He nodded at the being, then
closed his eyes. Thinking.

"A mixed group would be
best. I'd like to have at least half being Ysidril however, if they can come
here and be comfortable. We can set them up in space part of the time, if they
want? Neesa seemed slightly uncomfortable to me. Like things were too
heavy." He didn't know how to describe it, and it could have been the way
that she moved on the ground, but Hess had seemed different too.

The large thousand toothed maw
opened wide.

"Yes. The gravity there is
about twice what we are used to here on our ships. The Ysidril come, originally
from worlds that were smaller. More like the description of your Mars? It would
be a kindness if they didn't have to stay in that heavy of a state for months
on end. Thank you."

In the end they worked out that
each port needed to have three botanists. That was one working team each. It
meant coming up with crews in all the other lands, and working out who was
going to have a problem, which of course, someone would. Dareg was simply open
with Hess on that score.

"The Tellerand for instance,
are very religious. They might see you as their demons. Then they'll probably
have a problem with the Forten too, for looking different, and the mechanical
people for not praying enough. They really aren't bad people, and aren't
violent, from what I hear, but they might have issues with anyone coming in and
doing that. Including
me
." Which was, as far as he'd heard, the
simple truth.

Hess went still for a bit, then
opened his mouth a little bit, which Dare decided was a Ysidril grin.

"We, my people, have some
like that as well. They generally do not work with others, even our friends. We
can make this work, I believe. Thank you, and please thank your people for me
and my people?"

"I'll pass the word. Please
thank your people, for us here? I don't know if anyone has said it yet, but
rushing here to help protect us from the Adversaries... That was very
noble."

The Ysidril was clearly worried
that he was going to be missing out on sleep due to his call, so got off
quickly, if rather politely.

Dare sat there for a minute,
really considering going back to sleep, but it was late, and that meant the
daylight was going to be on the other side of the world. Slapping the wall, he
got lights to come up, and used Alyssa's wakening device. It was faster than
coffee, and left him ready for the day, without feeling shaky.

Then he got ready, showered,
shaved, and made himself presentable, and dressed in his blue and copper outfit,
which was one of the first things that he'd come up with using the clothing
amulet. Then he sat, and tried to work out what would work best. He had a map,
on his handheld, which usefully enough showed where the sun was hitting at that
very moment. It was well to the other side of the globe, but it looked like
Vagus would lose light first, then Austra, Afrak and Tellerand.

Austra didn't want him yet,
according to Johan, which meant that there were three places to visit.

"So, Vagus first?
That
sounds comfortable." He found where the port was, on the map, since they
were marked, along with major cities. He could be there in a few minutes, just
to look around, but if he was going to Tor's land, the continent that he was
the Ancient of, he probably needed permission. The same would be true of the
other lands. For Tellerand it was his Uncle Terry, but Afrak was...

He had to think about that one.
He knew the name, having met her once, but it wasn't coming right away. Just as
he was about to give up on it, the name hit him.

"Farlo. Farlo Ross.
Right."

Feeling more than a bit nervous,
a lot more so than just talking to his friend Hess made him, he found Tor's
name and tabbed it so he could get in touch.

About half a minute later, the
man himself appeared, dressed in a red robe like thing.

"Dareg? Is everything all
right?" It was pretty much just how people from Harmony answered their
handhelds, he was starting to understand. At least the ones he knew.

"I was thinking of coming
there in a bit to look at the port? I need to hit Afrak and Tellerand today too,
if I can. I get... Well, it's still
tomorrow
, but I get a day off from
tutoring. Is that allowed? Johan, High Servant Johan, asked for me not to go to
Austra, so they could scramble around and make it look nice. I really just need
the lay of the land though. I have some people coming to do some work? Gardens
and that kind of thing?"

Tor seemed pleased by the idea,
for some reason. More than was normal, but that might just be that it seemed
like he was planning a visit. Which he kind of was.

"Great! When can you be
here? Ali will want to see you, if that's all right? She's been worried that
you might be alone too much."

That wasn't really the case, he
realized. He wasn't that close to anyone in particular, but he was making
friends, and saw people way more now than he had for years. It
was
better, but also kept him busy.

Maybe even too much so, but
really it was better that way.

"I'd love to see her. Both
of you. Um, I can be there in about... Call it ten minutes?"

His father, and it was still bizarre
thinking of the man that way, seemed happy enough to hear that. He'd been
standing up, but started walking instantly.

"Great! I'll meet you at the
port? Then we can talk. Some things have come up on my end as well. We might
have to hold that for later though, depending on who's around."

"Be there directly. Oh... Do
you think that your people there can work with Ysidril?" He was about to
elaborate, but Tor just tilted his head. He was pale, even compared to Dareg,
who was lighter than most, and then shrugged.

"Maybe? I don't really know.
We should test the idea and see?"

"Good enough. Let me see...
I think I can set something up."

It would take him a few moments,
but he could use a few of the light devices he'd made to show them what the
aliens looked like. If they didn't have a problem with that, it probably
wouldn't be an issue.

Tor smiled at him, and got off
the handheld, leaving him to rush around and get ready. It still didn't take
him longer than ten minutes to get there, thanks to the magic he had on him.

That was he decided, a wonderful
thing, now that he thought about it. Again.

Going to Vagus was both
incredibly easy in the actual doing, thanks to his ability to move across the
world in a blink of the eye, and hard. That was all emotional, and probably
just him, since he doubted that a lot of other people secretly wanted to avoid
his father. When he landed, next to the focus stone port, which was smaller
than the one in Noram by about half, Dare's stomach tried doing flips.

The first thing was that there
were something like thirty red robed people standing there, with both Tor and
Alyssa. Silently. Staring at him, like he was going to attack. That, or he
might make a great victim. If that was the thought, the small people there,
none larger than he was, were in for a surprise.

Tor raised a large hand. He was
in all red too, and dressed very much like the others. Alyssa was in gold
however, and had trousers on, not a robe.

His father spoke, his voice loud,
since Dareg was still about fifty feet away.

"Dareg! Welcome!" He
stood in place, making it clear that Dare was the one who was supposed to go to
him. It probably wasn't even a conscious thing. The wizard was just so
important that he was used to people showing deference to him. Walking up, Dare
glanced around, instead of looking at the collected people. They were
different, and all of a type. Small, golden and decently hard looking.

Not like commoners in Noram
though, even sharing some parts that were similar. Small, dark haired and brown
eyed. These people had very differently shaped eyes, and cheek bones. It was
interesting, but not a bad thing. Just different.

"Hello... This place needs a
river around it. That and maybe a restaurant, and an inn? We can build that,
easily enough." He smiled, since it was literally his job to both think of
those things and make it happen. It didn't
have
to be that much however.
Not at first. Water really would help this place, a little.

Alyssa moved on him and gave him
a big hug.

"Can you stay? We have a
room for you, at the school." She waved at the large copper red colored
dome behind them, about a quarter mile away. It was an impressive look, but
when he reached out, it felt just like an ordinary magical palace. Like the
ones at the port. It just looked incredibly different.

His father looked at Dare, and
then started to nod, smiling a bit.

"Lyn Red did the design on
it. She was good. I wish..." He shook his head, not going on. The name,
Red, probably meant she was the former Ancient of the land they were in.
Dorgal's dead wife.

Dareg didn't know what to say, so
nodded. They'd all lost people in the last years. Nearly everyone in the world
had.

"I, um, brought something so
we can show people what the Ysidril look like? Here, let me set up." He
had three of the smooth tan tiles in his pocket, and waited for someone to nod.
Tor smiled, but Alyssa looked at him a bit more seriously and waved for him to
do it.

He moved a bit away, since he was
just going to turn on the big light statue of Hess first. Then make a smaller
one that showed Neesa. He knew them best, so it would be easiest for him to
capture what they were really like. There was a rewarding gasp when Hess
appeared out of thin air, being twenty feet high and solid looking, but also a
strange sort of hooting.

Tor and Alyssa clapped, but
didn't make him describe anything, so he took about three minutes to make a
fairly good, real-sized version of Neesa. That one, being smaller and less
intimidating, got people to walk over when he stood back. One of them was a red
robed fellow, who had long, very straight, black hair. He was the oldest
looking person there at the moment, having a few wrinkles on his face. After
passing his hand through the statue several times he smiled. It was a joyous
looking thing.

"Hello. I'm Deshi. Mage
Deshi. The Great Brother, Tor, said that there was a visitor coming. Is that
you?"

It seemed a bit strange, as to
phrasing, but the accent, while there, was really very good.

"I think so? These, um,
statues, they're of other people that will be coming to visit too. Well, ones
like them. Don't let the big one fool you, they're all closer to the size of
the smaller one.
Very
good and gentle beings."

The man smiled, and bowed a bit,
but stood and called something out, gesturing to the bigger Ysidril, then the
one that looked like Neesa. There were hand gestures indicating size. That got
more happy hooting noises. It seemed that these people didn't have a huge
problem with visitors.

Then, almost instantly, the red
robed people descended, not on him, or even the light visions, but the small
tiles they were on. They took turns, one at a time, touching the things,
closing their eyes and clearly trying to get a sense of the field. After about
a minute a girl, who looked about sixteen, caused Hess to vanish into a small,
comparatively, ball of light. It was about two feet across in all directions
and as bright as the sun. She looked up guiltily, at him.

Dare smiled with his mouth closed
and waved a bit, trying to let her know to keep playing with it. He could reset
it if they wanted, later.

Tor looked at him, then his hand,
and held his own out. Taking the last of the new light units out, the wizard
looked at it for a while, and then smiled, passing it to Alyssa, who closed her
eyes, a soft tendril of focus touching the thing.

Then she gasped, loudly.

"
You
did this? It's
incredible, Dareg! What can it do?" She probably knew, but he got the
idea. She was trying to let him show off a bit. As if his little light thing
would be impressive to Tor, or even her. They'd simply lived soaking in magic
for far too long for that to be true however. Tor could have made a million of
his little lights in a day. Possibly more than that. That wasn't even a real
joke, Dare knew. He'd done things like that in the past, with
healing
amulets, to save the entire world.

He took the device back, and ran
through everything it did. Including how to shape the size and brightness, as
well as color, with your mind. Instead of patronizing him, Tor shook his head a
bit, and... Snorted.

"That really
is
great. You have direct feedback, and full mental controls, on your first build?
Impressive
. How are you at making copies?"

Dareg shook his head a bit.

"Kind of slow. I can do a
thousand inside two and a half hours, a little less than that. I need more
practice. I only did
one
batch that fast. The other three sets took
longer. Sam set me to doing it. I was up all night. I did manage some sleep,
before coming here." It was probably good enough as for the numbers, given
how little time he'd had to learn this kind of thing.

Alyssa shook her head, and then
sighed.

"So much for my plan to have
you come here for building lessons. I keep trying, but I can't even think of
what I'm supposed to be doing for you." She put an arm around his
shoulder, which left him feeling a bit like a small child. She was over
six-six, even though she'd managed to stay really attractive, and not get the
heavy features that a lot of taller women had to deal with.

It was probably thanks to magic.
The kind that built a person, making it so that this was what she really was.
He checked her, Tor, and then the crowd to make certain they were all there,
the thought that he hadn't yet hitting him. They
were
, but Tor caught
him doing it.

In fact, it earned him a nod.

"I keep doing that, too. I
don't know if it will help, but I don't have anything else yet. Can you stay
for a meal?"

He really could have, but he
shook his head.

"I need to get to Tellerand
if I can. That's Terry, right? Um, Uncle Terry?" He knew that, but it was
important to have conversations, or so he'd heard. Plus, showing up for a few
minutes, and then leaving, while probably fairly rude, was kind of comforting.

If he didn't feel comfortable, he
really
could
just leave. Though both of these people, his parents, after
a fashion, had been nothing but kind to him. The entire time he'd known them,
they'd done their part for him, and had, despite what Alyssa had said, really
gotten it all just about right. It just didn't
feel
right. It was nearly
impossible for him to say why that was however.

In the end it would probably come
down to the fact that he just didn't feel like the whole thing was real.
Looking around, standing in a different land, on the other side of the world
from his home, Dareg felt the idea hit him. He'd
flown
there, jumping
around the world in a few moments, to meet people that by rights he would have
never, ever, encountered at all. It was interesting, and even kind of fun, but
the whole thing was also kind of...
Wrong
. Out of balance with reality.

Real people, the ones he knew
from Canton, didn't fly around, or talk to Vagish people like he was doing. The
orphans didn't find out that the Wizard Tor was their father, and had been all
along. If they did... Well, then he was
supposed
to doubt them, and not
just take them in as their son or daughter. In that way, the Austrans were kind
of right. They're thought that he couldn't be Tor's son was really the
sensible
thing to think.

That it was all true, that Dare
was able now to fly through the air, and even make magic... Those things still
left him feeling like it was all some kind of story, or game. A joke, like he'd
thought it might be to begin with. Only no one was laughing. Not that he could
tell.

He didn't want to be annoying, but
pulled his handheld, and looked for Terry's name. There was no title with it,
and it didn't say Terrance or anything, even if that was his full name. Just
Terry Baker. Humble and unpretentious. Not knowing what to say to these people,
his parents, he tabbed the sigil for it. The glowing name vanishing with the
contact, to be replaced after about then seconds with Terry's face.

"Hello?" The man looked
up at him, and it seemed to take a few seconds for recognition to to slide
across his face. That he did it was impressive, and showed good recognition of
faces, since lacking hair he had to seem pretty different. "Dareg! How are
you doing?" It sounded like he really cared. That was interesting, since
they didn't really know each other.

"Good. You?"

That got a happy chuckle, which
was slightly uncommon in Dare's life. It made him smile to realize that
someone, somewhere, was pleased with things.

"Things are actually going
decently well here. The change is a bit slow, but people are coming around to
the idea that not everything different is bad. Are you calling about the port
here? We've been doing some work on it. I hope that's all right? I know that
you're in charge of that, but the local Day Leader felt that it would be
against
His
will to leave all the effort to strangers." His face
relaxed as he spoke the words, and while the focus on him wasn't as intent as
what say,
Timon
, would have done, but it was pretty obvious and real.

Doing it back, Dare got a sense
of what was going on there. Not all of it, by any means, since he lacked
information about key points. Like what a Day Leader was. Apparently though,
that kind of person wasn't lazy, and while the port might not be what he wanted,
someone in Tellerand had tried to get it going, which was a good thing.

"Sounds good. I was calling to
get permission to fly in later today. Is that all right? I have the
location."

Terry crossed his eyes, and made
a funny noise. Half snort, half bemused chuckle.

"Oh,
that
wouldn't go
over well. Not at all. Can you come in by ship, by any chance?" There was
a bit of a slow smile, but it didn't seem false.

"You don't mean jump ship,
do you?" Dare looked at the man,
hoping
it was a joke. It didn't
seem like it, small smile aside.

"No, I meant water ship.
Then an overland wagon ride to the port. People here... They aren't ready for
real ships coming in yet. They still tend to think that kind of thing is
demonic. If it wasn't for the fact that it truly scares them, I'd say we should
just force them all to take trips all the time, but the crying and carrying on
would be a bit too much for now."

Which meant that no one was going
to be landing there for a long while. Meaning that the entire port was really a
waste of time and effort, since it's only reason to
be
was so that large
ships could go there. Dareg frowned, but didn't let the sound get into his
voice too much. It felt oddly disappointing, but the Ancient of that land knew
his people best, so it made sense to just go along with him on it.

"I can't get that done right
now. A water voyage like that. I only have a day off. Well, let me know if they
need anything for it? The port?  Gold or magic? I can figure out how to get
that there, somehow."

Terry looked pleased at that
news, and started nodding a bit.

"I do think that we can get
things going in the next twenty or thirty years. I know that seems like a long
time, but after thousands of years living a single way, it will take the
Tellerand a little time to adapt."