Light Bringer (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 2) (50 page)

"Yes." He'd almost said
exactly, but that was probably outside of what this woman would easily
understand. "Here, let me..." He waved to the women, so they'd follow
him, and got out one of the light devices. Then he pushed it to its limit,
making three decently large landing areas, each rimmed in a different color.
They were rectangular in shape, since most of the larger ships would be able to
put down on half of it, leaving them the other half to get out, stretch their
legs and stage equipment.

He didn't know if these women
would get what it was for, but they seemed pleased with the basic idea of
light.

One of them, who was standing in
the back, said something, but it was in Afrak, so he didn't understand it. The
leader of the group didn't seem to know how to say it either, so, curiously enough,
she pulled out a handheld, which was nearly identical to his own, and smiled at
him, then connected with someone.

He didn't know who it was, since
all the speaking was in that different language, until the device was turned
around, letting him see her. Princess Abbey.

"Prince Dareg!
That
makes more sense then. Mother was just saying that she found a small, light
skinned, giant, who made a show for them. Pretty lights?" The older lady,
Abbey's mother clearly understanding more than he'd thought, moved the device
to show the girl what that was about, then pointed it at him again.

The Princess smiled. It was a
very bright and happy thing. Big, and showing sparkling white teeth.

"Oh, I
do
wish she
wouldn't do that. It's disorienting! One of the women there offered one hundred
planted hectors for you, and fifty silk-goats. That's a nice offer.
Definitely
not an insult. You're engaged to Princess Karina however... As her sister under
the law, it is my place to defend her hold on you. Let me handle this..."

That started a conversation. It
didn't take that long, about five minutes, but one of the other women, the ones
not talking at all, came over and started touching him. It was very academic,
and nearly medical seeming. She looked at his teeth, like she were testing a
horse for age, and patted several different parts of his body. It
was
a
bit annoying, but he just took it, not wanting to be rude.

Then the woman, who was dressed
in a bright blue and deep green striped robes of what seemed like silk, spoke
over the others. Her hair was short, extremely curly, and plain brown, but her
eyes were almost pure black in the center. Dare could make out an iris, but it
was very hard to do. It was eerie, but also kind of compelling.

After a bit of interruption,
Abbey spoke to that women directly, then filled him in on what was going on.

"Doctor L'stapha was asking
if you'd be willing to let her have some tissue samples? She can tell that
you're slightly different and would like to find out exactly how much. Is that
allowable? You don't have to say yes. She's curious, but asking things like
that of strangers is rude." The tiny face on the screen, being held by her
mother, smiled then. "Which is why she asked
me
to get you to do
it. Also, mother wishes to know if the lights here are supposed to stay? Afrak
has lights, but none so bright, or large. We have glowing plants for that
function."

"I'm planning to do the
whole port like this. All of them, eventually. We can get them more than that,  if
it will help anyone? Oh, do you think that they'd be open to meeting with the
Ysidril here? I have some teams of botanists coming... This place is nearly
finished that way already, which is a
treat
since no place else
is
,
but from the sound of it, those folks might be interested in seeing it."
He didn't know that for certain, but when it was explained, everyone seemed
fine with it.

Even though he had to get out the
last of the light devices and set it up to show them Neesa.
While
being
stabbed, plucked, and swabbed inside his mouth. Even if he hadn't said
yes
to the Doctor. With her, at the very least, not shouting no, and running away
was consent. She did back off once the statue was up, and everyone seemed
properly impressed, but not scared. Not even when told that this was the image
of a real person. One who wanted to come and visit them.

Instead of seeming intimidated,
they just started making plans to host the coming visitors. Dareg
had
to
like that, since the Afrak were well known for being timid. That might honestly
have been true, in a fight, but they were
certainly
willing to talk to
people, and make friends.

As soon as Abbey got off the
device, he waved and left, since conversation wasn't really going to happen.
Not unless he learned to speak Afrak. Which, of course, he needed to do.
Tellerand, too, though that one he'd do last. Soam needed a visit soon, but
their port was actually in the same rough time as far as daylight as the
Capital in Noram, so he could go on any given morning. That would mean getting
in touch with Taman. Which was kind of difficult for him still. The last
meeting had turned out fine, but others had been around. That could make a
difference in how the woman acted toward him.

The time before that had been a
horrible scene of death, and the one before
that
Taman had basically
tried to use her magic to force him to father a child with her. She'd had that
portion of her being fixed now, but Dareg didn't know if he trusted that or
not. There was no outward sign of it. That being the case, it seemed prudent
not to be around the girl too much.

The big problem was that she was
incredible. Not just good looking, but so intelligent that just
that
would have made her valuable in any sane world. That she was gifted magically
as well... It meant she was one of a tiny, powerful and awe inspiring group of
people.

So having her try to push him
around mentally as well was too much. If she got on her knees it would be very
hard for him to say no as it was. A thing that he'd have jumped at, if he
wasn't half convinced that she was going to try and use some unknown trick to
have his baby, against his will.

So he was putting that one off.

When he got back to his pod, a
thing that Taman had given him, proving he was ungrateful and probably rude, he
shook his head. Still, it was his now, and while he wasn't that tired, he knew
that would be coming later. At the wrong time for his life's schedule.

The sun was just coming up for
the day, which he
still
had off, so he went running, not knowing what
else to do with himself.

Then, when he got back, having
kept it slow and short, it being a rest day, he tried
making
some
things, using magic. The first thing he did was set up a new magical chest. It
had occurred to him several times that having more of the things could be
useful, so making his own was better than leaving it. That was just copy work,
if from memory, so he tried to make a thousand of them at once. It worked, but
ate up six hours. It was really clear that there was a big difference between
making a copy of his own work and other peoples.

To test that he made more blank
stone pieces and then rapidly created a thousand lights. He managed that in two
hours even, and they
all
worked, so it seemed to be all about how well
he knew what he was making. To test it, he tried another big batch of floating
chests, which took half the time of the last one.

Then he had to stop, since he was
running out of space inside his little pod house.

That was a funny thing to have
happen really. He had too
much
magic. It was also a real problem if he
wanted to walk around inside ever again, so he loaded up a large chest,
floating just outside his door, with the nearly three thousand things that had
been made. He kept twenty of the chests, and a hundred lights, then loaded the
rest of the
first
batch into the thing.

It hovered outside his front
door, peacefully, the thing nearly a third the size of his house, and seeming
to be made of black polished wood.

That meant it was nearly late
enough for an early dinner by the time he was finished. He'd skipped out on
luncheon, having been working. That was accomplished with a trip to see
Tam-Unit, who set him up with a very complex meal, that had three courses. Just
as he finished his delicious pie, which was made with peaches, sitting right
next to his best friend, Tam-Unit, his pocket buzzed at him.

Fighting to get the thing out,
his fingers sticky, even though he would have sworn he hadn't touched the pie
with his hands, having been using a fork as he sat on the focus stone next to
the blue box, he saw a strange sight.

The face on his handheld was
wrong
.
Not ugly or anything, just unfamiliar. As in, no one he'd ever met before. At
first he thought it was a commoner, though the look was a bit too frank and
open. There was solid eye contact for one thing.

"Dareg of Earth?" The
person speaking was elderly, male, and had the same brown on brown look that
the Forten leadership did. He
also
looked like a really muscular
commoner, but clearly wasn't, his face being too sharp in some way.

What he was called was close
enough to be correct, if strange sounding.

"Yes? How may I help you
today?"

"Ah, good. I wasn't certain
I had the right name. Some have been saying it was Darien. We heard that you
gave the Ysidril some new light producing units? They're sharing them, of
course, being Ysidril, but most seem slated for the dead mech ship so far. I
was wondering if I could beg a few of them for the Forten? I've seen a
demonstration, and I
have
to say that I'm impressed." The man
looked hopeful, but there was a hint of annoyance underneath it all.

Probably because it seemed as if
Dareg liked the Ysidril best. Which he
did
. He couldn't have said why,
but they were his favorite group so far. Still, he
had
been favoring
them a bit.

"I have nineteen hundred of
them you can have? I was just playing around earlier, and made some for
practice. Do you... Also want some floating chests? I have as many of those
suddenly, and really, five to ten of them is more than enough for a single
person. I don't have
that
much stuff, you know?"

The man looked baffled, so Dareg
walked over to the one outside his hut, showing a picture of it to the man,
then went inside to get the little tile that it wanted to follow around.

"They carry things. You can
reset the look to any kind of box really, and make them bigger and smaller. The
biggest for this is probably about the size of my tiny hut here? They'll follow
whoever has the amulet. If they aren't needed, you can turn it off. The tiles
can go in a pocket, since I didn't make holes for string or chain on them. Like
I said, I was practicing. That's a bit of an oversight on my part."

The man smiled at that, and
started asking questions.

"There's no energy used?
Like the lights?"

"Right. They don't really
exist, so don't take any energy to do work. A lot of our magic does things like
that. Not all. I've been making copies of things made by some of the best
builders though, so did it their way." He moved the handheld to catch how
the box was following him as he started to walk to prove it worked.

"And we can have all this?
Or... I know that you've been working through the Ysidril. Which is happy for
us. The Forten... We did not respond well to them at first. It took nearly ten
years, and we killed many of them. It was a horror. They don't fight, but my
people do, when scared too much." The admission didn't make the elderly
man seem happy.

Dareg nodded.

"You can have these. I just
need to get them to you. I recently lost my ship." That made it sound like
he'd misplaced the thing, but there was a look from the older fellow. One that
spoke of understanding, and oddly,
pride
.

"We saw that. Your
deposition about the events, under your odd anti-lying measures. They were on
the devices that were provided to us. We... Hadn't realized that we'd be
allowed that level of access, to be honest. Now I just need to work out how to
get those from there. I know that the Ysidril have been handling that for us so
far. Wise of you, arranging that. You can't really trust the Mechs, and the
Forten are at
least
as bad." The words weren't even playful, though
the man didn't seem to hold any real heat about it all. "Oh, I'm Yarl, by
the way. Leader of the Forten. The President. It's an old term. It basically
means that I was voted in, instead of it being by birth."

That was helpful of him to fill
in.

"Oh? Like the Premier of
Austra? Neat. I can... Probably set that up for you. Where are you?" The
part where it was one one of the home ships was just common sense, but that
didn't tell him which one.

"F-Two. The Ysidril will
know where that is. If you come in at the main..." He stopped and then
said a word that wasn't Standard at all. The man had a strong accent, but had
been clear and understandable the whole time. That they didn't really speak
like Dareg did at home was likely, however.