Light Bringer (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 2) (6 page)

"Ah. Very good. One moment
please?" The man left him there, at the door, and hurried off, coming back
about three minutes later. Then he waved, while seeming pleased about the whole
thing. "This way, sir. Please forgive the delay. People make...
claims
at times, where royalty is concerned." The older man seemed a bit stuffy,
but had a straight spine and a healthy glow about him. Everyone had that now
though. Most of his life had been like that.

Before, there were people that
had been missing teeth as adults. That still happened, but normally only for a
while. Like with him. Really, that had been a special case, more or less. Most
people had to find a healing amulet they could use, and that was the problem.
With him it had been that he didn't have anything left to grow things that
weren't needed.

So, while the man at the door was
old, possibly better than seventy, and short enough that he seemed like a
merchant, he moved toward the back of the room at a nice pace. One that forced
Dare to hurry along behind him, in order not to get lost.

The decorations had changed in
the last month, with the silk wall hangings having shifted from blues and reds
to greens and browns. There were new statues all over the place too, done in
what had to be jade. The tables were still made of focus stone, or seemed to
be, but black silk covered each one, making the whole place seem uncommonly
rich. The lights, coming from above, weren't exactly brilliant. At a guess it
was about half of what the hallway had going on. That however was most of the
way to daylight, making the restaurant dimmer, but not hard to see in.

The man in gray and black stopped
at a table that had three others sitting at it already, not just Taman like
he'd suspected would be happening. The thing there was that each of the others
were new to him, but
felt
familiar, which was strange. They were both
tall, showing they were nobles from Noram, or had at least been forced to
become taller by magic. Their faces were similar to Taman or Tiera. Not exactly
the same, and the man sitting there was just a bit rougher looking than say,
Timon was. They all had black hair, and brown eyes, as well as skin that was
just a bit darker than his own. Not much, however.

Tam smiled up at him and waved
cutely. She seemed tiny compared to the others.

"Dareg! There you are. I
invited Tess and Tenet to come meet you? I hope you don't mind?" She
sounded polite, but flicked a tiny glare at Tess, who ignored it. That part was
very clear.

Tenet, the man, looked about
twenty or so, Tess seemed about the same, leaving Taman seeming like a tiny
child in comparison.

It was the man who spoke, his
voice very deep. Then, he was very large. Tall, and thin, but probably eight
feet at least, if it was possible to judge while he sat.

"Tam means to say that
Tess
invited us along. It was rather a bit of an ambush. Sorry about that. We missed
out last time, so figured it was only fair. Please, sit. Here, by me? That way
I can protect you from these two if I have to." That came with a stern
look that had Tess laughing and Taman actually blushing.

That got noticed, but no one
mentioned it.

"Hello. Um, nice to meet you
both? I... We're related?" He thought that was the case, but
hadn't
met them before. It could be different than he thought and not asking was
stupid. Plus, it was a bit pressing to bring people to the meal like that, if
they were there just to meet him. Family might get a pass, but if they were
just friends...

Then he'd deal with that, too.

Fighting with Taman wasn't in the
works if he could help it. She was a princess after all.

Tess grinned at him, which was
happy, rather than flirtatious or even playful.

"Aunt Tess, and Uncle Tenet.
Tor is our brother." It was really clear that she was about to ask how he
was doing, but she stopped herself, waiting for something else to happen.

That ended up being Marisa coming
up to the table herself. The woman who was blacker than night, in
every
part of her being, seemed nearly unreal to him. Pretty, on a level that was
hard to see. Her eyes shone, and she smiled, but her teeth were the same color
as her skin, with her eyes being the same. She was dressed in bright red,
however. Silk, that was a deep color that reminded him of blood for a moment.
Freezing, he didn't let that show on his face, forcing a smile instead.

The woman spoke in a very
pleasant tone.

"Are you all ready to
order?" She looked around the table, stopping on Tenet, who smiled back,
and nodded.

"I know what I want. The
fried chips and cheese sauce? You should all try it. Spicy, but good. This is
the only place I've ever found it."

Taman asked for a salad, and Tess
for a fish dish, but Dareg nodded and waved with a closed hand at Tenet.

"I'll try what he's having,
please? A lot of it, if possible?" He didn't go into why that was, and
Marisa just nodded, hurrying off. She didn't write anything down, but it wasn't
that complex he didn't think.

Taman looked at him directly however.

"Building back up,
after?"

"Right. I should be fine
now, thanks to the healing earlier, but I'm at low ebb still. I have to get
into training soon. After this I'm going off to Lairdgren to ask after
that." He didn't say the name Remy, but Tess leaned in and touched his
hand from across the table.

"Don't push too hard. This
is for the adults to handle." Settling back, she kicked him in the shin under
the table. Gently, but it was a sign that she wanted his attention. All of it. "So,
I hear from a little bird that you and Karina are getting married? I notice
that I haven't gotten an invitation yet? Hmmm? What's with that? We've known
each other for, what is it, five minutes now?"

He blinked and nodded at her,
getting the joking around, and that it was meant to put him at ease.

"We haven't set a date, and
it's been closer to three minutes. Really, asking like that before half an hour
is... Very low class. I'm a
bit
disappointed in you." He affected a
head shake, trying to look sad, which was a bit too easy.

She actually went wide eyed over
it.

"I'm sorry... I didn't
mean..."

Tenet cleared his throat, and hid
a smile with his left hand.

"Ah, Tess? He's
kidding
.
I doubt we need begging for forgiveness yet." He seemed kind about the
words, and even gentle.

His sister nodded after a few
seconds.

"Oh, good. I was worried for
a moment. I mean, that thirty minutes seems pretty close to correct, doesn't
it?" She was playing again, and Taman shook her head a bit, but didn't add
anything. It was the kind of stuff that people with siblings were probably used
to, and that an only child like him would simply never understand really.

Instead of carrying on in that
vein, Tam looked at him and took a deep breath.

"Did you manage to talk to
Alice yet?"

That got the others to look at
him, seriously.

"Yes. She has pilots already
trained and is really looking forward to the Tam-Comps. I have
sixty
ships, jump craft, in the box here." He turned and patted the blond thing
that was about two feet behind him, floating there still. For the others he
explained the rest of it. "Magical cameras and satellites for Saturn, too.
I'm planning on taking a team there in two days. Really, I should let them know
about that soon. No one else has set an actual time for it."

Tenet whistled softly.

"
Niiice
. I saw the
vid that Karina got a month ago or so. I should get you to take me with you. I
want to do a carving of it for the museum." He stopped, and then shook his
head. "I'm an artist. When I'm not being enlisted to build magics for my
family. Carving, and light manipulation, mainly. I did most of the
advertisements for the city here? The moving ones?"

Dare sat up and smiled then.

"Oh? Those are
good
.
I almost had to run off and join space fleet earlier. You could do plays and
things like that, right? In the walls?" It was a neat sounding idea to
him, but Tess laughed a bit.

"They do that one already. Kinkaid
Rue, out of Austra, is doing a comedy that's coming soon. "Boxed In"
It's about Gerent and his pet box. If I understand the idea, the box is the
hero of the piece. Deservingly so, too. Boxy is the best box ever, after
all."

Dareg didn't know about any of
that, but acted hurt and turned to pat the one behind him gently.

"Don't worry boy. She didn't
mean
it." That got another laugh from Tenet and a chuckle from Tam,
with Tess seeming worried again.

Being mean, or at least too tired
to care, he didn't explain it. The others seemed to think he was still playing
around, by not doing that. He read it on their faces. That was better than the
reality of what he was feeling, so he made himself smile a little bit.

"That sounds interesting. Is
that kind of thing common? I've never even heard of a play inside a wall. I bet
King Richard and Queen Constance would like that." He couldn't understand
why they popped up right then, but Tenet smiled at him.

It was a warm and friendly thing,
really.

"Do you think they would? I
can get them a view screen for it. If no one else has already. We should set
that up, so they don't think the only family members that care about them are
Tor and Tim." He glanced at Taman and Tess, who both seemed unimpressed by
the idea for some reason.

It seemed like a nice call to
Dare.

"We can set that up. I need
to get in touch with them. I've... Kind of been sleeping most of the time. As
it stands I need a nap now." It was tempting to pull his communications
device right then, but it was probably rude to do that kind of thing at a meal.
Especially a special visit like this was.

It was Tam that went next,
looking directly into his eyes from across the black covered table.

"That... Might be a good
plan. We can work on that? I'll make something for them. We might want to go a
bit grander than what people have in their front rooms. I'm on that. Dareg, can
you get an audience for us set up? I'll need about four hours or so."

He nodded, even as he dreaded it.
He'd been out of touch, so it was more than possible everyone there had simply
forgotten about him already. Instead of just saying yes, Dare thought for a
moment.

"I'll try to set up a
meeting? For tomorrow, though? After I get these ships delivered and do that
stuff, I'm probably going to be done for the day." Yawning again, he
covered it and smiled as he patted his mouth. Then his stomach growled at him,
even after all the protein drink he'd had just a few hours before. "If
they want us at all. I mean
you're
all important, so it should work, but
I'm
just some kid."

Tess kicked him again, lightly.
Her foot didn't linger at least, which would have been annoying at the moment,
even if she was cute.

"That whole prince thing
should get you in. If not, we can go and visit whenever they want. We should do
it before you get off for a week with those Austran science types."

It made sense to him. So he
smiled, and then looked at Tenet.

"So, are you free in two
days? You can come with us, and help keep them in line. I'm sure they'll all
demand we do strange science rituals or something. Like let all the air out
twice a day, or whatever they require." That didn't make sense to him, but
the others, clearly knowing more about how that kind of person worked all
smiled, as if it were a joke.

Thankfully food came then, being
pulled in on a shining silver cart. Marisa did it all on her own, and set three
normal looking plates in front of the others, and a portion of strange
triangles with melted cheese and other things on tops of it, in bright colors.
There was a red sauce that seemed to have chunks of tomato and bits of green in
it, as well as a pile of goopy green,
and
a pile of decorative white.

It looked interesting. The only
thing that was off was that he'd been given a portion that took a platter, and
turned it into a small mountain of food. Marisa smiled at him, her all black
eyes shining a bit. Enough to make it seem like a joke. It probably was, since
a normal person wouldn't be able to eat nearly that much at one sitting.

"If you need more, let me
know?" She smiled hugely about it, but she always did, so it made her real
feelings hard to parse.

"I will, thank you. This is
a lot! It smells great." He wasn't certain how to eat it, but Tenet used
one of the triangles, a chip, as a scoop, and took a bite. No one stared at his
horrible manners, so that seemed to be the way it was done.

Copying that, and trying to be
careful, Dareg dug in, eating about half of the food silently, while the others
ate and talked about small topics while they did it. No work was done, and they
seemed to be mainly concerned with parties, more or less. At least until he
finished the platter, and then stared at it, disbelieving. The food was all
inside of him, and he felt over full, but it was gone, which was impressive.