The Dark Half of the Sun (The Young Ancients: Timon) (44 page)

One of the men took his own shield down then, staring at Tim, and stuck the explosive weapon under his chin, spraying his head over half the room in a red and white mist. That left two fighting. It didn't last long, since he took out their magics one at a time letting the others beat them into the ground.

It left them both unconscious after about half a minute.

When it was done Timon looked around and sighed in disgust, since the room was ruined now.

"Next time warn us first, and we can just ambush them outside."

The King nodded somberly.

Lyn's wedding went so smoothly it was very nearly a miracle. She wore a lovely red gown that fairly sparkled as she moved down the long red carpeted expanse in the Palace chapel. Petra had created it for the girl, who'd made herself look about twenty, to match Dorgal. There were twenty girls that wore matching dresses of pink and light blue, all tossing flower petals, fairly making a rain of them inside.

The King didn't even forget his lines, giving the marriage vows perfectly, his voice somber, but face smiling through the whole thing, as if he was personally proud of the two in front of him. Dorgal's mother, who was in the front row of a sea of faces, cried openly. She smiled anyway and held the hand of the beaming man next to her. Since they were both probably assassins that seemed a little odd. Maybe not. Did people like that love their children too? It was either a fact, or these particular ones were consummate players.

Or both things were true.

Timon was a good way back in the space, on a hard bench, with a few hundred people in front of him. Sheri, Ali's roommate was in the front row, oddly enough, since Denno had brought the girl as his date rather graciously. Most of the people in front of him were nobles, though a few were the Counselors and their wives. Ali was in the fifth row, also on Lyn's side of the space, since Tor was related to her. Technically that's why he was as close as he was. She was his "sister" too. His whole family was on her side of the room, though spread out a bit. His mother and father were off to Tim's right and most of the kids were about ten rows behind him. Except Tiera, who was in the room, but only
just
, having been given a seat in the second to last row.
That
was due to the fact that Sam Builder was friends with Henry, one of the boys that she'd publically shamed.

And Sam had connections in the palace now. It kind of spoke as to just how important "rank and station" where in real life, didn't it?

When they walked outside, following the happy couple, there was a bit of an unplanned surprise. Over the entire capital a vast display of magical fireworks started, the sky itself thundering a song as the red lights and blue moved in time, turning into a spiral together. It went on for nearly twenty minutes, the scene emerging became more intricate as it went along, until it was clear to all watching that only one person in the world could have done the work.

The Wizard Tor.

Of course.

For half a second Timon almost felt a little sour, his brother stealing all the thunder again. It probably wasn't his intent, but it was almost like he was trying to make the whole day about himself. A few people had even started muttering his name.

Shaking his head he moved to give his best wishes to the couple, as was proper, finding Dorgal first, as everyone else looked at the sky. His cousin Marco stepped back suddenly, landing on his foot. The man looked a bit nervous about it, dancing back, bowing when he realized who it was. Or at least seeing that it was a person standing there.

"Sorry there. Didn't see you. Looking up, you know." He smiled, his little mustache twitching a bit. "To think, Tor the little Baker boy did that. Can you imagine? It makes my paltry attempts to play music and sing seem... useless."

Timon shrugged, which got the man to look down for some reason.

"It's a brilliant thing, lighting up the sky like this.
Everyone
can have music though, not just the highest. Does that make it worth less, or more?" It was probably a little too insightful coming from his child's face, since the man looked troubled for a few seconds, as if he couldn't decide if it was an insult or not. Lyn clapped his arm, moving in to hug him then.

"I always thought that music was one of the great pleasures of life, myself." She winked at Marco, then pulled Dorgal's hand a bit, getting him to turn and see who was there.

"Timon! You've met Marco? I was telling him that he should get with you and see if anyone in Austra wanted him to play there. Even if he has to do it for free, the worth of the trip would more than cover it."

That was a good idea. He nodded and made himself smile, letting it show in his eyes.

"We can do that. I'm making a trip that way tomorrow, would you like to come along and see if anyone wants to host you? I'm betting it won't be that hard to find someone. I have to make a detour to Afrak first, but just to leave them something."

After the way Lara Gray had tried to set him up it was tempting to let that message be a smoking ruin where their main city used to be, but he was going to be a little more subtle than that.

The arrangements were made quickly, Marco warming up to him a good bit when he realized that he felt Tor had, in his classic fashion, gone overstated in his display. It was great, but gaudy. He wasn't the only person to think so either. Lyn was happy with it, but Count Lairdgren was fighting a wince from his face some ten minutes later, still glancing upward, as if half expecting it to start again. True that could have been about the poor strategy involved in the display, rather than the garishness, but at least someone else noticed.

He seemed to know Marco however and gave a quick bow to him, before hugging Lyn. Timon got a hug too, from Bonita, the Count's intended bride. She was a sweet woman that everyone seemed to like. Including Collette and Maria Ward, who were flowing along with her.

"Timon! When are you coming to visit? We're going to be getting married ourselves in a few months. You'll attend won't you?"

He snorted at her, but smiled.

"You say that like anyone could easily stop me? Of course I'll be there on your special day. We all will, right?" He looked at Lyn who curtsied.

"Wouldn't miss my brother's wedding. You need to invite Julie too. She missed this one."

Timon grimaced, "oh, that wasn't her fault, I let myself get side tracked and forgot to see to that. I didn't find out if any of the others wanted to come either." It was kind of a big deal. Family should have been there and it was his job to move people from one place to the other.

Lyn shook her head.

"Julie won't come to events with giants around, as for the others, well, you should ask. Even Blue, though I'm still not wild about her all the time. She gets along with Green well enough."

He still felt embarrassed, so he hid it by hugging her again and then Bonita. People thought it was cute enough no one questioned him. It was work to handle the large crowd of giant people, feeling like things were going to jump out at him at every turn. I was a relief when he was able to leave, even if the walk took him nearly two hours because the streets had turned into a free festival. It was wild and made him remember to get out of town when Alphonse got married. He couldn't of course, since he was to marry Princess Abby.

She was family and he even liked her, even if her grandmother
had
tried to get him killed. Gray would deny it if cornered on the idea, of course, it was built into her plan so obviously it practically screamed plausible deniability. So he wasn't going to bother her with it. He was just going to leave her a little gift instead.

The next morning he picked them up at the palace, Merta and Stile being brought out in chains. Marco had met him eagerly at seven o'clock exactly, at his own front door, making the whole thing far easier. The two stood, head bowed, but not having been beaten that he could tell. Of course with healing amulets around who knew what they might have undergone?

"Say, let's get these shackles off, please." He waved to the Royal Guard who looked at him as if he were mentally defective. Timon grinned back. "They aren't our enemies, just people that fell in with the wrong crowd. Even if they loved their Count, that didn't go well. He bought their freedom, and I'm going to make sure that they get it." It sounded like a death threat and the prisoners both stiffened at the words.

A few minutes later they were sitting in the back of the nicely decorated craft, looking around as if they feared the air was about to vanish. That was fair enough. It could if they got out of hand. They had nothing except their old, and now filthy, guard uniforms on. The insignia ripped off. If they'd done it themselves or if someone else had, he didn't know. He also didn't care.

After hours in silence, except for some rather good music from Marco, who was taking the time to practice for what he hoped would be a fruitful audition or two, Timon gave them all food. It was safe, but the two in back ate it reluctantly, suspecting poison. Timon lent them a detector for that, which only helped a little for some reason. He nearly offered to let them snack on some of the produce behind them, but decided against it. That was partitioned off to protect it after all.

As they got to the coast of the great continent he started speaking, turning south so that they could land on the far side of the main city. Sneaking up on them a bit.

"You know, my original plan had been to give you both shots of that pain medicine and to drop you in the desert with only a cutter." He smiled as Marco looked interested rather than appalled. "Then I realized that would be beneath me. Instead I'm going to give you a real chance to not only survive, but to gain more than you ever thought you'd have a real shot at."

He landed and got them out, walking to the back of the craft, pulling out two large satchel packs of tan canvas.

"In here are an array of things you might find useful. Fresh clothing, food for several days ,even for giants like you and a few other things." He tossed one to each. The things being heavy enough that they had to reach down for them. "Some of those things are explosive weapons, force lances and a pair of top end shields. You see, the people of Afrak don't
have
violence, they can't do it anymore, it's been bred out of them. The only real danger here is a pale woman named Lara Gray. She's in that city ahead of you. Wear your shields as soon as we leave, and leave them on, even after you end her. She's a master of diseases after all. Do not harm her people, but if you wish to survive here, I suggest you try very hard to remove her. She's three thousand years old and no doubt a lot more than she seems, so don't give her a chance. I won't be back, but I look forward to hearing of your success and beneficent rule you set up here. It
will
be that, you understand? Harm these people, other than Gray, and you are at war with me. So there you go, take out one woman and you'll be the King and Queen here."

He waved to them both standing and looking at the packs still, like they didn't believe him. They didn't even try to find the weapons or shields.

He didn't watch them as he took off, but the man next to him did. After the land was out of sight he spoke, his words gentle.

"Do you think they can do it?"

Timon shook his head, "no, not really. It's just a message. I wish them well though."

Then, almost as if trying to keep him calm, the man next to him began to play again.

It was soothing.

They had a lot to do then. He did at any rate. There was just so much to learn and he really didn't think he had long to do it. After all, Tor had signaled the Larval that he was both alive and aware of events. If they killed enough of his friends and family now, it was clear that his brother would find out about it. That meant that he had to protect them all somehow.

Hopefully it meant that Tor had a plan. If not, Timon would have to come up with something himself.

As he flew off, the sun very nearly straight overhead, he nodded to himself. After all, if nothing else, the Larval had made one mistake that they might not survive as a group. They thought that
Tor
was their Great Unknown Factor. They were going after him because of it, with a single minded clarity that moved well past the borders of sanity.

That meant they very well might not even see Timon coming for them at all.

It was a mistake, but one that he could use.

He decided to do just that, as soon as possible.