The Silence Within (The Young Ancients: Tiera) (10 page)

"We need to have people from each land for it. Right now I have no volunteers at all, not even a place to set up a training center, but..." She stopped when Gerent waved his hand at her, and then waited for him to speak.

"Um, actually... Tor had me purchase some land for that? It's just outside the town by the Lairdgren school, Lenders? He's also provided a half dozen houses for it. Palaces really. It should be enough. We'll need to get food in and all that, but we can have it ready for people inside a week." He didn't stand up, but a man that was across from him at the table spoke easily. He was an older fellow, but clearly from Austra, having their strange accent and everything.

"Makes me wish I was thirty years younger. Or perhaps fifty? Going off to a strange land, then learning to crew a ship for space travel. I don't suppose you need crusty retirees for your fleet, do you?" He addressed Alice evenly, as if she weren't an Ancient, which got her to tilt her head a bit and smile.

"What skills do you bring to it? We'll need teachers after all and people to test the craft initially. Are you in good health?"

The man shook his head.

"Water navy, but..." Thumping his chest he looked sad. "Heart trouble."

Denno cleared his throat then and smiled.

"You've used one of Tor's healing devices, to protect you from the Gray Plague?"

"Yes, Revered One. Several times. Why?"

"You haven't been to your doctor since then, have you? I think you'll find that you no longer have a heart condition at all, unless it's genetic. Even then, it's probably been largely repaired. Since it probably added fifty years to your life, I suggest you look into a new line of work as soon as possible. Pensions only last so long."

That opened up a lot of excitement for the project and the man actually wanted to join up, if it was allowed.

Orange was excited too, but stopped him from seeming too happy.

"After all, we don't have any craft yet."

Denno looked at his compact and nodded.

"Well... We can actually head to the event for that... now. Tiera?"

They loaded everyone up, and drove slowly, following Denno's black, fat wheeled ground wagon. Several more, all in different colors, followed along behind them, going just as slowly. That line seemed to grow, as traffic clogged a bit, or so Tiera thought. When they got to the docks, they all tried to follow, though the workers there, wearing bright orange vests, made most of them stop. There was a sign that hadn't been there at the end of the pier they normally used, which said simply "Austra". A stage had been built as well.

Denno had Tiera let everyone else off, and arranged Count Ward and Carol Coltress on the back of the stage, and had them all shift into very nice clothing. Collette had to help her step-mother with it, but then she moved to the audience herself. Tiera hovered the craft over the water to the left and got the black focus stone box out as Alice looked at Brown with distrust.

He called out loudly however, so that the cameras could pick up what they were saying.

"Please, everyone, quiet. I know this is very exciting, but we don't have long, since there is real work to be accomplished."

Then he gave a long winded speech that sounded like he'd practiced it for weeks. Tiera could only wish that she had that level of skill with talking in public. She always felt a bit like a clown when things like that came up. This was what she was thinking when Denno, without any warning, called her up to the stage to present the fleet. At least he told her what she was supposed to do.

She nearly refused to go up, but walked anyway, since that would ruin the whole thing. It wasn't the time to be a brat after all. When she got near the center, not knowing what to say at all, she waved to Orange and held out the box in both hands.

"Um..." Nearly freezing she tried to think of something clever, but no words came at all. Finally a hint of anger ran through her, warming her face. Then the words came. "Alice Orange, High Admiral of Space Fleet, this is the first batch of craft, twenty in all, for you to test and to use in training of your new force. The whole world is united in this." She held the box out, waiting for the woman to take it from her hands, which didn't take long, since she was more than a little greedy about the idea.

 "Thank you, Tiera Baker." She opened the box and held up the small, glowing focus stone piece she pulled from inside. "This bit of rock in my hand is the future. We stand united, as one world, and with this pebble, we will form a new structure. A thing so solid and firm that nothing will ever pull it apart."

Then she touched the sigil, causing a rather bland looking box to form in front of her, about the size and shape of a ground wagon. Everyone clapped anyway, since it had just appeared out of nothing. Then she climbed in and the thing moved over the water, first growing, which meant it had to back away from the dock by a good bit, then shifting into a six sided shape. Really, it had eight sides, Tiera realized, including the top and the bottom. Then, almost as an afterthought, the thing turned orange and started to move away from them. It was very large, so wasn't hard to see. Five minutes later it moved into the air, very quickly, going first about a thousand feet up, which got applause from the watching crowd.

Then, without warning, it went much higher. It didn't stop either, until it vanished.

No one knew what that meant at first, until smiling, Denno pointed at it moving across the blue sky, no more than a glowing point above them. It took a while for it to hit the horizon and then they had to wait for it to come around the other side, nearly forty minutes later. Tiera did the math and whistled to herself. That meant it had gone around the world, or nearly, in that time.

It still took time, but it settled and came back to the crowded docks, which had become more so as people saw it at home and realized that history was happening right there, not too far from them. They chanted something then, but Tiera couldn't make it out at first. It could have been anything really. Austra, or Brown's name for instance. Or even Alice.

The word wasn't any of those things.

Instead they said, "space".

Tiera felt a chill down her spine, because it was really clear that something very, very special had just happened. When Orange got back to the dock, she made the craft smaller and floated it into place on the right side, then stepped out and made it vanish. Then, holding the focus stone piece up again, over her head, she called out so loudly that everyone stopped.

"Space!"

The world screamed then, or at least Austra did.

It took a while for things to wind down and the only thing that really worked was getting everyone into her craft, including Orange, and stealing them all away. Brown had to fend for himself, and Alice had to leave her things at his house, because they simply weren't retrieving them that day. Not if they couldn't just fly over everything. Alice, for her part in it, didn't care. She held onto her box of crafts as if it were the most precious thing in the world and kept giving them all goofy looking grins.

When they were in the air, she sighed.

"They have
gravity
. Natural lighting too. Purple did a good job that way. Not
nearly
fast enough though. Not for deep space work. We'll need to go over that. This is good for now. Are you all going to volunteer to go into space?" She asked it, as if it were a joke, but everyone nodded.

Carol even volunteered for the actual program. That got Tiera to laugh and shake her head.

"As long as you don't think that get's you out of changing. Orange will beat you too, you know, if you don't fix what you did to Bonita. Right, Aunt Alice?" The lovely thing there was that the Ancient just agreed instantly.

"Yes. We can do it on one of the space craft too, so that you can't complain. In space, no one can hear you scream, or so the old saying goes. My bet is that would work for crying and moaning too."

They didn't do it right then however, since Orange wasn't actually sure they had radiation shielding on the thing. She could handle that, if it was lacking, and Tiera could to, which was good to know, but the others might have problems with it, if they stayed in space too long.

"Cancers and things like that. Hair falling out and so on. That's what testing is for. Soon, we'll be able to take anyone that wishes to sign on."

They didn't have any food, but managed to get water by hovering over the ocean and getting some, using a pump. Alice blinked and drank the fresh water, tentatively at first then in huge gulps.

"Do all the craft have this feature?" She looked at her little box and Tiera had to give her a baffled look. It seemed likely, but wasn't certain.

After all, two different people had made them after all, and might just have different priorities.

They all drank their fill and got the water recharged, so they didn't have to stop again. That meant they got to Warden in the dark, to let Countess Ward off. She offered her home to them for the night, but Tiera truly needed to get back before then. The others stayed, since Timon came out and assured them all they had a ride back to the Capital for the next day. Alice shrugged and just stayed with Tiera, not even asking where they were going at all. That seemed suspicious, but after passing around some hugs, they took off anyway. These new craft were quick enough, but not as fast as the old ones. More comfortable to handle on long trips by far, since the piloting controls where much improved, having an arm rest and everything. It made a huge difference that way.

The Orange Ancient waited until they were back in the air before speaking, her voice gentle and still pleased sounding.

"So, Little Hellion, how have you been? Really, I mean. I keep expecting to hear of a crater forming where once the County of Morris stood." She didn't seem upset by the idea at all. She was really sweet that way, Tiera realized.

 "Nothing like that. I plan to execute the man and his daughter, but that's all. Don't tell anyone. The rest of them will probably try to kill me eventually if I don't take them out first. I'm... I just figure that I'll die, if that's the case. I won't kill a little girl just for having bad relatives, and her mother is actually sweet and kind." That didn't explain it all, but the woman next to her just leaned back and stretched a bit in the soft seat.

"So, kill the targets and then leave before the others can strike? You don't have to die. I know that losing a loved one can be very hard, but you will recover from it, if you don't seek death first. This girl that was killed, Regina? She would wish for you to carry on, don't you think? If it had been yourself that perished that day and her left behind, wouldn't you want her to live and love again?" She actually looked over at her, as if expecting a real answer to a question that was probably rhetorical, or would have been for most people.

"Yes. I know that you're right even. I just... Don't care. Maybe I will someday, but for right now, I have only the one goal. Maybe that's why I've been dragging my feet on it? I can kill the Count at will, and probably get Sandra easily enough. Possibly not. She's a wizard, trained by Tor, so that means she's
good
. Sandra Morris will have the same weapons I do, and a good shield. I can turn them off, if I'm close enough, but if I slip up, she might well win. In a fight, a direct one, with swords or sticks, even hand to hand, I'll win. She knows that though, so will go instantly to the best weapons she has."

The woman next to her looked out the dark window, into the inky night sky. There was a full moon out, or nearly so, which meant the ground was decently visible below them.

"It doesn't sound like a real problem. Hit her once with this craft at speed and she'll be gone."

Tiera nodded, but didn't speak. Her Aunt was correct, after all, that would work very well. It wasn't the problem, was it? If she wanted to do that, she could just walk up to the girl, turn her shield off and beat her until she died. As long as no one was around to save her, like Tor, that would do the trick too.

The problem with that plan was a thing that she just didn't want to talk about. If she did that, then torture would be right out, and she didn't believe that a simple and easy death was enough to punish Sandra. She wanted her to suffer. For a good long time.

It was wrong, and foolish, and worst of all, Tiera knew both of those things. That was why she was hesitating. Maybe it was time to move past that?

Almost as if something clicked in her head, Tiera decided to see to it then, as soon as possible.

Fast Transports or not, they didn't get into the school until nearly three-thirty in the morning. It was late enough that her normal work day was going to start in just a few hours, so Tiera resigned herself to the idea that sleep just wasn't happening that day for her. Luckily she didn't need as much as most people that way. It was nice to be alert however, and to really feel rested a good four hours was about the limit. She'd live. She just wouldn't like it.

That being the case, she took Alice to her school dorm room, which was on the first floor of the second long building, away from the weapons practice square. It wasn't much, just a place with two beds in it, one of which was actually occupied, by her roommate, Karen. Not that the woman was a student there, being a full Instructor and a Knight. That situation had more to do with keeping a certain Conserina out of trouble, rather than anything else.

"You can sleep in here. When Karen gets up, just tell her that you're my Aunt and being stored in here for a few hours. I need to get off to practice. It's a bit early, but..." There was only the one bed and Alice wasn't actually her Aunt. It would be awkward to share it with her anyway, being so small. Two could sleep in a student bed, if they hugged each other, and weren't too large to start with. That didn't work for Tiera in the moment, and thankfully, Orange didn't insist on it either.

"I can get things around once it's light, I believe? I'll work over to Tor's and see if he knows where I'm to set up. I can find you in the afternoon? In case I need assistance with anything, since this is your land."

Tiera nodded, not knowing if the woman would be able to see it in the dark. They were whispering in such low tones that Karen wouldn't have made out what they were saying, even being only a few feet away, Tiera didn't think. The room was small and smelled like warm breath and sweat, but only so faintly that regular people wouldn't have noticed it. No perfumes or incense. It was a good idea, but neither of them had bothered getting any yet.

The Ancient didn't wait, getting into the bed, on top of the covers, her long form lying still after a moment, soft snoring, or at least even and heavy breathing, coming from her moments later. Shutting the door, Tiera headed toward the stone walled practice area, which was a ways off from the school itself, so she wouldn't bother anyone too much by being there this early.

The bad thing about being at the square in the dark was that she had time to think. It should have all been about Lara Gray, clones, and the possible mental takeover of people that she'd known all her life, but instead, as she lifted the large and very heavy exercise stones, swinging the smaller ones around like she'd been taught, she kept looking at the entry way.

Waiting for Havar to show up.

It was stupid, and not something that she really should have worried over, to tell the truth. Tor had told her that her friend, or a person she thought of in that way, Baron Havar, didn't really like her. Actually, it was worse than that. He thought of her like a
pet
. As if she were literally a dog or cat that he practiced with daily, not a real person. She'd thought that they were... it was hard to put into words. After all, as an instructor, particularly in the fighters section, the man wasn't allowed to have sex with her, so they weren't involved like that. They didn't get together outside of class either, or do anything that would have meant they were more than student and teacher.

As far as that went, he wasn't even her instructor. Karen was.

They'd worked together each day anyway, and for some reason she'd figured that meant something. That they were...
friends
. Real ones. It was just a fact that the large man, a noble by birth and pattern, just couldn't see her like that. She was a prop to him. A moving pell that might have been his favorite, but wasn't an individual in any real way.

Worse, that was a thing, if Tor had it right, that the man had no control over. It had been forced into being long ago, by the Ancient King, Cordes. That and her own grandfather. It was just what was. She didn't need to borrow more pain, but she hadn't really dealt with it yet either. What could she do?

Currently, her plan was simply to ignore him for a while. He might miss having her as a working partner, since everyone else was too soft and easy most of the time, but the whole thing really hurt. Too much for her to just ignore. It was like finding out that a good friend really didn't think you were worth anything at all. Actually, it was
exactly
like that.

After stones, which was easier now for some reason, the weights actually feeling a good bit lighter, she moved to the pell. Taking a large and heavy metal club, a rounded thing that had to weigh about sixty pounds, which was a good percentage of her body weight, she started to swing, making mighty crashes that would have woken more than a few students, if she hadn't been as far away as she was. Normally she did a thousand blows with each hand, but decided today to increase that by fifty percent. She was strong, and fast, but her endurance was a little low.

She hated the idea of it, but decided that she needed to increase her running as well. That would mean slowing down a bit, she thought, and trying to pace herself. Normally she just ran. It wasn't that fast, but she pushed into pain doing it, for two laps around the whole school. That wasn't enough, and she knew it. Grimacing, she buckled down, thinking about the whole thing with a bit of dread. Running was her least favorite part of weapons work.

She did it next, going slow and making four laps instead of her regular two, which meant getting back just as Havar showed up and started to stretch. He nodded to her, but it was an abstract thing that showed how he must really feel about her, she thought. Instead of acknowledging him, she went back to the pell that she'd been working on and started punching it.

She worked combinations, kicking, punching it at times and even slamming her head into it, which made her dizzy and almost black out. If she hadn't had a healing amulet available it would have been a horrible plan, since it left her nearly crippled after about six minutes. She forced herself to go on, not caring about the pain, even as her body tried to make her stop. It didn't really like bleeding all over the upright log in front of her for some reason. Probably because it was smarter than she was.

Skin flayed from her knuckles and tears came to her eyes, because, while she wasn't afraid of pain, it still hurt, just as much as it always did. That meant her movements slowed and blows softened becoming weaker as time passed. Her body finally refused to do much at all after half an hour, so she triggered the healing device that rested in her rib cage on the right hand side, thinking at it carefully. It fixed her, taking about three minutes to get it all done. That hurt too, more than the initial damage had really, the repairs stressing her system greatly. It was the cost of the magic. The healing came from within after all, the field just sped up what would have happened anyway.

Then she worked on specific techniques using staves, then swords, knives and bludgeons. It was just waving them at the air, trying to imagine an opponent, sometimes two, attacking her as she used the correct movements to stop them. It was harder than it sounded like, but killed some time. Without having a partner, it was the best she could do.

Havar kept looking at her, then glancing away when she saw him doing it. That was weird. It wasn't like he was trying to flirt with her, or felt shy, so what he was thinking, she didn't know. It would have been easier if she could read fields like Tor could, or just knew everything people thought, however Timon did it, which he claimed was different. She couldn't, so had to just guess what it meant, like anyone else. It was a pain.

Luckily, people started showing up about the same time that true dawn broke, and while they needed to warm up first and do their own basic exercises, she was able to grab a few people to work with, even though they weren't the ones that she normally might have. That was because, in the main, she spent the early part of the day with Havar, or at least used to.

Instead she got Johan and Keras, both giants that had several years of practice behind them, and if
they
thought she wasn't a real person, managed to hide it behind a veneer of civility, if nothing else. Then, so had the Baron. She just decided not to care about these two men, no matter what happened.

"So..." She'd walked up to them as they stood, clearly ready to do something, but in between events. "We could work with sticks? Full force. No blows to the head if you can help it, or, since you two are boys, the groin. Does that sound good?"

From the groaning that Keras produced it wasn't, but he smiled after a few seconds anyway and explained, which was friendly enough.

"We haven't even been back from vacation for a full day and you already want to beat me? What did I do to
you
? It's my good looks, isn't it? They're just driving you to distraction and you have to try and ruin them." The look on his face was playful, but the fact was he wasn't that good looking at all. Kind of like a monkey really, with a slightly weak chin and ears that were too big for his head, sticking out awkwardly. He also had a gap in between his front teeth. It didn't really work well for him. He
did
have nice green eyes though and his hair wasn't blond, but a light shade of brown, which was interesting with the light eyes.

Tiera nodded.

"That's actually it. All the women and some of the boys out here have been driven to distraction daily by you, being so pretty. It's up to Johan and I to make that go away." She hoped it didn't sound too mean, which was possible, even if it was clear that she'd been playing back. The third year student bowed to her a little though and sighed.

"Always the problem, being so cute. Well, let's do it then. You and me first?" He didn't sound all that certain, but Johan nodded.

"I'll grab second place. Maybe get a few others to take a turn, if it's your turn to suffer today, Keras."

That wasn't exactly the normal way they did it, a full out practice session most often came without warning, and only about once a month when it did, to remind people how much harder they really needed to work on things. It was too easy to get lazy and think that skill made up for lack of conditioning. Kolb said that often enough at least.

Blinking she shook her head.

"No... Get ready for something different." Then she sidled over to the head instructor, the others looking a lot less than pleased suddenly, clearly getting what she had planned. That meant they were a whole lot smarter than they looked, which was good to know. Johan put out a hand, as if trying to stop her, but she grinned and ran at Kolb almost silently, holding her own shield off, figuring that she wasn't going to last long at all. He was at the pells after all, so armed, with a heavy wooden sword. She didn't have anything, but going full out without warning kind of required that. Otherwise he might think he was really under attack, since they were on high alert.

She wasn't wrong about that, since he spun before she got to him, and didn't hesitate to bring the blade down on her shoulder with a crack that definitely broke something there. It hurt bitterly, but she fought on, closing with him, even as he hit her, turning it into a very unequal wrestling match for a moment. He was bigger than she was, better too and at least as strong, which was interesting. She got it after a few moments, as he hit her in the head several times. He was
much
stronger than he let on, but had been hiding it from everyone. He was actually pulling his punches to make
her
sudden attack more fair, practice wise.

She still managed to free the weapon from his hand, even as he knocked her out. She couldn't see much as it happened, but felt the stones hit her back, and then her skull. She wasn't out long, of course. People didn't stay that way more than a minute or two at best, outside of stories. Not unless they were very badly damaged. She wasn't, though the side of her face felt a bit mushy when she touched it, trying to roll.

To her surprise, when she came too, Johan was busily engaging the weapons master full out, bad idea or not. He was better at it than she was, but not as good as Kolb. It meant that they both actually got hit at least, and that lasted a good three minutes, though it was still pretty one sided.

When that ended, a sudden thing that seemed almost too brutal for a simple practice, Keras changed the rules and picked up Kolb's practice sword, attacking him from behind. It might have lacked in honor, but the idea was for the person being attacked to get a good session in, not those providing it. People had moved into place by then, stopping their own work to watch. Analyze really, which meant a lot of people saw what happened next...

Which was Baron Kolbrin suddenly moving out of the way of a blade that he couldn't see, dodging it perfectly, and kicking back with precision, breaking Keras's left knee with a pop. He even screamed, then that stopped after a few seconds. He hopped back, tears running down his face, but seemed ready to keep going. He wasn't really able to yet, Tiera knew, or at least suspected, as game as the young man was.

That meant she was back up.

Without warning she darted in, tackling the large bald Instructor, throwing him about five feet away, using brute force, a thing he rolled out of perfectly. What happened after that she wasn't really certain of, except that he was back instantly.