The Silence Within (The Young Ancients: Tiera) (15 page)

Tiera was given her turn at the controls shortly after that, and was asked to take the craft into a stationary orbit over Austra. That way Alice could get out her communications unit, and see if Brown was home at all.

For a moment Tiera was afraid that would set their defenses off and they'd try to destroy them, but nothing happened at all, until Denno spoke, his voice just as clear as always.

 "Good morning, this is Denno." He sounded smooth and fresh, so it probably wasn't
that
early in the day.

Alice cleared her throat.

"Orange here. We're above your continent, and have demands." She sounded slightly sinister suddenly.

"Oh? What would those be?"

"We want an ice cream cone each, soft serve, and at least five people that want to try their hand at being instructors with the new fleet. We'll be by in ten days to collect them, if that's within a decent time frame for you? Test them for us, we don't need morons, or people that have low adaptive profile scores."

Tiera tilted the ship a bit, so that they could all see the land below them well enough. It didn't fill the window, being too far away. She had to wonder what iced cream was, but didn't ask.

Tiera sighed and tried to actually think of what would be useful, as far as personnel went.

"Also folks that don't mind working with others. I think the plan is to have people from everywhere be a part of this, right? That's going to be interesting with the Tellerand." They'd try to convert everyone after all. It was required by their traditions and religious beliefs.

Denno didn't ask who was talking, he just answered, sounding like it had been his plan all along.

"We can do that. There's great interest already. We might have to have a lottery to find the winners. Tiera, could you bring Torrance by in a few days? Several of my scientists would like to run brain scans on him, if that's allowed. He's done something like it before, so he should understand the basic idea."

Like she could make promises like that for him?

"Ask him yourself. He can come over on his own, unless you need me in particular for some reason? If so, I can try to make time. I'll probably have to run the bake shop for him, if he's doing that, since he doesn't like to leave it closed."

There was a brief silence and then the sound of a long breath being released.

"Ah, I forgot I had this device and could simply get in touch now. Very good. In ten days." He said more, but it was just him trying to be diplomatic and polite, which was nice, but a bit over done for just them.

Then they did the same thing with Vagus, talking to Lyn Red. She seemed a bit baffled by the request, and they didn't try to extort treats from her at all, just asking for people.

"I have only a few that can speak Noram standard, and most of those right now are either mages or sailors. Will you accept that kind on your crews? The ship men tend to be a bit hard. Aggressive."

Tiera didn't care for the sound of it, but Orange didn't seem to feel it was a threat at all.

That was fine with her, since, odds were, she wouldn't be around for that part of things. It didn't sound like a good fit, but maybe those men would surprise her? A lot of people really had, over the last years. Even ones that she thought she knew. Family members for instance.

Being careful not to think about specific plans too much, in case her Aunt could figure out what she was thinking, she waited for the communications to be done. Then, when she spoke, she did it with the air of a person that didn't care about the answer, one way or the other. After all, it was true.

"Can we make a quick stop on the way back in? I need to do something real quick, and then we can head back to the school. I think I can take us in directly."

"What?" Orange asked, as the craft settled, very slowly in the atmosphere. Well, if by slow they meant several thousand miles per hour. Since they were starting around two hundred up, that meant that in less than half a minute they'd be there.

Tiera could have lied, and it might have even been the sane thing to do, but instead she just kept going, answering as she reduced the speed even more.

"I want to test the hull strength. By crashing into Count Morris's guest house. The Fast Craft can hold against things like that. Unfortunately we don't have any real weapons on this thing. That's Tor for you, isn't it? Never thinking of things like that." It was late enough that the man should be home, and unless he'd suddenly taken to going to see his troops for patriotic reasons, it would kill him.

Honestly she really expected Orange to stop her, or even Gerent to try and grab the controls to do it himself, if he just didn't order her to stop, but that didn't happen. Not at all.

In fact it was him that spoke first.

"I think you should. The man started a war with you, it's kind of fitting that you end it yourself."

Orange just went suddenly gleeful and clapped her hands once, powerfully.

"Move then. Let's see what we can do."

It didn't take long, the tiny house growing large, with her actually settling down very near it, so that she could look in through the windows. It was already dark out, which meant that the family inside was at dinner.

"Crud. I wasn't going to kill his daughter or wife. Well, not that little one at least." She seriously considered leaving then, but her Aunt was designed to be a warrior, which meant she didn't get
that
idea at all, so she just jumped in and pushed Tiera's arm forward suddenly. The house was hit at over a thousand miles per hour, by a thing that didn't bend or shift at all, which meant the place was literally gone by the time she came back around to look at it.

Her Aunt shook her head and waved for them to go, but Tiera sighed.

"No. If I'm taking the whole family, I need to do the complete job. Sorry, this will take longer than I thought. We have treats left." She felt pretty bad about the other two, but the Count being dead didn't bother her at all. That only left Sandra, who was in the direct line of succession, and there was no way she was letting the woman have her own County to bring into the mess. Not after killing the rest of her family like she just had.

The little cabin was kind of hard to find, and Tiera decided to simply cheat, not wanting some kind of vast, prolonged battle. It was a shame to let Sandra die fast, but she knew that doing anything else would be about the same as ordering the woman to kill her friends and family in retaliation. She started toward the place, ready to simply squash it, when a Fast Craft took off at full speed, colored black, to match the night sky.

"Well. The nerve of some people." She knew it sounded far too grim, considering this was a decently happy day, but she went after her, ready to kill the woman, even if it took the rest of both their lives.

The only thing was that something was very wrong. The Fast Craft moved upward and away, but didn't stop, climbing to high in a few seconds. It could have just been an attempt to make them stop following, but that would have been foolish, even if they didn't have the same limitations, as to breathable air. It was Gerent who stated the obvious first, as she wrenched the controls around, to head in the other direction.

"Misdirection..."

"Aye. Let's see what the payoff is then?" Orange didn't explain what she meant by that, but Gerent seemed to get it anyway. That was odd, since Tiera wouldn't have thought they had anything in common at all, the Ancient and the midget, but there it was, right in front of her, with her being the one left out.

The trick was simple enough, as they flew away, Sandra had come out from behind the tiny shack and was pointing something at them. Whatever it was made the whole craft shake and the front wall of it, where the window was, start to buckle inward. It was something that Tiera had seen before, at the hands of the giant Scott Ross, while he tried to kill her. That was a combat rage thing, an ability that could bend magic. This was different, if similar. A weapon meant to strip the field away, at least enough for the air itself to kill them?

Without waiting , Tiera headed straight for the woman, her black fuzzy hair wild, in front of her, getting ever closer. Then, without understanding why, she added a second layer of window in front of her. That worked to keep the craft together as they ran into her well enough.

The moment was too fast for her to track properly, but there was a rewarding splash of red mist in the air for a moment, Tiera thought. It was so brief it really could have just been imagination. She set the craft down and ran to the wall, making an exit, which she had to leap down from, to head back to where the other girl that been. Amazingly, bit of mist or not, she was still right there, alive and everything. Not well, since the ground had pushed up under her, ripping free, being carried by the shield that the girl wore. She also seemed to have a broken arm and was having problems breathing for some reason. Tiera took her shield down and held it that way, moving toward her, remembering not to be distracted.

She did speak first, making sure she was shielded herself, which was good, since the woman had an explosive weapon and activated it, even if it was too hard for her to move it into position quickly. It threw up a great cloud of dirt, and made the world roar in protest. That didn't do anything at all to Tiera.

Smiling she leaned in and took it from the bent and broken fingers.

"Countess Morris, how good to see you. I just came to finish our business. It won't take but a moment." She was being petty, talking and taunting when she should be killing, but the sob that broke through was nearly worth it. After all, how many times had Tiera sobbed like that for Reggie? She'd lost count, which meant it was more than Sandra would have time for.

"You killed my father?"

"About ten minutes ago. I regret to inform you that your little sister and mother perished at the same time. I'd been planning to let them live, even if they tried to kill me later, but it didn't work out that way. You understand why you're going to die now, don't you?" Not that she cared. It was just a chance for the woman to curse at her, or claim it was all Tiera's fault. That or say something witty.

"Because my father was an ass. I guess I was too. Do it." She spoke like a person that was trying to taunt death into happening, to avoid torture.

If so, she was smart, but Tiera didn't think she'd last that long anyway. She certainly wasn't lending her a healing amulet.

"All right."

It still took time and was very personal in the end. She finished the beating that the woman had gotten in the tavern from her, and didn't stop until there was no more life left in her at all. It was long enough that the others caught up to her and stood watching. Activating the cutter in the back of her right hand, she drew a line over the corps's throat, taking the head totally off. She didn't want to find that the woman had found a way to fake her way out of things. Not at this late date.

"I think the war is over." It didn't leave her feeling any better, and she had to doubt that Regina would have loved her for it, but she picked the head up anyway and held it by the hair for a while, waiting for the worst of the blood to drip away. That took a lot longer than she'd figured it would and meant, looking at the dead girls open eyes, that she had yet
another
thing to do.

At this rate the others would never want to work with her again. Either for clogging up the schedule with personal business, or for bringing home gross trophies. Who could blame them? She'd forgotten to bring a sack with her, but Gerent pulled out an amulet that made a box. The floating kind that Tor made. It looked like plain wood, though that could have been changed, but no one bothered.

"Almost done for the day, I
promise
." She walked to the giant craft, which they needed to make much smaller for the next part, and got into the pilot's chair, the box floating behind her the whole time. She didn't mention where she was going and wasn't certain that the place could be found in the night. Not by her. It took hours, mainly just to find the right city, which was in Thompson, her brother in-laws County. Then she had to actually walk up and down the street for a while to find the right gate. The place was nice enough, but not as vast as many that she'd seen. Reggie's father was a Baron, but didn't have large holdings. He'd kept them fed and clothed by building a large business, working, like a real person.

She knocked on the door, looking at her plain students clothing, contemplating shifting it to something nicer when the doorman came. He didn't know them at all, it was clear, though Tiera remembered him from the funeral. It hadn't been long before and she had a memory for faces.

"Is Baron Helmsley in, please? I'm Conserina Lairdgren, Tiera Baker. This woman is the Orange Ancient, and next to me is Gerent Lairdgren. This concerns the death of Regina." She didn't want to say too much, because, strictly speaking, taking heads was a bit over the top, as far as war went.

"The master hasn't been taking visitors. I'm not certain that he'll see you." The man seemed to be very sad about it, which she understood, totally.

"He wants to see us. Please tell him that." She didn't say more, but the man left and a few minutes later, came back, to take them into a well lit drawing room. It was nice, but a bit small as such things went, which reminded her of Regina, all over again. She was lovely, but not pretentious, like so many others of her station. They were brought drinks, but it took nearly an hour for the man, who looked older and more worn down, to find them, the box just floating in the air as she sat, sipping at some unsweetened tea. No one spoke, until he did, his voice coming as a surprise, being no more than a bitter and dead sounding croak.