The Silence Within (The Young Ancients: Tiera) (3 page)

It was at least as large as Tor's palace, and whoever lived there seemed to be pulling out all the stops, making it look at least as grand. Her guess would be that Timon had done it, since no one else she knew would make a river glow silver like that. On a whim she landed there, hoping that she was right, or at least that whoever was there would be nice about it. There was a spot for them to set down in the front, an area that looked to be made of focus stone, but that had blue lights set up all the way around it. It was pretty handy, she had to admit.

Carol goggled at the place, but didn't ask if it was their destination at all. She climbed out when Tiera did however and smoothed her shift, which was probably what she'd been wearing when she'd escaped from the rest facility.

"Is this your home?" The words held awe, and her face looked a little pale.

"Nope. I have no clue who lives here. It's new. I figured that I'd just go and knock. Gerent lives by the river, the real one. The silver one here though..." She didn't wait, walking up the path and then knocking, even as the other women held back. Like a servant might, in a similar situation.

After a few minutes someone finally came to the door, looking rather happy, all things considered. She had a very nice gown on, all in blue, and her hair was done up in a decorative fashion. The deep brown curls almost made Tiera feel envious, since her own hair was deadly straight and black, which was kind of boring.

The woman went wide eyed when she saw who was there and then jumped forward, grabbing Tiera by the shoulders, then into a tight hug.

"Tiera! Everyone has been wondering when you'd be around. Come in. You too, ma'am." She didn't look at the other woman very closely, just waving for her to enter, paying almost all of her attention to Tiera, holding her closely, as if they were friends or something.

It might even be true enough, she figured, even if it wasn't anything that Tiera really felt, for the most part. The woman had once been engaged to her older brother Tor, and then said nasty things about him in public. True, she'd been ordered to do it and they'd mainly made up, but that didn't leave her feeling warm and comfortable with the situation, did it?

Of course, when she and Gerent had been thrown in a Galasian jail and raped by the guards for sport, it was Tiera and Timon, along with a few other people, that had come to get them out. That might leave Trice feeling a good bit more inclined to like her than was totally needed. Still, a hug was better than someone trying to kill you, most of the time, so she took it and tried to look happy about the whole thing.

"Hello. I saw this place and wondered if Timon had put it up. The silver river, you know. That seems like something that he'd do, doesn't it? Is it yours?" She smiled and waited, knowing that if she was wrong, that would probably be a real difficulty. After all, in the noble world you were supposed to know things like that, even though half the time people just couldn't. That didn't matter however. It was one of those things that made their lives harder than they should be and would allow the people that wanted to the ability to take offense. It was kind of a sport for some of them.

Taking offense.

"Um... You've been away for a bit, haven't you?" There was a pause, a sucked in breath and then a rushing ahead, like someone telling bad news that they figured you needed to know. "This is Timon's and
my
house... While you were gone, we got married. Sanctioned by the King, and real. This isn't a joke. There were reasons for it, but..."

Tiera just stood for a moment, looking at everything and wondering what the trick was. It could be a gag after all, or something else. Perhaps a trap for some spies? Timon was twelve after all, which was too young to marry. It wasn't truly impossible, but if he were going to do that, Tiera would have suspected that he'd have married Captain Petra. They were going around together after all. Or at least she'd thought that was the case.

"Congratulations?" That sounded right at least. Tiera smiled and looked around the place, which was both huge and grand. The frames of the doors were all gold in color, like the metal, and had fine carvings along the sides and top. Through the door looked to be a sitting room, done in cream and blue. There was carpet that ran over the entire floor, and in a light color, which would have been a horrible idea if it couldn't be replaced instantly, thanks to magic.

There was an appreciative murmur from behind her and Trice let go, not letting her face fall at all as she turned to look at the bedraggled and thin woman in the still open door.

"This is incredible. Simply amazing. Warm too. The places that I've stayed recently have all been a bit drafty, so I've learned to appreciate that sort of thing." For the life of her, the woman seemed almost happy to be there, even if she
were
half covered with filth... and shame. Her bare legs and wooden sandals were so far out of place that it almost seemed as if she was doing it on purpose. Trying to make a statement about something or another.

If the idea of the day was that this was supposed to be her brother and new sister in-law's place, Tiera decided to act like she'd simply been told the truth in the matter. After all, if this really was her new sister, then calling her a liar right off the bat would be nearly unforgivable. It would be better to play along, and let them have their game, if that was the plan. She just didn't care. Not anymore. It really didn't seem all that likely though, did it? She would have been more believing if Trice had claimed to have stolen Todd away from Countess Thorgood, or even managed to grab Tor somehow. Timon... Well, that just didn't make any sense at all.

In that state, perhaps a bit less understanding and trusting than a good sister would have been, she nodded.

"Would it be possible for Carol to wash up, and perhaps borrow a clothing amulet? Her things have been temporarily misplaced and we need to do some visiting later. So she can try and redeem herself." That got Trice to finally really look at the poor seeming woman and understand who it was she was viewing. It seemed to shock her a bit, or more than that, and her eyes went wide.

"Ah. Yes, certainly. Here, let me show you to a room." That didn't take long, since most of those were simply up on the second, third and fourth floors, she confided. The inside of the space they were shown to was simply
vast
. Trice grinned as she pointed to where things were. "I know, it's a bit overdone, but we have the space and so far no one has come to visit overly. Just Gerent and Collette really. Well, Tor came once, but... I'll let Timon go into that with you later? He should be back for dinner. Those others will be coming. Is that all right, do you think?"

Tiera nodded.

"Probably. The groveling will have to start somewhere and Collette wasn't the wronged party, so that might be easier. Don't you think, Carol?" It wasn't good to talk about people like they weren't there after all. Only rude people did that.

The sound that came out of the Baroness was gruff and seemed like a denial, at first, until she headed to the bathing chamber, which required a nice long walk. The single room they were in was bigger than her whole family's old house in Two Bends. She called back though, not turning.

"Do you have healing amulets around here as well? If the plan is for me to be beaten, I mean?" The strange and almost wonderful thing there was that she actually got that it
would
come to that.

Tiera had been afraid that she might have thought the whole thing was finished already.

"I have an extra on me, so don't worry. No shield though, so it will probably hurt."

Technically that wasn't true. She
had
a second shield on her person too, she was just proclaiming that the woman wasn't going to get one while being beaten. That would remove the whole point, and possibly make the woman feel safe enough to relapse into bad behavior.

There was the sound of running water then, so Tiera sat on a soft chair that was next to the bed. It didn't make a lot of sense to have sitting room furniture there, but here she was, using it anyway. That sort of proved she was wrong, didn't it? Trice winked and held up a finger, but didn't run out of the room, just pulling things from under the top of her dress.

One of them, Tiera realized, was a silence amulet.

The curly haired woman smiled.

"So, you've captured a wild Baroness. Any plans for her?"

Tiera looked at the room, which didn't seem any different at all, and decided that she liked the place. It was ostentatious to a degree that real people couldn't ever have, but it would impress anyone looking at it, which had to be the plan. She felt it, and she knew it was all just magic. Even Tor's place had been done in a more sensible and realistic manner however.

"I was thinking I'd see if Gerent needs a house woman. She's already agreed, complete with the knowledge that I'll literally kill her if she makes him feel poorly. She'll also provide other services for him. If he wants. That's how I found her earlier today, offering herself to two men on the street for a copper. I don't know if she's fixed herself, but if not, I'm going to simply execute her. Don't tell anyone that. We just don't need her as a weight around our friends' necks any longer. So one way or the other this is going to be done in the next few days."

Trice made a face at her. It was a bit sad, but not angry seeming at all.

"Gerent... He's putting on a brave face, but he's been so lonely. I know he loves me, but, with the marriage and all, well... I don't know. This might not go over well. He's pretty shy about sex, and having another man's wife basically be his private whore could be a little bit too much for him." She kept watching the bathing room door, as if expecting Carol to try and sneak out.

If she were smart, that would be the best course of action, but it would also mean leaving her old life of privilege behind for good. If nothing else she could earn a better class of man to service, being clean and looking like herself. It wouldn't be a perfect life, but it might be better than the beatings she was in for.

That part of things was a little hard for Tiera to handle really. It wasn't that she was opposed to such things, and it was real enough. She'd been on the receiving end of one once herself at school even. The woman would almost
certainly
be knocked around. It was just the idea that it was her own
family
that would be doing it that was hard for her to understand.

"Maybe
I
should beat her?" It was just an idea, and seemed to come out of the blue, but Trice stopped for a few seconds and then started to let her head bob.

"I... think that might actually be wise. You don't care about it all, one way or the other, and are known to be strong and a good fighter, so no one will think that the punishment isn't fair. You can do it without weapons too and let her heal halfway through, so she won't die from it. I don't think that Collette will kill her, not for real, but I don't know she won't either. Bonita just might. She was hiding it well when this came out, but I heard she was really planning to challenge her step-mother to a duel to the death. She only held her hand because Tor begged for her life. Carol's, I mean."

The idea of innocent and sweet Nita being driven to that end almost made Tiera want to go and start the punishments right then. She didn't, because it wasn't her problem to solve personally. They had a solution, and it would have to work, or be changed with input from the others.

"Should we get everyone together for it, or do all the beatings separately?" She was joking of course, figuring that it would be more efficient to handle them at the same time, but Trice shrugged. It was a move that she'd probably learned from Tor, even if she didn't know it. Most people didn't do that at least.

"My vote is separate, for each of the involved parties. This is
big
. What she did to Nita was huge and should have probably cost her life already. A few weeks of sucking cock isn't enough to teach her anything. Humbling that kind of person just makes them mad. Of course, learning fear doesn't make a person better either, just too afraid to act, but hopefully we can work something out." If she really meant the last bit, it was hard to tell. She just smoothed her pretty blue dress over her leg and stood up.

That part was so that she could get out the clothing amulet.

Then they had to wait for a decently long time for Carol to reappear. She looked fresher, and was totally dry, but had nothing on. It made her a little jealous, Tiera realized, since the woman had a much better bust line than she did.
She
was just, skinny. All over. Carol actually had curves, even as thin as she currently was.

Lofting the silver amulet, Trice climbed to her feet and scurried across the rug covered stone of the floor. It looked to be a white marble with blue streaks in it, covered by soft and shaggy throw rugs. Holding the thing out, which was on a silver chain, she winked.

"Keep this. It's a gift. Would you like me to help you, or have you used them before?"

The look that Carol Coltress gave Trice wasn't very friendly. In fact, if she'd been wearing makeup it might well have peeled from her face under the intensity of it.

"You little bitch! You think that you can rub your new found wealth in my face? Just because you've been sleeping with that wizard, you suddenly think that you're better than everyone else? I should-"

"Shut up."