The Silence Within (The Young Ancients: Tiera) Read online

  "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.

  In the end, all three of the kids were on the ground, not able to get back up, with a heavily breathing Kolb standing over them, waiting to see what would happen next.

  Full force sessions normally went the other way around, of course, so Tiera didn't actually know what to do. She tried to climb to her feet, but shook her head, realizing that without healing, that wasn't happening.

  "I'm out, unless we want to take this into using magic?" It sounded like she'd been gargling glass, but that was enough to get the others to agree with her.

  Keras chuckled gamely while he spoke.

  "Me too. Let this be a lesson to you Kolb. You can't let yourself become lazy or complacent." It was the same message that almost everyone got at the end of this sort of thing, but instead of laughing, the man nodded soberly, as if he'd actually been delivered a lesson.

  "Agreed. Let's get healed up and get back to work. Unless this is continuing?" He glanced around, but for some reason no one volunteered to be next.

  Wimps.

  It took a few minutes for everyone to get healed, since they only had the one shared healing amulet. She had hers of course, but since others were watching, she just took her turn normally, not wanting to give that away. For all that he'd delivered most of the beating, Kolb needed it too, but went last, since his need wasn't as great as theirs. The instant he was finished, he stopped and stared at each of his three assailants.

  "Weapons range in ten minutes. I'd suggest flying, if you have your gear with you?"

  Tiera did of course, but Keras didn't. It would have been a problem if it were a flying exercise, so Kolb smirked at the boy, but Tiera had her Fast Craft with her and got people to step back, so that they could take whoever was needed.

  Kolb actually laughed about that and waved to the people watching.

  "Load in! We're all going." He was suggesting that they cram twenty giants into the tiny looking craft, but Tiera rolled her eyes, making it larger. It was the new one after all, so it could easily hold them all.

  That earned another laugh, but people slammed on board, seeming baffled, and sat on the floor in the back, not waiting for chairs to be provided. That was good, since she didn't plan on doing that at all. After settling at the range, the Weapons Instructor had them all get out and Tiera put the craft away.

  "Excellent. We can't always count on having that option, so from now on, everyone needs to have all their gear on them, at all times. I know it's a hardship, but deal with it. At any moment, any one of you might be responsible for lives now. If you fail, you might survive or not, but that's what you earn, or what luck would have for you. To fail at being the best you can right now means that others might die as well, however. Is that understood?" He looked around, waiting for an answer, and got a muddled murmur in reply. He didn't call out for a more unified answer, just nodding. It was early still.

  "Keras, I want to arrange for force lance fire with... Karen, if you would? The rest of us will attempt, without utilizing shields, to pass from one side of the range to the other, behind the targets. No shields, but any other tools or tricks will be allowed."

  The set up was actually far more brutal than it seemed, because while Keras took an old and nearly dead students practice lance from the storage locker, Karen used her personal one, which was powerful enough to kill a person, if it hit them right. Every time anyone showed so much as a finger from behind the heavy boulders the targets were painted on, they got hit so hard that they needed to be healed. Luckily, or due to great for
esight, the Weapons Master had that amulet with them.

  After a few minutes it was pretty clear that they weren't going to sneak past Sir Karen Derring easily at all. She wasn't even laughing at them or being playful, actually acting as if her job required her to keep them from moving across her battlefield. It was telling really. Even Kolb didn't fair too well.

  They kept trying, but finally Tiera realized that something was going to have to give, if they were going to make it. If anyone was.

  "Everyone." She whispered the word, husking it in a low tone, hoping it wouldn't carry. "I'm going to rush them. I'll try to get up every four seconds, after I get knocked down if I can. So run in those windows. On three." The countdown felt like it took forever, but when she went for them at full speed, they were both clearly caught off guard. Keras managed to hit her first, but the weak weapon he was using didn't stop her, and she was nearly halfway to them by that time.

  Karen finally realized she was there and held the invisible beam of force on her hard, throwing her back. She actually moved along the ground, pushing up loose dirt with her body for a bit, before Karen tried to hit the others. Rolling her eyes, or at least trying too, Tiera activated her healing amulet and left it on. Then, about five seconds later she dashed at the two defenders again. It happened over and over, with her getting up each time, not slowing down, until everyone managed to get to the safe zone.

  Then she made her way in that direction, as all the others started throwing rocks at the two with weapons to distract them. It wasn't perfect, since they were good, and force lances weren't hard to use, but it worked, eventually.

  Kolb didn't even go over what else they could have done at all, just yelling at them to follow him, suddenly running back toward the school.

  He didn't sprint, but every so often at random intervals he called for them to hide, raising his right hand when he did. Then they had to dash to the side of the road and dive into the snow there. It wasn't deep or anything, in fact it was almost bare, which meant moving into the trees, taking longer than they should have. After the third time he stopped calling out, just making the hand motion.

  It took hours to get back to the training grounds, and when they got there, he waved to Tiera, not letting her leave with the others. On the good side Karen was called in too, along with Havar.

  "Not horrible. I want the same for the afternoon section." He pointed at Karen, glaring a bit. "Judith Kerry, is she on assignment?"

  That actually got a smile from the other Knight, her broad face happy.

  "With the Orange Ancient, setting up their training facility outside of Lenders. Judy is supposed to help with that, the training center. Timon Baker set that up? I woke up with... Alice?" She looked over at Tiera who nodded, letting her know that was correct. "In my room, asking questions about where to find things. It made more sense to give her the actual assistant, rather than me. I don't know if this is going to be daily now. She might have to switch schools, since this seems to be something real now."

  Kolb looked at the back wall of the square and nodded, but didn't speak his mind at the moment. Instead he waved at them, making shewing motions with his large hands. "Get some food then. Pick a target for the full work other than me this time, since we want to spread the joy around a bit. Go on now." There was a friendliness to it all that he normally didn't show overly, not to her, but the others seemed to think it was normal enough.

  They were headed off to town for lunch and while tempting, she didn't have that kind of coin to spare. That meant either dried fruit and meat in her room, or... since he was family, seeing if Tor would part with some baked goods from his shop. That really sounded like the tastier and more filling option, so she started off in that direction, hoping that would be all right with him. It was a real business, if not one he actually needed. He had coin after all. All of it, or near enough that his life was a constant struggle to spend it all fast enough. That was what he'd told her at least.

  On the good side the bakery was only a few blocks from the training square. She had to jog a street over, but then it was just down the paved stone road about half a mile. It might even have been less than that. There was no one in the front when she walked in, but after the bell chimed Tor came out of the back, smiling happily.

  "How may I help you today?" It was clear that he was trying to be cute about it, pretending that she wasn't her or something silly like that. She was starving though, having not had breakfast, so felt a flash of irritation at him for not magically knowing that.

  Then she sighed.

  "Free food would be good, if you have anything to spare. It's either that or eat spit and snot at the dining hall." It had only been the one time, that she knew of, and her poison detector had caught it, but only because the boy that did it had been ill at the time. Probably with the early stages of the Gray Plague, come to think of it, meaning that his doing that had actually saved his life. It still grossed her out so much she wouldn't eat there anymore, even if he wasn't allowed near the food.

  The honest truth was that she also just didn't want to sit in the same room with a bunch of people that clearly hated her. She might have earned part of it, but most of it really was that they were all just horrible people. Some of them were at least. It was why she'd dropped her singing class. They might not think they were responsible for Regina's death, and most of them really weren't, but some of them had helped that along, by setting her up for a prank that caused things to go way out of control.

  It wasn't fair of her to think that, but she felt it anyway. Pure anger pouring through her, which got Tor to wince.

  "How are things going?"

  She knew what he meant, how was she dealing with things as far as rage went. Taking a deep breath she calmed her mind, like Doris had taught her. Striving to feel the deep and abiding silence within. It took work, but also let her hide things from her brother, if she did a good enough job.

  "Better, things like that aside. I don't know for certain, but I think that's just regular anger. Like what real people feel? That or I'm just broken beyond fixing. I don't feel like kicking everyone in the rear all the time over stupid things half as much now, so it's probably working."

  "Good. I don't need to have you beating me up too." He sounded glum about it, but shook his head and explained. "Timon... He's not happy about what I did, making him able to feel guilt. A fact I learned when he introduced my head to the new Space Fleet. The full box of them."

  "Ouch. Well, you didn't ask, and now you know he isn't pleased about it, so it's probably not a huge deal. If, I mean, he doesn't hunt you down and kill you. But what are the odds of that happening? Fifty-fifty?" She meant it as a joke, since Timon wouldn't strike out in that way against Tor. He might destroy his businesses, or sleep with Ali to get back at him, but death would be off the table. Nodding she mentioned that.

  "Really, that would be the one to do, wouldn't it? Sleep with your wife and all your girlfriends, stealing them all away from you? I should mention that to him. It would both work, and be less violent." She held out her right hand, as if expecting him to deliver a bribe of food to prevent that from being passed on. It wasn't a real point, since as her brother he'd give her food if he had it, even if it meant not eating himself. That wasn't the case of course, and he actually set her up with a tray of goodies that she really didn't think she'd be able to eat all of.

  It looked good though. Really tasty.

  She ate without speaking, or even thanking him for a time, until the hunger stopped being as intense. She couldn't afford to really stuff herself unfortunately, since she had another full work out coming in less than an hour. That meant giving the food back, which he packed into a wicker basket for her, without asking about why she didn't have more right then.

  From the tickle over her skin that hadn't faded since she walked into the room, she had to figure he was reading her the whole time.

  "Say, Tiera... Could I get you to watch my shop in a few days? On your next off day? I need to h
ead down to the Capital and see some people. Nothing all that Earth shattering, but for some reason no one believes that I'm really retired. Probably an age thing." He looked about her real age after all, so about fourteen. He was taller than he had been and looked almost sickly, he was so thin. He'd never been heavy, but he was growing so fast that his frame couldn't keep up with it.

  She was probably in for the same thing in a few months, if she didn't eat more... Hence a basket of food. It made sense, so she nodded.

  "You'll pay me, and I get to eat all I can hold?" It had to sound mercenary, but as a schoolgirl she just didn't have a lot of coin. She'd do better working for Timon, but that wasn't as certain right now, the war and plague having caused people to stay home for a while. Even over the holiday, which hadn't been expected at all.

  Her brother actually nodded, his too pretty face looking angelic as he ate a sweet roll himself, leaning back against the work counter behind him.

  "Sure. Or I can just give you gold if you want. Working for it is better, but I'm here if you need me."

  She grinned and resisted the temptation to eat more, the cloth over her sweets not keeping her from smelling them.

  "Speaking of helping out family, Aunt Orange is setting up in Lenders right now and has the Fleet. She even took one around the whole world, up in space, yesterday. She has questions though, something about radiation shielding? You might want to meet with her later if you can."

  He nodded, acting as if he understood what she was talking about and everything.

  "After I close later, if she doesn't come to find me first, then."

  The conversation wound down about then, which was fine with Tiera, since, while she loved her brother, he tended to be a little boring at times. True, he often had wonderful magics to share and managed to get himself into trouble more often than not in incredibly diverse ways, but he couldn't carry a decent conversation to save his life. That was due to his work ethic being stuck to the on position all the time, she thought. He couldn't just be happy sitting and chatting, he had to do things without end.