Kindred (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 3) Read online

  Tor looked around, frowned and then shook his head.

  “Well, this is going to be annoying, isn’t it? Guards, please seal the room, and make certain that the kitchen staff and servers are detained. Anyone else that might be in the building as well?” It wasn’t really a command, but there was yelling then, as half the table gasped, understanding what was going on.

  Apparently most of them figured that the wine being poisoned was a big deal.

  Dare didn’t really get the real problem going on for a bit. He was probably a lot faster than anyone else in the space was picking up on things, of course, but it felt like it took a while for him to notice the man across the room pointing something at them. At first he figured that it was him doing it, the man looking about right for that, matching the skin tone, and being rather attractive through the face. Manly, but youthful, with a square jaw and decently muscled body.

  It wasn’t that however, thankfully. It was, instead, Timon Baker.

  A much shorter version of him, who was holding a black thing in his hand, that produced a red dot that was aimed at the King. The man was also leaking stray wisps of time distortion, which made a lot of sense, given what he had to be. An Adversary.

  Jumping backward, dumping himself out of his chair and away from the table, Dare focused, turning on his black shining armor as he got far enough away from everyone else for it to be safe.

  The chair was still skittering back when he started to run, heading toward the back of the room. Away from the King, who was still being targeted. Knowing that he wasn’t going to get there in time to stop whatever the red dot did, he reached out and snagged a cup of wine as he ran, moving a lot faster than he’d really figured would be possible. Then he threw the thing as hard as he could. It flew through the air, moving fast enough to whistle and turn the wine inside into mist.

  Which barely got any reaction from the short looking Tim Baker. What did come onto his face was a bit of a sneer, the weapon being turned toward him instead, which made sense, really. Dareg Canton was for that moment the biggest threat in the room. It was hard to do, having to drop the armor at the same time, but he managed to reach into his side pocket. More accurately where that should have been, and snagged the new weapon that he’d made. Nearly dropping it twice in the process. The armor snapped back into being instantly however. Then, not slowing much at all, he focused on the other man’s head, and pressed the sigil with a single finger.

  The room exploded into action then. Hundreds of small, incredibly fast moving stones came into being, all trying to hit the fake Timon, while the man smeared a bit, time bending around him, as he attacked Dare. Which did almost nothing to him, the regular shield actually working to stop whatever was being done very well.

  For him at least.

  Unfortunately, Dareg wasn’t the only one being targeted. Almost half the table blossomed with blood then, several of them falling over as the small Tim-like man died.

  It really seemed like a similar kind of thing to his own new device. Blood came out of the different places where things hit people. Dare’s weapon made a lot of noise, but was quieter than whatever it was that the other man had tried to attack with.

  As he got into place, something strange happened however, and the other man, already dead, stood back up and shook his head. Whole and unscathed. Even as the rest of him, the injured parts, fell to the floor. Vanishing.

  “That won’t work. Almost, but it wasn’t enough. Not for me. I’m not what you think. I’m so much more than you could ever imagine!”

  There was a voice from down the table, which called out as Dare still moved at a good clip. It was Tor, actually. His voice was a bit perturbed, or so it sounded to his uneducated ear. The fact was he simply dind’t know the man well enough to be certain of things like that yet.

  “You mean you aren’t a different version of my brother from an alternate reality, come to help destroy us all, to prevent yourself from being the last thing in your own universe, undying for all eternity?”

  The man blinked, and was shocked enough that he missed Dareg hurling at him bodily, or so it seemed, there was no speaking, but when they engaged, the fight was brutal, and felt like it took place in a bent and warped time frame. Feeling near panic, Dare pushed himself into bent time as well, allowing his body to move a bit more like the creature in front of him was. Not perfectly, but it was closer than he’d be doing otherwise by far.

  The fight didn’t last long, with him striking as fast and often as he could, stacking four or five blows almost at one time and the other man managing to hit hundreds of times in every moment. The armor really helped however. For that matter the speed he had now didn’t hurt either.

  It wasn’t until he was knocked back however that it occurred to him that he still had the weapon in his hand, and that, with a thought, he could hit the man back many times, all at once. It still didn’t happen instantly, but a moment later the being was gone, vanishing into black smoke. Thankfully not taking the Capital with it for some reason.

  Dare had seen that happen once in that kind of fashion, off in space, as he hurtled toward the Sun.

  Then, breathing hard, and gasping for air through the slits in the mask that had formed on his face, he looked around. Prepared to fight a second time. For a very long instant, nothing happened at all. Then, as the room went nearly silent, except for the screams and cries of the injured, a voice called out.

  “Healing amulets. If you have one, use it!” That was Tor again. Dareg did have one of the things, since it had occurred to him that even healing faster all on his own now than before, that didn’t really help if something bad happened to anyone else. True, he’d been thinking training accidents at the time, but here it was, right in front of him.

  It meant getting out of his armor and back into magical clothing, but for some reason no one seemed to notice him being naked for three seconds while he worked that part out. Then, ripping the hemp string from his neck, breaking it, he dashed to the nearest injured person. Not healing them totally, but just making sure that the old man, Count Isle, was healed enough to live.

  It hadn’t been his idea to do it that way, but the silver haired fellow under his hand.

  “Go! To the next. Stop the bleeding only!” The idea made a lot of sense, so that was what he did, and after a bit, the others going around picked up the idea, too. That meant they were able to save them all, even if they were sharing amulets. Then they doubled back and did the rest of the healing, when it was safe.

  Interestingly, when he looked around the room, there were three people dressed in his new armor already. One was Ali, who looked interesting in hers having broad hips, a narrow waist and a rather large bust line. Not that he was checking out her form just at that moment. It was just that he was able to tell who she was, thanks to those factors.

  The other two were different, and held the new weapons as well as wore the armor. When he touched them using magic, Dareg understood that they weren’t exactly strangers to him, being guards that he’d felt around, at times. It was interesting that they’d gotten such things already, but also an oversight that they didn’t have all of them in that kind of thing. Every single person that had been injured was without even a regular shield. It was a failure on his part, he didn’t doubt.

  When he looked up, Dare noticed that Alphonse was gone from the space, as was the King and Queen. Karina was still there, and Alison, the youngest princess of Noram was going around and healing people, having had an amulet for that on her. She was from Harmony, which allowed that part to make sense. It also explained why she had a good shield on.

  If you lived in space, you had one. It was a rule.

  The mistake of the day seemed to be that not everyone else did.

  Chapter four

  As with the other attacks, it was hard to understand or recall what had happened after the event. At least for the people that were within about fifteen feet of the attacker, once fake Timon had started to distort time and spac
e around him. In his own mind there was a cut off that Dare noticed. As he was rushing in, he had nearly perfect recall of it. Until he got about ten feet away, and then he just didn’t any longer.

  Thankfully Countess Ward had managed to play the Austran for them and had captured the whole thing on her handheld. Which meant that they could see what had taken place, and send the data out to everyone else that might care about it. What was very interesting to Dareg however was that no one else was able to see what to him was very obvious. That the man in the picture was Timon.

  Only short.

  About five-seven or eight, and a little blocky with muscle, compared to the one that he’d met all those times. The others just couldn’t seem to understand that part of things however, except for Tor. He both got it, and hushed him, when Dare tried to point that bit out. It wasn’t even the heavy handed glaring and ordering him to silence that would have meant that he was just babbling and making a fool of himself. No, it was clear that Tor was attempting to hide something. On purpose.

  It was a bit eerie, since it was hard to tell what was possibly going on, given the new data. Tim wasn’t their enemy, but this one, this version of him, certainly hadn’t been thinking about what was best for the rest of them.

  After that, with Tor looking at him like there was a reason for him to be silent on the matter, even if the rest of the people were missing what was obvious, they just had to wait. The Royal Guard didn’t know what to do in particular, so they all got checked out again with Truth devices and then packed off for the night. After all, there was no reason to think that anyone would be safer there, at the palace, than anywhere else.

  Which left the King, Queen and Heir completely at risk of attack. The Adversaries had gotten in somehow that day, after all. There had been poison used as well. As far as anyone could tell, there was no one else there involved in having done that part of things. Luckily they’d had poison detectors in play at the meal. If not for that, then they’d need a new King. Which likely meant that either Alphonse was behind it all, or some other version of him was.

  An Adversary.

  Except that no one in the whole world would have wanted to hurt Alyssa Baker. Not unless they were a friend or family member of the Austran princess that she and Karina had killed. Everyone else had left, for the most part, not wanting to stick around where danger might lie. That, or possible blame for it. As soon as he could do it, Dareg walked out, not asking anyone else to go with him. People did anyway. Tor, Alyssa, and for some reason a dark haired woman that was very fit seeming, but not anyone that he was all that familiar with. She was dressed as a Royal Guard, and was clearly focusing her entire being on Tor.

  Ready to fight, or even die, to protect him.

  She wasn’t an Adversary, so Dareg didn’t really care that much. Not that she wasn’t introduced as they left. Tor set up a small craft, which was purple and black, as well as just large enough to fit the four of them going. As soon as the door closed, he turned, and glanced into the back seat, his face a bit hard seeming.

  “We need to get to Harmony. We can leave from here, if that isn’t breaking the rules for ships leaving by too much?”

  Dareg felt himself make a soft noise, his nerves not really settled after the activity and the trauma that everyone was just exposed to.

  “Head to the port here. It will be faster.” It was true, but got a strange look from his father. It seemed like he didn’t trust Dareg to have made anything as interesting as a new transportation system. He followed the suggestion however, and even landed at the closest open well-lit place for that kind of thing to the little red hut. As they got out he took his craft down, and put the hemp string the amulet was on back around his neck. No one spoke while Dare hit the correct sigils. Not until they walked out into the main hallway on Harmony, next to the magic shop.

  Tor glanced over and shook his head, frowning. It was almost as if he were angry about the thing existing. The words he spoke though were different, giving the lie to that thought.

  “Amazing. It was all right there too. Since we’ve had jump technology anyway, but no one else could see it. How many of these do you have left?”

  Alyssa touched tor’s arm, and held it, while the Royal Guard, who had very dark hair with only a bit of gray in it, searched the world around them. If she was shocked in the slightest about suddenly being on the Moon, it didn’t show. She also didn’t have a weapon out, for all she seemed nearly ready to fight at that very moment.

  Acting as if it were perfectly normal to walk from one world to another, Tor cocked his head to the right and then pointed at the Magic shop, shaking his head a little bit.

  “In there. Tim! Timon!” There was no one else around, once they got inside the place, though a bit of clattering happened, which got the youthful looking wizard to walk out of the back, dressed in what had to be his daily working clothing. They were simple enough, being a soft, light silver, version of the basic clothing that the amulets made. It was plain, but seemed comfortable, which was basically what Dare did when he was alone.

  If he didn’t just turn the thing on and go with what it provided. Most days he didn’t really care what he looked like, and it was possible that Timon did. Just not enough to make that big of a difference.

  “Hey! Everyone came to visit! I…” There was a very careful examination from the man as both Alyssa and Tor just waited, so that he could do his trick of figuring things out. Not that the man couldn’t get that done. He might, eventually, being as clever as he was that way. It would just take too much time.

  So Dareg went first, nodding a bit.

  “We don’t have time for games now. A version of you just attacked the dinner at the King’s palace. Shorter, and I think alternate you was a little lighter in color, now that I see you. Almost no one there understood it was you for some reason. Tor prevented me from mentioning it, but it was clear enough. For a few moments I thought it was me. It wasn’t. I don’t know why no one else got it. Or… I guess they might have just been hiding it, since it looked like you, but clearly wasn’t?”

  That didn’t make a lot of sense, but Tim nodded, getting it instantly, and explained the pieces that he was missing.

  “A lot of the noble class has a mental block built in, that makes it hard for them to tell one commoner from another. Children, too. If they aren’t their own. So they might not have been able to tell that the short version of me was connected to me at all. They aren’t stupid about it. They can tell the difference between you and say, the tanner down the street, but it was probably that.”

  Then Tor took a deep breath and nodded.

  “Which was why I didn’t want you to try and press that one home. I could see the similarities, but the rest of the people there just wouldn’t have been able to. Ali?” There was a glance at her, which got the blonde woman to furrow her brow. Her heart shaped face was a bit too good looking to be real. They all were, really. Even Dare was too attractive, if he were going to be honest about it all.

  His stepmother narrowed her eyes and nodded however.

  “I… Really didn’t get it. That we were under attack, and that the attacker felt familiar, but… I honestly didn’t make the connection. So, this is what you were talking about, Tor? That beings from other realities are coming here, to destroy us all?”

  That was news to Dareg, so he spun a bit, and gestured, trying to get the famous wizard to go on. It took a bit, and they were all just standing in the magic shop, in silence, waiting for the secret information to come out.

  Finally, Tor took a slow, deep breath and smiled a bit. It didn’t seem to be a happy thing.

  “Right. There is a group of individuals from other realities who want to destroy everything. The idea is kind of complicated, but it works out that no one really dies in the greater scheme of things. Each time you get close to dying, one version of you will, and as far as you know, you won’t. Each of us will feel like we just keep going on, forever. So, at the end of each universe, and the
re are an infinite number of them, there will be only one consciousness left, floating there in darkness, forever. Going insane.”

  Dareg thought about it for a moment, and nodded, not really making sense of all of it.

  “Is that real, or just a guess? It makes a difference as to how we respond to this, doesn’t it? I don’t want to die, or be killed, just because someone else has a stupid idea about how reality works.”

  That got Tor to shrug, his gaze directed at Dare alone, which meant that the others had already been informed about the whole idea. Which made sense to him. Dareg kept having to fight, but other than that, none of those situations really seemed to be about him. He was involved, but not important. Which was probably his lot in life over all.

  “We have friends, from other worlds, who are willing to help us in this. Some of them have encountered the beings from the end, at least a little bit. So that part seems to be real enough. However, we can’t really prove it. The enemy believes it however, which is the important part of this. The thing there is that part of the enemy is clearly us. I mean… Me, Tim, Alyssa… You. From different worlds. Others too, but…”

  Dareg snorted at his father, and shook his head a bit.

  “So I am a secret agent of the evil ones?” He didn’t feel that way, but if his mother was one, then it made sense that he’d been put into play using some kind of secret technique as well.

  Tor shook his head, his smile seeming more real this time.

  “No? Half of us are on our side. Or… Well, I’m on the side of staying alive. As you pointed out, we can’t prove that any of this is how reality actually works and until we do, destroying everything that ever existed seems like a little too much, doesn’t it?”