Strange Land (The Young Ancients Book 15) Read online

  No, this was big, and dark, and scarier than going into a strange land to try and make the world a better place. This was, as Terry had told them, more than a bit evil. It was also just about the last bit of concern she could manage for her little brother. She didn't even really like him, if she were going to be totally honest about it. She never really had, since he'd discovered that girls had different parts than boys did. It wasn't that she hated all her brothers. Kris was fine that way, wasn't he? There was no hint of him sneaking off to screw their mother in the middle of the night.

  No, it was far past time that Kurt was dealt with, and it had to be done outside Noram. There it was impossible to hide what was going on, and that shame could bring down the largest trading and manufacturing house in the Kingdom, if word got around. Which it would the instant any other high merchant found out about it. That went without needing to be said.

  It was embarrassing, walking behind these people, with Squire Gemma stalking along side of her, seeming ready to kick someone down a flight of stairs. They knew what she'd suspected for all those years, about what might have happened with her brother. What, if she were going to be honest with herself, really had taken place. He'd drugged and raped her. Repeatedly.

  Their mother too. Sara wasn't certain about the drugs there though. It had probably been that kind of thing. It would have been better, she knew, if she'd had the nerve to offer Kurt a ride out into the space away from everything, and then dumped him out into it, where no one would ever find him again. That might make Heather sad, but then again, it might not.

  Now there was a chance that word could get back to people in Noram. If this wasn't handled very carefully. There could be no public trial, or things would spread so fast they couldn't be controlled. There was a way around part of that though, wasn't there? She had a glimmering of an idea there, at least. If Terry would go along with her.

  When they got into Kurt's Everything shop, which really did have almost everything that could be made, or if it didn't, he could work the Maker behind the counter to come up with it, Tiera closed the front door and locked it, after gesturing for everyone else to leave the room.

  Kurt, in the back, behind a low counter that was made of stone on the bottom but covered with a delicate gold lace, smiled. It didn't reach his eyes though.

  "Queen Tiera. Sara! How nice to see you both?"

  The tall, thin and pale woman, who was so lovely it nearly hurt to look at her, shook her head a bit. Almost imperceptibly. "Not really, Kurt. You might not like this at all. We left judgment for your behavior in the hands of your sister. It saved your life by the way. I'm going against the ruling council and almost all the Wizards in Harmony here. Tor offered to cut your throat himself, did you know that?"

  Her brother swallowed, his blond head turning away, as a denial came to his lips.

  "Tor? Why would he do that? Because I slept with his sister? She's of legal age."

  Timon snorted then, getting everyone's attention.

  "More or less. But that isn't what this is about. You've been found guilty, by... Well, two different secret courts. The High Council here, and the people in this room. There are so many counts of perversion and rape that Tiera had to beg the others not to execute you. I mean that Kurt. On hands and knees, trying to keep you alive. You have to know how she loved that. Kolb nearly came for you anyway, when he found out, since he says that your kind can't fix themselves. So, you have a choice, you can either agree to the treatment we're putting forth here, in secret, or you can die. Right now. Squire Gemma, you'll do that part for us, if he chooses death, since you don't know him? I'll hold his shield off. I made it after all."

  The gears in Kurt's head spun almost visibly, as he worked it all out. First his mouth slowly opened and then his eyes went big. The whites showed all the way around as his tan skin faded to a much lighter shade.

  "What... are you going to do to me?"

  Tim grinned, his face looking happy, actually, Sara thought.

  "Help you. It's a two step process. The first half of it is the real treatment however. I'm going to make it so that you won't want sex any more. You'll still be able to have it, but it won't be a constant burden on you anymore. You won't desire it, or take pleasure from the act. It won't hurt, but it won't be a constant draw to you either."

  Her brother made a face that basically said he didn't think that was possible. There were no words however, and Timon went on.

  "The second part of this is that we need to make certain you won't reoffend out of habit for a while, so I'm going to gender swap you, make you smaller and weaker than you are now. I'll leave you cute enough that you can still get sex though, so don't worry, you aren't going to be cut off that way. Until you show you can handle life, and those around you fairly though, you have to stay that way."

  Tiera nodded then.

  "You're also now married to those three Afrak ladies, unless they don't wish that to happen. You're responsible for their care and upkeep as a husband, which means household duties in their land. Cleaning and cooking. You're also required to run your shop here until such time as you can show yourself rehabilitated. Do you understand?"

  "Would it help if I said not really? All I did was what anyone would do in the same situation... I don't know why you're all picking on me!"

  The smallest person in the room, Terry, stepped forward, then went around the counter coming back with a focus stone chair that had a thick cushion on it. That was a lovely green, and black patterned thing. It looked like a thing that might have been found in King Richard's Palace back home.

  Only when he shoved it behind the taller man's knees forcing him to sit did the Tellerand Ancient speak.

  "No. That isn't what anyone would do. You raped them. All of them. You drugged your sister, your mother, the staff at your old home and school... You used guile and trickery, cajoling and persistence on those that you knew wouldn't be able to say no if you kept it up, and you kept doing it. For years. Nearly a decade, isn't it? This is Harmony, Kurt Debri. A place that has more Wizards walking around than any other part of the known universe. Did you think that no one would ever read your pattern and find out what you were? So now, sit down and let Timon work on you, then after that, we can start working on how you'll make up for all of this without destroying your family's good name."

  Sara caught that thread, since it meant little Terry had been reading her mind, not just that of the accused.

  "I had a thought there. What if we told everyone that it was, I don't know, a dare or a bet? Then we transform Terry into a girl too, and tell everyone that it's just a joke? Or, I don't know, a contest? To see who can hold out the longest?"

  She expected people to stare at her, or maybe give her some solid reasons why that wouldn't be happening, but the Ancient of Tellerand simply nodded, somberly. He did that expression far too well for someone his age.

  "If that's what you wish, Ambassador Debri. That will make us even though? For all that begging and humbling yourself that you had to do?"

  She shook her head, smiling.

  "No, that's already been made right. I just don't know what else to do to hide this right now. I guess we could just tell everyone that Kurt wanted to do it? People might believe that. Especially if you make her cute, Tim."

  That got Tiera to shake her head, with a wicked grin on her face for some reason.

  "Oh, heck no. He already agreed. I want to see what my little brother would look like as a girl anyway. Let's do this. We can always turn you back in a day or two, Terry. You can even keep the same name and everything. We'll need something new for Kurt though. Kurtina is just horrible."

  Chapter five

  That served to get Kurt to be quiet and just sit there while Timon worked on him. The first part of the whole thing didn't really look like much. The changes were made at a base level, but didn't happen very quickly. Not until Tiera pulled out a healing amulet, turned the stone on with a tap to the glowing green profile of Tor, and placed it aroun
d her brother's neck on a fine gold chain.

  Then, over the course of about twenty minutes, huge changes took place. It looked almost like her brother was melting, at first. Then, almost without her noticing, the picture resolved itself until a rather short and thin young woman sat naked next to a pile of liquid, and what looked like bits of unneeded Kurt sitting in a ring around her.

  Sara's new sister glared up at her, the cushion on the rather nice stone chair ruined now.

  "That itches! Ah!" The new girl looked down between her legs, and screamed again. "I can't believe you actually did this to me!"

  There was no violent lashing out though, so no one bothered to turn their shields on. That was the go to move if you felt afraid anymore.

  Tiera chuckled then.

  "Okay, now we'll just do up Terry and..." The laughter that came from her was too loud and a bit stressed sounding, but after a moment, she relented. "I'm just joking Ter. Still, you could help out a little more around here, couldn't you? It's a lot more work running an entire world than I would have thought."

  The pale boy just shrugged, as if he'd worked out that his sister, and Sara, had both been kidding him the whole time. Except that Sara had thought it was a good idea. The one where Kurt had made a bet or something foolish like that.

  Then they could still say that he had, if they needed to.

  Tim pointed at the floor.

  "We need a mop and a couple of buckets. Things usually aren't that messy, but we had to dump a lot of mass to make this work. Also, Kurt, don't you think you should get some clothes on?"

  That didn't take long, though there was going to be need for a shower first. There was one in the back of the place, since her brother had his rooms behind the shop for convenience.

  Sara waited anyway, for Kurt to protest and tell them that he, she now, was going to tell the whole world about what had been done to him. There were no words like that however. No crying either. Just a rather brittle and bitchy seeming young blonde woman standing there, looking tiny and cold. A plain set of trousers and a shirt covered the nearly flat chest after a moment, and then she stalked out of the room, padding bare footed toward the back. Kurt, as a girl, hadn't come out all that good looking. Not ugly, but no more than cute. That was on purpose, she was willing to bet. Anything could have been set up, after all. This was all about breaking bad habits and compulsions however, not setting up new ones.

  Tim had been standing the whole time, but stretched a bit as the Queen ran out, probably to order someone to come in and clean up the mess.

  "We'll need to watch her for a while. To make sure that everything is working right. I made her sterile, so the worst that happens is a lot of thrusting and moaning of no consequence. No fun either. It's a bit harsh, but all that will be allowed that doesn't involve airlocks. So... Sara." The tall young man turned to look at her, a blank expression on his face. "You were going to call Richard and see about setting those licenses up for Gemma and Gerald? The kids too."

  It was a bit pushy, but didn't involve name calling or acting like she was the most evil and spurning woman in history either, so she nodded.

  "Which will only take... About as long as changing Kurt did, just to get him on the device. After I clean this mess up in here, no doubt." It had been her plan, after all.

  Terry shrugged.

  "I can do that part. There has to be cleaning supplies around here somewhere. It's a store, after all. We need to get the door open soon too. People might need things." Then, without so much as making a disgusted face at the clear and slightly pink puddle of old Kurt, he moved to the back to poke around.

  Leaving just Gemma, Tim and her there.

  Counting up the hours she realized that it would be very late in the Capital, but probably not time for the King to be in bed yet. That meant working out her communications devices from their pockets was as good a plan as any, in the moment.

  To her utter shock the King was on the device within moments, answering it himself.

  "Ambassador Debri?"

  She grinned, not sure of the timing for that one any longer.

  "Just Sara, I think. I have something for you however, your Highness. I made a deal with Queen Tiera, for four Noram jump ships. There are conditions on their use. The Captains have been preselected, for instance, and the vessels can't be used to attack anyone directly. They can still do a lot, if you want them?"

  On this communications unit there was no face shown, so all she got from the tan thing was a long, deep breath being taken.

  Then the deep and normally slightly booming voice spoke softly.

  "That... Would be very nice. Who are to be the Captains of the vessels then?"

  Timon didn't say anything, and there was only a small clatter of wooden handles against buckets from Terry as he came back into the room.

  "Squires Gemma and Gerald are the first ones. The second two are Countiers Clemance and Dumas Thomson. Those two are very young, so it will be about ten years before they get their ships, but the others just need to be trained first. That should take less than a month. If that's allowable, Sire." She nearly bowed, but the man wouldn't see it anyway.

  "Oh? Most capable people. Also sworn to the Kingdom, and to follow my directives. What if I choose to go back on my word and use them to help suppress the rebellion?"

  Timon finally spoke, his voice mellow and relaxed.

  "Excuse the interruption, Richard, but have you ever met you? You might be forced to do something like that, but you won't just go against your word like that. Not once given. It's one of the reasons that we're dealing with you on this, rather than Sam Builder. Not all of the lands will have that same trust placed in them. Not even Austra. Afrak might, however."

  "Oh? That's nice to hear. Are all the lands to be given vessels like this then?"

  Terry, working at scraping goo from the floor with a dust pan, nodded.

  "That's the hope, King Richard. It will take a while to set it all up, and we need to make certain it's all safe, but I have put in word for some for Tellerand. It will help with the new Space Station program. The goal is to move about half the population there to one of the new habitats going up around Mars. Your daughter, Karina, is in charge of the planet itself, but the people will actually live off the surface to begin with. I don't know everything about that, but the idea is to make the whole world a second Earth, I think. So we'll need ships."

  The work went on the whole time, without even a pause to see if the King of Noram had anything to say about it.

  "I believe I understand. So, Karina is going to be the ruler of Mars?"

  Tim cleared his throat.

  "No, she's going to be its Ancient. The population there, living on the space stations, will have an Ancient too, so that she can focus on the work that needs to be done down below. They'll be the work force, if they want the job. It will take hundreds of years to change the planet enough for people to live on without using magic for everything."

  That got a pause, at least. Sara looked at the two younger men, and then at Gemma who was still trying to seem stoic, since her ship hadn't been agreed to yet. No one seemed all that concerned about it though.

  King Richard cleared his throat.

  "That sounds like a hard task. Will the population there be strictly from Tellerand?"

  Terry piped up then, sounding pleased.

  "Oh, no. We want people from all over, if we can do it. We can only take those that can work magic to begin with too, which means we need training for the people there. As for the rest, we'd love to have people from Noram, if they can come? Those that have lost their homes to the storms, or who just want to give it a try?"

  They chattered about that for a while, until Queen Tiera came back in, wearing the same outfit as before. No cleaning crew was behind her or anything. She didn't have a mop, either.

  Just a small bag that looked to have stone tiles in it. It was made of rather plain and coarse looking material, though the stitching on the brown fabric
was fine.

  "Have you asked about the ships yet? I have them here." She wiggled the bag a bit, then passed it over to Sara.

  Which might have made sense, if the bag, no larger than Sara's hand, didn't weigh as much as it did. It could have held a fleet of vessels. Maybe more than that. Tiera saw her expression, and just waved her hand, seeming tired.

  "I'm going to go check on Kurt. He's become a girl."

  Tim added the next bit, to explain it to the King on the device.

  "It was part of a bet. He lost and has to spend a while as a girl. One with no sex drive at all. It should be interesting to see how he takes to it. So far he's only whined a little. A bet is a bet though. If you aren't willing to pay off, you shouldn't take the risks."

  The deep voice from the object in Sara's hand chuckled a little.

  "I agree. Well, hopefully this will be a valuable lesson to her. That is the correct way of addressing a person that makes such a change there, isn't it? By their current gender?"

  Sara saw Tim glance at her, and nodded. For some reason he wanted her to speak about it? She didn't get the idea, but did it anyway. He was normally right about things.

  "That's what they do here, Sire. We also need a name for her. Queen Tiera believes that Kurtina is a bit... unflattering."

  There was a pause, and what sounded like muttering on the other end. Female muttering, if Sara was any judge of such things.

  Finally King Richard came back, his voice sounding friendly.

  "Veronica suggests that we go with Kristina. It's a bit of a different name, but nice enough."

  That worked for her, she decided, nodded a bit. Tiera moved past her and then toward the back of the place, to where a shower of water could just be heard.

  "I'll go tell her that." There was a little bit of shiftiness coming from the Queen. It was hard to tell why, but it was almost as if it were directed at Sara, for some reason.

  That didn't get explained, even after King Richard agreed to the terms for the ships, and got off the device. When Tiera came back out, with Kristina in tow, still dressed like a young school student all in brown, but with boots this time too, there was still no particular eye contact.