Strange Land (The Young Ancients Book 15) Read online

  Sara filled the silence by digging through the bag while Terry finished cleaning the floor, so the place could be opened again.

  It was pretty clear that it contained a lot more than just ships. She pulled one of the right amulets out and passed it to Gemma.

  "Don't lose it. Obviously. We can start working on how to set it up and fly it later today. Right now though, I think that I should go and visit with Tor. I sort of promised him that I would."

  It was late in the day too, now. Almost time for the evening meal there, for most people. Sara hadn't eaten all day, and was feeling it, but didn't want to stop and suggest a meal just yet. Not after what she'd had done to her brother. For her part, Kristina, who just shrugged a bit sullenly when the name was given to her, opened the place back up.

  "There's no reason for me not to, I guess. I hate you all, by the way. Just so there's no mistake here." There were no threats to go with it, but it wasn't the end of the conversation. The girl worked, but shook her head the whole time, nearly. "I'm disowning you, Sara. That may not mean anything to you now, but... I don't want to see you again."

  That actually hurt a bit. It was designed to strike home and prey on her mind, no doubt.

  The thing there was that Sara didn't really care anymore.

  "Okay. I can get behind that. I'll talk to mother and make sure she knows about all of this too. That kind of thing goes both ways. No one back home really needs you, do they?"

  Those words kind of got her kicked out of the store, and she went, her face set so that she wouldn't smirk the entire time. It just didn't matter anymore.

  Everyone else followed her out, as she headed down the promenade toward the bake shop. A little over halfway there, Tiera took her by the arm, lacing her own through and linking at the elbows. The taller girl pulled at her a bit, but not uncomfortably so. She did lead them all in the wrong direction however.

  "I... Have something to ask you, Sara." The words were almost shy seeming, as they headed toward the wine shop. The one that Prince Alphonse ran. "Really, Princess Karina wants to ask you something. We... Sort of took a vote, but..."

  They all kept walking, and finally Timon saved the awkward conversation with an actual explanation.

  "She wants to know if you'll head up the new space station program around Mars? It's a long way from home, but it's important. You'll be working with Karina on it."

  Sara thought for a moment, then glanced at Terry. That might explain why she wasn't the Ambassador past a few days time, right? If he'd known that this kind of thing was on the table.

  That was a ways off however. She had a jump ship though, so she could visit. It would be hard to get in to see Tor all that often, but... She really hadn't been anyway, had she? Even now she was headed in the wrong direction to do that. Led away from him by his own family. That was probably not that subtle a hint. Especially the part where they wanted her to move to a different planet.

  "I don't know. There's going to be an Ancient for that program too? Who is it? I don't want to agree, only to end up working with someone I don't like for forty years." Plus she had to ask the King if it was all right. Sending her far away like that would make it really hard to spy on all the right people. Still, it was an incredible promotion, wasn't it? Almost like being named a Duchess, given that the stations were all huge, and she'd be overseeing several of them.

  Timon looked at her and slowly started to shake his head.

  "That part... I can see how you might not want to work with her. She's known to be very difficult at times. You know her pretty well though, so it might work out."

  Sara nodded, working it all out.

  "Trice? That kind of makes sense. Are you moving out there too Tim? At least until you can go back to Earth and help out in Austra directly?"

  Tiera laughed. Loudly, as they got to the front door of the wine shop. There wasn't a line, so they opened it and walked in directly.

  "Nope, not her. You. We're asking you to be the new Ancient of the stations there. Really I was going to ask months ago, but that thing in Tellerand came up. It's going to be a real challenge, but we need to make sure we have humanity spread out more than we do. The fact is that Earth might not make it, or be left livable when this is all done. We need a backup plan, or two. So, are you in?"

  Sara giggled, but walked into the store, Gemma closing the door behind them.

  "I get to be an Ancient now? What did you use to bribe Tim with? Or have you learned how to do that too, Tiera?"

  It was the little one that rolled his eyes, the others looking baffled. Since they were both brilliant, that probably wasn't real. Terry sounded almost scandalized about it.

  "Tim will do it. You were always on the list for it. The real one. I've seen it. The first bit too, not something tacked on at the end. Then we were going to wait, because you had a jump ship and were the only one going back and forth to Earth. But if Squire Gemma can take your place, and we get some other people doing it, then you can be set up now."

  The way he said it made sense, except that it didn't really. Not to her.

  "After the way I kept putting you off, Tim? That... Wasn't nicely done."

  Timon reached out, and down, and put his hand on her shoulder.

  "No. It also wasn't your fault. Richard told me that he ordered you to do it. Well, after I lined up what I knew. Even before that you were still on the list. You're too important to forget about." Then he let go, the spot of warmth fading a bit.

  The moon was always just a bit too cool for her liking. Never cold, but just a touch chilly.

  "Oh." Alphonse was behind the counter of his shop, smiling at them all when they came in. That meant she was grabbed up in a rush, after the giant of a man, his red hair long and flowing, came at her.

  "Sara! There you are. I'd heard you were in, but you hadn't come by yet. I was just about to collect Tor and start a search and rescue mission." Then she was peppered with kisses.

  They'd been very good friends for years, so it was only expected. Really, even if he was a Prince, it was sort of her due. She'd certainly kissed enough things on him in her time.

  "Alphonse! I had to help my little brother settle up a debt. He's the new girl over at the Everything Store. Kristina. Make sure to stop in and say hello later. Right now... I don't know why we're here. Though I haven't had a good glass of wine in months." She spread her hands, his large and muscular arms still around her. "It would be more correct to say I haven't had wine in that time. They don't drink a lot in Tellerand."

  That she'd been to that land didn't seem to surprise him much. She was settled to the floor, very gently, however. Then the large man, his face as clean of hair as it always had been, started to nod.

  "I heard about that. Laurie Baker nearly skinned a young Prince for it too, I hear. With words, but still, it happened rather publically. Do want my help getting him back for it?" There was a hint of laughter in the words, but she didn't doubt that her old friend would help her do exactly that.

  Not for her though. Not over something that she could have simply ignored and walked away from. No, it was so that Terry would remember that there were people he had to answer to, even if he was a Prince now. That was so clear that she didn't even have to be a wizard to get the idea.

  Neither did Terrance, she was willing to guess. The boy simply made direct eye contact and nodded at the larger man. He was right after all.

  "Sara accepted my apologies for that already. I even offered to let Tim turn me into a girl for a while, in penance for it, but I think she's saving it up, so that I owe her later. I could trade some magical devices for that? Your new people should have coms, if nothing else. I can make the big food units too. Or..." He closed his eyes, and then started moving his head side to side. It was cute, but strange to watch.

  He didn't speak for a very long time, after that.

  The others seemed to ignore him, except Gemma, who moved forward, smiling.

  "Prince Alphonse. It's good to see you. I can
report to everyone back home that you're doing well and being treated fine here?" She glanced around the place, which had tidy rows of bottles in different colors along all the walls and on tall shelves and low racks throughout the entire place. "Other than making you slave away as a tavern keep?"

  For a half second the Prince seemed not to believe his eyes. That or his ears, since the girl, for all she'd sounded very noble, had also been a bit derisive.

  "I happen to own this shop, thank you very much Squire Gemma. Or is it Knight Esquire Gemma? I believe I heard that in one of my briefings on the situation there?" Then, without waiting longer, he scooped the smaller form up into a big, rather brotherly, hug. "I missed you! Glad you finally found the time to come and visit. Is... Everything all right? Back home? We can talk in the back..."

  "It's good there. The same, at least. I just came to see what instructions my Knight has for me. Queen Tiera and... I don't know your new title ma'am." She turned to Sara, as if waiting for her to tell her what she should be called now. Nothing came to mind, other than her name.

  Terry bowed toward her however.

  "The Ancient of the Martian Circle? Sara is taking over that part of things for us. If she accepts I mean. Which means I'm going to have to find another Ambassador for Tellerand. I don't suppose you have a spare one with you, Sara?" It was close to being a joke, but the boy was making a point to act very adult, and looked directly into her eyes.

  It was deceptive, seeing him in person. He was so young, and while not little, small enough that it was hard to take him seriously all the time. Then he went and did things like this.

  She let herself look wise, or tried to. Her face wasn't really built for that kind of thing.

  "I think so. He needs seasoning, and to learn the customs of other lands. Really, we should get Alphonse to work on that with him. Roget Smithson. He needs to learn protocol for the court, as well as to stop being as big of a prude as he is. Also to treat women as equals. That can be hard for people from there. To make that harder, it's all tied up with them not wanting to dishonor those around them. So it's both annoying, and a sign that he's essentially a good man. He's intelligent enough, and willing to do things that I can attest were hard and uncomfortable in order to help others. He's also here. He lives in Harmony, so you can go and get him to do that later Terry." Something occurred to her then, and she glanced at her watch, after taking it out of her pocket. "Wait, you didn't go to school today?"

  Tiera moved closer to her and touched her back lightly. Almost as if she were trying to hold herself up. Why that would be Sara couldn't tell yet, but they were close enough for that kind of contact. Maybe she just wanted to reassure her that things were all right?

  Ancient of the Martian Circle? That sounded pretty nice, to tell the truth. Hard too, but if you wanted the big rewards you had to take on the huge things, didn't you?

  The Queen leaned her pretty face against the top of her hair for a moment.

  "We're on an Austran school cycle here. They attend more actual hours during the year than we did in Noram, but there are two week long breaks four times a year. It's designed to keep the children from forgetting too much while they're away from their books." Then she turned to her little brother and changed the topic. "What did you come up with, Ter?"

  "Uh... Well, Mars and the stations there are going to need a constant stream of working material from the surface, but we can contaminate things there, so we need to be careful, or it might mess them up. So I was trying to come up with a kind of ship that would go and mine soil and rock, then get really hot so that it will be clean when it gets back to the stations. I think I have most of it, but I should run the design past someone that's good at that kind of thing. Then I can make some up, to test the idea out. Call it a week? That will take up most of my vacation, but..." He shrugged. It was a thing that his whole family did from time to time. It meant they weren't sure about something.

  Tiera did it back.

  "Finally, something useful out of you that isn't just going to have all the women around here asking if you're single. You should go over that with Tor, since it's the kind of thing he's good at. I'll make your excuses with mother and father, if you don't see them first. That's really a very good idea. Go. Warn Tor that we'll be along, or at least Sara and Gemma will, shortly."

  Then almost imperiously, she bowed to Sara.

  "I actually have to go and see about some things. Sam Builder is coming in for a meeting from his new city. I hear it's nice. I need to make time to go see it soon." Then, without hinting at anything else, she turned and left, which had Terry looking at her back. Scowling a bit.

  "She's getting abrupt. Anyway-" He gave Sara another hug, this one a bit more polite, rather than filled with hormones.

  Still it was nice to be touched, after all that time basically being shunned by everyone in an entire land. Not that she wouldn't have been in Noram too, if she'd run around that filthy all the time.

  "I also think that she doesn't want to give you a chance to say no to the offer we're all making. You can do a good job of it though. No one, in two worlds, managed to get into Tellerand in any kind of useful way, before you did it. So say yes. Please." Then he scampered off himself, leaving the four of them just standing there. Doing nothing but getting in the way of people coming in to get wine.

  Well, some of them were there for that. A few were standing around, following them all with strange hand held devices. Some of them were like the new compacts, if a bit bigger, and longer, but others were different. Austran technology. The lens boxes they used to record images and sounds.

  One of those men, who looked to be about forty, spoke to them without bothering to introduce himself.

  "The Revered ones want to make you one of them? And we're going to Mars? I... Can I come?" That got a laugh from the other people there, for some reason.

  Sara made up her mind then, and nodded.

  "Yes. Anyone that wants to volunteer and can work at all is welcome. You can be in the first wave of things, to help set it all up? The rest of you should consider it too. It's the kind of adventure that only comes once in a lifetime. Spread the word on that? We'll get a signup sheet or two out. People in the first wave get the best jobs and first interviews for appointed positions. You have to be able to do the work, and be good at it, but that still will put them at the front of the line."

  She was serious, but for some reason most of the people started pointing their little boxes at Timon.

  A woman that she'd thought was actually shopping spun then, and pointed at him. It was abrupt, and off, so Sara jumped between Tim and the object that was being thrown. It collided with her shield, and the glass bottle broke, causing pale green mist to rise from the floor where it finally landed. Then her shield flared with intense silver light.

  "Nanos!" She screamed the word, then moved into the mist, rather than away. It swarmed her, but didn't move outward. It seemed to think she was the target. Or at least the point that was attacked had been marked that way, since it all moved toward her, concentrating on a single place in the protective barrier around her.

  "Austra for Austrans! Death to the invader! Death to the false Revered ones!" The woman seemed to be trying to put something in her mouth. At first it seemed like a small capsule, which some people from that land used to kill themselves when they were about to be caught. It wasn't that however.

  It was a small explosive, which when the brown haired and otherwise normal looking woman bit down on it, exploded just hard enough to send a spray of red into the air.

  Looking down, it was clear that the glowing spot was moving closer to her, as the field she was wearing was breached. At the rate it was moving, she only had another few seconds before it would reach her flesh.

  So she started to slowly spin, trying to take the pale mist on different parts of the structure, so it couldn't make its way in as easily. The smoke, nanos most likely, tried to move with her and keep hitting that one point, but it didn't work very
well. Not once she was in motion. The mist wasn't fast, and followed her, so others were caught in it, as she moved. Nothing else was being hurt. She wasn't even being touched by the thing that wanted her dead. Her magical field of protection was doing its job, cooking the tiny little bugs that were trying to get at her.

  Trying to eat their way through the shield to do who knew what. It wouldn't be good, Sara decided, not wanting to test her theory. The only good part of the whole thing was that the mist of whatever it was seemed to be tracking her so completely that everyone else was safe. It wasn't that big of a relief, but by constantly exposing new parts of her shield, she thought she could buy some time.

  The only question was; would spinning in place be enough?

  Timon looked at her for a moment, then nodded, taking in the mint green haze and the spiral it was making around her, missing the single point that it was trying to focus on near her left hip.

  "It's working. Keep doing that. The nano compound is already starting to wear down."

  The rest of the people in the room did something very strange, as far as she could tell while making the whole thing spin.

  Well, Alphonse was just standing there looking worried, with a force lance clutched in his vast hand, pointing it at the crowd of Austrans with their recording devices. That made sense, given that one person from that land had already made trouble in the last few moments. Who knew if one of these others would end up doing the same?

  The strange thing was that they all pointed their devices right at her. As if waiting to capture her death. That got her to smile, trying to keep her face grim and a bit manic, rather than panicked seeming.

  "The shield has this. We need to make sure no one else is going to attack like this." She was going to suggest that the people there all put their devices down slowly, but half of them jogged off, still looking through the viewers on whatever they were holding.