Pain Stones (Coalescence Book 2) Read online

  Prince Alphonse moved in and slapped him on the shoulder as well, reaching down.

  “Amazing, Countier Lairdgren. We have many interesting guests here it seems as well. Will we be permitted to meet with them?”

  For a moment, a bit perversely, Willum wondered what would happen if he said no. Nothing good, he had to imagine.

  “That’s the plan. You know some of them, of course, from the IPB. We could retire to my home for that? Or perhaps tonight, so that people can go to the festivities now? I hear that it’s kind of impressive.” He hadn’t at all, but there were events set up. That could be interesting in potential.

  The King nodded at him then.

  “That would be most welcome. What level of preparedness will be requested?” The words were strange, but Cindy, who was a miracle, not just a being that worked them, stepped in for him then.

  “Very casual. Many of the people with us came at the last moment, so only have… I guess the closest would be to say they’re dressed like commoners, from where we come from? Military outfits and comfortable things.” She didn’t tense up over it or anything.

  Prince Alphonse relaxed then.

  “Perfect! Willum can aid us in the proper attire? Or…” He glanced around, which had a small girl walking out of the crowd. Several of the Royal Guard moved forward then, but the Prince waved at her and switched to broken English. It was still better than the last time Willum had heard him use it. The man had clearly kept up with his lessons.

  “Bridget! You come as well?”

  The tiny woman, who was Will’s age, even if she tended to seem younger than seventeen, smiled up at the very tall man and nodded.

  Then she spoke back, in Standard. That was new enough that Will actually felt shocked when he heard it. She had an accent, but it wasn’t bad at all.

  “Hello! Yes, we brought all the cool kids this time. I heard that we’re having a party? That sounds fun. I’ll get some cake around. Will doesn’t have any servants, but we won’t need that kind of thing, right? We can all pitch in. It will be fun.” Reaching out she touched the man on the arm. That took a bit of work, but no one thought twice about it. She wasn’t in jeans and a t-shirt though, wearing a rather nice black dress.

  Looking young and lovely, Queen Constance and the others worked their way over, which meant going over the invitation again. She looked down at Bridget, and managed a smile, but was getting ready to dismiss her. She was tiny and a bit hyper seeming, which was unpleasant. A single hand came out then, from behind the woman. That was Tiera, who smiled and spoke softly to the Queen.

  “This is Bridget Chambers, of the IPB. She’s their third in command. An elite military force. In her own person she’s perhaps the most physically powerful being in this world at the moment.” There was no weight placed behind the words at all. As if it were just a simple introduction.

  Willum smiled, since it was clear that everyone, including Bridget, understood what was being said.

  “She’s also my partner. For military purposes, not dating, unfortunately. A wonderful person. They had a war there about a year ago. Against beings of tremendous power. Bridget Chambers ended it, fighting thousands of people herself. We really don’t have a way of understanding that.” He stopped, since that was simply true. Noram had powerful fighters. Soldiers and warriors of great skill, especially when armed with magic…

  If they faced an unarmed Bridget Chambers, they would have likely lost. Not just any one of them, but all of them. Willum, oddly enough, could have probably given her a run for her position, thanks to the upgrades he’d been given, but no normal man or woman could have really done that.

  There was simply no way to really explain that part of things to the Queen. Not in public. Not if they weren’t going to be rude to people.

  Thankfully, that wasn’t required. Even not getting it, Constance understood a warning when it was given.

  “Oh? We should talk then, dear. It’s always good to meet new people. I’m Constance.” She left out the Queen portion, which Willum filled in. That kind of thing was a trap, after all.

  One that he wasn’t letting one of his people walk into.

  “Queen Constance, of Noram. You know Queen Tiera, of course. This other lady is my Aunt Taman, the Ancient of Soam and we also have Princess Veronica and…” He stopped, since he recognized the red haired lady behind them.

  She was, of course, Princess Karina. Ancient of the Martian Circle.

  Also, even if she was taller, and about five shades darker of skin tone, the woman was clearly Bridget. Willum nearly stammered, getting that first. Cindy covered for him, being wonderful like she was.

  “This is Karina Cordes. Princess of Noram, Ancient of Mars. Also, as you just noticed Willum, this world’s version of Bridget. Interesting!”

  It really was. Then, a lot of people showed up in more than one place, if you looked around hard enough.

  Chapter six

  Two things occurred to Will at nearly the same time. The first was that he was getting tired. Not in the normal way that sleep or even sitting might heal or correct for him. It wasn’t a heavy feeling of bone weary aching or a longing for the sweet oblivion of sleep. If he really wanted that, he’d go into the void for a while. The character of it was different. A draining sense of being on the go without end. Mainly because, in one way or another, he really had been, ever since the first day that Countess Thomson and her family had come to Pine Creek.

  The second was that they needed to get some food going and to make certain that all his friends from other worlds had people with them all the time. Thankfully, as things broke up at the event, the King and Queen heading into the palace complex behind them, along with most of their guards, several people walked up to the stage.

  Really, it was as if the crowd itself tried to squeeze in a bit, but that wasn’t for him, in the main. Most of the people actually headed for Marco Sorvee. He was the famous one there after all. Willum got Queen Tiera and a girl from Austra. That last one had bright pink hair and a matching jumpsuit on. At least they were both in the same color family. The outfit was lighter in shade by a good bit, to be honest. Her shoes were strange and slipper like. Those were in white. He really wouldn’t have noticed, except that, as she spun in place, the woman managed to step on him rather handily, then faked a fall into him.

  It was a bit obvious, but she was nice enough looking and seemed clean, so he didn’t let it bother him. Tiera covered a smile though and rolled her eyes a tiny bit at the move.

  “Heya! I noticed ya up on the platform there with the band. I’m Bethie Howel. Um… I’m with the band, as in I get to move their gear for them and they don’t pay me. I’m related. My brother?” She waved, but the man in question, much like the others up front, were hidden by a large amount of well-wishers from the city.

  Bridget had gone off with Princess Karina, since they were clearly going to be best friends now. That would actually be good, Will decided, if it were at all possible. They were both powerful people, but could make ties on a deep level if they weren’t going to have issues with each other in a negative fashion.

  Smiling, Willum waved a bit.

  “Hi, Bethie. I’m Will Baker and this is my Aunt. Tiera Baker.”

  “Oh? Your Aunt? So she isn’t my competition for you here? That’s good.” The woman looked at the giant lady in white and shook her head. “You’re drop-off gorgeous. Also, I hear you have that Queen thing going for you? I recognize you from the system. I should probably pretend to fall into your arms, but I don’t want your body guards to beat me that badly. As it is, I can’t believe that I managed it with the Wizard Will here. Who’s running that for you? We don’t really have anyone here for that for the band. Marco isn’t worried, but… I don’t know.”

  The feeling coming off of her, in waves, was of real concern. Under the slightly chatty and nervous seeming exterior, it was clear that the woman was intelligent and far more focused on protecting her people than anyone there would have gu
essed.

  She was also kind of right. They were surrounded by powerful people, but none of them were actually supposed to be watching out for anyone else in particular. He would do that job, if it came up, but that didn't mean he counted as real protection for the others. Just the night before someone had tried to murder Ambassador Mableton. He couldn’t swear that no one would go after some of the others there. Including the famous musicians.

  That got him to wince and shake his head a bit. Then, looking around, he raised both hands in the air. It got him looked at, if nothing else.

  “Hey, could all the people from other worlds come this way? We need to get a protection detail going.” The words were in English, and had several people actually running toward him. They were dressed in strange clothing, but it was mainly casual wear, with only a few tan military uniforms in the mix. It actually managed to look decently rich, having a lot of bright colors involved.

  Brian Yi ended up right in front of him, with his Uncle Tor just behind him. The larger, better looking, man spoke first.

  “Is there a threat?”

  Willum shrugged.

  “Unknown. We have to assume so, however. We want people to have fun, but we also need to guard the guests coming in. Not all of them are fighters or warriors…” A lot of them simply were though, so it wouldn’t serve to insult them, either.

  A very tiny Ysidril moved in about then, having shifted through the crowd. They were dressed in a red robe, but one specially designed to cover all four of their arms. The being was about three and a half feet tall, or slightly more than that, meaning ye, the gender pronoun for that type of being if they were too young to have a sex yet, had grown rapidly over the last months.

  Willum waved. Then he made a Pine Tree appear on his shirt front, on the left hand side of his chest.

  “There you are, Erath! Are you here to get in on the life shaping magical lessons?” That would make some sense, actually. The tiny being laughed though, its mouth dropping about halfway open, showing that it had a lot of rather sharp looking teeth.

  “Will Pine Tree! I had hoped to be included in the days training endeavor, but it seems it is beyond my skills at this point. I am new to building the magics of your people… Though I hope that I’m making good progress?” The being was an alien, not just from a different Earth like the others standing there, but from a different planet, off in space.

  Even given that, there was a slight sense of sadness about the slow progress ye was making. Except, of course, Will knew that wasn’t the case. Mainly because Tor, one of the best builders in the world, if not in most of them, surged with pride.

  “Erath is doing incredibly well. In a year or two I expect ye to be one of the top builders. I’m just holding ye back right now, so that we don’t risk stressing a youthful life pattern too much.”

  Which was a point. Will had been shoving himself into building without concern for sense or managing his work. Taman had mentioned that part of building to him several times. Normally right before she suggested he do incredibly hard projects on a level that only the best wizards would even try.

  “That’s a real point, actually. Good, then. I want Erath with a group of dignitaries today anyway, since half of our English speakers will be off doing the training. Um…” He glanced around, to find that others had come to aid him in his defense project already. Some of them were strangers in red robes, who had moved with their small alien friend, even if they were from Vagus and didn't speak English at all. Most of them were actually from the IPB, though Avery Rome was there as well, looking ready to fight, from the expression on her face as she jogged up.

  Behind her were two very cute women. Not that she wasn’t good looking herself. She truly was. One of the other ladies was Eve Benson, who matched up as a shorter version of Queen Tiera. The taller woman noted that, and instead of seeming upset, simply bowed.

  That got a similar move back from Eve.

  Behind them, interestingly, was Marcia Turner. Head of the IPB.

  Eve winked at him, her face seeming very friendly, even if it was daylight out, which had to be burning her on a level that was pure torture.

  “Willy! What’s up? Do we need to be…” She glanced around, her face looking relaxed, but a bit suspicious. The meaning carried pretty well however.

  “Not really. Beth Howell just mentioned that we needed a guard detail for the band, since that’s part of her job to see to. That got me thinking that we might not want to let everyone walk around, not speaking the language, all alone?” He said the words in Standard, which got her to answer in the same way. She had an accent when she spoke, but was very understandable.

  Given that he hadn’t known she was even bothering to learn the language of Noram, that was impressive. Then, she really was, as a person. A lot of people from the other worlds really were.

  “I’ve been practicing. I should be all right now. I mean, I can find the bathroom, I think?”

  Avery ducked her head, embarrassed, but Willum thought that was about right. They didn’t need experts, just people that knew to be polite and who could say that they were the strangers from other worlds.

  Switching back to English, he nodded.

  “That’s really good, Eve! Marcia, I made arrangements for you to have some work done. We need you to have a sense of smell, and feelings of hunger. I figured that we could have one of the trainees work on you for that? Or, I don’t know, maybe Uncle Tim could show them how to do things using you as an example? I have a load of Space Fleet people coming in for upgrades, so that our new people can practice. There was a small issue the other day on a ship.” He stopped, since going into that kind of thing wasn’t very festive. He did recall that he needed to find Clarissa Clarie though and see if she wanted in on those changes being made.

  That meant going through Queen Constance, or else it would be a bit pointless to do it at all. Pulling his communications device, he sighed and shook his head. It was rude of him to do that with people being right there. Still, it had to be done. Turning away, trying to look apologetic, he tapped the sigil for the Capital, which wasn’t answered. Which made sense, if everyone was still out looking at the new river and listening to the free music.

  So, after a moment, he got with Varley Peterson. That one worked, and her face showed up in his palm, not twenty seconds after triggering the device.

  “Countier Lairdgren?”

  “Hello, Princess. I sort of need to get in touch with your mother. We have a team of people being trained to make biological changes to people today. We need someone for some simple alterations. Something fairly straight forward to start with. Say appearance? We have some space fleet people coming as well for that, but they’ll be interested in other, harder upgrades.” The explanation was for the Queen, who was obviously right there, still walking with her family.

  The woman wasn’t silly or anything, and worked out who he was fishing for right away.

  “I do know of someone who might be willing to aid a project like that. A very sweet young lady. Intelligent and well learned. I think I might beg her help, to aid such an effort. Do you know who would be demonstrating things on her?” There was no sense of real concern over that part.

  “Tim Baker. We’ll want to hurry though, and get her delivered over to the Black Tower for that. We might have to do slightly more complex things than that, if she’s willing? I’ll certainly understand if she has other plans. Asking on a festival day like this is… Highly rude of me.”

  The Queen smiled, her face moving in along side of her daughter. They looked fairly evenly matched in age.

  “We can only make a request of her. Thank you, Willum. I’ll see if I can arrange that immediately.”

  She disconnected, getting the idea. Then he was going to connect with Timon. That part wasn’t actually needed, given the man was standing not too far away.

  Almost everyone was moving off already, though Brian Yi still stood there, his face hard seeming, as did Director Turner. Bethie
and the others had all moved off to organize things, and Tor had moved off with his students. Timon was there, though interestingly he’d moved to the control plate for the river, and had been playing with it, putting images up, along the river. They were artistic things, instead of faces. Trees, birds, and pictures of abstract and glowing designs moved along, as if floating in the water.

  Off to the side, Clemance was taking charge, loading up the new craft, to get the IPB and other folk to more interesting venue options outside the city walls.

  Raising his hand, he waved, even though the boy was only about fifteen feet away. It was a bit noisy, since there was a press of people to the front of the stage.

  Interestingly, a band, one he hadn’t hired, took the platform as if they had a right to it and started to entertain. That was clever, since the music was played by Timon, for the entire city, after only a few taps.

  “Clem? We all need to be at my place for dinner? If everyone can be back there by seven or so? Also, I want you with Alice, just in case there’s another issue.”

  “Got it! Everyone get that? We need to be over at Will’s tower for dinner at seven tonight. It sounds like a party.” The words were in English, so at least the entire world wasn’t being suddenly invited to the thing.

  That was good, since he had to put together food for it. Food units were a thing, but staff wasn’t, really. How that was supposed to happen, he had no real clue. It was a bit panic inducing, but there wasn’t a lot he could do about it at the moment.

  Clemance, being a kid or not, was in charge of the transportation for the day, so had not three, but at least a dozen vehicles out, ready to take anyone that wanted to use one out to the events, or over to Willum’s place. As he moved off to one of them, Marcia touched his arm. Yi gave him a slightly strange look as well.