Strange Land (The Young Ancients Book 15) Read online

  "I agree, Tim. She should stay here. We can get a few of our guards to do the job. We shouldn't risk her in this. She nearly died already. More than once. First in the attack meant for you, then as she was saving other people. It was close. We can all see that. She's done enough." The grip on her hand didn't slack off, and her now giant friend looked at her, a little imploringly.

  Like she was going to argue the point? Except that it wasn't one really, was it? Not if the first attacker had been being honest with them about her goals. There was no real reason that she shouldn't have been either. It made a sick sort of pattern, visible from the outside. Their Ancient, Brown, died, and then some kid came along to take his place? A twelve year old back then, nearly. Now he was older, but only by a few years. Fifteen? She didn't even know the answer to that, and wasn't going to ask now.

  Some of them would blame him for the world going sour like it had. They'd build up huge plots in their minds, just so they didn't have to face the reality of how dark everything was getting. That most of them wouldn't have been eating if not for Tim would just make it worse for some. After all, that put them so deeply into his debt that they'd probably never be able to dig themselves out. Except that Timon Baker didn't think of things that way. Austrans paid for everything, and could afford to give very little for free. Tim didn't even seem to think that what he'd done for them was anything except his duty.

  She looked at him, and smiled, trying not to seem brave about the whole thing.

  "No problem really. I just won't take Tim with me when I go. I do want some help. I can get them there though. I mean, I'm about as set up to do an investigation in Austra as I am to run one of their vid programs. Meaning not really at all. Plus, we should probably get Smythe to look into it from here. He has the most investigative history. The people on the ground need to be Austran though. Someone that will be accepted by everyone."

  She didn't have a clue if anyone fit that bill, but Tor leaned into her, his arm running the length of hers, pressing against her distractingly. It was nice. Warm and showing a lot of concern for her. On the other side of him, Ali was doing much the same thing, turning them into a little clutch of bodies. Trice was further away from Tim, which was understandable, but not kind of her.

  The kid had married her, to save her life from Rico Gala, and he deserved to be loved. It was hard to think about, but she wasn't truly certain that Trice was capable of that kind of thing. Letting herself love a person just because she should do it. That wasn't fair to Timon though. He was worthy of being loved. They all were. All her friends there. Even Magda.

  Sara came out of her own little bubble long enough to notice that Laurie Baker was staring at the girl a lot less than covertly. Taking in her pink outfit, and shy manner. The woman, who was very close to being the prettiest person alive, glanced over at her, and scowled for a moment.

  "Terry is a bit young, don't you think?"

  Sara didn't need prompting to get what she meant.

  "So is Magda, but it's a good plan. If we can let the people in Tellerand see that he's really one of them-"

  There was a clatter behind them, as a man ran in, dressed in a jumpsuit. It was all green, and had silver trim on it. The shoes were soft soled, and clattered only faintly as he rushed in. Without thinking about it, Sara tapped her chest, focusing on getting her shield on. That pushed Tor back suddenly, but before she could yell for Magda to get hers on too, the running fellow threw something at Timon.

  Or started to. Four weapons hit the man, his own shield shedding them easily, but the one that Tor had in his hand stopped the mist that was in the air in place.

  Then Tiera did something that made the man fall down with a thud. He was still breathing however. Sara jumped up and ran at the downed man, trying to find his shield amulet. He was already waking up when she searched his pockets. Almost everyone wore the damned things around their necks, but this man had chosen to be difficult about it.

  It was a dangerous thing to do, because she had to have her own shield off in order to get at it properly, that meant she could be hurt, or killed, if Tor let that dust go into the room. As soon as she had the thing, she jumped back, letting her fear cause the protective barrier around her to come back on.

  Tor moved in then, his face seeming angry even as he held the air choke on the cloud of slow moving smoke in the air.

  "Lars? I... What the hell?" Strangely, everyone else seemed to be as upset as he was. She could get that, but had no clue who Lars was. Clearly a known person, and not one that they'd expected to play assassin.

  Ali explained it to her and Magda, being polite that way.

  "He was the first of the Austrans to be able to make a copy from a template. He's been taking lessons for months, trying to learn building. I can't imagine why he'd attack here though. We're friends. I mean, we've had him over to dinner, more than once. His daughter plays with Taman sometimes."

  That caused a lot of confused thoughts to run through Sara's mind, the first being that she somehow doubted that Taman actually played. The girl was sweet in her own way, but also so brilliant she was hard to relate to. Yet, at any rate. No doubt she'd master that kind of thing eventually.

  Sara moved toward the man then, and looked over her shoulder at the others.

  "Right. Um, I'll handle this part then. We need a Truth amulet, and to make sure he doesn't have any devices on him that can hurt anyone. Tor, what do you need to handle that cloud?"

  That, it turned out, was a device that he'd made, but wasn't carrying on him. Kolb and Ali went to her house to get it, moving faster than they normally would have even in an emergency.

  Trice just stood there, pointing a fierce looking strip of white stone at the man on the ground. It didn't just have five or six sigils on it, but over a dozen, each glowing an emerald color and interlocking, making a delicate pattern on the surface of the thing that seemed to float beneath the surface.

  "Let's wake him up. I have some questions."

  No doubt. Also, Sara realized, her earlier thoughts aside, Trice was planning to torture and kill the man. He had just tried to kill her husband after all. It was so clear she actually felt the idea coming off of her.

  Sara didn't think that was going to work very well. For one thing it was clear he was already awake, if groggy.

  "Back off Trice. I said I have this. I need that Truth amulet though. Mine's back on the Pain Maiden."

  It was pretty clear that if she didn't take control, and fast, that more than one person in the room would end Lars before they got any information from him. The only one that seemed calm and focused now was, oddly enough, Tim.

  "Timon, get everyone else moved back, except Tor. We need to find out what's going on here. Lars... That's your name, isn't it?" She looked at the man, who didn't try to get up. There were several wicked seeming weapons pointed at him, and he didn't have a shield any longer.

  "Yeah. I mean, yes. Lars Linster. I..." He looked over at Timon, and blanched, his face closing down then. There was no anger in it. None that Sara could see. Just fear.

  She thought she got the idea then.

  Leaning in she whispered, her voice too low for most of the room to hear.

  "Where's your daughter? Your wife? Or..." That might have been very rude. A lot of Austrans had lost people in the attacks of the Ancients. Millions had died, and a lot of people that had moved to Harmony were alone in the world. It was looked at as a chance to be safe, and start a new life.

  "They took them. I don't know who. I was told that I had to kill the Revered One, Timon Baker, or they'd be... They'd do horrible things to them. Worse than dying."

  Finally, catching on to things faster than the rest of them for some reason, Douglas Baker, who had a weapon of his own trained on Lars, pulled a Truth amulet. Because he was a Baker. That meant having access to almost all sorts of magic, didn't it? Except that everyone there could have one of those, if they wanted one. The store there carried the things, and they were free. It just didn't
come up that often in real life that you needed one.

  Most people lied all the time, but they were little things. Ones that you probably didn't want exposed, just for your own comfort. They told you they loved your dress, when the fact was they didn't care for it. They said they'd meant to write you, but had gotten busy, when they didn't really want to have contact with you ever again. That kind of thing. Little lies of omission that actually weren't important in the slightest, too.

  Most people didn't try to kill someone right in front of you, and then claim it was because their wife and daughter were being held captive, to force their hand. It was exactly the kind of thing that people from Noram, particularly nobles, were trained to expect though. So much so that for a moment she really wondered if it were her own people behind it. Except, if that was the case, why frame Austra for it?

  Blinking she took the Truth amulet and put it on Lars, then made sure he was telling the truth, at least as far as he knew it. No one else seemed to get what she was thinking until she asked her last question however. Then Timon made a funny sound in his throat that seemed to be choked laughter.

  "The people that contacted you, you said they were two men. How tall were they?"

  Lars looked at her, then held his own hand above his head. She didn't know how tall he was when standing, but the men in question looked to be a lot taller. Giants even.

  "I suppose they were wearing Austran looking clothing? Magical, I bet."

  It was Tim and Tor's mother that looked baffled then.

  "I... Why is how tall they were important?"

  She glanced at Tim, but he smiled and shook his head at her. It was clear she was going to have to be the one doing the speaking.

  "Because the Noram Rebellion is made up of nobles. Making this seem like Austra is behind it could start a war between our lands. If not that, it might be about muddying the waters, and distracting us, so that we don't help King Richard and his allies too much. How did they get nano devices and explosives for that attack though? Hire it done?"

  Tor, still holding the little copper piece in his hand steady, between two fingers, let out a soft breath of air.

  "That would work. Austra has been hit hard, and a lot of their infrastructure is still down. If a person were to grab up a few food units and offer those in exchange for some nano work... I can see it. A person might even fool themselves into thinking that nothing would come of it. I mean, so far it really hasn't. What do we do about Lars' family though? We need to find them, but where will they be?"

  From the doorway Kolb called out, having heard enough to get the general idea, it seemed. That was impressive, given the speed he and Ali were floating in at.

  "They won't have gone far. There's no way anyone can get off world without us knowing about it. That means they're still around here, somewhere." The large and muscular bald man looked at Lars and gave a somber nod. "Good to know you weren't in on it on purpose. They have someone?"

  Sara got it first and updated the man.

  "Wife and daughter. We think that it might be a set up, from inside the Noram Rebellion. Very tall men approached him at least. Two of them, with fairly tan skin. Can you..." She glanced at Tor first, then the others there, just in case. "Can any of you find them? If we can get to them..." She wasn't going to say the rest, but glancing at the man who still half laid on the floor, she let her face tighten. "Before they're killed, we can work a lot of this out. If I'm right. Regardless, getting to them fast is better than not." Quietly too. Otherwise they'd both be killed, and dumped so that the two men could vanish. If it was only two. What were the odds of that really? There had been three explosions all at once, which probably took one or more people for each of them.

  If the woman that had attacked the first time was being coerced in the same manner...

  "Say, Lars, were you supposed to yell anything when you tried for Timon?"

  The man looked down and then away. For a long time he didn't speak, the nimbus of white around him as still as his body. The single line of golden yellow down the center didn't darken when he spoke however.

  "They told me I was supposed to say 'Austra for Austrans' or something like that. Didn't I? I can't really remember. Things were tense."

  "Nope. So, how do we find these people?"

  Searching, was the answer, because there were too many people around for magic to really be useful, unless a wizard or mage had met one of the captives before, which didn't seem all that likely. They were all from Austra, and other than Lars and one other person, no one from there had learned even basic field reading. He could try, but even Tor didn't seem to think he'd have a lot of luck.

  "Not at these distances. I think I can manage it, but there are a lot of people to sort through. I'll start on it now. I know Leslie and Simone. We won't let them die, Lars."

  Sara nearly winced, but let Ali cover for her by setting off a new device, which simply caused nano machines to heat up and die in flame. It was over in a few moments, and as soon as things stopped glowing in the center of the slow moving air field that Tor was holding, he dropped the thing and sat down on the floor, tailor fashion. Then he closed his eyes, and went so still it was hard to tell if he were breathing or not.

  Douglas looked at his children, one at a time, then shook his head gently. His hair was a bit curlier than the others, and he wasn't as good looking, but he was pleasant, and seemed no older than she was. That had happened when he'd become immortal. The first time they'd met he'd seemed to be nearly the same age as her own mother. So in his mid-forties. Now he looked like a man at his youthful peak, or perhaps slightly younger than that even. His clothing was dark brown and green, designed for comfort rather than style or to impress anyone. Merchant fashion.

  The man finally settled on her, for some reason, locking eyes.

  "We need a search, but have to find a way to do it that won't alert the captors. Any ideas?"

  She didn't have any, and no one else spoke for a while. Finally, as Lars seemed to realize they didn't have much hope, Magda swallowed and then spoke, looking down the whole time, but roughly facing Douglas.

  The thing was, she spoke in Tellerand.

  "Do those of Noram all speak other languages?"

  Timon huffed and then shook his head, his face suddenly happier. "You know I think I might be distracted, what with all the potential death around here with my name on it. That's brilliant. Some nobles might know another language or two, but almost none of them will know Tellerand. Will your people be willing to help? Can we get word to them about it in a way that no one else will notice?"

  Sara pulled her communications device, and then tapped on the floating blue sigils that came up, until she had Roget's com pulled up. One more tap, and a look at Tor, got the line open. Then she looked over at Timon.

  The man spoke in standard at first, but Sara changed that, using his language instantly.

  "Roget, there's a problem. People from Noram, possibly, have taken hostages. We need to have people look for them, but we can't put out a general alert, lest a young girl and woman be harmed to silence them. Can we pass that information after the next set of prayers? I don't know if we have pictures, but if people go and... I don't know, try to convert everyone? It's rude to do here, but we have to try something."

  "Aye. It will be done. If the All High asks it of us, we shall all do our part. Pictures though will aid us most handsomely. There are but a handful of hours before the next call to prayer, the evening devotion. Best we hurry and do that early. A special prayer, given the trials of the day?"

  "I always knew you were smart, Roget. That's good. I'll try to set up the pictures. I don't know how to do that."

  The man stayed on the line, as Timon tilted his head. It was clear that getting some kind of image was going to be harder than she'd thought. Except that Lars actually had one on him. The trick, it seemed, would be sending that out to everyone praying, at once. No one else, however.

  Tor hadn't built that in when he'd set up t
he special link for the Tellerand people, it seemed.

  "Fine, Tim, you can do that, right? Tor did it in about a minute and a half, so you should be able to work this out in no more than two."

  That got her glared at, but Trice nodded at her and then her husband.

  "Good point Sara. Tim can do it. He's nearly as good as Tor is." There was a dig in the words, but rather than seem upset, the young man, just closed his eyes, ignoring them. He didn't even pick up a communications device.

  It was a lot longer than two minutes, being closer to ten, but they had a special prayer message going out, complete with pictures and the tale they were to tell everyone. That the All High demanded they seek to give comfort to those in need. No one would really be able to whine too much about that, would they? Honestly, it was a good idea, and they should have had people checking on everyone already.

  Then they had to sit there and wait. Acting like they were all dead, or at least hiding the fact that Timon and Lars were gone. Hopefully the men that had taken Leslie and Simone would honor their word, if they thought their victim had come through for them. Not that they weren't going to die for it anyway.

  "Oh." She looked at the others in the room and then rolled her eyes. "Baron Coltress is here. With his son, Mike?"

  Timon locked eyes with her, but shook his head.

  "Mike's my assistant. He used to be Michelle Coltress. His father is just trying to reconcile with him now. There were tensions over the change."

  "Right... But Baron Coltress is known for being useful in finding information." She couldn't stress the words any more than she was without just saying what she was trying to think out loud.

  Luckily Trice got her meaning.

  "We should have him in on this then, after we do a loyalty check. We should get Smythe in on this too. If this really is about our people, Noram I mean, then we should have the best investigator we can find doing the work from our end. I can't think of anyone here better qualified." She glanced at Kolb, who spread his hands a little.