A Simple Darkness (The Young Ancients: Tiera) Read online

  She knew what a Doretta was, that being the noble term for a bad man or woman that was rude to others in affairs of the heart, but she hadn't really done anything like that. Her little brother Timon had mentioned something like that too, but she'd explained it to him. She had a duty not to bog herself down with poor and ugly boys. They weren't good enough for her. Regina had explained it all to her on the second day, after she smiled at a few of them in the commons. They could get the wrong idea and think she wanted to have sex with them, or even get married. They didn't have a chance, and letting them go on that way could get them hurt, and not just emotionally.

  After all, Count Lairdgren might get mad if she were connected to unsavory people, right?

  The others went too, the small man, who turned out to be named Guide, of all things, seemed particularly upset with her for some reason.

  "Going around acting all high and mighty, what did you expect? Now you stand there and threaten to kill us for taking you to task for it, as if you have a right to treat people like scum?" There was a bitterness to the words that didn't make sense. She hadn't turned him down after all. That would have been silly. He was good enough looking and about her own age. She did like slightly older boys, but he was a builder and had good prospects.

  The other guy, Mark, just shook his head when it was his turn after stating he hadn't done anything.

  "Still, there is a point here. You've gotten some slack, because people like your brother, but that's not going to hold out a lot longer. We get that you come from... A different situation, but Farlo said she talked to your other brother, Tim, and he said that you knew not to act like that..."

  Her jaw hurt from clenching it so hard. Holding out her left hand for the Truth amulet got a baffled look from the boy. She had to take her shield down first, but he handed it over easily enough.

  She growled at them all, for not understanding what she'd been doing.

  "I had to protect those boys. Obviously. They can't marry me and if people thought they were trying to have sex with me, they might be hurt for it. People keep saying I was rude to them, but it wasn't about me thinking I'm better than they are, just that I have a higher social position and that could cause problems later. For them..." The light didn't flicker for her either, which got the others to stare at her like she'd just announced that she was a cow. It didn't make sense.

  The tall Instructor nodded a few times. "Alright. Why do you think that? I have it on fairly good authority that no one that knows you would respond that way. Do you think that your brothers... might they harm them do you think?" He seemed pretty baffled, but she rolled her eyes.

  "Well, of course. But the Count, my grandfather might too. Or even the King. I'm a Conserina after all. I have to think about more than just my own feelings and desires. Regina explained it to me." It had made sense at the time, when her roommate had told her about how The Rules were really just for nobles and that the common people had to be treated differently, since they had their own special situations that varied from place to place.

  Tiera knew it for a fact, since the rules she'd grown up with, in Two Bends, had been very different. It took a few minutes for her to explain it all, tapping her foot at how slow everyone else was being about it all, but trying not to act like she was better than they were. She was probably smarter, but there was clearly something else going on here. A thing that raw intelligence wasn't going to instantly fix.

  Farlo rolled her eyes and then grabbed her head like it hurt.

  "Crud." She started grabbing her amulets then and dressed instantly, student browns that looked like heavy canvas appearing suddenly. The others followed suit when they realized that they weren't about to all die instantly.

  Mark looked at the other Conserina and closed his eyes.

  "Yes, crud indeed. Someone has been misinforming you, Tiera. It might be for any reason, including just using a few mistaken phrases, but... I can see now that this is my fault." He bowed to her then, which, for some reason got Farlo to do the same, followed, if slowly, by Sam, who nudged Guide into doing the same thing after a few seconds. "I apologize. I should have been more attentive and not assumed the worst about you. I owe your family a great debt and asserted, to myself, that I'd look after you, but let myself be sidetracked by what I thought was bad behavior. Please forgive me?"

  He didn't seem all that torn up about it, and the others didn't speak, since they probably didn't feel the same way, but the rule was that if someone apologized to you, a good person tried to accept it. Her mother had been pretty clear about that. She bowed back and spoke, trying to keep her anger out of it.

  "I understand that I was in error, though I don't know how yet. Not precisely. I take it that no one was really in danger at all? I... Please forgive me for distressing you then." An awful feeling came across her then, since these, clearly, weren't the wronged parties. Her jaw clenched again, since the only thing to do now was to debase herself publically and apologize to everyone that she'd wronged, even though she'd thought she was protecting them.

  Short of being beaten it was about the worst thing she could imagine happening. It had to be done though, since honor demanded it. Then she'd quit and move back home. Obviously she wasn't nearly as ready for this world as she'd hoped. She was supposed to be popular and loved, not... this.

  Kolbrin looked at her and waved at the weapon again, which got her to put it away finally.

  "Good. Well, that's sorted and you can fix it later. Go on to classes now, everyone. We have the morning sessions to attend to. The Headmaster will look into this and see to fair punishments. Even if you did deserve it Tiera, spitting in the food is a punishable offense. Someone is going to be in for a time, I think."

  The old bearded Headmaster agreed with that easily enough.

  "So, I take it we don't all need to report to prison?" It was said lightly, but with that air of a person that actually knew that they were dodging something serious.

  That kind of surprised her, but it only made sense. She wasn't happy about the whole thing, her being wrong. It was horrible actually. Had Regina done it on purpose? She didn't want to believe it, but the girl was a noble. They did love to mess with people like that, didn't they?

  It was tempting to run off and see to that instantly, but the big bald man patted her on the back gently then let his hand linger. She could feel the warmth of the contact and wondered at what it meant for a moment. Did he like her? Vain or not, no one had ever claimed she wasn't pretty. The giant's hand brushed at her hair a little. For a few seconds she stiffened, ready to tell him it wasn't appropriate, even under The Rules, but the man sighed and tugged at it.

  "You have lovely hair, nearly down to your backside. Probably the envy of every girl at the school." Drawing it back he gave a hard yank, which caused her shield to kick in, but her hair, already blindingly tight thanks to the attack, caught in it and didn't move, leaving her head pulled back and eyes watering.

  "Ahhh!" The sound was a pained one, and came until she got her shield off.

  Then the bully did it again. After that she ran a few steps away from him, down the stairs, even as her head was at an awkward angle, yelling the whole time. She turned her shield off and then spun, to see that he still had a handful of it.

  He did let go then, smiling.

  "First lesson then, get rid of anything that can be used against you. I expect you to cut your hair and have it short enough it can't be drawn through your shield easily. You have to tomorrow to fix that. If you don't do it, I will, which won't be artful at all. Well, you see how I do my own?" He smoothed his bare scalp with his right hand. "Second lesson, run away. You had an escape, but you stopped. If you do that in a real fight you might just die. We'll work on that later however. Today I want to introduce you to someone. She's going to be your new trainer. Do everything that she says. You won't like it, but it has to be done and we don't have time to coddle you. Orders from your brother."

  That got her to stop dead. Did this man kno
w something about Tor? He was in hiding, since an army of Austran assassins was after him. He'd just left one day, but at the wedding in the Capital the other day there had been a huge magical display in the sky, like fireworks, but clearly his work. Maybe this man had been with him, she felt excited for a few seconds, but he shook his head without waiting for her to speak.

  "No. Tim. He filled me in on the current threat, and that you were mentioned by the Larval that took him as a potential target as well. There are other things going on too, so you need to be constantly on guard. Luckily that shouldn't be hard, since you've already managed to alienate half of the people on campus and the others will no doubt come around soon enough if you don't make an effort to correct the damage. We'll have to see if it was on purpose or not. Dean Hardgrove will be seeing to that, I don't doubt."

  Tiera felt a little clueless for a few seconds. She got that the man meant to train her to fight, that was his job after all, to see to such things. Most girls her age and size didn't have that kind of thing at the school. Actually, as far as she knew, none of them did. It didn't sound like fun either.

  "I'm not exactly a fighter." She didn't want to sound weak, but the idea was a bit intimidating. Not that she couldn't learn the moves, but she wasn't a giant and never would be. If she got a few inches taller she'd have to count herself lucky.

  The fellow patted her back again, which got her to scamper away, in case he wanted to grab her hair again. That got him to laugh at her, but his words weren't insulting, seeming pleased instead.

  "Run away. Exactly like that. We'll teach you to fight, but mainly how to survive, how to escape and protect yourself, and if need be, others. Today will mainly be about testing you however. We'll find out what you're made of. Combat is about more than just being large after all. Let's get to that. It's not going to be a fun few weeks for you, but I think you'll survive." There was an odd look on his face that spoke of having done all of this before, but he didn't explain it, even as she watched him carefully for attack and kept out of arm's reach.

  She really didn't like his little shield trick with her hair. It made her scalp ache and she had a thought that he'd just tugged at her a little to make a point, not actually trying to rip at her like he could have. It was a lot less than fun to consider, truth be told.

  Tiera was used to being looked at as she walked, and getting now that she'd been messing up horribly, she tried to smile at everyone again. No one smiled back at her yet, but that would take time. If it ever happened. The stone courtyard was gray cobblestone, which matched the look of a lot of the buildings and structures, including the tall wall around the fighters' section. It was just a practice area, and even though the thing was six feet high, she could see several heads sticking above it as she and Instructor Kolbrin marched toward it. He moved quickly, which meant she had to scurry a little, her legs being shorter than his. It wasn't hard though. Giants tended to move pretty slowly over all. Compared to her at least.

  There were people inside the enclosure working with old fashioned weapons, swords, spears and knives. Most had on bulky armor made of leather or heavy cloth padding. A few worked without even that, counting on their skill to keep them safe it seemed. The Instructor pointed with his whole hand toward two padded forms beating the stuffing out of each other. Tiera didn't know enough to be able to tell if they were good or not, but it was clear that the heavier of the two was easily beating the other, hitting them three or four times for every blow the thinner person landed. They moved like women, but that was about all she could tell.

  They danced back and forth, both in similar light gray practice armor. There were racks of the same thing over by a table that held a variety of weapons. She assumed those were for practice too, since waving around real force lances and explosives would have been insane in a closed space like this. She didn't need to be highly skilled with them to know that. It was just common sense.

  After a while the two women that had been fighting stopped and walked over to them, clearly getting that they were being watched, if not summoned. The shorter of the two took her helm off first, smiling a bit as she looked at them.

  "So, Kolb, is this my new target?" There was a very pleased tone to her voice, which got Tiera to stiffen. She didn't care who these people were, she wasn't going to just let herself be beaten. That didn't make any sense at all. Her face must have shown that, since the woman blinked at her and let the smile fall from her face.

  Then the other person took her face mask off as well. It was Judith. Judith Kerry. Her worst enemy in the whole world. The girl had tried to beat her a few weeks before, right out in the open, claiming that she'd been rude to Henry. It had been an over the top reaction, probably meant as an excuse to hurt her, since the girl was only average looking and she was clearly jealous.

  "Judy, could you help Karen with that? Tiera will need a good sparring partner. You can run with her in the mornings, so work that into your schedule-"

  Tiera shook her head.

  "No. I don't think so. I'm not working with her. She tried to attack me. This whole thing is a mistake. Thank you, but I'd rather not be set up for daily thrashings." She spun on her heel and walked away quickly. It was so clearly a trap, or maybe a punishment, that it was stupid. Did they think she wouldn't work out what they were doing? Morons.

  She was about three paces away when Kolbrin took her arm. It wasn't hard, but he pulled her back slowly, so her shield wouldn't kick in, even if she was angry.

  "Sorry? I just got in the other day, so I missed that..."

  Judith filled him in, if not correctly.

  "This little bitch told off Henry right in front of everyone, telling him he was too poor and ugly for her. I really was going to thrash her, but good luck there, the freak had a shield. Her brother had to humble her instead. I don't know as to if she's fixed herself yet, but he asked the Headmaster to give her another chance. I wasn't planning on beating you today though. It won't hurt my feelings if I don't have to work with you." She crossed her arms, letting her practice blade dangle a little in her right hand, the smooth wood dinged on the edges from hitting things.

  Karen shrugged.

  "I haven't heard about this yet. Not much. Ali mentioned something, but said that Timon had already taken care of it. What's the situation?" She seemed worried for some reason, but wasn't glaring like the other giantess was.

  Tiera didn't know how to respond, since it seemed like her sister-in-law was telling tales about her to strangers already. They'd have to have a talk about that later. She hadn't been hanging around with Ali a lot, since it was pretty clear that she was angry at her. No one wanted to be around someone that was going to be cold to them all the time, did they?

  The large man looked at Tiera for a few seconds and then heaved a large sigh.

  "Young person school drama, mainly. Tiera here ran afoul of conflicting information, and thought that if a poor or unsuitable boy was linked to her they might be hurt by her family. Everyone else figured she was being a Doretta, not getting that she honestly thought she was being noble and protecting the youngsters that approached her. She was tested on it, under Truth verification, so it's real enough. Now we have to get her out from under the garbage storm it created." There was a sense that the man was keeping himself from growling the words, most likely thinking that it was really annoying.

  Oddly enough Judith looked angry for a few seconds then let her face relax.

  "I... understand, I guess. Your people aren't city folk even and a lot of the outlier regional traditions are different... So, you really thought that Tor or Tim would come and beat the boys in the street if you were too nice to them? I..." She bowed suddenly which got the others to look at her funny. "I can see that. I wouldn't want to challenge either of them if I didn't have to. I don't know as to the rest of her people, but... yeah, I can see it. You don't have to worry though. Tor ain't nor a... Excuse me." She stopped for a few seconds and continued, her accent shifting dramatically as she did to something
far more proper and cultured. "Tor isn't prudish and Timon seemed to be most upset with you seeming to be a Doretta. I'll take it upon myself to go to your home and make certain that the others there will not seek to harm anyone. I think we can work together, if that's the case. After you apologize to everyone, I mean." She looked a little too happy about Tiera being humbled like that, but there didn't seem to be a good way out of it, did there?

  The idea of Judith going to Two Bends didn't make her happy either, but the bald Instructor seemed more than a little pleased by the idea.

  "How long do you need?"

  Judy shrugged loosely. "No more than a few hours, I can go in my off time, later today. I have a Fast Craft. It isn't mine really, I just have a piloting job with the Fast Transport service. I won't even have to miss classes for it. So, we can spend luncheon with Tiera knocking her head on the dining room floor and then set the rest to right after that. I don't want to miss out on the fun after all." There was no real sense of glee in the words at least, the girl holding her face still.

  Tiera growled anyway.

  "I'm not here for your amusement."

  The bigger girl, who was clearly a woman, an actual instructor it seemed, the one called Karen, didn't seem upset or anything, as much as a bit wary.

  "Well, why don't we see what you can do first, and then we'll cover some basic defensive tactics. That's should be a good place to start." She didn't look to the man for permission or anything, so it was pretty clear she expected to be in charge.

  First she had Tiera run, just from one wall of the closed in space to the other and back as fast as she could. It was to be a race, originally against Judy, but an unarmored, very tall boy came walking over and nodded to her. She recognized him from the sea voyage she'd taken with her mother and two of her brothers. His name was David, she thought.