Lineage (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 1) Page 22

  The man on the handheld seemed upset though, which would be about the way Dare phrased the thing with the woman. He didn't even bother trying to explain. If the man was angry over those words, that probably meant that there was the chance of a real problem happening. No one got that worked up over a thing that wasn't real.

  Except his voice was fine, which meant it was probably a subconscious thing on his part.

  "We have men headed your way now. If it wouldn't insult you, would it be all right to have a patrol or two head that way? I'll have to see who's available, but it might work better if they could. Just for the week, naturally. It would have worked better to have your own guards for the event, but I can understand that things often move faster than expected in life." Those words came out sounding wise, and not like he meant to be pompous, though there was a bit of that in there as well.

  Dare didn't let it bother him, though he did give specific directions as to how to find them all.

  Then they waited. Not long however, since the men flew from the city, moved carefully around the edge, on the other side of the magical river, and ducked under it after landing. They used older flying devices that had a hand held control, a small copper bit on the back of their left hands. All of the men looked hard, and like they were spoiling for a fight, which was annoying, but not unexpected.

  He didn't let them speak first, stepping forward and waving.

  "Over here. I'm Dareg Canton, Commander of the Port here." As soon as the words were out, he could tell that none of the taller men really believed him. One openly sneered too, and several of the smaller people shied away.

  Their leader, who had shiny bits on his shoulder, unlike the other three, made a face at him that indicated he smelled something bad. Then he looked around, seemed to understand what getting all of those building and palaces up that fast meant, and bowed. That showed something near intelligence. It was clear that someone had, after years, gotten something done. It was really Tam-unit, but he'd been nearby for it, so it made him seem pretty solid as well.

  "Sir. We were told there was a prisoner pick up. Are we allowed to get a report from those involved?"

  That just took some waving since the small man and his incredibly tiny wife were both there. They nearly both lost consciousness when the lead guard, Major Tines, pulled out a Truth amulet, but they gave their stories, and so did a few others that were there, having witnessed it. In the end, the guard looked very uneasy, and like he didn't know if he should give it to him of not, so Dare put his hand out. The man relaxed greatly.

  Then he covered the threats made to him, leading to the arrest.

  "I don't officially have that power in particular, but, as you see, no guards out here."

  The tall, brown haired Major smiled then. A bit drily, but he managed a head nod with it.

  "All citizens of Noram may arrest and detain a person caught in the act of committing a crime. We need to see about these three then. They hadn't actually done anything, so if they were just playing, or making a poor joke, we might have to let them go." That got the man to look really uneasy, as once again he glanced around, this time focusing on the floating box behind Dare for a moment.

  For his part he nodded.

  "Well, if it was really the case, then they should be let go. Thankfully we have access to magic that will allow us to know for certain."

  Sara, the Ancient of the Martian Circle, jogged forward like it was her job, and opened a hole in the bars just by thinking about it. Dare could have done the same thing, but realized that the woman had done it better than he would have. With her eyes open, to prevent sudden attack, but also making a hole that would require the people to step through it carefully. Other than running at it and diving through there was no particular way for anyone to get out fast.

  He could tell that, because the woman there did exactly that. Fast, hard and with enough skill Dare felt more than a little jealous.

  Then, as she stood up, which was faster than he could have made his own body do the same thing, a kick came out. Not toward the guards, or even the Ancient, but directed right at him. Which made the Earth under him bulge a little after his shield kicked in. Then, moving so fast he couldn't understand what was going on, the woman knocked out two of the guardsmen, tripped the others, and turned to run.

  That had Sara there, punching at the woman. Each one was so fast that he was actually guessing about what had happened, and he probably missed more than he saw.

  The woman dodged them all, with no apparent effort and laughed, gently.

  Inside the cage, the other two men climbed out quickly, and then, without waiting to see what was happening, turned to run away. Their speed was good enough, but not that brilliant or anything, not like the criminal woman with them. She waited for a bit, keeping out of Sara's grasp, and then ran after the men, getting him to follow. A few people followed along, each running as fast as they could.

  In the end, they all got there just in time to see them vanish into a black glowing disk in the air.

  Sara looked at him, and then back at the port, shaking her head.

  "Interesting. I haven't seen that one before. We need to check it out, in case it's just an illusion." Then, not saying more, she padded toward the disk, which was about three feet across and a near perfect circle, getting there as it faded.

  After that, it was really clear that they had nothing.

  It was so bad a feeling, that Dareg felt himself being baffled for a while, as the Ancient woman next to him kind of milled around.

  Finally he shook himself.

  "Wait... They tried to rob a poor man, on the street, but they have powers like that? They needed to take a few silvers at most from a traveler? There has to be a better way to make coin if you can do that. Also, they jumped out of here? I didn't even know you could do that on a planet." Going back over it all, he let his eyes narrow, and tried to think through what he'd seen.

  The Ancient looked at him very intensely as he thought about it all.

  "They were robbing people, right in front of me. When we pulled them down, the woman didn't fight like she did later and in the cell they didn't just leave, using their jump magics, or whatever that disk was. Also, when the woman got out, she went directly for me. That doesn't make much sense. Not with you standing there." The other woman had been faster, and maybe stronger, but it was clear Sara was more than a regular person by far.

  The escaping lady hadn't even gone for the guardsmen first, just him.

  Sara shook her head.

  "Was it a mistake though? Think about it. You named yourself as the Port Commander. When the guards came, they didn't believe you at first, but snapped-to almost instantly. That indicates some kind of power being used on your part. Probably command line, if what I heard about that kind of thing is right. I didn't take classes on it, but that seems likely. It wasn't normal. They probably should have tried to push you around a lot more than that. They were going to, but then just... Stopped. So I could see her thinking you were more than you seem. Because you are. Also, you were the one with the obvious magic. This isn't Harmony, so that chest is kind of standing out."

  That got him to stop for a few seconds. It was tempting to ask what she was talking about, and later he'd need to, about what command line meant. When he thought back though, there was some truth to what she'd just said.

  When his mother died, he wasn't forced into an orphanage. In fact, he'd been asked if he wanted to go to one, and had declined. After that, no one brought it up again. What were the real odds that no one had seen him steal their food? If that had taken place, they hadn't told on him. Here he'd been thinking that he was so clever getting away with it all.

  Even that week, things had happened. High Servant Straughan loved to screw small common looking people. Men or women. They'd asked him how old he was, and he'd been honest about it, but the men, both of them, had tossed him out. Physically, but it wasn't an attack really.

  Then they'd apologized.


  It had been the evil sex abuser that had said the words first, too, not the innocent Filby.

  Then, after the first bit, where he'd talked to people, and they treated him nicely, he'd been let in to see the King and Queen. Well, he could see that one as being down to his newly discovered family, but they'd been very kind about him, regardless. Especially the King. It was one thing for his half sister to feel some kind of bond, but his new brother in-law didn't make sense.

  The man should have been mildly tolerant, at best. Even if he'd wanted to have sex with him, well, the man was the King. He could have just ordered it to happen. Maybe it was a poor plan, true. That whole Prince of the Moon thing was altering how things were happening.

  Then, when he and Erid had gone for Filby, the man had been glad to see them.

  It was something to try and pay attention to. Really, he'd kind of figured that one for being his looks. Those were good enough people noticed, but this did seem a bit more than that. Maybe, at any rate.

  Even Stara had gotten on her knees and sucked him off, when she was actually just there to spy on him for Countess Thomson. There hadn't been a real reason for her to do that, either. Dareg hadn't considered it however. She'd hinted at things like that, and he'd wanted to, at the time, so it made sense. Only, given the rest of the information, there were flaws there.

  Really, even after she'd done it, the best plan would have been to stay, unless her orders had been to get back to report right then. If so, leaving right then would have worked better. Just saying she'd be back later would have placated him long enough for her to get away. She hadn't done that however.

  "I think that might be correct. All right. So, what do we do now? Call in some help, but from whom?"

  The Ancient winked at him, and patted his arm gently. It was polite, not a come on.

  "We sort of have already. We can report to a few people, but there's nothing here. No scent even. I should have picked that up sooner." She smiled at him, in a slightly disarming way. "I blame the crowd for that. It got a bit muddled." She turned and started walking back to the little jail. The guardsmen were all standing, and didn't seem pleased to be there still. Since two of them could barely get up under their own power, Dare could see that happening.

  Major Tines looked mean, until he glance over at the Ancient and then fixed Dareg firmly.

  "They escaped? That one was fast." He didn't say that woman was fast, which was a bit obvious. The man was embarrassed, as if she wasn't incredibly different than the other ladies around them.

  Sara spoke however, and explained it all, then called the General in charge, and explained to him. The man didn't deny it was possible. There was a lot of new magic in the world, which he pointed out instantly. Absolving them for the problems.

  "Do we need to pick up the men?"

  She started to shake her head, which was probably true enough, since they seemed better, but they could at least help them find a healing amulet first. A thing that none of them had. David Derring did though, so they were all led to Sam Builder's palace to find them. Looking at it, he had a thought.

  "This needs a wall. A gate, too." A tall one, if super beings with magic needed to be kept out.

  It took a bit to find the others, since David was off sleeping already, Commander Derring was bathing, and High Servant Erid was gone, having headed back to work. That meant finding Kolb, who was, of all places, in the kitchen, making a cool beverage. Not that it was warm inside. It was so nice that Dare kind of didn't want to go back out into the sun, but would, if it were required.

  At least that's what he told himself, firmly, not wanting to become too weak in the face of luxury.

  When the man looked up, he took a sip of the pale yellow liquid, and then set it down on the counter next to the pearl and pink Tiera food device. It was a large thing, compared to the Tam-units, but didn't seem to have a personality like she did. It didn't have a magic window, or speak, either, there were just sigils to press, in order to get food to come out.

  The large bald man looked at the beaten guards and smiled a little.

  "Is this your work, Debri?" That was clearly a joke, since he looked at Dareg, paying close attention to his hands. He was kind of limping around, but that was due to the earlier training.

  "Nope. Not him either. We had... Guests." That got a complete rundown of what had taken place, and a nod from the larger man. He was still dressed all in tan, but it was just canvas now. An almost poor looking selection, which was the point.

  If you could dress in anything, at a moment's notice, how you did it, what particular style, look, or nod to function you chose, said a lot about how you wanted others to think of you. More than it did for others, even.

  After all, a very wealthy man would go and have clothing made for them. They probably even had other people that made the choices for them, in fact, not having to think about that kind of thing. So they looked nice and sharp, but you only really knew that they were trying to show they were wealthy.

  A poor person wore what rags he could find, and if they had anything nice, they used it only for special events. Parties and weddings.

  The advent of magical clothing added a new dimension to things however. At a whim you could look like you were the richest man in Noram, and dress like the King at a grand ball. Anyone could do it, if they had the right amulet. You could also, like Kolb was doing, make it seem like you were a fairly common person. A bit of canvas, a drab, practical color and a plain workman's tunic, and he was set to blend in with almost anyone in Noram.

  Unless he was doing something like getting lemonade in the kitchen of an Ancient's palace. That marked him as strongly as if he'd been mucking horse stalls in finery. The only thing that would have stood out more would have been going around in rags.

  The tale that Sara wove, which was a nice combination of succinct and descriptive, had the weapons master pulling a healing amulet from under his top, and handing it around. There was a sly look in Dareg's direction when he did it. It wasn't lost on him what the man was probably thinking. They'd had two hard days of fight practice and learning, and the man had held a way to make the pain go away after they were done the whole time.

  Thinking about it at the moment made his arms and legs hurt even more, but that was the real point behind it all, no doubt. The ancient weapons master was trying to condition him, not just in body, but in mind. You didn't get a lot stronger if everything was handed to you too easily. Everyone knew that. It wasn't just about the running and building up of his body. His very thoughts, and willingness to keep going, even when things weren't easy was being considered.

  At least that was the guess that Dare was going with for the time being. It could be something else, like Kolb just forgot, or considered it some kind of hazing. Possibly he just didn't want to share with Dareg, or expected him to ask about things like that, when a suggestion to find a healing amulet was made.

  He looked around the richly appointed space, which was shaped to resemble several kinds of polished stone, and nodded at the glass in the man's hand.

  "May I have one of those? It looks good." He didn't know how to run the magical device, but it seemed easy enough. In the main you held your hand against the central sigil, which looked like a combination of the letter "S" and a spiral at the top and bottom, going in different directions. Then you thought about what you wanted.

  Kolb explained it for him, as he worked.

  "It can produce almost anything. You have to know what you want, and the clearer you think about it, the closer it will be in the end. It's a skill, using it. Like most things. So the best cooks still tend to come up with the best food. That's good, since this kind of thing takes too many jobs away. I've seen it happen before, and trust me, we do not want to go down that path."

  Sara gave him a baffled look.

  "We don't want life to be too good for people?" It wasn't mean or sarcastic, just questioning, as if what had been said was insane.

  Dare could see that one.
Why wouldn't magic for all be a good thing?

  It was explained as cold to the touch glasses were pulled from the production hopper on the side of the Tiera device. That was very different than the Tam-units, he noticed. Those passed things to you right through the solid front of the thing. That way seemed a bit more special, but this prevented dropping.

  The bald man sipped his drink, picking it up from the counter next to the device deftly.

  "Before the first Cataclysm, a little over three thousand years ago, machines were brought to a place of great power, precision, and skill. The way it was done was different, and wasteful, but in many ways each person had much more than they do here. Even Harmony hasn't reached the same level yet." Then he sipped his beverage, and closed his eyes. Either thinking about those long lost days, or savoring the cool and tart beverage.

  It was good, so Dare made an effort to enjoy his own, even if he did feel a bit worried about what had happened. Not because there were people who were that strong and fast, or who had complex and new magic, but because he didn't see a real reason for it.

  The large, powerfully built, man went on then.

  "Back then we had machines that did everything. You probably can't understand it without thinking of it as magic. It worked differently, but that's close enough. We could even build people. They were devices, but they looked like men and women. I mean to say that you couldn't tell the difference on seeing them, or touching them." He winked at Sara and smiled. "Before you ask, Debri, yes, they were often used for sex, which caused no end of problems. People stopped having children for a while... The big issue though, was that they could do anything. Often better than regular humans could."

  It was fascinating sounding, but other than an interesting tale from grandpa Dareg didn't see much value in it. Sara however went wide eyed, making some connection that he just couldn't.

  "And there's a robot fleet coming."