A Simple Darkness (The Young Ancients: Tiera) Page 25

  The morning was a little different since Havar was gone too, which left the whole thing feeling just a tiny bit out of place. The man was kind of her lucky charm in the practice yard after all. She did manage to get Davie to work with her, and after half an hour of him beating her fairly hardily in unarmed combat, which showed her that Havar obviously loved her dearly and was holding back just to be kind, she was sure, he waved to another boy. This one had lighter hair and practice armor on and walked over to them looking a bit like someone had kicked his puppy.

  It wasn't her, she loved dogs.

  "Jerral! This is Tiera Baker. Conserina five, Lairdgren. Tiera, this lunk is my little brother, Jerral Derring, Countier third, Derring. Since no one is watching, I was thinking you two could have a sword bout. Full force, but with blunted weapons. No blows to the head." Laughing he tossed them both blades from the table and started chuckling. "Go!"

  It didn't take long, because after a dozen, very poorly aimed hits to the legs, one Jerral Derring dropped his practice weapon and surrendered. He hid behind his hands , smiling just a bit.

  "Mercy!" He hadn't even tried to really hit her, which was probably due to her being smaller than he was. A good bit. Some of the others were like that too, but it made it harder to learn, if they weren't going to take her seriously.

  On the good side Davie seemed to think so too.

  "Jerral, you have to get past that. Go ahead and actually try to hit her back. She's tougher than you are, and not just a little, but you have skill on your side. Reach too. For now. Forget that she looks like a little girl and do something. Otherwise you're going to be helpless in the face of half the human race and they will kick your butt."

  It took a bit for her to get the idea, but Jerral just couldn't hit women, so it wasn't about her being tiny at all. That was a bit stupid of him, but she kind of got the idea. Men weren't supposed to hit girls, not in general. She couldn't help him though, because he couldn't see past that and would give up, even if it made him look bad in front of the others. Or would just take whatever was dished out instead. Davie wanted him to try and work on it, but the boy just couldn't make himself, for some reason. Since about forty percent of the good fighters in the world were women, that was a massive handicap. The kind of thing that made it so he basically just couldn't keep on as a fighter at all, if that didn't change.

  After they tried again three times, the same thing happening in each bout, Davie just stopped and shook his head.

  "This isn't working. I... Honestly, I don't know what to do. I know that I have to do it, I just... can't."

  The voice that came from the side had an answer. It wasn't a great one, as far as Tiera was concerned, but it did seem like it might get Jerral's attention.

  It was Judy, who stood dressed in light cream colored padded fighting armor of her own. It was what people wore when practicing with a blade, since unlike a club, those could really hurt you. Even the dull ones. Or, Tiera reflected, sticks hurt too, but not as much, or as fast.

  "I know, we can make a game of it. Look at me Jerry. I'm over seven feet tall, I have years of training to fight and really, Tiera and I aren't close at all. The first time we met I would have kicked her behind but good, if she hadn't had a shield on." The girl stood back, holding her own practice weapon, which was a metal sword that had a rounded edge and dips in the length from working sword to sword a few times. You weren't supposed to do that on purpose, but it happened.

  She waved it in the air and nodded to David.

  "So here's the game. You have to protect the little princess here. She won't fight, nor try to protect herself at all. I'll just take to beating her and if you want it to stop at any point, you just walk on up to me and hit me with that weapon of yours. No need to get advanced. Just do it hard enough that I notice it is all. Then I'll stop. One good solid blow."

  Tiera didn't say anything, but didn't like the idea of not fighting back. It hardly seemed fair, and sounded more than a bit like an excuse for Judith to wail on her without any risk to herself. Not much at least. Still, it was clear the Jerral had a real problem and if he didn't get past it, that kind of thing could get him killed eventually. He was family too, after a fashion, so she had to do whatever she could to save him, even if it meant taking a beating for some guy she'd just met. David looked at the tall girl and made a face, one that clearly said he understood what she was really after, but he didn't say no, either.

  "Crap." It wasn't polite language, but Tiera sighed and tried to get ready. It would be really hard not to fight, wouldn't it? "Well, try not to kill me. I'm counting on you Jerral."

  The beating was... not half as bad as she thought it would be. Judy really hit her, but they were smacks to the arm with the side of the blade, loud enough to make the air ring a bit and they did hurt, but, it seemed, she wasn't really just taking the chance to hurt her and get away with it. It went on for a while though, with the girl finally smacking her on the butt with the blade, hard enough that she fell down, crying out. It hurt a lot. Tiera wasn't crying yet, but it was really hard not to do her own battling.

  "I ain't nor stoppin. You make me stop or I'll beat her for hours. I'm having a grand old time of it." She smiled too, being more than a bit of a bitch.

  Finally at about ten minutes in Jerral tried to grab the large girl, which got him kicked in the middle, pretty hard. Judith knew what she was doing and seemed ready for the move.

  "No! With the blade. One hit, hard enough for me to take note of, and I leave off, until then we just keep going." Then she beat Tiera faster, knocking her down, slapping at her over and over again. There would be some bruises, but it was clearly more about getting the boy to act than anything else.

  He did it though, finally, after about twenty-five minutes. He took his blade and tapped Judy. The first one clearly didn't count, though Tiera was feeling a little hopeful, but David said it didn't, his voice locked down for some reason. When she looked up his face was set and jaw clenched tight. He was white. Not just pale, but so light that he nearly could have matched skin tone with her at that moment. His fists were locked and looked almost like bone with streaks of red.

  Tiera noticed that Sir Kolbrin was watching them, but trying to act like he wasn't, for some reason, standing back and paying more attention to Mitchell and a girl that were actually doing a much better job of fighting than she or Judy were. Being spanked with a practice blade wasn't an elegant thing after all.

  It wasn't until the taller girl got frustrated and started hitting her with the edge that the boy acted however, a single blow coming in that was hard enough to rock almost anyone back a bit. Judy started to pull back, but Kolb shouted then, his voice angry sounding.

  "Jerral! You can't believe she really meant it, do you? She's going to keep going if you don't stop her. I don't think Tiera can take much more!" There was a panicked tone to his voice that, at that moment, actually got the boy to start fighting then. It was great for her, since it meant Judy was busy but every few seconds she jumped over and tried to hit Tiera again, as if trying to make it all seem real. They went on and on then, but her new protector managed to keep her safe then.

  He wasn't artful about it. There was a look of pain on his face and it was all that David could do not to stop them, it seemed. He was actually shaking, for some reason and kept staring at her. If she was supposed to have done something else, he could have let her in on it somehow, or at least that seemed reasonable to Tiera. She really would have rather avoided the burning pain after all. Her browns were all dirty too, from being knocked down like she had been and her mouth tasted like blood. She was a bit angry as well, but it wasn't nearly as bad as she would have guessed it might be, given the situation.

  An hour later Sir Kolbrin called a halt to it, obviously having been paying a lot more attention than it had looked like the whole time. Tiera figured that it had all been a set-up, to help Jerral move past a specific block. It seemed like it, since he had to work with every girl out there then, excep
t Tiera. She was allowed to use the healing amulet though, which was a relief. Pain was far from her favorite thing. She didn't fear it, and could stand it if she had to, but if it wasn't needed, she decided that she'd rather not. It felt like everyone else was a little... weaker, that way. Like they minded it a lot more than she did. It was a bit strange, but she figured that it might have had something to do with her being an Ancient too.

  That was probably why she'd been given the job of pell for the day. She was little and young looking, but could also take the punishment without it harming her, mentally.

  Jerral was still working when it was time for her to leave and no one tried to talk to her overly, so she got to her other classes, not having time for a shower first. It left her feeling gross, but no one commented on it, since she didn't reek too bad yet. She did make a point of sitting away from everyone else while taking her test in math though. The Instructor shook his head at her and graded the problems she'd done, handing her another book on the way out.

  "This is the next book. You passed by the way. Perfectly. I expect you to have this one ready for testing in a week. Come to class daily, but, I'll have to work up a new lesson plan for you." He smiled though and pushed her gently toward the door. "Don't lose my book or get food stains on it, please."

  Instructor Crane didn't ask her to do more than sing that day, and while he made corrections for her, he wasn't overly harsh. It was noticed by the tall boy that was a good singer, but who had seemed a bit lazy before. In fact he shook his head and snorted at her.

  "Bull. She went totally flat on the whole third verse. It's supposed to be a harmony piece, but she reversed the parts." He demonstrated, if two octaves down, his voice rich and full while he did it. Then he waved at her, and did it again, sounding different. "That's what you're supposed to do."

  Tiera got that he was being a jerk, trying to look good for his friends, who all snickered at her. Not everyone in the room did, just the ones that sat right around him, a boy and two girls that seemed a little catty suddenly. She grimaced, but sang the corrected verse as closely as she could to what he'd done the second time. Instead of mocking her efforts, he made a single correction and when she did it for the third time he nodded.

  "That's not bad, actually."

  Instructor Crane looked at the boy, as if bored.

  "If I might have my class back, Master Sorenson?" He looked down his nose dryly, but the boy smiled and waved at him a bit.

  "Sorry." He looked like he was about to be flip then, but instead looked back at her and smiled, shaking his head and patting the girl next to him on the leg.

  After class it was time for another food run, since she had that pesky habit of eating every day. She got a bit extra, in case Reggie came to eat with her. The girl had gone back to eating in the dining hall already, since it cost too much to eat out all the time and the food there was free, if not that great. The general rule now was that if anyone got caught doing anything to the food, the fighters would take turns beating them. Daily. For the rest of the term.

  It wasn't enough for her to trust in it, but most of the kids felt safe it seemed. A few squeamish ones like her were holding out, but things had gotten nearly back to normal, it seemed. That would probably hold, right until it was her turn to have kitchen duty. People might not trust her to worry about a few daily beatings, not if they knew her schedule at least.

  Back in her room she ate quickly, and ran to her next class, with no sign of Karen yet at all. It was getting a bit scary, but she didn't let it get to her overly. She'd have to ask around for her though, if she didn't show up soon. It wasn't until after her meditation class, which went far more smoothly that day than the first, that she could let that bit of stress go.

  The large girl was on her bed when she returned, and on hers was Captain Petra, sitting next to Timon. They were on the same bed, which caused the country girl in her heart to feel scandalized for a few seconds, but it was pretty clear that it wasn't anything untoward at all. They had nearly Timon's arm's length between them and were all looking at her, faces relaxed and not guilty like they'd been doing anything wrong with her younger brother.

  "Hey, all. Come to visit?" She doubted it was the case and Timon shook his head firmly, his eyes dark.

  "No. We need you. Rescue mission. After a fashion. This... It isn't exactly a normal thing."

  Tiera just waited, looking at him. He knew not to keep her waiting too long and she felt peaceful still, from her last class, though that was starting to fade. Fast.

  After a few seconds she actually got the information she needed from him.

  "Patricia Morgan has been running an operation to try and get the Larval out into the open. One that really isn't needed now. She found a guy named Gerent, he found a box of amulets that Tor had misplaced or something like that. I don't think he stole them even... So, basically he used that to claim to be Tor, which is illegal, since you can't impersonate a noble like that, and when she found him, she put it around that he was the real thing. The assassins clearly didn't think that had any merit, since they never even came around to check, but she managed to get herself locked up by Baron Gala, along with Gerent. I told her I'd back him as my brother if anyone asked, but if both of us go to get him, it will seem more real. You met the Gala's right? So you can contact them personally? They'll recognize you? That would make things much simpler."

  Tiera rolled her eyes.

  "I'm not a big supporter of Trice. She was mean to Tor, and hurt him. I don't know this Gerent at all, but he's been breaking the law... I'm not sure I see any benefit to supporting him in all this. Is there more to it, or is it just about that?" It came out sounding moody, but at least not mean. She was just a little worn by how everything had gone lately.

  Her little brother didn't speak for a long time. When he finally did his voice was low, almost like he couldn't be bothered to make any noise at all.

  "Gerent got in trouble originally when a gang stole a girl. They were raping her when he found them, so he lied to try and scare them, claiming to be the Troll of Galasia. That didn't work, well you'll see, he isn't very frightening. So he had to fight them all. Alone. He doesn't know how to fight, so I guess that was a mess, but he didn't give up and managed to drive them out of the area. But people heard what he said , so he couldn't back away from it. Because then he'd just be accused of breaking the law, hero or not. Then Trice found him and led him into all of the rest. I think he loves her, so... We need to move fast. I said I'd back him. That doesn't just mean when it's easy."

  It was a point, wasn't it? She didn't know this man, but her own brother had claimed him and really, Tor would have too, if he'd known about it, most likely.

  "Right. Well... We need someone older than we are. I wouldn't believe us, if we showed up in the middle of the night... Fine, I have an idea, maybe. We need to get in touch with the palace though. I don't know if the King will help us, not with the law breakers, but..." She didn't even have to finish explaining the whole thing before Timon's communications device was out, the small white thing with its glowing sigils in her hands, the one for the Capital already activated.

  They waited, no one talking, the older girls looking slightly uneasy. She felt that was too a bit, but didn't let it show. The King had no reason to help her overly. When the thing was answered, she didn't recognize the voice at all. It was a male, but that was all she knew.

  Timon did though.

  "Hey, Kevin. Timon Baker here. We need to speak to..." He glanced at Tiera, who mouthed a name. Timon got it instantly, not seeming surprised at all. "George. I think we need to borrow him for the night, if the rest of you can cover for him. It's a secret mission. An urgent one."

  There was a clatter then, the sound of someone running, without saying anything. Three minutes later he was back, not even out of breath.

  "By the northern city gate, in an hour. Do you need him to be there sooner? Or, for that matter, do you need more bodies?"

  Tiera raised two f
ingers, and looked around. Everyone seemed to agree at least.

  Timon spoke as if it were his own idea.

  "Two would be very good, if possible. This shouldn't require violence. If it does we'll handle it a different way."

  "Understood." Then the device cut out and Tim put his away after a single tap.

  "Someone was coming. From the tone of Kevin's voice, I'd guess Alphonse. He goes far more deferential for the King or Queen and likes the Princesses enough that you can hear the difference when he speaks."

  They jogged to the commons as a craft was set up almost instantly, Timon flying, since it was his mission really. She sat in the back, next to Petra, who seemed a little shy suddenly. Tiera smiled at her, getting one back, but they didn't talk. Not at first. The larger girl did nudge her arm a little though.

  "So, are you seeing anyone new lately?" It was just making conversation, so she mentioned Regina, which got a chuckle from Karen, who already knew about it.

  Petra seemed politely interested.

  "That's all though? It sounds like you have plenty of room in your schedule then for more. My brother was asking after you the other day. Trying to come up with a message to send someone as an excuse to meet up with you. Maria was actually all jealous too, which is rare for her. You should go and visit them soon. On your off days next week perhaps? I know they'd love to see you." There was no subtlety to the words, but it was clear it was a real thing, not just the woman teasing her.

  She had to shake her head though, trying to make herself look sad, even if she didn't really care that much. "I can't, not this week. I have extra classes, because I missed several days. I'm pretty much not getting a break for two weeks now actually, since I have to do a day for each I missed. Then... I think I have to go to Soam." Which would start the next morning, the punishment part. Hopefully she'd get some sleep that night, but for some reason that didn't seem likely.