A Simple Darkness (The Young Ancients: Tiera) Page 34

  Karen smiled at her and threw her hands out, as if pushing the idea away.

  "I don't know. I didn't come up with it. Maybe you can talk to them about it at the meeting? I was just asked to get you to come along. Now."

  She nearly told the older girl to forget it, since she had meditation class, but then she looked away and tried to get her irritation under control. It wasn't rage yet and she was set up to make deliveries. Maybe it was just that. It made a good excuse to get people down there at least.

  The knock at the door got Karen to spin in place, opening it as if expecting Sir Kolbrin to meet them there. Which he was, with Dean Hardgrove and a very shy looking Reggie standing behind them. Tiera moved past the men, almost as if ignoring them.

  "I have to take these people down to the Capital. Emergency run. Apparently the King can't go even a moment longer without scolding me. It isn't about school things, but the Dean and Master Kolbrin have agreed to go with me to help make sure I don't get locked up in prison. I... sort of broke a few laws the other day, down in Galasia. I don't think it's that big of a deal, though I do wish my apology to Baron Gala was delivered already. Can we meet later? Tomorrow, if I'm able to? We're both supposed to go to the tavern. A classmate invited me and thinks it's a wonderful idea, having you along. We can drag Karen and Ali with us too maybe, so we'll know people."

  Her friend looked scared suddenly, and her eyes went, not to either of the men, but to Karen, who she actually knew. The larger girl nodded and waved at Tiera.

  "It was a bit worse than that. She helped cripple four men and killed another. That wouldn't normally be that huge of an issue, since Baron Gala is an easy going person, but his Barony is in County Harris and Countess Harris is Countier Scotland Ross's second cousin and they're close enough that Tiera getting in his way the other day is causing some waves." Karen stared directly at the girl and shook herself, as if worried. "They can't easily go after her for that, the Countier was in a combat rage after all, so the rules change and pretty much almost anything is fair game. He was trying to kill Count and Countess Ward, and since they're in doubt again Tiera's heroism is being looked at with suspicion as if she were working against the King."

  Making her face as hard as she could, Tiera started to leave the room.

  "Which is just people being stupid. The King and I, we don't always agree on everything. He's a bit of a stupid head at times, and I'm sure he thinks even worse of me. Probably with good reason, from time to time, but if he gives me too much trouble on this, I'm going to make sure he gets an earful."

  Everyone followed her then, and Regina came along too.

  "Fine... I'll go and talk to him then. I don't know if it will help, but..."

  Dean Hardgrove put a hand out to stop her.

  "Oh, I wouldn't worry too much for Tiera here. She might be scolded, possibly even removed from the school, but King Richard isn't an unfair man. Neither is Countier Ross. This will turn out to be fine."

  For some reason Sir Kolbrin didn't seem to agree, shaking his head a little instead.

  "Don't paint the picture too brightly, Kyle. Miss Baker might end up in severe trouble for her actions. The pure truth of the matter is that having another schoolgirl there won't help at all. It won't be easy, but you need to stay here and ready yourself for whatever may come. We can't know what the punishment will be, but the men in Galasia, they had their arms and legs removed and were sentenced to perpetual rape for their crimes. It isn't impossible that Tiera will face the same thing now."

  Her friend gasped and looked half panicked.

  "No... We'll run away." Jumping forward awkwardly she tried to grab the Weapons master around the middle. It didn't work very well, and she slipped her arms ending up around his knees. "Run Tiera! I'll hold them while you get away!"

  She nearly cried and patted her friend on the shoulder instead.

  "Don't worry, Kolb here was just having you on. It's his version of being funny. I'm sure later on when he regales all the other weapons instructors with the story it will be a comical farce. Sir Kolbrin, that really isn't very nice." She tried to make her intention clear, but the man just stood there for a bit, his face blank.

  "Oh, well, I suppose I shouldn't play that way with you then, Miss. It really isn't that big of an issue, as you can tell by mere school officials being called to the Capital. My jest was a bit coarse and as I can see now, unwelcome. I'm a fighter first, and we do tend to run toward hard humor. Please forgive me."

  Looking up at him, Reggie slowly let go.

  "Truly? You were simply making fun with me?"

  "Poorly, as it turns out. This will be fine, I'm certain. Perhaps a few beatings for your friend here, but nothing too harsh to survive." Then he helped the orange eyed and pretty girl to her feet. "I mean that part. About beatings. That really could happen. She tends to be a bit flip with authority figures. That doesn't always end well."

  With that she got her Fast Craft set up on the stones of the common area, letting it float about a foot off the ground. It took less than a minute for them to get loaded and in less than two they were several miles away.

  "That..." Tiera said, her voice calmer than she felt. "Was mean. I don't have so many friends that I can afford to lose them by having my other friends causing problems. Just for that you have to have all the poor flyers on your team tomorrow during my special class. Hmph!" The words would have been more menacing if Karen hadn't laughed then.

  "Seriously Kolb. What was that? I get playing into the story, but you could have just told her no. Regina isn't used to that kind of thing, and she'll actually worry about it. Not everyone knows the King personally you know. She doesn't get that he'd never allow that to happen and that the worst he'd do is have Tiera beheaded."

  Tiera wished him the best of luck with that one, if he wanted to try it. Implanted shielding would make it pretty difficult to do. Really, it would make it hard to even spank her. She'd have to focus pretty hard to keep her shield off all the time it was happening after all.

  It was Dean Hardgrove that spoke then, as they flew toward the Capital at thousands of miles per hour.

  "Miss Baker, if you could detour toward the south west? We aren't actually meeting in the Capital proper, but about ten miles outside of the city, in the surrounding area. There will be a beacon set out for us." His voice was calm and steady as if it made sense for her school's Headmaster to know things like that.

  "I can do that."

  The beacon was a set of magical lights, six of them, set in a large circular pattern on the ground. It could be seen from the air, but that was the point. They were in multiple colors, so hard to miss, and none of them were the white or bright amber of fire in the night. There was purple, blue and green. No one coming in would be able to mistake the meaning. Of course if they were being watched from space, they could have as easily just done it all in town, couldn't they? If that was the case, then it wouldn't matter, but all they could do was try.

  She settled in the middle of the lights, that area visibly being empty. It was still a slow movement, so that she wouldn't smack into the ground, since it was harder to do in the dark, even with the guides that had been put out. That would be embarrassing, especially since there were at least ten other vehicles set up, all of them magical in nature.

  Most of those were set off to the right, and half of them were the older, but very reliable, focus stone type that Tor had made first. The rest were either the regular magical carriages, which most people didn't know could fly, even if they had one, and two other Fast Craft. You could tell the difference, because the faster ones felt like they were moving, even as they sat still on the ground. At least to her they did.

  It was a large collection of big people, at least fifty of them, most sitting on blankets, or standing near the large fire that was set up some two hundred feet from the ring of lights. That was probably to keep people from being crushed if there was a minor misplacement of one of the flying vehicles.

  Not tha
t she would make a mistake like that, but it could happen.

  The meeting was a lot different than she thought it would be. It started with King Richard calling them all to attention, and then asking for everyone to swear to him again.

  That went poorly.

  Timon went first and started the problems, which made everyone seem edgy.

  "I'm not working against you or yours. I have my own projects and concerns, but am loyal, at this time." It seemed about like what he'd said before, but everyone copied him, more or less, which left a strange tone to the whole thing. Only about half reaffirmed their pure fealty. Tiera didn't, but that was because she knew it wasn't a thing for her. At any given moment her feelings were more than a little dark about the King after all. He kept getting in her way.

  So she said that.

  People did not think that was good enough at all.

  "Sire! Do we have a traitor in our midst?" This came from someone too tall and shrouded in darkness on the other side of the fire, but Tiera knew the voice.

  Count Morris.

  "No, I'm loyal enough. I am going to kick your ass for saying that though, you moronic waste of space." She started to round the blaze, a large thing that she suspected wasn't real, having seen one before. It was a Guide bonfire. The creation of the boy from school. Her arm was caught by someone though, who laughed at her. At first she didn't see who it was, but she thought it was Count Lairdgren, looking younger than he had been. Except he was currently across the fire.

  "Tor?" She waited, knowing that anymore that could be someone in disguise, and the man had just walked up, so it could be anyone short enough.

  "Yes. I heard there was a small problem with a rebellion? Now, stop getting ready to kill Count Morris. He's loyal enough and we need everyone we can get in on this. For your part Morris, don't mess with my little sister again. I heard some of what you said to her and if you start that again then you're a fool. Next time I won't ask her to let you off the hook, like I did this last time." His voice was harder than she was used to, but the whole circle erupted then, sounds of happiness and near glee coming.

  The King, smiling like they were all saved suddenly, walked around the blaze to give him a hug, actually picking the smaller man up into the air.

  "So, the threat of the Larval has passed? We found a collection of them, but they vanished before we could get the army into place."

  There was silence for a few seconds and then Tor shook his head.

  "No. I still have to take care of them. They aren't here anymore however. In Noram or Soam. I can't speak for most of the other places in the world. The only continent that will soon be left to them is Austra. If Brown doesn't have anything in place to capture them, I'll have to unleash the second part of my plan. They're insane, not evil, as hard as it is to believe. At least I think that Afrak, Tellerand and the Antarctic have been taken care of?" He looked at Tiera then, his eyes on her alone.

  She just made a face and shook her head, trying to think about what she actually knew, instead of her excitement that her brother might get to be back now. Mother would be pleased. She'd had a bit of a falling out with him right before he left. It had been over a stupid prank, but instead of apologizing to him, she'd tried to bully her son. That wasn't going to work as easily now that he was a bit more mature and his own person, it seemed. He'd disowned her, but Tiera wasn't overly worried about that. If he didn't shape up soon, she'd drag him back home and make him get along with her. They were family after all, so he had to.

  For some reason everyone was acting like his being back meant something more than getting a few extra hugs though. Even the older people that should have known better. She half expected Timon to call them on it, since he clearly understood that it wasn't a fix for the situation, but he was strangely silent, just looking at his brother darkly.

  That left it up to her, since no one else bothered to say anything.

  "Stop being stupid!" It was an order and for some reason the words actually got most of the people to glare at her, which, while not perfect, was at least a sign they'd refocused on the task at hand. "Tor came to help, but he can't fix this. Not on his own. We still need to find the people working against us and stop this if we can. There's a war coming, right this instant, and if we don't work together and do it fast, it's going to be a lot worse than it should be. Do we know who's behind this? Does the Larval being removed from Noram, if they truly have been, mean that they can't support the effort against us anymore? What should we do to stop this? Move on the highest level ring leaders with covert techniques before they can act?"

  That made sense to her, and oddly enough, even if they all thought she was a rude little bitch, most of the people seemed to consider what she was saying instead of calling her out for her behavior.

  Count Peterson spoke, his voice rumbling from a few places down from her.

  "I can't speak as to who leads this for certain, but I know that I haven't been able to find Kedrin Cordes for some time. He owes me some coin, so I didn't really think much of it at first, but he'd be a natural person to put on the throne, being the King's brother. Few of the common people would even notice the difference, after the smoke cleared." He sounded less than pleased about the idea at least, but didn't say why.

  The King did though, "that would be less than optimal, but not totally unexpected, if it's the case. He could also be in trouble however. He was doing charity collections for Alyssa Baker and Sam Builder's orphan project. It gave him months of travel all over the realm without much oversight at all."

  That started questioning and debate about who was actually working against them. Some of the names were known, such as Count Kern and Countess Lovejoy. They were so clearly in on it that no one spoke to doubt the idea, even their own relatives.

  Tiera kept a running tally in her head, not really worried about it, more excited about her brother being back than anything else, until about ten minutes into the whole thing. It was her own brother-in-law, Count Thomson that said the words.

  "One of my Barons seems to have subtly been feeling my loyalties out for the last two years. Nothing so overt that I'd bothered to call him on it at any point, just hint and testing. You all know the way of it. Nothing that I could take action on. Landless, but he has a decent reach in the business world, running a major lumber concern. Baron Helmsley."

  Tiera felt her blood run cold then. It was possible of course. Regina couldn't pick who her father was after all. Or it could have been that there was simply more than one Baron Helmsley. It wasn't likely, but there were two Joneses, so maybe it was just something she'd missed before? She wanted that to be the case, but even that idea was taken from her seconds later.

  By Karen. The traitor.

  "His daughter is a friend of Tiera's from school. We may be able to use that connection, if we're careful." She didn't say how, but the idea was so clear that she didn't have to.

  They wanted her to spy on her own friends? On her lover? That made her blood run cold, but she didn't speak, no one else really seeming concerned by the idea at all. Except Timon. He stepped around the circle of large bodies and moved close to her, his hand reaching out toward her tentatively. It was odd, but she noticed that he was taller than her now. He had been, of course, but in the last weeks he'd grown even more. He was only twelve, but stood nearly five-five already. That wasn't huge for her family, but it was a sign he wasn't going to be that short all his life, if it kept up.

  "Tiera... How close are you to this woman?"

  At least he bothered to ask. She didn't know what to say at first, feeling embarrassed as everyone focused on her tightly, no one tried to speak for her at least, so she answered even as the blood rushed from her head.

  "I love her." It was the truth, but the only person that seemed to think it was really important, oddly enough, was the King.

  He stood, with his head held high in the firelight.

  "Then I won't ask that you act against her, or her family, on mere suspicion. We ca
n find another way, there must be a thousand avenues to explore here." Then he started trying to outline them.

  The meeting moved on and no one even said the name Helmsley after that. Her name was mentioned, but other than Count Morris, no one questioned that she was totally loyal. He did it slyly, but Count Thomson snapped at him loudly, backed up almost instantly by Count Peterson and more humorously, by Countess York.

  That got Richard to walk over to her and put a hand on her back gently, as if to protect her, like she needed it from Morris?

  "We shouldn't be bickering amongst ourselves. Put the past behind us and move on. It isn't always easy to do, but the other course leads to ruin." He didn't say for who.

  Tiera already knew that one though. Ruin for everyone that acted against her.

  A slow anger built then, but she contained it. Part was at Reggie's da, who might be working against the rightful King. Part was directed at Tovey, since he might be wrong in his suspicions about the fellow. The rest was at herself, for letting things get that far out of hand. She didn't know what she could have done differently, but there had to have been something.

  A plan, of sorts, worked itself out in her head as she stood there, wondering what to do. She'd spy on Reggie, but only to show that her father was innocent. Barring that, she'd prove that her friend was and protect her from any harm that might come. If they had to they could runaway somewhere. It wasn't the best plan in the world, but nothing else would come at all. She needed to find proof. Somehow.

  That would mean getting closer to the Baron. On the good side she was already invited to his home in a few weeks. The time between that moment and when she'd be free of the oppressive weight of worry was going to be forever, but she'd live. There was no choice, since it was clear that no one else was going to stand for a fourteen year old girl that was unknown to them.