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

  "Reggie! No!" She cried out an anguished scream, but everyone else just froze then, staring, first at the mess and ruin that was the now dead Baronetta Regina Helmsley and then back over at Sandra, who was scrambling for an amulet.

  Tiera pointed the weapon in her hand, but it didn't do anything. The other girl already had a shield on. Screaming she rushed her bodily, hitting the side of a transport and being moved back so hard the Earth itself was churned up from the action.

  By the time she stood the girl was in the air and leaving. Fast.

  "Regina..." She ran to her, knowing it was hopeless, but tried to scoop up what little she could from the smear on the ground and press it against the place where her love's head had been. Then pressing her side to the girl she tried to heal her. Nothing happened, naturally. The damage was so great that she couldn't heal anything at all.

  The screaming was louder then, but by the time she stopped Conserina Morris, the murderer, was gone.

  She spun on her brothers, who just stood, looking sad and upset. Tor did at least. Timon actually just seemed hard then. He nodded to her.

  "So, war against Morris again? Remember, take out the guilty. Might as well take his holdings intact, if you're going to do it."

  She nodded, feeling numb, covered in Reggie's blood still.

  "This is your fault Tor. If you hadn't meddled in this, if you'd listened to me, Regina would be alive right now. I won't forgive you for that. Not ever. You or the King. You killed her as surely as if you'd handed the weapon to Sandra yourself."

  She sounded dark, but calm. That wasn't magic though, it was simply that she had nothing left at the moment. Her gaze went to Count Lairdgren, not caring what he had to say, but wanting him to know what had happened there. Why it was going to be the way it had to now.

  "You made mistakes that cost Reggie her life and took her away from me. I don't have anything else. That isn't going to be free you know. It will cost you more than you can imagine."

  He at least seemed to understand, and bowed low to her suddenly, then he laid flat on the ground as if realizing that it wasn't going to be enough to merely bend a little.

  "I take full responsibility for this. The damage done here is my doing, not anyone else. I ask, no I humbly beg that you do not seek to destroy these innocents for my errors." He was going to go on, but she shook her head.

  "You may as well get up. It wasn't you that refused to listen to me. You made some poor choices, but you didn't try to have me killed, did you? You failed to back me when it was needed and got in my way, but you didn't order that Sandra be let go, to kill."

  That seemed to make everyone else there relax except Timon, who seemed ready to cry.

  "Tiera... No. I know this hurts, but you can't..."

  "Can't I? Really Tim? Who do you think set this all up? Who ordered it done in a fashion that caused this? I can't blame the Count, can I? No... There's only the one person that caused this to happen."

  Tor laid down on the ground too, but Tiera just ignored him, not even listening to his words. Instead she scooped up the dripping body of her love, her heart nearly stopping from the pain. No one stopped her as she set up her Fast Craft and set the girl in the back of it, lovingly holding the ruin of her life.

  "No," She muttered softly, her voice to gentle to carry at all, even as a small crowd stood around, straining to listen to her. "I know who did this. I know who made this happen."

  She left, heading toward the east, fighting to remember how to get to Regina's home. She'd never been before, but she knew the route. It had been on the maps. It was in County Thomson after all, in the Capital there. She'd been to her sister's house, so that would do.

  The trip wasn't a long one, maybe fifteen minutes. She didn't know what to say to Baron Helmsley. It was like no words could ever be enough. That was the truth too, she knew. She was still covered in blood and didn't change it was...

  Horrible, but she didn't want to lose that last connection to her love. The blood dried on her skin, but she just let it.

  After a while she set down in front of where she thought her friend's house was. It wasn't a mansion, but had a certain charm to it and three stories, so a wealthy person's home, but nothing that screamed power or of vast riches. It was a real person's home. Painted wood in brown and light blue trim. It looked manly and happy at the same time. That light blue had been Reggie's favorite color.

  She got out and just stood, not able to make it to the door, tears falling down her cheeks making rusty tracks in the blood there. After a while a man came. He had a silver beard and looked at her, worried, his body a little stooped with age, but seeming to have kind eyes.

  "Miss... are you well? Can I help you with anything? A doctor?"

  "No. Are you Regina's father? Baron Helmsley?"

  "Yes... Oh..." He got the idea without having to be told, but Tiera made herself say the words anyway. He needed to hear it. to know for certain what had happened.

  "She's dead. Conserina Sandra Morris tried to kill me with an explosive weapon and my shield stopped it. I tried to cover her with my body, but I wasn't big enough. The King did this. He kept letting the Morrises go, claiming they were good people. He ordered her let go and for me not to kill her and then she did this..." She sobbed then, but walked the man to the side of the vehicle. He had a right to see. To know what Sandra, and King Richard, had done to his daughter.

  They were both crying as they took the body inside, the servants looking filled with shock when they realized what was going on. After about half an hour she stood up, her face set and started to walk out.

  "Miss..." The Baron spoke, his voice filled with pain. "She spoke of you in letters to me. She... was very fond of you."

  Tiera cried again then, since he was clearly trying to comfort her, even when it was his own girl that had died. He seemed like a good man.

  "May I return for the service?"

  "I think that would be good. You can stay, if you'd rather? I'll have a room..."

  The tradition would have her buried the next day, at noon. Tiera shook her head gently, still walking.

  "No, thank you sir. I have some things to see to. If I can. I'll be back in time."

  She left then, going straight back to the school. She needed to be careful about what she was doing now, she realized. No one could know what she had planned, or else they'd try to stop her. She was pretty certain that Timon had already guessed, but that wasn't the same as knowing for certain. Not at all. Tor... He could read her intent in her field. So could most of the Lairdgren group, no doubt. That would give her away. She let her mind go blank then, focusing as hard as she could and still managing to fly, setting aside even her hate and anger. All that was left was a feeling of emptiness and sadness that wouldn't go away, no matter what she tried.

  She forced herself to clean up, refusing to speak to anyone, and went back to her room, knowing that... Honestly she didn't know anything. She just made herself stay still, inside her head, and hoped it would get her through the night.

  When she got inside, Karen was there, along with Tor and Prince Alphonse. They all wore black. She didn't, she was in light blue.

  Fingering the dress she had on she spoke, trying not to let the rage come, needing to grieve, and not wanting to do it here, where people would know what she intended.

  That couldn't happen. Not if she wanted to have a chance at all.

  Tor spoke first, tears thick in his own voice. That was because he wasn't evil. He'd been very wrong and it wasn't a thing she could forgive, but this wasn't what he'd wanted at all. Even the King hadn't desired Regina's death. He just didn't care.

  "This, it was her favorite color." She explained it lamely, no emotion reaching her voice, which made her sound just a little lost, instead of enraged. "I took the body back to her father. The service is tomorrow."

  Tor looked at the far wall, his face going blank, like it always did when things got bad enough for him. His voice sounded sad though and he took a dee
p breath first.

  "I called the palace. The King... He's given Sandra his protection, at the behest of her father and mother. He feels that this was a tragic mistake..."

  It took everything Tiera had not to think about it. She couldn't let that happen.

  Everyone just sat with her, the Prince holding her gently, for hours. Other people came, but only a few. They were all in black. At about three in the morning Havar showed up, looking awkward and out of place, wearing the same kind of clothing as everyone else. He didn't seem to know what to say, but he held her, pushing the Prince out of the way casually to do it, then wrapped her up in his strong arms for a long time, her head cradled to his giant chest. No one looked at them funny, even though it had to be ridiculous seeming.

  "I'm so sorry..."

  When morning light came she got up to leave, not knowing if she should pack at first, but she hadn't been removed from the school, had she? No, she wasn't the killer or even the friend of a murderer. There was no shame for her in it. Just agony. It would make a fine enough base of operations. She wasn't going back to the singing class however, since to her mind those people had helped kill her friend. She didn't know what to do about them at all, but it would be something. She finally stopped thinking about it, since the rage she was feeling was making Tor stare at her in a way that caused her to be acutely aware of him. That was him reading her, no doubt.

  She just left. No one rode with her, but when she set down nearly two hundred people flew behind her, in a loose formation. All of them in black, a single sky blue band tied around their upper arms.

  For Reggie.

  She cried openly then, trying not to blame them all. They hadn't done it. She needed to keep herself calm and collected, or it wouldn't work. Nothing would.

  She had some things to do, then she could join her friend in death and if they weren't together again, well, at least the pain would be done.

  After the service, which was led by a man she didn't know, who seemed to be the local religious leader, they put the girl in the ground, the box she was in simple, made of raw pine, with nothing in it at all except for a body wrapped in a death shroud. The other school kids said their condolences and the Baron heard them, his face set and brave, even as his heart had to be all but gone. First his wife and then his only daughter, stolen from him. It wasn't fair.

  Not at all.

  She lingered and the man didn't send her away. Tor and Ali both tried to stay, along with most of the fighter's section and Timon, but after a while she asked them to leave. They looked uneasy and were just there to watch her, she knew. To make certain she didn't do anything rash. Of course her plans were going to go beyond that, into things she hadn't ever really thought about before. It was the only thing left for her to do, wasn't it?

  As they all left moving away to the horizon, she turned to the bearded man, her last connection to her love and spoke, gently.

  "I am going to do something rash. So much so that this entire land will be set back by it for generations I fear."

  The Baron frowned but didn't seem unkind about it.

  "Dear, are you... I'm not sure what you mean."

  She didn't let herself talk for a long time, when she did her voice was harsh sounding and bitter. It wasn't how she wanted to seem, not when speaking of Regina, but she couldn't help it. She was brash then, just saying something that most would have taken months to work around to.

  "Count Thomson said that you'd been trying to feel him out as to how he felt about the King for several years. It probably means you're working against Richard, doesn't it?" She waited for the man to make polite denials, or even act offended. He didn't. Not at all.

  "That's right. I believe that the man is bad for Noram. I haven't really made my beliefs a secret on that topic over the years." He looked at her as if she might try to do something about that, but didn't flinch away or try to run.

  "Are you in on the attempt to overthrow him then?"

  There was a dark look to his face, but he nodded, too sad and empty to deny it. Probably willing to die himself at the moment.

  "Good." She turned to look him in the eye directly then, her own face still filled with anguish. "I have a list of those that are working with him. I'm their secret courier. It probably isn't all of them, and I'm not involved in all the secret meetings, but I can get you information. The first bit is this: Count Morris was one of his supporters."

  "I hadn't heard that he'd passed..."

  Tiera nodded, her face cold and mouth set in a firm line.

  "Neither has he. Yet. I'll see to that and his daughter. They won't get away with this. I promise you that. I swear it. None of them will. Even if I have to die to make it happen."

  The man didn't answer, but placed a warm and gentle hand on her back instead.

  Then, until the light failed, they stood at Regina's grave, together.

  When darkness came he went inside and offered her food and drink.

  She shook her head.

  "No, thank you. I have work to do."

  Then she left, lifting off in the dark and heading south east. The Count was in the Capital, but by morning, if she had her way, his family would all be dead. It may not be as easy as that, but Tiera had to try.

  Then she'd get serious about the rest of her plan.