Lineage (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 1) Read online

  The bald weapons master waved at her, and ticked his chin up a notch.

  "It's a stressful day for him. Normally he's not really using much more than any good looking person would rate. We'll be working on that in practice. It won't be an issue."

  Dareg wondered how he was going to be beaten into having that kind of control, but didn't doubt that he'd be finding out soon. To that end, he stood, then bowed toward the King, the Queen, and then each of the other rulers.

  "I should go and wait in the ship, so everyone can have a clear head?" He added nothing else, not wanting to be a slave master really.

  A tiny part of him sort of did however, which was terrible. It would really be so easy to just have everything he wanted all the time, now that he knew it was possible. Totally unfair to everyone else, but still a temptation that he doubted could be beaten forever.

  Alice had mentioned that part. If he got out of control, the others would eventually kill him. Probably her and Kolb. Maybe Tiera. That idea... Didn't scare him at all. A part of him knew that any of them could get the job done, if they really tried. The trick would be in being good enough, long enough, that he learned to hide what he eventually ended up doing.

  Not that he wanted to be bad, but the idea that it wouldn't be happening eventually was insane. Especially if every time he got emotional he started right in, dumping strange influences into the world around him.

  There was a chorus of sad sounding goodbyes, and the King released him with a soft smile and a wave. That meant whatever he really had going on was a very dangerous thing indeed. Even being told they were being influenced powerfully to think of him as being in charge, they all just acted like it was normal, instead of insisting that he have a special shield to wear, that would destroy all of the pheromones leaving him constantly.

  Stopping, he turned and looked at Tor, then Timon.

  "Could I get a kind of backwards shield that would stop the chemicals going out?" He didn't make it an order, but Tor nodded instantly.

  "Of course. That is actually a very good thought. I'll have something for you in the morning? I can get one for Karen too, while I'm at it. I should have thought of that... Really, about ten years ago."

  Tim made a face then.

  "The same for me. Well, get out of here now, and let the grownups make a hash of things alone for a while? We'll fill you in if you need fix anything."

  That didn't sound likely, but Dare also didn't really care, since his input wasn't going to change a whole lot. They still couldn't know if the "Adversary" they'd been warned about was even real, or just an amorphous trick to keep them off guard while the invasion fleet came.

  Remembering how he'd gotten in he walked out, to find that the clever Austran vid crew had already climbed on board. With them were most of the immortals that had come in that day, as well. They were missing William Smythe, who was an official of Noram it seemed. That and Alison, the Princess.

  Them and the ones left in the secret meeting room.

  Looking around he nodded.

  "We should get you all set up for the night. Sam... You need to go and be the Ancient of Noram. They're trying to keep you out of things, when they shouldn't be." He described where the back meeting room was, which got the wizard to smile.

  "That sounds about right. Well, I'm either a pushy bastard or a figurehead. So, let's see which I really am?" He walked off into the night, with his head held high, feeling bold, from the look of things.

  Which probably had to do with him having caused the man to feel that way.

  He grimaced, and sealed the door with a thought, from a distance. It was kind of a neat effect, and Bill, who he'd totally forgotten about, yelled, jumping back when it happened, standing on the far side of it like he was.

  "Was that you, ser?"

  Turning around he nodded. There were chairs in the space, produced by the ship, so made of pure magic. The types were different, but all of them seemed comfortable enough. Past that was a well dressed Bill Humboldt. Standing guard by the door.

  "It was me. Sorry, Bill. I'll have us at Sam's in a moment. Oh, everyone..." He nearly told them about the mechanical people there, but then stopped, and smiled. It wasn't his story to tell. "There's a party tomorrow night. For dinner? Everyone is expected to be there. Nine."

  Taman stood from her small, low chair, and stretched upward alluringly. Looking at him the whole time. It was kind of obvious that she wasn't just feeling a need to put her hands toward the ceiling, and was showing off her trim figure. For him.

  For what he was certain wasn't going to be the last time, he tried to remind himself that she wasn't really his aunt. Just a wonderfully lovely and intelligent woman that happened to be his father's sister. He got the basic idea, but it made him smile at her, worried, which got her to move toward him. Hungrily.

  He held up his right hand toward her and closed his eyes.

  "Sorry, turn your shield on?"

  She did it, and nodded at the cascade that lit up at her front. It was interesting enough that a lot of people there turned to watch it, not feeling worried as far as he could tell.

  "Pheromones. Not sex ones, if that helps. I think I want you to like me. Probably because I'm in love with Tam-unit. She's so wonderful... Anyway, I should have a handle on it soon."

  Sticking out her tongue, very briefly, made her seem very young suddenly. Part of it was her tiny size. She came toward him anyway.

  "Thanks for telling me. I'd heard about it, but didn't realize how strong it was going to be. Doris said it was about the best put together command system she'd ever seen. I wonder how Tor did it? Magic, but without anything to compare it to, that would be really hard to make happen..." Then she nodded, working it out. It was all over her face, not being hidden from anyone. "Cordes. Tor had a copy of him in his head back then. The original King of Noram. He had... Well, his powers were probably a bit like the ones that you have. In that light, I have to wonder how much of your creation was influenced by that fact?"

  She looked at him, like he was going to have the answers to how his birth had happened. Looking back, he shook his head, then turned, rose slowly, moved to the north and east, then moved in over the spaceport like he was coming from someplace far away.

  He had to get a spot farther from Sam's than he liked, because a small ship was in the space he wanted. From the look it was a Space Fleet vessel. It was mainly orange and copper, which was kind of a theme for the ships in that line.

  That meant the others had to walk, once they got out. Taman waved the others away, and moved toward him, then turned her shield off, so she could give him a hug.

  That meant he had to stand, and she didn't hold back too much, rubbing herself all over him, like they were a whole lot closer than having met that day. There was tittering from the door. Looking over, trying not to get aroused, he saw that most of the Baker family was standing there, watching them.

  Lorelei Baker, his grandmother, and Taman's mother, covered her mouth.

  "Well, it is a festival. Still, you should probably take some pity on him Tam. He's clearly trying to be good with you, and not stress the family bonds. Perhaps you should try to do the same?" It wasn't harsh, or mean seeming. Just a hint, which Taman took, a bit reluctantly.

  "That... Might be a good idea. I know it's just chemicals, but... This is... I feel like I don't want to leave."

  The thing there was that he felt kind of the same way, which was interesting. She wasn't having that kind of an effect on anyone else. Not that he could tell. It might have been that he really just liked Tam-unit. She was incredible after all. As soon as she was out of the space however, going to her mother and being pulled out with a chuckle, the pressure of it stopped.

  He looked at Bill, the only one left, and nodded.

  "Okay, some kind of weird magic going on there. I think I should probably get out of here soon. Go to Austra maybe?"

  The small man nodded, and sealed the door.

  "Are we... Is our duty to
go back to the palace? I don't know what I'm supposed to do as a Squire." He looked worried about the concept, but pleased too.

  So was Dareg, actually. Pleased, that was.

  "Congratulations! I don't know, but we should be there to transport people. We can sleep in here, while we wait. I think this has beds."

  It did. The mental command for it didn't even take a lot of work. In fact they were able to have separate rooms. He sent Bill up to the second deck, making the whole thing his for the night. Then he triggered the wakening magic that Alyssa had given him. It clearly wasn't going to be the same as sleep in the long run, but not knowing what was going on it was better to go short, and be ready to act or move, than it was to be caught in bed.

  Then, off course, Tor, Kolb, Alice and Karina came in about ten minutes later.

  That got him to shake his head and smile, which the Princess grinned at, clearly thinking it was about her being there. That was cute though. After all, she was an adult woman, and nice enough for him to want to spend some time with, if given a choice. She, it was clear, was planning to marry soon, given her first words to him.

  "Do you want to live here, or on Mars? We should pick now. It's a bit primitive there, but still nice. I spend most of my time on the Martian Circle, since that's where the people are." Then she moved in to the chair beside of him, and pointed upward. "We should go, and talk." She tried a bit too hard to communicate her secret meaning with him, using her eyes.

  The idea was to move, suddenly, and far away, so that they could all discuss something in private. What that might be, he didn't know. Still, he took them straight up, not asking her to speak about it further. Then, once in orbit, he looked around, and picked a point in a random direction, then jumped to it in one go. It was several hundred times further away than the moon was. Which everyone understood, even as he spun in place. He could go out and back, using the same line, from anywhere he went. If he lost that thread, it would take more work. Though, as long as he meant to go to Earth, or the Moon, it would always work. He could tell that was the case. Anywhere else he wanted to go, too. That was what he'd just done.

  Dareg could do it again, he knew. Really, as big as space was, he would always know where at least one half of his trip was headed. Back home.

  "All right, are we going to go find that incoming fleet? I... I think I can do it?" He knew it existed, and it had to be a unique thing in space. At least nearby. Everyone had acted like it was.

  Tor looked at him like he was being stupid, and might be a little deranged, but Kolb nodded at him, like it only made sense.

  "Good plan. Stay about fifty thousand miles away from them. They might have weapons, so be ready to run. We aren't armed."

  It took a bit of time, trying to just keep what he wanted in mind clearly, then turn it into a blue dot in his head. Then there was a long dotted line, which he followed to a point that was nearly right on top of the moving objects.

  He had to close his eyes for it, but he heard Karina make a sharp inhalation, so opened them, to see if he could find anything. It looked right to him. More to the point, it looked completely wrong, since there were at least ten different types of craft outside of the window, and while far away, like Kolb had suggested, they were so big that he could make them out easy enough.

  For some reason he'd kind of thought that they were talking about some ships like the ones Space Fleet used in size. The large ones, but these were different. Half of them looked a bit like moons. As large as the one around Earth, if not bigger than that. Six of them had rocky exteriors, and except for the things coming out of them, they seemed to be free of light or activity on the surface.

  Kolb pointed.

  "World ships. We'd kicked the idea around, but no one had ever done it. Two different types. See the silver disks there? I can barely make out what they're doing. Probably the aliens then. Not that we can be certain of that. Five of those. Then we have the frames there..."

  Dare had totally missed those. They were a lot bigger than the other things, but looked like bars connected at the corners and in other places. Like a line drawing of a cube, filled in with other bits and pieces for shading. There were only three of those, but each was so vast that two or three Earths could have fit inside them. Each one.

  Tor seemed calm, and very focused. Not in some small or regular fashion either. No, this was powerful, and special in a way that couldn't be ignored. It turned on so sharply that Dareg felt himself following along with what the man was doing. Dragged into a function that he hadn't been prepared for, or knew how to do.

  Blinking, he realized that Taman had been doing the same thing with him. It was some kind of magical effect then. The difference was that Tor was just thinking about the craft outside, and trying to feel them, off in the distance. Whatever he was trying allowed Dare to do it, too. It wasn't comfortable really, but it was a thing his mind was able to accept, not being too different than things he'd experienced before. There was life there, on those strange ship worlds. More than could be counted, it was clear. His mind was suddenly so clear that it nearly drove him mad. Only for a moment however, until Tor pulled back, looking around, his incredible mind still trying to carry him along.

  Shaking his own head he broke himself free of the influence.

  "They must have twenty times our population." Dare's voice was awed, and he didn't try to fight it. "What the hell do they need us for?"

  It was Kolb that answered, smiling at him.

  "Probably not our world. If they can do this they don't need our resources. Or our women. No, it's either that they simply enjoy conquest, or they really are just that desperate. What they don't seem to have is magic. They've shown some small portals, but no jump capability... My best guess is that we're about to find out if they're hostile or not in a few moments. Incoming." There was a smile on the thin lips, almost a smirk. There was stress there, but also joy.

  Dare could see that one.

  "Bill! Get down here!" He glanced at the others. "He just got to bed, but how often do you get to see something like this?"

  The little man, looking young and still dressed in his nice clothing, ran down the stairs and skidded to a halt, grabbing the Noram Princess to stop. He was so focused on what was outside the window that he didn't even notice that he was half holding her as he stared.

  "What is this? I didn't know we were going visiting. I didn't even bring flowers." He sounded steady enough, which was pretty good, given that three glowing orbs were headed right toward them, fast.

  He got ready to leave if they didn't start slowing down, jumping away in a random direction. Not that they didn't know where the Earth was. It was, if he'd gotten the right idea, where they were headed. All of them.

  Tor looked at the new Squire, and laughed.

  "I know! That's pretty rude of us. So far they don't seem to be trying to kill us, but we aren't certain yet, if that's the plan. I think we're about to find out... I think I see someone?" He was a tiny bit puzzled then, and as the ships coming at them got closer, Dare could see why that was.

  Two of the orbs were totally solid in color, a silver that glowed brightly, but the middle one showed a large window, and inside of the craft there were three, very large, very green, individuals. They had oddly stretched down faces, and when they came closer, no further than fifty feet from the front of the jump ship, it was clear to see they simply weren't human. It looked like they roared, showing that they had hundreds of black and blue teeth in their heads, and pure, nearly glowing, pink and green eyes. At least four of them. If they were that at all. The placement looked kind of right for that, but with aliens it would be hard to know for certain.

  If they wore clothing, it was made of scales. They didn't seem to have breasts, or nipples even, but did have a rather normal looking single head, two arms, and two legs. It was only what Lyone said that kept him calm at all. That the Ysidril where possibly the kindest beings anywhere.

  "Wave everyone, I think they're smiling at us."
>
  Tor went first, moving forward slowly. Then he bowed. In return the creatures mimicked him, all three of the visible ones doing the same thing, then they raised their hands to face level, holding their three fingered fists out. Tor, and then the others, all stood, and did the same thing.

  That was it. The craft pulled back then. No death came however, or attack.

  Kolb held out his hand, toward Dare.

  "Jump out in three... Two... Now." It was firm, and he did it, exactly on time. Heading first to the random place he'd picked, then back to Earth orbit.

  Princess Karina looked at them all, then down at the planet, to see there were right above the Capital. Like he'd intended.

  "Ah..." She ruffled her hair a bit. It was long and a little curly, "that was a good first date. The best I've ever gotten before was a free meal." She reached out and pulled Dareg's left arm over, taking his hand in hers, firmly. It betrayed her nerves, even though the rest of them were outwardly calm, given everything. Even Bill.

  Dare nodded.

  "Well, I didn't want you to think I wasn't taking things seriously. Next time I guess we take those flowers?"

  Alice Orange, who'd stood back the entire time, moved up to the window and tapped it. It didn't make any noise.

  "I've heard of worse first contact scenarios. No one even got set on fire as a greeting. So far the story seems to play out then. Those weren't hostile beings. We'd know if they were. Which doesn't mean they aren't just a thousand times more clever than we are and out thinking us already." Then she looked at Dare, a good bit more seriously. "Also, that was some damn fine navigating skill. You'll teach me how to do that. If I can learn." There was no question in the words.

  Still, it wasn't hard or anything, and he wasn't tired at all. So he stood up, to let her take the control chair. She was the head of Space Fleet, so she'd know how to fly already. Even jump he bet. It took her longer to get the hang of things than he had, but once she let go of the idea that knowing where you wanted to be meant having a clue about where it was, she did fine. They went to the next star over, to look around. There were a few little planets there, but nothing all that interesting.