Pain Stones (Coalescence Book 2) Read online

  When the device showed a face, it wasn’t his Aunt at all, being her husband, the Count instead.

  “Hello? Willum Baker, isn’t it?” They had met before, but, Will realized, his hair and eyes were both purple at the moment. That got him to roll his eyes and make a change to that, getting the man to nod.

  “It’s me. Sorry, I was in a different reality earlier and forgot to change that. Um… I was wondering if I could impose on you this evening? I was asked to go to the palace for dinner tonight. Princess Veronica suggested that I bring Ambassador Mableton with me, which is the current plan. I just got a new place set up a few hours ago, but I don’t have a proper vehicle yet at all.”

  The man looked annoyed for a moment, then nodded.

  “I see. I could send a carriage for you? We’re not headed that way for the meal tonight, but it would be no issue at all to send a driver for you.” That might have been the simple truth, but it was also clear that the blonde fellow felt he was being abused by being asked at all.

  At the same time, it was clear that he didn't want to insult an Ambassador, by forcing her to walk to the palace on foot. The conflict was harsh enough that it rippled across Will’s skin, from miles away. That was impressive, considering that the Count wasn’t a wizard or builder at all. Honestly, it probably indicated he was in a low-level combat rage over the idea.

  “That would be wonderful! Thank you so much… Normally I’d make my own, but I don’t have time this evening. It’s a bit of an oversight on my part. I just don’t have the kind of resources that… Well, I imagine most do, here in the capital.” For a moment, he felt awful. Not just for having asked, but for having to do it at all.

  It was humiliating. Which was the point. People, even spies, might well pick that part of things up, if they noticed at all. The man on the device seemed to get that as well. There was no sense of relishing the power that the Count had that Willum didn’t however.

  Unlike about half the people that he’d been dealing with of late, at least to speak with, the large man didn’t seem to be in on the whole thing, either. This man wasn’t sending a coach for them because it would make their secret cross world spy look better. It was mainly for the Ambassador, and to help out a relative. A poor one, who hadn’t had a lot of time to build up a bank of coin.

  Instead of fuming at him, the man took a single, very long breath, then carefully didn’t sigh.

  “It’s not a problem at all. I’d heard that you were living down in Soam, with your Aunt Taman? Has that changed?”

  He shook his head then, smiling a bit.

  “Not really. She had me set up a palace here so that I could work from the Capital at need, taking messages around. I could have gotten a craft from her, of course, but… Well, it’s a bit embarrassing, but I don’t know how to drive one. Not even a ground craft. So even if I’d been resourceful that way, I’d still be left asking for help, I fear.” That was true, actually. He’d learned a lot from Taman and a few others, but none of them had bothered with that kind of thing. In any world.

  “Ah? Well, I can help with that, at least! You’ll have to get your own vehicle, but we can get together after that and I can go over the controls for it? I think I’m up on everything being made right now, so we should arrange for that. For tonight, well, I need a place to send the driver. You said you have a new location?”

  He described how to get there, which honestly wasn’t that hard. There was a small road, but it was the one closest to the river. The main problem was that it was about ten miles from where he was into the city to the palace. Not in a straight line, but that’s what it would take, winding around the maze like streets of the place.

  “I’ll send that transport directly. Not the carriage, I don’t think. I don’t wish to insult the Ambassador, but it will never make it in time. Horses can only do so much.”

  There was no mention of not wanting to insult his nephew, but Will wasn’t going to feel that way, so it was probably fine for him not to consider that kind of thing. They didn’t really know each other after all. Plus, the man was a noble. They had different rules as far as family ties went. Willum had been raised with country sensibilities that way. How they were different, well, the fact that he didn’t know that was kind of the point.

  The man wasn’t brusque with him really, but it was kind of certain that he felt put out, having to send anyone anywhere for Willum. It left a bit of a bad taste in his mouth. Which was a shame, since he didn't really want to think poorly of the man. When Will had come to him, he’d done his part. That should count for something.

  When the device went back to normal, the Ambassador smiled at him, her eyes going wide.

  “That was different. By the way, he wasn’t commenting on you there. Not even on me. No, it was that something is happening and he’s worried that he’s being kept out of the loop. As a Count that can be a big deal. He wasn’t worried about lending us a car for the evening at all. Tovey was thinking that getting you in to teach you to drive would allow him a chance to get at information, if you find out anything.”

  “I doubt that anyone is really going to be telling me anything in particular tonight. Now, you might be in on some things, but that’s your power, really. You know more than anyone else here does. Which… Really, I should probably marry you, given that. Except that I have orders not to get too close to anyone that way. Well, we can be friends anyway, that will count the same, right?” He tried to seem happy about it all, knowing that it wasn’t going to fool his friend in the slightest. She didn’t even play back with him at the moment, which was telling.

  “Here, let’s do the clothing for the evening? It will be a few hours before the driver gets here. About seven. That will put us in early, but if we don’t do it that way, we’ll probably end up being late, which will make us look rude. We don’t want that. I hate that everyone calls me an Ambassador here. You know, no one back home does that. It isn’t official at all, except that if I mess things up, it’s going to seem like my entire world is telling yours to go screw itself.”

  Will took a deep breath, then closed his eyes.

  “I know. It’s all of us, isn’t it? Avery is in the same boat, really. When I go to your world, there’s always an undertone of that kind of thing, even though I’m not anyone in particular here. On the nice side, I apparently didn’t annoy my Uncle the Count too much to bear. That would be a bad plan, I’m almost certain. Do you think he’s the kind to hold a grudge?”

  The woman brushed at her hair, then shook her head.

  “Not really. He’s laid back for one of you people here. If you can take him even a tidbit tomorrow, or maybe introduce him to a few people, he’ll be happy enough, I’m sure.”

  Thinking about the whole thing for a few minutes, he nodded. After all, finding something like that to pass along would be simpler than risking alienating a family member.

  So he hugged Cindy, holding her too closely for it to be just friendly, if only for a few seconds.

  “Good advice. Now, we should get ready?”

  “Yep. Let’s do it.”

  It didn’t take long. Then they had to find a way to pass the time. Cindy did that by finding out what everyone they were about to meet might want to know.

  That was informative, Will had to admit.

  Chapter three

  Going to the king’s palace in Noram was annoying to a level that nearly had Willum wanting to simply walk away, about half an hour into the whole process of getting inside the main gate and then into the building itself. It didn’t help that there were people in the very walls, staring at him. Some of them even seemed to be holding at least a bit of hatred for him personally.

  Red anger came off of several points behind the false facade. Weapons were pointed at him the entire time. Not Cindy, or the butler who was guiding them at the moment. It was all about Willum Baker that day.

  He understood why that was, of course, since he’d come in unannounced at one point, directly into the palace itsel
f. Then had kind of thwarted the Royal Guard, when they’d tried to subdue him. What they’d tried to do to him functionally hadn’t worked, because they weren’t ready for a person with his powers. Even though he’d apologized to them all, it was clear that the men and women involved, and their friends, were going to have a long term problem with him. Their fields were directed at his back, mainly. As he moved through the well-appointed hallways, the floors made of polished stone with carpets in places, he was hunted by the people there. Followed, with enough intent to harm or kill him that in any normal situation he would have tried to get out of there.

  It was tempting, even at the moment.

  Worse, simply telling, or asking, for the people there to stop doing it wasn’t going to help anything. He was reading their minds, which wasn’t a normal thing, really. Except that he needed to be doing that kind of thing all the time, everywhere he went. Next to him, dressed in a deep red gown, which had a lot of lace on it, but wasn’t ready for a ball or party, the Ambassador glanced where his attention went.

  “It’s a bit intense, really. There are some butt hurt people involved here. We need to be careful. No one is plotting anything specifically, at the moment. That doesn’t mean they aren’t looking for a reason to have a rematch.” This was spoken in Standard. Loud enough for everyone to hear, even behind the false wall panels. Those were mainly creations of wood, but covered with fine carvings that were actually well done. Those hid the peep holes pretty well. He could make them out, but a lot of people probably wouldn’t get it. Even if they were pointed out.

  Will could have done as good of work, possibly. He’d been trained in wood working, but most of the focus had been on doing things that were durable, rather than pretty. It wasn’t that hard to make patterns in wood and polish the things though.

  The man in front of them wasn’t a guard at all, just the main butler, or possibly one of several of them that the palace had. The place was large enough that it kind of made sense to him that there would be more than a few people with the same basic job. It was probably good work, if you could get it. In his entire life, Willum had never thought about the idea before. Even of having servants at all. If you had a house, it made more sense to do that kind of thing yourself, instead of putting on huge trappings, to rub everyone else’s face in how little they had.

  Thinking about his big black tower, he had to sigh. Just a bit, since they were walking, and glooming around as if a thundercloud was floating over his head was probably rude. Judging people he didn't know for how they lived wasn’t a thing that he could allow either.

  His job, traveling around and collecting data, was facilitated by not rubbing anyone the wrong way. Being grumpy was a sign that he was about to be doing that. Instead, he really needed to start thinking about how to win people over. In a way that would seem about right, given his personal station.

  Which meant making himself useful to the King, Queen and possibly their children if at all possible. For a second he wondered if any of them needed some new cabinets or wooden furniture made. It wasn’t likely, but he had the skills needed that way.

  Forcing his lips to move upward, letting the whole thing touch his eyes, he moved along with Ambassador Mableton, ending up in a room that was fairly small, having only one way in or out. Also no windows, or, he noticed, no fake wall panels. Those were of solid stone, making the whole thing hard to spy on inside.

  Except the part where they clearly just let spies walk in. That was a bit of an oversight on their part, he didn’t doubt.

  At the far end, standing as they came in, were the King and Queen. To the King’s right hand was Prince Alphonse. The heir to the throne of Noram. Across from him, on the far side of the Queen, was the woman from the communications device. Veronica.

  His new pal.

  That meant the seating pattern was far different than anything Willum had heard of before. All of them stood up as well. Bowing. Toward Ambassador Cin. That part at least seemed right to him. He did it back, the IPB woman following along perfectly. Then, she probably understood what was going on at the moment. Maybe even better than he did.

  He could tell that no one wanted him dead inside the room. Other than that, there was a dance of conflicting emotions in the space. Most of them were fairly positive, which was surprising.

  When everyone stood up, the King gestured at the seats on either side of the table.

  “If you’d join us? I know this is slightly unusual, but I’ve had some troubling news. If this isn’t satisfactory, we can move to another space?”

  The door, a solid oak thing that was several inches thick, from the feel of it, clapped behind them. Light came from a magical strip that ran around the walls, about ten feet up. It was the same sort of magic used at the space ports so that craft could land in the right places and at night. In the room they were in, it looked like sunlight. Bright and actually cheery. It was even warm on the skin. Not his, but he could tell that it worked that way for the Royal family. The space was cool inside, again thanks to magic. There was a unit on the wall that was busily removing the heat from the area they were in. That field was interesting to follow, since it passed the information of heat to a spot inside the Earth, instead of just calming the movement of the air to cool them.

  Both would work, Will thought. Why it was done in the way it was there he didn't really know. As long as you simply changed the information of the matter in the room, it would work with no more energy being involved.

  Still, he bowed slightly again, going about halfway down. The first time he’d tried to bend in half, but now he wasn’t trying to stroke anyone’s ego, as much as he was getting their attention. It was bordering on rude, depending on how they thought about him. If he wasn’t important to them, then claiming he was an actual person could go very wrong.

  “This should be secure enough for us to speak. Ambassador Mableton has a report on what you wish to know. We ran over some things earlier, in anticipation of your needs.”

  That got a slightly knowing look from the Prince, with the others looking mildly surprised. It was very clear, from the feeling coming off of him, that Alphonse had actually suspected that Cin would come in prepared in such a fashion. The giant, who was easily as tall as his father, so over nine feet, smiled at Will, but bowed toward the Ambassador.

  “That’s very kind of you, Ambassador Mableton. What could we give you in return for that information?” It was kind of clear that he meant it, since there was a cold feeling in the giant redhead’s middle. His face didn’t show it at all, which was skillful on his part. The others seemed to feel the same, for some reason. As if they needed to trade for every scrap of information with the woman, given who she was.

  There was an issue with that kind of thing, however. Cindy wasn’t from there. Giving her gold and riches might work, but given her abilities she could have that anywhere she went. Offering her an office or title was possible of course, but so far the woman hadn’t seemed to really want that kind of thing. The truth was, as powerful as the King and his family were, they didn’t have even one thing that the lady needed at all. Even her people didn’t really need much that Noram could provide. Not past what had already been given over by their world.

  Twenty-two space worthy Jump Ships. That and some large food units, for the needy. That wasn’t a small thing at all in the IPB world. In fact, they all felt like they owed a huge debt to Timon and Taman Baker already. The problem was that the ships had come from that direction to the royal minds. Tim in particular. Not the King and Queen. So they didn't think any of that would count.

  Cindy, clearly reading the words that showed up over the heads of the others, took a few moments to figure all of it out. Then she spread her hands and gave a slightly wicked seeming smile.

  “Your Ambassador, Willum Baker, has already covered that for you. Mainly in line travel between worlds. He’s also opening his new home to act as our embassy here. On top of that, he’s hosting a contingent of my people for your river hangi
ng event tomorrow? These are mainly random people from my own world and a few others, I think. People that it might be advantageous for you to meet, Prince Alphonse?” She didn’t look at Will at all, simply speaking as if they had a real agreement in place. “He’s also setting up transport for your people to visit a few alternate realities, with Avery Rome and Phillip Hart. Have you met them yet? They’re from a different reality, but are both great people.”

  She waited then, folding her hands in a way that seemed very contrived.

  Instead of exploding, the King and then the others bowed, this time in his direction.

  “That is… Wonderful, Countier Lairdgren! We hadn’t gotten word that you were looking out for our interests so strongly. Thank you, for your consideration.” The man smiled, and actually seemed to mean it.

  That was a little shocking, to be fair. Then, it was just possible that the man and his family had worked out what exactly was going on and were just going along with the whole thing because it was being offered as a way out. Really, by polite social rules, Ambassador Mableton was being incredible. There was a possible problem, so she fixed it, turning everything to the advantage of everyone there. Except for Willum, who was going to have to set things up with other people now.

  Though, thinking about it, he was nearly certain that Avery and Phillip wouldn’t make it too costly for him to take some people around. He could do it in a pinch, which Cin had hinted at for herself, but he didn't take paying customers that way. Just messages. That was a fiction, but meant to drive people toward him in a specific capacity. It might not work at all, naturally.

  So far it kind of had been though. He had been approached to set up transfers for people at a distance, but not asked to do that too often himself.

  The strange thing was that no one in the room was upset with him supposedly having worked all of that out for their world. In fact, the King seemed… Proud of him, for some reason.