Goddess of the Moon (Young Ancients: Tiera) Read online

  "Well... I don't know what mother would say about it." That was going to be her whole answer, until her little brother snorted at her, walking along in the well lit and slightly orange hallway with Wistra.

  "I haven't been at home in months. I figured that mother would have told you immediately. I went and got some training, so I can fight. I know I need to do a lot more first, but I can't let everyone down, and mother would have me hide away in a locked room in Two Bends if she knew where I was." He didn't sound at all repentant or anything at all.

  She kept walking for a while, and finally sighed, knowing that their mother would probably punch her in the kidney if she found out that Tiera knew where her little brother was and didn't tell her about it. Not that she was truly violent, but she might just make an exception in this case.

  "Brilliant Terry. She's probably pulling her hair out as we speak, worried out of her mind about you. We... Crud. I do not want to deal with this right now. Maybe you should sign up for Moon duty? At least that would be so big that even mother can't force you to go home. Not that she really could..." She turned to Wistra, changing course instantly. "He can't really build yet, I don't think? But he can make copies without a template at all. Which should be useful. I can vouch for him being a hard worker, and while I can't speak for his mother, his Countess will sign off on it, if he can make the cut." That being her. It was kind of convenient really.

  Terry smiled, and nodded a lot suddenly.

  "That would be great, if I'm allowed to go, I mean. I can pilot too, but I don't have a Space Ship. Tor didn't give me one of those."

  They stopped then, in front of a door, with Wistra in the front. She touched a small glowing space to the right, which made the door flash with a bright red light. It took about a minute, but finally someone came and opened it.

  Trice. Patricia Morgan. Tiera and Terry's sister in-law.

  "Hello... Tiera?" Then she looked down and started grabbing people handing out hugs like they were going out of fashion. "Terry! I didn't think to see you here! Wistra!" That last one was a bit strange, but the small and fairly youthful woman giggled a bit.

  "We just got in from the main base. Deshi will be back in a week or so. He had to work out some things with his Mages in Vagus. These two needed to be shown where the door was, so I figured I'd drop by and let you know that I'm back. I have a kitchen rotation this time, but Terry here might come out on the next Moon visit? He's... A Wizard?"

  The talking seemed to have roused a fairly sleepy looking Timon, who moved in behind his wife and smiled with a rather abstract gaze. Then he nodded, after reading all of them for information. That was probably rude, but he didn't say anything, and just waved them in.

  Being that he was going to be rude, she decided on doing her own reading, and found some interesting things. The first nearly floored her. Trice had two arms. Real ones. The left was a bit pink and fresh looking, but all hers, and not the magical one that Tor had made for her. She was also, like Terry, Immortal now.

  Tiera could get that, but there had to be a limit to how many people had that trait, or the world's population would go way up. She checked Wistra, but she wasn't like that at all, just being a normal, and rather healthy, girl.

  Timon clearly understood that she'd picked that all up, but started talking about other things almost instantly.

  "Terry, have you called home yet?" It was a bit abrupt, but to the point, and clearly a conversation that the two had carried on before, since the boy set his lips into a frown, which actually looked a little overdone, and seemed ready to fight about it.

  Tim just looked at him, watching closely. That was why neither one of them noticed her getting her new style communications device out and hitting the sigil for Two Bends. They noticed when their mother spoke, however. Even Timon glared at her a little for that one.

  "Laurie Baker. How may I help you?" There was a sadness to her words that hadn't been there before at all. Terry winced on hearing it, and when she picked up his field reaction that was all about how she sounded, not his own fear. He felt that too, but it wasn't why he did that.

  "Hello, mother! I've been out of touch for a while. Did you happen to have noticed any of your children missing lately?"

  There was a gasp and she spoke rapidly.

  "You know where Terry is? Is he alive? Is he well? Where is he, I'll come and get him right now!" There were sounds of movement, but Tiera didn't get a chance to say a lot to her, not before Timon did.

  "He's on the Ranford right now, here with us, in orbit. So, it might be a bit much for you to just run up here to get him. He's been training at Wildlands Station, pretending to be an orphan so that they'd let him. He'll be back home in a few days, but he has a duty rotation on the Moon in... When did you say that was again Wistra?"

  The small woman shrunk back a tiny bit.

  "Next month, on the first day?" There was a meekness to her words.

  Tiera spoke next, saying what had to be said.

  "Mother, I need you to listen to me, since this is very important. You need to make certain that you don't try to hold Terry against his will. He's learned enough that I don't really think you can now. Some other things have changed too, but we need to talk to you in person about them. Let's call that... tomorrow? We'll come in from here, directly." She waited, expecting her mother to go ballistic on them, only to be very surprised a moment later.

  "I think I understand. Yes, will you all come, please? Patricia too, if she wishes? It would be lovely to see you all."

  Tiera looked around and then dropped into a deep trance state, which flattened her voice nicely.

  "I'll be there." The others nodded, except Wistra, of course. Her mother wouldn't know who that was most likely, so she didn't mention the girl. "It looks like we'll all be there. Call it mid-afternoon or so? We have to be on the right side of the planet at the time, so that can set things back a bit. We might have some other guests. Timon's military group? About half of the Lairdgren group, and some of the Instructors from school. They aren't really a part of anything we need to discuss, but the kids earned a prize, so they get a trip into space. Among other things."

  Like new weapons. That was something she'd think of as a good prize, if it were her.

  "We look forward to seeing you all then. May I speak to Terry. Please?" She sounded so kind that Tiera feared it was a trick, but she handed over the communications device and the boy wandered away, so that the rest of them wouldn't have to hear him being shamed. It almost had to happen, but she was sort of glad he did it.

  On the good side, even with her better than average hearing, she couldn't pick up more than a casual and slightly worried conversation from across the room. When Terry came back, three minutes later, he just handed over the device.

  "She claims that I won't be locked up. I did mention that I was coming in very well armed and shielded, but she just laughed. I don't think she really believes me." That seemed to worry the boy a little bit, but Timon just shrugged.

  "Well, we won't let her take you by force too easily, little brother. You'll probably be in for a beating or two, but hey, after all that training with Baron Havar, I doubt that it will be a problem for you at all. Just make sure you take a healing amulet along with, just in case."

  That got a grumbled reply that sounded a lot more innocent than surly.

  Wistra stood and bowed to everyone, including Terry, and walked backwards toward the door, bowing every few steps along the way.

  "I'm sorry I can't visit longer, but I have to go and see to my new class. We should get together soon?" She sounded oddly hopeful about that, but Timon shook his head.

  "Not too likely for me, I'm afraid. After I get back in a few days from the planet, I have to go into the next project." He turned to Tiera and then looked at their brother, his gaze lingering there. "Space stations. We need at least ten of them and they have to be huge and self sufficient." He glanced at Tiera again, his eyes looking sleepy. "You mentioned that some of the La
irdgren Group is in? I could use a chat. I have some projects I need done and no time to do them really. You two really need to get on the ball and take over some of this stuff. I can't do what I need to, and build our way into space."

  That part was about his plan to save their brother.

  Terry looked at Trice and then shrugged, very cutely.

  "We're here to test a new communications device, for when people work in space? Tiera made them. All by herself. She also made this." He pulled the little white, rather delicate looking weapon and handed it to Tim, who just looked at it for a long while and then slowly, handed it back.

  "That's... Complex Tiera. It might be the most controllable weapon I've ever seen. You made it to take out Tor, if we have to?" He stopped and looked directly at his wife. "I mean stop. It shuts down shields, and I think it can remove fields from amulets too. It has the most delicate force lance I've ever seen, and an explosive device, both of which use mental controls as far as how powerful you want the blast to be. Continuous running and pulse, again, based on what you want. Is it hard to use?"

  Terry shook his head, but then paused.

  "Not... really? I wouldn't want to pick it up without instruction at all, but knowing what you do right now, it isn't that hard. Everyone in my section got it on the first try and so did the Lairdgren Group people. Even Ali." He covered his mouth then and went wide eyed. "That sounds mean. I just think of her as really nice, and not a fighter. She used it really well though."

  Trice looked at it and then Tiera.

  "Hey, sister in-law means that I can have one for a steep discount, doesn't it?" She looked sidelong at her husband, but he smiled gently, instead of saying anything.

  Tiera had a few extra on her and handed one over.

  "Oh, yeah. Especially if you're going to live forever. I don't want any more ill will between us." She stared at Timon, but didn't make it all that mean. "Mind if we sit? This might just take a while."

  That got her gestured over to the bed, which was the only thing in the space to sit on, she noticed, except for a box, that appeared to be real. Terry sat on that one, but it was big enough, so she took the other side. Why not? She wasn't a soft Princess after all. For that matter, she didn't even know any. The others took the edge of the bed then, which tried to form under them perfectly. It was just how they were designed.

  Timon looked at first his wife and then Terry.

  "They both agreed to try it, and as you can see, it worked. I know not to make everyone in the world immortal, but really, this only makes it so they'll live about six hundred years. These are the only two that I've done so far, but I was thinking of hitting the whole family. We have room for about ten thousand very long lived people on the planet without stressing everything, and for a long time. The number has been kept down to less than a hundred, before Gray and Cordes and this latest screw up of theirs. If we have to fight super-humans, doesn't it make sense to have some on our side too? They have all those clones..."

  Tiera wanted to roll her eyes at him, but refrained, remembering what it looked like on Lewis earlier.

  "All right. We need to keep that quiet though, or everyone will want to try it. The very idea makes my teeth ache, you know that Tim? Do you know how tempting it's going to be to do everyone? I mean, you did Trice, but what about her parents? Her brothers? What about their best friends, or favorite uncles? I mean, you should ask Da, but what about Mayor Tom? Or his kids? Are you really hard enough to be able to look at them and shrug, then say 'no, sorry there, you have to die.'? I'm not really sure I would be." She meant it, but then, it wasn't up to her, was it? "I'll leave that to you, but keep things under control, and actually ask people before you make anyone else like that. We can form a committee or something. That always works." She didn't mean that last bit, but no one else laughed.

  The silence stretched out and became awkward, so she mentioned Tor's dragon. Also, in passing the clones that had been killed and the single man that wasn't Cordes, who flew away.

  "Before you ask, he wasn't anyone I knew either. Not Tor, or anything."

  That got a lot of questions, but the only laugh came when she related the story about Ron from earlier. When she got to what he said, both Trice and Timon started busting up uncontrollably.

  Trice finally rallied, doing it first, which amazed Tiera really.

  "Oh! I wish I could have been there for that! What did she do? That's... It's a brilliant trap. In public too, so there was no way out for her. Did she take him up on it, or put him off? After the way she was acting that last bit would be hard without looking unkind."

  Terry made a bit of a face and looked away.

  "Really... she gave a half hearted apology. Some man there told her to do it. He's with us, here. I didn't get his name. If she would have been in Two Bends it might have been fine, but I've seen the Prince of the whole Kingdom do a better job, over a lot less." There was a bit of... It was something that Tiera hadn't seen in her brother before at all. It was, she realized, suppressed anger at the girl.

  At least he wasn't calling for her head. Tiera nodded though, feeling supportive at the moment.

  "I agree. Still, Ron accepted it, with only a single smart comment, which was hilarious by the way. He said it was too bad... since she had such pretty lips. I hate to think what him even knowing to say that means for what's been happening to him, but it was all I could do to not laugh right there in that bitch's face."

  Terry, her darling little brother, sighed and turned to her. Shaking his head ever so slightly.

  "Watch your language." Then he smiled, looking far more tired than he should have, except, she realized, that wasn't really true. He'd been out all night, hadn't he? They all had.

  That probably meant they should get to the testing and then off to bed, if they were allowed to sleep there. That hadn't been spoken of at all, so they might be expected to leave right after that.

  Judy wouldn't make little kids drop from space tired though, she didn't think. The woman wasn't her best friend ever, but she wasn't evil. Actually, if Tiera was going to be fair, it was probably the other way around, and Judith Kerry had been on the side of right and good the whole time, even when she'd wanted to beat her up. It wasn't the kind of thing she really wanted to dwell on, so she was fairly happy that her communications device went off. At first.

  The voice on the other side was screaming at her, after all.

  "Attack on Callwood! Help! We're being attacked by... Things! Giant flying lizards! Help, please. Nothing we do is having any effect!"

  Tiera didn't get to speak, since Timon jumped forward.

  "Dragons?"

  That got the woman on the other side of the device, who sounded a bit older, to pause.

  "Yes. I think that's right. What do we do?"

  Tiera stood, and started toward the door, but Tim waved for her to stop and started asking questions, because, as she'd noted before, he was smarter than she was.

  "How many of them? How long has the attack been going on? Can you move any of your people out of harm's way?" He waited for answers and got them, as if he weren't just some little kid up in space. Then, the woman didn't know that, did she?

  "Ten to twelve, so far, we can't move anyone at all. When people run, they get eaten. It's been... most of an hour now. I haven't been able to get in touch with anyone else, so I just started hitting sigils. I don't even know who this is..."

  Tim shrugged and looked at Tiera.

  "It's help. We'll have people there in twenty-five minutes. Try to hang on."

  Then he turned the device off and hit another sigil, which got, handily enough, Kolb. It took a bit for her to get the idea, but luckily Tim explained that they needed everyone to meet them. Outside. Then he explained the rest.

  The voice on the device was eerily calm and collected, but didn't take a long time to process things at all.

  "On the Earth side of the craft. We need to move as a group however. Tiera, who has the new devices you made?"
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br />   There was a soft voice, that said he did, in the background. That meant finding them, but Trice actually knew her way around pretty well, so a few moments later they were all running. Timon limped a bit as he did it, but she didn't spend a lot of time thinking about that.

  There was an emergency after all.

  The kids were on the main bridge, along with all the people they'd come with, and had communications devices being tucked against their throats, using an adjustment of their clothing amulets, by the time she ran into the place. It was a nicely large room, given that most of them were much smaller, so that heat could be removed more easily, caught by the walls and shunted to the bottom of the craft, where it was collected for either disposal or reuse. People, it turned out, made a lot of the stuff.

  Who knew?

  Judy was still sitting, but pointed to what Tiera would have thought of as the side wall.

  "Everyone go stand over there. You all have the new shields on? Things will get mighty uncomfortable if'n you don't." Her accent was back and a bit thick, but otherwise she seemed pretty well collected. "I'm going to make a room around you, strip it of air and then open the wall. We're getting the Ranford in position over your destination. I..."

  There was a pause, and she was very clearly thinking hard about what to say next.

  "Who's all going?" She looked directly at Sir Kolbrin, and very carefully didn't let her eyes waver at all. That was politic of her, since almost anything else she could have done would potentially give offense to someone or another. Terry answered her, standing very straight.

  "All of us. We need some of those new weapons of Tiera's. They can stop dragons, right? We should get those first." He didn't sound commanding, true, but the remaining little pen shaped wands got passed around quickly, even as Farlo ran up behind her and tied a string around her neck with one of the new communication devices on it. Those needed a name, she knew. Nothing came to mind at the moment however.

  Sending small children off into the dark of space, and then into battle or not, Judy didn't freeze at all, and had them all surrounded in a white walled room about a minute later. Everyone just turned their shields on and waited, breathing normally. Or, well, some of the Lairdgren group seemed a little scared, but the rest did fine. After a second she spoke, her voice even. Damned if she didn't sound slightly regal at the same time. It nearly made her happy, but she didn't let that show.