Crystal Core Read online

  If he was the kind to harm children, it wasn’t going to be happening easily that day. Which probably meant that it had come up before. Often enough that the device, the being, went there almost first thing.

  “Not at all, cousin. We’re just putting up a house for the children, and a school. I was told to get with Tam-Unit, that is you, correct? It was mentioned to me by Prince Alphonse. Ancient Sam is in on the program as well. Standing for them, you understand?” Willum waited, not knowing how bright the new kind of person was. She might not get what he was saying at all.

  It seemed, from the speed of her response, to be quick enough, really.

  “Oh, goody! I’ve been wanting to get something like that going for a while, but didn’t know how. I missed your name… sorry about that.”

  “Willum Baker. Countier Four, Lairdgren.” He bowed toward the box, going about halfway down, since it was her port, if he’d heard correctly. That meant she was important. More to the point, she was in control of all the world’s ports. It tempted him to go further down, but he didn’t, because she clearly couldn’t bow back. Except that the image on the viewing port did. Nearly matching him and everything.

  Which marked her as being a polite person, as well as magical.

  She smiled then, which was a warm thing.

  “Hence calling me cousin! So nice to meet you. I should… I need to get my human shaped body there for this, I think. Can you wait a few minutes? I’m on Mars right now, with my family. Boyfriend and girlfriends. I don’t know if anyone else can come… Five minutes? Wait for me there?”

  He stood up, realizing that everyone around them, to about fifty feet away, had bowed as well. Some had even done it toward the box directly, getting his point.

  “Certainly. We’ll be by the transport hut at the Noram space port.”

  It took longer than five minutes, by about three times that. There were two false alarms as well, as other people came from the thing, then walked away, not calling out to them.

  When the right person came out, finally, she was dressed in black velvet, matching him almost perfectly. It was kind of a bland outfit to go around in, but putting on festival clothing hadn’t even occurred to him. The tall woman behind Tam-Unit was gaily dressed in a very festive costume however. It seemed to have every color in it, mainly in inch wide stripes. For the life of him, the whole thing put him in mind of a Postern ribbon pole. Given the day and who was wearing it, that all made sense.

  She was Princess Karina, after all. The Ancient of Mars. Princess of the land they were standing in though, so she knew the correct customs. That she wasn’t at luncheon with her family at the palace was interesting, but not really his business.

  Tam-Unit moved in and hugged him. Like they’d met before that day or something.

  “Cousin Willum!”

  “Cousin Tam-Unit!” If they were playing like they were old friends, there was no reason for him not to go along with it.

  It was Postern, after all. The major family holiday of the year.

  To that end, instead of bowing at the incredibly powerful Ancient of Mars, he held his arms out to her as well.

  “Karina!”

  “Willum!”

  She returned the move as if they’d met more than in passing once or twice. They really hadn’t, but here they were anyway, hugging in the open at the space port. It probably meant they were going to be friends.

  He turned.

  “These worthies are the Wards of the Ancient Sam. Tavy, Bart and Recca. They work here at the port with you, Tam-Unit.”

  The words got her to move in and hug the kids as well. Though just the three she knew personally. They seemed baffled by the fact that the blue box was also a real seeming woman. One tall enough to pass herself off as a noble, in a pinch. About six feet tall. Much bigger than his Aunt Taman. Over a foot taller. Given the fact that the woman herself had made this one, on purpose, it probably showed a desire that Taman had going on, deep in her own mind.

  Otherwise they were identical.

  She seemed pleased to be there, looking at each of the little ones carefully.

  “I recognized you all, of course. Have you eaten today? You didn’t come by for the mid-day meal…”

  Tavy nodded, working things out well enough it seemed.

  “Yes’m. Countier Lairdgren gave us food. It was very good. We had to wash first, and use forks and things.”

  Karina smiled at the words, her face lighting up a good bit.

  “Those are good skills to have. Especially if you’re moving up in the world. I heard that you were getting your own school, as well as a new house?” She glanced at Willum then. Also, back to the other children, who he introduced first.

  “Lith Tanner, who’s an apprentice tanner, with his father. Tad… I didn’t catch your situation that way.” He felt bad for it, but the boy gave him a serious look.

  “I’m a scrivener, sir.”

  Which would mean he could read and write, at the very least. He seemed young for it, but it probably meant he was an apprentice as well. At a certain age, people would just assume that.

  “Lastly, we have Elly. Elsa. She’s from a different reality, and is only pretending to be a child at the moment. A friend of mine, more or less. We should talk about that later, but for now, why don’t we set up? We can ride over, if you’d like? I have several craft with me.” They weren’t brilliant things really, on the outside.

  Just craft that floated about two feet from the Earth, that could look like nearly anything you wanted. They weren’t fast, going only about a hundred miles per hour as a top speed. They could host a family of six though, and provide beds, showers, kitchens and pretty much anything a magical palace could. Except that they didn’t look as nice. If you wanted a chair, you got plain wood for it. Sturdy and well done seeming, but not decorative.

  If you wanted cushions, they were plain tan. He explained it all carefully as he set it up.

  “The idea is that we can give them to farmers and travelers, without it being a thing that will be easily stolen from them. They’ll always come back to the command unit, when it’s activated, so stealing one is going to be pretty hard to make happen.” It felt stupid, when he said it out loud, but the thing, which looked a lot like a wagon, complete with useless wheels under it that didn’t touch the ground, really didn’t look bad. Just not like something that a Princess would be riding around in.

  Karina fit, given the clothing she had on at the moment. It really was a good look, for a fair or country meet up. She was too tall to sell the whole thing, but other than that she made it work for her pretty well.

  “I can drive us around? I think the controls are something I can handle.”

  Willum didn’t insist on doing it himself. The truth was, while he could manage the thing, he wasn’t used to it. Even having made it didn’t convey perfect driving skill. Karina, as it turned out, did a wonderful job of it. As she took them around the port, on the inside of the giant focus stone disk, away from the landing areas for space craft, the woman made a soft sound.

  “It controls well. We should get something like this for Mars. We have the transport system, but moving goods or a household that way is a lot of work. We have roads, but it’s nearly three hundred miles between first city and fourth. Anyone moving now generally has to take about three weeks to get it done, carrying little parcels the whole time. We probably won’t need for them to have food and all that. Unless you can make them to go on the surface as well? That isn’t really needed yet, but they float, so we can keep people off my lichen.”

  There was a playful fierceness toward the protection of her plants. The children, who were sitting in the back, on padded benches, along with Tam-Unit, all seem fascinated.

  Lith sighed.

  “I wish I could go visit Mars.”

  It was a simple statement, not an actual request for a trip. Willum tilted his head back a bit. Then nodded.

  “You should set that up with Karina here. Run tours
on your off days from work. You can get there using the transport huts, but there are different rules there. You’d need to borrow a shield while there, for instance. I’m not sure how that would work.” The problem wasn’t Mars, since they just gave the things away for use. It was that the people going couldn’t take them back to Noram.

  Rather than slap him about the face and head for being impertinent, the Princess actually nodded.

  “Not a bad plan. Willum, you can get him a communications device, so he can get in touch for that?” It was meant to be a trap of course, since in Noram, for most people, the things were expensive still. Hundreds of golds each. Plus, it was clear that the woman didn’t think he could do that kind of thing on his own, for some reason. That he would, at the very least, need to travel to Harmony or even Mars to get the kid hooked up.

  Really, unless you were a noble, or worked directly for one of them, people generally couldn’t afford to own such a thing at all. Before doing anything about that, he checked with the Princess closely, searching deep into her thoughts. After all, if she didn’t want Lith contacting her, then giving him one of the devices would be unwelcome. Her thoughts weren’t running toward that, even on the deep level. She honestly figured that Willum would just run off to Harmony and get one for the boy. Taking time from his day, as punishment for making plans for her.

  It sounded fair, given everything, if unneeded.

  “There we go. Here, Elsa, in my chest back there? I have about twenty of them. I didn’t think to bring more than that, not knowing anyone would actually need one today. An oversight on my part, no doubt. These are just to give out, anyway. I was practicing, so merged them with the Terry system.”

  That had been the hard part of it as well. Not making the devices themselves, but creating them so that they believed they were made by a specific person. The Wizard Terry Baker. They worked pretty well, if he did have to say so himself, no one else having gotten to play with them yet. The one he had on him for his own use was the brother of the ones in the light green floating case in the back of the wagon looking craft.

  It wasn’t the small looking enemy girl, but rather Tam-Unit, that moved to dig through things. She came back a minute later, holding a device for each of the children. Since, after all, they were gifts. Willum didn’t even have to bother blinking about that part of things. The woman was from Mars. They gave out magic for free there. Really, Willum had been doing the same, since it fit his cover as a magic hobbyist.

  Then they had to put the names into the system, so that people could get in touch with them. Elly did her own but Tam-Unit did her three port children and Willum worked with Tad and Lith on theirs. Then he turned to them, looking at each of the kids, catching their eyes on purpose.

  “Hide those, in general. Showing one of them marks you as rich, which will mean a good target for robbery. I’m not around all the time, since I work in other realities, taking messages around. It’s a hobby, really. But you can try to call, if you need anything.” This time he didn’t volunteer the others.

  Karina did that for them. Apparently, she wasn’t as selfish with her time as all that. It was good to know.

  “I’m in the system as Karina Cordes. Tam-Unit is in as Tam-Unit. Call at least once a week. We won’t have to chat long, but you need to learn to keep in touch. Everyone has that? It also means that you might have to put in work, at need. In your off hours. Only at real need, of course. Once the Royal Guard learns of you, don’t be shocked to find that you get real assignments from time to time. They tend to forget that children aren’t just tiny adults, as often as not. They also have a minor issue with the idea that not everyone works for them for some reason. Probably because most people don’t say no, when they suggest something be done.”

  She didn’t really mean it. That was clear from how she smirked as she drove, slowly, around the outer edge of the space port. There were just too many people in the way to go faster than about a walking pace. The kids didn’t really know what would be expected of them for the gifts. They knew they were expensive though, and really, the idea hit them all that they kind of worked for Willum, now. At least in their off hours. Possibly for Princess Karina. Each of them, very obviously, held her being the princess there as a bigger deal than being the Ancient of Mars. That just seemed too unreal, to most of them. Also, hard to work out. After all, Ancient didn’t mean leader, so it was hard to put her in line that way, for children from Noram.

  It was interesting to see who was thinking what on the topic. Lith kind of figured that he was going to be a spy. He had clothing to disguise himself with now, once he learned to use it. Plus, a magical device that would allow him to pass messages along in an instant. Also orders not to let people know about it. Even the clothing had been kept bland, when everyone knew you could do almost anything with the kind he was wearing at the moment.

  Tavy figured that they were going to end up being sex slaves or prostitutes. Possibly in a good house someplace. That explained the nice new clothing to her, at least. She wasn’t totally certain that the new house they were putting up wasn’t for that. There was already an official place for that on the other side of the port, which didn’t make sense to her, but the girl wasn’t thinking that hard about the idea. Still, she could learn that kind of thing, if she had to. They apparently were going to have school for it.

  The other kids were more along the theme of what Tavy was thinking, though Tad got that they didn’t need magic for those kinds of tasks. A magical house for the children made more sense as a kindness, than anything else, to his mind.

  Elly, sitting behind them all, just smiled.

  What she was thinking was fairly well hidden. Then it always was, from Willum. A better mind reader could have done more that way, but from what he understood, Elsa and all of her people were very powerful that way. Both in reading thoughts and in keeping others from doing that to them, at will.

  The energy being, Tam-Unit, seemed to just assume that the plan was the one that Willum had announced openly. New housing and a school. The devices were just gifts, since giving things away only made sense to her. It was, after all, her personal job in life. A big part of it. So, to find that others did the same thing, if in a different fashion, not extruding them from the front of themselves, that honestly seemed correct in her world.

  Given that was closest to the truth, he smiled at her.

  “So, Cousin Tam-Unit. I was thinking of calling up some relatives in a bit. You should sit in on that. We can bother Taman first. I don’t know where she is today, to be honest.”

  There was a happy nod from the back. Willum could feel the pattern of it in the air, without turning. They were sitting in the open, with no top over them, under the blue sky. There were a few clouds in it, but nothing that seemed to speak of rain at the moment. Over on the horizon was a wall of dark clouds, which seemed to be coming their way.

  The voice from behind him sounded enthused. Too much so, for calling people out of the blue.

  “That sounds fun. I wouldn’t have thought about that. I don’t know that anyone really thinks of me as being family. If you do it though, that will work, and then I can say hello to them as well.”

  Karina stiffened a bit, though the reason why that was didn’t seem clear to Willum. It was about Tam-Unit, her girlfriend, clearly. The concept she’d been speaking about seemed correct to him though. People might not be thinking of her as one of the family. Not until the idea was mentioned to them. Even at that, they might not think of her as being real. Not without meeting her first.

  She was, clearly, a real person, if a different sort of being. That much was crystalized in his mind. Then, he could feel her there. Different, but clearly intelligent on the level that would be hard for a mere human being to match. Some Ysidril might, but she had brains in hundreds of locations, all acting at one time. That was powerful, in its own way.

  Still, Karina seemed to think there was an issue for some reason. Given that she wasn’t at the Palace that
day, it was probably about her own parents. Snubbing Tam-Unit, as if she weren’t important. Which was silly of them, if it was the case. Ridiculous, really.

  The woman ran all the space ports in the world. That had to rate being at a fancy dinner.

  Still, it wasn’t his issue at all.

  “I bet everyone spends more time talking to you than they do me. We should do that. You can both stay with me for Postern? I need to head by Pine Creek, most likely. Elsa, are you in as well? You’ll need to change shape, so my parents don’t think I’ve taken up with a ten-year-old. If we’re pointing out you live with me. That would be embarrassing. Plus, have me kicked out of the family.” Which was both true, if they thought she was a real girl and for the other kids, so they’d get that he wasn’t going to allow that kind of thing for any of them.

  The dark-haired kid spoke as if it only made sense.

  “Let’s set up the others first, then see about that? I don’t want to scare anyone.”

  That got him to laugh.

  “It won’t. After all, a lot of people are learning to change shape these days. I mean, I can’t do it, but I bet a lot of people can. You can, right Tam-Unit?”

  Instead of laughing, she just did it, making herself look about a foot shorter. It turned her instantly into a double of Taman Baker. That got the kids to clap, instead of scream.

  “Of course. I can also make myself glow in the dark.”

  She started to do that, too, and was matched rapidly by Tad, using his clothing amulet. It wasn’t coming from his skin, but it did set the others at ease. After all, they all had the power to do that kind of thing now.

  They played games that way, to pass the time and learn how to use the new magic, until they drove around behind the Ancient of Noram’s large and lovely gold and cream-colored palace. That took lifting the whole wagon up over the river that flowed around the entire port. Flying for a bit. Not high, but it was enough to get over obstacles in nature, which was the point of the ability.

  The line of water was an older thing, and not as nice as the new one around the city. Still, it did its job, which was the important part. Behind that was plenty of empty space for a few buildings. They got to work, almost instantly on the project.