Pain Stones (Coalescence Book 2) Read online

  “Just doing my part for our people.” He grinned then and added a few words, since the Prince was clearly thinking of something along the correct lines. It gave him an idea of what to say that would be easily understood. “Also, of course, I’m trying to win the Ambassador over for other reasons. Personal ones.” It was true enough, actually.

  She was Timon Baker from a different reality, but also so different that it clearly wouldn’t count. Dating her would just make sense to the people in that room, he had to figure. After all, she was cute, as well as being connected and personally powerful. Attaching his wagon there would probably seem like a good plan to anyone who bothered to think about it for a moment.

  The man at the head of the table was large, but younger looking now than he used to be. About thirty or so, Will thought. The Queen was a bit more youthful than that, even though neither of them were wearing a disguise at the moment. They’d simply de-aged, when Timon had given them immortality.

  That could have meant that they were available to be on the throne for much longer, but Timon had suggested that the tradition of getting out of power when the heir turned forty was a good enough plan. As far as Willum had ever heard or seen, that was the actual plan. Meaning that taking Alphonse around for visits now, before that happened would give him a richer set of connections to other people. The King and Queen almost never got to really leave their palace, given the various attacks and wars that had been taking place for the last thirty years.

  The line about him having designs on Ambassador Mableton actually had the Prince nodding at him. Out of a host of worlds, there were only about five Ambassadors that had come to Noram at all. The first of which was actually the small blonde lady. That was important on a level that boggled the mind. At least as far as he was concerned.

  Sitting back, he let the woman next to him go over everything that had been found earlier. She didn't have written notes, but was able to double check her data, taking it directly from the minds of those involved. While sitting at the stone table, next to Prince Alphonse. In a few places Will was able to give hints about some things, having heard the data from earlier. A lot of it was pretty telling, of course. In a sinister and dark fashion. The King didn't want to know what people wanted for Noram Day after all.

  The giant rumbled at them, as soon as Cindy went silent.

  “So, only the two plots to overthrow me? I truly would have thought that Count Verian would have been in on something darker than simply trying to withhold a few funds. Don’t let it get around, but most of those that serve do similar things to that. At least occasionally. Even the ones I count as personal friends. I’ll send a note, and see if we can’t smooth that one over. No need to push toward war for that. The other two things…”

  Alphonse nodded, his eyes looking hooded as he glanced at the Ambassador in her rather attractive gown. He was in a green and purple velvet outfit for the meal. It was kind of like something from a science fiction movie. Willum had seen a few, mainly in the IPB world. Not many, since doing that kind of thing hadn’t been high on his list of things to get done. Still, he’d gone to learn to blend in and on occasion others were doing things like that. So he’d made a point of joining in.

  The man looked across the table at Will.

  “I heard that there was a small issue with a fleet vessel in Soam? The details were hazy… Something about not wanting them there for a holiday?”

  The interesting part of the statement was that the man seemed to actually mean it. Worse, he was wondering if Noram needed to do the same thing. Fleet wasn’t a bad organization, but some in the Council of Counts had suggested that Alice and her people presented too big of a threat to the kingdom to simply allow to have free run of the place.

  Willum got to shake his head, which felt odd. It wasn’t the kind of thing you normally did with Kings and Queens in the room. Interestingly, Queen Constance had been mainly silent the whole time, past her initial words of greeting to him. As far as he knew they were on good enough terms. Not that they knew each other or anything. The sense of things coming off of her were merely attentive though, not upset or anything negative.

  From the ideas coming off of her, she was working on plans for the party the next day. The River Hanging. It wasn’t really that kind of thing, since nothing was being suspended from hooks, but the water would float over the wall, then travel back to the sea, hundreds of miles away. Instead of making two tracks that moved in straight lines, the new stream was going to be a lot larger and move in flowing arcs across the countryside. Hopefully without disturbing anyone’s home too much. That had been the goal. Also, it should make the amount of places having water access open up by about a hundred percent.

  Sighing, Willum spread his right hand, palm up on the surface of the stone table. It wasn’t polished, looking like it had been cut with magic, but not buffed regularly since.

  “There was a mutiny on the Ranford. The Fleet flag ship. The mutineers set in to Soam, thinking that no one there would be able to stop them given their weapons and shields. I infiltrated the ship after Admiral Orange spoke to me on the handheld. She managed to drop some subtle clues, thankfully. It wasn’t hard, since I pretty much just walked in. I think the plan was to try and take me prisoner. That… Didn’t work too well. Alice Orange, three of her loyal crew and I were able to take control back.” He stopped, wishing for a moment that he had something to sip. Nothing had been provided however. “The mutineers had miscalculated and killed all the officers other than Orange. I guess the plan was to hold her hostage or… I don’t know. It didn’t really make any sense to me. In turn, none of them survived the recapturing of the ship. Between the two of us, Orange and I, we killed them all. Twenty-odd people. Soam is actually quite open to visitors.” The exact number flashed behind his eyes, but it wasn’t needed for the conversation of the moment.

  No one really knew what to say to that information at first. At least the feelings were a bit conflicted about the whole thing. He just sat there, willing enough to answer questions, if they came. Also willing to just sit for a while and wait for it to be meal time. Either way worked for him, he decided.

  The King looked at him, his face going tight.

  “I did not know that, Willum. Do you need anything?” There was real concern in the giant man’s eyes. The feelings behind that were a bit more selfish, since he clearly didn’t care that much about the deaths. It was, more or less, that he feared there would be backlash from Will about that part of things. That his emotional state would become unstable over what had happened.

  Except that the man didn't know enough about him to know if that was going to happen or not. No one at the table did. Except for Cindy. The alien woman from another world. Getting that, reading the information from the book of his life, she smiled at him. The sense behind that move was a good bit darker than he would have guessed at otherwise.

  The woman was jealous. That he’d gotten to kill all of those people.

  Glancing at the others, she shrugged her narrow shoulders. There was meaning to the whole thing, even if Willum wasn’t getting it at the moment.

  “He killed most of those himself. Sixteen, I think. It had to be done. You can’t let terrorists take over. Or let them go after they do things like that. There… Really, they didn't have a brilliant idea as to why they were reacting that way. They were feeling wronged due to not having everything be done their own way all the time. Fleet… Wait a minute?” The small lady shook her head, then spent a good bit more than a single minute obviously reading something in front of her. No one else spoke, which meant the place got very quiet. Almost oppressively so.

  After a bit, Cin straightened, then looked at King Richard directly.

  “Space fleet isn’t any worse than any other military force in your world. In a couple of ways it’s actually nicer. Three year terms instead of ten, for instance. The food is better as well. The level of vacation time is comparable… About a month per year, with weekends off as well as special d
ays when they’re in port.” Shaking her head, she managed to look annoyed by what she’d been reading. “In short, the morons that managed to take over were just being whiners, more or less.”

  That they were committed enough in their complaining to murder people wasn’t mentioned at all. Not by Ambassador Mableton or anyone else sitting around the stone table in the locked, closed off and sound proof room. The whole thing was kind of close, suddenly, as far as Will could tell. The air was still, and probably going to suffocate them all if they didn't leave soon.

  Not that he was going to die from that kind of thing. Just not having air… Well, eventually he’d buy it, in that case. Anyone would. It would take a long time for him though. Cindy as well. They were similar that way. The royal family not so much so.

  Honestly, Will supposed that there was enough air coming from around the door to keep that from happening for a while. Probably hours. The humidity was rising though and the stone kept the place more or less cool, along with the magical unit on the wall for that. It was a bit sticky seeming, suddenly.

  The Prince shook his head and snorted softly.

  “That sounds about right, doesn’t it? Most people that do that kind of thing don’t really have the best of reasons for it. It’s a shame. Are you doing well though, Willum? We could make your excuses at the meal, or for the event tomorrow?” He seemed to be serious. Very much so, for some reason.

  Which Willum could feel coming off of him. The man was just concerned that it would be too depressing for him. Possibly pressing Will toward a dismal state. It happened after people were in battle and took lives. Most of the time it was worse for them, however.

  “I should be fine. One of the changes that was made to me by Timon basically causes my emotional reactions to fade very quickly. Each day that passes is like fifty, so by the morning I’ll be much better. Even sitting here it’s already happening. Though, what am I supposed to do for the event tomorrow? I really figured that my part was in passing over the device. I did that last week…” He remembered that part. It had been a lot of hard work making the rivers, and Taman had insisted that he do a hundred of them up at once, just for the practice of the thing, so it had left an impression.

  The others were mainly silent, but Alphonse smiled and laughed a bit.

  “Riiight. Like we’re going to let you get away that easily? Nope. You have to go up on the stage, tap the sigil with your own hand and give us a little speech about how much you love Noram, the King and all of the people in the Capital city. Then put on a little show with the new river. It has lights?”

  There was a grin from the large man, while the others all seemed darker than that. Well, not from Cindy, who just nodded, knowing all about the specifications already. Probably as well as Will did, being able to read all about it over his head.

  Still, being polite never hurt and it was clear that the Prince was trying to keep the mood high, given everything. That was nice of him, considering they didn’t really know each other.

  “Light, pictures, sounds… I was told by Taman that if it didn’t make the old river look like a goat cart compared to a Jump Ship, she was going to make fun of me. I think she was serious, since she made a point of scowling at me every day until I’d finished the thing. Then she crossed her arms and made a little noise that wasn’t readable to me. She didn’t toss it into the pond, so it might be good enough? Maybe not. It’s really hard to tell with her sometimes.” That was true, though he knew that she’d thought that it was at least going to move water around well enough.

  If that hadn’t been the case, then he’d still be there, making the new version of the thing. His first two versions hadn’t been considered complete enough for her, so he knew that one for a fact.

  King Richard smiled then.

  “Isn’t that always the way with instructors? The good ones at any rate. They can’t show too much praise, lest the student think that there’s hope that they might one day be considered good enough. In the real world almost nothing ever is, so it’s best to learn that lesson early. A harsh process, but needed, if you plan to be great in any given field.”

  There was nodding from everyone at the table, except Cin, who just sat there, waiting.

  The leader stood first, and clapped his meaty and vast hands.

  “Excellent then. You should have that speech ready? We’ll need you to meet us at ten in the morning at the front gate. We have a grandstand planned there. Will Ambassador Mableton be accompanying you as your date?”

  That got a chuckle from Cindy.

  “We have forty odd people coming in, half of whom want to date him… So that won’t be assured at all. I can try to set that up, but I don’t love my chances. I mean, Bridget is coming… She’s Will’s partner.”

  Everyone looked at him closely then, as if he cared at all who stood there with him on the stage. Cindy was fine for that, really. Bridget would do a great job as well.

  “Honestly, we should try to see if Director Turner could do it… Or… No, I have other plans for her, if I can make it happen. Let me… Would you attend with me, Cin? I’ll understand if you have other things to do, or don’t want to be seen with me in public like that. Both are great reasons not to do it.”

  He managed to smile, even as Veronica winced deeply and the Queen looked almost scared. That was because she honestly didn’t know if Cin was going to insult him, using the second option.

  The small blonde woman winked at him.

  “Sure. I can stand there with you, if you want? You know that we all have your back. We’ll even hold the line for escape, in case you botch your speech too badly. You know, when you go up and tell the city that you love them all, especially their mothers and have had special relations with the King…”

  She laughed then, which got the others going.

  Will wrinkled his nose though.

  “Great… No, really, thanks, Cin. Now that’s going to be running through my mind when I talk tomorrow. If I end up dating King Richard over this, I’m blaming you for it. Publicly.” Crossing his arms, Will tried to act like he was serious.

  It didn’t work, given the King spoiled it all for them. By being hilarious.

  “Well, I don’t know, you are very nice looking…”

  That got everyone to bust up, and then stand, since it was clearly time to clear the room.

  “We’ll be at the gate in the morning. At ten. If we don’t show up… Well, you know, just hit the sigils and play with the thing a bit? That should do it, really. We need a band though. That way we can show off the sound portion of things without just lecturing people. Is one planned? Speeches can be kind of boring. Even the good ones.”

  Queen Constance, looking youthful and rather pretty, bowed gracefully toward him.

  “We might be able to manage that, if you wish? I do love music.” She batted her eyelashes then, flirtatiously. It kind of worked, since she was a very attractive lady in her own right. Will liked attention as much as anyone else.

  “That sounds good. Great, actually. Thank you, Queen Constance.”

  The woman passed him as they moved, and patted him on the shoulder. She was a good five inches taller than he was, but managed to seem delicate and dainty, somehow. Her blue gown was made of magic, but very well designed. A soft scent of lavender came from her as she moved.

  The Prince hurried forward, to open the large door for them, but then they all moved, as a group, down the rich seeming hallway. Interestingly, the large heir to the throne matched Will, as if they were traveling together. Cindy was between them, but the others had moved ahead, going first.

  “So, Willum…” The words were gentle, but incredibly deep sounding. They also came with a question attached, under the words. “What would it cost to send some messages to other realities? We have a few that need to be taken to various locations. I know, it surprised me as well, but we’ve actually been managing to make some connections of late. I’d ask Dareg Canton, since he’s family now, but he’s nicely managed
to dodge my calls for the last few days. Hopefully it wasn’t anything that I did?”

  Will didn’t know about that kind of thing at all. Dare Canton was said to be the secret ruler of Mars, so might just be a busy man. Plus, he’d gotten married not long before. Less than half a year. Four months, Will thought. From what he’d heard, the man was planning to go to school. The Printer school in fact, which was said to be a rather nice one.

  “I haven’t heard anything like that, but then, I wouldn’t. You know, I don’t actually hang out with… Well, people like you and Dareg.”

  That got him clapped on the shoulder, which had to reach over Cindy to make happen.

  “Yet here you are, going to a dinner with the high and mighty of Noram. I take your meaning though. I haven’t been hanging out with many people lately myself. It’s all meetings and dinners like this. Even the fun events, like the river hanging are mainly work for me. It’s the job though.”

  That sounded right. The man was going to rule them all one day, so he probably had to lead all the time. Even years before he’d be taking the job over. It sounded a bit lonely, but so did Will’s life, if he talked about it out loud.

  It wasn’t the truth though.

  He had people around him all the time. Some of them were even good friends. A lot of the people from the IPB for instance. Cindy and her friends. His partner, Bridget and even their Director, Ms. Turner. In his own world he had Aunt Taman, Uncle Tim and his wife, Patricia. Apparently, the Prince of Noram as well, if that worked out. The man wasn’t saying they shouldn’t be friends anyway.

  That was only two worlds, even. Will was regularly in many more than that.

  The room they finally found themselves in was filled with people. It wasn’t a grand ball, so everyone was nicely dressed, but not in their finest outfits. About half of them were in magical clothing, though not everyone was. The overall feeling of the room was that being tall was the order of the day, but there were a few pockets of smaller individuals as well.