Lineage (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 1) Page 9

  It was nice to have the implied bit of help.

  Thankfully Kenzia recovered on her own, and the adults didn't even look her way for the rest of the meal. At the end of it, as everyone stood, apparently to mingle, the little blonde girl curtsied to him again.

  "Thank you for sitting with me, Prince Dareg. It would be good to do so again, sometime?" It was a question, and said politely, so he played along.

  "That would be fun. We should see about doing that? We could play with some dolls, perhaps?" After all, what did little girls do? More, what could he have anyone do with him? Put trash into Tam-units? That sounded like what four year olds would love to do.

  No one laughed at that however, even if it sounded wrong. Then, smiling at him, the little girl escaped the adults by seeking the protection of her parents. They were a nice looking couple and not all that old. The woman turned and smiled at him, which he returned.

  After that the large bearded man that had nodded before sought him out, holding a drink in his vast hand.

  "Well done there, earlier. Count Raul Peterson. I hear that you're taking over at the space base? I run the fliers school and station, a few hundred miles from there. What kind of plans do you have for it?" The man looked at him directly, but even though it was downward in angle it was clear he wasn't looking down on Dareg. How he managed that was hard to tell, but it was nice of the man.

  "Two inns, a bawdy house, stages for entertainments, a few stores, a bathhouse and probably a few other things. A good restaurant or two? I also want to see if I can get a regular daily run going to Harmony and back." No one had mentioned that, but why they didn't have one going for day trips he didn't understand. Especially if they could do it for free.

  The large Count took a sip of his drink, and nodded.

  "Do that, and things will change fast. Are you going to be in charge of the other main ports? The ones in other lands? I've heard they're in as poor of shape as the one here was." It was kind of clear that the man was leading him to that end, though not why.

  Dareg let himself blink.

  "I have to see what kind of backing I have for this first. That seems to be the likely plan. I was told that the law of Harmony says the Queen Tiera can order her family members around for things like that. I'll need to prove I can do one first. I mean, I wouldn't trust some strange man that just showed up until he could show what he was made of, would you?"

  There was a laugh then, and a solid pat on the shoulder.

  "Exactly so. I just wish everyone was as insightful when it came to being in charge. Do you plan a trip to visit your Queen soon? She's a very good friend of mine. Strong woman, Tiera."

  Dare nodded.

  "I can't say who I'll meet, not knowing, but I plan to leave for there in the morning. The Wizard Tim gave me a new kind of shield. It can allow for real space travel. I went and bothered the Captain of Noram One yesterday. It will take about a day to fly to Harmony, without a ship. That's what Timon thinks. I could die, or get lost, of course. Someone has to go first, so it might as well be me, don't you think?" He smiled, because even if it was boring and hard, it would be fun at the same time.

  The man looked at him for a moment, then shook his head.

  "I'd offer to go with you, but I don't want to steal your glory. That would be amazing, if a single man can fly to the Moon like that. I wish you the best of the journey. Should I make your excuses for you, so you can go and sleep, before you leave? It's nearly mid-night."

  Dareg smiled and patted the man on the upper arm. Hard enough the guy got that it was meant for his shoulder, hopefully.

  "That would be good. I could use a few hours lying down before I go. Thanks."

  "Don't worry, everyone will understand when I tell them of your great attempt. Just don't die. That will ruin the story later."

  Then, with a bit of hugging from Tamerlane, and oddly some blonde Countess that wasn't even introduced, he was shoved, more or less out the back door. Flying wasn't allowed in the city, but Tor-shoes were, so he used his shield to fake that, rose a few inches in the air and managed to be back in his pod house about ten minutes later. It really would have been sooner, but he'd managed to get lost for a bit and had to follow along the wall to find the right gate. That was due to the fact that he was breaking all the speed laws, but no one tried to stop him, so it didn't count.

  Really, that was what a law, or even a rule was. If you were careful enough and didn't get caught, then it just wasn't important. Not that he went around stealing all that much. Not anymore. For a while he'd had to, in order to stay alive. If people wanted him to feel bad about that though, they needed to catch him first. No one ever had. In the main he'd taken food, from people that had way more than their share anyway, so he wasn't just eating the leftovers, and stale scraps they didn't want.

  If you were going to take things, you had to be able to put them in places where no one would ever find them. Like your middle. It was hard to prove that you stole the neighbor's cake, as long as you weren't covered in frosting and crumbs. Especially when there were hundreds of dogs and other animals to blame it on.

  Not that he felt good about that part. Still, just putting the plate where a dog would be caught licking it could save a lot of hassles in the long run.

  That reminded him to take his pod house with him when he went in the morning. Otherwise someone would at least move in, and then there would be a big fight about it. He showered first, used his comb and tooth brush, then made up a little pack with the things he owned. Tam-unit did the work on it, making him a satchel thing that would ride comfortably on his back. Remembering something that Timon had said, he took some food and a few empty bottles as well.

  Then, because it was his job, he made sure his Tam-pals were all filled. It wasn't that hard, because not too many people had been around yet. That would change, before too long.

  "All right, Tam-unit. If you start to run low of trash or working material, you're allowed to tell people to see to that. Especially the High Servants. They're supposed to help people, so that's fair. I haven't hardly seen them in days. Still, if people want to use you for things, they can do their part. Tell them that the Port Boss said so, if they give you any trouble over it. Not that it will work all the time, but even half will probably be enough. I should be back in a day or two." Then, not letting her say good bye, he shot straight up into the air.

  The hard part, to start with, was finding the Moon, since it was hidden away over by the horizon line. Once that was done he headed toward it full speed. After a few hours he started to notice that it really was getting a bit bigger. The trip, like he'd imagined, was boring. Other than that however, it wasn't too hard. He had a vast glowing object to head toward and once in space it was always full, so hard to miss or mistake for anything else.

  There was a dim spot on his shield in front of him, and the back half was like that too. Thankfully, even being directly in the sun he didn't get too hot. Cold either.

  The trip gave him a lot of time to think, which he understood, was a thing that he'd kind of avoided for the last few days. The Wizard Tor, who was practically a legend, was his real father? That sounded fake, even now. Even after the paperwork had supposedly been signed by King Richard, and Queen Tiera. Like a mistake. It would have been hard enough for him to take being the kid of some traveling salesman. After all, no one would have figured him for being anyone important.

  Because he wasn't.

  Dareg wasn't a Prince, or Countier. In his head, inside himself, he was at the very most, just a Dirt Boy. Even now, flying off to the Moon, as boring and slow as it was, he couldn't help but feel like a fraud. The only thing there, the saving part of the whole thing, was that if it was all fake, it wasn't him doing it. The Tam-unit had said he was Tor's son. So had Taman. For some crazy reason he wondered for a moment if some other boy had been there, hiding, and been the one that really was related to all of these people.

  Except of course, there was no place to hide there at the
port. That didn't rule out a trick, but it would have to be a wizard doing it, if it was. Otherwise how could they have read his mind to know that his mother used to tell him that his real father was Torrance Baker? Just accusing some random kid of being Tor's child wasn't going to work in the main. Their fathers would have objected for one thing.

  Everyone had seemed so nice so far, too. That could change, once they realized what he really was. Not a rich, polished prince, but just a pretender from Canton. That wasn't a backwater or anything, but it wasn't the Capital either. Dareg really could understand them getting tired of him after a few weeks, or even days, and asking him not to come around.

  The trick there would be in seizing enough control over the spaceports first. If he were in charge, and did it right, then no one else could easily take that from him. Well, not unless the King, or the rulers of those other lands wanted to. That might happen. Possibly even if his new family didn't disown him. After all, Austrans loved coin, didn't they? They bought and sold everything as dearly as they could manage.

  So, if some kid from Noram came in and started to make the spaceport nice and pretty, why wouldn't they try to rob him? Vagus and Afrak were kind of the same deal. Not that they loved gold above all else, but just that they might not think he could handle it. Conveniently, after he did most of the work.

  That was part of life.

  He knew that. You worked and kept going. You stole, and ate the food fast, before anyone else could take it back. Doing anything else was pretty much asking to be taken advantage of. No matter how polite people were to you, they were going to be in it for themselves. That wasn't even a bad thing. He was in it for him, so why shouldn't they be too?

  In some fashion, once he had the ports, he needed to find a way to maintain his control and influence over them. For the time being he had nothing in that direction.

  The space between the Earth and the Moon was remarkably empty. A void, of course, but somehow lonely, silent and eerie at the same time. After a while, almost half a day he thought, he wondered if something was behind him. Following. It got so bad he eventually had to stop and look, spinning in place. The Earth was there, and was much smaller now. About the size of the moon in front of him, which, given that it was a lot bigger, should mean that he was closer to the Lunar surface than he was to his home.

  Flying onward, he made a point of not looking back again. Not even when he, due to a bursting bladder, had to try to pee into a bottle. That was nearly a disaster, but he wiggled and squirmed enough that he got all the liquid inside the brown ceramic jug and managed to cork it smoothly enough. Then he repacked it and ate while he flew onward. It was just a sandwich on soft bread, but it had meat, cheese and tomatoes. In short, it was an inspired and brilliant combination that he'd had before, but not too many times in his life.

  There were crumbs floating along with him, and probably bits of urine, though he couldn't smell or taste any. That would probably hit him when his tired nose got a fresh blast of air. Then he'd be in for it. For the moment however, all he had to do was fly, and keep going toward the Moon, as it got larger in the sky. After a while it started to grow rather faster, he noticed. Enough so that he stopped, and had to blink for a bit to realize what had happened.

  He was there.

  It wouldn't really count until he stepped onto the surface, so he looked around for the city lights, saw that there were two sets of them and went to the bigger one, since it was on the top. At least compared to how he was facing at the moment. Once there, flying over the city, he saw a wall start to glow. It was blue, and blinking. Not having a better plan, he coasted over to it, and as soon as he got nearly close enough to touch it, the thing vanished. Leaving a room for him to enter. A vast one that was probably meant to hold a real ship. Not just a man with a shield and a pack on his back.

  Still, moving in quickly, the wall came back behind him. It was a solid thing, made to look like gray stone. If it wasn't a real thing that he'd just been allowed to pass through using some trick he'd never heard of.

  From across the way, a red line protruded. At first he didn't understand the idea. Not until he realized that it was probably like what Captain Gemma had done with him and the side of her vessel. He was supposed to use it to get inside without losing a lot of air. To that end he tried to touch the thing, and found that his shield was blocking him from doing that. Instead he tried to focus real hard, and imagined the red moving around him. Leaving a door to the front. It happened quickly enough that he knew he had to have gotten the idea right. Still, not wanting to waste air, since that had to be important in a vacuum, he took the time to double, then triple check his work. He found a tiny spot that was right in the middle of the wrapping behind him. With a few more thoughts that was turned into a solid piece, and only then did he risk telling the bright red bit in front of him to let him through.

  As soon as he did, he saw a rather upset looking woman. One holding a board that had paper attached to it.

  "What the jolly fuck do you think you're doing? This isn't your own private entrance. If you want to go play on the surface, then use a personnel hatch, you moron! This is for ships, coming from Mars or Earth. You don't look like a jumper to me!" She seemed ready for violence, but didn't come for him.

  So, trying not to be battered, he faked a wince. People liked to think they were having an influence on you. It let them feel big, even if, like this woman, they weren't.

  "Sorry. I just flew in from Earth. From the Capital spaceport, in Noram? I'm testing the new Tim-shield. The class three? I was supposed to get in touch with him first, probably so he could tell me what you just did. I should do that now." It took a bit to get to his communications device, being in his pack, not on him. The woman looked at him, but didn't use her funny accent against him again, even as he found the right name.

  Naturally, no one answered at first.

  She tapped her toes at him, and acted like he was playing games with her. Finally, after about a full minute, a rather sleepy looking woman showed up in his hand.

  "Hey. Is there an emergency?" It was kind of clear that her eyes weren't focusing yet, but it was the same woman that he'd seen before, with Timon. The one that had kind of flirted with him for some reason. Probably to try and be nice. That, or manipulate him into something that he couldn't know about yet.

  "Not really? It's Dareg? I pretty much forgot to get in touch before I left, so, um, I'm here! I successfully flew in from Earth. Without a ship. I guess I was supposed to have used a different entrance? I came in like a full sized craft, and the lady here is not happy about that. The thing is, I'm not really sure what I should do now? After I escape the beating for this part of things. I mean, clearly, take a nap. I've been up for most of a day. Do they let people sleep in doorways here though?"

  All he'd really seen of Harmony so far was a big empty room made of white glassy stone, and a red tunnel with a pissed off lady in it. None of it looked all that soft however, though he could probably rest in a corner if he had to. Sooner or later he was going down after all.

  There was a confused mumble, then a second bleary face next to the first one. It wasn't Timon however. Not unless he'd turned into a pleasant looking blonde lady.

  "Dareg? Dareg! Oh! We'll come get you. Let me... We're about fifteen minutes from there, can you wait? We're coming!" The woman seemed to think that was a great idea, so sat up, flashing her rather ample breasts as she did. There wasn't anything over them.

  Not just for a second or two either. She sat there, for nearly twenty seconds, fighting with the covers and then, finally, making clothing appear.

  "We'll be right there. We... I should have been in touch, but we decided to wait for you. This is so exciting." Then she ran off as the other woman laughed.

  Dare smiled, since he didn't get to see a lot of naked women in his life.

  "She seems nice. Who is she?"

  The woman on the device, who also managed to flash him, smiled.

  "That would be Al
i Baker. Your step-mother?"

  Chapter four

  Dare would have been more nervous about things, except the dock lady was still kind of upset with him. Less so, after his call it seemed, but not for the reason he would have figured.

  She brushed at a loose hair, which was a nice even brown color and squinted at him a bit. Her eyes were nearly gray, and she had some lines on her face. A lot of people did, so it wasn't that big of a sin. Her mouth had little pucker marks, like she just frowned, all the time, but her words were softer than he would have counted on, after her first approach.

  "You really flew here from Earth? Using just a shield? That isn't bullshit?" Her words were a lot different than he was used to, in accent. It was Noram standard, but with a very different set of inflections.

  After a few seconds he nodded, getting that this was probably what a real Austran sounded like. Not that he could be certain of that yet.

  "Yes. It takes about a day, and it helped that I had a jug with me, and a few things to eat. I should probably dump that out, the jug. If there's a restroom around? I could use one, too. I've been holding things for a bit." Without really thinking about it either, but there was a bit of pressing tension inside of himself that way.

  The lady grinned then, a thing that looked alien and a bit strained, but real enough, hitting her eyes.

  "This way. You have fifteen minutes before your people come for you. Tim Baker. He's the Austran Revered One. You say he gave you that new type of shield? That's pretty big, isn't it? Impressive. I've seen him a few times, but we've never talked. It would be like meeting a movie star. You know, a famous player? Or I guess if you're from Noram, like meeting the King, or the Prince. Now him I've met. Your Alphonse? Nice fella. Always polite and helpful. Runs the good wine shop here." She sounded pleased about that at least, like it made sense for him to be doing that.