Kingdom of Stars (The Young Ancients: Timon Book Three) (13 page)

It was cute, Tim decided. They all looked so earnest, but
none of them had weapons that would affect Kolb at all. Then, the man didn't
have anything on him that would take Red, so it was already a stalemate, most
likely.

One of the men, the one with the wispy mustache that he
really should have forgone, did have several extra amulets on him, all on
stone, from the feel of them. Timon waved to him, ignoring the rest of the
people's over reaction.

"Can I borrow a clothing amulet from you? Or trade for
it? We've got someone on the ship that needs clothing."

Without hesitation at all the man bowed and worked at his
neck, removing a leather string and handing it to him.

"Thank you for considering my humble efforts worthy,
Great One."

"Timon. Or Tim. Sorry, I didn't get your name?"

Dorgal stepped forward then, smiling.

"My protégé, after a fashion. In that I'm successfully
teaching him Noram Standard and failing to make a merchant of him at all. Mages
aren't allowed to engage in commerce. It's a rule here. His name is Deshi. They
don't use familial names here."

Bowing back Timon took the amulet.

"I thank you for the loan then. Um... Here." He
pulled his amulets from his pocket and tried to think what he had extras of. A
craft, which he handed to Lyn, but nothing else really. Except for his
Tor-shoes, which he hadn't been using at all. He could make new ones however,
and probably should, with much greater speed than anything existing had yet. At
least if he didn't want to be dead. "Please take this."

The man took it, and seemed baffled, but managed a bow in
return.

"I am unworthy of such a gift, you should give it to
the Great Mother, or her consort."

Lyn gave the mage a look, and rolled her eyes in an
exaggerated fashion. It was apparently not unexpected, since the others all
managed a soft chuckle and covered their mouths, except an old man that looked
familiar.

Timon waved at him.

"Oh, right! Did Mark get you the dried meat in exchange
for the healing amulets I came and got a few months ago?"

Red nodded somberly.

"That was a most appreciated
gift
. From you, and
a Count Kern? It heartened the students here to know that we have the support
of all Noram in our meager efforts." Then she bowed, because that was
something that Noram and Vagus had in common. Bowing. All the time.

"You do. Please tell everyone that. Even the King and
Queen are most interested in seeing you all succeed. As well as my family. I'm
surprised you haven't gotten a visit from Terry or Tess yet.
Or
Taman.
Though if she shows up without contacting you first, make sure to paddle her
for it. Ma and da won't, but she can't have free run of the whole world. There
have to be some limits." At least if they could enforce them.

Red grinned and seemed to be agreeing, while Julie looked
horrified.

"You wouldn't really strike a child, would you Lyn?
Timon?"

Tiera wrinkled her nose, which had more than one of the
mages surrounding them looking her way, including Deshi. It was cute and she
was both pretty and incredibly exotic for the area.

"Well, when she built a little floating carriage of her
own and ran away to live with Tor, mother didn't beat her for it. It was
impressive in more than one way. You should have them in over the summer
however, if you can stand the idea. The kids I mean. Living at a mage school
won't hurt them at all. They're all in building lessons anyway. Terry's even
becoming decent at making copies from a template I hear. Taman is the only full
builder yet, however. I doubt it will be too long however, since Terry's smart."

There was a sudden bit of speech from Lyn, who was rather
commanding sounding. Tim managed to get part of it, but not all.

"We should prepare for a visit from the Great Children.
They will be coming to learn from us, and we must not fail them."

Tim didn't let himself smile, just bowing toward them all
again, and then holding up his right hand, with the Deshi made clothing amulet
in it. The thing felt like the man, which meant it was his own work, not just a
pure copy.

"Perhaps Builder Deshi and I can go and retrieve
Monroe? He
has
to be wondering what's going on by now. We kind of left
him locked up inside." He didn't put a voice to the thought, but if it had
been him, Timon would have been already working to escape.

It seemed like Monroe was unfamiliar with magic, but when
they got in he was already sitting at the main controls, wrapped in a sheet
from the bed, which had been cleverly tied over one shoulder into a satin
dress. It was a light blue and didn't go with his skin tone at all. Timon had thought
everything went with black, but there seemed to be some things that didn't
really work.

"Oh, hey! This is the drive control right? I just move
it in the direction I want to go, and the amount controls the speed? That's
efficient. I got hungry and wanted to see if you had anything to eat, but I
couldn't find anything. That's all right, isn't it?"

Timon looked at the scene and suppressed a giant sigh. The
man really was smart, no matter how innocent he sounded most of the time. He
might well have merely gotten hungry, or he could have been ready to take the
craft and run home when they'd walked in. That he hadn't yet could mean
anything.

"We came with some real clothing for you. That sheet
won't exist as soon as you leave the craft. Well, at least if you move too far
away from it. It's not separate from it." Holding up the amulet he moved
on the man, who didn't shy away or act guilty of anything at all. In fact he
just smiled. It looked cheery.

"Wonderful! It's part of this object? I can use it like
the ship? Just think what I want at it?"

Deshi stood back, his eyes humbly downcast, which seemed a
bit too much for just them, being only a child, and a half prisoner like they
were, and Monroe didn't look any older than the native mage did.

"I hope you will accept it as a gift? It is my own
humble effort." The man wasn't speaking flawless Noram, but it was only
heavily accented, not too thick to understand.

"Thanks. That's really nice of you. I'm Monroe. I heard
we were going to Vagus and that Lyn Red is here? We used to be friends, back in
school. That was about a thousand years ago now." Waving a hand airily he
just stood, waiting for Timon to put the device on him and activate it. It
could be a trick, of course, since it meant getting really close to him in
order to make that happen.

Instead of coming at him with some form of advanced and
ancient martial art, which Timon wouldn't be able to stop at all, most likely,
the man just thanked him and looked down at the simple red robe that the thing
became.

The default for it was, Tim intuited, the most common thing
that Deshi wore, day to day. Monroe looked at it, his eyes down at his body,
and then seemed to focus a bit. It was hard to tell really, but after a few
seconds the clothing went through a lot of changes, as if he were trying to
test the limits of it. Most of it was just clothing, but the last outfit was
pretty unique and reminded him of the padded armor that some of the students
wore when training to fight. Only it seemed more durable somehow.

Monroe noticed him looking at the all red outfit, and screwed
his face up playfully.

"You never know what will be useful. So far you've all
been pretty nice to me, considering the situation, but what if that changes? I
might need this."

Timon nodded. Of course, if he really needed that, it
probably wouldn't do him much good, since no one attacking him there would be a
tavern brawler, or want to stab him with a spear. Then, you did what you could,
in dire situations.

"You might want to memorize that then. Maybe something
a bit less combative for the initial meeting though? Something plain, and
boring. Like what everyone else will be wearing here, since you already have
that unique skin coloration thing going on. No need to rub that in. Being all
special and all." It wasn't exactly pretty, but it was still striking. In
a way it was too hard to look at to really see the man. He was all black, and
it washed out the definition that a normal person had. He'd be invisible at
night too.

That would probably be when the man would escape.

Or try to at least.

His sense of place was pretty good it seemed, and he didn't
go in for a robe, like a mage, but a deep red version of what Timon had on. It
was probably a bit too fancy still, but it would do. It was Red's land and
wearing a color that she favored wasn't a bad plan. The man stood straight,
stretched a bit and then smiled, which was too exaggerated to be real.

"I'll follow your lead then, Tim, since we're going to
be partners in the coming project. I was thinking about the moon base idea. Can
you build long term structures out of material like this ship is made of? If
not we might be able to make use of something similar to make earth moving
equipment for lunar work. Or, well, it isn't called earth there, is it? I hear
it makes good glass though, since it has a high silicon content. This is really
exciting." Without stopping, he switched topics. Timon had to fight that
urge himself all the time, but he didn't think Deshi was keeping up, not having
a good enough base of information yet. "Oh, I need to get some equipment
before we go. Would Austra have enough of a technological base do you think? If
not I'll have to send a list with you to Blue. Cindy hates me. I think it
started when I snitched on her and Remy Nineteen when we were kids. The Remy
wasn't upset about it, but Blue never really forgave me. I was asked though, so
of course I told the administrator what they were doing. It isn't like I had a
choice. Again that's about a thousand years ago."

Timon shook his head, smiling.

"Three thousand and a bit. The Remy's all date back to
then too?" He was both changing the topic and moving them to the door,
since he was a bit hungry himself. The food of Vagus was meat heavy and bland,
but filling and nutritious enough. No one there was fat though, so he'd need to
make sure he brought in something to replace what they took away. He was
starting to get the idea that these people would let themselves starve, rather
than turn away a request for aid.

It was noble, of course, but also meant that he needed to
make certain Lyn didn't let her mages want for too much. If that happened
they'd probably try to run off on their own and get into mischief. Timon would
have if someone had told him that he wasn't allowed to benefit from his own
work directly.

Monroe grabbed the new topic and ran with it.

"Yes, they sure do. They were different than most of
us, since they aren't living, and are, at the same time. They don't need food
or water, and absorb what they need from the environment. They do need air,
unless they go dormant, and then they can pretty much just hang out as long as
is needed. The thing with Blue, well, Remy's are adept shape shifters. They can
be anything or anyone, which was the real problem. They weren't supposed to be
having sex, since we weren't allowed back then, all of us being too young.
About fifteen or so, I think. Cindy is a hermaphrodite, and Remy switched the
position of their genitals to be the other way around, so they'd fit? It
worked, but Blue wasn't really designed for that, and it was hurting her. So I
told when asked, and they got in trouble. One of the lab techs ended up being
fired over it."

He was still talking as they moved down the stairs and
walked slowly, so that no one would use a force lance on them, over to where
Red, Dorgal and Tiera were talking into one of the hand held communications
devices. It was he realized, Dorgal doing most of the speaking, his voice happy
and excited.

"It really
is
a marvelous idea that Timon has, Sir."
Who he was speaking to Tim didn't get at first, until the man replied.

"A space port in each land? Possibly several? All at
his own expense? That's ambitious, I'd say. Very well, I can put the word out
that more bodies will be needed on the project. Perhaps the High Servants could
be put to that endeavor? Not strictly, of course, since their mandate is to
serve those in need, but being positioned with such a grand scheme can only
give them the chance to help even more people. That's most important to
them." There was no hint of irony in his words at all, so Timon didn't
bother making a face.

Tiera didn't either, but she did turn to look at him, as if
expecting him to give that one away. As if he'd do something like that?

Nodding he bowed to Lyn and then, as an afterthought,
Dorgal, being that he was kind of the lesser co-ruler of the land here. It was
a big deal, and he deserved some respect for that. Mainly for not abusing his
new found power there at all, as far as Timon could tell.

"The High Servants are a new order. Much like a sworn knight,
except that they seek to aid others in times of peril or stress, rather than
defend them with strength of arms. They were formed originally to help put the
Capital back together, after the last attack."

That wasn't exactly correct, but the King didn't naysay him
in front of the foreign ruler. They always got along that way, Tim realized.
Actually, they got along really well. Too well. It wasn't a bad thing, and not
creepy in any way, but the King actually listened to him. On one hand that
meant he was a wise and intelligent man, because clearly, Timon was almost
always right. Still, he was a child and knew it. He liked to think that being
smart helped him seem older, but the King
should
have largely ignored
him. Maybe give him a gift on Noram Day, or possibly invite him to a party or
two, occasionally.

Instead the man treated him like an advisor almost. Only
occasionally acting as if he weren't a full grown and educated man. It wasn't
normal. It probably meant something dark too. What exactly that was he didn't
know for certain, but had heard enough to suspect Doris had created him to be
very well received by the Royal family. It was some kind of chemical or
pheromone thing. Useful, but also dangerous.