Light Bringer (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 2) (37 page)

What showed was a person, backlit
by the bright sun. When he looked at it, the man, a tiny one, stood there, his
back to the door. As if he planned to wait and do nothing more than that.

Dare stood up, cycled his
clothing amulet, and moved to the door, since this was obviously a commoner,
and the man probably wouldn't try to knock or open the door to let himself be
heard. Hopefully it was just someone that needed directions, or possibly a job.
Those were easy for him to take care of, really. Sighing, he shook his head and
opened the door.

He froze, however, when the man
turned around.

He was small, tan colored, young,
and familiar.

"Bill." Dareg got ready
to move, reaching up to hit his healing amulet, knowing that without Tor there
to save him, or Kolb being around to give his life to take the tiny fellow out,
he was going to simply be dead, no matter what he did.

The tiny man smiled at him and
shook his head.

"No, ser.
Will
, which
is close? I was told that, if'n it be proper like to ask, that there might be
work near here? Is that right? I can go... I don't want to press in."

Heart pounding, Dareg nodded at
him.

"I see. Well, that might be
worked out. Would you be willing to wait here for a few seconds? I think we
have a place for you. You don't mind traveling a little, do you? I'll pay for
it all. It's part of the job. Farming really, but a slightly different
form."

The man, tiny as he was, smiled
and ducked his head, looking at the ground.

"Thank you, ser. I know
farming. Will Farmer be my name, truth be."

Dareg closed the door, and gasped
for a while, struggling to work out what to do. After all, the man had nearly
killed him once already, and now, it seemed, he was back.

Panic ripped through him. It was
on two levels. The surface one which was due to mere concern and confusion,
since the man was well and truly dead. Dare had seen him turn into dust. More
correctly, he'd vanished into a stream of darkness that wasn't normal at all.

The second part was more
physical. Since he was shaking and starting to sweat already. That was just
down to the fact that his body expected not to be living, very soon.

Breathing deeply he focused, and
tried to get himself under control. It was kind of important, since he was
nearly certain a full combat rage had started. That was comforting, because
anger was easier to handle than fear, but it didn't fix anything. Looking up,
the wall vanished, from his perspective, letting him see the small man.
Standing there. Like he wasn't an inhuman killer.

Which, Dare knew,
might
be
possible. It
could
be that Will Farmer was the real human version, and
that Bill had simply been a fake version all along. There was no rule as to how
that worked yet, as far as he knew. In that case, killing the man would be
wrong.

Not that it mattered. He was
either going to be a normal person, which meant he wasn't a threat, or he was
going to kill him. If that part was the truth however, then attacking him
there, alone, would be the best thing for the fellow to do. There was no real
way that Dareg was going to win, or even survive, a fight against one of the
Adversaries. Not alone.

Freezing seemed like a plan for a
moment, but after he mastered the rage, which took two minutes, he grabbed for
his handheld, not knowing who in the world he was supposed to get in touch
with. Almost without thinking he hit the first name that he recognized on the
list. Alice Orange.

She clicked into place about
three seconds later, and glared at him.

"Dareg? Why are you wearing
your trickster face?"

He nearly panicked again, but
just hit his disguise amulet, which got her to smile at him.

"Better. I thought you were
going to try to get me into bed or something. Now, what's going on? I have the
new jump ships crewed, about a quarter of the routs already running at half
speed, and we're going live with the whole thing in... four days."

It was funny, since Dareg
couldn't feel his face in places, which was only partly due to the disguise he
had on. Not that it made sense for him to focus on that for the moment.

"Bill Humboldt... A man that
is calling himself Will Farmer, his
exact
double, is at my door, looking
for work. I said I had a job for him. He's either the real, human version of
the man, or some kind of copy or something. I'm still alive, but..."

There was a pause, and then a
nod.

"Understood. Can you contain
him there?"

Dareg figured that she was asking
if he could capture or kill the thing outside. If it was a real person, that
was possible, but otherwise doing either of those things wasn't going to work.

"No. I might... Be able to
distract him for a bit. Offer that job and walk him slowly over to Sam
Builder's Palace. Can you set something up?"

"Yes. Good luck. I'll have
something in place in... Call it twenty minutes. I have the location. Remember,
if you have to, run."

That was a real point. Even if
the thing was faster than him, flying away without warning might work. It
definitely would if he was just a commoner. In which case he could just
hire
the man. It would be hard, seeing Bill each day, but he'd live. That was the
good option, so he was hoping for that.

"If that doesn't work,
then... Well, don't let them win."

She looked at him, no doubt
seeing the near terror in his eyes. Instead of mocking him, she nodded a few
times and smiled. It was a hard thing, not her normal one.

"That's the spirit. Twenty
minutes, starting... Now."

The screen turned back to focus
stone, with nothing more being said.

Dare still didn't want to go back
outside, but he took a few deep breaths, and then did it, just moving. A smile
was pasted onto his face, as a very humble looking commoner turned again, and
looked down. Pretending to be a real person of his social class. Which, of
course, he might be.

"Thanks for waiting. Sorry
about that. All right. The job is in management, if you want to take it. It
only starts at five silvers a month, but after two months, if you want to stay
on and are doing a good job, it moves to a gold a week." That was too much
for gardening, so he waved his hands around a bit. "There are six Earth
side ports like this. All of them need a green-belt around them. Here and
Austra might be hard, but we have water and the entire area around the Capital
is eventually going to be managed land. You'll be in charge of all of that.
Well, the ports. The rest of the area around here is up to the king to handle.
Him, or Gerent Lairdgren."

The man locked eyes with him and
looked scared for a few seconds. It was a lot more like what a person like him
should have been doing than Bill had ever really managed. That would be a
perfect way to set him at ease in order to throw him off. For all he knew, this
could be Bill, just having learned to do a better job.

"I couldn't. Not... Work
with high folk like that, ser."

He nodded.

"You won't have to, for the
most part. Just underlings of theirs. The work itself won't be that hard.
Farming and gardening, but done on a large scale. Don't worry, you get to have
other people doing most of the work. You don't mind travel, do you? It's part
of the position, so you don't have to pay for it."

They started to walk toward
Tam-Unit, since she wasn't that far away from his front door. Near the mouth of
the port itself. When he was nearly there, her picture flashed up on her
window, the screen that showed her face, which Will didn't react to in
particular. He looked, but seemed to think it was fine that a magical woman had
appeared there in front of him.

"Dareg! You have a friend
with you too? This is..." The words were a question, but it was clear that
she stopped on purpose. Like a person freezing in place.

"This is Will Farmer. He's
come to take Bill's old position. You should make sure that he can get what he
needs from you." Part of him wanted to yell that they needed a scan, and
to pass that to Taman, just in case it wasn't some commoner that merely had
been used as a model once upon a time.

"You should scan him, so
that you'll know him, later. He might be all over the world, so it's a good
idea." The trick was sounding a little bit bored when he said it. Dare
wasn't totally certain he'd managed that exactly, however.

Tam-Unit came back to life, and
smiled at them. It seemed like her normal self.

"Of course. Do you need
anything to eat, gentlemen? I can make a few hundred items. Chicken, beef, and
vegetable sandwiches, or egg wraps? Those are a favorite around here in the
mornings."

It was impossible to tell if she
were trying to buy time or not, but his stomach growled loudly enough at the
mention of food that Dare realized that was a fair thing to stop and do.

"That would be great,
actually. Thanks Tam-Unit. Can I get four of those wraps? That and a large
glass of protein drink?" Then he turned to Will, and waved. "You
should get something. You'll be working with Tam-Unit almost every day. She can
make food, water, and other things. Tools and clothing? Right now I have to
eat, so if you can make yourself, you should as well. We can sit on my front
stoop for that?" There was no way he was going to be trapped inside with
the man. Not if he could help it.

"Thank you, ser. Is that all
right? I don't have no coin."

He smiled then, and nodded.

"This is always free, for
anyone, even if you don't have anything to pay with. For all the ports in the
world. I'll get with Taman Baker and ask if she'll part with another pod house.
Like mine? That way you'll be able to take it with you when you travel."

The food started coming, so he moved
in to collect it, then stood back as the common seeming man asked if it was
possible to have some bread and a single egg. It was, and it came out on a
plate, rather than the small tray that Dare had gotten. That, and the large
glass tumbler were due to the raw amount of food he'd gotten. He honestly was
that hungry, but also didn't know if eating was the best plan. If he had to
fight, that might not be the world's best plan.

Then, dying with a full stomach
wasn't any worse than dying without eating.

They sat companionably, with the
smaller fellow acting a bit nervous. It fit the act he was presenting.
Commoners were often shy around powerful or wealthy people. It was practically
a stereotype it was so normal for them. Just like nobles were thought of as
kind of brash and ridiculously overdone all the time. It was, more or less,
true, so no one would feel that bothered about it being pointed out.

Holding his platter on his legs,
sitting with them crossed, he started to eat. Slowly. There was no reason to bolt
his food after all. Not that he could enjoy it. The egg wrap, which was egg,
sausage and a spicy sauce in a flat bread, was good. Probably better than most
of the food that he'd eaten in his entire life. In his fourteen years, he'd
gone from being a well cared for boy, to being among the poorest people in the
entire world, and then up to the heights of where a person could go.

Really, it had been a good life,
as hard as it was in parts. Good enough that if he had to die that day, he
didn't think he needed to feel bad about anything.

After a few bites Will started to
eat as well, seeming to appreciate it after the first bite.

"This is very good. Thank
you, ser."

He nodded, his own mouth full.
When he swallowed, Dareg tried to think of something to say that wouldn't sound
stupid, or like he was stalling.

"Dareg. Canton, if it comes
up. If we're working together we both need to know that kind of thing. All the
names and that. As soon as we're done here I'll take you over to meet Sam. I
can show you where we want the green belt here as we walk."

The other man nodded, and looked
down at his plate.

"I'll do it. If you want me
too? The job, I mean. I think that I can. It's a very kind offer."

"Sure." He ate then, a
bit faster, since even going slow, Will was going to finish before he was. That
would be rude of him, letting that happen. Thankfully the meal still took about
fifteen minutes, and then he had them dump their plates and glasses into
Tam-Unit's side. Dusting his hands off on each other, which meant they were
slightly greasy, he started to walk.

As he did, not one, but three
craft settled to the Earth, coming in all at one time, and landing in front of
Sam Builder's palace. Two of them were orange, though made small enough that no
more than twenty or thirty people could be in each one. The last was bigger,
and green. Gerent's craft, from the size and shape. Part of him dreaded that.
He liked both Gerent and Petra. Really, if a massive fight came again, there
would be more deaths.

People that he knew now, and
hadn't just met a few days before. It would
hurt
to lose them. Any of
them. It had a bit with Kolb and Karen. High Servant Erid, too.

The thought hit him, hard enough
that he recalled being trapped again. In the storm, with the body of his mother
next to him for all those days. The water rising around him at first. Then the
fear of being trapped there, under the heavy stones, until he died. People had
come for him, but the only person that he'd had in the whole world was gone.

Now he had more. A family even.
Sure, that was a new thing, and not exactly as close. He was going to really
feel the loss however, if he failed and let this man, or being, kill them all.
On the good side there was only one of him there at the moment. Still, with
none of their magic working on him, if he didn't want it to, a fight could, and
probably would, end up being lethal.

That being the case, they needed
to go carefully. Last time the fight had started because Straughan had been
called out too well. Not as being an agent of darkness, just for him having
broken some rules and maybe a law or two. So his decision had been to kill them
all, and probably make it seem like he'd never been there. It wouldn't have
worked, but he could have escaped then.

Which got Dareg to put a few
things together, his mind working frantically to find out a way to protect
everyone. The first thing that hit him was that reusing Bill, or even his face,
was a huge risk. People knew him now. At the very least the evil Adversaries
should at least know that two of their scouts were gone. If that was the case,
then sending Will here to look for them was still a poor plan.

The second thing was that, if
they knew somehow that it was the case, that Bill and Kevin were dead, then sending
in Will would mean something very different. Like he was there to try and kill
them all. For real. Not as an assassin would, since
sneaking
in would be
the way to do that. Dareg might not be well educated, but he'd heard enough
stories to get that part down. Waving a banner and shouting that you were there
was a bad idea, if you were just trying to kill one specific individual. Spying
was out for the same reason.