Light Bringer (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 2) (40 page)

It was a goal of his to not be
that kind of person.

The annoying ones that made life
less pleasant. The sort that might show up to kill you, and all your new
friends, for instance. He thought about things, not being able not to, while he
walked. On the good side, he felt healthy this time. Rubbing his face he
smiled, realizing that he still had his disguise amulet on. Hence Alice not
being upset with him. She really didn't care for his real face.

As he walked he concentrated a
bit and let his clothing morph and change. From the rather nice outfit that
he'd had on, being what he'd fallen asleep in, to a loose flowing thing that
was similar, but not exactly like, what he noticed on a man that had walked
past. His had been a deep red, but Dare changed it to a more copper color. The
man was probably a prostitute, but it was a good look for all that, and covered
almost everything. There was a wide cloth belt, a sash, he thought, around the
middle, but the rest of it flowed. His boots were the same but he made them
hold a slight bit of copper as well, as far as color went. Then made them less
shiny.

Hopefully it was good enough for
dining out. If not, he could change it. When he got to the door, the man from
before, Robert, was there, just inside. Waiting. Probably for anyone that came,
since that seemed to be his job.

The face, older and lined, smiled
politely.

"Table for one today,
sir?"

The last word reminded him of how
Will had kept calling him that. True with a different accent, but it caused the
thought of the man exploding, or whatever that was, to come up in front of him
again.

"Um... Really, I don't know.
Sixteen at last count, but there could be a lot more. Or less. At least
three?" That
probably
wasn't helpful, but the man just nodded. So
deeply it was nearly a bow.

"Understood, sir. This way?
I think we can bring another table over." There was no activity to that
end directly, the man leading him to the back left side. It was away from the
door, which would make it harder for anyone to sneak up on him. If they attacked
from the front there was no place to run however. So a tradeoff. Which way was
the right one, or at least better, he didn't know at the moment.

Running, rather than being
beaten, made sense to him. That meant more practice. Both flying and running on
his own feet. Neglecting either could get him killed. Especially now that he didn't
have a ship anymore. That part was sad.

Worse, Tim had trusted him to
have it, and he'd thrown it away. Into the Sun. There wasn't even a chance to
recover it now. Not that he could think of anything that would have let him
keep it and still live, so, if he had to make the trade, he would.

The nice gray haired man that was
helping him pulled a chair out for him, then moved back.

"Would you like anything to
start with, sir? A drink perhaps, or would you prefer to wait for your
party?"

"Ah... Well, not to be rude,
but
I'm starving
. Could I get the..." He tried to think, but the
only thing that came to mind was the dish he'd had the last time he was there.
"Chips and cheese? I don't know what it's called. Marissa made it for me
and Tenet the last time I was here."

He nodded then, and smiled.

"I know just the dish. It
won't be a moment. Would you like anything else?"

Thinking he nodded.

"Um... yes. Do you have
Austran protein drinks here? There was a thing, and... I had to do a lot of
healing."

The man changed then, staring at
him and going still at the same time.

"Right." Then he turned
and simply started yelling, which wasn't fitting the rich and well appointed
space at all. "Colville! Prince Tenet's dish, along with a large protein
shake. Expedite it!" His words sounded more Austran suddenly, but softened
when he turned.

Bowing he spoke gently.

"It won't be but a moment.
Please forgive the raised voice. My old military training came out."

"Thanks. I am hungry. It
probably isn't that big of a deal. Yet."

Before he could even think of
what to say next, a man, who looked to be about thirty or so, and who was
incredibly well groomed, though he did have bright green hair, walked toward them
quickly, holding a large covered platter of something and a tray with a pitcher
and an empty glass on it. The whole thing landed in front of him swiftly. It
was uncovered as if the man were nearly dancing, and the glass was filled,
leaving an inch of space free from the top, which was a bit lower than normal,
but made sense. After all, if he were injured or recovering he could be shaky.
Which he was.

That was due to almost dying, but
it worked the same way. He upended the glass, drinking it all without bothering
to taste it. It was different than what he'd had before, being both thicker and
far colder. There were in fact, bits of ice in it. The flavor was a bit better
however, and had a rich, nearly coffee like overtone, without any hint of
bitterness.

Taking a breath, half of it being
gone, he looked at the men and tried to smile.

"This is very good. Thank
you."

Then they walked away, almost as
if he'd yelled for them to go. That would be really rude however, and he simply
hadn't
. What that meant he didn't really understand. Probably that both
of these men had training about what happened after a person was in a fight. An
emergency, at any rate. No one came back, leaving him to eat as fast as he
could in public, not caring much about manners for the moment. He did keep
himself clean, which was good, since a few minutes later everyone came in.

Way
more people than he would have
expected.

He stood up, since the Queen was
there, near the front, and bowed toward her, then moved it over to hit everyone
else. It was a group and he'd gone low, but Tor didn't bother doing it back
moving in and hugging him. With a bit of manful back pounding, but warmly
enough that he got the idea. The man, his
father
, had actually worried
about him. For real. Not just trying to show everyone that he was a good person
that didn't abandon his kids all over the place.

After a bit others tried to
joining in, which meant he was kind of smothered in Baker family members, until
Petra, Gerent and Count Ward got there. Then there was a combination of back
poundings and hugs. Marvin did both, then stood back and took a deep breath.

"You seem whole and healthy.
Eating, I see? We should get you more than that." He turned, but before he
could call out, not one but several tables were brought over. There wasn't
really enough room, but apparently when the Queen walks in and needed seating
for a small mob, others took the hint and left her alone. Not all of them did,
and some of the Austran looking people had handhelds out, getting pictures of everyone.

Count Ward, being helpful like he
clearly was, waved and got Marissa to jog over. The all black woman looked just
as exotic as always, and close up he could see she was smiling at them all. Not
even with a look of panic on her face at the sudden explosion of people.

Thinking that caused him to
recall the vast wave of darkness. How it literally had absorbed the light of
the Sun, if only for a while.

"Miss, would you be so kind
as to get more for our friend here to eat?" He didn't say what, and the woman
didn't ask, just spinning and moving away at a run that was both intense and a
good clip faster than most people could go. Then, she was an immortal, if he
had it right. A lot of them had special abilities like that. For that matter,
so did he, as little as they'd helped him that day.

Tor moved in, directly beside
him, and looked nervous.

"We need too... Do you
remember anything?"

That let him smile, nod, and sink
into his chair, then drink the last of the protein stuff in a few large swigs.

"Almost all of it. Not when
we fought, or, well kind of, but like before? That part was short however. Does
anyone have a Truth amulet? We might as well get this down. We can use a
handheld for that?"

Several people still were, after
all. Realizing that Timon waved at them, his face serious and almost
unpleasant.

"Sorry folks. We need you
all to leave. Marissa, please lock up the front, then join us. I'll record
it." He moved then, as if to enforce his ban on regular diners, but they
all got the idea and removed themselves. A few groused a bit, having not
finished their fine meals, but they
left
.

Tor fished out a Truth Amulet,
and passed it over, without questioning the idea. Which was, of course, that
Dareg intended to only tell the facts, no matter how he looked doing it. As
soon as everyone had a place to sit, and the food started coming, he set the
thing going with a tap.

A white aura that had a single
yellow stripe down the center covered him totally.

"You all know how the Truth
device works. If I lie, a black section will appear. So, this is what
happened." He started at that morning, and covered everything.

His fear of dying. The worse one
of losing everyone, or
anyone
to a battle, and the strange feeling that
Will that had come wasn't just a scout. Then he went over everything else, not
adding anything to it, and went on to the point when he finished healing and
came inside at Harmony.

Then he blew out.

"So. I lost my jump
ship." Then a bit dismally, needing the food, he ate for a while.

No one spoke, and Tim turned off
the recording. Reaching up, Tor touched the amulet around his neck and helped
him remove it. Turning it off in the process.

It was Alice who spoke first,
smiling. Hugely.

"You fought a worse threat
than we faced before. By yourself, alone, and destroyed it utterly? Not
bad." That last bit was casual but seemed nearly chipper. "In two
fights, we've had one hundred percent success in driving them back. This time
one on one. That will have to get them thinking about their plans. Unfortunately,
it probably won't stop them."

Dare shook his head.

"Not really. Of the
known
fights, we've won. When people lose, we probably won't know any more than that
they died. It was close. If he'd been... Really, he should have attacked on the
ground, or even better, attacked me alone. He seemed confident though. Like
fighting all of you wasn't the real issue. That could have been playing, but...
I can't see this as much better. Worse, it seemed that he died
then
that
dark thing happened. It was hard to tell. He was far away, but there was a
flare first, like he was glowing from the Sun burning him. Most people don't
have ships to throw away like that. Even if I did, I would have died, if not
for the jump shield Timon gave me. This was so..." He didn't know how to say
the words, but several people up and down the table seemed to understand.

Tess, who hadn't said more than
she was glad he'd lived, spoke then, her voice mellow.

"We need to find out how
powerful, or at least large, that blast, or whatever, of darkness, was. I wonder
if any of the observatories in Austra, or the space based ones, caught
anything?" She didn't do anything toward finding out about that, just
mentioning the idea.

It wasn't a bad one.

Not that it would fix anything.
For the moment though, Dareg decided to relax. If he ever could again. Shaking
his head, he picked up a strange, fluffy looking meat sandwich, which was
delicious. Enough that it actually distracted him for a second.

"This is very nice. Thanks
Marissa." He took another bite and swallowed before he went on. "We
should get with the Austran's on this and check. I... Um, have some contacts?
The people that I'm supposed to take to Jupiter in a month. We'll have to plan
something else for your party, King Dorgal. Sorry about that." He sounded
sad about it, and was, but Tim just waved at him a bit.

"Don't worry. I have a new
batch of the things that will be ready before then, so
that
won't be a
problem. I need to send this report out. We should... Dareg, do you want to
stay here?" He didn't mean the nice restaurant, though his plans did
involve it until he ran out of room to place food in.

Dare shook his head.

"No. I'm good. I need to get
to that afternoon practice. Tomorrow I need to check on Austra, and see if
their port is doing all right. I've totally fallen down there. After that... I
want to work on the green belt project. Around those." That meant going
over that part again, since he'd just mentioned that Will had come up with a
few good ideas toward that end. Gerent whistled softly when he finished going
over it.

The tall man, who wasn't even
close to as good looking as most of the others there, not being a Baker by
birth, looked at him from well down the large table. It was all a glossy black
focus stone, if in four different sections.

"That
is
good. I'll
come in and help with that part? We need to get with Abbey, too. She's in
charge of animals for us. If we have ponds we should at least have fish. Some
other things as well I bet."