Light Bringer (The Young Ancients: Second Cycle Book 2) (49 page)

Dareg was running out of things
to say, not really knowing the man on the other side of the handheld very well.
They'd met twice, he thought. Four times if they were going to count speaking
on the handheld like they were.

Thankfully Tor wanted to talk to his
brother, and gestured for the handheld, with a big smile. It had nothing to do
with him, just setting up trade between the lands. There
was
some
already going on, but it seemed that Vagus was actually starting to put out
real products, for the first time in its history. Not just horse hides, or ox
pelts. Working from a base of magic. Tellerand was kind of primitive that way,
not trusting to things like that, so they made everything by hand, but had some
things to trade as well, it sounded like. Cloth and finished goods, mainly.
Things of wood, and metal.

Alyssa moved over to him, and
patted his shoulder. Her blue eyes sparkled in the sun as she looked down at
him.

"Tor told me... About the
battle the other day? We need to get together and work out what this means. Two
people that look the same like that... Was it a mistake? Or is it something we
can use to find these things?"

Dareg had no better clue than she
did, but got what she was saying. It could very well be that Bill and Will
being identical was a weakness in the structure of the Adversaries. That if
they could put out his likeness, and maybe that of Kevin Straughan, it would be
possible for people to find others. Then of course, they needed some way to
fight them that would work. What he'd done simply wouldn't, not all the time.
For one thing, he didn't have a bunch of spare jump ships laying around.

The first fight... Well, they'd
won
.

Thinking about it now though, he
realized how very special that probably had been. The two evil beings would
have bested
any
ten ordinary fighters and wizards, even if they were all
alone. It had taken a room filled with near super beings to get the task done,
and even at that, several had died. The cost for that win was simply too high.
Not to mention the strange wave of blackness at the end, that Will had
produced. It might not do anything. The odds of that being the case were pretty
small however.

No, that was a weapon of some
sort. A powerful one, too. No one had gotten back to him with information on
that part of things, even though the Austrans were looking into it. Part of
that was probably just down to the fact that it took time to figure things like
that out. The other was simpler than that even. He wasn't anyone all that
special in their system, and while he was known to some of them, that didn't
mean Austran scientists would dance to his tune.

Alyssa had kept talking, and had
changed the topic, he realized, which got him to grin.

"I was thinking... I should
go to Noram and work on the wedding planning with Queen Constance. If... Is it
all right for me to act as your mother? I didn't want to presume." She
sounded almost shy about the idea, though the feeling coming of off her was
more calculated than that.

He nearly blinked at the idea she
was really putting forward, because it was different than he would have figured
from anyone. This woman, who really did want to help with the wedding planning,
was also thinking of ways to get him alone. For sex. It was, she thought, wrong
of her. The thing there was that she didn't feel that way at all.

That nearly got him to snort, and
say
no
, since doing that would probably be a poor plan as far as family
relations went. Then he thought about for himself for a while, and let his
smile become bigger.

"That sounds like a great
idea. Can you get with Constance on that, or should I?" After all, the
woman wasn't going to hold him down, and force him to do anything. She knew the
difference between right and wrong, she just didn't feel it directly, in a few
areas. That meant he could just mention the idea to her, and she'd probably get
it.

The thing was, Dareg understood
what was going on.
All
of it. At least with her. That made it easier to
manage than if he were going in blind. Before she could answer, Tor walked
over, smiling, and handed the speaking device back.

"Thanks. This is great.
We'll have to do it all by ship, but we can manage that. Now, the mages here
are all muttering about how to best pry one of the new light units from you? I
think the current plan is to trade Hsian for it?" He smiled and waved at a
serious looking girl, who was in the middle of a red circle of older people.
She was at least sixteen, but from her face she didn't particularly
want
to be sold off like that.

She was cute however, her face
slightly round and childlike. Even if she did have that exotic look about her
that all the people there did. She was the one that had taken down the light
statue of Hess, which had probably gotten everyone's attention to focus on her
for their teasing. It was clear that she was intelligent too, having figured
out how to do most of what was needed to make the device work. She'd even made
a small figure of her own appear. That was of Alyssa, and really wasn't bad. It
was only about three feet high, however, but a better than decent likeness,
otherwise.

"
Tempting
. We don't
have slavery in Noram however, and I'm engaged, so marriage is out. Plus, I
do
have some spares of these left. About a thousand of them. What do you think I
should do?" Dare looked at Alyssa, since she seemed to be the one less
likely to tease him about what was going on.

For her part, she made a
considering face. It seemed real too, and not like a game to her.

"Well, Hsian
is
one
of the better new talents here. How about a trade? One of your light devices,
for one of her magical sleeping pads? They're nice and kind of handy to have
around. The basic idea is a bit simple, but if you need to sleep outside, or
sit on the ground they're not bad at all."

He nodded, and the girl, who probably
hadn't heard them, only noticing him looking at her. That got her eyes to go
wide, but she stepped forward, as Tor spoke in rapid Vagish.

The girl answered by smiling
suddenly, and pulling a stone from a pocket that was hidden in her robes. Then
she put the light tile away, and held out the rock for him. It had etching on
the surface, rather than a glowing sigil, but he could feel the strong magic
inside, that did indeed seem to want to make a large, flat, piece of shield
appear on the ground. It would only do that one thing, in one size, but it felt
solid and very clear.

The rock was about the size half
his hand, so he slid it into the left hand side pocket of his shirt. The girl
moved back then, not speaking to him, but
now
she looked over, a bit
flirtatiously. Several times. That left him feeling a bit better. Before she'd
been worried about being traded away. More than just as a joke too, unless that
kind of fear was how they responded to teasing there. It had seemed pretty real
to him, her worry.

Now that it was taken away as a
threat, she seemed to think he might be all right. Even if he did look
different, in his strange outlander clothing. The bald head, as well. The idea
rippled at him through the air, but he was able to catch it, clearly enough.
That one had a lot more to do with how focused she was, rather than any special
skill of his own.

Tor and Alyssa were both a bit
like that, Dare noticed, but the other mages weren't. They seemed more like
regular people. Calm ones, that were pleased, and trying to get Hsian to lend
her new light device to them for copying. Their thoughts were far more muddled
than the girl's was, however.

Tor patted his shoulder.

"So you have extra time?
Since going to Tellerand is out? Or do you need to get straight to Afrak?"

"Probably that one. I should
get in touch with their Ancient first. Let me see. Farlo Ross?"

Alyssa nodded, smiling a bit.

"That's right! I keep
forgetting that she's their person. Tell her I said hello?"

Setting up the right name took
longer this time, since it was under the letter C. For Conserina Farlocenian
Ross. No one helped him find the name, but most of the mages vanished while he
did it. Just walking away. Tor and Alyssa stood there, with the oldest looking
man, Deshi. Mage Deshi, if everyone wearing those red robes were students at
the school. He certainly had enough magic on him for that. Dareg could feel it.

When he hit the sigil this time,
there was a very, very long wait. He was about to disconnect when a rather
harried looking tan girl appeared in his hand.

"
What
?" It was
kind of mean sounding, and a bit breathless. She was also very disheveled. He
would have wondered if the woman, who had to be older than the fourteen she
looked, had been entertaining in bed, except that she had feathers all over
her, and a fine sheen of sweat. She
also
had a rather pretty chicken
under her left arm. One that didn't seem to wish to be there at all. It clucked
loudly at them, to show its displeasure with the whole situation.

"Dareg Canton here. I was
planning to come visit the space port there, today, to see what was needed? Is
that allowable?"

The Ancient, who was dressed in
white flowing robes, that reminded him a bit of what the High Servants wore,
shook her head.

"Of
course
. Do you
need me for that? I'll come, but today might not be good for me. It's pretty
much just a focus stone disk right now. Some of the local women have been
caring for it, so there are some plantings in the area. Trees and that kind of
thing. A few buildings dug in around it. We have water... Not much else, I'm
afraid. Then, we
do
have one ship landing each day now, which is a lot
more than before! No one really comes to stay for long yet." The chicken
escaped then, and the picture and sound went away, the Ancient clearly running
after the ornate bird. It had a lovely black, red and gold coloration really.

What she described sounded
promising, so Dareg put his handheld away and smiled at the Bakers.

"That sounds like my signal to
leave then! We should... I don't know, have dinner or something, soon? The
times don't really work for that, but we can figure it out." He shrugged,
feeling stupid, but Tor smiled, and Alyssa hugged him again. Pressing both her
breasts into his face. On purpose.

He laughed as he stood back.

"Hey, watch it. I'm your
son. Kind of." He grinned though, and so did she, knowing exactly what he
was going on about. Tor got it too, and shook his head.

"Dinner sounds good. We can
get in touch to make plans? We really need to go and visit Noram soon. A real
visit. Take you off to Two Bends for a few days? You need to meet the rest of
the family." There was a firmness to the words, as if it were an actual
duty to this man's mind. There was family, so you
had
to meet them. That
was all. You just
did
.

"Okay. Maybe next week? I
think I have to arrange that kind of thing ahead with people. Petra and Sam?
Though, I guess I can fly from that place, Two Bends?" He looked directly
at Tor then, and saw the man's brown eyes glint a bit. He nodded however.
"I can go from there for my fighting lessons as well as anyplace
else."

Tor didn't seem to know what to
say about that, so bowed, which got Alyssa to do the same. After returning it,
going lower by far, since these strangers were his parents now, plus the
Ancients of this land, he said goodbye and managed to get airborne. He could
feel them watching him do it. For real, he thought. Like their eyes, their very
gaze, had a real impact on the world.

Getting to Afrak's port, which
was in the center of the continent, was easier to do than almost anything he'd
ever tried. It was as large as the one in Noram, and while there were no
buildings or lights to section off landing areas, the whole thing was
already
surrounded by a very nice garden. In fact it was more like the place had been
put in the center of one, rather than it being built around it. The greenery
stretched out for miles in all directions.

When he landed several tiny, very
dark skinned, women came out of a small hill. There were several of them around
the place, he realized.

One of the women, who was a bit
older looking, and had orange eyes, along with bright blue hair, walked up to
him directly, and bowed. It was a little awkward about it, but he did it back
going lower than she did, since that just made sense, given the location. They
both grinned, and she spoke first.

"He' loo? You are... Strange
man?" She didn't seem to mean anything by that, so it wasn't a label, just
her asking if he was a foreigner. Which given his much lighter skin and raw
size was apparent, no doubt.

Still, she was making the effort
to speak in Standard, and make him feel comfortable, so if he had to be the
strange man, he could live with that.

"Yes! I'm Dareg." He
tapped his chest, and realized that might be a bit of a mouthful.
"Dare."

"Dare?" The woman
looked happy enough still, and reached out to touch his chest. It wasn't
flirtatious though. More like she was just being extra careful.
"Dare."