The Silence Within (The Young Ancients: Tiera) (18 page)

To devote himself to baking.

They didn't talk about anything of note until after the pudding, which was
excellent
. They all gushed at Sherri over it and Tor asked for the recipe, which was the highest compliment someone could pay, when you came up with a new dish.

Then, without preamble, her brother stood and walked from the room.

"Be back in a bit."

It took longer than that, so Tiera helped clear the table, and they "retired" to the family drawing room, where she was offered her choice of either brandy or strong coffee. Tiera chose the first one, since coffee would keep her awake and alert, but the Brandy wouldn't do anything to her at all. It was sophisticated even and polite of her to accept something, but she noticed that Ali had a bit of coffee, and Sherri clearly came back with her own drink being apple juice, not the adult beverage at all. It was a bit strange, but made sense. They had real schedules to keep, after all, and Ali was a builder.

Tor came back eventually, with not one, but four large cases floating along behind him, the amulets for them being in his left hand, which he passed to her without comment.

"What you mentioned, plus some of the new communications devices, one of the hubs for that too, and a dozen of the larger houses. Some small ones as well, so that you can use them for schools and religious meeting centers or whatever is needed.

She popped up, drink in hand and carefully gave him a hug. No one else asked about it all, but she shrugged, since it wasn't a secret really.

"This is for my County. I think that's even official now. County Baker. I got the Baronies to sign fealty and swear to me, and the King has been notified. So you know, Countess and all that." She said it without a lot of weight, but Tor just nodded.

"Sorry about that. I get the basic idea, someone has to fix things there and you did kind of do some damage. Oh, Ali, she also wants to start that manufacturing system for the orphans? I put some extra gear in... one of the cases, for that, earth movers and compressors. The kids will have theirs too, but it can't hurt to have spares."

"Thanks. So, Alyssa, what do you say? Can I get those workers? They'll be well enough paid, and I think I can get plenty of land for it. They should be able to build their own homes too, right? That will make it a lot cheaper for them. I need someone to organize it all for me, but..."

For some reason, both girls started screaming and jumping up and down, pulling her to her feet.

Sherri kissed her again and looked nearly manic.

"You're really a
Countess
? That's incredible! We should have a party, or...
many
parties. You'll have to throw some too, oh, we need to get that organized. You don't have a staff even yet do you? What else do we need... Ali, do you have some paper and a pen? We need to make notes..."

It turned out that homemaking for Baronetta's was more of a home management course load, so in about half an hour, they had a whole lot of things that she'd need to take care of, or as Sherri pointed out, whoever she got in to
do
that for her to take care of.

"That's what people do, in the main. I can help, if you want, I mean? It's all right if you have other plans, of course." She seemed shy suddenly, as if she thought Tiera would say no?

"Thank you! I'm going back tomorrow, to pass these things out and set them up, so, if you could come? It's in the afternoon, so, if you have classes..."

"I do and I'm almost certain that if you don't mind a few others coming with us, that won't count against me. This is... Life experience, isn't it?" She looked at Tor, as if he'd know the answer for certain, and he nodded like he actually did. Tiera wasn't nearly as certain, but why not? Even if it was half the school, she could take them with her. Maybe that was even a good idea?

"I can do that. I guess we can all meet in the commons at noon? Or, well, after lunch. I'll need to beg some crumbs from my brother for that. If I don't want to eat spit at least." She shuddered and it wasn't totally fake either.

Then she realized that she had to run to her meditations class. At least that was the same as always, Though Doris was pickier about things and insisted that she hold her mind more still than before, which she sort of managed, thanks to the extra time she had to get it right. The first half hour was rough, but the rest worked out pretty well.

She'd taken the floating trunks with her and no one had mentioned that at all, though Sam had seemed interested at first and followed her out at the end, walking behind her, but not at a great distance or anything. She realized she was supposed to stop and talk to him, or at least smile politely or something.

"Hello!" She tried for bright sounding and almost made it she thought. "How have you been doing?" They weren't really friends and had even sort of fought a bit, if in a social combat fashion, which meant the very common looking boy from an orphanage had completely dominated her, getting her assigned to very bad seating at Lyn Red's wedding. It was kind of incredible and indicated to her that she didn't want to challenge him there again, if it could be helped.

"Pretty well. I have a new build planned in a few days and... Um, really, I was wondering if you'd like to... You know, do something? Mitchell, he told me that you and he sort of, well, proved that you weren't a Doretta? I know I shouldn't, but I haven't been having a lot of luck with women and..." He blushed and laughed nervously. "That probably isn't winning you over, is it? I guess I shouldn't... never mind." He said the words softly and started to back away, but Tiera tilted her head back and forth. After all, it wasn't like he was ugly, just poor, and honestly, that
wasn't
the case was it? He was one of the top fifty or so builders now and probably had a big chest of gold hidden away already.

If he didn't, then it just showed he didn't care about that kind of thing, not that he couldn't get it. Besides, it was kind of brave of him to ask, since they had a bit of a negative history. She liked Mitchell better already, for what they'd done, didn't she? Maybe it would be the same for Sam?

"Sure. I don't know if Karen is in the room or not right now, but if so, well, she won't care really, you know? She's an Instructor here, but not in your section, so, you know, you might ask her if she wants to do something too. She may say no, but if so, it will only be the fact she works here, nothing else."

They chatted as they walked, and he seemed even more nervous, which didn't make a lot of sense. Possibly it was about the Karen thing, since the woman was huge and not that great looking. Nice though, and from what she'd seen, most men liked sex enough that looks were a bit negotiable, weren't they? She took his hand anyway and led him to the room.

Of course, Karen wasn't there when they started, but showed up about halfway through, and started backing out the door, which was polite of her. Tiera just waved to her to get her to stop, urging Sam to keep going.

"Karen? This is Sam, you know him?"

"Certainly. Hi Sam." She sounded almost like she was fighting a giggle, which would have been bad, though understandable.

"Good. He wants to know if you'd be available for sex at times? He's not in the fighter's section or anything. I didn't know if it was allowed. Hmmm." That last bit wasn't put on, Sam just managed to really hit the right place distracting her for a bit. It was a little cold talking during things anyway, wasn't it? Karen didn't seem to mind watching though and sat on her bed, then surprisingly, made her clothing vanish and propped her pillows up, so she could see what they we're doing while reaching between her legs.

"All right. You can start now, if you want? Or, I mean, after Tiera finishes?" She didn't stop what she was doing and it led to an interesting hour after that. She didn't touch Tiera at all, but Sam looked exhausted by the end, and clearly learned some new tricks from Karen, who Instructor or not, was actually pretty cute without her clothing on.

It was a very strange situation, but Sam managed pretty well, kissing them both and promising that they could do it regularly, if they wanted.

"Or not, but, I really had fun."

Tiera nodded.

"Me too. Let's schedule that. Oh, not to push you around, but you should ask Sherri Bonner on a date soon too, if you have time? She's a friend of mine, but both of you will eventually need to get married, and even if you don't, she's a fun person to know."

Sam actually blushed again, and Karen smiled at him, her clothing reappearing, a very nice black shift that hugged her body and seemed like silk. She slept like that at times.

"That wasn't... I don't
think
she's putting you off Sam, the words were a bit vague though. Tiera?" She said it with a devilish grin, knowing that if she had been putting the man off, she'd be trapped into denying it now. It would be horribly rude otherwise.

She hadn't been however. He was a bit unskilled, but so was she, so that wasn't exactly a reason to not spend time with him, was it?

"Nothing of the sort. Just playing matchmaker. Though, I guess Karen and I are both in your potential marriage pool too, aren't we? Or will be, as soon as you get a title. Tor did it, so I don't doubt you can too. Good works and selfless action at a heroic level? Well within what you can manage, right?" She jumped up and moved to the door where he stood, kissing him again.

"I mean,
I
won't be marrying you, most likely, since I've been putting everyone off for that, at least for the time being, but it isn't outside of what
could
happen. In the meantime... Well, we should do this again."

The boy swallowed hard and smiled, but reminded them that he had another build coming up soon, which meant being out of touch for several days.

Then he left, looking back over his shoulder as the door closed. It was sort of cute.

Karen didn't wait long, shaking her head and settling back on the bed.

"So, trying to bribe me? I can't think of what you might want, if it isn't about getting out of punishment for missing today. If that's the case, I suggest you steer some women at Havar, since he's the one that actually got angry about it. Thinks that you've decided to go all spoiled princess on us and not take things seriously anymore."

That was a bit of a surprise, but made a weird kind of sense at the same time. After all, he'd been avoiding her, but it meant
they
weren't working with each other each day. Plus she had put in fewer hours than she had been. Most days she'd stayed late, and here she'd run a half day, and then missed the next. If he were actually focusing on her as a person, he might think something like that was really going on. True, she had a schedule that most people would never bother with, but change was always more noticeable than what you normally did each day, wasn't it?

"Oh? Well, I have plans tomorrow afternoon, which I can't get out of, so I guess he'll think I'm really gone, won't he? I should get some sleep then, so I can start early and see what he wants me to do."

Karen settled back herself and seemed to think it was a good idea, but what she muttered was very different than that.

"You've been doing well lately. I haven't heard anyone complaining about you being a Doretta at all. A few still refer to you as 'The Bitch' but since that's mainly me and Kolb, I don't think it's really
that
big of an indictment, do you?" There was sleepy sounding teasing in her voice, and it was clear she didn't mean it, not as something unfriendly.

It was more like she just didn't want Tiera to get lazy.

"That sounds about like what you'd do. Goodnight." She focused on the light plate, which actually turned off, even from all the way across the room. That was pretty decent, she realized. The meditation must be paying off.

Then she slept, which was free of memorable dreams, though she didn't get up until nearly four, which meant rushing through the morning showering to get things done in time. She added an extra lap to her running, and worked a bit more on pells than normal, which was what she was doing when Havar, Kolb and Karen showed up, and without even warming up, started to beat her for an hour. They were all better than she was too, and fresh, so it was pretty one sided.

If, she allowed, that "pretty" meant that her bleeding on them counted as a counter attack. She was armed, but with a sixty pound metal practice club, which was a deadly weapon. Right until Kolb moved in and broke her right ankle with the tip of his wooden practice blade. She could still balance, even as pain screamed at her, but swinging her weapon was out. The recovery from a swing put a vast amount of force on her lower legs, and just hurt too much to manage. They were all working together too, which they'd been practicing for years. It was almost choreographed and lovely, except the constant thumping they delivered was breaking things and making her cry.

She tried to roll toward the weapons rack, blocking feebly with her club, holding it underhand, which made it nearly useless for anything else, only to have Karen hit it about twenty times, twenty-three to be exact, which made her drop it. Then she focused her blows on that arm, making it break too. The worst part was that Tiera had to try and hold her shield off, accepting the beating, so that no one would realize that she had one on.

When she grabbed a lighter weapon and could fight again the whole thing got worse, not better, and she ended up with half her teeth missing and part of the skin of her face hanging off. She was allowed to heal then, so that she wouldn't bleed to death. It wasn't out of kindness.