with a simple mental trigger on it, so that he could set it off on command. It took about half an hour to form something that wouldn't just fade in seconds, but in the end he had one ready. During that time he'd had to knock out the other people trying to attack him several times, because they really didn't give up. It was both scary and annoying. Finally the Dean and Rolph managed to convince them to put their weapons down and move back.
“Alright, Wensa… I just built an explosive inside your head. What you're going to do right now is deactivate the shield you're wearing and go to whatever lock up we have around here. Then you'll stay there until we decide what to do with you. If you try to leave, no matter where you go, I can set this off. If you attack me I'll set it off too. Even if it means getting your brain splattered all over me. Do you understand? You have… Let's say, ten seconds, to comply.”
He turned off the weapon in his hand and put it away. It looked all confident, but what he'd just said about the field in her head, most of it was a lie. Showed how well Trice knew him, didn't it?
Yes, Tor could trigger it right here, watching her from ten feet away, but twenty feet away would be hard and fifty impossible, at least under this kind of stress. Plus, in about ten minutes the field would fade totally. He could set it off now, but the effects just wouldn't last all that long without a lot more work.
The woman glared at him as she got up, which earned her a blast from the force lance, that he pulled out almost instantly.
“No… I said deactivate the shield, take it off and give it to Trice. Then, if you know what's good for you I suggest you don't try to attack me or even look at me like you want to. This isn't that hard, really. Just stop trying to kill me, and don't force me to kill you.”
Seriously! What did it take to get this woman to not try and attack him? She finally tapped the field, but only because Rolph and Tovey both ordered her on that point directly, then she took it off and passed it to Trice. It wasn't around her neck, just in an inner pocket. Tor walked all the guards, hands high over their heads to a small building that he'd never noticed before, just off the commons. It wasn't that he hadn't seen it, just that he couldn't notice it, at least not without focusing on it tightly, which in the nearly three years he'd been at the school he'd never had any reason to do. Some kind of mental disruption field? That made a certain kind of sense. It had two small holding cells in it. Once inside it was easier to notice by far, like a normal building almost. Tor had all the Royal Guards locked up inside a minute and a half, then he spoke to them through the bars.
“Right. I have no doubt that any of you could escape from here within moments. If you do, if any of you do, I'll be forced to protect myself. That means detonating Wensa first. It's true, the rest of you could run away and I can't do much to you. But I still suggest that you wait for this situation to be resolved first.”
Then he walked out. Everyone but Rolph followed. Staying to talk for some reason. He caught up to them in the commons a few minutes later, looking… vexed. Tor shook badly, pure fear reaction, but Trice held him anyway, even if he did shake like a tiny dog in her arms. No one said much for a long time. It was the Dean that spoke first.
“Well, that seems settled for now. I don't think anyone will risk going anywhere for now. They should know that you can't have built a field strong enough to last the night in her head in that time, but then again, you've done a half dozen other things they probably knew couldn't be done already, so they may not want to risk it.”
Rolph shrugged, looking at Tor directly.
“Wensa swears that she didn't attack you on the stairs Tor. She said that she only went after the weapon in our room because she saw an opening. It is how their trained, I can vouch for that. You pointed a weapon at her, so she responded as best she could. It also explains why the others came after you like they did. They didn't see you protecting yourself from an attack, just subduing one of their own. I ordered them to all stay in holding for now, just so you wouldn't have to try and fight them. We wouldn't want you to get hurt or anything, right?” Rolph gave him a smile as if he was placating Tor, which was appreciated greatly. Much better than the chewing out he probably deserved for letting all this happen, even if he didn't know how it could have been avoided.
Tor nodded and took a very deep breath, trying to regain his composure a little. Those people might have lost temporarily, but the same trick wouldn't work twice. Wensa had nearly gotten him on the stairs, even though he walked around wearing a shield almost all the time. He'd never even thought about someone just kicking him down some stairs! What else had he missed? If that had been a knife or a cutter instead of a foot he'd be dead right now. Did he have to live his whole life with a shield on?
Tor pointed this out to everyone, how clever the attack had been. Kolb shrugged and told him that it wasn't Wensa. Him saying that took Tor off guard.
“But… mask aside, it fits, about six-four or so, lean and strong, gray skirt… I know that Royal Guards have all those oaths, but if she's gone crazy or something those wouldn't hold, besides, she doesn't even know that I'm a Countier right? So she just thinks that killing me is a game or something maybe? Let's face it, to royals and their guards, killing a commoner doesn't mean very much at all. About the same as a goat or pig really. So if I'm just some regular guy to her…”
Rolph got a thoughtful look. “Well, I haven't told anyone at least. But she really does have an alibi and I don't think she forced anyone to say she was there. They didn't seem stressed about it when asked at least. Of course if it wasn't her, it does leave the question of why anyone would attack Tor. And dressed like that, it would have to be a setup. So something near professional level at least. I'd guess that some of the special school students might be able to think something like that up, right?”
His tall friend looked at the Dean, who nodded.
“Yes, but… well, Mr. Baker is rather popular over there just now. With the entire school I'd imagine. Those poison detectors he gave everyone… Well, if anyone needed funds badly enough to kill, they could just sell theirs and get two or three thousand gold for it right now. More than killing a schoolboy would earn them, by far… Even a noble one.”
That brought up the whole Countier thing, which oddly enough, past the story itself no one seemed to care much about. Given everything, why would they? Everyone was someone here, right? Even him, it turned out. His title as Squire actually meant as much or more in all real world terms. For that matter giving out flight fields and poison detectors meant more than either of those things to most people, according to Kolb and the Dean.
Kolb gave him a tired looking smile.
“A lot of people here have titles. Not many of them keep the soup from killing a body though. That kind of thing has an impact on people.”
Before going to sleep Tor made up a complete set of weapons, an explosive and one of the air thingies. It got him to bed really late, but he just didn't know what Wensa and her group would come up with next. Then, reluctantly, Tor got up when Rolph shook him awake. He packed up everything and tucked the weapons into the little inner pocket of his brown trousers. It wasn't good for quick retrieval, but he could, possibly, buy time by already having his shield on. He activated it on the way out the door. Rolph gave him a funny look, but didn't say anything about it overly.
The big redhead shrugged.
“The dueling ground is on the outskirt of town, we can fly out after breakfast. I heard that a few nobles have come to see it, so maybe we'll see some familiar faces?” Rolph obviously knew something about who was coming, but didn't want to give away the surprise. Tor didn't care, as long as David lived. He just hoped that whatever this Count was bringing to the party the boy had enough to make it a fair fight.
Tor could barely eat, as worried for Davie as he was. Rolph ate well enough, but then he seemed to think everything would be all right for some reason. Tor could only hope that was the case.
The dueling field, like the weapons range, was a bit of a disappointment. It was just an empty field of short cut grass. Or it would have been empty if there hadn't been about a hundred and fifty people standing around the center, most of them tall and well dressed. Two camps had formed already, one around David and one around a huge man that must have been about eight foot tall and who wore very nice looking armor, shiny silver, polished to a mirrors gleam and obviously heavy. He swung a huge sword, one that must have been about five foot long and had to weigh forty or fifty pounds, at least if it was made of steel, which it looked like from a distance to Tor.
Jerk. Bringing giant swords to kill a boy. Probably trying to make up for his small manhood.
David on the other hand had, almost comically, had dressed down to a pair of plain student browns, real canvas ones, not silk, and held nothing in his hands at all. He had his flight gear on and a little leather bag on his left hip, just about big enough for all the weapons and possibly a couple of sandwiches to spare. He didn't look overly worried. Either the boy felt truly confident or was hiding the fear really well.
Either way it was incredibly brave.
