It made sense, in a way, but just because she had her story right, that didn’t mean that she wasn’t out to get him for real and just smart enough to hide it. Still, what could he do? It was just possible that she was telling the truth, right? If she was, then having her killed or even locked up long term wasn’t fair at all. Kicking her out of her position, if he was allowed to do that, wouldn’t work. A fanatic like her, and all the Royal Guards were fanatically loyal to the King as a rule, an actual job requirement, wouldn’t be stopped just because she’d been asked to go away politely.
Finally, after standing for far too long thinking about the whole thing, Tor made up his mind.
“Fine, everyone can go, except for Wensa, she needs to meet me outside. Now.”
The looks he got were serious and dark, but the woman followed him without comment. The other guards stood back, but didn’t leave. The art and music instructor started twice to ask what he planned, but Tor just held up a hand for silence once they were out in the court yard. The cobble stones were hard and slightly uneven under his feet. Taking several deep breaths, feeling more than a little panicked, Tor removed all his amulets and weapons and handed them to Kolb, who looked more than a little shocked at the action.
Tor took a deep breath and then forced himself to relax.
“Kolb, please hand Wensa that tube there…” He pointed to the copper tube with four distinct notches near the bottom to act as a makeshift activation sigil. Tor held up his hand before Wensa took the weapon. “Don’t trigger that unless you want me dead. It’s an explosive weapon.”
The Dean put a hand out towards Kolb, “Are you sure…”
With a massive shrug the Knight handed the tube over and told the Dean that the King himself had put Tor in charge of the disposition of this matter.
“If Tor says to give over what’s possibly the deadliest weapon I’ve ever heard of outside of legend to Wensa, then I will. Be careful though Wen, you could destroy the campus with this thing in about half a minute without even feeling it…”
The woman took it, a curious look on her face. Taking another shaky breath Tor closed his eyes and spoke softly.
“Right. So I can’t live looking over my shoulder waiting for you to kill me all the time. If you want to kill me, orders or not, do it now and we’ll call it good, all right? No one will do anything too you over it, or bother you at all because of it and you can just go about your life happily guarding or whatever it is you do. If you are going to kill me, baring orders from the King later, then I just ask that you do it now or not at all. Does that sound fair?”
He stood silently for a second, wondering if he’d just die as a matter of course. The woman wasn’t any kind of friend to him at the very least. If she was really trying to get him, he’d probably never get to open his eyes again. Instead, after about fifteen seconds, he heard laughter. Wensa first, then all the Royal Guards after a few seconds.
One of the guards, the dark haired female Weapons Instructor that had kept hitting him on the right arm before, walked over and patted him on the back.
“Oh well played! Perfectly done.”
Tor opened his eyes as the voice spoke. Wensa handed the weapon back to Kolb with a grin. “So, is the weapon really all that powerful?”
Rolph looked at it and turned more than a little white, his right hand pointed at it. “So powerful that the template was sent off earlier today, to my parents directly, not set up for manufacture anywhere that they might accidentally get into the wrong hands. I… didn’t know that Tor had one himself… Did you have it during the duel with Count Rodriguez?”
All the Royal Guards stiffened and stared at him, but Kolb spoke before anyone else did anything, holding out his right hand towards the guard to forestall speech. “Knight Esquire Brown, Countier four Lairdgren, was challenged by Count Rodriguez to a duel to the death after the man dropped his spurious claim against Countier David Derring. You all know about that of course, stupidest thing I’ve heard of in a long time and I’ve heard some winners. Tor baited the man into fighting him instead of the boy, who was armed with another one of these,” He hefted the copper tube, with two fingers. “Rather saved the Counts life by the way I think. Tor just held the man down and made him squirm for a while until he gave up, leaving him unharmed. Then settled the matter with apologizes all around so the Count could save face. Probably stopped a war between Derring and Rodriguez.” Kolb stared at Wensa directly. “Those two really need to calm the heck down. Derring’s kids have twice the intelligence of the man himself when it comes down to it.”
Wensa looked at Tor for a few seconds, then bowed. She held the move until Rolph walked over and nudged him. “If you don’t want to bow back you should at least say something…”
Right. He was supposed to be a royal now and all that. God, he was so not trained for this. “Um, so Wensa… jealous lover?”
Everyone laughed and the woman stood up, smiling. She shrugged and winked at him with her left eye slowly. “Well, you are good looking, if a trifle short. Lairdgren… Well, that explains the lack of size at least, I… can you become a Countier by appointment or…”
Shaking his head Rolph summed it up in a few words.
“By birth, his mother. Counserina first. She’s been in hiding from an old threat. Just decided to come back into circles, figuring everything is probably calmed down by now.”
Taking another deep breath Tor looked at Wensa, still shaking a little. “So, are we good here? Do I need to be looking over my shoulder still?”
The older woman nodded, her face going serious. “Yes, obviously. I didn’t try to kill you, but someone did, and it was done with enough intent that the person doing it wore a mask and tried to mimic my general form. They should have used a weapon though. That speaks of, well, at least forethought. Even if not meant to kill you, it was obviously a serious attack. You need to remain vigilant. I promise though, short of an order from the King or Queen, I’ll not kill you myself. Not without a good reason at least.” She gave a short bow again and stood up nearly instantly.
That, Tor knew, was both correct and probably the best he could do with the situation. He held out his hand to shake on the deal. It was a country thing, a handshake sealing a bargain, but the woman didn’t flinch away from it, merely taking his hand in a hard clasp.
“Deal then. I’ll keep trying to watch my back and you don’t kill me without a decent reason. Better than I expected to tell the truth. I kind of thought you’d just kill me really.”
For some reason the other guards all laughed at that. For a bunch that he’d been raised to think of as humorless killers they sure laughed a lot. Maybe it was just him? Did they find him funny? Probably. Oh well, what could he do about that? For their world he was probably exactly wrong. Too small, too country and too naive in general. That could lead to laughter he figured.
Maybe someday when he learned more he’d get the joke?
He got his weapons back from Kolb and all the amulets, then handed the explosive one back to the large man.
“That one’s for you. Being your Squire and all I’m supposed to…make sure your weapons are ready and all that anyway, right? I also have a shield for you, and flying gear. Force lance and air thingie too. I probably should have given that to you already. Sorry, I’m kind of new to all this Squire stuff. Well, if this is over for now I need to get back to my work out, or Karen’s going to have a fit and probably beat me half to death, and who can blame her? I’ve hardly been showing up at all lately.”
They let him go, and he tried to keep his eyes open in case of attack. Would anyone other than Wensa want him dead? Why? Maybe Count Rodriguez, but the attack on the stairs had come before the duel and the man hadn’t even seemed to have known who he was until he told him. Sure, that could have been an act, but over all Tor didn’t think so. Rodriguez seemed at least as genuine in his apology to David as he was in his anger in the first place. More so to tell the truth. Something definitely hadn’t been right with that situation. Was Count Derring really such a jerk that killing his son seemed just to the guy until he was called on it? If so Tor felt sorry for Davie and Karen.
Had he insulted anyone personally? We’ll, he’d been at court for a while and it could just be that someone didn’t like having him around, a dirty little country hick. Offended by his existence? No one had said anything directly to him about it, but then, would they? He tried to think back and kept coming up blank. Some people might be annoyed with him, he wasn’t perfect after all, but who’d try to even just bang him up like that? Dorgal? The guy was a bully, most of the time at least, but he’d never tried to hurt Tor physically. He was about words and
