intimidation as far as anything Tor had ever seen. And really, if he was going to try, he and his buddies could have just jumped Tor at any time and not gotten into any real trouble, being rich and all that.
After the weapons practice and exercise, which included a little slow running to start building his left leg back up, and a lot more gentleness from Karen than he’d expected after being called away like that by Kolb and the others. She didn’t hold back with him at all when they worked together, but she didn’t yell at him either, except when she had him on the ground beating him with her sword. “Get up Tor! Roll out of the way! Anyone you fight with will knock you down in a few seconds, you’re too little for them not to, you need to stay ready for it…” She added in a few stomps for variety.
Then she had Petra and a few other people take turns doing the same thing for a while.
It wasn’t comfortable at all, but she didn’t seem angry about anything, just pensive. Finally, just before it would normally be time to leave, she gestured to him.
“I… didn’t know that you were a Countier before Tor.” The large woman looked ashamed, as if it could somehow be her fault. She bowed towards him and held it.
“If I ever did or said anything to give offense, please-”
Tor patted her on the shoulder gently, which got her to stand up, looking shocked, but only for a second.
“You’ve never been anything but perfectly courteous to me. Besides, we’re friends, so if you had, I would have mentioned it before.” He nodded at her firmly, knowing that his Two Bends logic might now make a lot of sense to her very royal mind, but it got her to grin happily enough.
“Oh, good then! I couldn’t think of anything, but, um, well, and please don’t take offense, but I kind of thought you weren’t a royal, before I met your mother and sister. I definitely don’t want hard feelings to fester there. Especially since Davie and Petra would gang up on me in my sleep if they thought I had. They both kind of think you’re great by the way…”
He blushed a bit and looked away shyly.
“Um, thank you?” Tor hated things like this, never knowing what to say.
Karen just smiled and patted him on the shoulder, more of a solid thump than a proper pat.
“Good then. I hate having to grovel anyway. So…” She looked serious again. “If we’re friends, does that mean I can get some of those weapons from you like Davie has? I can’t afford to buy them, but…” Her look went slightly wicked then.
“But I can let you borrow Petra if you want? I don’t think that would hurt her feelings at all. My too of course.”
Thinking about it for a few seconds, he nodded. They could both probably use the weapons and gear. It just made sense.
“I don’t think I’m allowed to hand out those explosives. But if Kolb OK’s it, the rest should be doable.”
“Really? I was kidding, about the stuff, I mean, you can have me and Petra anyway, in the evenings after lessons maybe? That would be a good time.”
Shrugging Tor figured it was her way of making sure he got enough practice in. Maybe it was rude to just yell at a Countier and tell him to get his but to painful extra training? But if he needed it, she had the right.
“I don’t know when I have the time, really, but let’s make sure you all get those weapons anyway. Oh, and please tell Petra thank you for me? You too of course.”
For some reason Karen seemed really pleased with the fake deal. That he needed work on his weapons skill was clear after that. He didn’t have to do it that night at least, which was good. Karen hugged him as he left the training square though, either happy about the free stuff, or more likely, trying to make him feel better about needing extra lessons.
It was really sweet of her. Especially since she could have just hit him in the head with the side of her practice blade and ordered him to show up.
There were other things to do first though. Hard things. Royal things that he wasn’t prepared to handle at all.
Tor sat in his room later trying to think of anyone in the world that might dislike him enough to do something like that. Kill him, or even just push him down some stairs for fun. That was what he was doing when Rolph, Sara and Trice came in. Standing, he gave Trice a hug and then, feeling more than a little awkward about it, a kiss on the mouth. It wasn’t exactly romantic, he knew, but he really did want her to know that he appreciated her efforts so far. She kissed him back for a few seconds, far more warmly and expertly than he’d managed. She held him and sighed, her chest pushing softly into his through the slightly shiny black blouse she wore.
“Now that’s more like it. What’s up?”
It took a while for Tor to explain everything that had happened, but less time than he’d thought, since Rolph had already filled them in. They’d actually come to help him work everything out. They all had ideas too, ones that, oddly enough, fit their individual backgrounds more than the situation at hand. The idea that they all walked around in different worlds took him for a few seconds. Everything overlapped, of course, but did Tor actually live a different existence than they all did, even while in the same space? That… actually made a lot of sense.
He saw things to be fixed, by making a device, or a plan, or just by working hard. Rolph, for all that he was a great guy, really just kind of expected everyone to fix things for him if he asked. Being a Prince, that worked for him, most of the time at least. Trice was more calculating, but her world made her guarded, suspicious and more than a little un-trusting of people she didn’t know well.
Sara thought like what she was raised to be too, naturally enough, but what she said was still news to Tor.
“It could be one of the other merchant houses… Your stuff is taking a lot of the high end market right now and probably will for years to come, even if you don’t add anything new to your line… And really, how likely is that? You have a half dozen things that no one’s even making yet, ready to go. Stentli house for instance, used to have all the shield contracts for the military. What they offer isn’t half as good as the second Tor-shield, which is what’s in production right now, and even if someone copies that, you have three versions that are better, ready to go right now. But…” The girl shook her head. “They wouldn’t start with something like that. They’d probably send in women to ply you with sex for a while, try to find what you need or want and provide it to win you over, soften you up first, or… possibly just come and beg you on hands and knees to work with them instead. I’m a little surprised they haven’t yet, to tell the truth. Debri would be if you’d gone with Sorvee back at the beginning you know. They… might even spread rumors about how evil Debri house is or how we’ve been cheating you, which… Well, it’s not the long term plan, but that argument could be made until we start getting the money from the military for the shields and flying rigs they’ve been buying up. It’s probably destroyed their business, your new work… They couldn’t have been ready for you to just show up like that at all.”
Tor took a deep breath, a sudden and shuddering thing that rattled in his chest. It made him feel young, and stupid, and he couldn’t help it. His work had taken business from other people? He’d never even thought of that. To Tor, the idea that he might even make money from anything he’d done seemed like an abstract thing, so of course he hadn’t considered what might be happening anywhere else. Why should he?
Tor stopped and shook his head. Could he fix it at all? They had people to feed and workers that needed their jobs too. Looking down at the floor he wondered out loud if Stentli house would be willing to except a couple of his other devices, ones that Debri house couldn’t make right now due to the new military contracts anyway, to replace the coins that he’d taken from them and their workers?
Sara chuckled at him. “Tor… I’m… sure they would… Do you have anything in mind?”
No one was making the heat equalizers or the poison detectors yet he pointed out. He couldn’t keep making them all himself and a few more people might want some. Sara smiled, moved across the room and sitting next to him draped her arm over his shoulders and planted a warm kiss on his lips that made him sit up straighter, worried what Rolph and Trice would think, though they both just smiled at him.
“Debri will let go of the heat equalizers to keep the peace, and the water pumps, but the poison detectors… Tor, if you want me to sleep with you, or for that matter every woman in Debri house to be lined up at your door, just go ahead and suggest that one to my mother. I’m pretty sure that you don’t really want that though. Well, me maybe, if I’m lucky, but not all of the women in my house are exactly good looking…” Then she leaned in and kissed his cheek and started stroking his back with her hand gently. Seductively.
Blushing Tor shrugged her off and held up his hands, grinning but feeling awkward. “Alright, stop that before Rolph and Trice both start kicking my butt. Fine, can we get them the equalizers and… water pumps to start with? I didn’t know that I was hurting anyone…”
