“Alright, this is… Well, it's not a proper military weapon at all. It just locks all the air out of an area, so that a person inside the field, about ten by ten, can't breathe. Really it doesn't even remove the air, it just doesn't let it flow, the original idea came when I was working on water sculptures that will hang in the air. Anyone want to test it?”
To his surprise Kolb volunteered with a small smile. After about half a minute he waved his hand and Tor stopped.
“That works! I could still fight, but I couldn't breathe, and it felt hard to move. Like being stuck in place. So he won't be able to fight fast, even in a combat rage. Keep this trained on a person and move back as they do and within a few minutes the fight should be over. Nice thinking Tor.” Kolb stared at him for a moment, then smiled. Really he looked proud.
Tor held up the final piece he had and took another huge breath then let it out.
“This is… Look, David, if the counts going to kill you, I mean really kill you, like you’re going to die, not just be beaten a little, then use this, but… well, I think you'll get the idea.”
Tor turned and activated the device, pointing it at the field next to the range, flat, but holding a few trees and some boulders as big as the one with the red x on it. It exploded. Huge walls of dirt and rock flew back and up, digging furrows about fifteen feet across into the ground, moving it back and forth he outlined and then dug out a rectangle with a berm at the back, since it was the only place the earth and stone could move. This took about three minutes. It was loud, like thunder the whole time. Tor was the one doing it and felt a little like soiling himself in fear, just from the sound.
When he turned around everyone stared at him. Looking odd. Well, it wasn't exactly normal was it?
“Yeah. So, not much of a toy. Still, if the guy won't back off, it gives you something to go to.”
Rolph stood breathing hard, looking at Tor and swallowing almost convulsively. “Tor…”
Kolb took it and gave it a try for about thirty seconds himself. Then handed it off to Rolph to use, each of the others going after that. Then the large bald man picked up all the weapons.
“So, Davie, these are all yours, but you can't have them at school, obviously. These are just too dangerous. I'll keep them for you until the duel, if that's acceptable?” This question was addressed to Rolph, who nodded slowly.
“Yes… Um, Tor, I'm going to have to request that you not give these out as gifts. Especially those explosives.” His hand flew up. “I know, by law you can, and I can't order you not to… but…”
Tor snorted. “No doubt. I'm not even making extras of these. I'll turn the templates over to your dad directly if you want, or whatever. These aren't something for the open market. Maybe the force lance for battlefield use, but who else would need it? I wouldn't have even made them if this Count wasn't being so insane about this. Sorry, Davie, but if he was just planning on giving you a beating, I would have just handed you the shield and flying gear and called it good, you know? As it is, if it turns out that's all he's going for, well, I think you should just take the beating and let it go. This could all go wrong in so very many ways…”
David nodded somberly.
“I know. I promise, if I can deal with this that way, I will.”
Rolph clapped him on the back and chuckled, sounding a little weak. No one said anything about it after that and Tor was able to spend the next two days making poison detectors instead of weapons prototypes. A few batches even got packaged up to go to peoples families, including Meredith Sorvee who he sent ten to, with written instructions. He'd kept up a steady flow even while working on the new fields for Davie, so a lot of people already had them, Tor had seen them at meals even. Sara passed them out for him, because she was really sweet that way, with some help from a few special school kids he didn't know, just setting up a table in the court yard and going down the list.
Wensa had at least backed off from mentioning how he didn't have anything for poisons yet, but she kept giving him sour looks every time they met. Dark things, like she felt bad about not having killed him yet. Or something at least. Tor couldn't think of what else she’d be thinking about him.
The night before Davies duel, the evening that he finally got to take the splint off, as Tor walked slowly out of the dining hall, he came under attack. A real one too, not just someone calling him names or glaring.
The person was masked, and too small to be a royal, probably at least, but wore a familiar gray skirt. Wensa.
She didn't do much, just kicked him down the stairs, a single stomp to the middle of the back which sent him flying down the first twelve feet or so, landing with a solid thud. Stone struck him over and over again as he fell. He couldn't even slap the shield on and then, as he turned to face her, he found himself all alone. Tor activated the shield and waited, then limped back to his room, his leg killing him. Rolph wasn't in, having some kind of big Prince meeting he had to attend with the Dean. His friend had just mentioned it this time, happy that he didn't have to pretend to be drinking to try and fool him this time.
Tor just sat in the room waiting to come under attack again, his shield turned on. Hastily he made a copy of the force lance he'd designed, putting it on a much shorter piece of copper tube, making a single cut in the metal for the activation sigil. Who needed a weapon like this? He asked himself sardonically…
Right, anyone that had a crazy Royal Guard after them. He built it as fast as he could, because he had to sit in the room without his shield while he worked. Then he waited.
As he really should have expected, nothing happened. Wensa was good about biding her time after all. Tor knew that already. She'd waited months just for this and probably wouldn't stop now.
About two hours later the door opened and he just managed to not hit Rolph with the force lance.
“Shut the door!” He must have looked a sight, because the Prince didn't hesitate, slamming and locking it quickly.
“What happened?”
“Wensa tried to kill me! She kicked me down the stairs outside the dining hall. Well, I don't “know” it was Wensa, right build, gray skirt, but she wore a leather mask so that I can't really lodge a complaint, after all, I can't prove it was her, right?” Tor gripped the force lance tighter, which got Rolph's attention.
“That's not… one of those explosives is it?” He said the words softly, as if he talked to a mad man. Rolling his eyes Tor snorted, a slightly more derisive sound than he'd really intended.
“Gods no. That would be moronic. I'm not that far gone yet. It's just a force lance, better that I just die myself than accidentally take half the school out. I just didn't have anything else that would work better for this, so I had to make do. What did I do to her anyway?” He touched his face, bruised in at least three places by the feel of it.
“I've never done anything to her at all. Is she… insane or something?” Tor knew he sounded scared and didn't care. The woman had orders to not kill him or even attack him, from Count Thomson, unless the King had revoked those orders? His own voice going soft he asked Rolph if that was possible. Could the King have ordered his death?
“Not likely. If he had, well, he'd probably either send the whole army, or he'd order you to just do it yourself. And given that you would, killing you would just be foolish, right? Waste of resources if nothing else. I'll check, but I'm almost certain that this isn't anything to do with him. If it is, then it's probably a miscommunication. That can happen… You know, he tells Wensa or her commander that Tor, his good friend, needs to be taken care of, meaning give you hugs and cuddles, and somewhere along the line that gets taken to mean “kill Tor” or something like that, but… If that were the case, she wouldn't have worn a mask and really Tor…” The Prince looked strained.
“She wouldn't have stopped until one of you was dead. The Royal Guard don't. That's why I figured that at the shield test she wasn't really trying to kill you. If she had, then you, or she, wouldn't be alive now.”
Rolph went out, wearing a full shield and carrying his own force lance, which wasn't, he told Tor, half as powerful as the one he had, even though it was military grade. The plan was to alert the authorities and see what was going on. Worse come to worse Tor would at least know that he had to run away or something, right? It made sense, but Tor worried about his friends’ safety and told him so. Rolph just shrugged and gave him a careless grin.
“For once it doesn't seem like anyone is coming after me at all. Go figure, huh?”
When Rolph came back, the Dean, Kolb and to Tor’s surprise, Wensa, came with him. Tor pointed the force lance, shield already activated.
“Don't put your hands near those pockets… Please.” Tor wondered what the hell was going on. Had an order to kill him gone out then? Had they all come to make it happen? He didn't think Rolph would, even if it meant going
