the palace, so they came to me instead of going to your dwelling as ordered. It seems they didn't think they'd survive that for some reason?” He sounded amused by that at least.
Tor settled in next to the table and looked at who all was there, nodding. Yeah, he could see them being a little scared. For instance, though he didn't know the name, one of the men was a familiar servant from the kitchens, a baker to be exact. The man wasn't huge by noble standards, but was of a look to fit there, about six foot tall, with short cut brown hair and just enough extra weight that he didn't look like a warrior or soldier. Nearly perfect for the role he was playing.
Next to him sat a boy so young that Tor nearly didn't recognize him at all. Kenner Thorgood? The boy winced when Tor stared at him for a minute but didn't speak.
The last man was the one that would have caused problems though. Tor nearly killed him on the spot without even thinking about it.
Quavel.
The Queen’s butler. Trice didn't recognize him at first, but Tor did.
“Seriously?” Was all he said, his voice nearly silent.
The man had served for decades in the palace. He'd touched almost every plate of food that the Queen had eaten for years himself. He'd stood behind her at every function in the palace the whole time and…
He touched her.
Not just once or twice but thousands, millions, of times. Possibly more than the King himself. It was his job. That an agent of anyone had gotten that close was… Impossible. Or it should have been at least.
The man had gray hair, shot with isolated bits of black, and was old. Not elderly, but in his fifties at least, and not the young looking fifty of a noble, but the hard lived one of a servant. He wore his normal uniform, black and green in a light material that looked comfortable enough. Tor nodded slowly at all of them.
“I… see. Well.” He turned to Smythe. “Have they been cleared of the murders?”
“Indeed, first thing I did. I also checked to make certain no other Austran agents were within the walls here. If there are, these three don't know about it. Really, I was just debating smuggling them out of the kingdom to tell you the truth. I suppose we could forgive the boy, he's older than he looks but still only fifteen. The others are a bit close however. I'm not certain how the King will react. We did promise their safety, but who knew…” The man shrugged and Trice fingered her pocket menacingly.
“No freaking doubt. Still, it's not our call, is it?” She glanced at the men hard, like they might die at any moment.
Tor tilted his head.
“Wait, Ken, you're fifteen? You look maybe ten. Some kind of treatment? Medical?”
“Nano injection sir. Permanently stunts the growth though, I was probably a year or two from being recalled anyway. It becomes kind of obvious without specific medical procedures to hold the bone structure in place. It pays well though and that's the important thing.” He grinned charmingly, his accent going to a thick Austran one instead of the fake thing he'd used every other time they'd spoken.
Tor shook his head, and figured he'd be doing that a lot for a while. Maybe forever.
Finally he turned to Trice and Smythe and sighed.
“Trice arrange transport for them? To my house first. Counselor Smythe… not to be heavy handed, but their safety is mine to see too. I promised Brown. That said, we need to see the King and Queen. Hopefully this won't require us to go back to war.” He spun on Quavel and nearly punched the man, who luckily was out of arms reach, so he just growled instead.
“You may have done your job too well.”
Stupid spies.
It took a while to get things set up but an hour later the royals, all of them, were sitting in throne like chairs in the King’s main meeting hall, with the spies standing in front of them. Kenner waved at Varley, who was holding a small child in her arms.
“You had the baby?” Tor jogged over to her, painfully, forgetting decorum for a minute. “Boy or girl?” He said sweetly, then made little cooing noises which got everyone else to chuckle after a moment.
“Girl. We named her Alison Anne. I was going to name her after you, but “Torrentia” was just too much of a mouthful. Hope you don't mind?” She grinned tiredly when she said it, no doubt at his antics and little noises made at the baby.
“Good plan. That's a horrible name.”
Stepping back Tor forced a bow, which hurt, towards each of the seated people. Then he gestured at the spies and sighed.
“We can't kill them. It's part of the deal. But I think Quavel here at least wants to say something.” It was a mean thing to do, but if the man couldn't get himself out of this, he deserved to be locked up, or beaten, whatever Connie could come up with.
The man just smiled and bowed smoothly, as if the whole thing were planned.
“I just wanted to say that, spy or not, it has been my honor to serve mum. You are a truly worthy person and a good soul.”
Connie at least didn't look too angry, instead she just looked, slightly sad.
“Ah. It saddens me to see you leave.” Her tone was even polite.
Tor blinked.
Well, that was more gentle than he'd expected, wasn't it? It was the others turn then and each of them surprised him a bit too. Karina got a wink from the baker, who said nothing and Kenner bowed slowly and walked over to Varley, making the Royal guard arrayed through the room go stiff.
He smiled at the baby.
“She's beautiful. Thank you for being so kind to me. It was all an act, on my part, but it wasn't lost on me how often you took time for a little orphan all alone in the world. No one back home would have bothered.” He bowed too.
“Keep that goodness, for as long as you can.”
Varley shook her head but didn't say anything, just looking sad.
Rolph looked around the room and grinned happily enough, apparently not concerned at all with the fact that so many people that lived with him were Austran agents.
“Let it be noted, none of them are women that I slept with.” He said softly, getting a nod from everyone else.
Tor shrugged at him.
“Not yet. We need to see all of them first though, don't we. I really hate all this stuff. Well, if no one wants to kick Quavel's butt, I need to make sure they get home safe now. They'll be at my house as… guests.” He turned to the King and Queen and bowed.
“I mean that too. Though I suggest they get their rooms and stay there until they leave, I won't lock them in. If they were going to make more problems they just wouldn't have come forward, right? No need to punish them now.” Unless there was, which was his point, but no one said anything.
The King released them with a word and a regal nod, and without asking if it was all right, Rolph and Karina both hopped up and followed them out of the room. Well, these men probably weren't a threat, were they? If they were, all the royal family would probably already be dead.
It wasn't until they all piled in to the Tor's Carriage that Rolph asked the question.
“So… which of you stole Tor's King’s day invitations?” The words were calm and even, but certain, as if he already knew.
Quavel chuckled darkly.
“I did. The little midget would have thrown off the seating arrangements at the table. It wouldn't have been so bad if Connie would have set him a ways down, but no, Tor had to be right at her side all the time. That's fine at normal functions, it just looks like a child sitting by her, but at the King’s celebration we sit grand procession style, so it would have looked horrible. I don't think he would have been seen over the table and putting blocks or a stand in place would make it too hard for everyone else to walk out to the ball after.”
Oh. Well, that made sense then. Tor just nodded gently, but Kenner snorted.
“Really? You got him snubbed just because it would throw of the look of a table seating pattern? That's pretty low. Couldn't you have, I don't know, just gotten him to float higher or something? Or maybe just sit
