That and a good meal, she added after a second. That the men and women assigned to care and guide him wore Royal Guard uniforms might have been lost on the man, but that they were clearly hardened fighters wasn't. He looked at them closely as they guided him away.
Tor waited to be taken to task or mocked, but everyone just went quiet for a while. He was about to apologize when Burks spoke.
“Well done Tor. Very well done. If anyone else had spoken those questions, it could have been taken as an attack, but from you, his little brother, one that holds family so dear, he pretty much has to simply cooperate, doesn't he? Especially after you risked your own life for him.” Burks nodded and after a few seconds spread his hands.
“I've used your truth device before myself, but never tried to defeat it. My first move would be trying to tamper with the field itself, since you and I share basic field patterns, but I can guarantee that Denno can't do that. So… mechanical and electronic devices, nanos and mental discipline I think. Very few people on the planet have Denno's level of biophysical self-control. I can see what can be done though. If I can't rig the device or control it by any of those methods, well that doesn't mean he can't, just that it would be harder to do.”
That left Tor to go to dinner with the royal family and Denno Brown, the Ancient of Austra. Honestly Tor didn't figure much would happen. They'd eat, make small talk and go to bed. At least Tor got a real bath first, in the guest house out back. It was his normal room, so he knew the way, and he even had a toothbrush this time. Really, Tor didn't want to sleep here, but short of going all the way back to school, or at least Two Bends, he didn't have anywhere else to go. So here it was for the night. Whee.
The bath was delicious. It sounded strange to put it that way, even inside his own mind, but it was simply the truth.
It felt so good to actually scrub his skin after all that, to wash away the stink of the escape and the four days mainly under water. He didn't feel tired for once, which was good. He almost always felt tired any more. It was like he was just running and never taking a break, but that was silly. He slept nearly every night, didn't he?
Tor leaned back and must have dozed off for a time, because he felt someone straddle him and lock their mouth over his passionately. Gently, before he got his eyes open, a warmth eased over his manhood. Well, Tor thought as he struggled to the surface, at least it was a woman. It would have caused a scene if Denno had found his room and tried something, and on so many levels.
So many.
When he got his eyes open he was mildly surprised, having expected Karina, since she was pretty forward and aggressive sexually, but it was Varley, naked and pregnant, showing just a bit, riding him in the bath.
“Hey.” Tor's voice was soft and a little baffled, but not too much. They were friends after all, and even been engaged to marry at one point, until her pregnancy by a different man had caused her to have to marry someone else pretty quickly. She was tall now, he noticed, nearly six-three, even sitting on him she had to work to reach his mouth with hers. That was all right, Tor paid attention to her breasts, which had grown a good bit, probably the first stages of what would happen as the pregnancy grew inside her. Not that he was an expert. He'd just seen enough pregnant women in Two Bends to know their breasts got bigger.
She gasped and kept moving faster and faster, making sounds that were half pleased and half sounded like pain. Tor reach out to her field to make certain she wasn't hurting herself just to please him, but it wasn't that, these were just the noises she made. That was fine then. After ten minutes or so she stood and turned, facing the other side of the bath and asked him to enter her from behind. Tor was gentle with her and went slowly. At first. She urged him on, faster, until she almost collapsed on the side of the tub. He hadn't finished, but she obviously wasn't going to be up for another round just then. Oh well, it was a bit frustrating, but he'd deal.
Chuckling, she splashed his groin with water and then washed him, clean, still hard, possibly more so than before. Kneeling she took him into her mouth, not being soft or gentle at all, working her lips and tongue hard, sucking and bobbing her head so furiously he worried for a moment that she might injure herself.
Then it all hit him and he stopped worrying at all for a few minutes.
When they'd both recovered and bathed she poked a finger into his chest, not a hard move, but not a tickle either.
“Alright you, why exactly did you miss my wedding?” Her tone was serious.
“Wedding? I… congratulations!” Tor hugged her warmly and then gave her a kiss for luck and then another one to hide his sudden panic. He'd slept with someone’s wife? A Count’s wife? He must have looked scared or something because she started laughing.
“Oh, Raul is a nice man, once you get used to the looks. Smarter than you'd think too. Not at all jealous either, in fact he suggested that I seek you out and make sure we have a solid friendship still. Of course he said I should “screw your brains out”, but I decided that would be too messy, besides, you might need them later.” Giggling, something rare for her, she kissed him again.
“Oh, also, wedding presents. Don't forget or people will think you're stingy, or, given who you are and what you've done for people, they'll probably think you're mad at me still for breaking the engagement. Not that I'd blame you for that, but… I kind of wish… well, never mind, done is done.”
“What?” Tor dreaded the answer, but knew that he had to ask anyway, she wanted him to. “What do you kind of wish?”
“Oh, it's nothing… just I would have liked to marry you regardless. Who cares if the baby looks wrong? We'd love her anyway and if anyone said anything we could un-invite them from all the best parties.”
Tor nodded.
He really would have liked that too, but as she'd indicated, done was, when you came down to it, done.
Chapter Seven
Tor felt his anxiety growing as he woke the next day. It was simple enough really, every second or third time he stayed at the palace, someone tried to kill him. Usually his new temporary boss, Smythe of Westend, but who knew what was coming this time?
Tor decided, since he wasn't actually needed for any of the current things to run back to the school and see about catching up on his classes. He'd been working out, running and practicing his fighting skills as best he could without a partner, though part of that he had do to in his head, imagining the fights, because there hadn't been room on the submersed craft for any of them to be flailing around. They'd had to take turns even stretching. It seemed that the Austran method of seeing things in the ocean would see them if the craft got too big, or they could have had a lot more room.
He almost got out without anyone talking to him, but he ran into the King, leaning his eight foot plus frame against a ten foot high open door.
“Tor, fancy meeting you here!” He said brightly, his voice dry, rather than witty.
Caught then.
“Hmmm. Well, I'm running out, at least for a while. I have school you know. I've worked on what I could, even got Denno to tutor me in math, but I need my violin if I don't want to fail music. Plus, wife and friends to connect with. I'll be back later.”
The King sighed and patted his back gently, reaching down to his own waist to do it.
“I understand Tor, I just wish it didn't take seven hours to fly back here if we need you.”
“Um, about an hour now.”
The King looked impressed, “Really? New flying rig?”
Tor explained the new carriage system to him and that he could bring back a few copies of the device that day, or if he wanted a lot more of them. The devices could be made at Lairdgren School after all. They had an actual thing going on there, he confided. Not that he knew what to call it, but the Lairdgren group was doing a good sight better than the major manufacturers so far. If they kept improving, which Tor knew they would, the numbers for things would probably go up greatly. Sure it meant less money for him maybe, but he had enough, didn't he? What did he need really, some food? The occasional trinket for his wife?
Land?
Richard let him go on the condition that Tor came back before dinner later that night. The King wanted him
