was. Black might secretly lead Tellerand, but this man was no believer, and he'd personally created their belief systems, stealing liberally from things that had existed before the change.
It made Tor laugh. Everyone else looked at him funny, but he just smiled.
“Oh, well, I apologize for rushing at you like that, please understand, I had reason to think it might be an attack. I guess things like that can get out of hand. Again. Forgive me for that.”
Tor stepped back and spoke to everyone else about what he'd picked up, including the vague attempt to mislead them and that there was no secret and the gods of Tellerand were all false. It was really just too bad the guy had added in that whole thing where they insisted everyone else had to believe as they did. At least they were relatively peaceful people over all. It was pretty much their only saving grace, from what Tor had heard.
Not that Warren Black had much of that it seemed, grace. He spoke like a dock worker. An angry, constipated dock worker. Tor let that go, because it was just his accent, and for all he knew everyone in Tellerand sounded like that when they spoke Noram standard. It would be wrong to think things like that about an entire people, just for being a little different.
“So, what do you suggest we do now?” George the Royal Guard major said, hand ruffling his hair, short and nearly all white. It had been darker before, but whatever he used to color it had run out on the trip.
Rolph smiled lightly and walked towards the men.
“Throw them out naked? They might survive, but it should teach them not to go around stealing people that should be locked up, out of the palace.”
Tor shivered involuntarily. That would be cold. Even if they only did it for a joke. Instead he shook his head.
“No. We keep watch on them and take them back to the Capital in the morning. Like it or not, their my family, so I can’t just kill them if there’s a chance I don’t need to. If either of them tries to escape, break their arms and legs. I suggest smashing them with something heavy. Shatter the joints at knees and elbows?”
“No.” Wensa said coolly, her voice as wintry as the drifts outside the door.
At first Tor thought she didn't want to take them to the Capital, which could be fair if they were a large threat. Then he realized she had something else in mind.
“Break the joints first, it's faster and takes less work, but then the long bones in the arms and legs as well. A person can walk or even fight with a destroyed joint. They may only do it the once, but taking the long bones makes it impossible to suppose weight on the limb. As pointed out, as Ancients, we can’t know what their capable of.”
It was a good point, so he endorsed it, hoping neither man would bother trying to escape. He could heal them in the morning, but the screaming would probably wake him back up. He intended to get some sleep if he could and recommended to everyone not on the first watch that they do the same.
Before he went to sleep though Tor gave everyone one of the new anti-Ancient shield and defense devices. If they did get free, they wouldn't have an easy time hurting anyone here. He made sure they realized that.
It got Black to curse him again for a while, but Tor just laughed at him.
“Come on, it's just a free trip to the Capital. I assure you everyone else involved in this, is more on your side than I am right now. You want the King and Queen in on this instead of it just being left to me. I promise you that. To them you're just a foreign dignitary come to visit. Probably won't even hit you.” Tor didn't figure Burks would be concerned overly, but Black wouldn't really know that Tor was just talking big. Even if Lairdgren told him so.
That guy lied after all.
With insane people tied up downstairs, Tor wasn't really going to sleep and Ali tossed and turned next to him, even if the bed was comfortable. Shifting on the cream and red satin sheets Tor cuddled her a little. She was warm and soft and it was better than just lying there doing nothing. By far. There were no windows in the room, but the lights were set to come on when the sun rose, a low thing at first, a rose color that was almost invisible, but it grew brighter over about twenty minutes and Tor got up.
The two Ancients were awake and four guards stood pointing weapons at them without moving, two more stood further back with force lances. Their weapons wouldn't kill, so if need be they could hit the whole room, their fellow guards and all. It was hard to take Royal Guards hostage, because their fellows would just kill them to get the attacker. The force lances were just a kindness because they'd had time to plan. No need to kill your buddy if you could help it, or Tor guessed that was the way it was at least.
“Making breakfast, anyone have a request?” Tor liked to ask if anyone was around. Even if no one did, it made everyone feel more like their opinion mattered.
“How about some pancakes? With bits of dried fruit, some maple syrup and eggs. Maybe sausages?” This came from Black, his voice more polite than before at least. The guards all stiffened slightly, but not one killed him.
Tor nodded, looking at the man, and spoke politely, as if the other fellow wasn’t tied to a chair naked.
“Um, I can do the pancakes and fruit, we have some eggs left, canned, but good enough if you don't mind scrambled. Sausage is out, but we have some thin cut beef steak, is that all right? We have maple syrup, but why anyone would want to have it on pancakes instead of honey I don't know.” Tor waited politely for an answer.
“Oh? Steak is fine. Didn't know it was an option. Thank you.” The man sounded oddly playful for some reason. It was as if he was joking or something.
Shrugging Tor went to make the food and worked for better than an hour on it, there were twenty-two for breakfast and it would take some time to do sixty to eighty pancakes like that. At least he could resize the griddle for it, since it wasn't real anyway. The black expanse was nearly seven foot long and two foot wide when he finished reshaping it, and made the batter, then got out the steaks. It was all griddle work, and the eggs were all going to be scrambled. If anyone didn't like them that way they were welcome to come and make their own. He was too busy and moving too quickly to even try and do over easy and just forget poached, not with the canned things they had. He used two pots set to the side to warm the honey, and maple syrup that he took from large jars in the pantry.
Fifteen minutes later the first plates could be loaded and everyone was making their way through to get a plate, real china that had been brought in by Dorgal. The silver was real too. It was a fast process, but as long as he didn't stop moving it worked well enough.
Finally everyone had food and was eating merrily enough as he loaded his own plate and took it to the table. Someone had brought Black and Green to the table, and let them have their hands free, but they only got forks to eat with. Rolph had given them clothing amulets for modesty's sake, but Black couldn't work it. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't even turn it on at all. The device was strong and the field was still there, it wasn't suppressed or anything even. Tor tapped it on and put the man in what was basically plain student browns, though he shifted the color to black for him, since it was his favorite if Tor had been told correctly.
It worked on him, so the inability to work the device wasn't some kind of magic canceling field at least. Good to know. Tor didn't buy it as a true inability though. It could just as easily be a ruse, so that they'd get careless and leave things unguarded around him.
They all ate quietly for a while, Burks looking at him a bit angrily, but Tor didn't acknowledge it, the treason wasn't his after all, the Ancient was responsible for his own actions, no one could argue he wasn't old enough to have learned that yet, could they? If his grandfather wanted to blame him for it, he could just go ahead and do it.
Black ate delicately, but finished the plate.
“Well, I've certainly eaten worse, even when not a prisoner. Thank you Tor.” Again the voice was warm and polite, he didn't even use a bunch of colorful curse words. Or call him boy.
So maybe the man was a bit better when he hadn’t just been beaten? Well, who wasn’t? Tor decided to try and give him the benefit of the doubt and not let their first meeting color everything too much. He probably hadn’t seemed at his best either, had he?
After the meal was over, both men where trussed up again, this time not to chairs though, since those wouldn't exist outside the house, being a part of it. That was the simple part, the hard part was deciding who all was going. Everyone wanted to, if just to get outside for a while, and everyone agreed that Tor should, but after that no one was in agreement. They could all go, they had the transports for it, but the Royal Guard actually didn't want to have a potential threat near all the royal family at once. Rolph thought that he should go and so did Ali, based on the idea that if her husband was going his wife should too. Tor was fine with that, but Karina thought she should be involved too, since Burks had stolen Denno, who was her best bet of getting at Daria.
