his eyes. Luckily they got to go in then. Honestly, Tor decided, they'd just better not have a problem. He couldn't handle another one right then, whatever it was, they just needed to let it go and work together. Or he'd…
Whine at them. Possibly cry.
His repertoire wasn't that wide in range right now. Tor smiled at both girls, getting shocked looks back for some reason.
“Right, well, I don't know what the old baggage is here, but stop it. Now.”
Karina shrugged and glared at the other girl.
“We used to… um, have fun, together. Then she decided to run off to school and not visit me anymore.”
Tor raised an eyebrow.
“By fun you mean sex?” He said, more coolly than he meant to. These nobles and there rampant escapades…
“Oh, no. Um, we were friends as kids. But she went away…”
Tor sighed.
“Karina, I get the whole thing, but seriously, get over it, will you? Of course she went off to school. Plus she's what, four years older than you? You can't have expected her to stay here forever with you…”
Only, from the look on her face, she had. Of course she'd been ten then, so who could blame her? Tor could, if she didn't get her act together now. He mentioned that.
“Now, I won't order you two to be friends again. No, what I'll do is promise to invite you both to every event of note I ever hold for the rest of your lives and cry at you if you don't show up. Yep, that's what I'll do.”
Karina took his hand and then, with only a little grudging to it, did the same with Sandra. After a second they both smiled and it seemed real enough, kind of relieved actually.
Yay.
Even if they were faking, as long as it got him through the night. Yay.
They went directly to a huge dining room. Not the one for the super massive parties, but one big enough for at least a hundred people. Tor had actually been in it before, but for the life of him he couldn't remember why. Until he saw the cracks in the floor. That reminded him. It was where they'd met when Ursala Thorgood had gotten pregnant by Count Ward, before she'd been poisoned and lost the child.
There were a lot more people in the room this time. Nearly a hundred at a guess. All of them looked important too. Counts and Countesses, their spouses and in a few cases kids. All the ministers of… anything that Tor had met were there, all two of them, and a few generals were added in to the mix as well. People were dressed nicely too, but not in ball room finery. Thank goodness for that. He'd have stuck out like the only red apple in a basket of green if that were the case. As it was he just about blended.
“This way. Mom and Dad want to see you first. Then you can mingle.” The Princess led them both, not letting go of either hand, which was a little awkward in the room, but she walked at his pace. He should have floated around, but that would raise even more questions than his looking a little ill. Not that the questions should really be a big deal. Tor nearly laughed at himself for being worried about it at all and kept walking.
The stone floor needed to be fixed, which he had gear for, possibly somewhere around the palace itself. If not then at his capital house. It would be a good place to stay the night if nothing else. Plus he could find Collette, he hadn't seen her in months. Ursala too for that matter. That one would be changing soon though, he realized, because she stood in front of the King and Queen talking as they walked up, with a group of sitting Counts and Countesses.
Tor wanted to hang back, but the King saw him and smiled, waving them all forward.
“Here we go. Councilor Baker was on the scene, as has been mentioned… perhaps any questions should be directed towards him?”
It made sense. Tor had been there after all and really did know the situation better than almost anyone else in the room. Of course, most of the questions had nothing to do with the Lairdgren incident directly.
Count Ford, a normally reasonable fellow and one even more vast than most, nodded to Tor and started in without pause.
“I have a niece there, so far her parents haven't been allowed contact with her. It would be good if she could get in touch, or even if I could just reassure them all is well. My brother’s daughter.”
Tor focused and tried to call up the names.
“Habitha Ford?” He said quietly, the trance having taken him as he worked to remember the face that went with the name.
“Yes…” The Count sounded tentative then.
“She's well. Not at the event at all, having been in classes at the time. Home making I believe… I interviewed her last night. Fifth year student.”
“Oh, excellent. Is it possible to make contact yet?” Ford loomed. He couldn't help it, most of the crowd around him did, being so big.
“I'm afraid not, though by tomorrow or the next day it should be. It's… well, the military is in charge of that and they want to make sure that nothing has slipped through the cracks. It's a good plan, if kind of inconvenient, so if we can back it for now, I think we should.”
That set up a list of names from several others. Thankfully none of their relatives or friends children were among the dead. Those names were known at least, so no one would have to be told bad news by him personally. Ursala stared at him for a bit, but smiled, if a bit sadly. She didn't say anything though. Not until all the questions were answered about what had been done. The town and school both being secured and the military being given updated shields.
Then the large blond spoke, her voice more than a little sad.
“Did you do all that yourself then? All those shields?” She sounded like she knew the answer already.
She was wrong of course, so Tor got to smile about it. Proudly.
“Not a single one. The Lairdgren group did it all.” Then he got to tell them all about it, gushing more than a little. He got Sandra to present the King with the fifty that she'd made earlier.
“For the military?” He said smoothly, his voice pleased.
“No Sire, these are for you and Queen Constance to give as you see fit. A gift from me personally.” She bowed and tried to take a step back, but Karina held on to her hand.
The Queen stepped forward with tears in her eyes.
“That's wonderful dear. How long did it take you to do all this? It must have been weeks.”
Tor winked at her.
“Less than two hours. Not to take away from Sandra at all, but she isn't even the fastest in the group. Not yet. We have several people that can make batches of a hundred in less time than that even.” Wanting to back away from being the center of attention or not, the dark girl nodded and bowed again before speaking.
“It's true. We have two that are doing particularly well. Mark Wilson, a third year and Lyn Cooper, a first year. It wouldn't surprise me if Sam, another of our new students, isn't doing batches like that by tomorrow, next week at the latest. They're all builders too, not just copiers. They've done their first novel builds already.” She sounded just as proud as he did.
Then, she probably had more reason to be, they were all her personal friends. It was exciting though, and their energy conveyed that to the group, who, on the whole, seemed pretty pleased.
Especially the Queen.
“Oh, that's so wonderful! Then we can have you and Alissa back here for Posttern? I know that the city would love for you to throw another party, like the one you had for the last King’s week.” Then she went quiet and actually blushed.
Richard grimaced but didn't add anything. Probably because, even though they'd personally invited him to come, two years straight, somehow his invitation had gotten lost both times. Tor didn't get why, but it wasn't a coincidence at all. What was strange was that he got in to everything else. He half thought that Richard was doing it on purpose for some reason. Except for the fact that just didn't make sense.
He was the King and if he didn't want Tor at his party, he could just say so. For that matter, he could just have the word passed that he didn't want Tor to show up, send an invitation and smile glibly as Tor scrambled to make up a good reason why he couldn't show. That was kind of what “King” meant after all. Plus, the first time it had happened Tor hadn't even slept with his wife. Not that Richard cared. He'd probably sleep with Tor’s mom without even thinking about it.
