doing out in the fields. It surprised him a little bit when his big friend popped in at lunch the day he finished everything he could figure out to do for the time being and sat down, with a huge grin on his face.
“So, have you finished saving the kingdom by yourself for now? A few people want to see you, you know. Prime among them your new potential in-laws. I told them I'd have you there tomorrow night at nine for dinner. Don't worry, it's just a planning and strategy session. No Tor torture on the menu at all. At least not the one they showed me.”
Tor grinned and asked Rolph if he'd ferry the dryer template for him, getting it from Debri house, since the Queen still wouldn't let him go out of the palace, due to his ankle. Or possibly to prevent kidnapping… she hadn't said why actually, now that he thought about it, just asked him to stay there.
His friend had it back to him before dinner. By the next night he had another fifty cargo haulers and a hundred dryer plates ready. It had taken all night, but he managed to get a nap early in the morning, until nearly noon. Lazy of him, but hey, it was a vacation, he could afford one or two days like that, right? Sleeping late felt weird though and he decided not to make a habit of it. It just seemed wrong and put everything a little out of balance.
Rolph came to get him at seven for the carriage ride to the Morgans, since they'd be going the slow way. Why that was he didn't know and Rolph wouldn't tell him. They chatted about stuff, the new fields he'd been making and how Rolph wanted one of the newest flying rigs if he could get it. Tor had gotten Burks and another man to help him load all the fields going with them that night in a single heavy chest. It was a sturdy, but beautiful thing, dark stained wood with carnations and owls carved on the top. Carnations had all those little petals, so someone had done a lot of work to make them look so real, he could tell, even if he wasn't really savvy about art most of the time.
He knew effort when he saw it.
Tor had fifty cargo hauling fields, each device the size of his palm, that many food dryers and an equal number of the new flight devices, which were smaller in physical size and tidier in appearance than the old ones he'd made. The hand controls had nice leather thongs that looped around the wrist and two fingers for stability too. It just looked sharper, less like a little kid just tied something on with string while playing make-believe. Burks had arranged for those, not even blinking oddly when Tor had asked, even though it wasn't his job at all.
Thankfully for him, Rolph was a royal, which meant giant. That meant Tor didn't have to try and carry the chest himself or even take one of the handles, his friend doing all the heavy lifting. Otherwise it would have taken half the night, with him limping out of the carriage like he was, dragging the chest behind him on the ground. The box wasn't that big, two foot long, half that wide and about that tall. It weighed in at about a hundred pounds, a lot for Tor right now, not so much for his friend.
At the door a man he didn't know escorted them in to the “sitting room” which seemed a place to keep guests out of the way until dinner. It had a green and cream flower patterned padded bench to sit on, which was pretty soft, but lost his attention when he heard a noise to his right and turned halfway around to see who, or what, it was.
A purple flash came towards him, moving fast and hard, which made him jump slightly in fear. The face on top of the blur looked like Trice, but strange, like she'd been crying. Bizarre for her really, she wasn't one of those weepy girls as far as he knew. Sara was a bit, but not the curly haired girl. Not that he'd noticed.
Her parents had probably been teasing her about him. Sigh. Normally fine, except that she might take his head off now for it. He felt himself lifted off his feet and flung back on a padded bench with a back, which slid a little when he hit it, Trice ending up on top of him. He got ready for the beating, figuring that he kind of deserved it, after dragging her into his problems without permission, so he was shocked when she started kissing him instead.
He heard Rolph chuckling behind her.
The kisses weren't hard quick things like he expected them to be, but soft, warm movements that caused her to almost meld with him somehow. His lips still tingled when she rose up off of him laughing and crying at the same time.
“They just told me! I love you… You are so wonderful! Thank you. I… this… Thank you! You can't know how much better this is…”
She kissed him again and kept at it until her father cleared his throat in the background. “Ahem. Hey, I said Ahem!” The man smiled at them when Trice finally broke off her assault on Tor's face.
“Dinner's about to begin, if you'll all join us?”
Chapter eleven
Rolph took the chest in with him to the dining room, where it caught attention from Trice's mother, who stood waiting for them to enter with a polite smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye. She gestured, a closed hand very regal thing, towards a side table that sat empty, apparently just for receiving gifts. The idea made sense to Tor, now that he saw how these people really lived. To not bring a gift would seem out of place, at least half the time. People wanted to impress royalty and a Duke and Baroness, while not at the lofty heights of a King or Queen, certainly got their share of attention.
The look she gave the chest was curious, but it seemed clear that she wouldn't ask what was in it. Tor was still reeling from the way Trice had greeted him. No one had ever kissed him like that before. Once, about four years before, when he was thirteen, a neighbor girl had kissed him on the lips as a dare from his older brother. That had been hard and quick, reluctant to say the least on the girl's part, and left him feeling ashamed for having let her do it at all. This had been a lot different. Better. He could see now why people bothered at least, even if he didn't think he could manage the same thing Trice had done without drooling all over someone yet. Maybe he could get a book on the subject or something? He wondered if such things even existed.
Why she'd done it… That was still a mystery. Then again, she'd asked him to say those things the other day, about them getting married, so maybe this was part of an act to make the whole thing look good for her parents? That still didn't tell him why. Oh well. As long as she wasn't kicking his behind over it, he'd be happy. She could always call it off later if she wanted, right?
Tor wouldn't.
Maybe she'd just forget it was part of some plan she had if he pretended it was real long enough? Suppressing a sigh he knew that wouldn't work and decided to just play along. At least this way he wasn't having to marry a Sorvee yet. Absurdly Tor couldn't help but picture Dorgal in a dress with long greasy hair, being unveiled at the wedding. God, he really hoped that whoever she was, poor Meredith Sorvee didn't have that to deal with. Bad enough to just be related to Dorgal.
Not wanting to have the Baroness think the package was anything special, he let her in on what it contained.
“Um, that, it's just the cargo carriers I promised, enough for fifty wagons or large boxes about that size, actually I tried for a field that can lift about five times what a wagon can hold, but I don't know if anything that large even exists for goods or shipping. Fifty food dryers too. Oh, I also added in fifty flying rigs. I don't have people for any of this yet though, but it's a start at least. Oh!” He could have hit himself in the head with a brick and probably should… He hadn't added shields to the box of flying rigs. He covered his eyes with his hands and apologized.
“I'll have them in a day or two… I amped up the flying gear and then forgot to give you any shields in case of accident? Duh! I'll fix that right away. Can I send those over or… Bring them? When they're done?”
Something warm slid in beside him for a second, until the temperature equalized, leaving a feeling of soft bare skin on his wrist where his sleeve pushed up a little. Trice chuckled and cuddled his arm to her side. Eric, Duke Morgan, stood with his mouth hanging open a little, being well trained he recovered after a second and stared at the chest as it sat on the dark wooden table.
“So, you're loaning us flying rigs to go with the other things? And are going to lend shields too? That's… Exceedingly generous!” The man smiled and walked over to Tor, a large hand reaching down to lightly clap him on the back.
Tor smiled but shook his head. “Oh no, those are all yours. You can use them as you see fit after the harvest is in. I… I think that large scale transport of goods is a decent business to get into, at least until other people get up to speed with everything. This should give you about the largest transport, em, fleet? In the Noram kingdom for
