was going to have some, it would be a place like this. Old and filled with history. It wasn’t spooky feeling at least.
Burks came and helped him get undressed, thankfully, and pulled back the pale blue covers for him, a thick light blue comforter now that the weather had begun to cool a little. It wasn’t cold by any means, but Tor wouldn’t feel the temperature anyway, not with all the amulets he wore to sleep with now. The heavy weight pressing down on him was comforting, like getting a hug. Except that the thick blanket didn’t care who he was, so he didn’t have to feel guilty about it or like it was just trying to use him for other purposes. What those purposes might be he couldn’t imagine anyway. Maybe to keep from having to be too close to the mattress? He’d have thought they’d be fast friends, but who knew?
Those things could be complicated.
Tor didn’t sleep well, but he made up for it by sleeping long. It was easily mid-morning when he climbed out of the soft cocoon he’d ended up making out of the blankets and sheets. He drank some water from the pitcher by his bed, then nearly panicked, realizing he hadn’t checked it for poison.
How the hell did people live like this? Tor didn’t know, but he didn’t want too.
His heart pounded in his chest even after he checked the water out carefully and found that it was fine. Closing his eyes he wondered if he should just leave, even if Rolph had asked him to stay personally. It would be a lot more comfortable if nothing else.
No, he had to see things through here. No matter what happened. He owed Rolph too much for having been his friend to abandon him now.
Burks entered the room, bringing in a fresh set of clothing, black silk that was loose fitting and had matching under things, also silk. There was a pair of soft sued boots in his size, dyed to match. Before he could change, the man went and began drawing him a bath. A subtle hint that he reeked? Probably. He smelled of smoke and tension if nothing else. He had to dig through the trunk to find one of the tub warming plates, most of which had disappeared “magically” in County Ross. He had a half dozen left at least. So fourteen gone? Well, hopefully people enjoyed their warm baths.
Burks had to run and get him some wire to fix it to the ceramic tub, but it worked well enough once in place. It even looked all right hanging there over the edge, the copper and green worked well with the very pale tan of the vessel itself. After a warm soak, Tor decided to get a little work done. The idea he’d had coming in to town wouldn’t take long, he knew.
Indeed he had it finished by dinner time. It wasn’t good not to eat like that, Burks told him as he roused and started making copies, wanting him to eat right then. Tor declined, trying to stay polite about the whole thing.
Dinner would be in a few hours anyway. It would be greedy to eat twice.
Rolph came for him, with Varley in tow, about half an hour before it was time to eat, just as Tor was about to try out the new device standing in the lawn. As they walked up he tapped the device and rose four inches in the air. Both of the royals stopped and gave him funny looks.
Like they weren’t used to him doing strange things?
“It’s for in town. See, this way I can zip around a lot faster than I can walk, or a carriage can go, but its way more controlled than flying, to prevent accidents. I can move around at walking speed easily and it only ever goes this high, so, it can’t really be called flying right?”
“Hmmm…” Rolph looked at him as if he were trying to break a rule, but Varley asked if she could try it with a sweet smile. Together they zoomed around the yard for a few minutes, then went in, still levitating about four inches off the smooth floor, but keeping their speeds reasonable. When Karina saw them she cried out.
“Ah! Something new!” She got the application immediately. More to the point, she really wanted to get some for her friends, to impress them. Tor nearly pointed out that a Princess worrying about impressing people seemed a little off, but held his tongue and asked how many she wanted instead. Varley winked at him behind her back. She was right of course, it was way easier to just give the girl what she desired without worrying about it. Now they just had to convince the King that it wasn’t flying. Tor thought his argument was sound, but he didn’t want to try and slip it past the King or anything. It really was way safer than flying though, and faster than walking, at least for him.
When Connie came in Varley handed her one of the devices to try out, since it really was a lot easier than flying because you didn’t have to worry about two of the directions at all, they all assured her. Plus afraid of heights or not, four inches wasn’t a big challenge. It took a while but the girls had her floating around the room laughing when Richard came in.
“And what, may I ask, is this?” He pointed at the air underneath everyone’s feet, the look he gave them kind of blank.
Tor cleared his throat, looking at the situation as a kind of moment of truth. The man either agreed with him on this one, or he’d wasted the afternoon.
“These are… Not-flyers. They don’t go any higher than this and um, aren’t flying? For getting around in town, without carriages or, um, any illegal flying type activity?” He tried his best to look confident, but guessed he failed when the King started chuckling.
“Alright, if it’s not flying, then my councilors can’t complain about me trying it, yes?”
They all floated around the room until the cook, the tall gray haired woman named Laura, walked in and ordered them to sit down and stop playing. Everyone laughed, but turned the devices off and got to eating. Connie whispered that Laura had worked at the palace since she was fifteen and had them all wrapped around her finger.
Tor could see why, after the way she pulled together the meal the night before. That was retulsive. A lot more impressive than the little toys he’d brought to dinner at least. Tor doubted that he could have pulled it off after losing half a meal like that. Not for hundreds of people on such short notice. The level of skill she’d shown was humbling.
The meal they enjoyed was a lot more relaxed, everyone seemed happier at least. Tor checked everything for poison, but no one blinked at all at that, they did it too. Given everything it wasn’t even a comment on them. He hoped that they all understood that at least. It was just that he hadn’t seen who came in contact with the food at every step. That meant he checked it. Possibly even if he had seen it the same thing would have happened. Tor didn’t want to be offensive, but he wanted to die a lot less.
Being poisoned freaking hurt.
The next day Rolph came and got him early, about eight in the morning. Tor had kind of planned to try another build, but the Prince had other ideas.
“I was thinking, um, if you’re willing, Sara came into town, and wants to meet with you. At Debri house today? I was thinking we could try out the Not-flyers, since dad’s all right with them. That surprised me, but apparently he just doesn’t want little kids being crippled by drunken morons. So we have license on these. If you’re not going to bankrupt Debri, you might want to let them in on the secret. Kind of cruel to let them drain everything to pay you, just because you forgot to fix what you set in motion then changed your mind about.”
That seemed reasonable, even though he didn’t really want to see Sara. She might have been innocent, or she might have been in on it all from the start. How was he supposed to know? Either way what she said would be about the same. That there was a rational reason for everything she’d done. Then he’d have to point out that her thinking he was a moron and trying to rob him was a reason too. It would just go around in circles unless he could trust her, which, honestly, he didn’t really.
Not right now.
Yes, he’d heard what she said at the restaurant and really, it hadn’t seemed bad or inconsistent with who she claimed to be, but that didn’t mean that she liked him or wanted to do anything but use him.
Still, he could let them know that they had a little more time, and maybe figure out where the golds were at the moment. He didn’t doubt that they could hide it all from him, but hey, at least he could try to not look like a complete push over. Even if he was.
Going by Not-flying was way faster than the oppressive carriages and while people stared at them no guards tried to tackle or even arrest them. That could have been because he was with the Prince. People seemed to actually know who he was in the Capital.
Then again, maybe they all just agreed that being that close to the ground just meant it wasn’t flying too? They moving along at twenty odd miles per hour probably didn’t hurt either. A person could catch them, if they were fast, but it would have taken work. Of course the top speed was actually nearly double that, but that was more
