there were a lot more people. He counted six vehicles including the one that they looked at, which would mean that there was enough for, two-hundred and forty people to go places all at once? That should be enough, if they all took turns. That plus the women that had come to help out at the base should take a lot of the stress off the men working there.
A voice came from behind him, male and vaguely familiar. Godfrey.
“There’s two more stationed here and two that have been sent to the Capital full time. Their parked at the palace itself. Would you all like to go up? We don’t have any other trips scheduled for today, but it won’t hurt anything to let you see how well they work.”
The ride was smooth, even when they went fast. Faster than a person could fly outside of the craft apparently. In the time it took for Godfrey to point out how the controls worked they were almost at the Capital. There was a hand held device, that you activated and wore on the back of your left hand just like with flying the regular way, and showed them how the set-point control worked, a clever physical device that let you clip the hand control in place quickly and easily so that the pilot could do other things as long as they were flying in a straight line.
“Oooh, can we land? I’d love an update on the whole situation.” Ursala sounded grim as she spoke, so Godfrey, not hesitating, took them in for a landing, a slow and drifting thing over the palace complex itself, taking about ten minutes to settle in next to one of the people moving crafts on the ground.
“Sorry about the wait, we can land nearly as fast as a flyer could, but I don’t want to spook the guards here. Going very slow is kind of the only way we have to communicate our peaceful intentions with the ground at all. Not that anyone else in the world has craft like these yet, but the Royal Guard tends towards careful at all times.” The man sounded apologetic enough at least, even though it wasn’t his fault. Tor didn’t really want to test the crafts shields against explosive weapons with him inside anyway, so taking a bit of extra time worked for him.
None of them were dressed for a state dinner, but all of them were presentable enough for a staff session, so of course, nature and politics being what it was, they’d probably be expected to go to a high court function immediately. Instead a cute Princess, Varley, came out to get them running up to give Tor a hug, causing their shields to bump. Tor laughed a little, but Varley didn’t demand he let go of the shield until they got inside the door at least. Then, as soon as he got it turned off she kissed him. Hard. She didn’t stop until Ursala cleared her throat, several times.
“Hey, Princess… he came with us you know, until you find out if one of us has a claim don’t you think…” The large woman looked at the girl with a fake scowl on her face for a second, but Varley just shook her head and grinned up at her.
“Nope. Sara Debri hasn’t been sleeping with Tor; she’s been bedding my brother. Not that she couldn’t do both of them, but she hasn’t been. I asked Alphie already. You… well, it wouldn’t shock me to learn that you have been and really, given everything, I think you should be sleeping with Tor, for now at least, since it would be good for both of you, but if that was the case you would have corrected me much sooner than you did, if you cared about me doing it at least. Besides, for Tor-centric relationships, as far as I know I have the first position right now, since this is the second time I got him to drop his shield to make out with me and we have an actual agreement in place for it. So really, I think I should be wondering what you two been doing with my Tor up there in the wilderness…” She crossed her arms and raised her chin high in a look that was mock haughty. She spoiled it after about ten seconds with a pretty smile.
Ursala shrugged and told her that mainly they were watching him work off in a corner, though they had taken him to a whore house earlier that day, which functionally Tor owned, it being his compound and all, as well as his idea to put it in.
“He didn’t sleep with anyone though. Not this time. I do have an appointment with him later to discuss oral sex, so things are looking up a little there.”
Everyone laughed, except Tor who didn’t get it. Oral sex? He knew that oral meant mouth, but “mouth sex” didn’t make any sense at all. He may not be the savviest person in that area of life, but he knew enough that he didn’t think that would really work. How could you have kids that way? It was a joke maybe? Well, he got that they were laughing at him, but that was OK. Women just did that. At least they weren’t being really mean about things.
Not yet at least. Maybe they only did that at restaurants? If so, Tor wanted to avoid such places in the future.
The palace looked the same, except that he’d never been to this part of it before. It was deep inside the complex and down a long flight of gray stone stairs that seemed slightly damp. Tor wondered out loud how well the Not-flyers would handle steps like that. They worked on the little steps in the hut, but this was massive compared to that. Varley turned hers on with a quick tap and descended rapidly, but smoothly. Tor didn’t, but not because he didn’t want to. It would just be rude of him to leave the other women alone. To his surprise Varley came back up the steps just as quickly.
“Works like a charm. I figured it out a few weeks ago when they had be running messages for them down here for a full day. I was halfway through the day before I even thought about it. You just have to be careful not to run into anyone, because that can get messy. Don’t worry, it was only Alphonse, so he broke my fall. It also showed him the importance of wearing his shield inside, I think.” She grinned as she floated backwards down the stairs slowly.
The steps went on for a while and the walls went slightly damper and cool the deeper they got. The stone was a dark gray and if it wasn’t for the lights on the close walls, the whole thing would have been gloomy. There were light plates, ones Tor had made himself, since they were in his style and no one else had a template for them yet. If the military had them, that meant the King did, obviously, so it was pretty natural that they’d show up in the palace like this.
The room in the basement was a bit moist, enough that he wished he’d brought them a house drying device, but he didn’t even have one made up, all of them having gone to Ellen Ward. He could make more, if he ever got the time. Right now the King would probably yell at him for wasting his effort on them if he did it. When they entered through the heavy metal door they were met by an odd group of people.
The King and Rolph he’d expected but was a little disappointed that Connie wasn’t anywhere around, a thought that made him blush again. Burks being there was just a little odd, but he’d seen the man around in the last meeting he’d gone to, this time he was dressed very nicely in a deep green suit that actually worked on him color wise. Really, Tor realized, Burks had about the same basic skin tone and color that he did, so if it looked good on the older man, it would probably work for him as well. He wasn’t the largest man in the room, thin and black haired, but he didn’t seem like a servant either somehow. Not in the moment. In fact he seemed to be telling the man across from him off rather soundly.
“No. We will not shut down the school. We move personnel around and keep going. See if some of the older students are willing to forgo military glory for the time being, and stay on as retuletors to replace those we’re losing to other obligations. I thought you were a little more adaptable than that Kyle.” His voice sounded stern and commanding, a little cold maybe. Not the warm, friendly and servile kind of thing that Tor had heard before.
Kyle, it turned out was familiar enough to Tor now, since he’d seen him several times close up in the last few months. Dean Hardgrove. The idea of him actually having a first name and that being something as common as “Kyle” was almost a little funny. There were two men named that in Two Bends after all. No one was laughing, in fact the Dean, for the first time that Tor had seen, looked angry.
“Sure Burks, you just sit back and play whatever little games you have going then sweep in and lambaste me for making the sensible choices? We’ve gone from three hundred students to ninety-four inside a month! Everyone over sixteen has dropped out, most back to family estates or to try and sneak into the military. Kolb has gone off and taken the top combat students with him, god knows what they’re planning. We need to face facts; we can’t hold things together right now.”
Richard took in Tor with a nod and spoke calmly, his attention going to the Dean smoothly.
“Yes. Sir Martin and his personal army… We really need to get a handle on them fast, before they strike out on their own. Best course is probably to find them and set them some kind of task to keep them busy… Have them train with the military maybe? I don’t know. They have the skills for it. Right now we don’t even have a clue where they are. They’re like ghosts suddenly.”
Burks sat up in his hard looking wooden chair and smiled when he saw who’d come in, holding up a hand, a single finger really, to get Hardgrove to shut-up and not say anything more, as he turned towards the door. The
