“This time, luckily, it’s nothing dangerous. I just need a test river put up and figured I could pawn it off on you all right now.” He explained the particulars of it, how to set the twelve plates so that it would go to all the right places and what the known dangers were.
“Really, school kids with flying rigs should be able to do this in a day, and be back without ever needing to stop in a town even. The only thing is, I kind of want to see how long we can have a six hundred mile river twice the volume of the falcon’s up and running before it’s reported to the King or his top military officials. That’s the set up and the real test. You have the goal and it’s up to you. For this I’d prefer no one be killed, myself, but that’s up to you and your team’s discretion. Make it part of the assignment or not. When can you have people ready to go?”
The man looked vexed, as if he wanted to say he didn’t know, but instead he shrugged. “Inside three hours?”
That would do. It was just a training exercise after all.
“There’s… I think that this next bit is a bit more delicate and we have to consider it real. In the next two days I need a package delivered to the King. I don’t care how it gets there, it just has to be fast and no one can be allowed to know about it. Especially nobles. The Royal Guard is probably safe, but no one else. This is… It’s the real deal Kolb. I mean, if your people have to… to kill people to make sure this gets through and no one can report to… anyone, then they have permission. Try not too of course! I have to justify everything to the King.”
Tor grinned and shook his head.
“That’s the kicker here, isn’t it? I have no real control over what you do or how you do it. Once you’re up and running, you’ll answer to the King first, the Queen second and the royal family third. You never answer to anyone lower. Ever. Not the military, not the council of counts and not me. I just have to go to the gallows if you guys do something I can’t back up with a good reason later. Yay. So you know, please try and not get me killed?”
Tor stood up then and started to walk away.
“Have you been getting any exercise at all lately then?” Kolb asked his back, having analyzed his state from the act of standing.
“Um… not really. No.” Lying would just be too obvious the man had observed his every move for over two years practically. Now he was limping around like an old man still, puffing slightly just from standing up and walking ten feet. Not good at all.
“Right, so, as the… I don’t know, commander of this whatever it’s called, do I get to boss you around still?” His voice held a chuckle in it, but Tor turned and nodded.
“Yes, most likely, as long as I’m not busy doing my own work. I’m not in the military, or in this… You need to come up with a name, then again, maybe not. Use your best judgment. Not my call. I’m still your Squire. Why? Do you need me to make something for you?”
The larger man in his gray leather outfit that looked old and worn already, even if it had been new a few months before, looked a little like Tor had sucker punched him or something.
“What? Are you saying that if we need something from you, just send in a requisition form and you’ll do the work?” He looked incredulous.
“Well, try not to work me to death, but yeah, that’s about the size of it. Just send a person over though, no forms if we can help it. Obviously. We can’t afford to leave a paper trail, can we? Why else have you all here? You need something to get the job done and if I can do it, I help. You need gold I give it to you, or… well if you ever need a baker, or someone that looks like a first year school boy, then here I am. If not, then you’re on your own, but as for weapons, shields, flying rigs, you get what you ask for. Novel builds, well, if you ask for the impossible, I won’t be able to do it most likely. I imagine everything will always be on a time limit with you guys too, so you’ll have to plan ahead for what you want if possible. Sorry about that, but unless the Austrans or whoever send a letter before showing up, then that’s what we have to work with.”
Walking away again, Kolb called something out.
“Alright then. From now on, at two o’clock in the afternoon, I expect you to meet me or my designated trainer right here. On any day that your other work allows at least. Try to schedule that in though. You look pitiful.” Kolb pointed at his feet.
Tor kept walking and heaved a sigh. He hadn’t really thought that he’d get away without doing anything, but he’d kind of hoped that Kolb would forget after he dumped all that made up information on him. Tor knew one thing; he badly needed to get with the King before he heard about this from someone like Smythe. That, he knew, forming his own little super-army of insane giant warriors, probably wouldn’t be very popular.
If the King didn’t like the idea, he might just be in trouble.
The transports, since they were all controlled by their people and had so far moved very carefully around the palace area, had been allowed to fly over the city to park there. It got past the gate guards and while it was leaving some dead patches on the lawn, the focus stone craft didn’t look that bad sitting there the other day. Tor wondered if he could get a flight to the palace.
No one was going out just then, but Godfrey mentioned that he had four more of the griddles already finished, and that the kitchens there might just want to try them out. It took a bit to get the new griddles loaded, but by cheating a little and using luggage floats, the follow along kind, Tor and Godfrey managed to get them all in place within about twenty minutes. The things were heavy, probably nearing four hundred pounds each, even though most of it was just a frame, that, if made of wood, might have weighted twenty or thirty pounds tops.
It was a good enough excuse to go to the palace grounds, but Tor didn’t know if it would be enough to get him in to see the King. No one came out to meet them at all, not even to tell them to get off the grass. Tor and Godfrey unloaded slowly, trying to make certain no wild eyed Royal Guard was going to suddenly rush them weapons blazing, to protect the King’s honor or some such. Possibly just to keep things off the lawn if orders had come down for that. The new griddles got placed in two rows, one at a time while they waited.
The last one came off the transport through the fold down side door that turned into a fairly handy ramp, since there was a foot high difference between the inside floor and the ground outside to make certain the whole thing was sturdy in flight. Looking harried, Karina bolted through the door, floating a little above the ground and heading towards them at what had to be nearly full speed for the old fashioned Not-flyer that she had.
“Gentles, please forgive my tardiness, I was sent on a pressing errand and… Tor, what are those?” A pale finger pointed daintily at the closest of the griddles. She sounded completely baffled and it didn’t really clear up even after he explained how they worked.
She smoothed her dress, something that was actually brown and a plain brown too, not some gem colored or expensive looking thing. It made her look a little like, not just a palace servant, but particularly one of the scullery maids. She looked a lot cuter this way than she normally did too, which baffled Tor for a bit as he watched her. Why would that be? Was brown just that good a color on her? Finally it clicked in his brain and he chuckled, which got a slightly peeved look from her, because she got that he was staring at her dress. Well, that or her breasts.
“Yes?” She asked, managing to make it sound slightly dangerous.
“Oh, nothing, I just realized that you looked even better than usual, cuter, even in a fairly plain dress, and I just worked out that it’s because you look more approachable. You know, less “get away from me peasant-how dare you gaze upon me” and more “hey, I just work in the kitchen, lets chat”. That’s… really a pretty good idea. I mean Rolph went away to school mainly to learn how to not be all stuck on himself right? You don’t get to do that, go off to school I mean, especially now with a war on I bet, but working for a while would have to be character building. Not that they can afford to let you do something like that right now, but maybe when there’s a chance you should look into it. Wash dishes or tend the gardens for a year or two?”
She stuck her tongue out at him, but then grinned.
“It can’t be less fun than running out to have old men trying to feel me up constantly. They wouldn’t be so bad about it if they knew who I was, but all these old lechers keep pinching me! At least when I’m dress properly they mainly recognize me and don’t leave bruises. Do all common girls have to put up with this all the time? I always thought I had it bad being a Princess, getting propositioned once a month or so, but I swear at least half the men coming through here have tried to sleep with me in the last two days! Worse, most of them are relatives, so talk about icky. ”
That was actually something Tor didn’t know. Did they? Not from him, but as he was coming to realize he might not be the best person to judge others by, for some reason. He hoped not, that sounded really off-putting. Poor girls.
It turned out that the new rules said that if one of them was going outside at all, they had to be dressed like
