Thorgood doesn't seem to have any interest than her own as far as my people can tell. Or spies on you. Gerald and Gemma are free agents too, so far, except what you know about them, Squires now and that, so they'll answer to their Knights. Let's see… your family? Most of Two Bends I'm sure, though we worked out a deal with a few people about twenty years back, to keep tabs on Laurie. The mayor there, Smith I think his name is? And the woman that runs the store, I can't recall her name off the top of my head. That's how I knew to send a scholarship your way. Best three hundred and seventy-five golds I've ever spent, getting you into school. As an investment it's paid off… I can't even calculate how many fold. Possibly the worth of the whole kingdom already. You didn't just save my family from death dust, but probably kept the whole realm together, the civil war that would have come after our deaths would have destroyed us for a long time.”
So, nearly everyone he knew was a spy? Ah. Tor walked away in a daze only to find the King standing in front of him suddenly. Those long legs let him move when he wanted to.
“Now don't be silly about this Tor. Almost everyone you know genuinely likes you. Especially the spies. They've witnessed your kindness, felt it themselves, and seen you reach out to help people, regardless of station, even when it's nearly killed you. Besides, it's a part of our life. If you're a noble, you have spies around you. The general rule is, well a little uncouth, but it's the way it's said,” The King didn't seem very embarrassed though he tried to act it. “Fuck the women all you can, and send the men to war. Though I hear the ladies version is different, with role reversal on the sex part and sending people on errands. Rather nicer actually, don't you think?”
Great, so what did he do now? Start asking everyone who they were watching him for? Did it really matter? God, he wasn't trained for this at all. Maybe he should really go live alone off in the woods? Either that or stop caring for people all together. That was stupid though. Spies or not, they were people, and as such deserved respect and care, even if it was hard to trust them now.
The first words out of his mouth when he got back to Rolph and Connie was a bit blurted and loud.
“Did you know that everyone we know practically is a spy?” He asked the room in general.
No one laughed, but Rolph did put down his pen and looked at him.
“Of course. Why do you think Sara was so eager to stay with us in the same building when we could have built her a place of her own in about an hour and a half? One a good bit nicer too? Running water and her own bath if she wanted? Keeping tabs. Ursa stayed with us because she was scared and figured that no one else could protect her half as well as you would. She's right of course. Shields she couldn't have gotten even on the black market yet, teaching her to fly and giving her a place to hole up that was pretty well impregnable. Plus, with everyone seeming to come after you it left the rest of us safer in a way. Why go after a mere Prince or Countess when there was that tempting Tor to try for?” He tilted his big giants head and nodded.
“More seriously though? Yeah, just about everyone. Really, I always figured you for a spy too, though mom and dad swear you aren't. Didn't stop us from being best friends, especially since I said and did things that I would have heard about if they were reported, that only you knew… When nothing came of it, I figured you were either a really smart spy, or one for someone else. Possible of course, though getting past Hardgrove would have been nearly impossible I think. But… you lost your accent so very fast. That part didn't seem very realistic.”
What? Tor thought that the other boy, a man now in truth, was kidding for a moment, but he wasn't, not at all. Him a spy? That was ridiculous. He wouldn't know where to begin, he came from a little backwater in the middle of the forest after all. One that… had spies. Even people that had watched him all his life. His face fell, did his friend still think that?
The Prince shrugged.
“I let the idea go after the thing with Maria. No one could fake being that hurt half so well and a spy wouldn't have cared that much. The job is always more important for them. Then how you avoided everyone for so long. Yeah, I got it eventually. But for the most part you can't bother to worry about it at our level. I just grew up knowing that everyone was watching me for someone. I guess that's harder for you to grasp? Don't worry, you really do get used to it. Just pick your real friends carefully and be polite to everyone else. Since you already do that, I just never really noticed I guess.”
Well.
Shrugging it off, if poorly, he invited them all out to see the ice castle and enjoy whatever festivities might have sprung up. That got the Queen’s attention and she looked wistful. It wasn't safe enough was it? She wanted someone to say it was, so Tor did, explaining how they should do it.
“Come in one of the transports, they're shielded, and wear your own shields. That will protect you from about anything but an Austran bombing run. Really, unless you advertise you're going a day in advance I doubt they'd get here in time. I don't want to oversell it though, it's probably just going to be a big pile of ice blocks. It's a warm day out, so people might be around to see it.”
They said they'd try to make it, if it could be arranged safely. Tor took that to mean “no” but didn't worry about it. Whatever happened they'd be sure to hear about it. All those spies after all…
The crowd wasn't small or even just healthy, but rather huge, outside the gate he could barely see his destination, so many tall people were in his way There was music of a dozen kinds, drink and food vendors had come so fast the event almost seemed planned. He floated through the crowd amazed at what had sprung up. There was a group of jugglers that were so good he tipped them a full gold coin, tossing it into the box they'd put out. He stared for their entire act, amazed and half wanted to stay and watch it again, but moved on, so someone else could have a turn watching as close as he'd gotten.
It took half an hour after that to work his way to the castle.
Not the ice castle, which was next to it, but the magic castle, easily as big as the palace itself, with a large stage out front that seemed to grow out of it somehow. The whole thing was a real castle of stone too, like the one in Printer, only way nicer. It was uniform in color, gray with bits of sparkling gold in it that made the whole thing shimmer, just a little. Petra was on the stage as a band played next to her, using the clothing device, changing her clothing nearly constantly, listening to suggestions called out from the audience, some were for simple, practical clothing items, boots and trousers in different colors, some, from a collection of noble women that had obviously been drinking a little, for more and more outrageous evening dresses.
“Silk and velvet in purple, poofy sleeves with a voluminous black shot skirt!” One of the women, who looked old enough to be embarrassed about yelling in public half screamed. Petra didn't even close her eyes to make it happen.
Then the woman next to her yelled for sparkles.
The whole crowed went silent at what she did next. It wasn't the light glint of crystal reflections that the noble lady had meant, but tiny purple, white and rose colored bits of light that came and went in a rapid pattern of small spirals and that clearly were outside of the material itself, by at least several inches. After ten seconds of this people started cheering loudly. Then, they also cheered for her in a simple black military uniform, fighter’s gear, which she hammed up with some really good mock fighting poses that anyone that was watching should have realized meant real skill. Workman's clothes, basically what Tor was wearing himself at the moment, done in a rainbow of shifting colors also got applause.
Finally, as almost had to happen, one drunk young man yelled out for her to take it all off. To Tor’s surprise, she covered her lower parts with a hand and threw an arm across her chest and affected a shocked look when she made the clothing disappear all together.
That was the most popular by far.
Then laughing she ran off the stage, still naked as a man came on, dressed in military gear, who demonstrated how to use a compressor rig to make focus stone items, he made a frame of dirt on the stage, Collette running over to make a box appear as if by magic on a table that was waist high on the guy, to a standing ovation, and then two more military men filled the box with dirt using earth moving rigs.
The audience called things out that the man made quickly and efficiently, including things like closing lid boxes with latches, bottles and simple statues of animals that were pretty good. Finally a woman that looked vaguely familiar for some reason asked loudly if he could make her a good man. Not waiting he threw himself into the audience and to everyone’s amusement started to walk off with her, holding hands. When he saw them together it clicked. She was one of the girls from the house at Wildlands Station. So the bit had been a set up? Very clever, the crowd had roared with laughter at the bit. Next a few fishing boats were put in the river and raced back and forth while people watched. That would be the last demonstration he guessed, but it wasn't.
Not at all.
Petra went back on the stage and made her top disappear again, not bothering to cover her breasts this time,
