magic things that no one had ever seen and even if they weren't allowed to try them out ever, just saying they saw it would be worth the time. Tor smiled and told them that it sounded like fun.
After all, Tor considered, he needed to oversee part of the set up anyway, just to make certain no one got hurt.
The group of them, he didn't get their names, or give his own, but that seemed fine with everyone so no one bothered, walked with him in the lead to the edge of a vast empty space, nearly the footprint of about half the King’s palace. Nodding to them all to stand back an older man, one of the Ward group, held up an amulet and activated it with his other hand, his white clothes and dark skin looking special enough to catch a little attention even before the mountain appeared before him. Then, as Tor had described, he carefully set the amulet into the “rock” in front of him, his right hand passing into the stone itself about four inches.
“Whoa!” The kids all said, or some version of that. One boy jumped and cringed away, then laughed about it, he was the youngest Tor thought, but not the smallest. Even the kids here were tall for their ages. All of them had normal looking dark hair, except one young girl with a sandy blond that set her apart slightly in this crowd, she was the shortest one, shorter than Tor even. He nearly blended with his own black hair and plain looking worn clothing.
The mountain had a cave that went underneath it and really, was only half a mountain. The other half was a giant pool with huge, vast really, stone slides that looked scooped out of the living rock itself. There was a staircase in the stone that you got to from the tunnel and climbed up to slide down. They all watched eagerly as a small flying river connected itself to the top of the mountain, which was almost two hundred feet high, turning the slides into waterfalls. The water collected at the bottom of each of the seven lines of falling water until the level rose to about four foot high making a swimming pool. Then another flying line cleaned the water and returned it from there to the King’s river.
It was impressive enough, and the slides went back and forth to slow the fall, it should work that way, he thought. He'd have to test it, since if there was any danger at all, he went first.
It was a rule.
The last time he'd let someone else go first he nearly died of a heart attack. Walking over to the tunnel mouth he was met by the Warden man who smiled and waved, first to him, then the kids behind him.
“These the testers then?” The man said with a huge smile, the go to expression for the people from his part of the kingdom it seemed. Better than frowns and curses, so he smiled back.
“Yes, but me first. No one goes down one of these until I do. If It's not safe only I should pay for my screw up, right?”
That got him a pat on the back and an easy sounding chuckle. The Warden people here were all easy going and nice, around him at least. Tor liked them. Then, they were the ones that did things like attend parties and things like that, even at home. So Larval attacks or not, generally happy people.
Behind him the kids milled uneasily, finally the oldest of them, a brown haired boy with deeply tanned skin, asked if that meant they were getting to try it too or not. At least the words were merely baffled, not demanding. The kids just clearly didn't expect to get anything for free, or have special treatment. Poor kids didn't.
Tor nodded and explained it all.
“Yes, that’s right, we’ll test each of the events. On this one we take our clothes off over here, by the benches, then walk through the tunnel, where water sprays over us, it should keep us cool while we're waiting to go up if there's a line and help keep the pool at the bottom clean, then we climb to the top and slide down. Wait for me though, to make sure I survive first, and don't go down till the last person has reached the bottom, we need to time everything so that the person managing it up top can make sure no one crashes, can everyone swim?”
To Tor's mild surprise they all could. It made sense, with a river being right there, but people didn't often do the sensible thing with their children. The kids all said they didn't know anyone that couldn't swim.
Huh.
Learned something new every day.
The next oldest, the blondish haired girl that wouldn't ever make it to cute, much less pretty, stared at him openly when he turned off his clothing device, but when he glanced at where her eyes looked he understood. She wasn't staring at him, but all the devices around his neck. Around hers was a similar piece of hemp string with a coil of wire wrapped tightly around it in the front. It was iron, he thought, she glanced down and blushed.
She thought he was staring at her breasts, which were a little small, but real enough. He hadn't been though. If she was thirteen Tor would have been baffled, but she looked back up and smiled at him and walked over before they went to the tunnel.
“Um, those are the new Tor's right? Mine is too, kind of. I went to the shop at the bakery, by the south gate? The lady let me look at some and hold them. I tried to make a copy of one later, it's just a light, want to see?” The girl tapped the metal and a small but well defined nimbus of light came from it. It was just visible as they went into the slightly dark cave but Tor felt a thrill of excitement.
She'd made a copy of one of his lights?
Without training and without a template? From memory… after just getting to hold one for a few minutes? That showed real skill! He clapped getting everyone else's attention.
“Gah, Lyn's showing off her little light again,” one of the younger boys said a bit derisively.
“Gonna be the next Tor you know. Like to see her make something like this! Come on, I want to try it!” The young boy was naked, they all were, and Lyn got a slightly embarrassed look on her face. It wasn't the nudity though, but what the other kid had said.
“I know I can't be that good ever, like Tor, but I can be good, if I learn how, I think. I heard that Tor went to school. Maybe I can go too? I don't know… we don't have a lot of money, gold, I mean, but I don't know… Maybe I could work and go to classes, just sit in the back and learn that way? I know, it's probably stupid, but there aren't a lot of people that even bother trying to become builders or even copiers. I know I can learn that, right?” She looked at him as if expecting derision.
Instead he shrugged and nodded at the light she'd made.
“That should be enough to get you a scholarship. You can read and write?” It wasn't a given, even for a city kid. Not all of them went to school if they were slated to go into a specific trade, but Lyn nodded.
“Some. Mame taught me. Said I'd need it even if I went into milling or tanning. Even whores count coins, so I learned sums too. What's a schooler sip? A kind of drink?” The question was innocent and cute, but Tor gestured at her to follow as he walked.
“It means that someone else pays for you to go to school, so you don't have to scrub floors all the time instead of learning. There's a bunch opening up for next term at Lairdgren school up north. That's where I went. I dropped out though, because of a girl, which was stupid of me, don't you think? I should go back if I get a chance… Actually, I think I will this next year if they'll take me. I have a whole lot to learn yet and they have some of the best teachers anywhere. Even the Prince went there before the war. Don't tell though, because he may want to go back too, and it's kind of a secret, for safety and all.”
The stairs were slightly rough underfoot, but it wasn't painful to walk on, just enough to stop people from slipping even if the stone got wet. So far so good. When he turned to look at her Lyn fairly gaped at him.
“Do you really think someone would pay for me to go? Who? How do I ask them too? Does it mean I work for them after or… I don't get it, what do I do?” She seemed eager, excited by the prospect even.
It took a while to get to the top, so Tor explained that there were a couple of scholarships she could get and that people would pay for her to go, just to have another good builder later. The King did most of them, that's how he'd gotten in, he confided in her. Countess Printer was doing a bunch too now and she could also check with the people in Tor’s house down the way. Just go and ask for Collette, Rolph or Tor, he told her. Her eyes went so wide he was afraid they might fall out.
“What? Go up and just say “hey, you in there, send out the Wizard Tor so he can give me some gold for school”? I'm sure that would work!” She laughed at him like he was joking and pushed him, her damp hand slapping his bare back. His shield didn't kick in. Ah. He'd left it off. Oops, well, if it was gone he had more. Hopefully whoever picked it up would get good use from it if he didn't get it back.
“Seriously… try it. If you want to go to school and learn, you're going to have to work for it and do a lot of hard things. Facing down a fellow builder isn't even a challenge. What do you think he's going to do? Yell at you? I happen to know he almost never yells, and even if he did, so what? Just show everyone the field you copied and they'll let you in. If they don't, come find me and I'll take you myself. But try it on your own first. It will impress
