and sound, I'd send the missiles flying and kill you all. An eighty kiloton bomb for each Count and Countess and two for Ricky and his brood of dullards. That's you by the way kids, I don't want you to get confused. Just in case it's too hard for you, “dullard” means someone that isn't very bright… Oh, probably bright enough from what I've heard, but your education system there is a joke. Science isn't taught at all and you actually practice magic… How quaint and superstitious. I suppose I'll have to be ready for you to chant some curses at me now, won't I? I'm really so very frightened… So now, either give over the money and the boy along with my daughter, who has best not been harmed and I'll let you live, for now at least, or refuse and take your due. Pick.”
It took Tor a moment to process the whole thing, looking at Burks, hoping the old man would get his personal shorthand.
“Bomb… big? Can we defeat them? Shield or weapons?” Tor tilted his head as Burks shrugged.
“Weapons yes, the one you made. For the rest, big and spread poison. Land killers. Cities gone and the rest poisoned. Probably can't shield, too big.”
“Oh.”
So they could fight on fair ground, but couldn't stop the madman by just blocking him. It would take a real fight and probably destroy both lands. Tor looked at the crazy man and wondered if he was nearly as gone as he seemed or if it was all an act for some reason.
The whole thing was a bit out there as far as complicated and unpleasant plots, but he got why the man wanted him to marry his daughter and go there, because then his work wouldn't be of use here. He could be killed at leisure or maybe exploited. Glost didn't seem to have a high regard for magic though, so maybe it wouldn't be that one. Just killed then? Probably.
Tor was nearly willing. Sacrificing his own life to stop the murder of millions was a good trade. No one could doubt that. Even evil people would have done it. It was just too obvious to go against. What caused him to balk was when Daria Serge was brought in. Wearing irons.
Lillith Degray.
It made a convoluted and sneaky kind of sense once he heard it. Smythe had investigated further and found that she didn't have a history, not in Noram. She wouldn't answer questions, so they didn't get the whole story from her, but the old counselor did put together that she'd come several years before simply to try and corrupt one of the royal children. Daria looked up and smiled at Karina when this was said, her shirt dirty, smeared with filth and covered with food stains, hair wild and one tooth missing in front. The wound was fresh and still bled freely. She'd fought when they came for her it seemed. That or someone knew she was about to get off for free and wanted a little payment first.
“Don't worry Kari, I won't tell everyone how I made you, their darling little Princess lick my asshole every night for a month.” She grinned viciously.
“Oops, too late. Sorry about that.”
The scary part was that she suddenly really did sound sorry. It was freaky, she'd gone from snarky and bitchy to sweet and compassionate, even contrite, sounding in the same breath.
Yep, that was sane. Good wife material too no doubt, Tor thought, wondering if he could take these devices out at a distance somehow. If they were in Austra the easiest way would be to locate them and destroy them totally. Could he make a device that would search out something like that? He needed to know a lot more about them first. Hopefully Burks knew something that could help. It had worked with the tiny devices, the nanos. Maybe it was something like that?
Karina smiled at her.
“Who cares? Trust me, that you're a murdering bitch is a much bigger deal than me doing what you wanted in bed. It's your kink anyway, not mine. By the rules here I was just being a good friend. If I'd asked my parents first, they would have told me to do it just so you could have more fun. And that's with both of them never actually liking you.”
Connie gave a single short nod, but didn't let anything else show on her face.
It made Tor wince a bit. People did that? Eewww. He didn't want to judge, but… Eewww!
Lilli drooped a little. Sad her barb hadn't hit home? What did she expect from a noble of Noram? Tor shrugged himself, thinking that the girl was confused and deranged, so maybe she wasn't really thinking anything, just responding to what was put in front of her. She hadn't even tried to speak to her father yet. She raised a chained hand to wave a little, but then kept her mouth shut.
Tor sat back and listened, because, obviously the words of someone like him meant very little to the Austrans, though Denno seemed all right. Really it didn't make sense for him to be backing Serge like he was. That seemed to cross Burks mind too, and he stared at the illusion of his brother, their brother? Which looked serene and relaxed.
“Den, a bit against the treaty isn't it? Nuke's? Forbidden technology in fact. Also terrorism isn't allowed between us. We haven't even been invited to the parley table in this. Do you have an explanation that might shed some light?” The tone was interested and polite, not demanding. Then you didn't need to be demanding with someone that actually wanted to tell you something did you?
The Austran Ancient spread his hands eyes going heavy lidded in a way that meant something that Tor couldn't understand. He got it was a code, but lacked the key. Something very old then? Burks responded in nearly the same fashion a beat later. Oh. That was the signal to start then? Tor focused on what they did and said as closely as he could.
“Well, I've been a little out of the loop for a while, about seven years. Hard to tell down here. I agree that I've personally been remiss in this, Thirty-five nuclear devices?” He rubbed his nose with the side of one index finger a cute move, but not one that fit his stature. Something about the devices?
“Really Burks, you should bring the kids here when they marry, nothing would please me more than to see what our new little brother brings to the game.” Long hair brushed back, a feminine gesture, out of keeping with even a few moments before, on the word nothing. Tor thought he was starting to get it, it was about the devices, the claim of thirty-five was nothing? Did that mean there were a lot more hidden away or none at all?
Burks nodded his face still serious.
“We haven't established that Tor is marrying Daria yet. Even if we agree to the terms, we need a time, a place and assurances that Tor will be safe in Austra. Naturally this all depends on him. We can't ask him to give up his life just to amuse Glost, can we? Hardly seems like something he'd do.”
Tor almost missed the meaning there all together, it came so fast, Burks thrumming his fingers on the dark cherry wood table, in time with the words, going just a tiny bit faster on the key points. It worked out to something like “Time, place, Tor. Naturally this all depends on him. Ask him. Seems like something he'd do.”
Right. Some kind of stupid rescue mission?
That did seem like something he'd do, didn't it? Suppressing a nod Tor dug his heals in then. After all, if it seemed easy no one would believe it.
“No way. I love Ali, she's my wife. Any kind of annulment would just be a sham. Lillith, Daria here, killed Yardley. I only met her once, but really… you can't make me marry her! Even the King can't order that.” Well he could order it, but Tor didn't really have to do it. Not by tradition. Of course that wasn't the real message he just passed.
What he tried to communicate, attempting to be subtle about it was “I sham, make me marry her. King order.” It needed a question mark at the end, but he had to hope that one of these two would get the idea. Really, it would have to be Burks, since the fellow off in a foreign land in a prison cell couldn't order anyone to do much of anything. Then rubbing his own nose he finished the message.
“I'll fight you on it if you try!”
Then he did. They did a decent job of it too. Glost Serge stood back and laughed at them as they all cried, pleaded and screamed at him to save them, he played the insane spoiled brat with too much power, a thing he'd done before, for real, but didn't threaten to destroy Austra if Serge didn't back off. It would be one thing if the man had the weapons, but the longer they went on the more his crazy eyes shone with triumph above the glittering buttons and too loud coat below. Everyone argued against him except Ali, who resolutely held his hand in support and said nothing, which was perfect. Her face twisted a little so he squeezed her hand, the white, slightly iridescent dress she wore looked like foam around her shoulders to him suddenly and he had a strong urge to kiss her, but it didn't fit the scene. Instead he told Burks Lairdgren, his own grandfather, to go fuck himself. Everyone went quiet then, even the Austrans.
