Tor stared at the girl.
“Hey you!” He said, making shewing motions with his left hand, still between the Princess' spread legs.
“You shouldn't be watching things like this, at least with me involved. What kind of father does that?” He sounded very serious but everyone else chuckled at him. Well it seemed like an afterthought when Ali did it, but she managed when the others did, like she knew to laugh, but not what the joke was. If so, that made two of them.
Karina looked pleased at any rate.
“See Ali! You're not all alone in the world after all. I told you so. We'll get out so you can shower and get ready. Ten minutes though, we really do need to hurry, it's almost light.”
They all had to work hard to make up for lost time when they got in, and send Ali off with David Derring to get a load of amulets for the shop, since they were actually selling out of a lot of things. Tor was going to run out at this rate, except for the free ones that he had Ali hand out, standing in front with a small hand basket. They were for later that night, lights that made a person glow in different colors with the tap of a sigil. A large nimbus of light surrounding them.
It was a brighter light than the ones he'd made the year before, meant to be more festive and fun than decorative for royals. Less tasteful, but more interesting and even useful, since after the festivities were done they could be used as lights inside a dwelling or carried at night to let people see. The white light on them was easily bright enough to be used inside a house and they should last a while, helping people save a bit on candle and lamp oil costs. He had a lot of them. Actually so many he wasn't really sure how he'd gotten them done while working on everything else, two and a half large cases full. That would be nearly three thousand of them he thought. Enough to light the whole city for the festival.
Tor wasn't certain, but he thought he might have actually done them all at once. One batch. Of a nearly novel build. He didn't remember doing it at all.
When the next set of Kolb's guards came Tor went straight to the palace with Karina, but sent Alissa to the festival area to continue passing out the free amulets. She wore one to demonstrate, picking a brilliant pink color that was easy to see even during the day. At least she had outside the shop. No doubt it would be popular, because while the girl may not be bright, she was cute, and men liked big breasts. The thought was honest and true, but made his stomach turn a little.
Not the pretty with big breasts part. Adopted daughter to be or not, that was just true. It was his thinking of her as not being bright. If she was lacking something, it was up to him to help her find it, mentally accepting her as being dull witted could help make her that way and influence how he treated her. He needed to fix that. Fast.
Kolb had a few people ready to go when they got to the event site near his house, flying in to save time, an Afrak Ambassador in the rear. She was still not having an easy time with flying, but Trice had come, and was letting her clasp her left arm as hard as she wanted. It didn't hurt after all.
The loop they flew, drawn on the weapons instructors map, started and ended on the far side of the palace, the river actually balancing on the top of the city wall. It took five of the ten control stones to make the curve, but only four more to set the river in place. Two into the Capital and two out. Once it was ready they all piled in the carriage, the top being made clear, so that the dark skinned lady could see how it all worked. She helped set half the stones with her own hands and got to hit the activation sigil standing on a cliff above the ocean so the tide would never reach it. The single tentative flick of a finger sent a roar of water through the air, the sound moving away as the whole thing flowed onward. The almost clear tube of water about five feet over the shore hung steadily and didn't look like it was moving at all, even though the water was rushing very fast inside it. Something over fifty miles per hour. The whole thing was vast though, about four hundred feet in diameter. It should work, to start with.
It had to travel close to three hundred miles to get to the Capital, so they had hours to spare now in getting back. They even knew it had been set up correctly, because if it hadn't been, the water wouldn't have flown at all. That was a safety feature Tor had put in when he remade them. Looking at the stream above her, the normally happy Mutta sat down… and started crying.
It had a smile with it, but was just as loud as what Trice always did when she cut loose. Higher pitched too, Mutta's being shorter did that, he thought. It was odd, because the short dark woman normally managed an almost manly tenor when speaking.
“Court Jester! There is a river in the air! I hit that small decorative light, a flame within stone, and pure water flows from the sea at my command! The desert shall have water, it shall have life! For a thousand years we have tried and failed, but now it will happen!” Still crying and smiling she yelled and danced, pulling him around with her. It was goofy and undignified, but then, as she'd said more than once, she wasn't a real Ambassador.
Tor could kind of relate to that idea.
They ate a nice basket lunch under the shade of some trees, the food good if plain, hand pies from Debbie's for dessert. Karina pointed out that Tor made them himself, which was only partially right. Box had made the peach, you could tell because the consistency in size and shape was lower. His were a more even brown and slightly flakier too.
Sure, he was bragging a little, but no one called him on it, so he may not have been going way over the top. The combat giants acted impressed and so did Trice. Karina had seen him make thousands of the things in the last few days and didn't blink at the idea, but Mutta just nodded, a very matter of fact thing.
“You will make some woman a wonderful husband someday Court Jester. Keeping her home neat and tidy, raising her children and making sure good and nourishing food is on the table at the end of each hard day. Many women will offer your mother many plants and seeds for you. Even the rarest of silk goats and already planted acres of land. Ha!” She laughed suddenly, shockingly, as if just realizing something.
“And get the best of the bargain if they win! Eternally young and lovely, never dying or slowing with age. There is not enough wealth in all the lands for a husband like that. Add your kind nature and soul and…” She looked around, seeing baffled glances.
Apparently, in Afrak, people didn't keep many secrets. Not at all. She explained how she'd tested Tor’s blood against Count Lairdgren's and found that they were both ancients. That they were the Green man himself. Her words confused people, so she went over it and then doubled back. Finally Kolb rubbed his head looking at the tiny woman skeptically.
“Tor's… been alive for thousands of years?”
Tor stuck his tongue out at the weapons instructor, truly lost as to what else to do.
“Obviously not. Come on, you've known me for years and seen me get older. I'm only eighteen.”
Karina didn't let it go at that though. Mainly clarifying for the others.
“But you’re going to live that long, unless you get yourself killed? And Burks Lairdgren has done it already, right?”
Shrugging Tor nodded, it really was something like that. Mutta smiled and agreed happily.
“Yes, and they are the same person. The Court Jester is the Court Jester, and the Count is the Count, but save a tiny difference, you would find more separation between identical twins, they are the same man. Like clones, only not, since Tor was simply born, the pattern carrying true. It's happened before, with the Gray lady. Legend says her daughter is her too, with no difference at all. So it is here. It's most exciting, isn't it?”