“Alright Tor, how do you know what it costs to have a Count killed by the guild?” Karina's voice was forceful, not bothering to be quiet, since no one outside of a ten foot circle would be able to hear then anyway.
Sighing Tor knew that he just couldn't speak at all. If he tried to dodge the question, it would show up as a lie and the truth could get other people in trouble. Instead he just looked at the Princess and shook his head slightly. She was savvy enough to get the idea, wasn't she?
Apparently not.
The questions kept coming, hammering him from all side, accusations of things he'd never even heard of, had Tor killed Helmholtz? That nearly got a response, because he didn't even know who that was, but he realized the trap and kept his mouth shut. She was just trying to get him to talk. Once he spoke, she'd catch him in a lie and then he'd have to speak the truth to clear himself.
“Are you plotting to kill Raul Peterson?” Karina asked, her voice low and menacing now, after twenty minutes of questioning or more.
“Are you plotting to kill my father?” She asked, knowing that Tor would have to say something to that. Only he didn't. Her eyes went narrow.
Alissa looked scared in the white and yellow glow coming off of him, but she touched his arm gently and looked into his eyes directly.
“Did you have my father killed?”
Tor flinched. Damn. Karina saw it and her eyes went wide.
“Seriously? Fuck Tor that's…” She backed up a little. “That's why you aren't talking. I see. OK. Well… Then we didn't ask. Right Ali?”
His wife smiled gently at him and gave him a soft kiss, tears in her eyes.
“Thank you! I'd wondered but… Everyone said that it wasn't possible, that it was just an accident. But how do we kill Lilli? We have to!”
Tor turned off the amulet around his neck, plunging the room into darkness. Couldn't anything ever just be easy? Now two more people knew what he'd done and one of them was required by law to report it to the King. It wasn't that Tor wouldn't have offered his life to take out Count Derring, the man was a true monster, as bad as any in a fairy tale or play, worse. Far worse. As a sitting Count even the King couldn't stop him from abusing his own people, his own family, in ways that nearly forced Tor to challenge the man to a duel directly. That would have led to war though.
So Tor cheated and hired it done.
After that he didn't speak, not wanting to give them more to work on. Even if he had to go to the gallows for it, Trice wouldn't. She'd actually set it up, but Tor had paid for it, making it his kill. That couldn't be dodged out of. He wouldn't talk.
The next days were tense, Karina kept trying to get him to disclose who'd set up the act for him, and Ali kept hinting that they could simply have Daria Serge killed and it would be good enough. Tor didn't answer her. His wife wasn't a murderer. He might be, but Tor would protect her from that with his last breath if need be. He'd do the same for any of his friends. Eventually they both got mad and stopped talking to him about it, then about anything. That got noticed, of course, Rolph and Varley tried to bring him out about why the other two had stopped talking to him, but he couldn't say, could he?
Rolph sighed.
“Look Tor, you don't have to tell me, I think I know what this is about.” They were riding in one of the carriages, Karina and Ali having opted for the other one alone.
Varley just nodded, looking slightly odd, speaking while looking compassionately into his eyes. Lovingly.
“Mom and dad told us before we left. It's… not a big deal. Lots of people do things like that, and it had to be done. It wasn't like you really did it even…” A bump in the dirt road make her jump and settle a little uncomfortably. The seats were padded, but they weren't what they could be if Tor had made them out of shield material for extra comfort. Then it would absorb the force evenly and feel soft all the time.
Tor nearly hit himself in the head. Duh! She sat there uncomfortable and suffering in silence, pregnant and riding in one of the gods awful carriages, and he hadn't even thought about what he could do to help her be a little more comfortable. Would it be overstepping his place to see to that? He decided not. If he was just a builder, a humble craftsman, then currying favor with a Princess, or even just a wealthy girl, just made good sense. And if he was just her friend, then of course he'd do what he could to make her trip better.
It hit Tor what they were saying then. They knew? The King and Queen had told them and more, they knew? For some reason that didn't seem right. If the King knew…
Tor didn't think the ruler would tell anyone at all. If the word got out it would require Tor be killed. Even if the words had been said, it wasn't proof, taking a deep breath that puffed out the front of his cream colored velvet travel outfit, Tor looked at them levelly, face going hard, trying to convey that he meant his next words totally.
“Don't speak of it again. Ever.” It sounded harsh enough that both the royals looked taken aback. It was rude, you didn't tell royalty no, and you didn't confront them directly, but it was for their own protection. If they knew that a Count was murdered, no matter how good the reason was, and did nothing, then it would be the same as the crown sanctioning it. Every other Count would have to go to war then, just to insure that they weren't next.
“Ever. Not to anyone. Promise me.” If his eyes were a little wild, well, that would be the panic he felt wouldn't it? This could all go so bad, so quickly. If he had to die Tor sure as heck wouldn't be taking his friends with him, not even if it made them hate him now.
“We promise Tor! I… didn't know you'd feel that strongly on the matter though. It's you know, nothing I haven't done.” Rolph spoke grimly, sadly.
“Gods! Rolph, I don't want to know about that either! Don't you get the implications of all this?”
The Prince looked ready to cry, which didn't fit his normal demeanor, real tears of agony filled his eyes and he was swallowing them back hard. That he'd been the cause of them made Tor feel awful, a true heel, lower than he'd remembered ever being. It was no way to treat a friend, but he had to, didn't he?
Varley stared at him, her face blank, then, after a minute her eyes went wide.
“All holy, fucking pig shit…” She said, which got the attention of both men. It wasn't her normal manner of speaking at all. Karina in a tense moment? Sure. The proper and brilliant Princess Veronica? Hardly.
“Alphonse, this isn't about Tor having sex with Denno Brown to help him escape, either real or magical seaming. It's… Count Derring.” Her voice was low and conspiratorial.
Rolph hit an amulet instantly, not even waiting a full three seconds. A silence field.
“What? What do you mean?”
“Tor… Doesn't want us to speak about Derring's death. His suspicious death while flying, his shield failing during a crash… Shields, that otherwise, have never failed at all.”
Tor blinked. This was about sex? Him and Denno? Tor started laughing and couldn't stop. He might be a hick, but he wasn't that worked up about people in Austra thinking he was a lover of men. It wasn’t real, but a lot of them had seen it happen themselves as far as they knew, so it was just a fact there, wasn’t it? Why would anyone care about that though? Even there it had just been about humiliating him because he was reticent, not because anyone would really care. Well, other than him, and his family back in Two Bends, all their friends and neighbors… He tried to make it seem like he was really worried, about that. They weren't buying it.