“Plan anyone? I think we all get what this means…” The heir said calmly, if a little dryly.
Karina shook with rage, badly enough that Tor wondered for a second if she was going to be lost to combat rage, but of course Trice wasn't around, was she?
He'd meant it as a joke, but then did a quick review mentally. Every time he'd gone into that state, his girlfriend had been around. The same for almost all the other people he'd ever witnessed. Tor went still and his mouth made an “o” shape that in a different situation probably would have earned him a sex joke made at his expense.
Karina stopped clenching her fist.
“Tor?”
“Oh! Sorry, um, just figured something out is all. Not on topic. As to the rest, it doesn't much matter what the King and Queen want us to do, unless we're just ordered not to capture Denno Brown. We don't need Burks to do that anyway. Not now.” It was already clear to Tor where the man was. Casting his mind out briefly he could even feel him there. It was brilliant of course.
No one got to ask about what he meant, because the Ancients and the monarchs walked out of the nice door hidden in the paneling of the back wall and strode forward. The King and Queen took their thrones again, which probably meant they had what they figured was bad, or at least hard, news.
Richard took a deep breath.
“Children… Tor, Alissa. I know this might be difficult, but we've decided the best course of action right now is to let these gentlemen go to follow their plan. I know this may not be what you want to hear, having your own concerns, but we believe that it's for the best and that it will all be made clear to you in time-” The King stopped and stared his face looking slightly annoyed at first, but panic grew behind his stony mask after a bit.
When Tor looked around he saw why. It was, he decided, shocking enough.
Karina and Ali both stood, nearly back to back, shields already turned on, advanced weapons held in either hand. Both pointing one at the Ancients, the other scanning the room. No one spoke for a second, but finally Burks did, his voice gentle.
“I see. Well, looks like the best laid plans and all that, doesn't it Warren?” He commented softly to Black, a code of some kind perhaps, at least Tor couldn't make sense of it. What Tor could tell was that the men were about to move on his girls. Tor simply ran forward as fast as he could. That didn't work by half though. Black moved so fast that he was on Ali, hitting her shield a half dozen times, before Tor had covered a third of the distance, Burks was nearly to Karina already and Tor didn't have a weapon out at all. He didn't need to bother though, because faster than anyone could track the shields the girls wore triggered and both Ancients soon found themselves lying flat on the floor, beaten down by nearly invisible forces for the second time in two days.
Tor stopped.
The room flooded with Royal Guard then, but they didn't know what to do, what they did, almost bafflingly, was aim their weapons at him and Ali. Tor chuckled.
When in doubt blame Tor?
It seemed to be a rule now.
Chapter Eleven
Tor yawned. It wasn't that he was tired really, all the drawn weapons kind of got him to perk right up. No, it was just that he wanted to show the room that he wasn't all worked up, even if everyone else was a bit. As long as people weren't attacking his friends, they weren't going to have a problem with him. If they did, well, then no matter what he'd see things through. For now though, nothing truly unforgivable had happened, which Tor promptly pointed out.
“Which means that we can all just put the weapons away and relax. The Royal Guard can't start firing on the Princess for trying to hold a prisoner I don't think, and attacking Ali means fighting Karina too, in this at least. I really doubt Rolph is going to stand by and watch someone trying to hurt one of his sisters and… you can see where I'm going here? So, how about this. Everyone, and I mean all of you, put the weapons away and lets actually talk about things first for once? If you agree with me, let's see a show of empty hands?” Tor grinned and raised his right hand to head height.
The Queen went next, a funny look that was half smile, half terror on her face. The King nodded to the guards and raised his own hand, which got most of the room to follow suit. It was just Ali and Karina left after that, at least openly. The people in the walls probably had weapons honed in, but nothing they had would probably touch the girls, which everyone in the room already knew.
“What should we do Kari?” Alissa asked innocently, sounding very young suddenly.
Karina sighed and unloaded her hands into her side pockets. Ali followed suit, her eyes still wide and afraid. Tor got that, without a weapon in hand, no regular people could take on the Royal Guard like this. But if all went well, they wouldn't have to.
Rolph strode forward and bent a little to look at the two on the floor.
“They’re breathing. So, um, sis, what the heck? I missed the part of the plan where we start a war with Lairdgren, possibly Tellerand too. Maybe you should fill us all in before he wakes up?”
Tor snorted.
“That's obvious, she wanted Green and Black to tell on Brown, but that's not needed. We need to wake these fellows up, apologize politely and send them on their way now. Just a mix up, you know. Tell them that you just… Gods and the universe, what can we tell them? Don't mention Brown though, got it? Trust me on that one.” Would anyone listen to him? He tried to be trustworthy, but that didn't mean anyone else saw it that way.
Karina was crying, silent tears running down her face, oblivion behind her eyes. Tor could feel it coming off of her. Holding up a single hand he shook his head.
“Don't worry. Things are closer to what you want than you think, but we need to let these nice men go. It's urgent that we do.” There, he dropped in the palace command code word, urgent. If Tor had the meaning right that meant basically “do what I say, this is more important than I can explain right now.” Karina's eyes went wide, but after a few seconds she nodded to him.
Rolph and Tor got chairs for the two Ancients and rounded up some cold compresses to place on their faces. If that didn't cause them to wake up feeling loved, Tor was out of ideas. Of course it didn't work at all. Black woke up first and promptly hit Tor a dozen times, all of them stopped by his shield, but the man was beaten unconscious again too. It was the auto-defense thing. Tor winced and stepped back, got everyone to move away and just waited then. It took another seven minutes for him to come to again, with Burks having already done so, but just sitting quietly, as if afraid anything he did would invite another attack.
Now all Tor had to do was figure out a way to let the two men get out of the palace without this all happening six more times. To his surprise Karina did it for him.
She knelt on the floor, not bowing, but a humble enough thing for a Princess. Alissa followed suit without having to be told and bowed low when Karina spoke, her voice soft and contrite.
“Forgive us, please. We acted a bit rashly, wanting to make you apologize to Tor for what you did earlier Count Lairdgren. You haven't yet. We should have used words, not weapons. Your response was, well, it should have been expected. No one in a tense situation wants to be made to feel powerless or trapped. Again, we both apologize from the bottoms of our hearts. Things got out of control way too fast.” She went quiet and bowed low.
Ali spoke then, her voice nearly silent and full of real tears, “I'm sorry. I…” She sobbed a little, a single tear fell from her cheek and hit the ground, leaving a single blotch on the dark stone.