Neither of them spoke when he walked into the room, at first. After ten seconds of Tor looking at them Wensa snorted.
“Well this is a first, every other time it’s been one of use wondering if you were alive, not the other way around. So I take it the electrical weapon used on you wasn’t lethal?”
Tor shrugged.
“That’s what it was? I barely felt it. How are you both feeling?” He asked this gently, but got two simultaneous and different answers.
Wensa sensibly enough just said she’d heal, and didn’t complain about the pain at all. Trice half sobbed that she should have died instead of this.
Tor crossed his arms and gave her a wry look.
“Um, I love you Trice. You’re my good friend and I mean this from the bottom of my heart… Shut the heck up and stop being a whiner. So you lost an arm. Big deal. You save nearly two hundred people in the process. If I asked you, right now, if you’d give your other arm to save that many people, what would you say? Or even half that many people? Or just me? Or the King? Or Wensa here?”
It took her a while, but she said that she’d make the trade. Wensa gave a wintry smile and nodded. “Of course you would. I was going to say something about that myself, but it looks like Tor here beat me too it. It was a good bargain. Even one life for that many would be beyond fair value.”
Spreading his hands Tor shrugged.
“See? If both Wensa and I agree on something, it must be fact. Now, when do you think you’re going to be ready to travel?” He asked abruptly, trying to keep her off guard. Stewing on her loss wouldn’t help her for the first bit. She’d have to deal with it eventually, but in the first days being distracted could only help. Or he was totally wrong and he’d just seem like an overbearing jerk that she could hate, which still gave her something else to focus on. Either would work, even if he felt like a heel being gruff when what he wanted to do was pet her and make soothing noises. Tell her that it would be all right. But it wouldn’t be. Not really. Still, she was alive and no one ever gained much by giving up, did they?
Obviously a little drugged, or, once Tor really looked at her, he realized very much so, Trice took a few seconds to answer from her very nice looking soft bed. The stump of her left arm was wrapped in tan bandages and sat above the covers on the dark green blanket with a stark white sheet underneath. She reached up and touched her head with her other hand.
“What?” She asked, sounding truly baffled.
“When are you going to be ready to travel? Because you need to get trained up as a transport pilot, and that can be hard for people that already know how to fly using a rig. I’ll make you one with right handed controls, flying rig that is. The transport too, or better, I’ll make them so that they can be used with either hand. Honestly I should have done that already. But that’s after I make a new field to take care of this death dust stuff. I don’t want to be mean, but I’m seriously starting to dislike these Austrans, you know?” Tor moved to her right side, staring at her eyes. He felt uneasy about the missing limb, but mainly he felt bad. She was a hero though, and earned her wounds as much as anyone on a battlefield.
Maybe more.
She’d saved a lot of people losing that arm, including him. He’d held the death dust in place, but if a new batch had been added, he would have ignored it. Tor had just been too deep to deal with anything new. It was kind of a requirement of what he’d been doing at the time.
“In about two weeks or so, when you’re ready, we’re headed to Afrak to deliver some rivers, then we need to figure out what to do about this war. I don’t know what you’re planning on doing after that, but there’s always something. If nothing else you can always go back to working in the house.” He tried to keep his voice serious sounding, but a smile finally took his face.
Lazily, sleepily, she stuck out her tongue.
“Right, like anyone wants a whore with only one arm.”
Her voice was so sad Tor didn’t know what to say to that.
Wensa did.
“Piffle. Just charge them more and tell your clients it’s a special treat and exotic. Two gold for a stump job. They’ll be lining up for it. It’s all in how you present yourself after all.”
Tor chuckled, if it was a little strained, well, it had been a hard day so far and he was tired from being awake and not eating for three days. It was starting to show a little, maybe, so he spread his hands expansively.
“Really, I think we can find something a little more entertaining for you to do, given your education, but it’s always good to have a backup plan, right? Don’t get rid of those boots though, I think you may have use of them soon…” He tried to pitch his voice in a way that made it sound suggestive, which got a laugh from both women. Tor sighed and shook his head in mock woe.
“So, I have to work on that, trying to be all playful and stuff? Seriously though, bring the boots. I expect to see you up and around tomorrow then? We have plans to make and can’t really do it all in here. Wensa, you too. The boots, I mean. Get a pair just in case.” This he managed with such a deadpan face that both women looked at him in slight shock before they busted up laughing.
“Good! No time to worry about little things, we have a war to win and Austrans to kill. Normally I’m kind of anti-killing, but right now I’m thinking of making some exceptions.” That sounded a lot darker than he meant it too, but got nods that didn’t seem self-pitying at all, so he left it at that and kissed Trice on the cheek, then, just to get a laugh did the same thing to Wensa. Oddly both women just nodded at him again. Ah, right. The rules. Tor had never even considered that the Royal Guards might have to follow them. Well, he’d just be nice to her. He didn’t really like her, but she’d helped save his life too, even if he was one hundredth and eighty-seventh on her list of people to protect at the party, that had to count for something.
Next Tor walked not just down the hall, but across the entire palace complex, needing to get directions twice, to find Rolph. He was sitting with Sara, and Ursala when Tor walked in.
“Heh, see and neither even bothered coming to visit me… I guess that means they pick you. Well. Told you so.” Tor smiled and collected hugs from both girls and winked at Rolph who groaned slightly.
“Damn, he found us. Well, now I have to stop being a wimp and complaining about my tummy hurting. I do have a whole new respect for you though. You didn’t even whimper after you were stabbed. I cried like a little girl.” He sounded ashamed of that for some reason, which Tor didn’t get at all.
“Ah, but you see, I’m probably the one person in the room that knows, first hand and recently, that crying like a little girl is a very serviceable option in response to that kind of pain. Though really, I doubt you actually did. Maybe you choked up, in a manly and regal way, but you didn’t scream or sob. I know that nearly one hundred percent.” Tor sounded confident. He was, so it worked for him.
Rolph smiled and gave him a serious look.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, but how do you know? You were kind of out of it, saving us all, if I recall…”
“Easy. It hurts way too damn much to let your stomach move like that. So the loudest it comes out is kind of a stoic moan. Don’t worry, you did fine, and by the time they write songs about it you’ll probably have just shrugged the wounds of and gotten back to work almost immediately. Speaking of which, we have a meeting tomorrow. Planning. What do we need to do for the war effort and all that. Anyone with a brain that we can get to come. This isn’t anything official, so seriously, anyone. The guy that cleans the stables if he has anything to add… Trice is already coming, she doesn’t know it yet, but she is. I don’t know about Wensa, but I wouldn’t rule it out. Two broken legs and a dislocated arm don’t really sound like enough to stop her. I’ll spread the word and we can see who shows. Late luncheon?”