Tor blinked at that, but didn’t say anything. It made sense, if his mom wasn’t hiding any more, and Terlee wanted to try and catch Tovey, she had to do it as a Counserina. It was real enough, but still felt a little like lying to Tor. Still, he wouldn’t ruin it for her. She was obviously trying really hard and wasn’t even hiding behind her hair while being talked about. That had to be hard for her. Tor gave her a small bow that wasn’t even ironic.
Then David smiled at the other women.
“I recognize my aunt, of course, the Baroness Morgan, but the other lovely lady…” Davie sounded smooth, like he’d said things like that all his life. Tor wondered if he really had. Did they learn to say things like that with a straight face while they learned to walk? Of course, since the lovely woman was his mother, Tor might be a little jaded. She did look nice, nearly as good as Terlee, he had to admit. Maybe better, it was just so hard to separate her from his mother, as ridiculous as the idea sounded. The creepy Count apparently thought she was lovely too, because he fairly stared at her. It surprised Tor enough that he jumped when Count Derring stepped towards her suddenly.
“Laurie? Oh my! Of course that only makes sense… David, Maggie, this is Counserina first, Lorali Lairdgren. I haven’t seen you in years, not since school…” He didn’t say any more, and no one told him anything. It was kind of pointed.
So, Tor inferred, the man wasn’t an old friend exactly. Funny, Tor could see that somehow.
Still, maybe this just wasn’t a good day for him? After all, someone had tried to kill his son already, if nothing else, and that had to tick the guy off. Tor felt a little rough and surly himself and was hoping no one blamed him for it, so maybe he should extend the same courtesy to Count Derring?
“Hello Daniel. Yes, I’ve been living the country life and only recently decided to venture forth and visit with some people again. Since my son Torrence is attending school here, and… some other reasons,” She cast a sidelong look at Terlee and Tovey with a smile. “We thought we’d make this the first leg of our little tour. Next we’re going to visit with my father, then head down to the Capital and look up Richard and Connie. We’ll probably be leaving later today or early tomorrow at the latest.”
It took things a second to click in place for Tor. Slow from lack of sleep probably.
“Hey, not to be a pain, but do you think you could wait an extra day or two? I want to send some things down for Connie and her family. Also, I guess I should send a few things for Count Lairdgren since were related and all? I’ll let you tell me what kind of things he might be interested in though.” It wasn’t like they’d ever met or anything, so how would he know?
They worked out that they could stay one extra day and not be too far off schedule. Tor suppressed a groan and kissed his mother on the cheek, then gave Terlee a quick hug. Trice got that he was about to disappear, probably for the next day at least and pulled him into a hug. “Remember to eat. I’ll be by with some food in a few hours.”
He took off pretty quickly; it was early still, so if he could manage a batch per hour… Blowing out air in a big puff Tor flew faster. It was going to take longer than he had as it was. Eh. Well, that was everything lately. He rushed back and got to work without delay, tired or not.
Oddly enough, no one expected him to go to school on any day he’d fought in a duel, no matter how lame the actual events were. At least he though that’s what Rolph said to him as he got through the eighth set of ten poison detectors. He’d rebuild the weapons to make them more suitable for school use later. They didn’t really need anything that would instantly destroy, well, a battlefield or almost anything else that got in the way.
For Count Lairdgren he put in two copies of everything he had, including water pumps, since he didn’t have to make them. The design wasn’t perfect yet, but it let you pick where the water needed to start from with the first plate and where it emptied with the second. They worked up to about two hundred feet apart. The effect was a lot like a miniature version of the Falcon’s river, which was neat enough, he guessed. A pipe of water that floated in the air. What wasn’t to like?
Tor kind of wished he had some water heaters ready to go, but he just hadn’t had time to work on that yet at all. He made his way outside to the central court yard just before everyone was planning to leave, trying to hide the fact that he stumbled a little every ten steps or so. He felt bleary and drowsy, but managed to smile at everyone anyway. He’d gotten Rolph to help him carry the chests out. They were heavy enough that Tor didn’t want to try it alone, not walking down the stairs. Each had float plate on the side but that didn’t help him carry them… which spurred yet another idea.
He’d been putting them all on the bottom until Sara had pointed out the fact that doing it that way made it harder to get at them and it didn’t make any difference at all as far as actual flight performance. The field surrounded the box anyway, making it lift itself. Duh. He’d felt stupid when she mentioned it, but made the change instantly. A good idea was a good idea after all. Resisting it would just make him look even more stupid.
Tiredly Tor pointed at the boxes.
“Lairdgren has the green top. Cordes the purple. Odds and ends in the green one, I made a list and it explains how to use it all, it’s in the chest. The other one has a hundred poison detectors and the templates for the new weapons. I figure I’ll let the King decide what to do with them, if anything.”
Then there were hugs all around, which included Rolph. Tor had kind of gotten that his mother, once out of Two Bends, had become all royal again, so when she gave his friend a warm hug, it seemed, well, not normal, but just friendly, not like his mother was going to start doing something wrong with the guy. What amazed Tor was that Terlee hugged the Prince as well. He hugged her back happily enough that Sara raised her eyebrows and grinned at both of them knowingly. It took Tor a second to realize that if Terlee was a good enough option for Tovey, she was also likely in the potential marriage pool for Rolph. Things were still rough with Ursala after all, after getting pregnant by Count Ward like she had. Then marrying a man that didn’t exist to keep things from being less than honorable. Tor blinked the thought away and tried not to let the shock show on his face.
Tor waved as they left, rising into the sky with all the luggage. Then he hugged Trice for a while, using her mainly to hold him up as she laughed about it. But he still didn’t get to sleep. He had to go to class. As it was no one should be cutting him much slack. After all, he’d just been making copies of stuff, not doing novel work. It made a difference. In his mind it did anyway.
It wasn’t until after lunch that they came for him, as he walked to the practice yard to meet with Karen. Kolb led them to him, which Tor accepted as being his duty as a Knight, not him being a traitor.
Freaking Knights and their duty.
The Dean. Proctor Campbell, and two Royal Guards in full livery that wore flight gear on their left hands. Tor slapped the shield amulet on his chest, earning a small smile from Kolb and a worried look from everyone else. The two Royal Guardsmen in particular. Their severe black and purple uniforms looked too warm for the weather, which was just starting to cool enough to be pleasant outside in the weapon court.
Kolb stopped about ten feet away. “There you are Tor! We’d heard that you hadn’t slept in a while, but these men came all the way up from the Capital to be of assistance in our little guard problem here. It seems that everyone is getting uneasy, since half the Prince’s retinue of retultors is vacationing in the holding cells. Plus, you understand… any day now we may need the space for some drunken, malcontented, student. So we need to get that cleared up, don’t you think?” The tone was jovial as if the whole thing was just a lark or something. Then again, they probably would need the cells for drunks soon. Royals did like to drink.