It turned out that Varley, for all that she announced openly her intent to go back to Wildlands Station with Tor, couldn’t. Whatever duties the Princess had at the moment, they were actually deemed far too important to lose, even for a few days. That was fine with Tor, since he didn’t really have a place for her yet, not something nice enough. It was one thing for Rolph to stick his future wife in a room with his lover and Tor, who was mainly just over in the corner working anyway. It would have been a lot different for Tor to do the same thing. At least it felt like it. It wasn’t that his hut looked bad inside, but it was a bit crowded with three people and even more with four, adding a Princess and whatever protections she’d bring to the situation at the same time would probably be too much.
So something else to add.
At least he was learning enough to see how important getting other peoples’ help was. It still ripped at him, asking other people for aid, but he just couldn’t get everything done on his own. Well, not fast enough anyway. He should probably stick to building for a while, and leave the real work to everyone else.
Somehow in all of the excitement from Veronica, Connie and Rolph, Karina forgot to question him all that closely about why he’d picked her little sister and not her to marry. That was good, because he couldn’t explain it. Not at all. Sure, he liked Varley better than her. But what did like have to do with getting married? He’d tried that and look where it got him. This time he was going to do it right and treat it as a strict business deal, not letting his heart get him into trouble.
What it came down to though, was simply that Varley, now that he could see what had been set up by the girl, had been working him into place for this for a long time. Since what, their second meeting? How she thought back then that she’d make it work he didn’t know. Then again, given her being a noble like she was, she might have had twenty plans like that going on at once. She might still have them going on. Another reason for him not to get involved except as a pure business deal.
With kissing.
She was good at that.
It made him smile for a second until he realized that getting good at things normally took practice. Well, that wasn’t her issue; she was right for her station and part in society. Torrance Baker was the backwards hick that needed to catch up. Maybe Ursala would be willing to help him there? Or, and he cringed a little inside thinking about it, maybe Sara?
She was Rolph’s girlfriend though, so he didn’t want to make trouble there. Maybe, if needed, some of the professional women would help him out? It felt wrong to use their services, but at least it wasn’t because of his prudishness this time. No, it was just because they were under his protection.
They talked for a long time, including the river going up and how he’d like a message as soon as any of them heard about it from any source, including, he added, an indication of exactly when they heard about it and who told them.
“Oh! I also… If you want to keep using the Not-flyers we need to get everyone wearing them. Two girls floating around in brown dresses stand out as much as if they were walking around in full regalia. I’ll try to send some around in about a week or so, but until then…”
Karina crossed her arms, still dressed in her brown servants dress, which, Tor noticed now that he had time to pay attention, wasn’t heavy canvas at all, but a soft looking material that probably breathed in the heat, not that she’d need it yet. It was decently comfortable outside right now. Enough that during the day Tor didn’t even turn his equalizer on at all. The Princess pouted a little.
“Great. Varley gets a decent guy to marry, but I have to dress in a shipping sack and Tor wants to send me off to the kitchens to “learn the value of hard work”. What next, cut my hair and join a religious order? Now I can’t even use my Tor-shoes?”
Everyone laughed, except Tor and oddly Richard. Tor shuddered a little at the use of “Tor-shoes” for the Not-flyer, but let it pass for now. Instead he tilted his head and regarded the girl, pretty in her brown dress, with her bright, long hair. Her incredibly rare and distinctive copper colored hair.
“Well, no. I mean no religious order needed for now, but if you’re going to actually hide who you are when you’re out and about, you have to lose the hair. You too Rolph. I’d suggest a brown dye for Karina and about the same for Rolph, with a military haircut. Put him in blacks instead of brown servant garb and he should fit in. None of your servants are as big as him, but some of the guards are. Not that I know of anyone watching that closely. I was just… thinking, you know?”
Tor realized something odd. His mind had actually slipped into the same state he went into when working on a building project. There was no overt field problem here, which baffled him for a moment. Laughing, both of the kids grabbed at their heads as if to protect their hair. Like hair was important? He chuckled along, but the King started nodding a pensive look on his face.
“The Royal Guard has been after them to do the same thing, basically, for about a week now, on the premise that looking like the people around them will lend safety, not any specific threat. If Tor can see the same thing though, that probably means that it’s not just their natural paranoia coming into play. I won’t order you children to do it, but I highly recommend you take it under advisement.”
They both went still and frowned. Finally Katrina glared at her younger sister and pointed.
“Fine, but only if Varley has to cut her hair short. I mean like a military bob.” She made waving gestures around her ears.
After a few moments of silence everyone laughed, Tor joining in to be polite. It was a family thing, clearly, this obsession with hair. They were probably pretty safe, as long as they stayed with the Royal Guard all the time in the palace. Well, unless the Austrans just bombed them.
A cold chill ran down Tor’s spine. It was more than just a bit of fear that something could be done, it was like a strong field of cold came over him, a warning. Either from his own mind, or the field potential of the future, this was real. Enough that he needed to act on it at least.
Right. Something else to work on then. Could he even stop an Austran bomb with a shield? Or, was there some other way to protect against them? Maybe he could shield the whole palace complex? It was huge, and he couldn’t protect against everything, that would take more field building that he had in him. What did their kind of explosives do really? He needed to find out more.
He came too with Connie gently shaking his arm.
“Tor… is everything all right?”
Walking over to his friend, the Prince nudged him, which worked, because his shield was off, sending the much smaller man tumbling a bit. He smiled up at Rolph and shrugged.
“It’s that work thing he does. Probably figured out a faster way to make cheese or how to breathe like a fish underwater or something. He does that. We should probably load him up and send him home now. Actually, I’ll take him, if I can be spared for a few days? I have some things I need to get done and Tor still has his… thing to do, and he might need my help with that.”
Thing to do?
Oh, the letter and stuff to Trice. Right. He’d been putting it off for a few days now. It shouldn’t take long to write, but the whole subject hurt too much to think about. He’d promised to do it so he had to now, but that didn’t mean Tor wanted to, or really thought it would work. In his mind it just seemed like throwing water on an oil fire.
Even the King knew how well that worked now, didn’t he?
It sounded like it should work at first when really it was just going to make it all worse. But worse for him right now might be better somehow in the long run? That had to be taken on faith. How anyone could trust Trice now he didn’t know, but if the King said to trust her he would. At least as far as his actions went.