Kingdom of Stars (The Young Ancients: Timon Book Three) (34 page)

The place was vast now. Easily the size of the Capital
itself. It also had activity, most of which was military, more or less. He
could see children, some of whom had to be younger than his brother Terry,
fighting with grown adult men, hand to hand. One of the adults, a giant that
looked familiar, backhanded a tiny form with a blow that took the child off his
feet. Instead of whimpering and holding his half crushed face, the boy rolled,
and came back at the man. This happened ten times while Timon watched, and
didn't end until a group of about twenty youngsters jumped in, and pulled the
giant down. It was like a swarm of insects, but the giant still had to
eventually yield. They were really hitting him too, not just playing.

"Good! That took you all too long to figure out. Terry,
healing amulet. We aren't done here."

That got Tim to focus on the now healing boy, who was,
indeed his brother. That explained why he'd been thinking about him, no doubt.
Good. He knew him.

"We have to be done for a bit. I think that's
Timon." His brother, who was still as tiny as ever, scampered over and
stuck his hand out to shake, like a man. He returned it and looked at him.

"Terry. I have devices. Set up the first class of
people that need to use them. Then I need Sherri Bonner here, as soon as
possible." It wasn't exactly a loving hello, but the boy didn't flinch or
bother to clean the blood, his own, from the front of his training tunic
either.

"On it! Everyone gather round. Emergency! At Emergency
stations. This isn't a drill. I repeat, this isn't a drill!" His shrill
voice was echoed by everyone that heard it, and people actually ran into place
as he grabbed the first crate of things and held up the tiny amulet, no bigger
than his thumb and pointed to the single green sigil there.

When everyone could see it, then moved back and pressed it
down. His intent turning it on, and that made the strange looking thing appear.
It looked like two travel trunks set side by side, with a taller one in the
middle. Touching the side he made it grow. When it was the size of a nice
cottage, he waited, and then made it shrink to a more manageable size. That was
just so everyone would get what it could do. Then, walking carefully to the
left side of the thing, which was closer to the size of a large cow now, he
tapped a single sigil and looked at the people with him.

"I need a shovel?"

He got an earth moving device, which would, he realized,
work even better. Then, again without saying anything, he started to fill one
side of the thing, the chest like portion being filled with a stream of red
dirt that filled it after a few minutes. When that happened he tapped the same
sigil again, which seemed to make the dirt vanish and reappear on the other
side.

As fine white powder.

"Wheat flour. It can make that, beef steaks, apples,
potatoes and sugar. It can also turn dirt or rock into water, or air. That
shouldn't be needed here. These sigils..." He pointed, his voice calm and
his words economical. Then Sherri ran out of the crowd, went over it all
herself, and had people doing that one by one. They made food, and it was
pulled away, but the cases were being taken as well. He could see the system to
it, and the girl was clearly in charge, like was planned.

She didn't stop to act impressed even, which was fine. Most
of the people around him were thinner than they should have been, so it was
clear he'd gotten this done just in time.

It would be enough, as long as they shared.

There were new shield units and weapons too, so he waved
Terry over, not bothering to wonder why he was there, and got some of the
bigger people to pull those cases to the side.

"Terry will handle this part. Get shields to everyone.
Weapons... well, use your best discretion, like always." He didn't know
who was in charge of the place, but it wasn't going to be the eight year old.
Or, well, he was nine by now, right? That was old enough, but Baron Havar
looked skeptical about the idea.

"Why exactly would a young orphan boy be given control
of those?"

That sent a line of fear through him, one that showed that
his control really wasn't what it needed to be yet, Timon realized, but Terry
waved that idea away.

"I lied. I'm not an orphan. I just ran away from home
to join the military. Ma wouldn't hear of me doing that, but I had to."

Ah. Tim nodded back.

To Havar, who was over seven feet tall, he shrugged.

"My younger brother. He also can fly and handle a fast
craft. I hear he can make copies of magics too. If you aren't having him teach
those subjects, you're wasting a resource." Then he walked away. His
brother was in charge of his own life after all.

Yes, he was a child, but a quarter of the people around him
were. Some of the people flying out with crates behind them couldn't be much
older than Terry was. It occurred to him that Terry would have to be nearly
ten, not nine. He'd lost a lot of time, sitting in the dark, over the last
months.

Trice was standing behind him, but stopped to give Terry a
hug and say something to him, before jogging to catch up.

"I told him to get in touch with his mother. She'll be
worried. We should probably send him home, but..."

Timon kept walking, but forced himself to speak.

"And what? He isn't any safer there than here. Not now.
What we should do is load them all up and take them to the colony, as soon as
it's ready. I didn't ask, is that coming along?"

His wife smiled and nodded.

"Deshi, Willa and Monroe are getting that around pretty
well. From what I hear, if you have food and water that will work there, then
we can start moving bodies in by the end of the month. We should visit people
while we're here, and get caught up with everything. There haven't been any new
attacks. Everyone seems to think the enemy is in hiding. Tiera is..."

She stopped talking and didn't start until no one else was
close to them. Then she whispered.

"Tiera told me that she's put together a hunting group,
with Alice and a few of the Ancients. They're trying to find the underground
bases. When they do, they plan to kill them all. I've asked to be in on the
attack squad for it." She looked like she was going to get defensive, or
as if she thought that he'd say no.

"I love you." She was his wife and that was the
right thing to say, though she stiffened, meaning he had to go on. "So of
course you can go and kill all the bad people, if you want. I'll go too. I have
a lot more to do. I... I'm not even half good enough to save Tor yet. There may
not be a way to make it work." He felt horrible even suggesting it, since
he'd promised, but it was the truth.

Trice hugged him and looked at the far wall of the city, her
arms around him protectively.

"Can anyone?"

Timon didn't really think so, but he did something that he
was actually normally good at, putting a little effort into it.

He lied, and took back his words almost instantly.

"Yes. I'm not good enough yet, but if I can improve
enough, it's possible. The technique itself will work. I just need to be able
to focus, while working on several different things at once. I'm going to
practice like I have been, but by doing more." It was all he had to try.
His voice sounded confident though, which was a good thing.

After all, in the end, it would work, or it wouldn't. If he
failed, well, at that level of involvement, given what he had to do, failure at
least didn't mean that Tor would be taken over by Cordes completely. He'd just
die. They both probably would.

That part didn't get said though. He had almost five months
left to improve after all. There were enough devices to get food and water to
the world now, and the colony, which meant they just needed weapons and the
ability to fight, if it came to it.

Then, as odd as it sounded, his sister was going to hunt
down the people that had endangered them all, and they would kill them.
Together, or alone.

That was the one thing he knew for certain in all of this.
One way or the other, Gray and Cordes would be gone. Even if they all had to
die to make that happen.

Because now that humanity had a chance to survive, the only
thing holding him back from killing every immortal on the planet was the slim
hope that he and his family might live through this thing. The problem there
was that, in trying to do that, he might very well get everyone else killed at
the same time.

It was a horrible feeling knowing that. The smart thing
would be to get Gerent to kill them all, or take back the device and do it
himself. But love made a coward of him. That and hope.

Taking his wife's hand, noticing that he was nearly the same
size she was now, he walked back to the ship.

To go home.

Off in the stars.