“Well, I've been a little out of the loop for a while, about seven years. Hard to tell down here. I agree that I've personally been remiss in this, Thirty-five nuclear devices?” He rubbed his nose with the side of one index finger a cute move, but not one that fit his stature. Something about the devices?
“Really Burks, you should bring the kids here when they marry, nothing would please me more than to see what our new little brother brings to the game.” Long hair brushed back, a feminine gesture, out of keeping with even a few moments before, on the word nothing. Tor thought he was starting to get it, it was about the devices, the claim of thirty-five was nothing? Did that mean there were a lot more hidden away or none at all?
Burks nodded his face still serious.
“We haven't established that Tor is marrying Daria yet. Even if we agree to the terms, we need a time, a place and assurances that Tor will be safe in Austra. Naturally this all depends on him. We can't ask him to give up his life just to amuse Glost, can we? Hardly seems like something he'd do.”
Tor almost missed the meaning there all together, it came so fast, Burks thrumming his fingers on the dark cherry wood table, in time with the words, going just a tiny bit faster on the key points. It worked out to something like “Time, place, Tor. Naturally this all depends on him. Ask him. Seems like something he'd do.”
Right. Some kind of stupid rescue mission?
That did seem like something he'd do, didn't it? Suppressing a nod Tor dug his heals in then. After all, if it seemed easy no one would believe it.
“No way. I love Ali, she's my wife. Any kind of annulment would just be a sham. Lillith, Daria here, killed Yardley. I only met her once, but really… you can't make me marry her! Even the King can't order that.” Well he could order it, but Tor didn't really have to do it. Not by tradition. Of course that wasn't the real message he just passed.
What he tried to communicate, attempting to be subtle about it was “I sham, make me marry her. King order.” It needed a question mark at the end, but he had to hope that one of these two would get the idea. Really, it would have to be Burks, since the fellow off in a foreign land in a prison cell couldn't order anyone to do much of anything. Then rubbing his own nose he finished the message.
“I'll fight you on it if you try!”
Then he did. They did a decent job of it too. Glost Serge stood back and laughed at them as they all cried, pleaded and screamed at him to save them, he played the insane spoiled brat with too much power, a thing he'd done before, for real, but didn't threaten to destroy Austra if Serge didn't back off. It would be one thing if the man had the weapons, but the longer they went on the more his crazy eyes shone with triumph above the glittering buttons and too loud coat below. Everyone argued against him except Ali, who resolutely held his hand in support and said nothing, which was perfect. Her face twisted a little so he squeezed her hand, the white, slightly iridescent dress she wore looked like foam around her shoulders to him suddenly and he had a strong urge to kiss her, but it didn't fit the scene. Instead he told Burks Lairdgren, his own grandfather, to go fuck himself. Everyone went quiet then, even the Austrans.
“That is it young man! I'm both your grandfather and your Count. You may not have to marry on the King’s command but you do on mine! The issue is settled, your marriage is annulled and you'll wed Daria Serge in three months, in their capital city. That's my final word on it!” His posture turned aggressive like he wanted to fight, squared off and stiff, fists clenched tight, knuckles going white.
It didn't really worry Tor, because he'd seen the man fight once. It was a relaxed and fluid thing even in a battle to the death. If he came at him to pat him on the back it would have been scarier. Tor crossed his arms and stood up, just as aggressive, but more passive. After all, you couldn't fight like that, not well.
“Oh?” Tor didn't raise his voice now, instead he let himself seem very, very angry and barley in control.
“What are you going to do if I don't? Kill me? That won't help your little plan at all will it? Daria do you take this corps to be your husband for all eternity? She'd probably like that though, no back talk!” He laughed hollowly, and looked to Rolph as if for support. It couldn't come, his friend still thought their kingdom faced destruction if Tor didn't go along with all this.
“Come on, he only wants to get me down there so he can kill me, or at very best lock me up and forget about me!” That, Tor guessed was the real plan, that and getting his daughter back alive.
Burks told him to shut up, the King suggested that Knight should put the kingdom before himself and Connie wept openly. Rolph got more and more grim the whole time and Varley clutched her arms across her middle as if it hurt physically. Karina kept staring at Lilli and Tor was pretty sure that if she could figure out a way to do it, the girl was going to die before Tor was taken. Possibly before she left the room.
Ali stayed very still, as if trying not to be noticed and so did her mom. A conditioned response to potential violence most likely. If Karen had been that conditioned for sex, what else had that freak of a father been doing to them?
Slowly, over the course of an hour the plan was set. Finally he sat, breathing hard, defeated and probably doomed. When they walked Daria out she smiled, turned to him and spoke loudly enough for the room to hear.
“When I have you back home I'm going to have you castrated and sell your ass on the street to all comers for our wedding night. If you don't bleed out the first time, I'll let you alternate between doing that and sucking cock from then on. We can use your magic clothes to dress you in pretty lacy under things and put you in those fancy whore boots they like here. Doesn't that sound fun? Maybe I won't even sell you, I'll just let people take turns. Yes, that sounds much more like you doesn't it? Just giving your ass away?”
She said it in her serious, crazy voice, not teasing, not threatening, a plan to be followed pure and simple. Tor stared at her. There was nothing to say to that. Crazy just didn't play by the same rules as sane. Most of the time it barley played by rules at all. He shook slightly instead. For once in his life he was actually faking it. The girl didn't scare him at all.
The room was cleared of everyone but the participants in the little talk and Burks carefully packed up the communications device, a science thing that Tor wasn't supposed to understand, but could take some hints from anyway. It was doable by magic too, though talking at a distance was really enough, why did he need to see people all the time? It took too much space for one thing and for him to do it would waste work if not energy.
Once they were alone, and they actually were for once, no spies watched from the walls as far as Tor could tell, Burks grinned at him.
“Not bad. Little sloppy at first, but you picked up the idea soon enough. So did you get the whole thing?” Everyone else stared at the Count but Tor nodded.
“ I think. There are no nuclear weapons, he tried to build some but people in his own system sabotaged them. He's insane, but still has a firm grip on Austra somehow. Denno Brown is being held captive and has been for somewhere between seven and ten years, he isn't sure, what he does know is that he's being kept in the basement of Serges palace.” Tor frowned and looked at the Ancient hard. The man had regressed in age and now looked virtually like Tor did, but a little too tall and wearing green instead of black. The hair was too short, but they had three months to make it match.
“That was a little vague. It would be best if we could narrow that down. Um, then we set the time, three months from now. Now all I have to do is figure out how to go in, free him and get out without the Austrans catching us. I guess, when I start working again that's what I'm doing, figuring out how to get us out.”