“Good morning.”

  Dina brought out a tray of breakfast and started to serve it. Made it in the nick of time.

  There was a chorus of good mornings in reply.

  I shared a quick smile with both Sharon and Lia, and caught the smirks on Jenna and Marie’s faces.

  Daphne on the other hand, had a rather wistful look on her face as she looked between Amara and me.

  I supposed she was at that age where woman dreamed of finding a bond? Maybe she’d find one in a couple of years. As far as I knew, that sort of thing didn’t happen until eighteen. That’s what Sharon had told me that one time. Even for those with just normal bonds of marriage, without having been promised by magic.

  Despite having three myself, being promised by magic was supposed to be kind of rare here. Maybe the goddess figured I’d need lots of help with what she expected me to accomplish? I couldn’t find even a modicum of objection for that thought, considering the benefits. My life was beyond full with three ladies in it, and it was still amazing to me how powerfully they all loved me.

  Honestly, outside of my idea that the goddess thought I needed all that help, I couldn’t think of a reason I’d actually deserve the three of them.

  Daphne interrupted my train of thought, as she said, “I want to visit the fleet training this morning. This afternoon we can continue with the normal schedule. I’m also concerned about trade, there haven’t been any merchant ships here since the ones that left after the battle. I know realistically that trade will take a hit until we have a good number of islands on our side. The kingdom of Iziral may even try to block them from coming, but we need to make sure their self-sufficient enough to last a few years without imports.”

  Huh, that was a good point, and we hadn’t addressed that possibility in our plans.

  Once again, Dina became the unexpected maid advisor, as she continued to serve breakfast.

  “We should be fine on food your majesty. There’s enough farms for both meat and veggies for us all. A few of the stores will suffer, a lot of the material for the tailor for instance, comes from other places. Half the stuff in the general store, and other things we’ll have to make do without for a while. Wine too, though the tavern brews beer, we don’t have any wineries. But those are pretty light hardships I think your majesty, for what we’ll be gaining in the long run.”

  Daphne looked thoughtful, “Thanks Dina, it lightens my heart that survival isn’t at stake, though I’ll speak to the council about it as well. Maybe we can come up with a way to mitigate even those small inconveniences.”

  Sharon looked thoughtful, “We’ve organized our efforts toward the smaller islands first, and those islands that are fairly close together. Maybe we should look at that order again, based on exports. That way we can increase the trade within the new kingdom’s islands, as we grow. My mother would be a good resource for that.”

  Lia smiled, “True, we know in general what goods move from one place to another, for obvious reasons.”

  Daphne snickered a second later when she realized they’d meant piracy.

  “True, but I thought you only hit kingdom ships?”

  Jenna replied, “That’s true. Mostly. The kingdom employs merchants to move products sometimes, which we’ll take if possible. In the process of learning where those government shipments are, we learn all the other information as well. So while we don’t hit those merchants, we have a pretty complete intelligence picture.”

  Sharon added, “It can get complicated, often a merchant stops at one island to get spirits, and then trades that for something on a second island that the first island doesn’t need, but a third does, which has something a fourth island needs, which gets traded for something that will be traded back to the first.”

  Daphne nodded, “We’ll see if Melinda is available when we check on the progress at the fleet training building.”

  I could have just called Melinda on the communications system, but it could wait. I also could have argued about her going out again, but really there was no point. Yesterday had gone very well, and young queen Daphne was rather more popular than I’d have expected. Still, I wouldn’t forget about that asshole Murphy, and signaled to double the guard again for this outing.

  I also almost made a wise ass remark about solving the imminent dress shortage before it was too late, but wisdom enabled me to hold it in. I was in a room of all women after all, save the ever silent Gorwin in the corner, and that comment would have been suicidal…

  One thing I needed to do that I hadn’t yet, was come up with a new attack. The explosive super-heated pressure wave didn’t really work any longer, and I’d had the thought to replace it with something new for the next sea battle if possible. I went over some possibilities, while we toured the training building, and the yard where the new ship was being built.

  One possibility was projectiles, although they wouldn’t be nearly as damaging. Perception was important in magic, which limited the speed at which an Earth wielder could toss one of those cannon balls. They could only send it as fast as their perception could follow it. That meant during battle, they held onto it until it had been blocked, or until it destroyed their target.

  It also meant out of range, if the sender could perceive it, once it fell out of the sender’s magical reach, it would be simple for the enemy to just catch it since they’d be able to perceive it as well.

  It occurred to me one of those balls, at a high rate of speed, say like the speed of a bullet, could do a hell of a lot of damage to an enemy ship that was still out of range. If it was going that quickly, it would be impossible to catch. It could still be blocked, if they had enough forewarning of what was coming, but that was rather unlikely.

  It would be for our side as well, which is why I wasn’t sure if it was such a good idea.

  There was also the matter of how to send it that quickly. An EFP might work, explosively formed projectile, but I wasn’t sure of the physics involved in that, and was without google to look it up. I also couldn’t look up gunpowder, or explosives. I had an idea of the ingredients, but not the precise mixture.

  I also wasn’t sure if I wanted to introduce that to this world. A quarter of the population were already weapons of mass destruction, did I really need to add bombs and guns to that?

  Another option was the laser. So far I’d used that a few times, without anyone else really seeing it on my side, and any enemy that had seen me use it was dead. If I made the enemy aware that light could be used as a weapon, it wouldn’t take them long to duplicate it. It was just focused light after all, vibrating on a frequency that kept it a solid beam, so it wouldn’t spread out.

  That was another weapon I couldn’t defend against really, so I wasn’t sure that was a good fit either.

  That was really the hard part, to come up with something clever and devastating enough, but that I already knew how to defend against when the inevitable happened and the enemy could do it too. Easier said than done anyway.

  Directed sound waves was a possibility, and there was also a simple defense for it. Both the offense and defense would only require an air wielder as well, or a spell or ward. Of course, the sickness, discomfort, pain, and balance issues would make it hard to defend against, if I didn’t already know how. It most likely wouldn’t kill, but it would disorient them enough to where they couldn’t defend from the real attack that followed.

  It would be very difficult to stop stuff flying at them, like cannon balls, or a shockwave, if they were busy throwing up all over the deck and felt like their insides were being ripped out.

  I decided to experiment with that, when I got some time…

  Melinda had been unavailable during our visit and out on her ship, so I’d contacted her through the communications ward, and she said she’d be by with a compiled list of the nearby islands, along with what they both commonly exported and imported, sometime later today.

  We were on our way back to the keep for lunch when Murphy reared his head.

  There were two magical surges, a hundred yards or so to both the east and west. One side sent fire, the other many stones in succession at our group. The situation devolved further as several citizens that had been in the street started to panic and ran for it.

  I ignored the attacks, the guards handled it, and I kept an eye out for something else. It made no sense for two people to attack seventeen people, and expect to succeed. Especially when one of those was a diviner. Which meant it was just the distraction, the true attack would be coming. Unless, they were just two very stupid people.

  Several of the citizens were running into buildings, but four of them were about to be very close to our group as they ran in apparent panic.

  I was calling bullshit, anyone running for cover wouldn’t run toward the people being targeted for attack. All four also had magic, conveniently one element each, another coincidence no doubt, and they all wore steel weapons. That latter was probably the weakest argument for the four being an attack team, despite magic everyone on this world seemed to walk around with a dagger, or even a sword.

  I’d yet to see one used in combat though, except for those ass wipes back on Pheles that took hostages.

  Lia already had the air, so I channeled earth and stole four sets of cuffs from the guards, with a thought they raced towards the runners heading this way. I took two by surprise, and just like that the earth and air enemy was cuffed. The other two blocked, one with ice, one with a quickly drawn dagger.

  The guards hadn’t seen the danger, but they did now and half moved to intercept the water and fire wielders. The other half continued to defend against the sniper assholes, who would be caught soon by the normal guard.

  Or at least, they’d better be.

  The other two I’d cuffed continued forward and drew knives, I had the ground swallow both of them before they could throw them, or finish closing. Only their heads remained above ground. Then annoyed, as the guards fought the last two, I suppressed both of their magic, and then grabbed the cuffs again, which were on the ground behind them.

  They didn’t see it coming this time, and were cuffed. It was a neat sneaky trick I’d learned the other day, watching the guard training that morning. Of course, it was a trick only an earth wielder, or a diviner with access to earth magic, could pull off.

  “Lia, get us the fuck out of here, in case there are three layers to this ambush. Leave half the guards behind to question them.”

  I could have done it myself, but wanted my mind free to act.

  Lia’s little flight box of compressed air was irregularly shaped, as she picked up six of the queen’s protectors, which was half her currently doubled guard, myself, herself, Sharon, Marie, Jenna, Amara, Ashera, Gorwin, and of course Daphne.

  The other six guards were left behind to clean up.

  We rose quickly to over six hundred feet, which got us out of magical range, and then we headed toward the keep.

  I turned and looked around, “Did anyone get hurt?”

  Amara answered, “One of the guards got scratched, I’m holding the poison at bay until we can get to a healer.”

  The one that had gotten a cut turned white as the blood drained from her face.

  Amara smiled comfortingly at her, “It’s fine, really. Even without a healer I could work it out of your body, given enough time.”

  The guard nodded, but still looked scared.

  I couldn’t blame her, I’d looked death in the face a couple of times, and it was never a fun experience.

  Daphne looked a little green as well, she looked at me and said, “I’m sorry, I thought it was safe. I... I’m sorry.”

  I frowned in thought, “It’s fine. It was a calculated risk, and our readiness and guard was sufficient. I’d really like to know who they were though, and why they attacked.”

  “And if there are anymore,” I added in afterthought.

  Daphne looked shaken up, and kept glancing at the guard who was cut. I had the feeling she was feeling guilty, that someone almost died protecting her, and hoped she’d get passed it. I wanted her to be safe, but I didn’t want her to cower behind the walls of the keep either. It wouldn’t be the last time something like this happened.

  I wanted to talk to her about it and help her, but I knew I wasn’t the right person for that job. Maybe Sharon or Lia? Sometimes, I shocked myself with how protective I was of Daphne, it went way past my duty as advisor toward a queen. It still confused me sometimes, how strong and easy a friendship I had with not only a queen, but a sixteen-year-old young woman.

  We landed on the veranda on the roof, and I healed the guard before we did anything else, now that I was in range of a healer it was easy. That seemed to calm both her and Daphne down.

  We then entered the keep, and walked down to the first floor. It probably hadn’t been necessary, the wards covered the courtyard outside the building, but I wasn’t going to complain. Better safe than sorry…

  Chapter Seventeen

  Lunch was fairly quiet, and before it was over one of the guards came in to report on what they’d found out.

  “They weren’t locals. They were an assassin team, sent by the king to kill queen Daphne.”

  That… it wasn’t all that surprising, but was horrible at the same time. I couldn’t imagine anyone trying to assassinate their own daughter. Then again, this was the king who had all his female subjects raped and suppressed, so maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised.

  She continued, “That ship two days back, which we believed to be spying on our progress, was really taking note of the ward boundaries, and the contours of the sea floor. They used that information of the sea floor to come back in the dark of night. The six-man team then flew over the ward to bypass it, and infiltrated the city. They learned quickly that the keep was warded, so they waited for their chance. They saw their opportunity when you went to visit the fleet training area, and set up an ambush for your return trip.

  “It might have worked if Tony hadn’t spotted them, their intentions were to act like panicked citizens until the four of them reached striking distance of her majesty simultaneously, and then they’d draw their daggers and lunge. It would have at that point, been extremely difficult, if not impossible, to stop all four. Especially because they planned to wield magic at the same time to create further distractions.

  “As you already know, their weapons were coated in fast acting poison. They would then attempt escape, but none of them expected to live long after completing their mission. Their families were paid enough gold to be set for life. Five of them are in jail and awaiting council judgement, the sixth was killed during the fight.”

  There was silence for a minute, as we all absorbed that.

  I also felt like a fucking idiot.

  I loved to fly, and it never once occurred to me how easily it would be to bypass my wards in that fashion. I also had no idea what to do about it. I supposed people would always find a way, and it could have been worse. Instead of an assassination squad, they could have sent a whole bloody army. A thought popped into my head.

  Radar.

  Magic might not be able to reach past two hundred yards, but it could send out something like radar, and read it when it bounced back. Couldn’t it? Maybe not, or at least, I had no idea how to create radio waves with magic. I was also completely out of magnetrons.

  Maybe Lidar? I could create light I knew, and while I couldn’t make a ward see like a human, it would be able to detect light reflected back off of someone flying. I might even be able to use the infrared spectrum, so the flyers won’t know they’ve been spotted.

  It might take a long time to figure out though. I itched to start right now. I had that sonic weapon thing to figure out as well.

  Daphne finally broke the silence, “Thank you, was there anything else?”

  “No, your majesty.”

  Daphne dismissed the guard, and then stood up.

  “Excuse me,” she said, and then left the room and went up the stairs.

  I frowned. I’d never seen her so shaken or unsure before. She might just be sixteen, but she’d always had that regal untouchable aura before, and only rarely let it down for her closest friends in private. Sharon, Lia, and myself.

  That’s when something happened I always though a bit creepy. That thing some couples get, when they have whole conversations without saying a word?

  I looked over at Lia and Sharon, clearly hoping they’d go handle that, and make sure she was okay.

  Their looks told me they couldn’t figure out why I hadn’t gone after her already, and that I was being stupid. It was kind of startling, it was my first creepy couple conversation, and it came in loud and clear. There was no mistaking it.

  How did I get this job again? Oh right, I was shot by a drunk wife beater. On the good side, I’d also gotten kissed by a goddess, sort of. If lips barely brushing counts. Sometimes I wondered what a full on kiss would have done. It probably would have fried my brain with too much pleasure. But what a way to go, right?

  My eyes asked them both, really, wouldn’t a woman’s point of view work better here?

  I was kind of desperate, what did I know about cheering up a sixteen-year-old young woman? I was six foot four and built like a linebacker, I was clearly the intimidating guy who kicked ass, not on clean up and comforting duties. Did they want to scar her for life?

  To my complete bafflement, they clearly didn’t think so, and more than that, thought I was being thick.

  Goddess knows why.

  Then I caught Amara’s look, and she was clearly on their side. Women were a complete mystery to me, and that apparently includes the elven ones as well. I loved them to the deepest part of my being, and would die or kill for them in a heartbeat.

  Understand them though? Not a chance.

  I gave up at that point, outnumbered three to one, and that’s if I only counted each one of them once. It didn’t bode well that I’d lost my first creepy silent couple conversation argument. Still, it was all their fault when I inevitably fucked this up.