Chapter 30 - Growing Pains
“Oh, so you do still exist,” Stenn Reslic remarked from floor level.
Tymos had just returned to the High King’s suite. He turned to see where the voice came from.
Stenn went on, “I was beginning to think my father threw you in some dungeon – because you managed to disarm him yesterday.” He grinned when he saw his friend blush.
“Only once,” Tymos said defensively, and then quickly changed the subject. “What are you doing here?”
“Can’t you tell? I am playing with your brother, since neither you, nor Kryslie have been around much. Strong little man, your brother. I’ve been teaching him to crawl.”
“He’s only two months old,” Kryslie said, hearing Stenn’s comment as she arrived. “Babies don’t crawl that young.”
“No?” Stenn queried as he swung Llaimos up so he gurgled in delight. “Then you had better take another look at this little man. He is as big as Ennis, and my youngest brother is six months older.”
Kryslie stared at Stenn, and then at Llaimos. Her little brother was big. He had indeed grown a lot in the past month while they were having extra lessons. Tanya moved into view behind Stenn and Kryslie saw a look of fear on her foster mother’s face. She leant down and took her brother, feeling the little boy recognise her.
Stenn stood up and straightened his clothes. “So what have you been doing? You haven’t been in class for a month now and I have seen you practicing with level alpha.”
“It’s this business of getting us to level delta before the tour,” Tymos explained. “Last week, Governor Xyron gave us free access to the computer archives and told us to investigate whatever appealed to us.”
“Real…ee,” Stenn drawled. “Well, I’ll be…I have never heard of students having free run in the archives, but then, you are Uncle Ty’s heirs. What have you been looking at?”
“History of battles, types of known weaponry,” Tymos shrugged. “But I usually end up on some other side track. I got into xeno-anthropology today.”
“Were you down in that basement too, Kryslie?” Stenn asked. He had to repeat his question because Kryslie was gently rocking Llaimos and murmuring to him.
“Oh, I’ve been looking at reports of ecological warfare from throughout the galaxy and how other worlds survived it.”
“You don’t think we will need that information, surely?” Stenn said, turning pale. “I know that the aliens who intruded here have been seen in many places, but it sounded like my father had things in hand.”
“I’ve noticed you at the last few weekly meetings,” Tymos remarked. “Surely you noticed all the reports of freakish weather, and violence and rioting all over the continent?”
“Yes, but they sent out companies from the Peace Corps to deal with it,” Stenn said impatiently. “That’s their job.”
Tymos took a flask of drink from Morov and began to drink it before answering. “In the past month, we have had coastal flooding in Kilevin, a mud slide near Tureng, a strong ground tremor near Basiq, …” Tymos itemised over a dozen natural seeming disasters, where the Peace Corps were deployed to bring emergency supplies and provide aid.
Kryslie, holding a sleeping Llaimos, said, “They are going in smaller numbers to more and more places.”
Stenn stared at her, realising she was right.
“So, what would happen if those aliens and their troops were to attack?” Kryslie asked.
“They would recall the space fleet,” Stenn said at once.
Kryslie nodded, she and Tymos knew of the space fleet, and it eased one of her worries but her stomach did not seem to relax.
“What’s up?” Stenn asked, seeing her go still.
“Never mind. Just some mild discomfort,” Kryslie told him. “Tymos and I are getting used to it, and can ease the worst of it.”
“What are you talking about?” Stenn demanded. His friend’s faces were sheet white. Then he felt the slightest of tremors and the lighter ornaments on a display shelf rattled. “You felt that coming…”
“Yup,” Tymos admitted. “None of Governor Xyron’s experts know what is causing the tremors and no evidence has been found of unnatural causes of the weather either, even with the local civilian militia helping the scientists – but my bet is on those aliens.”
“I’d ask how they could be causing the problems,” Stenn began. “But you really believe it …why?”
“How much ancient history do you know?” Tymos asked.
“Enough, I think.”
“How about…the first mutations?” Kryslie added, after the tremors had stopped and her stomach had relaxed.
Stenn walked to a chair and slumped into it. “Why don’t you just come out and explain?” Stenn asked.
Tanya came and took Llaimos. Kryslie saw the subtle signs of tension around her stepmother’s eyes, but did not comment. She went on with her explanation. “One of those intruders decided to talk. He told Father that his people had a right to come here, to Tymorea, because they had originally come from here. Those ancestors went and colonised a planet. They called it Aerdna which means Sanctuary.”
“That? I heard my brothers talking about it,” Stenn said. “Those intruders are mad. Even if it is true, they can’t expect the whole population of a world to be able to come here. The first talk of that was over twenty years ago.”
Kryslie saw Delia hovering and recalled she should clean up before eating. She gave Stenn a look of apology and retreated to the bathing room.
Tymos took over the explanation. “It is certain that the intruders were Aeronites, and I am certain that others of that race are behind these ecological problems.”
“But why would they want to ruin the ecology if they want to come here?” Stenn asked.
“Terrorism or making threats to force us,” Tymos suggested. “Possibly so they can change our ecology for some reason. Something like that. I’ve read a bit about that world. The ones who went off from here, colonised a barren planet, after using some means to make it fertile. From what our missionaries report – the planet is reverting to its original state. That and the planet’s orbit is becoming erratic.”
“They could have asked for help,” Stenn stated. “They would have got it.”
“I suspect they are intending to take, and it is not the answer,” Tymos said. “And so far we can’t find where these intruders and scouts are hiding their ground base. Except for traces, left behind.”
“If I recall,” Stenn murmured, “Aerdna has three colonies, surely the people could move to those.”
“Probably only the rich and powerful,” Tymos said. “That’s what Krys thinks. So she is looking for ways to save the population from their own mistakes.”
“I hope she succeeds,” Stenn murmured fervently.
“Xyron has set others working on the idea,” Tymos told him and then changed the subject. “Are you going to eat here?”
“No, I have to get back,” Stenn admitted. “I will let the rest of our level know that you are still alive. I hope you will make time to say goodbye before you go on this tour.”
Tymos gave a weak chuckle. “Depends if we can pass our tests.”
“If you can toss a sword out of my father’s hand and beat the level alpha students, I’d say Father is trying to get you past level alpha before next week.”
“That’s absurd,” Tymos did laugh.
Stenn shrugged. “Seems like it to me and I don’t have a hope to catch up to you. Best I can do is fill your place keeping Jonko in practice.” He pushed himself up and said, “I’d best be going.”
Kryslie re-emerged from the bathing room, and Morov moved in on Tymos.
Delia asked, “Where do you intend to eat, Princess Kryslie?”
“Maybe, we should put in an appearance in the Great Hall,” Kryslie suggested.
“As you wish,” Delia agreed.
Trying to be inconspicuous, Tymos and Kryslie moved through the seated and standing people in the great hal
l until they found where their friends were sitting. There were a couple of extras there. Jonko seemed to be listening intently to Tobias, who was now apprenticed to the senior horticulturalist, and Keleb was talking to Sacul. Tymos slipped in next to Stenn and Kryslie went to sit next to Sacul.
“How’s life in the large lyceum,” Kryslie asked the younger boy.
Sacul glowed with pleasure. “It’s a lot more interesting. I am in level theta, and doing very well.”
He went on to tell Kryslie what he had been learning, and finally got around to thanking her for her help. He was a little reticent about talking of the night he had been in the snow, and the extra lessons he had needed, but his gratitude was genuine.
Tymos was curious to know how long Jonko had known Tobias, and finally decided to ask his friends.
“Not long after you started your private lessons again,” Denlic supplied the answer. “He offered to tutor him in self defence and basic weapons. Tobias is going to go out with the scientists if he does well at his next evaluation.”
“I thought you had to reach level delta before leaving the estate,” Tymos murmured. “Or have I missed something?”
“That’s the rule for students,” Stenn told him. “Otherwise, you just have to prove you have your power under control. It’s not so hard if you only have a little.”
Tymos frowned, and Stenn hurriedly added, “I don’t mean that in a nasty way. Tobias is okay, even if he only ever talks about plants.”
Further talk was paused as Morov brought meal trays for Tymos and Kryslie. The others decided they should go and get their own.
Tymos and Kryslie were deep in concentration when they both felt the impact of Llaimos’s distress. Without even a glance or thought, they both transmitted from the computer archive in the basement to the High King’s suite.
Their brother was screaming, and Tanya, with tears leaking down her face, was watching helplessly as the nurse tried to calm him.
Like two parts of one whole, Tymos went and took Llaimos and Kryslie went to Tanya and embraced her. Tanya’s silent crying became jerking sobs, but Llaimos’s cries abated.
“Hush, Tanya,” Kryslie whispered. “Llaimos will stay upset while you are. Tell me what is wrong. I have never seen you like this.”
And indeed, she hadn’t. The serenity of the royal consorts was legendary.
Tanya did not attempt to talk, so Kryslie allowed herself to sense her foster mother’s emotions.
Fear, revulsion, shame, helplessness, anxiety.
“You are really muddled up,” Kryslie murmured. “Do you want me to bring Father here?”
“No. No, don’t,” she pleaded. “I’ll…I’ll pull myself together.”
Kryslie took a guess. “It’s Llaimos, isn’t it? He’s growing so fast, like Stenn said.”
Tanya nodded. “I don’t know how to handle this.”
“Is he healthy, other than that?” Kryslie asked.
“Yes, but they don’t know why he is growing so fast.”
Fleeting thoughts past through Kryslie’s mind, but all she remembered was, “…he’s the third.”
She spoke it aloud, and it felt like a prophecy.
“If he is healthy, I’d accept the strangeness,” Kryslie advised, but she felt Tanya reject the suggestion.
“What if he grows so fast, he’ll age and die within a few years?” Tanya voiced her concern.
“Ah,” Kryslie said in understanding. “I don’t think you need to fear that. If he is growing fast, I think that the Guardians of Peace have a reason to meddle. Just like they did with us – having us born elsewhere.”
“But the two of you are special,” Tanya whispered.
“So is Llaimos, and the Guardians chose you to be his mother. It is an honour,” Kryslie told her.
It still didn’t help. The maternal concern was overpowering, as was her helplessness. Yet she was calming down, since Tymos was succeeding in reducing the screams to mere crying. He brought Llaimos over, and remarked with calm acceptance, “I don’t know much about babies, Tanya, but I would say Llaimos is trying to cut teeth.”
The nurse, standing back and watching Tymos and Kryslie create order, spoke up in relief, “I will get some salve from the medics and something for him to bite on.”
“Good,” Tymos remarked. “That will give my finger some respite, though I do have a few more if necessary.”
The nurse went out of the suite, as Kryslie asked, “Is that all that was wrong?”
In her mind, she heard, “No,” but Tymos said aloud to Tanya, “When the nurse gets back, why don’t you have her fix a bath for him. Krys and I will wash him – I think it will help him relax.”
Having the problem put in an understandable way, Tanya began to calm. She knew what to do.
At that moment, Tymoros strode in and looked around. His face was creased in worry, as if he came expecting a dreadful situation. He made no comment about being dragged away from a highly important meeting, merely asked, “Are things under control?”
“Yes,” Kryslie answered before Tanya could. “I am afraid our brother has sensed our situation of being pushed to get to level delta and he thinks he has to grow fast to catch us.”
It sounded like a light attempt at humour, but Tymoros saw the traces of tears on Tanya’s face before she turned to go to the bathing room. He went to her, knowing that Tymos and Kryslie could handle their brother.
“What is it?” Kryslie thought at her brother, as she took Llaimos from him.
In the same manner, Tymos replied, “Not only teething, but having growing pains as well, poor baby.”
They both sensed the outrage at being called ‘baby’.
“I see,” Kryslie said aloud. She cuddled Llaimos and patted his back. “Little brother, I know being an infant is frustrating, but your nurse has gone to get something to sooth your mouth, and then you will be able to eat. Then you won’t feel like a starving cat creature. Perhaps you should stop trying to catch up to us and give yourself a rest.”
The cries increased again, and Kryslie sensed the frustration. “Hush, Llaimos, you are upsetting your mother,” she chided gently. This time, she had the sense of being rejected.
In her mind, she thought, “Gods, Tym, his mind is even more mature than his body. He doesn’t understand why Tanya is distressed. He thinks it is his fault.”
The nurse returned with a tube of cream, and Kryslie put her little finger out for the nurse to put a dab some on.
To Llaimos she said, “This will numb your gums, and then perhaps you will listen to me.”
The crying reduced to whimpers. Tanya, still being held by Tymoros, directed the nurse to get a bath ready.
“Perhaps you can give me an explanation for the urgent summons,” Tymoros asked quietly.
Tymos stayed near Kryslie and Llaimos. “Our brother is growing rapidly. It is painful and frustrating for him and stressful for Tanya.”
Kryslie added, “He feels, he senses…emotions mostly and he has no way to communicate what he wants to know. He understands us, and we can understand him. At the moment, apart from cutting teeth and all, he cannot understand why his mother is so upset.”
Tanya hid her face on Tymoros’s chest.
“You haven’t failed him, Tanya,” Kryslie said at once. “We all have. I didn’t notice how fast he was growing until Stenn compared him to Ennis.”
“That young man of Jono’s is very astute,” Tymoros remarked. “I did know that Llaimos was advanced for his age, but I was assured he was healthy.”
Kryslie blurted, “He needs more than we are giving him. May I suggest an idea?”
“I would be interested to hear it,” Tymoros invited.
“His mind is more advanced than his body, and although Tanya talks to him and tells him things, she can’t keep it up for every hour of the day. Could you talk to the people who teach the youngest children and have them make recordings with voice and pictures – to teach him words, ideas, concepts and suited for c
hildren of two to seven. Then have it played in his vicinity all the time. Even some of the nursery stories like Stenn used for the figure box would be good.”
“He might absorb the information like we did when we were in the small lyceum,” Tymos explained. “And I would like to add another suggestion. Have one of the medics that specialise in massage and tactile therapies – try them on Llaimos. The massage will help with his growing pains and they might also help prepare him to master gross motor skills.”
Tanya straightened from her husband’s embrace. “I feel so helpless…”
“I know that feeling,” Kryslie sighed. “It is like when you want to go out and fix all the world’s problems and get told by short tempered instructors that we can’t do everything and we should concentrate on learning and leave the doing to those already trained and experienced.”
“But what else can I do?” Tanya pleaded.
“Simple,” Tymos said with a smile. “You can give Llaimos your unconditional devotion. He needs it.”
“But you two always know how to calm him,” Tanya protested.
“It takes two to know one,” Kryslie smiled down at Llaimos. “He is racing to grow up and we are being shoved at high speed to learn things and master skills and use our thought processes more efficiently.”
“Because he is the third,” Tanya repeated what Kryslie had said earlier.
Kryslie glanced up in time to see Tymoros nod slightly, as if he now understood something. She went on to say, “Llaimos needs you because we can’t be around except to dance attendance on him at night.” She decided to suggest, “Father, why don’t you take Tanya somewhere for a quiet, relaxing cup of herbal tea and leave Llaimos to us. He is due for a feed and change, and his bath is ready.”
Tymoros nodded, but said, “When you are done, I will have a word with both of you.”
He saw two nods of agreement, and turned, urging Tanya to come with him.
Tanya, when she returned, had regained her normal serenity. She went to Tymos and Kryslie and gave each of them a hug of thanks, and then went to look in on the sated and sleeping Llaimos.
Tymoros gestured for his children to follow him to his sanctum.
Kryslie chose to sit cross-legged on the floor in front of her father’s favourite seat. Tymos crouched beside his sister.
“What do you know about us, that you haven’t told us?” Kryslie demanded.
Tymoros didn’t answer the question. “What have you noticed that makes you ask?”
“The look on your face when Tanya blurted out what I said earlier – about Llaimos being the third.”
“Don’t you know what you meant?” was the reply.
“No, it was like I knew something, but had forgotten all but that. It meant something to you, didn’t it?”
“Both of you are developing fast, too,” Tymoros admitted.
It wasn’t the answer that Kryslie was expecting. She recalled a comment that Stenn had made to Tymos that he had later told her. “It certainly doesn’t feel like it. Everyone is pushing us. As if we haven’t a hope in hell of reaching level delta in time to go with you next week. But Stenn thinks we are so far ahead of him that he will never catch up. He says we are better at physical skills than the level alpha students.”
“Your young friend has again proved his acuity. But you need to understand that your power is very strong, much stronger than other children of your age and rank.”
“We haven’t met Stenn’s oldest brothers or Denlic’s,” Tymos remarked. “But I thought that because we were your heirs, that our degree of power wasn’t unusual.”
“But that’s not it,” Kryslie said, considering what she saw in her foster father’s face. “We are a lot stronger, aren’t we?”
“Yes, you are and perhaps I need to explain that the business of reaching level delta is not just reaching an arbitrary level of education. It is reaching the point where you have your power fully under your conscious control. What do you think that means in terms of your strength of power?”
Tymoros was pleased that they thought about the answer before replying.
Tymos remarked, “It means we have to be tested at a higher and harder standard.”
“Yes, that is exactly right.”
“But if we are tested against the level alpha students, wouldn’t that mean we would be past that level?” Kryslie asked.
“Perhaps you will understand when I point out that the levels above level delta are aimed at taking our students as far as we can to show them the peak of their potential, and to broaden their knowledge and skills further. As for both of you, we are not even close to seeing your full potential.”
Neither Tymos nor Kryslie knew what to say.
“Although it seems that you are beyond level alpha in skills, we are finding you are capable of learning at a tremendous rate – as fast as we can challenge you. Yes, we are pushing you harder and faster – but you are able to sustain whatever we have demanded of you. We have not yet found your limit.”
“I can’t really comprehend what you are saying,” Kryslie admitted.
Tymos blurted, “What do you and everyone expect of us? If we know so much now, surely we could be going out and helping with the problems or finding those who are causing them.”
“Powerful you may be,” Tymoros changed his tone to his ‘official’ voice, that they knew meant they had to heed his words. “But you are yet neither at level delta, nor officially adult. Your duty now, is to learn and practice your skills, and prove you have mastered your power. Until then, all other occupations are moot.”
“And then?” Kryslie challenged.
“And then, you will still only be two people without the hands on experience to solve the problems. It is more efficient to let the people already trained to handle problems do their work.”
“What if there is a situation that no one can handle?” Tymos added his challenge.
“If you must act, you will know. Until then, keep your minds open and don’t confine yourself to a restricted range of options. It might well be, that the Guardians will speak to you,” Tymoros advised them. “Do not be in a rush to act.”
“So, we have to stay safe?” Tymos mused aloud. “Like some kind of reserve weapon.”
“And you have been playing down our ability?” Kryslie asked.
“That is how it will be for a time,” Tymoros told her.
“I guess I see the sense in that,” Kryslie admitted, relieving her father of one anxiety. “Those aliens, if they try for us again, will think we are still children and underestimate us.”
“We do not intend for them to get close enough to you to take you. However, be warned – I do not underestimate you. If you have the sense of needing to do something – come to me first.”
Tymos and Kryslie exchanged glances. Tymos spoke for both of them. “We will – if we can.”
Tymoros merely nodded, and said, “You can expect the formal testing for level delta to begin tomorrow. I suggest you make the most of your time this afternoon.”