Ancient Kings (The Young Ancients) Read Online Free PDF Page B

her stiffen, as if he was slighting her in familial affection. He didn't know how to explain that part exactly, but Timon didn't wait for him to do it, so at least there was that.
    "We just found out that Queen Constance is, for all intents and purposes your half sister. Ancient plotting it seems, since Lairdgren never had sex with her mother. My guess is Gray, but it could be anyone. Princess Veronica is his daughter too. Or possibly Tor's. He's slept with both of them, so you can see how that might be a little... difficult for him to adapt to. Not as bad for the rest of us, but for him, and them, it's pretty harsh. Especially him. Those two are nobles." There wasn't any sense of teasing in the words, which was nice enough of him. It was good ammunition, if he wanted to needle his older brother. Maybe he was just saving it for later? Or possibly he was a better person than Tor thought?
    Terlee spoke first her head tilted.
    "That's not so bad." She was looking at Alphonse when she said it, her head tilted slightly to one side. The Prince smiled and bowed to her.
    "Not that big of a deal for most of us. Nothing to fret over at least. Timon felt you should all know however, just in case things came up in the future. No one should date Varley for instance and Lauralie might want to avoid doing too much with my mother." There was a hesitation then, since Laurie made a face.
    "No one could have told me that when we were in school together? Well, no harm done I suppose."
    Thanks to a nice deep trance state Tor managed not to respond to that bit of information. He'd suspected it in the past, but really, parents weren't supposed to have ever had sex. Evidence to the contrary or not. After a few moments he changed the subject. People might need to have the information, but they didn't have to sit for hours dwelling on it, did they? Not in front of him at least.
    "So... Alphonse is staying with me up at the school, so that we can be there for Tiera. You've heard about that?" It occurred to him that he'd been too busy avoiding things to ensure that information had been passed along. That was Timon's job, he decided right then. He'd have to tell him about that later though.
    Terlee looked baffled, but their mother seemed a bit tense rather than anything else.
    "We've heard of a death at the school, but only that it was a first year, and not Tiera. She didn't kill someone, did she?" There was an edge to the words, a slight stiffening of the mouth, like she expected to hear the worst on the topic.
    Tor shook his head.
    "No... It was Sandra Morris. She was trying to, well, hurt Tiera isn't really right. From what we got from her under Truth verification she was really just trying to trip her, basically. She used an explosive weapon, aimed at the ground, but she isn't that good at it and... The girl that was killed, Regina Helmsley, she was Tiera's very good friend." Tor knew that the kids might miss that reference, but Terlee got it, from the way her eyes opened wide and so did their mother.
    "I... Why wasn't I told of this?" She got to her feet, her clothes changing from a nice and rather rich looking dress of multiple brown shades to a flying outfit, that had a silk shirt in a nice dark green and leather trousers. Magical clothing. It was what everyone in the room was wearing, even though it was pretty expensive to get hold of for most people still. She started scrambling for her flying rig, which she put on carefully, having it in a side pocket that he hadn't noticed at all.
    "I'll go at once, Tamerlane dear, will you see to the meal for me? Make my excuses. I... This is unforgivable." At least the glaring was going at Tor instead of his brother. There was no particular reason for the two of them to have bad blood between them, was there?
     Tim waved her back down and kept doing it until she actually sat, which happened with a weary thump.
    " No . Tor and I are going to go get her for the party. I wasn't invited either. Probably because