Kingdom of Stars (The Young Ancients: Timon Book Three) Read Online Free

people stopped occasionally to look at them. It was a bit annoying, but one
of the boys that stopped about them looked a little familiar, his thin frame
looking slightly more gawky as he stretched a little more, growing fast, like
nobles did. He needed a haircut, but otherwise seemed to be in good health.
Wallace, Timon recalled.
    Timon
waved, and got one back, which was noticed by Bethany, who cringed a little.
    "Fucking
traitor." She blanched a bit and looked at Timon hard. "A friend of
yours? Or, a relative?"
    "Customer.
Or, well, his father has been in the past. I run the kingdom's Fast Transport
Service? Well, I own it at least. Right now my wife, Patricia, is running it. You know, since I'm here." Plus business had been a little slow. It
was picking up at least, as the rebellion limped along.
    That got
several of the people to stop and look at him, and it wasn't with doubt or even
shock this time. Karl let his laugh rumble as he saw it happen, and moved
closer to them.
    "All
right everyone, just because our new class mate has a Fast Carriage, that
doesn't mean that you all get free trips everywhere. Just me, Bethany and Mindy
here." He said it with a straight face, as if it actually had been agreed
upon already, which got Timon to chuckle.
    "If
you want free trips, get with Karl." Tim tilted his head a tiny bit and
winked. "I'll lend you a craft for it. If you take paying work, you have
to stick to normal rates though. Accepting it means you work for me, by the
way, but so far no one has complained about it too much." It just meant
Timon still owned the craft and not be out competed too much.
    It was a
strange thing, but giving free rides had generated more business than anything
else so far. Once people got used to getting places fast, they really didn't
want to go back to the old ways and take weeks or months to do it anymore.
    His
words though, got a laugh, which was a good natured one, and from just about
everyone in the area, including Karl. Who rubbed at his shaggy red hair and
sighed.
    "Ah,
that would be nice, now wouldn't it?" Then he acted as if it hadn't been a
real offer, but just light teasing. Timon thought he got the idea. The man
wasn't stupid, but taking that kind of a deal, while in public, might make it
seem like he could be bought. Petra had just named him her assistant, which
would mean that some of the students might want him to be on their side, so
they wouldn't have to work as hard. Given the pain that Tim had gotten from him
earlier, it seemed like a good idea to him, come to think of it. Maybe he'd
take one in private? Or something else. A shield, perhaps? Everyone should have
one of those.
    That of
course, would both be useful and probably something that Petra was going to
insist on for everyone. That and flying rigs. If he were older, and not her
friend, Timon would have at least insisted that she sleep with him for that
sort of thing. As it was he didn't actually want to do that with her. She was
just a bit on the large side for that. He'd done some things with his wife,
since it was kind of required by law, and she wasn't all that large herself,
but Petra...
    Well,
they could work out something else. It was nice to be paid for his work, and he
didn't have so much gold that a little more wouldn't be a good thing, but Pet
was just drawing her allowance from home, and whatever Countess Printer was
paying her to teach. It wasn't going to be near enough to outfit her entire
fighting section in the same fashion that the Lairdgren school was. They didn't
even have real practice weapons yet. Not magical ones.
    Timon
shook himself a bit and smiled, "well, I'm sure we can work out a special
rate for the students here. Anyway, what's next?" They had an hour left
and Karl decided that showing off how good he was at teaching was a plan, which
meant trying to instantly transform Tim into a hardened warrior, it seemed.
Thankfully he did most of this by going over the suggestions that they'd gotten
earlier,