Slave Line (The Young Ancients) Read Online Free Page B

wealthy could afford it at first, but that just means that their wealth has a chance of going back into the population. Especially if some of your employees live in each part of the world."
    They chatted like that while everyone ate, which took about half an hour. Most of the people there didn't have a lot to do until they left, so they had no reason to hurry. Tor didn't either, but most of the Lairdgren group did, his meeting. He paced a bit, trying to keep from stiffening up totally as he waited, finally heading out to the sitting room where the get-together was to be held when it got close enough in time to not look lazy for sitting down. It was empty inside when he got there, but the room was bigger now than it had been last time he'd been in it, two days before. Touching the wall he focused on having the house produce some nice brown sofas. They popped into place, just appearing as if he'd blinked and they'd always been there.
    They came out seeming like leather, which was nice enough, but not that comfortable. He changed the four huge things to being covered with soft cloth for comfort. It wasn't real at all, obviously, it just looked and felt like it, but there was no reason not to make it as nice as possible. It wasn't like it would wear out, so using soft cloth that was slightly fuzzy wasn't a problem.
    Then, knowing it might be a while, he slowly settled onto one of them, his back to the wall, looking at the door. He settled in to wait, deciding to meditate for a while, figuring that no one would come in until just before the meeting time. People had food to finish after all. That proved to be wrong when Ali, his wife, and their girlfriend Trice came in.
    "Husband! I slept in, I hope that's not..." Whatever it wasn't he didn't find out, because she started kissing him about then, leaning in to do it, then sliding in alongside of him. Trice stood back, smirking at them for a minute. Except it wasn't really a smirk, he remembered, that was just her happy face. He'd read it in her field before, so didn't need to bother trying to do it now, just trusting it was the same. Her hair was still two colors, white blond at the edges with deep brown showing about four inches at the bottom. It would probably work pretty well in Austra, where things like that were considered normal.
    Ali who was younger, and a natural blond, dimpled at him and gestured for Trice to move in on the other side.
    She didn't hesitate, but waiting wasn't her long suit most days. She proved that by patting him on the arm with her left hand.
    "So... Are we going with you to Austra or not?" Blunt, but that was her all over.
    The thing there was that Tor just didn't know. He really didn't think they should go particularly, but having another person along that could fly a Fast Carriage wouldn't be a bad idea and Trice had her own that she carried with her everywhere. Ali... was his wife. It didn't feel right leaving her on alone for who knows how long. If it was just the trip to Austra, he'd have probably said no, just delivering the spies and coming back inside a week or so. It wasn't that simple though.
    There was a meeting of Ancients, a summit, that he was supposed to go to though, along with the other immortal members of his family. Where they even allowed to bring guests? Then again, if the girls wanted to go to Austra with him, they could always fly back from there if it wasn't OK to go on to Vagus with the rest of them. He'd have to check with Burks on that one. Or Denno. Whichever he saw first.
    "Sure? For the first bit at least. After that I don't know what the plan is really. I do get the idea that these summit things can take a while. Sometimes months or even years. If that's the case I'm just coming back after a few weeks. There are limits to my enthusiasm." He winked at each of them though, as if it were a thing, rather than him just not knowing what to expect.
    "Goodie." Ali spoke quickly, her voice mellow and slightly relaxed.
    "Maybe Petra