Free Slave Line (The Young Ancients) by P.S. Power

looking, but Tor still felt bad for her. He was just about to give her his own anyway, even if it did have a few extra things on the same device, when Lyn walked over holding up an amulet on hemp string. It was in his style, on focus stone with a glowing sigil, not hers which was normally done on metal still.
    "I grabbed some extra from the box earlier on the way past. Actually I got some of almost everything. Here you go." She handed the string to Tor, who smiled and tried it to the Ambassador. Her face went fixed though, instead of happy, and she glanced at the King as if not sure what to do.
    Tor blinked.
    "It's just for the heat. Nothing major or anything. We all have them, most of us do at least. It isn't dangerous or anything."
    The woman still looked flustered and tense, almost as if she didn't know what to say. Tor didn't get it, but a familiar voice came from behind him, getting him to spin in place to look at the man. Burks Green. His grandfather.
    He looked his normal age of about thirty or so, which was about as old as he could manage. It was handy in a way, since it made him look slightly different than Tor did. Otherwise they could pass for twins, except Burks was a little taller than he was and wore all green. It was his favorite color after all.
    "I believe the difficulty here is that the Ambassador is worried you might be trying to bribe her. That amulet is worth several hundred golds. More now that Miss Smalls had to close her local shop. To get around that you should hand it off to Ricky and let him give it where he sees fit." The man looked pleasant, but wasn't smiling at all.
    The King winced, but didn't mention why. Tor knew that one though, from very nearly the first time he met the man. He hated being called "Ricky" since that rhymed a bit too well with "icky" and had been used to tease him as a child. Since he would have been a prince at the time, Tor kind of figured that the one using that most often had been his younger brother who didn't seem to be overly disposed to be kind to the man. It was a little odd. Tor got along with all his brothers and sisters after all.
    "Rich or Richard please. He doesn't like to be called Ricky or Rick." Tor made his voice firm and stared at the Ancient, wondering if he already knew that and had been needling the King anyway. If so he didn't respond to being called on it at all, except to look surprised and turn his attention to the man himself.
    "Sorry, didn't realize that. Well then, Rich it is from now on."
    Everyone else was staring at them about that time, which got Tor to hand over the amulet, wondering what would happen if the monarch just tucked it in a pocket. That would be awkward. Kind of funny though. Tor smiled about it and nodded at the device in the giants hand.
    "Gift for you then, to do with as you please." He waved at it, but didn't look at the poor woman trying to melt next to them.
    Rich didn't make her wait though, or pretend the situation was anything but what it was, handing it over directly with a small bow. The woman was decently tall, about six-ten or so, but the Monarch towered over her anyway.
    "Ah, these really are wonderful Samantha, please, take this one as a gift. Also, for the duration of this mission, please assume that any magics given to you by Master Tor or the Lairdgren group are part of your upkeep. Otherwise things won't run as smoothly." He turned to Tor and winked.
    "That means if you really want to bribe her it will have to be using gold or sex." Everyone laughed at that as if it were funny.
    It really just reminded him that he was too worn and hurt for sex at the moment. Gold then, if it came to it. He'd have to remember to pack some extra along with him just in case. Not that he wouldn't anyway. Of course if they were going to buy things in Austra they'd need currency from there, which was all either on paper or kept as a credit record, whatever that was. The same with Vagus, except that was animal pelts and horses. They