Aurelian
leant on Perclivius’s old staff. He was inspecting his expeditionary force and it
was, well, to be honest, disappointing. After much haggling, Marthian had
agreed to allow a guard of ten elves for Viola, Potentilla and Kath. That made
twelve combatants and one civilian. Both of them knew that this wasn’t enough,
but neither the proconsul nor her general was willing to send no-one. So, this
was the uneasy compromise – ten young, relatively inexperienced, fit young
elves, almost none of whom had been more than a few miles outside Ortia. They
had considered sending one of the very few elves that remained who had been to
Visnea, but they were all either too old or too fat, and many of them were
both.
The party stood to attention in the courtyard
in front of the barracks. Viola stood next to Aurelian, silent but tense. It was time to pass command to the Captain
and prepare for departure. Kath and
Potentilla had not been invited to this little ceremony, and neither had
Marthian. This was between the two Ortian officers.
‘Captain – this is Lieutenant Sedum, he will
be your second in command’
Sedum stepped out of the ranks and bowed to
Viola. He was tall for an elf and well-built, with the brown skin that
indicated that he, like Potentilla, was from the desert fringe.
Viola nodded gravely, as was traditional when
acknowledging a subordinate in the Visneorian army.
‘I have asked the lieutenant to accompany you
because he was brought up in the far south and knows the arid ways well’ said
Aurelian
Sedum smiled but said nothing and stepped
back into line. Viola thought that he looked like a stickler for the rules.
The general gestured towards another elf.
‘And this is Corporal Ajuga’
A very thin and very young looking elf maiden
smiled and bowed, this time a lot more loosely than the lieutenant had done.
‘I am pleased to serve, Ma’am’ she said.
Viola nodded formally at her. She seemed very
eager.
‘She has just been promoted, after her steadfast
and courageous actions during the siege’
‘That’s very good ’said Viola, ‘many
congratulations on your promotion, Corporal’
Ajuga
bowed, her face slightly flushed.
Viola sighed. As far as she could see Ajuga
was the eldest of the scarcely grown troops that Aurelian wanted to put under
her command. However, there was nothing
she could do about it – however full of fears and uncertainty she might be she
had to take her responsibilities as the most experienced soldier among them.
This was ironic – four months ago she had never lifted a sword in anger, and
now… It was best not to dwell on it too much – she really just needed to get on
with it.
‘Thank you, sir’ Viola said, ‘I hope to be
ready to go by this time tomorrow afternoon. We just have a few logistical
problems to sort out’
Aurelian looked slightly puzzled. They had
been planning this for weeks.
‘What logistical problems are they Captain?
Maybe I can help you with them?’
Viola frowned.
‘Kath, sir – that’s the logistical problem.
I’m not sure there’s much you can do to help us there’
Potentilla
had been banging on her door for the last ten minutes. Kath’s response to this
persistence had been to get more and more irritated, but she should have
realised that however colourful her language that she would never put off
Potentilla.
Eventually Kath opened the door, her face red
and puffy.
‘What is it that you want?’
Potentilla considered this more carefully
than she normally considered things.
‘Viola asked me to check how you were.’
Kath scowled.
‘Tell her I’m not going’
Potentilla smiled.
‘Going where?’
‘All the way to Visnea’
Potentilla’s grin broadened, but she looked
slightly uncertain.
‘Of course you are, Kath. We’re all going.
Haven’t you been listening during those long talks with the proconsul?’
Kath’s glare became malevolent. Potentilla
barely noticed.
‘I’m not going without a proper guide or any
sort of real protection’
Potentilla’s smile shrunk and her forehead
furrowed.
‘Well, that’s silly talk coming from someone
who just destroyed a god! In comparison to that this is going to be a cake walk.’
‘I didn’t destroy Whitecloak – Quiena’s
automaton did that. I just sat on it’
‘That’s also silly – you found it, you fixed
it and you rode it. You were fantastic!’
Kath sighed and shook her head wearily.
‘That was a once in a lifetime experience.
Now I think it best if I just go home. I can hitch a ride on a merchant’s cart
up to Amansk and then go on north up to Eth’
Potentilla shook her head.
‘That’ll take months, Kath’
‘I’m in no hurry’
‘But we don’t have that much time. The
proconsul is keen to get to the Emperor as soon as possible. I thought you knew
that?’
Kath’s face softened. It took such a long
time to explain to Potentilla anything that she really didn’t want to believe.
‘I’m not coming with you. That’s what I mean,
Tillie. I don’t think it’s safe and I want to go home’
She hugged Potentilla, which was always
slightly discomforting, as the elf was quite muscular but very thin.
Potentilla pulled herself away and stared
into Kath’s eyes, trying to assess, in her rudimentary way, if her friend was
being honest. She looked astonished, and
gulped.
‘No! You can’t mean that, surely. We can’t go
without you’
‘Tillie, you’ll have to. I think my nerve has
failed. I’m no adventurer. Anyway, I’m just a passenger among all of you
soldiers’
Kath realised that Potentilla’s eyes had gone
suddenly bleary. Her heart sank and she felt that she was the worst person in
the world – like she was kicking an eager puppy.
‘No you’re not – you’re Kath – that’s why
we’re all here. We’re here to help you’
‘What? That’s nonsense – you’re an imperial
soldier. You were accompanying me, protecting me, perhaps…’
‘How is that different?’ asked Potentilla.
She rubbed her eyes with her left hand.
‘It is to me. Anyway, I’ve made my mind up –
I’m not going’
Kath gently closed the door in Potentilla’s
face.
Marthian blamed Viola. They were in Marthian’s office and she was very unhappy. Viola had been in there for ten minutes and she still hadn’t been invited to sit down. Marthian was sitting at her desk with a sheet of mail paper in front of her. Every now and then she’d scribble something on a separate piece of rough paper before repeatedly deciding not to commit it to the magical paper.
‘Why haven’t you sorted this out?’ she asked,
staring up at her with narrowed eyes.
Viola said nothing, for the time being. She
knew that now was not the time to try self-justification.
‘For a start’ continued Marthian, ‘why don’t
you keep that damn fool western elf out of it. She’s about the bravest complete
idiot I’ve ever seen’
Viola couldn’t let this pass.
‘Ma’am, you really think you are being a
little unfair. This has nothing to do with Lieutenant Potentilla’
‘Possibly – but she’s no diplomat, and this
needs to be handled exceptionally carefully’
‘I’m trying my best, Proconsul’
‘Are you? I don’t see much sign of that. We
really need her to go with you, I’m sure you know that. She may be vital for
showing that the City is valued by humans and northern academia; and – she’s
the reason that there’s a story at all…’
Viola frowned. This seemed to her to be
rather missing the main point.
‘More pressingly’ Viola said, ‘I’m not sure
how we’ll get through the Wall without her’
‘Surely that’s not an insurmountable problem,
is it?’ said Marthian, ‘the Lieutenant went round it before, didn’t she?’
Viola’s frown developed into a scowl and she
began to shake her head. She felt suddenly very weary and her hurt leg, which
was mostly healed, had begun to throb. Marthian saw the sudden change in her
face and reacted immediately.
‘Sit down, my dear Viola – why on earth are
you still standing up?’
Viola sat down gratefully. Marthian scanned
her face again, but now seemed happy with what she saw.
‘Anyway – can’t you go round the wall, like I
said?’
Viola shook her head again.
‘To the south it may be very difficult. There
may still be threats from Tlaxaca and if we run into the nomads who helped
Potentilla and Fred, then we’d have to explain how we managed to get their
prince killed’
‘Yes, true, I suppose; the last thing we want
is to make enemies of any Algharian tribes’
‘As
for going north – that means travelling next to Portalis, and I’m certain we
don’t have the military might to get past there’
Marthian nodded grimly. Viola continued.
‘My view is that our best bet is to travel
south of the Great Western Road, just as Rem did and make for the same portal
that Kath got through. We now know that Kath can use the rod to control the
portal guardians, as they were designed by Ophia’
‘And if that doesn’t work?’ asked Marthian
‘Then I
suppose we can try going north, hugging the eastern side of the wall, and hope
to sneak past the Portalis patrols, but that has to be very much a final resort’
Marthian put her quill down.
‘We’re agreed then. Kath has to go with you to
get you through the Wall and you’re the best placed to persuade her. I could
try to put pressure on her, but she sees
me as an authority figure – and I sense that she doesn’t really like authority
figures…’
‘Why does that make me best placed to
persuade her, ma’am?’
‘Because you’re her friend and because you’ve
been through so much together’
Viola knew that she wouldn’t be able to
wriggle out of this responsibility, but she was temporarily at a loss. She
looked down at the white mail paper.
‘Were you going to write to Mr Ismay, ma’am?’
Marthian smiled slightly coyly and shook her
head almost apologetically.
‘Actually, no, I was going to write to Mr
Hardacre’
It was Viola’s turn to smile.
‘Of course, ma’am – I would do the same’
Viola sat in silence for a moment, thinking
of the tall, greying, courteously reserved human and how he had led them so
reluctantly and so well. She could do
the reluctant bit without much trouble, but the other bits she really wasn’t
sure about.
‘I wish that I had half of Mr Hardacre’s
personal abilities’ continued Viola, ‘then I’d know what do about Kath’
‘We’ll, don’t look at me’ said Marthian, ‘I
can’t compete. I don’t pretend to have any more than the very rudiments of
leadership skills, Captain’
‘He was
good at it…’ murmured Viola, ‘I can remember when Rem was insistent that he
would leave the group, just before we got to Melloreis, and Laurence
pretended…’
She broke off suddenly.
‘I’ve just had an idea’
Marthian looked up eagerly from her reverie.
‘Yes?’
‘I need to go and talk to Potentilla’
Marthian’s face darkened again.
‘We’ve discussed her. How on earth will that help?’
‘I need to teach her all about amicable
contracts’
No comments:
Post a Comment