The
elf and the human had been waiting outside the Proconsul’s office for twenty
minutes. They were both getting restless, but they expressed their feelings in
different ways. The taller elf shuffled, hopped and flexed, as if she were
preparing for a running race, while the slightly shorter human moaned on.
‘Why didn’t she ask us to come thirty minutes
later if she knew she going to be this busy?’
Potentilla stopped fidgeting, just for a
second, to consider this. She shrugged and shook her head.
‘Yes, she should have done that, I suppose’,
she responded, smiling, ‘I’m sure that she’ll be here in a moment’
‘Are you? I’m not’
Potentilla started to drum a repetitive, but
not particularly stable, rhythm on the wall beside where they were
standing. She didn’t seem to think that
Kath’s comments required a response.
‘Where’s Vee? I bet she’s already in there. I
bet she knows what Marthian had decided already’
Potentilla continued drumming until Kath
stared sharply at her.
‘Sorry, Kath’ said Potentilla, ‘What was
that? I wasn’t really listening properly’
‘Why can’t you concentrate?’
Potentilla widened her eyes and put her hand
on her cheek. She looked at Kath rather gravely.
‘Because I’m excited’
‘Excited? Why?’
‘We’ll be off soon and I’ll be able to show
you and Vee the west. You’re going to absolutely love it!’
‘What about the huge wall that’s bang in the
middle of the road we have to take in order to get to the west?’
‘Oh, we’ll find a way through that, or round
it… or maybe over it… Anyway, I’m sure that we will’
‘What about the enemies on the way? Remnant
Tlaxacans, Elves from Portalis, really big wolves…’
‘We’ll travel in a substantial convoy, at
least a hundred troops, I’d say – Marthian wouldn’t send us unguarded, I’m sure
and she’ll want to provide an impressive military presence for the Emperor’
Kath shook her head to free herself from this
snowstorm of optimism. She should have known that she’d be unable to get her
friend to join in with her grumbles. She had to be satisfied with adopting a
particularly irritated frown and holding it.
Five
minutes later a young female elf that they didn’t recognise opened the door to
the proconsul’s office. She smiled and gestured them in. She was dressed in
Ortian military uniform.
‘You must be Lieutenant Potentilla and Dr
Fielding’ she said.
They both nodded.
‘Please come in’ said the unknown soldier,
opening the door fully.
They walked into Marthian’s office. Kath
noticed, with mild irritation, that, indeed, Captain Viola was in the room already
and obviously deep in conversation with the proconsul across Marthian’s big oak
table.
Marthian smiled broadly and stood up as they
entered.
‘You’re both very welcome’ she said, ‘I hope
that you haven’t had to wait too long?’
Kath’s irritation immediately dissolved now
that she had finally got into the room. Both she and Potentilla made noises
that indicated that they, really, hadn’t been waiting very long at all.
Marthian glanced across the room, assessing
who was now present. She gestured with her hands for everyone to sit down
around the table. As they did, she suddenly realised that she had done things
out of order and that they would probably have to get up again almost
immediately. Her gesture briefly reversed itself, so she looked like a choir mistress
encouraging her choir to sing louder, but she then gave up and just plonked
herself back into her large wooden chair.
‘I need to introduce you to my deputy
intelligence officer, Lieutenant Campanula’ she said, indicating the newcomer.
Kath and Potentilla made as if to rise to
greet Campanula. They had been sitting for not much more than a second.
‘No need to get up’ said Marthian, firmly,
‘you can just wave to each other’
All concerned raised a hand a fraction. The
moment subsided awkwardly.
Kath glanced at Viola, surreptitiously, and
they both smiled fleetingly. The
proconsul was very good at some things, but punctilio really wasn’t one of
them.
‘Anyway, Lieutenant Campanula was just
leaving’ Marthian waved her hand at Campanula, ‘she has a lot of tasks to
complete’
‘It’s been a pleasure to meet you all’ said
Campanula, as she excused herself and left the room.
They all waited for the lieutenant to leave
before resuming the conversation.
‘The lieutenant is my temporary replacement’
explained Viola.
Potentilla’s face lit up. She couldn’t resist
saying something to Marthian, even though strict military etiquette required
her to wait for the proconsul to ask her to speak.
‘Does that mean we’ll be going soon, ma’am?’
Marthian narrowed her eyes, briefly, as if
she was going to say something sharp to Potentilla, but then her face softened,
and she smiled.
‘One thing at a time, Lieutenant’
Potentilla flushed and looked down at her
knees. She mumbled something incomprehensible, which they all decided to treat
as an apology.
‘The reason why I have appointed Campanula,
as you all know, is because Captain Viola will be accompanying you…’ Marthian
nodded at Kath and Potentilla, ‘…accompanying you two, to Visnea, to make
contact with the Emperor’
‘I’m
sorry, proconsul’ she said, ‘I think that I distracted you from what you were
saying’
Marthian looked relieved and nodded at Kath.
‘No not at all’ she said, leaning forward and
returning to where she had been before.
‘General Aurelian and I have now made plans
for your journey. We have recruited a small force to accompany you of twelve
guards, picked from what is left of the mounted reconnaissance group; that is those
elves who patrol the outlying areas of the province’
Potentilla’s face fell. Kath shot her a look
that said, ‘I told you so…’, but without satisfaction.
Marthian couldn’t help but notice
Potentilla’s expression. She really hadn’t attempted to hide her feelings.
‘This must seem a very small force to you’
said Marthian, ‘but it really is all that the General is able to supply. We
have less than five hundred able bodied elves in the army at present, and so
the number we have committed is a relatively high proportion of our total
capacity’
Potentilla continued to look glum but she
nodded her agreement to Marthian anyway.
‘Maybe we’d be better off without the guards’
said Kath, ‘after all Rem and I got all the way from the wall to here without
any’
Kath still missed Rem painfully and often
wondered how he was doing. She hoped that every now and then he thought
about her too.
‘Well, you did get captured, of course…’ said
Viola
‘Yes, by you lot’ responded Kath, ‘and an
extra dozen soldiers on our side wouldn’t have made much difference then,
either. You had a bloody witch!’
‘Technically you were trespassing…’ pointed
out Viola, with a sudden edge in her voice.
‘That’s not fair and you know it!’ said Kath,
equally sharply
Marthian stood up from her chair and waved her
hand across the table in a cutting motion.
‘I won’t have friends arguing in my office’
she said, ‘and I’m not proposing to allow you to wander off back to West
Visneoria all on your own’
Viola and Kath both looked sheepish and shut
up.
‘We’ll all have to make do with what we’ve
got’ said the proconsul
She sat back down and sighed.
‘So’ she said ‘let’s make some plans’
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