Shadows in the Smoke - 9 - A Bad Decision

"The People's Republic of Itria is currently led by High Executor Asbjorn Sahlberg, who chairs the Central Committee. The Central Committee acts as his cabinet and it is through the Central Committee's executive powers that day to day governance takes place. Behind the Central Committee stands the National Assembly, which holds ultimate legislative authority in the name of the People. Every member of the National Assembly is elected, with every adult Citizen in good standing having an equal vote. The laws made by the National Assembly are watched over by the People's Courts and the Citizen Judges that operate them. Together these three pillars of government - executive, legislative and judicial - ensure that the will of the People from whom they derive their authority is made manifest."

The Struggle for Freedom by Bjarne Midthun

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Velxe ran his hand across his forehead. It was far too hot to be out in the middle of a plain at midday. Up ahead of them Count Hatami was standing between two rows of Republican soldiers, handing over credentials or something like that.

It was all rather tedious. The Republicans had been expecting them of course, but formalities had to be followed. He glanced over at Ester.

Like the rest of them she had taken the opportunity to dismount from her horse, although Velxe suspected that it was less to give the animal a break and more for her own benefit. Anyone who saw her attempting to ride would be unsurprised at that. He couldn't help a small, fond smile at the sight, he wasn't sure how she had even made it to Vass Karan in the first place. She must have looked so grumpy by the time she reached the city. A pity he had not known her then.

It would be another two weeks of travel to reach Nilrava and Velxe could hardly wait. Even with Ester for company, this overland travel was tedious. If it was not for the importance of the upcoming negotiations for his own House's interests, they would have sent a senior servant. As it was, he was honoured to be going. Perhaps it would have been better to have been honoured with something less tedious though.

He looked back at the group in front of him. Something was happening. The soldiers were mounting up and Count Hatami was returning. Excellent! They would be on their way, finally.

Ester was staring at the soldiers. Probably trying to work out whether they had any magic on them or something. She really was an odd girl.

Velxe smirked to himself as he looked away to make sure Ester didn't see. As he did, he caught Jaen's eye.

His erstwhile friend smirked back at him and Velxe's amusement drained away instantly. He had no idea what was wrong with Jaen. He'd never been like this with any of the other girls they had spent time with. Yet he seemed to have taken a strong and completely unwarranted dislike to Ester. It was ridiculous.

Velxe had told Jaen to stop it, but that seemed to have made little difference. He just kept on making digs at her and he had been getting worse. He seemed to be losing any sense of self-preservation and he was forcing Velxe into a difficult position.

Velxe sighed and looked down at his hands. He had been friends with Jaen since they were small children, but that seemed to be coming to an end. It was not fair. Why was he being made to choose between them? Not that the choice was in doubt, not with the way Jaen was acting, but he did not want to have to choose.

The last time they had spoken was when he had lost his temper after Jaen had insulted Ester yet again. He had already made his disapproval to Jaen clear, but the idiot had just told him he was infatuated with a peasant girl. It was ridiculous! Ester might have her rough edges, but anyone who mistook her for a peasant was blind. Also, he wasn't infatuated with her! She was just much better company than most girls, many men too.

He glanced sourly at Jaen and then pulled himself up and onto his horse. Perhaps Jaen would get over himself by the time they got to Nilrava.

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When they stopped to make camp later that afternoon, Velxe was watching Jorin set up his tent near Ester's. Of course she had just magicked hers up, a few words and it came together in seconds. It was almost enough to make him a little jealous. Maybe she was right that she didn't need a servant, although he was still fairly sure that she'd just forgotten to bring one, however much she insisted it was a choice.

"Ah, Lady Ester," Velxe frowned slightly at Jaen's voice and then deeper at the overly familiar form of address.

"My lord?" She was not even bothering to keep the coldness out of her tone.

"I see you have done a wonderful job of setting things up for yourself and all so spotlessly clean too. Well done." With a sigh, Velxe ran his hand through his hair. He was going to have to say something, what was the matter with Jaen?

"I was thinking, Lady Ester, since you are so skilled with magic that you can apply your expertise so well to replacing servants, might you be able to do me a favour and clean my clothing too? I expect you would be very good at it given your obvious abilities with menial work."

The murmur of conversation and work around them stopped dead for a moment. Velxe had to stop himself from filling the silence with cursing as he turned to face Jaen and Ester. A moment later sound returned as the servants were suddenly hurrying to deal with tasks somewhere else.

Velxe could admit that he was not always the most perceptive of people when it came to Ester, although he did try. But even he knew she was sensitive about her commonborn origins. His eyes were irresistibly drawn to hers. He wanted to say something, but good sense held his tongue. People were making such a show of not paying attention that it felt like half the delegation must be listening in. If he intervened now, he would just be undermining her.

For a moment Ester's face went blank and then she smiled sweetly. Perhaps more of a grimace than a smile, although Velxe doubted Jaen would be able to tell the difference.

"Of course, my lord, I shall collect your clothing before sundown. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

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Velxe could have cut the tension in the air with a knife, but Jaen seemed to be oblivious to it. He had thought his friend, former friend, was more sensible than that. For one horrible moment he thought the idiot might make some even more disgusting request but the man just smiled.

"You are most kind, Ester, I shall make sure to leave it out." Even the lack of an honorific did not trigger an explosion from Ester, but the way she held herself told him enough about her feelings. Why had she not told Jaen to go fuck himself?

As Ester stalked away, and the hum of conversation slowly resumed, Velxe sighed to himself and went after her. He would need to make sure that she was alright.

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The next morning as they prepared to leave, Velxe emerged from his tent, rubbing at his eyes. He had not slept well at all, half expecting to be woken up by Jaen's tent burning, possibly with the man still inside it. Certainly some kind of chaos or retaliation from Ester, especially after she had politely fobbed off his attempts to speak to her after Jaen's rudeness. However, nothing had happened.

Ester was sat on her horse, looking… He could not say she looked comfortable, she was certainly not much of a rider, but she looked vaguely pleased with herself. That was a relief, although he still needed to think about how he could help her escape from the consequences of her open submission to Jaen. Why had she not just refused and called him out for his rudeness?

He headed over to her. "Lady Ester, are you well? I wanted to speak to y…"

"Shhh." She cut him off and he realised she was looking towards where Jaen's tent were being taken down.

"But Lady E…"

"Shhh, I am watching." She definitely sounded pleased with herself, it was a little worrying in fact, but in lieu of having anything else to do, Velxe settled down to watch too. Had she done something last night?

A minute or so later, he was rewarded by Jaen coming storming angrily out from the throng of servants, slapping at himself. He looked utterly exhausted and there were red weals on his face. Velxe glanced up at Ester, who had a faint smile on her lips. So, it had not been fire…

A servant hurried forward, pulling Jaen's horse with him. The man went straight to mount it, but the moment he touched the horse it whinnied and reared, throwing him off and into the dirt.

Jaen swore as he picked himself up and tried to approach the horse again, only for it to dance away from him, trying to bite or kick if he got too close.

Their little contest continued for a few more seconds, with Jaen getting angrier and angrier until he turned away with a curse and went to look for another horse, slapping himself as he went.

"What under the Throne happened to him?" Ester's smile widened at Velxe's muttered question. Obviously she had done something, it did not take a genius to deduce that, but the question was what. He would ask her later, on the road when there were fewer people around.

A few minutes later, they were nearly ready to leave when Jaen came storming back. Now that he was closer Velxe could see numerous insects flying around him and red marks, presumably bites, all over his face. Being bitten by insects was part and parcel of being on the road, but the man looked like he'd slept in an ants nest and the insects were acting like he was covered in honey.

He didn't even look at Velxe, heading straight for Ester.

"You!" He pointed at her. "What the fuck did you do to me?!"

Ester did not reply, just grinned down at him from her horse. By then practically everybody had stopped what they were doing to watch the show.

"Every fucking insect is biting me and I have been thrown off three horses this morning."

"Really?" Her voice was a model of innocence, ruined by her open mirth. "I am terribly sorry to hear that. I shall be sure to clean your clothes extra carefully tonight, just leave them out for me and I shall be sure to deal with them with just as much care as last night's."

For a moment Velxe thought Jaen might show enough intelligence to back down, but instead he let his anger get the better of him, raising his voice even further.

"You're going to fucking well undo whatever it is you did, you peasant bitch, or things will go badly for you."

Ester's grin vanished like the wind.

"If you ever speak to me like that again, I will end you." The venom in her voice made Velxe want to take a step back. "You will call me Lady Mazar if you want to be able to ride a horse again this trip. If you can behave like a civilised subject of Her Eternal Majesty then in a day or two you will be back to normal. Otherwise…"

She did not bother to finish the threat, just staring down at Jaen.

With a shout of rage he grabbed for his sword and took a step forward. A moment later he froze. Velxe could not see anything, had not heard Ester speak any spell, but Jaen suddenly looked terrified, slowly going up onto tiptoes.

There was something pressing into his throat. Velxe couldn't see any physical object, but there was an indentation, like the point of a sword was pressed into it, and a tiny drop of blood welling from it.

"Think very carefully about your next words, my lord. I am sure you do not want to be seen as someone who would threaten a weak and vulnerable young woman who travels unaccompanied by any protectors." Velxe just about managed not to raise his eyebrows at that, "It would reflect badly on your character. Perhaps it would be best if you apologised and left me alone?"

It was not the best threat Velxe had heard, but he did not think Jaen had heard the slight quaver in her voice. The idiot stretched himself further from the ground, pushed by whatever she had at his throat and then took a tottering step back.

"Please accept my apologies Lady Mazar, I behaved inappropriately." He moved to scratch a welt, stopped himself and then turned and ran.

A few moments later their audience started to disperse, returning to preparing the camp for departure. Velxe let out a breath as a tension he hadn't realised was there started to fade. Above him, Ester sagged slightly in her saddle.

"That was nicely done, Lady Ester. Hopefully he will be less unpleasant now." He kept his voice down, no need for anyone else to hear. "I admit I had been a bit worried when you would not speak to me."

"No need to worry about me, Lord Velxe, I can look after myself." She hesitated, "but I do appreciate your concern. Thank you."

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Jaen sat fuming at the back of a cart, as far from the horses as possible, and did his best not to scratch his various itches. At least, now that they were moving, some of the insects had been left behind. Even better, the servants that would have ridden on the cart had made themselves scarce to avoid the insects that would not stop swarming around him, so he did not have the embarrassment of their stares.

What had that bitch been thinking, speaking to him like that? He would… he shivered as those cold, brown eyes flashed across his mind. He would do nothing. Not if he wanted to survive the trip. His father would hear about this though. House Nemsu was not to be trifled with.

"Still itching?" He looked over at Alain, who was riding beside the cart. His friend seemed altogether too amused by his predicament.

"That fucking bitch!" He knew she was too far away to hear, but he still had to resist the urge to look over his shoulder.

"Ha!" Alain seemed completely uninterested in his anger. "Get over yourself, you got lucky."

"Lucky?! She humiliated me in front of everyone and threatened me. I am having to ride on a cart. Like a servant!"

"You publicly insulted a Mage, what did you expect?"

"For the other nobleborn to back me up." Metli had been insistent that she would be hated by all of them within days. "If she did not want to deal with my laundry she should have said."

"Come on now. You challenged her in front of the whole delegation. That is more akin to suicide than murder. Of course she chose to punish you for it. If anything, the others think she was unusually generous to you." The amusement vanished from Alain's voice. "You know, quite a few people say she is an Inquisitor."

Jaen ignored the shot of ice that went through his veins at the idea. It was simply too preposterous to consider. "There is no way that girl is an Inquisitor. People believe the most ridiculous things, I mean, look at her!"

Alain shrugged. "Well she would not be a very good Inquisitor if she looked like one, would she? Anyway, I hope it all wears off soon, but next time you are going to upset a Mage, particularly one who might be an Inquisitor, please do warn me so that I can make myself scarce."

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