I woke up next to the elven prince. It was surprising I had fallen asleep but with the poisoning and then other exercise I had grown tired. Though not as tired as I had made the prince it seemed. He was still asleep which was a good thing seeing as how he would most likely need more sleep than I tend to get to function. I wished I could just stay here, as I watched him sleep, but we both had jobs to do. With a sigh I rolled out of the warm bed. Clearly the shield had been working while we slept.
The room had changed, there was no mess. No tossed clothes, no missing sheets, no smell, it was almost disconcerting. If I hadn't been able to talk to the shield I might have panicked about my clothes not being were I had left them this time. I was careful not to wake Theon as I walked around.
I still couldn't stop myself from sighing when I found what the shield had done to my uniform. "About time you got a new uniform don't you think?"
Theon had woken and was watching me. He hadn't moved enough to get my attention before he spoke. I think I did a good job hiding my surprise, "We don't all have a prince's advantages. With having to pay to replace my armor I don't have extra money for uniforms."
The prince frowned, rolled over, knocking the blankets off himself and tucked his pillow under him a little more to be able to see me better. After he laced his fingers behind his head showing off his well worked body confidently. "What do you spend money on, my Des? You don't have to eat, well anything you don't catch yourself. I have never seen you buy anything. Your armor is serviceable but not amazing, your weapons are usually your crystal weapons. When you are studying a weapon you normally borrow or make yours. With the stiepens each weapon class should be paying you even on a vet soldier's pay you should have enough to buy one of the crystal mansions in the city interior."
"Yeah, right. I cannot even get people to call me master when they challenge me to a duel, I don't get anything for any of my crystal ranks. The masters of the army would prefer to forget I have them at all. I have never gotten more than the base pay for a soldier, which then has to cover my rent even though the elders won't kick me out. It has to cover food and other expenses which they charge the same for me as anyone else. I am lucky to be able to save a coin after a mission. If it weren't for master Adam letting me pick up work during my two or three days of free time every few months, I wouldn't even be able to afford the armor I wear. Though I think he is still mad at me for selling the last piece he gave me, but I had made it showy more than functional."
Theon frowned and I felt him get angry, "You have to be kidding! I am not going to let that continue. That is just wrong on so many levels! Is that why you never kept anything you made while you were learning different hammers?"
"That was a big part of it, Adam agreed to teach me and let me have the tools and materials so long as I made what he wanted so he could sell it. As long as I made something worth more than the materials required he would give me 50 percent of the profit. I could say if I hadn't learned those among the first I would be too broke to have learned the others."
I did not want to get dressed but I could feel the night slipping by and I didn't want to be late. So I started to dress with Theon obviously enjoying the show. I considered reminding him that I could read his mind but I thought it might actually make what he was thinking worse not better, since I could feel his awareness of me. I could also feel he was problem solving and that worried me a bit. He then looked to the side as the shield told him something, before looking back at me. "Was your wizard the only one brave enough to come get you?"
Pausing in admiring Theon I brought my attention to the shield. It was Shevren standing just outside the palace trying to convince the night guards to let him in. The guards had taken up a new policy on wizards, if they didn't know them and they didn't have orders to expect them they were not getting in.
"No, it is still too early for anyone from my unit to look for me and the only one that might care enough to find me before I am late is Ravon."
"Cryon, Avon and Bryon have all taken turns standing outside the apartment door after I got you to bed, after you were poisoned. I think that may have hurt their pride as guards. Then again everyone knows the royals are safe within the palace."
"Right, I was going to be mad at you about that but since I accepted your bond that might not be fair."
Theon raised an eyebrow at me and snorted, "You see neither of those are my fault. Mother posted the guards all on her own and god only knows how the bond truly works."
"The queen did?"
"Yes, I think she was hopeful you weren't going to run. My people would be mad at me if you died and it had appeared that they hadn't done anything to try and save you. Even if you are more qualified than your guards, by definition. Then again by reasonable definition you are more qualified than any person in the army, with me as a close second."
"If they get hurt following me around then I will have to have a few words with your mother." I tied my belt and stretched making sure the uniform moved with me.
Theon sighed and rolled out of bed finding his own clothes, "You probably shouldn't keep him waiting too much longer. Do try and come home at night, while you are here. I might feel neglected if you don't."
I couldn't help but laugh at his pout. It didn't last long as the shield got my attention. Ravon had approached the entry Shevren had been trying to use. It seemed she had vouched for him since they were now walking down the hall. "I will try but we both know how work can be. Even more so when I seem to be doing well."
I left before Theon could drag me into another conversation. I just stepped out of the royal apartments when Ravon found me. If I had wanted to, I could have avoided her and the other member of our unit by asking the shield to monitor them, but there wouldn't be much point right now.
Shevren looked surprised when he saw me exit the royal corridor. Ravon raised an eyebrow at him, "You had to have heard that prince Theon had declared her his bonded mate?"
"Well yes, but…"
"Nothing, he is the heir to the line of Von. The palace was built to take the bond into account, her being here proves his claim."
"The prince is one of the best officers in centuries. Do the elves think he would lie?"
"Not lie, just be wrong, and be careful how you choose to continue from there because at the time he first brought her here I was one of the ones most praying he was wrong."
I cleared my throat unnecessarily, "Which is no longer the case, sorry I keep seeming to pull you away."
"Oh, I needed a break, Trevon has been single minded on the task you gave him. I think not knowing a solid deadline has him driving hard. Don't give me that look, my lady. I think this goal, succeed or fail, will help him learn the new place he has found in my house."
"I can still feel bad about distracting him from you."
"Only if I get to feel bad about the army distracting you from Theon, my lady."
"You would first have to explain your responsibility."
Shevren seemed to jump as he thought of something. "Much as I would like to hear that, we have orders to report to the area at sunrise. If we are going to make it we need to hurry."
"We are scheduled to meet with our unit at sunrise?"
"Well, you still are I am sure, Ravon. Des and I have been given ranking orders from tower command to be at the arena at sunrise."
"Guess you better hurry then, Shevren, but seeing as how I don't answer to the tower, their orders don't outrank the asses."
Shevren paled a little at the thought which I found interesting, "Oh, no, hum, it took me over a day to even get someone to hear that I wanted arena time for our match. The masters took most of the next day before even asking what I wanted it for, when they did. Well, they got very angry and kept implying that the delay was my fault. I don't know what they are thinking but I am sure they will not be happy if you are late or no show only to report to an army unit."
If it wasn't unwizard like I think Shevren would have been wringing his hands. "Not my problem, Shevren. I will have a match with you if you can get arena time during time we don't have army duties or you get the ass to agree. The tower doesn't out rank the army. If the tower has a problem with that they can have an army arch officer order the change in placement. But without a signed and stamped written change of orders I am reporting to my unit as ordered."
"You are right they should have given me proper written orders if they wanted you to believe me."
"It's not that I don't believe you, Shevren. Your name is on my much too short list of wizards who I have worked with that I don't harbor an extreme dislike for. So I will give you this nugget to offer your masters since they probably chose not to speak to the masters that have dealings with the elves. A red wizard tried to kill me with darkroot mushrooms yesterday." Shevren is islee which means even if he wasn't a wizard he had been trained from a young age to recognize poisons so I wasn't surprised when understanding and shock ran across his face. "They made the attempt by providing the mushrooms to the main kitchen which feeds everyone who does work with the palace."
Ravon crossed her arms, "Geez, you seem to attract problems."
Shevren looked at Ravon like he forgot she was there. I could see his mind racing with all the problems and dangers such a trick would cause and his mind was having a hard time accepting anyone would do that just to kill one person no matter what they were. "It is one thing I excel at even at a young age, just ask my step parents, if you can find them. Let's give Shevren here time to get his mind around how that might have changed the relationship with the tower. We need to get moving to make rondevu anyway."
With a nod to both of them I stepped by them making a brisk pace for the main door. I now knew there were many other entrances and exits to the palace but it just didn't feel right to me to use any but the main door.
The two guards standing by the main doors bowed as they recognized me. Which was a little disconcerting I wasn't sure I liked people recognizing me or apparently respecting me. I wasn't sure how to respond so I didn't, I was going to have to remember to ask the prince if there was something I should have done.
I paused at the bottom of the stairs with a sigh. Ravon caught up to me with Shevren on her heels in moments. There were volumes of subtlety in Ravon's raised eyebrow.
"I could find my way out of the woods. My sense of direction is impeccable, but when one has a guide, one might as well use them."
Ravon snorted and waved Shevren away. He was going to have to run really hard if he was going to tell the tower what was happening in a reasonable amount of time. I followed Ravon through the woods until Shevren was out of sight and then for another two minutes to be sure before stopping short.
It was hard not to smile at the surprised look Ravon gave me, as she turned to see me looking up into one of the trees we had just passed. "Cryon, come on down here, there are some things I want to know."
Cryon gave a yip of surprise that if I hadn't already known her position would have given it away. When she was sure I was watching her she dropped down from the tree, "Guess I need more practice."
"My senses are sharper, it is much harder to sneak up on me. You were doing better at moving quietly at least compared to Avon and Bryon. I doubt that is saying much considering Bryon was knocking leaves that fell ahead of our path without any wind." Once Cryon hit the ground I started moving again, with Ravon now leading again.
Ravon seemed a bit more relaxed, Cryon did not, "What do you want to know?"
"Did Markus not tell you?"
Cryon blushed but it wasn't with embarrassment it was mostly anger, "He is so, so … a boy." I could almost laugh at how hard it had been for Cryon to settle on 'boy' as an insult but I could feel something was bothering her more then lack of insulting labels for the islee she had a one sided bond with. "I wish he was more like you. You completed the bond with Theon."
Now that I did snort at and so did Ravon but she had the excuse of navigating to keep from having to give her opinion. "After 20 some years of him being around for me, and watching me. Which when put that way is a bit stalker-ish. So probably not what you are going to want to do to get Markus' attention."
Cryon got a step closer in her pace, "You know what I should do?"
I rolled my eyes, "Markus is one of my friends, I might have some tips that will help. Does that mean the time you had in my apartment didn't go well?"
Cryon shrugged, "Mostly we talked, he had lots of questions mostly about you."
My heart skipped a beat, "You didn't answer him?" I had told her she could talk to him and he had heard but that didn't mean he listened when I said it.
"Well, I did answer him, he was your old unit commander after all. Everyone knows you polished him for that position."
I paused in walking. We were making good time and were almost out of the woods. We still have a while until sunrise. Facing Cryon I sighed, "I am sorry that is mostly my bad. Yes it is partly my fault he is now a veteran commander. Yes he does regularly call me general mostly when I am out of line giving him seeming orders. The problem is there are large parts of my life that he doesn't fully know. I manage to disappear often after all. So if you answered his questions you proved in his mind that you are a liability to me. Even though he was there when I said you were not. And if there is one thing I can say in favor of that player, once he makes up his mind he is loyal and nothing will change it." I paused thinking, "Knowing him he stormed out at some point while you were talking. What did you do?"
"Waited in confusion for a couple of hours. When I was sure he wasn't coming back I slept. Then I went home." Cryon shrugged as she talked watching me for a reaction.
"Not too bad then, after that you picked up a guard shift, then got a few more hours of sleep before waiting for me outside the palace."
"How did you know that?"
"Palace told me when any members of my unit were around. The shield keeps a closer track of people who carry weapons, all the guards carry weapons so I can ask it where any guard is and it will know. It was a neat feature to find while I was recovering."
"Wow that is scary, no wonder the royals have stayed in power."
I shrugged and started following Ravon again, we were outside the forest boundary in moments. "I see no way around it, I am going to have to talk to Markus. As for you, two things to remember when talking to Markus, he is a boy, and damn good army officer. He knows the people above him in the chain of command are out to get me for some reason. Now he knows a bit better why but he seemed to get over being mad at me pretty quick."
"I didn't think your standards for a good officer were that low."
"Hum, oh hell's no, I am probably more discerning than the normal evaluators. If Markus had not been a capable leader I would have let the army drum the whole unit out. Lucky me he was just an underutilized resource, and a player."
"Yet you feel our current commander is not an underutilized resource?"
"Isn't that what you told Markus?"
Cryon blushed a bit, "You haven't exactly hidden how you feel."
Cryon paused and looked around like she thought something was out of place but she couldn't pinpoint it. "No, I have not and I have yet to be disappointed with the ass's ability to spew shit. Yet, that doesn't mean much to me. It might even prove useful." Cryon looked around at the grass again. Ravon fell into step with me since we were out of the woods.
Ravon spoke up, "I think I might be understanding better why Markus calls you general."
"If today goes the way I am thinking you might understand much better than you hoped too." I raised my voice a bit, "I know Markus will enjoy the show, since it is partly his idea. So they gave you a six man team?"
The elves jumped as Markus stood up from the grass about ten feet away. They tried to hide their reactions but I was getting better at reading the strange features. "So how long did you know, general?"
I sighed and rolled my eyes, "I knew where you were since before I stepped out into the grass. You heard what I wanted you to hear. You shouldn't pick on Cryon so much."
"She is too trusting."
"Yes, but I knew that info already. Yet, you disappoint me if you think she is too trusting why let her be around people that cannot be trusted?"
Markus frowned, "I hadn't considered it from that angle."
We got to the spot where my unit was to meet up. It wasn't surprising that the only islee from my unit to be there as the sky grew bright was me. "If I had considered it better I would have warned you. Since I seem to have time let me ask you something else."
"That is a first, what do you want to know?"
"If I decide to get married like an islee, would you stand as my brother?"
Markus almost choked, I could hear some of the other islees of his unit miss a beat in breathing while trying to hear his answer. "Sure, Des, but why me?"
Well I had shocked him pretty good for him to just call me Des. "I have no family that I know of, living. I accepted my half of the bond with prince Theon but it feels lacking to me, I have always been islee and marriage is a part of being islee. It still won't be right either way, anyway, but I don't know."
"You will ask Harken as well?"
"If he will speak to me after this. Ah, here comes the ass and his cheeks."
The commander and the other two islee came up the hill. I gave Markus a oh my god look when the ass almost could have kicked one of the members of Markus' unit and still didn't notice him. "I can see that, general. Oh, I had a challenge going with me unit, which one got the closest to you before you noticed them?"
I paused thinking bobbing my head back and forwarth while I replayed when I had noticed each one and tried to figure out the distance. It was close. "I would ask if you count, but it wouldn't matter." Markus made an ouch face, "I would say it was her, but more because I was distracted when she entered range than that she was much closer."
I pointed to a spot in the grass that was about 20 feet away from me, only five from where the ass stood. He didn't do a great job at hiding his surprise when the islee female stood up. The elves did a better job but I was sure only Ravon had actually spotted the islee before she moved. I was even pretty sure that Ravon was only missing one of the islee that were hidden in the grass. "Hum, I see you are running drills, Markus. I would like if you wouldn't distract my unit as we do the same, I reserved this area."
That was uncharacteristically nice of the ass, was there something else going on? "Oh, you're going to start without your unit's wizard?"
"Like you are one to talk, Markus, I don't see your wizard."
"Nope, but I at least know where he is and what orders he has. Granted I have the advantage of counting my wizard as a friend and brother in arms."
"You also have the advantage of your authority not being undermined all the time while half your unit wants to kill the other half."
Markus raised his eyebrows at the comment, "If your authority is so weak maybe you don't deserve it."
Oh, I do like Markus, with just a few hints he figured out what he needed to do to get my commander to do something stupid. Which is just what I wanted, "I don't need to take this from a failure. Unit form up we are going to start practice."
There was no evil smile on my face when I fell into position but I got the feeling Markus saw the one that wasn't there as he watched us. We hadn't even started when an army messenger appeared and ran up to our group. He paused looking at Markus with confusion then turned and found the ass. I thought he was going to talk to him, which would be appropriate but he didn't. He continued passing the ass and stopped in front of me, "Orders from the tower."
Markus laughed loud enough to get everyone's attention, "That is bad. So bad I cannot help it, it is funny. Does it say what I think?"
I took the letter with a frown, looking at the addressee. Princess Desdemona stared up at me in an elegant flowing hand. I tilted it a bit and the black ink sparkled with golden flecks. Damn. I had flipped it to inspect the seal when I heard a strange noise. The elder human wizard I had met before appeared. "Oh damn, didn't beat him."
I looked over at the man I had seen once before, "Sorry, James was it? Were you trying to beat these orders? Might you have corrected ones?"
James who had looked a little befuddled before now looked confused, "No, I am sure those are the orders arch officer Sileen was told to send you."
"I am sure she was told to send me this as well and I don't think she will be overly surprised at my response. Let me give you some tips about the army James and maybe you can tell the other elders and they can try again at pinning army orders that might have a chance at being obeyed within the time frame they have set. First, orders cannot be given to civilians so they shouldn't use civilian rank, title or other honorifics. They won't impress me or make me more likely to follow. Second, Sileen can issue orders to any soldier but any outside her chain of command are subject to supersedence. Last I checked, I am not a wizard so not under her command. One moment though, it might matter what is written inside."
I paused pulling a crystal knife to open the seal. I could have just cracked the seal with my fingers or magic but for some reason I wasn't in the mood to be very trusting of anything from the tower. The crystal weapon was the best choice as it would cut magic and keep me from touching poison. Reading through the letter was unsurprising, it wasn't anything an arch officer was likely to write without it having been dictated to them from someone who didn't know what in the world they were doing. "As I thought." I filed the letter up and put it in my jacket pocket.