Stands a Shadow

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Old Wants

Ash awoke to an iron-capped boot prodding at his ribs.

He opened his eyes, bleary with what little sleep he’d been able to snatch in the small hours of the night, and felt a warm body pressed against his own.

He tugged the blanket from his face and blinked up at the scowling face of an imperial soldier.

‘On your feet, old man.’

Ash groaned and covered his head with the blanket once again. The boot prodded him harder.

He growled and scrambled to his feet, his sheathed sword in his hand. ‘What?’ he snapped, gaining himself a precious second to take in the situation.

Three soldiers surrounded him. Others were waking people across the dunes to press them with questions. Ash relaxed a little. They didn’t know who they were looking for, not by appearance at least.

Even so, all three soldiers were staring at the confident way he held his sword and had their hands resting firmly on the pommels of their own.

‘Captain Sanson!’ shouted the man with the friendly toecap. Another soldier stepped towards them. He took one look at the old farlander and narrowed his eyes.

‘You like walks in the night, old man?’

‘Is that an invitation?’

The captain tensed. From the corners of his vision, Ash saw that other soldiers were dragging away a man they deemed to be suspicious.

‘He’s with me,’ came a voice from below. All of them looked down to see Mistress Cheer emerging from the blanket, wiping sand from her flanks as she stood up in her heavy nightdress.

Captain Sanson eyed the woman coolly. ‘In what capacity, mistress?’

‘He’s my bodyguard,’ she explained as she took Ash’s arm in her own. ‘What did you imagine he was?’

‘And when did you employ him?’

Her eyes flickered to Ash. ‘Two years ago. For all it’s got to do with you. What’s the meaning all of this, anyway?’

Captain Sanson ignored her for a moment. He took another long questioning look at Ash, then at the tents where the girls were still sleeping. He bowed his head to Mistress Cheer. ‘My apologies,’ he told her. ‘Some enemy scouts may have been in the area last night. We’re making a security sweep of the beach, that’s all.’ A flick of his hand commanded the others to follow as he strode away.

‘My thanks,’ said Ash when they were safely out of earshot.

Mistress Cheer shivered in the cool morning breeze, then released her grip on his arm. ‘I repay my debts, that’s all. Is there something you wish to tell me, Ash?’

‘You heard what he said. Enemy scouts.’

She looked away for a moment, then fixed him with a hard stare.

‘I noticed you were gone for most of the night, before I came and joined you.’

Ash tightened his lips and looked to the sand at his feet.

Last night, when he’d finally returned from his botched mission, he’d collapsed in exhaustion next to the dead fire of their small camp. Some time later, confused and still half dreaming, he’d half awakened to find a blanket placed over him, and Mistress Cheer pressing her soft body against his own.

‘Be that way, then,’ she snapped at him now, and her anger was unmistakable. She took a few steps away before rounding on him. ‘I don’t care if you were thieving or worse last night. But I can’t have a bodyguard I can’t rely on to be here when he’s needed. Nor a liar whose secrets I can’t fathom. I’ve paid my debt to you. Help yourself to some hot food when the others awake, then I’ll give you your coins. But no matter how much I may be fond of you, Ash – if that even be your real name – I think it best that you move on after breakfast.’

It was her loss of trust in him, he could see. She was a woman sensitive to past betrayals.

He cast his mind back to the early hours of the morning. Their long kisses beneath the blanket and the clouds overhead, their slow tender passion. She’d been the first woman Ash had lain with in several years, and it had made him realize how much he missed it; the intimacy, the shedding for a short time of his loneliness.

Knowing there would be no changing her mind, though, he bowed his head low. ‘You and the girls – you will be safe?’

‘I’m sure we can find another hungry blade for hire somewhere on this forsaken beach. We’ll be fine.’

He nodded again, then surprised her by kissing her full on the mouth, her scarred lip feeling strange but thrilling against his own.

‘Good luck to you, strange old man from Honshu,’ she said as he walked away.

Che returned from the latrine feeling poorly rested after the late night before, but he was thankful not to be hungover like many of the other men and women he passed in the encampment, with their pale faces and bloodshot eyes.

It was a windy day, and the press of it against his face was cool and refreshing. He could feel the new-grown stubble on his scalp rubbing against the hood of his robe; Che had stopped shaving his head now that he was here in Khos, preparing for whatever mission amongst the population might be required of him. It felt good to have some hair again.

In the open space of ground before the Matriarch’s tent, the spy-master Alarum was cinching a bedroll to the saddle of a zel.

‘Going for a ride?’ Che enquired as he stopped and looked up at the spymaster, who this morning resembled nothing more than a local peasant bandit. The priest was dressed in plain civilian clothing; fur-trimmed riding trousers, an outer coat of green wool, a bandana tied across his bald head. He’d removed his facial jewellery, and had replaced it with a single loop of gold in his right ear. Two long curved knives protruded from the thick leather of his belt.

Alarum glanced in Che’s direction with one foot in the stirrup. He hopped a few times and swung his other leg over the saddle, righting himself as the zel snorted and shifted back a step. ‘Priest Che,’ he said, tightening the reins in his gloved hands. Behind his mount, a string of two more zels stood loaded with supplies. ‘Yes, a spot of fieldwork,’ he explained a little breathlessly, a little excitedly.

‘Alone?’

‘Believe me, I prefer it this way. Much safer.’

The zel became still beneath him, and Alarum placed his hands on the pommel of the saddle and stared down at Che with an odd, searching expression.

‘Tell me, Che. Has your mother ever spoken of me, perchance?’

‘She’s spoken of many men. I don’t keep track.’

Alarum gathered his thoughts for a blinking moment.

‘It’s just… I knew her once. A long time ago, before you were born.’

‘Yes?’

‘Yes. And she’s a fine woman. Helped me through a difficult time. When you next see her, you must tell her that I ask after her fondly.’

Che nodded without commitment. He was uncomfortable with this talk of his mother, and as always in moments of discomfort, his hand began to scratch at one of his rashes.

‘That skin problem of yours,’ observed Alarum. ‘You should come and see me when I return. I have ointments that may help.’

‘Thank you, but I already have some.’ He patted the flank of the zel and stepped back from it. ‘Good riding.’

Alarum raised a hand then kicked his zel into a trot, leading the string of extra mounts behind. Che watched him leave for a few moments, then turned once more into the wind.

Back in his own small tent, he returned the bundle of graf leaves in his hand to the open backpack on the floor, then looked at the field bunk along one wall, and the stool, and the simple wash stand.

He stood and did nothing for a moment, something troubling him.

His eyes scanned the tent, each item at a time, and came at last to rest on his copy of the Scripture of Lies. It had been moved from where he had placed it on the bed, though not by much – half an inch, perhaps, little more.

Che opened the leather-bound book and riffled through its pages roughly. A slip of paper spilled out to land at his feet.

He glanced over his shoulder, then bent to pick it up.