The Machinist's Apprentice

Chapter 14: Reexamine

It all seemed to grind to a halt, however, when Arvid simply said, "And how many times did he attack you, Stian?" This seemed to startle the young man a bit, which gave Aina an opening to say a dry line of her own.

Stian stared at them both in frustration. This was similar to how the argument in the woods had ended, and Jevrem thought it was likely that lack of evidence against him was the decider. At last Stian threw up his hands and turned away with one last proclamation. With a shouted order, he and the other soldiers left the room, leaving Jevrem and Senka in Arvid and Aina's care.

The tavern's few other patrons were now staring at the little group warily. It seemed like loudly proclaiming arguments against trusting them might not have helped their standing. "Let's continue this elsewhere," Arvid said hastily, shooing them back out into the streets of the mining town before leading them all to a small cabin some distance from the main settlement where it seemed he was staying.

Feeling somewhat safe at last, Jevrem let himself relax a bit. As Arvid turned to begin speaking to him, he held up one hand. "Can we get a translation spell first, Arvid?" he asked, "I think we all want to make sure we all understand everything."

He blinked a bit in surprise. As Jevrem has suspected, he'd forgotten again that they couldn't understand the Astansurian language. "Oh! Of course!" He said hastily. He reached out a hand to Jevrem first, gesturing and uttering the proper words. Then came the familiar feeling of being struck.

Senka looked on warily as he leaned back holding his hand on the spot. "It's fine," he assured her, "just a bit...startling." With a resigned sigh she sat still as Arvid cast the spell on her as well.

Onces he was also rubbing her forehead with some confusion, Arvid turned towards where a fire had been lit. "Tea, anyone?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Senka said, clearly still a bit overwhelmed.

"What's going on here, Arvid?" Aina asked suddenly. Senka jumped at the sound of her voice. It seemed she didn't realize how quickly this spell would take effect. Aina didn't seem to notice. "Stian's always been a bit overzealous, but nothing like this! What's got him so riled?"

Arvid sighed. "It's as simple as you imagine," he said, "Goskar gets closer every day. Previously they had been hesitant to actually engage the miners, but recently they've gotten much more aggressive and I don't know how long we can hold out here..."

Here Jevrem winced a bit. "I...uh...think that's my fault," he said hesitantly.

Arvid turned to look at him. "Then perhaps we should hear about what's happened to you...starting with why you ran off like that."

Before Jevrem could even open his mouth to answer, a second voice spoke harshly, "Yes, you have a lot to explain." They turned to see Runa entering the room, staring hard at him with a grim expression.

Anything he'd been about to say died in his throat at the sight of her face and the guilt threatened to overwhelm him. Somehow her disappointment was much harder to face than any of his other traveling companions. She was such a genuine person and judging from her face his apparent betrayal had hit her much harder than the others.

He bowed his head and for the first time voiced the truth. "I...was scared," he admitted.

"Scared...?" Arvid asked.

"I heard you talking," he admitted, "I was scared that it might be true..."

"That's it?" Runa's voice seemed uncharacteristically unsympathetic, "That's the reason you left us? Was the thought of it really so horrible that you couldn't face us?"