The Crown of the Thunder King

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"Kolohe Hope!"

Adlai could feel Kolohe start as one of the six Regiment members approached, badge glittering on his collar. He thought that he could recognize the man, though it had been more than a year since he'd last been to the Capital.

"Hey, Adlai," Kolohe said, peering over his shoulder. "Don't let them know I'm here."

"I know you're here, Hope," the soldier said, sweeping the crowd with his gaze. "You could not have left the pavilion– I've cut off your exits."

Kolohe cursed, and Adlai gave him a sardonic smile in spite of himself.

"Time to fess up, bud."

"You kidding me?" Kolohe said, eyes wide. "They'll actually kill me this time, man! Damn it, if I'd known those-"

He cut off abruptly as the Regiment soldier stopped just a few paces from Adlai. He raised an eyebrow at the messy-haired man, who grinned back apprehensively, trying not to immediately betray his companion.

"Major Basil," the soldier said, raising his hand in salute. "I should have expected you; you and Colonel Lutgardis are a part of Kolohe's contingent."

Adlai returned his salute, feeling Kolohe's movement as he attempted to slink out of sight.

"You're First Lieutenant..." Adlai wracked his brain, scrambling for a name to match with the face. "Iusto, right? What's going on here?"

You had to give Adlai props for that one. Remembering one face out of the six hundred or so members of the Regiment was far from an easy feat.

Iusto's saluting hand came down to point at Kolohe in a gesture of accusation. Kolohe froze, having nearly made it past Elke.

"Second Lieutenant Hope," Iusto began, and the crowd stirred angrily behind him once again, "is guilty of betraying the trust of the good people of Maxorien. He has acted in a way that does not befit his status as a soldier or a peacekeeper, and for that, he must make reparations."

Caught, Kolohe stepped out from behind his companions, hands raised in sloppy surrender.

"It's not my fault," he mumbled, strangely cowed. "I mean, if you fall for something like that-"

"Kolohe." Dobrea's voice was more stern than anything Adlai had heard from her before. The lanky man took it as a cue to stop talking.

"It would be another matter entirely," Iusto said, "If you were just another con artist. But as it stands, using your position to sell counterfeit goods-"

He was cut off by another roar of the crowd, and his squadmates sprang into action, moving to quell them. Elke spun to confront Kolohe, hair flaring up about her face.

"You ruined my evening over something as stupid as trying

to scam people? I was having a good time!"

Elke's priorities really needed work, but Kolohe nevertheless seemed to grow even more cowed. Regardless of whatever bravado he might have had, a whole mob after him must have been pretty stressful.

"What did you even try to sell?" Adlai asked, out of the corner of his mouth.

After a few seconds of silence, Kolohe mumbled back.

"The knives."

Adlai placed his hand over his forehead, groaning.

"And?"

"I might have told them they were artisan," Kolohe laughed nervously, pulling one of the hunter's knives from his belt. "You know, foreign imports and all that. Thought I might as well try to cash in on that market– it's already full of scammers, anyway."