The General's Legacy

Chapter Nine: Homecoming and Failure (part 1)

The second Battle of Beldon Valley 1849
Kingdom Army of Valendo led by King-Consort General Garon Allus Artifex-Dendra. Deaths: approximately 4100
Kingdom Army of Nearhon led by General Magnar. Deaths: approximately 5500
Excerpt from the war histories of Valendo

*

Julia felt different.  Like a horse standing outside the herd looking inwards. She boiled with a barely suppressed inner fury.
Her home for nearly all of her twenty years no longer felt like home. She twitched her nose and sniffed. The air was rank with the stench from the tanneries. Banishing them to the lake shore at the farthest edge of the city wasn't enough. The wind blew in the wrong direction often enough for the odour to invade every street. It was not something she remembered noticing while she lived here. With few exceptions, the roads were not roads. They were stretches of compacted mud that became treacherous in the rain. When dry and hard, ruts cut by wagon and chariot wheels made an obstacle course fit for training soldiers. Julia and Pico walked arm in arm to support each other over the uneven surface, their faces concealed inside the hoods of leather travelling cloaks.

Pico had said little since leaving Tranmure behind and Julia's curiosity took over.
"You're quiet."
Pico shrugged, a movement hardly noticeable under the cloak.
"Why did you spend so much time at the hot house in Tranmure?" Julia asked.
"Oh, to visit a man who loves me," Pico replied, her eyes looking at the ground as they stepped over the next rut.
"You're a dark horse aren't you?"
They both smiled, neither able to summon a laugh.
"What's his name?"
"Miles."
"Is he special?"
"Yes," Pico sighed "very special."
Julia was either content to leave it at that or didn't want to drag up sad feelings with more questions. They walked on in silence.
Pico had learned that if she left blanks, people would fill them in for themselves. Explaining Miles was too difficult, maybe even dangerous. Pico remembered Miles brushing aside the hair on her forehead with rough-skinned fingers, placing a soft kiss there and wishing her goodnight the night before she left Tranmure. She had known the name Miles all of her life but never known him until the last few months in Tranmure. Clenching her jaw, Pico held back tears. Miles had blue eyes, dark hair salted with grey and the kindest smile she had ever seen. She wondered if there would be another time she could say "Goodnight father," when Miles would be there to hear.
"Belt buckles, bag strap buckles, door hinges, door latches..."
"Fine wool jackets, socks, blankets..."
"Last two hides for sale ladies and gentlemen before I can pack up and go home..."
The many voices of the market vied for attention. All crying out from under rudely constructed wooden frames covered with waxed leather hides.
Pico pinched a leather hide between her finger and thumb. It felt surprisingly soft and thin.

"Let's get something to eat," said Julia threading a path through the jostling crowd of people. The delicious smell of meat grilling over a charcoal fire was a welcome refuge from the tannery odours. Julia rubbed her hands together in anticipation and for warmth as she surveyed what was on offer. They hadn't eaten horse meat for some time. It wasn't available in Tranmure where, for some, horses were considered members of the family. She pulled out coins from her jacket pocket asking for beef for them both. The stall holder laid several steaming slices onto two split loaves of bread, folded them over and handed them back. Julia took hers and licked the juices escaping from the bread from her fingers. They pushed their way through the thinning crowd to a board walk attached to the wooden buildings leading out of the market. Buildings hunched over the road on both sides, tired and grey like ancient beggars waiting for a copper coin. Julia and Pico sat beside each other on the edge of the board walk. Julia looked up at the building opposite as she bit into the beef filled loaf. The building was a small unmarked office which she now knew was the office for the Bandit Country Operators.
Their time with 'The Operators' been an experience full of the wrong kind of excitement and an example of what it is like to be 'nearly cargo'. Not a princess, a lady or even a human being but something less than livestock. A complete contrast to the journey to Tranmure surrounded by soldiers.
She remembered arriving to pomp and ceremony and suddenly realising her traditional Nearhon travelling clothes made her look like some kind of wild outlaw compared to the finery of the ladies and gentlemen lined up to welcome her. She nearly didn't get out the carriage. When she did, there was the unexpected beaming and slightly nervous smile on a handsome face with brown eyes framed by tumbling dark hair. Cory kissing on the back of her hand and escorting her the way a lady would be to dance. Then quite forgetting how she was dressed and feeling like the princess she was. That's how it started. The 'ladies of the night' (and it seemed the day) when they stopped overnight in Norvale joked that men generally wanted a quick rut and to be on their way. Julia kept a thought to herself. The thought that in Cory's hands she still felt like a princess even after animal passion had taken over.
'Think about the journey you've just had, easier to deal with,' she admonished herself suddenly feeling hot and flushed.