Age of War

Chapter 13

Jonis knocked smartly on the door and was surprised when it was flung open immediately by a worried-looking Huldane. He stared at her for a few moments. “Lady Jonis,” he eventually managed, “what are you doing here?”

“I should ask you the same thing, Huldane. A servant told me these were Aethlan’s chambers…”

“They are. And also mine.”

Jonis raised her eyebrows. “Oh I see.” She forced a grin. “And is the Lady Aethlan home? And if she is, is she decent?”

Huldane’s pale cheeks had gone bright red. He was a handsome man, in a sort of rough Talosi way, but the Atlasian clothes he was wearing didn’t suit him at all. He was a soldier, not a nobleman, and his broad shoulders and hairy chest belonged strapped in mail, not draped with coloured silks. “I…she left a few hours ago…I do not know where she is.” He stepped aside and gestured for her to enter. She walked into the room and looked around, impressed by the scale and magnificence of their quarters. The cell she shared with Jonin would have fitted into this space over a dozen times and the quality of the furnishings was obvious even to her untutored eye. It was cold though. A brazier was stoked near a couch, but the whole room was open on one side to an enormous stretch of balcony overlooking one of the gardens, the wall of the Enclave and, beyond that, the orange lights of the city itself. She hadn’t realised the palace offered such fine views.

“You don’t know where she is?” she asked. “Is everything all right?”

“I hope so.” His voice sounded strained, as if he was struggling to control himself. He walked past and she could see the way he was clenching and unclenching his fists. Oh yes, a soldier to the bone this one, not happy when he couldn’t just leap into action and solve a problem with violence.

“Where did she go?”

He slumped down on the couch by the brazier, looking like a lost puppy. She knew about his feelings for Aethlan, and so did she. Jonis strongly suspected she returned them too, but propriety had preventing them acting upon their urges in Talos. Was it different for them here? Old habits were hard to break, and that might be enough to scupper any chance they had of a functional relationship. “She went to dinner with the Empress.”

“Really?” What a strange coincidence that was. Or maybe not such a coincidence, now she thought about it. Rayke obviously hadn’t told the Empress about her, so she must have heard it from someone else. And who better to blunder into a potential political scandal than an outsider with little understanding of her hosts’ ways? Jonis had no wish to implicate Aethlan in anything, nor to revisit her own mortifying encounter with the Empress, so she resolved to reveal nothing of her own purpose here. “Have you looked for her?”

“I thought it best to stay here, in case she returned.” He looked a little sheepish. “Also…I was worried I might get lost myself…”

Jonis smiled at him. “It’s a confusing place, isn’t it? The directions I got were hard to follow. I’m sure Aethlan’s fine though. Perhaps we could send a maid to look for her?”

“I am not sure how far I trust the servants here, Lady Jonis.”

Jonis was just examining an elaborate tapestry on one wall, but now she turned to Huldane with a frown. “You don’t trust them? Why not? What’s going on?”

“Nothing.” He stood up and began to pace across the room. “A few days ago I met Commander Albrihn in a courtyard here.”

“So he really did get promoted? Good for him…” Again, she had to hold her tongue. Her first instinct was to ask how Rayke was, to quiz Huldane on every little bit of information he might have about what he was doing, where he was going, but if she’d taken anything from her meeting with the Empress, it was that she had to ignore whatever feelings she had for the rugged soldier.