A rustle from the doorway made them both turn. The soldier stood leaning against the doorjamb watching them suspiciously. “Five minutes, did you say, old man? You’d better get back to your work.”
“So put this on twice a day,” Tonnis told him hurriedly, scooping a few dollops into a smaller jar. “Come back in a day or two if it doesn’t work, and I’ll mix you something stronger.”
Three other Alasians came in that morning with the same skin complaint. By noon, they had nearly run out of salve, and Tonnis wondered how they would get the ingredients they needed to make more. He or Dal or Eleya normally went out once a week to buy supplies for the clinic, but it didn’t seem likely that their captors would let them do any such thing now.
“We can ask,” Eleya suggested when he mentioned the issue at lunch. She glanced over her shoulder, but the private was in one of the patient rooms, preoccupied with the game of cards he was playing with two of his injured companions. “It would be nice to find out what’s going on in the city. And if they do let one of us out for a while, maybe we can get word to our friends that we’re safe. They probably all assume we’re dead. And we can try to find out if anyone’s seen the prince.”
That seemed a little too much to hope for, but Tonnis ventured to bring up their problem to Lasden when the lieutenant stopped by the clinic that afternoon.
“Make a list of what you need, and I’ll have Phenniel buy it,” the soldier suggested. “He’s going into town tomorrow morning to restock the kitchen.”
“We need it today, sir,” Eleya insisted. “Besides, Phenniel wouldn’t understand exactly what to get or where to get it. We buy our herbs only from certain people who sell the best, the freshest ones. A person who doesn’t know what he’s looking for will probably end up with something of lower quality, or even the wrong variety altogether.”
Lasden hesitated, and then shrugged. “Well, I suppose it can’t hurt.”
“And we’ll need to go every week at least,” Eleya added boldly. “We always do. We’ll never be able to keep enough of everything on hand otherwise.”
“That’s fine,” Lasden agreed without argument. “I’ll have one of my men escort you.” He glanced at Tonnis. “You’ll go, and if you get tempted to try to escape while you’re out, think of what would happen to Eleya in your absence.”
Relieved, Tonnis nodded. “I understand, Lieutenant. Thank you.”
Tonnis was almost surprised to see that things had changed so little in Almar since the Invasion. It had only been three days since he had stepped outside the palace walls, but it felt like a month at least. So much had changed in his life. He wasn’t sure what he had expected to see, but from here in the cart, at least, the city seemed its usual self. Mostly. Pedestrians, carts, carriages, and riders on horseback still came and went along the street beside him. All the familiar shops and businesses stood in their accustomed spots, customers trickling in and out.
A few things had changed, though. The most obvious difference was the soldiers on patrol, standing out from the crowd in their red and black uniforms. They marched in groups of four or more, shields up, and, in some cases, swords in hand. Passersby stepped aside, glaring, to give them a wide berth. Some spat or swore at the soldiers as they marched past.
Tonnis suddenly noticed the unfriendly looks aimed in his direction, and he realized it was because of the private who rode on the seat beside him. The soldier kept a hand on the hilt of his sword, glaring back and probably feeling nervous because there was only one of him.
Tonnis pulled the horses to a halt outside the large, bustling outdoor marketplace that specialized in fresh herbs as well as fruit and vegetables. This late in the day it wasn’t as crowded as it would have been first thing in the morning, when he usually came, but there were still plenty of shoppers around. That was good. A lot of people in this area knew him. Maybe he would see some familiar faces; or more importantly, maybe they would see him. Then word would spread that he was alive, and perhaps his extended family and friends would stop worrying.
“We’ll have to leave the cart here,” he told the soldier, climbing down and tying the reins to a metal ring in one of the posts by the edge of the parking area. “Vehicles aren’t allowed along the market road, not that there would be much room for them anyway.”
His escort stepped down more slowly, one hand still straying nervously toward the hilt of his sword as his eyes darted back and forth through the crowd. Spying four more soldiers just down the street, he made up his mind. “I’ll stay here,” he announced to Tonnis, “and you can go buy your herbs and meet me when you’re done. Don’t try to escape or you know what we’ll do to your wife.”
“I know, I know,” Tonnis sighed. “If you aren’t coming, you’d better give me the money.” Normally he would have requested the necessary amount from the palace treasurer beforehand, bringing back an exact accounting of the cost of each item, along with any change. Of course treasury funds were unavailable to Alasians now, but he knew the soldier had money with him.
The man grunted noncommittally. “How do I know you’re not going to say it cost more than it did and keep the rest?”
“Come with me and ask the cost yourself. Of course, they’d probably overcharge you, being a Malornian and all.”
The man scowled. “Walk into a crowd of enemies all alone? I’m not that stupid. No, I’ll wait here, but you’d better not try to cheat me. If I search your pockets and find you’ve kept any money afterward, you’re dead.” He dug in his own pocket and pulled out a small cloth bag full of coins. As soon as he had handed it over, he hastened down the street toward the safety of his fellow soldiers.
Tonnis strolled slowly through the market crowd with his basket, glancing into people’s faces to see if there was anyone he knew. He was hurt by the muttering and dirty looks some people gave him. Did they think he was on the Malornians’ side just because they had seen him riding with a soldier? Well, you are working for them, he reminded himself, and the thought made him feel ashamed in spite of everything.
Tonnis stopped outside one of the stalls he regularly shopped from and glanced at the list he had brought. “Hello, Karniel. Do you have any goldbloom today, or horsetail stems? I also need–”
The man behind the low wooden counter looked up and gave a startled gasp. “Tonnis! I heard how the Malornians took over the palace, and I thought you were all dead!”
“Not all of us. Eleya’s alive too, and a few others.” He listed as many names as he could remember. “If Dal comes by, would you tell him?” His friend often shopped here too.
“Of course! Of course. He’ll be glad to know you’re all right. Now let me see your list, and I’ll see what I’ve got today.”
Tonnis handed over his parchment and Karniel scanned the list, turning to rummage around on his shelves.
“What’s been happening out in the city?” Tonnis inquired as the shopkeeper began placing items carefully in the basket he had brought.
“Oh, you know. Soldiers everywhere, poking their swords at anyone who looks at them wrong. Everybody’s angry. Yesterday they drove through the city showing off the bodies of the king and queen and the poor young prince, but I suppose you know all about that.” He scowled. “People are talking about trying to rise up against them, but nobody knows what to do. Our army doesn’t seem to be around, and this morning a customer said she heard some Malornians talking about having killed all our troops up in the hills two nights ago. I don’t know if it’s true, but it doesn’t seem as though anyone’s coming to help us.”
Tonnis sighed. He had thought the Alasian army might appear and march into the city at some point, perhaps with Prince Jaymin in their midst, to vanquish the Malornians and free the kingdom. It seemed there was no such liberation on the horizon. But at least he could deliver one piece of good news.
“The bodies you saw the other day,” he began, “I saw them too. They belonged to the king and queen and a boy who used to work in the stable. It wasn’t Prince J
aymin.”
Karniel paused in the act of untying a cluster of dried starweed hanging with other herbs from a string overhead. “What are you saying?”
“They don’t have the prince’s body. I don’t think he’s dead.”
“Really?” He stared at Tonnis, hands frozen on the starweed. “Then where is he?”
“I don’t know. I hope he escaped from the palace. He might be hiding out somewhere in Almar.”
A grin spread slowly across Karniel’s face as he finally untied the string and placed three of the brittle plants in the basket. “Well, apparently things aren’t as grim for Alasia as they seem. Now if we can just get rid of these cursed soldiers, the prince might actually have a kingdom to rule someday.”
Tonnis paused, his attention caught by something just beyond his friend’s stall. “Could you check if you have the rest of the things on my list? I’ll be right back.” Without waiting for an answer, he hurried through the crowd after the person he thought he had seen.
Tonnis wasn’t especially tall, and it took a moment to dodge around enough people to catch another glimpse of his target. The person in question was dressed in a long, tattered cloak with the hood up, walking briskly in the opposite direction. Tonnis almost called out to him, but caught himself just in time, realizing how unwise that would be. Instead he increased his pace, and in a moment he had caught up with the man, reaching out to tap him on the shoulder.
The man leaped aside and whirled around, one hand darting under his cloak as though to seize a concealed weapon. Then he saw who had touched him and sagged in relief. “Don’t startle me like that!”
“Sorry.” Tonnis smiled apologetically. “I see you did get away somehow. Congratulations.”
“Hush. We can’t talk here.” The man looked around and then beckoned Tonnis after him into a narrow alley between two shops. They stepped out of the main market street and into the dimness and relative quiet.
“How did you escape, Sir Edmend?” Tonnis inquired, peering about hopefully for the prince. He was disappointed to see that the king’s advisor was alone.
“Hush!” Sir Edmend repeated, eyes darting anxiously around, even though no one was near enough to overhear. “It’s not safe to call me that anymore. I’m just ‘Ed’ now.” He didn’t answer the question. “You apparently escaped as well. I’m glad.”
“I didn’t escape,” Tonnis admitted. “They let me live. I’m just out on an errand.”
“What happened?” his friend demanded. “Tell me everything that’s been going on in the palace.” He sounded intent, like a man who needed information for some higher purpose than just curiosity.
Perhaps he does know something about the missing prince. Perhaps he has a plan to help him. Tonnis summarized the events of the last two days, beginning with being forced to treat the wounded on the night of the Invasion.
“What about you?” he finished. “How did you get out, and were you able to–”
“Who else in the palace is alive?” his companion interrupted, pointedly avoiding the question again.
Tonnis’s heart soared with hope. If Sir Edmend had indeed helped Prince Jaymin escape, it made sense that he wouldn’t want to talk about it. The prince’s safety would depend on secrecy.
He listed the survivors while the old man nodded, smiling in relief at the names of the Council members. “Good. Good. I thought everyone must have been killed. Do you have any idea how the enemy was able to get in?”
Tonnis explained about Phenniel and the drugged wine, and Talifus and the men under him who had been working for the enemy. Sir Edmend just kept nodding, his focused expression suggesting he was taking notes in his mind just as he might have taken them on parchment during a Council meeting.
“What about you?” Tonnis finished. “What are you going to do now?”
The man shrugged. “Find out all I can, and then decide how best to work against the enemy.” He glanced at Tonnis thoughtfully. “Come to think of it, you might be able to help. Can you meet me here again in a week?”
“I can try. Eleya did tell the lieutenant we’d need to come to the market regularly.”
“Excellent. See what you can find out about the Malornians’ plans in the meantime.”
Tonnis frowned. “I’m not much of a spy.”
“But you’re there on the inside. Surely you can arrange to overhear conversations, see letters or reports from the officer in command to his superiors, things like that.”
“I can try,” Tonnis repeated reluctantly. Recalling his failed attempt to search for the prince yesterday, he wasn’t confident that he would succeed. And it would be dangerous to go snooping around the palace, especially now that he had been caught once. But maybe he could get some of the others to help. They had to try if there was even the smallest chance that the information could in some way aid Prince Jaymin.
Sir Edmend was moving back toward the mouth of the alley. “I’d better go, and so had you. Someone might get suspicious if you disappear for too long. See you here again next Friday, I hope.”
Wasn’t he going to say anything about the prince? Not even a hint, so that Tonnis would know whether or not to keep searching for him?
“Wait.” Tonnis put out a hand to stop his friend, knowing even as he did so that he couldn’t ask directly. Come to think of it, perhaps Sir Edmend wouldn’t even trust him with the information. What if the Malornians suspected that the physician knew something useful and decided to torture him until he told? No, it was better not to know too much. But if only Tonnis could return with something encouraging to share with the other captives! He thought of Sir Olling, wondering gloomily if it was even worth trying to survive in the enemy’s service.
“Some of the others have been saying that there’s no hope for Alasia,” he offered, watching to see Sir Edmend’s reaction.
The advisor’s response was all he could have hoped for. Sir Edmend looked Tonnis in the eye and smiled knowingly. It was not the look of one who was merely trying to somehow accomplish something, but the triumphant expression of a person who knows what other people don’t: that there is hope out there.
“Tell them they’re wrong,” he said.
Chapter 4
The next morning Tonnis overheard a disturbing conversation between Captain Almanian and the two lieutenants.
He and Eleya were changing bandages and preparing their patients’ usual medicines before breakfast when Lieutenant Lasden walked in to check on the wounded Malornians. It was raining outside, and the lieutenant paused to take off his damp cloak and hang it on one of the coat hooks in the front room, wiping his feet on the doormat before tramping through to the back. He nodded, pleased, when Tonnis told him that two of the three soldiers were improving so well that they could probably be released by the next day. It would be awhile before they could return to fulltime duty, but they could rest in the barracks and just come into the clinic every day or two for Tonnis to check their progress.
The news seemed to put Lieutenant Lasden in a good mood, and after congratulating his men on the progress of their recovery, he made his usual rounds of the rest of the clinic with a noticeably lighter step. He even had a courteous nod for the wounded Alasian, Wennish, who returned his salutation with an icy glare.
As Lasden made his exit through the front room and Tonnis bent over the fresh dressing he was preparing for Wennish’s wounds, the outer door of the clinic opened again. Tonnis paused to listen, the dressing of crushed anthemis flowers and hypericum in his hands.
“There you are,” Captain Almanian exclaimed as he strode into the clinic, followed by Lieutenant Talifus in his new Malornian uniform, both of them dripping rainwater onto the clean floor. “We need to discuss our personnel problem.”
“Sir?” Lasden sounded puzzled.
“The Alasian workers I’ve put you in charge of. They don’t seem to be doing a very good job keeping up with the cleaning and maintenance.”
“I believe they’re doing their best, sir. It�
��s a big palace, and there are only twenty-seven of them altogether, including the children. The usual complement of staff and servants must be several times that.”
“One hundred seventy-five as of earlier this month,” put in Talifus importantly.
Tonnis, peering around the doorway, saw the captain nod. “That’s my point. We need a larger workforce. We have to get this palace into proper working order as soon as possible so we can start preparing for Regent Rampus’s arrival. He’ll be here in the next couple of weeks, probably with a sizeable retinue. I want the two of you to gather a few dozen soldiers and a couple of wagons, and go into town today to find us some more servants. At least fifty for now; we can always get more later.”
Lasden stared at his commanding officer. “You mean – just seize people and force them to come back with us, sir?”
“I don’t see any other choice, Lieutenant. I doubt you’ll find any volunteers, and we have to have more manpower. It will be on all of our heads if we don’t have everything ready for the regent by the time he comes.”
“I realize that, sir. But….” Lasden seemed at a loss for words. “Sir, to kidnap innocent civilians–”
The captain scowled. “Do you or do you not understand your orders, Lieutenant?”
There was a pause. Then, “Yes, sir.” Lasden sounded defeated, his cheerful mood vanished.
“And you, Lieutenant Talifus?”
“Absolutely, sir.” There was no reluctance in the Alasian’s voice. “I would be glad to take charge of this mission. Lieutenant Lasden can stay here where his conscience won’t bother him, and I’ll go bring in the extra help we need.”
“I assigned this to both of you,” the captain snapped, turning on his heel. “Decide how best to carry it out, but I want it done this morning.” The clinic door thudded shut behind him.
When he had gone, Talifus chuckled. “What’s wrong, Lasden? You didn’t have any problem killing innocent civilians here in the palace the other night. Why draw the line at conscripting forced labor?”
In the Enemy's Service (Annals of Alasia Book 2) Page 6