With absolutely no preamble Jester aimed her weapon at the oak tree that stood on the edge of town. Blue fire shot from the nose of the thing and the tree exploded into flame.
Jules' heart leapt into his throat to see his fears confirmed; around him, horses shied and whinnied while soldiers cried out and exclaimed with fear. He began to soothe Suki automatically, but she gave him a look that said his efforts were wasted. Trust my horse to be more courageous than I.
Yarrow, ever calm, turned her attention back to Jester. "It appears we have underestimated your strength. Allow me to negotiate with your leaders -- I'm sure we can come to some sort of agreement that does not cause any more death." She glanced pointedly at the fallen dead bodies of the animal denizens of the tree.
Jester mulled it over before she spoke. "I will consult with Aradia. Wait a moment," she said, giving Ewan the lightning-gun before she disappeared into the hacienda.
Yarrow took the opportunity to give Anita her orders. "Take your regiment and a few units from mine and Anala's and spread through the town," she said, turning in her saddle to face the other bellica. "Don't use too much force -- I doubt everyone will have a weapon like that one. Anala, our majors, and I will negotiate with this 'Aradia'."
Anita looked at Yarrow so evenly Jules couldn't tell a bit of what she was thinking. "And if it's a trap?" She gestured to the hacienda.
Yarrow shrugged nonchalantly. "Then you and your regiment should be able to make it back to Atherton to grab reinforcements." Anita saluted and summoned her troops to follow her into town. Yarrow turned the other way to address her and Anala's troops: "Captains Adelle, Ianthe, Jacob, and Hyperion -- take your units and join the third regiment." The captains saluted and took their units off with them instantly.
The rest of them waited for Jester to reappear.
They didn't have to wait long. "Alright," she said, taking her weapon back from Ewan. "Six of you -- no more -- may enter the hacienda to negotiate with Aradia. Everyone else must stay out here."
Yarrow inclined her head to Jester and gave her orders quietly and quickly. "Lt. James, take the door. Jules and Lares, you'll join the four of us. Lt. Coalette, mind the horses." Then as one they dismounted and headed towards the hacienda entrance.
Jules was close enough to Yarrow to hear what Jester almost-whispered to the bellica. "If it were not for your man inside, you'd all be dead already. Count your blessings."
Yarrow only nodded at the woman and continued in the hacienda; having nothing to say, Jules followed bellicas and majors obediently, Lares beside him. He exchanged a look with his friend that said all either man wanted to say: Are you regretting coming along as much as I am?
Yes.
Then they were past the door, inside the tall, dark building. The door closed behind them with an ominous 'click'. Jules could see that pools of light cast by wall sconces brightened up the gloom. Not by much.
"Selina," came a voice from the darkness, followed by a thunk-step, thunk-step as a woman with a very bad leg stepped into a patch of candlelight. She looked as if she'd been crying for a long time, but that was the only sight Jules got of her because Anala had stepped forward and embraced her in a tight hug. "I'd hoped you'd come," the woman said, and then burst into tears.
Molly
Crying on Bellica Anala's shoulder was like dream and nightmare in one come true.
Anala cared enough about her to try and offer comfort -- that was a dream.
She was making a fool of herself by not only crying in front of her childhood idol, but said idol's major and friends. What a nightmare!
But there was no help for it. Molly had been unable to function as a human being since...since Luis died. If not for Jester, she would not even have been able to send Anala that letter. The rebel leader's lover, Selene, had a gently compassionate side -- but Molly had needed something else. Molly had needed the type of compassion that would kick her in the rump and galvanise her to action -- and that was exactly what Jester had offered. Some of what the young woman had shouted at Molly had penetrated the rebel leader's catatonic state and roused her.
Awake she'd been since the fifth of Primera, but barely human. She could not close her eyes without the vision haunting her, the horror of the Seraglio room. Too, she acknowledged the dreadful truth of what she'd done to Damien's older sister through her own inaction: because a meeting between the parents of Luis and Damien was not a possibility, she and Autumn as the boys' elder sisters were to serve that function. Damien had, in fact, told her much about his sister. It pained her to remember that, just before the boys had been taken, she had been scheduled to meet Autumn. The meeting had never happened.
Jester had had to clean up the mess of not only a murdered brother but a future brother-in-law, left as Duchess Danika's final revenge. Molly had tried to talk to Jester, to tell her how sorry she was, to offer comfort -- but the woman had refused, saying nothing was to be done about it now. That was the past. They had to think of the future.
Jester was right, of course, even if there had been tears in her eyes. So she'd set her mind forward -- looked to repairing the town, to leading, to awaiting Selina's reply. Or arrival. She had expected a letter, nothing more --the arrival of three regiments sent to put down the insurrection had been an incredible surprise.
"But how could it possibly be known? We were in complete control of all outgoing mail!"
Dagon, Anala's Honor Guard, had not had an answer for her when she'd asked him the night before. But Bellica Yarrow had an answer for her now: "But not outgoing people. Seems a servant of Duchess Danika loved her lady so much she traveled from Aeril to Atherton by foot, at age one hundred, to tell the Empress of the insurrection." Molly could see by Yarrow's face that the bellica held a grudging respect for the woman who had ruined everything for the rebels.
She shook her head and ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. "And to think we spared the servants' lives because we thought them innocent pawns of the Duchess!" she yelled.
"Most, if not all, of them were," came a deep masculine voice. Molly looked up to see it was Major Aro who spoke. Peripherally, she saw movement edge in from other rooms in the hacienda: the servants, kept on because they had no other place to go, were coming out from wherever they'd been eavesdropping. "I'd even say that the woman who betrayed you was innocent as well -- Nicole was Duchess Nia's midwife, you see. She birthed all the lady's children, and so to her Danika was still a young, lovable child -- not the monster she'd became while fostered in Atherton."
There was a bemused silence. Molly, and no doubt the others, wondered how Major Aro could know this.
Then the oldest of the servants came forward and knelt before the major, taking his hands and kissing them. "It's the young master! He's returned!" they murmured, gratefulness infusing their tone.
Molly felt as confused as anyone else. "What's going on?" she asked, sure the question was on every mind.
Aro shrugged as he helped the servants to their feet. "You've no need to kneel to me, old friends," he said to them softly before turning to address the five he traveled with, and Molly. "I was sent as a young child to be fostered in Atton -- my name was changed, as is customary for long-term fostering of non-inheriting children. Danika was sent to Atherton, where the sister I loved turned into the monster I'm glad has been slain.
"The last time I spoke to her was years ago, at court. She'd told me what she'd planned to do about our mother. I'd threatened to go to the Empress with the information but she laughed in my face and said Zanny and Zardria had given her the idea in the first place. I begged her not to go through with it -- for all that I'd not seen my mother in years, I loved the woman still. Danika called me weak, a useless male child she should have seen killed years ago, and would have seen killed then had I not been militarily trained. She left then, and when I heard the news that my mother was dead...." he shrugged, unable to finish that thought. "Thank you for releasing my sister's spirit, Aradia. I hope she and my family ca
n be at peace now."
"Thank Selene," murmured Molly dazedly. Major Aro -- child of the Ylfen line, Duke of Aeril by rights. Who would have thought it?
There was a long silence, which Bellica Yarrow finally broke. "Well. Confessions, revelations, and past truths told anew all aside for the moment, may I suggest we figure out where to go from here?"
There was a general murmur of agreement, and Molly led them upstairs to the more comfortable rooms of the hacienda, where they could negotiate in peace and safety.
Caelum
Jourd'Aradia, 22nd Primera
Two days they had been in Aeril, and still Anala, 'Aradia', and Yarrow were locked in negotiations. When it became apparent that the three women could discuss things much more efficiently without the four men around, the boys had been banished from the hacienda. They stayed at the tavern, along with a few units of the first regiment. Those soldiers not on duty who could not fit in the tavern made camp in and around town.
Everything had been discussed, really. The main sticking point was what they were to tell Empress and Empreena -- they needed to bring back at least one rebel leader for execution, mayhap more. It had already been decided that 'Lucy', 'Aradia''s partner in insurrection, would stay on to lead Aeril in this 'time of crisis' -- Anita and Leala did not know of her participation in the rebellion, and so her 'coming forward' as one 'loyal to the Empress' would be a believable sham, so long as the town played along. They hoped.
It still left the problem of whom to bring back as 'rebel leaders' for execution. If she could, Yarrow would just tell her sister and aunt that she had killed the leaders in Aeril -- that it was over and done with. Unfortunately, Anita and Leala were here -- so no stories of a vicious struggle ending with a necessary slaying, regardless what their orders were, could be spun.
So the two bellicas and the rebel leaders sat, trying to decide the impossible: who would be sent to die. Never mind the plan was to break out from the dungeons whomever they chose before the actual execution was to take place. There was still a chance that whoever was chosen would die, either by execution or in prison--or by any of the myriad dangers between here and that future date of death, especially Zardria's quick temper and her decisions based on whim.
Shaking his head free of such thoughts, not to mention thoughts of what he still needed to tell Yarrow regarding her sister and himself and had been putting off as much as possible, Caelum went in search of Major Aro. Duke Aro, I suppose, he mentally amended. The truth of Aro's past had come as a hard-hitting shock to everyone, especially Yarrow, who had seen the truth behind her mother's murder confirmed in the major's story. Anala couldn't be happy about having so important a fact about Aro hidden from her for so long, either, but for now the bellicas were locked in the hacienda with 'Aradia'.
Something else about Aro's revelation was bothering Caelum. He took this opportunity to speak to the other major privately.
He found Aro in their shared room -- the bellicas had slept in the hacienda the past two nights, and so Aro, Caelum, Jules, Lares, and Dagon had bunked down together in the tavern. Their other roommates were nowhere in sight and Caelum thanked Whoever had arranged it so. Aro stood looking out the window, back to Caelum, surveying the town. Now that Caelum thought about it, Aro did have an almost lordly air about him; he did look the part of the noble as he stood and looked out at the town of his birth.
Caelum knocked gently on the door frame, and Aro turned to face him immediately.
"Caelum! A pleasant surprise. Come in," he said cordially, and Caelum again mentally noted the nobility with which Aro carried himself.
The first major stepped in and closed the door. Now he was here, he didn't know how to begin with what he wanted to say, or ask. Feeling for a stepping stone on which to start, he hedged. "How does it feel, being back in your home province like this?"
Aro shrugged before sitting on the edge of his bed. "I don't really know. Seeing the town looking so good -- better than it did just over a month ago, by Amora -- brings joy to my heart. And I can't help but feel things will be better for Smoke, too, for it lies within this province. But I feel a certain trepidation of the future -- that without the Ylfen family to guide things here, all may fall to ruin again."
"What do you mean? You're here," Caelum began, but Aro was already shaking his head.
"I've never been destined to rule -- not here, and not anywhere else. That changed when my name was changed from Jared to Aro."
Caelum blinked. "Jared? As in Jared the -- "
" -- the True-Hearted, yes. I was named for him," Aro finished for Caelum. The first major let out a low whistle. That was not a name given lightly. Jared was a famous legendary figure from Athering history. Everyone, even those with no education (Caelum included himself in that description), knew the story of Jared: how, even when his bellica was accused of treason, he stood by Bellica Evana, refusing to believe what all evidence pointed to as the truth. Bounty hunters came after her, for there was a huge price on her head, but he slayed each and every one, protecting her with all his devotion. At the end of the story, his bellica's name was cleared, and those who had spread the lie -- the true betrayers of the Sceptre -- were put to death. When everyone had doubted his bellica -- even Evana herself, gone into madness -- Jared stayed true to her. He was considered the pinnacle of their profession -- what every major should aspire to in his oath to his bellica.
"Well, you were named true," Caelum said, meaning it wholeheartedly. Aro's devotion to his bellica was almost as legendary as Jared's.
"Thank you, friend," Aro said, accepting the compliment. "But I am no longer he; I'm Aro deSarah of Atton -- major to Bellica Anala, not Jared deNia Ylfen, Duke of Aeril. I have no wish to rule anyway. I do want to know what happened to my younger sister, Chloe," he said after a brief pause. "She was sent for fostering shortly after I was. I have not heard of her since."
This was it then -- time for the confirmation of his fears. "Do you know where she was sent?" Caelum asked, silently praying for any other answer than the one he was sure would come.
"Southland, to some distant branch of the Ereven family. I never knew which, however." A pause, during which Caelum was sure Aro could hear his heart beating so rapidly. "You're from Southland, are you not?" Aro said suddenly, and Caelum stopped himself from flinching just barely. "Do you happen to know where my sister went?"
There was no guile on Aro's face, and Caelum knew the other major truly did not know -- that this was not a game to make Caelum feel more guilty than he did already.
He let out a gust of air, knowing he could delay no longer. "My mother and uncle were of the Ereven family," he began slowly, and it hurt to see Aro's face light up. "My mother was a bellica, before she married and settled down in her hometown. They had one child -- myself -- and when I was young, we were sent a girl from Aeril for fostering. Mother named her Stella. I'm not sure what her name was before that, Aro, but if it was your sister...I'm sorry. There was a bandit raid, several years past now. She and our mother and father did not survive. I'm sorry, Aro."
Caelum had never seen such an evolution of emotion played out on anyone's face. Aro went from hope to despair to resignation and acceptance, and all the little feelings in between, in a matter of seconds before nodding sadly. "It is not your fault, Caelum. I do thank you for telling me."
"If it is any consolation," Caelum said, desperate to ease the emotional blow he'd just dealt, "I loved her as I would have loved a sister of my own blood, and while she lived she never wanted for anything."
Aro gave him a small smile. "I am glad to know that she had a brother who would have loved her as I did, and a family that was not destroyed from within, as the Ylfen was." He sighed and looked outside again. "Times like these, I wish I could drink."
"Would you take the company of a friend who would have been your brother had things turned out differently?"
Aro gave Caelum a self-deprecating smile, and let out a bark of mirthless laughter. "Yes. I would."
Yarrow
Jourd'Althea, 24th Primera
Over. Officially over.
That was all she could think. Negotiations were officially over, and so it was time to celebrate.
She was not entirely happy with the results -- but then again, could see no way she would be entirely happy with the results so long as they involved actually doing most of what the Empress wanted her to do. Damn Anita anyway. Yarrow didn't want to see Molly and Jester put to death so young -- and to have them choose it! Bellona. What bravery!
Well, she hoped it would not come to pass. Yarrow swore she would do her damnedest to break them out of prison when the time came. However in Tyvian I'll manage that.
For now she had to pretend. Pretend loyalty to the Empress, that things were going to plan -- basically what she had been pretending for years now. Except now there was a conscious decision to rebel on her part, to help the rebellion in Aeril while making it look like she was subduing it.
That's why, when the decision as to who would go to Atherton as the captured rebel leaders had been finalised, they had staged a hostile takeover of the hacienda -- the town was 'theirs' after a brief 'struggle'. Tomorrow Selene would come forward as one 'loyal to the Empress' and Yarrow would give her the post of ruling the province in the absence of nobility. As soon as the regiments returned Zardria would choose someone else to take over Aeril, but hopefully by the time all the arrangements were made it would no longer matter. Until that time Yarrow was going to leave Selene with a unit from each regiment with her -- the first and second having special, classified, different orders from the third. First priority: protect Selene and the province. Second priority: deal with any insurrection from the third regiment's unit. Quietly.
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