The sun had just begun to lap, unwelcome,
at the edges of his window when Dom awoke. It was the first day of May, and, as
it happened, the first day of his new job. It wasn’t a job he wanted, or looked
forward to in any way, but his arm had been gently twisted and he always liked
to be as helpful as possible. The twisting had been done by the Governor
himself, and as he had always been kind and generous, and as Dom had always liked
him very much anyway, it had been impossible to resist.
He lay in bed and
wondered what it would be like to work for an Imperial elf and, what’s more,
one from Ortia of all places. He had spent a lot of his life in Amansk, just a
few days ride north of the white city, but he had never visited it and until
very recently only a few brave merchants had ever ventured there. That had all
changed now, of course, because the Empire was whole again and travel was
possible across its entire breadth. The first person to take advantage of the
new freedom had been the Emperor himself, Pallatian, who had spent the first
part of that year visiting his eastern demesnes and shaking things up. In
Gorodnikov this had meant that the Governor had acquired a Deputy Governor (whatever that was) who had been recruited from
Ortia. In turn, the Governor, assuming that the Deputy Governor’s only real job
would be to spy on him, had set up another new post, Assistant to the Deputy
Governor, whose only real job would be to keep an eye on the Deputy Governor.
It fell to Dom to do this most thankless of tasks, but he had no idea why. He couldn’t imagine that much useful work
would be done by anyone.
Just a week ago he
had been hoping to escape back to Amansk. He had had to hang around for a long
while after his closest friend, Prince Toby, had returned to Amansk from his
exile. They had been stuck here for the whole of the winter while the war
against the Crimson Flame knights had festered on, and once the city had been
relieved by the Emperor, he had assumed that he would be able to go home.
However, his old benefactor, the Governor, had had other plans for him.
Another pressing
reason to go home was to see Princess Lily, who thought that he was her
boyfriend, or at least he thought that she thought that. It was sometimes hard
to tell with Lily; she was a quixotic, mercurial sort of person. The relationship, which had never gone beyond
a chaste kiss or two, was doomed, for reasons that he couldn’t hope to reveal
to her, but he was fond of her company and had missed her a lot. She had been
on a huge, crazy adventure, and he was only just learning about it through her infrequent
letters. She had gone to Tlaxaca with the witches and fought alongside
them. Well, that’s what she’d said – it
was a great story anyway, even it wasn’t all entirely true.
He’d have to get up
soon he knew and dress as smartly as he was able. He had spent the last few
days dreading this moment, and now it had come he felt sick and slightly dizzy.
What did he know about imperial politics? He hid his face under the blankets
for a few seconds and then leapt out of bed, hoping that the physical exertion
would energise him. It didn’t, but at least now he was up.
***
‘What time is he due here?’ asked Viola.
She was sitting on a wooden chair in her new office. The chair and the office
were small, but not insultingly so.
‘Oh, I’m not sure,
ma’am’ said Potentilla, who was sitting on the edge of the desk in front of
Viola.
‘Thank you,
Lieutenant’ said Viola, ‘that’s exceptionally helpful…’
Potentilla looked
puzzled, but didn’t respond to this at all. She seemed to be concerned about
something else.
‘What do you want me
to do when he arrives?’
Viola had no idea
what etiquette demanded so she trusted her instincts.
‘I’ll introduce you
and then you can go’
‘To do what though?’
asked Potentilla, almost looking a little gloomy.
‘To be ready to come
back when I need you…’
Potentilla nodded,
but she still looked a bit unhappy.
‘I’ll go for another
walk round the harbour, shall I?’
Viola sighed – it had
seemed like a good idea to bring her old friend with her as a military attaché,
but in reality she was only good at fighting and adventuring, and so it was
hard to find a suitable niche for her.
‘We’ll get you
something sensible to do soon, Tillie, I promise you’
‘Maybe I’d have been
better off going back to Veralia, or maybe I should go on to Eth with Kath when
she leaves…’ muttered Potentilla.
‘No’ insisted Viola,
‘I need a friendly face…you know that I have no real idea why Pallatian posted
me here’
Potentilla smiled and
shrugged. Viola gave her a quick hug and then gestured for her to go to the
door.
‘See if he’s out
there, will you, Lieutenant…’
The western elf
walked to the door and opened it. Dom was standing outside. There was an awkward moment.
‘How long have you
been there?’ asked Potentilla, accusingly.
Dom flushed; he had
his hand clenched into a fist and was holding it up at about shoulder height.
It was unintentional but it looked as if he were giving the elves a strange
little wave.
‘I was just about to
knock…’
Viola sighed without
sound. She was expected to work with this human, really?
‘Well, Mr Shavosky…’,
she said as calmly as she could, ‘you can come in now’
Dom walked into the
room, his worst fears apparently confirmed.
He approached Viola cautiously.
She had already rehearsed in her mind exactly what she was going to say
to him.
‘Let me start by
introducing you to my aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Potentilla…’
She turned to where
Potentilla had been standing but there was now an empty space.
Dom looked puzzled.
He wondered for a second if the lieutenant was invisible, but then he snapped
back to reality.
‘I think that she
left…’ he said, ‘…and in a bit of a hurry’
Viola mumbled
something and then there was silence. They stood, looking at each other, but
with no idea what should come next.
Viola knew that it was her move, though.
‘I’m Captain Viola’
she said, ‘from Ortia…sent by the Emperor to help Governor Arbutus’
Dom nodded.
‘I know – although I
thought you were a major’
‘I suppose that I am,
yes… recent promotion… anyway, I’m the new deputy governor…’
‘Yes, I know’
‘And I’m here in an
entirely advisory role’
‘So I was told’
Viola was completely
at sea, so all she could do was she plough on with her original plan. However, a major sticking point was that she
had completely forgotten how people greeted each other in Amansk – should she
offer her hand to shake? Should she embrace him? Or should she nod solemnly in
the Visneorian way? She would have to use some sort of greeting soon, however,
and she felt sure that she’d get it wrong.
Her awkwardness was
transmitted to Dom, who had absolutely no idea what was expected of him. His
mouth was dry and he felt that the deputy governor must think that he was a
complete imbecile.
‘And I’m very happy
to welcome you to work in our little team…’
Dom looked around.
‘Is that just you,
then?’ he asked, completely innocently
Viola shook her head.
‘Oh no, there’s the
lieutenant as well… of course, but she had to rush off…and there’ll probably be
other staff, in time… I think…’
‘What sort of staff?’
‘Well, umm, that will
depend on how I decide to fulfil my remit…’
‘What remit, is that,
exactly?’
‘To advise the
Governor…’
Dom wondered – had
they just gone round in a big circle? His fears began to fade rapidly. This
seemed to be a bit of a pointless shambles. He saw no point in pretending that
he was any more competent.
He embraced her
formally and briefly. Viola smiled in relief – finally they had found something
that they both could cope with. Dom grinned.
‘We have absolutely
no idea what we’re doing here, Major, do we?’
Viola considered
being offended or just ignoring the comment, but she knew that it was true. She
smiled, her guard slipping.
‘No, Mr Shavosky, I’d
be foolish to deny it, it seems that we don’t’
[1]
Gorodnikov – main (and only) Visneorian port on the eastern coast of the
Empire. A vital strategic possession, and home to the main Imperial fleet. The
only city outside Kinspit to have a roughly equal population of elves and
humans. Liberal, prosperous and
cosmopolitan.
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