A Clatter of Chains (The Waking Worlds Book 1) by A. Van Wyck

Author:A. Van Wyck [Van Wyck, A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2016-01-30T22:00:00+00:00

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He thanked Helia for the training he’d received in Clatter Court. If he were being honest, he thanked Master Crysopher to a greater extent. Shifts of eight bells or more... How did the palace guards stand it – ‘stand’ being the operative word – with no knowledge of waking trances?

The first day he’d stood a shift, he’d been too excited to notice. Too taken by the honor and the novelty of it. At least, for the first three or four bells.

Then he’d noticed.

At least the guards got to go home, or to the barracks – or wherever – at the end of their shift. Not so for him. He was irreplaceable. That sounded grand, but it was small consolation when it required doing absolutely nothing for bells on end. And doing so in a professional manner. According to the brusque guardsman he’d asked, that entailed keeping his fingers clear of his nose, his bunghole and his torch and not fidgeting overmuch. These helpful hints had been frankly confusing. Especially since not even the guards on night shift were issued torches.

He might be fulfilling a guardsman’s duty but he did so quite separately from the rest of the Royal Guard. For starters, he was the only one required to do more than one shift per day. And at random intervals too, so as to prevent predictability. This meant his schedule was kept secret, from everyone including himself. That meant he sometimes got as little as three bells’ sleep between shifts. There was nothing worse than being roused just bells after he’d crawled into his newly appointed bed, mind fuzzy and eyes filled with grit. At least the guard captain didn’t seem to take any special pleasure in torturing him with the erratic shifts. But it rarely was the captain who came to wake him. The captain’s underling, Lieutenant Muro Heiss, delighted in announcing himself with the toe of a polished boot.

At first he’d thought the sneer-faced officer’s grudge to be personal, or perhaps the product of a supremely sadistic nature. But it seemed not all of the Royal Guard were relieved that he’d found himself in the opportune place at the exact moment to save the princess’s life. And if the lieutenant’s boot wasn’t proof enough, it had become apparent the very first time he’d thought to take his midday meal at the Guard barracks.

The rest of the palace was still in the dark concerning the nature of the disturbance that night – the invigilator’s unique way with people had insured that. But no amount of near-death threats could stem the spread of gossip in a society as tightly knit as the Royal Guard. The bare bones account of his adventure was now the Guards’ guilty secret. He hadn’t understood that at first – it had had to be explained to him.

The mess hall had been busy with the midday meal rush. Even so, he’d been surprised when, making his way to one of the long tables, someone had jostled him.

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