Flames of Attrition by Vanessa MacLaren-Wray

Author:Vanessa MacLaren-Wray [MacLaren-Wray, Vanessa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Unremembered King
Publisher: Water Dragon Publishing
Published: 2023-08-09T07:00:00+00:00

25

I’d planned to stop by the infirmary, upgraded to a hospital to serve the doctors and such we’d enlisted from the city and its environs. With all the guardsmen on assignment, nobody needed the rest of the space in that building, anyhow. After Radeo’s warning to avoid Heyliannin, I figured it best to presume the medics could manage their own arrangements and wouldn’t benefit from my crew tramping through their territory. They’d keep my wife busy, once things got started, so that was all that mattered.

Unless …

Right. Unless she decided to take her complaints directly to me. By the time she’d forged through the plaza, located the command center, made her Four push past the posted guards, and found me gone, she’d worked up a good temper.

I’d barely concluded my good-will tour of the stables, where staff had turned a harness room into a command center for Runners’ House and had found similar spaces for other guilds’ leaders. Keep in mind, I hadn’t directed this. My order had been no more specific than provide useful space for the guilds. Clearly, the principle of autonomous action applied beyond the military.

The tour consisted of entering a feed room or a repurposed foaling stall, admiring what they’d done with makeshift accommodations, and receiving cheerful thanks in return. I’d expected complaints, so the stable visit had lifted my mood considerably. One tends to forget the practical nature of those who sign up for the service guilds. They’re not in it to get rich.

I was exchanging thank-yous with the newly-elevated head of the Food Sharers, who make it their mission to be sure no one goes hungry in our well-provisioned district, when my wife marched up. Her guards hovered behind her, their expressions a mixture of anxiety and confusion.

“There you are!” she announced. “You can’t hide from me, Corren!”

“I’m hardly hiding,” I told her. To the earnest Sharer beside me, I said, “Apologies, ma’am. My wife has need of me. Thank you for your good works.”

She tipped her head. “No, thank you, Your Majesty.” I swear I caught an understanding smile on her face as she slipped away. Maybe charity workers have special insights on turmoil inside a family.

Heyliannin had the grace to look a little embarrassed. “Sorry. But it’s important.” She waved something at me: flat, shiny, book-sized.

“Oh, no. Was it damaged? Radeo should have told me.” I reached for the snake-man book, my fingers eager to detect the problem, find a solution.

She pulled her hand back, clutching the book to her chest. “No. It’s fine. It’s what you’re doing with it—you’ve got to stop!”

“We can’t talk about this here.” I reached for her free hand and pulled her along, moving us out of the stableyard and around to the nearby command center. The long room had already filled. Everyone assigned to command operations for the day had shown up on schedule. All eyes turned to us, but I fended them off with an impromptu order. “Command conference in fifteen.” Then I ducked back outside and led my angry wife down the alley between that building and the next.

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