Shift. Chapter 11

(Once again, cut short because of internet issues- I suppose its really Chapter 10, part two.)

One of the more interesting political structures in our modern world is that of the Kingdom of Callania. Whilst they maintain the overall hierarchical structure of many other Western nations, their royalty is selected by election, rather than by birth. The children of incumbent Kings or Queens are often put forward for election, but they are not always the favourite choice. The longest the throne has stayed with one direct family is three generations, culminating in the current leaders, King Tanon and Queen Elerina. Should one of their children win the next election, their family would be the most successful in history.

Excerpt from “Politics of Our time”

***

There was the faintest movement, a slight sway of the curtains and a flicker of the firelight. Penry looked up from his desk, his expression frozen, hesitant.

“Here already?” he queried into the darkness.

“I am,” she replied materialising suddenly just on the edge of his peripheral vision. He turned to face her, a smile creeping across his features.

“I call. You come. I could get used to this,” he said, in a slightly mocking tone. The figure blurred out of sight. Penry frantically glanced all round himself, his eyes finally alighting on her face, two inches from his left shoulder.

“Don’t,” was all she said, venom dripping from her tone.

“What a clever little pixie you are!” he exclaimed, trying to hide his consternation.

“Nice. But I am not a pixie.” She moved away from him, crossing to stand near the firelight.

“Can’t blame me for trying,” he replied with more composure. “So you’re not a pixie, an elf, a fairy or a hob. I’m getting quite a list here.” He pulled a sheet of paper towards himself and made a note.

“No. Those creatures are fictional.” She pushed the hood from her face, revealing a swathe of thick red hair, twisted up and tied in loops about her head. Her features had a slightly blurred appearance, although her eyes were clear and bright, brilliant white disks.

“No? Even hobs?” He replied, in mock seriousness.

“Especially hobs. So what do you want?” she asked, pacing in front of the fire, her image blurring and contorting slightly in unison with the waves of heat.

“Not so fast. Small talk first,” he replied evenly, folding his hands across his lap. “So, where have you been recently?”

“Working,” she replied tersely. “As I’m sure you know already. If you insist on asking me anything, ask me something you don’t know.”

“Working? I hope they paid you well,” he replied somewhat loftily.

“Of course.” She stopped her pacing, examining the objects lining the fireplace.

“I sometimes wonder, what does an evil, soulless creature like yourself actually spend money on?” Penry leaned back in his chair, a slight smirk playing about his lips.

“I often wonder the same of you,” she replied bluntly, picking up a strange little statue adorning the edge of the fireplace.

“Kings have numerous expenses,” Penry replied smoothly, totally unfazed by her reply. “I find that my Kingdom drinks gold like water. But you. You I just do not understand.”

“And that is why you will never have my powers,” she replied, glancing up from her examination of the ornament. “Why do you have this?” she continued, brandishing the ugly little thing, “Some sort of imp is it?”

“I was given that by an emissary from Wahalanang. It has some sort of importance there.” Penry shrugged. “Their ways are strange. I take it then, that I can cross “imp“ off my list as well then?”

“Wahalanang?” she replied, ignoring his latter comment, but with a slight inflection of curiosity entering her tone. “There are interesting stories about that part of the world.” She put the idol back in its place and turned to face him. “So? What did you want?”

“On to business already? How boringly efficient of you,” Penry replied with mock-hurt.

“I suppose you have more pointless and personal questions to put to me,” she answered in a dull and slightly scathing tone.

“Well, now that you mention it…” he began and then broke off with a laugh. “Ok, ok. I promise to waste no more of your precious time. To business then.” He held out an envelope, sealed in black wax. She reached across to take it and as she did so, he brushed his fingers lightly across hers. She hissed and snatched her hand back.

“Never touch me,” she spat at him, her eyes flaming white with anger. “You know that.”

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist,” he laughed back, putting his hand over his heart.

“Idiot,” she hissed, breaking the seal on the letter.

Penry leant forward, slamming one hand on the table in front of him. “Do not try my generosity,” he growled threateningly.

There was a sudden, complete stillness. She fixed her eyes on him, her features otherwise blurred in darkness.

“Then do not try mine,” she replied, her voice seeming to come from far away, as if down a long, echoing tunnel.

Penry shrugged and leant back in his chair. “So can you manage the job?” he asked, somewhat sulkily.

“Of course,” she replied, folding the letter up. “But next time you want to speak to me, do not send your servant. You know how to contact me.”

Penry shifted slightly uncomfortably in his seat. “Why? Embarrassed that my simple General can track the famous Assassin?”

There was a silence.

“I will not tolerate his presence again. I spared him in recognition of our long-standing contract. My patience is wearing very thin.”

“You are not as strong as you think,” Penry replied, turning away from her momentarily. When he looked back, she was gone.

***

SILVETERA CLAIMS CALLANIA

In a shock move, the Kingdom of Silvetera, lately swollen by the gain of the Kingdom of Arrozale, has moved against Callania, claiming this Kingdom as its own. What should our country do about such tyranny? That is the question being hotly debated in today’s Council Chamber…

Excerpt from “AETYORTHIRI TIMES”

***

With a flutter of wings, the two sisters settled on the ground, hidden deep amongst a cluster of close-growing trees. Srynia shifted back to human form first, collapsing to the floor. Riarna shifted shortly after, reaching down to assist her sister.

“Are you alright?” she asked anxiously.

“It’s the shift,” Srynia replied weakly, “It’s just taken it out of me a bit.”

Riarna shook her head. “I’m sorry. I should’ve let us stop sooner. I just wanted to put enough distance between us and those creatures.”

“I know, it’s not your fault,” Srynia immediately began to comfort her. “I wanted to keep going.”

“What’s wrong with your neck?” Riarna asked suddenly, looking at the deep gauges the Werserk had left.

“Nothing. Just that one that got me earlier,” Srynia looked sad, suddenly remembering what she had been trying to forget.

“Why didn’t you tell me? You need to heal that before we go any further!” Riarna stood over her sister, her posture slightly threatening.

“I don’t think I have the strength,” Srynia replied weakly.

“Let me,” Riarna said in a gentler tone. Crouching down again, she put her hands over the wounds and closed her eyes. Slowly, the flesh began to knit and colour, smoothing back to the texture of pure skin.

“Thank you,” Srynia said, flexing the muscles on her back and rubbing her shoulder. She touched the necklace that was still hanging around her neck.

“Look, I’ve got blood on it.” She began to rub at the flakes of dried blood encrusting the gold.

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll clean it up next time we stop for water.”

“It was our mothers,” Srynia continued dully, looking into her sister’s eyes. “What are we going to do without them?”

“We will go on,” Riarna replied firmly, swallowing the lump beginning to form in her throat. “We don’t have time to grieve now. We have to keep going. To do whatever we can to push back these scum, these invaders.” She clenched her fists, a furious expression crossing her face.

“We’d do better to leave. To take refuge in another country,” Srynia replied fatalistically.

“No. We must do what we can. You know that’s the right thing to do.”

Srynia bowed her head in silent acknowledgement of that fact.

“Fine. But where should we start?”

“The palace. That would be a primary target of the Silveterans, but we’re likely to be able to make contact with someone who can set us on the right course.”

“You hope,” Srynia replied tartly.

“I know,” Riarna asserted firmly. “I don’t know how I know. I can just feel it deep down inside me.”

“If you say so,” Srynia sighed. “How are we going to set about getting there?”

Riarna looked off into the distance, a slight frown creasing her features. “Horse-form. I’ll change occasionally to check our bearings, take bird-form to scout around. But we’ll mainly use horse-form.”

“That’ll be easy for me, but won’t it make us quite loud and slow?” Srynia asked, doubt tingeing her tone.

“No. It’ll be fine. You’ll need to save your strength in case we encounter any resistance.”

Riarna shifted into horse-form, bringing any further discussion to a close. Srynia shook her head and then joined her sister in horse-form. The two turned and setting out at the trot, soon disappeared amongst the overgrown forest.

***

C. H(aroni): By the time we decide to help them, it will be too late!
Disturbance. Quiet called.
C. K(aissen): But the question at stake is whether we should help them or not. A decision we should not make in haste!
C. H. And if we don’t help them, what next? You think that Kingdom’s greed will stop at our borders?
Disturbance. Quiet called.
C. K.: More reason to keep our forces here, where they can protect our land!
General uproar.

Minutes of the Meeting of the National Council, Aetyorthiri.

***

“They can’t keep us here! What right have they?” Prince Rhydyn repeated again to general mutters from his family.

“You can keep saying that, but it isn’t going to change anything,” King Tanon replied wryly, shaking his head at his son’s impatience.

“We haven’t done anything to them,” Rhydyn continued, reluctant to give up on his theme. “We’ve always been a very peaceful country.”

“But they haven’t,” Queen Elerina interjected with a sigh. “We share a world with warmongering nations. We were just not sufficiently prepared for this. To be honest I never expected Aleyn to allow it to go this far.”

“Aleyn is firmly under Penry’s thum,” Tanon replied with a snort of derision. “She is half the woman she used to be.”

“It is a shame.” Elerina shook her head and sighed again.

“A shame?” Rhydyn repeated, slightly incredulously. “I can’t believe how calmly you’re taking this!”

“Well, how else can we take it? It does no good to get worked up,” his mother replied gently. “We’re lucky to only be under house-arrest.”

“Long may it last,” Tanon added grimly. “I don’t trust Penry. I don’t think he’ll keep us alive unless he has some need of us.”

“If I could just get out of here,” Rhydyn said with a slightly exasperated sigh. “You know I can’t stand being stuck indoors.”

“I know, I know,” Elerina replied.

Rhydyn crossed to the window and stared out glumly over the fields surrounding the palace. He took a sudden step forward, leaning against the window frame, staring out into the distance.

“Who’s that?” he asked to the room in general. “Do they want to get themselves killed?”

“What is it?” Tanon asked curiously, getting to his feet and crossing to the window.

“Two horse-shifters. In the forest. They mustn’t realise that the Werserks are patrolling this area. But why come here in the first place?”

“I can’t see them, where are they?” Tanon asked, squinting at the trees.

“There. In amongst the trees. Two bays.”

“I can’t see them.”

“They’re there. Look!” Rhydyn pointed, his tone increasingly frustrated.

“They’re very well disguised. I can’t see them.”

Elerina alighted from her chair and swept across to the window.

“Can you see them mother?” Rhydyn asked, hope tingeing his voice.

“I think so,” Elerina replied cautiously. “They are standing very still.”

“But what are they doing here? Everyone else has fled,” Rhydyn continued, allowing himself to become just slightly excited.

“I don’t know,” Tanon replied gloomily, “But they’re going to get themselves killed.”

“I’m going to keep my eye on them,” Rhydyn stated firmly. “At least it’ll give me something to do whilst I’m stuck here.”