Book Two - Chapter Eight

“You there!” a guard called as the carriage neared the city gates. The area was not especially loud, yet he shouted as if to be heard over a great din. It was meant to be authoritative, in all likelihood.

Ander and Lusya looked to the man, waving to get their attention. A tall human man with a short beard, he stood to the side of the gate, dressed in a dull gray uniform, topped with a well-polished helm and breastplate. The other guards Lusya had seen had been dressed in either the same gray or a dark blue. She had not been able to discern the meaning behind the distinction. Ander urged the horses to the side, out of the flow of traffic through the gate, and stopped the carriage in front of the guard. The guard circled around to stand beside Ander and studied his features in silence.

Lusya had thought their business in Larsev concluded after breakfast, but it seemed that was not quite the case. She had, of course, considered exchanging the coin Ander had given her, but she had decided against it. She was not in dire need of funds and as such did not have space in her purse for the resulting coins. Keeping some in her pack was an option, but she did not want to sacrifice the storage space. And if she had the coin changed even in part to copper, there would not be room in her pack, as stuffed as she kept it. The gold would do in an emergency, and she doubted she would care about the wasted money in such an eventuality.

“Are you Ander Lindun?” the guard asked at last.

Ander nodded. “That’s me. Why?”

“The captain asked me to speak with you. It’s about the reports you filed with us.”

Reports, plural? There was another besides the one about the bandits? Ander had eaten breakfast quicker than Lusya and Ariya and left the inn while they finished. He had claimed to be going for a walk and nothing more. That had seemed suspect, but Lusya hadn’t had any idea what he was doing, and nothing had seemed amiss when he had returned. She had thought that whatever he had been up to would not affect her. It was obvious now that he had, in fact, been reporting last night’s events. In how much detail, Lusya could not say.

If that had been his plan, deceiving her had been the right decision. She would have tried to dissuade him, and possibly left without him if he had insisted. A response from the guard had always been inevitable, and here it was. She did not know how harsh they were on vigilantism, but there was no reason to test it. For the sake of all involved, she hoped the guard did not try to inconvenience them too much.

“Yes, is there a problem?” Ander replied.

The guard ran a hand over his face and sighed. “Of course there’s a problem. We’re here for a reason. You can’t just take the law into your own hands, especially not if you’re going to let the culprits off at the end.”

“He does not seem to share your view of the matter,” Lusya said.

“Being nice is a good thing,” Ariya said with a huff. Lusya did not think she had much ground to stand on, given that she had been opposed to the whole operation at first.

The guard rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t asking for a child’s opinion.” Ariya let out a scandalized gasp. “Mister Lindun, are you sure you won’t give us more information about where we can find this leader of the thieves?”

Ander nodded, his expression set in a determined scowl. “I’m sure. Are you here to arrest me for that?”

“That’s not something we can arrest you over,” the guard replied. “Unfortunately, we don’t have any actual laws against vigilantism.” The guard sighed and muttered something under his breath. “Besides, even if it wasn’t perfect and you shouldn’t have done it in the first place, you did do the city a service, in a way. We’ll have to see if it pans out, but we’ll call it even for that.” He chuckled. “Although, that’s the captain’s thinking. If it was up to me, you’d already be in a cell.”

Ander gave a much less jovial laugh, scratching his head. “Lucky me. Thanks for letting me know?”

“Is that all?” Lusya asked.

Ariya nodded. “We have someplace to be.”

The guard ignored her and looked at Lusya. “You must be the companion he mentioned. Everything I said to him goes for you too. Don’t forget it. Take it with you to other cities, too.”

“Your threats are empty, but the advice is sound,” she said. “It is appreciated.”

He frowned. “Right. Anyway, one more thing. About the bandits you talked about.”

Ander nodded, eyes wide in surprise. It was understandable. Lusya had not expected to hear any more on the matter while in Larsev. She had neither expected the guards to go out of their way to inform Ander, nor for there to be anything to inform him of in such a short time frame. It had not even been twenty-four hours since he had filed his report.

Of course, she didn’t much care about getting information on them. As long as they did not cause trouble for her, the bandits could do whatever they wanted as far as she was concerned. She expected that Ander would be more interested in any updates, however.

“Don’t look at me like that,” the guard said. “It’s nothing that big. We’re taking the matter seriously, and we’ve compared it to some other reports we’ve gotten. Based on everything, the captain’s decided to send out a scouting force to track down and assess the threat if they’re still in the area, plus he’s going to send word to nobles in the area and ask them to do the same and share any information they find. That’s all. Since I was talking with you anyway, he also asked me to give you that update and let you know we’re working on it.”

“Sounds like you have it under control,” Ander replied with a smile. “I’ll leave it in your hands, then. I’m sure you’re plenty capable.”

The guard scoffed. “You didn’t seem to think that last night.”

Ander chuckled. “That’s not exactly what happened, but you’ve made your point. I’ll be more careful in the future.”

“You had better,” the guard said. “And don’t go looking for trouble with these bandits. If they come to you, do what you need to do, but try to stay safe.”

The situations weren’t comparable, so the warning seemed rather moot. Ander had had a point about him and herself being able to move quicker than the guards to address a localized threat with a known location. For tracking down and eliminating the potentially distant bandits, their resources and manpower compensated for any organizational or bureaucratic hurdles. It was a matter of scale.

Whether Ander doubted the guards’ capabilities was another issue. Based on his quickness to report incidents to them, Lusya judged that he had quite a bit of faith in them.

“We’ll be careful,” Ander said.

“Good. Farewell and safe travels, then. Go—”

“What is the difference between the blue and gray uniforms?” Lusya asked. Since they were here wasting time anyway, she might as well satisfy her curiosity.

The man blinked and gaped, obviously caught off guard. Ander looked at her with similar shock. Only Ariya was unfazed, swinging her legs and humming as she sat on the bench. Lusya was unsure why her speaking was such a shock. Just because she had seen no need to do so before, did not mean she was incapable of it.

The guard managed to collect himself a second later and cleared his throat before speaking. “We wear the colors of House Baylor, which has the most direct control over the city. Blue and gray. Who gets which is random, more or less.”

“That seems needlessly confusing,” she said.

The guard shrugged. “I don’t make the rules, miss. Is that all?”

She nodded.

“Well then, once again, I wish you all the best of luck.” He dipped into a shallow bow and waved toward the gate. “Go on through.”

Ander bobbed his head in an even smaller bow, then waved. “Good-bye.”

Ander urged the horses onward. Ariya took one last opportunity to stick her tongue out at the guard. He shook his head and turned his attention back to the flow of traffic. Seconds later, Lusya and the others were out the gate and moving on.