UPDATE - FINISHED VERSION OF CHAPTER TEN
“I don’t understand your decision, Esben,” said Councillor Armen, a tremor evident in his voice, water forming at the base of his eye. Whether it was because he was staring directly out of the window into the morning sun or otherwise, Armen didn’t allow it to be seen.
“Councillor, the many years I have spent under your service have been some of the most proud of my life. To work for a man I respect and love has soared my heart, but there are some things more important than work itself,” Esben replied. He stood nervously on the other side of Armen’s desk. The fire roared in the background, fighting back the invasion of a chilly breeze, which had appeared ever since Esben’s entrance to the room.
Armen braved a smile. It would be hard to lose such a great bodyguard and council protector as Esben, but his heart obviously was with this young Ravin. Perhaps he could do the nation of Norfor an even greater service and the new ambassador alive. Armen knew that there was a bright future on the horizon for such a stubborn, quick-thinking, popular man. It’s the royal blood pumping in his veins.
“Well, Councillor…do you accept my request?” Esben pressed. He was twitching with anxiety, his left leg bobbing up and down unconsciously, and sweat appearing on the tall man’s brow.
Armen sighed as he got up and moved round his desk, moving away fro the cluttered papers and spilt ink lying idle on his desk, and the messy bookcases against the far wall. He slapped Esben on the shoulder, “Oh my good friend, how could I refuse? Go with Ravin. But if you let anybody lay one hand on him, you’ll have me to stand up to!” he said, with a short laugh afterwards, but a serious glance shining through.
“Don’t you worry, Councillor Armen, Ravin is safe with me. I’d go to the Fires of Nurvu and back with him.”
“I believe you, Esben. I can’t think of a better man for the job,” the Councillor replied, with real conviction.
* * * *
Ravin stood confused in the city stables. Never had such attention been placed on him, and while he found it almost pleasurable, it brought to him a pressure never before experienced. Every second someone wanted to check something, or someone had a greeting from some noble, and so on and so on. And not to forget the preparations for his journey.
Daymin, his appointed aide, was a enthusiastic young lad, but was accustomed to making silly mistakes. This was the morning of their departure, and already he’d forgotten to pack half of Ravin’s clothes, spilt hot tea over Ravin and accidentally walked into one of the horses, which had neighed with discontent and smashed through the wooden walls of the stable, leaving a pile of splintered timber and a crowd of angry staff.
By the time it had all been repaired and he had negotiated it with the workers, they were running horrendously late. The sun had almost risen. He went over to talk to another two of his selected aides, both young bodyguards keen to make a name for themselves. Ravin was hopelessly lost with their names; they were identical twins, and so indistinguishable from one another. One was called Byron and the other Tyron.
“Erm…Tyron is it?” Ravin said cautiously, approaching the one closest to him, and straining to notice the differences between the fetching young men. They both had matching shoulder length blond hair.
“I’m Byron, sire. If you notice I have slightly smaller hands than my brother Tyron,” Byron replied in his high voice, quite seriously.
“Well, Byron, have you seen Daymin recently? Or perhaps that rascal Payt?” Ravin asked. Payt was his official assistant, but Ravin had only seen him twice since meeting, and all three times he had disliked the extremely pompous man. Payt gave away the impression of distaste for serving under a younger man in Ravin.
“I saw Daymin a minute ago, he was carrying some food and talking about getting hold of a pony for himself. He finds the horses a bit big, sire,” Tyron said, moving closer to Ravin, and chuckling to himself.
“Please don’t move! If you stay where you are, I can actually work out which one is which. Perhaps I should buy you a blue and red ribbon each to differentiate between the two of you. Anyway, we’ll be going soon. I’m just off to fetch Payt.”
“Okay, but by the way, By has much bigger hands. If you look at the difference between our finger lengths, mine our distinctly less in diameter…”
Ravin missed the rest and he moved as fast as he could out of the room.
* * * *
Despite Payt’s request for extra time to improve his hair and Daymin going back to grab his favourite necklace, Ravin and his four companions managed to get everything, including three horses and a pony, ready in time for their exit, just past sunrise. As they trotted down the slowly declining hill to the East Gates of Norforda, the light glittered off their equipment, and to any spectator they would have looked like glittering angels.
They rode in a line; Tyron taking point and Byron the rear (at least Ravin thought so), and then Daymin, Ravin and Payt filling out the middle. No crowds wished them luck, for no-one knew the attempts of their mission, but they still received a few smiles and waves from passing citizens who were accustomed to seeing off such important officers of Norfor. The East Gate was especially busy with travellers to the mountains.
Ravin wasn’t unduly bothered; they didn’t need unwanted attention. But still something was missing as he approached the gates, as if he expected his father, or even maybe Shamer, though Ravin almost laughed off the latter. He just desired someone he knew to be with him. For the first time in years and years, Ravin was lonely.
So perhaps it was fate when he turned to glimpse the rising dust to the right of him, and the increasingly loud noise of a galloping hose, and the sight of a distinctly familiar person. Sergeant Esben was late, but he was fashionably late, with a blazing smile.
“Esben? Shas’er wept! What are you doing here?” Ravin cried out as Esben stopped beside him. All of Ravin’s companions turned round to see what the pause was for.
“I could ask you the same question, young one! My, my, you’ve grown up into a proper man, haven’t you?” Esben replied, checking Ravin up and down.
Ravin heard a choking sound, and swivelled his horse to the side to see it was Payt attempting to gain his attention.
“Sire…we do not have time to delay for old friends,” Payt said in his most authoritative voice possible. He was a skinny man, with bony limbs and a small mole protruding to the top right of his mouth.
Ravin sighed, “Well, we have time for…Sergeant…Esben,” he said, reading Esben’s rank from his buttons, “He is a very good old friend. In fact, what are you doing here Esben? How did you even know I was going?”
“I’m protector to Councillor Armen, it’s not hard to find out these things,” Esben said simply.
“Are you off-duty then?”
“Perhaps I should have said ex-protector. I resigned last night.”
“Why did you do that?”
“To come with you of course. I couldn’t let you go on such a big journey without somebody with my charm, intelligence, flair….” Esben started.
“Yeh, we get the picture,” Ravin said with a laugh, and a playful push on Esben’s shoulder, “By the way, this young lad is Daymin, and he’s my aide. The two brutes at either end are Tyron and Byron, though I’m not sure which is which, as you can see, they’re identical. They’re here to prevent me from any dangerous accidents. And this lovely chap is Payt, my assistant.” Everyone except Payt waved or nodded their head as they were mentioned.
“I prefer my correct title of Deputy Ambassador, sire. Any other words are just patronising to my duties,” Payt said with a hint of loathing.
Ravin rolled his eyes so only Esben could see.
“Well, Sergeant, I’m sure we can take just one more person. It won’t hurt us, I guess. As long as you don’t scare off any locals with that haircut,”
Payt made a choking sound again, “Ambassador sir, this is most…irregular. Adding more travellers to our party will only hope to make our mission more noticeable, which is something we are aiming not to achieve.”
“As much as you disagree, Deputy Payt, I’m in charge here, and I say a little more protection is a good enough risk to take to ensure the safe passage of this party to our destination.”
Payt nodded disdainfully and looked away. Esben smiled happily and immediately began shaking hands with Tyron and Byron, and a very embarrassed Daymin, who was unused to being treated as an adult.
Before long, they called to the gatekeepers, and the ancient timber croaked and groaned as the hinges swung open to reveal the sweeping Norfordian countryside, with it’s low hills and ridges, and thin streams raking towards the ocean. Immediately the fresh air filled their lungs and they six of them galloped away from the city, without looking back.
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This has been a long time coming; sorry about that, been in a sport of writer's block, sort of. At least that's my hidden cover for being very lazy.
Anyway, I'm not sure if this is any good because most of my recent writing has been of a low standard, so tell me honestly what you think.
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