Song of Blood & Stone (Earthsinger Chronicles #1)(35)
Benn stepped into the room and closed the door. “He claims to be having a difficult time. None of the men are talking.”
Jack stood abruptly, toppling his chair. “They killed ninety men. Innocent men. If the magistrate is unable to do his job and find those responsible, I’ll find someone who can. Tell him that.”
Benn nodded. “What else is troubling you?”
“Is that not enough?” Jack snorted.
His assistant eyed the mess on Jack’s desk, which was usually kept in pristine neatness.
“The Council.” Jack shook his head and shuffled the papers in front of him. “The Sisterhood doesn’t have the resources to care for all the arriving refugees. Another group came over the mountain just this morning, twenty kilometres north of here. We will have to help with their care, but the Council is refusing to respond to my cables.”
“Perhaps after the coronation—”
“Yes, I’ll have to wait until then,” he interrupted. “We’ll need additional funds for the troop buildup here, and they’re just not bloody listening.” He turned to the low window that looked out over the squat buildings of the base. “A bunch of old bureaucrats sticking their heads in the sand.”
“In a day’s time, they’ll have to listen to you.” Benn came to stand by him, offering his presence as support. He was a good man, one Jack trusted, who had been with him for close to three years, traveling from base to base without complaint. He had a young family of his own back in Rosira that he probably didn’t see often enough.
“In a day’s time, any freedom I had will be gone.” He held back a sigh. Responsibility beckoned, but every step that brought him closer to the capital took him farther from Jasminda. He would give anything to stop time and spend an eternity the way he had last night, even if it did mean sleeping on the ground. But the city would swallow him up as it had his mother, to the point where she’d had to escape to another country to find any peace. After tomorrow, he was unlikely to have even a moment to himself, much less one to spare to lie in Jasminda’s arms.
What he couldn’t tell her last night, what he didn’t want to think about was that once they arrived in Rosira, his life would not be his own. His duties would overwhelm his entire life. He would see her settled somewhere safe, make sure she was taken care of, but anything more was only wishful thinking.
“How do you stand being so far away from them?” Jack’s voice was thick as he tried to swallow his emotion.
“Ella and the baby?” A smile crept onto Benn’s face. “She writes every day. Told me just yesterday she’s having a phone line put in. It will cost a fortune, but it will be worth it to hear her voice more often.”
Jack closed his eyes for a moment, remembering Jasminda’s sleep-coarsened voice wishing him well as he’d left her that morning. He rubbed the back of his neck, a bit stiff from his night on the ground.
“What we do here keeps them safe,” Benn continued. “I could have joined my father on the docks back home and seen them every day, but then I wouldn’t be sure . . . I wouldn’t know I was doing everything I could to protect them.”
Jack inhaled deeply and let out a frustrated breath. “I don’t want to go back there.”
Benn looked up, chagrined. “I didn’t mean—”
“No, I know. Duty calls me to Rosira, so I must go. But I want to be sure, too. I don’t want to leave . . . those I care for unprotected, either.”
“But you won’t. You have much more power than a dockworker.”
Jack leaned a hand against the glass. It was still early, the base just beginning to come to life. “Wouldn’t it be simpler though if that’s all I was?”
Benn’s brows drew low, and he was quiet for a moment. “Duty is a hard thing,” he said, “but it’s the measure of a man. How you respond to its call is what the world will remember. If they remember you at all.” He clapped a hand on Jack’s shoulder. “You they will remember, my friend.”
Jasminda’s face stole into his vision, blocking out all else. He didn’t want to be remembered in the history books; he only wanted to live in a world where he could exist inside her kisses, breathe in only air scented with her fragrance. Where position, class, duty, and race were not things that could keep people apart.
He sighed and turned back to his office.
This was not that world.
The calm blue day died with a blood red sunset that faded to black during the long journey from the eastern border of Elsira to the capital city on the western coast. It was a journey Jasminda had never imagined she’d make. For security purposes, Jack rode in an armored vehicle, which couldn’t legally transport civilians. He’d woken her with a kiss before disappearing into his work, and she had only seen him briefly that morning before the caravan of trucks and buses left the base.
She had a vehicle to herself, though her driver’s eyes would flick back and forth to the rearview mirror, shooting cold, suspicious glances at her. She didn’t waver, meeting his gaze each time until he looked away. He was no doubt wondering why he was chauffeuring around a Lagrimari-looking Elsiran girl.
The rolling hills and dense forests of Elsira’s picture-perfect countryside sped past. Only occasionally did they pass a small village; most of the population lived on the coast. As night fell, dusty, unpaved roads eventually gave way to wider, paved highways, illuminated by electric lights and full of vehicles of all shapes and sizes.