FOURTEEN - Esmarine

Esmarine meets with an old friend who warns of imminent danger.

Esmarine sat alone in her bedroom, waiting for her father to return from the council meeting.  He said he was going to speak with her about her actions with Zultan earlier.  I can’t wait to tell him what happened.  But now a few hours had passed, and the waiting was dragging her excitement down.  Maybe it won’t actually be a good thing.  Maybe this is part of what they’re talking about in the council meeting.  I might be in a lot of trouble if the King isn’t happy with me… But it wasn’t my fault!  I was just trying to save Saxon and Sephora and Zultan got in the way!

The waiting was the worst part.  She was bored, and boredom tended to make her mind wander.  The more wandering it did, the more she started to worry about things that she probably shouldn’t.  She suddenly remembered why she needed to rescue Saxon and Sephora to begin with… Atherton was exiled.  He was gone forever.  Her eyes started to well up, but she brushed away the tears.  Don’t cry.  There’s no point.  It didn’t help when Mom died, and it won’t help you now.

Maybe he’s alive, she thought.  Maybe he found the food that the hunters always bring back and he’s living out there alone.  That would mean that one day I could go find him.  And then he could see his brother and sister again and I could tell them all about their brave big brother who took care of them for years while they were little!

It was a nice thought, even as she told herself that it would never happen.  If Atherton is alive, he won’t last years.  No one survives Exile.  And I’ll probably never get another chance to see Saxon or Sephora, so I’ll never be able to tell them about their brother.

More than anything, she needed something to take her mind off of everything that had happened today.  If she couldn’t do that, then she needed to talk about it with someone.  There was only one person in all of Xantom she could talk to who might be able to help her forget today’s tragedy.

I’m not waiting here any longer.  If I am in trouble, it’s not like I’m going to get into any more.

She hopped off her bed, walked through the house, and out the front door.  She made her way up the street, heading for Riordan’s house.  As she passed street after street, she couldn’t stop herself from thinking about Atherton.  She had found him at one time or another on every one of these streets, bringing food back to the Outskirts for his siblings.  I’m never going to be able to forget about him, she realized.

Now her only friend left in the city was Riordan.  He was getting very old.  He had been the Head of the King’s Guard back when Xanthus VII had still been alive.  At some point before or after the King’s death (Esmarine could never remember the exact details), Riordan had renounced his position and decided to live like any other Xantomian, in a small house towards the front of the city.  He was still full of stories, and her favorite thing to do was listen to him talk about the way things used to be before Seven died.

She arrived outside Riordan’s front door, which was slightly ajar.  She slipped inside without knocking, as she always did.  It had become something of a game to her to see how long it took him to notice when she was inside his house.  Over the past year or so, she had gotten extremely good at getting in unnoticed.

Riordan was sitting at the table with another, younger man who Esmarine had never seen before.  The only light came from a small candle on the table.  The two spoke in whispers, and showed no signs of having heard her come in.  Still got it.  She stopped to listen to their conversation.

“…Vanderford says that it’s firmly sealed,” the stranger said.  “Xanthus closed the entrance before he died.  Nobody can get through.”

“How long have you been trying?”

“Years,” the young man said.  “It’s at a point where we’ve run out of options.  That’s why I came to you.”

“I don’t know how much you expect me to do.  I wasn’t around anymore when the King sealed it off.  That’s really the only way I know of.  Have you made any sort of contact with anyone?”

“Unfortunately at this point we don’t have any way of doing that.”

“Keep trying to open the passage.  That’s the best advice I can offer.  Otherwise, I’m afraid the city is doomed.”

What are they talking about?  A passage to where?

“I did hear something else you might find interesting… Vanderford told me the King is planning on leading the Hunt tomorrow.”

“The current King?  Xanthus VIII?  That is interesting.  I’ll be very interested to hear his explanation as to why he suddenly decided to do something to help us.  Desperation, I would assume.  That boy was nothing but trouble when he was younger, that’s for sure.”

If the King is leaving on the Hunt tomorrow… who’s going to take care of Saxon and Sephora?  Was he lying about that?

“At least he’s trying something,” the stranger said.  “It’s more than we can say for him these last eighteen years.”

Esmarine took a quiet step forward to get a better look at the stranger.  He was much younger than Riordan, but he was facing away from her so she couldn’t make out any details of his face.

“He’s only trying something because it’s his last option.  If he doesn’t come up with a new source of food and supplies, he’ll die just like the rest of us.  He may be the last to go, but then he has no one to rule.”

“It doesn’t make any sense, Riordan.  Even with the passage closed, there should have been enough wood, iron, and oil to last us another seven years.”

“Excess.  It’s exactly why I always knew this Xanthus would be a terrible leader.  He never learned not to use too much.  No one ever taught him.  I can’t help but feel partially responsible.  I should have stayed around to raise him right after his father died.”

“Don’t blame yourself. It’s Willoughby’s fault.  Even if you had tried to stay, he wouldn’t have let you.  That old b*****d could have slowed things down, but he was too selfish in his own right.”

“He got a little too comfortable being in charge.  I should have killed him when I had the chance.”

Esmarine let out a very quiet gasp and quickly clamped a hand over her mouth.  But she already knew it was too late.

“What was that?” the stranger asked, turning towards the sound.

“I didn’t hear anything,” Riordan said, peering into the darkness.

“I could have sworn…” the stranger said, standing up.

Esmarine backed up slowly.  I shouldn’t be here… I shouldn’t have heard any of this conversation.  Now they’re going to catch me and I’ll be in even more trouble.  The stranger approached her with an arm outstretched in the darkness.

“Is someone there?” he called.  Esmarine took another step backwards and her foot made the softest noise as it bumped into a small rock on the floor, but it was enough for the man to hear and locate her.  His hand darted forward and grabbed the collar of her shirt.  “Got you!”

He pulled her into the light, and the two men got a good look at her.

“Esmarine?”  Riordan seemed legitimately shocked.  “Why didn’t you tell me you were here?”

“I was trying to play our game,” she said, trying to play it off.

“This was no game,” Riordan said.

“Never mind that,” the stranger said.  “How much did she hear?”

“She’s just a girl, Tadhgan.  Sit down.”  Reluctantly, he let go of her shirt collar and sat.

Esmarine finally had a good look at the man’s face.  He was younger than she thought, younger even than her father, probably in his early twenties. He was undeniably handsome, with wavy brown hair and blue eyes that sparkled in the candlelight.  His beard was thick, but cut short.  If his face weren’t so scrunched up and angry looking, he might actually be kind of charming.

“Esmarine, tell me what you’re doing here,” Riordan said.

“I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to spy on you, but when I came in, you were talking and I couldn’t�"”

“It’s fine,” he said, cutting her off.  “I’m not mad at you.  Just calm down and tell me the reason you came over.”

“My friend got exiled today and I went to go rescue his little brother and sister from the Outskirts but there were these two guards there and they were taking them both into custody because the King said he would take care of them for Atherton and I tried to stop them and I spit in one of their faces and I thought my dad would be mad at me but he didn’t seem like he was but then he went into a council meeting and I thought maybe Zultan would tell the King what happened and my dad would have to punish me so�"”

“Slow down!”  Riordan chuckled.  “Everything is going to be fine, I promise you.  You just need to relax and explain everything very calmly.”

She took a deep breath and started from the beginning.  She explained the entire day, from meeting up with Atherton after his first time in the city (although she left out the thieving part, and the part about it being before curfew, and the part about the crack in the city wall) to following him to his home in the Outskirts and meeting up with him again at his exiling ceremony.  She explained her intention to rescue Atherton’s siblings and care for them herself but when she arrived, there were already two guards collecting Saxon and Sephora for the king.

Tadhgan made her repeat herself three times.

“You’re positive?  They said that the King was going to take care of the children himself?”

“Yes.  That’s what they said.  They could have been lying but they definitely said it.  I know I didn’t make that up.”

Tadghan turned to Riordan.  “What’s gotten into him today?”

“I have no idea.  It doesn’t sound anything like him.”

“First he decides he’s going to watch after this boy’s brother and sister, and then he’s going to lead the Hunt tomorrow… if it was just about saving himself, he wouldn’t have taken in these orphans.”

“Questioning it isn’t going to do us any good.  The fact is, it happened.  We’ll worry about why later.  Now we just have to worry about what to do about it.”

Tadghan turned back to Esmarine.  “Have you told anyone?”

“No, I haven’t even seen anyone.  I was just coming here to tell Riordan.”

“Go,” Riordan said to Tadghan, “see what you can find out.  See how far this goes.”  Tadhgan grabbed his things and disappeared out the front door.

“Are you sure you aren’t mad at me?” Esmarine asked.

Riordan took a deep breath and looked into her eyes.  His eyes were filled with warmth.  “No, Esmarine.  I’m not mad at you.  A little disappointed, maybe.  You shouldn’t have been listening in on my conversation, a conversation that you weren’t invited to hear, but I understand.”

“What were you talking about?  Something about an entrance being blocked off, and the old King…?”

“There’s a lot more going on in Xantom than you know about.  It’s difficult to explain and is probably pointless right now.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that unless Xanthus or someone else can find a way to keep us alive, we’re all going to die.  Very soon.”

“Why were you both so concerned about Atherton’s little brother and sister?”

“It’s unexpected.  Unnatural, even.  When we’re on the brink of criss and Xanthus does something this out of the ordinary, it raises questions.”

“What kind of questions?  They’re just kids.  Isn’t it a good thing?  Shouldn’t people know that the King is starting to care about other people?”

“You can’t tell anyone about that.  Promise me.”  He looked her straight in the eye and held the look.  There wasn’t a trace of jest in his voice.

“I promise.  Why not?”

“We have no idea how people might react.  It could cause chaos.  People might start killing each other for a shot at their children being able to live with the King.  I don’t know what the fool was thinking when he took them in, but hopefully his guards and Willoughby are smart enough to keep this thing quiet.”  He looked at Esmarine and apparently he could see the confusion on her face.  “Don’t concern yourself with the details, sweetheart.  But make sure you keep yourself safe.  Things are about to get very, very bad around here, and I’m very sorry for everything you’re going to have to go through.  I hope you’re ready.”

As soon as he was done speaking, the sound of a drum echoed out over the city, and then once more.  The two of them waited to see if there would be two more, but there was only silence.  Riordan stood up slowly and made for the door.

“It looks like Xanthus is about to make his big announcement.”