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All he knows for certain is all senior officers have been summoned to the home of General Fairmont, and he and Liam Wexler (the only other son of a colonel at the Academy) were both told to return to their quarters during morning classes. He assumes rumors of all sorts are swirling around the campus by now. |
As much as he'd like to be able to walk about outside and find out more, he understands the reason for seclusion. Truth be told, he isn't sure that he could stay out of all the speculations that are surely growing by the moment. Cadets would all be fishing for any tidbit he might know, asking for his input. He can imag... |
"Is it true that your father is at the General's house?" |
"Do you think the General is dying?" |
"Will your father be the next General?" |
"If no one is selected as the successor, what do you think will happen?" |
No matter what happens, he's aware of the real potential for trouble. There are four colonels, and only one of them can become the next leader. If General Fairmont selects Ty's father as successor, the supporters of Col. Mosley, his father's chief rival, may make trouble. If the general selects Col. Mosley, those who s... |
Ty sits down at his desk, but it's impossible to think about his studies right now. His eyes gravitate back to the wooden box, and he lightly places a hand upon it. If Father is made General, who knows what might become possible? The thought gives him a hope that he hasn't dared to feel until just this moment. |
His door opens and Carl leans in. "Ty!" the young man yells breathlessly. "They've raised the black flag at the General's compound! He's dead! What do you think will happen next?" |
Ty tries to appear calm. "Have you heard anything else?" |
"No! But Frank says that the flag went up just minutes ago!" |
There's a sudden surge in commotion. People run past Carl in the hall. They hear loud shouts on the stairs and outside the window. |
"I've got to go see," his friend says before he bolts from the doorway toward the stairs. |
Ty runs to the door. Cadets continue to pour out of the building and he can't hold himself back from finding out what's happened. He joins the throng rushing down the stairs. It's an old building, dating back to late in the Second Generation, so the whole staircase bounces with the footsteps of dozens of cadets. |
When he gets to the ground level, Ty joins a sea of young men streaming out the door toward the large courtyard where many of them hang out between classes and after hours. He can hear a rising chorus of male voices singing the anthem of Aegea as he exits the building. Hundreds of cadets and soldiers are there. |
"There's Ty McClaren!" somebody shouts and fellow classmen rush in to surround him. Some of them are giving him playful shoves, others are shouting excitedly. He has no idea what to make of it. |
Carl presses through the crowd and shouts above the din, "They've sent for our battalion flag! They're taking our flag to the general's house!" |
The blank expression on Ty's face says he has no idea what this means. |
"Your father is general now! The riders have been dispatched and they're going to raise our flag—your father's flag—at the general's house!" |
The Academy is Jubal's stomping grounds. His battalion headquarters are here and he has oversight of everything that happens here. His appointment may not be met with joy throughout the land, but for the vast majority inside these walls, it is welcome news. |
Amidst a frenzy of shouting, the anthem starts again. They hoist Ty up on their shoulders and begin marching around the courtyard with him aloft while they sing. |
Of course, Ty realizes. That's what happens. They raise the flag of the new general. |
CHAPTER 4 – Missing Daughter |
When loyalty holds the highest rank—above truth, love, and justice . . . calamity is sleeping in your house.”—Cora McClaren, great-grandmother of Gen. Jubal McClaren |
She hears voices on the bottom floor of the house, then the sound of someone coming up the stairs from the kitchen. Duana looks over at the landing, expecting to see the girl Raymond was supposed to fetch—Shaye's former roommate, Chessie. But it's not Chessie. It's Mosha, the cook who has worked for the colonel for mor... |
Certainly Mosha will have heard the news about Shaye and Jariel, and she will now attempt to plead Shaye's case in the matter. The old woman takes several steps toward the salon but doesn't cross the threshold. She stands in the dining room, hands smoothing the front of her old apron. "Ma'am." |
The ishi wants to make her point first. "I suppose you've heard that Shaye attacked my daughter." |
"That's not exactly what I heard, ma'am. Is Miss Jariel all right? Where is Shaye?" |
"Jariel is in her room and she'll recover . . . eventually. As for Shaye, she is hiding someplace, but we'll find her soon and she's in serious trouble when we do." |
Mosha's brow furrows and she opens her mouth to speak, but Duana quickly fills the silence. "I tried to be kind to Shaye—for your sake more than anything else. Nob the butcher asked me to trade for her months ago in order to make a match for his son, and I turned him down. Even after the incident this morning, I still ... |
Mosha gasps, but the ishi forges ahead with her statement. |
"Of course, she wouldn't have been welcome at the Great House any longer, but you would still have been able to go and visit with her on occasion. However, despite the continuing mercy I've tried to show to the girl, she ran away. Who knows what sort of thing she might be planning. It was the final stroke, Mosha. I sen... |
The happy demeanor normally radiating from the old cook's countenance is gone. Mosha takes another step forward. "Whatever has happened, ma'am, I'm sure there has been some sort of misunderstanding. Shaye has seen a lot of changes in her life recently and she's not been quite herself." |
"Oh! So now it's my fault for moving her into a nice room in the new building?" |
"That's not what I was—" Mosha blurts out before stopping. She makes an effort to sound reasonable. "She's a good girl, ma'am, and I find it hard to believe she would 'attack' Miss Jariel. Maybe we could all just cool down and talk about what actually happened." |
"Are you calling me a liar?" Duana barks. |
Mosha lowers her eyes. "No, ma'am. . . . I'm asking you for a personal favor." she says, her voice starting to quaver. "I'll never ask for another. Please don't harm my girl like this." |
"But she's not really 'your' girl, is she? She's a cast off, an orphan who should never have been allowed to live in this house in the first place. She never understood her position in life and if she's been harmed, she's done it to herself." The ishi turns her back to the cook, before saying, "Shaye is responsible for... |
The old woman steps into the salon and speaks again, but this time there is a tone in her voice that the matron of the Great House has never heard before. "You've poisoned Miss Jariel's heart against Shaye for years now . . . and this is going to end badly for everyone if you don't stop." |
Duana spins around. "What are you saying? Are you making some sort of threat?" |
The old woman straightens her stance and she looks Duana in the eye. "No ma'am. I'm saying your poison will harm us all." |
Duana points at the stairs and says, "Go downstairs where you belong. You can look for a trade if you'd like, but you're not going to be able to play on anyone's heartstrings. Not this time. Your days of petitioning for Shaye are over." |
An hour later, Duana is still in the small salon, sitting in a chair. Nothing seems to be going her way today. No one can find the runaway, Shaye. The girl's roommate, Chessie, was of absolutely no help at all in figuring out where she might be hiding. |
There's an eerie quiet in the house. |
She turns to look toward the window. The patch of sunlight on the floor doesn’t seem to have moved from where it was the last time she looked at it. She turns back around in her chair and stares at the broken vase in the fireplace while she waits for her daughter to come downstairs. The shards fade from her focus as sh... |
"How do you know that Gilbert Lot is 'never' coming to visit me?" Jariel blustered. "He said he would be back and he was quite sincere! He cares for me." |
She took Jariel's hand. "Your father thinks the young man is anything but sincere. He's forbidden Gib to return to Westland or to court you." |
"And I suppose you're taking Father's side." |
"Well, I heard recently that he has been chasing a number of girls in town." |
Jariel began shouting. "How would I ever know for sure? You keep me trapped out here where no one will ever visit me! If you and Father had your way, you'd lock me in this house and never let me escape until you made some sort of political match for me! Then I could marry some awful man and be as miserable as you are!" |
Duana stood and slapped her daughter. "How dare you! You won't leave the upper floor of this house until you apologize." |
Jariel crumbled into a chair and began to sob. |
After Duana left the room, the girl ran to the doorway and shouted, "You just proved it! I am a prisoner here!" before she slammed the door. |
As the memory of her daughter's accusations rumble around in her head, Duana lets out an exasperated sigh and leans back in her chair. Right after the incident with Shaye would have been a perfect time for Duana to gloss over their own little tiff and let the demand for an apology slide. |
That may have been a tactical error, since we need to present a united front to Jubal. She tells herself. But we'll work things out before Jubal comes home. |
The servant went to fetch Jariel quite some time ago. What could possibly be taking so long? She glances again at the patch of sunlight on the floor and then at the wide entrance to the room and mutters under her breath, "Beth where are you? It can't have taken that long for you to waddle up the stairs. How long does i... |
Looking back at the window, she tells herself, Jubal could be on his way home within another hour or so. |
With one hand on her back and the other under her large belly, Beth enters the room and says, "Excuse me, madam." |
Duana cannot help but stare at the huge bulge in Beth's dress. Soon we'll be so shorthanded, I'll have to get more servants for the house and the kitchen . . . although there is that little girl . . . what's her name? Ana. Perhaps Ana might do as a replacement helper for Mosha. She's about the same age that Shaye was w... |
"Excuse me, madam," the servant says again. |
"What is it?" |
"I cannot find Miss Jariel." |
Duana rises from her chair. "Where did you look?" |
"Everywhere. I looked in her bedroom and in her weaving room. I even looked up on the roof, although I know she rarely goes there. And when I came down the stairs, I noticed that the door at the bottom of the stairwell at the back of the house on the ground level was left open. Should I look outside?" |
The young captain re-fastens the top button on his double-breasted uniform tunic, then sweeps his fingers through his sandy brown hair before he places his hat squarely on his head. As a matter of habit, he looks around. Does he need anything else? No. |
"Okay," he says to his fellow officer. "Let's go then." |
They step outside and stride in the direction of the home of Col. Jubal McClaren, also known as the "great house of Westland." This is the second time this morning Capt. Fleming has been summoned to the home. Sensing some sort of power play in the works, he's bringing his friend Lt. James Bowes. James can serve as a wi... |
As the two men walk across the smooth, stone-paved road that separates the cluster of soldier's quarters from the colonel's compound, Captain Fleming squares his shoulders and rolls his head around to ease the tension in his neck. Both men pause at the gate and glance at each other before they return the salute of the ... |
Fleming steps up and pulls the gate open without waiting for assistance. Might as well get right to it. |
Once they're through the gate and around a corner in the pathway through the hedge, Fleming squints in the direction of the enormous house. A row of large, arched windows with shutters on either side are the only break in the golden yellow color of a building which is so bright in the morning sun that it actually hurts... |
The two men travel through the garden surrounding the house, and Fleming leads his friend along the path past giant ferns and a pool where water lilies serenely stand in dark water. When the two men round a corner, brilliant-feathered birds from the Poison Forest squawk at them from fancy cages, and continue their clam... |
Fleming stops once he arrives at the main staircase for the home, waiting momentarily for his companion to catch up. Normally, he'd bypass these stairs and follow the path on around to the right of the building where the colonel has offices for staff and several meeting rooms, but the colonel isn't here . . . and the s... |
The two men ascend the stone steps to the home and Fleming knocks only once before a male servant opens the door. They are escorted past a spacious, paneled entryway with a vaulted barrel ceiling then beyond a formal dining room to the home's smaller salon. The colonel's wife is standing near the fireplace. At their ea... |
Her eyes dart from one man to the other. "Captain Fleming . . . and Lieutenant Bowes is it?" |
"Yes ma'am," Fleming says as they remove their hats in unison and stow them under their left arms. "I'm sorry but we haven't received any response from the colonel yet." |
"That's not why I requested your presence. We have an urgent situation here which requires that I send a signal to town." |
The captain's brows come together. "Is someone gravely ill?" |
"Is this a life-or-death situation?" |
She considers the two uniformed sentinels standing several feet apart before she focuses her attention on Fleming. "I'm not sure what to call it, but I assure you this is very serious. The colonel would want to be informed of this situation as soon as possible." |
Fleming makes an effort not to roll his eyes. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but as I told you earlier, I've been given the strictest orders about signaling. Unless somebody is 'dead, nearly dead, or the compound is under siege,' I cannot authorize a personal message to be signaled from the tower." |
"I'm certain," she responds, "that if Major Ratliff were here, he'd send the signal." |
She has a reputation for steering into areas where she doesn't have authority and Fleming has been warned not to ever let "the colonel's missus" manipulate him into a career-altering breach of protocol. |
He keeps his firm posture. "But the major isn't here, ma'am. He was called to town at dawn, and he still hasn't returned. Perhaps, if you could tell me what the problem is, I could better decide." |
Duana doesn't move for several moments while she weighs the embarrassment of laying the family's private life open (possibly to be repeated around the tables in the soldier's mess hall) against her mounting panic. "My daughter—the colonel's daughter, Jariel—isn't in the house." |
Fleming can't grasp why this would be such a big deal. He knows the colonel's daughter is pale, skinny, and not often seen—but then, the compound is surrounded by a very tall hedge so who would ever see her anyway? Who would know what the girl's habits were? Given the girl's plain looks, who would care? A look of skept... |
"Well, it's not just that she's out of the house," Duana says, standing taller. "I didn't share this when you were here earlier, but she had a violent altercation with a servant this morning—" |
"Was your daughter seriously injured?" he quickly asks. |
"Well, no. But then the servant ran away." |
In his frustration, Fleming squeezes one eye closed as he makes an effort to connect Duana's rambling trail of logic. "So . . . you think your daughter might have gone out to look for the servant?" |
"No! I think the servant may have come back in the house and . . . done something." |
"Is the servant a large man? Could he have carried her away?" |
Duana's chin drops to her chest. "No. The servant is a young woman about my daughter's age and size—" |
"Don't you think your daughter would have made a lot of noise and struggled if she were being dragged out of the house against her will? Wouldn't someone have seen or heard this and intervened?" |
The ishi splays out her fingers and pushes her hands down as if she's attempting to keep a lid on a wildly boiling pot. "I know it sounds like a silly thing, but I forbade my daughter to leave the upper floors of the house last night and I know she wouldn't have left without my permission." |
It only takes a split second, but she sees the Aha! gleam in his eye and the short glance he shoots at his fellow soldier, before he asks, "And . . . was this the result of some sort of disagreement you had with your daughter?" |
Duana knows that Mosha, Raymond, and Beth were all in the house last evening. An interview might yield the fact that she and Jariel argued, and Jariel shouted down the stairs about being a prisoner here. "Yes." |
"And you forbade your daughter, a young woman of seventeen seasons, to leave the upper floors of the house?" |
She exhales, "Yes." |
"And you still maintain that she didn't decide to . . . say for instance, go for a walk without telling you?" |
Rapidly closing the distance between them, she leans into his face. "Listen to me! I'm her mother and I can sense something is wrong! I want you to send a signal to my husband and I want you to help me find my daughter. Now." |
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