Missing Elements (The Lament Book 3) (12 page)

"Done. Marty Climes, by the
way. High Shipping Councilor."

She nodded, figuring that's who
he'd almost have to be. That or in charge of the farmers. Which was someone
else she needed to get with, she realized.

"Bard Pran. High Councilor
Clarice's assistant."

There was a grunt that didn't
even seem surprised, and the man moved into the building. As he did he spoke,
however.

"Good. Get with me later
today for specifics."

Then he stomped off, as if what
had happened was just a regular thing for him.

The screaming argument wasn't
near her door at least. The
office
door that was, even if she did feel
like she was claiming the space a bit, coming in first thing and getting a fire
going, then putting on a pot for tea, in case anyone came by and wanted some.
The fighting was annoying however, so Pran popped her head out into the walkway
and looked up and down, finding it clear. That meant someone was
really
projecting well.

Sighing, she walked out,
wondering if a weapon would be in order. The voices were really rough, and at
least one of them sounded big. Both were male, but one had a slight squeak when
he spoke, which might have been the rage in his words, rather than being small.
It took a moment, but she found them with a bit of wandering around, and nearly
backed off, after stepping onto the second floor landing.

Over to the left of the first
open space, stood the boy from the day before that had realized she was a girl,
on the stairs. If her theory was right, that the old people from the past could
see through the short hair and trousers better than the ones from her time,
that meant he was likely someone to watch.

The two men that looked about
ready to hit each other were both very different looking, but nicely dressed.
Much more so than she was. After a second of listening, it was pretty clear
that it was just a normal fight really. The large man, who was older, but not
old, still having a mix of black in his hair and beard, was accusing the
smaller, more gaily dressed one, of stealing his food.

No wonder someone was about to be
knifed. Except that they were being better than that, and hadn't pulled a
weapon yet. Neither of them. If it were her, she'd want something sharp. That,
or a rifle. Then the argument would be over already, with no damage to one brand
new Bard Apprentice.

Sighing, she stepped forward.

"All right, stop that now.
Come along, back it off a bit, both of you." It was well done she thought,
but the boy went wide eyed and looked scared. Instead of stepping away from the
crazy girl, he... moved across the hallway and stood
between
her and the
large man when he spun on her.

Clearly meaning he was insane,
because the man was about to try and beat her for getting in the way, it was
clear.

"Don't you tell me to calm
myself! This bastard of a whore made off with twenty tons of flour! Half of the
western coast will starve this winter because of that. Do you know who they're
going to blame for it? That's right, the Farmers, that's who! When their
children are crying in the cold with nothing to eat, everyone will curse the
name of the people that grew the food they should have had, not some punter in
charge of
taxes
."

That string of invective didn't
go over well and the tax man, probably the High Councilor of that section,
given where they were, actually moved in to hit the other man. That meant that
she, being a person that wasn't of a lofty position had to try and stop it from
landing. Luckily for her the man didn't really know how to fight. Not that she
was great at it herself. Pran did manage to hop in front of the boy that was
protecting her and take the blow on a raised arm, rather than the side of her
face.

That would be bad.

She had a wedding to play for the
next day.

"I said, calm down and step
away! Do it
now
!" She roared the words, and seemed ready to back it
up with violence, which she really
wasn't
. Being small that didn't work
either, meaning she ended up between the two men as they started hitting at
each other. They all ended up in a heap, with her gearing up to gouge eyes and
bite when the floor boy pulled her free.

"I'm sorry miss. They aren't
even from this floor, they met on the stairs and spilled out here. I... don't
really know what to do." Again he was freaked out, which Pran understood.
If they got involved, then guess who would end up in the work camp for striking
a government official, even if they didn't do anything of the kind? She bet
their name wouldn't start with High Councilor, that was for certain.

But what
could
they do?
Let them fight it out?

"Why did the tax man take
that food? As part of a tax payment?" They didn't always work in coin she
knew. In the smaller cities and towns they often just accepted reasonable
trade. That would take having an assessor there however, which was a kind of
person that she'd never run into, herself. Normally things were done in cash,
whenever possible. The only time it wasn't was when people tried to avoid
paying any more than they had to and bartered goods and services.

Whatever the reason, the boy
didn't seem to know, and finally some other people started to come. All of them
just standing back and looking concerned. They didn't try to stop them however,
since they were all smarter than she was. Sighing she moved back in and slapped
each of them on the back of the head as they struggled on the floor.
Hard
,
too.

"That's it. You two are both
under arrest for breach of the peace. Get up now, or find yourselves facing
more than a fine.
Move
!" She kicked the bigger man in the back, if
not too hard. That got him to grunt and pause in his attempt to twist off the
head of the tax fellow. "You heard me. Get up, or so help me,
I'll..." her ad-lib ended there. She wasn't able to do much more without
killing them and that wasn't going to play well with anyone. As it was, she'd
probably just falsely arrested them or something. Really she wasn't certain
that they
could
be arrested. Not until Salle got there, just appearing
beside the men.

He grinned at her, but then made
his face go serious.

"A citizens arrest? Well, it
looks legitimate to me. You heard her. Get up, gentlemen and cease your
conflict. Failure to do so will require us to escalate this matter." He
looked at Pran when he said it, clearly expecting her to back up her arrest, it
looked like. She did, but it only took a bit of gentle arm pulling, and a few
more raised arms to keep from being hit too hard. One blow did catch her in the
ribs, but it wasn't enough to stop her. In fact she managed a credible job of
pretending nothing happened.

Ten seconds after that, they had
the two huffing and wheezing men separated, though that didn't stop them from
arguing with each other. Trying to distract them before they went for each
other again, she started snapping her fingers.

"Hey. Hey! Over here,
gentlemen. We can get to the bottom of this as soon as you both realize that
you aren't going to fix this with wrestling in the hallway. Even a duel won't
help you now, since the flour is already taken. Come with me." Leaning in,
she whispered, going low enough that not everyone in the area should hear her.
Not unless they had very good ears. "Come peacefully, or we'll be forced
to restrain you. This way." She turned and started toward the stairs
before realizing she had no clue where they should go. Guardian Salle did,
however, and gave her a funny look.

"We should restrain them
anyway, it's protocol."

She nodded, actually having done
that before, more than once, herself.

"Right, then we walk them
backwards down the stairs. I just don't want them to fall. It is down,
right?" If the spots filled by perceived importance then the Guardians
might be on the second floor. Money ruled, after all. Everyone knew that. The
words did get a nod however, and the Guardian took the lead, moving suddenly in
front of them, dropping from her view at least twice as he did it. Showing off.

That would be about reminding the
men that he, at least, was a quasi inhuman being that would brook no
foolishness, to keep them in line.

She didn't do that herself, just
taking both men by an arm and turning them, so they were slowly going down the steps,
in front of her, side by side.

"If they start to fight
again you'll need to get out of the way, Guardian Salle, because I'm planning
to kick them down the steps." She smiled at the men and winked at the
smaller one who was glaring at her finally, ignoring the real threat, who was
right next to him. "Not that I
want
to. Then I'd be fined too, and
I don't have any money at the moment. Just started a new job, you know how it
is." They probably didn't, but the larger man gave a stiff nod anyway, and
glanced her way.

"Guardian?" It was more
politely said than she would have expected from anyone that was less than two
minutes from a fight and trying not to fall to their death, walking like they
were.

Before she could say anything,
Salle laughed.

"That's right. She's
also
a Bard. Bet you didn't see that one coming, did you? I spoke with High
Councilor Saran about you last night, and she mentioned that they never
actually let you out of your apprenticeship with us. Is that why Guardian Clark
is supposed to be working with you in the mornings on fighting and
skills?" That probably confused everyone but her, since she sort of got
it, after a fashion. It really was a matter of paperwork, she bet. That could
still work, however, even if only as a sign that she was polite and backed her
word up, no matter how silly the situation.

"Yep. I might even have to
stand guard around here, if he says so. Probably not, since I'm really not good
enough yet. I gave my word however and until Saran says I'm done, I have to try
my best to follow what I'm told."

The banter had both men
listening, even as they bled a bit from their mouths and noses. The big man had
a scratch on his cheek, but the smaller man seemed to have a nice knot on his
forehead from impacting something hard. The floor was the most likely culprit.

The Guardians had a large space,
but it was nearly all the way across the building from where they started that
was a good walk, going like they were. Salle was in the lead, but at the door
turned and stepped backward a few steps.

"I'll open the door and pass
down the way here. You follow me, and we'll trade places in a spin. Then I'll
go into the room first. Got it?"

"Understood." Then she
repeated it all, because it sounded official and like she and the other
Guardian were a team, using all the same words like that.

These men were still angry, and
might fight each other, but weren't exactly hardened thieves or killers,
thankfully. Either one could have tossed her into a wall on the spin, but
didn't. Salle called out instructions, and they put each one, protesting now
that they got the idea, into a tiny cell each.

Tax man was the louder of the
two, and spoke to her directly.

"Here now, I'm a High
Councilor. You do
not
wish to cross me!"

She nodded, that being true.

"I really don't, so get with
me before my next concert and I'll get you a free seat. Both of you. You
still
have to answer for your actions however. Right or wrong, violence isn't
allowed, except in defense of yourself or others from harm. Can either of you
truly claim that right now? If so, keep it to yourself and tell it to the
Judge. I'll see about setting that up. I need to talk to Judge Sims
anyway." Hopefully she wouldn't feel like she was being rushed by this new
happening. Some girl she didn't know showing up first thing in the day would
have to seem pushy at first. It would be best then for someone else to explain
the situation to her, not Pran.

She needed a tool to handle that
for her, then. A puppet.

Luckily, she had one.

Robest. Her cake loving new
friend. Being that running messages like that was probably a part of his real
job, it wouldn't be too big of a problem for him either. She just knew who to
go to, that was all.

As she turned to go see to that,
several things happened at once. The first being that several Guardians, four
of them, were suddenly in the room. They hadn't been a moment before, and while
Pran had been distracted by her thinking and planning, she really didn't think
it was just down to all of them moving in unexpected ways at once. No, this was
some other trick. Probably a trap door, given where they were standing. A very
well oiled one that ran along the far wall.

It couldn't be too wide, or else
it would be very obvious, she knew, but Clark was big, which meant his clothing
would have to brush against the inside of whatever it was. There was no
smudging however. For a second she just thought she might be wrong, but
glancing behind the people, she could make out the seams in the stone there. No
scraping on the floor, however. So it was a quality trick. They probably just
made Tuvin scrub the place down regularly, so that no signs would linger on
their black outfits. If so, it was smart of them.

She smiled, but didn't mention it
out loud. That would ruin the trick.

No, she just needed to check in
the High Bard office to see if
they
had one too. She hadn't even thought
to check before, because it was insane. Very interesting however and
potentially useful, if it covered other parts of the building. With a wave,
Salle got the others to walk over, his face cold and unreadable again.

"Bard Pran here arrested
High Tax and High Farming. Disturbing the peace. I can back that in front of a
Judge, too. Fighting in the second floor front space. She was just about to go
and see if Judge Sims would come for a trial. That seems a bit high ranking to
me, but it's her call." There was an odd tone to the words, as if he was
ready to be yelled at, for backing her, but Clark grinned, the scar on the left
side of his face pulling at his upper lip. It wasn't the kind of thing she was
used to seeing him do, really.

Then, he wasn't supposed to be
himself, was he?

Just like her.

"Great work, Bard Pran.
Saran told me and Mara that you seemed to be fitting in here already. We should
probably let those two go, when they calm down, so they don't make a big fuss.
No need to get them all worked up over something minor. I'm sure they won't do
it again." That had to be part of his act, because, Pran knew. Guardians
prized
their ability to leave that kind of thing to the Judges. They took people in at
times, and fought to protect anyone they were guarding, even to the death if it
was needed, but they didn't try to tell what the facts were, past their own
curiosity. She guessed that was true at least. Clark had shared some of his
ideas with her, admitting that they were pure speculation, and not based on
more than guessing and trying to think things out, like anyone else might do.