Chapter II: A Mission of Diplomacy
Anna and Unity led me back to the manor, through the main hall, and into one of the secondary dining rooms. I’d eaten there a couple of times in the past, usually when I felt like having a bit more privacy than I could get in the long primary dining room. Of course, there wasn’t much privacy here now.
The room was completely packed, with essentially the entire population of the manor stuffed into a single room. All of the servants, Dr. Charcharias the physician, Sir Margaret, even young Felicia Halflance were there, clustered around the single central table and engaged in raucous conversation. Standing at the exact opposite end from me, staring pensively into the wood of the table, was Lady Halflance herself.
Lady Sarah Halflance, Count of the Leedreather Valley, terrifies me. And if you had seen her, eyes blazing with fury, executing a defenseless girl for attacking her house, you would be scared of her too. She was taller even than Miss Rook, and gaunt, with short black hair and a hooked nose that made me think of a vulture whenever I looked at her. As I entered the room, the sound of the door opening drew her attention, and her deep-set icy blue eyes glanced at me with a mixture of disdain and bemusement, her bony fingers tapping.
The attention made me somewhat self-conscious of my appearance as I took a spot in the corner of the room. I brushed my hair out of my eyes, tucking it behind my ear; it had been barely ear-length when I arrived on Selene, and I had only cut it a couple of times, letting it reach the nape of my neck. Maybe I should have had it cut again. Then again, I never cared much for appearing neat, especially not in front of Lady Halflance.
There were a couple more minutes of chaos, during which time Rook and a couple more of the servants filed in. I didn’t talk to anyone. Eventually, satisfied that everyone was there, Lady Halflance silenced the entire room with a single knock of her walking stick against the table.
There was a moment for the voices to fade out, then Lady Halflance began. “Parliament has given me a special mission, upon which the safety of all of Bluerose may depend, should Cassandra attempt to retake us once more. I, and one other noble woman from the opposing party, have been selected to serve as envoys to the Durkahni peoples. If we are successful, we may be able to secure an alliance, and block off the Urcos plateau as a means of entry for the armies of Cassandra.”
Halflance paused for a moment to survey the room, carefully observing their reactions. The room was divided into roughly two camps; one consisted of people like Doctor Charcharias, Rook, and others, who had expressions of surprise, awe, and deep intrigue. The other camp consisted of me, as well as most of the servants, who didn’t have a clue what the hell she was talking about.
Halflance continued. “I will be leaving the manor for some time, weeks or perhaps months, to travel to the site of the meeting on the Urcos plateau itself. Aisha will be in charge of the care of the manor while I am gone. Felicia, that means that you and Norma will have to follow her instructions as well.”
Felicia looked a little sad at the news. It made sense; even though she was a teenager, she still seemed to very much like both of her mothers. “Yes, mother,” she said.
I figured now was my chance. “Uhh, Lady Halflance, I know that this must be a big important thing, but I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. Could you maybe explain for us idiots in the back?”
Lady Halflance closed her eyes. If this was an anime, you would absolutely be able to see the little cross veins appearing on her forehead, I guarantee it. “I knew this would happen. It is good, then, that I came prepared.”
With a single smooth motion, she pulled a huge rolled-up paper from her coat and spread it out on the table. It was a map, at least four feet on a side. Instantly, I leaned over the table as far as I could to see what was on it. It was the first map of Selene I had ever seen.
The map was labeled “Imbrium”, and showed a single continent. The majority of the continent was on the left side of the map, marked with a huge text reading “The Cassandran Empire;” there were dozens of rivers, several mountain ranges, lakes and valleys and cities and so much more. On the bottom edge of this huge landmass was a small area sectioned off with black lines, marked in much smaller text as “The Miranian Principalities”. I also noticed a small region in the top left, marked “Creandas.”
More interesting was the right side of the map; separated from the main body of the continent by a huge, wide bay was a huge peninsula, somewhat similar to the way Greece is separated from Turkey, except mirrored and on a much larger scale. The inner edge of that peninsula was lined with rivers and port cities, one near the bottom labeled “Amrinval.” That, then, was the Republic of Bluerose. The outer part, farthest from the Cassandran Empire, was totally empty of cities, and named “The Great Waste.”
On the upper end of the map, which I only then noticed was indeed north, the two sides were connected by a sort of isthmus or small subcontinent. Most of that area was taken up by mountains, these being the Urcos plateau. There was, from what I could tell, only a narrow strip of land between the Urcos plateau and the bay, and dead center of it was a single star mark, Fanggard Fortress. I started piecing together what was so important about Halflance’s mission, but she was kind enough to explain for me.
“The Cassandran Empire has spent the last forty years trying to bring its rebel province back into the fold. Our secession is the Empire’s greatest failure, and our rich resources are of great value to them. Spies emplaced within the empire have indicated that the military is seeking new routes of invasion into Bluerose.”
“Our navy has managed to hold the Shalebed Bay for decades, and the main land route is guarded by Fanggard Fortress, which has only been penetrated once in the last two hundred years. The only other way to invade Bluerose by land would be through the Urcos plateau, assuming that its inhabitants, the Durkahni, were to ally with Cassandra and assist them in the passage.”
“Why not just invade the Durkahni, then?” I asked. “I can’t imagine that the Cassandran Empire cares much for avoiding wars, and looking at this map I doubt the Durkahns can win.”
Lady Halflance smirked at me, an arrogant smirk of self-superiority. “Invasion? Only a madwoman would invade across a high mountain range, through bitter cold and driving wind, against an enemy who has lived in that land since time immemorial, and will fight to the last drop of blood to hold onto it. No nation could win a war with the terrain so arrayed against them.”
I paused, scanning the map once again. “So the only way for them to get around Fanggard Fortress is if Durkahn lets them? Like in an alliance?”
Halflance nodded. “Which is why we have secured an opportunity to form an alliance with them first.” She turned back to the rest of the room, saying, “As I have said, I shall be gone for, potentially, several months. Miss Rook, you and no more than four of my guards shall be accompanying me; I expect you to make the selection. Doctor Charcharias, as my personal physician you shall be accompanying me as well.”
The next couple of minutes went like that, with Halflance explaining at length which members of the household staff would and would not be coming with her. For most of them, they were told what duties they were to perform while she was gone. That part of the meeting ended not a second too soon; in fact if it had gone on for any longer I would have collapsed from sheer boredom. Fortunately for the floors and for my dignity, the speech came to a close.
“Now that you all have your assignments,” said Lady Halflance, “I have to go off and pack up my things. You are dismissed.”
I was about to turn away and go back to the library when I realized one thing that hadn’t come up. I turned around, walked right up to Lady Halflance, and said, “I’m going with you!”
Halflance glared down at me, eyes narrow and lips pressed together. “On a sensitive and essential diplomatic mission? I think not.”
“I’ve been cooped up in this manor for three weeks,” I said, “with nothing to do and nowhere to go. This is the one chance I’m going to get to see what the outside world looks like, and dammit, I’m going to take it.”
“And let you make trouble for all of us? Never. You can’t interrupt a diplomatic mission because you’re bored,” Lady Halflance said with a sneer.
I knew what incident she was referring to; the image of the bloodless, dying face of Regan Leyrender flashed in front of my eyes, followed in lockstep by other memories, the green ring, the smell of antiseptic, a pale hand falling off of a gurney. I winced, then pushed them aside.
I grinned up at Lady Halflance. “What about interrupting a diplomatic mission so that the diplomat doesn’t go off the rails and execute a defenseless girl?”
Before Lady Halflance even had a chance to respond, I knew I had her. The incident in question was something of a sore spot between us, and Halflance knew that she wasn’t entirely in the right there. I had avoided bringing it up as much as possible, but this was important to me, dammit.
“Very well,” Halflance said. “If you think you can stay out of the way of the actual negotiations, I will allow you and your ladies-in-waiting to accompany the expedition. Think of it as a vacation.”
“Thanks,” I said, smiling. “I should probably get to packing, shouldn’t I?”
Lady Halflance nodded, then turned to go do all of her business things. I did the same.
…
The next day and a half consisted of frantic packing and massive anticipation. I didn’t have many things to pack, of course; in fact, Anna and I had to ask Lady Halflance for some money to rush out to the garment district just to get the thicker coats and things necessary for surviving the cold climes of the Urcos plateau. I also, after some prodding from both Anna and Miss Rook, packed my saber. Travel across Imbrium was always dangerous, and although they were cagey about what kind of dangers those might be, I believed the natives. Once I’d packed my notebooks and pencils and a few choice books that I hadn’t read through yet, and then put everything into a huge pile in the foyer, I was ready to go.
The morning of the second day after the meeting, all of the guards and servants and other members of the household gathered out on the front yard of the manor, where a seemingly endless train of steam carriages pulled up to cart off us and our belongings. I had to stand around for well over an hour before they got to me, which was about when I realized that I was basically considered a hanger-on. Eventually, though, I did end up looking out the window of a steam carriage as Halflance manor slowly vanished into the distance. It felt odd seeing it go away, knowing I wouldn’t be seeing it for weeks or months; the manor had been my home ever since I’d been torn away from Earth, and now I was leaving it behind too.
I had never been to the Amrinval train station, and to be honest I’m somewhat annoyed that I’ve only ever been there a handful of times, because the architecture is absolutely beautiful. The main platform is brick, Jaleran in design, covered by an enormous roof, made out of brassy metal arches that look way too thin for their size, holding up huge panes of crystal glass. Even the entrance and the outbuildings, while not as vast in their grandeur as the main platform, were like nothing I’d ever seen. They had high roofs like church steeples or nordic halls, and walls made out of the same brassy metal with huge high round windows. It was all so airy and open compared to the rest of Amrinval’s architecture that I was sure it must have been built by a different architect than the rest of the city.
Once the caravan from Halflance manor had all poured into the station, there was another hour of waiting around before we could even think about getting on the train. Not that people were all just sitting around doing nothing; rather there was just so much to be done that us little people and our pitiful allotments of personal baggage paled next to the tons and tons of coal and water and crates of food and loads of ammunition that had to be packed on as well.
Eventually, we did get on, given our room assignments by the train crew and told we were leaving in half an hour. Anna, Unity and I all had to work together to haul our luggage through the main corridor of the train, occasionally ducking into other people’s rooms when other people had to pass by in the opposite direction. I felt somewhat bad for my ladies-in-waiting, especially Anna with her bad leg, and ended up taking about half of the total weight for myself. I only partially regretted feeling like my arms were going to fall off afterwards.
Most of the other assistants and bodyguards and the other members of Halflance’s household had rooms in the forward part of the train, near the dining and kitchen cars. My sleeping quarters were in the rear of the train, sandwiched between two cargo cars, a solid hundred yards away from anyone else. I guess that’s what I get for being a last-minute addition. We figured out sleeping arrangements, packed everything away, and before I knew it, the train had lurched into motion. I looked out the window of the tiny sleeping room as Amrinval train station pulled away. The next couple of minutes were spent gawking out the window as the buildings and houses slowly thinned out into endless fields of grain and pastureland. Once there was nothing left to see but wheat and… some kind of boar-like thing that I assumed was this world’s equivalent of cows, I slumped back onto the bed and opened up a book.
I didn’t move very much for the next several hours, except for one expedition into the forward cars to find something to eat. Something a lot of people don’t know about me is that too much chaos can be really draining, and while fighting duels and exploring ruins can be really chaotic, the absolute most chaotic thing that I’ve ever done is planning for a trip. So I didn’t really feel like doing much more than sitting in bed, reading a book, and eventually drifting off to sleep when the sun set.
Which is why it pissed me off so much when, at right around midnight, I was basically thrown out of bed by the train braking. After about half a minute of deafening screeching and worrying rattles, during which Unity came very close to falling out of the top bunk onto me, the entire train ground to a halt.
Good thing she TRAINED for this!
You are Punbelievable ?
Thanks for the chapter
Oh heck yeah! Train robbing time!
What makes you assume this is a robbery...
I'm very excited to learn more about this world!! Thank you for the chapter!