Duplicity

“We will see you all very soon, once matters abroad are resolved.” Kiran only hopes he's right. However, what if it's already too late? What if the captured prince and his friend are already dead?

            “I can’t believe you and the Duke are actually having me wear this,” groused Nont’im, frowning into the looking-glass. He tugged at the loose, lacy edges of the sleeves on the maroon dress. “The lace is itching my wrists. Why would anyone want this? How do girls and women wear such an abomination?” He straightened the white pinafore he wore over the dress.

    

       Pulling his own mahogany hose up over his legs, Kiran chortled, “women and girls care about dressing stylishly. Besides,” he added, “we will be posing as a father and daughter our entire journey.” Considering how fiercely his own attire itched- it seemed Rheeding had a penchant for uncomfortable fabric- his sympathy was limited. He located an off-white bonnet in the pile of clothing they’d been given and tossed it at Nont’im.

 

           Catching the bonnet and sniffing disdainfully at it, the cleric contradicted “we don’t look much alike.” He spun around once in the mirror. The voluminous skirt swirled with his momentum.  “How do you expect them to believe we’re related? I mean, I definitely want to come, I do want to be there to help find Folco and Lindo and get them back to safety, but to disguise myself as a lass…”

            The paladin forced a smile, shaking his head. Just like Nont’im, he thought while picking up the loose white tunic that would be covered by a thick mahogany coat with brass buttons, to look for every excuse to get out of something where he’d be unable to woo barmaids and wenches at the inns in which they spent the night. “We need to be in disguise,” he interjected. “we have no choice. Drémeadow is under the impression I murdered their queen, remember? I can’t exactly go marching in there as myself. Do you think I like this? I detest being in a position where I have no choice but to deceive others. However, this is a situation where openly walking through a land likely to unquestioningly turn me over to Drémeadow if I’m recognized would be a far worse idea. It wouldn’t help Lindo or Prince Folco. It’d make things worse for them.” He finished adjusting his tunic and picked up the overcoat.  

            “Just one question” said the cleric. Kiran paused in the middle of buttoning the coat and lowered his dark brown eyes to meet the one blue and one green of the half-elf, half-hobbit. “What if someone hears me talk and notices I don’t sound like a ten-year-old girl? It would not take a continentally known scholar to realize my voice is all wrong.”

 

           Kiran smirked, fastening the third button from the top just over his sternum. “We will be passing through Rheeding.” That alone, he thought, ought to prove his point- but then he remembered that while he himself had traveled extensively as an emissary on Duke Ivan’s behalf when he was younger, Nont’im had for the most part stayed in the vicinity of the Northchester clinic he managed. Though Nont’im had joined Kiran for a fair few adventures before the paladin had been promoted to the Constable of Northchester just over a year ago, he lacked the extensive experience of the outside world under his human counterpart’s belt. One sentence, though, would make his point crystal-clear. “Children should be seen and not heard. Especially girls.” He looked at the bonnet in his shorter friend’s hands, the bonnet meant to disguise his race so Nont’im’s thin and pointed face would resemble that of a gangling ten-year-old girl.  “Come now, let’s see whether that bonnet properly covers your ears. And you’ll need to untie your hair and let it flow loose as young girls up in Rheeding do.”

~*~*~

            Before their departure, Kiran and Nont’im met with the refugees. They had not informed the hobbits that their leader’s exact whereabouts were unknown. It would do too much damage to their morale. It was bad enough they’d been forced to flee their homes lest they be massacred by their king’s men just for defending him and asking that he be given a fair trial. They never should’ve had to struggle through the wilderness in the dead of winter with scant food, only the clothes on the backs and whatever belongings they’d happened to bring with them to the ill-fated Pre-New Years Banquet with no shelter other than whatever nature offered, sleeping in clusters without so much as a blanket to warm them.  They would have dropped one by one until there were none left had it not been for the kindness of his own lord in not only granting the shelter Kiran pled to him for, after begging his forgiveness for the unintended foreign relations disaster, but sending food, medicine and blankets back with the paladin

Instead, he, on the Duke’s suggestion, had told them Folco had taken Lindo and gone elsewhere to seek additional help but would return as soon as possible. As for why the paladin was leaving now, he told them Folco was acquiescing to a reluctant ally’s request to summon Kiran to confirm the story. “Fear not,” he said, “my lord will see to it that you remain safe here while Prince Folco and I are away, I trust him completely on that.

Even as he reassured the hobbits with the outright lie he’d have to atone for to his lord later, Kiran thought uncomfortably of all the horrible possibilities. Judging by the visions, both the one of Drémeadow agents’ capture of the missing pair and the confrontation between Drémeadow’s youngest prince and his father’s advisor Jarmir Esteel. Esteel had said he’d have someone secure information on the refugees’ doings through any means necessary, though he’d make sure the interrogator both “went easy” on the prince and ensure he’d see everything that happened to his closest friend and confidante. How long would they last under that?

“We will see you all very soon, once matters abroad are resolved.” That, at least, was true, though “matters” were much worse than they knew. He ached to tell them he was misleading them and beg their forgiveness for telling lies, but in his heart he knew Duke Ivan was right. It was not for nothing he’d commanded Kiran to mislead them.

  

         He only hoped he was right. Kiran hoped he at least spoke the truth in saying that he, Prince Folco, and by extension Lindo, would see them soon. 

But what if it was already too late? What if the worst happened? What if the employee of Hrothgar Foxtrot’s advisor forced fatal information from the hapless lads? What if they were killed? It was clear that was their captors’ intentions, at least after learning where the refugees had been taken and who was helping them. How long would Lindo and Folco last? What if they’d already succumbed? What would he say? What would he do? How would he break it to them after everything they’d already been through?

Author's Note

Do I get too repetitive? Please let me know what you think of this chapter, an interlude between events. I do not want to draw things out too much by divulging the entire journey including uneventful parts, but wish to jump straight to some incidents planned for Rheeding and leave the in-between stuff to imagination. Do I need to expand and add more buildup?

Any other suggestions you have would also be awesome.

PS I apologize for my tendency to RR my chapters out of order.

Reviews

[jjwilbourne]

This is an interesting plan. I'm wondering if it'll work.
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by repetitive. In what aspect?
I don't mind this interlude part. If it's bothering you, you can try the heist story method. Jump to the actual action and break it up with someone explaining the plan. I've been wanting to try to pull that off well.
I think that you have some periods that need inserting. I can't markup because I'm not at my computer. I think you'll catch them though.
This is a short chapter for you, I think. You usually add a lot more. Is this a sign of the book starting its third act?
good work here.

[SpeedyHobbit Armstrong]

I'll have to look through here. and yes, the book is coming to a turning point, you're right about that. My muse seems very centered on LARPing and writing branchoff stories about my LARP character as of late, the one for the continent that includes Dremeadow and Cancalia def needs a kick up the a*s!

[NoelHC]

I can just feel Nont'im's (how is one to apostrophe an already astropied name?) displeasure with have to travel in drag, and can see this setting up some risky situations on their quest.

[SpeedyHobbit Armstrong]

Yah, he is NOT happy. Maybe he should find out some things girls often contend with... hmmm...

[Jennie Baron]

I don't have any specific criticism, and I don't think you're too repetitive; some repetition is necessary in a work of this length. At least my memory needs refreshing at times! As for the buildup, all the questions in the last paragraph definitely help there. Overall a great chapter.

[SpeedyHobbit Armstrong]

Thanks! Indeed, Kiran has a lot to worry about

[Craig2591]

I have been wondering when Kiran was going to make a move to rescue them. I am interested in seeing what happens next. I hope the next chapter is up soon. I don't have any suggestions or criticisms.

I like the length of this chapter.

[SpeedyHobbit Armstrong]

Thanks so much I might flipflop this chapter and the previous one since- sneak comment- next chapter is to be Kiran-centric as well, though the events of Dire Consequences definitely occurred around the same time as or possibly slightly before this chapter- poor kids.

I actually just uploaded a story that more or less is a discarded chapter, containing some tomfoolery on the parts of Lindo and Folco as well as showing more of their relations with Kiran prior to the poisoning of Queens Arabella and adding more depth to Folco's father.

[SpeedyHobbit Armstrong]

Thanks so much I might flipflop this chapter and the previous one since- sneak comment- next chapter is to be Kiran-centric as well, though the events of Dire Consequences definitely occurred around the same time as or possibly slightly before this chapter- poor kids.

I actually just uploaded a story that more or less is a discarded chapter, containing some tomfoolery on the parts of Lindo and Folco as well as showing more of their relations with Kiran prior to the poisoning of Queens Arabella and adding more depth to Folco's father.

[SpeedyHobbit Armstrong]

Thanks so much I might flipflop this chapter and the previous one since- sneak comment- next chapter is to be Kiran-centric as well, though the events of Dire Consequences definitely occurred around the same time as or possibly slightly before this chapter- poor kids.

I actually just uploaded a story that more or less is a discarded chapter, containing some tomfoolery on the parts of Lindo and Folco as well as showing more of their relations with Kiran prior to the poisoning of Queens Arabella and adding more depth to Folco's father.

[Craig2591]

I like the idea of flip-flopping the chapters.