An Aimless War (Greatest Thief 2)

Chapter Eleven

A moment of stunned silence followed Tannix's words, and then everyone started moving at once. Tannix ignored the room and walked towards the doors. Evrik and Jalor went after him. I started to follow, but Acen appeared beside me and grabbed my shoulder.

"A word, Finn. Kor?"

Kor joined us. "Sir?"

"Go get Ender and Mandell. We're on alert, three men on at a time until this settles down. Jalor, Evrik and I will take this first shift. You three take as much of a break as you can manage," Acen said.

Kor nodded and walked away. Everyone was moving in a rush, but an odd, controlled sort of rush. The guards were walking quickly, but there was no running. I wanted to run after Tannix. Instead, Acen spun me around to face him.

"I need to stay with him," I said. The reality of the situation was catching up with me.

"I know you're not a knight, but you need to be alert for any signs of danger," Acen said. "I'm going to stay in his room for some time. Go arrange to have a bed moved in for me."

"You can use mine, I don't—" I stopped myself just before the word 'use' left my mouth. "—need it. I can sleep on the couch."

"All right. Yes, that'll work." He started walking, so quickly I almost had to jog to keep up with him.

Soon we reached Tannix's chamber. Evrik and Jalor stood in the hallway. They hadn't been ready for this. Normally when they were on guard, they wore armour and proper uniforms. Evrik was wearing a loose shirt he had clearly been sleeping in, and he didn't have his belt of throwing axes or his shield, which he usually wore on his back. Jalor didn't look much better, although he had managed to pull on a set of leather bracers.

In the room, Acen immediately got to work dragging an armchair around to face the windows. He sat down rigidly and stared at them. Tannix was sitting at his desk, and he didn't move when we walked in. His head was buried in his arms.

I cautiously walked over, unsure of what to say to him. I wanted to help, to fix everything. I gently touched his arm. "Tannix?"

"Not now, Finn," he replied brokenly.

The despair in his voice hurt. I wanted to hug him, but I couldn't with Acen in the room. I didn't know what else to do, so I retreated to the couch and sat down, huddling into the comfortably cushions with my knees drawn up to my chest.

Then I waited.

Nothing changed for the rest of the day, even though everything had changed.

Acen never left the room, even when the twins and Mandell came to take over the watch. I realized, as I sat on the couch and tried to make sense of everything that was going on, that Acen and the knights had also been unexpectedly promoted. They went from guarding Lord Tandrix of West Draulin, to guarding Lord West Draulin. Acen had said as much.

Tannix had never wanted the city. But all at once it was his. All at once he was expected to rule, and lead his people through this tragedy. How could anyone expect that of him, when he was feeling the tragedy more than most of them? It wasn't fair to him, but I didn't know how to help.

The knights didn't let anybody bother us. A few times, I heard their voices in the hallway, turning people away. They knew what he needed and they were giving it to him. My already high opinion of them improved.

But the city wasn't willing to wait as long as he needed, and the war wasn't going to go away.

I slept fitfully on the couch. When eventually morning came and I sat up, I saw that Acen hadn't moved from his chair. He glanced over at me before turning his attention back to the windows. We sat in silence for some time, listening to Tannix toss and turn. The curtains were drawn around his bed. I wanted to slip through them, lay down beside him, and wrap him up in my arms.