The Rogue Guardian

Chapter 6: Authority

Wonderful drawing of Morane by Mimicke!

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This wasn't the first time Joshua and Luca had left the castle at night, but it still shocked Luca a little how easy it was. It must have been obvious, in their well-worn black clothes no one would expect a royal captain and knight to own, that what they were setting out to do was at least slightly suspicious, but the guards at the gate never stopped them. Joshua would nod, greet them by name, wish them good night, and no one would breathe a word of them leaving to the Sage.

There was almost a thrill to it, the knowledge that this was the complete loyalty he'd inspired in them. Obedience, Joshua had once been told, had many motivations, but only two of them were worth anything.

When the guards at the gate didn't mark his name down on their sheets, it was loyalty.

When he bowed his head to Tobias, it was something else altogether.

Luca's face at this silent exchange of trust in their captain and his acknowledgment of their loyalty was a source of amusement. They had been friends for five years now, but there were things about Joshua he still hadn't guessed he didn't know. That the auxiliary guards, even the other contingents of guards, would bow to him wasn't something that shocked the captain. After all, he had been trained for authority.

Joshua had also once been told that the only authority that mattered was the kind found in a sharp knife in a steady hand. He believed that in the same way he believed in himself-- sure footsteps, quiet commands, a confidence that could only be forged in the very depths of self-doubt and honed by experience that obliterated all else. Very few people had that kind of authority.

For an instant, an image very like the image he had of himself crossed his mind. Sharp eyes. Rough hands. The hard edge of a smile that cut like steel.

Very few people had that kind of authority, but he had always suspected Morane Laerhart did.

So tonight would be about more than tracking an escaped thief, a rogue guardian. Tonight they were chasing someone far more dangerous. And while Luca searched for a glimpse of Morane, the captain knew he would spend the night seeing his own shadow fleeing just ahead.

"Where first?" Luca always clipped his questions short in the city. A year of fighting at the match house hadn't completely honed his city accent.

"You know her better. Where would she have gone first?" Joshua never bothered hiding his voice. He knew the right tone, the right inflection. With a hood hiding his face, no one would recognize him.

"There's an inn near the match house..."

Joshua was already striding towards the Black Horse. "So how'd that meeting go?"

"Fine."

"What was Solentude talking about when he said you had a promotion?"

"Apparently they got tired of having a perfectly good knight lying around and doing nothing useful. They want to send me to a post somewhere else. Probably on a border."

That was familiar to him. He had suggested that to Tobias, weeks ago, when this... thing between Luca and the Thief had begun. He'd gone to Tobias to alert him, to tell him that it had to be stopped-- it did, if they were to avoid getting even more people tangled up in this mess-- and Tobias had said there was nothing they could do. Which was a lie, because all it would take was sending Luca away to the border to take him out of the picture. Of course, all that conversation had led to was Tobias hinting that he had other plans for Luca, and then telling him that Luca and Morane together was a good thing.