Indarra: World Below

Chapter 5

"Teacher, tell me what's going on." The boy tugged his tutor's sleeve insistently. "Tell me!" he whined, and stomped a luxuriously slippered foot. The tutor cleared his throat and did his best to soothe the child without rumpling his carefully tied knot of blonde hair.

"Your Highness, this girl has defeated two of the mercenaries we came here to flee from. She saved your life, in a manner of speaking." The boy huffed haughtily.

"Only two? That's useless!" At this, Indarra would have lunged at him, but Altu beat her to it. He stepped forward, glaring.

"I beg to differ, your Highness. My apprentice here is more than proficient at both the fighting and the scholastic arts. She is far from useless." He turned his withering gaze to the tutor, who quailed slightly. "As people of the City, we have every right to request compensation, even from royalty." The tutor cringed and looked down at the prince as if he were about to explode.

"Compensation, yes, I think... Well, your Highness, what say you?" The boy gave a very un-royal snort, turned around to return to his rented room, and stopped short. Then he faced them again with a smile that did not return Indarra's ease of nerve.

"I'll hire you as my personal bodyguards!"

She gasped, very slightly horrified. "What? Personal bodyguard? We can't do that..." Then she looked uncertainly at Altu. "Can we?" Ura was just as reluctant, though quieter in his discontent. His narrowed eyes betrayed nothing but careful thought. Their tall mentor huffed through his nose, a bit miffed, but not truly upset.

"Our outpost is low on funds and has been functioning solely on these people's respect for me. And while I hold a great deal of sway in their matters, they do not truly need me to lead them. They have their elders and a few comparatively influential clans to keep order." At this, Ura broke.

"You can't be serious. We have to keep the peace, yes, but this? Serving someone, royal or otherwise, in an obviously biased and nearly bribed manner?" His fists were tight at his sides, as if he were resisting the urge to lash out. "Bad enough I have to stay with the girl, now you'd have us stay with this...boy?" He ground the words out, obviously deferring to the use of more polite language in the present company.

Altu forced a prim smile. "It would give the both of you experience, not book learning, as so many expect. And it is not a long assignment; unless you would like it to be?" He showed a few clean teeth in an expression that could be misconstrued as a threat. "I could even send you to hide in a less industrious town to work, where not even a well paid mercenary would dare go." The boy's jaw clenched with a bitten reply, and he looked away.

Indarra's upper lip curled with disgust at the prince. He was a rotten creature through and through as far as she was concerned, and she wanted no part in guarding him. She tried to divert the topic. "Should we not continue our training with you? After all, we have only specialised in one area of magic."

"This is your training. You'll learn what you have to from my library," he said airily. "You're not a novice any more than I am now. At any rate, I have judged this to be the best way to keep peace and maintain the powers that be, so to speak. His royal family is the only thing keeping the people unified at this point, you know."

"Then why don't you do it? You're powerful."

"I'm unofficial, and I cannot leave my post. Archimandrite Zentro would know." Indarra stamped hard on the wood and refused to let the pain from her subsequently jarred ankle show.

"That's a dungheap!" A few people gasped and lifted their heads in astonishment at her rude language. The prince made a piggish face and whimpered. Ura glanced about uneasily.