The Kwisling [The Isbjørn book 2]

Opening

In Easthaven, the living stayed at home. Since the arrival of the Theodesia guard, everyone who wanted to live learned to sit tight and wait. Many homes in the city were doing without gas, electricity, or hot water since Theodosia had cut them off. Even at the Hansleys, where he had reportedly been invited to stay, there was no hot water to be found. In the morning, people would walk around the city center, many to stretch their legs after hours of being cooped up indoors. But there was a claustrophobia outside too, the feeling of everyone watching and being watched. It was intense, by Luce's account.

"Everyday I would venture outside- Mr. Hansley made a daily spectacle of himself as he cautioned me against it. I felt every Easthaven eye on me. The rebel who had fired with the fugitive John Glass, I overheard the town's people talking about how the guard would return to drag me away.

"I learned to keep one ear to the wind and another to the radio. There were shootings in areas just outside of Easthaven: men were turning on each other for the sake of maltecessors.

"Demonstrations were still taking place in areas around the city. I had given up my status as a stentor. Listening carefully into the afternoons, I could hear chanting going on a town over. If I tuned to the right station, I could find just where it was coming from.

"Before evening, Easthaven would begin to shut down. By dawn an informal curfew was in place and an unnatural quiet descended on the entire town. Staring out at the main road, over the burned fields of long grass from the single window of the radio station it looked as if all the Easthaveners had been stolen away."

Luce was already building his reputation as a story teller with his mere introduction of his tale.

"Since the battle that had taken place along the main square, buildings had been burned and bodies burried. Living in fear of the guards return, some residents of Easthaven have taken up arms, either to defend themselves and their communities against the threat of the returning guard or a neighbor with a difference of opinion. The conflict has grown more shadowy and difficult to fathom; the only thing people know for sure anymore is that more bodies are found on the streets every day."

But when Daire asked just how bad Easthaven was, Luce could have simply shrugged, sparing him the details. But sitting in three unlike chairs in a hallway of a manmade mansion turned clinic by Isbjørns in a country where his very scent was enough to set the populace on edge, Luce felt there was nothing to sugar coat.

"I was already preparing to leave when I came across a report from Enders Port. The criminal John Glass had been apprehended on assault charges from Occidens Terram." Luce shook his head, recalling the amusement of that moment. Of all things assault. "I suddenly had a purpose again. I left for Saeva that same afternoon."

The woman, previously introduced as Sri, was overtaken by the imagery but maintained a confused expression. All she knew about Easthaven was from Lennix and Roe. The only Lucian Patella they ever spoke of was whole heartedly anti-maltecessor and yet he sat before her conversing with Daire like he was an equal.

"I'm sorry, so you are a stentor?"

"I was a stentor, keep up. I dabble in radio now."

He was the type of fast talking guy that her parents had been weary of in Saeva. Luce looked the type too. Tan, dark slightly curled hair with a tinge of grime. But to be fair, he had just spent over a week aboard a navy vessel.

"So how did you end up in a Unionem Netat ship?"

It would have been a good story if not for all her interruptions. "Do you want the entire story or do you want ribbons of it?"

She looked to Daire, who had not spoken much since they had been driven away from John by a flock of physicians. It was clear that John was in bad shape. He was barely conscious upon arrival and he was not at all in one piece. Daire knew it would be best to let the physicians work on him but at the same time it was hard to stay away having just gotten him back one legged or not.

"Daire?" Sri was still waiting for his opinion.

Distraught and disheartened, what he needed most was a distraction. "Tell the whole thing." His eyes strained on the doors separating him from the emergency room and John. "I'm certainly not going anywhere anytime soon." He would sit, unmoving for as long as it took to reach the end.

It was strange to him, feel that same biting anger for John's sake after long. The space and time that had separated them had done nothing to silence his burning desire to protect John at all cost. In his absence, John had been horribly wounded and he could not help but feel partially responsible.

As Luce launched into his tale one again, Daire kept steady eyes and ears, not entirely trusting the man who had brought John back in tatters. Someone was responsible for the damage done to John and Daire would be a fool to rule Luce out as a suspect.

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