Duty Bound

Chapter 5

An hour later, they were standing in the West Bay, watching the sea, waiting.

Amy had done her best to hide how weak she was, and she was really paying for it now. Once they'd finally made it to the beach, she'd practically collapsed. Her vision was clouding over again.

"Eat this," Crowley said, bending down next to her and handing her some kind of packet, ripping it open for her.

"What is it?" she asked, but she didn't care. She was already cramming it into her mouth, not even tasting it. It was food, and that was all that mattered.

"It's called "manna". It's given out to soldiers as part of our rations," he explained. She noted that he tactfully withheld the fact that it was a protein bar made of ground up insects -- a fact that she had been horrified to learn. 

"How else can we get enough to feed them?" her father's military adviser had shrugged when she'd asked him why the army was being fed in so degrading a fashion. Then he had taken another bite of his venison and washed it down with red wine.      

She swallowed the final bit of the meaty paste. Crowley handed her his flask of water. This time, she was able to hold it herself. She chugged the remaining contents. A few moments later, she was feeling much better.

"They didn't feed you in the Palace of Justice?" Crowley asked.

"Food doesn't tend to go down well in there," Amy replied, leaning against a log that had washed up on the beach.

Crowley sat down beside her, putting the rocket launcher down onto the sand, but keeping his hand firmly on the strap.

"My uncle will be here soon," she promised.

"And if he won't?" Crowley asked.

"He will. He told me he would come for me if I were ever in trouble. He's a man of his word," Amy said.

Her hand brushed Crowley's, and she skittishly moved it. She had never exchanged so many words with a commoner – at least not one who didn't work for her family. She realized that she'd never had a full conversation with a non-royal, and she didn't count the aristocracy in that. This was her chance to talk to someone outside her circle.

"Why did you join the army, Crowley?" she asked, doing her best to keep her tone light.

He seemed taken aback.

"I suppose it isn't my business, but I would like to thank you for your service – for performing your duty so gallantly in our name."

"Before you get carried away, your highness, I joined because I needed the money. It had nothing to do with being gallant."

"There had to be other jobs?" she asked.

"None quite so well-paid when you're fourteen," he said.

"You were only fourteen?" she was genuinely shocked.

"Our father was dead, and my mother and sisters were starving. I had to do something," he said, sounding strangely matter-of-fact about it.

Amy swallowed, feeling that she had overstepped the mark. Perhaps she had picked a bad subject to break the ice with. She should have asked about something more mundane. But what? 

"Do they treat you well in the army?" she asked, intent on keeping up the small talk.

"Well enough," he shrugged. "Only job in the world where there's enough to eat, so I can't complain."

She didn't like to be reminded of the famine. After her father had finished passing his laws to protect the aristocrats from encroaching poverty, he had left practically the entire population with nothing. It was no surprise that boys of fourteen started joining the army.

"Do you enjoy being a Captain?" she asked.

"Ha!" he laughed, then apologized.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing, it's just that you...it's nothing. To answer your question, I suppose it depends. Sometimes I like it very much. Sometimes I find it difficult."

"Tell me why you laughed," she demanded.

"It was really nothing," he insisted.

"Tell me," she said.

"You're...well, a little blunt," he explained, and she had the feeling that "blunt" wasn't quite what he had meant.

"You forget yourself," she snapped.

He looked down at her, and she felt herself flushing. She'd been fighting it, but she couldn't help but admit it now. He was handsome. Yes, much too handsome. Even with blood caked onto the side of his face, he was far too pleasing to look at.

What must she look like to him now? Why did she care? Perhaps because she knew all too well that even if it was not his place, he was judging her at this very moment. Probably despising her for who she was. She wished she didn't care.

"Very well, your highness," he said, and turned his gaze toward the sea.

Just at that moment, she saw the Evangeline making its way into the bay from behind a cliff face. Her heart soared at the sight of the metal monstrosity. It really was a tremendous ship. Her uncle had commissioned it as a means of travel, but it had been his permanent residence after the king had ordered his execution. He was always on the move, never staying in one spot for long. The king had sent out expeditions to track down the vessel, but had given up after months of fruitless searching.

"I told you he'd be here," Amy said smugly.

She watched the ship come to a stop, and a lifeboat was lowered down into the water. She smiled, knowing that she would soon be seeing her uncle again for the first time in three years. She had so much to tell him, so much to find out.

There had been many times after his escape that she had wished she had come with him. He'd offered to take her aboard his ship and take her all over the world, away from her father and siblings. She'd regretted turning him down many times. Some vague sense of duty had stopped her. If she'd only known where duty would get her in the end.