Spring 83: blithe

Most beloved Zann,

I thought that one useful thing I could do was to ask Ellewen what he knew about Lord Clear. So I left the guardroom and strolled down to the Public Bureau. Thinking back on it, I probably wasn’t as cheerful and blithe as it seems to me now. But I wasn’t on my guard to any great extent.

Ellewen was the only one working at the Bureau when I got there; Ebe and Rodara must have been taking a break or something. But a lauran, a greenfolk, was talking to Ellewen, and Ellewen was laughing. He beckoned me forward when he saw me.

The other greenfolk turned. He was tall, handsome, and well-dressed, with dark blue hair and a slightly weatherbeaten face. I knew who he was before I knew who he was. My feet made shuffling noises as I restrained myself, twice, from running away. “Ellewen,” I said. “I thought I’d come down and see how you were.”

“Of course,” he said. “Lord Clear, this is my friend Ybel. He’s a corporal in the palace guard. Ybel, Lord Clear, one of my fellow enthusiasts about the land of Crideon.”

“Lord,” I said. “Welcome to Hand Extended to the Dawn.”

“Corporal,” Lord Clear said, in a friendly enough voice. “Palace guard, is it? That would be… the Rosollas? Is that fellow Burrisker still commanding them?”

“No, lord. Not for some time, I think.” I hardly recognized the name. He wasn’t the one before Candur, I knew that. The one before that? I didn’t think so.

“So. You’re still a useful fellow, Ellewen,” Lord Clear said. “As it happens, I’ve great use for a palace guard at the moment. Would you mind if I borrowed yours?”

“You’d do better to ask him,” Ellewen said. “I’m certainly not his commander.” Ellewen seemed easy, even though I knew he saw the sudden fear in my eyes.

“I do have duties to return to, lord,” I told him.

He uncurled himself from where he was leaning against the Bureau. “And that’s why you can afford to come down and lounge your time away with young Ellewen here? No, no. You have all the time in the world. No, Ybel, nothing will do but that you accompany me on some private errands I have.” His giant hand closed over my shoulder. “All well?”

“Your servant, lord,” I said. I glanced back at Ellewen. He seemed very unconcerned about my fate; he was playing with a border-bridge piece and making it walk along his knuckles.

“Ellewen, always a pleasure catching up with you. Do try not to immerse yourself in failure and misery any more than is absolutely necessary. Perhaps I’ll look in again while I’m here.”

And he took me away.

Love,

Ybel