Authors: Kallysten
Thankfully for me, she wasn’t hindered by such
hesitations.
Her mind still reeling from the sounds of battle—metal
on metal and cries of pain—Aria staggered through her apartment to answer the
door. She’d barely been in long enough for a quick shower and she had been
about to fall into bed. She closed the sash of her robe a little tighter,
yawned, then opened the door, scowling. Whoever thought it was a good idea to
come bother her after five hours of fighting had the tongue-lashing of their
life coming their way.
Her foul mood disappeared in a flash, replaced by
worry, when she found all five Heads of Squadron outside her door, all looking
grim.
“What is it?” She was still tired, but she wasn’t
sleepy anymore, and she was ready to pick up her sword again, if needed. Her
eyes settled on Mary, whose squadron had replaced hers on the walls when the
attack had come to an end at almost three in the morning. “Did the demons come
back? Are we under attack?”
“We’re not,” Mary answered with a thin smile. “We just
need to talk to you. Mind if we come in?”
Aria was acutely aware, as she stepped aside to let
her peers in, that they were all in uniform, even those who hadn’t been on duty
that night, while she wore an old, frayed bathrobe. The five of them crowded
the small living room, the sofa being just large enough for three of them to
sit if they didn’t mind being pressed against each other.
“There’s a couple of chairs in the kitchen,” Aria said
blankly. “You can grab those if you want. I’ll get dressed and be right back.”
She left them to sort the seating arrangements by
themselves and stepped into her bedroom, closing the door behind her. She
didn’t know what this was about, but whatever was going to happen, she would be
dressed and decent when it came to her.
As she hurriedly threw clothes on, she couldn’t help
but wonder. Was this about Lorenzo? Since his departure two weeks earlier, she
had been expecting to receive a formal blame for allowing him to leave with
weapons that belonged to the Guard. If the five of them were there to talk to
her about it, it couldn’t possibly be good.
Dressed in slacks and a formal dress shirt, she
returned to the living room. Mary and Lea had settled on the sofa. Paolo had
pulled a chair into the corner. Jonas and Stephen were both standing by the far
wall, but while Stephen was leaning back against it, Jonas stood straight as
though waiting for an inspection. He was the one who indicated the chair they
had drawn up for her.
“Please, sit down, Aria.”
She refrained from pointing out they were her guests,
not the other way around. “I’d rather not,” she said, crossing her arms as she
remained standing by the chair. “Will you tell me what this is about now?”
“It’s about Wilhelm,” Paolo said. He leaned forward in
his chair, resting his forearms on his knees and clasping his hands in front of
him. She had a feeling he had been designated by the others to talk. “Or
rather, it’s about how close you are to him.”
* * * *
With the city’s difficulties in getting a steady
supply of gas, the back and forth between the Guard’s headquarters and the
walls was done on foot. Only wounded soldiers were given a ride back. Aria
usually used that time to walk amongst the members of her squadron, talk to
them, and evaluate their state of mind.
This night, though, Wilhelm had joined her just
moments after she started making her way toward the walls. They walked side by
side, both of them quiet until the silence grew too heavy for Aria and she
blurted out the first thing that came to her mind.
“You used to patrol the city before coming to the
walls, didn’t you?”
He looked at her, head tilted to one side. “I did.
That’s how we met, remember?”
She nodded. She did remember. She remembered being
scared out of her mind, and so, so sad as she trudged through that cemetery.
Unconsciously, she reached inside her jacket and ran her fingers against the
handkerchief she had sewn into the lining.
“Why did you stop? There are still a couple
vamp-related deaths every few weeks. That’s what you were trying to prevent,
wasn’t it?”
“It was, but I wasn’t all that effective. Too much
ground to cover.”
“So you stopped.” She couldn’t help putting a bit
of incredulity in her words. “It’s hard to imagine you giving up on something.”
“I didn’t give up.”
They had reached the walls. They both had places to
be. Still, Aria stopped for a second and looked at him questioningly.
“I didn’t give up,” he repeated. “I just found
something to do that was more important.”
It wasn’t until later that night that Aria
remembered. He had started showing up on the walls at nightfall at the same
time she had become a full member of the Guard.
* * * *
Aria’s mouth was dry suddenly. She considered Paolo,
then the others, looking for the reprobation or condemnation she was sure had
led them to her. She saw nothing more than seriousness and did not feel
reassured in the least. Carter and Stevenson had never shown much appreciation
for Wilhelm, and they always became defensive when Aria, or someone else,
brought up his name. Lately, she had been the only one mentioning him during
meetings, usually to point out procedures he and Bergsen had once established.
Could the Heads of Squadron be here now to blame her for it?
“We’re not that close,” she said, hesitating a little.
“We’ve just known each other for a while, and we’re friendly. Not even friends,
really—”
“Aria, please.” Mary raised a hand toward her, palm
out and appeasing. “Just… hear us out.”
She frowned, confused, but nodded. When she looked
back at Paolo, he started again.
“We would like you to talk to him for us. And ask him
to take over the Guard.”
Dumbfounded, Aria sat down in the chair beside her
before her knees could give out.
“Take over…”
“You’ve said yourself often enough that Carter and
Stevenson are ruining everything Commander Bergsen and Wilhelm built. We agree
with you, all five of us do. We’ve just been more… discreet about our
opinions.” He offered her a tight smile. “Do you realize the Majors have been
preparing a file to get you dismissed from the Guard? They’ve scheduled a
special meeting for tomorrow where you will be put on trial. They won’t call it
that, but that’s what it will be. That’s why we want to act now.”
Aria was taken by the most peculiar feeling of
dissociation. Part of her heard every calm word Paolo pronounced and examined
it coolly; it didn’t surprise her that much that the two Majors would be acting
in this way. At the same time, another part of her mind was screaming in
outrage. The Guard was her life, quite literally. She couldn’t even imagine
what she would do if she was ever dismissed.
Once the screaming in her mind had quieted down, she
realized what was going on.
“So this is…” She passed her tongue over her lips,
nervous to even say the word. “A mutiny?”
It was Jonas who answered. “It’s the necessary first
step to salvaging the Guard and saving Newhaven. Bergsen had started training
those two, true, but he never formally appointed them as his replacements. They
weren’t ready, and if four years didn’t teach them anything, they never will
be.”
“And you want Will…” She shook her head. “No. If he
was interested, he wouldn’t have pulled back when they asked him to after
Bergsen died.”
They looked at each other at that, and Aria had a feeling
she was missing something. “What?”
“They asked him,” Jonas said. “Actually, they asked me
to ask him. But he had already been pulling away for a few weeks before that. A
lot of us noticed at the time, but it wasn’t our place to say anything. Bergsen
talked to him about it, I think, and he came back to some extent—”
Aria felt completely lost. “Wait. Bergsen talked to
him about what?”
“Aria, don’t you know?” Mary sounded almost sorry for
her. “He pulled away after you… were turned.”
“I fought by this man’s side for decades,” Jonas added
as though Mary had not spoken. “Your death was the only time I ever saw him
miss a battle.”
What do you mean, she wanted to ask, but the words
refused to come. She knew what he meant. She had known for years, or at least
suspected. All she needed to finally know for sure was for Wilhelm to put it
into words. She sometimes despaired that he would.
* * * *
It was a slow night, one of those nights when the
bright full moon hung low in the sky and cast long shadows, making everyone see
demons where the wind played over the leaves of the trees. Soldiers grew
restless, on such nights, certain that battle was coming but unsure when
exactly. There were few things worse than high-strung soldiers. Aria knew that
as well as anyone who had ever been in a position of leadership. Alertness was
good; jumpiness, not so much. She needed something to distract her troops, and
she had found just the solution.
Her sword clashed against Wilhelm’s as she parried
his attack, the sound muffled by the leather strips that covered both blades. A
few of the soldiers around them cheered.
“Not giving up, yet?” Wilhelm asked, a small smile
on his lips.
“Why would I?” she shot back, stepping sideways
before feinting to the right and slashing her sword toward his left, where he
had let down his guard. “You’re sloppy.”
Wilhelm stumbled back inelegantly, just in time to
avoid her blow. Laughter and heckling rose in the loose circle of observers,
but he didn’t seem to be affected by them.
“You’re right, I am sloppy.”
She watched, bemused, as he switched the sword to
his right hand.
“This should help,” he said, and launched a new
attack on her, faster than any so far.
Surprised, it was all she could do to block his
sword at the last second. She felt her bones rattle at the force of the blow.
“You were playing with me!” she accused, indignant,
as she lashed out at him again.
“Not playing. Just… leveling the field.”
She could hear her soldiers laughing and calling
out to her, but she paid them no mind, entirely focused on Wilhelm. “I don’t
need any help to defeat you.”
“I didn’t say you did. I just have a little more
experience—”
It was over in a flash, with the unmistakable call
to arms sounding over the walls. Demons were approaching. Aria lowered her
sword at the same time as Wilhelm did, and both of them pulled the leather
strips off their blades. The time for games had passed.
“Soldiers, to your posts,” Aria called, her eyes
running over the circle around her and Wilhelm. “Get ready and be safe, all of
you, or I’ll kick your asses all the way to the hospital.”
They broke away, all of them focused already, but
the sour smell of dread and anticipation that had prevailed earlier was gone.
She caught Wilhelm’s smile and slight headshake as she turned back to him, and
raised an eyebrow at him.
“What?”
“Nothing.” He grinned. “I was just admiring your
uncanny speech-making abilities.”
She threw him a mock glare. “Glad you like them,
because that order was good for you, too.”
His smile softened and he saluted her with his
sword. “As you say, ma’am.”
* * * *
“Anyway, we’re pretty sure if you ask him, and if you
tell him the Majors are about to have you thrown out, he’ll take the job.”
Jonas fell silent. When she looked around the room,
Aria could see that they were all waiting for her answer.
“You all agree on that,” she said slowly. “Which
means, you must have discussed it before tonight. Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
Embarrassed looks were shared all around, but no
explanation came. Aria couldn’t help suspecting that some of them might have
been ready to let the Majors sacrifice her.
“What’s important,” Mary said, “is that we all do
agree. And it has to happen now, unless you feel like going through that trial
tomorrow.”
Five minutes later, Aria was knocking on Wilhelm’s
door.
* * * *
She hadn’t come to me since before she had been
turned. She had kissed me, that night, and I had realized just how much she
meant to me.
After all these years, I was surprised to see her
there, but at the same time, I wasn’t. She had sought me out almost every night
for the past two weeks, and on the nights she hadn’t, I had gone to her. After
four years of craving her presence, it was heaven to finally talk to her, spar
with her, fight by her side. Heaven and hell, all at once, because if I
remembered that kiss as though it had happened just the previous night, she had
given me no hint that she was open to a repeat.
I was in bed when she knocked on my door, and still
half asleep when I opened it—half asleep, and half naked. I guess I should be
thankful that at least I had boxers on. I invited her in, suddenly fully awake
and self-conscious. I’m not sure I imagined the way her eyes traced my body.
“Just give me a minute,” I said. “I’ll throw some
clothes on.”
Rather than sitting in the living room as I
expected her to, she followed me to the bedroom, and I could feel her gaze on
me as I put on pants and a t-shirt.
“I’m going to be thrown out of the Guard,” she said
when, decent, I turned back to her.
I stared at her, confused. She was leaning against
the doorway, arms crossed, and looking much too calm for someone who had just
claimed the only thing they cared about was about to be taken from them.