“I… want them to be all right, of course, but—” Trip extended his hand toward the fliers, “—I’m sure the general needs me here.”
“We can always use your engineering knack, Trip, but you may want to be elsewhere for the rest of the night.” Zirkander glanced toward the doorway. “You may have noticed Angulus came up here to check on us—and Major Kaika.”
“Yes, sir. I sensed them leaving about ten minutes ago.” Trip remembered Kaika refusing to be carried, saying she had recovered and was fine, and that she would walk out at Angulus’s side, but what did that have to do with Trip being elsewhere?
“You may not have noticed a castle administrator who caught up with Angulus outside the hangar as he was coming in. He drew him aside and reported a complaint filed a little earlier.”
Trip’s stomach sank. Could the incident with Lockvale have caught up with him already?
“No, sir. I didn’t notice.”
“I wasn’t eavesdropping, but Jaxi has a knack for it.”
Pardon me, but it’s called observing, not eavesdropping. It’s not as if I hopped out of my scabbard, sneaked out there, and leaned myself against the wall where they were speaking.
“I suppose it was Lord Lockvale who made the complaint?” Trip sensed an indignant grumble from Azarwrath.
“Yes. What happened?” Zirkander regarded Trip gravely, his eyes troubled.
Seven gods, what had the nobleman said?
“He’s been teaming up with a silver dragon to try to drive Rys—Lieutenant Ravenwood’s family from their land. I questioned him so I could get the truth.”
“How did you question him?”
“Just with words and telepathy. I mean, I asked him questions about it so I could read his thoughts. That’s not—” Trip glanced at Sardelle, not sure how much Zirkander truly knew about magic and what sorcerers were capable of, especially since he seemed to hide in his office or the duck blind whenever magic was happening in his house. “It’s not that hard to do.”
Sardelle nodded, as if to back him up, but her eyes were troubled too.
Because Lockvale reported a lot more than questioning, Jaxi said. He wants you hanged.
Trip almost fell over. What?
“He said you assaulted him in front of witnesses, used your magic to pin him down, and then you tried to kill him,” Zirkander said.
“Sir, I never hurt him. I was just trying to get answers. He lunged at me with a pistol. I put a barrier up, and he bounced off it—after trying to shoot me—but that’s it. I swear.”
Trip lifted his hands and gulped in deep breaths, trying to stave off the panic rising, but memories popped into his mind of all the times he and his grandparents had been forced to move when he’d been a boy. Because he’d been accused of witchcraft, or of causing strange and otherworldly things to happen.
To have a nobleman do the accusing… How could he fight back? This could end his career. Or his life.
No, Trip would run before letting anyone kill him, but run where? His life and everything he loved and wanted to be was here. Only his grandparents were back east, but it wasn’t as if he could go there—it would be the first place the army would look for him.
Zirkander rubbed a hand down his face. Even though he didn’t say anything, Trip couldn’t help but feel he’d disappointed the general. At the least, he’d made trouble for him.
“Was Lieutenant Ravenwood there, by chance?” Sardelle asked. “Another witness to contradict this man’s claims—”
“They’re sleeping together,” Zirkander said. “Nobody is going to believe she’s an unbiased third party.”
Trip grimaced. He wasn’t surprised Zirkander knew, but lamented that he hadn’t been subtler with Rysha, that their relationship had become common knowledge among their superior officers.
“She wasn’t there,” Trip said. “I went down to deal with Lockvale while she and Shulina Arya chased down his dragon.”
“Is the dragon still alive?” Sardelle asked. Did she think it would have testified?
“No.”
“Ah.”
Zirkander rubbed his face again. “All right. Like I said, I want you to disappear for the rest of the night. It sounded like the military police might be sent to collect you. Tonight, Angulus is going to be busy hugging Kaika and admonishing her for getting hurt again, but we’ll go together to talk to him personally in the morning, before any overly eager subordinate can throw you in a cell. For now, go with Sardelle, and sleep at our place.”
“Do you think Angulus will believe a civilian over one of his soldiers that he knows?” Sardelle asked him.
“He doesn’t know Trip that well, and I honestly don’t know how he feels about him. You know how hard he is to read—for those of us without telepathy. And he may very well know and have a long past with this nobleman. The nobles have gotten preferential treatment throughout history, and they certainly expect it. Even though Angulus is a modern man, he’s always careful not to snub tradition. I would hate for Trip to be turned into some example.”
“Hm.”
Trip couldn’t read Sardelle either. Unlike Lockvale and most others he encountered, she could protect her thoughts.
“We’ll go then,” Sardelle said, inviting Trip along with a hand wave. “And see you later.” She patted Zirkander on the chest. “Don’t stay out here all night.”
“I’ll try not to. Trip, we’ll have your back.”
Trip was tempted to ask Zirkander if he believed him but sensed that he did without asking. A feeling of relief washed over him. Even though Zirkander didn’t have the power to belay orders from the king, at least he would argue on Trip’s behalf.
“Thank you, sir.”
As Trip and Sardelle, riding a pair of the army’s mares, passed through the gate in the city wall and headed into the quieter suburbs outside, Trip scribbled another item on the list he’d started. None of the mothers had requested a self-rocking cradle, but it seemed like a good idea. A clockwork version that could be set to rock for a certain length of time.
“You know it’s too dark for most people to see to write, don’t you?” Sardelle sounded tired but also amused.
“Yes, ma’am. But I’m odd. Rysha tells me so.”
“You don’t mind being called odd?”
“No, she likes odd boys.”
“I see.”
“And it’s not like the label was a surprise to me.”
Trip had called Rysha odd, too. Or at least alluded to it. He thought that made them a good match. He just hoped none of the fallout that might come from Lockvale’s accusations—gods, would the story be in a newspaper in the morning?—would damage her reputation or that of her family.
“In my time, my original time, you would have been called special or even remarkable, not odd.”