10. Tobias
Chapter ten
Tobias
A fter Zari had stolen his motorbike, Tobias faced a dilemma. If he reported it missing, he’d alert the rest of the military to his idiotic failings. She’d probably reach the cathedral just a few minutes after Javen. If he didn’t, he was failing to report theft of military property.
Tobias decided to spend his time crafting an excuse for what had happened.
He landed on the fact that Zari was clearly very worried about her friend, and he did the right thing by allowing her to take the motorbike.
Surely, Captain Javen would have found her friend and calmed Zari down, and done whatever else was needed to save the day.
Meanwhile Tobias would sit, alone, useless, once more an utter failure.
Long minutes ticked by, and still, Javen didn’t return. This night was proving to be the longest of Tobias’s career. Once more he thought about radioing for help. But no. That would go against Javen’s other orders.
He replayed the conversation with the man who had given him his card, the one who had wanted information on Javen. Who seemed to think that the captain could be a security threat to the nation, if his veiled words were correct. Which only reminded Tobias of how little he knew about Javen.
Eventually, he got up and headed over to the desk that Javen had abandoned. Though he knew he shouldn’t, Tobias dared to move aside the notebooks covering the papers below .
What he found were maps, charts, and ledgers. Most detailing the usual facts from crimes, but a few that seemed written in the same symbols as ones from the fae dictionary. So Javen, then, was fluent in the language?
Was that the unusual detail that man had hinted at?
Or simply a reason why Javen had been so successful in what must have been a relatively short career.
Tobias returned to the desk. The newspaper clippings from the attack on the ceremony were there too, all of them pinned together like it had been a matter of study.
And there, underneath the last stack, was a wooden box, about the same size as a case for cigars, but ornately carved from a dark wood Tobias couldn’t recognize.
If anything ever had do not open invisibly inscribed upon it, it would have been that box.
Still… he’d hear the door slam if Javen returned. He’d have enough time to cover up his snooping. Carefully, he unlatched the small silver clasp.
Inside lay a massive stone, cut with sharp facets that revealed dark blue depths like the sea before a storm. It was heavy and cold. Perhaps some sort of paperweight? Under it was a single piece of paper and a delicate silver bracelet, small enough that it surely wouldn’t fit an adult.
Neither item seemed very important. Nor did they seem expensive enough to merit hiding in a box. Besides, didn’t Javen have a house provided to him, like all upper-ranking officers?
The man was a strange one, that Tobias was sure of. Strange, yes. Worthy of being monitored by some rich bureaucrat who had no problem threatening Tobias’s family? No. He didn’t think so.
Tobias lifted the paper and found himself cursing the fact he’d pried.
This was personal, nothing of military value.
Instead, the paper held a simple charcoal sketch of a woman with long, wavy hair and eyes that seemed to peer back at Tobias, judging him for his trespassing.
She was beautiful, easily the most stunning woman he’d ever seen.
The swooping dark lines captured so much personality, more than most photographs Tobias had seen.
This woman was confident, elegant, and, with the way her full lips turned upward, more than a little amused by whoever was sketching her .
Javen’s wife. It had to be. Why else would the drawing be here?
Unless… what if this was his beloved? Perhaps Javen, like other aristocrats Tobias had heard of, was stuck in a loveless arranged marriage. This woman, then, might be the one he’d been forced to leave behind, the one that had made him become so miserable and cranky all the time.
It made sense to Tobias, who had grown up sneaking copies of his mother’s beloved romance novels off of the single bookshelf in their home.
As much as he loved hearing his father’s war stories, he found himself equally captivated by tales of daring pirates falling in love with their captives, or brooding dukes whose hearts were won by stubborn young maidens.
Romance had just as much a part in any good story as heroics, he figured, because what was a brave soldier without a love to fight for?
Everything seemed to click in Tobias’s mind. The nosy bureaucrat, asking for information about Javen. Perhaps he was a spy from Javen’s wife’s side, ensuring that he remained faithful to her, even though his heart belonged to another.
Which meant, if Tobias contacted him, he would not only be betraying his captain, but possibly interfering in the way of true love.
Carefully, Tobias set the drawing back in the box and the stone on top. Part of him wondered if it wasn’t a paperweight, if it was a real gem, but no, a sapphire that size would be more than a captain’s yearly salary.
He arranged the papers and books exactly as they’d been left and returned to his spot by the stove.
When he closed his eyes, purple smoke seemed to fill the darkness, and a woman’s laughter echoed.
Salt water burned his throat. The smoke rose higher, and higher.
Screams of dying men mixed with the laughter.
Tobias’s stomach churned. Was this a result of breathing in that cadevesh smoke earlier this week?
A lingering curse from the fae who had attacked?
He coughed, fighting harder to breathe now. His eyes wouldn’t open, he was trapped in the nightmare, no matter what he did. Something like thick seaweed wrapped around his legs, but when he dropped a hand to pull it off, nothing was there. Panic rose within him .
A door slammed, and Tobias’s eyes flew open.
The drowning sensation vanished as reality returned to him.
Captain Javen stood in the doorframe with an uncharacteristically rumpled uniform.
Not only disheveled, but bloodstained; even his expression was far less reserved than usual.
Rage lingered in his blue eyes and clenched jaw.
Wordlessly, he shrugged out of the coat, hanging it on a hook before retrieving another.
While he did, Tobias gawked, not at the ruined garment, but at the elaborate dagger strapped to the man’s white shirt.
Tobias had seen a few fae spoils of war claimed by soldiers, but he’d never seen a weapon so elegant. Golden flames twisted over a feather-shaped handle, and the hint of the blade above the sheath flickered with an amethyst hue.
“Where did you find that? ” Tobias pointed at it.
He couldn’t help his curiosity, not when he’d never seen something so beautiful and so deadly before.
Javen didn’t answer. Tobias winced, all too aware he’d yet again asked the wrong question.
So, he might as well accept his fate and admit the rest of the issues with the night. “So, uh, Miss Ankmetta is—”
“Ankmetta.” Javen spun to face Tobias. Blue eyes flashed as he said the last name a second time.
“Yeah. Zari Ankmetta. The woman with the note. She—”
“Her family name is Ankmetta.”
There it was, that archaic phrasing again. “Yes, sir.”
“Is that a common name?”
“Not as far as I’m aware.” The only other Ankmetta he’d ever heard of was the dead general. But Javen probably already knew that.
“Where is she?”
“She, uh, wait. What about her note? Her friend?”
Javen rolled his eyes. “The woman is safe. Run off with a lover, I believe, and didn’t wish to tell her husband. As for the note, clearly a flight of fancy. Now. Miss Ankmetta. Where is she?”
“That’s just the thing, sir.” It dawned on Tobias that if Zari’s friend was safe, but Zari was missing, then perhaps she’d aided in this rendezvous.
Maybe she passed the motorbike to the lovers.
Once more, the plot of countless romance novels spun through Tobias’s brain.
Would Javen understand that, if he too was trapped in a loveless arrangement?
Maybe he’d have sympathy for the others.
Or maybe it would just annoy him, as everything else did.
Tobias decided to stick to basic facts, more or less. “She works at the hospital. So I had to let her go, to start her shift.”
“Very well,” Javen said. “We’ve work to do.”
“Oh, right,” Tobias drawled, his accent even heavier than usual. Anger always brought out the Karsic blood in him. “Droughts forbid you tell me what sort of work though, right?” Because Javen had so many maps and notes and secrets, and Tobias had nothing to do but make sandwiches and wait.
“Follow me.” Javen tugged open the door and strode outside.
Tobias rubbed his sweaty palms on his coat. “So, where exactly are we headed?”
“The Prime Minister’s residence.”
Tobias stopped, halfway across the road. “We can’t just barge into the Prime Minister’s residence! There will be appointments to make, paperwork to fill out. There’s bureaucracy! A whole Cabinet of Ministers to deal with first.”
“Perhaps.”
Tobias figured he knew Javen pretty well—or as well as anyone could get to know someone with the same personality as a pebble stuck in a boot—and that sounded like agreement. So, he said it again, “Bureaucracy.”
A barely perceptible smile flickered across Javen’s face.
“So, how about we get a hot breakfast first?” Tobias said. “You can fill me in on whatever you were up to and—”
Instead of listening, Javen had been writing in a small notebook.
He ripped the page off and said, “Send a telegram to the hospital, and one to Central Command, to have soldiers sent there to question Miss Ankmetta. Then secure two motorbikes, fueled and fully equipped from the quartermaster. Finally, take this,” He tore the paper off.
“And request another telegram to be sent directly to Commander Lockwood. Afterward, you will— ”
Tobias didn’t take the paper. “You know, I could help a lot more if you’d let me know what’s going on. I could have ideas! Good ones.” The words tumbled out recklessly. Tobias’s blood froze. He’d been an idiot. He was going to lose his position, maybe even his life.
Javen’s teeth flashed in a wolfish smile. “Very well. Choose.”
“What?” Choose how he was supposed to die?
“Choose the priority of the tasks or suggest one of these so-called impressive ideas you have.”
Tobias blinked twice but found his head still attached to his neck. “I’ll go to the hospital myself.” Tobias said. “And after that, you and I will eat breakfast.”
“Oh?” Javen’s blue eyes lit, changing his whole expression.
How old was the man, anyway? Twenty-five?
Forty-five? Tobias had never bothered to ask.
The captain seemed like the sort who had acted like a grumpy old man since he’d been born, despite his natural good looks.
Tobias had seen a few women get all flustered when Javen glanced their way, which baffled him.
Why be interested in a man who was both married and miserable, when there were plenty of handsome men like Tobias, who were single and charming?
Still. Maybe he should find out how old his commanding officer was, in an effort to learn more about him. It might even give him some answers about the mystery swirling around Javen, the drawing of the woman, the surveillance by a stranger.
That thought led directly into Tobias’s ramble. “Yes. That’s my good idea. A meal together. We’ve gotta have each other’s backs. Get to know each other with small talk, you know. Genuine conversation.”
As Javen started to walk, he tossed his cigarette over a shoulder. “You get one question, then we eat in silence.”
“Whoa, whoa, wait.” So many questions swirled around. Where did he go when he wasn’t working? What was his family like? Did he have kids? A secret lover? Any hobbies?
Still thinking, Tobias scanned the note Javen expected him to have telegrammed to the Lord Commander Samuel Lockwood, Minister of Defense. It was short, to the point, and utterly baffling .
Samuel. Prepare Crimsons for northern-bound action.
The Crimsons were the Rhydonian military’s special operations group. What made Javen think he could ask for help and use the Minister of Defense’s first name?
A second thought hit him. Javen hadn’t bothered to use a code. He didn’t care that Tobias knew. Unless…
“You’re leaving the capital,” Tobias said, his hopes rising. “This mission. With the Crimsons, and Lockwood. Am I coming with you?”
“Provided you do not wish to be reassigned,” Javen replied. “Your question, then?”
A thrill of excitement ran down his spine. Now this was what he’d hoped for. Not only a chance to prove himself to Javen, but to make a difference. If the mission was important enough to require aid from the Crimsons, then surely it was a matter of national security.
Tobias was finally leaving the capital, heading out on a dangerous task. Not just running errands or reading reports. He’d have to pack. Find someone to water his plants. Get a good, hearty meal in him before they were living off military pre-packaged rations.
His stomach rumbled. Despite the more important questions, with that racing through his mind, Tobias could only blurt out, “What’s your favorite food?”
“Oatmeal.”