The Exiled Gem

Hollow Armors

Alexandra tore her eyes away from the stack of letters. They were simply too many to even remember clearly. Jade was hesitant to make appearances nowadays, because of which she had ten letters pending, three to Diana, one to Fannel, two to Paul and the rest to Betty.

'That bird is a lazy ox,' Alexandra sighed to herself, 'JADE!'

No response.

'JA-ADE!'

Still no response- usually, even with the depression, Jade didn't ignore her call. Had she gone to the council?

'JADE!' Alexandra gave it a final try, sticking her head outside the window, 'Just forget about it!' she growled, when there was no trace of blue-green and gray swooping towards her. Alexandra picked Moira, stuffed her pocket knife into her boot, as usual, and left the room in disarray around her, kicking the door shut.

Once in the streets, she had a good look around herself. Nobody seemed to be minding her - which was always a good sign. Overhead, vultures circled the cloudless sky, a particularly old one sat on the edge of a building, drying its wings in the sun.

'If only my life was so simple-' Alexandra began,

And it included scavenging - feeding on dead stuff. Yes, yes, Alexandra - go on, easy life?

'Forget I said anything, Mind.' She groaned, turning and talking the wide path to the Military Base.

Shortcuts were Alexandra's favorite part in Doveland. Idgard was very organized, locations were where they ought to be and there weren't many ways of sidestepping. Doveland on the other hand, was made out of shortcuts. A person could get into a hole and end up in the prisons - or something close to that, at least. When one didn't know those routes, it could get annoying. Just in case they did - they'd have an absolutely wonderful time.

Fifteen minutes.

Fifteen minutes was all it took Alexandra to set foot into the Military Cantonment. That was not much of an achievement, because the bases were always in the heart of the camps. Which implied - the hardest part was yet to come.

'Last chance,' the spy muttered to herself, 'I can turn back. I can leave.'

But you aren't going to.

'Huh,' she agreed, 'Point. But I'll make it a short trip. I'll-' Alexandra stopped midway, paling, as the sound of galloping - fast paced and vigorous advanced towards her.

She could run inside the camp. Or... maybe she could leave - but doing either of them, without a plan, struck her as suicidal.

'Plan!' she demanded, 'I need a plan!'

Correction: she didn't have two seconds.

With perhaps half a millisecond to spare, Alexandra jumped into the nearest clump of bushes, tearing all her clothes and getting scratched, but it served the purpose - she was hidden. The horses, three of them, all brown, cantered past her, spraying her in the face with dust and small pebbles.

'Watch that!' Alexandra barked, altogether uncaring of the fact that she was supposed to be hidden. Thankfully, over the din the horses made - she went unheard.

'Seems they're having a busy day,' Alexandra noted, stepping out of the prickly bushes and spitting the dust into the very same clump that had sheltered her. 'Now I'm interested.'

* * *

Day after tomorrow was to be the big day. Those three men on horses, today, had been nothing but messengers - something which Alexandra had suspected, since they had extreme horse-riding skills.