The Power and the Glory

Book 2 Chapter XIV: A Misunderstanding

Warning: contains reference to a gruesome injury. Also contains Haliran, who's her own warning. And Siarvin is pretty messed-up too.

...we become like the fiends in hell, who may feel remorse, but never repentance. -- Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe

Life in Saoridhlém in general was proverbially exciting. Life in the capital was naturally said to be even more so. Many a youngster on Muirus 9436 who had never even left their home planet dreamt eagerly of the day they could travel to Vanerth. Saoridhlém was the most popular setting for novels. Almost every serialised story took its main characters to the glittery, glamourous city of Eldrin.

Kitri had always known the fictionalised version of the city featured in those books was as different from reality as chalk was from cheese. True, she wasn't originally from the city. But she knew it well enough to find the novels highly amusing. She had gone to school in Eldrin, after all. The city was only glittery on festival days. And it would be hard to imagine a less glamourous place than anywhere frequented by university students during term-time -- especially exam-time. There was nothing glamourous about wan, harried figures hunched over their textbooks in all sorts of strange places.

Her latest visit to the city was by far the worst. If life in Eldrin was this exciting, she would happily be bored for the rest of her life. Sea serpents! Walking corpses! Her childhood friend being publicly revealed as a necromancer!

Speaking of that childhood friend -- who Kitri sometimes wished she had never met or even heard of -- she had mysteriously disappeared. A few rumours said she'd gone back to the palace. They were followed by claims she was thrown in the dungeon alongside the creature she'd justifiably attacked. (Kitri flatly refused to refer to a piece of trash like Haliran as a person. Frankly Abihira's actions at the end of the trial were the most defensible actions she'd taken recently.) Be that as it may, Kitri dismissed those rumours as nonsense. Abi would never go back to the palace after what had just happened. Even if she did, the empress would never throw her in prison for it.

A handful of other rumours said she had packed up and run away. That didn't make much sense either. Where would she run to? Still others -- spread exclusively by people who had not been present in the courtroom -- claimed she had spontaneously disappeared after attacking Haliran.

In short no one knew where Abi was. Kitri, however, could make an educated guess.

After the drama at the royal court she set off for her hotel room. She urgently needed a cup of tea before she could bear any more insanity.

On the way out of the palace she bumped into Princess Kiriyuki. At first Kitri didn't recognise her. The princess looked as if she'd seen a ghost.

She should be used to Abi's special brand of chaos by now, Kitri thought. Even so, she stopped to try to reassure the princess. No one knew better than her how shocking Abi's antics could be even when you expected them. The incident of the walking dead in the market would forever haunt her memory.

"Don't worry, your Highness," she said politely. Perhaps it was a breach of protocol to approach a foreign royal so casually and without a formal introduction. But Kitri was used to dealing with all sorts of royals and those who claimed to be royal. It only occurred to her afterwards that she might have broken some rule. "Abihira can wriggle out of anything. She won't be in serious trouble for long."

Silently she added, More's the pity.

Kiriyuki made an attempt to look more cheerful. It was a very poor attempt when she still looked pallid and shaken. Kitri politely didn't point that out.