Dragons and Destiny (18 page)

* * * *

The
Intoxication
edged her way to the dockside. Philip was
pleased with Elliot. He no longer issued demands nor did he expect
to be waited on. He took his share in any tasks Philip gave them.
He appeared to be enjoying himself.

In fact, Elliot
was loving it. Someone not born to the constraints of royal life
might not have understood but for he first time he felt free to be
himself.

“Where do we go
first when we disembark?” he asked Philip. “An inn?”

“It would be
the normal step for travellers such as us,” agreed Philip, “so that
is what we will do. We’ll take a couple of rooms not in an inn but
in a hotel I know.”

“I didn’t know
you’d been in Argyll before.”

“There’s lot
you don’t know about me,” grinned Philip, who appeared to be
enjoying himself as much as Elliot. “I’ve been in royal service for
a long time. This isn’t even the
second
time I’ve visited.
In fact, there are some people, one man especially who I am proud
to call a friend and I’m hoping we might manage to meet him. I’ll
send a messenger once we get to the hotel and find out if he’s
still around.”

“I’ve never met
an ordinary Argyllian,” said Elliot.

“You’ve rarely
met
any ordinary anybodies
,” said Philip. “One of the
purposes of this trip is for you to meet as many different kinds of
people as possible. Ordinary people, people who work for their
living to put food in the bellies of their children.”

“Will that make
me a better king?” asked Elliot.

“Your father
knows it will make you a more rounded person,” explained Philip.
“Now, let’s disembark and get through customs. After the voyage
we’ve had I feel in great need of a hot bath and for some meat and
vegetables which aren’t salted or going rotten.”

“I feel much
the same myself,” admitted Elliot. “In this state,” he grinned,
“who could possibly guess who I really am?”

“You stink
enough that no one in their right mind would want to get close
enough to find out little brother,” said Derek, standing at
Elliot’s other side. “Ah, they’re tying up now, we’ll be able to go
soon.” He slapped Elliot on the back in a playful gesture and with
a resigned grin Elliot went with his ‘big brother’ to make his
farewells to the Skipper. He played the part very well, letting
Derek do the talking and injecting only an occasional ‘yes’ into
the conversation accompanied by a shy smile.

“What’s that
statue up there on the hill?” he asked Derek as they descended the
gangway.

Philip
overheard them and glanced landwards at the huge statue before
answering. “Jim and Larya, he was the General, they’ve got another
name for it but I don’t remember what, who commanded the army that
defeated the Larg who invaded here not long after we landed in AL2.
There are statues of the two of them dotted around everywhere and
I’ve been told that there are over twenty at Stewarton. I’ve not
seen them myself. You can climb up and look at it if you’re feeling
energetic. We’ll be here at Settlement for some days.”

“Some
days?”

“We need
horses, travel supplies. One travel pack each isn’t going to get us
very far. That’ll take time. The town itself is very interesting.
There are one or two of the original buildings still standing and
Settlement is the headquarters of the Garda - also the site of
their officer training school, it’s called the Academie.”

“I’d like to
see that,” said Derek. His father held land on the westernmost
borders of the Duchy of South Baker and he and his brothers had all
seen action against the Larg who seemed to think that the
domesticated meat herds must be far tastier than the wild ones
roaming free outside the borders. The Larg didn’t pay attention to
borders.

“I’ll see what
I can do,” responded Philip. “I’ve got an acquaintance of two
amongst the Garda, one of them being that friend I mentioned. Don’t
look so surprised young James. Whatever happened in the past
between our two countries is over now. The Garda and the Regiments
no longer believe each other is the enemy. I would like to see the
Academie as well. I only got a glance last time I was here.”

“So we can
trust the Garda?” queried James, amazed at what Philip was
revealing.

“Individual
members of another country’s army can be friends as long as one
remembers where loyalty lies.”

“I think I
understand,” James replied in a quiet voice. He had never thought
about inter-country relationships before, being the type of young
man who much preferred to skim over the surface of things.

“And remember
what war is,” continued Philip. “Most soldiers, whether from
Murdoch, Argyll or even Vadath don’t want a war. They go to war
when they are ordered and only when there is no other option.”

“So armies are
more in the nature of a deterrent?” asked Elliot.

“Yes, at least
between countries.”

“It is very
confusing,” said Elliot.

“Yes it is, but
enough lecturing for now, let’s get to the hotel.”

No one took
much notice of them as they made their way to the hotel Philip
remembered. He had insisted they all wear restrained garments and
an observer would have said they were three young men and their
tutor on an educational tour. The more astute would realise that
they came from the south by their accents. The more observant would
see that they were not from the merchant classes as all four wore
swords and their sword belts were worn.

The hotel
Philip had chosen was as far from the dockside as he could manage
and correspondingly expensive but this was in keeping with their
assumed status. Nobles from Murdoch didn’t frequent the less
commodious abodes near the docks.

He booked the
rooms, telling the officious looking individual at the desk that
they would be staying for at least five nights, perhaps more,
depending.

The Hotel was
‘expensive’ enough to have a messenger within its employ, a cheeky
little urchin of around thirteen who said the Receptionist, would
deliver anything anywhere, anytime, within the Settlement area.

Philip asked
for pen and paper, was told that they were already in the rooms and
requested that the messenger should present himself at his door in
a bell’s time as he had a letter he needed delivered to the
Academie.

“Who is it that
you know in the Garda?” asked Elliot as they followed their guide
up the shallow stairs.

“His name is
Leftenant Hallam,” Philip answered. “Last I heard he was still on
the staff at the Academie.”

“Where, when
did you meet him?” asked a curious Elliot. “Here in Argyll?”

“No, it was in
the Western Isles about two years ago. I was sent to the Duke with
the diplomatic pouch and the Leftenant was attached to the
Argyllian ambassador there. He’s a nice young man. We’ve kept in
touch on and off through diplomatic channels. If he’s still at the
Academie I’m hoping that he’ll invite us for a look round.”

“Will he be
allowed?”

Philip thought,
deciding how much he should explain. “Well, there’s been a certain
amount of mutual co-operation between the two officer schools, my
father spent three months lecturing here when I was a child and I
think the Academie reciprocated at much the same time. It worked
pretty well. If Robain Hallam is still here, he’ll leap at it,
especially if I volunteer to give a lecture or two myself, at least
his Commanding Officer will.”

Philip wrote
the note and sealed it with the wax that sat in a pretty allst-wood
box on the desk. Elliot hadn’t stayed in a hotel before but he was
favourably impressed. They seemed to think of everything.

There was a
smart rap at the door and a boy in green livery entered. Philip
held out the letter which the boy took.

Elliot had half
turned to Philip to ask another question when the door went again.
It was James and Derek who had come to request permission to go and
explore Settlement and could ‘Walter’ come with them?

Philip gave his
permission, reminded them to be careful and to remember they were
guests. He saw them on their way after a few quiet words with Derek
to keep his eyes open. When they returned for supper, tired and
cheerful he had news. Leftenant Hallam
was
still at the
Academie and would be delighted to see Philip again. He had sent an
invitation for Phillip and his young friends to attend the Academie
the day after next and would ask his commanding officer if he would
accept Baron Ross’s offer of the lecture.

There was more;
after their day at the Academie he proposed that the four of them
be his guests for dinner. He would bring three officer trainees
with him as company for the three youngsters so that they could
meet each other in an informal setting.

“So tomorrow
I’ll take you on a guided tour of Settlement. We’ll also go to the
livery stable to see about our mounts. We’ll need a couple of
pack-mares too. I’m sure you’ll manage to fill the pack-hampers
up.”

James turned
red. He had already been looking at some trinkets to take home to
his pretty young wife.

“My advice is
to wait until we’re on our way home,” said Philip who had a good
idea why the young man was blushing.

“Sounds fun,”
grinned Elliot, referring to their plans.

Next morning
the four woke early, breakfasted and made their way to the horse
fair, Philip having decided that instead of hiring they should buy.
After a considerable amount of haggling which left both Elliot and
James open-mouthed, Philip purchased four riding beasts, one spare
in case of accidents and two pack-mares.

The riding
animals were not of the quality and breeding Elliot was used to;
Philip called them ‘plodders’, sturdy horses with thick legs and
shaggy coats. Derek had met their kind before so he wasn’t as
nonplussed as the other two.

“These are our
steeds?” queried the dubious Elliot in an aside to James.

Philip
overheard, as was usual. He had ears like a vuz.

“They may be
plodders,” he said, his head appearing above the withers of the one
Elliot was standing beside, “but they’ll get us from one end of the
continent to the other. They’ll do what the more quality animals
won’t; they’ll keep going through everything the weather can throw
at us. Merchants use this type of horse.”

“What do the
Argyllians use when they need to go fast?” enquired James.

“There
are
faster horses; the Argyllians call them race
steeds.”

“Is that what
their messengers use?”

“Bless me, what
have your tutors been teaching you? No, Argyll and Vadath are host
to an organisation they call ‘The Express’ and it is the
Lind
who run that with their human partners. Lind are much
faster than any horse.”

“I thought all
such were in the Vada,” commented James.

“Most are but
not all. You’ve heard of the Holad?”

James shook his
head but Elliot nodded. He had paid attention to his lessons. “It’s
the medical section of the Vada.”

“It’s rather
more than that,” said Philip. “Not all of the Holad serve with the
Vada. Many are strung out along the continent. They turn no one
away. I’ve heard some live on the larger islands too but that might
just be rumour.”

“So the Holad
is a kind of vocation?” asked Derek.

“Something
like. I’d maybe not go so far as to call it a vocation but there’s
certainly a need to serve and tend in there somewhere. Let’s get
these beasties back to the stables. The Stablemaster at the hotel
is expecting them. I spoke to him last night. He’ll get them shod
and arrange for the tack to be fitted. We’ve actually managed to
get them much quicker than I expected. It’s only third
candle-mark.”

“They call it
bells here,” Elliot corrected and Philip laughed.

“Touché. Third
Bell if you want to be pedantic,” he said with a merry twinkle in
Elliot’s direction

Elliot realised
his father had been right. Philip Ross
did
have a sense of
humour, despite his stern demeanour. This feeling had been growing
since they had left Galland but this was the prince’s first
conscious acceptance of what the inner Philip was like.

“After lunch,”
Philip continued, “we’ll have a look round Settlement.”

After a
delicious lunch of savoury cold meats and crunch-fried whiteroot in
a piquant sauce, the four sallied forth into the sun, Elliot and
James were chattering hard (James was by now back to normal when in
Elliot’s company).

Because Philip
had been to Settlement before, he directed them with
confidence.

First they
visited the Remembrance Gardens, a dalina-flower-scented place
literally covered in the said blossoms and where were buried, Derek
read aloud, “‘
… the Martyrs of the Battle of the Alliance,
AL2
,’ strange, the plaque appears to be new.”

“Probably the
old one disintegrated,” suggested Elliot, “it was so long ago.”

There was no
one there to say that the old plaque had been taken down a few
years ago when it was decided that the words on the old one might
offend visitors from Murdoch. It had put the blame for the atrocity
on
‘the men from the south’
.

From there they
went to
Ye Old Meeting House,
now a museum. They spent over
two bells in the museum. Elliot was fascinated by the artefacts and
evidence of the earliest settlers.

“There’s a
bigger museum at Stewarton,” said Philip, growing restless. Elliot
was showing no sign of wanting to leave. James was fidgeting.
Derek, once he had seen what he wanted to see, had sat on the
window seat to wait.

It was as he
sat that he noticed two men, one tall, the other short, standing in
the street outside. Just why his eyes were drawn to them he wasn’t
sure but drawn they were. He almost called Philip over but one of
the men glanced up at that point, nudged the other and they walked
away.