Lingering Shadows-Chapter 22

Notes

• First, I am not satisfied with this chapter. I’m really sorry it was so late, but it’s a product of a super annoying case of writer’s block (why. Can. I . Not. Write. When I do think of something: Typing fingers stop doing typos!!!😖) , first few days of school, and my dad leaving for a mission trip. I hope it’s not as bad as my writer’s block brain is saying it is. 😂

• As always, let me know if I made any canon errors.

• Previous Chapter

• The one thing I was satisfied with was the chapter title. 😂

Chapter 22-Unfortunate Good News

 A while later, Esben followed Artham out of the library, bombarding his brother with questions. Artham had given that little shout of victory, sending Esben’s hopes high. He had been gently but sternly rebuked by Mr. Sidler for shouting in the library, a rule that he of all people should observe. Artham had apologized, and if he hadn’t been so focused on his small ocean of papers and books, Esben knew he would have been extremely embarrassed.

Esben made his way over to Artham’s table and asked excitedly what he had found. For a while, Artham didn’t answer, looking more serious than he had when they had arrived, stacking certain books and shoving others into his large, bursting-at-the-seams satchel.

So Esben asked again, and Artham finally seemed to hear him. Esben decided his brother’s silence was better. He began spitting out legal terms and Old Hollish names for numbers of articles that were in the common tongue and words that were so long and unheard of that Esben wasn’t sure what language they were in. The only coherent thing he said was,

 “Oh. I think I need to ask Mr. Sidler for a bigger bag,” as he stared helplessly at his own that had just ripped, practically exploding from the seams. Then he went silent again, occasionally muttering to himself. So Esben waited, hoping Artham would calm down enough to talk to him soon. Finally, as they left the library, he couldn’t wait any longer, so he attracted a few amused looks when he said,

 “Artham, please just tell me what you found! You’re killing me!” 

“First, please do not use that expression until I’ve got whoever’s trying to actually kill you,” Artham said with a frown, and Esben rolled his eyes. “Secondly, in your own words, ‘I thought you would be able to restrain your curiosity longer.’” Esben glared at Artham, and Artham laughed. 

“I’m joking. There’s good news, and bad news. Unfortunately, they go together. The good news is that the council of Chiefs can override the Keeper’s decision.” Esben’s mouth fell open, then he grinned. 

“That’s-that’s great! Thank you so much Artham, you’re amazing!” He shouted, punching his brother in exuberance. Artham laughed and pushed him away. 

“Hey, Es. This is serious.”  Then Esben paused, remembering that Artham had two pieces of news, and let his brother continue. 

“The bad news is that the council of Chief’s choice to override the Keeper has to be completely unanimous. So we are going to have quite a fight on our hands,” Artham said, his brow furrowed. Esben instantly deflated. 

“A fight? Do you mean…literally or figuratively?” He asked in concern, and his question was valid, concerning that the Hollish chose their leader by a giant fistfight over a boot. Artham half smiled. 

“We can hope that it will only be figuratively.” 

“Oh. We can hope.” Esben repeated. Artham nodded absentmindedly. Because of Esben’s duties as King and because he didn’t particularly like it when Artham forgot to talk to him, he resolved to get everything out of his older brother when they returned to Oak Hill. He realized that they were almost at the Keep again, and wondered why they were headed there, but remembered that they had left Bonifer, Artham’s friends, and the council of Chiefs. 

A lot of them had probably gone home, considering there were no other meetings today, but it was possible that one or two of the most helpful ones would have stuck around, trying to get what little they could done. Esben realized with a mix of frustration and amusement, but mostly frustration, that no one else knew that as of yet, Anniera and the Hollows were no longer allied. 

The brothers walked in silence for a while longer through Ban Rona, and somehow Artham managed to look absent minded and at the same time keep up his constant assessment of everyone and everything near his brother. It had become automatic to him, so one busy corner of his mind constantly worried about and scrutinized everything in the outside world and only alerted the rest of him when something was out of the ordinary. 

Something was out of the ordinary when he saw Esben look through the crowd and see someone. His face brightened for a second, then a flash of frustration went over him, then something similar to fear. Artham raised his eyebrows when Esben ducked his head and moved quickly so that Artham’s height was between him and most of the crowd, walking so that to stay with him, Artham would have to go closer to the buildings on one side of the road. 

Of course, Esben had seen Nia. Instantly he realized that for her to see him with Artham would be a dead giveaway. Not to mention her cousin was with her too. Artham looked at him in surprise when he finally stopped pulling them away from the center of the crowd. 

“Can you please tell me what that was about?” Artham asked. 

“Um…no?” Esben answered. Artham raised an eyebrow. 

“Okay, so is it something I should be concerned about?” A little bit of annoyance bubbled up in Esben. Artham definitely did not need to know everything about his life. 

“Nope,” He answered in the most convincing tone he could muster. For once he was grateful for Artham’s preoccupation since his weak replies would never have convinced Artham in a normal state of mind. But on top of everything Artham was stressing over, such as assassination attempts and unrenewed alliances, a change in Esben’s tone of voice didn’t seem like such a pressing matter. 

Esben sighed with relief when Nia passed them in the opposite direction. Then he started to get frustrated at himself.

How in Aerwiar could I have made such a mess of things? He asked himself. I can’t keep doing this! I’m lying to her because I want to be her friend…there’s no way this is going to work. He knew that at some point he would either have to tell her or that she would find out. Then everything would be messed up. Whether it would be more messed up than it already was now, he wasn’t sure. For a second, he considered asking Artham’s advice. 

Immediately, he firmly rejected the thought. Absolutely, positively not. Never. Not in a hundred years. For one, he knew that Artham was going to tell him to go straight to her and Malik and tell her the truth. He was going to do that…just…not for a while yet, he told himself. Anyway, he thought with frustration. It doesn’t matter if he’s my Throne Warden, he can’t tell me what to do when it’s something like this. I am going to tell her, just not yet. I need to figure out how. In the meantime I can just try to enjoy someone who’s friends with me because of who I am, not what my job is.

The second reason was because he knew without a doubt that if he even mentioned a girl to Artham, his older brother would start coming to the wrong conclusions. Esben felt his face getting hot just thinking about Artham thinking that. It would be absolutely useless to say they were just friends. 

So he tried to muffle his nagging conscience with the fact that he did plan to tell her. He just didn’t bother to tell his conscience that he didn’t plan to for quite a while, so he distracted himself by bothering Artham the rest of the way to the Keep. 

*

When they approached the Keep, Esben could see Artham’s friends waiting right outside. Aspen was pushing Io, trying to convince him to wrestle, and Io was pushing back, but not quite hard enough to be considered wrestling. Dru was talking with Josif and getting close to no responses while Josif carved long, deep grooves in a stick with his knife. Josif must have seen the brothers coming up the road and said something about it because the other three all turned to look. 

Then Josif said something else very quickly, at which Aspen calmed down a little. He had scrambled up to go tackle Artham, but when Josif spoke, he looked closer at the two coming up the road and seemed to be sighing in exasperation. The other three stood up and walked down with him to meet the brothers. 

“Artham, you left us!” Aspen said reproachfully when they met in the road. Josif and Dru bowed quickly to Esben, but stood up again, not waiting for him to tell them to rise. 

 “Guys, please, you don’t have to do that,” Esben said with a frustrated tone, not meeting their eyes. 

“We won’t if you don’t want us too,” Josif said quietly. 

“I would really rather you not,” Esben answered with a sigh.

“Fine with me,” Aspen said, then turning to Artham. “So what were we supposed to do when you just ran off for almost four hours? We’ve been waiting for forever. Josif was getting grumpy.”

 “No I wasn’t,” Josif interrupted flatly before turning back to his stick. 

“Yeah, because you’re always grumpy anyway.” Josif didn’t even look up from his knife. Aspen laughed, leaning over to Esben. 

“He just doesn’t want to admit it,” he whispered very loudly. Esben snickered, and Aspen did too, both of them cracking up when Josif looked up from his stick to glare at them. Aspen also looked very satisfied that he had succeeded in getting downcast Esben to laugh.

“Anyway, Artham, what do we do? We want to help, and I’m pretty sure having those two in a council meeting would be beyond counterproductive,” Dru said, gesturing to Aspen and Io. “Specifically Aspen.”

 “Hey! I’m offended!” Aspen shouted, but Dru and Artham ignored him while Esben tried to stop laughing. 

“I don’t know, Dru. I’m so sorry, but I haven’t been able to think about it much today,” Artham said, rubbing his head. “But I want you to know, just you showing up has been a huge help,” Dru smiled and nodded. 

“You’d do the same for us,” 

“Until we can help with something else, you could get us into the watch that’s guarding your house,” Josif suggested quietly. “It’s better than nothing, and Aspen is going to drive me crazy if he can’t get something to do,” he finished, muttering under his breath. 

“I heard that,” Aspen said with a grin.

 “Actually, it's a pretty great idea,” Io mused. Esben looked up. 

“It wouldn’t be that hard since you’ve all already had some military training. We’d just have to talk to Guildmaster Clout about it. He’s in charge of that watch for now.” Dru, who had had a few years of Durgan training, insisted upon by his father, laughed ruefully. 

“Yeah, that’s going to be easy,” 

“Well, we can go talk to him early tomorrow,” Esben said decidedly, looking out at the setting sun.  “Meet you outside the Guildling Hall?” When the other four agreed, Esben stood up. 

“Thanks guys. Right now me and Artham need to go home and plan for tomorrow's council meeting,” he said seriously. Then, half joking, “Actually, if it comes to a fight, it would be pretty useful for you all to be there. Just in case.”