Category: Lerran

Lerran’s day was full of letters and documents.  With his warm breakfast and the kiss of his wife fading to distant memory, he pressed his palms to his temples and waited for his head ache to fade.  It did not.

The first letter, a short note scrawled on crinkled, over-chalked parchment, came from Lerran’s spy, Erril.  It was confirmation of his letter to Noress-That-Was on Lerran’s behalf.  Erril predicted they’d receive the letter in two-week’s time.  He was certain they’d be able to meet to discuss the terms of Lo Mallago’s sale during the 4^th Moon, barring that, the 5^th month. Continue reading Lerran 38

Lerran enjoyed a morning with Tassina, like usual, but it ended early when the assassin he sent to Lo Mallago returned to the Sheld estate.  Tass let him go after a small kiss.  And so it was, that once again, Lerran met with Vaenuth just after noon.  Though he wore a dark green tunic over beige pants, the strange foreigner wore the same scanty blue vest she had before.  It left little to the imagination, but for Lerran, she was not his type.  Too many ink lines and images and metal piercings.  Her white skin spoke of a southern origin: Orrene or further, despite her supposed career in Numa’nakres a land of a dark ethnicity.  It would help her fashion, at least, by changing up her outfits a little more, he decided. Continue reading Lerran 37

It was dreary all morning, and Lerran sipped the remnants of his coffee from a large mug at his desk as it pattered against his glass windows.  Tass had kept him company for a while, but had been called away to oversee some workers that were repairing the grounds.  While Aunt Mara had handled a lot of the estate management under Gharo’s leadership, Lerran had delegated a lot of that to his wife as she eagerly embraced her role as wife of the Prince of Sheld.  Old Mara didn’t mind—she spent her days reading in her small library room and reviewing some of the lengthier documents that came to Lerran’s attention. Continue reading Lerran 36

Tass looked into her coffee and frowned.  “I read it twice, but I don’t fully understand.”  She set the letter down on the table without looking at it.  “Do you trust this?”

Lerran tilted his head.  “I honestly don’t know if I can trust Havard or not,” he said.  It was the same letter he had received a few days earlier, stating that Antha would soon betray the position Lerran had given her as Captain of Sheld’s Guard. Continue reading Lerran 35

Groggily, against the blinding sunshine, Lerran opened his eyes.  Tass’s legs were entangled with his own, though one of his feet was stuck out of the blanket in the chilled air.  Lerran had only warm memories of the night before, so he let his toes curl in the cool breeze that drifted in the window with the rays of golden light.

They ate a small breakfast together, provided by the household staff.  Lerran smiled when he tasted the hint of cinnamon in his coffee.  News had reached them yesterday of a volcano in the distant city of Ellakar.  Supposedly, its destruction had been absolute, and the sound and sight of the blast had been seen for hundreds of miles around.  Lerran told Tass that he though he heard a strange thunder on the road to Lo Mallago, and she laughed.  She had heard the same thing, one day in the garden. Continue reading Lerran 34

“So, we’re just going to wait and hope that the random woman you met on the roads will handle this correctly?” Gadra asked.

Lerran had called a meeting between his siblings and he, a few days after his arrival back in Sheld.  He squeezed his toes in the red carpet beneath his desk and took a sip of his mug before replying to his sister.  “No, I’ll send a contract killer to make certain the job is done,” he said.  “I’ll just pay him less beforehand, and he can collect a full contract if his skills are needed.  You didn’t see Vaenuth and her friends.  I’m quite sure the Jorath’s will be—” Continue reading Lerran 33

The gates of Sheld passed over Lerran’s head as he ambled along on Ash’s back.  Each gate consisted of old wooden doors, though the arching stone overhead held a simple portcullis that could be lowered to slow a battering ram’s progress.  Of course, Sheld had never been attacked by a battering ram, at least not in distant memory.  War in southern Radregar was a political dance with skirmishes and mercenaries, not sieges. Continue reading Lerran 32

Lerran, to the dismay of his comrades, decided to conduct the bulk of their marching during the hours before and just after sunrise.  By the time mid-afternoon arrived, his party camped in whatever shade they could find or construct, only to begin journeying again in the early morning hours the next day.  They avoided the blistering sun, as best they could, as they continued the long journey along the Barren Road toward Sheld.  They were more than halfway, and had past a dozen other travellers on the road, when Lerran was presented with an interesting opportunity. Continue reading Lerran 31

“So you’re a traveller?” asked Alrin son of Jorath, as he regarded Lerran from his desk in a cluttered office on his property in Lo Mallago.  The man was a few years older than Lerran, which attributed to his father’s, Old Man Jorath, age, and had silver flecks throughout his beard and hair.  “Or a travelling merchant?”

Of course, Lerran did not look like himself.  He looked like a short, podgy man, half-bald.  He sat down in one of the armchairs across the desk from Alrin.  He had been permitted one guard, and had brought in Paksis of course.  “Both,” he said.  “My name is Traz, and I hail from the east.  I have a large family, and they all have resources to sell, I suppose.” Continue reading Lerran 30

By the time that Lerran and his friends were led into the crowded Market Court for an audience with the Rebel King, the cloudy weather had been burned away by a scalding sun.  The men and women on either side of Lerran—the Public People, as they were known—watched him lead Paksis, Kolt, and the others down the cobblestone street and under the billowing red canvases that covered the open town circle.  When Borik had led his revolution, one thing he had declared a thing of the past was proper citizenship, allowing any and all people inhabiting Lo Mallago to have a say in the decisions of its governing body. Continue reading Lerran 29