Django Wexler - The Shadow Throne

“Shall I introduce you, sir?” the corporal said. Then, glancing at Jane, he added, “Miss?”

“I can manage, Corporal,” Winter said. “Thanks.”

Morraz saluted and scurried off. Jane looked at the tent, whose highest point was barely above her nose, and gave a low whistle.

“You lived in one of these?” she said, quietly.

“For two years,” Winter said. “You get used to it. Eventually all you care about is having a dry spot to sleep.”

“And I thought we had it hard in the swamp.”

Winter knocked at the tent pole. An unfamiliar man’s voice said, “Yes?”

“Um,” Winter said, disconcerted. “It’s Lieutenant Ihernglass.”

“Ah yes. I thought it might be, from the commotion. Come in!”

Winter pulled up the flap and went inside. Jane followed, walking stooped. A folding table was strewn with papers and ledgers, the sight of which gave Winter an instant, instinctive feeling of guilt. Two people sat on opposite sides of it, pens in hand.

The man facing Winter was in his shirtsleeves, but Winter guessed he was the lieutenant. He was blond and blue-eyed, giving his face a vaguely Murnskai cast, and he had a jawline you could have cracked rocks on. Winter guessed he was a few years older than she was, in his mid-twenties.

His companion was Rebecca Forester, also called Robert Forester, known in both guises as Bobby. Senior Sergeant Bobby Forester, Winter saw, from the three pips on the shoulders of her jacket. Fitz had evidently done more than move a few lieutenants around in terms of getting the units sorted out. She looked somehow older than when Winter had last seen her, more adult. Winter still couldn’t see her soft, round face as a boy’s no matter how hard she tried, though it had fooled her well enough when they first met. As soon as Winter entered, Bobby popped to her feet. Before she could rush to embrace Winter, however, Jane came in, and Bobby stopped uncertainly in her tracks. The lieutenant raised an eyebrow.

Winter stepped forward into the uncomfortable silence, head slightly bent, and offered her hand across the table. “Lieutenant Winter Ihernglass.”

“Lieutenant John Marsh,” the man said, returning a firm handshake. “I think you know Sergeant Forester?”

“You might say that.” Winter shot Bobby a conspiratorial grin. “This is Jane Verity. I don’t know if you’ve heard that I’ve been placed in charge of one of the new companies-”

“I think everyone in the camp has heard by now,” Marsh said.

I was afraid of that. “Jane is my second in command.”

“I see.” Marsh glanced, for some reason, at Bobby, who gave a tiny shrug. “Well. Welcome, Lieutenant, Miss Verity. How can I help you?”

“I just wanted to have a few words with my corporals. My former corporals,” Winter corrected. “If it’s all right with you.”

Marsh, again, looked at Bobby. Winter thought she saw the girl nod very slightly.

“Of course,” he said. “I expect you have a lot of catching up to do!” He got to his feet, slapping dust and drying sand off his thighs. “Shall I fetch Junior Sergeant Folsom?”

“I’ll get him later,” Bobby said, and smiled at Winter. “Graff isn’t here, though. Fitz made him a lieutenant for the Third Company.”

“I’ll have to congratulate him,” Winter said.

She and Jane stepped aside, letting Marsh slip past them with a polite nod. He ducked through the tent flap and let it fall behind him. Bobby gestured for the two of them to sit, and gathered up the paperwork to pile it out of the way. Winter settled herself onto the cushion in front of the old, familiar low table, with Jane at her side.

There was a long pause. Bobby looked from Winter to Jane and back again, not sure what to think, and Winter couldn’t figure out how to begin the conversation. It was Jane who finally broke the silence with a laugh.

“Look at the two of you.” She shook her head, trying to fight her grin and failing. “I’m sorry, but it’s funny. You’re so tangled up in your secrets you can barely move!”

“I. .” Bobby hesitated. “I don’t know what you-”

“This is Jane ,” Winter said. “From Mrs. Wilmore’s. I found her.”

Bobby’s mouth opened, silently, and her eyes went wide.

“ I didn’t go anywhere. You were the one who disappeared,” Jane said. “What kinds of stories have you been telling about me?”

“Winter told me the truth about herself,” Bobby said, “and about how the two of you were friends before she ran away.”

“Friends.” Jane shot Winter a tiny smirk.

“And Bobby’s story is. . complicated,” Winter said. “I found out-”

“That she’s a girl?” Jane said. She shrugged at Bobby’s shocked look. “She didn’t tell me anything, but it’s not exactly a stretch to figure it out once you start thinking in those terms. Just look at you!”

“Nobody else has guessed,” Bobby said, defensively.

“I doubt anyone else is looking,” Jane said. “Now. We’ve established that everybody knows everybody else’s secrets. Can we all relax?”

Not all our secrets, Winter thought. There was no way for Jane to know about the naath Feor had gifted to Bobby, or the patches of her skin it had replaced with living marble. No need to break that to her yet-

“Actually,” Bobby said, “I have one more.”

“Bobby,” Winter cut in. “Are you sure you want to-”

“I can’t keep secrets from you,” Bobby said. “It feels wrong, after everything. And you may need to know.”

Winter paused. “From me?”

Bobby nodded. “It’s Lieutenant Marsh. He knows. . about me.”

“ What ? How did he find out? Has he told anyone?”

“It’s not like that,” Bobby said. “He’s a good person, honestly. He and I. . I mean, we’re. .”

“You’re what?”

Jane rolled her eyes and put one arm around Winter’s shoulders, pulling her close enough to speak into her ear.

“They’re fucking,” she stage-whispered, turning Bobby’s face instantly beet-red. “You know. Like men and women do, at times?”

Winter blinked. Oh. Several conflicting emotions assailed her at once. Fear, for Bobby and for herself, the old terror of being discovered. Irritation that Bobby had exposed them like this. And, she realized, just a hint of jealousy.

She bit her lip and shook her head. Don’t be ridiculous. She had Jane now, and that was all she’d ever wanted. Besides, if she and Marsh are. . I mean, she’s not. . like me.

“He’s not blackmailing you, or anything like that?” Jane said while Winter fought through her confusion.

“No, no.” Bobby’s blush deepened. “I told him myself. It was a stupid thing to do, but we were in a storm at sea, and there was something. .”

“It’s all right,” Winter said. “I don’t need the details.”

“Speak for yourself,” Jane said.

“The point is, you think you can trust him?” Winter badly wanted to ask about the naath and the traces it had left on Bobby’s skin- which Marsh must have seen, obviously- but didn’t want to bring it up in Jane’s presence unless Bobby mentioned it first. She felt a burst of frustration. Jane’s right. We do have too many damned secrets.

“I’m sure I can. And I haven’t told him anything about you.”

“All right.” Winter shook her head. “See if you can clue him in to the fact that I know. That might make things a bit less awkward.”

“Right.” Bobby gave a little sigh of relief. “God, I’ve been so worried what you would say.”

“It’s hardly my place to disapprove,” Winter said.