Storm Signs 3

Butler Jin stiffened the moment that he heard the Duchess mention her mother. That was an obvious threat and he knew it! Just as he knew that there was no way that he could get out of letting her witness the entire interrogation process!

He shuddered, and hid the fact that he did so with a quick bow. Which was enough to hide his increasingly sour expression as he quietly cursed the Duchess and her relations while his head was down. Why did she have to come from such a powerful and unconventional family?

Then he cursed the Duke as well, as he began to straighten up. It was all his fault, wasn't it? Well, he wasn't going to try to shield him from his wife, since that was the case. This was entirely a family spat, as far as he was concerned. A deadly one, but a family quarrel, nonetheless. So he might as well wash his hands of the matter!

Which was why he had recovered his aplomp by the time that his back was straight once more. And Jin Yuhe even managed to plaster a slight and ever-so-fake smile on his lips.

"In that case, I shall be more than pleased to accompany Your Grace. Let me lead you to our dungeons where we shall be carrying out our questioning. If you would come this way?"

*

A good two hundred or so li away from Yanyun City and the uneasy Butler Jin, there was another worried person hastily departing from the Ducal City.

There were two main roads that led out of Yanyun City, and two lesser, narrower roads that saw fewer travelers on them. Of the latter, one was only used by the Ducal Troops, to head West to the Forest that they were required to patrol. That saw little use, save for the movement of the army, that had already started towards the border that the Duchy shared with the Barbarian-held lands.

The other road led to the North, and continued all the way to the border, with its huge, untouched Wilderness, that stretched between the Northern and the Western Duchies. It was whispered, and not only among the soldiers of both Duchies, that this massive forest had been deliberately left alone to demarcate the two pieces of territory, as well as to display the animosity between the two Dukes.

This was not a wonder, to those who lived in the Kingdom, since it was rather well known that the pair of old men had never gotten along. And that they had passed whatever grudge that lay between them to their sons and heirs, who were known for their frequent clashes in the Royal Court, at the Capital.

Of course, with the area largely uninhabited, and the Ducal Guard patrols largely constrained to those regions that were closer to the border itself, the roads saw hardly any use at all. That is, outside of the half-yearly rotation of troops that hardly kept the narrow roads free of weeds and the occasional shrub.

Which made it rather interesting, to the casual observer, to note that a small trail of three apparently heavily armoured carriages, all bearing the Ducal Crest, was making its way along that narrow trail, so close to the fall of night. What made it even more interesting was the fact that there was a smaller noble crest affixed just below the large and obvious one belonging to the Duke of the Westlands.

Wasn't that the entitlement of the Duke's Eldest daughter? What was she doing so far to the North? This was clearly out of the ordinary! After all, every one knew that her husband was a Court Noble, and tied to the Capital. He had no lands in the North, that was for certain!

More surprising was the fact that the carriages continued to run, well into the late afternoon! Most travellers would have stopped a good while before sunset, and used the time to start setting up camp. As it stood, the train that was still rushing along the track to the North was more than likely to end up fumbling in the dark, even if it halted at once, and started pitching tents. Something that did not appear to be in its plans, from what anyone could see.

Not at all the sort of behaviour that one would expect to see from someone related to the Western Duke's family!

Still, no one dared to stop the train of marked carriages due to the heavily armed squad of soldiers that were obviously protecting the same. And merely looked on, as the tired-looking armed men continued on their way, trudging along the narrow road, drawing closer and closer to the dangerous woods.

It was almost an hour later, when the sun had just begun its descent, its crimson glow transforming the dirt track into a blood-red line against deep green woods, that a loud shout was heard from behind the weary train.

"Halt! Cease your advance!"

The military command was delivered in a stern, powerful voice that held an authority that shocked the tired soldiers. With their energy already drained by their ceaseless travels, a good number of the men actually came to a stop before they looked up, and wondered at where the voice was coming from.

Those who were in charge of the train, however, had already turned their mounts and spurred them back to the rear of the line, where they spotted a group of six riders, charging at the wagons with deliberate speed. Hurriedly, they began shouting orders, to bring their men into position, so that they might fend off these unknown travellers who dared to stop them.

Yet, even before their orders could permeate the minds of the road-weary soldiers, the hard-riding newcomers had already torn past the exhausted guards that loitered at the rear of the three armoured wagons, and pulled up right next to the middle of the same. The leaders who had circled their mounts around the same quickly started forward at once, to form a line between the horsemen and the carriage, pulling swords and readying their spears as they did so.

"Enough! Stand down, the lot of you!"

The angry shout from the riders, and a loud, annoyed grunt from one of those at the fore of the sextet that had just arrived, shocked the escorts. And the one who rode at the head of the group pulled aside his cloak, to reveal a very obvious, and familiar, suit of armour on his body.

That alone was enough to send all of the lightly armoured guards falling to their knees where they stood. Their weapons were lowered at once, even before the curtain that hung over the entrance of that same middle carriage flashed open, and a woman's voice could be heard shouting in the red-orange light:

"Younger Brother! Younger Brother, you are here!"

* * *