Under Guard

[Jay Carpenter]

  

The gate closed and Jai frantically pat himself down. Made it safe to the Fox's work office without a few extra feathers punctuating his uniform. Bloody relief was short lived though. A heartbeat later a voice from behind spun him about ready to incinerate whoever was waiting.

"The Dragon teach you that little jingle noise before all-"
Jai felt his jaw unhinge. Mikel Basinthe sat behind Jon's desk. His Tower Guard's cloak was draped behind him and his shirt half unlaced. With one hand he gestured toward the air the gateway occupied as he found the word he was seeking, "-that?"
The chimes he alluded to were meant to warn those on the other side of an opening gate to get out of the way. But Jai's choked up throat failed to get the explanation out. All he could do was stare at fluffy curls cascading down the creamy shoulders in Mikel's company. He wasn't alone in the room. He bloody wasn't even alone in the chair!

The image of many a dark night's comfort glanced casually over her shoulder back at him. She took her time shrugging her sleeves back up into decency. "Jaslene?!"
He called, gawking like a baby faced idiot up at an angel. "Weren't you just at my house?"


She pulled her hair free of the replaced collar and hummed an amused laugh. "That was hours ago. You disappeared and I had to get back to work."


"Yeah. Work.  Looks hard."
He blinked pained eyes, and coughed on the words that came out of his mouth, Jon did not look amused, and Jas's look flattened faster than an inflation curve in war. He turned around fast. He'd rather drink accelerant and swallow fire than watch the couple disentangle themselves from each other. He never studied a blank wall so long in his life.

Amid declining sounds of shuffling came the impending question. From Mikel: "Jai, what are you doing here?"
He braced to see the worst, but thankfully discovered only a guy sitting in a desk chair, clothes a little askew, expression a mixture of gloating for being caught with his wife and ready to get rid of the guy that interrupted their alone time. Jaslene meanwhile transformed in that magical way of women into a vision of perfection. Like she'd been doing nothing at all out of the ordinary. It was always the quiet ones. Light.

Given it was safe to turn around again, Jai dropped the bag and sword and fell into a chair. "My bloody idiot brother just tried to flaming kill me. Or worse. Get me arrested!"


"Yeah?"
Mikel barked a disbelieving laugh, "Right. What'd you do now?"
Jaslene meanwhile lifted her brows.

Face buried in his fingers, he could still feel their eyes looking at him. The same questionable concern branded their faces that choked everyone up at that first reunion dinner. What do Asha'man bloody do anyway? Have you met the Dragon Reborn? Why haven't you visited? All sorts of completely comfortable talk about all sorts of things he loved to discuss. His shoulders dropped in defeat. Suppose there was no point holding back this time. There were few others in world he trusted more than these two. Course idiot brothers should top that list. Light. Zakar was an idiot. Which left Andreu. And whichever side of the line the second Kojima son stood.

"Someone's dealing under the table at the bank. Zak think it’s me.  I don’t know how he thinks I’ve been doing all that. I’ve been a little busy. "
The two of them exchanged worried looks. "It's not me!"
Bloody shouldn't have to say that. Light! If it was him, teams of analysts couldn't crack the paper trail if Jai were the author.

After shutting down the inevitable team effort to uncover the culprit together like some village street gang with time to kill, Jaslene started off back to the work she claimed to be doing. Jai stood up. "Jas, wait. Could you grab me something from the kitchen that travels well? And a few galleons from the drawer? Any Marks other than the Flame preferably."
She nodded, but Jai grabbed her hand on the way out anyway, awkwardly trying not to picture what that hand had been doing a minute ago. "And ah, I kind of like the portrait. Don't let mom get rid of it. I want to finish it."
Jas smiled, affirming as much, then glanced at her husband as Jai let her go. Bloody women.

Back to Mikel. Who by then had one eye focused on clasping his cloak back into place and the other on the man holding his wife's hand. If he saw something pass between them, he didn't bring it up. Jai cleared his throat like he'd been caught doing something deplorable and distracted himself by going through what luck favored he managed to pack before the abrupt departure. "Zakar said something about the guy responsible for blotting out my good name attacked an Accepted."


Mikel leaned thoughtfully on the side of the desk. Tower Guard uniform straight as an arrow now. Flame of Tar Valon positioned like a snowy teardrop on his chest. Sigil of the High Captain's unit knotted under the commission patched on his shoulder.
"Yeah. Heard something about that. Petty criminals are usually bound for the Chair of Remorse and escorted off the island. So I reckon he's keeping company in a cell awaiting trial right about now."


Awaiting trial? That meant violence. Jai sucked in a nervous breath.
"He kill her?"
If he did, the Dark One's revenge would be a relief from the fury to rain down on the wretched soul.

"I'd not be off duty right now if we had an Accepted’s corpse on hand. She was barely touched and taken straight to Sisters for testimony."
Mikel held his eyes a moment until Jai broke away to finish taking inventory.

He popped the cap from a leather tube. It was empty now. Space within for bank notes he didn't have time to grab. Next a palm sized, leather-bound pad with a vial of ink for scribbling out quadratics too complex for visualizing. No pen though. Have to borrow one of Jon's. A healer's kit with a few stoppers of stuff he had no idea of their purpose but had no problem dabbing on in the event of an emergency. He sniffed one. Smelled mossy. Should still be good. The precious sewing kit completed the inventory. He held the needle up to the light; had that handy little piece of steel since the days serving with Lt. Tomdry up on the Border. Should probably sharpen it sometime.

Mental list made of what he was missing, he glanced up.
"Can you get me to him?"

Mikel could, but he recognized intention when he saw it. Jai smirked. Mikel was too bloody responsible for his own good.
"If he's arrested he's in a cell. Second basement under the Tower. Entrance isn't hard to find but there will likely be half a unit of Guards around the clock. They come and go on regular duty so the Sisters won't have anything of the Power up to stop them."


Interesting.

Jaslene returned with some trail rations and a flask of water. Not that he anticipated wandering far from food in the next few days but safe over sorry. A couple compact wedges of high energy jerky, dry fruit and nuts went wrapped up in the pack with the rest. The coin, wrapped up to not jingle like a walking target went in as well. A more manageable purse with a mismatch of national mints would stay within easier reach. Safer, too.

He shoved the hastily donned Asha’man’s coat in the pack and flicked apart the buttons of his shirt next. Easy, he'd not exactly dressed to regulation when Zak stormed in. It could have been Nythadri. Had to be Nythadri, just bloody made sense. Who else would it be? Everyone and their brother in Tar Valon recognized Accepted. Malicious intent or not, not even Whitecloaks would dare take on a woman with the ring inside the city. No matter how much they wanted to. That left the lingering presence of Domani, or Seanchan, agents working in the city. They didn't wait long. Pinning fraud on Jai came fast. He'd not shaken their dust from his boots yet. That took some planning. He threw the black shirt into the pack. Mikel said the girl was alright; comforting, slightly. Of course Nythadri left Caemlyn in a mess. Could be an attempt on her. Ghosts of her brother's misfortune maybe. Events too coincidental to be unrelated. And there was no such thing as coincidences.

"Who's Nythadri?"
Mikel interrupted.

Jai jumped. Mikel and Jaslene were staring: he in that accusing way he knew Jai was up to something and she gesturing censureship at the waist Jai was about to drop. "Ah? Jai? Going somewhere?"


"Ah blood and flaming ashes. Nobody."
He looked down suddenly very aware of roaming eyes across the world's longest scar. Probably shouldn't change just anywhere. "No."
He shrugged on the new, wrinkled up mess of a generic-cut shirt. "I mean, yes."
Among promises to clear up his name, he waited until they were gone to finish donning the common attire. Asha'man was his entire identity. He'd cut off his sword hand before forsaking that duty. Strange how a man found anonymity in a line of brothers, but taken alone was desperately vulnerable. These plain clothes felt like the robes of betrayal, but he grit his teeth, cast a promise to the walls as his witness and put it on. The double breasted dust coat hung to the knees. Its scratchy wool and cheap brass buttons poored it down a bit. The curved sword at his side was a bit of a give away, but plenty walked around armed these days. Jai was no fancy blademaster, just another guy who liked a bit of insurance; at least make the common thief think twice. Shouldn't stand out.  He hoped as he pulled the coat around the front of the swordbelt.

Waterbag slanted across, pack slung over one shoulder and sword belt secure he felt like a right good campaigner. He bid his farewells to his childhood friends, leaving them to wonder if they would ever see him again or not. Even he didn’t know the answer to that. Best if it was a no.  A few hours and a gateway later and he walked into Caemlyn just another face in the crowd. Keeping a tighter check on what he muttered and a closer eye on who was in earshot as he went.