Sins of the Mother

Becca could hear the kitchen crew banging pots as they washed up from the evening meal in the room beneath her office; the day had crawled away at last and yet she had gotten very little done, running as she had with her spirits at half-mast. It had taken all the strength and discipline she could muster just to keep the worry schooled out of her face and voice for the sake of all who depended on her and who ultimately depended on Aejys. Last time there had been a serious crisis Tagalong and Clemmerick had been there to back her up, this was the first time that it was all up to her. There had been several rich influential merchants hovering about like vultures ever since Aejys left for Rowanslea last summer, held back only by the knowledge that Aejys and her crew would be returning in the spring. If Aejys did not make it, they would descend on the properties to rip it and everyone there into bite size pieces before eating them alive. It would happen fast, because they would want to get it done before Tagalong Smith could return. Most of Aejys' people were social outcasts, pariahs, rogues and rebels, people who rarely got a first chance, much less a second; as a result they were fiercely devoted to her. Many influential people, Thomas Cedarbird being the ringleader, would like to see them put back in their places, shoved down into the gutters and ghettoes from which Aejys had rescued them. Without Tagalong Smith and Clemmerick Poetson things could get very, very bad indeed.

With all that weighing on her mind, she sat at her big desk, staring at the open ledger book distractedly without really seeing it. She was still new enough to reading that she had to think about the words in front of her, and she could not find the concentration just then. Next to the ledger was a slender book of children's poems that Brother Arlethan had left her as a primer. Her life had been both easier and harder back when the only person she had to worry about was herself. "Well, rise with the waves or sink to the bottom," she muttered resolutely.

The finish on the enormous monstrosity of an oak desk had long ago been worn away in all but a few places; the edges were nicked and battered. It had dozens of drawers with unmatched pulls on them. She could have had a new one; Aejys had suggested it often enough, but the otherwise unsentimental tavern master and seneschal would not hear of it. She had wanted this odd desk for her own from the day she first saw it when she worked for the previous owner. To have his desk was a cherished symbol of how far she had come since that first day in Vorgensburg ten years ago. She had had to sleep with the old bastard just to get the meager job serving and whoring in the Cock and Boar; now she not only had his job, she had his desk.

She had slept alone for over two years now, despite frequent temptations, and that would have felt just as good as the desk, except that she had finally found someone she genuinely wanted a relationship with. Unfortunately the big ogre did not seem at all interested in her except as a friend, and she had let it go at that out of fear of endangering what they did have. Now that Clemmerick was far away in the Rowanslea Mar'ajanate of Shaurone, she could not stop thinking about him, imagining and wishing she had done something about the situation before he left with Aejys. What made it even worse was that their last encounter had been a bad one. She had beaten him with a broom stick and chased him out of the tavern after discovering he and Josh had managed to consume most of the north cellar in a single night of uncharacteristic, for Clemmerick, drunkenness.

She missed him in more ways than just his company. He had taken care of the stables (she had to hire two myn to get anywhere near as much work done as Clemmerick had alone) and he had helped her with the books. Becca knew she had to start delegating some of the work around the properties since there was getting to be too much of it. Maybe she could have Brother Arlethan, the Willodarian cleric who taught reading to all in the household who wanted to learn, to help her with the books — at least until Clemmerick got back.

She dipped a quill in ink and painstakingly wrote a request to Brother Arlethan to come to her office. She had to concentrate hard just to form the letters readably and wondered for a moment at the end of each word, hoping she had spelled them right. Then she sighed and blew on the ink to dry it: if she had not spelled them correctly, she had at least gotten close enough that the good monk would be able to figure them out. Becca folded the note, walked to the door, and shouted into the hallway, "Zacham!"

It did not take long for his tousled head to appear, sticking out of a door with the end of his broom just above his head. She waved the note at him.

Zacham disappeared, and then reappeared without his broom. She gave him the note. "Take this to brother Arlethan," she told him.

"Okay," he said, grinning brightly, grateful to be off broom duty for a time. He took it and raced for the back stairs, which were closer to the converted warehouse serving as winter quarters.

Becca returned to her desk, sitting a little longer, staring at the pile of tally sticks before closing the ledger book with a sigh, finding it too hard to concentrate with Aejys lying upstairs in bad shape. Worrying about Aejys; worrying about Clemmerick; wishing Tagalong Smith, Aejys' partner and Becca's friendly nemesis, was there to back her up on various deals involving their holdings — but even more importantly to keep Cedarbird off her back. She needed to see how the renovations were going on the two adjacent warehouses that were being converted into winter quarters for their drivers and caravan guards, but what she really wanted was to be sitting upstairs with Aejys, making certain she was all right. Watching over her liege-lord would not make Aejys get better faster, but it would comfort Becca just to be there. So she headed upstairs.

GODWAR CENTRAL

Sins of the Mother