Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty-Three - Are You Trying to Get Arrested

“Where’s Rowan?” I asked.

Amaryllis, Nathan, and Ellie didn't seem to hear me and kept watching the parade. There had to be a few thousand sylph out on the road, all resplendent and marching with perfect synchronisation under the watchful eyes of drill sergeants.

I glanced to Awen, who shrugged. “I didn’t see when he left,” she said. “I turned, and he was just gone.”

I chewed on the inside of my lip as I searched the crowds lining the street. I didn’t want to scream out Rowan’s name. Not that my screaming would help much. A marching band was stomping along in the middle of the formation of soldiers, brass horns and drums and cymbals hooting and banging in time to a marching beat. I wouldn’t be heard over that.

“Guys!” I said as I ran up to Amaryllis and the others. I tugged on Nathan’s arm to get his attention. “Rowan’s missing.”

Nathan looked at me, then glanced around to look for his friend. He had a height advantage, I was sure he’d see Rowan, and we’d all discover that the cervid had wandered over to a street vendor, or maybe the washroom, and everything would be fine.

“I can’t see him,” Nathan said, poking a hole right through my hopes.

“Probably just taking a walk,” Ellie said dismissively. “Look, they’re doing aerial parades too.”

I glanced at the sylph zipping through the air in tight formations, but that was all the attention I spared them. “I’m still worried,” I said. “We’re responsible for keeping you three safe, you know?”

“Just relax,” Ellie said.

Nathan made a deep, growly noise. “Ellie, you’re hiding something,” he said. “I’ve known you long enough to tell. Where’s Rowan gone?”

Ellie stepped to the side slightly, her arms crossing. “How would I know?” she said. It did sound rather defensive.

“You’re all morons,” Amaryllis snapped. She gestured to the side with a wing, pointing towards the large military base right next to us. “Rowan’s the one that wanted to stand so close to the base, and now he’s missing. He’s probably snooping in there right now. Right, Ellie?”

Ellie pouted for just a moment before she glared at Amaryllis. “We’re not spies,” she said.

“I didn’t accuse you of anything of the sort,” Amaryllis said. “But I sure did think it.”

“Amaryllis. We’re trying to be friends here,” I said with a warning look. “Nathan, Ellie, where did Rowan go?”

“If he did go to the base,” Nathan said with a rather pointed glance at Ellie. “Then it’ll be against the orders of the embassy. Which means that he’d be under a different set of orders.”

“I don’t really know much about Trenten Flats politics,” I said.

“I mean that it’s likely that if he is trying to see what can be seen in that base, then he’s doing so under the polite suggestion from a superior in the army. Rowan’s always been ambitious, it wouldn’t surprise me to hear of him taking this kind of risk to earn a bit of favour.”

“Are there any cervid military types here in Goldenalden?” Amaryllis asked.

Nathan shook his head. “No. Well, yes. There’s an escort, and guards who are under the orders of a commissar, but the summit is meant to be a peace talk, and the sylph discouraged the presence of non-diplomatic military personnel. Which is all the military personnel in the Trenten Flats. We keep the army and politics far apart, as a rule.”

“So, assuming we believe you, if Rowan is being a moron, then he’s being a moron under either the orders of someone that’s nowhere near here, or he’s doing it of his own free will to score points,” Amaryllis summarised.

“Rowan’s not a moron,” Ellie said.

I butted in before Amaryllis could say anything else, because I knew that her next words weren’t going to be all that polite. It took some time for people to get used to Amaryllis’ Amaryllis-ness, and the cervid weren’t quite ready for that. “Let’s look for him,” I said. “Just a poke around the base. Around it. We can’t get into trouble for taking an enthusiastic walk, I don’t think.”

“What if he comes back?” Ellie asked.

I hesitated. “What if we split up, then? Some of us stay here, the rest go looking for Rowan?”

“I’ll go with you,” Awen said. “Amaryllis can stay with Ellie.”

Amaryllis squawked. “Why should I stay?”

“Because you’re a harpy. They’ll think you’re more suspicious than Broccoli and I, and if we get into big trouble, you’re better backup than I would be.”

Amaryllis sufficiently placated, I turned to Nathan and nodded. I tried my best to make it one of those serious boy-nods that guys sometimes gave each other, but I wasn’t too sure if I pulled it off. Still, when I started walking towards the base, he followed right along with me.

The base itself had a yard all around it, probably something of a luxury in a place like Goldenalden where space was such a premium. There were plain buildings on either side though, homes, or maybe discrete offices. And behind the base was a sheer wall of stone, part of the mountain that had been carved out so that the base could be laid on even ground.

All that meant that there was really no reason for someone to cross the base to try to get to the other side, nor was there much room to move in next to the base without being right out in the open.

Despite all that, I could see Rowan anywhere. “Do you think he really went towards the base?” I asked.

“It’s possible,” Nathan said.

I chewed on my bottom lips for a moment. I couldn’t just walk up to the base. I’d be spotted and someone would tell me off. But maybe we could circle around it? If he wasn’t there, then we’d widen our search.

“Look, there’s a sort of passage there,” Awen said. She pointed towards the back of the buildings next to the base. There was a gap between them and the stone wall. An alleyway?

“And I bet the alley between any two buildings leads right up to that one,” I said. “Well spotted, Awen.”

“It will be that much less suspicious, I hope,” Nathan said as we ducked into the nearest alleyway. It did, indeed, meet up with the passage at the back.

“How did Rowan get around sneakily if he didn’t come through here?” I asked.

Nathan sighed. I didn’t know if it was a big sigh because he was a big guy, or if he really just felt like sighing big. “Rowan has a few stealth-based skills. Part of his great ambitions.”

“You need those to become a military person?” I asked.

“The Trenten Flats’ army has always put a lot of stock in stealth. For every brash soldier who thinks that the grand charge is the finest act of heroism, there’s another who has invested years in learning the great bow and who can hide in the middle of an empty field.”

“Oh,” I said. That was rather impressive. “Rowan’s that sort?”

“He thinks that charging at a line of spears and shields is a very dumb thing to do. So yes, he’s the sort who dreams of becoming another... ah, you probably wouldn’t know the names of our folk heroes.”

“Sorry,” I said.

Nathan shook his head. “It’s no matter.”

We reached the end of the surprisingly clean alley (of all the dark alleys I’d been in, this was the cleanest so far), and stuck our heads out to look both ways. Nothing but cleared space. Some of the homes further out clearly had some private backyards, with little fences around them, but otherwise it was a boring old alleyway.

We moved towards the base, then stared out at it again. This time from the rear. The base had a few buildings, basically a complex of what looked like dorms and gymnasiums and classrooms. Really, I could only tell that much because they had large signs above the doors. Otherwise, the buildings didn’t have much decoration, they were just tall but still squat buildings made of dark stone, with windows here and there and a bunch of entrances on the ground floor. Rowan was at one of those windows, peeking in.

“Oh no,” I muttered.

“Well, nothing for it,” Nathan said as he started to walk out of the alley.

I jogged after him, Awen by my side. “What are you going to do?” I asked.

“Give him an earful, after I drag him back to the street,” Nathan said. “Just ditching us like that, it’s not the kind of behaviour anyone should exhibit. Especially when we’re meant to be acting at our best.”

“Right, but maybe we can be a little more subtle?” I asked.

“Too late for that,” Awen said.

I turned in time to see a pair of sylph jogging our way. They both had armbands on, with an eye-like symbol on it, and they carried batons instead of swords by their hips. “Hey, you three,” the smaller of the two sylph said. “What are you doing out here?”

“Uh,” I said. I had to come up with something other than ‘we’re here to stop our buddy from spying on you.’ That would have been way too suspicious!

Before I could say the first lie that I thought up, Awen stepped before me and smiled. “Hi there! We’re lost.”

“You’re lost,” the officer repeated.

Awen nodded. “Yup! The two of us girls needed to use the little lady’s room, and then we wanted to see the parade, but now we can’t find it at all.”

“There aren’t any ‘little lady’s rooms’ around here” the officer said.

“Well, I didn’t say that we had used one, just that we needed to use one,” Awen pointed out. “Do you know where there’s a little lady’s room?”

The officer didn’t look amused. “Really?” he asked.

“We could use a boy’s room in a pinch,” Awen said. She shrugged. “You know us, us humans and buns, we just need to wash up a lot.”

“And what about the cervid?” the officer asked.

Awen glanced back at Nathan, then at me. “Uh,” she said.

“They’re our chaperones,” I said hurriedly.

“That’s right,” Awen said. “Nathan here’s our chaperone.”

“One of them,” I added. “We have two.”

The officer looked at Nathan, who stood a little taller. “You have two?” he asked.

I nodded, then pointed to Rowan. “See. There’s our other one. Hey! Rowan!” I called. “Did you find a bathroom yet?”

The officer blinked, turning his head to follow the imaginary line of my finger, and saw Rowan with his face smooshed against a window. "Hey!" he shouted, reaching for his club. "This is a restricted area! You can't be looking in there!"

Rowan jumped, spun, then stared at us all wide-eyed. When the officer started moving towards him we followed, Awen and I making ‘calm down’ sorts of gestures at him. Rowan looked like he wanted to run away, but Nathan shook his head and he stayed on the spot.

“Did you find a little lady’s room?” Awen asked before the officer could start grilling Rowan.

“No?” Rowan tried.

The officer glared at Rowan, then at us. “Okay, I don’t know what kind of funny-business is going on here, but I don’t like it.”

“We don’t like bathroom business either, sir,” Awen said. “But it’s a necessary evil.”

The taller officer snickered until his partner levelled his glare on him. He looked at us again, and I tried extra-hard to look innocent. “Get out of here. Find a washroom elsewhere. Not... not here.”

The nice officer escorted the four of us for a while until we could walk off on our own.

“Damned tourists,” he muttered before walking off.

Nathan waited until we were back on the sidewalk and heading towards the others before he rounded on Rowan. “What in the World’s own sacred Dirt did you think you were doing back there?” he asked.

“I... got lost,” Rowan said.

“Oh, were you looking for a washroom?” Nathan asked with biting sarcasm. “You idiot. You could have gotten us all in a heap of trouble.”

“I needed to,” Rowan said.

“Needed to what? Get arrested? I don’t entirely disagree,” Nathan said. “But you getting in trouble would put me and these girls in trouble too.”

“The sylph are a threat to our nation,” Rowan hissed.

“And you’re a threat to my sanity,” Nathan bit back.

I cleared my throat. “Um. Can we... not do this? Friends shouldn’t argue. Come on, Rowan will tell us everything, I’m sure, but it would be nicer if we didn’t have a big argument right on the sidewalk. Also, arguing when tempers are high already isn’t great. I’m sure we can make an effort to be nice to each other.”

The boys were silent until we reached Ellie and Amaryllis who were both waiting with their arms crossed. “So, where did you find the moron?” Amaryllis asked.

I smacked myself in the face.

***