Tollard's Peak

1. Family Counselling

1

Family Counselling

Raedrick Baletier glared at the two men before him and shook his head. This was foolishness, and he expected better, even from them.

They stood, cowed and mostly staring at the floor in front of their feet, in the front room of the Constable’s office, a small building that he and Julian Hinderbrook shared as their place of work. The two men were dressed similarly, in bedraggled tunics and breaches; the man on the left in predominately greys and browns, on the right in blue and white. Or at least those had likely been their colors originally. Now their material could better be called stained, it was so covered in grime. They wore matching beards, at least two weeks’ worth, and had similar eyes of grey-blue. The rest of their appearances were equally identical: their height, their breadth of shoulder, their lack of a paunch despite their advancing years, their retreating hairlines…

Men such as they, with as many years behind them as they had, should have known better than to get into a brawl in a pub over a woman. Especially over a woman like Yleen Henery, who was young enough to be the daughter of either of the brothers who now looked so abashed in his office.

“Giorg,” Raedrick said, and the man on the left gave a little start in recognition of his name. “Pedros.” The other man jerked, in the same way that Giorg had a moment before. “What were you two thinking?”

The question sat there in the air between the three of them, unanswered but also somehow unable to depart. It lingered in the air, daring one of the brothers to challenge its primacy over this moment.

Neither did.

Raedrick sighed. “You know I could bring you both up before Judge Telmon.”

The pair nodded, in unison.

“Well? Why should I not? You made a mess of Molli’s tap room today.”

For the first time since Julian, the other of Lydelton’s Constables and Raedrick’s long-time partner, bundled them into the building, the two brothers glanced at each other. Furtively, as though feeling each other out. But that was a start, at least.

Giorg cleared his throat. “See, it was like this, Constable.”

Pedros interrupted. “I’ve been seeing Yleen for a week now, and he’s jealous!” He stretched out a hand toward his brother, his index finger pointing accusingly. Just the way a three year-old would do.

Readrick rolled his eyes and exchanged looks with Julian. The lean man had close-cut brown hair and wore calf-high boots, tight light-brown leggings, a plain white shirt, open at the collar, and green coat that was lined with yellow thread about the cuffs and collar. He leaned against the side of his desk, which lay opposite Raedrick’s, his arms crossed over his chest nonchalantly and his lips turned up in a sardonic grin. He winked, and Raedrick had to restrain himself from grinding his teeth in irritation.

He took his irritation out on the twins. Julian may have added the spark that set the tinder ablaze, but they were to blame for stacking the tinder in the first place, so Raedrick did not feel particularly guilty about it.

“I happen to know,” he said, in the most biting tone he could muster right then, “that Yleen is all but promised to the young smith’s apprentice who works with Fredlin on the east side.”

The pair blanched, but said nothing.

Raedrick scowled all the deeper. “You want to tell me why she would be interested in either of you, when she could instead spend her time with him?” Fredlin was just about ready to send his apprentice off on his own. The young man was good-looking - more than good-looking, truth be told - and by all appearances highly skilled and motivated. Small wonder that he was well known as probably the most eligible bachelor in Lydelton.

The brothers traded glances. Silence reigned for a full minute. Then Giorg cleared his throat.

“It’s like this, Constable. She smiled and gave me too much change back at lunch.”

“She gave me an extra pour of whiskey two nights ago!” Pedros piped up, his tone affronted, almost challenging.

Giorg scowled and drew himself up.

Unbelievable. They were going to fight again, right here in the office. Raedrick glanced past them and saw Julian covering his mouth with his left hand, unsuccessfully trying to hide a broad grin as he clearly attempted to hold back guffaws over the two brothers’ cluelessness.

Raedrick rubbed at the bridge of his nose with the thumb and index finger of his left hand, willing an impending headache to stop before he could actually feel it. A headache was the last thing he needed to deal with.

“Gentlemen,” he said, using his best parade ground tone, the tone and volume that could cut through the varied sounds and distractions of the grounds to reach his men’s ears without difficulty.

They two brothers stopped their glaring and clenching of fists and looked at him, a single eyebrow on each man’s forehead rising so similarly that for a second Raedrick wondered whether he was just looking at one man, reflected in a mirror.

He shook his head, focusing in on Giorg, since he had been the instigator. “You do realize that, as a waitress, she had to be nice to her customers, so she can get a larger tip?” He turned his eyes toward Pedros, whose triumphant smile faded immediately when his eyes met Raedrick’s. “Or that she might pour more into a customer’s cup for the same reason?”

The brothers glowered for a moment, then shook their heads as one.

Raedrick sighed again. “Well, they do.” He put on a forced smile and looked the brothers in the eye, one at a time. “Trust me, gentlemen. She is well and truly caught. You need to set your sights elsewhere.”

“And if you must fight it out, take it outside,” Julian added from behind them. He was still unsuccessful in hiding his disdain for the pair of men.

The brothers looked over their shoulders at Julian and nodded, their expressions rueful.

“Any questions?” Raedrick asked.

Giorg and Pedros looked back at him and shrugged, then shook their heads.

“Good. Now. You’re going to pay Molli for the damage you did to her taproom. If I hear from her that you haven’t…” He left the threat unstated.

The brothers’ faces dropped even further than they had been before.

Raedrick paused for a moment, then continued, “Don’t let this happen again or I really will throw you in front of the judge, just to see what he does with you.”

The men’s eyes widened, going from grudging respect to outright fear in a heartbeat. Poor fellows. They had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and had gotten the short-end of the intellect stick for decades. But they were not bad people. Not really.

All the same, Raedrick could not have them starting fights in The Oarlock. Even if Molli had not been a friend, The Oarlock was a prominent local business, and it was the Constable’s job to maintain the peace.

The twins each made a half-bow and turned away, hurrying out the door as though afraid Raedrick would follow through on his threat right then and there. They hardly glanced at Julian as they left, and his grin faded a bit.

“Well,” Julian said, after the door swung shut behind the pair. “How long do you think until we have to deal with them again?” He shook his head and boosted himself off his desk, then sauntered over to the wood stove in the rear corner of the office. Flipping open the little door on its side, he grabbed a piece of seasoned wood from a small stack nearby and shoved it inside the stove. The fire within, which had been on the wane, flared to life again with the soothing popping that always comes from fresh fuel.

“A fortnight at most,” Raedrick said. He leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands behind his head, looking up at the ceiling. “Some people have misfortune and trouble follow them, no matter what they try to do to avoid it.”

Julian snorted and looked over his shoulder at Raedrick. “There’s also people who seek it out, whether they realize it or not.” He rubbed his hands in front of the stove for a couple seconds then nodded to himself and moved back over to his desk. He slumped into the chair and kicked one booted foot up. The boot was still soaked with water that a few minutes ago had been snow, and several drops fell onto the blotter that was the primary decoration on Julian’s desk.

Readrick nodded. “Granted.” He sighed and looked down at his own desk. It was only slightly more cluttered than Julian’s. Truth told, their lives as co-Constables of Lydelton were not particularly busy, aside from the routine reports they owed to the Mayor’s office. He had seen the offices of big city Constables; they were always covered with files of the cases they were working. Not so for him. His desk held just his blotter, a feather pen and an ink pot, and a small calendar. It was this last that drew Raedrick’s attention. He looked at the date, and in particular the date for tomorrow, and sighed again, with more resignation.

“Getting to be that time again,” Julian said, his normally cheerful voice growing more somber.

“It is.”

Julian cleared his throat. “We don’t have to do it, you know.”

Raedrick looked askance at him, raising an eyebrow.

“We’re in a good place now. There’s no need…”

“You know better than that.”

Julian frowned, and for a second Raedrick thought he was going to argue more. For what it was worth, Raedrick understood what he was saying, and part of him agreed. Or wanted to, anyway. But it was too soon to set their tradition aside, for many reasons.

Finally, Julian nodded. “All right.” He stood and smoothed his tunic then headed toward the door leading to the street. “I’ll see you dark and early then,” he said. He paused to pull a heavy wool cloak from its peg by the door and settle the garment over his shoulders. Then he stomped his boots into a pair of crampons and flicked the cowl of his cloak up. He looked back at Raedrick, questioningly.

Raedrick returned the nod. “First light. At the end of dock one.”

Julian flashed a grin that did not reach his eyes then pulled the door open.

Outside, a bitter wind was blowing, sweeping the snow that had collected along the sides of the street into long drifts and now into their office as well. Julian shivered and pulled his cloak tight around himself. Then, after a long moment, he stepped out into the dimming light of the late winter afternoon. He pulled the door to behind himself as he went, and it shut with the familiar click of the latch catching hold.

Raedrick sat still at his desk. His eyes drifted toward toward the wood stove, where the flickering fire within was just visible through narrow slits that allowed air to flow in. He watched the fire burn and let his thoughts wander. But they never were able to stray far from that horrible day, two years earlier. The day when his world had changed forever, and when he had walked away from any hope of ever having honor again.

Or so he had thought.

Weariness welled up, sparked by the enchanting light of the flames and stoked by his memories, until gradually his eyelids fell and he drifted off into sleep, and the memories of long ago.