The Baby and the Battlefield

Chapter Sixty-Five: City Walls

The city walls loomed dark above them. Mulberry could smell the lime odour of the mortar in the walls, the scent brought out by the chilly damp that pervaded the air here by the river. Aurelia was fast asleep, a solid, warm weight on the centre of her back, which Mulberry found oddly reassuring. She ran her fingers along the damp, mossy contours of the wall despite the cold. Somehow, that too - the reality of the wall and the bits of moss that crumbled beneath her fingers - was also a comfort.

Marcus was a few steps ahead, scrabbling over a partly collapsed section of stone. It had been a long while since the empire had been small enough that the city had seriously needed these walls for protection. If an invading army ever made it this far, that would mean that the empire had already fallen, its people already scattered. The city was such a small part of the empire, and the empire so great and powerful around it, that the city, despite its symbolic importance, was safe. The empire ruled with an iron hand for ten days travel in any direction from here, even if one went across the sea. The lawmakers in this city controlled the peace and prosperity of all those lands, but that peace and prosperity was what was valuable, not the buildings the lawmakers worked in.

That was not to say, of course, that the city was without protection. The imperial guard made an excellent police force. There were firefighting forces too, and a corps of inspectors who specialized in the petty murders and crimes of passion that any large city was heir to. And near the palace, naturally, there were more guards than you could shake a stick at. Despite all this protection, Marcus was not concerned about climbing this fallen bit of wall. After all, Tsuga was at their rear, helping Mulberry up onto the first and lowest of the tumbled stones. And, after all, wasn't Salix leading them? Flora Salix, whom he had seen drop a dragon in a matter of seconds? Flora Salix, who had nearly killed a man, then saved his life, at Marcus' request? Yes, of course she was leading them. She had told them where to find this place, where the wall had tumbled so that it was only five stone blocks high, rather than ten, and the fallen blocks made a rough staircase for them to traverse. Flora Salix, who had been behaving oddly all day.

In the morning, another of those pigeons had arrived. Salix had read the bird’s message, then crumpled the paper, and burnt it as it sat cupped in her palm. She had not shared the contents even with Tsuga, but something in the message caused Salix to change their path. She had pulled them off of the main road, away from the city gates. She kept them out of view of roads and houses, whenever possible. Even Flora Tsuga had thought it was odd, so close to the capital, to home and safety, but she did not question her superior.

So Salix had led them to this old, damaged section of wall, and Marcus only wished it wasn't dark, and that the moss hadn't rendered the stones so slippery. If Mulberry slipped, and she or Aurelia were hurt, he would never forgive himself.

Marcus stepped down a block, reaching for Mulberry's arm. He hauled her up to his own level. Somewhere ahead and above in the darkness, Salix impatiently called out, "Let's go! Hurry it up!", But Marcus held Mulberry embarrassingly close for a moment.

Then he let her go, saying, "Give me the baby. I'll carry her."

Mulberry shook her head. "No, Marcus, I can do it. I'm stronger and more agile than you think."

"She's my daughter. Not yours. I should carry her."

If it had not been dark, Marcus might have been shocked by the look on Mulberry's face. It hurt her when he talked like that. She knew Aurelia wasn't hers, but she loved the baby. She had known the child almost as long as Marcus had, after all. It wasn’t fair for him to talk that way. In the weird half-light of a late fall night, however, all Marcus could see was that Mulberry frowned slightly, and then looked down.