Shadows in the Smoke - 22 - Never Trust a Republican

"The Republic treasures equality. That does not mean that all aspects of life must be the same for every Citizen, it simply means that the inherent dignity of being human is valued and the same opportunities and respect is given to all Citizens in good standing. Some Citizens will live more comfortable lives, some will have their name on every tongue, others will fail in their endeavours. However, every single one of them is a Citizen of the People's Republic of Itria and worthy of equality under the law and the respect of every other Citizen."

The Struggle for Freedom by Bjarne Midthun

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Ester sat in her cramped cabin in the covered cart, staring out of the window at the hustle and bustle outside. After Arcanist-Major Norred had shown her to it, he'd left in a hurry, saying he had duties to attend to and would be back to collect her later. So, she was left with nothing much to do. It was difficult to sit still with the nervous butterflies in her stomach at the prospect of the journey ahead of her.

Suddenly, the shrill sound of whistles came through the window. A moment later the cart lurched hard and started to move, gently accelerating with a grinding rumble. Within seconds, it was swaying along, with its rumbling progress interspersed with horrendously loud screeches of metal on metal and sudden lurches to the left or right.

It was noisy, more so than riding a horse, but perhaps a bit more comfortable. Ester sat and looked out of the window as the cart was pulled out and through a network of the parallel metal bars. It all looked very complicated, perhaps pointlessly so. No, that wasn't right. No one would go to this much effort for something pointless. It must be necessary, perhaps because if the carts were going along the metal bars they needed all of this to help them get onto the right path. It would probably easier just to use horses and carts.

There was nothing much more to see than dull, soot stained buildings sliding past and lines of carts left unmoving alongside them. It didn't take long for Ester's attention to start to drift away. Nilrava wasn't a very attractive city and it seemed like their route to the frontlines was going through particularly unattractive parts.

Then, with the shriek of a whistle, another 'train' went rumbling past, back towards Nilrava. At its front, a huge, metal cart was spewing out smoke as it huffed by. Intricate metalwork moved over its wheels and behind it came cart after cart. Far more than even ten horses could have pulled. There wasn't even a hint of magic about it either.

Ester's eyes followed the train as it rumbled past. That was a lot more interesting than she'd thought. She still wasn't sure it would be all that useful. It seemed much less flexible than a horse and cart and not much faster, but she wanted to understand how they got one metal cart to pull so much.

She wasn't going to learn much from looking out the window, especially with how quickly the other train was gone. Presumably there was something similar at the front of her train though. She glanced at the door. She might even be able to see how it worked. She couldn't just go and find out though. Arcanist-Major Norred, had told her to wait in the compartment to be collected after all.

Ester huffed and went back to looking out of the window.

It was boring. All flat fields, now that they were out of Nilrava, with occasional farmers.

The bench wasn't very comfortable either. Better than a saddle, but that wasn't saying much. Did the trains use fire to pull all the carts? That would explain the smoke that was everywhere. The Republic seemed to like burning things, but it seemed rather inelegant.

Ester idly made a ball of fire appear over her hand. She couldn't see how using that to heat something would turn wheels. She made it hotter with a frown. Doing it without words felt easier than it would have a few months ago. For a moment she wanted to push more magic into the steady flame, but she could already feel the heat radiating from it and the cart was made of wood. With a sigh, she let the spell fade and went back to looking out the window.

Some more crops. Dull.

Where was the Arcanist-Major anyway? Perhaps she should go and look for him? No, he was probably busy organising things, it must be a lot of work being the deputy for someone like Lindholm. In fact, he might be quite some time.

Ester paused and glanced at the door to her cabin again. There wouldn't be any harm in going exploring, would there? The Arcanist-Major was probably too busy to worry about her after all. Plus, she could try to find out how the train worked. That would be useful for the Empire and far more interesting than sitting there watching farmland sway by. She was a guest, so they probably wouldn't mind and, even if they did, it wouldn't be a big problem, she could just come back to her cabin.

Decision made, she stood up and immediately had to put her hand on the wall to steady herself as the cart lurched particularly strongly. The interesting metal cart had been at the front of the train they'd passed, so she'd head for the front of this one too.

Ester cracked the door to her cabin open and poked her head outside. Just to make sure it wasn't too busy.

There was no one, excellent. She composed her face and stepped outside.

The corridor went down one side of the cart, past a series of closed cabins. There was no one outside them, but even with the rattling of the train, she could hear voices from inside some of them. At the end of the cart, a door led to open air and a gap to the next cart with the ground rumbling past underneath. She looked down, grimaced, and then took a smooth step over it.

The next cart was just like hers. More cabins and more voices within. But then the one after was more interesting. It was open on the inside, with crates and sacks spread around it. Several young men were sprawled over them, talking in low voices. They wore the same grey uniforms with a purple slash across them that Ester had seen on other Republican soldiers and a single, silver circle on their shoulders.

When Ester stepped inside, the nearest jerked upright, quickly followed by his fellows. As soon as his eyes focused on her, he relaxed slightly, although she could see a frown forming on his face.

"Citizens." She strode through the cart without breaking her step, doing her best to look like she had every right to be there.

"Citizen?" Came the slightly tentative response and then she was past them before they could say anything more.

The next two carts were far more chaotic. Densely packed with rows of bunks, gaunt looking men sat or lay on them, talking, laughing and gaming with each other. Bags and weapons were stacked up all around them, filling every space between the bunks At the sight of Ester, they sprang to attention, discarding what they'd been doing.

Again, she nodded to them as she went, "Citizens." No one challenged her and, as she passed, she heard them returning to what they'd been doing.

By the time she reached the front of the train, Ester felt like her heart might explode from her chest. But no one had tried to stop her!

The black metal of the front cart faced her and it took her a moment to realise there was a narrow passage through it. She hesitated for a second and then pulled the door open and slipped through, only to start coughing as black dust caked her.

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That wouldn't do. Ester focused and spoke a single word. "Saulan."

With a puff, the dust flew off her, swirling away in the air.

As she made her way down the short passage, the already noisy train just got louder and louder. At the far end, she emerged into a small metal compartment, open to the air on the sides and full of valves, wheels and levers. Two men in black, dust-coated overalls were in there, grime streaked across their faces. One was shoveling coal into the mouth of a furnace while the other looked out through a hole in the wall at the path ahead, one hand on a lever.

It took a second for them to notice her, but when they did the coal man dropped his shovel with a clang. "What the fu-, Citizen," his eyes flicked over her, "Citizen-Arcanist, what are you doing here? You can't just come to the driving cab like that!"

Why did he think she was an Arcanist? Ester almost corrected him, but actually, maybe he'd be more willing to talk to her if she didn't. It wasn't like she'd be lying if she didn't say anything.

"I am sorry, Citizen, I do not want to inconvenience you. I was just fascinated by trains and wanted to see how this one worked. I have never had the chance to see from so close. All technically true. "Of course you feed the furnace to heat the mechanism?" She made her guess sound like a question.

The man's face softened slightly, "You have never been on a train before, Citizen-Arcanist? What are you doing with the 13th then?"

"Oh, I am just a guest, coming along as an observer, I am afraid I have not had much opportunity to travel before." She glanced out of their compartment. "It is ever so fast, you must be very proud of your train, Citizens."

That got her a smile from the driver. "Oh she's a beauty for sure. We're doing alright now, given the load she's pulling, but if we were willing to burn coal, we could be doing forty or fifty kilometers per hour, even with this much on the back."

"Wow, that is fast." What was a kilometer? It must be faster than they were going now, which she had to admit was a bit faster than a horse and cart. "How does the burning work though? It all looks very complicated."

"Ah, well, you see. Most of the engine is the boiler, it's full of water which gets heated into steam." Ester nodded along as he spoke, forcing herself not to smile too widely. This was easy! She'd thought she'd have to work harder to find about these trains. "The steam provides pressure which then drives pistons and through them the wheels."

"So the boiler is a big tank of hot water?"

"Not quite, more like a lot of small pipes because you see-"

"Mage Mazar!" The outraged shout cut off the enthusiastic explanation and Ester's stomach lurched as she turned to face a furious looking Arcanist-Major Norred. He was filthy, completely caked in coal dust, leaving him looking as black as the train operators. Perhaps she should offer to clean it off him? No, he was an Arcanist, he could do it himself. Probably.

"Arcanist-Major, I was exploring the train and found myself at the front. I was just going to turn back." She couldn't even pretend it was a good excuse. "Have you come to introduce me to the other officers? I hope I have not caused any inconvenience."

With a visible effort, the man composed himself. "Of course not, although I'd request that you keep to your own car of the train unless you're being escorted by one of us, for your own safety of course."

"Oh, of course, Arcanist-Major. I will be sure to do so." She smiled to the other two men and bowed slightly. "Thank you, Citizens. That was fascinating. Shall we go, Arcanist-Major?"

Arcanist-Major Norred ran his hand through his hair, winced and held it up in front of his own face with a frown. His eyes flicked over to Ester and his frown deepened.

"Saulan." The coal dust sprang away from him as he spoke, leaving him as clean as Ester. "Yes."

Without another word, he plunged back into the passage to the rest of the train.

Their return back through the train was marred by an awkward silence and the stares of the Republican soldiers that they passed.

He ended up depositing Ester in another, more open cart with a trio of young uniformed men and stern instructions for them to look after their guest. At least he was polite.

Once the Arcanist-Major had departed, Ester and the three young men looked awkwardly at each other for a few seconds until she forced herself to break the silence.

"May I know your names, um, Citizens?"

"Arcanist-Subaltern Tomas."

"Arcanist-Subaltern Jakob."

"Subaltern Niril."

Ester hesitated at that. She was fairly sure they were officers, but Niril was the first one not to be an Arcanist. Would it be rude to ask? It felt important to know, when she was trying to find out more about the Republic.

"It is a pleasure to meet you." Politeness never hurt, but it didn't even get her a smile. "I am sorry, but I had thought all of the officers were Arcanists?"

Niril shook his head. "Not all of them. I'm a Cantrist. Others don't have the Talent, but most of the 13th are."

"I see." Ester glanced around the cart. She wasn't quite sure what to say to them. "Have you had much experience of fighting the Liche Kings?"

They glanced at each other and then Tomas shrugged. "Some. Everyone in the 13th is a veteran." He looked too young to be a veteran, but Ester nodded, hoping he'd continue. That seemed to have exhausted his appetite for conversation though.

As the train continued on, she tried to make conversation a few more times, but it was always stilted and none of them seemed to want to make the effort to continue it.

Soon, they were left with nothing to do beyond gazing awkwardly out of the windows.

The silence stretched onwards until, with a few muttered words and glances towards Ester, they seemed to come to some kind of agreement. They moved closer to each other and from somewhere within their uniforms, dice and a cup appeared.

They didn't offer to let Ester join in as they started casting the dice. In fact, they quickly seemed to forget she existed as they placed bets, coins changing hands depending on how the dice landed.

With nothing better to do, Ester was left watching them play and trying to work out the rules. Higher numbers seemed to be needed to win, but not always. Sometimes other combinations would beat straight high numbers, but she couldn't quite work out the system. It was boring anyway. Who wanted to gamble away what money they had on random throws of dice?

There were more interesting things to think about. Like how to make a better train. The cart at the front had been filthy and horrendously noisy. Wouldn't it be better to do it with magic? Perhaps something using sails would be more elegant. If you could get a sufficiently good Schema onto a cart then you could project some kind of wall of force to catch the wind and progress silently. In fact, you could do something like that with every cart and they'd be even faster. She imagined a triangular sail, glowing with golden runes, hauling a train of carts along, silently and efficiently.

Ester's mind was yanked back to the present by a loud groan of disappointment from one of the men. She looked back at their game, where Tomas had picked up the cup full of dice.

He shook it and then let it fall. Ester narrowed her eyes. There was something there. The dice spilled out, landing with a combination of sixes, sevens and eights. A fairly good throw, she thought, but Tomas pulled a face and handed the cup to Niril.

Niril shook it, staring intently as a hint of magic appeared around him, almost too faint to see.

"Niril." The warning note in Tomas' voice was clear. Was Niril trying to cheat?! Surely not! It was almost unbelievable. They were meant to be comrades who protected each other's lives, and officers too, even if they were Republicans

At Tomas' rebuke, the magic vanished and Niril cast the dice. A random assortment of numbers. Ester could see from the disappointment on his face that it wasn't a good throw.

With a grimace, he passed the cup over to Jakob, who gave him a smirk. He looked far too pleased with himself. Ester, seemingly forgotten by the young men, narrowed her eyes and focused on him, opening her mind.

Jakob shook the cup. This time, with Ester concentrating, it was almost too easy to spot. A subtle flow of magic, faint runes dancing around the cup. She wasn't entirely sure what he was casting, but it was clear as day that he was cheating. The other two seemed completely oblivious, despite the way their eyes were focused on him.

Jakob cast and the dice came rolling out, tiny, almost invisible flickers of magic washing over them. They tumbled across the floor of the cart and landed, four ones and four eights. From the triumphant grin that stretched across Jakob's face and the coins the other two slid across to him, that must have been a very good roll.

Ester couldn't help the frown that spread across her face though. The young officer was cheating his fellows. Was it too much to expect even a smidgen of honour from these people? She should probably have expected it from a Republican. Should she say something? Was it likely to cause trouble if she did?

The dice were passed to Tomas and she almost opened her mouth to warn him. Then, there was another subtle flash of magic and the dice flew out of the cup with hints of magic crawling across them. The other two were watching closely, but didn't seem to notice anything amiss, even when six of the dice landed with eights. Were they all trying to cheat? Ester felt her face heating at the thought. Whether it was embarrassment or outrage she wasn't sure.

She sat there stewing through another two rounds. Niril didn't cheat, although she felt an abortive surge of magic from him. The other two kept going. Now that she'd seen it, the cheating was almost offensive in how blatant it was.

By the end of third round, she just couldn't contain herself anymore.

"How can you just cheat each other like that?!" Almost as soon as soon she'd said it, she knew she'd regret speaking up, but she wasn't going to stop. "Are you not meant to be comrades?" She just about restrained herself from asking whether they had no honour.

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