A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

In truth, this was the first year Beam was standing so close to the fire. He'd watched from a distance once before, out of curiosity, but never had he had reason to be involved in the festival itself.

"Ah, you finally came," an arm threaded round his shoulders, and a sweet scent filled his nostril. It was a familiar sensation – or it had been in the past – of a woman sneaking up behind him.

"Loriel," he said, tilting his head back to look up at her.

"The very same," she said, with a sweet smile, as she normally might. But Beam could not deny that her face looked haggard. He could only imagine how bad things had been, with the prostitutes being accused of murder.

She was dressed for the occasion, better than anyone else, with dark purple robes drooping over his shoulders, and a fur hat sitting on her head. Somehow, despite not showing any skin, she still managed to appear nearly overwhelmingly feminine.

Beam trudged along behind her, his face gaunt, as though he hadn't eaten in days. He was similarly well dressed, with a dark red coat, and a purple cape over his shoulders to match Loriel. "Boy," he said with a nod, coming over to join them.

"You look like shit," Beam told him.

Loriel laughed heartily at that. Apparently, it was the same line that everyone was thinking, but few around the powerful merchant had the gall to actually say it out loud.

Greeves glanced at her, an irritated frown on his lips. "You like that, do you? He's still got no respect. A right pain in the arse, that's what he is."

"Oh, but isn't it charming? When everything flows in the same direction, and all the scenes become the same, the jewel that catches the eye becomes all the prettier," Loriel said.

"You been reading poetry or something?" Greeves complained. "Wish you could dig up a poem that tells us how to get out of this mess. That Captain of yours said anything to you about me?" He said, tilting his head towards Beam.

"He mentioned the mess you were in today. I told him it'd be stupid for you to have done it, despite everything pointing towards you. He seems to agree with me," Beam said.

"Huh?" Greeves' eyes widened, as though he struggled to process what Beam had said for a second. "Hang on, you spoke up for me? I thought you hated my guts?"

"See? Isn't he a rare treasure?" Loriel said, patting Beam's head, making him feel even younger than he was.

He brushed her hand away. "You didn't do it – so why wouldn't I?"

That didn't seem to settle anything for Greeves – the merchant just looked even more confused. "What is this, some kind of honour thing? I don't get you, boy… Though I suppose things must be as you say – he's asking me to send the girls to his encampment again tonight, when this is done. Can't say why, but I've got a bad feeling about all this."

Beam glanced to look up at Loriel. She looked similarly grim, despite her best attempts to put a smile on her face.

"Well, that's our business. I won't trouble you with it," Greeves said. "How goes it at the camp? I hear you've been making quite a splash. That works for me, y'know. Seems Lombard thinks me lending him you and Judas is a big favour of sorts – not that I had any control over you in the first place."

"It works well enough. I'm getting more information and more options from it," Beam said.

Greeves grimaced at that, as he scratched the back of his head. "Ah, yeah. Sorry, I wasn't able to help you more with that. But from the looks of things, you've got a network built up yourself already, ain't ya? That girl of yours has been the talk of the village with that Captain's authority that you got her.

She's something of a hero now – and the talk of the boy who was standing up to them the day before has been fading into the background."

He said that last part with a grin, trying to get a rise out of Beam. But before the boy could even respond, Loriel was already cutting in. "Come on! That's not true. That cutie Nila is definitely high up on the popularity charts now, but they definitely haven't forgotten sweet little Beam," she said, patting his head, as though he was a dog that had done some particularly good work.

"Yeah yeah, I wish you'd stick up for me like that when that Captain is breathing down my neck," Greeves complained. "Come on, we'd better go and speak to him. He's been glaring at me for the last five minutes… I'm not looking forward to this."

"Me neither…" Beam heard Loriel say under her breath, but she quickly returned her smile to her face as she waved goodbye. "Enjoy the festival, Beam! Make sure you're getting enough sleep – and don't let these miserable nobles work you too hard!"

Beam nodded in reply. The crowd had thickened considerably as they spoke, and still, there were yet more villagers walking down the road, their torches lighting the way for them.

He glanced around, to see if there were any familiar faces. He noted that the village Elder had still not arrived, despite the fact that he was the one meant to be leading this ceremony. Or perhaps it was part of the ceremony that he arrive last? Beam didn't know.

He briefly glanced at the wooden platform that had been set up beside the fire. It was taller than the ones that had been built to welcome the Captain, and narrower too, more like a stand for speaking on than a platform.

It was set up a short distance away from the fire, close enough that Beam thought it must have been a pretty sensible worry to wonder whether it would catch alight itself or not.

"What're you doing, staring off into space?" For the second time in a few short moments, a voice came to attack him while he was distracted. He glanced to the side, and saw Nila smiling up at him, with Mrs Felder behind her, leading David by the hand.

"I was wondering whether it'd catch fire or not," Beam said.