Servants and Followers (The Legends of Arria, Volume 2) (51 page)

Hastin didn’t know if
it was some kind of spell, a delusion to make them believe these
candidates could make some kind of difference in their lives as
mayor of Coe Baba, or if it was just some form of distraction from
their ordinary lives to see these individuals competing against
each other, perhaps with a little bloodletting involved. Whatever
it was, Hastin thought it was working, with its effect on the
crowd. These people were intrigued and caught up in the action,
perhaps even thinking that what these candidates offered them was
real. But it wasn’t real, it could never be real. No mayor in the
history of Coe Baba had ever made a difference as far as he was
aware of. As far as he knew, there was no chance
that
any
mayor could cause any real change in the lives of these
people.

Now his
father Baron Augwys had some real power
over the townspeople here in Coe Baba, being able to
enforce laws, levy taxes, and officiate over civil ceremonies. He
could cause some serious, drastic changes if he so wished, though
he hardly ever did. People here had trouble acknowledging the
baron’s power over them, hating and fearing the possibility that he
might exercise his power over them. Thus, Baron Augwys restrained
himself as much as possible, knowing that they might turn on him
and on the government of Arria if he went beyond the bonds of
acceptable behavior, taxing them too strongly or being too strict
in enforcement.

Hastin
hated the fact
that his own father, who was technically the most powerful
authority figure in town, had to bow down to the whims and
expectations of the townspeople, and relinquish some of his power
to them. But even Hastin had to acknowledge that the baron’s power
would mean nothing here, if people did not accept him, and so
Hastin had to accept the fact that the townspeople had the right to
pick a mayoral candidate to represent them, and the baron had the
right to stay out of this mayoral election, if he so chose. Thus,
Hastin was here to witness the mayoral debate, and take the
temperature of public opinion on his own, while his father had
decided to stay at home, not wanting to be seen as favoring one
candidate over another, which he might since one of those
candidates was Lapo, his friend and business partner.

There was also no chance that Hastin
would ever run for mayor. For one thing, he didn’t have to, when he
was at least guaranteed some security in life as one of Baron
Augwys’s sons. This meant that he had a certain amount of freedom
in his life to decide what he wanted to do with it. He didn’t feel
like parading himself about, degrading himself and his candidacy,
and lying to people just for the chance to get a powerless position
of authority when he already had one, thank you very much. He
didn’t know what he wanted out of life, or what he would do with
his life, but at least he didn’t have to stand up and make speeches
about what he believed in, or what he could do to improve other
people’s lots in life. He was comfortable with his lot in life,
thank you very much, and he didn’t need to improve his own, or
anyone else’s.

For another thing, he had already
embarrassed himself once or twice trying to take a stand for what
he believed in, and degrade Basha and Oaka in the process, and what
had that led to in the end? His sister hated him, his father
berated him, the townspeople distrusted him, Sir Nickleby had quit
the town militia because of him and Jawen did not love him. What
did that amount to? He had lost the popularity contest. Hastin had
a lot of people turned against him, and no certainty that he would
ever find success currying their favor. At this rate, he would
never be able to satisfy anybody but himself, and even then he
didn’t feel very satisfied. He had to find something that would
bring him peace, and maybe win again the hearts and minds of the
people who had turned against him. The position of mayor of Coe
Baba didn’t have the strength necessary to win back people’s
affections. He wondered where Jawen was.

“
If I were elected
mayor of Coe Baba,” Lapo said, standing up in front of the crowd on
the stage erected for this event, “This town would enter a new age
of peace and prosperity, one it has never encountered before.” He
said, stridently sweeping his hand out across in front of him. “We
must turn our backs on the past, and forget everything that has
happened before. We must look forward to a new era of progress.” He
said, raising his voice with a few whoops from the crowd. “It’s
time for a change
.
P
eople deserve better than to receive the
messes their ancestors have left behind for them.” He held for
applause. His wife Mawen sat behind him, clapping her hands giddily
with Tuki and Annalise sitting next to her. Their other children,
meanwhile, wandered around, loose amidst the spectators.

Hastin walked away from the crowd, and
paused as he spotted two boys in an alleyway near the post office,
fighting against each other with practice wooden swords. He
recognized the two boys, and recalled their names. “Fence? Rajar?”
He called Jawen’s two younger brothers.

Fence and Rajar stopped fighting, and
turned around. “Hello, Hastin,” Rajar said, coming over with his
older brother. “How are you today?” He asked.

“
Fine.” Hastin said,
turning back towards the crowd. “Sounds like your father might have
a chance to become mayor.”

“
Ugh.” Fence said,
tilting his head back and then shaking it forward.

“
What’s the matter,
Fence?” Hastin asked.

“
Fence is very upset
today.” Rajar said.

“
It’s all right if he
becomes mayor, I suppose,” Fence said, “But what I would really
like is for someone to replace Sir Nickleby as head of the town
militia.”

“
We can’t get
anybody.” Rajar remarked.

“
No one has stepped
forward to claim that post ever since Sir Nickleby left with Basha
and Oaka,” Fence rolled his eyes and grimaced, “And no one will
train me or the other 12-year-olds until somebody else
does.”

“
We can’t get any
training if no one will teach us!” Rajar cried, throwing his hands
up.

“
Rajar, stop
repeating me.” Fence muttered, lightly punching his younger
brother.

“
It’s the truth.”
Rajar said, rubbing his arm.

“
Surely there are
some men in the town militia who are willing to train you and the
other 12-year-old boys?” Hastin asked Fence.

“
They say they are
too busy, training themselves and maintaining the patrols without
Sir Nickleby around to help.” Fence said. “Sir Nickleby did most of
the training, after all, as he had the most experience and was the
best teacher.”

“
We can’t get anybody
like Sir Nickleby. No one could teach us like Sir Nickleby could.”
Rajar said, looking down.

Hastin hesitated,
looking around for a moment as if he wondered if someone else would
step forward, if someone else was willing to take a chance, but no
one else would, it was just him, Rajar, and Fence here. “Fence,
first of all
…
may I borrow your sword for a
moment, Rajar?” He asked, holding out his hand to the younger
brother.

Rajar hesitated a moment and then
handed over his wooden practice sword. “What are you going to do
with it?” He asked.

“
Teach you both
something. Now, when you’re in first position, you hold your sword
up like this,” Hastin said, demonstrating this before he helped
Fence and then Rajar imitate the same position.

“
Excuse me,” Geda
said, interrupting the applause that had spring forth with Lapo’s
address, and stepped forward now to speak. “While my opponent is
correct in saying we need a change, I do not think we can turn our
backs on the past, and forget about everything our ancestors left
behind for us. We must deal with their messes, deal with what they
left behind for us, and change the world and ourselves in the
process. We must face the mistakes and faults of the past to make a
better world!” He said as the crowd roared. He still was not quite
sure what he was doing, running for mayor of Coe Baba against Lapo
like this, but he could not let the merchant win the mayoral
election without a fight. He had been convinced by his wife, by the
fact that Lapo was running, and by his friends at The Smiling
Stallion inn to consider the possibility. At least the position for
mayor did not require that the candidate had to have no previous
criminal records to be in the running.

As the applause died down from his last
speech, Geda cried, “We must forge a new future out of the past,
and for that, I think we must correct the mistakes of the past. One
of those mistakes, a fundamental one at that, was that we shut
ourselves off, and lost connection with the world. I say that we
should expand our connection to other communities, and welcome
strangers to Coe Baba. I say that for my first act as mayor of Coe
Baba, if elected, I will expand our town’s definition of what it
means to be a citizen here so that people would feel welcome enough
to stay and work here in Coe Baba for the rest of their lives,”
Geda said as the crowd murmued amongst themselves.

“
Come again, Geda?”
Lapo asked.

“
You heard me, Lapo,
it’s time to open ourselves up,” Geda said, turning to face the
merchant. “Coe Baba must not be shut out of the world, we must face
and embrace the world,” He said, turning to the crowd. “Only then
can we grow and prosper so that Coe Baba will become a great town,
one that the rest of Arria can look up to.” He said. It was a
little hard for them to swallow, after being taught to fear the
world outside of Coe Baba for so long, but he hoped that he was
right, and that he might be able to convince them.

He remembered the night after his
arrest over eight years ago, after getting embroiled in a brawl
with Lapo in which the merchant had gotten away clean, and he had
sat alone in his jail cell underneath the courthouse, feeling sorry
for himself, and angry at the merchant. Then he had heard two small
voices calling, “Father. Father.” He had looked up at the window,
and saw their faces peering in through the bars.

“
Basha, Oaka, what
are you two doing here?” He asked, embarrassed that they had to see
him here like this, not exactly the best position to be in. “It’s
past your bedtimes.”

“
We
’re not sleepy,
we
came to be here with you.” Oaka said,
clutching the bars. “Mother knows we are here.” He
added.

“
Does she really?”
Geda asked, eyebrows raised.

“
Yes
, she does,” Oaka
insisted, a pretty good liar.

“
I am sorry you wound
up in there.” Basha said, lowering his head.

“
It’s not your fault,
Basha.” Geda sighed, shaking head, “Lapo is to blame here,
and
you boys, you make me so proud to be
your father.” He said, smiling. “I am so sorry this had to happen.”
The boys stayed by his window through most of the night, until he
woke them up and told them to go back home.

He missed them, his boys Basha and
Oaka, but he hoped that he was doing the right thing here,
something that his family could be proud of. He wanted to make his
wife happy, and honor the boys, and perhaps it was the right thing
to do.

His wife Habala sat
behind him, listening with quiet approval as she wondered if he was
thinking of Basha in that moment. She hoped that Oaka and Basha
would have liked what their father was saying then. After
everything that had happened with Smidge and
Brigg
a, (
she shuddered to think about Smidge still, what Brigga had
said about him
and what she
had done to him)
it felt right to her that
Geda should be running for mayor now, that this was their way of
getting things back to normal, or as normal as they could be, and
of finding a new way to go on through life. Her boys would live on
through their actions.

After
quitting his job at the Smiling Stallion inn, a job that he had
maintained for over two decades, Smidge had managed to find work at
the restaurant, which was always in need of part-time staff,
especially for cleaning up tables and
cooking. Smidge was given the task of managing the
restaurant while most of the town was at the mayoral debate, a job
that he had volunteered for most willingly, unable to stand
watching Geda puff about for an hour or two againat
Lapo.

It
also gave him the
chance to show that he had the ability to run this place
single-handedly, and that he could be trusted with more
responsibility. Geda hardly ever gave him the chance of managing
the Smiling Stallion inn on his own, Smidge could count the number
of times on his hand, and yet here he was, his first week at the
job, and he was running this place. Of course, there were no
customers to serve, and no one would come in here until the mayoral
debate was over, and by then, he would be back to his regular job
as wait staff and cook, replaced by the real owners of this
restaurant. Just like at any other point in his miserable little
life.

He
rubbed his hand through his hair, or what remained of it after
Habala had burned part of it off, grimacing to himself as he
wondered if it would ever grow back again. Habala still had her
powers,
or so it seemed,
despite years of disuse and distrusting them. Perhaps she should
have burned him completely if she did not ever want him coming
after her, Brigga, or Geda again. Smidge slammed a wooden box down
onto a table, and was about to unload some new glasses, with the
promise of cleaning up some broken shards down at the bottom, when
he heard a horse whining in the distance, coming not from the
direction of the town square, but from the direction of the street
leading out of town.