Chapter Twenty-Nine: Petro and Tsuga

Petro sat on the dusty inn steps, and watched the young women practice. The little round one, the one who was in charge, was more his type. He had the distinct impression, watching her turn a backflip, that she would fit very nicely into the crook of his arm, and that her skin would be soft as butter. Then there were the freckles, sprinkled like cinnamon across her nose, and the curls, the copper colour of a new coin, that escaped her dark hood. Yes, Salix was definitely Petro’s type – but it was Tsuga who kept him watching. He had tried flirting first with the little round one. It turned out that, though she was pretty, she was engaged to be married. In fact, once the topic had come up, all Salix could talk about was the darling, dear, foolish man to whom she was betrothed. It was sort of sickening. So, Petro had turned his attention to the tall, lanky girl, Flora Tsuga, and found that he was soon intrigued by her every action.

Tsuga was tall and angular and couldn’t do her routine as smoothly as her shorter, fatter superior. Her hair was straight and an ordinary, medium brown, and long enough that she should have tied it back – it flopped in her face whenever she rolled or lunged or even dodged one of Salix’s jesting blows. Her skin was sallow, not creamy, and she was frowning.

What Petro liked about the tall girl, though, was her determination. She clearly wasn’t as good at this as Salix was. It was obvious that Tsuga was the student and Salix the teacher, but Tsuga kept trying. She did everything Salix did, gamely, standing up and going on even though she repeatedly fell flat on her rear in the dust. She followed Salix not perfectly, but doggedly, and without once uttering a word of complaint, or even a sigh. That was admirable, and fascinating to watch.

It was especially fascinating when she stretched out her arm and bared the tiniest fraction of usually clothed skin. Petro reflected that perhaps Marcus was right, and he was a pig. Still, it was hard to ignore her, when she was leaping in front of him or tumbling into a roll. Petro decided that, angular or not, Tsuga was strangely beautiful. Smiling he stood up, and walked back into the inn, thinking.

                                                                               ~*~

Tsuga was dead tired by the time she sat down at one of the long tables in the inn's main hall. Salix worked her hard, and it was worse still with that idiot Petro leering at them. Still, it was not Tsuga's place to speak during practice, not even to tell the fool gawker to leave them be. Salix was her superior, and only Salix could tell him off. Frankly, Tsuga had been surprised that Salix had chosen as public a place as the inn courtyard, but in the end only Petro had been there to see them. Perhaps Salix had woven some enchantment that Tsuga was still too inexperienced to notice. Tsuga wished she was as Able as Salix was, but she seemed to entirely lack such talents. Wearily, Tsuga smiled at the bread and mug of cold water that well-paid hands laid in front of her, and started to dig in. Then she sighed, loudly. Petro, that unbearable fool, Petro, had sat down beside her. At least he didn't smell awful. He must have been to the baths in town; he smelled of soap.

“That was really something to see, the two of you practising,” he commented quietly.

Tsuga shrugged, “I'm not very good. Senior Salix is much better.”

Petro thought for a moment, and commented, “I think she's been doing it a lot longer than you have. You're not as sure of yourself. I don't think you did anything wrong, though. I can see you're pretty good – not just you and Flora Salix together, but you, yourself.”

A little point of warmth kindled and grew in Tsuga's stomach.

“Oh, yes?” She said, smiling into her mug.

“Well, that's what it looks like to me,” Petro replied, smiling.

Tsuga reflected that he wasn't quite so unpleasant-looking when he smiled.

Petro continued speaking as a mug was placed in front of him, too.

“I've known trained, experienced soldiers who couldn't deal with things like that dying bandit on the road. I'm impressed.”

Tsuga sighed, saying, “I wish I had joined when I was young, like senior Salix did. I would be as good as her by now.”

“Maybe better,” Petro grinned.

Tsuga was tempted to elbow Petro the way she had elbowed her older brother, once upon a time, but decided against it. No use encouraging the fool.

“I thought all Florae started training in childhood,” Petro commented.

Tsuga made a face.

“Most Florae,” she corrected, “not all. The Florae picked me up off the street when I was seventeen. When I have served my time, I will be 38.”

Petro titled his head to one side, looking at Tsuga.

“You must be older than I thought!” He replied in shock. He had thought Tsuga was, well, a girl, not a woman.

“Twenty-four,” Tsuga replied ruefully.

“I'd have guessed seventeen,” Petro said thoughtfully, looking her over, “You look like a girl.”

"I am not a girl. I am grown, and I am strong. Besides, Petro," Tsuga said, glaring, "I do have a proper military rank. I outrank ."

"Pft, a little girl like you, a temple maiden who keeps the sacred boundaries most of the time, outranks me? I doubt it."

Tsuga glared at him, then reached for her neckline. Petro watched in fascination as she drew a leather cord up from the folds of fabric. Hanging from it was a small silver signet ring. Tsuga lifted the cord over her head, then tossed the ring on the table. Petro picked it up, turning the ring so that he could see the wax-embossing sealing face. Then he set it down as quickly as if he had been burned.

Tsuga looked at him smugly, picking the ring up off the table, and hanging it around her neck again. She pulled her hair up and out from the leather thong. "You see?" she said.

Petro stared at her. "That signet - that seal on your signet ring is the imperial sigil, third class!"

"Yes, I know that."

"But third class . . . you outrank me. You outrank my boss . . . you outrank the centurion and the legionary in charge of the 47th!"

Tsuga smiled smugly, "Well, of course I outrank them. I probably outrank everyone you've worked under except for the general himself. And as Florae go - well, I'm pretty much at the bottom still, Petro son of Callidus."

"But why- how - you're a little girl! Well, okay, you're a grown woman, but you know what I mean!"

"I have the rank because I to be of that rank to do my work. What if I need to order a man to help me infiltrate an enemy fortress? He needs to be able to accept my orders, and not be deemed a deserter because of it."

"Fair enough, but still . . . this is hard to swallow. So if you needed me and Marcus to say, leave the 47th for a while . . . ."

"If I were permitted to, I would order it, of course," Tsuga said, "In my case I don't have the authority to decide that on my own. Salix could in an emergency, of course, but I don't have that authority. Even Salix must get permission under normal circumstances."

Petro was fascinated by all this, and asked, "So how often has it happened that you get the permission, Flora Tsuga?"

Tsuga laughed, "Once we had to get some new recruits to assist us in preparing the sacred field for the midsummer festival of the sun. They did not want to assist us, and their superior refused, on our polite request, to order them. The chief priestess of the temple had to pull rank on him."

"Oh come on, that doesn't count! Even I heard about that! She didn't outrank him as a military officer!"

"Not in the version of the story you heard. But in reality, she went in and threw down her ring and told him that if he did not assist her, he was a traitor who was deserting his duty to the Emperor and the empire. He later did get spoken to by a representative of his imperial majesty, I'm told." Tsuga grinned in satisfaction.

Petro shrugged. He hadn't heard that part of the story, but that didn't mean that it was necessarily true.

"But you, Tsuga, have you ever used it?"

Tsuga shook her head, "Of course not. As I said, if there was need to use it, we would have orders from above, or Senior Salix would make the decision. I would not. And no, I have never been in a situation where such an order was needed, yet." She smiled, and added, "We are mostly assassins, couriers, and spies, Petro. We Florae generally work alone, not on jobs we need you blundering military types to help us with."

Petro could not help but smile back at this good-natured baiting, "Well, Tsuga, you know, we don't always blunder. And we may be burly, but that means we're strong."

Tsuga rolled her eyes, "Yes, Petro, I know you're as full of yourself as a man can be."

And they both laughed, and it was good. Still, Petro filed back in his mind the useful information that Tsuga and Salix could outrank every superior he had ever actually spoken with in his life. That was good to know. It meant that, no matter what other dangers might be out there, he wasn't in danger of losing his job over this crazy quest to help Marcus and the baby.