70 Something Borrowed (1/2)
”It pains me to ask this of you -- I will need your help.” Hilde blinked while Leal pressed his lips in a smile of reluctance. He continued, ”Earlier, we had split into five groups: mine, my three lords', and a decoy.”
He slowed his pace as he finished, and the others matched his speed. They were now in view of the turn leading to Tailors' Street. The bright light of numerous torches was spilling from it, but in the narrow alley where the group eventually paused, it was dim except for the two torches they had with them.
Captain Judda ordered these to be put out before stating in a lowered voice, ”You are banking on the hope that it is the decoy group trapped in there now.”
Looking in the direction of the sounds bombarding their eardrums, Leal nodded. ”Yes.”
”If it isn't?” the Captain asked.
The Prince's jaw visibly clenched before he gave a difficult answer. ”We'll still wait for confirmation that the others have reached safety. May I ask you to alert the sentries on every castle gate to watch for their approach?”
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Hilde shifted her gaze to Captain Judda, hoping to convey a silent command. The older man met her eyes steadily for a moment before looking back to Leal.
”Done,” he said with a single nod. He gave the order to the palace soldier who came with them and added, ”Have swift runners send word back here for any changes.”
The soldier soon disappeared down the dark lane.
”And, Prince?” Hilde inquired after a while. ”What else do you need?”
”I don't think it's advisable for US to check which group is being mobbed.”
He looked around at his female escorts as he spoke. To a woman, they appeared ready to go brave the danger anyway.
Having thought of something, Hilde said, ”They'll have a better chance of identifying who's who, though. What if one of you take off your armor and pretend to be a civilian to get closer?”
After lighting up at this, Leal's escorts talked amongst themselves to decide on who was to go.
”More deception, I see,” she heard a familiar voice mutter from the very back of the Prince's Guards' loose formation. It seemed a certain injured soldier, who was surely just about dead on his feet by now, had also insisted on tagging along. ”Of course,” he added, by chance saying the exact same words Hilde was thinking in connection to his stubbornness.
She huffed, wishing she could make Inge understand -- choosing to stick to rigid values and ”be the bigger person” doesn't always work in the wider world, simply because not everyone operated that way or respected those who did.
It wasn't that she had an aversion to honesty. Far from it. But from extensive past experience, she knew very well that excessive amounts of it, especially when stemming from kindness, can get a person taken advantage of, used up, and -- if they can't or won't wisen up to what's being done to them -- worn down to nothing, sometimes even killed, either psychically or physically.
The problem might be that honesty can often be easily confused with authenticity, like ”goodness” was often interchanged with kindness, when they were not the same thing at all. Similar, yes, but not the same.