Duplicity

"What is truth?"

The question never holds an easy answer.

Aylee Hembry had thought the idea simple - there were people you could trust and there were people you couldn't. In her world, the distinction seemed obvious. Honest? Her family, her merchant father, the local smith and most of the farmers. Dishonest? The miller, the saloon patron, and her father's rival merchant clan - the Lorne family. All of them.

Simple maybe while she stands in her familiar surroundings, with her life's worth of experience and observation, with her knowledge of the members of her society. When the rival merchant's son, Malchus Lorne, drives her from her home, though, she finds herself in strange surroundings with people whose character she can judge only by the actions of the moment. Now things aren't so simple.

Without mooring or resources, she stumbles into the camp of a stranger, a camp filled with what appear to be soldiers. "Protection," claims the camp leader, a man using an obvious pseudonym. "Itchy" holds himself like the most bored of nobleman, and the idea should repulse Aylee, but instead, she likes him almost immediately. His ennui appears an act, an inexplicable façade that makes her doubt the image he portrays.

His second-in-command, though, proves himself an entitled and domineering man almost at once, arrogant and demanding even of his supposed superior. "Jess" carries himself with a clear sense of privilege, similar to Malchus, the man to blame for her current dilemma.

Still, for some reason, she does not fear the men like she fears Malchus. Watching them together reminds her more of her little brothers than of rogues or brigands. The bond between Itchy and Jess seems unassailable. What explains the strange dynamic between them? Which of them defers to the other? Why does Jess seem so desperately to seek Itchy's approval? Why does Itchy jump to his friend's every hint of direction?

And what about the soldiers?

Why do the troops - supposedly a mere protection against the recent increase in peril in the region - keep increasing in number? Why do they train for hours on end in the art of combat? Why has she found not one among them who would treat her with disrespect? That seemed the mark of a well-ordered camp run by an honorable man. Yet, she felt certain the two men deceived her.

Unfortunately, she could not return home with Malchus in pursuit. It would cost her family, her friends - not to mention herself. For a while, then, she determines to stay in the relative safety of the troop - whatever their purpose. If she cannot ferret out the truth, though, she will have to strike out on her own, no matter the potential peril.