Chapter 27 - Recriminations
News had obviously traveled faster than Medoferro and company did, for Insegniferro and Massimaferro were waiting in the lobby for them when they made it back to the palace. They both looked very worried, much like parents would to a child, for that was the way they were both considering Medoferro at that point.
"You all right?" Massy asked him, "How close was it?"
"Not very," Medo said, his shakiness having turned mostly to disgust, "Stacy had pretty much stopped one when Rav’s people came out to finish them."
"Where is Captain Suvorov now?" Insegniferro asked him.
"Taking care of the scene," Medo said, "It doesn’t look like this was a particularly serious attempt at me."
"Any attempt at you is serious," Massy rebuked him, "Do we have any idea who sent them?"
"Facie is my guess," Iggy said, his face stern, "It wouldn’t be the first time for him."
"One of them was from the southern part of The Mavelans," Miranda told them, "The skin coloring they had is only seen down there."
Massimaferro turned to a young man standing nearby, "Send a message to Colonel LaPorte in Cirrus to cut off the border. No trade in or out of that hell hole until further notice."
The young man nodded ascent and scurried off to the communications room to get the message off. Medoferro sat down on the bench nearby, the strain showing on him. The relaxation that had occurred earlier was mostly wiped out by the attack. Marina sat down next to him, trying to console him a little.
"You’re bleeding, Simon," Iggy noticed as he looked over the group, "Did they hit you bad?"
"Just a knick," Simon said, "Is there anywhere around here I can get a bandage?"
"Upstairs," Iggy told him, "Medico Rasten is closing up shop, but she should have some bandages around."
"I’ll go along with you," Miranda volunteered, "I can bandage it if she’s too busy."
Simon nodded thanks and they headed off upstairs. Stacy went as well as to get something to take care of the scrapes she got tangling with the swordsman. Iggy and Massy checked out Medoferro a little closer, hoping that he was all right.
"Are you going to be ok, Medo?" Massy asked him, "You still look a bit shaken."
"I wasn’t expecting anything like this," Medo said, "I could have gotten my friends killed…"
"Don’t think about that part," Iggy suggested, "We should have prepared you a bit more for this eventuality. We’re targets because we hold the power. That alone is part of why we have the secret side of the guard."
"I just felt so helpless," Medo sighed, "Isn’t there anything I can do to prevent this sort of thing?"
"You can’t prevent everything," Massy said, "But I think we’ve been concentrating too hard on the ruling side of this. You need to learn to take care of yourself in case anything like this ever happens again."
"I agree," Iggy nodded, "You’ll never have to go on a battlefield, but you should know basic self defense."
"I’ll do what I have to," Medo said, "I don’t want to feel that powerless again. Stacy did better than I did… Hells, Simon did more than I did."
"Don’t blame yourself for something you were never trained for," Iggy told him, "You’re new to this. Nobody was hurt this time other than the bad guys. Learn from it. Don’t beat yourself up over it."
"You forgot the guard who died," Medo said glumly.
"Not your fault," Iggy said, "Blame the bad guys, not yourself."
"You look beat, Medo," Massy said, "Go on up to your suite and get some rest. You’ll be safe up there and you could use the sleep. We’ll figure out the training and get you started on it later."
Medoferro was in no mood to argue, he slid off to go up to his room, looking pretty dejected. He’d learned a hard lesson about the position he was in and he wasn’t taking it well. Medoferro’s departure left the two remaining Mullinix and Marina standing in the room.
"I was hoping he’d get a little grace time before that part of the job sank in," Iggy frowned, "You seem to know him best, Marina. How do you think he’ll handle it?"
"He’s going to need some reassurance," Marina said, "I’ll go up in a few minutes and see if I can help in that department."
"Do what you need to do to bring a bit of his confidence back," Massy said a mischievous smile on his lips, "Might want to bring Sascha with you. She’s good at playing the innocent confidence builder."
"Right," Marina smiled, "Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of him."
They watched Marina scurry off and walked over into their office to sit down in more comfortable chairs. Both men looked worried, not liking what had just happened a bit. Insegniferro poured drinks for the both of them, handing the tumbler over with the foul alcoholic liquid they both liked.
"This is serious," Massy said, taking a drink, "This one had to be Facie’s doing."
"Yeah," Iggy nodded, holding on to his glass, "This was the last thing Medoferro needed right now. He’s still trying to get used to this place."
"How is he doing in learning?" Massy asked him, "You’ve been handling all of that."
"Better than you did," Iggy admitted, "He has a quick mind and has been sucking it up like a sponge."
"I was a dunce and I admit it," Massy chuckled, "My talents lay elsewhere."
"I haven’t started him on the strategy games yet," Iggy said, "Though with Cirrus going the way it is, it looks like I will have to soon."
"Get him to choose his personal rep first," Massy suggested, "That way we have a few weeks of pitting them together before Roland heads to Siraq for that visit."
"I’ll bring that up with him tomorrow," Iggy sighed, "I still feel a bit helpless with this situation."
"I think we need to give him a crash course in the personal survival arena," Massy said seriously, "I think I know just the person to do it too."
"Who?" Iggy asked him.
"The same one Tali sent me to when I went through a similar thing twenty years ago," Massy said, "He’s a tough teacher, but I learned and I learned damn quick."
"Wonder if Tali’s death will make him any more pleasant?" Iggy said incredulously, "Gods, I thought he was dead."
"Thought or merely hoped?" Massy chuckled, remembering that his old teacher had not gotten along well with Iggy.
"Probably a little of both," Iggy shrugged, "Either way he’s got to be up there."
"He was in his Forties when he taught me," Massy said, "He’s seventy-three now and feisty as ever. He probably won’t be able to spar directly with Medo, but he’s still better than any ten of the guard trainers."
"Provided he doesn’t scare Medo to death he’ll do a good job," Iggy admitted, "I want him to choose his rep first, though."
"That’s ok," Massy shrugged, "It’ll take me a couple days to get a hold of him. Word is that he is still sought after, though he doesn’t take many students now."
"Ok," Iggy said, "I’m going to go back to my room and read for a bit. Nothing else I can do at this point."
"I’m going to go talk to the guards," Massy said, "I’ll find the old man tomorrow after session. Hopefully he’ll take Medo."
Iggy nodded and walked off, leaving Massy alone in his office to finish his drink. It was going to be an interesting day he thought as he finished his drink. He then left the room to go and find the guards.