autumnsbandit
The jazz band switched to a sorrowful tune, a melody of melancholy to the drinkers risking fines and jail for the sweet taste of liquor gained from who knows where. Any eyes looking to the band rather than their glasses found their eyes fixed on the soft silhouette of a graceful blonde cradling the mic like a lifeline, darkly red lips just centimetres from the mesh.
The cannon fire obliterated the town by morning. The armies clambered through the burning ruins, not looking at the men they killed, only following orders. They swept through the caves like a spring storm, the sound of thunder following in their wake.
She grinned, waving a dirty stick at her friend. "En garde!"
Her friend shook his head and stared at the sky. "You're insane."
Snow fell thickly, blanketing the ground and covering the floundering city in silence. The storm had settled in days ago and showed no sign of leaving any day soon. Most of the sensible city had retreated indoors, sheltering from the cold and wet.
Huddled in a doorway, backs turned to the driving snow, were two men. One, taller than his friend by a full head, had his hands cupped around a cigarette clutched between his lips, trying to light it.
"Give it up, Viki," his friend muttered, folding his arms tight across his chest and hunching his thin shoulders. "it won't light. Besides, you shouldn't smoke now. We might get seen."
The taller clicked his tongue against his teeth and kept trying. "Quiet, James," he rumbled, voice thick with a Moscovian accent. "Probably he will not come out in snow. Too cold. Besides, light will not be seen in snow." He made a noise of triumph as the flame finally caught.
James sighed. "If this goes bad, you can explain why."
"They bowed to my father," the young king said, lounging in the too-large throne with his head cradled in one hand. "I supported them when they rebelled. Why won't they bow to me?"
The seneschal shook his grey head and laughed in the king's face. "They won't bow to you for the same reason no-one bows to beggars. You needed them to get this throne. They will always remember that." He sighed deeply and turned his back on the throne he had stood by for decades. "It seems a curse of your family to underestimate and under value the people."