Dave Duncan - Speak to the Devil

THE PLAYERS

THE BROTHERS

Ottokar: thirteenth Baron Magnus of Dobkov, head of the family

Vladislav: knight, a warrior currently held hostage in Bavaria

Marek: a monk in the Benedictine monastery at Koupel

Anton: recently enlisted in the Light Hussars

Wulfgang: Anton’s varlet

THE GOVERNMENT

Konrad V: aging king of Jorgary

Konrad: crown prince, his grandson

Zdenek: cardinal, the king’s first minister, known as the Scarlet Spider

Svaty: archbishop of Jorgary

AT CARDICE

Stepan: Count Bukovany of Cardice, lord of the march, keeper of Castle Gallant

Edita: his countess

Petr: knight, his son and heir

Madlenka: the count’s daughter

Ugne: bishop of Cardice

Giedre Jurbarkas: Madlenka’s lady-in-waiting and best friend

Ramunas Jurbarkas: seneschal of Castle Gallant, Giedre’s father

Karolis Kavarskas: knight, constable of Castle Gallant

Dalibor Notivova: deputy constable

AT PELRELM

Havel: Count Vranov of Pelrelm, lord of the march

Marijus: knight, his tenth son

Leonas: an imbecile, his fifteenth or sixteenth son

Vilhelmas: a priest of the Greek Orthodox faith

IN POMERANIA

Wartislaw: Duke of Pomerania, Lord of the Wends

In the darkest hour of the night, a troop of the Palace Guard came marching along the serpentine alleys of Mauvnik, capital city of Jorgary. Arriving at the home of Baron Radovan, they pounded the door knocker. When that produced no swift response, they thundered on the panels with the butts of their pikes and shouted abuse, making enough racket to silence the cats and start dogs barking. Nosy neighbors opened shutters. When at last a terrified servant peered out through the grille, their leader bellowed for all to hear that Lancer Anton Magnus was wanted at the palace at once. The guards continued to stamp and jingle and chatter in the roadway until the lanky youngster they sought came stumbling out, his hussar uniform awry and his eyes still blurred by sleep. They formed up around him and marched him away.

Anton was not told that he was under arrest. He was not required to surrender his saber. He was not even sure that the Palace Guard had authority to arrest a lancer of the Light Hussars, although these men seemed to think they did. They refused to say who had sent for him at this ungodly hour on a Sunday morning, or what his offense might be. He had been sinning, yes, but adultery was not a criminal matter. The slut’s husband might call him out on a point of honor for it, but Anton was not worried about dueling a man who was currently far away in Bavaria, being held for ransom, and thirty years his senior anyway. If not lechery, then what? His conscience was unspotted otherwise.

A worse worry was that Anton Magnus had no idea how the palace guard had known where to find him. If the sergeants-at-arms had begun by seeking him in the verminous billet down in Lower Mauvnik that he shared with Wulfgang, his brother and varlet, then Wulf could have told them only that Anton was visiting a lady; he did not know which lady, and would not have told that even if he did. How had they known that he was sleeping the sleep of the exhausted in the bed of the luscious Baroness Nadezda Radovan?

At that point the lovely baroness-who was not as lovely as she must have been the year Anton was born, but still tried to behave as if she were-had become very unlovely indeed. She, who around midnight had been kind and fond to her “ Darling Anton,” praising both his privates and his prowess, had become shrill and abusive. To go from wearing nothing at all to the dress uniform of a hussar without a varlet’s help was a long process-breechcloth, trunk hose, puffed shirt laced to the trunk hose, fancy slashed breeches, slashed and padded doublet, garters, socks over the hose, boots-with spurs, even at a ball-sword belt, sword, dagger, short cape, tall hat with narrow brim and tall plume; and all the time the harpy in the bed had been screaming that she was ruined, that the news would be all over Mauvnik and probably the entire kingdom by morning, that Anton Magnus was an evil young deviant preying on respectable women, and if he thought she was ever going to put in that good word to the minister of the army that she had promised last night, then he had the brains of a tadpole. And so on.

He had said nothing until he had his boots on and was heading for the door. Then he had dropped a copper parvus on her dressing table and told her exactly what he thought of her worn-out body and alley-cat morals, thus demonstrating that their relationship had been terminated by mutual consent.

Now the roofs and turrets of the palace stood inky black against the autumn stars. Only two windows showed light, both in the central tower where old King Konrad lay interminably dying. Anton’s escorts were taking him to the south gate, to a part of the palace he did not know. And they still refused to say why.

Boots clumped on the miry cobbles. The air was warm; bats squeaked and swirled overhead. It was going to be another fine day, although perhaps not a fine day for Anton Magnus, the most junior recruit in the Light Hussars.

At the great gate, a bell was rung, a hatch opened, a password exchanged, and then the postern door swung open. Six boots marched across a yard reeking with a familiar smell of horses, and entered a dimly lit guard room.

As he stepped inside, Anton Magnus’s anger and frustration turned to freezing terror, just for a moment. Then he relaxed, seeing that he had been mistaken. The man waiting for him in the gloom was innocent enough. Indeed, he was not even a man, for his face was smooth, and his head, though close-cropped, was not yet tonsured. His brown robe was that of a novice Franciscan. Franciscans were usually harmless. In his momentary, dazzled confusion, Anton had thought he was seeing a Dominican.

Dominicans were friars of a different color, and could represent the ultimate terror: suspicion of heresy or Satanism, interrogation, the Question, the stake. That was absurd in this case, of course! Anton Magnus never dabbled in such crimes, and had he not still been half asleep he would never have confused the two orders.

Yet suddenly his conscience no longer shone like a well-honed blade. On the royal hunt two days ago, he had pulled off an insanely reckless feat of horsemanship that had been witnessed by at least a hundred people. It had made him the talk of the court. It might have started suspicious tongues wagging, arousing whispers of Speaking. But it had certainly not been remarkable enough to expose him to a formal investigation by the Holy Office. A watch might be set on him in future; no more than that.

“Lancer Anton Magnus of Company D of the Royal Light Hussars?” The boy looked bored and sleepy, not frightened or malicious.

His throat too dry for speech, Anton just nodded.

The novice lifted a lantern and adjusted the wick. “If you would be so good as to follow me, lancer?” He led the way, sandals slapping softly on the flagstones.

For the next few minutes, Anton Magnus continued to reassure himself with positive thoughts. He still hadn’t been relieved of his saber. Wherever he was being taken was no dungeon. The lantern’s faint glow and that of the occasional sconce shone on mosaic floors, frescoes, and wide mirrors, then a staircase wide enough to admit a coach-and-four.

“May I ask who has summoned me here at this ungodly hour?”

The boy glanced around briefly and flashed an amused smile, but did not reply.

At the top of the stairs, he led the way across a wide hall, dark as a starlit night, with only twinkles reflected from mirrors, chandeliers, cornices, and gilt picture frames, hinting at its great size. Beyond that lay another chamber, even larger, and then a third, vaster still. By then Anton Magnus had guessed the answer to his question. Very few men in the kingdom would merit such splendor, and only one of them would still be active at this hour of the night. The third doorway had been guarded by four sergeants-at-arms, who evidently knew the boy, for they had let him lead Anton Magnus past them without a word, saber and all.