Себастьян Кастелл - Traitor's Blade

‘She’s reasonably petty and vain – what qualifications does she lack in your mind?’

I thought about that for a moment. ‘Cruelty,’ I said finally. ‘I mean, wouldn’t you have expected someone a little more calculating?’

‘I don’t know, but I think you’re reaching here.’

‘Describe her mother,’ I told Kest.

‘The Duchess of Hervor?’ And when I nodded, he went on, marking each property on his fingers, ‘Cold, calculating, but also brilliant – and bold, too. She’s a tyrant’s tyrant.’

‘I can certainly attest to all of that,’ I said. ‘So why hasn’t she trained her daughter better? Valiana is arrogant and demanding, but she’s not heartless. And what about the girl, Aline? When the Duke of Rijou finds out his puppet Princess is harbouring someone he has personally marked for death, he’s not likely to be thrilled, is he? He signed Valiana’s Patents of Lineage at Rijou, so she can present herself before the Council of Regents, but that doesn’t mean he can’t hurt her in the meantime – there are any number of ways he can manipulate his fellow Dukes against her.’

‘This is politics, Falcio,’ Kest said impatiently, ‘politics and philosophy and strategy. You sound like the King when you talk like this, and that makes me nervous.’

‘You don’t think it matters if the Dukes take the throne for ever?’

‘Of course I do. That’s why I’m going to wait for the right time and then kill Valiana. I waited for you, Falcio – I waited even longer than I’d promised. You wanted to go off and try to save a little girl in the hope that somehow you’d find the answer to stopping the Dukes’ conspiracy? Well, you didn’t. The girl’s alive and that’s all well and good, but it doesn’t change anything that I can see, so I’m going to do what you won’t do and kill Valiana. And if I can get her bitch mother in the process, I’m going to do that too. And if you had a brain left in your head you’d be with me on this. You’d be the one—’

‘Don’t start with that again, Kest,’ I said. ‘I’m tired and I’m sore and a man dropped a longsword on my head back there. Give it some time.’

I couldn’t believe I was even considering his plan. Had we really fallen this far?

‘Brasti’s with me on this, Falcio,’ Kest said quietly. ‘He hasn’t wanted to say it, but he is.’

‘So that’s all the great minds of the Greatcoats heard from.’

Kest sighed and said, ‘Where did we all go, Falcio?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean, how is it that we all split apart so fast? Quillata, Dara, Nile, Jakin, Old Tobb … there were a hundred and forty-four of us, and yet in five years we’ve encountered no more than two or three of the others.’

‘I think that’s how the King wanted it,’ I said. ‘He wanted to make sure we weren’t together, because that would make us too dangerous to the Dukes, and sooner or later they’d send an army after us.’

Kest smiled. ‘They’d have to, wouldn’t they? A hundred and forty-four Greatcoats riding across the land on horseback, swords drawn and coat-tails flying in the wind as we scream war-songs for bloody justice in the world – that would be a sight to see, wouldn’t it?’

I couldn’t speak. It would indeed have been a sight – it was the sight I had believed we would see when the Dukes sent their armies to Castle Aramor: the entire Greatcoats force, arrayed against an army fifty times our size, but with not one tenth of our skill or passion. It would indeed have been a sight to see.

But I had given the order to stand down, and instead we had shuffled past like stooped old folks begging for food. One of the Dukes’ generals gave us our pardons while his men dragged the King off to the top of that same tower where his father had kept him locked up all those years.

Kest’s hand on my shoulder shook me from my thoughts. He pointed to Feltock, who was riding back towards us. We had fallen quite a way behind the caravan, but the captain had insisted we make sure we weren’t followed.

‘We’re not far from Orison now,’ Feltock announced. ‘An escort from Perault, Duke of Orison, has arrived to take us into the city.’

‘That’s good,’ I said, yawning. ‘I wouldn’t suffer from a decent bed tonight.’

‘No, that’s bad ,’ the captain said. ‘We never asked for an escort from Orison, and we never planned on going into the city.’

‘Kill me now,’ I told Kest as I mounted Monster and urged her to a trot.

‘I suspect that’s precisely what they have in mind,’ he replied.

There were forty of them, all in armour and all on horseback. I counted eight with crossbows and short-swords at their sides and the rest armed with war-swords and lances. They were arrayed in four rows, and between the third and forth was an elaborate carriage led by four horses and carrying the banner of Orison.

A man stepped out of the carriage. He was slightly taller than me and well groomed, with short dark hair and a well-trimmed beard in the military style. He wore a dark blue jerkin and matching trousers with high black boots; a short cloak was slung around his shoulders. The rapier at his side marked him as a duellist and the crest on his right breast revealed him to be Perault, Duke of Orison.

‘Valiana, sweet cousin,’ he said advancing to our party. ‘I understood that you would be coming to visit me in Orison. Why have you chosen to spurn my company without so much as sending a messenger to inform me?’

Valiana curtsied. ‘Forgive me, your Grace. I— My servant Trin must have forgotten to send word. She can be absent-minded sometimes.’

Duke Perault smiled. ‘Really? I’ve always found her exceptionally diligent.’

‘Your Grace? I hadn’t realised you had met …’

Perault peered over at Aline, who was peeking out from Valiana’s carriage. ‘And who is this sweet child? Come, dear, let me have a look at you.’

‘The girl is ill, my Lord,’ Valiana said. ‘I wouldn’t want you to catch something from her.’

The Duke gave a look of genuine concern. ‘Oh my, what might I catch?’

‘Fire,’ Brasti muttered behind me, ‘if past is any prediction.’

‘Shut your mouth,’ Feltock told him.

‘Regardless, my Lord,’ Valiana went on, ‘I am bound straight for my mother’s home in Hervor and cannot delay my return with a trip to Orison, as delightful as that would no doubt be.’

The Duke smiled again. ‘It would no doubt be very delightful for me, cousin.’

Something wasn’t right. Perault was far too confident, pushing his luck with the woman who was soon to be his Queen.

Feltock turned to me. ‘Think you can do to one of these armoured buggers what you did to my axeman back at the market? Get through those plates?’

‘Maybe,’ I said.

‘Think you can do it forty times, nice and fast?’

‘Probably not.’

He sighed. ‘That’s what I thought.’

Valiana was raising her voice now. ‘I am the sovereign daughter of Patriana, Duchess of Hervor, and you might as well find out now as later that I am also the daughter of Jillard, Duke of Rijou. I am the Princess Royal, and soon to take the throne. You will not impede my journey home, your Grace .’

The Duke had started laughing halfway through her speech and was still laughing now. ‘You are a foolish little girl, neither Princess nor Queen, nor in truth even a Duchess, and the only thing you are going to be put upon is my knee, so that I may give your bottom a good slap, which will be fine preparation for the other activities I have planned.’

Perault’s voice was beyond arrogant, almost theatrical – as if he were performing for an audience. Someone has betrayed Valiana . I looked around, at Feltock, at his men, even at Kest for a moment, and then—