Себастьян Кастелл - Traitor's Blade

Trin . Trin wasn’t here. She’d stayed in the carriage. I looked towards the carriage and saw her sitting inside, the sun’s light shining in. She was smiling. But why? If she’d betrayed Valiana, did she expect protection? A reward? Once Perault had what he wanted, why should he honour any agreement he’d made with a servant?

‘How dare you speak to me this way?’ Valiana said. ‘When my mother hears of this she will—’

‘Applaud,’ a voice said. It wasn’t very loud, but it was clear as cold water and the sound froze my soul. I had hoped never again to hear this voice. It was brilliant and bold, and everything I hated in this world was carried in its tone.

Patriana, Duchess of Hervor, stepped carefully out of the Duke’s carriage.

It was all I could do to hang onto Monster, whose angry jaw opened so wide you could count all the sharpened teeth in her mouth.

‘If you attack now, we’ll all die. The girl will die,’ I whispered fiercely in her ear.

‘Ah,’ Patriana said, unperturbed, ‘I see you’ve brought my other property with you as well. Nicely done, Falcio. I told you that you’d make a wonderful servant. I am glad you seek to prove me right.’

I looked at Kest and I looked at Brasti, and I knew that what I saw on their faces mirrored what was on mine.

‘Mother?’ Valiana asked, her own voice weak and uneven.

‘I must thank you, girl. You’ve played your part as well as I could have hoped. But now the dream is over, and I shall require the scrolls that Duke Jillard gave you.’

‘But these are mine – they confirm my lineage and rights of royal blood!’

Duke Perault was laughing again. ‘She still doesn’t understand, Patriana. She thinks she’s the Princess Valiana. What a little treasure!’

Oh hells . Suddenly I was back in Rijou, in that cell, and Patriana was laughing and bragging about her expertise in creating the creatures she needed. When I told her she had failed to make a monster out of her daughter she’d said, ‘ My daughter? Oh, my daughter is much more dangerous than I am. I dare say she is my finest accomplishment! ’

‘Ah,’ said the Duchess. ‘Well then, perhaps I should ease everyone’s confusion. Come out now, my dear.’

From inside the carriage, Trin emerged – but it wasn’t our Trin, at least, not the woman I had thought of as Trin. She shook her hair back and stepped forward, her chin high and looking down on all of us. Gone was the uncertain, tentative, pretty girl; this woman was all pride and arrogance, her eyes shining viciously in the light. There was something familiar in those eyes, and when they locked on mine it was as if the veil made from that damned blue dust she had blown in our eyes was suddenly lifted.

‘It’s—’ Brasti began, his eyes wide.

Kest’s mouth barely moved as he said, ‘The assassin – the one who killed Tremondi and framed us for it.’

Trin smiled at me. She wants this – she wants us to know. The game is about to end .

Valiana – or the woman I had known as Valiana – was barely coherent as she said, ‘But … this is Trin , my servant, Mother, she’s my lady-in-waiting . She’s always been my lady-in-waiting, almost since—’

‘Almost since you were born,’ the Duchess finished. ‘And she was faithful, was she not? Attending you in all ways, coming to your lessons with you, helping you study, learning the ways of the court – and yet always your servant. Imagine how that must have been for her, knowing she was my true-born daughter, to bow and scrape and giggle at your follies.’

The evil in the Duchess’s voice was palpable. It had a rhythm, and it pounded in my head and my heart and I swear she was looking right at me when she said, ‘Imagine the discipline and calculation that would instil in a girl, to live as a servant all those years.’

The girl with the hard eyes smiled. ‘We must find you a more suitable name now, my secret sweetheart, and more suitable clothes, and more suitable hair, and most of all, more suitable duties.’

‘How could you do this?’ Valiana cried.

‘I won’t tell you it was easy,’ the Duchess said, ‘but it was necessary. That fool Jillard would never have granted recognition of your rights if he had thought you were anything but the stupid little doll that you are. I couldn’t take the chance that he might see the potential in my true work – or worse, decide to kill my daughter, rather than let her take the throne. So I brought you up to be pretty and gullible, and my dear Duke, seeing a puppet whose strings he could easily pull, has given his sworn recognition of Valiana as the daughter of Hervor and Jillard, and soon to be Queen on the throne.’

Valiana gave a terrified sob and ran to the Duchess, holding the packet of credentials in her hands as if they were made of gold. ‘This isn’t right – it’s not true! I’m your true-born daughter, I swear – I swear !’

Patriana, Duchess of Hervor, who had no doubt comforted and coddled the girl many times over the past eighteen years, slapped her so hard she fell backwards and hit the ground. Then, with infinite calm and a kind of grace, she reached down and plucked the packet held between the girl’s hands.

‘You are, in fact, nothing more than the refuse one of my men pulled out of the cunt of a peasant whose only redeeming feature was that she happened to look a little like me.’

Valiana was crumpled on the ground and crying uncontrollably, her face in the dirt.

‘Now, now, don’t be so sad, dear. Most peasants live miserable, short lives. You had eighteen years as the daughter of a Duchess, living in splendour and believing you were a Princess. It’s the dream of every silly girl, and you got to live it. For a while. But now it’s time to come to Orison, where Perault can put you to some use. Perhaps for his men, perhaps for his dogs.’

She signalled to Feltock. ‘Put her on top of one of the wagons and gag her if she screams.’

‘No!’ Aline screamed and ran out from behind one of the wagons to stand between Valiana and the Duke’s men.

Brasti ran behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. ‘Easy now, girl,’ he said.

Aline’s eyes were full of tears and she was blinking furiously. She held her left arm straight out in front of her and the other was bent by her ear and tensing as if holding an invisible bowstring. ‘You don’t touch her,’ she yelled.

Duke Perault laughed and took a step towards us. ‘My goodness, what a delightful girl! Are you the little darling who has caused so much trouble for my dear Patriana? That was very naughty, girl. We’ll have to devise some very special punishments for you. Very special indeed.’

‘Stay back! I will not warn you again,’ she shouted, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Perault laughed and signalled to one of his men. The man had his sword drawn and an evil grin on his face as he began walking towards her, taking little steps and then hopping, as if playing a game, and laughing as the girl’s terror magnified.

She pulled her arm back even further.

‘Aw, no, not a deadly ’maginary bow!’ he said, pawing theatrically at an invisible arrow lodged in his chest. Then he smiled again and took another step forward.

Aline gave a little cry and flung her right hand back, as if she’d fired an arrow.

‘Stupid – that’s not—’ the man said, suddenly looking down at the arrow sticking out of his gut.

Brasti’s hand was right back on Aline’s shoulder where it had been a moment ago.

‘That’s it, girl,’ he said softly to her. ‘Pick your target, wait for it, and don’t let go until you know you’ve got it.’

Duke Perault’s mouth took an ugly shape.