Себастьян Кастелл - Traitor's Blade

I wanted to speak, but I couldn’t. There was a heaviness in the room as we all stood there and listened to Valiana’s quiet tears.

I don’t know how long we waited like that before Valiana looked around to the Tailor, who nodded at her, just once.

‘Tailor – how—?’ I choked on the words before I could get them out.

‘Shush,’ she replied, her eyes still on the girls.

After a moment Aline took Valiana’s right hand and placed it against her cheek. Somehow I knew she was going to do that … I knew because—

‘No,’ the Tailor said to me, ‘not yet. You’re not ready to understand.’ Then she made the tiniest gesture with her hand, like someone pulling a needle through cloth, and the question was gone.

‘Is that all right?’ Valiana asked. ‘Is that an oath? Did I say it right?’

The Tailor looked at me now. ‘Well, Falcio, do you reckon she said it right?’

‘It’s my oath,’ I said. ‘It’s the same oath I made to the King. And you said it just right.’

‘So is that it, then?’ Kest asked quietly. ‘Are coats and oaths the only things we have left?’ A look passed between him and the Tailor and she walked up and took his hand.

‘You know the answer already, don’t you, boy?’ she asked, tapping a finger on his forehead.

Kest nodded.

‘And you know who’s comin’, don’t you?’ she asked, more gently this time.

‘I do.’

‘So you’ve been trainin’ and practisin’, and now you reckon yourself the best in the world, don’t you?’

‘I have. I am.’

‘And you know it ain’t enough, right?’

I thought I saw the hint of a tear in his eye when I heard him say, ‘I know.’

She patted him on the arm. ‘I’ll say this for you: you’ve tried hard and you’ve learned a lot. But you have too much here,’ she tapped him on the forehead, ‘and too much here,’ she patted his arms, ‘and not enough here.’ She put the tip of her finger on his chest. ‘And now your time is comin’ and you ain’t ready.’

‘How long?’ Kest asked.

‘How long is the thread in my hand?’ she asked.

‘I don’t know,’ he replied.

The Tailor said, ‘Tonight. It’s going to be tonight.’

‘I don’t understand,’ I said to her. ‘I don’t understand any of it any more.’

‘You ain’t supposed to,’ she said irritably. ‘Damned Magisters: you always want to know what to do or where to hide or who to kill. This ain’t that any more. There ain’t much time left, and what there is ain’t for judgin’ or ridin’ or fightin’. It’s for livin’, for as long as you have left.’

She walked stiffly over to the door and opened it. She clucked at Monster, waiting outside, and the Fey Horse opened her mouth and growled.

The Tailor ignored the warning and put her hands on the side of the scarred creature’s face. ‘You’ll come with me now, Horse. I’ve got a job for you. You can’t help them right now, much as you might want to. We’re sisters, you and I,’ she said absently, ‘old and broken and scarred and angry. They’ve taken it all away from us.’

She turned back to the rest of us. ‘They’ve taken it all,’ she said. ‘They’ve taken every last good thing in the world.’

Then she swung the door wide. ‘Now go and show them your answer.’

Whatever I expected to find when we reached the roadway, it wasn’t Patriana, Duchess of Hervor, with a single armed guard at her side. She was sitting on a stump, as elegantly as one could, and reading a book. Her guard was armoured head to toe, but he was only one man and that didn’t present much of a threat for us. So naturally I assumed we were completely surrounded.

‘We are quite alone,’ the Duchess said as we approached. ‘You needn’t fear an arrow in the back just yet.’

‘Well, that’s a relief,’ Brasti said, pulling an arrow from his quiver. ‘Hang on, boys, I’m just going to go kill the old cow and I’ll be right back.’

The Duchess smiled politely at him. ‘Ah, if it were only that simple.’

I gestured at the two horses tied to the tree near the stump. ‘You travelled light,’ I said.

‘Alas, but the wagons would not have been able to keep quite the pace we needed to reach you. But travelling light is pleasant enough in the right company.’

‘I take it you wanted to get here before Duke Jillard did?’ I asked.

‘Yes. I do thank you so much for stealing the little girl out of Rijou. Apparently the Duke is quite determined to kill her, and I can’t really have him getting hold of the five of you. He managed to field an army of his more loyal soldiers and bring it up the Eastern Passage and through the Arch, and in a short while they’ll make their way down this road. I don’t plan on being here when they arrive.’

She looked the five of us over. ‘But my, haven’t you been busy, getting all nice and cleaned up for our visit. And you, my sweet child,’ she said, looking at Valiana, ‘don’t you look all grown up in that lovely coat.’

‘I’m bored,’ Brasti said. ‘Is there any way I could possibly just kill you now and then we could go and – I don’t know – play games with your head?’

‘I don’t think you would have much fun tossing my head around like a ball, Trattari. Trust me, I’ve tried it more than once and even a traitor’s head just gets soggy after a while.’

I wondered, not for the first time, that the world could bear the weight of so many foul people.

‘Besides,’ she added, ‘you’ll find patience is a worthwhile companion. I’ve been patient nearly twenty years now, and I suspect the sensation of completing my task will be made even more satisfying by the delay.’

‘All right, now even I’m bored. What is it you want?’ I asked.

‘Negotiation,’ she said.

‘What?’

‘No need to be coy. You have the Patents of Lineage and I need them. I don’t want Jillard to get them back, and I’m willing to negotiate.’

‘All right,’ I said. ‘Safe passage for the five of us and a barrel full of gold onions.’

The Duchess thought for a moment, then said, ‘No, I’m afraid that won’t do. Though the gold onions would be feasible, I suppose, if you’d care to settle for those. But I’m afraid I really do need most of you to be dead as soon as possible.’

‘I imagine you can understand why that doesn’t work very well for us,’ I pointed out.

‘I’m not being cruel,’ she said earnestly. ‘The girls must die because none of my plans really work out very well with them alive. The archer insulted Duke Perault, and so he must die. And of course Kest here, “the King’s Blade”, well now, he’s spoken for.’

Patriana smiled pleasantly. ‘But you can come back with me, Falcio, you and that delightful horse. Wherever is she? We’ve got a great deal to talk about, you and I.’

‘Brasti, put an arrow in the guard’s face, Kest, knock her head off – see if you can get it to thunk on that tree over there,’ I ordered.

‘Duel,’ Patriana snapped.

‘What?’

‘I claim the right of duel to resolve this matter. King’s Law gives it to me.’

Brasti was sighting the guard down the line of his arrow. ‘Lady, you can claim the right of boiled fish for all I care, but I’m done playing with you.’

Brasti let the arrow fly. I have seen him shoot a thousand times and I have never seen him miss the target, not at this distance.

‘It’s all right,’ Kest told him quietly. ‘You didn’t miss.’

The guard was still standing, and he didn’t appear to have moved. But I noticed that his sword was in his hand now and there, on the ground in front of his feet, lay the arrow, cut perfectly in half.