THE PRINCESS AND THE PAUPER
‘Cunien’s looking for the King’s Charoites too,’ I said as Kest and I walked our horses behind the caravan. ‘He knew we weren’t supposed to be in this region. At first he genuinely believed we might have turned Duke’s Men.’
‘How many of us are left?’ Kest asked.
‘He didn’t know. He says he saw Quillata working a ship when he was in Cheveran.’
‘Quillata? In Cheveran? Doesn’t she hate water?’
‘I’m not sure if he meant her or not, now that I think about it. It was one of the original twelve, and a woman – so he might have meant Dara. You know it’s not a very precise language.’
‘So has he found any signs of the jewels?’
I sighed. ‘No. He’s been moving steadily north and found himself in a bit of a jam when he was taken by that band of brigands.’
‘So now he leads them?’
‘He convinced them he could provide them with a better living than his predecessor,’ I said.
‘How did he manage that?’
‘He killed his predecessor.’
Kest’s eyes narrowed, but I put up a hand. ‘He swears the man was a butcher and it was a fair fight. Anyway,’ I said, and stopped to pull Monster away from what was left of the bush she’d taken a fancy to. She gave me one of those strange growls of hers to remind me that we had a truce, not a relationship. ‘Anyway, Cunien’s band has grown solidly since he’s been able to keep them better fed and less wounded.’
‘He has the makings of a small army there,’ Kest mused.
‘Forty men, well trained and armed. But he’s moving them further north as he searches for word of the Charoites. Since we don’t know what they look like, they could be anywhere, and knowing King Paelis, they’re as likely to be in a small village as a great city.’
‘Has he managed to find out if there are more than one of these Charoites?’
‘No, but I suspect there is. Paelis liked to spread his bets, didn’t he?’
Kest looked at the twilight sky. ‘Falcio, how are we supposed to find these things? Five years now, we’ve been living on rumours and gossip and hope. What are the chances, really, that we’ll ever find anything?’
‘I don’t know,’ I admitted, ‘but we’d better do it before the Dukes finally solidify their hold on the throne. This “Council of Regents” isn’t going to serve them half as well as a genuine Queen in their pocket. With Tremondi dead, and the possibility of the Greatcoats becoming wardens of the trade routes with him, there’s really nothing stopping them.’
‘Then why not kill Valiana and at least slow them down?’ Kest asked. I admired him for using her name when he was talking about murder.
‘Has it occurred to you that she is not actually the best choice?’ I asked.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, if you had plotted for almost eighteen years to take over the kingdom with a puppet Princess as the sovereign, wouldn’t you – I don’t know – train her a little better?’
‘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—
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.
‘Any man reaches for this girl, he will be dead before he blinks,’ Brasti said, his voice resonating across the field. ‘If you have ever wanted to bet on a sure thing in this life, now’s the time.’
‘What is your name, dead man?’ Perault asked, his voice bringing a chill in the air to counter Brasti’s fire.
Brasti looked him straight in the eye, his right hand still relaxed on Aline’s shoulder as his left held his bow.
‘My name is Brasti Goodbow,’ he said. Then he glanced briefly back at Kest and me and said slowly, ‘and I am the King’s Arrow.’
Kest took a step forward beside him. ‘My name is Kest of Luth,’ he said, ‘son of Murrow the Swordsmith.’
He drew his sword from its sheath. ‘And I am the King’s Blade.’
Each of us had a name like that, given to us by the King himself. Dara was ‘the King’s Fury’, Nile was ‘the King’s Arm’, and I …
I had always hated the name I was given because I hadn’t deserved it. It was the King who made the Greatcoats, the King who had given us everything. I had only failed us all in our hours of greatest need.
‘It’s all right,’ Kest said to me, then more softly, ‘He’d want you to say it.’
‘Say it, damn you,’ Brasti spat. ‘If not now, when?’
I took a deep breath and stepped forward. ‘I am Falcio val Mond of Pertine,’ I said. ‘And I am the King’s Heart.’
I heard a sob from Aline as she looked back at me. Then one of Perault’s men pulled his sword and she aimed her imaginary bow once again.
‘Enough of this,’ Duchess Patriana spat, safe in her carriage. ‘No more posturing, Perault; no games. Take them all.’
Feltock stepped forward to us and turned to Brasti, Kest and me, his back to the Duke and his men. ‘Well, boys, I won’t say it’s been pleasant, but you’ve been all right to fight with. Now it’s time,’ he murmured.
‘Time for what?’ Brasti asked.
‘When the moment strikes, you take Valiana and the girl and travel east, as far and as fast as you can. Ten days’ ride from here is the village of Gaziah. There’s a monastery there, and an old monk, his name’s Hajan. He keeps an old woman there. She will take the girls and hide them until they can be moved further east to the Desert Kingdoms. They can join a Sun Sisterhood there – it’s not a great life, but it’s as good as we can hope for.’
‘You knew this would happen,’ I said.
‘I never knew what the old sow was planning but I could always tell she didn’t love Valiana, not the way a mother ought.’
‘But you work for the Duchess,’ Brasti pointed out.
‘Aye, I do. And a soldier follows orders. She told me to keep the girl safe, and that’s the order I am going to follow.’
‘And your men?’
‘Most are loyal to me. The rest – well, let’s just say I don’t begrudge you spiking that axeman in the face like you did.’
Something important occurred to me just then. ‘You wanted us,’ I said. ‘I was going to walk away, but you taunted me, and when I came back she goaded me into fighting those men.’
Feltock clamped his lips together, but there was a gleam in his eye.
‘There were plenty of men for hire in that market but you wanted us – why?’
‘I wanted Trattari,’ he said. ‘There’s no man alive the Duchess can’t buy if she wants to, and more than half the time she doesn’t even have to do that to get them going her way. But I reckoned if any man hated the Duchess enough not to get bought then it had to be Trattari, seeing as what she did to your King and all.’
He was your King too, I wanted to say, but I let it slide.
‘Feltock!’ the Duchess’s voice rang out.
‘You don’t owe me nothing, nor the girl either, for that matter, but soldier to soldier, I’m begging you, ride fast, ride hard and don’t look back.’
‘What about you?’ I asked.
‘Reckon me and the boys are going to die right about now. But we’re Gods-damned well going to take some of them with us. We’ll give you time to get away.’
I looked over at the men. Blondie was slowly pulling a sword out of one of the wagons. He caught my eye and nodded. He looked scared, but he looked solid, and I guess that’s what brave looks like, so I nodded back.
I looked at Valiana on the ground and Aline standing next to the carriage. ‘All right, Captain. We’ll move on your signal.’
Feltock smiled, a big toothy grin like a man who’s just thought of a dirty joke. ‘My signal, eh? All right, here’s my signal, then!’ and with that he turned, drew his sword and shouted at the heavens, ‘Come on, you great filthy whore! I’ve licked your bony ass long enough and now I’m gonna fuck you and your damn Duke until you start pissing pirates out of your privates!’
His men gave a roar and I saw Krug and one of the other men pull crossbows from the wagons and fire at the Duke’s men. I saw Perault staring in disbelief, and horses neighing and rearing in the chaos as Feltock’s men threw something heavy and round into their midst that promptly exploded into fire and dust.
‘Go!’ I said to Kest, and he raced for Aline, grabbed her up with one arm and threw her over the saddle before mounting himself. Brasti jumped on his own horse and nocked an arrow. He took a shot at the Duke, who was running back to the carriage, but the arrow hit him in the leg.
‘The girl!’ I shouted at him, ‘take out the girl!’
But it was too late: four armoured men stood around Trin, their shields protecting her and the Duchess.
I leapt onto Monster and kicked her hard towards Valiana, who had risen from the ground but was looking around in confusion.
‘Your hand, girl! Give me your hand!’ I cried, but she didn’t hear me.
One of the Duke’s soldiers tried to slice at Monster’s exposed neck. I parried the cut but he pulled back and aimed for me. I saw the shaft of an arrow appear in the slit of his helm – an almost impossible shot – and I thanked Saint Merhan-who-rides-the-arrow for Brasti’s miraculous aim. The man fell down – and then I saw it.
Two of the four men guarding the Duchess and her daughter had stepped out of formation, and I had an opening: with one good thrust I could kill the daughter and, if I was lucky, I might get the Duchess too, before the other soldiers got me in the back. I wanted it – and Monster wanted it too, I could tell: two broken creatures running headlong for the cliff.
I had a brief vision of seeing my King again, standing with the Saints, as I pulled my arm into line for the thrust, then I felt something on my left hand. Valiana was trying to get up behind me onto Monster. I turned back, but the soldiers had re-formed and all I saw in front of me were shields.
I gave Valiana my arm and pulled her up, and then Brasti, Kest and I raced like bloody black Death for the rising eastern sky. I felt sick at leaving behind Feltock, Blondie and the others to die, but this wasn’t the first time in my life that I had followed an order like that.