by David Drake
That smile again. “Her own people are dead,” the Envoy said. “You know that. You saw them.”
“Can you get her to your master?” I said. I didn’t know if she was playing word games or if there were things about Beast society that I wasn’t grasping. Maybe both. “To the Beast who’s my friend?”
“He is not my master,” the Envoy said. “But he is your friend. He will care for this one.”
“That’s all I can do,” I said. I thought of Hemans at Severin and his grief as he remembered what he had done in the past. “I hope it’s enough.”
I squeezed my temples for a moment, then said, “Can I take you somewhere in the boat? What do you want me to do?”
“When it becomes dark,” the Envoy said, “we will go to your friend. She will be able to walk. Can you leave us alone until then?”
“Yes,” I said. “I’ll go back to the palace and talk to Lord Osbourn. And then—”
I took another deep breath.
“—I’ll go home. To May.”
The hallway door wasn’t latched so I didn’t bother to knock. Lord Osbourn jumped to attention in the suite’s common lounge.
“Sir!” he said. “I hadn’t expected you back so soon!”
“She came sooner than I expected,” I said. “The Female is off to people of her own kind. Beasts, I mean.”
I noticed the small cask in the corner, replacing a couch large enough to serve as an extra bed. The hoops of the refectory’s ale casks were wider than those the lager supplier used, and the withies were elm instead of willow.
“Is that ale?” I said. “I could use a tumbler if it is.”
“I’ll get you one!” Osbourn said, taking one of the pottery mugs from the shelf built into the stand on which the cask sat. As he filled it from the tap, he added, “I don’t like it very much, sir. I thought that would help me.”
“I respect the intent,” I said. We didn’t have wine on Beune, and I’d still known my share of drunks while I was growing up; but as I’d said, the intention was a good one. I took a drink, let it thoroughly moisten my mouth before swallowing it, then went on, “Look, Osbourn. You’re good enough to become a Champion if you work at it—”
“I will work! I swear I will!”
“I believe you,” I said, which by this time I did. “But it’s a lot of work—six months or maybe a year, judging from the scores I’ve seen posted on the practice machines. This is a good crop of Aspirants.”
“Do you think I shouldn’t go on, sir?” Osbourn said, frowning like he’d walked in on me raping his mother.
“No,” I said. “You can do the work and I think it’s a good thing for anybody who’s able to help the Commonwealth by becoming a Champion. But. There’s other things you can do that don’t risk you getting crippled for life like Aspirants’ training can.”
Osbourn turned to the cask and ran himself a mugful. Before turning to face me again, he said, “What kind of things do you have in mind me doing, then?”
“You’re well born,” I said. “You’re used to giving orders and having them obeyed, which I’m not. Folks ignore me when I tell them to do something. I’ll bet if you want that the Leader would put you in as governor somewhere with a senior clerk to tell you what to do.” I laughed. “I suspect you could be liege of Severin,” I said. “There’s a vacancy there, after all. I’d recommend you for the place, if you like.”
“Sir,” Osbourn said. “I don’t want that; I want to become a Champion. But why would you recommend me? Because you know how badly I’ve screwed up since I came to Dun Add.”
“Yeah, I know that,” I said. “But when it came down to cases, you saved my life. I wouldn’t have been alive by the time Louis or somebody got me out if you’d done what I told you to do. I wouldn’t have been alive as a human being.”
Osbourn looked at the floor and said, “Thank you, sir. But I want to become a Champion.”
I finished my beer and stood up. “All right,” I said. “I’ll get you a decent weapon in the next few days. What you’ve got will do for practice on the machines.”
I put my hand on the latch of the outer door. As I pulled it open, Osbourn said, “Sir? I have one more favor to ask you.”
I looked over my shoulder. “Go ahead,” I said.
“Sir…” Osbourn said, meeting my eyes. “If you have another mission where you might need an aide, a squire…? I hope you’ll consider me.”
“I will,” I said.
I was smiling as I went up the stairs on my way to the Chancellor’s office.
Clain was dictating instructions to three clerks when I arrived, but he sent them away when he saw me and closed the door of his office behind us. “You should probably report to Jon himself,” he said, gesturing me to a chair. “He assigned you, after all.”
“I’ll do that soon,” I said. “I’ve got various things to discuss with him. But Lord Clain? I’d like to borrow your office for an hour or so some time when it won’t be inconvenient.”
“Tomorrow afternoon I’m going to be sparring with a few friends,” Clain said. “I’m getting a gut—”
He slapped his waistline hard.
“—that sitting at a desk isn’t going to get rid of. That timing suit you?”
“Perfect,” I said, nodding.
“Now that I’ve agreed…” Clain said. His expression wasn’t hostile, but it was as hard as the stone wall behind us. “Would you mind telling me what you want it for?”
“I want to have a chat with Lord Felsham,” I said. “I don’t need help with that, but I suspect he’ll come to a meeting in the Chancellor’s office where he wouldn’t meet me any place but in his own palace. And that would probably lead to a breach of the peace.”
Clain smiled. He was looking in my direction, but his mind was somewhere else. He said, “I see. Are you sure you wouldn’t like me to be around for this?”
“I’m sure,” I said. “I plan it to be a discussion between two private citizens. If it became Commonwealth business, then it would have to be conducted according to the strict rule of law. That doesn’t suit me.”
“You know…” Clain said. “If most anybody else said that to me, I’d jump on him with both boots. I’m going to assume you won’t embarrass the Commonwealth or the Leader, Lord Pal.”
“Thank you, sir,” I said. I got to my feet. “I don’t want that to happen.”
“I’ve met tapeworms I liked better than Lord Felsham,” Clain said. “But under this Commonwealth, even tapeworms have rights. And I believe in that.”
“So do I, sir,” I said. I went out, thinking about life and reputation.
In the corridor I took a deep breath. My business with Louis could wait for tomorrow. Now I needed to see May.
I was afraid. I hadn’t been afraid when I decided to hold the cyst open for Lord Osbourn. When I did that, I knew what was coming.
I didn’t know what would happen after I went through the door of the townhouse; just that I dreaded the possibilities.
The inside shutters of the townhouse gaped slightly and I thought I saw a face looking up the street. It vanished when I saw it, so I wasn’t surprised when the door opened as I raised my hand to knock.
I was surprised to find that May had pulled it open.
“Ah…” I said. “Can I come in?”
If there’d been three guys trying to stop me, I’d have gone through them. May could turn me away from my own home just by saying so. It’s how I was raised, and I don’t want to be any different about that.
May pulled me inside and kissed me hard before stepping back. “Pal, I know when the boat landed,” she said. “I thought you weren’t coming back to the house.”
“Well,” I said. “There were things I had to take care of. And, ah, I didn’t know you were waiting. I thought…”
I wasn’t sure what I’d thought. I sure hadn’t thought that I’d be warmly welc
omed when I got here; that I knew.
“I had to take care of Lord Osbourn, you know,” I said, figuring that was safe—and anyway, it was true.
To my amazement, May threw herself into my arms again and began sobbing. “I’m so sorry!” she said, though I was having trouble making out what she was saying. “Morseth and Reaves came and talked to me and told me what I’d done, that Osbourn was useless and you were too nice to tell me the truth, and I thought you’d never come back to me! Oh Pal!”
I walked us over to the bench—it wasn’t a couch—on the side of the hall and sat us down on it. I wondered where the servants were. I didn’t especially care, but I didn’t want to get surprised.
“Love,” I said, holding both her hands. “I’m not leaving you, and Lord Osbourn’s fine. He had some problems early on but they’re over now. What’s this about Morseth and Reaves?”
“They came to see me after you’d gone off,” May said, sniffling. She turned her head so that she could wipe her nose on her lace collar. I let her hands go so that she could get the small handkerchief wrapped in her sash. It was dark green to set off the dress of pastel green chiffon.
After she’d tucked the handkerchief away again, May said, “They said Osbourn is bloody useless. Morseth said that he’d take a soldier from the regular army to back him before he’d take Osbourn.”
“That’s not fair,” I said. “At worst Osbourn wasn’t that bad, and he came through in the clutch.” I thought for a moment and said, “Lord Morseth, ah…Morseth doesn’t have much use for people who don’t try. And when Osbourn was at the palace, he wasn’t trying.”
May bit her lower lip, then looked up at me. “You don’t have much use for people who don’t try either,” she said. “Do you, Pal?”
I thought about it and shrugged. “No,” I said. “I suppose I don’t. And, love? I don’t expect that to change, but I’ll try to be a little more understanding.”
“You be any way you want to be, Pal,” May said, hugging me close. “You’re the person I wanted ever since the day I met you. And I thought I’d thrown you away!”
“No, no,” I said. I’d gotten used to knowing May was there, was waiting for me. I didn’t know what I’d do if she wasn’t.
“Let’s come up to bed,” May said, rising and tugging me to my feet. That seemed to be her standard method of breaking tension.
It was a good method.
CHAPTER 18
Loose Ends
Jon would be holding court this morning, but I knew that he always arrived early at his office behind the Hall of Justice. The clerk in the anteroom waved me through. The inner door was ajar, but I paused in it and rapped on the jamb.
“Sir?” I said. “I can tell you about Severin any time you please.”
Jon laid the petition he’d been reading down on a stack of similar documents. “Now’s as good as any,” he said, gesturing to the empty chair. “If it takes longer than an hour, we can finish it up after the levee.”
“Well, the Commonwealth now has direct rule of Severin,” I said. “Fox died when he tried to stab me while I was in a trance.”
My lips worked on a sour thought. I said, “That was Master Andreas’s story, anyway. Andreas was a clever fellow and I liked him, but in the end he ran off with what he thought was a diamond and tried to maroon us in a cyst like the one that’s holding Guntram. At least I think it’s the same.”
“With a diamond?” Jon said, raising an eyebrow.
I shrugged. “It doesn’t have a diamond’s crystalline structure,” I said. “It doesn’t have any crystal structure that I could find in a trance. It shines like—well, I guess a diamond. I’ve never seen a diamond that big, though. Andreas must’ve figured it was worth a fortune.”
“Did you go after him?” Jon said.
“I’d tried to throw the jewel away,” I said, not meeting the Leader’s eyes. “It gave me a bad feel. And I’d liked Andreas, which shows what I know about reading people; but I still didn’t want to spend a lot of effort in punishing him.”
“You’re a very surprising man, Lord Pal,” Jon said. “I’m glad to have you in my service, but I think a Hall of Champions all like you would be an uncomfortable assembly.” He shrugged, then said, “Regardless, that leaves us the question of Severin. Do you have a suggestion?”
It was my turn to shrug. I said, “Reward one of your senior clerks. Or the nephew of somebody important. I told Lord Osbourn that he’d be a good fit for the place; with experienced support, I mean. He says he wants to stay and become a Champion.”
“Is that a reasonable goal?” Jon said.
“Yes,” I said. “He needs practice—and a better weapon, which he’ll have shortly. But if he doesn’t get crippled in training, he’s the sort you want, sir.”
I grinned and added, “He won’t make you uncomfortable. The way somebody else might.”
“You know that it’s traditional for the fellow who brought a node into the Commonwealth to become liege?” Jon said.
“Not this time,” I said firmly. “Remember, me and my squires were there to help the liege and instead we killed him. If you award the place to me, it’s going to look like that was what I went there to do.”
“You didn’t though, did you?” Jon said, raising his eyebrow again.
“Of course not!” I said. “But it’s not the sort of reputation you want.”
“I’ll take that chance,” Jon said, making a notation on something that looked like the back of a petition. “I’m putting Severin under Castle Ariel. You’re happy with the way Garrett and Welsh have performed there, aren’t you?”
“Absolutely!” I said. “I’d been thinking of, well, making changes there now that Garrett has a son, to tell the truth.”
“That’s decided then,” Jon said. “Severin’s at a distance from Castle Ariel, but the Road’s safer for everybody with people like Garrett and Welsh travelling it. They aren’t Champions, but they’re both men you’d want with you in a hard place.”
I got to my feet. The water clock in the courtyard began to ring. I realized I still had an hour before I’d arranged to meet Lord Felsham.
“Well, thank you, sir,” I said as I backed to the door. “I’ll hope that I was wrong to worry about how people will react.”
There was plenty of time to check with Master Louis. And also to tell him about the cyst I’d examined.
I walked from the east wing around to Master Louis’s large workroom on the north wing. The attendant at the front door sent my name in before he passed me, which irritated me a bit. Normally I entered from the back, coming down from Master Guntram’s room, so the staff on the corridor side didn’t know me.
I realized that I was so used to being Somebody in Dun Add that it offended me to be treated like an ordinary human being. I didn’t like finding myself to be that sort of person; I needed to watch it.
Master Louis came to meet me past the low-bordered cubicles of the Makers who worked under him. He was holding a shield that he’d been examining. The Maker who’d created it—really just a boy with a narrow, worried face—followed along behind him.
“Lord Pal!” Louis said. “Any news about Master Guntram? Come back into my office.”
He turned, then paused, and turned back to give me the shield he was holding. “Take a look at this and give me your opinion,” he said.
Obediently, I dropped into a trance and scanned the shield. I came back to present reality almost at once. It would take me hours and maybe longer to do justice to the object.
“What in heaven did you make this from, Louis?” I said.
Louis smiled and stepped back to gesture toward the boy. “Answer Lord Pal, Magnus,” he said.
The boy cleared his throat. “Your lordship,” he said, “I think it was part of a vehicle. Not a boat but a ground vehicle.” He swallowed and said, “Your lordship? Are you a Maker, sir?”
“Yeah,” I said, “but I’m not as good as you are,
Master Magnus.”
I handed the object back to Louis and said, “I don’t think it’ll work well as a shield because it’ll take minutes to recover from impact. But if you can solve that, you’ve got something worthy of Lord Clain.”
Louis smiled, an expression I don’t see often on his face. He returned the shield to Magnus and said, “Take a look at this in view of what Lord Pal just told you. I’ll talk with Pal now, but afterwards I’ll go over it with you myself.”
Magnus scuttled off to a cubicle while I followed Louis to his sanctum, the only portion of the workroom which could actually be closed off from the dozen or more work areas. I said, “You’ve got a good one there, Louis.”
Louis snorted as he closed the door behind us. “I expected you’d say so,” he said. “What you mean is, ‘I’ve got another one like you and Master Guntram.’ When what I’d really like is to be able to upgrade the shields of all the troops in the regular army. But we won’t argue. What about Master Guntram?”
“I found a cyst,” I said. “I think it’s the same sort of thing, but Guntram had nothing to do with this one. And Louis—I got out of this one. But I’m not sure I would’ve been able to do that if a Maker had been the living core of it. Especially a Maker like Guntram. I’m afraid he may have gotten into something that he can’t get out of.”
Louis sighed. “People don’t understand how very clever Guntram is,” he said. “He doesn’t put on any side, and he can’t turn out weapons the way a hickory tree drops nuts…which I can. So they think I’m a great Maker, and they don’t think about Guntram at all.”
I shrugged. “That’s the way Guntram would want it,” I said. “But I do want him back. I’ve seen what it’s like inside a cyst, and that’s not what I want for him.”
As I said that, it occurred to me that Guntram might not mind it. When I was connected to the fabric of the cyst, I had seen and known things that no human being could otherwise know. Guntram would like that. I had liked that…but the part of my mind that was still human felt that it was being drowned in a cesspool.
