Trickster's Queen

by Tamora Pierce

  Soon enough the light turned the pearl gray that came before dawn. The household came down for the morning's exercises, Aly and the chief conspirators joining them after they'd changed into day clothes. As they practiced with and without weapons, the sun began to rise above the same long ridge of the Kitafin mountains that hid Kanodang from view. Ulasim and Fesgao both took bruises they normally would have avoided, because they kept looking northeast, toward the prison. After Ulasim took a staff hit that turned his left cheekbone purple, Aly dragged him aside.

  “Were they going to burn it?” she demanded softly.

  He glanced at her, startled. “Of course not,” he replied. “Rapists and murderers, remember?”

  “Then stop looking up there like you expect a column of smoke,” she said. “We'll know if the warning bells—”

  Ysul stopped in the middle of throwing a man-at-arms, turning his face northeast. His victim struggled and pro-tested, unable to break his captor's hold as Ysul listened. Then the others heard the toll of a bell from the far side of the harbor. Another bell took up the call, then others.

  Above the booming of the bells came the thin, raucous screeches of Stormwings. More than a hundred of them flew overhead from the direction of the palace, sun dancing off their metal wings as they sped toward the source of the alarm gongs.

  “Will you look at that,” Aly said with a brilliant smile for Ulasim. “Whatever could have stirred them up so?”

  He hugged her hard enough to make her squeak, then released her. To Ochobu he said, “You see, Mother? And you were all fretful.”

  Ochobu raised her eyebrows. “It is unseemly to gloat, boy,” she told her forty-five-year-old son.

  Aly sauntered back into the house. She did not delude herself. She would get the formal reports later, but she guessed they might have killed between two hundred and five hundred at the harbor fortresses, if some of the wedged doors had been those in the barracks. With Kanodang she could not be sure, since Ulasim had told her they had people who worked inside, but she could guess a death total of fifty to one hundred. She owed a debt to those ghosts. The Kanodang breakout had been her idea, as had the attack on the fortresses. This was what her parents had done all their lives, racked up lists of those who could thank them for their deaths.

  No wonder Mother gets cranky when anyone asks how many people she's killed, Aly thought, washing her face before she went upstairs. I've lost count of every war and skirmish and raid she's fought in, not to mention the duels as Champion. That's why she never wants to talk about them. She'll have to remember the lives she has taken.

  There were people who had killed so often there was little humanity left in them. Aly had met plenty like that, helping her da with spy work. She knew a few of them among the household guards here, and in Topabaw she'd found someone who couldn't even remember what it was like to feel regret, or pity for the families of the dead. Her parents fought to hang on to their humanity, and Aly had never valued the struggle more.

  I'll make it up to them when I go home, she promised herself as she trotted up the back stairs to Dove's room. I'll be a better daughter.

  Dove was opening the shutters on her window: the night had turned chilly as they'd come home from the palace. The younger girl looked fresh and alert, not like someone who had reached home after midnight. “Alarm bells and gongs,” she said as Aly changed into clean clothes. “And Stormwings,” added Dove. “A lot of Stormwings.” She turned to look at Aly. “Is there something I should know?”

  “Oh, my lady, don't worry your head about these things,” Aly said as she took out Dove's clothes for the day. “I'm sure some nice man will explain in terms you can grasp.”

  Dove raised her brows. “That big, is it?” she asked dryly.

  Aly, her arms full of clothes, bobbed a curtsy. “It's not for me to say, my lady,” she replied, her voice prim. It was wonderful, how she rarely had to explain things to Dove. “Will my lady be wishful of a bath this morning?”

  The sounds had took up a particular rhythm: bong bong bong, bong bong bong, bong bong bong. The duchess, wearing a robe over her fine lawn nightdress, swept into the room and helped Aly open the rest of the shutters. “That's the alarm at Kanodang,” she said grimly. “The prison. There's been an escape. Aly, get Fesgao. Have all the guards mustered and close the gates, immediately.”

  Aly ran to obey. For now all they had to do was lock the house down and wait for news. Since news could take time to reach the city, Aly thought she might get to catch up on the sleep she'd lost. That would have to wait, though. First she wanted to get to her office, to hear what her darkings could tell her. Sleep would come later, after they made all the motions of a house full of innocents.

  She found Fesgao seated at the kitchen table, watching drowsily as Chenaol and the maids rushed to prepare breakfast. He blinked at Aly as she rested her elbows on the table beside him and leaned down so he could speak privately to her. “Seko's back,” Fesgao murmured. “I thought it would please him, as a former bandit, to crack a prison. He says that they got more than a hundred and ten political prisoners out, including His Grace of Nomru. They are dispersed, by ship or horse, to the other islands.”

  Aly smiled. “Very good work,” she said with appreciation.

  Fesgao looked up at her. “Do you know, with any other girl of your age, if she spoke thus to me, I would give her latrine duty for a year. But from you?” He shook his head. “I am complimented beyond words.”

  Aly winked at him. “And that is as it should be,” she told him. Before he could come up with a retort, she said, “Her Grace heard the alarms. She wants all the gates locked, with guards put on them right away.”

  Chenaol passed a chunk of cooked pork and two sago cakes to Fesgao. As he took them, he told Aly in a normal tone of voice, “Inform Her Grace it will be done immediately.” He left the kitchen, as brisk and alert as if he had spent the night in his bed, sleeping well.

  Ulasim leaned against the kitchen doorframe, grinning. “The guards at Kanodang are worse than we thought,” he said when Aly and Chenaol gave him questioning looks. “They didn't realize there had been an escape until the morning guards came for their duty. No one else checked on the place. It means those who got out had more time to get away than we could have hoped. Thank you, Bright One!” he added in tribute to Kyprioth.

  “What about our people in the prison?” Chenaol inquired. “The ones who stayed?”

  Ulasim shook his head. “They're safe. Our folk were disguised, and those who were to remain knew nothing of the plan. When Crown mages question them, our people will truthfully say they were captured and sent to sleep along with the other guards and prisoners.” He straightened. “I'd best see Her Grace. She will have orders for me for today.”

  Not long after the family had finished their morning meal, servants from the nearby houses came to see if the Balitangs knew anything about the alarm. They were followed by hastily dressed masters and mistresses, who asked the same questions of the duchess. It wasn't long before someone realized that Elsren's escort of King's Guards had not arrived. He was left to kick his heels in the downstairs sitting room for a time, before the duchess decreed that he could change to more comfortable clothes and play with his sisters.

  It was almost noon when they heard the tramp of feet outside the walls. The King's Watch had come in force. Their captain ordered everyone to return to their homes and remain there. When Winnamine's noble neighbors protested, he told them that they could walk back or be carried, again by order of the regents.

  Their guests left. After lunch, the Balitang ladies dismissed their maids and retired for naps. Nearly everyone in the household did the same. Usually there was some activity during the afternoon rest time, but with no one permitted outside, most of the household except those on guard chose to relax.

  Aly went to her office and closed the door, then closed the shutters on her windows and locked them in place, putting the spells in the wood up as a barrier to all eavesdro
pping. Only then did she allow her two-strand bead necklace, which currently sported anchoring beads on each shoulder, to reshape itself into Trick and Spot.

  “You have a new name,” she told Spot. “Secret.”

  “Secret,” it agreed, and nodded. It plainly liked either the name or the idea, Aly wasn't sure. She looked at Trick. “What is happening in the palace?” she asked it. “What do our friends up there have to tell you? Wait.” She found slates and chalk. “Go ahead.”

  What the darkings had to say fascinated Aly. Between the attacks on the fortresses and the escape from Kanodang, Imajane was furious. She was spending her day writing warrants for the arrest of the warden and his lieutenants in the case of Kanodang, and dictating instructions for the storage of blazebalm for the army and the navy, since the commanders and their staff at both fortresses were among the dead. Trick passed on the names on the warrants: none was a member of the raka conspiracy. Ulasim had issued orders years before that his people within the prison were not to be promoted beyond a certain level, because the Rittevons were notoriously fond of executing people in charge when things went wrong.

  Rubinyan's darking told them that the prince had taken over the investigation beyond the grounds of Kanodang. He ordered the captain-general of the King's Watch to hunt down fugitives and question his informants about the jailbreak. He was also to lift the ban on people in the streets. Both men knew it was risky to keep a population indoors for more than a day. The prince called for the commanding general of the Rittevon Lancers and gave orders for the horsemen to search for fugitives outside the city walls. He then tripled the Rittevon Guard's security at the palace. He was cool and crisp, giving each man he spoke to the impression that he was in control of the situation.

  He then commanded the chief herald to put his scribes to two tasks. The more important job was a proclamation to be read at every crossroad, with copies sent to each person on a list of the noble houses and the city's wealthiest merchants. He decreed that there had been pirate attacks at the harbor's mouth during the eclipse, fought off with heavy losses to the Harbor Guard. There had also been the prison break from Kanodang. The people were asked to watch for twelve fugitives, five of them full-blood luarin. There would be a reward of two gold lans to anyone who gave information that would lead to the fugitives' arrest.

  “That's sweet,” Aly remarked cynically. “That way, if he gets any tip-offs, he can say someone else already reported them, so they got the reward.”

  “Cheating,” Secret commented with disapproval.

  The second proclamation was to go out through the Isles. It offered a hundred gold lans each for a list of ten men, one of them Vurquan Nomru, formerly a duke, whose lands and holdings were now Crown property.

  Aly's hand cramped, she wrote so much as darking after darking passed her information the rebellion could use. It was Rubinyan's darking once again who provided Aly with the tastiest bit of information of all, as the late-afternoon light streamed through cracks in her shutters. When Aly heard it, she had to savor it, but she had the self-discipline to wait until she had given all of her darkings one last check.

  She praised each of them through Trick and asked if they were having fun. All of them agreed they were most definitely having fun. They weren't sure what they liked best, the people whispering, throwing items, or jumping at noises, but all agreed these things were amusing. Aly suggested to them that they might try some of their own whispering, throwing, and noisemaking, and left them to it.

  Then she sat back, crossed her hands on her stomach, propped her feet up on her desk, and savored. Back and forth she wavered: ought she to tell the conspirators or not? In the end, she decided to let them learn without hearing it from her. For one thing, Ulasim and Ochobu at least would like to know how she'd found it out, and she was not ready to tell them about the darkings. For another, she wanted to see the look on each face when they realized she had done what they had thought impossible.

  She wished she could tell Nawat.

  Realizing the time, she went in search of Dove, in case she had instructions for Aly. She found the ladies of the house in the nursery, Nuritin embroidering as Winnamine, Sarai, and Dove played with Petranne and Elsren. It was something they'd done all winter, but not as much since their return to Rajmuat. Aly left them alone. This might be the last time they could relax for weeks.

  She spent the afternoon and the early evening reading reports from the palace. The chief armorer did not like the Rittevon Guard, who treated their weapons badly. The captain of the Rittevon Guard thought the armorer was a penny-pinching old fool. One of Imajane's ladies-in-waiting appeared to have an eye for Prince Rubinyan. Reading this in a report from Vereyu, Aly chuckled. Now she had a wedge to drive between the regents, if she could make the lady-in-waiting's interest obvious to Imajane.

  There was more, from all over the city. Reading paper reports, Aly marked out who might be shifted to the rebels' side, given incentive, and made a list of rumors for her people to spread. The shakier the regents looked, the more eager people would be to do things they would not dare if the Crown appeared strong. There was the personal gossip—Rubinyan's possible involvement with one of his wife's own ladies-in-waiting—and the more ominous news about what had really happened at the fortresses. Rubinyan's personal spymaster, Sevmire, had told him, with Aly's darking to hear, that more than three hundred and twenty men had died at the fortresses, burned or poisoned. Rubinyan had ordered him to keep that number to himself. If Rubinyan heard that people knew the correct number of the dead, he might think Sevmire or his subordinates had been indiscreet. It could also be that by the time Rubinyan's spies heard the city gossip, the number of dead soldiers would be vast, amplified by gossip as it passed from one person to the next. She relaxed in her chair. It had been a very nice day for her.

  Her pack sought her out shortly before supper, to see what orders she had. She handed over the list of rumors. They assured her that they would continue to pass on gossip about Topabaw and the regents. Aly only nodded.

  Supper came and went. The ladies retired to their sitting room with their maids, sewing, reading, and talking softly, without once referring to the reason they had not gone out all day. At last Winnamine sent everyone to their rooms, though she and Nuritin remained where they were. Dove and Aly went downstairs to meet with the conspirators, where Dove and the others heard the details of what Ulasim, Fesgao, Ochobu, and Aly had pulled off among them to bring the city to a standstill.

  “Gods bless me,” whispered Dove when they were done, “we might just do this.”

  There were more plans to discuss, and then the conspirators broke up for the night. From the looks on Quedanga's and Ysul's faces, they had thought of some fresh ploy. Chenaol stayed with Ulasim to talk about a shipment of bows and spears that was scheduled to arrive soon, and where they would be stored.

  Dove and Aly were halfway up the stairs to the family quarters when Dove turned and faced Aly. “They'll think the luarin did it,” she whispered. Just because the house was spelled and watched for outsider spies was no proof that someone inside might not lose their nerve, or try to get a reward for what he or she knew. “They don't believe the raka have money, resources, mages, or the will to organize and fight. They'll think the luarin set Nomru free—and the others, to hide Nomru's trail. Topabaw will be watching the luarin more closely than ever, and with his usual touch. He'll turn more luarin nobles against him that way than if he'd just hanged their full-raka slaves.”

  “Don't mistake Topabaw for the regents,” Aly advised. “Do you think they would act differently with another spymaster?” She took a step up, so that her mouth was on a level with Dove's ear, and she whispered, “We had to force that feeble luarin conspiracy of yours to act. So far, they're just an association that meets to complain about the government. You can't play with rebellion, Dove. You're either in it, or you're dead.”

  A small, strong hand fastened on Aly's arm. Dove towed Aly down the stairs, through the
house, along the garden paths, and into the Pavilion of Secrets. “You don't understand the pressure they're under,” she whispered fiercely.

  Aly sank onto a bench. “I understand that this country's rulers have gotten away with things that are unthinkable in Tortall. They get away with it because their nobles haven't stood up for those in their care. I'm just a simple country girl. I rely on what people do, not how much they whisper.”

  “I can't tell the nobles about the raka,” Dove said, slumping on the bench next to Aly. “I swore.”

  Aly stretched. “No. But you can tell them your market and merchant friends have whispered of other conspiracies in the outlying Isles, people who are prepared to do more than just talk. Let them chew on that for a time. And if you don't mind, I mean to retire for the night. I'm exhausted.”

  “You're supposed to wait until I come up to bed and undress me,” Dove said as Aly got to her feet. They walked together into the house. “You're a terrible maid that way.”

  “You could always get rid of me,” Aly replied, yawning so widely she half feared the joints in her jaws would give way. “But then you'd miss my charm and wit.”

  Aly was asleep the moment she lay down on her pallet.

  Early the next morning, a herald came with the announcement that people could leave their homes. The family had just finished their breakfast when the news came. Rihani and Gian, Elsren's manservant—now a spy recruit—had to scurry to prepare Elsren for his daily visit to the palace. They were still dressing the boy when the squad of ten King's Guards arrived. As they waited, their sergeant was happy to talk to Quedanga. He'd noticed on earlier visits that the housekeeper was a handsome woman always willing to give a soldier a cup of tea and a bite to eat. He assured her that things were almost normal. There were more checkpoints on the streets, and folk wouldn't want to idle as they went about their day's business, but the regents had the city well in hand.