by Toby Frost
“Aha!” Hugh cried as a man stepped into view, the griffon of the Watch painted onto his cuirass. “Now we start!”
Giulia said, “Put the sword down, Hugh,” but he ignored her. “Hugh – put it down!”
Elayne was at Hugh’s side in a moment. Fear had made her eyes wide: she looked like a startled horse. “Hugh, please. Let’s not hurt anyone.”
“Yet,” he growled, but he stepped back and lowered the sword. “Very well. But if they try anything—”
“Stay here. I’ll find out what’s going on.” Giulia slipped past them all and down the stairs. Half a dozen Watchmen milled about in the main hall. They wore swords and maces on their belts. Three carried muskets, one a crossbow.
Falsi stood at the bottom of the stairs. His face was tired and seemed to hang off the bones, as if little weights had been sewn into the skin to drag it down.
Giulia walked straight up to him. “What the hell’s this? You said we had till the end of the week.”
“We’ve come to search the place,” Falsi said.
“Search here? You want to search here, do you?” She made her voice loud, so the others would hear. Get the stuff I stole last night, she willed them. Hide it now! “What for?”
The Watchmen were looking under tables, overturning chairs. In their midst was the fat captain from the night before. Three men shoved past Giulia, their boots pounding on the floorboards. “Hey, wait!” the landlord cried.
She turned to move, and Falsi grabbed her arm. She looked into his face, and she saw something that she could not decipher there. “A word of advice,” he said. “Just leave it.”
Edwin shouted, “Get your hands off my wife!”
Giulia turned. A Watchman went stumbling back down the stairs, nearly losing his footing. Edwin blocked the staircase like a statue, feet wide apart.
“Out of my way!” the Watchman shouted, and as he ran back up the stairs to meet Edwin, both Hugh and Elayne stepped into his path.
The Watchman jabbed his mace at Edwin; the knight slipped aside and grabbed the shaft, and the two were face to face, grappling for it. Edwin slid his arm into the Watchman’s, locking it, and the man began to fold, bending back so as not to fall. “I need help!” he shouted, and his friends ran up to rescue him, cudgels in their hands, cursing.
“Shit!” Falsi said, reaching to his belt.
Giulia darted forward. “Wait!”
Falsi’s pistol went off like a cannonet. Chips and splinters whirled past Giulia’s face and she ducked back, hands up to shield her eyes. She lowered her arm, and saw Falsi standing at the bottom of the staircase in a column of swirling dust, his gun still pointed at the roof.
“Listen,” he shouted, “let’s have some fucking order here! You lot – stand back!”
“But, Boss—” one of the Watchmen said.
“I said stand back.” Although it was empty now, he still waved the pistol about like a badge of office. The Watchmen waited around him, threatening but unsure. “And you, Anglian – give that man his stick back.”
Edwin released the mace and held up his hands, palms-out, towards the Watchmen. He took a step away. Hugh and Elayne shuffled back out of view.
“Listen,” Falsi said, “no-one’s going to get hurt, not if everyone keeps calm. Just let us do our job, and we’ll leave you in peace. All right?”
“Until the end of the week,” Hugh growled.
Giulia stepped close to Falsi’s side. “What’re you doing here?”
He carefully pushed his pistol back into his belt.
“Do you actually know why you’re here?”
“Shut up,” he replied, and the fat Watch captain swaggered up to join him, thumbs hitched over his belt.
“This is a search for stolen goods!” Captain Orvo yelled up the stairs. “We are looking for stolen goods!”
Giulia hissed, “Here? We haven’t been out the bloody building!”
Falsi shrugged.
She looked upstairs. Edwin was shielding Elayne from view, as if he feared that the Watchmen would rush the staircase. Hugh waited at the top of the stairs, expressionless. Nobody seemed to have remembered the tile in Giulia’s room. Or the lockpicks and the knives.
She felt her body quicken. A sudden urge hit her – to run upstairs, to tear past these people, grab her bag and leap with it out the window, and immediately she knew she didn’t have a hope. She’d have to get through half a dozen armed men – and leave Hugh behind her.
Giulia leaned close to Falsi’s ear. “This is ridiculous. You don’t even know what you’re looking for.”
She looked up to see Elayne welcoming the Watchmen onto the landing like the lady of the house greeting late guests.
No, Elayne.
Falsi grunted. “Not my idea,” he said. “I’ve got a job to do.”
Giulia ignored him and started up the stairs. Perhaps she could warn Elayne, catch hold of her dress through the banisters or something—
Smiling and benign, Elayne was giving the Watch a tour. Two miserable-looking toughs followed her out of Hugh’s room.
“Now, this way is where Giulia sleeps. Let me just…”
Giulia’s skin crawled as Elayne opened the door, like something withering in the heat. Don’t do it. For God’s sake, don’t let them see. Elayne, if you can hear me— Giulia held her ground. The urge to flee tore at her like an itch under a plaster cast.
“Look closely,” Elayne said. “Take a good look around. You see the bed? And that chair? Nothing special, is there, now? Nothing on the walls, or the floor. Nothing worth looking at.”
They turned and walked out of the room. Elayne closed the door behind them.
“That does the upstairs,” one of the men shouted down the stairs. “You want us to go through the rest of it?”
“Ah, don’t bother,” Falsi called back. “We’re done here.”
The Watchmen stomped down the stairs. Halfway down, the last man paused and rubbed his jaw, as if trying to remember something. He turned.
Elayne stood sweating at the top of the stairs. Edwin had his arm around her waist, virtually holding her up. Hugh waited beside them, his gloved fists clenched.
The Watchman met her eyes, shrugged, and walked back down.
Giulia turned away from the others, closed her eyes and took ten slow breaths. Elayne was leaning against the wall now, and the two knights were tending to her: Edwin close up, Hugh hovering a step behind. Giulia felt the sweat start to cool on her skin. She walked downstairs, light-headed.
“Come on, lads, back to the Watch-house,” Falsi said.
“Damned right,” one of his men replied. “I hate this early-morning stuff.”
“Sorry to get you gentlemen up,” Giulia said.
The Watchman turned to her. He had heavy brows and bad skin that looked as if it had been scrubbed with grit. “Did you just say something?” he demanded, two feet from her face, “Because if you’ve got something fucking clever to say—”
Falsi took him by the arm. “Leave it. She’s being stupid. She does that.”
“Maybe someone needs to shut her up.”
“I said to leave it.”
The Watchmen loitered near the door like drunks being ejected midway through a party. Giulia heard the fat captain call them all together from outside, and they wandered out. Falsi did not bid her goodbye.
The innkeeper slammed the door behind them and looked back at Giulia with hard, suspicious eyes. He began to put the tables back in order. A few cups stood about; from the look of it, Falsi’s men had taken the opportunity to have a quick drink. As Giulia approached, the innkeeper glanced away, as though they shared a past of which they were both ashamed.
Slowly, he put up the last chair. He reached to his back and pulled out a folded piece of paper, looked at Giulia and tossed it onto the table.
>
“The Watch left that for you,” he said, as though it disgusted him.
Giulia looked at him. He stared through her. She reached out and picked the piece of paper up.
For the truth, it said, seek Ricardo Varro, boatmaker.
Giulia re-read it, trying to dredge up a memory that might make sense of the words. She looked at the innkeeper.
“You said the Watch left this here?”
“That’s right.”
“Lieutenant Falsi gave it to you?”
“Just a Watchman, that’s all. I don’t know what it says,” he added. “I don’t read.”
“Thanks,” she said.
The innkeeper took a step towards her. He smelled stale. “I see you people,” he said. “You, her upstairs, those two old men: you’re unnatural, all of you. Heretics and wizards and God knows what else. The sooner you’re gone, the better.” He took a step back from her. “Just saying.”
“Thanks for letting me know. Now shut up and fuck off,” Giulia replied, folding the paper in her hands. “Just saying.”
She walked upstairs. Elayne stood uneasily, propped between the two men. Hugh was watching her keenly. Giulia was surprised by how alert he looked. Normally the vague look only left Hugh’s face when he was fighting someone.
“How are you?” Giulia asked.
“I’m fine,” Elayne managed. “That last one was rather difficult, that’s all. He really wanted to have a nose around.”
Giulia glanced into her room. The door was open, and the pillow was clearly visible through the gap, too high on the bed not to be hiding something underneath. “Good work,” she said.
Elayne smiled weakly. “Well, one tries.”
The men guided Elayne to her room. Giulia followed them, wanting to hurry them along. Five days more. If we’re lucky.
Giulia waited by the door.
“Really,” Elayne said, “I am fine, you know.”
Giulia said, “Look, everybody: we need to talk. Someone left this downstairs.” She passed the note to Edwin and watched as they all read it.
“The innkeeper said one of the Watch left it behind,” Giulia said. She turned to Elayne. “I don’t suppose you could tell…?”
“That’s not my area, I’m afraid,” Elayne replied, and she gave Giulia a big, queasy smile.
“Maybe it’s worthless, or maybe it’s a lead,” Giulia said. “Whatever it is, I ought to have a look. I’m going to set off to find this Varro pretty soon. While I’m away, I want you to think about how to get out of here. Anyone who owes you, anyone you could bribe, or hire, any tricks you could pull – anything. We need a proper plan. We can talk about it when I get back.”
Hugh followed her out, and the door closed behind him. “Watch yourself,” he said. “Take your kit with you. Damn it, I wish I could come along too.”
“Well, you can’t. You’re under house arrest.”
“To hell with house arrest. Giulia, you can’t understand, but this is no life for a fighting man. It shames me, being stuck here while those bloody peasants barge in and root around, threatening—” He checked himself. “All of us.”
There was a tightness in his voice that she didn’t like, a hint of craziness. “Look, Hugh…”
“Yes?”
“As soon as I’m done, we’ll be out of here. A day, two days, and we’ll be free, I promise. You know I’m doing whatever I can. You’ve got my word on that.”
His face was grim. “We don’t have long, Giulia. Not with those bastards creeping about, looking for excuses to string us up.”
“I know.”
“I could cut us a way out of here tonight.”
“It wouldn’t be safe. Not for Elayne. For you or I, fine, probably for Edwin too – but she couldn’t. You know that.”
“I suppose not. Dammit!” he said. “I should never have let them bring us here. But if we’d not come – there wouldn’t have been anyone to defend her – no-one still a knight, that is…” He tailed off, barely addressing her.
“Well, it’s happened now.” If they hadn’t brought us here… “Just stay here a while. I won’t be long, I promise.”
She turned and walked along the corridor. I used his code against him, she realised. I used his loyalty to Elayne to keep him here.
In her room, she tidied up her dress and tied her hair back neatly. Not too bad, leaving aside the scars. Damn, I wish I knew where a good alchemist was. She thought about it, and realised that finding the right shop could take all day. Perhaps I could just stand in profile, she thought. Show Varro my better side. She gave her pocket-mirror a small, bitter smile.
If they hadn’t brought us here…
Giulia stepped into the corridor. She paused, feeling curiously nervous, and knocked on Elayne’s door.
The sorceress was reading from a little book, scratching notes into the margin with a goose-feather quill. She glanced up as Giulia came in, and stifled a yawn.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Giulia began. “I just wanted to get your opinion on something.”
Edwin was sitting at the table with a cup of wine. “Could you do this later?” he said. “Elayne’s still very tired.”
The wizard waved a hand. “No, no, it’s fine now. Go ahead.”
“I’ll be with Hugh,” Edwin said grumpily.
Giulia looked at Elayne and wondered what to say. She felt more at home with either of the men, tough creatures used to war and travelling, than this clever, gentle woman. It was not because Elayne knew magic: it was because she seemed never to have known hardship, or suffering, or what it was to hate someone.
“Goodness me! Going somewhere grand?”
“Thanks. I, er, thought I’d get your opinion, if you don’t mind. How do I look?”
Elayne laid down her pen and stood up. “Well, very good indeed! Yes, most well turned-out, I’d say.” Her voice was quick and twittering. Giulia wondered if she was nervous, or whether Elayne thought much faster than normal people, like a bird must do.
“I look all right?”
“You look fine,” the wizard said. “It’s a good dress; it suits your hair. It’s cut very well, don’t you think?”
“The barber did it for a few coppers.”
“I meant the dress.”
“Oh, right. It’s just the usual one.” Giulia looked down. She felt a stab of pleasure. Far away from the pragmatic part of her that knew about thievery and survival, a small bit of her mind grinned with delight at the thought of being pretty. It was nonsense, of course, but difficult to resist.
“Going somewhere good?” Elayne asked.
“I don’t think so. I’ve got to ask someone a few questions. It can’t hurt to look right.”
“True. Do sit down, by the way.”
Giulia took a seat. “Thanks.”
“So, what’s it like, being with Hugh? Does he make you go on quests?”
Giulia smiled. “Not exactly. But he doesn’t stop, that’s for sure. He’s fitter than a man half his age. He once told me that if a knight stayed true to his vows, he wouldn’t age like a normal man. Is that really what happens?”
Elayne looked serious. “Maybe. What vows do you mean?”
“Well, being honourable, helping people, that sort of thing.”
“I see. Yes, perhaps there’s something in that…. If you don’t mind me asking – and don’t reply if you do, if you see what I mean – how come you and Hugh are – well, friends at all?” Elayne flashed her wide, open smile. “I don’t mean to be rude: it’s just that he and you seem, well, rather at the opposite end of things, so to speak. Not that you’re not a very decent person, as far as I can tell—”
“Well, they say opposites attract,” Giulia said blithely, and immediately wished she hadn’t. “I mean, not like that.”
“Of course,” Elayne said, an
d Giulia suddenly realised that she knew everything, that the situation was obvious to her. “You know he still cares for me, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“I wish he didn’t. It makes things rather awkward.”
“He can’t help it, you know,” Giulia said. “It’s not as if he does it to annoy you.” Her voice was harder than she’d meant it to be.
“I used to be close to him, but that was a long time ago.” Elayne’s eyes flicked to the book again. “I wish he’d just forget. It’s not good for him.”
“I don’t think he’s very good at forgetting things.” Although it depends how much he’s had to drink.
“Well, I wish he would!” Elayne wasn’t built for arguing. The angrier she got, Giulia thought, the more feeble she would sound. “It’s not fair, not on me or Edwin, for him to keep on thinking like that. And he ought to find someone else, Giulia, for his own sake. It can’t be good for him to keep on wishing – when really he must know that there’s no chance—”
“I don’t reckon he works like that.”
“Can’t you say something to him?” she said. “Can’t you try to tell him yourself, make him understand?”
“I’ll do what I can.” Giulia stood up, eager to go. She felt guilty for mentioning it. “So I look all right, then?”
“You look very good.”
Apart from the face, she thought, suddenly hard and cold. She wondered if Elayne had simply been lying all the way, thinking Giulia was sufficiently desperate to swallow whatever compliment she threw at her. “Thanks,” she said. “I’ll see you later.”
“Wait,” Elayne said. Giulia paused. “I’ve been thinking. You know I mentioned Lord Portharion, the mage, when you asked me about magic? He might be able to help us. I don’t know how to get in touch with him directly, but there’s an organisation here that he was connected to – a club for artists, I think…”
“Go on.”
“I only heard in passing, ages ago. The Cornello Scola, I think it was called. My tutor Doctor Dorne gave a lecture there, years ago. He was cross because they put Portharion on before him. He said they had no right to put another wizard’s name at the top of the bill…” She stopped, half-smiling. “Well, anyway, you could try there.”
