by Greg Keyes
Reality, Leoff had discovered, was the sum of a series of more or less consistent self-deceptions. His had been shattered by torture, privation, and loss, and he hadn’t had time to deceive himself again.
Consequently, he wouldn’t have been surprised if the face revealed had been the chimera mask of the queen of the phay, the pitying features of Saint Anemlen, or the fanged visage of an ogre come to devour him. The moment seemed absolutely pregnant with the impossible.
That the dropped cowl revealed the face of a young woman with sky-jewel eyes was thus unexpected but not surprising.
It did shift his perspective, however. She was slight and shorter than Leoff by more than a head. Her chestnut hair was pulled back, the line of her jaw soft. He doubted if she was yet twenty years old. She also looked familiar; he was certain he had seen her at court.
“I haven’t come to kill you,” she said. “In the name of Queen Muriele, I’ve come to set you free.”
“To free me,” he said slowly. Suddenly her face refocused, as if seen at twenty kingsyards, just next to the face of Muriele, the queen. That was where he had seen her; at the performance of his singspell.
“How did you do that? Make yourself invisible?”
“I am saint-blessed,” she replied. “It’s a coven secret. That’s all I can tell you. Now, if you’ll just follow me—”
“Wait,” Leoff said. “How did you get in here?”
“With great difficulty and at considerable risk to myself,” she said. “Now please, stop asking questions.”
“But who are you?”
“My name is Alis, Alis Berrye, and I have the queen’s confidence. She sent me. You understand? Now, please…”
“Lady Berrye, I am Leovigild Ackenzal. How is the queen?”
Alis blinked in what seemed to be incomprehension.
“She is passing well,” she said, “for the moment.”
“Why did she send you to free me?”
“That explanation would be lengthy, and we do not have much time. So please—”
“Humor me, my lady.”
She sighed. “Very well. In brief, the queen is imprisoned in the Wolfcoat Tower. She has learned of your imprisonment, and also of the great affection in which the people of this city and Newland hold you. She believes that if you are free, it may improve her situation.”
“How?”
“She believes the usurper might be overthrown.”
“Really. All because of me. How very strange. And how did you get in here?”
“There are ways, secret ways that my—” She stopped, then started again. “That I know of. You will have to trust me. Trust also that if we do not move very soon, we will not leave this place alive.”
Leoff nodded and closed his eyes. He thought about blue skies and warm winds from the south, the touch of rain on his face.
“I can’t go.” He sighed.
“What?”
“There are others held captive here: Mery Gramme and Areana Wistbirm. If I escape, they will suffer, and I can’t have that. Free them, and prove to me they are free, and I will go with you.”
“I don’t know where the Gramme girl is being held. The young Wistbirm woman is beyond my reach, I fear, else I would certainly liberate her as well.”
“Then I cannot go with you,” Leoff said.
“Listen to me, Cavaor Ackenzal,” Alis said urgently. “You need to understand your worth. There are people who will die—and see others die—to free you. What you did at Broogh is not forgotten, but your music at the Candlegrove unleashed a spirit that has not diminished. In fact, it has only continued to grow.
“Songs from your lustspell are sung throughout the country. The people are ready to come for the villain, the usurper, but they fear what he would do to you. If you were free, nothing would encumber them.” Her voice dropped lower. “They say that a proper heir has returned to the kingdom: Princess Anne, daughter of William and Muriele. They will put her on the throne, but they fight for you. You are the most important man in the kingdom, Cavaor.”
Leoff laughed at that. He couldn’t help it; it seemed too ridiculous.
“I won’t go with you,” he said. “Not until Mery and Areana are safe.”
“No, no, no, no, no,” Alis said. “Do you understand what I went through to reach you? It was nearly impossible—a miracle sufficient to qualify me for sainthood. Now you say that you won’t go?
“Do not do this to me. Do not fail your queen.”
“If you can work one miracle, then you can work another. Free Mery. Free Areana. Than I will happily go with you—so long as you have proof they are safe and well.”
“Think, at least, of your music,” Alis urged. “I told you your songs were famous. Did I also tell you that performing them is considered shinecraft? An attempt was made to do the entire play in the town of Wistbirm. The stage was put to the torch by the praifec’s guards. But the performance was already a failure, because the subtler harmonies of your work eluded even the most gifted minstrel. If you were free, you could write it again, correct their performances.”
“And doom more unfortunates to my fate?” he asked, lifting his useless hands.
“That’s very odd,” Alis said, seeming to notice his traction for the first time. She shook her head as if to clear it. “Look, it’s a doom they choose.”
Leoff felt himself suddenly balanced very precariously. The woman—and why a woman? The woman’s story was implausible at best.
Most likely this was Robert, having another go at him. So far he hadn’t done anything that would make matters worse; Robert knew that Leoff would never lift a finger for him unless Mery and Areana were in danger.
And if Alis was honest, his decision to stay was still consistent.
But here was a problem. What he might reveal here could give something to Robert that the usurper didn’t already have, something that appeared to be of great value.
Yet the risk might be worth it. It probably was.
“In the Candlegrove,” he said, breaking the silence.
“What in the Candlegrove?”
“Beneath the stage, on the far right, there is a space above the support. I knew they would burn my music, and I knew they would search my apartments for copies. But I hid one there; Robert’s men might have missed it.”
Alis frowned. “I’ll find it if I get out. But I’d rather have you.”
“You know my conditions,” he said.
Alis hesitated. “It was an honor to meet you,” she said. “I hope to meet you again.”
“That would be nice,” Leoff replied.
Alis sighed and closed her eyes. She drew the hood down. He thought she might have murmured something, and then she was again an absence, a shadow.
The door opened and then closed. He heard the lock being worked clumsily, then nothing for a long time.
Eventually he went back to sleep.
When the door rattled open the next day, it was in the usual way. Leoff had no way of knowing what time it really was, but he had been awake long enough that he reckoned it midday, in his sunless world.
Two men entered. Both wore black tabards over breastplates that had been enameled black, and each had a broadsword slung at his hip. They didn’t resemble any of dungeon wards Leoff had seen before, but they did look a great deal like Robert’s personal guard.
“Hold still,” one of them said.
Leoff didn’t answer as one of them produced a dark cloth and wrapped it around his temples and eyes, tightening it until he couldn’t see. Then they lifted him to his feet. Leoff’s skin felt like cold wax as they began walking him down the corridor. He tried to concentrate on distance and direction, as Mery had, counting twelve steps up, then twenty-three strides through a corridor, twenty-eight up a passageway so narrow that occasionally both shoulders brushed the walls at the same time. After that it was as if they suddenly had stepped into the sky; Leoff felt space expand away from him, and currents of moving air. The reports of thei
r footsteps stopped reverberating, and he guessed that they were outside.
Next they led him to a carriage and hoisted him up, and he felt a certain despair creep up on him. He kept suppressing the urge to ask where they were going, because obviously they had covered his eyes so he would not find out.
The carriage began rolling, first on stone, then on gravel. Leoff began to wonder suddenly if he hadn’t been kidnapped by allies of the woman who had come to “rescue” him the day before. Adopting the livery of Robert’s guard could be accomplished easily enough. His heart sank further as he began to contemplate what would happen when Robert discovered that he was missing.
It must have been dark when they’d left, but now light began to filter through the cloth. It grew colder, as well, and the air ripened with the scent of salt.
After an interminable period, the carriage ground to a halt. He was cold and very stiff now. He felt as if steel screws had been tightening into his kneecaps, in his elbows, and along his spine. His hands ached terribly.
They tried to carry him, but he fought to keep his feet on the ground, to count the steps on gravel, then stone, then wood, then stone again, and finally steps. He cringed as heat suddenly billowed against him, and the blindfold was removed.
He blinked in a cloud of smoke issued by a huge fire blazing in an extraordinarily large fireplace. A spitted side of venison sizzled merrily above it, filling the air with the scent of charred meat.
The room was round, perhaps fifteen kingsyards in diameter, and the walls were drapped in tapestries whose subjects were not immediately obvious to him but that glowed in the firelight: umber, gold, rust, and forest green. A gigantic carpet covered the floor.
Two girls had just swung a huge wooden beam away from the fire. There was an iron kettle suspended on it from which they poured steaming water into a bathing basin that had been sunk into the floor.
A few yards away Robert, the usurper, reclined in an armchair, looking comfortable in a floral black-and-gold dressing robe.
“Ah,” Robert said. “My composer. Your bath is just prepared.”
Leoff glanced around. Besides Robert and the serving girls, there were the men who had fetched Leoff, two more similarly dressed soldiers, a Sefry on a stool plucking a large Safnian-style theorbo, a prim youngish fellow in red robes and a black cap, and finally, the physician who had been tending Leoff in the dungeon.
“No, thank you, Majesty,” Leoff managed.
“No,” Robert said, “I altogether insist. It’s not just for your convenience, you know. We all have noses.”
A general murmur of laughter followed that, but the joviality did nothing to relax Leoff; after all, these were Robert’s friends, who might be even more amused by, say, the evisceration of a small child.
He signed, and the soldiers began stripping off his clothes. His ears burned, for the serving girls were of age, and he found it extremely inappropriate that they should have to look upon him. They seemed not to notice, however. He might just as well have been another object of furniture. Still, he felt exposed and uncomfortable.
He felt better in the water, though. It was so hot that it stung, but once he was immersed in it, he no longer felt naked, and the heat of it began to settle pleasantly toward his bones, ameliorating the aches that the cold had insinuated into them.
“There,” the usurper said. “Isn’t that better?”
Leoff had to reluctantly admit that it was. It was better yet when one of the girls brought him a cup of mulled mead and the other cut a great dripping slice of the venison and fed it to him in small bites.
“Now that you are settled,” Robert said, “I would like you to meet our host, Lord Respell. He has graciously agreed to be your guardian while you work on the compositions I have requested of you, to offer whatever aid you might require, and to see to your comfort.”
“That’s very kind,” Leoff said, “but I thought I was to work in my old room.”
“That dank place? No, it has proved inconvenient in a number of ways.” At that, his gaze became a bit more hawklike. “You did not, by chance, have a visitor yesterday?” he asked.
Ah, Leoff thought. Here it is. It was a ruse, and this is my reward for not falling into the trap.
“No, Majesty,” he said just to see what result that would get.
It wasn’t what he expected. Robert frowned and placed his arms on the rests of the chair.
“The dungeons are not as secure as my predecessors believed,” he said. “They were invaded yesterday by a sneak thief. The thief was caught, questioned, and garroted, but where one can come, others may follow.
“There are secret passageways, you see, that riddle the stone below Eslen castle, and many come—naturally, I suppose—through the dungeons. I have begun having them filled in.”
“Is that true, Sire?” Lord Respell asked, sounding surprised. “Hidden passageways into the castle?”
“Yes, Respell,” Robert said, waving him off impatiently. “I’ve told you before.”
“Have you?”
“Yes. Composer, are you still with me?”
Leoff shook his head. Had he dozed off? He felt as if he had missed something.
“I-I’ve forgotten what you were saying,” Leoff said.
“Of course. And you will forget again, I suppose, like Respell here.”
“Forget what, Sire?” Respell asked.
Robert sighed and put a hand to his forehead.
“The secret passages in the dungeons. There are too many to locate and obstruct. Well, I needn’t go into detail. In sum, Cavaor Leoff, I feel you will be more comfortable here, and safe from any further…incursions. Isn’t that so, Lord Respell?”
The young man shook off his look of puzzlement and nodded. “Many have tried to invade this keep,” he said proudly. “None has ever succeeded. You shall be quite safe here.”
“And my friends?” Leoff asked.
“Well, that was to be a surprise,” Robert replied. He motioned to the girls, who vanished for a moment, then returned with Mery Gramme and Areana Wistbirm.
Leoff’s first reaction at seeing the two was one of pure joy, followed rapidly by mortification. Areana was a lovely lady, seventeen years in age, and it was hardly meet that she should see him in this situation.
Or in this shape. He was peculiarly aware of his hands and their terrible traction. He lowered them deeper beneath the water.
“Leoff!” Areana gasped, rushing forward to kneel by the tub. “Mery said she had seen you, but—”
“You are well, Areana?” he asked stiffly. “They have not harmed you?”
Areana looked up at Robert, and her face clouded. “I have been privated and locked in conditions most unpleasant,” she said, “but no real harm has come to me.” Her eyes suddenly filled with dismay. “Mery said your hands—”
“Areana,” Leoff whispered desperately. “I am uncomfortable with this. They did not tell me you would be here.”
“It’s because he’s naked,” Mery put in helpfully. “Mother says men aren’t used to being naked and do not take to it very well. She says they aren’t very smart without their clothes on.”
“Oh,” Areana said. “Of course.” Again she glanced up at Robert. “Pay no mind,” she said to Leoff. “He thinks by putting us in foolish situations he will make us smaller and weaken us.”
“I knew by your singing you had quite the tongue, my lady,” Robert said. “Cavaor Leovigild, I compliment you on your choice of vocalists.”
Robert’s voice sounded odder than usual now. Leoff had noticed its strangeness the first time he heard it. It was as if it strained to produce the notes natural to human speech, and yet there were very unnatural—even chilling—undertones the like of which his ear had never before experienced. He thought sometimes he heard whole other sentences in what the man said, not separate from his obvious speech but side by side with it, like a line of counterpoint.
At the moment it seemed to him that Robert was threatening to cu
t out Areana’s tongue.
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” he said, trying to sound cooperative. “I think you will be very pleased with the part I have written her for my new work.”
“Yes, your new—what shall we call it? It isn’t a lustpell, not really, is it? Nor is it a simple theatrical play. We need a name for it, I think. Do you have one?”
“Not yet, Majesty.”
“Well, think on it. And so shall I. Perhaps that will be my contribution to this enterprise, discovering a name for it.”
“What is he talking about, Leoff?” Areana asked.
“Didn’t I tell you?” Robert answered. “Cavaor Leoff has agreed to write us another of his singing plays. I was so taken with the last, I just had to have another.” He switched his regard to Leoff. “Tell me, have you found a subject?”
“I believe I have, Majesty.”
“You can’t be serious,” Areana said, stepping back a bit. “That would betray everything you’ve done. Everything we’ve done.”
“We are all very serious here,” Robert said. “Now, tell us, my friend.”
Hardening himself to Areana’s distress, Leoff cleared his throat. “You are familiar with the story of Maersca?” he asked.
Robert thought for a moment. “I am perhaps not so familiar with it.”
No, the counterpoint said, and you had better not be trying to make me seem ignorant.
“Neither was I, until I read the books you gave me,” he said quickly. “It happened, as I understand it, in Newland, long ago—before that region was actually named Newland, when the first canals were being built and the poelen drained.”
“Ah,” Robert exclaimed. “A subject near to the hearts of the landwaerden, I shouldn’t doubt. Isn’t it so, Areana?”
“It is a popular story among us,” Areana agreed stiffly. “I don’t find it surprising, then, that you do not know it.”
Robert shrugged diffidently. “Neither did your friend Leoff. He just said so.
“But he didn’t grow up in the heart of Newland,” Areana retorted. “Your Majesty did.”
“Yes,” Robert said a bit crossly, “and I did what I could for your kind, even fathering the occasional child to lighten your thick blood. Now please, young lady, tell us the story.”
