I motioned to Rustin, to Elryc. “In the salon, and shut the door.” They rushed out to escape her rage.
My voice was hesitant. “Please, Nurse …”
Her hands came down. “Desecrator!” She slapped my face.
I chopped off my words, fought the humiliation and the sting. Then, quietly, “Thinkest that thou loved her more than I?”
Her finger stabbed at the garments strewn about by our negligence. “Is that love, or greed? Oh, you great coarse boy!”
“If you loved Mother, I beg you, help me. For Elryc’s sake and mine. We must have the Vessels.”
Her eyes studied my face a long while. Then she nodded, and spoke in my ear.
After a few moments I opened the door to the salon. “It’s well now. Hester says Mother sent the Vessels back to the vault.”
Elryc looked to Hester. She nodded. “Guarded night and day, by two men of my lady’s own choosing.”
Again, the demanding knock, at the door. I ignored it. “Will they open the vault for me?”
Hester shook her head. “Even if they had the will, they could not. The vault’s locked and wants two keys, held separately by your mother and the Chamberlain.”
That didn’t sound like the Queen I knew. “She wouldn’t put possessions so valuable beyond her own reach. What if the Chamberlain-”
“Don’t be a fool. Willem of Alcazar was raised in the castle. Your mother and he played together until they grew to the age where it was not seemly. He was her closest friend, and would no more betray her than-than would I!”
The knock, ever louder.
“We’ll have to let them in.” I ran to the bed. “Where’s the key to the vault?”
“She kept it always on a golden chain around her neck.”
I reached out, pulled back my hand as if burned. I couldn’t explore my mother’s body as if it were some dead bird I’d found in the field. “Could you-would …” I gritted my teeth. This was my responsibility. Forcing down bile, I forced my hand to her neck, felt inside her garment.
“Don’t waste your time.” The Nurse scowled. “She’s already been washed and laid out. Think you they’d have left it on her?”
“Where is it?”
“In Margenthar’s hands, if Rowena had her way.”
We were lost. Dully, I sank upon the bed.
“But she did not.” Hester fished within the hem of her garment. Her wrinkled hand came forth, closed. Her eyes bore into mine. Then, in an instant, her fingers opened, bright metal flashed.
“YOU? You had it, all along?”
“Aye.” She tossed the chain, and I snatched it from the air. “I knew not whom those ladies serve, and took it when their eyes were elsewhere.”
“To do what with?”
“Ere day’s end, to give to you, or Margenthar. I’d not made up my mind. You’re not much, but you’re better than he.”
I thrust the chain in my shirt, responded with the curtness she’d shown. “I thank thee. Rust, we’ll have somehow to get the other key. Let them in, and let’s try to slip out in the rush.”
Two doors to unlock; the inner, and the main door at the end of the corridor, by the stairs. I opened the inner door, slipped past the diminished flock of ladies, got no more than halfway along the corridor before Duke Margenthar and his entourage swept down on me. Had looks the power to kill, I were extinct.
“Let the kinsmen come forth!” My tones were regal, but this time Uncle Mar would have none of it. I scuttled aside before he ran me down.
“We’ll settle this later, boy!”
Toward the rear of the throng came Lady Rowena, her face triumphant.
I said, “You couldn’t wait five minutes?”
“You’d have asked five more, and ten beyond that.” She swept past. Then, over her shoulder, “He who would be King need show a king’s grace! Like your uncle!”
When the last of the household had passed I waited, until Rustin peered out, found me. He trotted down the corridor, Elryc in tow. “Now what?”
“We visit Willem.” I loped down the great stairs, Elryc clutching my hand with unfamiliar intimacy. Below, servants and hirelings had gathered, muttering among themselves and staring toward the Queen’s chambers.
I clapped sharply. “Have you no business? Is dinner ready, are the week’s chores done? Get about your work!”
Sullen murmurs. Grudgingly they made way, but they did not disperse. By the time we three had circled the stairs to the Chamberlain’s entry, they’d resumed their uneasy places at the staircase.
Rustin raised an eyebrow. “You’ll just walk in and ask? ‘Willem, may I have Mother’s key?’”
“Well, I … um.” I hadn’t thought that far. “We’ll follow the quarry where it runs.”
At the Chamberlain’s door, I debated whether to walk in as if I were master of the place, decided I’d best knock.
A clerk opened. “Yes? Oh, Rodrigo. I’ll tell him you’re here.” He disappeared into an inner chamber, leaving me frowning through a side doorway at a room full of clerks on high stools, bent over their papers and accounts.
I paced the anteroom, fists knotted, feeling the boy who’d so often come to collect his stipend, preparing to endure the admonitions and censure that were part of its dispense.
Elryc, also accustomed to the place, took a chair meekly, hands folded in his lap.
Rustin studied the wall hangings. “We have a tapestry much like that at home. Do you recall?”
I nodded, having not the slightest idea what he was talking about. “I want you with me, when we confront him.”
“As you wish.” He took a book from a shelf, examined the gold-leafed adornment in the leaves. “Love Poems of Milibar?” A sly grin flitted across his features. “Ever read them? They’d make a gelding rise-”
“Rodrigo.” The stocky Chamberlain was framed in the doorway. In his velvet-trimmed robes he looked prepared for a meeting of state. “A terrible day. Come in.”
I passed through the doorway, Rustin at my heels. We settled ourselves in the stiff high-backed chairs set around Willem’s ornate desk.
He studied Rust. “I recognize you. You’re … the envoy’s son, from Eiber?”
Rustin flushed. “No, Sir Willem. My father is Llewelyn.”
The man’s eyes rose. “Time races. Forgive me; the last time we spoke, you were so high.” He patted the desk, and dismissed Rustin from his mind. “I’m sorry, Rodrigo. She was a wonderful soul, and I’ll miss her more than you can know.” His eyes teared. Perhaps he even meant it. I waited, while his commiseration played out. “So, Prince Rodrigo, how may I be of service?”
I licked my lips, risked a glance to Rustin. He sat straight, eyes on the Chamberlain. “I want to enter the vault.”
His jaw dropped, then a chuckle. “So do many folk. Whatever for?”
I took the bit between my teeth. “To see if the Vessels are in their place.”
“Do you think she kept them there?”
“Did she not?”
“That’s not mine to disclose, Prince Rodrigo. If the Queen wanted you to know, surely she’d have told you.”
“They’ll be mine to wield!”
He nodded. “When you are King, yes. Soon, I hope.”
“I’m King now.” I wished I didn’t sound petulant. “Mother didn’t renounce me, and now she’s dead. I am King, crowned or not. I want to open our vault.”
“But why come to me?”
Rustin intervened. “How else would one gain entry, Sir Willem?”
The Chamberlain looked astonished. “You think the Queen let clerks such as myself wander freely among her treasures? I have no access.”
“You don’t?” Could Hester have made up the whole story, to divert me? Did she gloat over the Vessels, even now?
“No one entered the vault, save in your mother’s presence. She herself carried a key.”
I said, “And you-”
“Oh, Lord of Nature and his minions!” Rustin jumped to his
feet. “The fitting! Roddy, we’re late. Did you forget your appointment for the mourning robes? Hurry; if the earls get fitted first you’ll have to wear that ridiculous sable that you’ve outgrown. Do you want to look a country lout?”
“What nonsense-”
“Make notes, like I do, and you won’t forget. When will you learn!” He hustled me protesting from my chair. “I’m sorry, Sir Willem, may we see you after the fitting?”
“It’s going to be a frightful day, youngsire. The funeral wreaths, the cortege to organize-”
“But you’ll find a moment for us, won’t you? Roddy, hurry!” He propelled me to the antechamber. Elryc gaped at our quick retreat, but followed.
Dumbstruck, I let Rustin drag me clear of the Chamberlain’s wing before I dug in my heels. “Let go, you lunatic! Have demons taken you? I was about to ask-”
His hand shot across my mouth. I swatted it away. “How dare you!”
A courtier strode past, on his way to see the Chamberlain. Rustin leered. “Outside, then, if you want to see who’s the stronger!”
Elryc rammed him with a bony shoulder. “Leave Roddy alone!”
Rust shoved me into the wall, aimed a kick at Elryc, dashed for the door. Cursing like one possessed, I gave chase.
Rustin charged up the rampart steps two at a time, just ahead of my grasp. He veered for the high towers manned only in time of war. I flew after, Elryc bringing up the rear. At the watchtower Rust made his mistake; he dashed up the stairs that had no exit, and I knew I had him. Grimly, I climbed the three flights. At the landing I shoved aside an empty barrel, swung open the door to the open deck, girded myself for the battle to come.
I rushed out into sunlight. Panting, Rust leaned against the battlement. “We should be safe here.”
“Betrayer! False vassal!”
“What? Didn’t you realize I was-”
I circled. “Fight, you bastard son of a serf!”
He rolled his eyes. “For the love of … you dimwit, I had to get you alone before you ruined everything. Elryc, make him understand.”
My brother stepped between us. “Listen.”
I raised my fist to strike him down.
Elryc’s eyes fastened on mine, unafraid. “Roddy, who’ll protect me, once you’re dead?”
My hand stayed.
“Hear him out. You can always fight after.” Elryc sat against the parapet, drew up his knees.
Rustin examined me with wonder. “How would you be King, with such a temper?”
“Have your say!”
“We went to Willem to get his key. Would he have given it?”
“How would I know? I had no chance to ask before-”
“Think, dunce!”
His scorn penetrated my fury. “Willem said Mother had her key, and allowed no one access without her presence. So?”
“He was helpful?”
“He told truth in what-oh!”
“What, Roddy?” Elryc.
“Willem didn’t admit he had a key. He was waiting to see if I knew.”
“Brilliant.” Rustin’s tone dripped irony.
I asked, “So why not tell him?”
“Whose man is he?”
“Mother’s. Now she’s gone-” My shoulders slumped. Wearily, I sat alongside Elryc. “If he denied he had the key, I’d be powerless to prove it.”
Elryc asked, “Why should he lie?”
“He need not. Say he admits he has a key. ‘But my lady the Queen had the other key, and without it, mine is useless.’ Then I must admit I have Mother’s.”
“And?” Rustin.
“And if he’s Uncle Mar’s man, they’ll have me, and both keys, and the Vessels.” My voice turned bitter. “Shall we put you on the throne, Rust? You have a head for these matters.”
He dropped to one knee. “You are my liege lord, and I will have no other King while you live.”
I had to look away. “Forgive me.”
“Never mind that. What now?”
We crouched together like three boys scheming to evade their tutor. Rust and Elryc waited for my lead.
I pulled the cast brass key from my shirt, examined it. “Should I give this to you, for safekeeping?”
Elryc asked, “Who’d search you, Roddy? The Chamberlain? Only Mother could order that. If he tries, refuse.”
I snorted. “Brother, you’re a babe in arms.” He colored. “The crown’s at stake; Uncle Mar wouldn’t hesitate to lay a hand on me. He never has. Remember last year when he caught us at his hawks?” My uncle had boxed my ears, and sent me wailing on my way with a contemptuous kick in the rear.
I took the key from round my neck, and felt unclothed. Reluctantly, I extended it to Rust, pulled back my hand. What if he sold the key and my kingdom to Margenthar? Rustin’s moods were legendary.
“Keep it.” His tone was curt, as if he’d read my mind.
“A day ago you knocked me from my horse, shoved my face in the mud. Now I’m to rely on your loyalty?”
Rustin’s voice was thin. “Is there anything else you want of me this day?”
I drew a breath. “I’m going to see the Chamberlain.”
Elryc asked, “Isn’t all you said about Willem still true?”
“Of course. But I’ll know to guard my speech. And I won’t carry the key.” I hesitated again. Without faith in Rust, life seemed too bleak. I stood, opened my hand, tucked Mother’s golden chain into Rustin’s brown tunic. “Keep it safe, my vassal.”
“You’re sure?”
“I have to trust someone. Besides, they’d never imagine you carried it.”
“Your grace inspires me.” His tone was acid.
I sighed. I might as well accommodate myself to Rustin’s moods. As much sense to complain as about the weather.
Chapter 4
We perched on a bench in the chamberlain’s anteroom. He was engaged, his clerk told us, and would see us when he was able. I’d begun to drum the bench with impatient fingers, when Earl Cumber, my great-uncle, hobbled in, accompanied by his valet. “What are you boys doing here? Clerk, announce me.”
I gaped. “Uncle Cumber?” I made the bow of courtesy. “How did you get here so fast? Cumber Town is nearly to the Norland passes-”
He turned to his valet. “Hah. The boy teaches me the lay of my lands.” He favored me with a scowl. “We were en route to Council when word came of the misfortune.”
Paying me no further notice, Great-uncle Cumber tapped his staff on the flagstones. Within a moment, he was ushered in to Willem.
We waited.
After some moments the Earl left, and the Chamberlain’s door shut again. Over an hour passed, while we fidgeted like tykes at Ritehouse.
“Might as well give it up, Roddy. He won’t see us.”
Furious, I crossed to the Chamberlain’s private door, thrust it open without a knock.
Behind me, the scurrying clerk. “My lord! You can’t-”
I strode in. Willem of Alcazar sat at his carved desk, quill in hand. “What’s this?”
I said, “We’ve waited half the afternoon. I’m sure you weren’t told.” Coolly, I took my seat.
“I was-these accounts must be paid.”
“We won’t be long, will we, Rust?” I crossed my legs.
His expression tight, the Chamberlain waved away his clerk. The door slammed shut. “Very well. Proceed, my prince.”
“We were discussing the vault.”
His eyes met mine. “Can I offer you some wine? Cheese, perhaps?”
“No, thank you.” I realized I was famished, and my stomach began to churn at his offer.
“Sorry if I seemed abrupt. It’s just that … a terrible day.”
I said nothing.
Willem took the bit in his teeth. “Rodrigo, I can’t get you into the vault. Only your mother had access.”
“By her key alone?”
“Please, Roddy, this is a very awkward matter. My duty is to the crown, and there’s no declared-”
I leaned forward. “It took two keys to open the vault, and you have one. Give it here.” I held out my hand.
His hand shot to his neck, returned almost instantly to the table. “What use would it be without the Queen’s key? Have you that?”
“In its time. I’ll start with yours.”
Willem offered a placating smile. “The Duke has pledged to guard the assets of the realm until there’s a proper accounting by the regent. Don’t make that face, my lord, you know you’re too young to rule.”
“Uncle Mar is not regent.”
“The Council will appoint him after the burial. It’s for the regent to give you the key, but certainly you should ask. You’ll find your uncle-”
I growled, “Are you his man or mine, Willem? You must choose.”
A time passed, while Willem’s thick fingers drummed on the massive desk. Then he sighed. “Young Rustin of Stryx, be so kind as to open the door and see my clerk isn’t crouching at the keyhole.”
Swiftly Rustin complied, flinging open the heavy door, peering both directions. “No one.”
The Chamberlain’s voice dropped. “I’m caught between two hooks, Roddy. May I call you that still, for the nonce? Yes, you’ll be King, if your mother’s wishes are followed.”
I shivered. He’d said it so baldly, it somehow made my peril more real.
“And I assure you, it’s my desire as well.” His tone turned pious. “Not that I, a mere clerk, have any say in the matter.”
“You’re of the Council.”
“Well, yes, but I’m one voice among seven, and not much heeded. It was your mother’s edict set me among the great nobles, on her Council of State.” He might be speaking truth, though I couldn’t know, never having been allowed to attend a Council meet. Mar, Grand-uncle Cumber, Lady Soushire and Lord Groenfil, Vessa as Speaker of the City, and Lord Warthen of the Sands were the other Council members. Imposing figures all.
“Go on.” I waved aside the distraction.
“Roddy, I have no dominion of my own, no benefice. I serve at the whim of the throne. If I go against you and you’re crowned, you won’t forget. But if I go against Margenthar and he’s regent-Roddy, he’s almost sure to be appointed, he’s made promises and has the pledges-why, he’ll throw me into the cells without a moment’s thought.”
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