The Dog of the North

by Tim Stretton

  ‘Shh!’

  Arren could hear a faint creaking from outside the alcove. It could only be the viatory door opening. He beckoned Eilla to the back of the alcove and gingerly peered through the tiny gap where the arras met the wall.

  He could dimly make out a lantern and two indistinct figures obscured in its shadow. He was conscious that Eilla was at his shoulder, but he could not risk moving to send her further back. Arren could only hope that whoever had entered would not want to enter the alcove. But instead the figures went to stand before the altar. Neither man was tall: Lord Thaume was not visiting his own viatory. So who were they?

  ‘I hope this is worth the subterfuge, Lord Guigot,’ said the clipped voice Arren recognized as Lord High Viator Raugier. This could not be an innocent meeting, and for a moment Arren considered the consequences of being discovered.

  ‘I believe you will find it so, my lord,’ said Guigot, the lantern casting a vast shadow on his face. ‘It is late, and the viatory is chill. I will be brief and candid.’

  ‘Please proceed.’

  ‘I have seen your progress, and that of your attendants, around Croad today. I might not be hazarding too much to suggest that you have been disappointed in my uncle’s conduct.’

  Arren’s eyes had become accustomed to the light, and he saw Raugier purse his lips. ‘There is a tolerance for the Gollains I find unsettling. The episode with the servant girl showed Thaume in a poor light.’

  ‘All true-minded folk must think as much. Thaume panders to a minority, at the expense of those who follow the true Way.’

  Raugier nodded briskly. ‘Just so.’

  ‘May I ask how you intend to proceed?’

  ‘You may not.’

  ‘Let me outline my own understanding. You have come to assess Croad’s orthodoxy, and have been dissatisfied with Lord Thaume’s intransigence. You see no way of restoring a proper tenor while Thaume remains lord; yet equally you lack a ready means of removing him. An Instrument of Deposition would be a waste of paper, unless you had the method of enforcing it.’

  ‘Continue, if you must.’

  ‘Suppose I offered you a solution which would nullify the power of Lord Thaume and assure Croad’s orthodoxy?’

  ‘I am unclear as to how such a situation might occur.’

  Arren felt Eilla grip his arm.

  ‘I am the nephew of Lord Thaume,’ said Guigot. ‘In strict lineage, my claim to the lordship is better than Thaume’s, since my father was his elder brother. And unlike Thaume, I have no tolerance for the Wheel.’

  ‘It is fortunate we are alone. You are offering yourself as Lord of Croad if I depose Thaume?’

  ‘I am already Lord of Croad, in all but title. I was cheated of my birthright by my age. Thaume should have been my regent, but he cozened Arren into making him Lord outright.’

  ‘The legitimacy of your claim is of no interest to me,’ said Raugier with a touch of flint, ‘except in so far as it has a veneer of plausibility. I am more concerned as to the practicality of your approach.’

  ‘I have considered the matter in some detail,’ said Guigot. ‘Sign the Instrument of Deposition; send your Harmonic Perfects to his chamber at dawn; proclaim me Lord of Croad. You will need, I think, to kill Thaume. Imprisonment, possibly with gelding, will be sufficient for Oricien, and I shall marry Siedra.’

  ‘And would the people of Croad accept you?’

  ‘I will make them. The Guard are loyal to their paymaster. Since I will control the Treasury, and you speak with Arren’s voice to make me lord, they will do as they must.’

  Raugier nodded slowly. ‘There is much to ponder.’

  ‘Think fast, my lord. Such words should not hang in the air too long.’

  Raugier nodded. ‘Very well; it is the Way. But remember, Guigot: I am making you, and I can break you.’

  ‘I understand, my lord.’

  Without a further word they turned on their heels and walked in unison from the viatory. Arren, his heart pounding, signalled Eilla to silence and waited until long after the plotters’ footsteps had died away.

  4

  An hour before dawn the next morning, Lord High Viator Raugier was awoken by a deputation of Lord Thaume’s Guards, led by Captain Fleuraume, with Arren prominent among them.

  ‘You must awake now, my lord,’ said Fleuraume, his sword at Raugier’s throat.

  ‘What is this?’ said Raugier blearily through narrowed eyes. ‘I do not take kindly to your tone.’

  ‘Lord Thaume wishes to see you immediately. Your choice in the matter is limited.’

  ‘I have the full authority of King Arren. You will regret treating me in this fashion.’

  Fleuraume shrugged. ‘My orders come from Lord Thaume. That is sufficient for me.’

  Raugier was escorted unceremoniously to the Amber Room to find the Lord Thaume dressed in his black livery. Two guards pinioned Guigot’s arms; Sir Langlan and Seneschal Cyngier sat at Lord Thaume’s side, and Oricien had his back to the company as he stared from the window.

  ‘Lord Raugier,’ said Lord Thaume quietly. ‘I am glad you could join us at this early hour. I have important decisions to make.’

  ‘Indeed you do, my lord,’ said Raugier with a steely grin. ‘I suspect your conduct in the next hour will determine your fate and that of Croad.’

  ‘Let me go!’ roared Guigot. ‘This is not fitting treatment for a man of noble blood.’

  ‘Release him,’ said Lord Thaume. ‘If he makes a move to attack or escape, kill him.’

  ‘You may wish to explain the purpose of this early-morning drama,’ said Raugier. ‘I can barely see my accusers in this light, let alone rebut their lies. Am I under arrest?’

  ‘Cyngier, turn up the lanterns,’ said Lord Thaume. ‘We will have light in every sense. You were overheard, with Guigot, plotting in my own private viatory, of all places, to depose me and set my nephew up as Lord of Croad.’

  ‘The notion is nonsensical,’ said Raugier. ‘Let my accuser stand forth.’

  ‘I heard you, my lord,’ said Arren, stepping forward from among the Guards. ‘I was in the alcove opposite the altar tonight while you and Guigot decided not only to depose but to kill Lord Thaume.’

  ‘Lies!’ bellowed Guigot.

  ‘So this is my accuser?’ said Raugier. ‘May I ask what you were doing in your own Lord’s viatory at such an hour?’

  ‘Your question is irrelevant,’ said Arren.

  ‘Answer him, Arren,’ said Lord Thaume. ‘I would not have it said that I denied Raugier the chance to speak.’

  ‘I was talking to Eilla. I thought to do so in a private location,’ said Arren.

  ‘The heretic girl! The lad’s motive is all too plain. He was honeying up to his sweetheart – who I planned to see whipped today. He saw Guigot and me in the yard, and they fabricated this confection to save the girl. It is Arren who should be punished.’

  ‘You do not deny being in my viatory?’ asked Lord Thaume.

  ‘No, we were there, but the idea that we were purposing your deposition is ludicrous.’

  ‘How so? You have flaunted your writ ever since your arrival.’

  ‘Can you not see, my lord, that the boy is making a mock of you? Would you not have gone to great lengths at his age to impress your sweetheart?’

  ‘To the extent of fabricating baseless capital charges against the Lord High Viator? I think not.’

  ‘There is no evidence other than Arren’s word; and presumably that of the girl, which is worthless.’

  Your defence, if I may summarize, is that Arren and Eilla concocted false accusations to prevent you having her whipped for heresy?’

  ‘Essentially so.’

  ‘Eilla’s father was my master mason until Viator Dince had him mutilated for supposed treason. No act of mine can make up to him, or to his daughter, for what they have lost. Eilla knows that as well as I; she knows that under no circumstances would I allow her to be punished by you. Fleuraume, chain the Lord High V
iator, if you please.’

  Raugier attempted to shake off the restraint; Fleuraume applied a hold to his elbow and within seconds the chains had been secured.

  ‘Guigot, do you have anything to say?’

  Guigot glowered. ‘The conversation was in the nature of a joke.’

  ‘You do not deny that you discussed my deposition, and your own elevation?’

  ‘The conversation took place broadly as Arren described, but it was a late-night fancy, not a genuine plot.’

  ‘I did not realize that you regarded my viatory as at your disposal. Do your ‘late-night fancies’ take the form of my deposition?’

  ‘Not in that sense, my lord.’

  ‘In what sense, then, Guigot?’

  ‘It is no secret that there are circumstances under which I might have been Lord of Croad.’

  ‘They do not include the present ones.’

  ‘I cannot deny that on occasion I allow myself to think how events might have gone differently.’

  Lord Thaume shook his head. ‘That is the great misfortune of your life, Guigot: not that you failed to become Lord of Croad, but that you cannot forget it.’

  ‘In this case I was merely expressing frustration to Lord Raugier. Neither of us meant the matter seriously.’

  ‘May I ask a question?’ said Sir Langlan, lounging back in his seat. ‘Guigot, it is fair to say there is almost nothing I like about you, but one aspect of your character I relished was your adamant hostility to the viators. Suddenly I find you are going to the Viatory every day. Is this not strange?’

  Guigot shrugged. ‘‘We must all Follow the Way at our own pace.’

  ‘Lord High Viator Raugier would scarcely have elevated a rogue like you to the seat of Croad unless you showed greater piety than you had heretofore. You set out to display yourself to Raugier as a man who would bring orthodoxy to Croad. You might even have succeeded if Arren had not been by.’

  Guigot shot Arren an automatic glance of hatred. ‘You would take a baseborn boy’s word over mine?’

  ‘Arren’s father is Captain of my Guard,’ said Lord Thaume. ‘I vouch for both of their characters. Guigot, you are every bit as guilty as Raugier. I must decide how to deal with you both.’

  ‘I have recommendations on that score,’ said Sir Langlan with a wintry smile.

  ‘Fleuraume, take them both to the dungeons. I will announce my decision tonight.’

  5

  Lord Thaume had designated the Amber Room, where he had first received Lord High Viator Raugier, as the place where he would render his judgement. When Arren slipped in at the back of the room, Raugier and Guigot stood in chains before Lord Thaume’s seat, but Lord Thaume himself was not yet present. Arren wondered if, once again, he was detained in the viatory.

  Instead Lord Thaume strode into the room from his chambers, flanked by Sir Langlan and, surprisingly to Arren’s eyes, Master Pinch. Pinch had a habit of vanishing and reappearing at irregular intervals, and he had slipped away before Thaume’s visit to Glount. How the thaumaturge occupied himself during such interludes, nobody knew.

  Lord Thaume seated himself with an expressionless countenance.

  ‘Lord Raugier, I have debated your fate for much of the day. I have no doubt that you have plotted with my nephew to depose and murder me; naturally I look upon your actions with disapproval. Were I to inflict a penalty proportionate to my displeasure, you would now be hanging from the marketplace gallows.’

  He paused. Raugier looked back unflinchingly.

  ‘I make no secret,’ continued Lord Thaume, ‘that several of my counsellors recommended this course. If I were to act in accordance with my personal feelings, I too should have followed this approach. I am aware, however, that my animus is not to the point. As Lord of Croad, I must look to the welfare of my city. I must also take account of the respect due to your office, however treacherously you have discharged it. My ruling, then, is this: you are to be expelled from the city tonight, with your attendants, on pain of death. Should you ever return, with or without the King’s writ, be assured you will be hanged.’

  Raugier permitted himself a half-smile. ‘You would not dare, now or later, to kill me. You would bring a terrible retribution upon yourself.’

  ‘I have treated you with considerable leniency,’ said Lord Thaume, ‘largely at the advice of my thaumaturge Master Pinch. It is not too late for me to revoke my clemency.’

  Raugier bowed ironically. ‘If you wish to turn every man’s hand against you, and to declare your city sanctuary for every heretic in Mondia, I cannot stop you. Since you have the wisdom to listen to the counsel of Master Pinch, I am confident as to my survival.’

  Sir Langlan rose from his seat. ‘You may be assured, my lord, that I was among those who advocated, most strongly, your immediate execution. I have not given up hope that Lord Thaume chooses to make such an example of you.’

  Raugier’s eyes glittered. ‘You are a drunken, irreligious fool, Sir Langlan. You have no more concept of statecraft than a baboon. Every man in the room knows that Lord Thaume dare not touch me. This fanfaronade is designed only to disguise his impotence.’

  Lord Thaume rapped his fist against the heavy oak table. ‘Enough. You seem intent on proving the hypothesis that my patience is inexhaustible and that you may treat the Lord of Croad with contempt within his own hall.’ He paused. In his cheeks were spots of red. ‘You are correct that I do not judge it prudent to hang you out of hand: nonetheless, I now decree that the whipping you so richly deserve, and which so improved Viator Dince’s character, shall be imposed.’

  Raugier’s face blanched. ‘You intend to whip the Lord High Viator?’

  ‘Can you be surprised?’

  ‘This is treason!’

  ‘If you can persuade the King so, come back with an army. Now, will you disrobe, or must I order Serjeant Fleuraume to intervene?’

  You make a grave mistake, Thaume,’ hissed Raugier, licking his lips. ‘I am an old man. Your barbarity will return to haunt you.’

  Lord Thaume made a dismissive gesture. ‘Take him away. I have no desire to witness the matter.’

  ‘My lord, if I might—’ said Master Pinch, as Raugier was dragged kicking from the hall.

  ‘Yes, Pinch.’

  ‘This falls outside the line of conduct we discussed.’

  ‘What more do you want, Pinch? I spared his life, which he deserved to lose. Rather than being grateful for my mercy, he continued to fleer and mock.’

  ‘His rage will be the greater at a whipping than a hanging.’

  Lord Thaume gave him a puzzled look. ‘His emotions after being hanged would be of hypothetical relevance only.’

  ‘You leave a dangerous man alive to hate and fear you.’

  Lord Thaume shrugged. ‘Hate is a destructive and self-consuming passion. The man who hates is too hot of head to plan with competence.’

  ‘As you say, my lord,’ said Pinch.

  ‘In addition, he will be able to display the scars the next time he seeks to be elected Consort. He should thank me for providing him with such an electoral advantage.’

  The close of this speech was drowned out by howls from the next room. Lord High Viator Raugier was not submitting to his novel method of professional advancement with docility.

  ‘We turn now to you, Lord Guigot,’ said Lord Thaume over the cries from the ante-room. ‘You have no powerful protectors or venerable office to protect you.’

  Guigot’s eyes were coals as he glared back at Lord Thaume. ‘You have always been a cruel and unjust lord.’

  ‘Now is not the time for a litany of your grievances,’ said Lord Thaume.

  ‘I am not allowed a statement of defence or extenuation?’

  ‘Your guilt is manifest,’ said Lord Thaume from behind tense lips. ‘Have you no remorse for your acts?’

  Guigot gave a harsh laugh. ‘Remorse? For a conversation? You are over-sensitive to criticism.’

  Lord Thaume raised one eyebrow. ‘Y
our “criticism” took an unreasonably direct form.’

  Guigot shrugged. ‘Whatever decision you have arrived at, my intervention will not change it. It would be as well if you pronounced it now.’

  Lord Thaume shook his head. ‘I am giving you a chance at repentance. I cannot show mercy without it.’

  ‘Very well,’ said Guigot in a flat voice. ‘I heartily repent my acts.’

  The thin line of Lord Thaume’s self-control snapped. ‘Your father was my brother. No man could have loved and esteemed him more than I. Were it possible for me to spare you for his sake, I would do so. I am clear, however, that your character is irredeemable, and as long as you live, you remain a danger to me. You have plotted my murder, and in this game of high stakes you have failed. Tonight you shall be taken out and hanged.’ Arren noticed that his hand was shaking as Cyngier presented the warrant for signature.

  Guigot looked back at Lord Thaume a long second. There was only silence in the room. ‘I demand to make a final statement.’

  Lord Thaume nodded. ‘I cannot deny you the right.’

  Guigot drew himself up. His face was unusually pale but otherwise he seemed composed. ‘If I die tonight,’ he said, ‘I die as the only true Lord of Croad. When Lord Gaucelis died at the hands of the Northerners, with Borel at his side, the true heir to Croad was Borel’s son: namely, myself. Instead of ruling in my stead until I came of age, Thaume arrogated to himself the lordship of Croad. I had always wondered if he was conscious of the great wrong he had done me. Then I found he proposed to marry me to Duke Panarre’s lackwitted daughter Klaera, the embarrassment of one house united with that of another. If I chose to consider alternatives with the Lord High Viator, who can blame me?’

  ‘Lord Guigot,’ said Master Pinch. ‘You have used your last speech unwisely. Do not die with this bitterness on your lips. I am no advocate of the viators, but you are preparing to die in Disharmony.’

  ‘Thaume,’ said Guigot, ‘I intend to exact a terrible vengeance on you and your house. Since I will find this easier alive than dead, I prefer to avoid execution by any method. If you persist in the treacherous folly of murdering your own just lord, however, I demand my right as a nobleman to die by the sword rather than the rope.’