Below him, Beleth droned on happily.
'But Serenity – ' the guard protested.
'Just go,' said Holly Blue imperiously. 'I shall be perfectly all right.'
The guard looked at her uncertainly, then turned and marched from the chamber. His companions followed in smart order. Blue swung her gaze to the boy who'd sneaked behind a pillar to get a glimpse of her in the bath. He was a pleasant-looking creature in most peculiar clothes, but he certainly didn't look as if he had the courage to risk the sort of punishment meted out for that type of behaviour. 'Well,' she said coldly, 'are you going to explain yourself?'
'I'm sorry,' Henry told her miserably. They were no longer in the storeroom. The guards had marched him to opulent living quarters where the girl seemed entirely at home. And in charge.
'Sorry you did it or sorry you were caught?'
'Sorry I did it,' Henry said. 'I didn't mean to.' The guards had called her 'Highness' and 'Serenity'. That probably meant she was some sort of royal, maybe even a princess. He almost shuddered at the thought before another, even more awful thought caught up with it: she might be related to Pyrgus. Hadn't Pyrgus said he had a sister? Henry couldn't remember, but the idea was terrifying. If this was Pyrgus's sister, how could Henry ever look his friend in the eye again? Bad enough to peep at a strange girl, but to peep at your friend's sister
… He made a massive effort to pull himself together. 'I was just looking for somebody and I sort of came on you by accident.'
'Who were you looking for?'
'Well, anybody really,' Henry said uncomfortably. 'The whole place was so empty.' He rallied and added, 'It's not as if you were, you know, in a private bathroom. I mean, you were right out in the open with -without – right out in the open,' he tailed off lamely. 'Anybody could have seen you. I was just unlucky.' He realised what he'd said and added hurriedly, 'I mean not unlucky to have seen you that way. I mean you're very pretty, beautiful and all that, no spots or anything, but unlucky to have come across you when you didn't want to be come across. Although if you didn't want to be come across, I don't think you should take your bath out in the open like that.'
'Oh, so it was really my fault?' Blue asked icily. 'I'm the one to blame?'
'No, you're not the one to blame. I didn't say you were to blame. I just meant that if you'd taken your bath in a proper bathroom, I wouldn't have accidentally come across you. Anybody could have seen you.'
'Hardly. I ordered this wing of the palace cleared. I always do when I take a bath.'
Henry groaned inwardly. That was why the place had been deserted. The princess was taking a bath. Everyone had orders to keep well away. And he'd casually strolled in on her. He closed his eyes to shut out the embarrassment of it all. When he opened them again, he said, 'Are you Pyrgus's sister?'
Blue froze. Silent moments ticked by, then she said, 'What do you know about Pyrgus? Where have you come from? Who are you?'
'Henry Atherton,' said Henry. And told her everything.
Frowning, Blue walked to the window. 'Pyrgus is probably still all right. I've been trying not to think about it. I've carried an antidote to his poison ever since I heard about it, but there's nothing we can do until we find him.'
'I'm sorry,' Henry said. 'I don't know what's happened to Pyrgus – nobody's told me. I mean you're the first person I've talked to. Don't you know where he is? Didn't he come back to the palace?'
'He's disappeared,' said Blue shortly. 'And if we don't find him soon, the poison will kill him. It's all a bit complicated – '
He thought she might be about to say something else, but the door slammed open and an hysterical servant girl burst in. 'Mistress Blue – you must come at once! Something dreadful's happened!'
'What is it, Anna? What's happened?'
But the girl was beyond rational speech. She began to wail and rock and moan, hugging herself and weeping just inside the doorway. 'It's His Majesty, His Majesty!'
'Come on!' Blue grabbed Henry's hand and headed for the door.
They ran.
There were guards everywhere, shouting orders and getting in each other's way. One tried to stop them as they entered a corridor.
'Stand aside!' hissed Blue furiously. The guard did what he was told.
It was chaos in the corridor. 'Where are we going?' Henry asked breathlessly.
'My father's private quarters.'
There were people milling everywhere as they approached the open door. A tall man in a green cloak swept towards them. 'Serenity, you must not go in.'
'What's happened, Tithonus?' Blue demanded.
'There has been an incident involving your father.'
'What sort of accident?'
Tithonus didn't say accident, Henry thought.
Tithonus swallowed. 'Your father has been gravely injured, Princess. Very gravely injured.'
Her father was dead. It was clear as day to Henry. The adults always tried to break it to you gently, which just made things worse.
'What happened?' Holly Blue demanded.
'An intruder. He had a weapon – '
'What has happened to my father?' Blue screamed. She tried to push past, but Tithonus blocked the way.
Tithonus seemed distressed. 'Serenity, there was nothing I could do. It all happened so quickly.' He caught sight of Henry. 'Who is this boy?'
Holly Blue stared up at Tithonus, a dawning look of horror on her face. 'Is he…? Is he going to die?'
Tithonus shut his eyes briefly. 'Serenity,' he said formally, 'it is my tragic duty to tell you that your father, the Purple Emperor, is dead.'
For a moment Blue said nothing. Then she said, 'I don't believe you. I want to see him. Is he inside?'
'Serenity, it is best you don't see him. The weapon – ' Blue tried to push past again. Again Tithonus moved to stop her. 'Child,' he said, 'the weapon is not like our weapons and it was discharged at close range. Your father's face – '
A boy in purple garments emerged from the room behind Tithonus. He was pale and looked as if he might be sick at any moment.
'Comma!' Blue shouted. 'What is it? What -?'
The boy looked at her blankly, then shook his head. He seemed in a daze. 'I'm sorry, Blue,' he said.
'Tithonus,' Blue said. 'I will see my father!'
Something in her tone persuaded him to step aside. 'As you wish, Serenity. But it would be better – '
She was already pushing past him. Without a moment's hesitation, Henry followed.
He had an impression of a large, well-furnished chamber before his attention was locked on the body. Much of the face had been blown away, as if by a close shotgun blast. The smell of blood was overwhelming. A red pool had formed on the carpet.
'Daddy, no!' Blue wailed. She took a step forward. 'Daddy, Daddy, nooooo!'
Henry caught her as she fainted.
Thirty
A plump, middle-aged woman in servant's uniform ushered Henry away. 'She'll be all right, poor thing -there's doctors to look after her. But such a shock…' She pursed her lips briefly, eyes glazing with grief, then turned her attention back to Henry. 'Now, young sir, I haven't seen you before so I don't know your name.'
'It's Henry,' Henry said dully. He was shocked himself by what had happened. It was the first time he'd seen a dead body and the damage to the face was like something out of a horror movie. Except in a horror movie you didn't get the smell.
'Oh, like the Duke of Burgundy,' the woman said. She managed a small, conspiratorial smile. 'Only I don't suppose you're with the Nightside, are you?'
'No,' Henry said quickly, although he hadn't the least idea what she was talking about.
'I'm Goodwife Umber,' the woman said. 'You'll be staying at the palace, Master Henry?'
Things had suddenly got a lot more complicated than he'd bargained for. He took a deep breath and said, 'I suppose so.'
'I'll show you to a guest room. I'm glad you're staying. She'll need her friends around her at a time like this.'
The guest room was sumptuous, miles better than his room at home, although there didn't seem to be a bed.
'Sorry if it isn't what you're used to,' Goodwife Umber said anxiously. She looked Henry up and down. 'You'll be from country parts then?'
Henry nodded. He thought it best not to get into where he was really from.
'Well, you'll find fresh clothes in the wardrobe a bit more suited to the palace – just scrabble round until you get your size and if you have any problems call me. Underwear in the drawers.' She gave him a motherly grin and closed the door behind her as she left.
Henry quickly discovered the reason there was no bed in his room was that it wasn't a room but a suite. There was a bedroom off the main room and a bathroom off that with a sunken bath in the middle of the floor that was a miniature (but a large miniature) of the one where he'd seen Blue. There were earthenware jars around the edge and on investigation he found them full of scented oils. He went back to the bedroom and discovered the wardrobe Goodwife Umber had mentioned. It was, as promised, packed with clothing in a range of sizes. He picked out a green jerkin and some breeches that fitted well enough and found some soft green shoes to go with them. When he examined himself in the wardrobe mirror he had the creepy feeling he looked a bit like Pyrgus, even though the outfit was nothing like the clothes Pyrgus wore. Maybe it just meant he would fit in here, which was no bad thing.
He pushed open another door in the bedroom, vaguely imagining it might be a second built-in wardrobe, and discovered it was a little windowless study, which lighted itself mysteriously when the door opened. There was a desk and a chair and walls lined with books. It occurred to him he might learn a lot about Pyrgus's world from those books if he took the time. But he would probably learn a lot more if he explored the palace.
Henry went back to the main living room, opened the door into the corridor and looked out.
'Ah, there you are,' said Goodwife Umber, making Henry jump out of his skin. She seemed to have been standing in the corridor waiting for him. 'You'll be wanting something to eat now, I'll be bound. If you follow me, I'll get you something in the kitchens.' She looked at him approvingly as he emerged. 'Green suits you.'
'Thank you,' Henry said. The palace kitchens would be as good a place to start as any. Besides, against all odds, he was feeling peckish.
The heat of the kitchens, generated by two huge cooking ranges, met him like a wall. As he stepped inside, he had the feeling of walking into a period movie, something from Dickens or even earlier. Everything had an old-fashioned look, from the scrubbed pine tables to the haunches of meat hanging from hooks in the ceiling. He imagined the place would be a hive of activity at mealtimes. Even now there were twenty or thirty people lounging about chatting and drinking cups of something while they waited for the rush to start.
Goodwife Umber led him over to a fat woman in a cook's uniform cutting vegetables into an enormous pot. 'This is Head Cook Lattice Brown,' she whispered.
'You be nice to her or else she'll poison you.' She grinned to show she was joking, then said loudly, 'Any chance of something to eat for a starving boy, Lattice? Friend of Princess Blue.'
Lattice set down the knife and wiped her hands on a cloth. Every move was made with great deliberation. She looked at Henry from underneath her eyebrows. 'Friend of Princess Blue, is it? And does this friend have a name?'
Henry opened his mouth to answer, but Goodwife Umber beat him to it. 'He's called Henry, Lattice. Named for the Duke of Burgundy, but loyal Lighter not a Nighter, eh?'
'Duke of Burgundy's not called Henry,' Lattice said.
Goodwife Umber frowned. 'Yes he is. Henry Lucina.'
'No he isn't. It's Hamearis. You're not called Hamearis, are you?' The question was directed at Henry.
Henry shook his head. 'No, Ma'am – Henry.'
Lattice Brown grinned delightedly. 'Hear that, Goodie Lanta? Ma'am! What a nice polite young man. You just leave him here with me and I'll see he's well fed. Expect there might be a couple of kitchen maids'll want to keep him company as well, handsome lad like that.' She winked at Henry, who blushed.
Minutes later he was sitting at one of the pine tables spooning stew from a bowl, with a thick wedge of crusty bread on a plate beside it – 'for dipping,' Cook Lattice said. To his relief, no kitchen maids had joined him and, after a few curious stares, the rest of the staff quickly settled back to what they had been doing, which was mainly gossiping. Henry kept his head down and listened. Predictably, the main topic was the Emperor's murder.
'Head completely gone – '
'What, all of it?'
'So Bert told me and he's a guard. Just the stump of a neck left, but no blood. Gatekeeper reckons it was a slicer beam – only thing that cauterises as it cuts.'
'Not what I heard at all. Head wasn't cut off, just sort of bashed in. Some sort of new Nighter weapon.'
'Aye, it'll be the Nighters all right, ruddy trouble the whole bunch of them.'
'Wasn't Nighters. You know it wasn't Nighters.'
'Who's running the realm, that's what I want to know. Emperor gone, Crown Prince missing…'
'Could be the end of House Iris.' This was from a gloomy old boy staring into a pottery goblet. Two women and Cook Lattice rounded on him.
'Want to watch your mouth, Luigi.'
'It's House Iris pays your wages. Ours too.'
'There's Prince Comma – '
'Little weasel!'
'Mind your manners, girl.' This from Lattice. 'Even if he is a little weasel, he's still the Emperor's son.'
'Aye, and if you had a mother like that – '
'Shhh!' Cook Lattice looked around as if worried about being overheard.
'Why should I shush? Everybody knows the truth. No wonder poor little Comma is the way he is – blood will out, I always say.'
A woman Henry gathered was called Nell said, 'They can't make him Emperor anyway – he's too young.'
'Prince Pyrgus will turn up,' said Lattice confidently.
'But if he don't, it'll be Comma. The Gatekeeper will be his regent until he's of age. That's the way they do it. But Pyrgus will turn up, mark my words.'
'What's happened to Prince Pyrgus?' Henry asked. He'd been a bit worried about attracting any more attention to himself, but if he was to find anything out he had to ask questions.
'Nobody knows,' Lattice said. 'Sent him off through one of those silly portals and he never came back. Or if he did come back, they don't know where he's got to. Never held with them myself. Wouldn't find me trotting off to some weird world full of idiots and giants and dandruff. People there have six fingers and bright blue skin, did you know that?'
'No,' Henry said.
'Larry told me,' Cook Lattice said, without explaining who Larry was.
Nell said, 'The one who killed the Emperor didn't have blue skin.' Her face took on a smug expression. 'My Tom told me that and he was there.'
'He was there, why didn't he stop him doing it?' Luigi asked sourly.
'Well, he wasn't there when it happened,' Nell said. 'No guards at all there when it happened. But Tom was the first in afterwards. One of the first anyway. Said the old man looked just like you or me. Five fingers, ordinary skin, no dandruff. Bald, though.'
Henry felt a sudden tightness in his chest. 'You mean it was somebody from – ' what on earth had Pyrgus called it? ' – from the Analogue World who killed the Emperor?'
'Didn't you know? Old boy called Mist, Misty something like that. Emperor went to the other world to find Prince Pyrgus and brought back this old boy with him for some reason. Cook Lattice's right – nothing good ever came out of the other world. Be safer with demons, you ask me.'
'It wasn't Mist, it was Fog; well, Fogary actually,' Luigi said. 'Had some wicked weapon with him. You wonder what they were thinking of, letting him bring it through.'
'Far too trusting, the Emperor. Far too soft-hearted.'
'Won't be trusting anybody now, God rest him.'
'God rest
him!' everybody chorused, then fell silent.
After a moment, Henry said tightly, 'Fogary or Fogarty?'
'That's right,' said Luigi. 'Fogarty. The one who killed the Emperor. His name was Fogarty. They're holding him in the palace dungeons.'
'Where are these dungeons exactly?' Henry asked innocently.
The last time Henry had felt this scared was when Mr Fogarty had sent him off to rob his school. Except now was even worse. His heart was pounding so badly it sounded like a military drum. His legs felt weak and he couldn't seem to take deep enough breaths. He forced himself to walk down the steep steps to the palace dungeons.
It was a surprise when he reached the bottom. He'd been expecting something old-fashioned, like the kitchens – dark, stone-lined cells with fettered prisoners and moisture running down the walls. But the reality was something else. The stairs ended in a bright reception area that even had a pale blue carpet. He could see some cell doors off the corridor beyond, one of which lay open. The empty cell had bunk beds, a desk and chairs, much like the modern prisons he'd seen in police series on TV.
A burly guard got up from a desk and moved over to the counter to greet him. 'Something I can do for you?' he asked.
Henry uttered a silent prayer and drew a breath that still wasn't deep enough. 'Do you have a prisoner here called Fogarty?'
'What if we have?'
I will not be intimidated, Henry thought. The man wasn't really suspicious – it was just his manner. You had to be a bit peculiar if you were a prison guard. For Henry, the trick was to appear confident. 'A prisoner from the Analogue World? The man accu – the man who killed His Majesty the Emperor?'
The guard looked him up and down, but the confident tone seemed to be working. 'Matter of fact we do. You a relative or something?' Henry's heart skipped a beat before the guard suddenly guffawed. 'Relative, eh? Come to see your dear old grandad, what?'
Henry smiled back weakly. 'No, but I have come to speak to the prisoner.' This was the tricky bit. 'Orders of Princess Holly Blue.'
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