‘Someone’s com­ing!’ Burrich flattened him­self. I lay back, resigned to whatever happened. I had no phys­ical fight left in me. ‘Do you know her?’ Burrich breathed.

  I turned my head. Jon­qui, pre­ceded by a little dog that would never climb a tree for Rurisk again. ‘The King’s sis­ter.’ I didn’t bother whis­per­ing. She was car­ry­ing one of my night­shirts, and an in­stant later the tiny dog was leap­ing joy­ously around us. He romped in­vit­ingly at Nosy, but Nosy just looked at him mourn­fully. An in­stant later, Jon­qui strode up to us.

  ‘You must come back,’ she said to me without pre­amble. ‘And you must hurry.’

  ‘Hard enough to come back,’ I told her, ‘without hur­ry­ing to my death.’ I was watch­ing be­hind her for other track­ers. Burrich had risen and taken a de­fens­ive pos­ture over me.

  ‘No death,’ she prom­ised me calmly. ‘Kettricken has for­given you. I have been coun­selling her since last night, but only lately con­vinced her. She has in­voked her kin-right to for­give kin for in­jury to kin. By our law, if kin for­give kin, no other can do oth­er­wise. Your Regal sought to dis­suade her, but only made her angry. “Here, while I am in this palace, I can still in­voke the law of the Moun­tain People,” she told him. King Eyod agreed. Not be­cause he does not mourn Rurisk, but be­cause the strength and wis­dom of Jhaampe law must be re­spec­ted, by all. So, you must come back.’

  I con­sidered. ‘And have you for­given me?’

  ‘No,’ she snorted. ‘I do not for­give my nephew’s mur­derer. But I can­not for­give you for what you did not do. I do not be­lieve you would drink wine you had poisoned. Not even a little. Those of us who know best the dangers of pois­ons tempt them least. You would have just pre­ten­ded to drink, and never spoken of poison at all. No. This was done by someone who be­lieves him­self very clever, and be­lieves oth­ers are very stu­pid.’

  I felt rather than saw Burrich lower his guard. But I couldn’t com­pletely re­lax. ‘Why can’t Kettricken just for­give me and let me go away? Why must I come back?’

  ‘There is no time for this!’ Jon­qui hissed, and it was the closest I had seen to an angry Chy­urda. ‘Shall I take months and years to teach you all I know about bal­ances? For a pull, a push, for a breath, a sigh? Do you think no one can feel how power slews and tilts just now? A prin­cess must en­dure be­ing bartered away like a cow. But my niece is not a play­ing-piece to be won in a dice game. Who­ever killed my nephew clearly wished you to die also. Shall I let him win that toss? I think not. I do not know whom I wish to win; un­til I do, I will let no player be elim­in­ated.’

  ‘That’s lo­gic I un­der­stand,’ Burrich said ap­prov­ingly. He stooped and hauled me sud­denly to my feet. The world rocked alarm­ingly. Jon­qui came to put her shoulder un­der my other arm. They walked and my feet ma­ri­on­et­ted across the ground between them. Nosy heaved him­self to his feet and fol­lowed. And so we re­turned to the palace at Jhaampe.

  Burrich and Jon­qui took me right through the people gathered through­out the grounds and palace to my room. Ac­tu­ally, I ex­cited little in­terest. I was just an out­lander who had had too much wine and smoke last night. People were too ab­sorbed in find­ing good places from which to view the dais to worry about me. There was no air of mourn­ing, so I as­sumed the word of Rurisk’s death had not been re­leased. When we fi­nally entered my room, Jon­qui’s pla­cid face darkened.

  ‘I did not do this! I only took a night­shirt, to give Ruta a scent.’

  ‘This’ was the dis­as­sembly of my room. It had been thor­oughly if not dis­creetly done. Jon­qui im­me­di­ately set to put­ting things right, and after a mo­ment Burrich helped her. I sat in a chair and tried to make sense of the situ­ation. Nosy, un­noticed, curled up in a corner. Un­think­ingly, I ex­ten­ded com­fort to him. Burrich im­me­di­ately glanced at me, then at the woe­be­gone dog. He looked away. When Jon­qui left to fetch wash-wa­ter and food for me, I asked Burrich, ‘Have you found a tiny wooden chest? Carved with acorns?’

  He shook his head. So they had taken my poison-cache. I would have liked to pre­pare an­other dag­ger, or even a powder to fling. Burrich could not al­ways be be­side me to pro­tect me, and I cer­tainly couldn’t fend off an at­tacker, or run away in my present con­di­tion. But my trade-tools were gone. I would have to hope I wouldn’t need them. I sus­pec­ted Rowd was the one who had been here, and wondered if this had been his last act. Jon­qui re­turned with wa­ter and food, and then ex­cused her­self. Burrich and I shared wash-wa­ter, and with some help I man­aged to change into clean, if simple, clothes. Burrich ate an apple. My stom­ach quailed at the mere thought of food, but I drank the wa­ter, cold from the well, that Jon­qui had brought me. Get­ting my throat muscles to swal­low still took con­scious ef­fort, and I felt as if the wa­ter sloshed un­pleas­antly in­side me. But I sus­pec­ted it was good for me.

  I felt each mo­ment tick­ing by, and wondered when Ga­len would make his move.

  The screen slid aside. I looked up, ex­pect­ing Jon­qui again, but Au­gust entered on a wave of con­tempt. He spoke im­me­di­ately, anxious to do his er­rand and de­part. ‘I do not come here of my own vo­li­tion. I come at the bid­ding of the King-in-Wait­ing, Ver­ity, to speak his words for him. This is his mes­sage, ex­actly. He is grieved bey­ond telling by …’

  ‘You Skilled to him? Today? Was he well?’

  Au­gust seethed at my ques­tion. ‘He was scarcely well. He is grieved bey­ond telling at Rurisk’s death, and at your be­trayal. He bids you draw strength from those around you loyal to you, for you will need it to face him.’

  ‘Is that all?’ I asked.

  ‘From the King-in-Wait­ing, Ver­ity, it is. Prince Regal bids you at­tend upon him, and swiftly, for the time of the ce­re­mony is only hours away, and he must be at­tired for it. And your cow­ardly poison, no doubt meant for Regal, has found poor Sevrens and Rowd. Now Regal must do with an un­trained valet. It will take him longer to dress. So do not keep him wait­ing. He is in the steams, to try to re­store him­self. You may find him there.’

  ‘How tra­gic for him. An un­trained valet,’ Burrich said acidly.

  Au­gust puffed up like a toad. ‘It is scarcely hu­mor­ous. Have not you lost Cob as well to this scoun­drel? How can you bear to aid him?’

  ‘If your ig­nor­ance were not pro­tect­ing you, Au­gust, I might dis­pel it.’ Burrich stood, look­ing dan­ger­ous.

  ‘You, too, will face charges,’ Au­gust warned him as he re­treated. ‘I am to say to you, Burrich, that King-in-Wait­ing Ver­ity is not un­aware of how you at­temp­ted to help the bas­tard es­cape, serving him as if he were your king in­stead of Ver­ity. You will be judged.’

  ‘Did Ver­ity say so?’ Burrich asked curi­ously.

  ‘He did. He said you were once the best of King’s men to Chiv­alry, but ap­par­ently you had for­got­ten how to aid those who truly serve the King. Re­call it, he bids you, and as­sures you of his great wrath if you do not re­turn to stand be­fore him and re­ceive what your deeds merit.’

  ‘I re­call it only too well. I will bring Fitz to Regal.’

  ‘Now?’

  ‘As soon as he has eaten.’

  Au­gust glowered at him and left. Screens can­not be ef­fect­ively slammed, but he tried.

  ‘I have no stom­ach to eat, Burrich,’ I pro­tested.

  ‘I know that. But we need time for this. I marked Ver­ity’s choice of words, and found more in them than Au­gust did. Did you?’

  I nod­ded, feel­ing de­feated. ‘I un­der­stood also. But it is bey­ond me.’

  ‘Are you sure? Ver­ity does not think so, and he knows of such things. And you told me that was why Cob tried to kill me, be­cause they sus­pec­ted you of draw­ing on my strength. So Ga­len be­lieves you can do it, too.’ Burrich crossed to me, and went down stiffly on one knee. His bad leg stretched awk­wardly be­hind him. He took my lax hand and placed it on his shoulder. ‘I was King’s man to Chiv­alry,’ he told me quietly. ‘Ver­ity knew it. I have no Skill my­self, you un­der­stand. But Chiv­alry gave me to un­der­stand that for such a tak­ing, it was not as im­port­ant as the friend­ship between us. I have strength, and there were some few times that he needed it, and I gave it will­ingly. So I have with­stood this be­fore, in worse cir­cum­stances. Try, boy. If we fail, we fail, but at least we will have tried.’

  ‘I don’t know how. I don’t know how to Skill, and I cer­tainly don’t know how to tap someone else’s strength to do it. And even if I did, if I suc­ceeded, I might kill you.’

  ‘If you suc­ceed, our king may live. That is what I am sworn to. And you?’ He made it all seem so simple.

  So I tried. I opened my mind, I reached for Ver­ity. I tried, with no idea how, to draw strength from Burrich. But all I heard was the twit­ter­ing of birds out­side the palace walls, and Burrich’s shoulder was only a place to rest my hand. I opened my eyes. I didn’t have to tell him I’d failed; he knew. He sighed heav­ily.

  ‘Well. I sup­pose I take you to Regal,’ he said.

  ‘If we did not go, we would be forever curi­ous as to what he wanted,’ I ad­ded.

  Burrich did not smile. ‘You have a fey mood on you,’ he said. ‘You sound more like the Fool than your­self.’

  ‘Does the Fool talk to you?’ I asked curi­ously.

  ‘Some­times,’ he said, and took my arm to help me up.

  ‘It seems as if the closer I walk to death,’ I told him, ‘the fun­nier everything seems.’

  ‘To you, per­haps,’ he said crossly. ‘I won­der what he wants.’

  ‘To bar­gain. There can be noth­ing else. And if he wants to bar­gain, we may be able to gain some­thing.’

  ‘You speak as if Regal fol­lows the same rules of com­mon sense as the rest of us. I’ve never known him to do that. And I’ve al­ways hated court in­trigue,’ Burrich com­plained. ‘I’d rather clean stalls.’ He pulled me again to my feet.

  If I had ever wondered how dead­root felt to its vic­tim, I knew it now. I did not think I would die of it. But I did not know how much of a life it would leave me either. My legs trembled un­der me, and my grip was un­cer­tain. I could feel ran­dom muscle-twitches through­out my body. Neither my breath, nor the beat­ing of my heart was pre­dict­able. I longed to be still, where I could listen to my own body and de­cide what had been done to it. But Burrich guided my steps pa­tiently, and Nosy drooped along be­hind us.

  I had not been to the steams be­fore, but Burrich had. A sep­ar­ate tulip bud en­closed a bub­bling hot spring, tamed to use as a bath. A Chy­urda stood out­side it; I re­cog­nized him as the torch-bearer from the night be­fore. If he thought any­thing odd about my re­appear­ance, he did not show it. He stepped aside as if ex­pect­ing us, and Burrich dragged me up the steps to enter.

  Clouds of steam fogged the air, car­ry­ing a min­eral scent with them. We passed a stone bench or two; Burrich walked care­fully on the smooth tile floor as we ap­proached the source of the steam. The wa­ter rose in a cent­ral spring, with bricked sides built up around it to con­tain it. From there it was chan­nelled in troughs to other, smal­ler baths, vary­ing the heat by the length of the trough and the depth of the pond. The steam and the noise of the fall­ing wa­ter filled the air. I did not find it pleas­ant; I la­boured just to breathe already. My eyes ad­jus­ted to the dim­ness, and I saw Regal soak­ing in one of the lar­ger baths. He looked up at our ap­proach.

  ‘Ah,’ he said, as if well-pleased. ‘Au­gust told me Burrich would bring you. Well. I sup­pose you know the Prin­cess has for­given your murder of her brother? And in this place, at least, by do­ing so she pre­serves you from justice. I think it a waste of time, but local cus­toms must be hon­oured. She says she con­siders you part of her kin-group now, and so I must treat you as kin. She fails to un­der­stand you were not born of a law­ful union, and hence have no kin-rights at all. Ah, well. Will you dis­miss Burrich and join me in the springs? It might ease you. You look very un­com­fort­able, held up like a shirt on the wash­ing-line.’ He spoke so gen­i­ally, so af­fably, as if un­aware of my hatred.

  ‘What do you wish to tell me, Regal?’ I kept my voice flat.

  ‘Will not you send Burrich away?’ he asked again.

  ‘I am not a fool.’

  ‘One could ar­gue that, but very well. I sup­pose I must send him away, then.’

  The steam and the noise of the wa­ters had cloaked the Chy­urda well. He was taller than Burrich, and his cudgel was already in mo­tion as Burrich turned. If he hadn’t been sup­port­ing my weight, he could have avoided it. Burrich turned his head, but the cudgel hit his skull with a ter­rible, sharp sound, like an axe bit­ing wood. Burrich fell, and I with him. I landed half in one of the smal­ler ponds. It was not scald­ing, but nearly so. I man­aged to roll out of it, but could not re­gain my feet. My legs would not obey me. Burrich be­side me lay very still. I reached a hand to­ward him, but could not touch him.

  Regal stood up, and mo­tioned to the Chy­urda. ‘Dead?’

  The Chy­urda stirred Burrich with a foot, gave a curt nod.

  ‘Good.’ Regal was briefly pleased. ‘Drag him back be­hind that deep tank in the corner. Then you may go.’ To me, he said, ‘It’s un­likely any­one will be com­ing in here un­til after the ce­re­mony. They’re too busy jost­ling for po­s­i­tions. And back in that corner … well, I doubt if he’ll be found be­fore you are.’

  I could make no re­sponse. The Chy­urda stooped and seized Burrich by the ankles. As he dragged him away, the dark brush of his hair feathered a trail of blood on the tiles. A dizzy­ing mix­ture of hatred and des­pair rolled with the poison through my blood. A cold pur­pose rose and set in me. I could not hope to live now, but it did not seem im­port­ant. Warn­ing Ver­ity did. And aven­ging Burrich. I had no plans, no weapons, no pos­sib­il­it­ies. So play for time, Chade’s coun­sels ad­vised me. The more time you cre­ate for your­self, the bet­ter the chance that some­thing will present it­self. Delay him. Per­haps someone will come to see why the Prince is not dress­ing for the wed­ding. Per­haps someone else will want to use the steams be­fore the ce­re­mony. En­gage him some­how.

  ‘The Prin­cess …’ I began.

  ‘Is not a prob­lem,’ Regal fin­ished for me. ‘The Prin­cess did not for­give Burrich. Only you. What I have done to him is well within my rights. He is a traitor. He must pay. And the man dis­pos­ing of him was most fond of his Prince Rurisk. He has no ob­jec­tions to any of this.’

  The Chy­urda left the steams without a glance back. My hands scrabbled weakly on the smooth tile floor but found no pur­chase. Regal busily dried him­self all the while. When the man was gone, he came to stand over me. ‘Aren’t you go­ing to call for help?’ he asked brightly.

  I took a breath, pushed down my fear. I mustered as much con­tempt for Regal as I could find. ‘To whom? Who would hear me over the wa­ter?’

  ‘So you save your strength. Wise. Point­less, but wise.’

  ‘Do you think Kettricken will not know what happened?’

  ‘She will know you went to the steams, un­wisely in your con­di­tion. You slipped be­neath the hot, hot wa­ter. Such a shame.’

  ‘Regal, this is mad­ness. How many bod­ies do you think you can leave in your wake? How will you ex­plain Burrich’s death?’

  ‘To your first ques­tion, quite a few, as long as they are not people of con­sequence.’ He stooped over me, and gripped my shirt. He dragged me while I thrashed weakly, a fish out of wa­ter. ‘And to your second, well, the same. How much fuss do you think any­one will raise over a dead sta­ble­man? You are so ob­sessed with your ple­beian self-im­port­ance that you ex­tend it to your ser­vants.’ He dumped me care­lessly half on top of Burrich. His still-warm body sprawled face-down on the floor. Blood was con­geal­ing on the tiles around his face, and still drip­ping from his nose. A slow bubble of blood formed on his lips, broke with his faint ex­hal­a­tion. He lived yet. I shif­ted to con­ceal it from Regal. If I could sur­vive, Burrich might have a chance also.

  Regal no­ticed noth­ing. He tugged my boots off and set them aside. ‘You see, bas­tard,’ he said as he paused to catch his breath. ‘Ruth­less­ness cre­ates its own rules. So my mother taught me. People are in­tim­id­ated by a man who acts with no ap­par­ent re­gard for con­sequences. Be­have as if you can­not be touched and no one will dare to touch you. Look at the whole situ­ation. Your death will an­ger some people, yes. But enough to make them take ac­tions that would af­fect the se­cur­ity of the whole Six Duch­ies? I think not. Be­sides, your death will be ec­lipsed by other things. I’d be a fool not to take this op­por­tun­ity to re­move you.’ Regal was so dam­nably calm, and su­per­ior. I fought him, but he was sur­pris­ingly strong for the in­dul­gent life he led. I felt like a kit­ten as he shook me out of my shirt. He fol­ded my clothes neatly and set them aside. ‘Min­imal alibis will work. If I made too much ef­fort to ap­pear guilt­less, people might think I cared. They might start then to pay at­ten­tion them­selves. So, I simply know noth­ing. My man saw you enter with Burrich after I had left. And I go now to com­plain to Au­gust that you never came to talk with me so that I might for­give you, as I had prom­ised Prin­cess Kettricken. I will rep­rim­and Au­gust most severely for not bring­ing you him­self.’ He looked around. ‘Let’s see. A nice deep hot one. Right here.’ I clutched at his throat as he levered me up to the edge, but he shook me off eas­ily.

  ‘Good­bye, bas­tard,’ he said calmly. ‘Par­don my haste, but you have quite delayed me. I must rush to dress my­self. Or I shall be late for the wed­ding.’