"Something we can all look forward to," Duke Ulresile said suddenly, then appeared to blush and quickly busied himself with cutting a piece of fruit.
The other men looked at him, then all smiled and exchanged knowing looks. The Doctor looked at the young man who had just spoken. I thought I saw her eyes cross for a moment.
"Just so," the King said. "Wiester."
"Your majesty?"
"Music, I think."
"Certainly, sir." Wiester turned to the musicians on the terrace behind. Quettil dismissed most of his retinue. Ulresile concentrated on eating enough to feed both the departed galkes and the Doctor returned to the King's feet, rubbing fragrant oils into the harder parts of the skin. The King sent the two shepherdesses away.
"Adlain was about to give us some news, were you not, Adlain?"
"I thought we might wait until we were inside, sir."
The King looked round. "I see nobody we cannot trust."
Quettil was looking down at the Doctor, who looked up and said, "Shall I go, sir?"
"Have you finished?"
"No, sir."
"Then stay. Providence knows I have trusted you with my life often enough and Quettil and Walen probably don't think you have the memory or the wit to be an adequate spy, so assuming that we trust young…"
"Oelph, sir," the Doctor told the King. She smiled at me. "I have found him an honest and trustworthy apprentice."
"… young Oelph here, I think we can talk with reasonable freedom. My Dukes and Guard Commander may choose to spare you their more spicy phrases, Doctor, or they may not, but I suspect you would not blush to hear them anyway. Adlain." The King turned to the Guard Commander.
"Very well, sir. There have been several reports that someone in a Sea Company delegation tried to assassinate the regicide UrLeyn, about twelve days ago."
"What?" the King exclaimed.
"I take it we must conclude that sadly this attempt did not succeed?" Walen said.
Adlain nodded. "The 'Protector' escaped unharmed."
"What Sea Company?" the King asked, eyes narrowed.
"One that probably does not really exist," Adlain said. "One that several of the others fashioned specifically to make the attempt. A single report has it that the members of the delegation died under torture without revealing anything except their own sad ignorance."
"This is due to all the talk of forming a navy," Walen said, looking at Quience. "It is foolishness, sir."
"Perhaps," the King agreed. "But foolishness we must appear to support for now." He looked at Adlain. "Contact all the ports. Send a message to each of the Companies that enjoy our favour to the effect that any further attempt on UrLeyn's life will meet with our most profound and practical displeasure."
"But sir!" Walen protested.
"UrLeyn continues to enjoy our support," the King said with a smile. "We cannot be seen to oppose him, no matter how much his demise may please us. The world is a changed place and too many people are watching Tassasen to see what happens there. We must trust to Providence that the Regicidal regime fails of its own accord and so convinces others of its wrongness. If we are seen to intervene to bring about its downfall from without we shall only persuade the sceptical that there must have been some threat — and therefore, by their way of thinking, some merit — in the enterprise."
"But sir," Walen said, leaning forward and looking past Quettil so that his old chin was almost on the table, "Providence does not always behave as we have the right to expect. I have had too many opportunities to observe this in my life, sir. Even your dear father, a man without peer in such matters, could be too prone to waiting for Providence to accomplish with most painful slowness what a quick and even merciful act could have achieved in a tenth of the time. Providence does not move with the alacrity and dispatch one might expect or desire, sir. Sometimes Providence needs to be given a nudge in the right direction." He looked defiantly round the others. "Aye, and a sharp nudge, at that."
"I thought older men usually counselled patience," Adlain said.
"Only when that is what is required," Walen told him. "Now it is not."
"Nevertheless," the King said with perfect equanimity. "What will happen to General UrLeyn will happen. I have an interest in this that you may guess at, my dear Duke Walen, but neither you nor anybody else who holds my favour worth the having may anticipate it. Patience can be a means of letting matters mature to a proper state for action, not just a way of letting time slip away."
Walen looked at the King for a good few moments, then seemed to accept what the King had said. "Forgive an old man for whom the furthest scope of patience may lie beyond that of his own grave, your majesty."
"We must hope that will not be so, for I would not wish you such an early death, dear Duke."
Walen looked reasonably mollified at this. Quettil patted his hand, which the older man seemed not so sure about. "The regicide has more to worry about than assassins, in any event," Duke Quettil said.
"Ah," the King said, sitting back with a contented look. "Our eastern problem."
"Rather say UrLeyn's western one, sir." Quettil smiled. "We have heard that he continues to send forces towards Ladenscion. Simalg and Ralboute, two of his best generals, are already in the city of Chaltoxern. They have issued an ultimatum to the barons that they must open the high passes and allow the Protectorate's forces free passage to the inner cities by Jairly's new moon, or suffer the consequences."
"And we have reason to believe that the barons" position might be more robust than UrLeyn believes," the King said, with a sly smile.
"Rather a lot of reasons," Quettil said. "In fact, about…"
he began, but the King held up one hand and made a sort of half-patting, half-waving motion and partially closed his eyes. Quettil glanced round about us and gave a small slow nod.
"Duke Ormin, sir," chamberlain Wiester said. The stooped figure of the Duke Ormin came awkwardly up the path.
He halted by the tall map case, smiling and bowing. "Sir. Ah, Duke Quettil."
"Ormin!" the King said (Quettil gave the most perfunctory of nods). "Good to see you. How is your wife?"
"Much better, sir. A slight fever, no more."
"Sure you don't want Vosill here to take a look at her?"
"Quite sure, sir," Ormin said, raising himself up on his feet to look over the table. 'Ah, Doctor Vosill."
"Sir," the Doctor said to the Duke, bobbing briefly.
"Come and sit with us," the King said. He looked around. Duke Walen, would you — no, no." Duke Walen's face had taken on the look of a man told a poisonous insect has just fallen into his riding boot. "You moved before, didn't you… Adlain, would you make room for the Duke?"
"With pleasure, sir."
"Ah, a most magnificent map," Duke Ormin said as he took his seat.
"Isn't it?" the King said.
"Sir? Your majesty?" the young man to Walen's right piped up.
"Duke Ulresile," the King said.
"Might I go to Ladenscion?" the young Duke asked. He appeared at last to be animated and even excited. When he had expressed his anticipation at seeing the Doctor dressed for a ball he had seemed only to make himself more callow. Now he appeared enthused, his expression passionate. "I and a few friends? We have all the military means and a good number of men. We would put ourselves under the authority of whatever baron you most trust and would gladly fight for the-"
"My good Ulresile," the King said. "Your enthusiasm does you no end of credit, but grateful though I am for the expression of such an ambition, its fulfilment would lead only to my fury and contempt."