“Very well.” No delicate way to say it. I doubt that delicacy will serve us here in any case. “It has come to my attention, your Majesty, that you have not been performing your duties as a wife.”
Terez’ long, thin neck seemed to stretch with indignation. “How dare you? That is none of your concern!”
“I am afraid that it is. Heirs for the king, you see. The future of the state, and so forth.”
“This is insufferable!” The queen’s face was white with fury. The Jewel of Talins flashes fire indeed. “I must eat your repulsive food, I must tolerate your dreadful weather, I must smile at the rambling mutterings of your idiot king! Now I must answer to his grotesque underlings? I am kept prisoner here!”
Glokta looked round at the beautiful room. The opulent hangings, the gilt furnishings, the fine paintings. The two beautiful women in their beautiful clothes. He dug one tooth sourly into the underside of his tongue. “Believe me. This is not what a prison looks like.”
“There are many kinds of prison!”
“I have learned to live with worse, and so have others.” You should see what my wife has to put up with.
“To share my bed with some disgusting bastard, some scarred son of who knows what, to have some stinking, hairy man pawing at me in the night!” The queen gave a shiver of revulsion. “It is not to be borne!”
Tears shone in her eyes. Her lady-in-waiting rushed forward, dress rustling, and knelt beside her, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. Terez reached up, pressed her own hand on top of it. The queen’s companion stared at Glokta with naked hatred. “Get out! Out, cripple, and never come back! You have upset her Majesty!”
“I have a gift for it,” muttered Glokta. “One reason why I am so widely hated…” He trailed off, frowning. He stared at their two hands on Terez’ shoulder. There was something in that touch. Comforting, soothing, protective. The touch of the committed friend, the trusted confidante, the sisterly companion. But there is more than that. Too familiar. Too warm. Almost like the touch of… Ah.
“You don’t have much use for men, do you?”
The two women looked up at him together, then Shalere snatched her hand away from the queen’s shoulder. “I will have your meaning!” barked Terez, but her voice was shrill, almost panicked.
“I think you know my meaning well enough.” And my task is made a great deal easier. “Some help here!” Two hulking Practicals barged through the doors. And as quickly as that, everything is changed. Amazing, the spice that two big men can add to a conversation. Some kinds of power are only tricks of the mind. I learned that well, in the Emperor’s prisons, and my new master has only reinforced the lesson.
“You would not dare!” shrieked Terez, staring at the masked arrivals with wide eyes. “You would not dare to touch me!”
“As luck would have it, I doubt it will be necessary, but we will see.” He pointed at the Countess. “Seize that woman.”
The two black-masked men tramped across the thick carpet. One moved a chair out of his way with exaggerated care.
“No!” The queen sprang up, grabbing Shalere’s hand in hers. “No!”
“Yes,” said Glokta.
The two women backed away, clinging to each other, Terez in front, shielding the Countess with her body, teeth bared in a warning snarl as the two great shadows approached. One might almost be touched by their evident care for one another, if one was capable of being touched at all. “Take her. But no marks on the queen, if you please.”
“No!” screamed Terez. “I’ll have your heads for this! My father… my father is—”
“On his way back to Talins, and I doubt he’ll be starting a war over your friend since birth, in any case. You are bought and paid for, and Duke Orso does not strike me as the type to renege on a deal.”
The two men and the two women lurched around the far end of the room in an ungainly dance. One of the Practicals seized the Countess by one wrist, dragged her away from the queen’s clutching hand and forced her down onto her knees, twisting her arms behind her, snapping heavy irons shut on her wrists. Terez shrieked, punched, kicked, clawed at the other, but she might as well have vented her fury on a tree. The huge man barely moved, his eyes every bit as emotionless as the mask below them.
Glokta found that he was almost smiling as he watched the ugly scene. I may be crippled, and hideous, and in constant pain, but the humiliation of beautiful women is one pleasure I can still enjoy. I do it now with threats and violence, instead of with soft words and entreaties, but still. Almost as much fun as it ever was.
One of the Practicals forced a canvas bag over Shalere’s head, turning her cries to muffled sobs, then marched her helplessly across the room. The other stayed where he was for a moment, keeping the queen herded into the corner. Then he backed off towards the door. On his way he picked up the chair he had moved and carefully put it back exactly as he had found it.
“Curse you!” Terez screeched, her clenched fists trembling as the door clicked shut and left the two of them alone. “Curse you, you twisted bastard! If you harm her—”
“It will not come to that. Because you have the means of her deliverance well within your grasp.”
The queen swallowed, chest heaving. “What must I do?”
“Fuck.” The word somehow sounded twice as ugly in the beautiful surroundings. “And bear children. I will give the Countess seven days in the darkness, unmolested. If, at the end of that time, I do not hear that you have set the king’s cock on fire every night, I will introduce her to my Practicals. Poor fellows. They get so little exercise. Ten minutes each should do the trick, but there are plenty of them, in the House of Questions. I daresay we can keep your childhood friend quite busy night and day.”
A spasm of horror passed over Terez’ face. And why not? This is a low chapter even for me. “If I do as you ask?”
“Then the Countess will be kept quite safe and sound. Once you are verifiably with child, I will return her to you. Things can be as they are now, during the period of your confinement. Two boys, as heirs, two girls, to marry off, and we can be done with one another. The king can find his entertainment elsewhere.”
“But, that will take years!”
“You could get it done in three or four, if you really ride him hard. And you might find it makes everyone’s lives easier if you at least pretend to enjoy it.”
“Pretend?” she breathed.
“The more you seem to like it, the quicker it will be over. The cheapest whore on the docks can squeal for her coppers when the sailors stick her. Are you telling me you cannot squeal for the king of the Union? You offend my patriotic sensibilities! Uh!” he gasped, rolling his eyes in a parody of ecstasy. “Ah! Yes! Just there! Don’t stop!” He curled his lip at her. “You see? Even I can do it! A liar of your experience should have no difficulty.”
Her teary eyes darted round the room, as though she were looking for some way out. But there is none. The noble Arch Lector Glokta, protector of the Union, great heart of the Closed Council, paragon of the gentlemanly virtues, displays his flair for politics and diplomacy. He felt some tiny stirring within him as he watched her wretched desperation, some negligible flutter in his guts. Guilt, perhaps? Or indigestion? It hardly matters which, I have learned my lesson. Pity never works for me.
He took one more slow step forward. “Your Majesty, I hope you fully understand the alternative.”
She nodded, and wiped her eyes. Then she proudly raised up her chin. “I will do as you ask. Please, I beg of you, do not hurt her… please…”
Please, please, please. Many congratulations, your Eminence. “You have my word. I will see the Countess has only the best of treatment.” He licked gently at the sour gaps in his teeth. “And you will do the same with your husband.”