‘Quillata? In Cheveran? Doesn’t she hate water?’
‘I’m not sure if he meant her or not, now that I think about it. It was one of the original twelve, and a woman – so he might have meant Dara. You know it’s not a very precise language.’
‘So has he found any signs of the jewels?’
I sighed. ‘No. He’s been moving steadily north and found himself in a bit of a jam when he was taken by that band of brigands.’
‘So now he leads them?’
‘He convinced them he could provide them with a better living than his predecessor,’ I said.
‘How did he manage that?’
‘He killed his predecessor.’
Kest’s eyes narrowed, but I put up a hand. ‘He swears the man was a butcher and it was a fair fight. Anyway,’ I said, and stopped to pull Monster away from what was left of the bush she’d taken a fancy to. She gave me one of those strange growls of hers to remind me that we had a truce, not a relationship. ‘Anyway, Cunien’s band has grown solidly since he’s been able to keep them better fed and less wounded.’
‘He has the makings of a small army there,’ Kest mused.
‘Forty men, well trained and armed. But he’s moving them further north as he searches for word of the Charoites. Since we don’t know what they look like, they could be anywhere, and knowing King Paelis, they’re as likely to be in a small village as a great city.’
‘Has he managed to find out if there are more than one of these Charoites?’
‘No, but I suspect there is. Paelis liked to spread his bets, didn’t he?’
Kest looked at the twilight sky. ‘Falcio, how are we supposed to find these things? Five years now, we’ve been living on rumours and gossip and hope. What are the chances, really, that we’ll ever find anything?’
‘I don’t know,’ I admitted, ‘but we’d better do it before the Dukes finally solidify their hold on the throne. This “Council of Regents” isn’t going to serve them half as well as a genuine Queen in their pocket. With Tremondi dead, and the possibility of the Greatcoats becoming wardens of the trade routes with him, there’s really nothing stopping them.’
‘Then why not kill Valiana and at least slow them down?’ Kest asked. I admired him for using her name when he was talking about murder.
‘Has it occurred to you that she is not actually the best choice?’ I asked.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, if you had plotted for almost eighteen years to take over the kingdom with a puppet Princess as the sovereign, wouldn’t you – I don’t know – train her a little better?’
‘She’s reasonably petty and vain – what qualifications does she lack in your mind?’
I thought about that for a moment. ‘Cruelty,’ I said finally. ‘I mean, wouldn’t you have expected someone a little more calculating?’
‘I don’t know, but I think you’re reaching here.’
‘Describe her mother,’ I told Kest.
‘The Duchess of Hervor?’ And when I nodded, he went on, marking each property on his fingers, ‘Cold, calculating, but also brilliant – and bold, too. She’s a tyrant’s tyrant.’
‘I can certainly attest to all of that,’ I said. ‘So why hasn’t she trained her daughter better? Valiana is arrogant and demanding, but she’s not heartless. And what about the girl, Aline? When the Duke of Rijou finds out his puppet Princess is harbouring someone he has personally marked for death, he’s not likely to be thrilled, is he? He signed Valiana’s Patents of Lineage at Rijou, so she can present herself before the Council of Regents, but that doesn’t mean he can’t hurt her in the meantime – there are any number of ways he can manipulate his fellow Dukes against her.’
‘This is politics, Falcio,’ Kest said impatiently, ‘politics and philosophy and strategy. You sound like the King when you talk like this, and that makes me nervous.’
‘You don’t think it matters if the Dukes take the throne for ever?’
‘Of course I do. That’s why I’m going to wait for the right time and then kill Valiana. I waited for you, Falcio – I waited even longer than I’d promised. You wanted to go off and try to save a little girl in the hope that somehow you’d find the answer to stopping the Dukes’ conspiracy? Well, you didn’t. The girl’s alive and that’s all well and good, but it doesn’t change anything that I can see, so I’m going to do what you won’t do and kill Valiana. And if I can get her bitch mother in the process, I’m going to do that too. And if you had a brain left in your head you’d be with me on this. You’d be the one—’
‘Don’t start with that again, Kest,’ I said. ‘I’m tired and I’m sore and a man dropped a longsword on my head back there. Give it some time.’
I couldn’t believe I was even considering his plan. Had we really fallen this far?
‘Brasti’s with me on this, Falcio,’ Kest said quietly. ‘He hasn’t wanted to say it, but he is.’
‘So that’s all the great minds of the Greatcoats heard from.’
Kest sighed and said, ‘Where did we all go, Falcio?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean, how is it that we all split apart so fast? Quillata, Dara, Nile, Jakin, Old Tobb … there were a hundred and forty-four of us, and yet in five years we’ve encountered no more than two or three of the others.’
‘I think that’s how the King wanted it,’ I said. ‘He wanted to make sure we weren’t together, because that would make us too dangerous to the Dukes, and sooner or later they’d send an army after us.’
Kest smiled. ‘They’d have to, wouldn’t they? A hundred and forty-four Greatcoats riding across the land on horseback, swords drawn and coat-tails flying in the wind as we scream war-songs for bloody justice in the world – that would be a sight to see, wouldn’t it?’
I couldn’t speak. It would indeed have been a sight – it was the sight I had believed we would see when the Dukes sent their armies to Castle Aramor: the entire Greatcoats force, arrayed against an army fifty times our size, but with not one tenth of our skill or passion. It would indeed have been a sight to see.
But I had given the order to stand down, and instead we had shuffled past like stooped old folks begging for food. One of the Dukes’ generals gave us our pardons while his men dragged the King off to the top of that same tower where his father had kept him locked up all those years.
Kest’s hand on my shoulder shook me from my thoughts. He pointed to Feltock, who was riding back towards us. We had fallen quite a way behind the caravan, but the captain had insisted we make sure we weren’t followed.
‘We’re not far from Orison now,’ Feltock announced. ‘An escort from Perault, Duke of Orison, has arrived to take us into the city.’
‘That’s good,’ I said, yawning. ‘I wouldn’t suffer from a decent bed tonight.’
‘No, that’s bad,’ the captain said. ‘We never asked for an escort from Orison, and we never planned on going into the city.’
‘Kill me now,’ I told Kest as I mounted Monster and urged her to a trot.
‘I suspect that’s precisely what they have in mind,’ he replied.
There were forty of them, all in armour and all on horseback. I counted eight with crossbows and short-swords at their sides and the rest armed with war-swords and lances. They were arrayed in four rows, and between the third and forth was an elaborate carriage led by four horses and carrying the banner of Orison.
A man stepped out of the carriage. He was slightly taller than me and well groomed, with short dark hair and a well-trimmed beard in the military style. He wore a dark blue jerkin and matching trousers with high black boots; a short cloak was slung around his shoulders. The rapier at his side marked him as a duellist and the crest on his right breast revealed him to be Perault, Duke of Orison.