‘But I can’t be one of— I’m not qualified or trained or …’
‘Says who?’ the Tailor asked. ‘You’ve studied the laws, King’s and Dukes’ alike, haven’t you?’
‘I had to, to prepare for—’
‘And I’ll bet Hervor had you take sword lessons just to make sure her little vixen could be there with you to learn how to stick the pointy end in someone’s back.’
‘Yes, but I was never all that good at it.’
The Tailor chuckled. ‘Well, neither are these three, and they do all right on occasion. Don’t worry, girl. Being a Greatcoat isn’t just about judgin’ and ridin’ and swingin’ a sword, no matter what these fools tell you.’
She straightened the lapel of Valiana’s greatcoat. ‘But that’s for later. For now, you’ve got to take the oath.’
‘What oath?’ Valiana asked.
‘Well now, if it was just as easy as someone telling you what to say, then it wouldn’t be much of an oath, would it?’
Valiana looked around at us. ‘I don’t understand – do you want me to swear fealty to the Greatcoats? Or the King’s memory? Or some Saint?’
‘Is that what you believe in? What you want to die for? Cos, make no mistake, girl, the end of this road is a shallow, dirty ditch with your corpse in it.’
Valiana looked into the Tailor’s eyes for a moment, then looked away. ‘No,’ she said softly, ‘I don’t … disbelieve in those things, but then, I don’t know what it means to believe in anything, really. My life was always about me, and so was everyone else’s life around me, too. I don’t even know what I should care about. I never made a promise to anyone else, except—’
She looked at Aline, who was sitting down on a stool, looking at her hands.
‘—you,’ she said. ‘I promised you I’d protect you, didn’t I?’
Aline nodded and sniffed a little.
Valiana looked to the Tailor. ‘Is that—?’
The Tailor put a hand on her face and then gave her a light, almost affectionate slap. ‘No one can tell you but yourself. That’s what being free means – not the right to do whatever you want, but the right to take a stand and say what you’ll die for.’
Valiana stood motionless for a moment and then knelt before Aline and took her hand. ‘Listen, I don’t know what any of this means. I don’t know who I am or how long I have to live. I thought I was the most important girl in the world and now it turns out I’m worth nothing, not even the coat on my back. I’m not innocent – I know that now. Just being ignorant doesn’t mean I’m free of guilt. But you are. You didn’t do anything wrong, and now people are coming to – well, they’re coming to do bad things. And you didn’t do anything wrong. You should have the right to live and figure out who you want to be. I’m not strong, and I don’t know how to use a sword, not really anyway. But I think – I think I can be brave, or I can try, at least. I think that if someone tries to kill you I could … I don’t know, put myself in front of you. I don’t know how well I can fight, or run, or judge, but when the blade comes, I swear on whatever they want me to swear on, I’ll stop it, with my body if nothing else.’
I wanted to speak, but I couldn’t. There was a heaviness in the room as we all stood there and listened to Valiana’s quiet tears.
I don’t know how long we waited like that before Valiana looked around to the Tailor, who nodded at her, just once.
‘Tailor – how—?’ I choked on the words before I could get them out.
‘Shush,’ she replied, her eyes still on the girls.
After a moment Aline took Valiana’s right hand and placed it against her cheek. Somehow I knew she was going to do that … I knew because—
‘No,’ the Tailor said to me, ‘not yet. You’re not ready to understand.’ Then she made the tiniest gesture with her hand, like someone pulling a needle through cloth, and the question was gone.
‘Is that all right?’ Valiana asked. ‘Is that an oath? Did I say it right?’
The Tailor looked at me now. ‘Well, Falcio, do you reckon she said it right?’
‘It’s my oath,’ I said. ‘It’s the same oath I made to the King. And you said it just right.’
‘So is that it, then?’ Kest asked quietly. ‘Are coats and oaths the only things we have left?’ A look passed between him and the Tailor and she walked up and took his hand.
‘You know the answer already, don’t you, boy?’ she asked, tapping a finger on his forehead.
Kest nodded.
‘And you know who’s comin’, don’t you?’ she asked, more gently this time.
‘I do.’
‘So you’ve been trainin’ and practisin’, and now you reckon yourself the best in the world, don’t you?’
‘I have. I am.’
‘And you know it ain’t enough, right?’
I thought I saw the hint of a tear in his eye when I heard him say, ‘I know.’
She patted him on the arm. ‘I’ll say this for you: you’ve tried hard and you’ve learned a lot. But you have too much here,’ she tapped him on the forehead, ‘and too much here,’ she patted his arms, ‘and not enough here.’ She put the tip of her finger on his chest. ‘And now your time is comin’ and you ain’t ready.’
‘How long?’ Kest asked.
‘How long is the thread in my hand?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know,’ he replied.
The Tailor said, ‘Tonight. It’s going to be tonight.’
‘I don’t understand,’ I said to her. ‘I don’t understand any of it any more.’
‘You ain’t supposed to,’ she said irritably. ‘Damned Magisters: you always want to know what to do or where to hide or who to kill. This ain’t that any more. There ain’t much time left, and what there is ain’t for judgin’ or ridin’ or fightin’. It’s for livin’, for as long as you have left.’
She walked stiffly over to the door and opened it. She clucked at Monster, waiting outside, and the Fey Horse opened her mouth and growled.
The Tailor ignored the warning and put her hands on the side of the scarred creature’s face. ‘You’ll come with me now, Horse. I’ve got a job for you. You can’t help them right now, much as you might want to. We’re sisters, you and I,’ she said absently, ‘old and broken and scarred and angry. They’ve taken it all away from us.’
She turned back to the rest of us. ‘They’ve taken it all,’ she said. ‘They’ve taken every last good thing in the world.’
Then she swung the door wide. ‘Now go and show them your answer.’
THE SAINT OF SWORDS
Whatever I expected to find when we reached the roadway, it wasn’t Patriana, Duchess of Hervor, with a single armed guard at her side. She was sitting on a stump, as elegantly as one could, and reading a book. Her guard was armoured head to toe, but he was only one man and that didn’t present much of a threat for us. So naturally I assumed we were completely surrounded.
‘We are quite alone,’ the Duchess said as we approached. ‘You needn’t fear an arrow in the back just yet.’
‘Well, that’s a relief,’ Brasti said, pulling an arrow from his quiver. ‘Hang on, boys, I’m just going to go kill the old cow and I’ll be right back.’
The Duchess smiled politely at him. ‘Ah, if it were only that simple.’
I gestured at the two horses tied to the tree near the stump. ‘You travelled light,’ I said.
‘Alas, but the wagons would not have been able to keep quite the pace we needed to reach you. But travelling light is pleasant enough in the right company.’