Oath of Fealty Read online

  “There’s trouble,” Mikeli said. The two older men didn’t move, but for Beclan nodding at the other two chairs, an invitation to sit. “It’s serious,” Mikeli said. He didn’t want to sit down; he had to move, and strode to the far end of the room, to the table where Beclan kept a copy of the Code of Gird, before whirling and striding back. “It’s treason. We must raise the Order of the Bells, uncle, immediately.”

  “Treason!” Both the older men sat up straighter at that. “What do you mean?” The Knight-Commander got it out first.

  “A messenger arrived just now, from the east. Kieri Phelan was attacked by a contingent of Verrakai troops, joined with some from Pargun, and they used magery and had a priest of Liart—”

  “But you gave a warrant of safe passage—and the Royal Guard escort—”

  “This is from Sir Ammerlin,” Mikeli said, handing the larger scroll to the Knight-Commander. “And this from Phelan—” He handed that one to the Marshal-Judicar. As they read, he moved around the room, noting the sword rack with Beclan’s weapons, Donag’s belt and sword hung on a wall peg, the men’s damp cloaks hanging on adjoining pegs. They must have been out in the city together, he realized, checking what progress the Marshals had made in uncovering Thieves’ Guild hideouts and secret passages.

  “Sit down, will you? My neck hurts having to follow you around.” Beclan rolled his head; the prince could hear the crackle. “Striding around in here won’t accomplish anything. What have you done so far?”

  Mikeli threw himself into one of the chairs; his friends remained standing. “I was at dinner—” He told them what he had done. “And then I came here.”

  “Good beginning. Though as we’ve been finding out, this palace isn’t as secure as it could be.”

  “I suppose someone could come in over the walls—”

  The Knight-Commander shook his head. “Not that way. Underground: it’s a warren, with some parts left from Gird’s day, additions and demolitions, no rational plan. I asked the steward to look into it, because I know some of the lads in training have secret passages to get from the barracks to the training hall and it occurred to me that the Thieves’ Guild would no doubt benefit by a way in. I never thought of one of the nobles—” He glanced at the other two. “Do they know who—?”

  “Yes; I read them Ammerlin’s message. I didn’t tell Manthar and Belin.”

  “Verrakai never liked Phelan,” Beclan said. “He always resented him, and I suppose it was just too much—but ignoring a royal pass—”

  “I wonder if that family has held on to any of the old magery,” the Marshal-Judicar said. “That could be … difficult.”

  “Illegal,” Beclan said. “But no one’s seen anything like that since the Girdish wars. Surely you don’t think they’ve managed to conceal it all this time?”

  “My father says they had it longer than anyone,” Juris Marrakai said. “He said that’s why our families have always been at odds. We lost the magery early, and they didn’t—they scorned us for that. Said we’d intermarried with stupid peasants.”

  “Leaving that aside,” the Marshal-Judicar said, “the question is what resources does Verrakai have here and now. Which of the family are in the palace now, tonight, and what Verrakai retainers—”

  “Or agents,” the Knight-Commander said.

  “Or agents. Which are here now, an immediate threat, and where might they be? I know the Duke maintains a house in Vérella; gods grant he’s there, and not here.”

  “And gods grant he doesn’t yet know that we know, that the attack failed and we have a message from Ammerlin.” The Knight-Commander pulled his feet off the footstool with a sigh and looked around at his boots. “Not dry yet, I’ll wager … but the palace plans, such as they are, are up in the library—”

  “I’ll go,” Serrostin said. “I know exactly where they are. Do you need anything else?”

  The Knight-Commander sat back. “Yes, Rolyan, if you wouldn’t mind. The chapter secretary may still be somewhere about; if he is, ask him to attend me here. I don’t suppose another few minutes of warm feet will matter.”

  “And beware,” the prince said. “We don’t know what the situation is, Roly, so be careful.”

  “I will,” Rolyan said with a grin, patting the hilt of his sword.

  In the quiet after Rolyan left, the prince wanted to leap up again and do something, anything. When would the other men come, those he was sure—almost sure—he could trust? How long would it take—how long had it been already? Just as he was ready to spring to his feet again, Juris Marrakai sat, with a sigh, in the other chair.

  “I never liked Verrakaien, you know that, but I still have trouble believing any peer of the realm would act like this. Thieves, surely, but—”

  “Those who follow evil gods become evil themselves,” the Marshal-Judicar said. He struggled out from under his lap robe, and padded sock-footed across to a cabinet. “We need sib, Knight-Commander; my mind at least is clouded by supper and wine; I’ll brew some.” He poured water from a jug into another warming can, and set that on the hearth, pushing it close to the fire with a poker, and poured in a packet of dried roots and herbs. He sat down, pulling the lap robe back over his legs. “You young men don’t feel the cold as much as we do, and you don’t get as fuzzled with a little mulled wine, either.”

  “We have how many Verrakaien to worry about?” Beclan said. “The Duke, obviously, and his brother, who called that challenge on Phelan.”

  “All of them,” Donag said, closing his eyes for a moment. “Your Highness, until they’ve been examined, we do not know how many still have, and use, the ancient magery, and if they do use it, with what purpose. It’s possible that more—even women and children—are as guilty as the Duke. You must issue an Order of Attainder.”

  “The Council will have to approve,” the Knight-Commander pointed out. “The prince can’t issue an order like that without Council approval until he’s crowned.”

  “Attainder!” Mikeli said. “It’s not the fault of the whole family if one person goes wrong—that’s what the Code of Gird says.” And the youngest Verrakai boy at court was a close friend of his own younger brother, Camwyn. Camwyn would be furious if Egan was imprisoned.

  “The Code of Gird does not forbid attainder in cases of high treason, Your Highness,” said the Marshal-Judicar. “Your safe conduct was a direct order: defying your authority is sufficient. So is using magery in defiance of your orders. Every member of the family must be seized and examined; someone you did not suspect might start a rebellion.”

  “Or assassinate you and your family,” the Knight-Commander said. “Treason is always a conspiracy; it’s too big a task for one man, and throughout history has been the work of groups.”

  Mikeli wanted to jump up again but made himself sit still. Kings did not fidget.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Rolyan Serrostin passed through the Knight-Commander’s outer office to the corridor and moved swiftly to the Grange Hall itself—empty, no light showing under the door to the armory or the records office—then back to the main part of the palace, up a flight to the royal library. No one challenged him, though he heard a subdued bustle in the distance, the faint echoes of hurrying feet.

  In the library, once he had lit the lamps, he saw at once what he needed. One set of plans hung from its pole on the wall beside the librarian’s desk, and another lay loosely rolled on the table nearby. He lifted down the heavy pole and rolled that set of plans carefully, setting it beside the other. The High Marshal would want both, no doubt; notations might have been made on the second set of plans—Rolyan unrolled it a little, and saw fresh markings. Stacks of wax tablets in their wooden frames, quills, sheets of parchment, and a stoppered ink bottle littered the tabletop. One of the wax tablets, open, had other notes, something to do with tunnels. He might as well take as much as he could at once. Rolyan rolled both sets of plans tightly on their poles, secured them with leather thongs, tucked the poles under his right arm,
and gathered up a double handful of wax tablets. Quills and ink he was sure he could find in the Knight-Commander’s outer office.

  On his way back to the Knight-Commander’s chambers, he caught a glimpse down a side passage of Dukes Marrakai and Mahieran, men he knew well, hurrying in the other direction—to their own quarters to arm themselves, no doubt, before coming to the Knight-Commander’s. He wondered for a moment if the prince’s cousin had told them any details. Treason. He could not really imagine it. Nobles intrigued against one another—everyone sought advantage—but treason was—was something else, something beyond that.

  Outside the Knight-Commander’s door, the sentry looked alert but very nervous. “Anyone else arrived?” Rolyan asked.

  “Just m’lord Marrakai,” the sentry said. “And—and I feel something’s going to happen.”

  Rolyan felt his skin draw up in prickles. “Marrakai—but I just saw him down there—” He jerked his head back down the passage. “Get help,” he said. “Something’s wrong.” With that he opened the door of the outer office—hurried across it, but silently—and through the open door of the inner rooms saw the back of a man—the wrong height and shape for Marrakai—in Verrakai blue and silver. The blood smell raised the hair on his arms before he quite realized what he saw.

  Across from him, by the fire, the Marshal-Judicar sprawled on the floor and the Knight-Commander of the Bells slumped in his chair, a look of horror on his face and blood soaking the front of his robe. The prince and Juris Marrakai both sat still as if carved in stone. A bloody sword hung in the air, moving slowly toward the prince, and the room seemed full of some pressure other than air. Magery! It must be Duke Verrakai …

  He wanted to yell, but he could not find breath for that. He had no time to draw his sword; he dropped the tablets and swung the poles as hard as he could, taking Verrakai in the neck even as the tablets clattered to the floor. Verrakai staggered, his hand already grabbing for his sword; Rolyan stepped sideways to brace for a thrust with the poles, slipped on the dropped tablets, stumbled into the wall, and missed. He saw the sword in the air fall; saw Marrakai dive to retrieve it; saw the prince snatch at his own sword and draw it, saw Verrakai, his own sword now in his hand, make some movement with the other that once more stilled them.

  “You!” Verrakai said, turning to Rolyan, where he sat sprawled against the wall. Rolyan tried to push himself up, but could not. “You would attack a duke, would you?”

  “You would attack a prince, would you?” Rolyan said. He saw the telltale shift of Verrakai’s weight, and parried with the pole as Verrakai’s sword came down. The blade hung momentarily in the linen roll; Roly threw himself forward, over the scattered tablets on the floor, drawing his dagger left-handed, and stabbed at Verrakai’s knee, but the blade didn’t bite. Armor? It didn’t feel like hitting armor.

  Before he could yank the pole free of Verrakai’s blade, he heard a thunnnk as someone’s sword—he couldn’t see whose—hit Verrakai in the back. Verrakai whirled, stumbled over Roly’s legs, staggered, and half fell on him. Roly stabbed frantically with his dagger, holding on to one of the man’s legs as Verrakai kicked and struggled to his feet again, but the blade would not go in. More magery? Cold sweat slicked his hands. Magery was evil; he’d heard that all his life. He could hear more sword blows to Verrakai’s body now, and yet the man did not cry out, did not stop fighting, did not bleed.

  Someone’s boot and a lot of weight landed on his ribs; he grunted, now blinded by masses of dark blue cloak—Verrakai’s—and he couldn’t get his breath. Pressure eased; blades clashed, he heard thuds and clatters as things fell. He tried to get out from under, swiping at the cloak, but it snugged tighter around him, as if it were alive. Someone kicked his head; something whacked his hand hard enough that he lost the dagger. More yells from outside somewhere, more people rushing in—and a hand slid in, under the cloak, lifting it with a dagger blade. He rolled forward and sank his teeth into the hand.

  The cloak whirled away from him, lifting to Verrakai’s shoulders, and he could see again, see that he had his teeth in Verrakai’s heart hand, just as Verrakai dropped the dagger he held. In that moment, arms free at last, Rolyan pulled the saveblade, black as death, from his boot, and surged up, striking at anything he could reach. He had a momentary glimpse of Verrakai’s sword … and then the old blade slid in, like a hot knife into butter.

  Over his head, a blade clanged, then screeched, as Verrakai sagged, his weight coming onto the knife blade, hot blood spurting down, soaking Rolyan’s arm.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “Are you hurt, Roly?” Mikeli knocked Verrakai’s blade aside before it fell. Was that a stain near the tip? Was it poison? He looked around the room, now crowded with the men he had asked his friends to summon. Sonder Mahieran, Duke Marrakai, Counts Destvaorn and Kostvan; his friends crowded behind them, near the door, eyes wide.

  “N-no. I—I just—I killed him.” Roly was still trembling. Mikeli felt his own hands shaking; he knew what Rolyan was feeling. Neither of them had ever killed a man before; neither of them had ever been so near violent death. He’d been told it was like hunting: it wasn’t. The stench of blood and death in the room sickened him. He wanted to spew; he did not want to shame himself in front of the others; he hoped he did not look as green around the mouth as Rolyan. He swallowed, hardening his jaw against the rush of nausea.

  “Gods be praised for that,” Juris said. He, too, was pale. He glanced at his father and Duke Mahieran, now inside the room. “You saved us, Roly. He was going to kill all of us and blame me and my family.”

  “Gird’s blood, what a mess!” That was Duke Mahieran, kneeling beside the Knight-Commander’s body. “Beclan … oh, Beclan …” Tears ran down his face into his beard; he kissed his dead brother’s hand. “And the Marshal-Judicar.” He turned and closed Donag’s eyes gently. “It’s hard to believe anyone would kill a Marshal-Judicar, a Knight-Commander—”

  “And using magery,” Duke Marrakai said. He looked as dangerous as Verrakai had.

  “Don’t remind me,” Mahieran said. “I remember your warnings.”

  “I’m sorry to have been proved right,” Marrakai said. Under his beard, his jaw muscles worked. “A sad day for Tsaia.”

  “A dangerous night,” Kostvan said. “Pardon, my lord dukes, but Verrakai may have a secret way into the palace, and he has a brother as dangerous as himself. We have no time for mourning now—we must act. Your younger brother, Your Highness—is he safe?”

  Mikeli gathered his scattered wits. “You’re right, my lord count. Terrible as this is, worse may be coming. Uncle, will you take command of the palace guard, and Duke Marrakai, will you take command of the Bells, and order them out? Camwyn should be in his chambers, but if he’s not—”

  After a piercing glance, his uncle nodded, stood, and shouldered his way out the door. Marrakai paused. “Juris?”

  “I need him here,” Mikeli said.

  “Very well,” Marrakai said, and went out, his cloak swirling behind him.

  Kostvan bowed. “My lord, the messenger who came—where is he? He might have more to say—”

  “I sent him with Belin Destvaorn to eat and rest.”

  “Verrakai would want him dead,” Kostvan said. “Shall I check, and also alert the household staff?”

  “Thank you, my lord,” Mikeli said. Kostvan turned to go, just as a squad of palace guards arrived.

  “What is happening?” asked one from outside.

  “Treason,” Kostvan said. “The first one’s dead, but there are others. Guard your prince.”

  Count Destvaorn beckoned to the guards. “We need to lay out the High Marshal and Knight-Commander with all due respect. In the Knights’ Hall, or the grange, do you think?”

  “Knights’ Hall,” Mikeli said. He wanted to sit down; he must not sit down.

  The sergeant gulped, then glanced at Verrakai’s body. “And him?”

  “He was the traitor. He killed them, and tried to kill the p
rince. Make sure he’s dead, and search his body for … for anything that might give us a clue what else we might face.”

  “What about that one?” He pointed at Rolyan, still sprawled on the floor, looking sick.

  “He saved us,” Mikeli said. “If Roly hadn’t come back from the library and hit Verrakai … we’d be dead.” He moved closer, avoiding Verrakai’s blood. “Roly—are you all right?”

  “I—I will be.” Rolyan blinked; tears tracked down his face. “I never—never killed anyone—before.”

  Mikeli could not think of anything to say.

  “Come on,” Juris said to Rolyan. “Let’s get you up and out of that mess.” He held out a hand, and Mikeli held out his. Rolyan took hold; and they pulled him up. He looked better standing up, though bloody to the shoulder on his right arm. “You’ll want clean clothes,” Juris said. “My lord prince, may I take him off to clean up?”

  “Not yet,” Mikeli said. His mind whirled, tossing out ideas, images, faster than he could grasp them. “We don’t know if there’s someone else—Verrakai’s brother, his son, Kirgan Verrakai—we should stay together, not wander about.” He focused on Rolyan’s face, still paler than normal, his gray-green eyes wide and staring. “Roly—did his blade touch you anywhere?”

  “I don’t—don’t think so. It’s just—”

  “Get him into the other room,” Count Kostvan said. “His first kill—he needs to be out of this smell, out of this mess. You all do. I’ll take care of it.” He turned to the sergeant. “Here—find something clean and warm in the Knight-Commander’s cupboard for Kirgan Serrostin to wear. Kirgan Marrakai, fetch a can of water if you please. Cold will do. You and the prince can help him clean up. He’ll do better then.”

  The Knight-Commander’s outer room, furnished as an office, was cooler and the stench of death much less. “I’m fine,” Rolyan said. “I’m sorry, I—”