The Lascar's Dagger (56 page)

“You should have lost your witchery after misusing it.”

She shrugged. “If Va wanted it so, doubtless I would now be without. I saw no way out other than theft. My decision was to leave it up to Va. Perhaps your arrival is the answer.” She looked him up and down. “Do you feel like the answer to a maiden’s prayer?”

She
was
making fun of him. He was about to give a scathing reply about her being no maiden, but bit back the words.
By oak and acorn, how was it she could goad him so easily into losing his calm
? “Why do you need money?” he asked, as politely as he could. “Are you planning to abandon the Regala?”

“Ah, you always think the worst of me, don’t you? I can trust you to do that.” She looked away, her expression one of irritation. “I don’t much like Mathilda, it’s true. She blackmailed me to stay with her in the first place, because she wanted the use of my glamour skills. I stayed because I didn’t know where else to go and I had no resources, no friends. Sorrel Redwing will always be wanted for a murder in Ardrone. My husband’s brother is never likely to give up the hunt for me; he’s not that kind of man. In the end I followed the Princess to Lowmeer partly because I pitied her, and because I’d made her a promise in exchange for—” She stopped. “Never mind about that. Yes, I am planning to leave her, but not for reasons you could ever imagine.”

“You have no idea what I’m imagining.”

“No? You always jump to the worst possible conclusion about my motives. Oddly enough, it’s surprisingly difficult to walk away from someone who is in such a miserable position. However, I do intend to do so. Soon, and with her blessing. There is a baby to consider, you see. And for a child, I will do much. Which might surprise you, I suppose, but it’s true, nonetheless.”

“What child?”

“Mathilda’s, of course. Unlike you, she trusted the guardian of the shrine who granted me my glamour, and now she’s trusting me with her child. She has always trusted me, and she’s always known I murdered my husband.”

“Have you no shame about that?”
Trust Sorrel with her child? Trust her to do what?

“Not really. He wasn’t a pleasant man and he was about to kill me. As a witan, I’m sure you’ve heard similar stories. Have you no shame about sleeping with someone you were supposed to spiritually mentor?”

He felt his face turn scarlet.

“Oh, pah,” she said. “We have to stop our dancing around one another, each trying to stamp on the other’s feet. Let’s put aside our antipathies and discuss the real problem here.”

“Which is?”

“What are we going to do about the fact that Mathilda is going to have twins, and Lowmeer is going to slaughter them at birth?”

His knees were suddenly incapable of holding him upright. Slowly he lowered himself on to the stone seat opposite her, so confounded he could scarcely think.

“Is this some sort of cruel joke?” he asked at last.

“Of course, you would think that. You appear to imagine my whole life is devoted to telling you lies. I gather that you know the truth about one thing: what the Lowmians do to twins at birth.”

“Yes,” he whispered.
Oh no. Va could not be that cruel
… “I know all too well.”

“Then listen carefully. Mathilda’s Ardronese maid, Aureen, assisted her mother, who was the Throssel Palace midwife. Aureen told us that Mathilda is going to have twins, any time within this coming moon. We can’t be sure when, because twins often come early. The Regal has no inkling she is having a double birth, of course, but he has made it quite clear there are never exceptions to the Lowmian policy on the matter. Her babies will die – both of them – if anyone from the court knows there are two.”

He stared at her, appalled, trying to take it all in. “Are you – are you
certain
she will have twins?”

The look she gave him was exasperated. “There is much to be uncertain about. But not that. I have heard two heartbeats, and so has Aureen. We are making plans for me to take the firstborn one, no matter whether girl or boy, and escape from the castle before anyone knows it is born.”

His horror at the possibilities spilled over into his words. Kidnapping? Stealing a royal child, possibly the heir to the Basalt Throne? The implications were so horrendous, so fraught with danger, he couldn’t even think straight. “But – but what if the second one dies? Or if the first is a boy and the second a girl?”

“Under Lowmian law, a royal child’s birth must be observed by at least three court officials. Obviously we can only let them observe the second birth.”

While he absorbed the implications, she continued, “Mathilda and I agree that I must take the baby to the Pontifect. Only Va-Faith can handle the complications of this. But I’ll need money. I’ll need to hire a wet nurse. I’ll need two berths on the flat-boat to Vavala. Saker Rampion, I don’t care what you think of me, and I’m sure your affection for the Princess is not what it used to be, but this is a baby born of an Ardronese princess. Help us.”

“Surely Mathilda must be returned to Ardrone, where she belongs! Where she will be loved and her twins will live.”

She gave him a pitying look. “For a start, she is already huge with child, and in no condition to travel. Secondly, do you really think the Regal would permit that?”

His mouth went dry. Juster had intimated that Vilmar wasn’t past murdering an unwanted wife.
Dear Va.

“Thirdly,” she continued, implacable, “King Edwayn sold her to Lowmeer in exchange for something he coveted.
He doesn’t care about her
. He would care, though, deeply, if Regal Vilmar reneged on their treaty.”

She meant the words to cut him, and they did. Was she right? Probably. The ramifications were beyond measure. “Forgive me if I sound inane. This is a – a shock.”
And you’ve no idea how much of a shock. A devil-kin! And there is no way we can know which one of the twins it will be
.
Va above, what if a devil-kin ultimately sets his backside on the Basalt Throne?

He took a deep breath as he made a decision. “Well, for a start, you can forget about stealing for a living.” He dug into his hidden pocket and pulled out one of Juster’s rubies. “This is a good-quality gem. I can change it for coins, sufficient for all your needs. You must not jeopardise yourself by stealing. If you are caught, you will hang … and the twins will die.”

Which might be better for the fate of the world.

No, don’t think like that, never think like that.

She gave a faint smile he could not interpret. “I will accept whatever you give with thanks – and relief that you believe me for a change.”

“The moment I discovered that Va granted you a glamour witchery, I ought to have trusted you completely. Even today, I was far too quick to blame.”

Her smile was faint. “A witan who doesn’t trust Va enough?”

“A witan no longer. Can you come back here tomorrow, at the same time?”

“It’s not usually a problem for me to sneak out and about. Can
you
take me and the child to Vavala?”

He didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t even begin to explain the compulsion he was under. “No,” he said after a long pause. “I can’t.”

Her gaze was steady, but he read contempt there.

“I’ll have the money for you from selling the ruby tomorrow. And some instructions on where to go and what to do to keep the child safe.”

She nodded. “I’ll meet you here at the same time. If something goes wrong, then I’ll try again the next day, and the next.” She stood up, looking down at him. “There’s something else I haven’t told you. The reason twins are killed in Lowmeer.”

He looked at her in amazement. “How would you learn that?”

“The Regal told Mathilda,” she said, and repeated all she had overheard.

He listened, sinking deep into a frozen horror as the story unfolded. When she finished, he could think of nothing to say.

She said flatly, “You knew this already.”

“No. Well, only part of it. I didn’t know it was the Vollendorn line that contrived this horror and foisted it on their own populace. Va rot it – if the Regal ever gets an inkling that you know this, you’ll lose your head.”

“That’s the least of your concerns. Witan, if this is all true, then one of Mathilda’s twins will be a devil-kin. He might become the Regal. Or he might be the one I save.”

“Yes. And stop calling me witan. I’m not a cleric any more.”

“So, are we doing the right thing?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that I cannot kill babies, and I can’t allow Lady Mathilda’s child to be killed. You’re right. The Pontifect is the person to deal with this. If anyone can work out how to solve it, she can. I’ll write you a letter to take with you to give to her. And if it’s any comfort, a devil-kin won’t manifest their evil until he or she is at least half-grown.”

She nodded, smoothing down her skirts. “The Regal said that too. Thank you, Saker. For offering to help.”

Rising to face her, he said, “There – there is one other thing I’d like to ask you.”

“Go ahead. Just try not to insult me.”

She gave the ghost of a smile as she said the words, and he tried to reciprocate but knew his attempt was wan. “Have you heard about a gift given by the merchant Uthen Kesleer to Regal Vilmar? Three golden feathers from the Va-forsaken Hemisphere.”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “Yes. In fact I’ve seen them. They are set into a fan.”

“Where does the Regal keep them?”

“Near his bed. Inside a carved chest. Why do you want to know?”

“It doesn’t matter. Come, let me walk you back to the city.”

She didn’t move to take his arm when he offered it to her. “Why do I get the impression that we are not really talking about ordinary feathers?”

“We aren’t. They come from an island in the Summer Seas, I believe.”

“But what can be special about
feathers
?”

He didn’t answer.

She tilted her head to one side and regarded him thoughtfully. “I think you ought to tell me what you have so far avoided doing, and explain why you are in Ustgrind.”

“What is there to explain? I had to leave Ardrone, as you know.”

“There’s something you’re not saying. If you have no business here, then why not accompany me to Vavala? It would … be easier for me.”

Oh, Va, if only I could. If only.
But Ardhi would never let him go to Vavala for fear the fleet might sail without him. What a pilgarlic Sorrel must think him, turning his back on her and the baby like this.

Once again he could think of nothing to say.

“I would have thought you’d care more about the fate of Mathilda’s children.”

“There’s nothing I’d rather do than escort you and the child, believe me. It’s just that I’m not sure I’ll be free to do so. I can’t explain more than that. I’m sorry. I’ll give you the name of someone who will help you, a woman cleric.”

“You’d trust her?”

“Oh yes. Rescuing twins has been her life’s work. Her name is Witan Shanny Ide, and she works at the Seminary of Advanced Studies. It’s on the west side of Ustgrind, on the outskirts. I’ll ask her to find a wet nurse who’ll go with you to Vavala. I won’t tell her exactly who you are, or whose baby you have.”

Once again he offered her his arm, and this time she took it.

“You have really surprised me,” she said. “I’d have thought nothing would have stopped you from saving Mathilda’s child.”

Oh, sweet Va.
There was no mistaking her meaning, and his heart tightened painfully in his chest.
“Celandine…”

“Sorrel.”

“Sorrel. Are you trying to tell me this child – these children – could be
mine
?”

“I’d have thought you could have answered that better than I.”

He floundered on, embarrassed, blushing, humiliated. “Lady Mathilda told me there’d be no problem and not to worry about it. I know – I knew court women have many ways to prevent unwanted children. She was not taken by surprise, you know.”

“Oh, believe me, I was aware of that.”

“I am sorry to embarrass you.”

“Embarrassed?” Her voice was filled with laughter. “I thought it was you who was embarrassed. However, to answer your question, I don’t know. Mathilda says she had her moon’s bleed after her encounter with you, but I have my reservations about her honesty. Her indiscretion with you was more than three weeks prior to her wedding. If she gives birth soon, the baby could well be yours, or it could be an early delivery of twins. I don’t see that there is any point in thinking about it. If you’re worried about
my
discretion, there’s no need.”

Ashamed, growing redder and redder by the minute, he did not look at her, and they walked on in silence.

No need to worry? Oh, but he did. The possibility was slim, but it was there: he might have fathered a devil-kin.

Only Mathilda knew the truth. He never would.

“S
o, you met a friend who works in the castle,” Ardhi said, “and yet you didn’t ask her how we can get in and out safely?” He was sitting cross-legged on Saker’s bed, using Saker’s dagger to whittle a piece of driftwood.

“She’s hardly a friend.” Saker paced, then sat on the bare boards of the floor. It was none too clean, but the room had no chair. He counted himself lucky it contained a bed.

“Oh, so you don’t trust her. What did you do to the lady that she would be so ungallant as to betray us?” Ardhi asked, interested.

Va, how he
hated
the way Ardhi reworded things, twisted them to mean something else. Aloud, he said, “I trust her. I just don’t want to endanger her.”
Or Mathilda.

“And you didn’t think that perhaps meeting her was
sakti
Chenderawasi making itself felt again?” Ardhi looked up from his whittling. “Coincidences do happen, but we would be foolish to assume this is one of them.” He fixed Saker with a steady gaze and said, “Tell me the whole story.”

He opened his mouth to say that he would do no such thing, and then gagged. It hadn’t been a request, but an order. Ardhi watched dispassionately as he struggled against the compulsion. In the end, he managed to say between gritted teeth, “Ardhi, really, there are some things it’s wiser for you not to know. Don’t ask me to do this. If you force me, I will never forgive you. Never.”