When the Saints (35 page)

“Just thought it up.” He washed down his last bite with a draft of wine and stood up. “Thanks for the food and the information. I must fly, as we witches say.”

Justina smiled sadly. “Glad I can be of help. If you need more, let me know.”

“Thanks … Auntie.” Wulf walked around the table to give her a kiss. “I’m going to visit the former Hedwig Schlutz, as soon as I can get her alone. Would you please keep an eye on her after I leave? I’d like to know if she reports to somebody.”

Justina pulled a face. “You can do that for yourself.”

“Oh, no! I’m much too innocent.”

He opened a gate into Darina’s bedroom.

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His timing was unfortunate, or fortunate, depending on viewpoint, and he had a very good viewpoint. Darina, née Schlutz, had just thrown back the cover and sat up, preparatory to getting out of bed. She looked at him with no sign of embarrassment.

“How dare you enter my room like that? Take off those clothes at once.”

Wulf had been intending to take a very stern line with her, but the unexpected humor threw him off. He very nearly laughed aloud, but he was aware that he was blushing scarlet and she was not. She had the halo of a saint and the body of a succubus.

“I did not come for pleasure, my lady. Strictly business.”

“I’ll accept money if it makes you feel better.” She swung her legs down and continued to sit on the edge of the bed in full view. “I might even offer it. How much?”

“You need my brother Anton for that, not me.” He turned away, pretending to admire the room.

“I like the rags. Italian? But I still think you’d look better without them. “

“Not today, thank you.”

“Then what else can I do for you, Sir Wulfgang? There isn’t a perversion I haven’t watched at the prince’s parties.”

“It’s him we must talk about.” Wulf forced himself to face her again, trying not to stare at the scarlet nipples or the dark wisps at groin and armpits that contradicted her blond tresses. “What’s your real reason for wanting to leave court as soon as the old king dies and your contract lapses? I frankly don’t believe your story of wanting to marry and have children.”

She put her head back and laughed, making her breasts bounce. “I’m not the type, am I?” Then she scowled. “You really want the truth?”

“I always want the truth.”

“You’ll grow out of that pretty fast, sonny. The real reason? Because this place is a cesspool—everybody trying to seem what they’re not, everybody waiting for the king to die, everybody sponging off the prince, the prince himself pretending to be a perverted hedonist when he’s just a juvenile drunkard, terrified of sex with men or women. I’m no saint … well, my cadger and I belong to the Saints, but the Church won’t beatify me anytime soon. I enjoy men. I don’t like what goes on at the prince’s parties. They sicken even me. The whole place sickens me. Satisfied now?”

“Thank you. Last night you listed your duties for me, but you did not mention blocking assassination attempts.”

Surely nobody else could shrug so seductively. “I don’t have to. Even supposing anyone wanted to kill the dolt, who would try it here in the palace? He’s always with a group of other boys, and usually some of them are armed. He eats out of the same pots, drinks from the same bottles. Even if someone tried, I would hear of it and reverse it, unless it was a very fast death.”

“He isn’t in the palace now, he’s out hunting, and that’s exactly where most assassinations are tried. There are weapons, and lots of cover. Why don’t you go with him on the hunts?”

She shuddered, another very widespread movement. “Don’t be stupid. Any riding I do is done right here, in bed. Fending off assassination attempts is not included in my list of duties.”

“Has that always been the case, or has the list recently been changed?”

She fluttered eyelashes at him again. “Whatever do you mean?”

He could not threaten her; she was a Speaker and would simply disappear. “When you came to collect me last night, who put you up to it? It wasn’t Crown Prince Konrad who sent you, as you said. Who was it?”

Darina slid off the bed and walked straight at him. He stepped aside hastily and she continued on to a closet to find a wrap. Golden hair flowed down her back to her hips.

She said over her shoulder, “Two nights after your brother slaughtered the hunt at Chestnut Hill, he was pointed out to me at a ball. Next day I heard Cabbage Head screaming that the Magnus madman had been made a count, so I Looked in on him. He was obviously already in Castle Gallant, ten days’ ride away. He has no nimbus. It didn’t take me long to find you.” She headed for the fireplace.

“Who’s planning to kill him, Darina?”

Smiling mockingly at him, she took hold of the bell rope and tugged. “That’s not my problem.”

“Then your cadger forbade you to defend him?”

She smiled and said, “Can’t say,” offhandedly. “I just thought the famous Magnus loyalty might be interested.”

“So that was why you came and fetched me from Gallant last night?”

Shrug. “Can’t say.”

“You’re on the prince’s side, then?”

She seemed surprised by the question. “I suppose I am. He’s a moron, but not usually malicious. He’s bored crazy, because Zdenek won’t let him do anything.”

“Why does he pretend to be such a pervert if he isn’t?” Wulf realized that he was desperate to hear that there was something there worth saving.

Darina turned to stare at him appraisingly. “You’ve been thinking about this a lot, haven’t you? I don’t know, because he was doing it when I was assigned to him. He was barely shaving then.”

“Guess for me. You know him.”

“He may have started it to get back at his grandfather for ignoring him. He got the whole court seething with scandal. Now everyone’s surfeited and lost interest, but he can’t stop.”

“What will he do when he becomes king?”

That was easier. “Whatever it is will be a disaster.”

“The Bavarian war really was his idea, then?”

“Before my time,” Darina said. “I haven’t been here quite two years yet, but that’s what I was told: he talked his grandfather into it. The old man was senile already, but he could still speak then, after a fashion. It was Cabbage Head’s war, though.”

Wulf’s worst fears were confirmed. He knew now what he was going to have to do, and the wraiths of a dozen generations of Magnuses moaned in the shadows.

“I am very grateful for your help,” he said. “I hope I can return the favor sometime. Meanwhile, I don’t know my way around the palace yet. Could you put me where I could get in to see Cardinal Zdenek?”

Darina cocked an eyebrow at him. “If he feels like it, he’ll make you wait a week.”

“I haven’t got a week.” Less than an hour.

Knuckles tapped on the door.

“That’s my maid,” she said, “to help me get ready for a gentleman visitor. I’ll show you Zdenek’s exit door. Petitioners go in through the anteroom and out this way. The moment he’s alone, barge in, if you have the courage.”

It wasn’t hard to smile at such a lovely face. “No courage, just desperation. Thank you for your help.”

The marquessa opened a gate for him.

CHAPTER
37

Wulf found himself standing on a small landing at the top of a long staircase. A single door presumably led into the cardinal’s office. No, there was no handle on this side, so it only led out. There was nowhereƀ, to sit except the steps themselves, but the window offered a fine view over the rooftops of the capital—where he had once spent three weeks, about a hundred years ago.

He had a problem, the sort of problem workadays had all the time but a Speaker should be able to overcome. He needed to know what Zdenek was doing, but could not Look through his eyes because he had never met him. A couple of hours ago he would have been baffled, but now he tried what d’Estouteville had suggested: he simply wished that he could see through that particular door. The massive enameled and gilded oak became like smoky glass for him.

The Scarlet Spider was seated on a chair as grand as a throne, scowling down at a pudgy, rubicund man of middle years, seriously overdressed, like a burgomaster anxious to display his wealth. He had been left on his knees to plead his case, which could not be doing his fancy silken hose much good. His complaints about too much tax being collected in his city seemed to be falling on deaf ears.

Wulf leaned back against the wall and thought about tweaking. When he had first learned of it, he had been disgusted. It was forbidden by the second commandment, but its use must be impossible to prove unless another Speaker was present to witness it happening. Wulf had seen Marek tweak a guard and Alojz Zauber tweak the bishops, and in each case there had been a flash visible to other Speakers. Even if he were to tweak some workaday when there was no other Speaker present, he could never be certain that one was not Looking from afar. Yet now it seemed that duty, personal survival, and his hopes of marrying Madlenka were all going to require him to use tweaking. Father Czcibor had taught him that the devil could always show people how to justify their sins.

Wulf had not been joking when he told Otto he was between the clashing rocks. Both cardinals employed Speakers to defend themselves against tweaking, so he could not manipulate either of them that way. But unless he could change Zdenek’s mind about the Louis-Laima betrothal, d’Estouteville would let Brother Luigi have him. Which brought him back to the Inquisition and a full realization of how terrified he was. Terror was the inquisitors’ business. Whole families could vanish into the darkness. Acquittal in the secret trials was almost unknown, and anyone who did emerge into daylight again was scarred, impoverished, and universally shunned.

Dark as a thundercloud, and escorted by a Franciscan friar with a nimbus, the burgomaster came stumping over to the door. Wulf caught it as it swung open. The fat man jumped in alarm, but Wulf just smiled and begged his pardon. Then he stepped into Zdenek’s office.

The friar spun around in a swirl of robe and his nimbus flamed bright. Wulf ran into a perfectly transparent wall that felt hard as steel. He thought,
I wish this wasn’t here,
and the wall disappeared. The friar was tall, with reddish hair and an eye patch. He was quite young, but when Wulf made no offensive move, he did not retaliate; just stood there, watching him warily.

“Wulfgang Magnus, Your Eminence. You want to see me, I understand?”

The old man glared. Red patches flamed above his beard and he bared yellow teeth in anger. “Go and giveˀC;Go and your name to the chancellor! You cannot barge in on me unannounced.”

“I already did.” Wulf stepped around the friar and walked over to the throne. He knelt. “I have urgent business that I must attend to or I will be delivered to the Inquisition.” He waited for the ring to be offered.

“An excellent idea. What do you want?”

“It is more a matter of what you want, Your Eminence.” Seeing that he would not be offered the ring, Wulf stood up. A workaday guilty of such disrespect would be heading for the dungeons already, but one furious cardinal was a benevolent and almost pathetic old man compared with the overweening nightmare of the Inquisition. “You told my cadger you wished to speak with me in person.”

“Cadger?” Zdenek snorted. “That chit of a girl? I’ll give you two minutes, no more, and even that was only because of what you accomplished yesterday. That was impressive, I admit, although you were undoubtedly aided by the hand of the Lord, may His name be praised. All I have in mind is this. It is no secret that our beloved monarch must soon pass to his reward, and Crown Prince Konrad will accede to the throne of his ancestors. A king needs protection, and the Speaker who currently looks after his safety leaves much to be desired. His Highness is anxious to replace her. Having proved your loyalty and skill, you would be the natural successor. You would be well rewarded with income and a suitable title.”

He smiled mockingly. “But the idea of a falcon here in Mauvnik being flown by a juvenile cadger ten days’ journey away in Cardice is ludicrous. I would insist that she transfer your jessing to me.”

Rubbish! Cardice was a mere blink away for a Speaker. Moreover, a cadger of Zdenek’s age was liable to drop dead without warning, and then he would take his falcon’s talents with him.

Zdenek was just confirming the suspicion that Wulf had shared with d’Estouteville and with Otto, that he was up to no good. Marquessa Darina had hinted that she was not permitted to defend Cabbage Head against soft-footed gentlemen with stilettos. Even Speaker bodyguards were useless if their cadgers were in league with the assassins. Crown Prince Konrad was not among the Wise, and unlikely ever to be admitted.

To throw all this back in the old man’s face would be pointless. Wulf said, “The first Baron Magnus helped put the House of Jorgar on the throne, and his descendants have served it faithfully for centuries. At least two have served as royal bodyguards, and I can imagine no greater honor. However, I currently have certain problems involving the Inquisition, Your Eminence.”

The cardinal waved a hand as if to banish a mosquito. “I shall have a word with Archbishop Svaty.”

“Unfortunately, that will not suffice. Whatever his decision, he can be overruled by the Vatican. I have been ordered to return to Cardinal d’Estouteville by tomorrow evening with a contract of betrothal between Princess Laima and his nephew, Louˀs nephewis of Rouen. In return, I will be provided with a papal decree declaring my innocence in the relevant matters.”