When the Saints (46 page)
Authors: Dave Duncan
None of the six spoke.
“Very well. Pasha, take the boy Leonas and deliver a thousand sequins to Lady Magnus by tomorrow noon. Vranov must be dead by then, and his army must be back home in Woda within a week. That concludes our business.”
The janissary sprang nimbly to his feet. “For today, yes. But there will be many tomorrows.” He was looking at Wulf as he said it.
* * *
Mine Host Oldrich looked around from a heated argument with his wife as the front door of the Bacchus opened to admit Sir Wulfgang Magnus with a striking young lady on his arm. A glance at Lady Magnus’s clean gown told him that she must have arrived by coach, although he had not heard one draw up. He bowed low, greeted the guests, and presented his wife.
“Our luggage has been delayed,” Sir Wulfgang announced. “I believe we could use a supper, a fairly substantial supper. Right, my dear? What is on the table tonight?”
“Roast boar, honored sir? And partridge pie. Well hung, very delicious. Ham, trout, a fine selection of cheeses.”
The prince’s latest favorite glanced at his companion and received a smile of acceptance. “That will be excellent. Send up a couple of flagons of your very best wine, right away, and the food as soon as possible. And rfter that, we are not to be disturbed, even if King Konrad himself arrives at the head of the Royal Hussars, understand?”
“Indeed, I do, sir. A linkboy…”
“Just give me that lantern and we’ll light our own way,” young Magnus said, with the impatience of youth.
Oldrich obeyed. “The wine will be ready in an instant!” He sighed as he watched the couple trotting up the stairs, being rewarded for his attention by a glimpse of Lady Magnus’s divine ankles. Some men were just born lucky.
* * *
“I thought we had to sup with the prince tonight?” Madlenka said as Wulf escorted her along the corridor.
“Plans have changed. Cabbage Head had a harrowing interview with Cardinal Zdenek today. As a result, he has already drunk himself into oblivion. His cronies put him to bed. You will have to wait until tomorrow for the joy of being presented to His Highness, but then the sight of your beauty will at once cure his hangover and arouse him to avid anticipation of reunion with his darling wife, a lustful eagerness second only to my own present state.”
“Your fingers are trembling.”
“I may need some guidance.” He unlocked the door of the Horse Room.
Madlenka went in. “And Otto will be the next count of Cardice, I suppose? He is the eldest.”
“Vlad,” Wulf said. “Otto won’t want it, and no one can do a better job of modernizing Gallant’s defenses than Vlad.”
“Can you really arrange things like that?”
He closed the door and turned to face her. For a moment the shifting lamplight seemed to shine through a crack in his façade of wedding-night joy and excitement to illuminate the dread inside. “I must!” he said. “It is my duty, plain and simple. For three hundred years the Magnuses of Dobkov have served the House of Jorgar without cavil or stint, and more than half its sons have died in that cause. My service will be different, but to be true to my ancestors, I must do my utmost to keep King Krystof on his throne as long as I have breath in my body. You won’t,” he added with sudden alarm, “forbid me this, will you, my darling cadger?”
“Of course not,” she said. “My family has held the northern gate of the kingdom for even longer, and many a Bukovany has fallen defending it. We’ll serve together.” Then she couldn’t resist adding, “And God save the king!”
Wulf exploded in laughter and pulled her into an embrace.
HISTORICAL NOTE
The corruption in the Church in the Early Renaissance is well documented and was no secret at the time. As an example, Pope Sixtus IV was deeply involved in the “Pazzi Conspiracy,” a plot to murder two leading Florentines, Lorenzo (“the Magnificent”) de’ Medici and his brother Giuliano, planning to replace them with Girolamo Riario, one of his own nephews. The two de’ Medici were assaulted in front of the altar of the cathedral during Mass. Lorenzo was wounded, but escaped; his brother died. Sixtus also established the Spanish Inquisition and confirmed the notorious Tomás de Torquemada as its grand inquisitor. He was one of the bad popes. Some of his successors were even worse, and yet it was almost fifty years before Martin Luther launched the Reformation.
GLOSSARY
AGIOI: A guild of Speakers loyal to the Orthodox Church and the Porte. See voivode.
BRANCHER: In falconry, a bird that has left the nest but cannot yet fly; to the Saints, an apprentice Speaker. See
handler
.
CADGER: In falconry, a man who carries birds to the field, in cages or on perches; to the Saints, a workaday who manages one or more falcons.
CLIENT: A workaday who has contracted with a cadger for the services of a falcon.
FALCON: Normally birds of prey used for hunting; a Speaker sworn to a cadger.
FIRST COMMANDMENT: A rule recognized by all Speakers, that talent must be exercised in secret.
FLEDGED: Of birds, having adult plumage; of Speakers, adult, with stable and reliable talent.
HAGGARD: In falconry, a bird taken from the wild as an adult and thus untrained; to the Saints, a self-taught Speaker.
HANDLER: In falconry, a general term for people who work with birds; to the Saints, a brancher’s trainer.
HIRELING: A falcon under contract to a client.
JESS (verb): In falconry, to fasten tethers ( jesses) on a bird’s legs; to the Saints, to bind a Speaker to a cadger by oath.
LOOK (verb): To see through the eyes of other people.
PORTE: The court of the Ottoman sultan in Constantinople.
S
PEAKER:
In popular usage, a person who can ask the devil to perform magic, a witch; to Speakers themselves, a person with talent.
TALENT: The ability to perform miracles.
TWEAK (verb): To use talent to change a workaday’s thinking.
VOIVODE, THE: Leader of the Agioi.
VOICES: Supernatural voices commonly heard by branchers but not by fledged Speakers.
WENDS: People of Slavic descent living in what is now eastern Germany.
WORKADAY: A person without talent.
WISE, THE: A (restricted) group of people who know the truth about Speakers.
BOOKS BY DAVE DUNCAN
THE BROTHERS MAGNUS
Speak to the Devil
When the Saints
“THE DODEC BOOKS”
Children of Chaos
Mother of Lies
THE ALCHEMIST
The Alchemist’s Apprentice
The Alchemist’s Code
The Alchemist’s Pursuit
CHRONICLES OF THE KING’S BLADES
Paragon Lost
Impossible Odds
The Jaguar Knights
TALES OF THE KING’S BLADES
The Gilded Chain
Lord of the Fire Lands
Sky of Swords
The Monster War
THE KING’S DAGGERS
Sir Stalwart
The Crooked House
Silvercloak
A MAN OF HIS WORD
Magic Casement
Faery Lands Forlorn
Perilous Seas
Emperor and Clown
A HANDFUL OF MEN
The Cutting Edge
Upland Outlaws
The Stricken Field
The Living God
THE GREAT GAME
Past Imperative
Present Tense
Future Indefinite
“THE OMAR BOOKS”
The Reaver Road
The Hunters’ Haunt
THE SEVENTH SWORD
The Reluctant Swordsmaont
The Coming of Wisdom
The Destiny of the Sword
STAND-ALONE NOVELS
West of January
The Cursed
A Rose-Red City
Shadow
Strings
Hero!
Ill Met in the Arena
WRITING AS “SARAH B. FRANKLIN”
Daughter of Troy
WRITING AS “KEN HOOD”
Demon Sword
Demon Rider
Demon Knight
Please see
www.daveduncan.com
for more information.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
WHEN THE SAINTS
Copyright © 2011 by Dave Duncan
All rights reserved.
Edited by Liz Gorinsky
A Tor
®
eBook
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
Tor
®
is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Duncan, Dave, 1933–
When the saints / Dave Duncan.—1st ed.
p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN 978-0-7653-2348-4
1. Magic—Fiction. 2. Imaginary wars and battles—Fiction. I. Title.
PR9199.3.D847W47 2011
813'.54—dc22
2011021617
First Edition: November 2011
eISBN 978-1-4299-8551-2
1
Please see the
Glossary section
.
