looked as though he was cracking up.
‘My family enemy is the wrythen you fought in the mountains,’ said Tali. ‘He ordered my mother’s death. I told Tobry about all this — ’
‘Yes, yes!’ cried Rix as though he had finally succeeded in dredging up the memories. ‘He told me, but what’s the
Tali explained. ‘I had it blocked. At least, I thought I did, but now I keep hearing it in my head,
Her thigh throbbed. She pressed the flat of a hand onto it. Without direct skin contact she could not renew the healing charm but she imagined the pain had eased a little. ‘Why has the palace been searching for me?’
‘Mother has some mad idea that I’ve got you hidden away.’
Tali swallowed. He was head and shoulders above her and from this close she had to tilt her head at an uncomfortable angle to meet his eyes. ‘Why would she think that?’
‘She thinks I fancy you.’
She took a step backwards. ‘That’s ridiculous …’
‘Isn’t it?’ said Rix. ‘How did you get in, anyway?’
She could not admit that she had knocked over his father and might have killed him. ‘Sniffed out an old tunnel. Having lived underground all my life, I’m good at that.’
‘But how did you get here unseen?’
‘Er … someone fell and hurt themselves … down the hall. The guards went to help.’ The half-truth slipped out and it was too late to correct it.
Rix led her along the hall. Away to the right, a set of stairs ran up steeply into a tower. ‘How did you find me, anyway?’
‘Um … I’ve a very keen nose.’
Laughter exploded above them. ‘Rix, you really must bathe more often.’
Tobry was coming down the stairs, beaming, and Tali felt an unfamiliar surge of happiness and belonging. Tobry wouldn’t panic; he would know what to do.
Rix scowled. ‘I spent an hour in the tub.’ He looked over her head. ‘Tobe, what the blazes are we going to do?’
‘I don’t know. The chancellor’s turning Caulderon upside-down to find you, Tali. There’s a reward on your head big enough to buy a castle.’
Tali blanched. If any of the servants discovered she was here, they would turn her in.
‘What’s the matter?’ said Rix. ‘You’re trembling.’
Tali had thought that she was hiding it. ‘It’s just … I was … You’d have to …’
‘We defend our friends with our lives,’ said Rix stiffly, as if she had insulted his honour. He grimaced. ‘What if the palace is searched again?’
‘Why would it be?’ said Tobry.
‘It’s frightening how much Mother knows.’
‘Does she know we’re friends with Tali?’
‘Since Mother has no friends, she assumes I’m acting from an ulterior motive.’
‘What motive?’ said Tali hoarsely.
‘She believes I sneaked out the other night to bed you.’
No one spoke for a minute. Tali felt flames creeping up her face.
‘Is the war going badly?’ she gabbled. There had been no news since their desperate flight through the city gates.
‘It’s going disastrously,’ said Tobry, turning to a map on the end wall. ‘The enemy have captured Suthly County and most of the land south of Caulderon between the Crowbung Range and the Vomits, and they’re racing up the western side of the lake. Kleng must fall within days, Reffering after that, then Nyrdly County will follow. We still hold Lakeland and Fennery, but once they fall, the centre of Hightspall will be in their hands and they’ll starve Caulderon out within weeks.’
‘What about all the counties over the mountains? When they march to our aid — ’
‘They’re too far away. By the time they hear about the war, it’ll be over.’
‘But Hightspall has stood for two thousand years.’ Never had Tali imagined it would crumble like this. ‘We must be beating them somewhere.’
‘We haven’t had a single victory,’ said Tobry. ‘Their weapons are too strange and deadly, our generals too hidebound. Their tactics belong to the first war and they can’t adapt them to this new enemy.’
‘The swine won’t stand and fight,’ said Rix. ‘They melt away, fire on our armies, fields, towns and bridges from cover, then run and hide again. We can’t get a grip on the bastards, and all the while they’re killing us by the thousands.’
He looked down at Tali. ‘But I’ve forgotten my manners. Come this way.’
He led her into a vast and magnificent salon, bigger than the combined cells of a hundred slaves in Cython and with a painted ceiling soaring up to a point like a six-sided tent. A large fireplace in the right-hand wall was set with unlit wood and kindling, yet the room was pleasantly warm.
Pain spiked through her temples and she turned, knowing what she was going to see: the baleful coruscations of a heatstone the size of a cottage wall, set into a gilded metal frame. She could still see the marks of crowbar and chisel on the stone.
Genry had died mining heatstones for the idle rich, baked like poor Sidon. Rix’s chambers were too big, just as he was. The ceiling must be forty feet high. How could all this be for one man?
‘Sit down.’ He indicated a couch covered in a fabric so fine that it shone. ‘You must be starving.’
Tali remained standing, the forgotten sandals dangling from her hand, mortified to realise that she was covered in the dirt and dust of the underground. She could smell it on herself and she couldn’t possibly sit on that magnificent couch. No speck of dust had ever entered this room and every surface was waxed until it gleamed. What must Rix and Tobry think of her?
‘Tali might like to freshen up,’ said Tobry. ‘I’ll find something for her to wear.’
Rix showed her into a room which he called the scalderium, and explained how the bathwater was heated.
‘My father was killed in the heatstone mine,’ she said coolly.
Rix shrugged, turned on the cold taps and went out. Tobry returned with a fawn linen shirt and pantaloons, and a braided belt. When he had gone Tali stepped into the tub and yelped. The water was icy. She scrubbed clean and was getting out when she realised that she had not heard the
Shortly, pink and glowing and dressed in clothes three sizes too big, she came out. Tobry was speaking.
‘Better that Lady Ricinus thinks you’re bedding Tali than she realises you’re friends with a Pale.’
‘That she could never forgive,’ said Rix, who was calmer now. He looked up and smiled. ‘We’ll have to get you out of here — Lady Ricinus wants you badly. If she can hand you to the chancellor, he’ll be most grateful, and the house needs his gratitude right now. She’ll search the palace again at the least hint of anything suspicious.’
Like Lord Ricinus being knocked unconscious fifty yards from his son’s door and gabbling about being attacked by a small blonde woman. Tali felt the trap tightening. Where could she go when the whole world was hunting her?
A furious rapping echoed down the corridor. Tali jumped and looked for a hiding place.
‘That’s Mother!’ Rix cried.
‘Go and see. It’s probably nothing.’
‘Who but Lady Ricinus would make such a racket at this time of night?’
Rix headed for the door. Tobry ushered Tali around the corner and up the stairs.
‘What are you going to do?’ she said. If the only entrance was guarded, any search must find her in minutes.
‘Tobe, Tobe?’ Rix yelled from the door.
