Vengeance

Clearly, a man’s room.

The centre contained a canopied bed so huge it would have taken four housemaids to change the linen. Lord Ricinus lay in the middle, head bandaged. He was paler than before, save for his nose, which glowed as if he had a lighted candle up each nostril.

Did he not share a bed with his wife? On Genry’s visits home, he and Tali’s mother had clung together so desperately that a piece of paper could not have been slipped between them. But who would want to spend the night with such a disgusting creature as Lord Ricinus?

She continued and discovered other peepholes, and through the third saw Lady Ricinus. It had to be her; the thin-lipped, sharp-chinned, heavily powdered face matched the voice perfectly, and so did the talon-like red nails.

She was sitting at a small, curvy-legged desk, writing a series of notes. Each was inserted in an envelope along with some small coins that had the appearance of gold, and the envelope sealed with hot black wax.

Was she settling wages? More likely, judging by the conversation Tali had overheard earlier, Lady Ricinus was paying bribes. She stacked the letters and handed them to a uniformed orderly, who gave them to a messenger with instructions Tali did not hear.

Lady Ricinus locked a strongbox beside her desk and an orderly took it away. Now she stood up, grimaced as though she had to do something distasteful and left the room.

Was she going to see Lord Ricinus? Tali went back to his peephole. Shortly Lady Ricinus came across to the bed and drew up a chair.

‘Ricinus?’

He did not move.

She shook him by the shoulder, her mouth tight. ‘Ricinus, I know you’re awake.’

He sat up. Apart from the bandage around his head, she saw no evidence that either last night’s drunkenness, or the blow to the head, troubled him.

‘Then get me a drink,’ said Lord Ricinus.

She took a small bottle from her bag and handed it to him. He sank the lot in one gulp and tossed the bottle over the end of the bed. ‘What do you want?’

‘Lord … Ricinus … we’re in trouble.’

‘We, or you?’

‘The chancellor has demanded the Pale girl and we can’t find her.’

‘So?’

‘Ricinus, I … I need your help.’ She stretched out a bony hand, drew back, reached out again and took his. He did not look at her, but he did not pull away either.

‘First time for everything,’ said Ricinus. ‘What have you done this time?’

‘I–I — ’ She bit her lip, rubbed her free hand over her face. ‘I may have overreached myself.’

Ricinus’s mouth twisted into a gleeful grin. ‘Can my all-commanding lady be admitting a mistake?’

‘I’ve only ever had the interests of this House at heart.’

‘The only interests you advance are your own.’

‘But to rise to the First Circle — ’

‘I never wanted to rise.’

‘And seldom did!’ she snapped.

‘If you want a favour, Lady Ricinus, you’ve an odd way of asking for it.’

She pasted on a vulture’s smile. ‘Ricinus, my lord, I went too far. I tried to bribe the chancellor, but it appears he’s incorruptible and now — ’

He snorted. ‘You went about it the wrong way, my lady. Your lack of breeding shows. You insulted him and he wants revenge.’

‘How — how do you know?’

‘I talk to people while I’m drinking.’

‘My Lord, he says that, despite your magnificent gift of the Third Army, he’s going to bring us down unless we hand over the Pale girl. And we can’t find her.’

‘Who is she, anyway?’

Lady Ricinus did not speak at once. Tali gained the impression that she was concealing something from him. ‘Just a slave who got out of Cython.’

‘No ordinary Pale, then. What does she want?’

‘To get her claws into Rixium, of course. The fool smiled at her, and now she’s seen what he’s worth she won’t let go.’

You bitch, thought Tali. Is there no lie you won’t tell, no truth you won’t twist to your vicious ends?

‘Her knowledge of Cython will be worth a fortune,’ Lord Ricinus said thoughtfully.

‘The chancellor won’t pay. He wants to get her for nothing and take all the profit for himself.’

‘He always was a greedy swine.’

Lady Ricinus swallowed, then laid a hand on his arm. ‘Ricinus … I’ve been a fool.’

‘What else have you done?’

‘I–I made threats against his life.’

‘You what?’

‘I was driven beyond forbearance. I snapped.’

‘Threats to his face?’ growled Lord Ricinus. ‘I can’t do anything about that, Lady. It’s high treason just to know about it.’ He inspected her pallid face. Upwelling sweat was cracking her caked make-up from beneath. ‘No, if you had, you’d be swinging from the front gates by now with your belly opened and your entrails dangling out your mean little mouth.’

‘I made the threat to Rixium after the chancellor left, but he’ll find out. Rixium can be indiscreet.’ She clutched at Lord Ricinus with both hands. ‘You must speak to him, Lord. Make sure he tells no one, especially not Lagger.’

‘You do realise that if Rix doesn’t speak up, he’s guilty of high treason as well?’

She reeled backwards. ‘No!’

‘You haven’t just put our house at risk, but its whole future. If this comes out, Rix dies a traitor’s death as well.’

‘He won’t speak. He won’t betray his family.’

‘Won’t he? What if he puts country above house? Or his survival above ours?’ Lord Ricinus snapped his fingers. ‘Drink!’

She handed him another bottle. She already had it in her hand.

He drained half of it. ‘You stupid sow, this changes everything. No leader can tolerate being threatened in wartime. He’ll hang us all and burn the palace to the ground. Even if we could give him the Pale, he’d erase House Ricinus to make sure.’

‘What if he were no longer chancellor?’

He stared up at the ceiling for a minute or two, then turned to her. ‘What are you on about?’

The backs of Tali’s hands prickled. What was Lady Ricinus saying?

‘I’m saying that we make good on my threat and take all the profit for ourselves.’

He inspected her through the empty half of the bottle. ‘You’ve dealt us into a deadly game, Lady Ricinus.’ He considered. ‘On the one hand, ruin. On the other, should the chancellor be replaced by someone manageable, we make a majestic profit from selling the Pale girl to our generals.’

‘If we rented her knowledge of Cython to the generals for the duration of the war,’ said Lady Ricinus slyly, ‘we might treble our profit and retain the asset.’

‘Then redouble that profit in the coming peace — if we win the war.’ He scratched his chin. ‘But how to topple the chancellor in wartime? He’s respected as much as he’s feared. No one would support us.’

‘Toppling him is beyond us,’ Lady Ricinus said flatly. ‘But there’s another way …’

He sat upright, staring at her. ‘You’re not suggesting we have him assassinated? No, I won’t have it.’

It was cold in the passage but Tali was drenched in sweat and her knees were giving out. Monstrous woman, surely she could not be serious. But she was.

‘Once he hears about my foolish threat,’ said Lady Ricinus, ‘he’ll surround himself with guards and destroy