punishment stocks such as Tali had seen several times in the ride through Caulderon. Dirty hands and feet protruding through them belonged to Rannilt, who was fast asleep and apparently unharmed, though so pale, so wan. And no wonder, after finding Luzia bloodily murdered.
Tali rubbed her eyes, momentarily overcome. ‘Rannilt,’ she whispered, gently shaking her. ‘Wake up.’
Rannilt slept on. Was she drugged or bespelled? Her breathing was strong and, when Tali pushed her eyelids back, her pupils weren’t dilated. Tali was looking for a way to unlock the stocks when an amused voice spoke behind her.
‘I confess myself disappointed, Lady vi Torgrist.’
She whirled. A small man sat in the shadows in the far corner, high-heeled boots up on the table. His crimson pantaloons were patterned with sequins, the lurid yellow velvet coat had ruby buttons and the cravat was purple. But the chancellor’s commanding voice did not fit — that hollow chest should have supported no more than a breathless whine. Tali reminded herself that he was a brilliant and powerful man, and cunning too. And he would have guards everywhere.
‘Why?’ she said warily.
‘I never thought you’d walk into such an obvious trap. I don’t know that I can use you after all.’
‘Good! Then I’m taking Rannilt with me,’ said Tali, though she had no idea if she was ever getting out of here. Surreptitiously, she felt along the top of the stocks, found the catch, and pulled. ‘I trust you’re done with her?’
‘I could be persuaded to give her up as an exchange.’
‘For me.’
‘Why do you think I lured you here?’
‘You have an over-healthy ego, sir,’ she said in her best Lady vi Torgrist voice.
He chuckled. ‘I’m chancellor,’ he said, as though that were answer enough. ‘The best hope of my people in this dire war.’
‘And I love my country and want to help,’ she said passionately. ‘But I don’t know anything about the enemy’s alchymical weapons.’
‘I didn’t ask you about their weapons,’ he said softly. ‘Approach the table.’
She did so, trying not to creep, until she was brought up by its curved edge. The chancellor frightened her more than Lady Ricinus. Everyone said how ruthless he was, and he controlled a nation. What did he want? She felt that he was looking inside her, reading her strengths, weaknesses, capabilities and potential, and judging how he could use her. She squirmed.
‘It’s said you claim that the Pale are slaves, not traitors,’ he said lazily.
‘It’s said you’re a clever man!’ she snapped.
He quirked a pencilled eyebrow.
‘Only a fool would believe that absurd lie about us. And you’re not a fool, Lord.’
‘What lie?’
‘That a group of noble child hostages would go over to the enemy.’
‘Hostages, if held long enough, often end up taking the side of their captors.’
He said it as a fact known to all, not trying to convince her. Tali felt the ground shifting beneath her feet.
‘Not us! All our tales say the same thing, and so do the enemy’s. They often gloat about it.’
‘What tales?’
‘That one hundred and forty-four children, from the noblest families in Hightspall, were given up to the enemy as hostages a thousand years ago — and never ransomed!’
‘All traitors seek to justify their betrayal.’
‘Hightspall abandoned its children to a thousand years of slavery. Why?’ she said furiously, leaning so hard into the table edge that it was bruising her.
‘If it did, it’s not in any history I’ve read.’
‘They would have covered it up!’ she cried. ‘Then justified
Her passion seemed to amuse him. ‘If they did, how can it be proved after so long?’
‘There must be letters, reports, all manner of documents in the city archives. You’ll find them if you bother to look.’
‘I don’t have time. I’ve a war to prosecute, one we’re losing badly.’
That shook her. Things must be really bad if he was prepared to admit it. She considered the man. Pleas for justice would never move him, but self-interest might. ‘There are eighty-five thousand Pale, Chancellor.’
‘So many?’ he said, and bright reflections drifted across his eyes.
‘And right in the middle of Cython,’ said Tali, improvising desperately. ‘If managed well, they might turn the war from the inside.’
‘Weaponless women and beaten men?’ It was almost a sneer, but not quite. Was he giving her the chance to argue her case?
‘If you offered them something to fight for, if you gave your word as chancellor that the Pale would be welcomed home and the truth told about their slavery — ’
‘And their ancestors’ property torn from its current owners and bestowed on them?’ he said harshly. ‘Is that why you’re really here?’
‘Is that why they were never ransomed? So the families would die out and their estates be given to others?’
‘I’m losing interest,’ said the chancellor.
Tali had to make a big concession, or lose. ‘The Pale must have
‘Set the lead, then.’
‘I want House vi Torgrist’s plague manor. Nothing else.’
‘Satisfy me and you will have it. And for the other Pale?’
‘A tithe of what they once owned.’
He leaned back, the deep little eyes peering into hers. ‘A tithe divided among so many would hardly amount to a cottage each. How can that satisfy?’
‘To a lifelong slave, a cottage is a palace.’
‘Ah!’ he said, smiling. ‘Just so.’
‘You agree?’ said Tali, amazed. ‘You give your word?’
‘Would you accept it?’
‘I’m told you’re a man of your word, Lord.’
‘If only that were all they say about me. Very well, you have my word. And in return, you will do something for me.’
‘Submit to interrogation about Cython?’
‘You’ll do that anyway, out of love for your country.’ He inspected her again, weighing her. ‘I wonder … if there were to be an uprising in Cython — ’
Tali had a sudden vision of Mia’s beheading and tunnels running with the Pale’s blood. What had she done? ‘But … but they’re weak, unarmed and cowed. They’d be slaughtered.’
The absurd little man sprang up, his nutcracker jaw working, and for the first time she saw the fervour in him.
‘I have no time! The enemy are at the gates and my people are being slaughtered right now. Pregnant women! Children! The frail elderly! Cython’s chymical weapons and incurable poxes and vile shifters are killing them indiscriminately.’ His tone moderated; he met her eye. ‘If the Pale wish to be accepted back as equal citizens, they have to fight. And yes, many will die.’
‘They can’t fight Cython by themselves.’
He sat, calm again. ‘Did I say they would be alone? The uprising must come at the moment we counterattack.’
‘When will that be?’
‘When we understand the enemy’s weapons and have developed tactics to defeat them. Months, perhaps
