Vengeance

The nobles stared, open-mouthed.

Lady Ricinus throttled a gasp.

Lord Ricinus’s red eyes bulged. Bubbles popped from his nostrils and he let out the squeal of a pig being slaughtered.

The chancellor smiled.

Rix spun around, focused on the image and it was as though he had been smashed in the face with it. His knees buckled. It wasn’t the portrait; the crate held his frenzied depiction of the murder in the cellar. How had it ended up here?

His blood froze — had he, in a drunken rage after he’d seen the killers’ faces, swapped this painting for his father’s portrait? Did he secretly long to destroy the family and the house without which he was nothing? But why do it this way? Why not accuse them openly? Was he such a coward? Rix could not believe that, even blind drunk, he could have committed such a betrayal. Nonetheless, shame scalded him.

A clamour broke out at the front, a hundred people talking at once. Those at the back, too far away to see clearly, were whispering and crying to their neighbours, desperate to hear the scandal. From the corner of one eye Rix saw Tobry urging Tali towards the door, but she stood firm. She had waited ten years to see the killers’ faces.

‘What is this?’ said the chancellor in a low voice, beckoning the justiciar and the high constable behind his back.

‘The stupid boy has crated up the wrong painting.’ Lady Ricinus, as always, was the first to recover her poise. ‘It’s one of his nightmares; he’s always painting them. I’ll have the portrait brought down immediately.’ She gestured to her attendants. ‘Take this to the furnaces.’ Then, to the chancellor, ‘I told you he’s not fit to be lord — ’

‘Be silent!’ said the chancellor, silkily. ‘Rixium Ricinus, did you paint this abomination?’

Rix’s throat was so dry he could barely croak. ‘Yes, Chancellor.’

‘When?’

‘Last night, after I finished the portrait of Father.’

‘Then why is this picture here in its place?’

‘I can’t say,’ Rix gasped. The room was boiling, his head whirling, the air almost too thick to breathe. ‘I–I was drunk. After I saw what I’d painted, I went to the top of my tower — to jump! — but I fell and knocked myself out. It appears I lay there unconscious all day.’

‘Why have you portrayed your mother and father, whom any dutiful son would honour, as vile murderers?’

The truth was screaming at Rix but he could not utter it. ‘I don’t remember.’

‘Really?’ The chancellor’s voice went low and deadly. He gestured to the right side of the painting. ‘And what is this black object in your mother’s golden tongs?’

‘Don’t know,’ Rix lied. ‘It … just came to me.’

The chancellor’s eyes glowed. He had his teeth in Lady Ricinus’s throat and, whatever explanations she put up, he would never let go.

‘Chief Magian,’ said the chancellor, ‘would you come here?’

The dumpy little man hurried across, examined the object in question, then straightened up, his mouth curling in disgust. ‘I believe it is an ebony pearl, Lord Chancellor.’

‘For the benefit of Lord Rixium and our noble audience, what is an ebony pearl?’

‘A nuclix. A sorcerous talisman of prodigious power. A forbidden object, my lord.’

‘Forbidden?’ said the chancellor.

‘Indeed. I have never seen one. It is rumoured that there are only four in existence, that only five can exist.’

‘And these would have a high value?’

‘Beyond price,’ said the chief magian.

‘How far beyond price?’

‘A single ebony pearl would be worth as much as this palace and everything in it.’

A stir ran through the audience.

‘This palace, which House Ricinus bought for cash a hundred years ago,’ said the chancellor. ‘Tell us more.’

‘With two such pearls, even a minor magian’s powers would exceed my own. With four, all the magians of Hightspall together. If one man should also get the fifth, the master pearl — ’

‘If you’ve never seen one, how do you know about them?’

‘From a parchment written by an obscure magian half a century ago.’

‘And they’re only known from this source?

‘Yes.’

‘Where do they come from?’

‘It’s said they’re cultured within the heads of Pale girls and grown there over many years, before harvesting after the girl comes of age.’

Rix’s mouth went dry. This was a deadly moment. If the chancellor saw a connection between the one and the master pearl, he would not scruple to cut it out of Tali.

The chancellor’s disgust was unfeigned. ‘Cultured? In the heads of living girls?’

‘Just so.’

‘To harvest a pearl, would it be necessary to kill the girl?’

‘Ebony pearls must be extracted while the host is alive, then stored in her warm, uncongealed blood for several days. After her head has been cut open and the pearl gouged out, and enough blood taken, how could she survive?’

‘And this is what Lady Ricinus is doing in the portrait? Extracting such a pearl and killing the young woman who was the host?’

‘There can be no doubt,’ said the chief magian.

‘Justiciar, High Constable,’ called the chancellor, ‘would you come forward and inspect the evidence? You too, Abbess, if you please.’

They approached.

‘It’s just a stupid painting,’ cried Lady Ricinus. ‘The fantasy of a sick boy. He’s addled, everyone knows that. He has been ever since — ’

‘Ever since he was ten!’ cried a high voice from the crowd. ‘When he witnessed this murder — the murder of my mother — and it nearly drove him insane.’

‘Mouse Lady?’ said the chancellor, smiling grimly. ‘State your name.’

Sweat was pouring down Rix’s face. If the chancellor didn’t know about her pearl yet, he soon would. Tali, run for your life.

But Tali wasn’t going anywhere. She wrenched off her mask and climbed onto the stage. She was the smallest person there, and her left knee was trembling beneath her gown, but she was not going to be robbed of this moment.

‘My name is Tali vi Torgrist,’ she said with quiet dignity. ‘I am the last survivor of the ancient, noble House vi Torgrist, and that woman is my mother, Iusia. I was there. I witnessed the murder. That’s me when I was eight.’ She pointed to the little girl.

Her bosom heaved. ‘I name Lord and Lady Ricinus the killers, and I demand justice in my mother’s name, and in — ’

Rix put on a frenzied fit of coughing that almost made him throw up, and she broke off. He was terrified that she was going to list her other murdered ancestors. If she did, the chancellor, and many others, would jump to the obvious conclusion — that she also hosted a pearl.

Tali stood alone, surrounded by enemies, and Rix’s heart went out to her.

‘You are the escaped Pale,’ said the chancellor.

‘You know I am. We talked in your palace just days ago — about honour and betrayal, among other matters.’