Vengeance

‘Are you saying — ?’ said the chancellor.

‘The black bench and the floor have old bloodstains. One stone box holds the bones of four women, each with a hole in the top of her skull. Several rib bones of the skeleton on top are broken.’

Everyone turned to stare at Lady Ricinus.

‘It proves nothing,’ she said, her face a mask but her eyes darting. ‘The bones could have been there a thousand years.’

‘The chief magian’s dating spell says otherwise,’ said the high constable. ‘There’s little doubt these are the bones of Lady Tali’s mother and several other women killed the same way. But there’s more. Worse.’

‘Worse?’ said the chancellor, frowning.

‘We also located a tunnel whose entrance was hidden by a prodigious charm of concealment,’ said the chief magian, rubbing his tiny hands together. ‘I nearly had an apoplexy breaking it.’

‘There are tunnels everywhere around here,’ said the chancellor.

‘I divined where this tunnel goes.’

‘Oh?’ the chancellor said sharply.

‘It runs south-east for two miles, then south-west for another six. All the way to Cython.’

‘To Cython?’ bellowed the chancellor. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Quite sure.’

‘A fresh tunnel?’

‘No. Quite old. Perhaps a hundred years.’

‘A secret tunnel to Cython, built a hundred years ago,’ said the chancellor relentlessly. ‘An illegal tunnel for trafficking in ebony pearls with the enemy. An unguarded tunnel through which the enemy could attack at any time.’

‘We know nothing about it,’ said Lady Ricinus, and now she had a look of trapped ferret about her. ‘It was hidden, he said.’

‘It’s your palace, bought a hundred years ago. Who did you sell the pearls to, Lady Ricinus? Who could afford their staggering price?’

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

‘Lady Ricinus,’ said the chancellor, lowering his voice, ‘these pearls could change the course of the war. Tell me who has them and you’ll be surprised how forgiving I can be.’

Her face worked through a range of emotions. Rix could see she was tempted, but it was not in her to admit her guilt. She would fight and deny all the way to the end.

‘What pearls?’ said Lady Ricinus.

‘Have it your own way,’ said the chancellor, with a malicious smile. ‘House Ricinus became wealthy very suddenly, did it not, a hundred years ago? Wealthy enough to buy Palace Ricinus for cash. It will be interesting to see your ledgers for that time.’

‘Unfortunately they were lost in a fire.’

‘How convenient.’

‘You can’t prove anything against us.’

‘Perhaps not on the current evidence.’

‘Then I’ll have a public apology,’ said Lady Ricinus, giving him that viper’s smile again. ‘And reparation for the ruin of the good name of House Ricinus.’

‘You’ll get nothing, you upstart bitch,’ hissed the chancellor. ‘There’s still the tunnel.’

‘You can’t prove we know anything about it,’ sneered Lady Ricinus.

He cocked an eyebrow at the justiciar. ‘Would you be so kind as to describe the legal situation to Lady Ricinus?’

‘Having an illegal tunnel to Cython is a capital crime at any time,’ said the justiciar. ‘But having an unguarded tunnel in wartime is treason.’

‘You are not unfamiliar with treason, are you, Lady Ricinus?’ the chancellor said softly. ‘Even high treason. Would you like me to enlarge on that?’

Rix realised that the Honouring was always going to end this way. The chancellor was a vengeful man. He had allowed Ricinus to be raised to the First Circle solely for the joy of crushing it.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Lady Ricinus blustered.

The chancellor snapped his fingers. From behind the curtains at the rear of the stage, his pretty, black- haired servant girl came forward with slow and stately steps, bearing the covered tray. She sat it at the front of the stage where everyone could see and removed the cloth to reveal the chancellor’s sad, poisoned dog.

‘My faithful hound was killed by ricin,’ said the chancellor.

‘It must have taken a rat bait,’ said Lady Ricinus.

‘Ricin comes from the castor oil plant that is the symbol of your house, and the poison was meant for me.’

‘Poison — the worst,’ Tali said to herself. ‘That’s what Mimoy was trying to tell me. And Tinyhead hinted at it as well, Lay-lay-lay. Lady.’

‘The weed grows wild all over the city,’ said Lady Ricinus. ‘Anyone could have done it.’

‘Two witnesses say you threatened me.’

‘They’re liars!’

‘Reliable witnesses.’

‘Name them!’

The chancellor smiled but said nothing.

Lady Ricinus seemed to take heart from his silence. ‘You can’t prove I had anything to do with this, either.’

‘I don’t have to,’ said the chancellor. ‘Justiciar?’

The justiciar continued. ‘Lady Ricinus, Lord Ricinus and yourself are in charge of these premises. In law you are deemed to own the illegal tunnel to Cython, whether it can be proven you knew about it or not.’

‘Not me.’ Lady Ricinus would never concede, not even when her world was collapsing around her. ‘My husband is the lord.’

‘I need another drink,’ said Lord Ricinus.

‘I’ll pour it down your throat until you choke,’ she snarled.

Rix jumped, then the layered sweat froze down his back. He had heard her say that before, but where? Tali was staring; she remembered it too.

‘You’ve pulled Lord Ricinus’s strings for fifteen years and more,’ said the chancellor inexorably.

‘Rixium is Lord Ricinus now,’ said Lady Ricinus. ‘Let sanction fall on him.’

The pain was as bad as if she had cut open his own head. What kind of a woman would try to save herself by shifting blame onto her son? Rix felt something building up inside him, like a mudslide of memories banking behind a wall. The wall quivered as more and more memories built up behind it, then it cracked and crumbled and burst into pieces and he was back in the cellar as a small boy.

‘You did it to me!’ he howled. ‘Deliberately.’

‘What are you talking about, mad boy?’ sneered Lady Ricinus, shaken but unyielding.

‘I was dressed in my best clothes — you said you were taking me to a party.’

‘He’s lying,’ cried Lady Ricinus. ‘Everything he says is a lie.’

‘You don’t know what he’s going to say,’ said the chancellor. ‘Or do you?’

‘You led me down to the cellar and told me to hide behind the barrels,’ said Rix. ‘To watch and learn the family business that was going to make us the richest house in Hightspall.’

‘Lies, all lies,’ said Lady Ricinus.

‘You had blood on your hands,’ Tali said suddenly. ‘I saw it — ’

‘Rixium must have cut the woman’s head open,’ said Lady Ricinus. ‘He was evil from birth.’

‘Stop the bitch’s mouth,’ said the chancellor, and she was gagged.

‘I’ve often wondered why Rix had blood on his hands before he touched my mother,’ said Tali. ‘Lady Ricinus must have put it there so he would think he’d been involved.’

‘You told me to make no sound,’ Rix said to his mother. ‘Hide until the business is done, and if you’re a good little boy you’ll get a reward.’ He felt the vomit swirling in his gut. Every eye was on