They stepped into a dimly lit foyer where tall, gray windows rattled with rain. A pair of Monsean Guards stood to either side of a postern doorway. When Bitterblue passed through, she found herself on a covered slate terrace, looking out over a field of soggy snapdragons. Beyond the flowers sat a squat stone building with smoke rising from several chimneys. The musical clangs of metal, in various pitches and rhythms, suggested that they'd succeeded in their search for the smithy.
'Giddon,' she said. 'Wasn't it a bit rude for Katsa not to greet you in the courtyard just now? It's been some time since you've seen each other, hasn't it?'
His smile was sudden and enormous; he began to chuckle. 'Katsa and I don't like each other very much,' he said.
'Why? What did you do?'
'Why must it be something
'Well? Wasn't it?'
'Katsa will hold a grudge,' Giddon said, still grinning, 'for years.'
'You're the one who seems to be holding a grudge,' Bitterblue said hotly. 'Katsa's heart is true. She would not dislike you for no reason.'
'Lady Queen,' he said mildly, 'I meant no offense to you, or to her. Any courage I have, I learned from her example. I would go so far as to say that her Council has saved my life. I can work with Katsa whether she greets me in the courtyard or not.'
His tone, and his words, brought her back to herself. She unclenched her fists and wiped her hands on her skirts. 'Giddon. Forgive my temper.'
'Katsa is fortunate to have your loyalty,' said Giddon.
'Yes,' Bitterblue said, confused, then gesturing through the downpour to the smithy, more than ready to put an end to the conversation. 'Shall we make a dash for it?'
Within seconds, she was soaked through. The snapdragon bed was a swamp and one of her boots sunk deep in the mud, nearly toppling her. When Giddon came to her and took her arms in an attempt to pull her free, his own boots stuck. With a vague expression of impending disaster, he plummeted backward into the flowers, his falling momentum popping her out of the mud but also sending her sprawling.
On her stomach amidst snapdragons, Bitterblue spat out dirt. And there really wasn't any use for decorum after that. Covered with mud and snapdragon carcasses, they dragged each other up and staggered, gasping with laughter, into the lean-to that comprised the front half of the smithy building. A man came stomping out whom Bitterblue recognized, small, with a sharp, sensitive face, dressed in the black of the Monsean Guard with distinctive silver chains on his sleeves. 'Wait,' Bitterblue said to him, trying to wipe mud from her skirts. 'You're my Captain of the Monsean Guard, aren't you? You're Captain Smit.'
The man's eyes flicked across her bedraggled appearance, then absorbed Giddon's as well. 'I am, Lady Queen,' he said with crisp correctness. 'It's a pleasure to see you, Lady Queen.'
'Indeed,' said Bitterblue. 'Is it you who decides the number of guards patrolling the castle walls?'
'Ultimately, yes, Lady Queen.'
'May I ask why you've increased their number recently?'
'Of course, Lady Queen,' he said. 'It was in response to the news of unrest in Nander. In fact, now that we've heard that the Nanderan king is deposed, I may increase their number even more, Lady Queen. Such news has the potential to encourage unruly behavior. The castle's security—and yours, Lady Queen—are among my highest priorities.'
When Captain Smit had gone, Bitterblue frowned after him. 'That was a perfectly reasonable explanation,' she said grumpily. 'Perhaps my advisers don't lie to me.'
'Isn't that what you'd want?' asked Giddon.
'Well, yes, but it doesn't elucidate my puzzle!'
'If I may say so, Lady Queen,' said Giddon, 'it's not always easy to follow your conversation.'
'Oh, Giddon,' she said, sighing. 'If it's any comfort, I don't follow it either.'
A second man came from inside the smithy then, and stood blinking at them. He was youngish and sooty, his sleeves rolled up to reveal muscular forearms, and he held in both hands the most massive sword Bitterblue had ever seen, dripping with water from the slack trough and gleaming like lightning.
'Oh, Ornik,' Giddon said, going to the smith, trailing snapdragons and slime. 'This is good work.' He took the sword from the man carefully, balanced it, and held the hilt out to Bitterblue. 'Lady Queen?'
The sword was nearly Bitterblue's height and so heavy that she needed to throw her shoulders and legs into the lifting of it. She muscled it gamely into the air and gazed at it in admiration, liking its fine, simple hilt and its even gleam; liking the solid, steady weight of it pushing her into the floor. 'It's beautiful, Ornik,' she said. And then, 'We're muddying it up, which is shameful.' And finally, 'Help me, Giddon,' because she didn't trust herself to lower it without crashing the tip into the stone floor. 'Ornik,' she said, 'we've come about a sword for myself.'
Ornik stood back, hands on hips, looking her small frame up and down in a way only Helda ever did, and then only when Bitterblue was trying a new gown.
She said defensively, 'I like heft, and I am not weak.'
'As I saw, Lady Queen,' Ornik said. 'Allow me to present you with a few possibilities, Lady Queen. If we have nothing to suit you, we'll design something that does. Excuse me.'
Ornik bowed and went inside. Alone with Giddon again, Bitterblue considered him, rather liking the mud streaks on his face. He looked like a handsome sunken rowboat. 'How is it that you know my smiths by name, Giddon? Have you been ordering swords?'
Giddon glanced at the door to the inner forge. He lowered his voice. 'Has Po spoken to you yet about the situation in Estill, Lady Queen?'
Bitterblue narrowed her eyes. 'Nander, yes. Estill, no. What's going on?'
'I think it's time we included you in a Council meeting. Perhaps tomorrow's, if your schedule allows it.'
'When is it?'
'Midnight.'
'Where do I go?'
'Katsa's rooms, I believe, now that she's here.'
'Very well. What's the situation in Estill?'
Giddon glanced again at the doorway and pitched his voice even lower. 'The Council anticipates a popular uprising against King Thigpen, Lady Queen.'
She stared at him in astonishment. 'As in Nander?'
'As in Nander,' he said, 'and the rebels are asking the Council for help.'
10
THAT NIGHT, PADDING through the great courtyard, Bitterblue tried to come to terms with her own unease.
She trusted her friends in their work. But, for a group of people who claimed to be concerned for her safety, they did seem to have developed rather a habit of encouraging uprisings against monarchs. Well, she would see what they meant by it tomorrow at midnight.
The rain had turned to mist by the time she knocked on the door at Tinker Street, infinitesimal beads soaking her clothing and hair so thickly that she dripped like a forest of trees. It was some time before her knock was answered—by Saf, who hauled her across the shop by one arm. 'Hey! Hands off!' she said, trying to get a good look at the room, which was lit so violently that it hurt her eyes. He had rushed her through this room on her way out that morning as well. Tonight she glimpsed paper, everywhere, rolls of it, sheets of it; high tables cluttered with mysterious objects; a row of jars containing what must be ink; and that large, oddly shaped structure in the middle of the room that creaked and thumped and stank of grease and metal and was so enthralling that Bitterblue actually kicked Saf—not hard—to make him stop pulling her away.
'Ow!' he yelled. 'Everyone abuses me!'
'I want to see the press,' she said.
