Bitterblue

Arlend might not have been a fair landlord, but nor would he have provoked the king. 'He was my twin, Lady Queen. After he died, every time my mother looked at me, I believe she saw a ghost. She swore not, and she never blamed me for it openly. But I could see it in her face. She didn't live long after that.'

This was also how she learned that Giddon didn't know yet if everyone had gotten out.

'Out?' she said, then understood. Oh. Oh no. 'Surely murder was not Randa's intention. Surely the people were warned to leave the house. He's not Thigpen or Drowden.'

'I worry that they'll have tried—foolishly—to save some of the family keepsakes. My housekeeper will have tried to save the dogs, and my stable master, the horses. I—' Giddon shook his head in confusion. 'If anyone has died, Lady Queen—'

'I'll send someone to find out,' she said.

'Thank you, Lady Queen, but I'm sure word is already on its way.'

'I—' It was intolerable, being unable to make anything better. She stopped herself before she could say something rash, like an offer of a Monsean lordship, which struck her, when she took a moment to examine the notion, as no comfort whatsoever and probably insulting. If she was deposed and her castle leveled, how would it feel to be offered as a gift the queenship of some other people she knew nothing of, in some other place that was not Monsea? It was unthinkable.

'How many people were under your care, Giddon?'

'Ninety-nine in the house and on the immediate grounds, who now have no home or occupation. Five hundred eighty-three in the town and on the farms, who will not find Randa a careful landlord.' He dropped his head to his hands. 'And yet, I don't know what I would have done differently, Lady Queen, even knowing the consequences. I could never have continued to be Randa's man. I've made such a mess of things. Arlend should have lived.'

'Giddon. This was Randa's doing, not yours.'

Lifting his face from his hands, Giddon directed an expression at her that was baleful, ironic, and certain.

'All right,' she said, then paused, thinking through what she wanted to express. 'It is your doing, in part. Your defiance of Randa made those for whom you were responsible vulnerable. But I don't think it follows that you could have prevented it, or should have anticipated it. Randa shocked everyone with this. His empty gestures have never been so extreme before, and no one could have foreseen that the entirety of the consequences would fall on you.' For this was another thing Giddon had told her: Oll, still in Nander, had been stripped of his captaincy, but Oll had lost Randa's confidence years ago, so it hardly mattered. Katsa was re-banished and re-declared fortuneless, but Katsa had been banished and fortuneless for ages. It had never stopped her from entering the Middluns when she wanted to, or stopped Raffin from advancing her money when she needed it. Randa railed at Raffin, threatened him, threatened to disown him, threatened to unname him, but never did. Raffin seemed to be Randa's sticking point; Randa was unable to do a serious injury to his own son. And Bann? Randa had an extraordinary capacity for pretending that Bann didn't exist.

Giddon, on the other hand, was a coward king's perfect target: a noble man of considerable noble wealth who didn't terrify Randa and whom it would be fun to ruin.

'Perhaps we could have anticipated it, had we not had a thousand other things to consider,' Bitterblue admitted. 'But I still doubt that you could have prevented it. Not without becoming a lesser man.'

'You've promised never to lie to me, Lady Queen,' said Giddon.

Giddon's eyes were damp and too bright. Exhaustion had begun to pull at his features, as if everything, his hands, his arms, his skin, were too heavy for him to support. Bitterblue wondered if the numbness was passing. 'I'm not lying, Giddon,' she said. 'I believe that when you gave your heart to the Council, you chose the right path.'

IN THE MORNING, Bann and Raffin came to breakfast. She watched them as they ate, subdued, half asleep. Bann's hair was wet and curling at the ends, and he seemed to be thinking hard about something. Raffin kept sighing. He was leaving for Estill tomorrow with Po.

After a while, she said, 'Is there nothing the Council can do about Giddon? Has Randa's behavior not sunk him to the level of the worst kings?'

'It's complicated, Lady Queen,' said Bann after a moment, clearing his throat. 'Giddon was actually funding the Council with the wealth of his noble estate, as both Po and Raffin do, and as such, he was committing a crime that could be construed as treason. A king is justified in seizing the possessions of a treasonous lord. Randa's behavior was extreme, but he did everything by the book.' Bann touched his eyes on Raffin, who sat like a man made of wood. 'Perhaps more relevantly, Lady Queen,' Bann continued quietly, 'Randa is Raffin's father. Even Giddon opposes any action on our part that would set Raffin in direct opposition to his father. Giddon has lost all that mattered to him. Nothing we did could change that.'

They ate again in silence for a while. Then Raffin said, as if deciding something, 'I've also lost something that mattered. I still cannot believe he did it. He's made himself my enemy.'

'He's always been our enemy, Raffin,' said Bann gently.

'This is different,' Raffin said. 'I've never wanted to reject him as my father before. I've never wanted to be king, just so that he isn't.'

'You've never wanted to be king at all.'

'I still don't,' said Raffin with sudden bitterness. 'But he shouldn't be. I'll be lost as a king, but at least,' he said, enunciating each word, 'I won't be a damn cruel man.'

'Raffin,' said Bitterblue, her heart swelling with how much she understood this. 'I promise you,' she said, 'when that day comes, you won't be alone. I'll be with you, and all the people who help me will too. My uncle will go to you if you want him. Both of you will learn how to be king,' she said, meaning Bann, of course, and more grateful than she'd ever been before for Bann's groundedness, to balance out Raffin's abstraction. Perhaps they could make a king together.

Helda walked into the room and opened her mouth to speak; then paused as the outer doors were heard to creak open. Moments later, Giddon surprised them all by yanking Saf into the room by one arm. Giddon looked bleary-eyed and rumpled.

'What did he do now?' Bitterblue asked sharply.

'I found him in your father's maze, Lady Queen,' said Giddon.

'Saf,' said Bitterblue, 'what were you doing in the maze?'

'It's not against the law to walk through the castle,' Saf said, 'and anyway, what's his excuse for being in the maze?'

Giddon backhanded Saf across the mouth, grabbed him by the collar, looked straight into his astonished eyes, and said, 'Speak to the queen with respect or you'll never work with the Council in any capacity.'

Saf's lip was bleeding. He touched it with his tongue, then grinned at Giddon, who released him roughly. Saf turned back to Bitterblue. 'Nice friends you've got,' he said.

Bitterblue knew that Giddon had almost certainly been in the maze because Po had sent him in there, to find out what Saf was up to. 'Enough,' she said, angry with both of them. 'Giddon, no more hitting. Saf, tell me why you were in the maze.'

Reaching into his pocket, Saf pulled out a ring with three keys on it, followed by a set of lock picks Bitterblue recognized. Without ceremony, he deposited both into Bitterblue's hand.

'Where did you get these?' Bitterblue asked in confusion.

'They look like Fox's lock picks, Lady Queen,' said Helda.

'They are,' said Bitterblue. 'Did she give them to you, Saf, or did you steal them?'

'Why would she give me her lock picks?' asked Saf blandly. 'She knows exactly who I am.'

'And the keys?' asked Bitterblue evenly.

'The keys came out of her pocket when I nicked the lock picks.'

'What are they the keys to?' Bitterblue asked Helda.

'I couldn't say, Lady Queen,' said Helda. 'I wasn't aware of Fox having any keys.'

Bitterblue studied the keys in her hand. All three were large and ornate. 'They're familiar,' she said vaguely. 'Helda, these keys are familiar. Come, help me,' she said, going to the blue horse hanging. As Helda took the hanging in both arms, Bitterblue began to try each key in the lock. The second one successfully unlocked the door.