Fly By Night

four uncoordinated attempts to slide the monocle back into its pocket. His forehead was puckered and he was blinking very fast.

‘My word,’ he murmured.

‘Birdcatchers.’ Mosca voiced the unspoken.

There was a hush, and then the word took wing and fluttered, frightened, from mouth to mouth, stirring up questions and exclamations and fear and incredulity.

‘I cannot believe it.’ There was something in Pertellis’s expression like that of a young child understanding about death for the first time. ‘Can there really be a man or woman on this beloved earth who would wish those days of horror back upon us? Who would do this?

‘I can tell you that right enough,’ Mosca answered grimly. Feeling their eyes pressing upon her, she told the story of Lady Tamarind’s dress.

There was an appalled silence.

‘I find it hard to believe that a lady like…’ Pertellis hesitated, and coughed. ‘There is something elevated in the female spirit that will always hold a woman back from the coldest and most vicious forms of villainy.’

‘No, there isn’t,’ Miss Kitely said kindly but firmly, as she set a dish in his hand. ‘Drink your chocolate, Mr Pertellis.’

‘I believe I can perceive the lady’s strategy, Pertellis.’ One of the Locksmiths spoke with a soft rasp, as if through a mouthful of chalk powder. He was seated in a dark corner of the coffeehouse, and his face was all but lost in the murk. One slender ray of light fell across the tiny, gloved hands that lay, clasped, upon his knee.

Goshawk, thought Mosca. She could just make out light pooling palely where his eyes had to be.

‘Ruling Mandelion is a matter of pulling the Duke’s strings. That much must be obvious to all of you. And if you know what a man wants most, and fears most, and which lies he tells himself, then you may puppet-dance him for your pleasure until the end of his days.’

Several of Pertellis’s companions bristled slightly at these sentiments, but Goshawk continued unabashed.

‘Lady Tamarind has twisted her brother around her little finger since she was a child, and she would have done so forever if we had not appeared on the scene. For nearly six months we have been fighting her for control of the Duke – and slowly but surely we were winning.

‘His great, mad dream is to see the Twin Queens return to the Realm to rule Mandelion. We encouraged him to believe it could happen. More than anything, he fears men like you, Pertellis, dangerous idealists who cannot be frightened or bribed into being sensible. So we stoked the flames of his fear, and taught him to see a great and bloody radical conspiracy in every paltry highway robber, every drunken riot, every rumour of a Floating School.’

‘It sounds as if you were so busy trying to frame us, you did not notice Her Ladyship setting out to frame you.’ The speaker was a young man whose bright brown eyes made him look twice as awake as everyone else, and three times as angry. Mosca recognized the ‘colt harness’ voice she had heard while eavesdropping.

‘Succintly put, Mr Copperback,’ said Goshawk, without any sign of resentment. ‘Three months ago, the Duke was almost ready to sign any charter we wanted. Her Ladyship must have set up the secret printing press as a last desperate gamble. An inspired gamble, with one important effect – the Stationers’ Guild became involved. She persuaded the Stationers that we were running the press in order to manipulate the Duke. Then she made it appear that the Stationers had plotted our arrest. No doubt she has amused herself greatly watching our guilds tearing one another apart.’

‘But surely that is a rather short-sighted plan?’ Pertellis blinked across at the Goshawk-shaped patch of murk. ‘In time, both sides were bound to compare notes and realize they had been tricked. She will be left vulnerable.’

Mosca’s blood suddenly ran cold.

‘No, she won’t,’ she said. ‘I heard the Duke give her a by-your-leave to bring in a big ship from the coast, all up to its ears in troops for keeping order. That’s who the new Birdcatcher printings are for…’

‘The Watermen would never allow it!’ exclaimed Miss Kitely.

There was a murmur of assent from the rest of the room.

‘In case you have not noticed, madam,’ Goshawk interjected, ‘there are currently hardly any Watermen in Mandelion. Most of them disappeared upstream several days ago.’

Mosca looked sideways at the Locksmith leader. ‘I heard Lady Tamarind say something about that too. They’ve been sent to “delay” the Locksmith troops that she knew were waiting upstream.’

‘Are you saying that the waterway is clear for a ship full of Birdcatcher troops to sail into Mandelion and take it over?’ Pertellis was cleaning his monocle hard enough to push the lens out. ‘When does this ship arrive, Miss Mye?’

‘She said it would take ten days to get ’ere. An’ that was… about ten days ago.’

‘Beloved above,’ whispered Pertellis. ‘They could turn up at any moment.’

The conversation became very animated and confusing, so Mosca went and sat next to Eponymous Clent, and kicked her heels against the chair leg for a minute or so.

‘So, you just found the barge captain’s body in the clothes chest, then, did you?’ she asked at last. She was not very good at apologizing.

‘On the bed, actually. When you found me, I was trying to, ah, hide it. I fear I was not thinking with my usual crystalline lucidity. I even suspected for a while that you might have been responsible for, as it were, spilling the fellow’s claret. You need not look so shocked – younger than you have done worse, and you have a wealth of rage in that reed-like form of yours.’

‘But you didn’t cackle on me?’

‘No.’ Clent looked a little embarrassed, as if he had been caught out in a weakness. ‘When you denounced me in the watch house I saw myself reflected in your eyes as a monstrous mankiller, and I realized that you truly thought I was guilty. I suppose I could have exposed your petty little crimes and dragged you to the gallows with me, but… what would have been the point?’

‘I came back to sort it all out,’ said Mosca, after an awkward pause.

‘Ah,’ Clent responded without the faintest trace of hope.

‘Thought I’d better. No one else cares ’bout you at all, do they?’

‘No, I suppose not. Have you been rubbing ashes into your hair as a sign of penitence?’

‘That’s just powder. I’m in disguise.’

‘As a wig-seller?’ Clent nudged the wig box with his toe.

‘The box is just borrowed,’ Mosca explained quickly. ‘Had to put Saracen somewhere, didn’t I?’

‘Of course.’ Clent lowered his face into his hands. ‘The sad and weatherbeaten violins of my existence are tuning up for the coda of my life’s symphony, my hopes and dreams are preparing to drain into the forgetful sands like so much rain – and my last and darkest hours would not be complete without the presence of The Goose.’

While Pertellis and his fellow radicals tried to make sense of what Mosca had told them, Miss Kitely, who had withdrawn through a little doorway, re-emerged, this time without a coffee-pot.

‘Mr Pertellis,’ she said, her quiet voice creating a space for itself amid the raised tones, ‘I have consulted him on the matter, and he would like to speak with the girl.’

‘Him?’ Mosca looked a question at Pertellis.

‘Our leader.’ Pertellis beamed with pride.

‘But… I thought you were the leader!’ Mosca exchanged a glance with Clent, who seemed as surprised as she was.

‘Oh no, not really. The truth is, we’ve never really had a leader.’ Pertellis gave the men around him an abashed smile. ‘We were just a group of friends who did our best to change things for the better in little ways – and met in this coffeehouse so we could talk safely. I suppose I kept everyone in touch with each other, but I was always ready to step down when a true leader came along. And he did – in our darkest hour. A man of action, of decision.’ A number of the Locksmiths were looking curious, and Mosca suspected that perhaps they had not met the mysterious leader either.

Mosca rose a little unsteadily and found that Clent was also on his feet.

‘If you have no objection, I shall accompany my secretary. I would be glad to trade a few words with this