“Aye.” Montfallcon looked through Tom Ffynne. “I have none left now. I must be self-reliant.”
“You are the strong central pillar of the Realm,” flattered Gloriana, linking her arm through his. He started, as if he would pull free, but courtesy forbade it, as did habit.
He let her lead him towards the maze. “There was a reason for my visit, madam.”
Lord Kansas, Captain Quire and Sir Orlando Hawes stalked in the wake of this pair, three black and ill- matched birds of passage.
“And what’s that, my lord?”
“Business of State, madam. A meeting of the Privy Council must shortly be convened. We have news. Your guidance is required.”
“Then I shall call the Council together for the morning.” She was anxious to show that she did not reject all Duty.
“Later today would be better, madam.”
“We entertain our friends presently.”
They went into the maze. Montfallcon’s head disappeared entirely, but Gloriana’s could be seen, together with her silk-clad shoulders, over the top of the hedges. Then Quire went in, then Kansas, and finally Hawes.
From where she sat, Lady Lyst began to giggle. She saw the Queen’s auburn, ruby-studded hair. She saw the crown of Sir Orlando’s tall hat, the top of Lord Kansas’s head, with its cap and feathers. Wheldrake came to sit beside her, wanting to know why she laughed. She pointed. The two visible faces, at different points in the maze, were very grave. The bobbing feathers looked like carrion birds, scuttling along the tops of the hedges. Even Wheldrake, who was at his composition, allowed himself a smile or two.
“Why have they gone into the maze?” he asked.
Lady Lyst was unable to answer.
When Doctor Dee came up, having changed from black to robes of lightish purple, the Thane of Hermiston, in the dark mourning set of his clan, beside him, he could not see the joke at all.
“Where is Captain Quire?” asked the Thane, placing his large hand upon his red beard. “And what’s all this idolatry? Is there no piety left at Court at all? Why is everyone so naked? And with Ingleborough scarcely put to rest?”
Master Wheldrake said: “It is the Queen’s pleasure. She is bored with Death’s company.”
“Captain Quire,” said Lady Lyst with significant hilarity, “is in there!”
The Thane and Dee looked towards the maze. “Everyone is drunk, I think,” softly said the Thane, by way of interpretation and possible excuse. “Though I would not expect it of our visiting sage.” He spoke of Quire, whom he regarded as his greatest prize.
Phil Starling screamed.
They all gave him their attention.
Master Wallis had borne him to the ground and was wrestling with him in a peculiar way. It was not possible to tell if this were true violence or play. The Thane took a step towards them, then halted as the couple began to roll over and over on the grass.
“How swiftly manners change,” murmured the Thane, who was just back from an adventure. “The Queen permits all of this?”
“She encourages us,” said Lady Lyst, very suddenly serious. She pulled herself up. “It has happened since the Countess of Scaith disappeared. We all grieve for her.”
“Where’s she gone to?” the Thane would know.
“Perhaps to one of your other spheres,” Wheldrake suggested, “for she’s nowhere to be found. Oubacha Khan has been searching for her. He thinks she’s still somewhere in the palace.”
“How?”
“In the walls,” said Lady Lyst. “But where?”
“Montfallcon thinks she murdered Perrott,” Doctor Dee told the Thane.
“Not Perrott,” said Lady Lyst.
“Not anyone,” pointedly remarked her lover.
“Not anyone.” Lady Lyst rubbed at her weary eyes. “We’re suspected of Perrott, Wheldrake and I.” She sighed.
“Montfallcon seems to think Quire came from the walls.” Doctor Dee was dry. “He’ll not believe the truth, that’s why. But Montfallcon and Kansas discussed the matter at the feast today. They were for going in, not to seek the Countess, but to find proof of Quire’s origins.”
The Thane chuckled. “They’ll have to look further afield for those.”
“Captain Quire has powers that are not of our world,” Doctor Dee murmured. “He is a brilliant alchemist.”
“He has said nothing to us.” Lady Lyst became interested, for her own tastes were shared between the wine bottle and natural philosophy.
“He is a greatly modest man,” said the Thane approvingly. “He will give the Queen good advice.”
“Yet some blame him for all this idleness,” Wheldrake told him.
“It cannot be so.” Hermiston was firm.
“Or if it is so,” added Doctor Dee, noting that the Queen and Montfallcon, still arm in arm, were emerging from the maze again, “it is for sane reason and the Queen’s well-being.”
Montfallcon seemed a little mollified. Wheldrake saw Tom Ffynne turn the corner of a hedge, note his old friend, and turn back again, taking a maid or two with him.
Kansas, Hawes and Quire were still within the maze.
“Then we shall see you this evening, madam?” Montfallcon said.
“This evening,” she promised. She asked of Wheldrake: “Where is Captain Quire?”
“Yonder, madam.” Wheldrake showed her. “He followed you in.”
She seemed agitated to be parted from him so long. “Will someone fetch him here?”
The Thane began his stride towards the tall hedges. As he reached the entrance he stopped with a hint of a yell as Phil Starling flew out, still giggling, pursued by Master Wallis. There was sweat on Master Wallis’s pale skin. Some of Phil’s kohl had smeared, giving him the rakish appearance of a dissolute foxhound. The Thane made another effort to enter and did so. They saw the feather of his bonnet for a moment. Panting, Phil and Wallis came on. Montfallcon grew angry. “Master Wallis!”
Florestan Wallis came to a halt, one hand on the boy’s soft arm. He cleared his throat. “Aye, my lord?” Phil continued to grin.
“There is a meeting of the Council called.”
“I shall be there, my lord.” Wallis dropped his hand. Phil stared through bold, luscious eyes at Lord Montfallcon, smiling at him as a harlot might smile on a potential client. This was too much for Gloriana. Once again regal, she dismissed them both with a wave.
“The impiety spreads,” said Montfallcon in his cobra’s hiss. “One understands the Queen’s desire to maintain her whores. She feels responsibility towards them. Let us hope that one day soon the responsibility will be removed-” He broke deliberately from this to his next phrase. “-but when the denizens of the seraglio are brought out into the open, to be displayed for all to see, one wonders if, after all, the Queen is wise to continue with her old customs. What was reasonable and private divertissement now becomes public, senseless and all-consuming rapture! Shall we soon see in Albion some pasha’s opulent and decadent Court? Is this to become Hern’s Albion, where no maid nor youth was ever safe from infamy?”
“We shall meet again, my lord, when the Council meets,” said Gloriana distantly. “Where is Captain Quire? Is he lost?”
No one answered. Lord Montfallcon could not leave, or did not desire to leave, without his friends, and they were in the maze with Quire. The Queen caught sight of Sir Amadis, looking a little sorry for himself, coming along the broad walk, and she seized on him. “Sir Amadis!” He looked up, doing his best to soften brooding features. Alys Finch had slighted him for the third or fourth time that day and had linked hands with Lord Gorius, even as she had flirted at two of the Queen’s maids. He had turned his back on them, though he knew he would return to her if she called. He was helpless. He was that treacherous nymph’s absolute slave. “Sir Amadis!”
He joined the Queen’s party. “Your Majesty?”
“We wondered if you had news of your wife’s kinsmen. Any letter from there?”
