“Rightly and loyally ambitious,” said Jasmer. “Have you not been served in your own course by friends and generals?”
“And sorcerers.”
“Majesty.”
“Well, it’s no fault of Ours that foes of old are lately grown so feeble!”
“Those foes would say otherwise, Majesty. You have been the architect of their sorrows.”
“Well, well. Some serpents flatter, ere they bite. So now let’s have your fangs.”
“Majesty, there is a discontent in Therim Pel that gnaws, as vermin at a house’s timbers. The matter of the thieves.”
“Gods above! Have We not seen your spells in battle wrought, and men scythed dead like harvest grain? Have We not seen thunder and lightning leashed to your whim? Now you tell Us to cringe from vagabonds.”
“Not cringe, Majesty, never cringe. But attend, for here’s a sickness that’s catching. Word I have of gatherings in great numbers, of boldness unbecoming, of deliberate contempt for your imperial throne.”
“All thieves scorn the law, else they would not be thieves. Why cry this stale revelation?”
“Majesty, they make society beneath bright Therim Pel and name a sovereign for their counterfeit court!”
“In jest. We too much dignify this nonsense with Our consideration.”
“Majesty, please, if you suffer scorn from base pretenders, how can it not breed by example in higher stations? I grant that you may laugh in private—”
“You
“Pardon, Majesty. I submit. I counsel most earnestly. Rightly should you
“Slay wastrels now or courtiers later, you say? Who, then, would be this sovereign of thieves, and how are they grown so fearsome that your own agencies cannot weed them?”
“A woman, majesty, a woman of worthy temper, whose thralls call her Queen of Shadows. She guards well against my simpler servants. One of them was slain last night and left on a street, as warning and challenge.”
“And what of spells?” Sylvanus let the word hang heavy in the air for a moment. “By Our command, could you not slay her at leisure, swift as a cold wind?”
“By your command,” said Jasmer, grudgingly, “she could die this instant, yet thus would I murder opportunity.”
“What, then, do you
“Let Aurin and Ferrin be your instruments, Majesty. Their faces are little-known to the lawless. Let them enter this thieves’ warren, and win this woman to their confidence, and execute judgment on her.”
“The dust is not yet settled from the corpse of your former agent, and you would put my son in his place?”
“Peace, Majesty. Has not princely Aurin wondrous skill at arms? Is not Ferrin iron-strong as suits his name? I am the soul of prudence with your issue, and would set my arts and eyes upon him from afar, though he’ll know it not. He could not be safer in his own chambers … and he might do much good.”
“Strange conceit, to make an emperor’s son an assassin.”
“To make it known the coming lion has some fox to him, matches subtlety to strength, and dares personal return for personal insult!”
“Aurin desires this?” said Sylvanus softly.
“He burns for a test, Majesty. The gracious gods have put one before us. I would set him to it.”
“Long have you served Us, best and brightest of Our magi, sharpest wit and quickest counsel. Yet should this go bad for Aurin, know for a certainty you will share his doom, though it took all the magi of the empire to bind you.”
“Sovereign, if my counsel from its design so wretchedly strayed I would not wish to live.”
“Then make preparation to guard with watchful spell, and We shall see it done. Bring Aurin and Ferrin before Us.”
Locke crept out from the shade of the stage pillars and into the heat. The Pearl’s western galleries wore shadows like masks, but the middle of the stage was at the mercy of the late-afternoon sun. Alondo came from the opposite side, met him in front of Jasmer and Sylvanus, and together they continued the scene.
Scene by scene, day after day, the drama unfolded in fits and starts, as though capricious gods were toying with the lives of Salerius II and his court. Skipping forward, reversing time, shifting parts and places, demanding repetition of certain moments until every participant was ready to throw punches, Jasmer Moncraine conjured the rough shape of the story and then started to carve fine.
For Locke the days became rhythmic frustration, as he and Sabetha were herded by Boulidazi, as he dutifully applied himself to becoming a character he didn’t want to play. It was not unlike inhabiting a role as Chains had taught him, and in other circumstances it might have been fascinating. Yet each time he watched Alondo take Sabetha by the hand, or shoulder, or practice stage-kisses and embraces, he learned anew how slowly time could crawl when there was some misery to dwell on.
“You don’t seem yourself, Lucaza,” said Boulidazi softly as the company trudged home one dusty evening. Low style or not, Boulidazi and his men never went so far as to be without horses, and the baron hopped down now, leading his animal by the bridle to walk beside Locke. “You tripped over some lines you should have cold.”
“It’s … not the lines, my lord.” So annoyed was Locke, so tired of rehearsal and the cloudless Esparan sky, that he was confiding in Boulidazi before he could help himself. “I expected to be Aurin.” He stretched this confidence out with a minor lie, lest Boulidazi should suspect him of desiring more proximity to Sabetha. “I, uh, read and studied Aurin on the journey here. I practiced him. He’s got all the better lines. I’m just … not at ease as Ferrin.”
“You and I share some tastes, I think,” said Boulidazi, grinning that damned insolent grin of his.
“I don’t think you’re a Ferrin either,” Boulidazi continued. “He should be older than Aurin, bigger, the more confident of the two. That Alondo is more suited to the part, if you’ll pardon the reflection. I’m sure if he’d been offered the choice, he’d rather have your birth and money than a few more inches of height and muscle, eh?”
“Quite,” muttered Locke.
“Chin up, noble cousin. Face forward.” Boulidazi glanced casually around to ensure nobody important was within earshot. “Luck’s a changing thing. Just look at your man Jovanno, eh? Hooked that fine smoke-skin seamstress, gods know how. Hardly the sort of thing you’d want to give the family name to, but tight and wet where it counts. And she must be hot for it, sure as hell.”
“Jovanno’s got some qualities that aren’t plain to the eye,” said Locke, forcing a bantering tone.
“Carrying a proper sword, is he? Those well-fed types do tend to crowd their breeches, or so I hear. Well, anyway … how’s our Verena doing?”
“You can’t have missed her onstage.” Indeed, she was doing well, the most effortlessly natural of the Gentlemen Bastards as a thespian and by far the most pleasing to the eye and the romantic sensitivities. Even Chantal’s skepticism had given way, first to tolerance and then to open respect.
“Naturally. I meant the down hours, the nights and mornings. Surely she can’t find Gloriano’s quite the thing, even as a lark. Gods know I enjoy my rolling in the muck, but I don’t sleep there, eh? She might well wish a respite … even just for a night. A proper meal, a bath, silk sheets. I’ve many rooms at the house sitting empty. You could make the suggestion.”
“I could.”
“And I could have a word with old Moncraine about a change in roles for you.”
“Well, now, my lord, that would hardly … that is, I’m not sure Moncraine is open to persuasion on the matter.”
“You’ve got some liberal notions for a Camorri, my friend. I don’t persuade; I command. Except, of course, in pursuit of fair hand and heart.” Boulidazi chuckled, but turned serious in an instant. “So you’ll speak to
