We crossed the bridge together, and once we were on the far side in the dark squalor of the bad part of town, Anne finally spoke.
‘What the fuck happened?’ she asked.
‘Let’s get a bottle,’ I said, ‘and I’ll tell you.’
We found a tavern, not one Leonov frequented, and went inside. It was still crowded despite the late hour and we were too richly dressed for that side of the river, but I had the Weeping Women at my hips and Anne had her daggers, and the looks on our faces brooked no argument that night. This wasn’t the Stink, no, and we weren’t known here, but hard folk recognise their own kind anywhere. We were left alone, and I bought us a bottle of cheap brandy and carried it and a couple of chipped glasses over to an empty table in the corner of the room, away from the fire, where it was less crowded. I poured for us both, then looked at Anne over the rim of my glass.
‘The Prince Regent said a confession to me tonight,’ I told her, keeping my voice low.
‘Oh?’ Anne said. ‘What was that, then?’
A priest wouldn’t normally speak of a man’s confession, of course, but the prince was no one I knew and I thought this was important. This was business.
‘He’s terrified of his own daughter,’ I said, and waited while Anne took that in.
‘The princess?’
‘Aye. Well, not of her as such, I suppose, but certainly of her becoming queen. She’s mad as a shithouse rat, according to him. Her maids have a lot of accidents. Burns, mostly. Bad ones. One of them had to have her arm taken off at the elbow by the palace surgeon recently, and no adequate explanation for it. Apparently it’s becoming hard to hide, and understandably so. He’s scared of what she might do, with the power of a queen. But then the Old Man doesn’t seem to trust him at all, so Lady only knows if it’s true or not.’
‘That’s not good,’ Anne said, knowing I meant Vogel.
‘No, it fucking ain’t. If the Old Man doesn’t trust the regent then we’ve got a fucking problem brewing. He’s got the arse with Ailsa for marrying me too, that much was clear enough.’
‘Do you think she’s mad?’
‘How the fuck would I know, Bloody Anne? I’ve never been within so much as a hundred feet of her, never mind spoken to her. Ailsa doesn’t have any love for the girl, that’s plain enough.’
Anne grunted and swallowed her brandy, and I remembered how little love she had for Ailsa. Ailsa’s opinion wasn’t one that Anne would value, I knew that much.
‘You’re still supposed to be getting knighted at some point, aren’t you?’ she asked.
‘Aye, I suppose so,’ I said. ‘When someone can be bothered to get around to it, anyway.’
‘Well, you’ll be meeting the princess then, won’t you?’
I must admit I hadn’t thought of that. At least then I could form my own opinion on the matter.
‘I suppose I will,’ I said. ‘There’s something to look forward to.’
Anne refilled our glasses, a thoughtful look on her face.
‘Are they really mad, do you think?’ she asked after a moment.
‘Who?’
‘Shithouse rats.’
I snorted laughter and drained my glass. This was what I needed, a night of drinking and talking horseshit with my best friend, as far away from the Queen’s Men as I could get.
*
Of course, in Dannsburg that was never very far at all.
Leonov and a couple of his boys came and scraped us out of the tavern sometime before dawn, and we were driven back to the Bountiful Harvest in the back of a dray cart. I have to confess I don’t remember much of the journey. We had been halfway through our third bottle by the time he arrived.
I woke in the early afternoon. When I dragged my sore head out of bed and looked at the pile of discarded clothes on the floor, I saw there was sick down the sleeve of my coat. I wasn’t even sure if it was mine or Anne’s.
At least I had plenty of other clothes now, having kept a local tailor busy day and night since our arrival. I had a piss into the pot and a wash at the basin, then got dressed and headed downstairs. I found Fat Luka waiting for me.
‘You’re in the shit with your wife,’ he said by way of greeting.
‘I dare say I am, and not for the first time,’ I said. ‘Is she still here?’
‘No, boss.’
I nodded, glad of that if little enough else.
‘Aye, well, that’s good. What else?’
Luka shrugged. ‘Billy’s sulking that Ailsa went away again, but she promised she’d see him again when she could. Anne was puking in the stable yard, last I saw her. Oh, and the state funeral for the queen has been announced for three days’ time. We’ll have to go, I suppose.’
‘We will. How’s the mood on the streets?’
‘Well enough, from what I hear,’ he said. ‘The prince gave quite the stirring speech last night, apparently. Everyone seems to love him.’
‘That’s good to know.’
I had thought they might, once Iagin’s whisperers got their story spread around. That was how government was done in Dannsburg.
‘Well, I say everyone,’ Luka went on, ‘but perhaps not quite. Word is the house of magicians has been stirring up trouble with the governing council, but quite what sort of trouble I haven’t been able to find out. Sounds like they aren’t best happy about something, anyway.’
‘They usually aren’t,’ I said. ‘Tell me, Fat Luka, what do people think of the Princess Crown Royal?’
He blinked at me. ‘Well, she’s going to be queen in a couple of years,
