‘And so,’ the princess went on, ‘in memory of my beloved late mother and in celebration of her noble martial prowess, this evening you, my most loyal courtiers, shall be the first to witness the awesome power of our new cannon. This weapon was my mother’s dream, and it stands today as her legacy and her eternal gift to our great nation that remains forever above all others!’
‘Good speech,’ I murmured.
‘It ought to be,’ Iagin whispered in my ear. ‘I wrote it myself. Her Highness has a good memory for words, I have to give her that.’
I nodded. I hadn’t really thought she was speaking her own phrases.
‘Before we begin, there is just one more thing,’ the princess said, and the sudden venom in her voice was plain to hear. ‘Bring him forth.’
‘Oh gods, she’s gone off-script,’ Iagin whispered.
Baron Lan Drunov was brought out between two of the Palace Guard, their usual red surcoats replaced with black ones on which the white rose of the royal house stood out stark as moonlight. The poor bastard was still in the same now-stained nightshirt he had been wearing when we dragged him out of his house two days ago, and his bare feet were wet and dirty from the muddy grass underfoot.
A hush descended over the assembled nobles and hangers-on. Even the taverners ceased crying their wares, and I thought that was wise of them. It seemed the cannon itself had been prepared and loaded before we arrived, and had simply been waiting for this moment.
‘This man, the Baron Lan Drunov, has disgraced the dignity of my royal mother, our late and beloved queen,’ the princess continued, and her voice carried like the bolt from a crossbow in the sudden quiet, far louder than it had any natural right to be. ‘In this time of solemn mourning he has sought to hold a ball, for his own aggrandisement and benefit. The Rose Throne is not amused.’
A wooden frame was dragged forward and erected around the gaping maw of the cannon, and the guards tied Lan Drunov to it so that his back was against that awful circle of death.
I swallowed.
I had seen something like this once before, at Abingon, but never at anything like this scale. A cannon a quarter of the size would have done the same job, an eighth the size even, but it seemed that the crown had a statement to make.
It made no difference, I knew. There’s a stage at which the thing is guaranteed, and any more is just wastage, unnecessary and pointless. I looked at the massive cannon, and it seemed to me then that the Princess Crown Royal had elevated pointless wastage almost to an art form.
‘For such disrespect to my royal mother’s memory,’ the princess went on, her voice rising in a spitting fury until she was almost screaming the words, ‘I have decreed that the Baron Lan Drunov be wiped from this earth leaving no trace, not even his hair! Obliterate him!’
The princess resumed her seat then with Vogel’s assistance, and we turned our attention back to the imposing bulk of the cannon. The nightmare played out exactly how might be expected, from there. His lands, title and fortune would be forfeit to the crown after this, of course. Those formally executed are expunged from the records, as opposed to the traitors who simply disappear, and their heirs inherit nothing. The public execution of wealthy criminals, dissenters and idiots was a powerful tool of statecraft, everyone knew that. It was also a very fine source of income for the crown’s coffers.
Our little princess has a new toy she wants to play with.
That was probably closer to the truth. The first was cruel but calculated, nonetheless. That was basically business, simply on a greater scale. This, though, this was sheer wilfulness, wild and unpredictable.
I knew which I would rather face.
Once the baron was secured, the guards withdrew and the cannon crew stepped up, and they too wore black tabards instead of the usual red of the army. I winced as the crew chief lit his long firing pole from a proffered torch, and touched it to the top of the cannon where the priming powder had been laid in the bowl.
It caught with a flash, and a moment later the cannon fired.
The noise was like nothing I had ever heard before, like all the guns of Abingon firing at once, fit to shatter the sky. Flame and smoke roared, like dragons and death and destruction. I had known it was coming and yet still I wanted to throw myself under the benches, to tear at the ground with my hands and dig myself a hole to hide in like a terrified animal. Anything to get away from the noise, the smoke, the concussive blast of hot air that washed over us.
Not again! Lady have mercy, not again!
Baron Lan Drunov was red mist in the air, and it was done.
Breathe, just breathe.
Think. Think of anything else, anything at all.
Dannsburg, you’re in Dannsburg.
Not Abingon, that’s done.
That’s done, and you survived it.
Breathe!
The cost of this, in time and gold, manpower and powder, was staggering. The sheer waste of it, to blast a single fool into pieces. To do what Billy or Mina could have done with a thought, with a gesture.
That wasn’t the point, I realised. The point was that with enough money and men and foundries and powder, they could do it. The arts of the cannon foundry coupled with the alchemical mixing of the blasting powder and the gold to pay for it all could reproduce the effects of magic. I thought of the house of magicians then, of their vast wealth and great learning, and I wondered what they might truly be capable of. It was no wonder Vogel wanted them under his thumb.
Think of that, think of anything.
Anything but Abingon.
Anything but that.
Please, anything but that.
Chapter 24
It was late when we returned to the house of law, and some
