*
My first meeting of the governing council was what I suppose you could call an experience. I didn’t know how anything worked, for one thing, but for all that the system was steeped in centuries-old traditions it was soon plain that not everyone respected them. Lan Drashkov certainly didn’t, as I had observed at the council meeting I had watched from the public gallery, and I decided that if he could get away with a bluff, blunt approach to formality then so could I.
Dressed in my most formal clothes, I took my seat on the padded benches of green leather that lined the official chamber of the public council hall and waited for First Councillor Aleksander Lan Letskov to call the meeting to order. I saw Councillor Markova looking at me, and I inclined my head to her as a colleague. She gave me a nod of respect in return that told me she had a fair idea of who I was, and I wondered exactly how much Vogel had told her. She was one of his, I remembered, on his direct payroll, not like most of the rest of them, who were on Iagin’s general one. I thought that out of her and Lan Drashkov, she was almost certainly the more dangerous. Of the others I had no idea who was on our payroll and who wasn’t, and I supposed that was probably for the best. This had to look convincing, and the less we knew of each other the better.
I could see the wisdom in that, but still I felt adrift on strange waters.
Lan Letskov appeared on the First Councillor’s dais at last, and rapped a gavel on the podium before him to cease the muttering between those assembled in the grand council chamber.
‘Come to order,’ he said. ‘This meeting of the governing council is now in session. Our first item of business is the maintenance of the East Gate. The current estimate from the guild of masons is a sum of . . .’
I stopped listening to him, having no interest in how much maintaining the East Gate was likely to cost the crown. There was a fucking war brewing, for Our Lady’s sake. It would be approved and done, however much it cost; there wasn’t even a decision to be made there, to my mind. I let my eyes wander, scanning the public gallery. I was, it had to be said, extremely surprised to see Bloody Anne up there, watching me with Rosie seated beside her. Anne was wearing a man’s coat and doublet, as was her way, and Rosie looked a fine lady beside her in a green gown that I hadn’t seen before. It went well with her red hair, and I could only assume it had been a gift from Anne. I didn’t pay her that much, for all that I could draw coin from the coffers of the house of law as I pleased.
I had told Anne of my appointment when I got back from my meeting with Vogel the previous day. Of course I had – it might have been horseshit but I was still proud of it, in a way, much as I had been of my knighthood. Of course I had wanted to tell her. If I couldn’t tell my ma about this then I wanted to tell my best friend instead. I wanted someone to be proud of me, and I make no apology for that. I am only human, after all. We had toasted my supposed elevation last night with a bottle of brandy that I was beginning to regret as I sat there in the stuffy, dusty confines of the council hall, but I had never expected her to come and watch.
‘It’s too much,’ I heard someone protest. ‘The masons must think we are fools.’
‘Outrageous,’ someone else complained. ‘For that money we could—’
‘But since our late queen’s assassination by the Skanians, security must surely—’
‘The magicians killed the queen, not the Skanians.’
‘No, they didn’t!’
‘Yes, they did!’
‘Idiot!’
‘Collaborator!’
In Our Lady’s name, this was even worse than I had been expecting it to be. I didn’t know how much of the dissent was orchestrated by the house of law and how much was simply human stupidity, but I saw my opportunity right there.
Try to make an impression on your first day, Vogel had said. They don’t have to like you, but they do have to remember you. The city wall, I think.
Oh, I would make them remember me all right. I rose to my feet and cleared my throat.
‘The governing council recognises Sir Tomas Piety, councillor for the North Ward,’ First Councillor Lan Letskov announced.
‘First fucking day and he’s got to make a speech,’ Lan Drashkov scoffed, deliberately loud enough to be heard, but I ignored him.
I could only assume he had seen Markova and me exchange nods and had immediately taken me for her ally, and therefore his enemy. Oh, what fun this role was going to be.
‘My ladies, my lords, my fellow councillors,’ I said, taking hold of the lapels of my coat as I had seen important people do when making a speech. I have no idea why, it just seemed to be something that folk did. ‘It seems to me that maintenance of the East Gate is the least of our concerns in these troubled times we live in.’
I paused a moment to wait for the ‘hear hears’ of those opposed to the work and the boos of those in favour of it to finish echoing around the chamber, then I continued.
‘Indeed, it is such an obvious requirement that I am surprised we feel the need to even discuss it. Masons are master craftsmen and must be paid
