‘I have a bath drawn in the next room.’
‘Are you joining me?’
She spun out of his reach. ‘As much as I might like to, Jim, we do not have time if you’re going to sneak about and talk to all those people who you need to sneak about and talk to.’
Jim frowned and turned his mind to the business at hand. ‘Clothing?’
‘I have a complete set.’
‘Really?’
‘I thought you might need court clothing, and besides,’ she added with a slight smile, ‘I know your size intimately.’
In the side room he found a tub with warm water waiting. He quickly stripped off his clothing and stepped in. A moment later Franciezka entered with a shaving mug, brush, and razor. He lathered up his hair with a delicate scented shampoo she kept for her own use. The scent of it reminded him he was aching to touch her again.
She poured a bucket of warm water over his head and said, ‘Lie back and I’ll shave you.’
While she did so she went on, ‘I discovered something deeply troubling after you left, Jim.’
‘Only one thing?’ he said brightly.
‘Never make me laugh or get angry when I have a razor next to your throat.’
‘Fair point. Sorry I interrupted.’
‘After you left I retired to my villa and helped the Princess to escape.’
He laughed and said, ‘Now she’s back, so one wonders what good all that did.’ Feeling the sudden pressure of her razor against his throat he said, ‘Sorry,’ and fell silent again.
‘She was away from Lord John, which was the point.’ She deftly scraped his cheek. ‘Word reached me of something odd taking place, and the servants being barred from the Lord John’s quarters.’
‘So you snuck back- Ow!’
She had nicked his neck.
‘Stop interrupting! So I snuck back into the palace and watched through a window. I saw the damnedest meeting imaginable. Lord John hosted two other men: Sir William Alcorn and a Keshian prince-’
He grabbed her wrist so that she couldn’t nick him again. ‘Harfum?’
‘Yes,’ she said, ‘How did you know?’
‘A pattern. What did you learn?’
She continued to shave him. ‘First, all three of them appear to be the same man, or else some mother somewhere had triplet sons born in three nations to three noble families at the same time.’ She finished and handed him a towel. He sat motionless for a long moment, stunned by the news. ‘The same …’ He let the thought trail off. ‘The third player.’
‘Whoever was behind the war between the Isles and Kesh, certainly,’ she added. ‘We know the war made no sense, particularly given how it ended, and how this benefits the third player …’ Again a thought was left unfinished.
He wiped the residue soap off his face. ‘How long before I insinuate myself into the royal hullabaloo?’
‘All the nobles are resting while their luggage is being unpacked. I expect you’ll want to sneak about a bit and speak to someone or another.’
‘Hal is now Duke of Crydee. His father perished before the siege of Ylith. I want to speak to him and Ty Hawkins.’
‘You have some time. Why?’
He reached over and grabbed her, hauling her into the tub with him. She shrieked for a moment, then her cries turned to laughter.
‘Too long I have thought about this reunion, Franciezka, and too long have I thought about what I would say. I’ll sneak about later.’
She kissed him. ‘Shut up or I’ll find that razor.’
He returned the kiss and began unfastening wet laces.
Miranda looked at the matrix and probed it, pulling back instantly. ‘There is a demonic element there; subtle, which is why you missed it, but there all the same.’
Pug and Magnus were both silent for a moment, then Pug said, ‘Is it a trap?
‘It is hard to judge. As I’m sure you’ve both come to appreciate, it’s a complex energy net.’ Miranda overlapped her outstretched fingers, as if forming a grid. ‘Interwoven spells, and something else, other energy states …’ She closed her eyes for a moment, then they popped wide open. ‘We need Nakor.’
And she was gone. While the three of them had been examining the matrix, Nakor had been in another part of the building exploring the Pantathian archives with a guide.
Magnus said, ‘I don’t know what unnerves me more, that she is so exactly like mother or how easily I forget she’s not mother.’
‘I also have to force my mind to that-’
Suddenly she was back with Nakor standing next to her. With a grin he said, ‘Pug! Magnus! There are some wonderful volumes and scrolls here. A lot of history …’ He stopped speaking as he saw the energy field behind his three companions and pushed past them. He looked at the large oval of light. ‘This is the matrix?’ He leaned over until his nose was less than an inch away. ‘This is wonderful.’ He sat back, his hands just inches away from the surface, but not touching it. ‘Demon, yes,’ he said. ‘But something else, something …’ He nearly jumped back. ‘I recognize it.’
‘What is it?’ asked Pug, struggling to cope with the appearance of his dead friend as he had his dead wife.
‘I felt this in the pit on Omadrabar. There is a touch of the Dread here.’ He glanced at Magnus.
‘We think it might be Valheru.’
Nakor nodded. ‘Yes, I sense it. Elf, Valheru may be what I’ve missed, Dread, demon … But nothing human. This was created a very long time ago, by people who were not human. No hint of dwarf or goblin either! This is from before the Chaos Wars!’
‘Tomas said the Sven-ga’ri in the Peaks of the Quor were already there before humans came to Midkemia.’
Grinning, Nakor rubbed his hands together. ‘It’s a lock, I think, and picking it will take some time.’ He closed his eyes, hummed a nameless tune, then said, ‘Ah! Dragon! There’s dragon essence here, as well.’ He laughed aloud. ‘All the ancient races! This is quite a lock!’ He looked around. ‘Don’t be shy. Come, see what’s inside!’ He closed his eyes as if meditating, and the other three sat and joined him in studying the matrix with all the magical skill they possessed.
Later Jim and Franciezka lay in bed, entwined in one another’s embrace, her head on his chest. ‘You’re a very bad man, Jim Jamison,’ she said softly.
‘Please tell me I have a few good qualities you’re fond of?’
‘That’s just my point.’ She pushed herself up on one elbow. ‘I am too fond of you. Fool, I’ve tried to kill you twice.’
He grinned. ‘I like to think that’s because you didn’t know me well at the time.’
‘Perhaps it was because I got to know you better?’
He kissed her. ‘Seriously, what are we to do?’
She laid her head back on his shoulder and said, ‘About us, or about everything else?’
‘I fear “us” depends on everything else.’
She sighed. ‘Well, then, to business. I have a few agents I can trust inside the palace. Fewer in the city. None beyond our shores.’
‘I am in similar circumstances,’ he said.
‘So let us compare what we know.’
They spent half an hour exchanging information and when they had, Jim said, ‘I think our instincts served us well! There is an unknown player in all this and I believe Kesh is as much a victim of this player as is Isles.’
‘Explaining that to your King when he contemplates the losses you’ve taken in the west may prove difficult.’
‘Gregory is not a bellicose man. He will consider peace if offered at reasonable terms.’
