‘Indeed I was.’ He waited until she’d settled into her chair before seating himself in the only other chair. ‘Acquitor, you are in your sixth month?’
She started. ‘Yes. And which file did you read to discover that?’
‘Forgive me,’ he said, ‘I am feeling unusually clumsy tonight. In, uh, your company, I mean.’
‘It has been some time since I last intimidated anyone, Chancellor.’
‘Yes, well, perhaps… well, it’s not quite you, Acquitor.’
‘Should I be relieved that you have retracted your compliment?’
‘Now you play with me.’
‘I do. Chancellor, please, what is all this about?’
‘I think it best you think of me in a different capacity, Acquitor. Rather than “chancellor”, may I suggest “Ceda”.’
Her eyes slowly widened. ‘Ah. Very well. Tehol Beddict had quite the manservant, it seems.’
‘I am here,’ said Bugg, eyes dropping momentarily to the swell of her belly, ‘to provide a measure of… protection.’
She felt a faint twist of fear inside. ‘For me, or my baby? Protection from what?’
He leaned forward, hands entwined. ‘Seren Pedac, your child’s father was Trull Sengar. A Tiste Edur and brother to Emperor Rhulad. He was, however, somewhat
‘Yes,’ she said, ‘he was my love.’
His gaze shied away and he nodded. ‘There is a version of the Tiles, consisting of Houses, a kind of formal structure imposed on various forces at work in the universe. It is called the Deck of Dragons. Within this Deck, the House of Shadow is ruled, for the moment, not by the Tiste Edur who founded that realm, but by new entities. In the House, there is a King, no Queen as yet, and below the King of High House Shadow there are sundry, uh, servants. Such roles find new faces every now and then. Mortal faces.’
She watched him, her mouth dry as sun-baked stone. She watched as he wrung his hands, as his eyes shifted away again and again. ‘Mortal faces,’ she said.
‘Yes, Acquitor.’
‘Trull Sengar.’
‘The Knight of Shadow.’
‘Cruelly abandoned, it would seem.’
‘Not by choice, nor neglect, Acquitor. These Houses, they are engaged in war, and this war escalates-’
‘Trull did not choose that title, did he?’
‘No. Choice plays little part in such things. Perhaps even the Lords and Ladies of the Houses are in truth less omnipotent than they would like to believe. The same, of course, can be said for the gods and goddesses. Control is an illusion, a deceptive one that salves thin-skinned bluster.’
‘Trull is dead,’ Seren said.
‘But the Knight of Shadow lives on,’ Bugg replied.
The dread had been building within her, an icy tide rising to flood every space within her, between her thoughts, drowning them one by one, and now cold fear engulfed her. ‘Our child,’ she whispered.
Bugg’s eyes hardened. ‘The Errant invited the murder of Trull Sengar. Tonight, Acquitor, the Deck of Dragons will be awakened, in this very city. This awakening is in truth a challenge to the Errant, an invitation to battle. Is he ready? Is he of sufficient strength to counter-attack? Will this night end awash in mortal blood? I cannot say. One thing I mean to prevent, Seren Pedac, is the Errant striking his enemies through the child you carry.’
‘That’s not good enough,’ she whispered.
His brows rose. ‘Acquitor?’
‘I said it’s not good enough! Who is this King of High House Shadow? How dare he claim my child! Summon him, Ceda! Here! Now!’
‘Summon? Acquitor, even if I could, that would be… please, you must understand. To summon a god-even if naught but a fragment of its spirit-will be to set afire the brightest beacon-one that will be seen by not just the Errant, but other forces as well. On this night, Acquitor, we must do nothing to draw attention to ourselves.’
‘It is you who needs to understand, Ceda. If the Errant wants to harm my child… you may well be a Ceda, but the Errant is a
‘Acquitor-’
‘Summon him!’
‘Seren-I am enough. Against the Errant. Against any damned fool who dares to come close,
‘That makes no sense.’
‘Nevertheless.’
She stared at him, unable to disguise her disbelief, her terror.
‘Acquitor, there are other forces in the city. Ancient, benign ones, yet powerful nonetheless. Would it ease your concern if I summon
‘I believe so.’
After a moment, she nodded. ‘Very well. But Ceda, after tonight-I will speak to this King of Shadow.’
He flinched. ‘I fear you will find the meeting unsatisfactory, Acquitor.’
‘I will decide that for myself.’
Bugg sighed. ‘So you shall, Seren Pedac.’
‘When will you summon your friends, Ceda?’
‘I already have.’
Lostara Yil had said there’d be eleven in all not counting Fiddler himself. That was madness. Eleven players for the reading. Bottle glanced across at Fiddler as they marched up the street in the wake of the two women. The man looked sick, rings under his eyes, mouth twisted in a grimace. The darker roots of his hair and beard made the silvered ends seem to hover like an aura, a hint of chaos.
Gesler and Stormy clumped along behind them. Too cowed for their usual arguing with each other about virtually everything. As bad as a married couple, they were. Maybe they sensed the trouble on the way-Bottle was sure those two marines had more than just gold-hued skin setting them apart from everyone else. Clearly, whatever fates existed displayed a serious lack of discrimination when choosing to single out certain people from the herd. Gesler and Stormy barely had one brain between them.
Bottle tried to guess who else would be there. The Adjunct and Lostara Yil, of course, along with Fiddler himself, and Gesler and Stormy. Maybe Keneb-he’d been at the last one, hadn’t he? Hard to remember-most of that night was a blur now. Quick Ben? Probably. Blistig? Well, one sour, miserable bastard might settle things out some. Or just make everything worse. Sinn? Gods forbid.
‘This is a mistake,’ muttered Fiddler. ‘Bottle-what’re you sensing? Truth now.’
‘You want the truth? Really?’
‘Bottle.’
‘Fine, I’m too scared to edge out there-this is an old city, Sergeant. There’s… things. Mostly sleeping up until now. I mean, for as long as we’ve been here.’
‘But now they’re awake.’
‘Aye. Noses in the air. This reading, Sergeant, it’s about as bad an idea as voicing a curse in Oponn’s name while sitting in Hood’s lap.’
‘You think I don’t know that?’
‘Can you spike the whole thing, Sergeant? Just say it won’t go, you’re all closed up inside or something?’
‘Not likely. It just… takes over.’
‘And then there’s no stopping it.’
‘No.’
‘Sergeant.’
‘What?’
‘We’re going to be exposed, horribly exposed. Like offering our throats to whoever-and they’re probably not merciful types. So, how do we defend ourselves?’
Fiddler glanced across at him, and then edged closer. Ahead was the HQ-they were running out of time. ‘I can’t do nothing, Bottle. Except take the head off, and with luck some of those nasties will go down with it.’
‘You’re going to be sitting on a cusser, aren’t you?’
Fiddler shifted the leather satchel slung from one shoulder, and that was confirmation enough for Bottle.
‘Sergeant, when we get into the room, let me try one last time to talk her out of it.’
‘Let’s hope she at least holds to the number.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Eleven is bad, twelve is worse. But thirteen would be a disaster. Thirteen’s a bad number for a reading. We don’t want thirteen, anything but-’
‘Lostara said eleven, Sergeant. Eleven.’
‘Aye.’ And Fiddler sighed.
When another knock sounded at the door, Bugg raised a hand. ‘Permit me, please, Acquitor.’ And he rose at her nod and went to let in their new guests.
She heard voices, and looked up to see the Ceda appear with two bedraggled figures: a man, a woman, dressed in rags. They halted just inside the main room and a roiling stink of grime, sweat and alcohol wafted towards Seren Pedac. She struggled against an impulse to recoil as the pungent aroma swept over her. The man
