Vengeance

CHAPTER 67

A bellow of fury shook Tali from a sleep blessedly free of pain and shifting shadows. She shot upright, her heart thundering.

Another roar. ‘Damn you to the Pits of Perdition!’ It was Rix, up in his studio. What was the matter? Was he being attacked? She crept up the steps. He was across the studio, brush in hand, dabbing at his father’s face and cursing the portrait with each stroke.

The shocking cellar sketch came flooding back, and all her previous doubts about him. She limped down to the scalderium and sat on the cold floor. Could he be a cold-hearted hypocrite, or did he genuinely not remember her mother’s murder? How could he not remember? Was he covering up for the killers?

Another glimmer of memory came back. The boy had appeared some time after the killers had gone up that corkscrewing stair, and there was no evidence that they had known he was there. Could he have been in the cellar innocently? Had he witnessed the murder, or only arrived after Iusia was dead?

She had to confront Rix and demand to know what he had been doing there. It was risky, though. If he was covering up for someone and she forced him to choose, why would he choose her? But then, why sketch the murder cellar and leave it out where anyone could see it? It made no sense.

As she was sitting there, Tali caught a faint, musty-mouldy smell, which was odd since everything here was perfectly maintained. She walked around, sniffing. The smell reminded her of the tunnel through which she had entered the palace, though she could not tell where it came from.

Rix’s studio was quiet now. She went up the stairs, taking them slowly, wondering how best to approach him. He was ten yards away and had his back to her, dabbing distractedly at the sketch and talking to Tobry — the racket must have woken him. Damn. She had hoped to find Rix alone.

‘That’s not funny,’ cried Tobry.

‘What are you talking about?’ said Rix.

Tali backed down the stairs until only her head was showing.

‘You’ve painted Tali’s face on the woman on the bench,’ said Tobry.

‘Gods! What’s the matter with me today?’ Rix clutched at Tobry’s arm. ‘I’ve had a horrible thought.’

‘I think I know it already,’ said Tobry in a low voice.

Tali raised her head, straining to hear.

‘What if she’s going to be caught and killed, and I’m seeing it?’

They gathered around the sketch, blocking her view. Tali slumped onto the step, quivering. Could Rix be right? His paintings certainly had a power she had seen nowhere else. If he had divined her death, her enemy was going to succeed.

She the one. What if Mad Wil had it wrong? What if Tali was the one who made it possible for the wrythen to succeed, and for Cython to regain the land it had lost two thousand years ago? How could she matter that much? But if she did, and the fate of Hightspall rested on what she did next, she had better think carefully.

She peeped again. Tobry paced around the sketch a couple of times, reached out towards the woman’s cheek then drew back sharply and walked away. Or was Rix merely sketching her mother’s face from some lost childhood memory?

The killers at the end of the bench still had no faces and she gathered that he was unable to paint them. It made one thing clear, though — he wasn’t covering up for anyone. He had lost all memory of the murder and, if the sketch could not bring it back, what hope did she have?

But if the sketch was a true divination, she might not have long to live. She was withdrawing when a sudden resonance struck her about that smell in the scalderium. It so precisely matched the smell of the tunnel through which she had entered the palace that there had to be a connection. A connection!

The original building on this site, she knew, had been a manor constructed at the time Caulderon was founded by the Five Heroes. Indeed, the manor had been built by the leader of the Heroes, Axil Grandys, and in subsequent centuries the palace had been constructed around and over it, enclosing it like a shell.

The Two Hundred and Fifty Year War had been raging then, and there could have been many secret passages and escape tunnels. Could there be another exit in Rix’s scalderium, one long forgotten?

She walked around it, sniffing. The musty odour came from the far side of the enormous tub, where there was a narrow space between it and the wall. Tali wriggled into the space, which was as clean as the rest of Rix’s chambers. Not a speck of dust had been missed by the meticulous maids.

She pressed high and low on the wall and the side of the tub, which was covered in large travertine tiles, and everywhere in between. The tunnel smell was stronger here; there had to be a space somewhere close by. She wiggled her fingertips into every tiny gap and under every ledge, and using everything that her mother had taught her about the workings of the secret hidey holes in Torgrist Manor.

A thunder of rapping on the entrance door made her jump and she cracked her forehead on the side of the tub.

‘It’s Lady Ricinus!’ said Tobry from upstairs.

Should she run up and hope he could get her out the window and down the vertical wall of the tower in time? How could that succeed, in broad daylight? Lady Ricinus knew Rix had sneaked out the other night and she was bound to have people watching. The tunnel was Tali’s only hope.

She scrunched into the narrow space behind the tub, probing for a hidden catch. Someone bounded down the stairs, opened the two bedchamber doors, then ran through the salon into the scalderium.

‘Tali?’ said Tobry

She was hidden behind the tub and did not answer. He cursed and ran out again.

Something had moved where Tali had cracked her head — one of the foot-square travertine tiles. She pressed her hands flat on it, pushed up and down and sideways, and it moved again. She dug her fingertips into a join concealed under the overhang of the tub, tugged and the tile rotated inwards, revealing a space. She wriggled into the humid dark, careful not to dislodge any dust from inside which might reveal her.

Her heart was thumping very fast. Dust stuck to her sweaty hands.

‘The chancellor’s here too,’ Rix hissed. ‘Where’s Tali?’

‘Don’t know,’ said Tobry. ‘I’ve looked everywhere.’

Footsteps advanced down the hall. Many footsteps.

Rix swore. Tali pushed gently on the tile, which slipped back into place, leaving her in Cythonian darkness.

‘Where is she?’ said a commanding voice, the chancellor. ‘Search the other chambers and the studio tower, all the way up to the roof. Put a watch on the doors and windows. Allow no one in or out until I give the word.’

She caught a whiff of a cloying musk and cinnamon perfume. Booted feet clattered up the stairs. Tali could imagine what Rix must be thinking — since a determined search must find her, wouldn’t it be better to reveal that she was in his rooms? If he did, she could not blame him.

Someone came into the scalderium, moving softly, rapping knuckles against the walls, the floor and then the sides of the tub. She put the flat of her hand against the swinging tile so it would not sound hollow and held it firm in case the catch was located.

‘Nothing here, Chancellor,’ a woman said after many long minutes.

‘Check the bedchambers.’

‘What have you done with her, Rixium?’ said Lady Ricinus in a voice that sent shivers up Tali’s spine. She had never heard anyone so cold.

Tali could not make out Rix’s reply.

‘I’ll deal with this,’ said the chancellor. It sounded as though they were sitting in Rix’s salon, next door. Tali pressed her ear to the tiny gap at the top of the tile. ‘I want Thalalie vi Torgrist, and I want her now.’

‘She hasn’t been here,’ said Tobry.

They were protecting her, at great risk to themselves, and it brought tears to Tali’s eyes. How could she have doubted them?

The silence lasted for a full minute. ‘Tobry Lagger,’ said the chancellor. ‘The last disreputable scion of a depraved and fallen house. But you can fall further, sir.’

‘I plan to,’ Tobry said lazily, and Tali was amazed at his self-possession. She was close to wetting herself. ‘I’m going to leave no depth unplumbed before I go.’

‘That might be sooner than you think.’

‘I’ve been expecting it since the terrible choice I had to make when I was thirteen. You can’t frighten me.’

‘But I can threaten you, sir. A word from me and you’ll be in the front lines.’

‘I have no fear of death. I stand ready to serve my country.’

‘Death isn’t the only thing to fear in the front lines. Life there will soon curb your insolence. But I did not come here to bandy words with a penniless layabout. Get out, Lagger. And you too, Lady Ricinus — if you would be so kind,’ he ended mockingly.

‘The heir to House Ricinus is not yet of age, Chancellor,’ said Lady Ricinus. ‘It is my right and duty to represent him.’

‘This is not a trial,’ barked the chancellor. ‘And in time of war, when the enemy is within the city walls, all rights are bestowed, and taken away, at my discretion.’

‘They’re in Caulderon?’ cried Lady Ricinus, shrilly. ‘Who allowed the savages in? The general in charge should hang.’

‘They swarmed up into Tumulus Town an hour ago, through rat holes we did not know were there. I dare say they’re attacking other suburbs as well. I received the news on your very doorstep, Madam. Go! Close the door behind you, and look to the defences of the palace — if it’s not too late. You should have listened to your son when he pleaded to defend it.’

‘How — how did you know that?’

‘My spies tell me everything. Go!’

She went. No one spoke for some time, then the chancellor said, quietly, ‘Lord Rixium, great challenges lie ahead. I need the best men in the land at my side, and I’ve had my eye on you for some time. We greatly appreciated your news about the caverns at Precipitous Crag and the mysterious activities at the Rat Hole the other day, not to mention your insights into the enemy’s new weaponry and tactics. Few men could have done what you did, nor rescued the Pale girl in the face of such odds, then gained her confidence.’

Rix gave no audible answer and the chancellor continued.

‘Your deeds do you honour, and House Ricinus too. They will not be soon forgotten, but …’ He paused, then went on. ‘This house stands in grave need of honour, after the depraved antics of your father which have caused so much offence.’

‘Father is not … not a well man,’ said Rix hoarsely.

Tali imagined sweat running down his handsome face.

‘I know more than I care to about Lord Ricinus,’ growled the chancellor. ‘Don’t apologise for the scoundrel.’

‘I do not. But I do owe Father a duty of respect.’

‘Quite so. Your mother, however, is in full command of herself.’ The chancellor finished with a whip crack.

‘I don’t take your meaning, Lord Chancellor,’ said Rix.

‘She has given mortal offence.’

‘I cannot see that, sir,’ Rix said weakly, ‘and I must defend her.’

‘That is your duty as a loyal son, but do so judiciously or you too may be tainted. I’m a realistic man — I allow for a degree of favours and douceurs. Many of the lesser hangers-on at court would be bankrupt were it not for their bribes, extortions and petty monopolies. But your mother, sir, assumes that everything is for sale — and everyone. She has gone too far and, should House Ricinus fall, it will be she who has brought it down.’

‘She can be a trifle abrasive, Lord Chancellor,’ said Rix, and Tali could hear the strain in his voice, the conflict. ‘Sometimes she strives too hard in her quest to serve our house, but — ’

‘Ricinus hangs by a thread, Lord Rixium. Were it not for your own valiant deeds, and your father’s prodigious and sorely needed gift of the Third Army, I would have nudged your house off the precipice myself.

‘But the gift has been made, gratitude is due and in war we need unity, not discord. Give me the girl and your house will survive. It may even rise to the absurd heights of Lady Ricinus’s ambition. Who knows? In the past, equally villainous rogues have clawed their way to the top, loudly pronounced themselves noble, and even become noble, in time.’

‘Why do you want Tali?’ said Rix.

‘Her knowledge of the enemy, and Cython, could win the war for us.’

‘But you already have Rannilt,’ cried Rix.

‘Who told you that?’ snapped the chancellor.

‘I too have my spies.’

‘No matter. Her knowledge of Cython was certainly useful, but full of gaps, and she sees things through a child’s eyes. Besides, she’s proven obdurate of late.’

Tali smiled at that. How she missed the child.

The chancellor dropped his voice. Now she had to strain to hear what he was saying, but the power of his voice was all the greater.

‘I want Tali, and I’m going to have her. Satisfy me on this and you will realise your dreams.’ He paused for a full minute. ‘But if you fail me, Lord Rixium, if Thalalie vi Torgrist is not delivered to me by the night of the Honouring, I swear that I will cast House Ricinus so low that a thousand years will pass before you can aspire to shovelling muck. From tonight, you have three days.’

Rix did not reply. Tali would not have been able to. Such a threat to her own house would have stopped her heart.

‘I find myself desperately conflicted, Chancellor,’ Rix said, his deep voice even lower than normal. ‘I love my House, and I have always done my duty to it, but I love honour too — my personal honour.’

‘Then look to the hierarchy, boy,’ growled the chancellor. ‘Your country comes first, always. Where your country is not under threat your House comes first, always. Next is family, always. Only then do you count friendship and lesser liaisons. You have until the Honouring.’

Hard heels tapped across the floor. The entrance door clicked open, clicked closed. He was gone.

Tali felt sure that Rix would bow to the chancellor’s threat. He must, as she would have done in the same position. Would she put an acquaintance, or even a dear friend, before the survival of her House and all the members of her family? How could she? How could anyone? Rix knew she was hiding here somewhere and, for the sake of his country, house and family, he would have to turn her in.

The door reopened. ‘Rixium?’ said Lady Ricinus. Her voice had a quaver.

‘The chancellor is displeased, Mother,’ said Rix.

Her voice firmed. ‘And so am I. I told you to find her — ’

‘It’s you!’ Rix said, choking on the words. ‘He’s displeased with you, Mother.’

‘That’s absurd. I’m the very model of propriety …’

‘He’s taken grave offence at all your bribing, conniving and manipulating.’

‘It’s nothing that any other House has not been doing for generations. At least, any House with the least ambition — ’

‘If it’s nothing, how come our treasury is so bankrupt that the palace army hasn’t been paid?’

‘How dare you question me!’ she cried. ‘You are not — ’

‘Not of age,’ Rix snapped. ‘I soon will be, Mother, and if House Ricinus survives that long, I swear — ’

‘You don’t get the keys to the treasury until you become Lord Ricinus.’

‘And that’s unlikely to happen now, is it?’

‘What are you talking about?’ The uncertainty was creeping into her voice again.

‘If Tali isn’t produced by the Honouring, the chancellor is going to grind our House so low it will never rise again. And all because you tried to bribe him, Mother. The chancellor!’

When she finally spoke, her voice was low and savage.

‘Then maybe it’s time to ensure that he can’t bring us down.’

‘Mother, that’s treason!’ cried Rix. ‘We’re at war — the chancellor is a strong, capable leader, the only one we’ve got …’

‘I spoke in haste,’ she hissed. ‘Erase my words from your memory. I never said them. Now get the damned portrait finished — and find that treacherous Pale.’

Tali was trembling, shocked to her core. Taking her hand off the panel in case she made it rattle, she leaned back, thinking furiously. Rix had three days to save her, three days to betray her! And what if Lady Ricinus did carry out her threat?

If she did cast the chancellor down, Tali did not see how Hightspall could survive.