Vengeance

CHAPTER 93

After forty agonising minutes, the floor shook and a series of crashes rumbled up. Not long afterwards the high constable’s party returned and he conferred with the chancellor and the justiciar.

‘Speak,’ said the chancellor, who was warming his hands over the brazier.

‘We found a cellar six levels down,’ said the high constable. ‘It is exactly as Rixium has painted it.’

‘Are you saying — ?’ said the chancellor.

‘The black bench and the floor have old bloodstains. One stone box holds the bones of four women, each with a hole in the top of her skull. Several rib bones of the skeleton on top are broken.’

Everyone turned to stare at Lady Ricinus.

‘It proves nothing,’ she said, her face a mask but her eyes darting. ‘The bones could have been there a thousand years.’

‘The chief magian’s dating spell says otherwise,’ said the high constable. ‘There’s little doubt these are the bones of Lady Tali’s mother and several other women killed the same way. But there’s more. Worse.’

‘Worse?’ said the chancellor, frowning.

‘We also located a tunnel whose entrance was hidden by a prodigious charm of concealment,’ said the chief magian, rubbing his tiny hands together. ‘I nearly had an apoplexy breaking it.’

‘There are tunnels everywhere around here,’ said the chancellor.

‘I divined where this tunnel goes.’

‘Oh?’ the chancellor said sharply.

‘It runs south-east for two miles, then south-west for another six. All the way to Cython.’

‘To Cython?’ bellowed the chancellor. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Quite sure.’

‘A fresh tunnel?’

‘No. Quite old. Perhaps a hundred years.’

‘A secret tunnel to Cython, built a hundred years ago,’ said the chancellor relentlessly. ‘An illegal tunnel for trafficking in ebony pearls with the enemy. An unguarded tunnel through which the enemy could attack at any time.’

‘We know nothing about it,’ said Lady Ricinus, and now she had a look of trapped ferret about her. ‘It was hidden, he said.’

‘It’s your palace, bought a hundred years ago. Who did you sell the pearls to, Lady Ricinus? Who could afford their staggering price?’

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

‘Lady Ricinus,’ said the chancellor, lowering his voice, ‘these pearls could change the course of the war. Tell me who has them and you’ll be surprised how forgiving I can be.’

Her face worked through a range of emotions. Rix could see she was tempted, but it was not in her to admit her guilt. She would fight and deny all the way to the end.

‘What pearls?’ said Lady Ricinus.

‘Have it your own way,’ said the chancellor, with a malicious smile. ‘House Ricinus became wealthy very suddenly, did it not, a hundred years ago? Wealthy enough to buy Palace Ricinus for cash. It will be interesting to see your ledgers for that time.’

‘Unfortunately they were lost in a fire.’

‘How convenient.’

‘You can’t prove anything against us.’

‘Perhaps not on the current evidence.’

‘Then I’ll have a public apology,’ said Lady Ricinus, giving him that viper’s smile again. ‘And reparation for the ruin of the good name of House Ricinus.’

‘You’ll get nothing, you upstart bitch,’ hissed the chancellor. ‘There’s still the tunnel.’

‘You can’t prove we know anything about it,’ sneered Lady Ricinus.

He cocked an eyebrow at the justiciar. ‘Would you be so kind as to describe the legal situation to Lady Ricinus?’

‘Having an illegal tunnel to Cython is a capital crime at any time,’ said the justiciar. ‘But having an unguarded tunnel in wartime is treason.’

‘You are not unfamiliar with treason, are you, Lady Ricinus?’ the chancellor said softly. ‘Even high treason. Would you like me to enlarge on that?’

Rix realised that the Honouring was always going to end this way. The chancellor was a vengeful man. He had allowed Ricinus to be raised to the First Circle solely for the joy of crushing it.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Lady Ricinus blustered.

The chancellor snapped his fingers. From behind the curtains at the rear of the stage, his pretty, black-haired servant girl came forward with slow and stately steps, bearing the covered tray. She sat it at the front of the stage where everyone could see and removed the cloth to reveal the chancellor’s sad, poisoned dog.

‘My faithful hound was killed by ricin,’ said the chancellor.

‘It must have taken a rat bait,’ said Lady Ricinus.

‘Ricin comes from the castor oil plant that is the symbol of your house, and the poison was meant for me.’

‘Poison — the worst,’ Tali said to herself. ‘That’s what Mimoy was trying to tell me. And Tinyhead hinted at it as well, Lay-lay-lay. Lady.’

‘The weed grows wild all over the city,’ said Lady Ricinus. ‘Anyone could have done it.’

‘Two witnesses say you threatened me.’

‘They’re liars!’

‘Reliable witnesses.’

‘Name them!’

The chancellor smiled but said nothing.

Lady Ricinus seemed to take heart from his silence. ‘You can’t prove I had anything to do with this, either.’

‘I don’t have to,’ said the chancellor. ‘Justiciar?’

The justiciar continued. ‘Lady Ricinus, Lord Ricinus and yourself are in charge of these premises. In law you are deemed to own the illegal tunnel to Cython, whether it can be proven you knew about it or not.’

‘Not me.’ Lady Ricinus would never concede, not even when her world was collapsing around her. ‘My husband is the lord.’

‘I need another drink,’ said Lord Ricinus.

‘I’ll pour it down your throat until you choke,’ she snarled.

Rix jumped, then the layered sweat froze down his back. He had heard her say that before, but where? Tali was staring; she remembered it too.

‘You’ve pulled Lord Ricinus’s strings for fifteen years and more,’ said the chancellor inexorably.

‘Rixium is Lord Ricinus now,’ said Lady Ricinus. ‘Let sanction fall on him.’

The pain was as bad as if she had cut open his own head. What kind of a woman would try to save herself by shifting blame onto her son? Rix felt something building up inside him, like a mudslide of memories banking behind a wall. The wall quivered as more and more memories built up behind it, then it cracked and crumbled and burst into pieces and he was back in the cellar as a small boy.

‘You did it to me!’ he howled. ‘Deliberately.’

‘What are you talking about, mad boy?’ sneered Lady Ricinus, shaken but unyielding.

‘I was dressed in my best clothes — you said you were taking me to a party.’

‘He’s lying,’ cried Lady Ricinus. ‘Everything he says is a lie.’

‘You don’t know what he’s going to say,’ said the chancellor. ‘Or do you?’

‘You led me down to the cellar and told me to hide behind the barrels,’ said Rix. ‘To watch and learn the family business that was going to make us the richest house in Hightspall.’

‘Lies, all lies,’ said Lady Ricinus.

‘You had blood on your hands,’ Tali said suddenly. ‘I saw it — ’

‘Rixium must have cut the woman’s head open,’ said Lady Ricinus. ‘He was evil from birth.’

‘Stop the bitch’s mouth,’ said the chancellor, and she was gagged.

‘I’ve often wondered why Rix had blood on his hands before he touched my mother,’ said Tali. ‘Lady Ricinus must have put it there so he would think he’d been involved.’

‘You told me to make no sound,’ Rix said to his mother. ‘Hide until the business is done, and if you’re a good little boy you’ll get a reward.’ He felt the vomit swirling in his gut. Every eye was on him, every mouth gaping.

‘Then you hacked that beautiful young woman’s head open.’ He choked. ‘I couldn’t move. I heard a child cry … and then … then you said to Father … I still can’t believe you said it — Find the brat and finish it.’

‘At first I thought you meant me,’ Rix whispered. ‘But Father didn’t cut the little girl’s throat because he couldn’t find her. She didn’t come out until you left me behind with the body.’

‘Lies, lies and more lies,’ mumbled Lady Ricinus through her gag.

‘And after I came up, out of my wits with horror, you gave me a potion. Why?’

‘To make you forget until you came of age,’ said Lord Ricinus, lurching across the stage with tears flooding from his sunken eyes.

‘I was delirious for weeks,’ said Rix, ‘and when I recovered, my memories were gone. But the horror never goes away.’

‘How could any mother do such a thing to her son?’ said Tali. ‘How could any father allow it?’

Lady Ricinus was coldly blank; she would never admit anything. Then the brazier flared as high as the ceiling. Lord Ricinus was holding his second bottle of brandy upside-down over it, the golden fluid feeding the flames. He dropped the empty bottle and looked sideways at Rix.

‘Every word my son says is true. The previous Lady Ricinus, my mother, did the same to me when I was a boy.’

Lady Ricinus tore free, wrenched off the gag and threw herself at him, clawing at his face. ‘He lies!’ she screeched. ‘He did it, not me — ’

The guards dragged her off, bound and gagged her, thoroughly this time.

Her nails had scored bloody marks the length of Lord Ricinus’s ravaged face, but he stood up straight for the first time in years.

‘I was eleven when my parents made me complicit in the killing of a different Pale. They gave me a potion of forgetting until I came of age, then blackmailed me into taking over the family business when my father died. But when it came time to take the next pearl, Tali’s mother’s pearl, I couldn’t do it. Unfortunately, my mother had chosen the perfect wife for me. Lady Ricinus threatened to destroy me and I was too weak to resist. She led and, like a craven dog, I followed. Do you wonder that I drink? It’s the only way I can forget.’

Lord Ricinus looked up at the justiciar. ‘My lady and I are guilty of every crime you accuse us of. And more. She murdered poor old Luzia, and I plotted with her to kill the chancellor.’

On this confession, the brutal years fell from him; for a moment, Lord Ricinus looked noble.

‘I know,’ said the chancellor. ‘Your son informed on her.’

Lord Ricinus stiffened. Lady Ricinus squealed and tried to chew through her gag. The nobles muttered to one another, then studied Rix as though he was muck to be scraped off a boot.

‘Who bought the pearls?’ said the chancellor.

‘I never met the fellow,’ said Lord Ricinus, ‘but his name is Deroe — a minor magian. He must be ancient by now.’

‘Deroe?’ said the chancellor to his chief magian.

‘There was such a magian, Lord, though not of any account. I thought he’d died half a century ago.’

‘What does he want with these pearls?’

‘I can’t imagine.’

‘Find him,’ the chancellor said to the high constable, ‘and get the pearls. They could turn the war our way.’ He rubbed his hands together. ‘This has been a good night.’ He eyed the Ricinuses, mother, father and son with the same contempt, then called the justiciar and the high constable into a huddle.

Tali was making urgent signs to Rix. ‘What is it?’ he said under his breath, putting his body between her and the others so they could not hear.

‘Remember when I first came here, and someone was hunting me with a triple call, Di-DA- doh?Di-DA- doh?’ she murmured.

He nodded. ‘It must have been Deroe.’

‘And he hasn’t given up.’

The chancellor’s little group broke up and the justiciar went to the front of the stage.

‘Lord and Lady Ricinus have been proven guilty of treason in a time of war. Lord Ricinus has confessed to other dishonourable crimes committed at his wife’s behest. They will be hanged from the front gates of Palace Ricinus at dawn — ’

Lady Ricinus chewed through her gag and spat it out. ‘House Ricinus is First Circle. I demand a proper trial where my lawyers can examine — ’

The chancellor’s smile oozed such malice that she broke off, trembling.

He picked up the two thousand-year-old parchment, tore it in half and tossed it onto the brazier. As the sheaf of documents followed it and burst into flame, Lady Ricinus let out a ragged screech.

‘How can your house be First Circle when there’s no evidence?’ he said softly. ‘No evidence of any nobility whatsoever. You will die common traitors’ deaths and your corpses will hang from the palace gates until they rot to pieces.’

Lady Ricinus’s nightmare had come true. Not the public execution, but the public humiliation, and the undoing of her life’s scheming at the moment it had come to fruition. The chancellor’s eyes were ablaze. How he revelled in his vengeance.

‘What about my son?’ she said.

‘He is under age. And by switching that painting with the portrait — ’

‘I didn’t switch it!’ cried Rix, but no one believed him, least of all his own mother. She would go to her death believing that her son had betrayed her. And he had, though not this way.

‘By switching the portraits,’ the chancellor repeated, ‘he brought this filthy matter to light. Rixium survives — assuming he can live with himself. All assets in Lord and Lady Ricinus’s possession are forfeited. And it does not end there.

‘House Ricinus has grown fat on this evil trade for generations. Under law, the whole house stands condemned. Take the heads of all its departments,’ he said to the high constable. ‘They will hang beside their lord and lady, since they must have known evil was at work here, yet stood idly by.’

Rix sprang up. ‘That’s not justice. How could the chief ostler know of such matters, or the head gardener?’

‘Justice lies in the majesty of the law, and the law says all the heads must die with their lord and lady. Let it be done. Seal the palace doors. The remainder of the household will attend the hangings and everyone in this hall will bear witness.

‘The new Lord Ricinus may keep this palace, and such moneys that are his own by right, if they are untainted. The staff will be dispersed and may never return. This Honouring is ended.’

Lord and Lady Ricinus were stripped of their clothes and jewellery, and thrown to the floor. Ropes were bound around their ankles and they were dragged away.

The guests followed, falling over themselves to escape from so tainted a household, but the doors had already been locked.

Tali and Tobry came up but Rix waved them away. ‘Leave me!’

He had been brought up to do his duty, to speak the truth and act with honour. To believe in his country, his house and his family.

But where did duty lie when his sovereign had condemned his family and destroyed his house? What price honour when, for generations, his house had acted so dishonourably? What value truth when his parents’ whole existence, and the truths he had been brought up to believe in, were based on lies?

Everything Rix had believed in was tainted beyond redemption. He had loved House Ricinus and honoured his parents. Now he had destroyed them, and many others, guilty and innocent alike.

And for what?