I reached for the nearest ring and picked it up. It tingled against my bare skin. I turned it over and over, spotting the king’s crest worked into a set of runic diagrams I could barely follow. The ring grew warm, just for a second, as I pulled it onto my finger, tightening until it was almost impossible to remove. It felt like part of me. My eyes slipped over it, as if it wasn’t there at all. The charms woven into the metal would make it difficult to see unless one already knew it was there.
“Neat,” Caroline commented.
“We try.” Sir Muldoon smiled, coldly. “From this moment forth, we expect you to uphold the honour of the Kingsmen. You will be trusted. I strongly advise you not to let us down.”
“We won’t, sir,” Caroline said.
Sir Muldoon indicated the stranger. “This is Sir Griffons,” he said. “You two will be apprenticed to him until you become Kingsmen in your own right.”
Sir Griffons? I had an odd memory of hearing something about Sir Griffons. Where have I heard your name before?
Sir Griffons leaned forward. “Welcome,” he said, stiffly. He had a gruff voice that spoke of a man who had no need to prove himself. “Tomorrow morning, the three of us will be heading to Shallot. We’ll be based there over the summer, unless there is an urgent need for us elsewhere. I’ll expect you to handle yourselves well, remembering - at all times - that you represent His Majesty the King. Should you embarrass me, or him, you’ll regret it.”
I swallowed. “Yes, sir.”
“Very good,” Sir Griffons said. He produced a sheaf of papers from his pocket and held them out to us. “You have authority to speak for me, within limits, and to serve as an officer of the law. Don’t abuse it. The last thing we need is a dispute with the City Guard and the Great Houses over who really writes the rules.”
“Yes, sir,” Caroline said.
I leaned forward. “What happens if there’s a disagreement?”
“Then the diplomats earn their pay,” Sir Griffons informed me, stiffly. “There are precedents that can go one way or the other, whenever there’s a disagreement. And they won’t matter in the slightest, if people want to put them aside and press a different case. Understand?”
“Yes, sir,” I said. I’d studied how Shallot related to the rest of the kingdom. The city was practically a law unto itself. “I understand.”
“Good.” Sir Griffons turned to Sir Muldoon. “I’ll collect them tomorrow morning. Give them the rest of their briefing notes, then feast them well tonight. They’ve earned it.”
I watched him stalk out the room, then looked at Sir Muldoon. “Why Shallot?”
“You want to be somewhere else?” Sir Muldoon cocked an eyebrow. “You already know the city. You and Caroline make a good team. Sir Griffons is a pretty good trainer, with a track record of raising a dozen men to knighthood. And ... for political reasons, there are limits to how many fully-qualified Kingsmen we can send into the city. Sending you in gives us a chance to take advantage of a loophole.”
“Ouch,” I said. I thought I saw the logic. “Do the Great Houses know?”
“Of course they do,” Sir Muldoon said. He led us towards another door. “They just can’t rewrite the treaties. Not now.”
I glanced at Caroline as we found ourselves in the dining hall. The rest of the recruits - squires now, I supposed - were taking their seats, surrounded by the instructors. I smiled as I hurried forward to shake hands with the others, who all seemed to have passed. I wondered, vaguely, where they were going, now they were squires. They couldn’t all be going to Shallot.
“We’re off to Caithness,” Archie proclaimed. “It’s going to be fun!”
“As long as you remember to do your work too,” Sir Muldoon said, indulgently. “You have to qualify as a knight before too long.”
Jean looked up. “What happens if we don’t qualify?”
“You’ll probably be moved sideways, to the auxiliaries,” Sir Muldoon said. He motioned for Caroline and I to sit down. “Or advised to transfer somewhere else.”
I nodded. King Rufus wanted as many Kingsmen as possible, according to the briefing notes, but Parliament had demanded a hard limit on numbers. Technically, squires weren’t knights and weren’t countered as full-fledged Kingsmen; practically, reading between the lines, I had the feeling Parliament wasn’t impressed with the loophole. A skilled squire might be almost as good as a knight, without the rank that would put a target on his back. I told myself, firmly, that I wasn’t that good, not yet. I had a long way to go before I won my spurs.
Caroline sat next to me as the instructors served the food. My mouth watered as I saw the giant roast turkey, surrounded by all the trimmings. I’d never eaten so well at home. I was suddenly ravenous. I tucked in, eating as much as I could while the instructors told us stories of life on the front lines. Some of them were hard to follow - Lady Grey’s story of a murder mystery where everyone claimed to be guilty was confusing - but I thought I understood. They were welcoming us to the brotherhood. We might be inexperienced - Sir Muldoon had made it clear that training could only go so far - but we’d taken one hell of a step along the road to knighthood.
I found myself grinning at Caroline as the instructors brought out the pudding. “What are we going to do now?”
Caroline gave me a smile that was full of promise. “We’ll see.”
“I won’t keep you much longer,” Sir Muldoon said, once we’d finished the pudding and refreshed our glasses. I was pleasantly tipsy. “But there are some matters we need to cover.”
He paused, dramatically. “For the past three months, you have been worked hard. We feared some of you would quit, would drop out and leave, but none of you did. You suffered - you grumbled and complained like soldiers always do - yet you kept going, even when the pressure became unbearable. We are proud of you, all of you. And we hope that you complete your path to knighthood before too long.
“We exist to serve the kingdom. We exist to uphold the rule of law, to fight for justice and honour and - above all - the ancient rights and freedoms of our land. Our order existed well before the current dynasty came to power. We have survived by serving the land as a whole, not individual monarchs or great noblemen. Many of us have died in service. Others have retired and stepped out of public life.
“You will find it a heavy responsibility. Duty is often a burden. There will be times when you will find it easier to step back, to put your duty down and walk away. And you will think - then - that you can get away with it. And it is then, when the chips are down and everything rests on you, that you will discover what you really are. Will you uphold the honour of our order? Or will you bow to temptation and walk away?”
I shivered. I didn’t think I’d walk away. But I knew how easily someone could be pressed into doing the wrong thing.
“You won’t understand me, not really.” Sir Muldoon smiled. “You won’t understand until you face the question yourselves. And then you will know if you’re truly worthy to wear our rings.
“I’m going to end this speech with a joke. It’s a funny joke ...”
“Uh-oh,” Archie muttered, a little too loud.
“... But it has a serious point,” Sir Muldoon said, shooting Archie a look that should - by rights - have blasted him into dust and ash. “Once upon a time, there was a really chaste girl. She promised everyone that she would remain chaste until she married. And then ... along came a rich man, who offered her a million crowns if she would sleep with him.”
“Anyone rich enough to have a million crowns isn’t going to have any trouble finding someone to share his bed,” Caroline muttered. “He’ll be beating them off with sticks.”
I couldn’t disagree. The aristos I’d met hadn’t been that handsome, but they’d never been short of female company. The only one I knew who hadn’t been surrounded by eager young girls had been Akin, and he’d been betrothed. Francis had had so many girlfriends that I didn’t know how he’d managed to pass his exams. Perhaps he’d bribed the exami
ners. He’d certainly been rich enough to do it.
Sir Muldoon scowled. “She thought about it. A million crowns is a hell of a lot of money. She didn’t want to sleep with him, to surrender her virginity, but ... she wanted the money. So she said yes.
“And the rich man, instead of pulling out his wallet, asked her if she’d sleep with him for a single crown?”
He laughed, humourlessly. “And she objected, strongly. Certainly not! What sort of woman did he think she was? And so on and so on. And he took the wind out of her sails with a simple sarcastic - and completely truthful - remark. They’d already established what sort of woman she was. They were just haggling over the price.”
His eyes swept the table, lingering on each of us. “Once you give up your integrity, you will never get it back,” he said. “Remember that. You’ll just be selling out for the best you can get.”
I looked at Caroline. She looked thoughtful. I wondered what was going through her head as the instructors dismissed us, with a final reminder to be ready to depart tomorrow. Archie and Hector returned to the food, somehow finding room for more. Jean and Chance seemed inclined to stay too, drinking wine as the fire burned down. I caught Caroline’s hand and tugged her towards the door. She followed me, a faint smile crossing her face as we headed towards the barracks. My heart was beating so loudly I was surprised the others couldn’t hear it.
“I ...” I found myself suddenly unsure of what to say as I stopped just outside the barracks. “I ...”
Caroline leaned forward and kissed me. I wrapped my arms around her, feeling the pulsing muscles in her arms as our kisses grew more passionate. I could feel her breasts pushing against my chest, her hands slipping down my back and into my trousers. She let out a long breath as my hands roamed too and ...
“And what,” a cold voice said, “do you two think you are doing?”
I jumped, nearly banging my head into the wall as we disentangled. I hadn’t been so embarrassed since I’d been caught with Nancy Parkinson, two years ago. We’d been given detention for a month. She’d never looked at me again, unsurprisingly. Caroline, on the other hand ...
“We were making out, sir,” Caroline managed. She sounded badly shaken. “I ...”
Sir Griffons cocked his head. “Are you aware, perchance, that relationships between squires are strictly forbidden? You are not allowed to develop any sort of romantic relationship with another squire. Or did they somehow manage to skip that part of the briefing when they told you about becoming a squire?”
I felt my face heat. “Sorry, sir,” I said. “It was my fault.”
“No, it was mine too,” Caroline said. “Sir, it was me.”
“It was both of us,” I said, shortly. I wasn’t going to let her take the blame. Girls always had it worse, if someone got the impression they were loose women. “Sir ...”
“I’m glad to hear you’re prepared to admit your fault,” Sir Griffons said, nastily. “And I’ll overlook it, this time. If I catch you making love again, before you rise to knighthood, you’ll regret it. We’re not allowed emotional entanglements before we’re ready to handle them.”
“Yes, sir,” Caroline said.
Akin’s going to be getting married at the end of the summer, I thought. It wasn’t fair. I wanted a partner I could love and respect too. It wasn’t as if my prospects had been good, even before I’d travelled to Haddon Hall. And if he doesn’t get married, two houses will probably go straight back to war.
Sir Griffons eyed me, sharply. “Do you understand, Adam?”
“Yes, sir,” I said. “Sorry, sir.”
“Hah.” Sir Griffons didn’t sound as though he believed me. “If you want to get your rocks off, go to the brothels. Or find someone who is discreet. Or take matters in hand yourself.”
I flushed. Thankfully, my skin hid it.
“I understand the urge,” Sir Griffons added. My flush grew worse. Father had explained the facts of life to me when I’d turned twelve and that had been bad, but this was ghastly. “But don’t indulge it with your comrades. It never works out well.”
“No, sir,” Caroline said.
“Good,” Sir Griffons said. He looked from me to Caroline and back again. “I’ll see you both tomorrow morning.”
He turned and marched down the corridor. I watched him go, feeling my cheeks flush with shame and guilt. Sir Muldoon hadn’t banned relationships amongst recruits, but he hadn’t needed to bother. We’d been worked so hard that none of us had been in any state to so much as think about it. I supposed it was a minor miracle. Normally, it was hard not to think about sex.
“That could have been worse,” Caroline said, as we stepped into the barracks. Her lips were slightly puffy. “If we’d ...”
She trailed off. I understood. If we’d gone much further, Sir Griffons wouldn’t have been able to let it pass. And then ... I didn’t know what would have happened then. We might have been kicked out, or separated, or ... or something. I didn’t want to think about it. My hands itched, remembering the feel of her in my arms. It was hard, so hard, to let it go. I liked her, more than I cared to admit.
“Friends,” Caroline said, firmly. “All right?”
“Friends,” I agreed, sombrely. I undressed quickly and climbed into my bunk, careful not to look at her. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah.” Caroline’s voice was muffled as she undressed. I heard her clambering into her bunk, muttering a word to dim the lanterns. “I’m sorry too.”
Chapter Eleven
Sir Griffons said nothing else to us about our would-be indiscretion, the following morning, as we carried our bags into the courtyard. Three horses waited for us, their beady eyes glowering as we dumped the contents of our bags into the huge saddlebags before scrambling up into the saddles. The horse shifted, trying to test me. I pushed down, making it clear to the beast that I knew what I was doing. I’d never liked horses, but I knew how to ride. I’d just never imagined I’d be using the skill after I left school.
“Say goodbye,” Sir Griffons said. He waved a hand at the hall, then pushed his horse forward. “We’ll be back home within a few hours.”
I groaned as the horse started to trot forward, following the other two. Caroline seemed to be having no trouble with her horse. We cantered through the gate, magic flickering as we said goodbye, and headed down the road to Haddon. I’d expected to travel around the town, but Sir Griffons led us right into the settlement. I stared with interest, noting the handful of shops, the single small schoolhouse and the market. My sisters would have liked it. Haddon was far smaller than Shallot, but ... it had a sense of community the bigger city lacked. I shivered, unsure if that was a good thing. Mother had come from a similar town. My aunties had had all sorts of horror stories about growing up in a place where everyone knew their names. No wonder they’d gotten away as soon as they could.
The horse picked up speed as we raced out of town and down the road towards Shallot. It had been a slow trip, when I’d taken the stagecoach to Haddon, but now ... the beast ate up the distance as if it were nothing. We cantered past dozens of coaches and wagons, from aristos heading to their summer estates to farmers transporting goods and supplies to the city itself. A line of wild pigs was being marched down the road, grunting unhappily as they neared their doom. I’d seen them sold in the marketplace. The housewives could make a single pig last for weeks, once they killed the brutes and chopped them up. I’d helped my father and sisters slaughter them, too. It had never been pleasant, but there’d been no alternative. We couldn’t afford a full-time cook.
I saw Caroline’s hair blowing in the wind as we crested the hill and headed towards Shallot. It wasn’t fair. I wanted her - and I knew she wanted me - but Sir Griffons had blocked us as effectively as a father with a spellcaster in one hand and a sharp blade in the other. I was tempted to suggest we find a room, once we were in the city, but I knew Sir Griffons would notice. The Kingsmen were sharp. They’d taught me how to study my surroundings and deduce w
hat was actually going on. I wasn’t sure what Sir Griffons would do, if he caught us in bed together, but I didn’t want to find out the hard way. I sighed, inwardly. It didn’t help that Caroline had barely spoken a word since we’d clambered out of our bunks for the final time.
She’s probably embarrassed, I thought. Girls tended to take the brunt of it, when they were caught making out. Her parents will not be pleased.
I put the thought aside as I stared at the city. Shallot was huge. I’d known it, but I hadn't really grasped the sheer size of the city until I’d seen it from the outside. The Shallot River ran down to the city, splitting into three as it lanced through the waterways and canals before finally flowing into the sea. I could see giant ships making their way up the river to the capital or heading out to sea, travelling to distant places like North Cairnbulg or far Hangchow. I felt a flicker of envy, mingled with a droll awareness that I should be happy to be where I was. How many young men in the city before me wanted to become a Kingsman?
The wind shifted. I took a breath, tasting the faint but unmistakable stench of the city on my tongue. It had always been part of my life, but I’d never really been aware of it until I’d travelled away from Shallot. I swallowed hard, wondering - suddenly - just how many people liked travelling to the city. Did the aristos stink of fish when they headed north to the capital? The thought made me smile, as we cantered down the road to the city gates, even though it wasn’t that funny. Maybe the real reason the city had so much independence was that no one wanted our leading men and women at court.
Sir Griffons slowed his horse as we trotted up to the gates. A team of City Guardsmen were at work, checking papers as farmers and merchants moved in and out of the city. Their leader glanced at Sir Griffons, then waved him through without bothering to search us. I frowned, wondering what Sir Muldoon would have said if we’d let us through the gates without checking our papers. He wouldn’t be pleased. And yet ... I cast my eye over the line of farm wagons waiting to be checked. There simply wasn’t time to check them all for contraband. As long as the smugglers were careful, they could slip anything they wanted past the Guardsmen without being noticed.
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