Justice

by Ian Irvine

  “More.”

  Glynnie carried another three double handfuls, then Tali croaked, “Enough.”

  Glynnie wiped her face. “What are you doing in Caulderon?”

  “Escaped from Lirriam. Came to attack Lyf… try to end it. You?”

  “I came looking for Benn.”

  “Any news?”

  “I’m so stupid!” Glynnie wailed. “Rix told me what would happen but I wouldn’t listen.”

  “What did happen?”

  “I was caught as soon as I came through the city wall,” said Glynnie. “I didn’t hear anything useful about Benn… but I’m afraid… I’m really afraid. It’s been so long.”

  “Is Rix here too?” said Tali.

  Glynnie’s soft mouth set in a straight line. “No!”

  “But he knows you’re here?”

  “I’m sure he does by now. Not that he cares about Benn,” she flashed. “I’ve finished with Rix!”

  Tali did not have the strength to argue for him. “What’s going on—with the war, I mean? I’ve been Grandys’ prisoner for a fortnight. I haven’t heard any news save what he told me, and I don’t know if any of that is true.”

  Glynnie filled her in on events up to the time of her leaving Rix’s camp. Tali’s head throbbed; she could hardly take it in. She lay on the floor and closed her eyes.

  “Just… need to rest.”

  “Take as long as you like,” Glynnie said softly. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  Tali did not think she could possibly sleep, but she woke with her headache gone.

  “Was I out for long?” she said, opening her eyes on pitch darkness.

  “Hours,” said Glynnie from some distance away.

  Tali sat up abruptly and made a glimmer from a fingertip. “Any sound from back up the tunnel?”

  “No. But in the morning…”

  “They’ll dig out the mound and count the bodies,” said Tali, “and they’ll know you’ve escaped. Where can we go? I don’t know Caulderon well.”

  “Where do you want to go?”

  “To help you find Benn, of course.”

  Glynnie let out a shriek, threw her arms around Tali and sobbed as if her heart was breaking. “Thank you,” she gasped, her eyes streaming.

  Tali passed her a grubby bit of cloth. Glynnie wiped her nose, rubbed her eyes, then sat back on her haunches. “You would do that for us?”

  “Benn’s a lovely boy,” said Tali, keeping firmly to the present tense. “And after the Honouring, when we were all trapped in Rix’s chambers waiting for the end, it was us five against the world. Where should we begin?”

  “I was going to look in Tumbrel Town, the shanty town closest to Palace Ricinus. It’s the only place in Caulderon that Benn… Benn knows,” she said firmly. “We used to go to the markets there on our days off… and a lot of the palace servants would have gone back there, after the chancellor cast them out. It’s the only place I can hope to see a friendly face.”

  “Let’s go,” said Tali.

  CHAPTER 42

  “I’d better cut your hair off,” said Tali. “It’s too red, too recognisable.”

  “No!” Glynnie cried.

  “Why not?” Tali had always worn her hair short and had not been particularly bothered by the loss of it.

  Glynnie avoided her eyes. “It’s the only pretty thing about me,” she muttered.

  “What rubbish!” said Tali, looking closely at her. “You have a lovely oval face… a nice, slender figure… beautiful hands.”

  Glynnie studied her hands. “They’re callused; work-worn.” She seemed determined to find fault with herself. “If you cut my hair off I’ll look like some brat of a boy.”

  “That’s the idea. As grubby boys, we can roam anywhere and no one will take any notice. But every guard on every street will be watching for the red-headed femme fatale who killed seven guards and escaped from Murderers’ Mound.”

  “Femme fatale!” Glynnie burst out laughing.

  “You’re the legendary Glynnie who beat up Axil Grandys, then humiliated him.”

  “No one knows that.”

  “Everyone knows—before the execution they read out the names of the prisoners, remember?”

  “I don’t remember anything from the moment I climbed the mound,” said Glynnie.

  “Well, they did. And once they discover you’ve escaped, rumour will make you the most famous woman in Caulderon. There’ll be a price on your head the size of a chancellor’s ransom.”

  Glynnie shivered and wrapped her slender arms around herself.

  “What’s more,” Tali went on, “a disaster at the execution of a notorious spy will arouse Lyf’s suspicions—”

  “I’m not a notorious spy—”

  Tali sighed. “It’s not what you are that matters, Glynnie. It’s what you’re made out to be, so if you hope—”

  Glynnie’s hands rose to her hair, involuntarily. “Rix loves my red hair. If it’s gone he won’t want—”

  “That’s a load of rubbish and you know it. Anyway, you said you’d finished with Rix.”

  “I was being a cranky bitch. You can’t even imagine what he’s been through in the past few weeks.”

  “If he turned away from you because you’d cut your hair off, it would prove what a fickle and unworthy man he was.”

  “He’s a good man,” Glynnie said stoutly. “It’s just… sometimes he gets distracted by all his responsibilities.”

  “Anyway, that’s not the issue.”

  “What is the issue?”

  “Everyone knows you escaped, and there’ll be a huge price on your head. So if you still hope to find Benn, you have to go in disguise.”

  Glynnie screwed up her eyes to hold back her tears. “All right! Cut my hair off, damn you.”

  “I feel like I’ve got a target painted on my back,” said Tali as they emerged into the alleys of Tumbrel Town at sunrise.

  She hadn’t mentioned her other worry, but now it came down on her like a wagon load of turnips. She was bound to have been seen in the rescue and, despite the dirt, her unusually pale skin and fine complexion would have stood out. To say nothing of the unmistakable signs of magery she must have left on the lock. If Lyf had not identified her already, it would not take him long, and when he did, the hunt would double and redouble.

  “I wonder you dared come to Caulderon, with Lyf after you,” said Glynnie. “If it were me—”

  “Yet you did come,” said Tali.

  “If the master pearl was in my head, I wouldn’t have come anywhere near Lyf.”

  “Wherever I go,” said Tali, “people want it. I’m sick of running and hiding.”

  She said it to bolster her own courage as much as Glynnie’s. Tali’s headache had gone but she was more exhausted than she had been before she lay down to sleep last night. She could not go through another day like yesterday. The pearl felt like an eggshell, one she was standing on, and any tiny thing could burst it.

  “But if they get your pearl,” said Glynnie, “it will be the end.”

  It took Tali a few seconds to recall what they had been talking about.

  “I swore on my mother’s body that I’d bring her killers to justice, and Lyf’s the last one left.” They turned the corner. She scanned the narrow street and they continued. “I can’t do it in hiding.”

  “I swore to my mother I’d look after Benn,” said Glynnie. “We’re not so different after all.”

  Disguised as ragged, grubby boys, they tramped the narrow streets and reeking alleys of Tumbrel Town all morning, seeing dozens of guards but no one Glynnie recognised from Palace Ricinus. She dared not question strangers—it would attract attention and Lyf’s informers would soon hear about it.

  “I’ve got to find someone who knew me and Benn—and wasn’t an enemy,” said Gynnie.

  “Did you have enemies in the palace?” said Tali, surprised.

  “Did you have enemies among the slaves?” Glynnie retorted. “It’s got to be so
meone who’ll help me because we were servants together, in the good old days.” She looked a little surprised at herself. “Well, compared to this, life in Palace Ricinus was the good old days,” Glynnie said defiantly.

  “And it has to be someone who won’t betray you for a handful of coppers—much less a bucket of gold.”

  Glynnie missed a step and stood stock-still. “I hate this!” she said through her teeth.

  “What?”

  “Never knowing who to trust. Always thinking the worst of everyone. Always worrying that someone’s going to betray me. I wish I was back—”

  Tali took her arm. “Shh! You’ll attract attention. You don’t really wish that, do you?”

  “That I was back in the palace, serving Lady Ricinus, and terrified I’d be beaten if I made any tiny mistake? Yes, I do. I had a warm bed there, and almost enough food. And my enemies only wanted to hit me; they didn’t want me hanged and drawn on Murderers’ Mound. And Benn… Benn was safe.”

  Glynnie’s face crumpled; she was about to break down.

  “Boys don’t cry!” Tali hissed in her ear. “At least, not in public. You’ve got to focus on Benn. Finding Benn and getting him out of here.”

  “Even if we do find him,” Glynnie sniffled, “how can we ever get out?”

  Tali had no idea. With a whole city searching for them, maybe they couldn’t get out.

  They were continuing down the alley when Glynnie turned and pulled Tali in front of her.

  “What is it?” said Tali. “Have we been spotted?”

  “It’s Cully and Hyaline.”

  Tali glanced back, casually. The rough-skinned, sandy-haired youth a year or two older than Glynnie must be Cully; Hyaline was a plump young woman with rosebud lips and a bosom the size of a pillow.

  “Were they from the palace?”

  “Cully groped me at the back of the stables once, when I was checking on Benn.”

  “What was Benn doing there?”

  “He had to shovel muck in the stables for a month, for stealing a baked onion. A small baked onion.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I punched Cully in the nose and made him bleed a gallon, the pig! He started to cry, and the other stable boys mocked him ever after. He hates me.”

  “Well done!” said Tali. “What about Hyaline?”

  “She hates me because I caught her stealing Lady Ricinus’s rouge and lip paint. Hyaline used to make other women up on her days off, you see, and charge them for the face paint she stole from LadyR.”

  “And you informed on her? Had her dismissed?”

  “Of course not,” Glynnie said indignantly. “What do you take me for?”

  “Then why does she hate you?”

  “She came to my room one night and asked what I wanted. That’s how the system worked—I did her a favour, so she owed me. But stupidly I said I didn’t want anything.”

  “Why did that cause a problem?”

  “It meant she was still in my debt, and she hated it.”

  “Then surely she’ll want to help you now?”

  Glynnie rolled her eyes. “Palace Ricinus is gone, and so is the debt; the truth can’t harm her any more. But she still hates me because I wouldn’t let her repay her debt. It meant I wasn’t truly one of them; that I couldn’t be trusted.”

  “She doesn’t need to trust you—just help you.”

  “You don’t understand anything about being a servant in a great house, do you?” said Glynnie.

  “Why would I? All I’ve ever been is a slave or a fugitive.”

  “Now Hyaline’s free, she’d repay the favour by informing on me. It would clear her debt forever.”

  “I don’t understand people,” said Tali.

  Glynnie managed a smile. Perhaps it helped to even the imbalance between them—the one that Glynnie imagined.

  They were still trudging the alleys an hour later when she clutched Tali’s arm. “Hang on. It’s Treadgold!”

  An elderly, stooped man was walking slowly along a group of market stalls, studying the goods on each stall but moving on without buying anything. He had scanty white hair, a red complexion and a jawline thinly covered in white stubble. His clothes were clean but worn, and hung off his thin frame. The stall holders weren’t taking any notice of him; evidently they knew he was neither a buyer nor a thief.

  “Treadgold was the assistant cellarer at the palace,” Glynnie explained.

  “Another of your enemies?” Tali was so exhausted that she found it hard to be civil.

  “He’s a lovely old fellow,” said Glynnie. “He was always kind to us. Poor man, he looks like he hasn’t had a good meal since he left the palace.” She started towards him, then stopped, one foot in the air.

  “Can he be trusted?” said Tali.

  “He’s an old gossip, but he wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

  As Treadgold left the last stall Glynnie and Tali slouched across like indolent boys and came up beside him.

  “Cellarer Treadgold,” Glynnie said softly.

  He turned so slowly and wearily that Tali could hear his joints creaking.

  “Assistant Cellarer is all I ever was,” he said, blinking at Glynnie. “But since the Master Cellarer was hanged with the lord and lady, I can’t complain. What can I do for you, lad?”

  “It’s me. Glynnie,” she said.

  He stared at her face, blinking furiously, for a full twenty seconds, then beamed. “Why, so it is. What happened to your beautiful hair?”

  “Shh! I’m in hiding. They’re after me.”

  “I’m not surprised. There’s a fabulous story about you rescuing young Rixium—”

  “It’s true, but that’s not why I’m here.”

  “They seem to be after everyone,” he said sadly. “Caulderon has been turned upside-down. Even the palace is gone—as if it never was. As if our lives of service never were.”

  Glynnie laid a hand on his frail arm. “Have you heard anything about Benn?”

  “Benn?”

  “My little brother. He was lost when we fled Caulderon, after the palace fell.”

  “Benn, with the red hair?” Treadgold frowned, then brightened. “Yes, he was taken to gain a hold over young Rixium, I heard. But Rixium escaped.”

  “What happened to Benn, do you know?”

  Treadgold ruminated, seemingly for an hour as they walked along, before replying.

  “Saw him in a work gang once, when they were knocking down the palace. They rounded up hundreds of kids for clean-up gangs.”

  “Where are they now?”

  “The gangs were disbanded months ago… but Benn… there was something about Benn…” He rubbed his eyes, which were watering badly. “What was it?”

  “Not hurt,” whispered Glynnie. She squeezed Tali’s upper arm painfully hard, without realising it. “Not killed?”

  “After we were cast out I tried to keep track of all my friends,” said Treadgold. He sounded old, frail, forlorn. “So many are dead now, and so many lost.” He rubbed his pouched eyes again, took hold of Glynnie’s hand, glanced around and lowered his voice. “I remember now. Benn escaped in a storm.”

  “Where did he go? Did he come after us?”

  “No,” said Treadgold. “He joined the Resistance.”

  “What Resistance?”

  “They live underground, in the darkest, foulest stews of all. It’s said they’re planning another revolt, but I don’t think you’ll find Benn now.”

  “Why not?” Glynnie said desperately.

  “The Resistance has been crushed twice already, and the second time was only a month ago. The enemy executed everyone they caught, and there were a few boys and girls among them. I’m sorry, Glynnie. I don’t see how Benn could still be alive.”

  CHAPTER 43

  Lyf was woken at dawn by Moley Gryle with the shocking news that Tali wasn’t in Grandys’ hands. Or anyone else’s.

  “She’s in Caulderon,” said the anxious officer beside her. Lyf recognised him as
Captain Ricips. “She arrived here two days ago.”

  “Two days!” Lyf cried. “Why am I only being told now?”

  “I—I only realised she was here an hour ago, Lord King.”

  Ricips explained about catching the spy, Glynnie, and how, after interrogation, she had been sent to Murderers’ Mound for execution.

  Lyf swung his legs out of the bed. “Are you talking about the maidservant who escaped with Rixium Ricinus, and subsequently rescued him from Grandys?”

  “Yes,” said Ricips, wringing his muscular hands.

  “Why wasn’t I informed of her capture?”

  “I’m dreadfully sorry, Lord King. I accept full responsibility—”

  “Get on with it!” Lyf said coldly.

  “The evening before yesterday, Murderers’ Mound collapsed during the hangings. All but one of the seven scaffold guards were killed, and he’s in a bad way.”

  “I heard about it yesterday.”

  “It was thought that all the prisoners died as well—but it appears one got away.”

  “Which one?” said Lyf, though he felt sure he knew. A woman brave and clever enough to rescue a prisoner from Grandys would have little trouble with a group of common scaffold guards.

  “Glynnie’s body wasn’t found when the mound was dug out… it was dangerous work and it took longer than expected. But two sets of tracks were found, heading down an ancient tunnel that led away from the mound. Small tracks. And there are reports, as yet unconfirmed, that a slender, pale-skinned boy helped Glynnie get away.”

  “A boy?” Lyf said sharply. “Or a small woman, disguised as a boy?”

  “We don’t know. The witnesses are still being questioned.”

  “But—a whole squad of guards attend the hangings to keep the throng back. Why haven’t they been questioned, Captain Ricips?”

  “They have… but they didn’t see anything.”

  “Why not?” Lyf roared.

  “They ran, thinking the whole hill was collapsing.”

  “Did they now?” said Lyf.

  “Get their names, Moley.”

  Moley Gryle made a note on a slate.

  “There’s no proof it was Tali…” said Lyf.

  “Who else would risk her life to rescue an insignificant maidservant?” said Moley Gryle.