The Thief's Gamble

by Juliet E. McKenna

  CHAPTER THREE

  Taken from:

  The Duke of Marker's Daughter

  A Tragedy in Five Acts by Awlimail Kespre

  Act Two, Scene Three

  The bedchamber of Suleta

  [Enter Tisell.]

  Suleta Tell me, tell me, does my father yet breathe?

  Tisell Oh sweet mistress, he does, but one hears the rattle of Saedrin's keys in every breath he takes. The door to the Otherworld anil soon unlock to welcome that noble shade.

  Suleta I cannot bear it!

  Tisell For his sake, you must bear the burdens that fall so heavily on your slender shoulders.

  Suleta Alas that I was ever born to such sorrow!

  Tisell Curse not your birth, dearest child, but rather the faithless jade that has so besmirched her husband's bed!

  Suleta Speak not so of the Queen's grace beyond these walls, Tisell, or I will not be able to save you from the lash.

  Tisell I speak the truth as all men know it, my lady. Queen she may be, but trull she has proved herself and worse, she has dragged her children through the filth of the kennel with her.

  Suleta Do not remind me of my cousins' grievous sufferings! The taunt of bastard will be no less cruel a lash than that which flogged their mother naked before the rabble.

  Tisell You are all goodness, my chick, to think of others when you face such a choice.

  Suleta What do you mean?

  Tisell Has your lady mother not spoken with you? I had thought—

  Suleta I have not seen her since they bore my father home—

  [Enter Albrice, Duchess of Marlier.]

  Tisell Your Grace [curtseying].

  Albrice Leave us, I would be private with my daughter.

  [Exit Tisell.]

  Albrice Your father has not yet turned his face from this world but the surgeon tells me he will do so ere dawn. No, there is not yet time for tears, dearest child, we have not that luxury. In marrying for love, I set aside my rank as princess but with one brother dead at your father's hand and the other taken in adultery with that bitch, I am alone the living child of King Heric. Now I must answer the demands of blood and family. That blood flows pure in your veins alone, daughter, and whose sheets it stains upon your wedding night will decide the fate of this unhappy land. Their Graces of Parnilesse and Draximal have claims to the throne that would weigh equal in Raeponin's very scales. It is your hand that will tip that balance to one or the other.

  Suleta I am to be portioned out like so much meat?

  Albrice Speak not so saucy to me, lady! Have I raised you so wanting in wit?

  Suleta Draximal is a vicious sot whom three wives have already fled in Poldrion's barque, while Parnilesse treads the lady's measure with his dancing masters nightly! You tell me I must wed one of these and say I want wit when I recoil? I tell you plainly, blood or not, royal in my veins or shed upon the thirsty soil, I will have none of this!

  [Exit Suleta.]

  East of Drede on the Eyhorne Road,

  15th of For-Autumn

  I did not expect to sleep but the next thing I knew Shiv was lifting me into the carriage and Geris was trying to arrange space for me between the baggage.

  'It's all right.' I wriggled free of the cloak's folds. 'I can sit up front.'

  Shiv smiled at me. 'Are you sure?'

  I yawned. 'I can doze as we go, I've done it before. Ow!' The hard edge of a book dug me in the ribs and I yelped.

  'What is it?' Geris looked around wildly.

  'These.' I reached into my tunic and pulled out the books. 'I must have been tired to sleep on this lot!'

  Shiv's eyes brightened as he saw the titles of the volumes but Darni reappeared as he was about to open the first one. He tucked them inside a linen sack and put them in this saddlebag.

  'I've paid the reckoning, so let's be on our way. No one's seen Livak so let's keep it that way and leave everyone thinking we're the dyestuff traders we claim to be.'

  That made sense of the locked coffers and setting a guard. I looked at Darni with the faint stirrings of respect; maybe he had hidden talents.

  Geris drove off and I dozed. I can sleep anywhere as long as I feel safe, with the possible exception of the top of a carriers' coach, but this was no trouble since Geris was driving as if he had a cargo of eggs and the road was in good repair. By the time we stopped to rest the horses at noon, I was well refreshed and interested to see what the next stop on this deranged trip would be. I did not have long to wait.

  We were not far short of the Eyhorne border when Darni led us off down a side road. We crested a rise to see a small knot of buildings beside a tree-fringed lake. The squat bulbous chimneys of kilns rose above the roofs of workshops and trailed plumes of dirty smoke into the blue sky.

  'Darni!' A heavily built man in clay-stained shirt and breeches emerged from a low shed and waved to us. He turned and yelled across the water to a lad fishing from a low bough.

  'Seyn, come here! My son will see to your horses,' he explained. 'Come on inside.'

  He registered my presence and acknowledged me with a courteous nod. 'I'm Travor, welcome to my home.'

  He helped Darni with the first coffer while Geris and Shiv took the second into the solid brick-built house at the centre of the cluster. I trailed on behind into a large kitchen where a pink-faced woman about my own age was kneading bread at a well-scrubbed table while a bevy of equally well-scrubbed children played around her feet on the tiled floor.

  'Shiv!' Her pleasure at seeing him was obvious as she kissed him on the cheek, carefully holding her floury hands to one side. 'Hello Darni, and Geris, how are you?'

  'Very well, thank you.'

  'Geris!' The children swarmed round him and I saw there were five of them, ranging from a slender blonde miss who reached his waist to a determined crawler who seemed certain he could walk despite evidence to the contrary. One a year by the look of things, and from our hostess's thick waist I'd bet the potter had a firing in her kiln again. She wiped her hands on her apron.

  'I'm Harna, you're very welcome.'

  'Livak.' I offered my hand and she shook it.

  'So, how long are you stopping?' She put the dough aside to rise under a clean cloth and turned to Darni.

  'Tonight, then we'll be on our way.'

  Shiv interrupted. 'We could do with a little longer, I think, Harna. Livak acquired us some books as well as the item, Darni. They could be very useful and I'd like Conall's opinion.'

  Darni shot me the first sour look of the day. 'I see. We'll discuss it later,' he said in a tone which promised unpleasantness. He paused for a moment then stalked out into the yard.

  Harna ignored him and looked at me more closely. 'You look tired, let me show you to your room. How about a bath?'

  'That would be wonderful.' I followed her eagerly, leaving Geris sharing sugar-fruits out among the children and Shiv busying himself with bread and cold meat from the pantry.

  'Everyone seems at home here,' I commented as we went up the narrow stairs.

  Harna laughed. 'I've seen more of Darni in the last two seasons than I have in the last six years. I don't mind, it's for a good cause.'

  I resisted the temptation to probe further.

  'What are you doing with them?' She clearly had no such qualms.

  'Oh, this and that.'

  She nodded and let the matter drop.

  'Here's your room.' Harna opened a low door into a small chamber tucked under the eaves. I breathed in the lavender scent of the spotless linen and nearly fell asleep on the spot.

  'It's lovely, thank you.' It was too. The washstand had a jug and bowl of lustre ware that would have commanded top coin in Vanam, the walls were lime-washed a subtle pink and the small casement was framed by neat linen curtains.

  'The bath's this way.' Harna showed me down another stair to a tiled room with a huge tub and a drain cunningly set into the floor.

  'This is very fine,' I observed. She smiled.

  'Travor
likes to make things efficient. When you're bathing seven children, it can be like a ford on the Dalas in here.'

  Seven? Drianon save me!

  Travor entered with a huge kettle of steaming water. 'I'd say more like a storm on the Caladhrian Gulf myself.'

  He poured the water into the tub and I looked at it greedily. 'Thank you. Are you sure I'm not taking too much hot water?'

  Travor shook his head. 'The are kilns working today and I

  built coppers beside them to use the heat. We can bathe you all and still have plenty over.'

  He left and Harna reappeared with soft towels. 'Enjoy yourself,' she said as she closed the door.

  I certainly did. There were bottles of scented oils on a shelf and I found some essence of Grassgild, one of my favourites. Soaking in the fragrant water and being able to wash my hair improved life enormously. When the water grew cool I dragged myself out reluctantly and dashed in a towel back to my chamber, where clean shirt and linen completed my transformation.

  The house was quiet. I could hear the children playing somewhere off in the distance and a cart rumbled out of the yard. I stretched out on the goose-feather bed and reached into my scrip for the book I'd held back from Shiv. On the Lost Arts of Tormalin. Sounded promising, I thought.

  I opened it and began to pick my way through the narrow script; it was not easy going. We all speak Tormalin in Ensaimin but it's the common tongue. This text was in the Old High dialect, the language that had held the Empire together. I frowned over the oddly accented words, trying to decipher the intonation marks over and above the lines. I yawned and rubbed my eyes. This was too hard so I contented myself with looking at the section headings: On Astronomy, On Mathematics, On Refining Ore, On Oculism, On Pharmacopoeia, On Oratory.

  Not exactly intriguing. I'm not sure how soon I fell asleep but when I woke to a gentle knock on the door the sky outside the window was soft with the pink and orange of dusk.

  'Livak? It's Harna. I'm just going to call them all in for dinner. Are you coming down?'

  'Yes, thanks. I'll be with you in a moment.'

  As I went down the stairs, I could hear Shiv and Darni in the kitchen. I waited to hear what they were saying.

  'I don't like her making decisions on her own like that,' Darni was grumbling.

  'Well she could hardly come and get our approval, could she? That old man was going to notice the thing had gone, wasn't he? Taking some of the books might just make the

  Watch think it was a chance robbery, someone trying their luck. Recluses like that always get the reputation of being misers; I bet half the town reckon he sits on secret chests of Empire Marks. With any luck, they'll decide someone broke in and just grabbed the nearest things that might be valuable.'

  'You think she thought that far ahead? Anyway, how many people in Drede would know the value of books like these?' Darni's tone was scornful.

  'Who cares? She knew enough to realise these books could be useful and that's just with the half-tale Geris told her.'

  'That's more than she needs to know anyway. She's a thief, remember, that's all we want her for.'

  'I disagree.' Shiv's tone was calm but firm. 'She's good at stealing but she can think fast too. The more she knows, the more chance we have that she'll come up with something the rest of us might miss. Planir told us to use any means we could find.'

  I grimaced in the gloom. Did I want to get any deeper into this? This was some wizards' chicanery after all. I caught a mental whiff of those hot coals I had started to forget. On the other hand, there was going to be money in this; half the value of that ink-horn would make a tidy pile of coin for a start. Information always had value too.

  Darni started to speak but the opening door and a riot of children interrupted him. I stamped on the spot for a few paces then made my way loudly down the remaining stairs and joined them.

  The meal was excellent and plentiful. Harna clearly had a lot of practice since, as well as our party and their seven children, she was feeding two other men, whom I gathered were Travor's journeymen in the potteries. If Ostrin ever decides to disguise himself as a mortal and go around testing hospitality like the legends say he used to, Harna won't have anything to worry about, other than the possibility of a permanent divine houseguest. The journeymen ate, thanked her and left for their own quarters, and Harna started threatening the children with bed.

  'Please can we see Geris do some tricks?' the oldest girl pleaded, blue eyes wide open in appeal.

  'I'd be happy to,' Geris offered.

  Harna smiled. 'Just a few.' She began to clear the table while Geris proved remarkably competent at sliding coins round his fingers and making them appear out of the baby's ears. I resisted the temptation to join in and turned to Shiv.

  'Are you sure those two won't gossip about their master's strange visitors over their ale?' I gestured to the door after the journeymen. 'Harna said you've been here a lot since Spring Equinox.'

  Shiv shook his head as he took a long drink of Travor's excellent mead. 'They won't talk.'

  'Can you be certain?' I didn't even attempt to conceal my scepticism.

  'Absolutely.' There was no doubt in his voice.

  Rather to my surprise, my instincts told me to trust him.

  'Shiv, Shiv, can you do us an illusion?'

  I stared at the boy who was asking and choked on my mead.

  'Harna?'

  'Oh, all right.' Harna smiled and filled a large flat bowl with water. Shiv rubbed his hands together and green magelight gathered round his fingers. My eyes must have been as round as any of the children's as I watched a pond appear, grassy banks, reeds round the fringe, lilies dotting the surface.

  'Do ducks, do ducks,' one of the little ones begged. Shiv obliged with an improbably yellow bird with a tail of ducklings following her. The image nickered suddenly and the ducklings began hiding in the reeds and leaves, the mother trying in vain to round them up again.

  Shiv suddenly burst out laughing. 'Harna!' he protested. I looked up to see green light flickering in her hands and amusement in her eyes.

  Shiv got the ducks under control again. 'Right, that's enough. Bedtime for you lot.'

  The children obeyed with remarkably little protest. Well, the trick with the ducks certainly left tales of the Eldritch

  Kin looking pretty dusty as bedtime entertainment. Harna and Geris chivvied them upstairs and Darni and Shiv went out for a last check on the horses. I wondered in passing where the chests had disappeared to.

  'Come into the study.' Travor rose and led me to a neatly furnished room next door. He lit the fire, laid ready and waiting, and then opened a polished cabinet and offered me a delicate ceramic cup.

  'Wine? It's heathberry, we make it ourselves. Or there's some juniper liquor, or more mead.'

  I've had some bad experiences with fruit wines. 'Juniper, please.'

  He poured me the hefty sort of measure you only get from someone who doesn't drink the stuff himself then stole a sideways glance at a desk where a large slate lay covered in neat diagrams.

  'Are you working on something? Don't let me stop you if you want to carry on with it.'

  'If you don't mind.' He sat as he spoke, relieved to abandon social niceties.

  'What is it?' I peered at the drawing but could make no sense of it.

  'There's a new way of smelting being developed in Gidesta; the Mountain Men have come up with something called a blast furnace.' He frowned at some calculations, wiped a patch of his slate clean and started afresh.

  I peered over his shoulder. 'Is Harna a mage then?' The liquor had me speaking before my brain caught up with my mouth.

  'That's right.' Travor seemed unconcerned.

  'So…' I could not think how to frame my next question.

  He looked up and a grin relaxed his square, rather harsh features. 'So how does she come to be married to a potter in the arse-end of nowhere?' Clearly a question he was used to.

  I laughed. 'Something like that.'

>   He shrugged and returned to his mathematics. 'She has the talents but what she really wants out of life is a good marriage, a happy home and lots of children. We met when she was travelling with another mage, we stayed in touch and when she fell for Seyn, we got married.'

  I drank my juniper; it was quite beyond me.

  A sudden commotion of dogs outside made Travor look up. 'I'd better go and see to the hounds.'

  As he left, Shiv reappeared. 'Any problem?' I asked.

  'A fox or something sniffing round the ducks.' Shiv poured himself a small measure of barley spirits and sat down with a sigh.

  'So, how long are we going to be here?'

  'I've sent a message to a chap called Conall who lives over in Eyhorne. He's been working with some of the early records from Hadrumal and I'd like him to take a look at those books you found. That was good thinking.'

  'If you tell me what's really going on, I might be able to pick up more useful things,' I said casually. 'Unless Darni won't let you.'

  Shiv laughed and ignored the bait. 'We'll probably be here for a couple of days, so make the most of the rest. We'll be heading into Dalasor next so it'll be camping and cooking on open fires not feather beds and clean linen.'

  'I thought all Dalasor had to offer was grass, sheep and cattle.'

  'Have you never been there?'

  'I make a living gambling and moving on, Shiv.' I refilled my glass. 'There's not a lot of use me getting into a game where the minimum stake is ten goats.'

  Shiv laughed again and took a sip of his drink. I looked at him in the soft lamplight and felt a warm quiver. He was quite handsome really, even allowing for the not inconsiderable glow I was feeling from the mead. I crossed the room and joined him on the settle by the fire.

  'Harna was saying she's seen a lot of you since Spring Equinox. That's a long time to be away from home.'

  Shiv stretched out and closed his eyes. 'It is,' he agreed, 'but Pered's very understanding.'

  I blinked. 'Pered?'

  A faint, fond smile curled round Shiv's lips. 'My lover. He's an illuminator for a copyist in Hadrumal. We've been together for six years now, so he's used to my being away.'