by Kevin Berry
“I have to fight too?” Hubert asks, horrified.
“Of course. I like my Second to have a fight. Why should the Seconds miss out?”
“Be careful,” you tell Hubert. He nods, then indicates his prospective opponent, a woman with striking black hair.
A surgeon is also present. Stitched upon the side of her bag are the words “Madame Bennard, Surgeon. Available for any personal disagreement.”
“Let’s get started,” says de Bouteville, “before any patrols come by. They might spoil our fun. The cardinal does not approve of duels, you know.”
“I know.” Your opponent ignores the fact that you and Hubert are both Cardinal’s Guards yourselves.
“Our duel is to second blood. I have cause, as you have so grievously insulted my friend. On the count of three, draw swords. One … two … three!”
You barely have time to prepare yourself mentally, but you swiftly pull your rapier from its scabbard and defend yourself from a flurry of slashes. Hubert is caught completely off guard, but manages to get his sword out in time and is busily fighting the black-haired woman.
De Bouteville entangles his sword with yours and twirls his wrist. You’re ready for this move. It’s designed to fling an opponent’s rapier out of their hands if they have an incorrect grip.
He steps back. “You’re not bad. This might be a good fight after all.”
You take the opportunity to advance, thrusting and then lunging. De Bouteville parries your attacks successfully. He’s quick with his hands as well as being quick on his feet for such a large fellow.
Hubert gasps and collapses. De Bouteville’s Second stands over your friend, who lies groaning on the ground. You daren’t let yourself be distracted or you’ll rapidly share Hubert’s fate.
The momentary pause on your part lets De Bouteville back into the fight. He slashes wildly, forcing you backward, then lunges. You barely escape being run through by his blade. He laughs.
Hubert needs medical help. You have to finish the duel quickly. But how?
De Bouteville has a longer reach than you. He thrusts, jabbing you below your left shoulder blade. You wince in pain. Blood soaks the white of your uniform. This isn’t going well. You riposte without touching him, then beat against his blade to move it out of line and give yourself a moment to recover.
“Get him,” someone says. You think it’s one of your opponent’s companions, but then you realize it was Hubert, who is propping himself up on one elbow. His voice sounds strained.
You parry another flurry of slashes from De Bouteville. He steps back to reassess, or perhaps to catch his breath. Now’s your chance. Maybe your only one. To finish the duel quickly, you must act now.
Your opponent is probably expecting you to stay out of his reach. If you lunge forward and thrust past his defenses, you can wound him. Then you’ll be even, one wound each. But if he successfully counters your attack, you’ll leave yourself wide open to his.
Alternatively, you could feign an attack, deceiving De Bouteville, and then make your true attack once his blade is out of line. But that is risky, for if he suspects your intentions, he won’t be deceived.
What will you do?
It’s time to make a decision. Do you:
Attack with a quick lunge?
Or
Feint, and then attack?
Attack with a quick lunge
You want to get the duel over with so the surgeon can attend to your injured friend. Now, while De Bouteville seems to have let his guard down slightly, you may have a tiny advantage. You go straight in with the lunge.
You plant your front foot forward, bend, and thrust as far as you can, committing yourself to the attack with no thought of defense.
But he is not surprised. With ease, as if he had planned your own actions for you, he parries your blow away and ripostes in one smooth motion. An elegant and sophisticated move, you think. And deadly too.
His sword passes right through your lower left side.
The world spins as you crash to the ground, staining the grass red as he withdraws his sword.
“For the chancellor,” he says softly.
You don’t hear anything after that. Ever.
I’m sorry, this part of your story is over. You’ve had a rather short career as a Lieutenant cadet in the Cardinal’s Guards, in which you had the company of your friend Hubert. You chose to help the cardinal by investigating the chancellor’s financial activities, and discovered she’d been stealing from the palace finances. Rather than report her, you decided to blackmail her. Bad move. She sends a friend of hers to challenge you to a duel, and he’s rather good. By dawn the next morning, you’re dead.
There are lots of other paths in this book to try. Maybe you could try the other task the cardinal has. Or see what adventures you can have as a King’s Musketeer.
It’s time to make a decision. Would you like to:
Go to the list of choices and start reading from another part of the story?
Or
Go back to the beginning of the story and try another path?
Feint, and then attack
You might catch De Bouteville off-guard with a feint, as you haven’t tried one yet during the duel. It could give you the opportunity you need.
You thrust at his right side, but don’t commit yourself fully. The moment you see him react and move to parry the blow, you change direction. Deftly, you transfer the rapier to your other hand, completely changing the angle of attack, and stab him in the left side before he can recover from the nonexistent right-side attack.
“Aaarghh!” He drops his sword and drops to the ground. “I cannot continue. I yield. You win this fight, cadet.” He sounds more disappointed that it’s over than concerned about his injury.
The surgeon quickly moves in to assist De Bouteville and dress his wound. The compte is of a much higher social rank than Hubert, so your friend has to wait before the surgeon will get to him. Eventually, she does, and orders Hubert to have four weeks’ bed rest.
You stand over the pale-faced De Bouteville for a few moments, until you see him cringe. You walk away. He won’t bother you again.
Congratulations, this part of your story is over. You chose to take a commission in the Cardinal’s Guards, in which you have the company of your friend Hubert. You chose to help the cardinal by investigating the chancellor’s financial activities, and discovered she’d been stealing from the palace finances. Rather than report her, you decided to blackmail her. Bad move. She sends a friend of hers, the best duelist in France, to challenge you to a duel. Though he wounds you slightly, you analyzed his weaknesses and your strengths and overcame him to win the duel. From that point on, you have massive kudos with all of the other Cardinal’s Guards. You collect your blackmail money monthly, and all seems well. At present. No doubt, de Bouteville will want his revenge soon enough.
There are lots of other paths in this book to try. Maybe you could try the other task the cardinal has. Or see what adventures you can have as a King’s Musketeer.
It’s time to make a decision. Would you like to:
Go to the list of choices and start reading from another part of the story?
Or
Go back to the beginning of the story and try another path?
Undertake the discreet special duty regarding His Majesty
“I’ll accept the special duty regarding His Majesty, please, Your Eminence,” you say. “I can think of no greater honor than to be of service to both you and His Majesty.”
“Excellent! I will explain the task to you in a moment.” He turns to Hubert. “Subaltern cadet, you are dismissed. Come and see me tomorrow morning at eight.”
Hubert assents and leaves.
“Right,” Richelieu says once the door has closed behind Hubert, leaving only the two of you in the room (plus the raven). “Listen carefully. Every few days, a messenger delivers a small package labelled with ‘S’ to one of my Guards. In turn, she stores it, unopened, in a small
pottery vase in the kitchen. You’ll find the vase, which is also labelled ‘S’, on the third row of a set of shelves. Check for the package daily, and if it is there, take it, open it somewhere in private and keep the contents in your possession. Understood?”
“Yes, Your Eminence.”
“Good. The package contains a glass vial of fine white grains. Take good care of it. Now, twice a day, the palace cook prepares a hot chocolate drink for His Majesty. Ask her for the times. At those times, you are to proceed to the kitchen, collect the hot chocolate drink, and deliver it in person to His Majesty.”
“Very good, Your Eminence.” You’re puzzled. What of the vial?
“Before you give it to him, you must discreetly pour some of the contents of the vial into His Majesty’s drink. Not much—it’s potent stuff. Also, it has to last a few days, so use just a little at a time. Remember that.”
“I will.” You’re dying to ask questions but you think that might lead the cardinal to realize you are not under his spell.
“You are dismissed, Lieutenant cadet.”
You leave the cardinal’s offices and make your way to the kitchens to ask the cook for the times when she prepares His Majesty’s hot chocolate. When she isn’t looking, you take the vase down from the shelf and check inside. The little package is there. You quickly stuff it into a pocket of your jacket and replace the vase.
Next, you leave the palace, cross Pont Neuf, and take a stroll through the city, paying no attention to street hawkers, beggars and even other pedestrians. There’s a lot on your mind. The package sits in your pocket like a lead weight. What is it? What is it for?
After a while, you find yourself in an empty side alley behind a monastery. Carefully, you withdraw the package and unwrap it. Inside is the vial of grainy white powder.
You examine it closely, but learn nothing. There’s simply no clue as to what it is. Yet you are supposed to discreetly put some into the king’s drink.
You stuff the vial into your pocket and walk on, leaving the alleyway and rejoining one of the main thoroughfares just in time to have to jump out of the way of a merchant’s cart rushing past. Mud splatters on your breeches and you fume.
Hubert is also in your thoughts. What did Richelieu do to him, and will it be permanent? He appears to be under some kind of spell. Dangerous? No—you remember when some other new recruits had the same glazed expression. It lasted only a few hours and they seemed normal after that. So … perhaps the cardinal’s suggestive trance is harmless. Maybe all it does is make his Guards more obedient.
But you weren’t affected. That actually makes this harder for you.
If you were under the cardinal’s spell, you’d just blindly follow his orders. However, because you’re not, you are wary of the very first task he’s given you.
Your thoughts keep returning to the instructions you were given. Administer the contents of the vial discreetly. No one should see. No one should know.
Why?
Has Cardinal Richelieu given you the task of secretly poisoning His Majesty? Or does he want the vial’s contents keep secret for some other reason? How will you know?
You can’t ask him. He believes you to be under his spell. Instead, if you want to find out, you’ll have to do something else. Or tell someone else.
Or just assume the cardinal knows what he’s doing and that everything will be fine.
You’ve been thinking about this intensely, and meanwhile you’ve walked in a circle and you’re back at the bridge. Pedestrians bustle past you to make their way across towards the palace, or to come into the city, rushing on their errands.
What shall you do?
It’s time to make a decision. You have four choices. Do you:
Put the vial’s contents in the king’s drink as asked?
Or
Ask an apothecary to analyze the vial’s contents?
Or
Tell the queen about the vial?
Or
Accuse the cardinal of wanting to poison the king?
Put the vial’s contents in the king’s drink
You cross Pont Neuf, thinking hard. It’s almost time for His Majesty’s hot chocolate that you’ve been tasked with delivering. The vial with its unknown substance feels heavy in your pocket. You gaze over the side of the bridge, seeking answers, but there’s nothing except murky water. It pongs too, but less than the city streets.
However, after a few minutes, the relatively fresh air over La Seine refreshes you and clears your senses. Of course Cardinal Richelieu would not poison His Majesty. He depends on Louis XIII’s support for his own position. If something were to happen to the king, the cardinal would lose his role as chief minister … and maybe his head too.
Therefore, logically, whatever the vial contains must be harmless. Perhaps it’s even medicine for the king, who is often unwell. If you’d gone to the apothecary, or to the queen, you might have looked foolish.
With a smile on your face and a skip in your step, you return to Le Louvre and make your way to the kitchen in time to collect the freshly-prepared hot chocolate.
“Perfect timing. Quick, now, take this.” You are handed a saucer holding a cup filled with the steaming hot liquid. “His Majesty likes it hot, and doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
Slightly miffed because the cook spoke to you like an underling, you set off through the back corridors of the palace to Louis XIII’s private rooms. The servants always take these passages as they are the quickest to any destination.
In a quiet corridor, you stop for a few moments and place the cup on a side table. A quick glance up and down the corridor confirms that you are alone. It’s the task of a few moments to whisk the vial from your pocket and tip a little of the contents into the drink.
You put the vial away and set off again. You breathe deeply of the hot chocolate’s aroma. It’s heavenly. You’ve never smelled anything like it before. It’s actually making you salivate a little.
You lick your lips as you walk. Would the king notice if you took a sip?
Surely not.
You turn a corner into another corridor, nearing Louis XIII’s private quarters. There’s no one around. It’s now or never.
The wicked pleasure of forbidden indulgence overwhelms you, and you lift the cup to your mouth for a little taste. It’s smooth, velvety, and delicious. No wonder the king likes it so much.
You’d love to have more, but His Majesty would surely notice if you drank too much, so you refrain.
In a few more steps, you reach the antechamber to the king’s bedroom. It normally serves as a waiting room for people wanting an audience with Louis XIII. Several people are waiting there—some of them talk, while some look bored or restless. What now?
A well-dressed aristocratic man sees you and beckons you to come forward. He introduces himself as Henri de Talleyrand-Périgord, Head of the King’s Wardrobe. It’s part of his job to determine who can see the king, and when. He allows you straight in.
King Louis XIII sits up in bed, reading. He looks pale, though that could just be his powdered face. His wig sits slightly lopsided on his head. When he sees you with the hot chocolate, he beams.
“Excellent! Thank you, cadet. You’re new here, aren’t you?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
You bow, taking care not to tip the drink out. Once you’ve stood up straight again, you hand it over to the king, who is eagerly reaching for it.
He gives it a sniff and emits a grunt of satisfaction before taking a sip, then a large swallow. Then he grins at you. “Sweet!” he says.
Congratulations, this part of your story is over. You chose to take a commission in the Cardinal’s Guards, in which you have the company of your friend Hubert. You’ve picked up your new uniform, which, though it looks a bit like a tent cut into four pieces, still allows you to effect a dashing figure. You choose one of two tasks the cardinal offered, that being to deliver the king’s hot chocolates each day after covertly adding a secret ingred
ient, which appears to be sugar—a rare and expensive substance. Both the king and the cardinal look favorably upon you from this day forward.
There are other paths in the book that you may wish to try. What if you choose the other task? Or took a commission as a King’s Musketeer instead?
It’s time to make a decision. Would you like to:
Go to the list of choices and start reading from another part of the story?
Or
Go back to the beginning of the story and try another path?
Ask an apothecary to analyze the vial’s contents
You decide you don’t want to put the substance into the king’s drink without knowing what it is. It could be dangerous. If it is, it’ll be your head on the block (literally).
The time for the king’s hot chocolate is fast approaching, and you ought to return for that duty. You could deliver the drink without adding the contents of the vial, and get the white substance analyzed later, but time could be of the essence. You decide to go straight to an apothecary to ask their opinion.
You turn away from the bridge and walk along the Quay des Augustins for a short way, then turn right to go into the city. Before long, you find what you are looking for: a small shop with the sign ‘Apothecary’ above the door. Hesitating only a moment while you consider if you’re really doing the right thing, you open the door and walk in.
Dust motes swirl in the sunlight streaming in through the windows. You look around. Shelves line three sides of the shop, stacked with jars, pots and other vessels containing all manner of liquids, powders, ointments, and herbs. The containers have labels with scrawled writing that you can’t decipher. You have no idea what any of them are.