‘I am not guilty,’ muttered Tulkis, his voice hardly more than a whisper.
Glokta twitched his face in annoyance. ‘Have you ever been tortured?’
‘No.’
‘Have you ever seen torture carried out?’
The envoy swallowed. ‘I have.’
‘Then you have some inkling of what to expect.’ Frost lifted the lid on Glokta’s case. The trays inside lifted and fanned out like a huge and spectacular butterfly unfurling its wings for the first time, exposing Glokta’s instruments in all their glittering, hypnotic, horrible beauty. He watched Tulkis’ eyes fill with fear and fascination.
‘I am the very best there is at this.’ Glokta gave a long sigh and clasped his hands before him. ‘It is not a matter for pride. It is a matter of fact. You would not be with me now if it were otherwise. I tell you so you can have no doubts. So you can answer my next question with no illusions. Look at me.’ He waited for Tulkis’ dark eyes to meet his. ‘Will you confess?’
There was a pause. ‘I am innocent,’ whispered the ambassador.
‘That was not my question. I will ask it again. Will you confess?’
‘I cannot.’
They stared at each other for a long moment, and Glokta was left in no doubt. He is innocent. If he could steal over the wall of the palace and in through the Prince’s window without being noticed, surely he could have stolen out of the Agriont and away before we were any the wiser? Why stay, and sleep, leaving his bloodstained garment hanging in the cupboard, waiting for us to discover it? A trail of clues so blatant a blind man could follow them. We are being duped, and not even subtly. To punish the wrong man, that is one thing. But to allow myself to be made a fool of? That is another.
‘One moment,’ murmured Glokta. He struggled out of his chair to the door, shut it carefully behind him, hobbled wincing up the steps to the next room and went in.
‘What the hell are you up to in there?’ the Arch Lector snarled at him.
Glokta kept his head bowed in a position of deep respect. ‘I am trying to establish the truth, your Eminence—’
‘You are trying to establish what? The Closed Council are waiting for a confession, and you’re blathering about what?’
Glokta met the Arch Lector’s glare. ‘What if he is not lying? What if the Emperor does desire peace? What if he is innocent?’
Sult stared back at him, cold blue eyes wide open with disbelief. ‘Did you lose your teeth in Gurkhul or your fucking mind? Who cares a shit for innocent? What concerns us now is what must be done! What concerns us now is what is necessary! What concerns us now is ink on paper you . . . you . . .’ he was near frothing at the mouth, fists clenching and unclenching with fury, ‘. . . you crippled shred of a man! Make him sign, then we can be done with this and get to licking arses in the Open Council!’
Glokta bowed his head still lower. ‘Of course, your Eminence.’
‘Now is your perverse obsession with the truth going to cause me any more trouble tonight? I’d rather use a needle than a spade, but I’ll dig a confession out of this bastard either way! Must I send for Goyle?’
‘Of course not, your Eminence.’
‘Just get in there, damn you, and make . . . him . . . sign!’
Glokta shuffled out of his room, grumbling, stretching his neck to either side, rubbing his sore palms, working his aching shoulders round his ears and hearing the joints click. A difficult interrogation. Severard was sitting cross-legged on the floor opposite, his head resting against the dirty wall. ‘Has he signed?’
‘Of course.’
‘Lovely. Another mystery solved, eh, chief?’
‘I doubt it. He’s no Eater. Not like Shickel was, anyway. He feels pain, believe me.’
Severard shrugged. ‘She said the talents were different for each of them.’
‘She did. She did.’ But still. Glokta wiped at his runny eye, thinking. Someone murdered the Prince. Someone had something to gain from his death. I would like to know who, even if no one else cares. ‘There are some questions I still need to ask. The guard at the Prince’s chambers last night. I want to speak to him.’
The Practical raised his brows. ‘Why? We’ve got the paper haven’t we?’
‘Just bring him in.’
Severard unfolded his legs and sprang up. ‘Alright, then, you’re the boss.’ He pushed himself away from the greasy wall and sauntered off down the corridor. ‘One Knight of the Body, coming right up.’
Holding the Line
‘Did you sleep?’ asked Pike, scratching at the less burned side of his ruined face. D ‘No. You?’
The convict turned Sergeant shook his head.
‘Not for days,’ murmured Jalenhorm, wistfully. He shaded his eyes with a hand and squinted up towards the northern ridge, a ragged outline of trees under the iron grey sky. ‘Poulder’s division already set off through the woods?’
‘Before first light,’ said West. ‘We should hear that he’s in position soon. And now it looks as if Kroy’s ready to go. You have to respect his punctuality, at least.’
Below Burr’s command post, down in the valley, General Kroy’s division was moving into battle order. Three regiments of the King’s Own foot formed the centre, with a regiment of levies on the higher ground on either wing and the cavalry just behind. It was an entirely different spectacle from the ragged deployment of Ladisla’s makeshift army. The battalions flowed smoothly forwards in tightly ordered columns: tramping through the mud, the tall grass, the patches of snow in the hollows. They halted at their allotted positions and began to spread out into carefully dressed lines, a net of men stretching right across the valley. The chill air echoed with the distant thumping of their feet, the beating of their drums, the clipped calls of their commanders. Everything clean and crisp and according to procedure.
Lord Marshal Burr thrust aside his tent flap and strode out into the open air, acknowledging the salutes of the various guards and officers scattered about the space in front with sharp waves of his hand.
‘Colonel,’ he growled, frowning up at the heavens. ‘Still dry, then?’
The sun was a watery smudge on the horizon, the sky thick white with streaks of heavy grey, darker bruises hanging over the northern ridge. ‘For the moment, sir,’ said West.
‘No word from Poulder yet?’
‘No, sir. But it might be hard-going, the woods are dense.’ Not as dense as Poulder himself, West thought, but that hardly seemed the most professional thing to say.
‘Did you eat yet?’
‘Yes, sir, thank you.’ West had not eaten since last night, and even then not much. The very idea of food made him feel sick.
‘Well at least one of us did.’ Burr placed a hand sourly on his stomach. ‘Damned indigestion, I can’t touch a thing.’ He winced and gave a long burp. ‘Pardon me. And there they go.’
General Kroy must finally have declared himself satisfied with the precise positioning of every man in his division, because the soldiers in the valley had begun to move forward. A chilly breeze blew up and set the regimental standards, the flags of the battalions, the company ensigns snapping and fluttering. The watery sun twinkled on sharpened blades and burnished armour, shone on gold braid and polished wood, glittered on buckles and harness. All advanced smoothly together, as proud a display of military might as could ever have been seen. Beyond them, down the valley to the east, a great black tower loomed up behind the trees. The nearest tower of the fortress of Dunbrec.
‘Quite the spectacle,’ muttered Burr. ‘Fifteen thousand fighting men, perhaps, all told, and almost as many more up on the ridge.’ He nodded his head at the reserve, two regiments of cavalry, dismounted and restless down below the command post. ‘Another two thousand there, waiting for orders.’ He glanced back towards the sprawling camp: a city of canvas, of carts, of stacked-up boxes and barrels, spread out in the snowy valley, black figures crawling around inside. ‘And that’s without counting all the thousands back there – cooks and gro
oms, smiths and drivers, servants and surgeons.’ He shook his head. ‘Some responsibility, all that, eh? You wouldn’t want to be the fool who had to take care of all that lot.’
West gave a weak smile. ‘No, sir.’
‘It looks like . . .’ murmured Jalenhorm, shading his eyes and squinting down the valley into the sun. ‘Are those . . . ?’
‘Eyeglass!’ snapped Burr, and a nearby officer produced one with a flourish. The Marshal flicked it open. ‘Well, well. Who’s this now?’
A rhetorical question, without a doubt. There was no one else it could be. ‘Bethod’s Northmen,’ said Jalenhorm, ever willing to state the obvious.
West watched them rush across the open ground through the wobbling round window of his own eyeglass. They flowed out from the trees at the far end of the valley, near to the river, spreading out like the dark stain creeping from a slit wrist. Dirty grey and brown masses congealed on the wings. Thralls, lightly armed. In the centre better ordered ranks took shape, dull metal gleaming, mail and blade. Bethod’s Carls.
‘No sign of any horse.’ That made West more nervous than ever. He had already had one near-fatal encounter with Bethod’s cavalry, and he did not care to renew the acquaintance.
‘Feels good to actually see the enemy, at last,’ said Burr, voicing the exact opposite of West’s own feelings. ‘They move smartly enough, that’s sure.’ His mouth curved up into a rare grin. ‘But they’re moving right where we want them to. The trap’s baited and ready to spring, eh, Captain?’ He passed the eyeglass to Jalenhorm, who peered through it and grinned himself.
‘Right where we want them,’ he echoed. West felt a good deal less confident. He could clearly remember the thin line of Northmen on the ridge, right where Ladisla had thought he wanted them.
Kroy’s men halted and the units shuffled into perfect position once again, just as calmly as if they stood on a vast parade ground: lines four ranks deep, reserve companies drawn up neatly behind, a thin row of flatbowmen in front. West just made out the shouted orders to fire, saw the first volley float up from Kroy’s line, shower down in amongst the enemy. He felt his nails digging painfully into his palm as he watched, fists clenched tight, willing the Northmen to die. Instead they sent back a well organised volley of their own, and then began to surge forward.
Their battle cry floated up to the officers outside the tent, that unearthly shriek, carrying on the cold air. West chewed at his lip, remembering the last time he heard it, echoing through the mist. Hard to believe it had only been a few weeks ago. Again he was guiltily glad to be well behind the lines, though a shiver down his back reminded him that it had done little good on that occasion.
‘Bloody hell,’ said Jalenhorm.
No one else spoke. West stood, teeth gritted, heart thumping, trying desperately to hold his eyeglass steady as the Northmen charged full-blooded down the valley. Kroy’s flatbows gave them one more volley, then pulled back through the carefully prepared gaps in the carefully dressed ranks, forming up again behind the lines. Spears were lowered, shields were raised, and in virtual silence, it seemed, the Union line prepared to meet the howling Northmen.
‘Contact,’ growled Lord Marshal Burr. The Union ranks seemed to wave and shift somewhat, the watery sunlight seemed to flash more rapidly on the mass of men, a vague rattling drifted on the air. Not a word was said in the command post. Each man was squinting through his eyeglass, or peering into the sun, craning to see what was happening down in the valley, hardly daring even to breathe.
After what seemed a horribly long time, Burr lowered his eyeglass. ‘Good. They’re holding. It seems your Northmen were right, West, we have the advantage in numbers, even without Poulder. When he gets here, it should be a rout—’
‘Up there,’ muttered West, ‘on the southern ridge.’ Something glinted in the treeline, and again. Metal. ‘Cavalry, sir, I’d bet my life on it. It seems Bethod had the same idea as us, but on the other wing.’
‘Damn it!’ hissed Burr. ‘Send word to General Kroy that the enemy has horse on the southern ridge! Tell him to refuse that flank and prepare to be attacked from the right!’ One of the adjutants leaped smoothly into his saddle and galloped off in the direction of Kroy’s headquarters, cold mud flying from his horse’s hooves.
‘More tricks, and this may not be the last of ’em.’ Burr snapped the eyeglass closed and thumped it into his open palm. ‘This must not be allowed to fail, Colonel West. Nothing must get in the way. Not Poulder’s arrogance, not Kroy’s pride, not the enemy’s cunning, none of it. We must have victory here today. It must not be allowed to fail!’
‘No, sir.’ But West was far from sure what he could do about it.
The Union soldiers were trying to be quiet, which meant they made about as much racket as a great herd of sheep being shoved indoors for shearing. Moaning and grunting, slithering on the wet ground, armour rattling, weapons knocking on low branches. Dogman shook his head as he watched ’em.
‘Lucky thing there’s no one out here, or we’d have been heard long ago,’ hissed Dow. ‘These fools couldn’t creep up on a corpse.’
‘No need for you to be making noise,’ hissed Threetrees, up ahead, then beckoned them all forward.
It was a strange feeling, marching with such a big crew again. There were two score of Shivers’ Carls along with ’em, and quite an assortment. Tall men and short, young and old, all manner of different weapons and armour, but all pretty well seasoned, from what the Dogman could tell.
‘Halt!’ And the Union soldiers clattered and grumbled to a stop, started sorting themselves out into a line, spread across the highest part of the ridge. A great long line, the Dogman reckoned, judging from the number of men he’d watched going up into the woods, and they were right at the far end of it. He peered off into the empty trees on their left, and frowned. Lonely place to be, the end of a line.
‘But the safest,’ he muttered to himself.
‘What’s that?’ asked Cathil, sitting down on a great fallen tree trunk.
‘Safe here,’ he said in her tongue, managing a grin. He still didn’t have half an idea how to behave around her. There was a hell of a gap between them in the daylight, a yawning great gap of race, and age, and language that he wasn’t sure could ever be bridged. Strange, how the gap dwindled down to nothing at night. They understood each other well enough in the dark. Maybe they’d work it out, in time, or maybe they wouldn’t, and that’d be that. Still, he was glad she was there. Made him feel like a proper human man again, instead of just an animal slinking in the woods, trying to scratch his way from one mess to another.
He watched a Union officer break off from his men and walk towards them, strut up to Threetrees, some kind of a polished stick wedged under his arm. ‘General Poulder asks that you remain here on the left wing, to secure the far flank.’ He spoke slow and very loud, as though that’d make him understood if they didn’t talk the language.
‘Alright,’ said Threetrees.
‘The division will be deploying along the high ground to your right!’ And he flicked his stick thing towards the trees where his men were slowly and noisily getting ready. ‘We will be waiting until Bethod’s forces are well engaged with General Kroy’s division, and then we will attack, and drive them from the field!’
Threetrees nodded. ‘You need our help with any of that?’
‘Frankly I doubt it, but we will send word if matters change.’ And he strutted off to join his men, slipping a few paces away and nearly going down on his arse in the muck.
‘He’s confident,’ said the Dogman.
Threetrees raised his brows. ‘Bit too much, if you’re asking me, but if it means he leaves us out I reckon I can live with it. Right then!’ he shouted, turning round to the Carls. ‘Get hold o’ that tree trunk and drag it up along the brow here!’
‘Why?’ asked one of ’em, sitting rubbing at one knee and looking sullen.
‘So you got something to hide behind if Bethod turns up,’ barked Dow a
t him. ‘Get to it, fool!’
The Carls downed their weapons and set to work, grumbling. Seemed that joining up with the legendary Rudd Threetrees was less of a laugh than they’d hoped. Dogman had to smile. They should’ve known. Leaders don’t get to be legendary by handing out light duty. The old boy himself was stood frowning into the woods as Dogman walked up beside him. ‘You worried, chief?’
‘It’s a good spot up here for hiding some men. A good spot for waiting ’til the battles joined, then charging down.’
‘It is,’ grinned the Dogman. ‘That’s why we’re here.’
‘And what? Bethod won’t have thought of that?’ Dogman’s grin started to fade. ‘If he’s got men to spare he might think they’d be well used up here, waiting for the right moment, just like we are. He might send ’em through these trees here and up this hill to right where we’re sitting. What’d happen then, d’you reckon?’
‘We’d set to killing each other, I daresay, but Bethod don’t have men to spare, according to Shivers and his boys. He’s outnumbered worse’n two to one as it is.’
‘Maybe, but he likes to cook up surprises.’
‘Alright,’ said Dogman, watching the Carls heaving the fallen tree trunk around so it blocked off the top of the slope. ‘Alright. So we drag a tree across here and we hope for the best.’
‘Hope for the best?’ grunted Threetrees. ‘Just when did that ever work?’ He strode off to mutter to Grim, and Dogman shrugged his shoulders. If a few hundred Carls did turn up all of a sudden, they’d be in a fix, but there weren’t much he could do about it now. So he knelt down beside his pack, pulled out his flint and some dry twigs, stacked it all up careful and started striking sparks.
Shivers squatted down near him, palms resting on his axe-handle. ‘What’re you at?’
‘What does it look like?’ Dogman blew into the kindling, watched the flame spreading out. ‘I’m making me a fire.’
‘Ain’t we waiting for a battle to start?’
The First Law Trilogy Boxed Set: The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, Last Argument of Kings Page 113