So it was rather a shock, what with the fact that he was watching where he was going and all, when he tripped and went sprawling face-first, all his scrolls flying about him.
If the one ahead of him had been a fellow page, he would immediately have suspected he’d been tripped a-purpose. But a Great Lord could hardly be suspected of a childish prank like that.
The Great Lord paused just a moment, papers fluttering around his feet, then went on. Robin kept his eyes down, blushing scarlet in humiliation, and began collecting them.
Now that was odd. That was very odd. He’d had fourteen scrolls when he’d been sent on this errand. He knew, because he’d counted them in Talia’s presence twice. Now he had fifteen. And the fifteenth one was sealed, not just rolled up like the others.
He could have gotten muddled, of course.
But he could almost hear Dean Elcarth’s voice in his ear, because he’d asked Elcarth just this very week what he should do if he was asked to do something that didn’t seem quite right, or if something happened in the course of his duties that seemed odd. One of the older boys had been sent on a very dubious errand by one of the ladies of the Court, and there’d been trouble afterward. The page involved hadn’t had the nerve to tell anyone until it was too late, and by then his memory was all confused. So Robin had asked the wisest person he knew what he should do if he found himself in a similar case.
“Do it, don’t disobey—but remember, Robin,” Elcarth had told him, “remember everything; what happened, who asked you, and when, and why, and who was with them. It may be that what you’re being told to do is perfectly legitimate. You could have no way of knowing. But if it isn’t, you could be the only person to know the real truth of something. You pages are in a very special position, you know, people look at you, but they really don’t see you. So keep that in mind, and if anything ever happens around you that seems odd, remember it; remember the circumstances. You may help someone that way.”
“Isn’t that being a little like a sneak?” Robin had asked doubtfully.
Elcarth had laughed and ruffled his hair. “If you ask that question, you’re in no danger of becoming one, my little owl. Besides, it’s excellent training for your memory.”
Very well then. Robin would remember this.
There was no answer when Robin tapped at Herald Dirk’s half-open door. When he peeked inside, he could see Herald Dirk slumped in a chair at the farther end of the room by his open window. He seemed to be asleep, so Robin slipped inside, quiet as a cat, and left the scrolls on his desk.
* * *
Talia didn’t need a summons that morning; anyone with the vaguest hint of her Gift of Empathy would have come running to the Queen’s side. Emotional turmoil—anger, fear, worry—was so thick in the air Talia could taste it, bitter and metallic.
She caught the first notes of it as she was dressing, and ran for the royal chambers as soon as she was decent. The two Guards outside the door looked very uncomfortable, as if they were doing their level best to be deaf to the shouting behind the double doors they guarded. Talia tapped once, and cracked one door open.
Selenay was in her outer chamber, dressed for the day, but without her coronet. She was sitting behind her work-table in her “public” room; there was a sealed scroll on the table before her. With her were Lord Orthallen (looking unbearably smug), a very embarrassed Kris, an equally embarrassed Guardsman, and an extremely angry Dirk.
“I don’t give a fat damn how it got there—I didn’t take it!” Dirk was shouting as Talia glanced at the sentry outside and entered. She shut the door behind her quickly. Whatever was going on here, the fewer people there were who knew about it, the better.
“Then why were you trying to hide it?” Orthallen asked smoothly.
“I wasn’t trying to hide it, dammit! I was looking for my headache-powders when this idiot barged in without a by-your-leave!” Dirk did look slightly ill; pale, with a pain-crease between his brows, his sapphire-blue eyes thoroughly bloodshot, his straw-blond hair more than usually tangled.
“We have only your word for that.”
“Since when—” Talia said clearly and coldly “—has a Herald’s word been subject to cross-examination? Your pardon, Majesty, but what in the Haven’s name is going on here?”
“I discovered this morning that some rather sensitive documents were missing,” Selenay answered, looking outwardly calm, though Talia knew she was anything but untroubled. “Lord Orthallen instigated a search, and he found them in Herald Dirk’s possession.”
“I haven’t been anywhere near the Palace wings for the past week! Besides, what use could I possibly make of the damned things?” Dirk’s mental anguish was so intense that Talia wanted to weep.
“Look, Uncle, you know my quarters are just down the hall from his. I can pledge the fact that he didn’t leave them all last night.”
“Nephew, I know this man is your friend.”
“If I have to be brutally frank, then I will be,” Kris said, flushing an angry and embarrassed red. “Dirk couldn’t have moved anywhere because he wasn’t in any shape to move. He was dead drunk last night, just like he’s been every night for the past couple of weeks.”
Dirk went almost purple, then deathly white.
“So? Since when has inability to move physically hampered anyone with his Gift?”
Now it was Kris’ turn to pale.
“I haven’t heard an answer to a very good question—Orthallen, what on earth would Dirk want with those documents?” Talia asked, trying to buy a little time to think.
“They would put someone in this Court in a rather indelicate position,” Orthallen replied, “And let us say that the person is entangled with a young lady with whom Herald Dirk was at one time very much involved himself. Their parting was somewhat acrimonious. His motivation could be complex—revenge, perhaps. Blackmail, perhaps. The Queen and I have been attempting to keep this situation from escalating into scandal, but if anyone excepting us saw the contents of these letters, it could throw the entire Court into an uproar.”
“I can’t believe I’m hearing a Councilor accuse a Herald of blackmail!” Talia cried out indignantly.
“You just heard my nephew—his best friend—say he’s been drinking himself insensible every night for the past few weeks. Does that sound like normal behavior for a Herald?” Orthallen turned to the Queen. “Majesty, I am not saying that this young man would have purloined these documents were he in his proper mind, but I think there is more than enough evidence to indicate that—”
“Orthallen,” the Queen interrupted him, “I—”
“Wait just a moment—don’t anyone say anything.” Talia held one hand to her temple, feeling pain stab through her head. The hot press of the emotions of those around her was so intense she was getting a reaction-headache from trying to shield herself. “Let’s just assume for one moment that Dirk is telling the absolute truth, shall we?”
“But—”
“No, hear me out. Under that assumption, in what way—other than someone deliberately going into his room and planting them there—could those documents have gotten where they were found? Dirk, were they there after dinner?”
“Before I started drinking, you mean?” Dirk replied bitterly. “No. My desk was perfectly clean, for a change. When I woke up this morning, there were about a dozen scrolls there, and this was one of them.”
“Fine. I know if someone had gone into your room that normally didn’t belong there, you’d have woken up, no matter what. I can tell you that I sent Robin to you last night with those poems I borrowed. There were exactly fourteen scrolls, and that wasn’t one of them. Now unless Lord Orthallen would like to accuse me of purloining those documents—”
“I still had them after you left, Talia,” the Queen said, a distinct edge to her voice.
“I also know that none of the Heralds would wake up for a page entering their room unless the page deliberately woke them. The little devils are too ubiquitous; pract
ically invisible, and we all know they’re harmless. So, it is possible that sometime between when Robin left me and when he got to your room, Dirk, an extra scroll got added to his pile.”
“Guard,” Selenay addressed the fourth person in the room, and the Guardsman turned to the Queen with gratitude suffusing his face, “Fetch Robin, please, would you? He’ll be having breakfast in the page’s room about now. Just ask for him.”
The Guard left, plainly happy to be out of the situation.
When he returned with Robin, Talia took the child to one side, away from the others, and closer to the Queen than to Orthallen. She spoke quietly and encouragingly, taking the initiative before Orthallen had a chance to try and bully him.
“Robin, I gave you some papers to take to Herald Dirk last night. How many were there?”
“I—” He looked troubled. “I thought there were fourteen, but—”
“But?”
“I fell down, and when I picked them up, there were fifteen. I know, because Dean Elcarth told me to remember things that were funny, and that was funny.”
“When did you fall down?”
“Near the staircase, by the lion tapestry.”
“Was anyone else nearby? Did you run into anyone?”
“I wasn’t running,” he said indignantly. “There was a m’lord, but—m’lady, Mama always told me not to stare at m’lords, so—I didn’t see who it was.”
“Bright Stars!” Orthallen suddenly looked shamefaced—almost horror-stricken—though somehow Talia had the feeling that he was putting on an act. Certainly there was nothing she could sense empathically behind his expression. “That was me—and I had the scroll at the time. Stars, I must have dropped it, and the child picked it up!” He turned to Dirk, a faint flush creeping over his face, and spread his hands with an apologetic grimace. “Herald Dirk, my most profound apologies. Majesty, I hardly know what to say.”
“I think we’ve all said quite enough for one morning,” Selenay replied tiredly. “Dirk, Kris, I am terribly sorry. I hope you’ll all put this down to an excess of zeal. Talia—”
Talia just shook her head a little, and said, “We can all talk about it when we’ve cooled down. Right now is not the time.”
Selenay gave her a smile of gratitude as Orthallen used this as a cue to excuse himself.
Talia was not sorry to see him leave.
Selenay detailed the Guard to escort Robin back, and asked Talia, “Have you had anything to eat yet? I thought not. Then go do so, and I’ll see you in Council.”
The three Heralds left together, the Guardsman right behind them, escorting a mystified Robin back to the page’s quarters. Talia could feel Dirk seething, and braced herself for the explosion.
As soon as they were a sufficient distance from the Queen’s chambers that they were likely to have no audience, it came.
“Thanks a lot, friend!” Dirk all but hissed. “Thanks ever so much, brother! How I ever managed without your help, I’ll never know!”
“Look, Dirk—I’m sorry—”
“Sorry! Dammit, you didn’t even believe me! My best friend, and you didn’t believe a single word I said!”
“Dirk!”
“Then telling everyone I’m some kind of drunken fool—”
“I didn’t say that!” Kris was beginning to get just as angry as Dirk was.
“You didn’t have to! You implied it very nicely! And gave your precious uncle more ammunition to use on me!”
“Dirk, Kris has every right to worry about you if you’ve been acting oddly. And Kris, Dirk’s right. Even I could tell you didn’t believe him without having to read you.” Talia knew she should have kept her mouth shut, but couldn’t help herself. “And he’s right about Orthallen.” They both turned on her as one, and spoke in nearly the same breath. “And I don’t need any more help from you, ‘Queen’s Own’—”
“Talia, I’m getting very tired of listening to your childish suspicions about my uncle—”
She went white-lipped with anger and hurt. “Fine, then—” she snarled, clenching her fists and telling herself that she would not deliver a pair of hearty blows to those stubborn chins. “I wash my hands of both of you! You can both go to Hell in a gilded carriage for all of me! With purple cushions!”
Unable to get another coherent word out, she spun on her toe and ran to the closest exit, and didn’t stop running until she reached the Field and the sympathetic shoulder of Rolan.
* * *
“Now look what you’ve done!” Dirk sneered in triumph.
“What I’ve done?” Kris lost what little remained of his temper and groped visibly for words adequate to express his anger. “Gods, I hope you’re satisfied—now that you’ve managed to get her mad at both of us!”
In point of fact, a nasty little part of him Dirk hadn’t dreamed existed was pleased, for now, at least, they were on an equally bad footing with Talia. He could hardly admit it, though. “Me? All I did was defend myself—”
“I,” Kris interrupted angrily, “have had just about enough of this. I’ll talk to you about this mess if and when you decide to stop behaving like a damn fool and when you quit drinking yourself into a stupor every night. Until then—”
“This is just a little too public a place for you to start making threats.”
Kris bit back the angry words that he knew would put any hope of reconciliation out of reach. “Far too public,” he replied stiffly, “and what we have to say to each other is far too private, and can and should wait until then.”
Dirk made an ironic little bow. “At your pleasure.”
There didn’t seem to be any way to respond to that, so Kris just nodded abruptly, and stalked off down the corridor.
Dirk found himself standing alone in the deserted corridor, temples pounding with a hangover, feeling very much abused. He wanted to feel vindicated, and all he really felt like was a fool. And very much alone.
* * *
By the time Talia arrived for her weaponry lesson, Alberich had heard the rumors that Kris and Dirk had had a falling-out. He was not too terribly surprised when Talia appeared for her practice session wearing an expression so coldly impassive it might have been a mask. Few even at the Collegium would have guessed how well he could read the Queen’s Own, or how well he knew her. She had quite won his heart as a student—so very alone, and so determined to do everything perfectly. She seldom tried to make excuses for herself, and never gave up, not even when she knew she had no chance of success. She had reminded him of times long past, and a young and idealistic student-cadet of Karse—and his sympathy and soul had gone out to her. Not that he would ever have let her know. He never betrayed his feelings to his students while they were still students.
He had a shrewd idea of how matters stood with her in regard to her feelings about Dirk and Kris. So he had a fairly good idea what her reaction to the quarrel might be.
This afternoon the lesson called for Talia to work out alone against the Armsmaster. She did not hold back in the least—began attacking him, in fact, with blind fury as soon as the lesson began. Alberich let her wear herself out for a bit, scar-seamed face impassive, then caught her with a feint not even a beginner would have fallen for and disarmed her.
“Enough—quite enough,” he said, as she stood white and drained and panting with exhaustion. “Have I not told you many times, it is with your intellect you fight, not with your anger? Anger you are to leave at the door. It will kill you. Look how you have let it wear you out! Had this been a real fight, your anger would have done half your enemy’s work for him.”
Talia’s shoulders sagged. “Master Alberich—”
“Enough, I have said it,” he interrupted, picking up her blade from the floor. He took three soundless steps toward her, and placed one callused hand on her shoulder. “Since the anger cannot be left at the door, you will confide it?”
Talia capitulated, letting him push her gently toward the seats at the edge of the floor. She slumped dispirited
ly down onto a bench pushed up against the wall as he seated himself beside her. After a long moment of silence, she gave him a brief outline of the morning’s events. She kept her eyes for the most part on a beam of the late afternoon sunlight that fell upon the smooth, sanded, gray-brown wooden floor. No sound penetrated into the salle from the outside, and the ancient building smelled of dust and sweat. Alberich sat beside her, absolutely motionless, hands clasped around the ankle that rested on his right knee. Talia glanced at him from time to time, but his harsh, hawklike face remained unreadable.
Finally, when she had finished, he stirred just a little, raising his hand to rub the side of his nose.
“I tell you what I have never admitted,” he said after a long pause, tapping his lips with one finger, thoughtfully. “I have never trusted Lord Orthallen. And I have served Valdemar fully as long as he.”
Talia was taken aback. “But—”
“Why? Any number of small things. He is too perfect the servant of the State, never does he take for himself any reward. And when a man does not claim a reward visibly, I look for a reward hidden. He does not openly oppose the Heraldic Circle, but when others do, he is always just behind them, pushing, gently pushing. He is everyone’s friend—and no one’s intimate companion. Also, my Companion does not like him.”
“Rolan doesn’t either.”
“A good measure by which to judge the man, I think. I believe that your suspicions are correct; that he has been striving to undermine your influence with Selenay. I think that since he has failed at that, he turns to eliminating your friends, to weaken your emotional base. I think he well knows how it hurts you to see young Dirk injured.”
Talia blushed.
“You are the best judge of the truth of what I say.” He shifted on the hard, worn bench and recrossed his legs, ankle over knee. “My guess—he knows Kris is your partisan; he could not get Kris to repudiate you so he decided to set the two great friends at odds with each other in hopes you would be caught in the middle.”
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