Traitor's Blade (The Greatcoats)

by de Castell, Sebastien

  ‘I …’ Damn. What do you tell a child? That fathers don’t always love their daughters as they should? That noble families want strong boys to lead their houses, not girls whose dowries must be paid? ‘I think if your father could see you right now he would be very proud.’

  She gave a small smile, but it was a smile for me, not because of me. The exhaustion was overwhelming her.

  I knelt down and reached into one of the inner pockets of my coat. I extracted a small package wrapped in silk. ‘Here,’ I said.

  Aline took the package and unwrapped it, revealing the square of striped candy underneath.

  ‘What is this?’

  ‘We call it the “hard candy”,’ I replied.

  ‘Candy?’ She looked annoyed.

  ‘Just eat a tiny bit.’

  She started to take a bite and I grabbed her arm. ‘Just a small piece,’ I said. ‘Just a taste.’

  The girl looked confused, but she obeyed me and took just a tiny nibble from the corner. Then she made a face, and I thought she was about to spit it out.

  I held my finger up. ‘Just wait.’

  We sat for a few moments as the sky turned a little darker. Suddenly Aline leapt to her feet, eyes wide, tense as a cat staring down a pack of dogs.

  ‘How do you feel?’ I asked.

  ‘Like— Like I could run the length of the city, twice over,’ she replied, looking all around her. ‘I don’t feel tired at all – it’s like I just woke up!’

  ‘Try to keep steady and focused,’ I said. ‘It takes a while to get used to the hard candy.’

  ‘It’s all right – I’m fine. We can go now if you like.’

  ‘No, now I need to rest for a minute.’

  She held out the package towards me, but I wrapped her hand around it. ‘You hang onto it. There isn’t much, and I try to avoid using it.’ When she looked at me quizzically, I added, ‘It’s good for keeping you awake, it’s good for running, it’s good for staying alive. But it’s not especially good for strategic thinking, or for swordwork.’

  ‘Then why—?’

  ‘We Magisters have to travel a long way, and sometimes, if we need to get somewhere quickly, we have to keep ourselves going for days – or, just as likely, get away from somewhere before we’re caught.’

  Aline put the silk-wrapped package in her pocket.

  ‘Use it sparingly,’ I warned. ‘Too much at once can make your heart explode in your chest.’

  The girl sat down next to me, though I knew it was hard for her to keep still now. ‘Why “hard”?’ she asked.

  ‘Hmm?’ I said, and only then realised I was starting to nod off. The sky was fully dark. We needed to get moving.

  ‘Why is it the “hard candy”?’

  ‘Because it’s not the same as the “soft candy”,’ I said, pulling out a still smaller package from another pocket.

  ‘So if the hard candy is for giving you energy, what’s the soft candy for then?’ she asked, reaching for it.

  I pulled it away. ‘It’s for something else,’ I said. ‘It’s for something else entirely.’

  *

  ‘Falcio?’

  I opened my eyes. ‘Shit. How long was I asleep?’

  ‘Just a couple of minutes,’ Aline said. ‘I wanted to let you rest but I think I heard something.’

  I got to my feet and listened. Nothing. Not for the first time, I wished my hearing was more acute.

  ‘It’s there,’ she said, and then I heard it: soft shoes on stone, climbing to the roof.

  ‘Damn,’ I said. I pulled out the bracer of knives and handed it to Aline. ‘Same thing as before,’ I said. ‘Stay four paces behind me.’

  I pulled both my rapiers out. The roof was a wide-open space, and I could use that to advantage.

  They came, eight of them, dark as shadows across the roof. Hells, I never should have let myself fall asleep. We should have kept on the move.

  ‘Put your swords down or we’ll gut you,’ came a voice from the north edge of the building. It was strangely pitched: was it a woman?

  ‘I’m fairly sure you’ll gut me whether I put my swords down or not,’ I shouted back. ‘So I might as well bleed you and your friends first.’

  ‘Not if you put those nice blades down, along with any money you’ve got, and leave our territory,’ the voice replied.

  Territory? Then they weren’t Shiballe’s men?

  ‘I’m afraid we don’t have much in the way of money, and I’m rather in need of these swords of late. How about if we just leave and you can keep your territory?’

  I heard Aline gasp, and then made out the sound of someone climbing up the wall right behind us.

  ‘Tell your man he’s about to learn secrets only the dead know,’ I said, keeping my left point up and taking two steps back to the ledge with my right-hand blade ready to sweep. Something whizzed by my right leg and skipped off the ledge. It wasn’t an arrow, nor a bolt. Could it have been a sling-stone? I heard a stunned cry from behind me.

  ‘Boxer, y’fool! I told’ja not to try that again. Get the hells back down and keep watch!’ the leader shouted past me.

  ‘Can’t! My foothold broke! Somebody help me up!’ said the scared voice. This one was high-pitched too.

  ‘Look, no point anyone dying who doesn’t have to,’ I called out. ‘How about you don’t shoot at me and I give your little friend a hand up?’

  ‘Call me “little”, you son-of-a—’

  ‘Shut it, Boxer!’ The leader came a few feet forward, and the others joined him: kids. They were all bloody kids no older than Aline. There was a dog with them too, a Sharpney, by the look of him, a big, fast breed that made excellent hunting dogs. I hoped I wouldn’t have to kill him.

  ‘You try anything funny and the girl dies first,’ the leader said. He was about thirteen, and I could make out a shock of straight hair above a dirty face. ‘And if you get advantage on one of us, Mixer here will tear your throat out.’ He motioned to the dog.

  ‘Typical,’ said one of the others, this one clearly a girl. ‘You always try to hit girls first, Venger.’

  ‘Shut it,’ he said. ‘No foolin’; you let Boxer up and then y’put down your sword or there’s gonna be trouble.’ The dog let out a low rumble in agreement. ‘Mixer, stay,’ he said firmly.

  I smiled, put down my left-hand sword and stepped back. I held my hand over the edge and felt something grab it and tentatively try to pull me over, but I was well-grounded and ready for it.

  ‘Try that again and I’ll drop you, you little shit-eater,’ I said in as pleasant a tone as I could muster.

  ‘Boxer! Don’t mess around,’ Venger said angrily.

  ‘A’right,’ Boxer said.

  I hauled him up one-handed – not as hard a task as it might have been if he’d weighed more than air. What I saw when I pulled him in front of me was another scrawny, dirty-faced boy, probably ten years old.

  ‘Y’gonna try and hold me hostage now, bastard?’ Boxer said, clearly readying an elbow for my groin.

  I pushed him forward and off-balance and he fell to his knees a few feet between me and the kids.

  ‘What now?’ I asked.

  Venger looked me up and down. ‘You can go, I s’pose, what with Boxer bein’ such a fool turd. But you leave the money. And if you value any part of your life you take that coat off and leave it too,’ he said.

  I shook my head. ‘That won’t do, I’m afraid; I need them all. What would you do with a Greatcoat, anyway? It’s bigger than you are.’

  Venger sneered. ‘Burn it,’ he said.

  It’s nice to be so widely loved. ‘Don’t like Greatcoats?’

  ‘Don’t like fools that dress up as ’em,’ he said. ‘Everyone knows there ain’t no Greatcoats no more.’

  ‘He is, too,’ Aline said, stepping out from behind me and leaping to my defence.

  ‘Shut up, girl,’ Venger said, ‘you don’t know nothin’ ’bout it.’

  That got Venger a slap in the back of the
head from one of the girls in his group. ‘Stop pickin’ on girls all the time, Venger,’ she warned.

  ‘Ow! I’m not. She’d be wrong if she was a boy, too.’

  ‘Listen,’ I said, ‘my name is Falcio val Mond, First Cantor of the King’s Magisters. I’m trying very hard right now to keep this girl alive, and there are a lot of people after me. So you can either take my word that I’m a Greatcoat and get the hells out of our way, or I can take you over my knee and spank you ’til you can’t see straight. Now take your pick.’

  That got a few snickers from his friends, but to his credit, he ignored the jibe and kept to business. ‘If you’re a Greatcoat, then answer me this: how come you let the armies kill the King if you’re all supposed to be such tough fighters? How come every one of you betrayed their old Paelis?’

  ‘Because the Greatcoats were ordered to stand down and accept the Covenant. It was an order.’

  ‘Yeah? An’ who gave ’em the order?’

  ‘I did,’ I said.

  *

  I had been working in the library of Castle Aramor, maps strewn across the long table and two-centuries-old books on warfare in my hands. The Ducal Army would be here within hours and we had only a hundred and forty-four Greatcoats and a small troop of Royal Guardsmen, and the staff and residents of the castle. It wasn’t a lot to work with, but I had got a few ideas from the old books. I would have dearly loved weapons for countering sieges right then, but I was ready to make do without.

  I heard someone come in and turned to see the King. He was casually dressed, in the gear we wore for practising swordwork.

  ‘I don’t suppose you’d reconsider?’ I asked him, still looking at the diagram of the castle on the table for a way to block the South Gate so that I wouldn’t have to divert troops there.

  ‘Kings don’t get to run, Falcio,’ he said.

  I looked up at him. ‘Well, if you can’t ride fast, you fight hard.’

  ‘Not this time. The motto is “judge fair, ride fast, fight hard”, remember? “Fight hard” is the last option. Besides, there’s a reason why no King of Tristia has ever been allowed to maintain a private army. The soldiery has always been the Dukes’ protection against a tyrant taking absolute power.’

  ‘Then what—?’

  ‘You’re going to stand the men down, Falcio. I’m ordering you to stand the men down.’

  ‘But we can fight! I’ve thought it through and the Magisters are ready. If you’ll only go over these plans with me I can show you—’

  ‘Enough. I’m still King, for the next few hours, at any rate.’

  ‘But I’m telling you we can fight!’

  He started to answer, but a coughing fit overtook him. It was coming on winter and he’d not slept in three days.

  ‘You can fight, Falcio,’ he said finally, ‘but you can’t win. And even if you could, every one of the Magisters would lose their lives.’

  ‘What kind of life will we have when the Dukes take us?’ I slammed my fist on one of my maps. ‘Where are the noble families, damn it? How many trips have you taken, “courting the lesser nobles”? Where are they now that we need them?’

  ‘It isn’t their job to throw their lives away on a war they can’t win, Falcio. Saints know what I’ve asked of them is more than they should have had to give in the first place.’

  ‘You’re talking in circles again when we should be preparing the Greatcoats!’

  The King walked over to me and put a hand on the side of my face. People always seem to do that when they want me to shut up and do something I don’t want to do.

  ‘I’m going to tell you what to do now, Falcio. I’m going to give you the new plan. I’m your friend, but I’m your King first. You are going to surrender the castle to the Duke’s men, in exchange for safe passage and pardons for the Greatcoats.’

  He was right; he was my King and my friend and I loved him, but I swear right then I almost hit him. I felt my fingernails pressing into my palms as I clenched my fists. I would have knocked him down, had it not been for the look in his eyes.

  ‘This is how I want it, Falcio, and this is how it will be. The Dukes will agree. They know the Magisters are fierce, and they won’t want to pay any more for this adventure than they absolutely have to.’

  The thought of turning him over to the Dukes was unconscionable. It would mean the destruction of everything the Greatcoats stood for. We had truly believed we could bring law and justice and honour to the world, and now he was taking that from me. I felt sick, betrayed.

  ‘Fine, damn you, my liege,’ I said, pulling away from him. ‘But don’t ask me to give the order. Get Dara or someone else.’

  The King leaned on the table. ‘It has to be you, Falcio.’

  ‘Why? Why by the Gods? Why would you make me be the one to give this order – this abomination – to the Greatcoats?’

  His voice grew very quiet then as he said, ‘Because if you don’t give the order, no one will follow it.’

  A few hours later, just before the Ducal Army’s vanguard arrived, I gave the Greatcoats the order, and they followed it.

  THE NEW GREATCOATS

  ‘Reckon he’s telling the truth, Venger?’ one of the scrawny assemblage asked.

  Venger looked at me. ‘Reckon he is. Reckon he’s what he says he is, and he did what he said he did.’

  I sheathed one sword and picked up the other and sheathed that as well. I took the bracer of knives back from Aline and put it back in my coat. ‘So we’re done?’

  ‘We didn’t mean no harm,’ Venger said. ‘We thought you was one of those fools goin’ ’round calling themselves Greatcoats. Just thought as how we’d put a scare in you, is all.’

  That gave me a jolt. ‘Someone’s going around pretending to be a Greatcoat? Who would ever do that?’

  ‘I would,’ came a voice from the far side of the building.

  In the blink of an eye my blade was in my hand and Venger’s crew were all crouched and ready to fight. The man casually walked over to us. He was young, about eighteen years old, and a little taller than me. He was thin, with sandy hair and an angular face, and he was carrying a rapier much like mine on his left hip. And he was wearing a Greatcoat.

  Venger recognised him, and suddenly the tension went out of him and his group. ‘Aw, Cairn, you dumb pug. Go back and fight your own shadow some more.’

  Cairn ignored him and walked up to me, ignoring my outstretched sword and gave me an awkward hug. ‘Brother!’ he said. ‘When I heard there was another of us in the city, being chased by the Duke’s men …’ He pulled back and looked me up and down. ‘And one of the first, too! Are you Parrick? I’d heard rumours he was alive and had come through this way.’

  ‘Parrick doesn’t look a bit like me, and he’s nowhere near here. I’m Falcio—’

  Cairn gasped. ‘So it’s true—!’ and dropped to one knee. ‘First Cantor,’ he said portentously, ‘my name is Cairn of the New Greatcoats. My life is at your disposal.’

  Venger snorted. ‘Better dispose of it soon, too,’ he said. ‘It’s likely to smell bad in a few hours.’

  ‘Quiet, Venger, or I’ll give you a cuff.’

  ‘You just try it, Cairn,’ Venger said. ‘I’ve whupped your ass before and I’ll do it again.’

  ‘That was – that was just luck,’ Cairn said, adding quickly, ‘I was still in training.’

  I interrupted them and put a hand on Cairn’s arm. ‘What is this about “new” Greatcoats? Who are you talking about?’

  Cairn turned back to me. ‘We’ve re-formed the Order of the Greatcoats,’ he said, excitement and pride brimming over in his voice. ‘Well, really it was Lorenzo who started it. He’s incredible. I can’t wait for you to meet him – meet everybody. This is amazing! Falcio val Mond, First Cantor!’

  ‘Wait, give me a moment to understand this. You’re telling me that a group of you have started your own Greatcoats?’

  He nodded.

  ‘But whose laws do you enforce? There�
�s no King.’

  He hesitated and Venger snorted again. ‘Tell ’im, Cairn. Tell ’im all about you and your great bunch of heroes!’

  ‘Well, it’s – I mean, we’re just starting out still …’

  ‘“Starting out”! Ha! You’re just a bunch of poncy pricks – rich kids from rich families tryin’ to act all tough and rebellious.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ I said. ‘If you don’t hear cases, then what do you do?’

  ‘We’re still forming the Order,’ Cairn said. ‘Look, come with me, let me introduce you to Lorenzo and the New Greatcoats. We could really use you.’

  ‘How many of you are there? I’m trying to keep this girl alive for the rest of the Blood Week – her family’s been killed and the Duke’s men are after her.’

  Cairn smiled. ‘There’s almost thirty of us – trust me, Falcio, we can help you keep her alive. We’re strong together – Lorenzo’s the greatest swordsman who’s ever lived!’

  I seriously doubted that, but I needed allies, and I didn’t think Venger’s child gangsters were going to be much good at keeping us alive.

  ‘You’d be better off stayin’ with us,’ Venger said, as if he could read my thoughts. ‘I know these streets better’n anyone, and we know ways in and out of every building in Old Town.’

  It was Cairn’s turn to be derisive. ‘You? Thieves and beggars? You’ll probably turn them over to the Duke’s men for a shiny coin.’

  ‘Say that again,’ Venger said, a small knife in his hand. ‘Say it twice more and we’ll just see.’

  ‘How far to your men?’ I asked Cairn.

  ‘Just a few blocks, to the other side of Old Town. Come on, we can get there in half an hour!’

  I looked at Venger. ‘Thanks for the offer,’ I said, ‘but the men who are after us are brutal, and they won’t give quarter or mercy. I know you can handle it, but some of your folk are awfully young.’

  Venger gave a snort that was almost comical on a boy his age. ‘Suit y’self,’ he said, ‘but I’ll tell you straight: I wouldn’t trust these fools to guard a dead cat.’