“That thing is yours?” exclaimed Jimmy.
“Fantus?” Pug laughed. “You’ve seen him, then. No, Fantus belongs to no one. He comes and goes as he pleases, which is why he’s here without anyone’s leave.”
Laurie said, “I doubt he’s on deLacy’s guest list. Look, I’d best catch you up on matters of importance.” Pug glanced at Jimmy, and Laurie said, “This fount of trouble here has been at the center of things since the first. He’ll hear nothing he doesn’t already know.”
Laurie told of what happened, with Jimmy adding a few bits of information the singer missed. When they were done, Pug said, “This business of necromancy is an evil thing. If nothing else you said speaks of dark powers at work, that does. This is more the province of priests than magicians, but Kulgan and I will aid in whatever way we can.”
“Then Kulgan came from Stardock as well?”
“There would have been no stopping him. Arutha was his student, remember? Besides, though he’d never admit to it, I think he misses his arguments with Father Tully. And there was no doubt Tully would officiate at Arutha’s wedding. I think that’s where Kulgan is now, arguing with Tully.”
Laurie said, “I’ve not seen Tully, but he was due to arrive this morning with those from Rillanon traveling at a more sedate pace than the King’s party. At his age he tends to prefer things quiet.”
“He must be past eighty now.”
“Closer to ninety, but he hasn’t lost a step. You should hear him around the palace in Rillanon. Let a squire or page fail at his lessons and he’ll talk blisters on the boy’s back.”
Pug laughed. Then as an afterthought, he said, “Laurie, how fare things with you and Carline?”
Laurie groaned and Jimmy hid a chuckle. “That is what we were speaking of when you appeared. Good, bad, I don’t know.”
Sympathy showed in Pug’s dark eyes. “I know the feeling, friend. When we were children, back at Crydee…Just remember, you were the one who held me to my promise to introduce you if we ever returned to Midkemia from Kelewan.” He shook his head and with a laugh added, “It’s good to know some things never change.”
Jimmy leaped off the bench. “Well, I must be off. Pleased to make your acquaintance, magician. Cheer up, singer. You’ll either marry the Princess or you won’t.” He dashed off, leaving Laurie struggling with the logic of that statement while Pug laughed aloud.
SEVEN
WEDDING
Jimmy prowled the great hall.
The Prince’s throne room was being readied, and the other squires were supervising the activities of the pages and porters as all the last-minute touches were being applied. Everyone had their minds upon the ceremony, due to get under way in less than an hour’s time. Jimmy found that the price of his being excused duty was having nothing to do at the last, and as Arutha certainly didn’t want him underfoot right now, he was left to find his own distraction.
Jimmy couldn’t shake the feeling that in the rush of excitement few were mindful of the past dangers to the Prince. The horrors found at the House of Willows had been hidden behind masses of bridal flowers and festive bunting.
Jimmy noticed a black, sidelong glance from Squire Jerome and, irritated, took a menacing step in the older boy’s direction. Jerome immediately had a need to be somewhere else and hurried off.
A laugh sounded from behind. Jimmy saw a grinning Squire Locklear carrying a huge bridal wreath past a Tsurani guard, who carefully checked it. Of all the other squires, only Locky showed Jimmy the slightest hint of friendship. The others were either indifferent or outright hostile. Jimmy liked the younger boy, though he tended to prattle on about the most insignificant things. He’s the youngest child, thought Jimmy, his mother’s darling. He’d last a fast five minutes on the streets. Still, he was a cut above the rest, whom Jimmy judged a boring lot. The only amusement Jimmy gained from them was their woeful imitations of worldly knowledge. No, Arutha and his friends were far more interesting folk than the squires with their lewd jokes and salacious speculations about this serving girl or that, and their little games of intrigue. Jimmy threw Locky a wave and headed toward another door.
Jimmy waited to pass through the door as one of the porters came through. A small bunch of flowers fell from the man’s load. Jimmy bent to pick it up. As he handed it to the porter, Jimmy was struck by a sudden realization. The blooms, white chrysanthemums, shone with a faint amber tint.
Jimmy looked back over his shoulder and upward. A full four stories above, the high vaulted ceiling of the chamber was punctuated by large stained-glass windows, the colors barely noticeable unless the sun was directly behind the panes. Jimmy studied the windows, as his “something is not as it should be” bump was itching. Then he understood. Each window was recessed into a cupola, no less than five or six feet deep, plenty of room to hide a quiet assassin. But how would someone get up there? The design of the hall was such that scaffolding would be needed to clean the windows, and the room had been almost constantly occupied for the last few days.
Jimmy quickly left the hall, walked down a connecting corridor, and went through into a terraced garden that ran the length of the Prince’s great hall.
A pair of guards approached, walking post between the distant wall and the main palace complex, and Jimmy halted them. “Pass the word. I’m going to snoop about a bit on top of the great hall.”
They exchanged glances, but Captain Gardan had ordered that the strange squire wasn’t to be detained should he be seen scampering about the rooftops. One saluted. “Right you are, Squire. We’ll pass the word so the archers on the walls don’t use you for target practice.”
Jimmy paced off alongside the wall of the great hall. The garden was off to the left of the hall as you entered the main doors, assuming you could see through the walls, Jimmy thought to himself. Now, if I were an assassin, where would I want to climb? Jimmy cast about quickly and spotted a trellis that ran up the connecting hall’s outer wall. From there to the roof of the connecting hall would be no difficulty, then…
Jimmy left off thinking and acted. He studied the configuration of the walls as he kicked off his hated dress boots. He scampered up the trellis and ran along the roof of the connecting hall. From there he leaped nimbly up to a low cornice that ran the length of the great hall. Moving with astonishing agility, he crawled along, his face pressed to the stones, toward the far end of the great hall. When he reached halfway to the corner, he looked up. One story above awaited the bottoms of the windows, tantalizingly close. But Jimmy knew he needed a better climbing position and continued on until he reached the last third of the hall. Here, outside the portion of the hall given over to the Prince’s dais, the building flared, giving Jimmy an extra two feet of wall at a right angle to the wall he hugged. Levering up in the angle was now possible. Jimmy felt about until his fingers discovered a crack between stones. He used his experience to good advantage, shifting his weight as his toes began searching for another hold. Slowly he inched upward, seeming to climb in the angle of the two walls in defiance of gravity. It was a demanding task, requiring total concentration, but after what seemed an eternity he reached up and his fingers touched the ledge below the windows. Only a foot wide, the ledge was still a potentially fatal barrier, for any slip could send Jimmy falling to his death four stories below. Jimmy took a firm grip on the ledge and let go with his other hand. For an instant he dangled by one hand, then he reached upward with the other and with a single smooth pull had a leg over the ledge.
Standing upon the narrow ledge, Jimmy turned the corner above the rear of the dais, faced the window, and peered through. He wiped away some dust and was momentarily blinded by the sun, seen through the window and another on the wall he had just left. He waited for his eyes to adjust again to the interior darkness as he shaded his eyes from the sun. This would prove difficult, he thought, until the angle of the sun changed. Then Jimmy felt the glass move beneath his fingers, and suddenly powerful hands clamped around his mouth and throat.
Shocked by the sudden attack, Jimmy froze a moment and was too tightly held when he began to struggle. A heavy blow to the side of the head stunned him and the world seemed to spin.
When his vision finally cleared, Jimmy could see the snarling face of Laughing Jack before him. The false Mocker was not only alive, but in the palace and, from his expression and the crossbow nearby, ready and willing to kill. “So, you little bastard,” he whispered as he adjusted a gag in Jimmy’s mouth, “you’ve turned up where you didn’t belong one time too many. I’d gut you here, right now, but I can’t risk anyone’s noticing blood dripping below.” He moved around in the scant area between glass and the open space above the hall that the cupola provided. “But once the deed is done, over you go, boy.” He pointed to the hall floor. He tied some cords around Jimmy’s hands and ankles, pulling them painfully tight. Jimmy tried to make a sound, but it was lost in the buzz of conversation among the guests below. Jack gave Jimmy another blow to the head, which sent the boy’s senses reeling again. Jimmy saw Jack turn to survey the hall below just before darkness overcame him.
Jimmy lay stunned for some unknown time, for when he recovered his wits, he could hear the chanting of the priests entering the hall. He knew the King and Arutha and the other members of the court would be making their entrance once Father Tully and the other priests were in position.
Jimmy felt panic building inside. Since he’d been dismissed from duty, his absence would be overlooked in the excitement of the moment. Jimmy struggled, but Jack, being a Mocker, knew how to make it difficult to slip those bonds. Given time and a willingness to lose some skin and blood, Jimmy would eventually rid himself of the ropes, but time was a precious commodity at present. With his struggling, he only managed to change his position so he was able to see the window. He noticed it had been tampered with to cause a single large panel of glass to swing aside. Someone had prepared this window days before.
A change in the song below told Jimmy that Arutha and the others were in place and Anita was beginning her long walk down the aisle. The boy looked about frantically for a way either to break his bonds or to make enough noise to alert those below. The singing filled the hall with a chorus loud enough to cover a brawl, so Jimmy knew anything as feeble as kicking at the glass would only bring a blow to the head from Jack. Jimmy could hear movement close by, during a lull in the singing, and knew Jack was placing a bolt in the crossbow.
The singing stopped, and Jimmy heard Tully’s voice begin the instructions to the bride and groom. He saw Jack taking aim upon the dais. Jimmy was half folded in the narrow window space, forced back against the glass by the kneeling Jack. Jack threw the boy a quick glance as he began to squirm. Jimmy was unable even to kick out at Jack, who paused for a moment, evidently undecided whether to fire at his target or silence Jimmy first. For all the pomp, the ceremony itself was brief, so Jack seemed willing to chance he would be untroubled by the boy a few moments longer.
Jimmy was young, in fit condition, and an expert acrobat from his years of scampering about the roofs of Krondor. He acted without thought and simply flexed his entire body so it bowed upward, head and feet against the sides of the cupola. He half rolled, half flipped himself, and suddenly he sat with his back to the window. Jack spun to look again at the boy and swore silently. He could not afford to lose this single shot. A quick glance downward reassured him the boy had not alerted anyone. Jack raised his crossbow again and took aim.
Jimmy’s vision seemed to contract, as if all he could see was Jack’s finger on the trigger of the crossbow. He saw the finger begin to close and kicked out wildly. His bare feet glanced off the assassin and the crossbow fired. Jack turned in shock and Jimmy kicked out again with both feet. For a moment Jack looked to be calmly sitting at the edge of the window cupola. Then he began to fall outward, his hands grasping wildly for the sill.
Jack’s hands pressed out against the sides of the cupola and halted his fall. He hung in midair, not moving for an instant, then his palms began to slip on the stone. Jimmy recognized something else was strange, then realized the singing, almost constant in counterpoint to the ceremony, had stopped. As Jack began his backward slide into space, Jimmy heard shouts and screams from below.
Then Jimmy felt a shock and his head struck stone. His legs felt as if they were being torn from his hips, and the boy knew Jack had grabbed the only thing he could reach, Jimmy’s ankles. Jimmy was dragged outward as Jack’s weight moved them both toward death. Jimmy struggled, pressing backward with all his might, bowing his body to slow his slide, but he might as well have had iron heaped upon his feet for the good it did him. Bones and muscles protested, but he could not move an inch to rid himself of Jack. He was dragged outward slowly, his legs, hips, and back scraping on the stone, the cloth of his trousers and tunic keeping skin intact. Then he was suddenly upright, as Jack’s weight tipped his balance for an instant, teetering upon the lip of the cupola.
Then they fell. Jack released his hold upon the boy, but Jimmy didn’t notice. The stones rushed up to meet them, to crush them in a hard embrace. Jimmy thought his mind must be going at the last, for the stones seemed to slow in their approach, as if some agency had ordered the boy’s last seconds of life to be prolonged. Then Jimmy realized some force had control of him and was slowing his descent. With a less than gentle bump he was upon the floor of the great hall, stunned slightly, but decidedly alive. Guards and priests surrounded him and hands quickly lifted him as he wondered at this miracle. He saw the magician Pug moving his hands in incantation, and felt the strange slowness vanish. Guards cut his bonds, and Jimmy doubled in pain as the returning blood flow burned like hot irons in his feet and hands. He nearly fainted. Two soldiers seized his arms and kept him from falling. As his senses cleared, he saw a half-dozen or more holding Jack down, while others searched for the black poison ring or other means of suicide.
Jimmy looked about, his head clearing. All around him the room seemed frozen in horrified tableau. Father Tully stood at Arutha’s side, while Tsurani guards surrounded the King, their eyes peering into every corner of the room. Everyone else looked at Anita, who was cradled in Arutha’s arms as he knelt upon the stones. Her veils and gown were spread out around her and she seemed to sleep while he held her. She was a vision in pristine white in the late afternoon light, except for the rapidly expanding crimson stain upon her back.
—
Arutha sat in shock. He leaned forward, elbows on knees, as his eyes stared out into space, unfocused, not seeing any of those with him in the antechamber. He saw only the last minutes of the ceremony, again and again in his mind’s eye.
Anita had just pledged her vows, and Arutha was listening to Tully’s final blessing. Suddenly she had a strange expression and seemed to stumble, as if shoved hard from behind. He caught her, finding it strange she should fall, for she was so graceful by nature. He tried to think of a witticism that would break the tension, for he knew she would feel embarrassed at stumbling. And she looked so serious, with her eyes wide and her mouth half open as if she wanted to ask some important question. When he heard the first scream, he looked up and saw the man hanging backward out of the cupola high above the dais. Instantly everything seemed to run together. People were shouting and pointing and Pug was rushing forward, incanting a spell. And Anita couldn’t seem to stand, no matter how he tried to help her. Then he saw the blood.
Arutha buried his face in his hands and wept. In his life he had never before been unable to control his emotions. Carline placed her arms about him, holding him tight, and her tears fell with his. She had been with him since Lyam and three guards had pulled him from Anita’s side, leaving the priests and chirurgeons to their work. Princess Alicia was in her quarters, near-prostrate from grief. Gardan was off with Martin, Kasumi, and Vandros, supervising the guards who were searching the grounds for any other intruders. By Lyam’s order, the palace had been sealed within minutes of the assassination attempt. Now the King paced the room silently, whil
e Volney was off in a corner, in quiet conversation with Laurie, Brucal, and Fannon. They all awaited word.
The door to the outer hall opened and a Tsurani guard admitted Jimmy. He walked forward gingerly, for his legs had been strained and scraped badly. Lyam and the others watched as the boy thief came to stand before Arutha.
Jimmy tried to speak, but no words were forthcoming. Like Arutha, he had relived every moment of the attack over and over in his mind while an acolyte of Nathan’s order had bandaged his legs. His memory had constantly played tricks on him, as he would see Arutha’s face of days ago when he had told Jimmy his feelings of friendship, then suddenly he would see the Prince’s face as he had knelt holding Anita, uncomprehending shock on his features. Then Jimmy would remember Anita standing in the hall before going for a dress fitting. That image would fade and he would once more see Arutha slowly lower her to the floor as priests rushed to her side.
Jimmy again tried to speak as Arutha looked up. The Prince’s eyes focused upon the boy, and he said, “Why…Jimmy, I…didn’t see you there.”
Jimmy saw the grief and pain in those dark brown eyes and felt something break inside himself. Unbidden tears came to his eyes as the boy spoke softly. “I…I tried…” He swallowed hard; something seemed to be choking off his breath. Jimmy’s mouth worked, but no sound came. Finally he whispered, “I’m sorry.” Then suddenly he was on his knees before Arutha. “I’m sorry.”
Arutha looked on uncomprehendingly for a moment, then shook his head. He put his hand upon Jimmy’s shoulder and said, “It’s all right. It wasn’t your fault.”
Jimmy knelt with his head cradled in his arms upon Arutha’s knees, sobbing loudly while Arutha awkwardly tried to comfort him. Laurie knelt beside him and said, “You couldn’t have done anything more.”
Jimmy raised his head and looked at Arutha. “But I should have.”
Carline leaned over and gently ran her hand down the side of his face, wiping away the tears. “You went to investigate, which no one else did. Who knows what would have happened if you hadn’t.” She left unspoken the thought that Arutha might be lying dead had Jimmy not kicked at Laughing Jack when he fired.
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