by Jem I Kelley
“I am first on line to Novogoradian throne.”
Bliss’s mouth dropped.
“What?!”
“Spend youth doing princely things. My father thought it good idea for me to go out and see world. From different ... angles, yes? So that when I rule I know how people live and feel.”
Aden felt his scalp tingling, like when Haverland’s King had waved from a carriage five years ago and it was in his general direction. Or when there had been a big ceremony years back and he’d piggybacked on his dad’s shoulders and Kurt Hardcastle had been given a medal and everyone had cheered and trumpets had blown. The sort of tingle you get when you’re with very important people.
Bliss’s eyes had gone very wide.
“You’re a p… prince!”
“Prince Svensson of Novogorad,” said Marti. “Prince Hawk Therkilsen Marti Svensson. One day I will be King.”
Bliss scrambled off her chair, got down on one knee and bowed.
Marti laughed.
“Sit back in chair, Bliss. You are friend. I give you and Aden special permission. You always call me Marti and you never have to bow.”
Bliss shuffled and stared at Marti, open-mouthed.
Aden tried to think back to all the things he’d said to Marti, and wondered if he’d said anything he shouldn’t have. I mean, he thought, there are things you say to normal people and there are things you say to princes. His whole body was shivering now.
Bliss’s lower jaw dragged itself back to her mouth.
“How come no-one’s recognized you?”
Wulf uttered a deep guffaw.
“Ha! That one is easy. Not many outside Novogorad know what Marti look like. Then also, he is having cut his long hair and dying it blonde. Beard he shave, too. For sure, him not look like Novogoradian warrior now, more like Southern softie.”
Marti went red in the cheeks; he managed a smile.
“The house you visited the other day, in Regal Row, that’s where Novogoradian royalty stay when they visit Haverland,” said Aden, putting two and two together.
“I am impress,” said Marti. “You’re spies are well placed. Yes, that is Novogoradian visiting house. I visit there to have meeting with top Novogoradian soldiers. We discuss my soon return to Novogorad capital.”
“Wulf is one of those soldiers?” Asked Aden.
“Yes. Though perhaps I exaggerate when say I ‘top’ Novogoradian soldiers.”
Wulf shrugged his shoulders.
“Always he has been jealous because he cannot best me in arm wrestle.”
Marti laughed.
Bliss pointed at the table and the cloth upon it.
“That’s a map of the siege?”
“For sure.”
“Can you beat those bugbear things?”
Marti’s expression stiffened. “That is why I must return. I learn other day; many more thousand bugbears will soon join others. I do not understand. They must be bored and hungry by now, I think, but no. Something is very wrong in my homeland. I feel my country is in grave danger. Haverland has promised one thousand soldiers. Other middle kingdom countries, they maybe give soldier to, if I there to lead army. Eight thousand in total, I hope.”
Aden thought about the bugbears, each stronger than the strongest man, and he shivered.
“Is eight thousand enough to lift the siege?”
Marti’s expression became troubled.
“I know not. I pray.”
Aden had images of bear like creatures laying waste a city and slaying people in the streets.
“My parents are up there.”
“They are safe for now. Ice Holm walls, they do not breach easy; all the more to puzzle over.”
Aden felt a sudden anger at everything.
“You’ve got to let Marti go, Plumbert. He has to lead the relief army. You know he didn’t kill Arple, you have to let him go!”
“Take it easy, lad.”
“But Plumbert…”
“The problem we’ve got,” said Plumbert. “Is we’ve not got any proof Marti didn’t kill Arple, all the evidence points to him. I know he didn’t and you know he didn’t but until we can find the real murderers, we can’t let Marti go.”
“Why not?”
“Because if the people of Haverland learn we’ve let Marti go just because he’s a Prince, what would it look like?”
“I don’t care, my parents are up there,” said Aden desperately.
“A lot of countries have only provisionally promised to give Marti troops. They’re nervous. All those bugbears, and them not equipped to breach Ice Holms’ walls. Something strange is going on they think. If they hear a possible murderer is going to lead their troops it’d be a bad omen.”
“So what are you going to do!?”
Plumbert took a breath.
“Not panic. Marti’s still got some time. What we’ll do is try to find the murderer. Or, try to prove he isn’t.”
“But that could take ages.”
Plumbert’s face became sympathetic.
“I feel for you Aden, I really do. But look. Them Ice Holm walls are strong. The bugbears haven’t got the wherewithal to make siege equipment. I don’t see how they could get any. If Dazarians tried to give them some, they’d have to go by ship and the Haverland navy would tear ‘em to shreds.”
Aden inwardly seethed. Was it only obvious to him that if the bugbears were massing in numbers when they should have gone home, something was wrong. There was a piece of information the ‘experts’ didn’t know, or hadn’t taken into account.
He got Plumbert’s attention.
“What about Azabar’s wands? Have you looked into what I told you about them?”
“Yes. Thalding had his librarian’s help me. There’s no record of any of Azabar’s wands remaining. After the battle of Haverland about a thousand years ago, all the wands found were destroyed. If someone has found a secret cache the sorcerer left behind, then we’re in trouble. But there's no evidence anyone has found a cache.”
“Or perhaps they discovered Azabar’s notes on how to make the wands?”
Plumbert shrugged. “That’s a possibility too. All ifs and buts.”
Aden wanted to tell Plumbert what Grimus Spalding had said, that one of his gang had been killed by a wand, but then he'd also have to tell Plumbert that Grimus was still in the city, and if that news got out – what would Grimus do to him and Bliss?
“I am sure Sardohan is involved. What about the Dazarian embassy, have you kept a watch?” He said, instead.
“At least one of my men has had an eye on the entrance of the place 24 hours a day. We patrol the edge of the Embassy four times a day – nothing.”
Aden couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“You put one man on the entrance? Patrol four times a day? The embassy has huge grounds, bordered by trees. If Sardohan has got something in that cellar, he could move it out half a dozen places at half a dozen times and your plods wouldn’t see a thing!”
“No need to be rude, Aden! I understand you’re worried about your parents but I’m doing the best I can. It’d take fifty men to keep an eye on every part of the embassy perimeter. I haven’t got those sorts of resources, especially not on maybes and ifs. We don’t know Sardohan is behind the murders.”
The friends stayed in the room, for a while. They asked Marti questions about what it was like to be a Prince, and how it felt when he’d pretended to be other people as part of his training to be King. Marti told them of his various adventures.
Aden asked him to say hello to his parents. Marti said that as soon as he got back, he’d look at the possibilities of sneaking them out of the capital. That was, if he managed to get back.
“One day you will all come to Novogorad, visit me.”
Bliss clapped her hands.
“That’d be great! I hope you don’t kill all of those bear monster things either. I’d like to see one of those.”
“I will spare one for you,” said Marti.
C
hapter 60: The Jester Statue
Aden and Bliss left the police station in mixed spirits; one mystery explained, but new ones in its place.
Bliss walked down the street, trying to avoid the cracks in the paving stones, a game they’d played when they were younger.
“He said still call him Marti. Imagine when we visit him, when he’s King, and everyone else calls him King Svensson and we can just call him Marti. Alicia would hate it!”
Aden nudged Bliss, causing her to stumble and stand on a crack. He grinned as Bliss took a playful swipe at him.
“Sardohan would hate it too. I wish Marti could go to Novogorad now and we travel with him.”
Bliss began to swing an imaginary sword.
“Those bugbears wouldn’t know what hit them with me there.”
Aden’s smile faltered. “Marti won’t be able to lead any army if he’s stuck in prison. We have to find Arple’s real murderers.”
“How can we do that?”
“I think we have to sneak into the embassy tonight and see what Sardohan’s hiding.”
Bliss’s jaw dropped.
“What! You’re joking. We’d never reach his cellar.”
As they argued, Aden saw Hamble, his back to the friends, sweeping with his brush on the edge of the rich district. They changed direction.
Bliss shouted out.
“Hi, Hamble how you doing?”
The wood golem swivelled and saw that Bliss and Aden were there. He lowered the brush. Aden noticed the colour of Hamble’s wood seemed a bit grey.
“Oh, hello friends. I feel miserable. It’s a strange feeling, miserable-ness. but, I’m sure that’s what it is.”
Bliss stared up at the sad wooden eyes.
“Why?”
“Arple.”
Bliss winced. “Oh. Arple, the murder, sorry, you must be feeling gutted?”
Hamble spread his hands and he creaked from shoulder to finger-tip.
“No, Miserable. It’s a strange feeling miserable-ness. I quite like it in a way. It’s so, different than what I’m used to.”
“We’ve just met Marti. He swears it wasn’t him who murdered Arple.”
Hamble’s brow furrowed.
“I don’t think the Northern man is the sort to murder. Like you, Bliss. You’re not the sort to murder either, I can tell. You know, I saw Arple last evening as he went to inspect the Marchant Park statues and I said Bliss couldn’t murder anyone and probably Aden couldn’t either. I said that because there have been a lot of murders and Aden had already been accused of one.”
Aden wasn’t totally sure how to take Hamble’s statement.
“Thanks.”
Bliss glanced at him and grinned.
“Molly May is quite upset too. She got on with Arple that’s why she’s upset. She thinks she might go to the countryside to take a break for a few days because if you’re upset going to the country is good for you.”
Aden became alert as he realised what Hamble had said moments ago.
“Never mind Molly May, Hamble. You said Arple had been up at the statues of Marchant Park on the evening he was killed.”
“I said he was going that way when I saw him. Of course I don’t know if he actually went that way or if he went somewhere else. I can’t ask him now because he’s dead and even you know you can’t talk to someone who’s dead.”
“Did he say why he was going up there?”
Hamble paused for so long that Aden thought he’d forgotten what the question was. Aden was about to ask again, when: “Said he’d found someone had been damaging the bottom of a statue and he wanted to find out who had done it. Do you think I should take few days off, like Molly May, Aden? I know I don’t feel things in quite the way that humans do, but I’m not quite myself since the murder. Perhaps I should stay in the country with Molly May for a few days? Do you think I’d enjoy that?”
“Perhaps Hamble,” said Aden. “It won’t hurt to try. Ask Hacknor for the time off. Hamble, what statue was being damaged in the park?”
Hamble’s wooden shoulders creaked into a shrug. “Arple said something about a jester. I think you’re right, Aden. I’ll ask Hacknor. Molly May’s not going to the country until next week, it’ll give Hacknor plenty of time to decide if I can go to the country too, won’t it?”
“Hamble,” said Aden. “Bliss and I have to go somewhere now. We’ll talk to you again.”
Hamble’s face fell.
“Oh. All right then, bye friends.”
Aden went off at a run, and Bliss, puzzled, caught up with him.
“Where are we going?”
“Marchant Park.”
“Why?”
“Spud got killed just outside Marchant Park and then Arple gets killed after going up there.”
“What about Munter?”
Aden looked sidewise at his puffing friend.
“It was you that told me that Munter’s body was moved. Marchant Park is between the disc-man academy and Munter’s home. Munter might have got killed at the park.”
“T ... then why are we going there?”
“They all got killed at night, either in the park, or just over the nearby wall, in the Dazarian embassy. I want to have another look there, while it’s daylight.”
“Let’s get a move on then,” said Bliss, looking up at the sky as if to convince herself it was midday.
They came up past the lake and through the woods that shielded the statues from the rest of the park. The place where Spud had died was in the trees on the other side of the clearing.
“Feels creepy,” said Bliss looking around. Although still day, brooding clouds swirled above Haverland giving the light strange qualities. A gust of wind caressed the branches of nearby trees causing creaks and rustles.
Aden snorted.
“It’s just your imagination. If there hadn’t been the murders, you wouldn’t be bothered at all.”
“No, but there have and I am.”
They crept among the statues, searching for anything untoward. Aden noticed Bliss looked at the statues in a fearful way.
“Relax. They aren’t going to come alive and attack you.”
Bliss picked up a log and wielded it like a club.
“Try telling Spud that.”
Aden walked up to the statue he’d been aiming for. The leering face of the man in the three-pointed hat with-bells-on looked down on them.
“The Jester statue,” he said pacing about the thing. “That’s what Hamble meant. That’s what Arple was worried about.”
Bliss kept her log handy.
“It looks fine to me.”
Aden made a second journey around the statue, this time he looked intently at the base, which sat in a flowerbed. Halfway he stopped and bent.
“Look.”
“What is it?”
Aden scooped handfuls of earth.
“It’s been hacked away! Huge chunks of stone have been gauged, but below the soil line, barely spotted it.”
Aden scooped more earth away and Bliss helped him. A pickaxe, or similar, had clawed at the stone from the statue base. Aden had only exposed part of the damage.
Bliss peered at the marks.
“It looks like they’re trying to make a hole in the base. Why?”
“Something must be inside.”
“What?”
“Don’t know.”
The two of them looked into the shadows of the trees, but all they saw were branches swaying in the wind.
“Cover it up,” said Bliss. “We don’t want them to know we’ve found out.”
Aden pressed the soil. He stood, brushed his trousers.
“We’re going to have to come back tonight.”
“What! No way. We promised Grimus we’d stay in at nights until this was all over.”
“If we learn the identity of the murderers, we can help get Marti released. We didn’t know about Marti when we promised to Grimus. You have to help me, Bliss. My parents are in trouble up in Novogorad.”
>
“Let’s just tell Plumbert what we know.”
“Last time we told him of a plot he tried to arrest Saib for importing that turmeric stuff. We’ve got to be sure this time.”
“The last person who stumbled through here at night got murdered.”
“So we don’t stumble. Look - when we get back to your place, we make out we’re still a bit ill. Then we say we’re going to bed early, about Seven. We climb out the windows, and come back.”
“But I don’t want to be killed.”.
“You don’t have to. We’ll be very careful. When we know exactly what’s going on, we sneak away and tell Plumbert tomorrow.”
“I know your parents are in trouble, Aden. But this is really dangerous.”
“It’s not.”
“Why not?
“We’ll take the Disc-Artefact with us. If anything goes wrong, we zip across to Blissaden, and return hours later when it'll bound to be safe.”
Bliss bit her lip nervously.
“I get to hold the disc?”
“Is that a yes?”
“Okay. But, one thing...”
“What?”
“We don’t know they’ll come tonight. They might lay low for a few days because of the murders.”
Aden’s face fell. He paced up and down, in deep thought. Then said: “The Wall! We’ll go to the Parks. Have a conversation about the police being on the verge of having enough evidence to nail who’s behind the murders of Spud, Munter and Arple. It’ll go straight onto the Wall. Whoever’s behind all this might rush to finish their attempt to get into the base of the statue.”
Bliss took a long look around the park, almost as if she thought this would be her last ever day on Haverland.
“Alright, for the sake of your parents. Let’s do it.”
“First, one thing,” said Aden.
“What?”
“We take a small trip to Blissaden.”
Chapter 61: The Secret at Marchant Park
Dusk smothered the Crescent that bordered Marchant Park from the South. A black cat flicked its tail as Aden and Bliss’s footsteps echoed off cobbles. The friends hurried along a pavement towards Marchant Park and the Dazarian Embassy.