After the Dragon

by Wendy Palmer

  Trick looked after Yury, crawling away down the hallway, and almost let him go. But he picked up his sword and went after the assassin. He seized Yuri's shoulders and turned him over.

  Yury had blood trickling from his head where Rissun had struck him, but he still grinned. Trick kept hold of his shoulders, lifting his upper body with a grunt of effort.

  'You,’ he said. ‘Are going to have a chat with Lithia.'

  'First name basis, are we?’ asked Rissun, looking over his shoulder.

  Yury opened his mouth and made that hoarse hissing laugh again and Trick dropped him in disgust. Yury's head hit the floor but he kept laughing.

  His tongue had been cut out, his mouth an empty hole. He was no good as a witness to anything.

  'You're no use alive then,’ Trick said and dipped the tip of his sword down. He had the distinct pleasure of watching the smile wiped off the bastard's face before Rissun pushed the blade away with a handkerchief-shielded hand.

  'This coat's new, boy,’ he said. ‘Don't get blood on it.'

  Trick reversed the sword and smacked Yury across the temple with the hilt—harder than he had to. The back of the assassin's head rebounded off the floor again and he lay still.

  'Boy?’ he repeated. ‘I'm pretty sure I'm older than you.'

  'That was pointless,’ said Rissun. ‘Now we have to drag him.'

  'We,’ said Trick. ‘Interesting.'

  Rissun laid a hand on Trick's chest and pushed him back so they were directly looking at each other. ‘I'd like to know something.’ The light tone had dropped out of his voice.

  Trick had suspected as much. He waited in silence, a gambit learnt from Mizzle.

  'What will Tal Lithium do tomorrow?'

  Rissun bestowed Lithia's formal and archaic title, an interesting affectation but not one that gave any indication of his loyalties.

  'Why ask me?'

  'Why ask he who has private dinners with the Empress and private meetings with her Bourchian adviser and her DarkElf pet, all on the eve of her coronation? Who I find spying on Crethen and attacking his man?'

  Trick kept his face blank. He was caught out and exposed, and lost as to how to handle it.

  Rissun came even closer. ‘I do so hate to repeat myself. What will the Empress do tomorrow?'

  Trick saw the wisdom in not admitting that Lithia seemed not to know. ‘She doesn't confide in me.'

  'Why are you here?'

  'Not by her orders.'

  Rissun looked behind him to where Yury lay, unconscious or dead and Trick couldn't care either way. ‘So Filipe ordered you against Crethen?'

  He had his footing now. Rissun could not be as nonchalant as he pretended, alone in this hallway in the dark of the night when he had so many men to do his bidding. ‘Why are you here?'

  Rissun's head came up. ‘Boy,’ he said, with a yawn. ‘What one does is one's business.'

  Trick shrugged and turned away. He bent over Yury and found him breathing. ‘Mouse,’ he called. ‘Wake up.’ He took a few steps back down the hallway but Mouse appeared in the doorway, yawning. He blinked at Trick and Rissun and Yury on the floor.

  'Help me get him to Filipe,’ Trick said and Mouse came padding over.

  'So you are working for Filipe,’ said Rissun, made instantly redundant by Trick turning his back to him.

  'Not for anyone,’ he said. ‘You might as well just tell me what you want. I'm not running to Filipe or Lithia to give you away.'

  Rissun hesitated, sharp eyes watching him, masked by the white powder and rouge.

  'Because I don't care,’ said Trick to his unasked question.

  He picked up Yury's shoulders and started dragging him. Mouse tried to lift the feet and got one up. They went down the hallway, carrying and dragging the dead weight towards the stairs.

  Rissun followed. At the stairs, Trick got Mouse going down first and went down after him. He only briefly thought about dropping Yury and letting him roll down. They did still, perhaps, need him alive.

  Rissun kept silent. ‘Fine,’ said Trick. ‘Let me guess. You want an advantage, like Crethen and Viga and Ghaun and the rest.’ He was panting from the effort of hauling the body around and they stopped on the landing.

  Rissun raised a scornful eyebrow at him.

  Trick went on. ‘You don't need me to get you anything. Use the brain you're so carefully trying to hide. You want to run Livania's spy network? She won't let Viga keep that. Offer your services.'

  While Rissun thought about that, another idea struck Trick. ‘Or aim a little higher. Consort strike your fancy?'

  That got Rissun's attention. ‘Crethen has that.'

  'Lithia will marry for love.’ He gambled but he could not truly believe Lithia would bow to Crethen tomorrow. ‘You're the only lord about her age. What have the other lords got to offer? A couple of teenage sons? You think Viga's boys could best you in a contest over a woman?'

  He started them off down the stairs again. Rissun said, ‘She considers King Fillip's son a suitable match, does she not?'

  Ah. No wonder Rissun came looking for him himself and did not send lackeys. ‘A spy on her staff? You do want Viga's job, don't you?'

  'I'd rather Crethen's place,’ said Rissun, dusting at his jacket and not quite looking at Trick.

  'She seems to like me,’ said Trick. ‘Try acting like me.'

  Rissun's detached mask slipped at last, and he glared at Trick, so that Trick smiled back up at him as they came off the stairs and started down to Filipe's quarters. Rissun went on down the stairs with a decided temper about his stiff back and shoulders, giving Trick a warm glow.

  Halfway down the hallway, he and Mouse met Filipe's guards coming up to see what the noise was about.

  'Good,’ said Trick. ‘You can carry this one the rest of the way.’ Let them recognise him as Crethen's man if they could. Let them wonder.

  Filipe was awake and dressed and sitting looking over papers by candlelight at a table by the window. He watched his guards carry in Yury and drop him on the floor. The guards went back out to their post outside the door.

  Filipe raised his eyebrows at Trick. ‘I don't get guards,’ said Trick.

  'You're not important,’ said Filipe. He got up and came over to Yury, turning him over. ‘You didn't kill him, I see.'

  Filipe was not surprised enough. Trick leant over and said in Mouse's ear, ‘Did Filipe send you after me?'

  Mouse shook his head, but Trick disbelieved him. He turned back to Filipe with his mouth set. They entangled him no matter what he did. ‘He's no good to you alive.’ He bent over and pulled open the unconscious man's mouth, showing the hole where the tongue should be. ‘Mute as Mouse.'

  Filipe looked at the ceiling and sighed. He had dark rings under his eyes and his hair spiked out. ‘Not been to bed yet?’ asked Trick.

  'Awake early,’ said Filipe. ‘It's almost dawn.'

  Trick glanced out the window. The night had taken on the still cold silver touch of very early morning. He imagined he could hear the first dawn birds.

  'Worried about today?'

  Filipe nodded once and shrugged.

  'You've got rid of Mikcul,’ said Trick. ‘Why do you care if it's Lithia who replaces him?’ His eyes were gritty with exhaustion and his neck and shoulders hurt.

  'She's the rightful heir, Trick.’ Filipe took up a poker and prodded the embers of the fire.

  'And you've invested a lot of time in her. It occurs to me you had easier ways to ensure the Company's revenge.'

  Filipe shrugged, still looking into the fire, but an idea was coalescing in Trick's mind. ‘You're not here as the leader of the Company, are you, Filipe? You're here as the representative of King Fillip.'

  Filipe turned, laughing, but it was edged with a sharp spike of uncertainty. ‘What makes you say that?'

  'You have to be part of the court. That's why an Ullwyn told you who I am, because they wanted King Fillip's assistance finding me.’ It was a guess, a wild one, but he thou
ght he was right. Why else would Filipe steer conversations away from King Fillip? Why else would he ask Mizzle if she could open the treasury and then demur when she called it his? ‘And that's why you care that it's Lithia. Because she wants to give that land back and because you trained her.'

  Filipe looked at him through narrowed eyes, smiling tightly. ‘All right, Trick. But keep it quiet.'

  It had not been Trick's intention to run to Lithia. But he said, just to tease him, ‘I'm Livanian, Filipe.'

  'You're half Bourchian. It won't hurt her. I don't plan to hurt her.'

  'King Fillip does.’ Trick was surprised to find himself speaking seriously and meaning it.

  Filipe had no answer to that, just shook his head.

  Yury stirred and Trick bent over him.

  'Should I knock him out again?'

  'No,’ said Filipe. ‘There's no point.'

  Something in Yury's hair glittered in the candlelight, and Trick reached out and picked it out like a flea. It was a tiny garnet stone, like the one Mouse had picked off Faustus back at the Wizard's castle. He showed it to Mouse and the boy nodded.

  'This,’ he said, showing Filipe the stone sitting on the palm of his hand, ‘it's a tracking device. Crethen has a crystal which tells him where Yury is.'

  'So he knows his man is visiting me?’ said Filipe. ‘Good. Let's set him loose and see what Crethen does about it.'

  'You don't understand,’ said Trick. ‘The Wizard Avenir made these. And he was Mikcul's. This is proof.'

  'Of what?’ Filipe sat back at the table. ‘That Crethen colluded with Mikcul while he was Emperor? All the lords did that.'

  Trick deflated. He had had little sleep and was being foolish because of it. ‘Oh. I forgot. Crethen said Yury was to act if he doesn't get his way today and also that Yury was not to fail again in some other matter.'

  Filipe stared down at the man on the floor. Yury's eyes flicked open and he lunged up. Trick knocked his feet out from under him and got his sword to his throat. Yury laughed up at him, mouth gaping and hissing.

  'Let's just kill him,’ said Trick, with the tip of the sword sinking in a little deeper. He wondered if this was how Mizzle had felt with San at her mercy.

  'No,’ said Filipe. ‘So, Yury. What did Crethen tell you to do tomorrow?'

  Yury hissed at him. ‘Whatever it is, you won't be doing it,’ Filipe went on. ‘What was the thing you can't fail at again?'

  Yury's gaze went up to Trick and back to Filipe. It was a slip, a tiny clue, but Trick knew Filipe was adept at reading such things.

  'That attack on my friend here?’ Filipe said. ‘You were supposed to have them killed?'

  'Crethen saw Mizzle as dangerous?’ asked Trick. ‘But we had gone. The attack drove her back to Lithia.'

  Filipe kept watching Yury. ‘Not Mizzle. You. Lithia invited you to Lsuana.'

  Trick had to blush a little to realise that Filipe knew that. ‘Still,’ he said. ‘We were gone.'

  'You were a threat to his bid for consort,’ said Filipe. ‘Alive and with the possibility for return.'

  'Because Lithia's so in love with me, she'd wait for me.’ This with folded arms and not an ounce of belief.

  But Filipe looked at him soberly. ‘She is Livanian. So's Crethen.'

  Yury tried to wriggle away from the sword while Trick stared open-mouthed at Filipe.

  Trick kicked him hard and he subsided. He looked back at Filipe and started to proclaim it ridiculous but his Livanian side stirred. It was not, after all, so ridiculous for these romantic, tale-loving people.

  'Anyway,’ he said instead. ‘He had to realise I'm no threat. I'm not of noble birth.'

  Filipe said, ‘Going around with an Ullwyn who calls you cousin is just a coincidence.'

  Trick made a noise of disgust and conceded the point. ‘That means being consort is his goal. He won't settle for Dalton's lands.'

  'I never thought he would.’ Filipe looked down at Yury.

  Trick looked down too. ‘All he has to do is nod,’ he said. ‘We ask, did Crethen have you kill his wife so he could marry Lithia, and he nods. Is that testimony enough?'

  Yury spat at him. ‘Good luck making him doing it,’ said Filipe.

  Mouse handed over his slate. Mizzle could make him do it.

  'Don't bring her into this.'

  'Why not?’ asked Filipe.

  Trick shook his head. ‘It's too DarkElvish.'

  'She is DarkElvish.'

  Trick shot a nasty look at Mouse, and shook his head again. ‘She wants to join the LightElves.'

  'LightElves?’ Filipe was, for the first time Trick had known him, nonplussed. ‘How is that?'

  Trick had never understood it so he could not hope to explain it to Filipe. He tried. ‘I think she's half human.'

  'Half insane,’ said Filipe. He made an exasperated gesture. ‘I'll ask her. Will you call her?'

  It was in him to refuse. In that moment he realised he had not, after all, abandoned the idea of going home from here. He had not expected to go to the coronation. He had meant to leave Yury and Mouse with Filipe, go back to his room and pack, and slip out without ever seeing Lithia or Mizzle again.

  In realising it, he let it go. He would be after all present at the coronation today, and he would try, just once, to enlist Mizzle.

  'All right,’ he said, and shivered.

  Chapter Ten

  'I can make a certain potion,’ says Kintore.

  Jacoby lies in his arms. It has been some ten nights since his capitulation. ‘I have certain methods of my own.'

  They fall silent. ‘Children are so rare among our people,’ says Jacoby, after a time.

  'They are a blessing,’ agrees Kintore.

  Each looks at the other, neither speaking.

  Kintore rolls away from her with a sigh. ‘How did I come to this?'

  'You have allure as your excuse,’ she says. ‘As do I. I am not ashamed.'

  The LightElf turns back towards her and brushes her hair from her face with a gentle hand. ‘Nor am I. Shall we give it to the fates to decide?'

  Jacoby nods slowly.

  'But if it should come to term—'

  'He will. He already grows strongly.’ Her hand touches her stomach.

  'If—'

  'I will send the child to you.'

  Kintore watches his fingers, entwined into her hair. ‘You could come with him.'

  Jacoby smiles, a mirror to his soft rueful expression. ‘I could wish it.'

  Their eyes meet. ‘Humans call this love,’ says Kintore matter-of-factly.

  'There is no such word in DarkElvish.’ She does not look away from him.

  'You just use me to obtain LightElvish secrets.’ The LightElf smiles but a trace of bitterness hides in his voice.

  'And you use me to distract me from the same,’ says the DarkElf. ‘Your offer of friendship was as calculated as my offer of seduction.'

  Kintore's hand clenches in her hair and releases. ‘I will not deny it.'

  The humans have an expression, do they not?'

  'All is fair,’ says Kintore on a sigh.

  * * * *

  Mizzle surprised him and came when they sent Mouse to fetch her. She listened, staring at Yury, as Filipe explained what they wanted.

  'No.'

  'Trick said you're trying to act LightElvish,’ said Filipe, and Mizzle turned her silver gaze on Trick.

  He gave her his best sullen look back.

  Filipe got her attention again. ‘You'd be better off with the DarkElves. At least they're honest about what they do.'

  They all knew what the DarkElves liked to do. That Filipe should still prefer them to LightElves threw Trick.

  Filipe said, ‘Do you know every few years, the Light herself comes up to Port Told and offers gold to King Fillip.'

  Trick had never heard such a thing. Mizzle tilted her head to one side in that way she had and asked the obvious question. ‘Why is this so?'

  'They say they are conc
erned about the status of the treasury. I believe they want the king indebted to them.'

  'The LightElves are plotting against Bourchia?’ asked Trick. He had found the idea of Lithia being truly in love with him ridiculous. He found this even more so.

  'I think it,’ said Filipe, without a flicker.

  'You tell me this to demonstrate the duplicity of the LightElves?’ Mizzle's tone was, as ever, neutral.

  'Just that no people are perfect,’ said Filipe. ‘Can you hope to guess how they judge their own behaviour?

  'I do not try to act like a LightElf,’ said Mizzle. ‘I try to not act like a DarkElf.'

  'Then don't turn your back on a friend in need,’ said Filipe. ‘Lithia needs this.'

  'Let Lithia ask for it.'

  Ask Lithia to ask Mizzle to force the truth out of an enemy's man? Lithia was mostly sensible but found it difficult to be ruthless.

  'You know we can't,’ Filipe said.

  Mizzle looked down at Yury and across at Trick. ‘You told me not to do such things,’ she said.

  He meant to deny he ever had. But of course, she had promised to him that she would not use glamour, after the Goblin fight. ‘I also told you to stop using the stone,’ he said. ‘Pick and choose what you listen to, do you?'

  Mouse squeaked and Filipe shook his head. Mizzle sat as if turned to a statue and had that flash of blankness before blinking and turning away. So she did still use the DarkStone. He could not, in his heart, blame her, no matter what he said.

  'I will help you,’ she said to Filipe, with not a look to Trick to tell him he had persuaded her. ‘Shall we go to Lithia now?'

  She looked down at Yury one more time. This time the man struggled backwards away from a look only he could see.

  So he got what Trick had provoked. Trick couldn't regret it.

  'Yes,’ said Filipe.

  They went, marching through the hallways with Yury under armed guard and Mouse coming with them, he who had dragged both Trick and Mizzle into this. Trick smacked him on the shoulder when he thought of it, but not hard, and did not send him to his room like he deserved.

  He could think the boy reminded him of himself at that age, but that would be doing him a disservice.