Part 2 (1/2)
Prince Josquin, mallet on shoulder, selected his next shot. His aunt Princess Viola had had the croquet lawn and an impeccable formal garden emplaced many, many years before, wheedling them out of her father when she was in particular favor for some forgotten reason, and she made use of them erratically for garden-party amus.e.m.e.nts. The Princess was sympathetic to her nephew and had arranged today's entertainment specially for him, and also to spit in her brother the Emperor's eye, because she had invited a considerable number of people who would not usually have received invitations to Palace functions.
”It's almost as good as billiards,” said Earl Morel's son, who was not among these this year.
Josquin stared at him, astonished. ”I'll take billiards any day.”
”More people at croquet.”
”As I said.”
”When did Your Highness weary of society?”
Josquin chuckled. ”Not exactly that. For mixing and meeting, croquet serves very well, but for a game - ** He bowed to the Countess of Roude, who had taken her turn at the other side of the lawn, and made his own shot.
”Oh, I'd have to agree with you there; no comparison possible. - I understand Bright.w.a.ter is either fled or dead.”
Josquin kept from starting or showing particular interest. ”I'd heard something of the sort. Dead? How dead?”
Morel's turn was up; he aimed and overshot his wicket. ”Dash. Well, there was a devilish fire in rooms he kept at the Broad s.h.i.+eld - I'd no idea he had quarters there, but evidently he did, besides living at the Greenhead. Double life, eh? Anyway the fire - it's quite something to see the build- Sorcerer and a Qenttenum.
19.ing-it burnt everything but the nails and there's not an eyegleam of him now.”
b.a.l.l.s clicked together, jostling at the center wicket.
”Great shame if it's so. Smoking in bed, perhaps,” Josquin said. ”He had an eye for horses.” He strolled toward his green-blue ball for his turn.
Morel laughed ruefully. ”Yes, you won quite a lot on his pick.”
”I was pleasantly surprised by that. I'd never have chosen Bezel's nag myself, but it was worth the flutter. Has he run her lately?”
Morel's first love was cards and his second was the track. Josquin had channelled the discussion away from Bright.w.a.ter, a subject on which he knew Morel could have no further intelligence than the Emperor.
Which was a pity, Josquin thought, nodding as Morel recounted a race, because he'd like to hear more about Bright.w.a.ter from somebody, sometime, somewhere. Harrel Bright.w.a.ter was not the sort of fellow to smoke in bed and burn down an inn. The Prince stared at the lawn, a little chill running down his back as he thought of Bright.w.a.ter's slow-starting smile and his brilliant blue eyes, his sensuous low voice, his hard-muscled broad-shouldered body when he was fencing coatless and loose-s.h.i.+rted in Bellamy's yard- ”Your Highness,” interrupted Lady Filday, ”I sue you for mercy and beg that you will not send my poor little ball off to go bushwhacking in the pansies when I have only just escaped them.”
Josquin banished Bright.w.a.ter, thinking he'd trade a year with all these people for half an hour with him alone, and made her a pretty reply.
The game and party proceeded languorously. It was an unusually warm day; the guests murmured over the temperature with little energy for genuine indignation. Josquin circulated through the crowd, greeting everyone, wearing his official-function manners. Pity Aunt Viola hadn't invited some of the wilder fellows. There might have been something to break up the tedium. She did mean well, though, and it was better than reading trade statistics, and watching 20 -3 'EGzaBetH itfittey certain of the n.o.bility reacting to certain of the guests was better than a play. One enterprising gambler had calculated handicaps for all the ladies present and was surrept.i.tiously collecting wagers, beside the gentlemen's punchbowl, on their performances at croquet. Lady Filday was doing unexpectedly well, to the pleasure of one of her nephews.
The Emperor and Empress were not in attendance. Avril rarely deigned to grace his siblings' parties; today the royal couple sat in a first-floor parlor shaded by a grove of the most ancient trees on the grounds, which must not be cut or pruned. It had been a preferred room of his father's, but the Emperor disliked it because the trees made the room dark and made him uncomfortable with their age and size, and so he used it only when the weather made it expedient, as today. The parlor had a small terrace outside onto which opened tall windows. In s.h.i.+rtsleeves, eschewing formal clothing, the Emperor lounged in an armchair and read Bright.w.a.ter's dossier.
The Emperor of Landuc retained an agile and able staff of spies, gossips, sponges, sneaks, ears, and eyes. With only three of these set on Harrel Bright.w.a.ter's trail, directed by the indefatigable Count Pallgrave, he had in hand within three days a thick sheaf of notes regarding the still-absent Bright.w.a.ter's life in Landuc.
Bright.w.a.ter had departed Landuc through the city's Fire Gate at a quarter past the sixth hour of the night on the night that Prince Josquin had fallen into an unexplained stupor. He had appeared to have arrived on some vessel the previous autumn, but his name was on no pa.s.senger list; he had owned no baggage but a haversack. His funds had apparently come from selling a Spinel Street jeweler a trio of large pearls, an exceedingly fine diamond, and a pair of rubies. He paid all his bills on time. He had interests in rare books, maps, charts, astrology, alchemy, and history and he was, according to the merchants at the Broad s.h.i.+eld where he had roomed and dined daily, a courteous man who could converse intelligently and with interest on many subjects but who also had seemed clerkish and unworldly. They had Sorcerer and a Qentkman 21.pegged him as a n.o.ble's scholarly younger son come to the city to seek a Court position; he had never spoken of kin or country to them, and they supposed him without estate or local relations. The Emperor frowned. A gentleman, even if he has no estate, has family-indeed, cannot be said to exist without it. There was no Harrel to be found on any branch of the Bright.w.a.ters' family tree.
Only late this spring, after spending autumn and winter in a hermit's routine of books and study, had Bright.w.a.ter taken up a social life. The Emperor had tailor's bills, descriptions of clothing, dates. The last item was a finely damascened straight sword from Bellamy's; that same morning, the day of his midnight departure, Bright.w.a.ter had picked up in person (suspicious in itself-he had no valet) a new travelling cloak at Gamtree's, winter-weight and winter-styled, of the finest blue-green double-woven Ascolet wool, a peculiar garment for summer's hottest days. The earliest order was for a pair of stylish suits from Gamtree, and a week later Bright.w.a.ter had bought his fine horse. A few days after boarding the horse at an hostler's, he had moved to a more-costly less-sedate inn, the Greenhead, and had paid in advance for two months' lodging, though he had kept his place at the Broad s.h.i.+eld as well and had divided his time between the two. The Greenhead innkeeper knew him as a man of informed and expensive tastes.
Bright.w.a.ter had promptly made a place for himself as a regular card-player and dicer and had appeared to be setting determinedly on a rake's progress downward, seeking out the stews and gambling dens. He won more than he lost. Earl Morel's son had introduced him to Josquin at a card table in one of these loose-knit clubs. Josquin had taken to him at once, but the night the man dined with the Prince Heir in the Imperial Residence was the first time he had been in the Palace.
The Emperor reviewed this and nodded thoughtfully. The man had studied Josquin's movements, gotten in with his crowd, gotten close to him, and struck.
But how and why? The Prince Heir was alive and well. He 22 -= 'E.Cizabeth itfittey had suffered no obvious ill effects from his night- and daylong nap. What did,it mean, that Josquin had seen him throwing-nothing?
The Emperor growled and rose, pacing, impatient with the puzzle. He had no illusions about Josquin. The boy was clever enough but too lazy to think, and this was a direct result of that. It was time for him to take on more responsibility, to be forced to think. He was wasting his time in Landuc, his time, his allowance, his body- He pa.s.sed, in his restless circuit of the room, the divan on which the Empress was reading letters of her own. She wore a gold-embroidered opal-green dress of very light silk, and with her fine blonde hair and pale skin, the effect was cool and wintry, belied by her languid, deliberate movements. Glencora, who had been reared in worse winters than this summer, coped with the swelter instinctively.
”Avril,” she said, finis.h.i.+ng a letter.
He grunted.
”Are you thinking of sending Josquin away?”
”Yes.”
She folded the letter, her wide eyes on his light-red head. The Emperor felt the pressure of her gaze but did not look back at her. It was a contest of wills of a sort.
”Do you have some destination in mind?” she asked.
”Yes.”
”May I ask what it is?”
The Emperor said nothing.
”Avril,” she said a little severely, setting her narrow chin.
”Tyngis,” he said shortly.
”No!”
”Yes.”
”At this time of year! Avril!”
”Exactly. Winter is coming.”
”They do nothing but drink from dawn to dawn there and there is nothing to do but that. Do you think that will improve him?” the Empress demanded. ”1 agree that he must do more than dissipate himself, but Tyngis has nothing to offer.”
”Clearly you have a preferred destination already in mind Sorcerer and a (jentfeman 23.and we shall have no rest until we hear it,” the Emperor muttered.
”Send him to Madana.”
”He has spent too much time in Madana. He will do nothing but more of the same there.” The Emperor curled his lip at the thought of Madana. Josquin had pa.s.sed his boyhood and youth in Madana, and his father blamed ail of his present character flaws on it.
”I do not think so,” the Empress said, folding her delicate hands with precision. ”In the past he has been there and behaved very creditably. You surely remember that he even managed to jolly around Sagorro.”
”Because he's the same stripe of wastrel as our son, only older.”
”He jollied him into signing that treaty.”
That was true. The Emperor grumbled wordlessly and finally looked at the Empress. ”Madana,” he said.
”Yes. My cousin Iliele could host him.”