Part 24 (1/2)

Scott sat down. He had already had enough of physical violence. The other kind hung in the air, a raw miasma, sapping his robust and righteous anger. He said curtly, ”You challenged me yourself..

”'ro attack me. Not to engineer a cheap death for Turkey Mat..

”It was his own fault. Father would have looked after him..

”Father would have had his work cut out, after your Jove-like pyrotechnics at the convent. Don't fancy yourself the neo-Christ of Branxholm, by the way. You weren't saving anybody. I'm used to being taken for a cross between Gilles de Rais and a sort of international exchange in young mammals, but I draw the line somewhere..

All the tormented emotion, the anger and fear and vexed and mauled spirit of the unfortunate Scott sprang affronted from his lips.

”I can guess the kind of names you'd like to call me,” he said with cold fury. ”I betrayed you to Andrew Hunter; I tricked you into hiding in the convent; I used a knife on you-badly; my G.o.d, how ineptly-but at least I made you wince in some sort, once, however briefly. When my father delivers you to the law, I'll have paid the debts of the cheated dead and the warped living and the wrecked lives of four women. . . Can you deny it? Am I not right?.

”Right?” said Lymond. ”You pathetic, maladroit nincomp.o.o.p, you're never right; but this time you can squat in your misconceptions like duck's meat in a ditch, and let them choke you..

Scott, viciously, was on his feet. ”Go on. Explain my own motives to me. Or if you won't explain yourself, shall I try? Someone once said you hated women, and you do, don't you? You despise everyone-.--even yourself-but above all you hold women cheap . .

He got no further. ”You b.l.o.o.d.y, insalubrious little fool,” said Lymond, and uncoiled like a whip, forcing Scott to retreat. ”I'm not calling you names, my dear: I'm telling you facts. Today you murdered a friend of mine. You treat that very lightly. I hope his tolerance and his honesty and his infirmities break their way into your imagination and sphacelate in your insufferable vanity. That and another thing. To h.e.l.l with your piddling vendetta: the bits you were bragging about never mattered, and the things that do matter you know nothing about. But what the h.e.l.l,” said Lymond with fury,”what the h.e.l.l do you mean by subjecting that girl to a public ordeal?.

Scott was stunned. ”It was you who-” but Lymond swept on. ”If I could keep my mouth shut, surely you could take the trifling trouble to keep her out of the courtyard? You don't care whom you sacrifice, do you, as long as you imagine it will damage me?.

”I didn't deceive her!.

”Do you think I did her any harm!” exclaimed the Master. ”But for your meddling she was perfectly secure!.

”I remember,” said Scott. ”You don't like red hair..

The untamed face stared into his. ”She was one of your four women, was she? Then it certainly seems that she lost security, reputation and peace of mind through one of us today. Who else?.

”The Countess of Lennox..

”Lady Margaret was responsible for the fiasco at Heriot which nearly cost your father his life. Who else?.

”Your brother's wife..

”You know the truth of that as well as I do..

”Do I?” said Scott. ”I was stinking drunk on the floor of your room at the time, as I remember..

”All right. I leave you to work out why, having seduced my sister-in-law and slaughtered my nephew, I should keep coy silence while you shuffle downstairs at three in the morning with that bantlingbrained romantic done up in an oatsack?.

For one dumb moment, Scott sympathized with the man who disgorged a sponge into water and found his throat cut. He recovered. ”Because you wanted rid of her, I expect. As with your young sister..

”As with my young sister,” agreed Lymond. Like the sun in eclipse, the candle at his back rimmed his unregenerate head; he held himself lightly and easily, the poised Roc pitying the elephant. ”I should have warned you. I can wrestle with one arm as well as with two..

The light in Scott's pale eyes was contemptuous. ”It won't be necessary. I know enough about yoa. I don't want to know any more..

Lymond said delicately, ”What are you afraid of?.

”Me? Nothing!” exclaimed Scott. ”If you want to fight, I'll fight..

”But not with ideas? You're beating drums and bra.s.s kettles, Scott. Thick skin and prejudice won't keep the dragons away..

”I'm tired of a landscape with dragons,” said Scott violently.

”What, then? Retreat underground into hebetude: retreat under water like a swallow: retreat into a sh.e.l.l like a mollusc: retreat into the firmament like some erroneous dew. . .

”I don't retreat..

”You don't progress much, either..

”I scotch the dragons..

”And how,” said Lymond precisely, ”do you know a dragon when you see it?.

Despite every endeavour, Scott was trembling. He said, ”Because I'm a human being, not a toy, a familiar, a piece of unconsecrated wax to malign your enemies with. I know you. I didn't mean Turkey to die. I wouldn't intentionally have hurt the girl, but it's done, and if it had to be done again it would be worth it. You know all about the law of talion: you've hunted Harvey, poor devil, like a thing from beyond the grave. You're a master-my G.o.d, don't I know it- of the art of apposite punishment. I made d.a.m.ned sure you'd get a taste of both before you got out of my reach. You won't get over the Border to kill Harvey now..

”Teaching you to speechify is another thing I should have my throat cut for,” said Lymond. ”My appointment is broken; I may be said vaguely to be aware of that. Your intentions were majestic. To teach me to sing re, my fa, sol, and when I fail, to bob me on the noll. Only the field is now littered with other bobbed and blameless nolls and I am left, as it happens, singing ut to Johannes, which should delight you indeed. Why are you here?.

There was a pause. Scott said nothing, and the blue eyes suddenly narrowed. ”Is this, by any chance, a modest silence? Good G.o.d!” Lymond sat down. ”Have you been protecting your former colleagues?.

”I had no quarrel with them..

Continuing to stare at him, the Master gave a hoot of derisive laughter and sat back, nursing his injured arm. ”My only success, and I was too d.a.m.ned preoccupied to watch it coming to the boil. Who locked you up here? Oh, your father, of course..

And, stretching like a cat, Lymond lay down. Mysteriously, the chill of animal danger had gone; mysteriously, there was an unwilling amus.e.m.e.nt about his mouth. ”I have licked you like the cow Audhumbla from the salt of your atrocious upbringing, and am watching the outcome with a fearful joy. . . . Your father, as you no doubt REALIZE, will have to argue himself into fits to get you accepted at Court again: you should tell him that the dispatches which you copied for me so resentfully in your own illimitable hand will do precisely that for you, mentioned in the right quarters. They are all in Arran's possession. They got there, by the way, through a very wily gentleman called Patey Liddell, who should not be involved. He would in any case be deaf to questions-you've no idea how deaf..

There was a startled silence. Scott said, ”Is that true?” And, quickly: ”It's a trick of some sort..

”It's blackmail. I want something in return..

”What?.

”Undo some of the f.e.c.kless damage you did today,” said Lymond, and held his eyes. ”Pull the girl clear. Drive it home to every gossiping fool that whatever Christian says, she didn't know what she was doing when she gave me refuge. Conjure up Shamanism and the Black Ma.s.s if you like. Anything. But get it about that she was not responsible for her actions. Understand?.

”I should do it in any case. It won't help you,” said Scott.

”Nothing ever does. That's why I help myself so frequently..

There was another pause. ”Those letters,” said the boy. ”Much good they'll do me when they find out we've been selling copies to England as well. In my writing..

”In that case it's lucky for you that we haven't..

”Haven't traded with England? For G.o.d's sake, I copied them myself!.

”And for G.o.d's sake, I tore them up..

”What!” Scott was halfway across to the other trestle when Lymond snapped at him. ”Go back and lie down. I don't want your coddled features singing Ka.s.sidas over me. What the h.e.l.l does it matter? You've done your job..

Scott walked back. He sat on the edge of the boards and repeated:”You tore them up. If you tore them up, why did we trouble to capture them?.

”For sixty avid reasons. Mercenaries are exceedingly mercenary, you know. And suspicious. Also, curiosity on my part..