“I’ll concede that point,” said Tal. He took the cloth from Amafi and continued washing. “What else?”
“Most of those who have been here a long time remember Duke Kaspar as a different man; the older servants talk about him as a boy. Most blame Varen for Kaspar’s changed nature.”
“A man makes choices,” Tal said.
“True, but what choices a man makes depends on what choices he is offered.”
“You’re occasionally profound, Amafi.”
“Thank you, Magnificence. Duke Kaspar is devoted to his sister. The Lady Natalia is refused nothing. She likes men, horses, fine clothing, and galas. There are many entertainments here in the citadel, at least one a week. Many seek her hand in marriage, but Kaspar is keeping her for a special alliance.”
“He wants her to be Queen of the Isles, I think,” said Tal.
“I am no expert on politics, Magnificence, but I think that will not happen.”
“I agree,” said Tal, standing.
Amafi wrapped him in a towel, then asked, “What is your pleasure until supper, Magnificence?”
“A bite. You go fetch some bread, cheese, and wine while I dress myself. Then find that page, Rudolph, and tell him to come here. I think it’s time to see more of the citadel.”
“More?” Amafi shrugged. “I thought you had seen it all.”
Tal smiled. “Hardly. There are things here that I have only imagined, Amafi.”
“Very well, Magnificence. I shall do as you command.”
Amafi bowed and left the room, and Tal finished drying off. There was so much to learn, if only he could manage to stay alive long enough to learn it.
Tal followed Rudolph. The boy took him through a hallway that was clean but rarely used. “These quarters are empty, Squire,” said the boy. He reached the farthest door and rattled the handle. “All locked up proper, sir.” He turned around. “Well, that’s it, then. You’ve seen it all, from one end of the citadel to the other.”
Tal smiled. “Not all, I warrant.”
“Well, all the stores back inside the caves…”
“Caves?”
“There are caves used as storehouses behind the citadel, Squire. Big nasty, drafty dark places, and some of them I hear go back for miles. No reason to go there, but if you must…” He started to walk.
Tal put his hand on the boy’s shoulder, restraining him. “No, some other time perhaps. How do I find these caves?”
“There are several entrances, Squire. One lies behind the armory, but that door is always locked and only Captain Havrevulen and the Duke himself have keys to that door. There’s another one behind the kitchen, through a door that’s behind where you go to dump the kitchen waste to the midden, and there’s another one down off that old room I showed you that had all the different furniture in it that we keep around for Lady Natalia when the mood strikes her to change things. Then there’s the dungeon, but you don’t want to go there.”
“No,” agreed Tal.
“There’s one other door that comes up somewhere else, but I don’t recall exactly where.” He looked at Tal and said, “I’ve shown you everywhere I know about, sir. All that’s left then is the wizard’s apartments, Squire, but you don’t want to go there either.”
“I’ve been there,” said Tal to the boy’s openmouthed amazement. “No, I was thinking of the servants’ passages.”
“The serving ways? But none of the gentry want to know about those. Even I don’t know all of them, sir.”
“Why don’t you show me what you do know?”
Rudolph shrugged and walked past Tal. “This way, then, sir, but if you ask me, it’s a bit odd.”
Tal laughed. “Then why don’t we keep this between ourselves?”
“Mum’s the word, Squire,” said Rudolph as he led Tal toward the kitchen.
An hour later they walked through a narrow hall barely wide enough for Tal to move through without his shoulders brushing a wall. Rudolph held a candle up. “This leads to the Duke’s quarters, Squire. Can’t go too close, unless we’re summoned.”
As Tal had anticipated, there were passages out of sight of the residents and guests of the citadel that were used by the servants to fetch and carry all sorts of things. Laundry and food, soil buckets and water were lugged through these narrow hallways, so as not to inconvenience the residents and, as Tal knew, they were often used as shortcuts from one part of the building to the next.
He suspected that more than one noble had skulked through these passages on his way to the bedroom of a visiting noble’s wife or daughter, and more than one pretty maid had made her way toward a nobleman’s quarters that way as well.
They passed a ladder, and Tal asked, “Rudolph, where does this lead?”
“Next floor up, Squire,” the boy answered, now very bored with exploring.
“I know that, boy. Where on the next floor?”