Jimmy noticed a black, sidelong glance from Squire Jerome and, irritated, took a menacing step in the older boy’s direction. Jerome immediately had a need to be somewhere else and hurried off.
A laugh sounded from behind. Jimmy saw a grinning Squire Locklear carrying a huge bridal wreath past a Tsurani guard, who carefully checked it. Of all the other squires, only Locky showed Jimmy the slightest hint of friendship. The others were either indifferent or outright hostile. Jimmy liked the younger boy, though he tended to prattle on about the most insignificant things. He’s the youngest child, thought Jimmy, his mother’s darling. He’d last a fast five minutes on the streets. Still, he was a cut above the rest, whom Jimmy judged a boring lot. The only amusement Jimmy gained from them was their woeful imitations of worldly knowledge. No, Arutha and his friends were far more interesting folk than the squires with their lewd jokes and salacious speculations about this serving girl or that, and their little games of intrigue. Jimmy threw Locky a wave and headed toward another door.
Jimmy waited to pass through the door as one of the porters came through. A small bunch of flowers fell from the man’s load. Jimmy bent to pick it up. As he handed it to the porter, Jimmy was struck by a sudden realization. The blooms, white chrysanthemums, shone with a faint amber tint.
Jimmy looked back over his shoulder and upward. A full four stories above, the high vaulted ceiling of the chamber was punctuated by large stained-glass windows, the colors barely noticeable unless the sun was directly behind the panes. Jimmy studied the windows, as his “something is not as it should be” bump was itching. Then he understood. Each window was recessed into a cupola, no less than five or six feet deep, plenty of room to hide a quiet assassin. But how would someone get up there? The design of the hall was such that scaffolding would be needed to clean the windows, and the room had been almost constantly occupied for the last few days.
Jimmy quickly left the hall, walked down a connecting corridor, and went through into a terraced garden that ran the length of the Prince’s great hall.
A pair of guards approached, walking post between the distant wall and the main palace complex, and Jimmy halted them. “Pass the word. I’m going to snoop about a bit on top of the great hall.”
They exchanged glances, but Captain Gardan had ordered that the strange squire wasn’t to be detained should he be seen scampering about the rooftops. One saluted. “Right you are, Squire. We’ll pass the word so the archers on the walls don’t use you for target practice.”
Jimmy paced off alongside the wall of the great hall. The garden was off to the left of the hall as you entered the main doors, assuming you could see through the walls, Jimmy thought to himself. Now, if I were an assassin, where would I want to climb? Jimmy cast about quickly and spotted a trellis that ran up the connecting hall’s outer wall. From there to the roof of the connecting hall would be no difficulty, then . . .
Jimmy left off thinking and acted. He studied the configuration of the walls as he kicked off his hated dress boots. He scampered up the trellis and ran along the roof of the connecting hall. From there he leaped nimbly up to a low cornice that ran the length of the great hall. Moving with astonishing agility, he crawled along, his face pressed to the stones, toward the far end of the great hall. When he reached halfway to the corner, he looked up. One story above awaited the bottoms of the windows, tantalizingly close. But Jimmy knew he needed a better climbing position and continued on until he reached the last third of the hall. Here, outside the portion of the hall given over to the Prince’s dais, the building flared, giving Jimmy an extra two feet of wall at a right angle to the wall he hugged. Levering up in the angle was now possible. Jimmy felt about until his fingers discovered a crack between stones. He used his experience to good advantage, shifting his weight as his toes began searching for another hold. Slowly he inched upward, seeming to climb in the angle of the two walls in defiance of gravity. It was a demanding task, requiring total concentration, but after what seemed an eternity he reached up and his fingers touched the ledge below the windows. Only a foot wide, the ledge was still a potentially fatal barrier, for any slip could send Jimmy falling to his death four stories below. Jimmy took a firm grip on the ledge and let go with his other hand. For an instant he dangled by one hand, then he reached upward with the other and with a single smooth pull had a leg over the ledge.