A COWARD’S VOW
Staring at the burned wreckage of the mansion that morning was one of the worst moments of my foolish failure of a life. A few bits of wall still stood, but the rest was a husk, slowly breaking into smouldering pieces, supported by the tall stone blocks that had been used to prevent anyone from leaving the house even as the attackers shattered cask after cask of oil onto the building before setting it on fire.
Valiana had been as good as her word. She had asked the Duke, her father, to promise freedom for the Tiarren woman and her children when she surrendered, and he had agreed all too willingly: a welcome gift to his child. But the attackers had picked up the falling crest that signalled surrender and doused it in oil before putting it to the torch with the rest, and then they had watched as everyone inside suffocated and burned.
Kest was with me. Feltock tried to keep the Lady Valiana inside her carriage with Shiballe, but she pushed him aside and joined us at the wreckage, Trin at her side silently shedding tears. Feltock wasn’t stupid. He had a pistol with him, ready for the moment when I would try to kill Valiana.
‘Leave it,’ Feltock said. I could hear the fear in the old man’s voice. ‘The Princess has been commanded by her father to take her Patents of Lineage to Hervor. We have a job, you and I. That’s all we got, that’s all we can do. This isn’t a matter for men like you and me.’
Valiana said my name, softly, tentatively. ‘Falcio …’
‘I am somewhat occupied at this precise moment, your Highness,’ I said. My voice was calm, natural. I wasn’t a fool. I wasn’t going to get myself killed just to assuage my guilt over the death of the Tiarren family. It was too late for them now, and all that was left was a proper burial and useless vengeance.
‘Say it, Trattari. I know you want to,’ she said to me.
If this woman thought she knew what I wanted at that precise moment, then she was surely out of her mind.
Feltock called out, ‘My Lady, please, there are three of them. I can’t be sure—’
‘You blame me for this, don’t you? You think I’m evil – go ahead and say it,’ she demanded.
Kest had his hand on his sword. He was ready for me to lose my temper and for Feltock to shoot me and, when he did, Kest was going to draw that sword like a bolt of lighting and cut Valiana’s throat. And then what? Wait for the next stupid offspring of Dukes to come and become the next tyrant – what would that solve? When would it ever end?
‘No,’ I said softly.
I don’t think they knew who I was talking to because they all hesitated at once. ‘No, Valiana, Duchess, Princess, Empress, whatever you like to be called. I don’t blame you.’
She looked at me and her eyes widened and her mouth opened a little, but she said nothing. She was waiting, cautiously, for absolution.
But I had none to give. ‘I believe in evil, my Lady. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it in my home, and I’ve seen it in the furthest reaches of this country. And yes, I’ve seen it here in Rijou. I saw it in Shiballe with his false smiles and secret plans, and I saw it in the Duke when you asked him to forbear for the sake of the Tiarren family and his eyes lit up, enjoying his private joke. I’ve brought justice to men like that. I’ve even killed them, when I’ve had to. And one day Shiballe and Duke Jillard will find a Greatcoat’s sword in their bellies.’
I picked up a small piece of still-smouldering wood and let it burn my hand for a moment before letting it fall.
‘But most of the terrible things that happen in this land don’t happen because of evil men, not really. They happen because of people who just don’t know any better. A tax collector who never wonders if this season’s crops might be too small to warrant the silver he has just collected: a family’s entire income. A soldier who never questions why he’s been told to take casks of oil and condemn a mother and her children to a fiery death. And a woman, barely more than a girl, who thinks only about how fine it will be to have a big castle and a pretty throne, and never wonders why so many great intrigues have been set in play to put her there. So no, Valiana, Lady, Duchess, Princess. I don’t think you’re evil. I think you’re much, much worse.’
She looked at me, and then stumbled back and Kest, his reflexes outpacing his intention, caught her before she fell to the ground. Feltock was wise enough to keep his cool and allow Kest to lift her into the carriage.
Shiballe stepped out, a smile on his lips. But then the smile disappeared as he looked past me. Trin, looking in the same direction, went white.
I turned and saw something coming out of the wreckage of the mansion: a girl, young, no more than twelve or thirteen years old. She was covered in soot and she looked disoriented. She stumbled and, as Kest ran to the saddlebags, I ran to the girl. I lifted her out of the carnage that had been her home and laid her down on a bench on the other side of the street near the carriage. Kest passed me water and bandages. I thought her skin might be charred, but cleaning her arms with water revealed that she wasn’t badly burned at all.
‘How did she survive?’ Kest asked.
‘I don’t know,’ I said.
Shiballe called to his guards and began whispering to them.
The girl opened her eyes and coughed. I gave her a little water and she drank it down, but when she tried to speak, wracking coughs overtook her.
I waited until they had passed before giving her a little more water. ‘Don’t try to speak if it hurts,’ I said.
She shook her head. ‘I can – I can talk,’ she said.
‘The girl will come with me,’ Shiballe said, coming towards us.
‘Take another step forward,’ Brasti said, ‘just one more step forward, you fat little monster—’
‘She is a citizen of Rijou and under the Duke’s—’
‘The Duke hasn’t done a very fucking good job then, has he?’
‘How did you survive the fire?’ I asked the girl.
She coughed again. ‘The crawl space,’ she croaked. ‘When Mother dropped the crest and the men lit it on fire instead of letting us out, she told us to go down to the crawlspace. But there wasn’t enough room – it’s so small – and my brothers wanted to fight, which was stupid because you can’t fight fire with swords. And then the little ones ran back up and I couldn’t reach them because something fell on top of the hatch. It’s all stone down there, so the fire couldn’t reach and I had water and towels to put on my face.’
She took another sip of water. ‘I kept trying, but couldn’t get out of the crawlspace – and then I guess the stuff that fell on the hatch must have burned off …’
‘Falcio,’ Kest said.
I looked at him.
‘She’s the last of the Tiarrens. If someone sees her, she’s dead.’
‘Shiballe’s seen her,’ Brasti said. ‘I say we kill him now.’
‘Then we’ll be dead too,’ Feltock said. ‘I’m afraid we have to move on now, men.’
I stared at him. ‘How can you serve Valiana now, when you’ve seen the cost?’
The old man’s eyes looked sad. ‘I’m a soldier, boy. I serve one master at a time and I go where I’m told. You’ll do the same if you’re smart.’
‘The girl can come,’ Valiana said to me as she stepped off the carriage. ‘It is the least we can do.’
I said nothing.
‘And I am the least of women, aren’t I?’ she finished. Her tone was bitter, but I couldn’t tell if it was aimed at me or at herself.
Kest packed up the bandages. ‘We need to move out now. It will be dark soon, and the violence will begin again.’
‘I’m afraid not,’ Shiballe said, his guards standing behind him.
‘By what right do you contradict me, Shiballe?’ Valiana asked, a mixture of anxiety and anger in her voice.
‘Your Highness, this is still your father the Duke’s domain. His orders on this are very clear.’
‘His orders were for her to be protected.’
‘No, your Highness, his orders are for her to stay here, in Rijou. He will care for her as he sees fit.’
‘I will not go,’ the girl said.
‘See, the child knows her place is here, with her people.’
‘You’ve slaughtered her people,’ Brasti said.
‘And you have some proof of this, do you, tatter-cloak?’
‘The girl comes with me,’ Valiana said firmly.
‘Then, your Highness, you will not reach the outer gates alive. You will be slain for conspiring to impede a citizen of Rijou in the performance of her duty to the Duke.’
‘My father would never—’
‘It is treason, your Highness. Your father will be saddened by your loss. But that is all.’
Valiana looked at me. I looked back, and whatever was in my eyes was too much for her. ‘My father swore in front of his nobles that he would protect her family!’
‘No, your Highness, he did not. He swore to look into the matter personally, and ensure that his will was followed in the matter, and he did precisely that.’
‘There must be a way,’ she said to Shiballe, pleading.
‘The girl stays here. She stays until the end of Ganath Kalila. If she is still alive then, on the Morning of Mercy she can go to the Rock of Rijou where her name will be spoken by the City Sage and her presence recorded.’
‘How much fucking chance does she have to stay alive with no family?’ Brasti demanded.
‘It was not I who forced her mother to make such unwise decisions about whom to take to her bed, nor I who advised her husband, Lord Tiarren, to tolerate it.’