Ruler of the Realm

Thirty-six

At first she didn’t see anything except the limp, huddled corpses with their hideous wounds, then her eyes travelled upwards to the familiar shock of red hair.

‘God of Light,’ she whispered. ‘Pyrgus!’

She tore away from Hairstreak and dropped on one knee. Pyrgus had been thrown almost casually across a body with orange skin – Madame Cardui’s Trinian servant Kitterick. Blue felt a tightness in her chest that almost stopped her heart. Then her eyes moved to the third body.

Henry! It was Henry! She didn’t even know he was back in the Realm. She twisted to look up at Hairstreak.

‘You’ve killed them!’ she gasped. ‘You’ve killed all three of them!’

‘Don’t be stupid!’ Hairstreak snapped. ‘None of them is dead. The question is, what did your people think they were trying to do?’

Blue ignored him. Now she looked more closely, Pyrgus was breathing. So was Henry. But Pyrgus had a massive red stain oozing from his side and Henry’s hair was matted with blood. She couldn’t see the extent of Kitterick’s injuries because of the way Pyrgus had been thrown on top of him, but from what she knew of the dwarf he was probably worse off than the other two. He always fought like a demon to avoid capture.

She forced herself to her feet and turned to face Lord Hairstreak, her eyes blazing. ‘What have you done to them?’ she demanded. If Pyrgus died or Henry died she would have Hairstreak hanged and to Hael with the political consequences.

‘I have done nothing to them,’ Hairstreak said impatiently. ‘Your brother and his friends were sneaking about in my grounds, clearly intent on espionage or sabotage. They were detected and neutralised by my automatic security system.’ His lip curled into a sneer. ‘I cannot imagine they took action without your knowledge, Majesty.’

He doesn’t know Pyrgus, Blue thought. But she was too concerned to let herself be bullied. ‘Security system?’ she snapped. ‘Your security system may have killed them!’

‘Oh, nonsense!’ Hairstreak shook his head shortly. ‘They’re merely in a coma. The system uses a derivative of Trinian toxin.’ He looked down at Kitterick with distaste. ‘Ironically.’

‘Trinian toxin is lethal,’ Blue gasped, suddenly frightened again.

‘A derivative, I said,’ Hairstreak shouted, no longer even attempting politeness. ‘The worst it does is send them asleep for a while.’

‘He’s telling the truth,’ Flapwazzle murmured from the level of her belly.

Even after the endolg’s reassurance, Blue felt murderous. ‘They’re injured!’ she shouted at Hairstreak.

‘Pelidne, fetch the staff physician,’ Hairstreak ordered over his shoulder. To Blue he said hotly, ‘That damn dwarf broke four of my trackers, if we’re starting to apportion blame.’

Blue didn’t know what a tracker was, but assumed it must be a part of the security system. Hairstreak had a real cheek bringing that up. Like blaming somebody for making your sword bloody after you stuck it in him. All the same, now her initial panic was dying down, she could see he had a point. What was Pyrgus doing here? And where had Henry come from? Chances were they’d some romantic idea about rescuing her. Now, as usual, she was going to have to rescue them.

A fat, balding little man with a mandrake embroidered on his tunic came bustling from the bowels of the house. He looked like someone wakened from a nap.

‘Fix them,’ Hairstreak said shortly, nodding towards the bodies on the floor. ‘Report to me when you’ve finished.’ Without further preamble, he gripped Blue’s arm again. ‘Come with me, Niece – you have some explaining to – yipes!’ He jerked his hand away as Flapwazzle bit him.

‘Touching the royal person is forbidden,’ Flapwazzle said from his position wrapped around the royal stomach.

Pelidne moved towards them and the way he moved was frightening in its speed and grace. But Hairstreak waved him away.

‘The creature is quite right – I forgot myself.’ He glared soberly at Blue. ‘Nonetheless, Your Majesty, it is clear we need to talk, if Your Majesty will condescend to accompany me…?’

‘Of course, Uncle,’ Blue said lightly. Despite his new-found manners, she knew she had no option.

He led her back to the room they’d occupied before and closed the door carefully. Then he turned towards her. ‘Well?’

It was exactly the tone her father had used when she’d irritated him, usually accompanied by the words ‘young lady’. Now it was her uncle who was angry and, while she was furious herself, she knew very well her situation was delicate. Pyrgus, Henry and Kitterick had no right to trespass on the Hairstreak Estate, let alone go creeping around in the bushes, looking for God knew what. (She had no doubt that what Hairstreak had told her was true – it was exactly the sort of thing Pyrgus would do… and drag poor Henry along with him.)

Blue didn’t think for a moment they were up to anything sinister, and all three had paid heavily for their silliness – their wounds looked horrible – but none of that changed the fact they were basically in the wrong… or that Realm politics had hit a critical time. Would this stop the treaty? Probably not, but it would certainly give Hairstreak an advantage in the negotiations she’d much rather he didn’t have. What she needed now was damage limitation.

‘They were not here by my order, Uncle,’ she said bluntly.

‘Whose order were they here on?’ Hairstreak asked coldly.

‘I don’t know.’

‘You expect me to believe that?’

‘Queen’s telling the truth,’ said Flapwazzle, in the process of sliding back down to the floor.

‘Then you would have no objection to my questioning them?’

Blue took a deep breath. She had no intention of turning anybody over to Lord Hairstreak for questioning: his methods were notorious. But there was no doubt the three idiots needed to be questioned.

She said firmly, ‘Let them go. I’ll question them myself.’

Hairstreak shook his head. ‘That,’ he said, ‘is not acceptable.’

The argument began in earnest then. They’d resolved nothing when the door opened silently.