The Cardinal's Blades

18

A sound disturbed the drowsing Saint-Lucq.

It was a repeated, irregular scratching, which sometimes seemed to have stopped only to promptly begin again. A scrape of a claw. Against wood.

The half-blood sighed and sat up under the bedclothes. The afternoon was drawing to a close.

“What is it?” asked the muffled voice of the young woman lying beside him in bed.

“You can’t hear it?”

“I can.”

“What is it?”

“Nothing. Go back to sleep.”

And she turned over, pulling the bedcovers round her.

Having two or three hours to kill during the day, Saint-Lucq had approached her on rue de Glatigny, an alley in the city where ladies of pleasure had plied their trade since the Middle Ages. He had offered to pay her handsomely on the condition that he could also take rest in her dwelling. The deal concluded, she had led him into the little attic room where she lived, close to the law courts. “You’re not my first,” she had said, on seeing the half-blood’s reptilian eyes.

Then she’d undressed.

An hour later, she was asleep. As for Saint-Lucq, he had remained awake for a moment, looking at the stripped plaster ceiling. He had no preference for the company of prostitutes but their bought hospitality had its advantages-one being that, unlike hoteliers, they did not keep a guest register.

The scratching continued.

Saint-Lucq rose, put on his breeches and his shirt, listened carefully, and drew back the nasty brown rag which served as a curtain to the sole window. The sound was coming from there. Daylight entered, and the silhouette of a black dragonnet was clearly visible behind the pane of glass.

The half-blood was still for a moment.

“Is he yours?”

The young woman-she claimed to be called Madeleine, “like the other Magdalene”-sat up and, squinting in the light, grumbled: “No. But it seems to think so… I made the mistake of feeding it two or three times. Now it won’t stop coming here to beg for more.”

Truly wild dragonnets had almost disappeared in France. But those that were lost, had escaped, or had been abandoned by their masters lived in the cities like stray cats.

“Find me something to feed him,” ordered Saint-Lucq as he opened the window.

“Oh, no! I want to persuade him to go elsewhere. And it’s not-”

“I’ll pay for it as well. Surely you have something he’ll eat?”

Madeleine rose, naked, while the half-blood watched the dragonnet and the dragonnet watched the half-blood, with equal wariness. The reptile’s scales shone in the light of the waning sun.

“There,” said Madeleine, bringing in a cloth tied together at the corners.

Saint-Lucq untied the linen and found a half-eaten dried-up sausage.

“That’s all?”

“That’s all,” confirmed the young woman, already back in bed. “But there’s a roast-meat seller on the street corner, if you like…”

Hand held flat, the half-blood presented a morsel of sausage to the dragonnet. The animal hesitated, sniffed, took the food in at the tip of its pointed muzzle, and seemed to chew it with some regret.

“You prefer your victims to be alive and fighting, don’t you?” murmured Saint-Lucq. “Well, so do I…”

“What are you saying?” asked Madeleine from the bed.

He didn’t reply, and continued to feed the dragonnet.

A wyvern-which, ridden by a royal messenger, was returning to the Louvre-passed high above them, giving voice to a hollow cry from the skies. As though responding to the great reptile’s call, the black dragonnet suddenly spread its leathery wings and was gone.

Saint-Lucq shut the window, swallowed the remains of the sausage, and finished getting dressed.

“You’re leaving?” asked Madeleine.

“So it would seem.”

“You have a meeting?”

“Yes.”

“Who with?”

The half-blood hesitated, then offered a truth so incredible it might as well be a lie.

“With the Grand Coesre.”

The prostitute laughed loudly.

“Oh, really! Say hello for me. And to the entire Court of Miracles, while you’re at it…!”

Saint-Lucq simply smiled.

A minute later, he buttoned his doublet, hung his sheathed sword from his belt, and fitted his strange spectacles with their crimson lenses. Then, from the attic room’s threshold, the door already half open, he turned and threw two pieces of silver on to the bed.

The gesture astonished Madeleine since she had already been paid for her services.

“That’s a lot for a little bit of sausage,” she teased him.

“The first coin is for you to feed the dragonnet if it returns.”

“Done. And the second?”

“It’s so you don’t forget what the first is for.”