Treachery of Kings

FIFTY-NINE

It's all a terrible muddle,” Finn said. “Sticks and Bricks, Letitia, I know Gherick despised the Prince, but I cannot believe he'd go so far as to betray his own brother. Damn me, are they all daft? Clearly, forces on both sides have kept the war going for seven hundred years-so everyone can make money, everyone can have a job!”

“And so many can die,” Letitia sighed. “It's a terrible kind of trade where you come home from work without a limb, or you don't come home at all.”

Finn held her close, feeling the warmth, the sweetness of her downy flesh against his own. In the dark, her enormous Mycer eyes mirrored the buttery light of the moon that fell across their bed.

“It is a great sorrow, Letitia, that we are led down such a hurtful path by men such as Aghen Aghenfleck. Even King Llowenkeef-Grymm, though I thought him a pompous fool, had more kindness in him than the Prince.

“Someone in the palace was the Prince's agent, but I'm perplexed as to who it might be. Certainly it wasn't Maddigern, and I'm nearly sure it couldn't be the seer. It had to be someone we didn't know. Some royal or noble, perhaps. Someone who fooled the Princess DeFloraine-Marie into passing that ring to me.”

“By the way, I must remind you that it took a very long while for you to tell me about this ring. Not the sort of thing I wished to hear in a swamp while those awful bugs were biting me to death.”

“Quite frankly, I thought nothing more of the object she'd given me-or why-until we had a moment to catch our breath. Damn it all, Letitia! I'd have tossed the thing away if I'd known the dire message it contained-that my action would condemn poor Gherick!”

“You couldn't have known, my dear. Only men of a vile and treacherous nature weave such webs of sorrow and deceit.”

Finn reached out to bring her closer to him.

They whispered together for a while, then her steady breathing told him she slept. He lay there with her, grateful they were together, and praying that nothing would part them again.

He dozed for a time, then woke with a start, a most unpleasant dream of Badgies bringing him out of sleep.

Taking a care not to wake Letitia, he slipped out of bed and into his trousers, pulling on a heavy shirt against the cool of the night and feeling about for his boots.

What would happen now in Heldessia? he wondered. It would surely be a most traumatic moment when the King and his family learned it was not entirely true that napping was the same as being dead.

Maybe it would simply all go on without the seer about. Maybe the Millennial Bell would peal now and then, and the Gracious Dead would go about their duties as they'd always done before.

As he made his way carefully down the stairs, he remembered he'd forgotten to tell Letitia that Obern Oberbyght had been appointed the new Grand Sorcerer of Aghen Aghenfleck's court, for there had been a vacancy in that position since the Prince had executed the last poor magician on the Chopping of May.

Not a pleasant choice, as far as Finn was concerned. Still, since he omitted his own shortcomings in his tale to the prince, it seemed only fair-and prudent as well-to skim over other folks’ misdeeds.

When he thought of misdeeds, rogues and traders and thieves, he couldn't help but grin, and wish good Bucerius luck, wherever his ventures might take him now. He was surely a fellow who was there in time of need, and more than worthy to be named a friend

“Going out, are you? I suggest you wear a cloak, Finn. It's chipper out there tonight.”

Finn caught Julia's ruby eyes blinking in the dark. She sat at the foot of the stairs, no doubt pretending she could sleep.

“I'm walking out front for a moment, if that's all right with you.”

“Why ask for my feelings on this, or any other matter? I am only a machine, a mechanical device, an artifice, a thing, a creature of cogs and gears and wheels… “

“To say nothing of a creature who talks a great deal. Be sure and mention that.”

“Be sure and remember that I did not acquire this power of speech myself. I had some help in that.”

“I recall that indeed,” Finn said. “It's a thought that often haunts me in the night…”