The fellow tugged his mustache. "Can"t say I"ve seen "im, but I"ve just come on duty. He might be downstairs."
I hoped not, but I"d deal with that if I had to. "Who"s on duty downstairs? John?" John was a good, common name.
His eyes widened a bit. "John Saddlehorn, yes. And Mikey the Fish."
I nodded as if I knew them both. "Well, I don"t mind asking them myself. If Captain Kiggs shows up, would you please let him know I"m already below?"
"Hold on," he said. "What"s this about? Who are you?"
I gave him a lightly flabbergasted look. "Seraphina Dombegh, daughter of the eminent lawyer Claude Dombegh, the Crown"s expert on Comonot"s Treaty. Captain Kiggs wanted my insight in questioning the knights. Am I in the wrong place? I had understood they were being held here."
The guard scratched under his helmet, looking conflicted. I suspected he didn"t have specific orders against letting anyone down, but he still didn"t think he should.
"Come with me, if you like," I offered. "I have a few questions about the dragon they saw. I hope we can identify it."
He hesitated, but agreed to accompany me downstairs. Two guards sat outside a stout wooden door, playing kingfish on an upturned barrel; they lowered their cards confusedly at the sight of us. My guard jerked his thumb toward the stairs. "Mikey, take the top. When the captain arrives, tell him Maid Dombegh is already here."
"What"s this, then?" said the one called John as my guard unlocked the door.
"She"s to question the prisoners. I"ll go in with her; you stay here."
I didn"t want him there but saw no immediate way to prevent it. "You"re coming in for my protection? Are they very dangerous?"
He laughed. "Maidy, they"re old men. You"re going to have to speak loudly."
The two knights sat up on their straw pallets, blinking at the light. I gave them half courtesy, keeping close by the door. They weren"t as decrepit as reported. They were gray-haired and bony, but had a certain wiry toughness; if the brightness of their eyes was any indication, they were playing "helpless old men" for everything they could.
"What have you brought us, lad?" asked the stouter one, who was bald and mustachioed. "Do you supply your prisoners with women now, or is this some newfangled way of making us talk?"
He was impugning my virtue. I ought to have been offended, but for some reason the idea tickled me. That could be my next career: instrument of torture! Seducing prisoners, and then revealing my scales! They would confess out of sheer horror.
The guard turned red. "Have some respect!" he bl.u.s.tered through his mustache. "She"s here on behalf of Captain Kiggs and Counselor Dombegh. You will answer her questions properly, or we will find harder quarters for you, Grandpa."
"It"s all right," I said. "Would you mind leaving us?"
"Maid Dombegh, you heard what he just said. It wouldn"t be proper!"
"It will be perfectly fine," I a.s.sured him in a soothing voice. "Captain Kiggs will be down any minute now."
He set the torch in a sconce and left me, grumbling. The room, which served as storage most of the time, contained some small casks; I pulled one up, sat down, and smiled warmly at the old men. "Which of you is which?" I said, realizing I would already know their names if I were here legitimately. To my embarra.s.sment, I recognized the skinnier of the two, the one who hadn"t spoken yet. He had shooed Orma away from me at that disastrous dragon procession five years ago and had helped Maurizio carry me home. I had grown a lot taller since then, and he was old; maybe he didn"t remember me.
"Sir Karal Halfholder," he said, sitting up straighter. He was dressed like a peasant, tunic, clogs, grubbiness, and all, but his mien was that of a well-bred man. "My brother-in-arms, Sir Cuthberte Pettybone."
It was Sir Cuthberte who"d taken me for a strumpet. He bowed, saying, "My apologies, Maid Dombegh. I should not have been so boorish."
Sir Karal attempted to preempt my next question: "We"ll never tell you where our brothers are hiding!"
"You"d have to seduce us first!" Sir Cuthberte twirled his mustache. Sir Karal glared at him, and Cuthberte cried, "She"s smiling! She knows I jest!"
I did know. For some reason, it kept being funny. Old men, hidden for decades with only other old men for company, found me worth flirting with. That was something.
"The Crown knows where your order is," I said, suspecting that was likely true. "I don"t care about that; I want to know where you saw the dragon."
"It came right up to our camp!" said Sir Karal. "We said that!"
Oops. I"d have known that if I weren"t lying. I tried to sound impatient: "From which angle? From the north? The village? The wood?" Saints in Heaven, let there be a village and a wood nearby. In Goredd, both were a good bet but not guaranteed.
However, I"d got them thinking, so they didn"t notice my ignorance. "It was dark," said Sir Karal, scratching the stubble on his skinny chicken neck. "But you"re right, the beast could be staying in the village as a saarantras. That hadn"t occurred to us; we"d been looking to the limestone caves, south."
My heart sank. If it was dark, they hadn"t seen much. "You"re certain it was a dragon?"
They looked at me disdainfully. "Maidy," said Sir Karal, "we fought in the wars. I was left punch in a dracomachia unit. I have soared through the sky, dangling by my harpoon from a dragon"s flank while flaming pyria whizzed around me, scanning the ground desperately for a soft place to land when the beast finally caught fire."
"We all have," said Sir Cuthberte quietly, clapping his comrade on the shoulder.
"You don"t forget dragons," snarled Sir Karal. "When I am blind and deaf, senile and stroke-addled, I will still know when I"m in the presence of a dragon."
Sir Cuthberte smiled weakly. "They radiate heat, and they smell of brimstone."
"They radiate evil! My soul will know, even if body and mind don"t work!"
His hatred hurt me more than it had any right to. I swallowed and tried to keep my voice pleasant: "Did you get a good look at this particular dragon? We suspect we know who he is, but any confirming detail would help. Distinctive horn or wing damage, for example, or coloration-"
"It was dark," said Sir Karal flatly.
"It had a perforation in its right wing," offered Sir Cuthberte. "Closest membrane to its body. Shape of a ... I don"t know. A rat, I want to say. The way they hunch their backs when they eat." He demonstrated, realized how silly he looked, and laughed.
I laughed back, and pulled out my charcoal pencil. "Draw it on the wall, please."
Both knights stared at the pencil, horror writ large on their faces. St. Masha and St. Daan. It was a draconian innovation.
Mercifully, they blamed not me but the peace. "They infiltrate everything, these worms," cried Sir Karal. "They"ve got our women carrying their blasted devices as casually as smelling oils!"
Sir Cuthberte took it nonetheless and drew a shape upon the wall"s graying plaster. Sir Karal corrected the shape. They squabbled a bit but finally settled on something that did, indeed, look like a rodent eating corn.
"That was his only distinguishing mark?" I asked.
"It was dark," said Sir Cuthberte. "We were lucky to make out that much."
"I hope it"s enough." Long experience with Orma told me the odds weren"t good.
"Whom do you suspect it is?" said Sir Karal, his fists clenched in his lap.
"A dragon called Imlann."
"General Imlann, who was banished?" asked Sir Cuthberte, looking unexpectedly delighted. The knights both whistled, long and low, producing an interval of rather apropos dissonance.
"Did you know him?"
"He led the Fifth Ard, didn"t he?" Sir Cuthberte asked his fellow.
Sir Karal nodded gravely. "We fought the Fifth twice, but I never grappled the general. Sir James Peascod, at our camp, specialized in identification. He"d be your best bet. I don"t suppose you asked Sir James if he knew this dragon, did you, Cuthberte?"
"Didn"t occur to me."
"Pity," sniffed Sir Karal. "Still, how does knowing his name help you catch him?"
I didn"t know, now that he mentioned it, but tried to answer logically: "We can"t catch him without the emba.s.sy"s help, and they won"t help us if they don"t believe us. They might be motivated if we had proof it was Imlann."
Sir Karal turned dangerously red; I could see his pulse at his temple. "That baby-eating worm was in clear violation of the treaty. You"d think that would be enough for them, if they had any honor! Be it known that we upheld our part of that accursed agreement. We didn"t attack it, although we could have!"
Sir Cuthberte snorted. "Who could have? Pender and Foughfaugh? That would have been over in seconds."
Sir Karal glared venom at Sir Cuthberte. "I tire of this. Where"s Captain Kiggs?"
"Good question," I said, rising and dusting off my skirts. "I"ll look for him. Thank you for your time, gentle knights."
Sir Karal rose and bowed. Sir Cuthberte said, "What? No kiss?"
I blew him a kiss, laughing, and left.
Outside, the guards seemed surprised to see me. "Captain Kiggs still hasn"t arrived, Maid Dombegh," said John, pushing back his helmet.
I smiled, merry with relief that this was over and I"d gotten away with it. I would return to my rooms, contact Orma on the kitten spinet, and see whether he could identify his father from the perforation. "Captain Kiggs must have been detained. No matter-I"m finished here. I"ll go see whether I can find him."
"You won"t have far to go," said a voice from halfway up the stairs.
Prince Lucian descended the stairs, and my heart descended into my stomach.
I dared not let my eyes widen in horror or the guards would be on to me; to buy myself some time, I curtsied deeply, to a slow count of three.
The prince, when I finally dared to look at him again, seemed amused. He gestured broadly. "You are finished here, one hopes?"
"Yes, thank you," I said, managing to keep any tremor out of my voice. "If you wish to question the knights yourself, perhaps I can meet you tomorrow morning-"
"Oh no," he said lightly, his smile hardening. "I rather think you"re meeting with me now. Wait for me upstairs, if you would be so kind."
I had no option but to climb the stairs. Behind me, the prince said, "Who remembers what my token looks like? Right. And did Maid Dombegh bear my token?"
"But, sir, we weren"t to start that protocol until Comonot arrives!"
"We"re starting it tonight. Only someone with my token speaks in my name."
"Were we wrong to let her down here, Captain?" said John.
Lucian Kiggs paused before answering: "No. You followed your instincts about her, and they did not lead you astray. But it"s time to tighten things up, hm? The palace will be full of strangers soon."
He started up the stairs; I hurried to reach the top before he did. The look he gave me when he reached the top was less amused. He acknowledged Mikey the Fish"s salute, grabbed me by the right elbow, and marched me up the corridor.
"Who are you working for?" he asked when we were out of earshot.
Was this a trick question? "Viridius."
He stopped and faced me, his brows pulled together darkly. "This is your chance to tell the truth. I dislike games of cat and mouse. You"re caught; don"t toy with me."
Sweet Heavenly Home, he thought I was some sort of agent for a foreign government, perhaps-or for some individual. A dragon, say. Maybe he wasn"t wrong. "Could we talk somewhere besides the hallway, please?"
He glanced up and down the pa.s.sage, frowning. The east wing was full of servants and storage, kitchens and workshops. He led me up a short hallway and unlocked the heavy door at the end with a key. He lit a lantern at the hall sconce, ushered me through the door, and closed it behind us. We were at the bottom of a spiral stair leading up into blackness. Instead of climbing the stairs, however, he seated himself about five steps up and set the lantern beside him.
"What is this place?" I said, craning my neck to peer upward.
"My "beastly tower," Glisselda calls it." He seemed disinclined to discuss it further. The lantern lit him eerily from below, making it difficult to interpret his expression; he wasn"t smiling, in any case. "It would have been easy enough to interview the knights with my blessing. You had only to ask. I dislike your invoking my name under false pretenses."
"I-I shouldn"t have. I"m sorry," I stammered. Why had it seemed like a good idea? Why was I more prepared to bluff complete strangers than to speak plainly to this prince? I opened my purse cautiously, blocking any glimpse of the quig figurine, and pa.s.sed the gold coin to the prince. "My teacher, Orma, also has a concern regarding a possible rogue dragon. I promised him I"d speak to you."
Lucian Kiggs silently examined the coin in the lantern light. He"d been so chatty before; his silence unnerved me. But of course he was doubtful when I claimed to speak on someone else"s behalf. How could he not be? Saints" dogs, I"d miscalculated in bluffing his guards.
"A messenger gave him that coin after your uncle"s funeral," I pressed on. "Orma claims it belonged to his father."
"Then it probably did," he said, studying the back. "Dragons know their coins."
"His father is General Imlann, disgraced and banished for h.o.a.rding."
"h.o.a.rding doesn"t usually merit banishment," said the prince, his mouth set in a line. Even his looming shadow seemed skeptical.
"Imlann committed other crimes too, I believe. Orma didn"t lay it all out in detail." Here I was, already lying. It never ended. "He believes Imlann is here, in Goredd, and may be planning some harm to the Ardmagar or mischief to the celebrations or ... he doesn"t know what. It"s all vague supposition, alas."
Lucian Kiggs glanced from me to the coin and back. "You"re uncertain whether he"s right to be worried."
"Yes. My hope in speaking to the knights was that they could give me some identifying details, enabling me to confirm with Orma that their rogue dragon is Imlann. I didn"t want to waste your time with guesses."
He leaned forward intently. "Might Imlann have wished to harm my uncle?"
He was interested now; that was an immeasurable relief. "I don"t know. Did the council conclude that the rogue had something to do with Prince Rufus"s death?"
"The council concluded very little. Half the people there suspected the knights of fabricating the whole thing to stir up trouble and prevent Comonot"s visit."
"What do you think?" I pressed.
"I think I was on my way to speak with the knights myself when I learned that someone was already speaking to them in my name." He wagged a finger at me, but it was only a mock scolding. "What"s your impression? Did they truly see a dragon?"
"Yes."
He raised an eyebrow. "What makes you so sure?"
"I-I suppose it had to do with the kinds of detail they were and weren"t able to give me. I wish I could say it was more than just an intuition." I also wished I could say that being a liar myself gave me some insight into these things.
"Don"t shrug off intuition so blithely! I advise my men to notice gut reactions. Of course, they were wrong about you." He flashed me an irritated look, then seemed to think better of it. "No, let me amend that. They were wrong to believe I"d given you permission to speak with the prisoners, but they were not wrong about you."