"Some whats, now?"
"Cuts," said Monza.
"'Course it will. Nothing in life worth doing that doesn't need a blade, eh?"
Scopal shuffled the instruments around on the little table. "Followed by some stitches, the removal of the useless flesh—"
"Dig out the dead wood? I'm all for it. Let's have a fresh start."
"Might I suggest a pipe?"
"Fuck, yes," he heard Monza whisper.
"Suggest away," said Shivers. "I'm getting bored o' pain the last few weeks."
The eye-maker bowed his head, eased off to charge the pipe. "I remember you getting your hair cut," said Monza. "Nervous as a lamb at its first shearing."
"Heh. True."
"Now look at you, keen to be fitted for an eye."
"A wise man once told me you have to be realistic. Strange how fast we change, ain't it, when we have to?"
She frowned back at him. "Don't change too far. I've got to go."
"No stomach for the eye-making business?"
"I've got to renew an acquaintance."
"Old friend?"
"Old enemy."
Shivers grinned. "Dearer yet. Watch you don't get killed, eh?" And he settled back in the chair, pulled the strap tight round his forehead. "We've still got work to do." He closed his good eye, the lamplight glowing pink through the lid.
Prince of Prudence
Grand duke rogont had made his headquarters in the Imperial Bath-Hall. The building was still one of the greatest in Puranti, casting half the square at the east end of the old bridge into shadow. But like the rest of the city, it had seen better centuries. Half its great pediment and two of the six mighty pillars that once held it up had collapsed lifetimes before, the stone pilfered for the mismatched walls of newer, meaner buildings. The stained masonry sprouted with grass, with dead ivy, with a couple of stubborn little trees, even. Probably baths had been a higher priority when it was built, before everyone in Styria started trying to kill each other. Happy times, when keeping the water hot enough had been anyone's biggest worry. The crumbling building might have whispered of the glories of a lost age, but made a sad comment on Styria's long decline.
If Monza had cared a shit.
But she had other things on her mind. She waited for a gap to appear between one tramping company of Rogont's retreating army and the next, then she forced her shoulders back and strode across the square. Up the cracked steps of the Bath-Hall, trying to walk with all her old swagger while her crooked hip bone clicked back and forth in its socket and sent stings right through her arse. She pushed her hood back, keeping her eyes fixed on the foremost of the guards, a grizzled-looking veteran wide as a door with a scar down one colourless cheek.
"I need to speak to Duke Rogont," she said.
"Of course."
"I'm Mon… what?" She'd been expecting to explain herself. Probably to be laughed at. Possibly to be strung up from one of the pillars. Certainly not to be invited in.
"You're General Murcatto." The man had a twist to his grey mouth that came somewhere near a smile. "And you're expected. I'll need the sword, though." She frowned as she handed it over, liking the feel of this less than if they'd kicked her down the street.
There was a great pool in the marble hall beyond, surrounded by tall columns, murky water smelling strongly of rot. Her old enemy Grand Duke Rogont was poring over a map on a folding table, in a sober grey uniform, lips thoughtfully pursed. A dozen officers clustered about him, enough gold braid between them to rig a carrack. A couple looked up as she made her way around the fetid pond towards them.
"It's her," she heard one say, his lip well curled.
"Mur… cat… to," another, as if the very name was poison. No doubt it was to them. She'd been making fools of these very men for the past few years and the more of a fool a man is, the less he cares to look like one. Still, the general with the smallest numbers should remain always on the offensive, Stolicus wrote. So she walked up unhurried, the thumb of her bandaged left hand hooked carelessly in her belt, as if this was her bath and she was the one with all the swords.
"If it isn't the Prince of Prudence, Duke Rogont. Well met, your Cautiousness. A proud-looking set of comrades you've got here, for men who've spent seven years retreating. Still, at least you're not retreating today." She let it sink in for a moment. "Oh, wait. You are."
That forced a few chins to haughtily rise, a nostril or two to flare. But the dark eyes of Rogont himself shifted up from the map without any rush, a little tired, perhaps, but still irritatingly handsome and at ease. "General Murcatto, what a pleasure! I wish we could have met after a great battle, preferably with you as a crestfallen prisoner, but my victories have been rather thin on the ground."
"Rare as summer snows."
"And you, so cloaked in glories. I feel quite naked under your victorious glare." He peered towards the back of the hall. "But wherever are your all-conquering Thousand Swords now?"
Monza sucked her teeth. "Faithful Carpi's borrowed them from me."
"Without asking? How… rude. I fear you are too much soldier and not enough politician. I fear I am the opposite. Words may hold more power than swords, as Juvens said, but I have discovered to my cost that there are times when there is no substitute for pointy metal."
"These are the Years of Blood."
"Indeed they are. We are all the prisoners of circumstance, and circumstances have left me once again with no other choice but bitter retreat. The noble Lirozio, Duke of Puranti and owner of this wonderful bath, was as staunch and warlike an ally as could be imagined when Duke Orso's power was long leagues away on the other side of the great walls of Musselia. You should have heard him gnash his teeth, his sword never so eager to spring forth and spill hot blood."
"Men love to talk about fighting." Monza let her eyes wander over the sullen faces of Rogont's advisors. "Some like to dress for it, too. Getting blood on the uniforms is a different matter."
A couple of angry head-tosses from the peacocks, but Rogont only smiled. "My own sad realisation. Now Musselia's great walls are breached, thanks to you, Borletta fallen, thanks to you, and Visserine burned too. The army of Talins, ably assisted by your erstwhile comrades, the Thousand Swords, are picking the country clean on Lirozio's very doorstep. The brave duke finds his enthusiasm for drum and bugle much curtailed. Powerful men are as inconstant as the shifting water. I should have picked weaker allies."
"Bit late for that."
The duke puffed out his cheeks. "Too late, too late, shall be my epitaph. At Sweet Pines I arrived but two days tardy, and rash Salier had fought and lost without me. So Caprile was left helpless before your well-documented wrath." That was a fool's version of the story, but Monza kept it to herself, for now. "At Musselia I arrived with all my power, prepared to hold the great walls and block the Gap of Etris against you, and found you had stolen the city the day before, picked it clean already and now held the walls against me." More injury to the truth, but Monza kept her peace. "Then at the High Bank I found myself unavoidably detained by the late General Ganmark, while the also late Duke Salier, quite determined not to be fooled by you a second time, was fooled by you a second time and his army scattered like chaff on a stiff wind. So Borletta…" He stuck his tongue between his lips, jerked his thumb towards the floor and blew a loud farting sound. "So brave Duke Cantain…" He drew one finger across his throat and blew another. "Too late, too late. Tell me, General Murcatto, how come you are always first to the field?"