“ I did not give an order to attempt to assassinate the Prince. What purpose would it serve? Especially now?”
Mother Northwind shrugged. “You hardly have to convince me. But I haven’t finished telling you what I learned.”
“Go on.”
“She believed she was carrying out the wishes of the Master of the Unbound… in alliance with the Common Cause.”
That was so unexpected Falk was struck speechless for a moment. “The Unbound in alliance with Commoner rabble-rousers?” he said at last. “Who could believe that?”
“Our would-be assassin, apparently. A Commoner herself, and a-call her a foot soldier-of the Common Cause, she was acting on orders from the Cause… but had been told that the magic that made her attack possible had come from the Unbound. What she thought of that, I cannot tell. There are limits to what may be retrieved from the dead.” She smiled sweetly. “But perhaps, Lord Falk, you are not as fully in control of the Unbound as you think.”
Falk’s eyes narrowed. “You have personally vetted every member of the Unbound, have you not?”
“Every member you identified to me,” Mother Northwind said. “But there could be others you do not know of. A secret cult within a secret cult.”
Falk considered that, then shook his head. “Unlikely. Something would have come to my attention, through any of a hundred different channels.”
“And yet… someone provided this Commoner with the means to assassinate the Prince,” Mother Northwind pointed out. “Someone who wanted the Unbound blamed for it.”
“Someone who wanted to hide their own tracks,” Falk said. “Someone with their own reasons to want the Prince eliminated.”
Mother Northwind held out her hands to the fire. An enormous tabby cat that had been snoozing on the hearth stood up, stretched, and walked over to her. She rubbed its head, and even from across the room Falk could hear the animal’s purring. “And who would that be, exactly?”
“I don’t know,” Falk admitted. “You say the assassin was a “foot soldier” of the Common Cause, but I do not understand why the Cause would want to kill the Prince any more than the Unbound. Even Commoners would know that would accomplish nothing, that the Keys would simply be passed on to someone else. And Karl… at Tagaza’s urging… has spent a lot of time representing the Crown in the Commons. They know him. Why risk bringing to power a King who might be less sympathetic to Commoners?” He scratched his chin thoughtfully. “The only reason I can think of is the one I told Karclass="underline" that the Cause might have wanted to kill him simply as an act of terror, to show they can strike inside the Barrier. But my dungeons are already filling with those arrested in response, and they must have known that would be the response. So what did they hope to accomplish?”
“It’s a quandary,” Mother Northwind said. “I wish you luck in figuring it out.” She patted her lap, and the cat leaped up, turned itself around, and settled down happily, kneading her leg with its claws as she continued to pet it.
Falk tapped his fingers on the table. “I suppose it could be a.. . bargaining tactic,” he said slowly. “Perhaps they believe if they cause the MageLords enough pain, we will negotiate more self-rule for them.” He shook his head. “They talk about the ‘will of the people,’ as if you could choose a leader just by letting everyone have a say in the process… as if it that would not inevitably lead to chaos and anarchy, with so many conflicting interests in play.”
“Not nearly as neat and tidy as now,” Mother Northwind said, and he shot a glance at her, uncertain whether she was being sarcastic. She gazed back blandly. After a moment, he went on.
“They’re mad, but still… that could be their motivation. But why did they involve magic in their attack? And how? What mage would work with them? And why tell their assassin the Unbound were supposedly in alliance with them? Why not carry out the attempt through nonmagical means, and then claim full responsibility? As I said, Karl is often in the Commons. They could have killed him at any time.”
“All good questions, Lord Falk.”
Falk grunted. “Well, then, here’s another. Why did the attack fail? The corpse in your cellar isn’t Karl’s. The magic intended to kill him killed his would-be assassin instead.”
“Very mysterious,” Mother Northwind said. “But I do not understand the workings of hard magic as well as I do soft.” She scratched the cat behind the ears. “It is all beyond me.” The cat had suddenly had enough; it got up, stretched, and jumped onto the floor. “Oh, I almost forgot. I did… acquire… one other piece of information. A name, prominent in the girl’s mind.”
Falk sat very still. “And you ‘almost forgot’ to mention it?” he said, his voice dangerously soft.
Mother Northwind smiled, brushing cat hair from her apron. “I’m mentioning it now, aren’t I? Besides, it’s hardly a name one should be surprised to find in the mind of someone living in New Cabora.”
“Someone well-known?”
“Extremely.” Mother Northwind met his eyes. “The playwright, Davydd Verdsmitt.”
Falk felt a kind of… pleasure… at hearing that name. He had long suspected Verdsmitt of being involved with the radical side of the Cause. “Why would she be thinking of Verdsmitt at the moment of the attack?”
“Another good question, Lord Falk.”
Falk snorted. “You give me more questions than answers, Mother Northwind.”
“I am a simple country healer and midwife,” Mother Northwind said. “What answers could I possibly offer someone as highly placed and powerful as you?”
Falk let that pass. “Well, as always, I thank you for the information you have provided. I will send my men to remove your… guest… in the morning.”
“Always happy to serve,” Mother Northwind said. She smiled again. “And now, I suspect, you intend to ask my help in the matter of your unexpected visitor from beyond the Barrier.”
I shouldn’t be surprised she knows about that, Falk thought. But I wish I knew how she knew. “Yes,” he said. “I cannot simply rely on what he might freely tell me-”
“Or Brenna?”
“Or Brenna,” Falk said, again startled by Mother Northwind’s knowledge, though he let nothing of it show on his face. “I need to know… everything he knows.”
“My humble abilities are entirely at your command,” Mother Northwind said. “But as you know, Lord Falk, ‘everything’ is a very great deal indeed. I can strip his mind of all knowledge, but you know what that would do to him.”
Indeed, Lord Falk knew. Among those publically executed as members of the Unbound, to demonstrate his hatred of the cult, were the drooling, blank-eyed results of that kind of questioning.
“We need not go that far,” Falk said. “Not to start with, at least. The boy may have other uses. But whatever you can find out without harming him, I must know. In particular, how that flying device of his operates.”
Mother Northwind nodded. “I would be interested to know that myself. Very well, Lord Falk. When would you like me to call on you?”
“Let’s say… an hour after sunrise. In my study in the manor. “
“I am not an early riser, Lord Falk, but for you… I suppose I can make an exception.”
Falk stood. “Thank you,” he said. “Until the morrow, then. Good night, Mother Northwind.”
“Good night, Lord Falk.”
Falk let himself out and, deep in thought, walked back toward the manor. So the assassin had had Davydd Verdsmitt front and center in her mind… and shortly the playwright himself would be inside the Barrier, presenting his new play at the Palace. Falk needed to be there. He would have to leave on the morrow… after Mother Northwind had extracted whatever information she could from the boy from Outside, and he had decided what to do with him… and with his flying machine.
A great deal would depend on whether the machine could be made to fly again. If so, then until others could be trained in its operation-and more of the machines could be constructed-he would need the boy as a pilot. Even if the machine could not be fixed, the boy would continue to be useful as a source of information and even, possibly, a hostage once the Barrier was down.