The horse wheeled, and the vast flat checkerboard of the Sto plain sped underneath them at lightning speed. This was rich country, full of silt and rolling cabbage fields and neat little kingdoms whose boundaries wriggled like snakes as small, formal wars, marriage pacts, complex alliances and the occasional bit of sloppy cartography changed the political shape of the land.
“This king,” said Mort, as a forest zipped beneath them, “is he good or bad?”
I NEVER CONCERN MYSELF WITH SUCH THINGS, said Death. HE’S NO WORSE THAN ANY OTHER KING, I IMAGINE.
“Does he have people put to death?” said Mort, and remembering who he was talking to added, “Saving y’honour’s presence, of course.”
SOMETIMES. THERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU HAVE TO DO, WHEN YOU’RE A KING.
A city slid below them, clustered around a castle built on a rock outcrop that poked up out of the plain like a geological pimple. It was one huge rock from the distant Ramtops, Death said, left there by the retreating ice in the legendary days when the Ice Giants waged war on the gods and rode their glaciers across the land in an attempt to freeze the whole world. They’d given up in the end, however, and driven their great glittering flocks back to their hidden lands among the razor-backed mountains near the Hub. No-one on the plains knew why they had done this; it was generally considered by the younger generation in the city of Sto Lat, the city around the rock, that it was because the place was dead boring.
Binky trotted down over nothingness and touched down on the flagstones of the castle’s topmost tower. Death dismounted and told Mort to sort out the nosebag.
“Won’t people notice there’s a horse up here?” he said, as they strolled to a stairwell.
Death shook his head.
WOULD YOU BELIEVE THERE COULD BE A HORSE AT THE TOP OF THIS TOWER? he said.
“No. You couldn’t get one up these stairs,” said Mort.
WELL, THEN?
“Oh. I see. People don’t want to see what can’t possibly exist.”
WELL DONE.
Now they were walking along a wide corridor hung with tapestries. Death reached into his robe and pulled out an hourglass, peering closely at it in the dim light.
It was a particularly fine one, its glass cut into intricate facets and imprisoned in an ornate framework of wood and brass. The words ‘King Olerve the Bastard’ were engraved deeply into it.
The sand inside sparkled oddly. There wasn’t a lot left.
Death hummed to himself and stowed the glass away in whatever mysterious recess it had occupied.
They turned a corner and hit a wall of sound. There was a hall full of people there, under a cloud of smoke and chatter that rose all the way up into the banner-haunted shadows in the roof. Up in a gallery a trio of minstrels were doing their best to be heard and not succeeding.
The appearance of Death didn’t cause much of a stir. A footman by the door turned to him, opened his mouth and then frowned in a distracted way and thought of something else. A few courtiers glanced in their direction, their eyes instantly unfocusing as common sense overruled the other five.
WE’VE GOT A FEW MINUTES, said Death, taking a drink from a passing tray, LET’S MINGLE.
“They can’t see me either!” said Mort. “But I’m real!”
REALITY IS NOT ALWAYS WHAT IT SEEMS, said Death. ANYWAY, IF THEY DON’T WANT TO SEE ME, THEY CERTAINLY DON’T WANT TO SEE YOU. THESE ARE ARISTOCRATS, BOY. THEY’RE GOOD AT NOT SEEING THINGS. WHY IS THERE A CHERRY ON A STICK IN THIS DRINK?
“Mort,” said Mort automatically.
IT’S NOT AS IF IT DOES ANYTHING FOR THE FLAVOUR. WHY DOES ANYONE TAKE A PERFECTLY GOOD DRINK AND THEN PUT IN A CHERRY ON A POLE?
“What’s going to happen next?” said Mort. An elderly earl bumped into his elbow, looked everywhere but directly at him, shrugged and walked away.
TAKE THESE THINGS, NOW, said Death, fingering a passing canape. I MEAN, MUSHROOMS YES, CHICKEN YES, CREAM YES, I’VE NOTHING AGAINST ANY OF THEM, BUT WHY IN THE NAME OF SANITY MINCE THEM ALL UP AND PUT THEM IN LITTLE PASTRY CASES?
“Pardon?” said Mort.
THAT’S MORTALS FOR YOU, Death continued. THEY’VE ONLY GOT A FEW YEARS IN THIS WORLD AND THEY SPEND THEM ALL IN MAKING THINGS COMPLICATED FOR THEMSELVES. FASCINATING. HAVE A GHERKIN.
“Where’s the king?” said Mort, craning to look over the heads of the court.
CHAP WITH THE GOLDEN BEARD, said Death. He tapped a flunky on the shoulder, and as the man turned and looked around in puzzlement deftly piloted another drink from his tray.
Mort cast around until he saw the figure standing in a little group in the centre of the crowd, leaning over slightly the better to hear what a rather short courtier was saying to him. He was a tall, heavily-built man with the kind of stolid, patient face that one would confidently buy a used horse from.
“He doesn’t look a bad king,” said Mort. “Why would anyone want to kill him?”
SEE THE MAN NEXT TO HIM? WITH THE LITTLE MOUSTACHE AND THE GRIN LIKE A LIZARD? Death pointed with his scythe.
“Yes?”
HIS COUSIN, THE DUKE OF STO HELIT. NOT THE NICEST OF PEOPLE, said Death. A HANDY MAN WITH A BOTTLE OF POISON. FIFTH IN LINE TO THE THRONE LAST YEAR, NOW SECOND IN LINE. BIT OF A SOCIAL CLIMBER, YOU MIGHT SAY. He fumbled inside his robe and produced an hourglass in which black sand coursed between a spiked iron latticework. He gave it an experimental shake. AND DUE TO LIVE ANOTHER THIRTY, THIRTY-FIVE YEARS, he said, with a sigh.
“And he goes around killing people?” said Mort. He shook his head. “There’s no justice.”
Death sighed. NO, he said, handing his drink to a page who was surprised to find he was suddenly holding an empty glass, THERE’S JUST ME.
He drew his sword, which had the same ice blue, shadow-thin blade as the scythe of office, and stepped forward.
“I thought you used the scythe,” whispered Mort.
KINGS GET THE SWORD, said Death. IT’S A ROYAL WHATSNAME, PREROGATIVE.
His free hand thrust its bony digits beneath his robe again and brought out King Olerve’s glass. In the top half the last few grains of sand were huddling together.
PAY CAREFUL ATTENTION, said Death, YOU MAY BE ASKED QUESTIONS AFTERWARDS.
“Wait,” said Mort, wretchedly. “It’s not fair. Can’t you stop it?”
FAIR? said Death. WHO SAID ANYTHING ABOUT FAIR?
“Well, if the other man is such a—”
LISTEN, said Death, FAIR DOESN’T COME INTO IT. YOU CAN’T TAKE SIDES. GOOD GRIEF. WHEN IT’S TIME, IT’S TIME. THAT’S ALL THERE IS TO IT, BOY.
“Mort,” moaned Mort, staring at the crowd.
And then he saw her. A random movement in the people opened up a channel between Mort and a slim, red-haired girl seated among a group of older women behind the king. She wasn’t exactly beautiful, being over-endowed in the freckle department and, frankly, rather on the skinny side. But the sight of her caused a shock that hot-wired Mort’s hindbrain and drove it all the way to the pit of his stomach, laughing nastily.
IT’S TIME, said Death, giving Mort a nudge with a sharp elbow. FOLLOW ME.
Death walked toward the king, weighing his sword in his hand. Mort blinked, and started to follow. The girl’s eyes met his for a second and immediately looked away—then swivelled back, dragging her head around, her mouth starting to open in an ‘o’ of horror.
Mort’s backbone melted. He started to run towards the king.
“Look out!” he screamed. “You’re in great danger!”
And the world turned into treacle. It began to fill up with blue and purple shadows, like a heatstroke dream, and sound faded away until the roar of the court became distant and scritchy, like the music in someone else’s headphones. Mort saw Death standing companionably by the king, his eyes turned up towards—