I was disgusted to admit it, and I could see Estrada was even more dismayed, but it was only when Castilio Mounteban arrived late in the afternoon that the situation with Kalyxis began to improve. He never said what he’d come for, but he was quick enough to note the room full of Shoanish and the alarming figure standing tall in their midst, and to draw the correct conclusion.
Mounteban spoke a few muted words to Estrada, and then began to bark orders — orders that, unlike Estrada’s, were actually followed. As much as I sympathised with her, it made sense; for all her strength of personality, she was mayor of a town half the land away, while Mounteban had spent days making this city his own and making damned sure everyone knew about it.
Only once he’d established to his satisfaction that food and wine were on the way, that rooms would be arranged in an even larger nearby hostelry and that a representative sample of city dignitaries would be on hand for the proposed conference did Mounteban turn his attention to Kalyxis. She had been patiently observing all the while from the far end of the taproom. When Mounteban approached, she nodded to her men, and their ranks opened.
“It’s both a pleasure and an honour to make your acquaintance, my lady,” he said. “My name is Castilio Mounteban.”
“Mounteban?” Kalyxis replied, her tongue rolling round the word as though it were a cat playing with a dying bird. “Yes, I recognise that name. I remember a writer of implausible letters and a maker of dubious promises. I fear I owe you a messenger. The one you sent me was… ill-used.”
“Accidents will happen,” said Mounteban, with utter casualness. “A good envoy prepares accordingly. And I’ve never in my life made a promise I couldn’t keep.”
“I do seem to remember a certain trinket falling into my possession,” Kalyxis observed, “albeit briefly. It was stolen, I think, by a thief standing not far from us at this very moment.”
I flinched, at the word “thief” more than anything, for it took me a moment to realise she actually was referring to me. In sudden panic, I thought about protesting my innocence, about pointing out how her revolting grandson was the true culprit.
Perhaps fortunately, Mounteban was quicker on the uptake. “Nor would I give a gift and then allow it to be misappropriated,” he said. “I assure you, anything taken by anyone here will be returned to you before the sun sets.”
I’d also have liked to point out just how unlikely that was. But it was obvious I had no part in this conversation — and equally clear, though mystifying, that Mounteban was making progress with Kalyxis I might do better not to interrupt. I’d have expected her to see through such oily obsequiousness in a minute. Yet at that moment, a faint but undeniable smile was drawing upon her thin lips.
“You’re a man of grand claims, Castilio Mounteban,” she said, “and it’s clear that you have a little power in this ugly, unclean city. I extend to you the same offer I made the woman there. Deliver my grandson to me, make good on your gift, and you won’t have made yourself another enemy.”
“On the contrary,” said Mounteban, his smarm now so thick that I wondered how it wasn’t dripping from the rafters, “I hope that by the end of the day you’ll have learned to consider me a friend.” He even finished with a bow; it should have looked absurd from a man of his size, but somehow he managed to pull it off with a measure of grace.
Then, while Kalyxis was still judging what to make of his performance, he turned and marched back towards our end of the room, pressing through the barrier of Shoanish as though they were a throng of irksome children. Drawing close, he whispered to Estrada, “That should hold her a while.”
“Need I remind you,” she hissed back, “that the crown of Altapasaeda is not yours to bargain with?”
Mounteban stopped. He looked vaguely surprised and, I thought, disappointed. “And need I remind you,” he said, “that we’re in the middle of a war? Assuming Kalyxis wasn’t really stupid enough to come here with only this handful of men, don’t you imagine that her support is worth the loss of some obsolete gewgaw?”
I remembered the fleet that had pursued us from Shoan. Did Mounteban have a point? Could those other boats be waiting, in the underground harbour perhaps, for some order from their queen? If so, and if we could hold the King off for long enough, her support might mean the difference between victory and defeat.
Yet just then, that was far from the most important question on my mind. “You tricked us!” I spat. “As far as Kalyxis was concerned, we were just more of your disposable messengers! You sent us hurrying into a trap.”
Mounteban looked at me with contempt. “Would it have helped you to know I’d offered Kalyxis the crown?” His eyes roved back to Estrada. “Or would you have argued and wasted time we didn’t have? As usual, it fell to me to do what needed to be done.” And before she could respond, Mounteban had turned on his heel and was out the door.
I watched it slam shut behind him. The arrogance of the man was astounding, hypnotic even. Only in his absence could I properly appreciate how much I despised him. That was the problem with having so much to think about: important details, like who your real enemies were, tended to slip between the cracks.
Estrada and Alvantes had been quick enough to forget that the only reason we’d come back here was to make damned sure Mounteban never gave another order in his life. Now here he was, organising the city’s defence and brokering his twisted alliance with Kalyxis, back to running Altapasaeda as if nothing had ever happened.
Well, they might not remember, but I did. And even if I had to do it alone, I was going to take Mounteban down, once and for all. I had no idea how, but I was absolutely clear on the why: after every other despicable deed he’d somehow got away with, he had hurt my friend, and apparently thought nothing of it. I wouldn’t pretend I was doing it for Saltlick, who probably didn’t even have a word in his language for “revenge”; but that didn’t mean I couldn’t do it because of him. Before this was over, I would see Castilio Mounteban pay.
In the meantime, however, I wasn’t sure what I should do with myself. I very much wanted a drink, and to be out of that room cramped with ill-smelling barbarians. Since I was in an inn, there was a realistic hope of the former, but I suspected the latter remained a doubtful hope at best. Just to make certain, I asked Estrada, “I suppose my attendance is required at this momentous meeting?”
Estrada, whose eyes had been fixed on the door since Mounteban’s abrupt departure, looked at me distractedly. “I think Kalyxis will expect to see you here.”
“I’d hate to disappoint the lovely lady,” I said sourly.
Then, spying a bottle behind the bar and no one watching, I started in that direction — but Estrada called me back. “Wait,” she said, “I meant to tell you. I asked one of the guardsmen to check in on Saltlick, and he sent word just before Castilio arrived. Saltlick’s alive, Easie… but they can’t say for sure that he’ll last the night. Apparently he was conscious for a little while; I’m sure he’d like to see you.”
“I’ll tell you what,” I said, trying hard to keep the sudden quaver out of my voice, “if Kalyxis doesn’t have my head for kidnapping her idiot grandson, I promise Saltlick’s bedside will be my first port of call.”
“And I promise I won’t let her have your head,” Estrada said. “No one’s going to bargain with your life, Easie.”
“But you’d rather I didn’t wander too far in the meantime… just in case, I mean?”
Estrada sighed. “Just in case,” she agreed.
The conversation having reached its logical end, I carried on to my bottle, which turned out to contain a sturdy if oversweet red wine. I dug out a cup from beneath the bar and filled it to the brim, heedless of the filthy looks some of the Shoanish turned my way. Probably they weren’t following the current circumstances and took me for some self-indulging serving lad. Just in case, I presented them a broad grin before taking my first gulp.