Sovereign

'Daavis has fallen!' the man repeated. 'But no one will let me see the queen to tell her! I don't know what to do—'

'Be quiet!' Orkid ordered.

The man could not refuse that voice. He released Orkid's jacket and stepped back, struck dumb.

 'Now tell me, who are you, exactly?'

The man could not open his mouth.

Orkid sighed and said more gently: 'You must answer my question. Who are you?'

'Begging your Eminence's favour, your Eminence, I'm Tomlin.'

'My title is Chancellor, nothing else. And who is Tomlin?'

'I'm sorry your… Chancellor. And I is Tomlin. Am Tomlin. Ah, I see what you mean. I am Tomlin the pigeon keeper.'

Orkid rubbed his brow with one hand. 'The pigeon keeper?'

'Yes. And I know that Daavis has fallen.'

Keeping his anger under control, Orkid asked: 'How can you possibly know this?'

'Because all of our pigeons have come home, Chancellor. All of them at the same time.'

'Our pigeons? What do you mean our pigeons?'

'I mean all the palace's pigeons sent away to Daavis have come home at one time, but none with a message. And the only way that would happen is if their house was destroyed or they were let go urgent like.'

Orkid understood then what Tomlin was trying to tell him. 'This has never happened before?'

'Only once that I know of, and that in my father's time, when I was still apprenticed to him. The late queen's father had sent the nobleman Aftel Theso on a ship to explore the Sea Between and the story goes he was never heard of—'

'Yes, yes, I know the story,' Orkid said impatiently.

'Well, sir Chancellor, we did hear from him in a sense, All the pigeons he took with him came back in one go, and my father said to me "Oh, heck, he's gone", and I said "Who would that be, Da?" and he said "Well, Duke Theso, of course, since all his pigeons have come to coop and not a one with a message".'

'But it could have been an accident,' Orkid pointed out, trying to reason the thing through. 'Someone in Daavis could have let all the pigeons out at the same time by accident.'

'Well, no. A pigeon house is a special place, you see. It's not like a chicken run with a single gate. Each pigeon has its own coop. Only way they could all come home is if the house was destroyed or they were let go like that. And seeing that Daavis is at the centre of a war…' Tomlin's voice trailed off and he finished with a shrug, Then some thought activated him again: 'Although Duke Theso, of course, did not have a house because he was just on a ship, so his pigeons could have been let go accidentally, although seeing as how he's never been seen or heard from since, it seems unlikely—'

'Yes, thank you,' Orkid said quickly. He placed a firm hand on Tomlin's shoulder. 'You must go back to your pigeon house. Speak no word of this to anyone, is that understood?'

Tomlin nodded vigorously. Orkid eyed his secretary. 'And that includes you as well.'

The secretary nodded in time with Tomlin.

'Or I will have both your gizzards cut out and fed to the pigs,' Orkid finished. 'Now go.'

Both Tomlin and the secretary disappeared. Orkid slumped on the edge of his desk. All he could think of was that with Daavis gone Hume itself must inevitably fall, which would open the way to the province of Chandra and then to Kendra itself.

He gathered his papers together hurriedly. The council must hear of this and a solution be found, or else everything he stood for, everything he believed in, would crumble away into dust. But first he had to see the queen.

Edaytor stopped when he realised his charge was no longer keeping up with him. He turned and saw Prince Olio watching with utmost concentration a game of castles being played by two young boys using nothing but scratched marks on the pavement and coloured pebbles. The two boys themselves were concentrating so intently on their game that at first they did not notice either the prince or his escort of ten Royal Guards. Then one of the guards changed his stance and cast a shadow across the game.

One of the players looked up irritably and said: 'Move out of the way you karak…' The boy gulped. 'Fuck, sorry,' he added.

The other boy looked up then and yelped in surprise.

'The blue pebbles are knights, I assume,' Olio said interestedly.

'Yeah,' the first boy muttered, his gaze drifting from one huge guard to the next.

'And the red ones?'

'Spearmen,' the second boy said.

'Ah, I should have seen that.' Olio bent over and turned over a grey pebble. 'A sapper! Delightful!'

The first boy grabbed at the pebble, all thoughts of the guards fleeing from his mind. 'Hey! Thanks giving away my surprise!'

The second boy laughed.

'I'm sorry,' Olio said quickly. 'I wasn't thinking.'

'Who do you think you are, anyway, interrupting a quiet game—?'

'He thinks he is Prince Olio Rosetheme,' Edaytor! in his most imperious tone. 'And I am Edaytor Fanhow, Magiker Prelate.'

'Oh,' the boy said weakly, his gaze shifting again to the guards.

'My name's Elynd,' the second boy said to Olio. 'My mumma named me after your father.'

Olio blinked in surprise at the boy. 'I don't think so,' he said, frowning in thought.

'I should know who I'm named after,' the boy said.

'What his Highness means is that his father was not Elynd Chisal,' Edaytor explained. 'It was Duke Amptra—'

'Oh, that's right,' the boy said quickly. 'I was named after Prince Lynan's father.' He closed his hand over his mouth and mumbled through his fingers. 'Sorry.'

Olio looked at him curiously. 'Why?'

Edaytor took Olio by the arm and led him away from the boys.

'What's going on, Edaytor?' the prince asked, hanging back.

'We should let them get on with their game.'

'Where are you taking me?'

'To the harbour. You always look at the ships from the palace, so I'm taking you to see them.'

'Will there be warships?'

'Certainly.'

'Can I go on one?'

'We will have to ask the captain for permission. I do not think you will be refused.'

Olio ended his resistance and they left the two boys behind, the guards closing around them. Edaytor would rather have gone alone into the city with Olio, but in his present condition there was no chance Areava would have allowed that.

People stared at the group, not used to seeing royalty on their streets. Most did not know what to do, but some bowed and others smiled and waved. Olio would oblige by smiling and waving back at first, but after a while got bored with that and ignored them.

'How much further do we have to walk?' he asked sullenly. 'My feet are tired.'

'Not far, your Highness. Just to the end of this street.'

All around them was evidence of the great fire during which the old Olio had lost himself trying to heal the injured, and Edaytor slowed down the pace. They passed the skeletons of houses and shops, walked over blackened cobblestones, stepped over mangled pieces of metal that may once have been saucepans or ladles. Children carelessly played in the wreckage while around them workers were pulling down charred beams and posts or putting up new frames. Cats slinked around the ruins looking for rats and birds. The air in this old part of the city still smelled of burnt wood and underneath, the faintest hint, of burnt flesh.

'There was a fire,' Olio said absently, surveying the damage.

'Yes, your Highness. A terrible fire. Do you remember it?'

'I don't think Queen Usharna would have let me see it. Fires are bad things.'

'I think you saw this one,' Edaytor persisted.

Olio said nothing, but the prelate could tell he was trying to remember. 'No,' he said, then cocked his head to one side. 'Maybe. It was very hot.'

He stopped suddenly and his entourage flowed around him. 'What was this place?' he asked, pointing to a burnt-out block that was three or four times larger than those around it.

Edaytor had to think about it for a while. There were no landmarks left standing to help him locate their position, but when he studied the shape of the block he realised where they were.