‘I’m putting Mijl the pothecky in charge of you,’ said Orlyk, shining a glowstone lantern in Tali’s eyes. ‘She’s an expert in chymical pain: one whiff of her distillates sets the nerves ablaze, her congelas can etch the skin from living flesh, her refracts set living innards solid as stone. And unlike me,’ Orlyk bared her teeth in a sickening smile, ‘Mijl has good reason to hate Pale.’
Mijl, a small, sinewy woman with nostrils like mine tunnels and stubby, spatulate fingers, touched Tali on the temple with a yard-long glass tube as thick as a magian’s staff. Its rounded tip was thickly smeared with a brown substance.
Bright pain sparkled at the touch and slowly spread across Tali’s temples like a flame consuming a sheet of paper. She tried to brush the gunk off her forehead but a similar pain seared through her hand, which stiffened until she could not bend her fingers.
‘What was that for?’ gasped Tali.
‘Advance payment, slave,’ said the pothecky. ‘After interrogation in Cython, you will serve as a terrible warning to the other Pale. With congela, I will take the skin off and lay bare the living flesh. For every one of us who suffered in the shaft, and all those who died in the mud mire, and even for the traitor Sconts, you will feel every minute of their pain.’
The pothecky paused.
‘Then I will extract the cost of the destroyed sunstone from your living flesh with the distillate called red noddy. Then, for impersonating the slave, Lifka, I will bath you in a tincture reduced from a thousand girr-grubs. You will find it … exquisite.’
CHAPTER 44
‘What if they’ve blasted the city gates?’ said Rix. ‘They could be rampaging through Caulderon right now.’
Fear tightened his throat. A contagious pox could cripple Caulderon in a few days, then the enemy could march into the undefended city. Could Hightspall, after standing unchallenged for seventeen hundred years, be toppled that easily?
‘I don’t think so,’ said Tobry. ‘These attacks are just a warning, intended to spread as much fear as possible.’
‘I should be there. Who else can protect my family? Not Father.’
They had ridden along the edge of the Seethings for an hour, searching for any light or sound that might indicate Tali was nearby, but had seen nothing. Rix was so tired he could barely stay in the saddle and even Leather was reduced to a plod.
‘Look on the bright side,’ said Tobry. ‘Now we’re at war, they’re bound to postpone your father’s Honouring.’
‘They won’t,’ Rix said dully.
‘How do you know?’
‘It’s a secret.’
‘Oh, come on.’
‘All right.’ Rix took a sharp breath. ‘We need the Honouring, desperately.’
‘I don’t see why. House Ricinus has everything.’
‘Including more enemies than the rest of the great families put together — people who envy our wealth and despise us for rising so high. They can’t bear our successes, Tobe. There are moves afoot to have Father stripped of his title, lands, monopolies …’
‘What for?’
‘Behaviour unbecoming to the chief of a noble house.’
‘The chiefs of the noble houses invented bad behaviour,’ said Tobry. ‘It’s their art form.’
‘But in his drunkenness Father has insulted all the senior Houses, as well as their wives and daughters, households, dogs and chickens. And Mother — well …’ Rix could not say it aloud.
‘Lady Ricinus is not universally loved,’ Tobry said helpfully.
‘They bow and smile as they take her bribes and douceurs, then stab her from behind. House Ricinus is teetering under their malice.’
‘How’s the Honouring going to help? What’s your father done to deserve it?’
‘He’s personally paid for a new force of five thousand men, to be Hightspall’s Third Army. Wages, uniforms, weapons, training and supplies for up to a hundred days in the field — the lot.’
Tobry whistled. ‘That’s a generous act, even for one of the richest families in Hightspall.’
‘It was Mother’s idea, so generosity doesn’t come into it — she would have weighed the costs and calculated the benefits to the last penny. Without it, House Ricinus might have been toppled. But after he’s been publicly Honoured by the chancellor … and if Mother’s other surprises come off — ’
‘There’s more?’ said Tobry.
‘A couple of things she’s been scheming and plotting and bribing for, for years.’
‘I’m intrigued. Tell on.’
‘Only Mother knows what they are. But if they come to pass — ’
‘House Ricinus will be untouchable.’
‘We’d better be — the Third Army has almost bankrupted us. That’s why everything has to be perfect, including my portrait of Father.’
‘No offence to your artistic genius, but I don’t understand why the damn portrait is so important.’
‘Mother has been boasting about how her brilliant son has captured the perfect likeness of her noble husband. She’s built it up to be the greatest painting of the age, and if it’s not finished it’ll be a public humiliation. It’ll be as though I’ve spat in my father’s face.’
‘No matter how much we loathe each other behind closed doors,’ said Tobry, ‘in public the family must kiss each other’s bottoms.’
Rix looked out across the Seethings. Tali could be anywhere within that treacherous labyrinth, which stretched east all the way to Lake Fumerous and the Brown Vomit, and south for fifteen miles almost to the Crowbung Range.
‘Even in daylight it could take a week to find her,’ he said. ‘In darkness, there’s no hope. I’ve got to get home, while I still can. If they besiege the city …’
‘We might not be able to get in,’ said Tobry. ‘I know.’
Rix turned down the Caulderon Road, heading for Palace Ricinus and his crucifixion at Lady Ricinus’s hands. She might have already sent her seneschal out to drag him back. His cheeks flamed at the thought.
‘It’s for the best,’ said Tobry after they had gone a mile or two in silence. ‘Tali’s nothing special.’
Rix restrained the urge to punch his friend into next Tuesday.
‘I’ve always felt chivalry to be overrated,’ Tobry went on. ‘I mean, why should a woman be treated different from a man just because she’s small and curvy and vaguely decent on the eye?’
‘If you don’t shut it, Tobe, you’ll be excreting teeth for a fortnight.’
‘Actually, I found Tali to be rather plain. I mean, her skin is fine enough, if you like it the colour of paper, but those horrible blue eyes and golden hair. Uggh!’
‘You’re a dead man, Tobe.’
Tobry grinned. ‘We’re doing the right thing, the sensible thing — ’
‘Since when did you ever do the sensible thing?’ Rix snapped. ‘You don’t believe in anything, you mock all that I hold dear and you think life is a joke at our expense.’
‘I’ve changed,’ Tobry said loftily. ‘I’ve achieved maturity and I’m closing in on wisdom.’
‘Well, change back. I only keep you on because you amuse me, and I’ve had precious few laughs out of you lately …’
Tobry had stopped. ‘What was that?’ he said, standing up in the stirrups.
‘Didn’t hear anything,’ said Rix dully.
‘Thought I saw a light.’
‘Probably another enemy attack.’
‘No, it was out in the Seethings.’
‘Bog gas catching fire, then.’
‘Bog gas burns blue. This light was pure gold.’
‘Lord Tobry, Lord Tobry?’ a child’s voice piped from the darkness.
‘Who the hell is that?’ said Rix.
‘At a guess,’ said Tobry complacently, ‘the slave girl, Rannilt.’
‘You don’t have to sound so pleased about it.’
‘You might turn Tali away, but you won’t abandon a child to certain death.’
‘Why would you even think I would?’ Rix snarled. ‘I may be a fool but I’m not a brute.’