hands behind him, and I had my chainmail gauntlets on, so if he had a mind to bite, it’d do him no good.
‘I swore to Count Renar,’ he said. He tried to pull away, and he craned his neck to look at old Gomsty. ‘Tell him, Father, I swore before God. If I break my vow I’ll burn in Hell.’
Gomst came to lay his hand on Renton’s shoulder. ‘Prince Jorg, this knight has made a holy vow. There are few oaths more sacred than that of a knight to his liege lord. You should not ask him to break it. Nor should any threat against the flesh compel a man to betray a covenant and forever place his soul in the fires of the Devil.’
‘Here’s a test of faith for you, Sir Renton,’ I said. ‘I’ll tell you my tale and we’ll see whether you want to tell me the Count’s plans when I’m done.’ I settled down on the step beside him and swigged my beer. ‘When I first took to the road I was, oh, ten years of age. I’d a lot of anger in me then, and a need to know how the world worked. You see, I’d watched the Count’s men kill my brother, William, and slit Mother open. So I knew that the way I’d thought things were supposed to work was wrong. And of course, I fell in with bad sorts – didn’t I Rikey?’
Rike gave that laugh of his: ‘hur hur hur’. I think he just made the sound when he thought we expected a laugh. It didn’t have any joy in it.
‘I tried my hand at torture then. I wondered if I was supposed to be evil. I thought maybe I’d had a message from God to take up the Devil’s work.’
I heard Gomst muttering at that one, prayers or condemnation. It was true too. For the longest time I looked for a message in it all, to work out what I was supposed to be doing.
I laid my hand on Renton’s shoulder. He sat there with my hand on his left shoulder, and Gomst’s hand on his right. We could have been the Devil and the angel from those old scrolls, whispering in his ears.
‘We caught Bishop Murillo down by Jedmire Hill,’ I said. ‘I’m sure you heard about the loss of his mission? Anyhow, the brothers let me have the bishop. I was something of a mascot to them back then.’
The Nuban stood and walked off down the hill. I let him go. The Nuban didn’t have the stomach for this kind of thing. That made me feel – I don’t know – dirty? I liked the Nuban, though I didn’t let it show.
‘Now, Bishop Murillo was full of harsh words and judgement. He had plenty to tell me about hellfire and damnation. We sat a while and discussed the business of souls. Then I hammered a nail into his skull. Just here.’ I reached out and touched the spot on Renton’s greasy head. He flinched back like he’d been stung. ‘The bishop changed his tune a bit after that,’ I said. ‘In fact every time I knocked a new nail into him, he changed his tune. After a while he was a very different man. Did you know you can break a man into his parts like that? One nail will bring back memories of childhood. Another will make him rage, or sob, or laugh. In the end it seems we’re just toys, easy to break and hard to mend.
‘I hear that the nuns at Saint Alstis still have Bishop Murillo in their care. He’s a very different person now. He clutches at their habits and slurs awful things at them, so they say. Where the soul of that proud and pious man we took from the papal caravan is – well, I can’t tell you.’
With that, I ‘magicked’ a nail into my fingers. A rusty spike, three inches long. The man wet himself. There on the steps. Burlow gave an oath and kicked him, hard. When Renton got his breath back, he told me everything he knew. It took almost an hour. Then we gave him to the peasants and they burned him.
I watched the good folk of Norwood dance around their fire. I watched the flames lick above their heads. There’s a pattern in fire, as if something’s written there, and there’s folk who say they can read it too. Not me, though. It would have been nice to find some answers in the flames. I had questions: it was a thirst for the Count’s blood that had set me on the road. But somehow I’d given it up. Somehow I set it aside and told myself it was a sacrifice to strength.
I sipped my beer. Four years on the road. Always going somewhere, always doing something, but now, with my feet pointed towards home, it felt like I’d been lost all that time. Lost or led.
I tried to remember when I’d given up on the Count, and why. Nothing came to me, just the glimpse of my hand on a door, and the sensation of falling into space.
‘I’m going home,’ I said.
The dull ache between my eyes became a rusty nail, driven deep. I finished my beer, but it did nothing for me. I had an older kind of thirst.
11
Four years earlier
I followed Lundist out into the day.
‘Wait.’ He held his baton to my chest. ‘It never pays to walk blind. Especially not in your own castle where familiarity hides so much – even when we have the eyes to see.’
We stood for a moment on the steps, blinking away the sunlight, letting the heat soak in. Release from the gloom of the schoolroom held no great surprise. Four days in seven my studies kept me at Lundist’s side, sometimes in the schoolroom, the observatory, or library, but as often as not the hours would pass in a hunt for wonders. Whether it was the mechanics of the siege machinery held in the Arnheim Hall, or the mystery of the Builder-light that shone without flame in the salt cellar, every part of the Tall Castle held a lesson that Lundist could tease out.
‘Listen,’ he said.
I knew this game. Lundist held that a man who can observe is a man apart. Such a man can see opportunities where others see only the obstacles on the surface of each situation.
‘I hear wood on wood. Training swords. The squires at play,’ I said.
‘Some might not call it play. Deeper! What else?’
‘I hear birdsong. Skylarks.’ There it was, a silver chain of sound, dropped from on high, so sweet and light I’d missed it at first.
‘Deeper.’
I closed my eyes. What else? Green fought red on the back of my eyelids. The clack of swords, the grunts, panting, muted scuffle of shoe on stone, the song of skylarks. What else?
‘Fluttering.’ On the edge of hearing – I was probably imagining it.
‘Good,’ Lundist said. ‘What is it?’
‘Not wings. It’s deeper than that. Something in the wind,’ I said.
‘There’s no wind in the courtyard,’ Lundist said.
‘Up high then.’ I had it. ‘A flag!’
‘Which flag? Don’t look. Just tell me.’ Lundist pressed the baton harder.
‘Not the festival flag. Not the King’s flag, that’s flown from the north wall. Not the colours, we’re not at war.’ No, not the colours. Any curiosity in me died at that reminder of Count Renar’s purchase. I wondered, if they’d slain me also, would the price of a pardon have been higher? An extra horse?
‘Well?’ Lundist asked.
‘The execution flag, black on scarlet,’
