fall over themselves laughing, just as Tagalong had done, and the joke would be at his expense. Jolly knew that once people started laughing at him, it was the beginning of the end.
The question was: could he stop the story getting out? Jolly knew that if he forbade No Tin and his men from telling anyone what had happened, they would fail to obey his order. There were five of them, with all of the companions which that entailed, plus the loose talk of drunkenness; it would only be a matter of time before his order was disobeyed. He would then be in a position of having been failed to be obeyed which would weaken his authority. Jolly was wise in the matter of ruling men and women. He knew that authority depended as much on what orders were not given as on what orders were.
Jolly came to his decision. ‘Be here at six o’clock tomorrow morning,’ he told his men coldly. ‘Now get out!’
10: 20 PM, Monday 2 May 1544 A. F.
Nicholas was young and naïve, but he was also intelligent enough to know that he was young and naïve. He knew as he and Ben walked away from Octave Alley that he was in a situation that required an alert attention to detail and context rather than a reliance on past preconceptions. He stole a look at Ben as they walked along. Ben’s face was set in shock and his posture rigid. Nicholas decided that it might be wisest to say nothing to Ben right now so the two of them walked along in silence.
Nicholas surreptitiously checked his wand now and then to track the movements of the five robbers they had left behind them. Whether or not they were sufficiently intimidated by his wandfighting prowess to now leave him alone or whether they would seek revenge, was an unanswered question. He decided as he walked along that he needed to know more about them, which was why he was checking their movements. Although he could detect wands at a distance, using a secret of wandlore that went back to the first baron Daniel himself, he could not identify them, so the only way for him to know which of the hundreds of thousands of wands flickering in his mind like fireflies in the macchato space of New Landern were the four wands of the five robbers was by tracking them continually. This was why he had so generously returned the wands of the robbers to them by throwing the wands on the ground.
As they neared Grenville Street Nicholas suddenly stopped and said, ‘Oh, no, I forgot.’
‘You forgot what?’ Ben asked, coming out of his reverie.
‘Never mind,’ Nicholas said, who couldn’t be bothered to try to make something up right then. ‘You go on ahead. I won’t be long.’ With that, he turned and walked away. Ben called after him, but Nicholas ignored him.
He tracked the robbers he had fought in Octave Alley as he walked along, always able to keep out of sight, until they arrived somewhere and their movements were much slower and jerkier, as if they were entering a building of some kind. Nicholas fixed their location and made his way towards it. As he came around the corner, Nicholas realised the men he was following had gone into the large building ahead of him. The building had a sign hanging off a pole jutting into the street which showed a rosy-cheeked man with a rural smile holding a tankard of beer in one hand and a hunk of cheese in the other. Above the apple-cheeked yokel was the lettering “Burke” and below his cheerful and kindly simplicity was the lettering “Tavern”.
The Burke Tavern stood by the side of the river and even had berths for boats to unload and load cargo for river shipping (not all of which was legal). The side of the tavern that faced the street was a large stone-walled front with tiny windows that let in little light, but which would allow the discharge of weaponry upon anyone foolish enough to attack the building. Nicholas stood unobtrusively to one side and waved his wand to examine the lair of his newly acquired enemies: he soon realised, from the motionless position and spacing of several wands within the building that there were guards, and from the layering and arrangement of the wand protection of the security system itself, that the command centre was situated at the back on the ground floor by the river. The Burke Tavern was, in fact, exactly what it looked like — a fortress. A normal tavern it was not. Nicholas didn’t know what to make of any of this, but he made a careful note of all this so that he would remember it readily in the future and turned away.
Nicholas turned his steps towards home. When he arrived, Ben was nowhere to be found. Nicholas went to his room and sat in a chair, going over what had happened that evening in a spirit of contemplation. Then he remembered that he had acquired money, so he took it out and counted it. It came to two hundred and seventy two strada in total. Given that he had only had sixty three strada to his credit, he now found himself the proud possessor of three hundred and thirty five strada. He put the money away in his pouch and went back to contemplation.
There was a knock on his door and Ben put his head into the room.
‘Can I come in?’ he asked.
Without speaking, Nicholas waved him in with generous gestures of his hands.
Ben came in and sat on the bed. He looked calmer and more relaxed, but still tense all the same.
‘I didn’t know you could fight like that,’ he said.
‘Father and grandfather both taught me from when I was seven,’ Nicholas told him. ‘Their training was very thorough.’
‘You’ve put me in an awkward position,’ Ben said. ‘You realise that, don’t you?’
‘No, I don’t,’ Nicholas replied shortly. ‘What awkward position are you talking about?’
‘Do you realise that under the law I am an accessory to robbery?’ Ben asked, without anything remaining of his earlier anger but with a certain residual resentment. ‘You robbed them! Are you mad? What the hell were you thinking?’
‘Justice was done,’ Nicholas said forcefully enough to make clear he would not budge from this point of view.
‘Justice?’ Ben asked incredulously. ‘What’s that got to do with anything? We are talking about a clear point of law.’
‘Never mind the law,’ Nicholas said. ‘I’m talking about justice.’
‘Never mind the law!’ Ben repeated in outrage. ‘Why not say never mind the authorities as well while you are about it?’
Nicholas shrugged. ‘They’re not going to complain to the authorities, are they? They did try to rob us, after all.’
‘Mr Raspero,’ Ben said carefully, ‘that is not the point I am making. Whatever they did, you robbed them. You have committed a crime.’
‘A crime that won’t be reported,’ Nicholas pointed out. ‘So forget the law and the authorities. What they don’t know won’t hurt them.’
Ben hesitated then said, very formally, ‘I am afraid I have to reconsider the extent of my associations with you, Mr Raspero. The events of this evening have shown to me a certain aspect of your character and conduct which leave me in such an awkward position that I must reduce all contact with you to a bare minimum.’
‘Suit yourself,’ Nicholas said indifferently and yawned. ‘You can start right now by leaving if you like.’
Ben shifted his posture as if about to stand up but then said instead, ‘You do understand my position in this matter, don’t you?’
‘I understand that you’re a rabbit who lives in fear,’ Nicholas said with a certain contempt. ‘Is there anything more I need to know?’
Ben flushed with anger at
