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1
Wedding Day
Open the box, Jorg.
I watched it. A copper box, thorn patterned, no lock or latch.
Open the box, Jorg.
A copper box. Not big enough to hold a head. A child’s fist would fit.
A goblet, the box, a knife.
I watched the box and the dull reflections from the fire in the hearth. The warmth did not reach me. I let it burn down. The sun fell, and shadows stole the room. The embers held my gaze. Midnight filled the hall and still I didn’t move, as if I were carved from stone, as if motion were a sin. Tension knotted me. It tingled along my cheekbones, clenched in my jaw. I felt the table’s grain beneath my fingertips.
The moon rose and painted ghost-light across the stone-flagged floor. The moonlight found my goblet, wine untouched, and made the silver glow. Clouds swallowed the sky and in the darkness rain fell, soft with old memories. In the small hours, abandoned by fire, moon and stars, I reached for my blade. I laid the keen edge cold against my wrist.
The child still lay in the corner, limbs at corpse angles, too broken for all the king’s horses and all the king’s men. Sometimes I feel I’ve seen more ghosts than people, but this boy, this child of four, haunts me.
Open the box.
The answer lay in the box. I knew that much. The boy wanted me to open it. More than half of me wanted it open too, wanted to let those memories flood out, however dark, however dangerous. It had a pull on it, like the cliff’s edge, stronger by the moment, promising release.
‘No.’ I turned my chair toward the window and the rain, shading to snow now.
I carried the box out of a desert that could burn you without needing the sun. Four years I’ve kept it. I’ve no recollection of first laying hands upon it, no image of its owner, few facts save only that it holds a hell which nearly broke my mind.
Campfires twinkled distant through the sleet. So many they revealed the shape of the land beneath them, the rise and fall of mountains. The Prince of Arrow’s men took up three valleys. One alone wouldn’t contain his army. Three valleys choked with knights and archers, foot-soldiers, pikemen, men-at-axe and men-at-sword, carts and wagons, engines for siege, ladders, rope, and pitch for burning. And out there, in a blue pavilion, Katherine Ap Scorron, with her four hundred, lost in the throng.
At least she hated me. I’d rather die at the hands of somebody who wanted to kill me, to have it mean something to them.
Within a day they would surround us, sealing the last of the valleys and mountain paths to the east. Then we would see. Four years I had held the Haunt since I took it from my uncle. Four years as King of Renar. I wouldn’t let it go easy. No. This would go hard.
The child stood to my right now, bloodless and silent. There was no light in him but I could always see him through the dark. Even through eyelids. He watched me with eyes that looked like mine.
I took the blade from my wrist and tapped the point to my teeth. ‘Let them come,’ I said. ‘It will be a relief.’
That was true.
I stood and stretched. ‘Stay or go, ghost. I’m going to get some sleep.’
And that was a lie.
The servants came at first light and I let them dress me. It seems a silly thing but it turns out that kings have to do what kings do. Even copper-crown kings with a single ugly castle and lands that spend most of their time going either up or down at an unseemly angle, scattered with more goats than people. It turns out that men are more apt to die for a king who is dressed by pinch-fingered peasants every morning than for a king who knows how to dress himself.
I broke fast with hot bread. I have my page wait at the doors to my chamber with it of a morning. Makin fell in behind me as I strode to the throne-room, his heels clattering on the flagstones. Makin always had a talent for making a din.
‘Good morning, Your Highness,’ he says.
‘Stow that shit.’ Crumbs everywhere. ‘We’ve got problems.’
‘The same twenty thousand problems we had on our doorstep last night?’ Makin asked. ‘Or new ones?’
I glimpsed the child in a doorway as we passed. Ghosts and daylight don’t mix, but this one could show in any patch of shadow.
‘New ones,’ I said. ‘I’m getting married before noon and I haven’t got a thing to wear.’
2
Wedding Day
‘Princess Miana is being attended by Father Gomst and the Sisters of Our Lady,’ Coddin reported. He still looked uncomfortable in chamberlain’s velvets; the Watch-Commander’s uniform had better suited him. ‘There are checks to be carried out.’
‘Let’s just be glad nobody has to check my purity.’ I eased back into the throne. Damn comfortable: swan-down and silk. Kinging it is pain in the arse enough without one of those gothic chairs. ‘What does she look like?’
Coddin shrugged. ‘A messenger brought this yesterday.’ He held up a gold case about the size of a coin.
‘So what does she look like?’
He shrugged again, opened the case with his thumbnail and squinted at the miniature. ‘Small.’
‘Here!’ I caught hold of the locket and took a look for myself. The artists who take weeks to paint these things with a single hair are never going to spend that time making an ugly picture. Miana looked acceptable. She didn’t have the hard look about her that Katherine does, the kind of look that lets you know the person is really alive, devouring every moment. But when it comes down to it, I find most women attractive. How many men are choosy at eighteen?
‘And?’ Makin asked from beside the throne.
‘Small,’ I said and slipped the locket into my robe. ‘Am I too young for wedlock? I wonder …’
Makin pursed his lips. ‘I was married at twelve.’
‘You liar!’ Not once in all these years had Sir Makin of Trent mentioned a wife. He’d surprised me; secrets are hard to keep on the road, among brothers, drinking ale around the campfire after a hard day’s blood-letting.
‘No lie,’ he said. ‘But twelve is too young. Eighteen is a good age for marriage, Jorg. You’ve waited long enough.’
‘What happened to your wife?’
‘Died. There was a child too.’ He pressed his lips together.
It’s good to know that you don’t know everything about a man. Good that there might always be more to come.
‘So, my queen-to-be is nearly ready,’ I said. ‘Shall I go to the altar in this rag?’ I tugged at the heavy samite collar, all scratchy at my neck. I didn’t care of course but a marriage is a show, for high- and low-born alike, a kind of spell, and it pays to do it right.
‘Highness,’ Coddin said, pacing his irritation out before the dais. ‘This … distraction … is ill-timed. We have an army at our gates.’
‘And to be fair, Jorg, nobody knew she was coming until that rider pulled in,’ Makin said.
I spread my hands. ‘I didn’t know she would arrive last night. I’m not magic you know.’ I glimpsed the dead child slumped in a distant corner. ‘I had hoped she would arrive before the summer ended. In any case, that army has a good three miles to march if it wants to be at my gates.’
‘Perhaps a delay is in order?’ Coddin hated being chamberlain with every fibre of his being. Probably that was why he was the only one I’d trust to do it. ‘Until the conditions are less … inclement.’
‘Twenty thousand at our door, Coddin. And a thousand inside our walls. Well, most of them outside because my castle is too damn small to fit them in.’ I found myself smiling. ‘I don’t think conditions are going to improve. So we might as well give the army a queen as well as a king to die for, neh?’
‘And concerning the Prince of Arrow’s army?’ Coddin asked.
‘Is this going to be one of those times when you pretend not to have a plan until the last moment?’ Makin asked. ‘And then turn out to really not have one?’
He looked grim despite his words. I thought perhaps he could still see his own dead child. He had faced death with me before and done it with a smile.
‘You, girl!’ I shouted to one of the serving girls lurking at the far end of the hall. ‘Go tell that woman to bring me a robe fit to get married in. Nothing with lace, mind.’ I stood and set a hand to the pommel of my sword. ‘The night patrols should be back about now. We’ll go down to the east yard and see what they have to say for themselves. I sent Red Kent and Little Rikey along with one of the Watch patrols. Let’s hear what they think about these men of Arrow.’
Makin led the way. Coddin had grown twitchy about assassins. I knew what lurked in the shadows of my castle and it wasn’t assassins that I worried about. Makin turned the corner and Coddin held my shoulder to keep me back.
‘The Prince of Arrow doesn’t want me knifed by some black-cloak, Coddin. He doesn’t want drop-leaf mixed into my morning bread. He wants to roll over us with twenty thousand men and grind us into the dirt. He’s already thinking of the empire throne. Thinks he has a toe past the Gilden Gate. He’s building his legend now and it’s not going to be one of knives in the dark.’
‘Of course, if you had more soldiers you might be worth stabbing.’ Makin turned his head and grinned.
We found the patrol waiting, stamping in the cold. A few castle women fussed around the wounded, planting a stitch or two. I let the commander tell his tale to Coddin while I called Red Kent to my side. Rike loomed behind him uninvited. Four castle years had softened none of Rike’s edges, still close on seven foot of ugly temper with a face to match the blunt, mean, and brutal soul that looked out from it.
‘Little Rikey,’ I said. It had been a while since I’d spoken to the man. Years. ‘And how’s that lovely wife of yours?’ In truth I’d never seen her but she must have been a formidable woman.
‘She broke.’ He shrugged.
I turned away without comment. There’s something about Rike makes me want to go on the attack. Something elemental, red in tooth and claw. Or perhaps it’s just because he’s so damn big. ‘So, Kent,’ I said. ‘Tell me the good news.’
‘There’s too many of them.’ He spat into the mud. ‘I’m leaving.’
‘Well now.’ I threw an arm around him. Kent don’t look much but he’s solid, all muscle and bone, quick as you like too. What makes him though, what sets him apart, is a killer’s mind. Chaos, threat, bloody murder, none of that fazes him. Every moment of a crisis he’ll be considering the angles, tracking weapons, looking for the opening, taking it.
‘Well now,’ I pulled him close, hand clapped to the back of his neck. He flinched, but to his credit he didn’t reach for a blade. ‘That’s all well and good.’ I steered him away from the patrol. ‘But suppose that wasn’t going to happen. Just for the sake of argument. Suppose it was only you here and twenty of them out there. That’s not so far from the odds you’d beaten when we found you on that lakeside down in Rutton, neh?’ For a moment he smiled at that. ‘How would you win then, Red Kent?’ I called him Red to remind him of that day when he stood all a tremble with his wolf’s grin white in the scarlet of other men’s blood.
He bit his lip, staring past me into some other place. ‘They’re crowded in, Jorg. In those valleys. Crowded. One man against many, he’s got to be fast, attacking, moving. Each man is your shield from the next.’ He shook his head, seeing me again. ‘But you can’t use an army like one man.’
Red Kent had a point. Coddin had trained the army well, the units of Father’s Forest Watch especially so, but in battle cohesion always slips away. Orders are lost, missed, go unheard or ignored, and sooner or later it’s a bloody maul, each man for himself, and the numbers start to tell.
‘Highness?’ It was the woman from the royal wardrobe, some kind of robe in her hands.
‘Mabel!’ I threw my arms wide and gave her my dangerous smile.
‘Maud, sire.’
I had to admit the old biddy had some stones. ‘Maud it is,’ I said. ‘And I’m to be wed in this am I?’
‘If it pleases you, sire.’ She even curtseyed a bit.
I took it from her. Heavy. ‘Cats?’ I asked. ‘Looks like it took a lot of them.’
‘Sable.’ She pursed her lips. ‘Sable and gold thread. Count—’ She bit the words off.
‘Count Renar married in it, did he?’ I asked. ‘Well if it was good enough for that bastard it’ll do for me. At least it looks warm.’ My uncle Renar owed me for the thorns, for a lost mother, a lost brother. I’d taken his life, his castle, and his crown, and still he owed me. A fur robe would not close our account.
‘Best be quick about it, Highness,’ Coddin said, eyes still roaming for assassins. ‘We’ve got to double-check the defences. Plan out supply for the Kennish archers, and also consider terms.’ To his credit he looked straight at me for that last bit.
I gave Maud back the robe and let her dress me with the patrol watching on. I made no reply to Coddin. He looked pale. I had always liked him, from the moment he tried to arrest me, even past the moment he dared to mention surrender. Brave, sensible, capable, honest. The better man. ‘Let’s get this done,’ I said and started toward the chapel.
‘Is it needed, this marriage?’ Coddin again, doggedly playing the role I set him. Speak to me, I had said. Never think I cannot be wrong. ‘As your wife things may go hard for her.’ Rike sniggered at that. ‘As a guest she would be ransomed back to the Horse Coast.’
Sensible, honest. I don’t even know how to pretend those things. ‘It is needed.’
We came to the chapel by a winding stair, past table-knights in plate armour, Count Renar’s marks still visible beneath mine on the breastplates as if I’d ruled here four months rather than four years. The noble-born too poor or stupid or loyal to have run yet would be lined up within. In the courtyard outside the peasantry waited. I could smell them.
I paused before the doors, lifting a finger to stop the knight with his hands upon the bar. ‘Terms?’
I saw the child again, beneath crossed standards hanging on the wall. He’d grown with me. Years back he had been a baby, watching me with dead eyes. He looked about four now. I tapped my fingers against my forehead in a rapid tempo.
‘Terms?’ I said it again. I’d only said it twice but already the word sounded strange, losing meaning as they do when repeated over and again. I thought of the copper box in my room. It made me sweat. ‘There will be no terms.’
‘Best have Father Gomst say his words swiftly then,’ Coddin said. ‘And look to our defences.’
‘No,’ I said. ‘There will be no defence. We’re going to attack.’
I pushed the knight aside and threw the doors wide. Bodies crowded the chapel hall from one side to the other. It seemed my nobles were poorer than I’d thought. And to the left, a splash of blues and violet, ladies-in-waiting and knights in armour, decked in the colours of the House Morrow, the colours of the Horse Coast.
And there at the altar, head bowed beneath a garland of lilies, my bride.
‘Oh hell,’ I said.
Small was right. She looked about twelve.
In peace Brother Kent reverts to type, a peasant plagued by kindness, seeking God in the stone houses where the pious lament. Battle strikes loose such chains.
In war Red Kent approaches the divine.
3
Wedding Day
Marriage was ever the glue that held the Hundred in some semblance of unity, the balm to induce scattered moments of peace, pauses in the crimson progress of the Hundred War. And this one had been hanging over me for close on four years.
I walked along the chapel aisle between the high and mighty of Renar, none of them so high or so mighty, truth be told. I’ve checked the records and half of them have goat-herders for grandparents. It surprised me that they had stayed. If I were them I would have acted on Red Kent’s sentiment and been off across the Matteracks with whatever I could carry on my back.
Miana watched me, as fresh and perky as the lilies on her head. If the ruined left side of my face scared her she didn’t show it. The need to trace the scarred ridges on my cheek itched in my fingertips. For an instant the heat of that fire ran in me, and the memory of pain tightened my jaw.
I joined my bride-to-be at the altar and looked back. And in a moment of clarity I understood. These people expected me to save them. They still thought that with my handful of soldiers I could hold this castle and win the day. I had half a mind to tell them, to just say what any who knew me knew. There is something brittle in me that will break before it bends. Perhaps if the Prince of Arrow had brought a smaller army I might have had the sense to run. But he overdid it.
Four musicians in full livery raised their bladder-pipes and sounded the fanfare.
‘Best use the short version, Father Gomst,’ I said in a low voice. ‘Lots to do today.’
He frowned at that, grey brows rubbing up against each other. ‘Princess Miana, I have the pleasure of introducing His Highness Honorous Jorg Ancrath, King of the Renar Highlands, heir to the lands of Ancrath and the protectorates thereof.’
