The King's Man Read online

  My ring was cool against my bare skin. I wondered what that meant. Caroline hadn’t tried to call me ... I hoped she was alive. She wouldn’t have had any trouble breaking contact and getting back to the bridges, would she? Caroline was a powerful and skilled sorceress. She could easily have concealed herself if she couldn’t get out of the riot before she was torn apart.

  “Fuck,” Louise said. I couldn’t recall her swearing before, not at Jude’s. I supposed that was understandable. The upperclassmen knew spells to wash our mouths out with soap, if we swore too often. I rather suspected Louise had picked up bad habits from the longshoremen. They wouldn’t have responded well to a middle-class girl acting like an upper-class toff. “I ... fuck.”

  I had to smile, despite my own concern. If we were caught together ... I knew what my father would say. I knew what her parents would say. They’d expect us to get married immediately, just in case our little tryst had resulted in a pregnancy. There was no one so strict about unmarried sex as people who lived just north of the docks, where unmarried mothers and fatherless children were common. Her parents would kill me if they thought I’d knocked up their daughter and ran away.

  Louise gave me a sharp look. “You’re lucky it’s the right time of the month.”

  “Thanks.” I tried not to look too relieved. There were potions I could have taken, if I’d thought about it. “I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.”

  “Hah.” Louise stood, without trying to hide herself. “I guess I should thank you.”

  I tried not to stare as she walked into the tiny washroom and closed the door. My ring pulsed against my skin, once. I pressed my fingers against the metal, tapping out a handful of codes. I was alive and well, but unable to talk. I hoped Sir Griffons would understand. It would be awkward if he wanted to talk in person. I had no idea how Louise would react if I told her why I’d attended the rally. Or, for that matter, who I worked for. She might take it in her stride or she might hit the roof. I sighed, inwardly. I really did seem to have a talent for messing things up.

  It felt like hours before Louise stepped back into the bedroom. I headed into the washroom, granting her what privacy I could as I splashed water on my face and hands. There was no shower, just a basin and cold tap water. My skin crawled unpleasantly, even as I muttered a spell to warm the water. There were people living in the district who didn’t have hot and cold running water, let alone showers. They couldn’t even use the public baths! I scowled, realising just how used I’d grown to luxury. The days when I’d had to wash in a giant metal tub had been a long time ago.

  I walked into the bedroom, half-expecting to discover that she’d left without saying goodbye. Instead, she was seated by the window, staring out onto the streets. I dressed rapidly, muttering a spell to remove a bloodstain from my shirt. It wasn’t my blood. I was tempted to keep a sample, in hopes of finding whoever had bled on me, but there was no way to know if it was one of the attackers. It might have been one of their victims. I shuddered as I finished dressing, utterly unsure of myself. Violence was far from unknown on the streets of Water Shallot - there were bar fights almost every night - but political violence was rare. I couldn’t help thinking it boded ill for the future.

  Louise barely moved, her face pale and drawn. I felt a rush of protectiveness that surprised me, even though I knew I should be reporting back to my master or interrogating her. Louise might know who’d attacked her, who’d injured and killed dozens - perhaps hundreds - of her supporters. And ... I found it hard to believe, despite everything, that Louise was the leader of the socialists. She was too young - and female. She was hardly the type of person the working men would take seriously. The women they respected were the ones who worked alongside the men, sharing their burdens and never showing a hint of weakness. Caroline would have done a wonderful job of earning their respect.

  “The streets are quiet,” Louise said. “It’s as if last night didn’t happen.”

  “Yeah.” I’d already noticed that for myself. I perched on a wobbly wooden chair, trying to make myself look as harmless as possible. “Louise, what are you doing?”

  She glanced at me, sharply, then looked away. “Fighting for justice,” she said, quietly. “And struggling to bring down the rigged system.”

  I winced. There was a wealth of pain in her voice. I understood, better than I cared to admit. Louise and I were very alike. Our families had pulled themselves out of the gutter by their own efforts. We didn’t want to pledge ourselves to the aristos, but if we didn’t ... there were limits to how high we could rise. Louise had the same problem as me, yet ... no one had offered to induct her into the Kingsmen. She couldn’t hope for much if she went back to her father’s store. Her education would be wasted.

  “It was all Francis’s fault,” Louise murmured. “He ...”

  She ran her hand through her blonde hair. “You remember the Challenge?”

  “Of course.” I gritted my teeth. “I was there.”

  “Francis betrayed us all,” Louise said. She laughed, harshly. “Even his own cousin. Poor Akin was completely blindsided. Stupid aristo. I knew Francis was no good right from the start! There he was, being a complete and utter fool and Akin trusted him. I should have told Akin to kick Francis or me off the team. I really wouldn’t have minded if he’d booted me out.”

  She laughed, again. “You know Francis was making out with Lindsey?”

  I blinked. Lindsey wasn’t an uncommon name amongst the aristocracy, but I only knew one Lindsey in my year. “The one who was betrothed to Lord Swinging Dick?”

  “The very same.” Louise grinned, but I saw tears in her eyes. “The finest blade His Majesty commands. Fought a hundred duels and never even looked like losing. Francis could have gotten himself killed ... for what? A few moments of pleasure?”

  “A shame he didn’t,” I said, a little more harshly than I’d meant. “What happened?”

  Louise looked away. “Francis enspelled me,” she said. “He slapped me with a compulsion spell ... a powerful compulsion spell. He made me help him and I did, screaming on the inside all the time. And afterwards ... no one seemed to care. Francis was dead and everyone was trying their hardest to cover up the whole affair. There was no justice.”

  “Francis is dead,” I said, carefully. “The Ancients will handle him.”

  “If you believe in them,” Louise said. She shook her head. “The system is rigged. You know it as well as I do. The whole patron-client system is designed to harvest the very best of the commoners, tying them to the aristocracy while leaving the rest in the dirt. Rose - you remember Rose - will not be using her talents to benefit herself. She’ll be using them for her aristo masters. And you know what’s worst of all?”

  I had no answer. If Francis had used a compulsion spell on Louise that she couldn’t shake off ... I remembered my training and shuddered. It would have to have been powerful, very powerful. My imagination suggested all sorts of things he could have done, none of which would be remotely out of character. If Francis had been stupid enough to risk picking a fight with Lord Richard, who knew what else he’d do? Ancients! Francis’s family would have had to pay through the nose to keep Lord Richard from challenging and killing the little bastard. Or maybe they would just have stepped back and let him die. I’d have been sorely tempted to do just that if I’d been running the family.

  “We don’t even know it,” Louise said. “Every longshoreman gets a vote, right? They go to the tribal halls every six months to cast a vote, right? But all those votes are diluted. Every longshoreman in the city could vote for something and it would barely even register! And, in the meantime, the Great Houses control the vast majority of effective votes. They’ve tricked us into believing our votes matter, when in truth our votes are effectively meaningless. That’s the worst of it! We’re trapped in a dictatorial system, and we don’t even know it.”

  “But people can join other tribes,” I said, carefully. “A longshoreman could become a forger ...”
>
  Louise snorted. “Without becoming a client?”

  She let out a funny little laugh. “You remember Allianz?”

  “Vaguely.” I remembered an ugly little aristo brat, a year above us. “What about him?”

  “He asked me to marry him,” Louise said. “He told me it would make me important. And yes, I’d have had a vote in the family council. But it would be just one vote. The really powerful family members would have hundreds.”

  I tried not to laugh. Allianz had tried to ask Louise to marry him? He must have been desperate. I felt a twinge of guilt as I remembered the stories, the whispered suggestions that Allianz was a toad who’d been turned into a man or the victim of a botched transfiguration that - somehow - had never been fixed. He’d been a puny little boy with poor hygiene and worse marks ... I would have felt worse, if I hadn’t known he’d taken his anger out on the poor lowerclassmen as soon as he gained the power to punish them. And he’d asked Louise to marry him? I didn’t see that ending well. They’d both dodged a curse there.

  “The system is corrupt and broken,” Louise said. “And that’s why I want to tear it down and rebuild it.”

  “And you can’t do that by working within the system,” I mused. I had no idea what I should do. Political organising was hardly a crime. And yet ... if she tore the system down, whatever replaced it might be worse. “Who do you think attacked you?”

  “The aristos.” Louise’s eyes shone. “They must see us as a threat. They’d never have bothered to attack us otherwise.”

  I had the nasty feeling she was right. The aristos - Alana, in particular - prided themselves on ignoring people they considered worthless. They would hardly send out attack squads if they didn’t see any real threat. I considered it thoughtfully, unsure - again - what to do. The attackers were committing crimes, but without proof there was no way they could be brought to justice. And Louise was right. The system was rigged. I doubted the bastards would see the inside of a jail cell, let alone Skullbreaker Island. Their parents would call in a lot of favours and they’d be released on a technicality.

  “I’m glad you came,” Louise said. She stood, brushing down her dress. “Why did you come?”

  “I was curious,” I said. I didn’t want to tell her the truth. Not yet, perhaps not ever. “Louise, I ...”

  “Don’t take it too seriously,” Louise said. She paced over to me. “I just wanted to feel alive.”

  She brushed her lips against mine, then turned. “I have to get back home,” she said. “And so do you.”

  “Wait,” I said. I donned my cloak, checking my spellcaster and other tools were still in place. “Do you want me to walk you home?”

  Louise hesitated. I was pretty sure I knew what she was thinking. She was a grown woman. Tongues would start to wag if their owners saw her walking with a young man, particularly one they knew. The rumourmongers would have us married off by the end of the day ... I snorted. There were some people I would happily hit with blinding curses - or worse - just for spreading nonsense and making people’s lives worse. But, at the same time, the streets were far from safe. Ancients alone knew who might be on the prowl.

  “I suppose,” she said, finally. “But keep your hands to yourself.”

  I bit down the urge to remind her that she’d started it as we walked down the stairs. The receptionist shot us a knowing look as we reached the bottom, making it clear she knew what we’d been doing. I told myself, firmly, that cursing her would end badly, even if she deserved it. She wouldn’t talk. The inn’s customers would evaporate like snow in the desert if they thought she’d talk. I tossed her a coin to make sure of it, then led Louise outside. The streets were deathly quiet.

  A shiver ran down my spine as we made our way towards the Working Men’s hall. It was mid-morning, when everyone should be at work or at school, but the streets still felt unnaturally still. The children who should have been playing in the gutter were nowhere in evidence. We turned the corner and stopped, dead, as we saw what remained of the club. The warehouse looked on the verge of crumpling into rubble. A small army of City Guardsmen were standing on guard, backed up by black-clad armsmen from Magus Court. They didn’t look friendly.

  Louise caught my arm as we hastily altered course. “What happened to the bodies?”

  I shrugged. I had no idea. Normally, no one gave a damn about bodies in Water Shallot. They’d be sold to the medical students for dissection, if they weren’t harvested for the illicit potions trade or simply dumped into the canals. Relatives might claim a body, but what could they do with it afterwards? Now ... I scowled as it dawned on me the City Guard might be searching for bodies, with the intention of covering up the dead. If a number of attackers had been killed, their bodies might be identified. And who knew what would happen then?

  “I think it doesn’t matter right now,” I said. I wondered, suddenly, if I should take Louise to Sir Griffon. If she’d been identified, she was probably on a wanted list. I tried to tell myself that no one would believe Louise was the socialist leader, but that was probably wishful thinking. A number of important aristos were no older than either of us. They’d probably assume the socialists were no different. “We have to stay out of their sight.”

  I cast a careful charm around us as we headed up towards the shops. The streets gradually filled with people, although I could feel an uneasy tension in the air. The gentrified parts of Water Shallot had good reason to fear their neighbours, who resented being driven out by the newcomers. I wondered, suddenly, what my father thought of the riot. I was tempted to go find him, to learn the word on the streets ... I shook my head. Sir Griffons had forbidden it. I was probably in quite enough trouble already.

  “I’ll go alone from here,” Louise said. She squeezed my hand. “If you want to find me again, come visit the shop.”

  “I will,” I promised, although I wasn’t sure if I could keep that promise. If Louise had told me what she was doing, before I’d joined the Kingsmen, I would have joined her without hesitation. Now ... I wasn’t so sure. Was I a sell-out? Or was I mature enough to realise that violent uprisings and rebellions tended to lead to more violence? “Good luck.”

  Louise nodded, then hurried down the street. I watched her go, telling myself she’d be fine. Probably. If her enemies didn’t know who she was ...

  I turned and walked towards the bridges, keeping my eyes open for a cab. I had to get back home and ... and what? What was I going to tell Sir Griffons? Or Caroline? I honestly didn’t know ...

  ... But if I didn’t come up with something quick, I was going to be in real trouble.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “I suggest you start from the beginning,” Sir Griffons said, once I’d returned home and had a proper shower. “And continue until you reach the end.”

  “Yes, sir,” I said. Sir Griffons didn’t sound angry, but that was meaningless. “We attended the rally and ...”

  I described everything that had happened in as much detail as possible, at least until I reached the moment I yanked Louise out of the club. “I thought it would be better to hole up somewhere, at least until I knew what was going on,” I said. “And that was what I did.”

  Sir Griffons cocked his eyebrows. I hadn’t lied to him, but I’d left a chunk of the story out. I knew a lie of omission wasn’t that much better than a real lie. Behind him, Caroline shot me a sharp look. She knew there was something I wasn’t saying. I braced myself, wondering if she’d ask me in front of our master or confront me privately. She wasn’t the sort of person to leave a mystery alone. I would have been surprised if she hadn’t already guessed part of the truth.

  “I see.” Sir Griffons stroked his chin. “How well do you know this ... Louise?”

  I hesitated. “I knew her at school, sir.”

  Caroline let out a snicker, which she hastily converted to a cough when Sir Griffons looked at her. “You seem to know a lot of people.”

  “That’s not too surprising,” Sir Griffons said. “
Everyone who is anyone, in Shallot, goes to Jude’s.”

  I blinked. I’d had the impression Sir Griffons wasn’t from Shallot himself, but ... I could easily have been wrong. Princelings and squires weren’t allowed to read personnel files. Sir Griffins might have grown up in Shallot, then spent most of his career elsewhere. I had no idea. But ... he seemed to understand. There was nothing suspicious in me knowing many of the city’s movers and shakers. I’d been brought up to know the names and faces of the most important people in town.

  “She was not an easy person to like,” I admitted. “She never had many friends. She nagged, she questioned ... I think she got hexed a lot, back in her first year. She was clever, but lacked social skills. Whenever she thought she was right, she was right ... all evidence to the contrary aside. She used to slow classes by demanding explanations and then complaining when the explanations didn’t suit her. On the other hand ...”

  I remembered what Louise had told me about Francis and shivered. “She was often picked on by the aristos,” I said, carefully. I didn’t want to tell them the full story if it could be avoided. “They made fun of her. They ... treated her like crap. I think Akin and Saline were the only ones who were nice to her and Akin let her down, somehow. I don’t think they were friends after the Challenge was over. Louise was technically on the winning team” - I resisted the urge to grind my teeth in bitter recollection - “but I don’t think she got to make use of it. And now she’s leading the socialists.”

  “She says she’s leading the socialists,” Caroline said. “Is she telling the truth?”

  “I never thought she was a liar,” I said, crossly. “If she says she’s in charge, she’s in charge.”