The Bloody Quarrel (The Complete Edition) (40 page)

“That was different!” Fallon shouted.

“It was the same,” she screamed at him. “You told me yourself. He promised you anything you wanted, as long as you did one thing for him. And then it all changed. Just like with me.”

“No, because you knew you were allying yourself with Zorva,” Fallon said.

“You were going to lead his army! You were going to be the General of Zorva’s armies! You cannot stand there and judge me, when you made all the same mistakes!”

“You are wrong!” Fallon howled. “I refused all of that! I never betrayed my people! You sat with us and sympathized with Cavan in my own home and all the time, you knew what was happening!”

Dina crossed her arms. “Once Kinnard was dead, he could force me to do whatever he wanted. I had to help the Kottermanis or he would arrest me and do it anyway. And, all the time, I was trying to work against him. I helped Prince Cavan and then I helped you. I helped feed this city and keep it from falling into chaos after Aidan’s death.”

Fallon walked over to face her, fighting to keep a lid on his fury. “You betrayed us. You sold our families into slavery with the Kottermanis,” he hissed.

“I am sorry. I was trapped. I have been trying to make up for it ever since,” she said, her voice throbbing with sincerity. “The Sister there showed you I was speaking the truth when I offered my help.”

Fallon shook his head. “You have always done what is best for you. No more, no less. As far as I am concerned, you are no better than the whores on the street, willing to do anything for money. Only your coin of choice was power.”

Her hand whipped out and he only just dodged the slap, feeling the wind of it across his face.

“How dare you?” she snarled. “You were a wreck after killing Prince Cavan. I saved you from yourself and then from Aidan’s men. Then I held this city together for you. You need me! Without me, the nobles will all turn back to Swane and the Guilds will stab you in the back. We are a good team, don’t break it up now.”

Fallon did not whether to laugh or bellow at her. “You have to pay for your crimes,” he said remorselessly.

“And your crimes? You killed the Crown Prince, killed the King and tortured Prince Kemal. You deserve death for one of those alone. And yet you walk around as if you saved the city.”

Fallon shook his head. “It is pointless arguing with you, because you do not see the world as we do,” he said. “You have lied and betrayed and brought misery to this country. You could have stopped all this before it began.”

“You tell yourself that,” she snapped. “Tell yourself you are better than me. But the truth is you are just like me.”

“What are we going to do with her?” Brendan rumbled. “She was the one who betrayed Baltimore and made our families suffer. You said you would skin the bastard that did that to us.”

Fallon looked at Dina and saw the fear in her eyes. But she drew herself up.

“Kill me and this city will fall into chaos,” she said. “I am the one thing they are holding on to. Without me, you are finished. Think of me what you will. But you are lost without me. You will make the wrong choices and doom this land.”

Fallon tried to shut out those words but they had an uncanny echo of what Aidan said with his dying breath. He tried not to let his discomfort show and pointed at the line of men tied to chairs. “Take these bastards down to the cells. There is no punishment too painful for them.”

“And what of the Duchess?” Brendan asked.

Fallon glared at her.

“Give her a cell to herself. She deserves that much but no more.”

Before she could do more than offer a token protest, Brendan had hustled her away, while her men were untied from the chairs, leaving their hands and feet bound, and dragged off to follow her.

“Don’t listen to her words about Cavan. She cannot compare what happened to you and what she did,” Gallagher said.

“And yet Prince Cavan is dead and life would be much easier if he was still alive,” Fallon said. “And you know what Dina’s treachery means?”

“That we finally have all the answers to the mystery that has plagued us?”

Fallon paused. “Well, yes. But we are also now running the country – or the west.” And he felt the weight of those words come crashing down onto his shoulders.
You will never rule this land. Your choices will fail and doom all.

“This is an outrage and if this is the way you intend to run the city, you can forget about the support of the Guilds,” the new head of the Bankers Guild declared.

Fallon glowered at him but a sheaf of requests for money had arrived just that morning from the nobles of the neighboring counties. With money he could purchase, through them, food and goods from counties further away. The food situation was better but it seemed there were many other things the city needed for winter, from firewood to wool for clothing, while the animals stabled within the city to be slaughtered and eaten later needed fodder for the next moon or two. He might get enough gold if he raided the Bankers Guildhouse or he might not. And he could not take the risk.

“What are you talking about?” he asked innocently.

“Duchess Dina. Arrested in the square outside this castle! The Guilds are all happy to deal with her but if she is imprisoned or executed then we shall have to rethink our support,” the Banker said loftily.

“And what if I decided to come calling and look into your affairs, see whether you are secretly worshipping Zorva?” Fallon challenged.

The Banker sat up straighter. “We have all sworn loyalty to Aroaril,” he said. “And if you destroy the Guilds you will throw this city into chaos. No merchant will deal with you and none of the nobles sending food and goods in from the counties will trust you. Duchess Dina was someone we could all deal with. You, on the other hand, are the man who gutted the King in front of a cheering crowd. They are too afraid to work with you.”

Fallon leaned back in his chair, his mind racing.
Was this part of Dina’s plans? Had she made the Guilds secret promises in exchange for their support if anything should happen to her? Do we even need the Guilds? Why not just march into every Guildhouse, arrest their leaders and take their money, share it out among the people?
It was tempting but they were clever men. They would have planned for this possibility, while he had not. By the time he had men mustered and marching, the Guildsmen would be scattering like rats in torchlight. Unless he got their leaders and their money then he was creating more trouble. He had to get ready for a fight with the Kottermanis and make sure Bridgit got back safely. Fighting his own people in Berry, even if they were Guildsmen, was foolish.

“Well, I am afraid you are mistaken,” he said. “Duchess Dina was not arrested. She is merely resting in her townhouse. We have had a strenuous few days of fast marches and hard camps. Not something she was really used to. She will be available for meetings tomorrow, where she can tell you herself.”

He smiled at the Banker, thinking that he could take a page from Aidan’s schemes.

The Banker looked uncertainly at him. “She was not arrested? Not taken screaming and crying into the castle?”

Fallon made himself laugh lightly. “A foolish jest between friends. She will tell you herself when you see her tomorrow. Shall we say noon, so she does not have to rise early? Bring as many Guild leaders as you feel necessary.”

He could see the confusion on the Banker’s face and enjoyed it. If nothing else, this would buy him enough time to be ready to search every Guildhouse at a moment’s notice.

“We understand the Duchess might be tired after the success of your march through the counties. We shall make it brief.”

“Excellent,” Fallon said. “Well, if there is nothing else that concerns you?”

“No, that was my reason for visiting.”

“Good. Well, I am glad I could clear that up. And after you have met with the Duchess, we can perhaps discuss terms for a short-term loan to keep the city operating?”

He saw the man out to the door, where Gallagher was ready to take him back out of the castle.

“What are we going to do? That traitorous bitch is not going to help us,” Devlin said. “What in Aroaril’s name were you thinking of when you said that?”

“She will help us. She has spent a night in the cells. We offer her the chance to live in her townhouse and, if she behaves, the chance to go and live quietly in the country somewhere after all this is over.”

“Why not keep her here, right under our thumb, in her rooms?” Gallagher asked.

“Partly because we need to use them but mainly because I don’t want her hearing or knowing what is going on around here. Who knows what servants she has in her pay?”

Brendan thumped the table. “I will not see her get away with it!” he growled.

“And nor will she. We will lie to her, pure and simple. And at all times she will have two dozen guards around her. Men we trust. If she tries anything then she will suffer a tragic accident. And we shall be ready to raid the Guildhouses at a moment’s notice, if they kick up a fuss.”

Brendan grimaced. “I don’t trust her any further than I can throw her.”

“Well, that could be quite a way,” Padraig said with a wink. “She’s pretty small, you know.”

“This is not a laughing matter,” Devlin said.

“No, it’s not. But we need to use everything we can to get this city ready for the Kottermanis. If that means tricking and lying to Dina, then so be it. We have just forced the nobles around here to help us. If they smell weakness then they will all stop the food coming and then we will have even more trouble,” Fallon said forcefully. “And what about the Guild of Magic? With their help, we have blinded Swane. If they turn against us then we would have more problems than a lack of flour. I would not like Swane to see how weak we really are here.”

He looked around the table and they all nodded, even Brendan.

“We had better keep a close eye on her though,” he added. “We’ll pick at least a score of our best recruits and put Casey in charge.”

“Not one of us?” Brendan suggested.

Fallon shook his head. “We’re too well known. The Guilds will smell a rat if we are there. They don’t know Casey.”

“Aroaril, I hope you are right about this,” Devlin said. “It might be safer to keep her here.”

“Would you invite a snake into your house? I fear she will be up to mischief here. In her townhouse she will be all alone, watched by a score of our best men at all times and only those we allow can enter. I don’t like keeping her around any more than you do but you heard that bloody Guildsman. People are talking and we don’t have the time or the energy to waste on fighting inside Berry. We have to get ready for the Kottermanis. Besides, there is a kind of justice to it. She used us to help her plans. So we use her now.”

*

Fallon had been prepared to argue and threaten but Dina jumped at the opportunity to leave the cells and seemed delighted to be able to bathe and eat and dress in silks again at her ducal townhouse. That aroused his suspicions a little but her servants were all sent away and replaced with two dozen of his best recruits, led by Casey, who had proved himself time and again since his fearful moment at Killarney.

When three Guild leaders – the heads of the Bankers, the Potters and Tanners – arrived, she charmed them, and not only sent them away happy but having also signed notes of credit that Fallon could send off to the nobles in exchange for firewood and bales of both wool and hay. That allayed some of his suspicions but he was not about to let his guard down.

“Do not let her out of your sight and send word to me the moment anything strange happens,” he told Casey.

“You can rely on me, Captain,” the young man said with a smile and a salute.

He was barely older than most of the recruits but he had developed an air of authority. Fallon patted him on the shoulder and walked away, mind already busy on other problems.

*

“Dad, when can we go down to the range and use our crossbows again?” Kerrin asked.

Fallon laid down the parchment he was reading and was about to send his son away when he caught sight of the huge pile of other requests waiting for him. He had never thought ruling a country would need so many scribes and pieces of paper. Aidan seemed to do it without going to any effort but perhaps he was not the best example. Every time he turned around it seemed like people wanted something. He shoved the paper away.

“Let’s go down now,” he suggested.

It was a relief to forget his worries, wash them away in the familiar action of loosing a crossbow, although he soon forgot about his own practicing to watch Kerrin. He was good with both the small Kottermani crossbow and the larger Gaelish one, picking out targets with cool precision.

“Dad, I need to help you when the Kottermanis come,” he said, after one particularly fine shot with the full-size crossbow.

Fallon looked down at his son and saw he was deadly serious. “Son, you should never want to fight. Sometimes you have to fight but it is not something you go looking for. How would you go loosing one of those bolts, real bolts, at a man who was running at you, trying to kill you? Or trying to kill me?”

Kerrin was silent for a few moments but when he looked up, his jaw was set. “I don’t want to hide away again. I want to stand up if they come for me. Like you will and just like Mam did.”

Fallon felt a lump in his throat and he had to swallow several times before he could speak again.

“Let’s hope it does not come to that,” he said gruffly. What would Bridgit say when she saw Kerrin now? There was no spare flesh on his frame and his shoulders were firm with muscle after all the work he had been doing with crossbows. The worried look had left his eyes and face and he never coughed now. She was going to be pleased about some of that – but not all. He could not wait to be scolded for the rest of it. For that would mean she was actually there with him.

Then his thoughts were interrupted by Devlin hurrying over.

“Fallon, we have a problem.”

*

“I shouldn’t be down here. And at least half of these men should be out there as well. We can help you – we have been helping you. You need us,” Gannon said. “I didn’t know what the Duchess was doing – most of us had no idea. Why else do you think she was using gutter scum to do her bidding? She knew we would never stand for it. We were Hagen’s men, as you were.”

Fallon looked at the big sergeant skeptically. Keverne and the men captured with him were in one cell, Gannon and the others spread out across the rest. These were not the cells Aidan had been using to keep children; these were the castle’s real cells, dark and forbidding. Fallon liked it like that. It reminded these bastards why they were in there.

“Let me guess, you want to guard the Duchess? Or maybe be given responsibility for one of the city gates? And then I turn my back and the Duchess is gone and Swane is back in here with an army.”

“I wouldn’t want to be near her ever again,” Gannon said. “I want to stop the Kottermanis. We both know they are coming and you will need every man you can get. Hagen trained us, which means we are worth three of your recruits. Come on, man, I was on board your ship the night they hit Baltimore! Hagen was my captain: he picked me out of the gutter and gave me a uniform. I owe him. And we helped you get away from Lunster, don’t you remember?”

“You didn’t stop us, which is a different thing,” Fallon corrected him. “Look at it from my point of view. I have been tricked and betrayed by just about everybody. How can I take the chance on you?”

“The priestess! Bring her down here and she will show we do not lie.”

Fallon shook his head. “Dina showed me how it is possible to fool Sister Rosaleen. You just have to avoid speaking a lie, while not telling all the truth.”

“I can help you,” Gannon insisted. “I didn’t know what the Duchess was doing but I did see some strange things.”

“Like what?”

“When we went through the papers in Aidan’s office, I had orders to clear them out and bring them to the old wizard. I was doing that, but I noticed some go missing.”

“How did you see things go missing?” Fallon asked suspiciously.

“Well, there was one pile of scrolls that got smaller much quicker than the others. And then there were scraps of parchment in the fire the next morning.”

Fallon sighed. “Well, even if this is true, that is no use to us if they are all burned. And if she destroyed some papers, they were probably evidence of her dealings with King Aidan. Is that all you have?”

Gannon thrust his hand through the bars. “Please, give me a chance. Just give me a sword and let me fight the Kottermanis when they come. Promise me that, at least.”

“I’ll think about it,” Fallon said, then turned on his heel.

“Should we lock them all up and consider them all traitors?” Rosaleen asked.

“Yes, we bloody well should!” Brendan growled.

“Gannon was right in one way. We need trained men,” Fallon said.

“We cannot trust anyone, ever again, except for us,” Devlin said. “Every bastard we have gone to has stabbed us in the back or sold us out.”

“But we also need all the help we can get. Sister, can you speak to them and see what is in their hearts?”

Rosaleen looked down at the table. “Once I would have said yes,” she confessed. “Now I cannot trust myself. I still find it hard to accept that I could sit next to the Duchess, hold her hand and tell you she spoke the truth, when she hid such a terrible lie from us.”

“It was not your fault,” Gallagher said immediately.

Fallon felt he could understand her fears only too well. The words of both Aidan and Dina hung over him. He had made so many bad choices and no longer trusted his gut. He could not make a mistake that doomed all of Gaelland. “If it is any consolation, it did not hurt us. The damage had already been done and since then she has worked to help us,” he said. “And, even now, she seems to be keeping her bargain. Casey reports that she never goes out, just requests to see a dressmaker and spends half the day designing new outfits.”

“And who is paying for that?” Brendan asked indignantly.

“You are,” Padraig said. “But at least you’ll get to wear a few of them afterwards!”

Fallon let them laugh before tapping the table. “So what are we going to do with Gannon and his men?”

“Either try them or let them rot,” Devlin said.

“We can’t put them on trial,” Rosaleen said. “The memory of the witch trials is too fresh, as is the execution of King Aidan. People trust us but that won’t last if we keep killing people. They’ll start asking if we are like Aidan.”