The Dark Glory War (4 page)

Naysmith’s eyes narrowed.

I held a hand up. “Forgive him, please, Naysmith. He’s just excited and gets like that. Mid-Summer’s Eve and all.”

“A good slap will fix that, ay?”

Leigh plucked a goblet of wine from the table and turned back toward us. “But only the finest slap for me.”

Naysmith’s right hand flexed, and I had no doubt his best shot would spin Leigh’s head around like a weathercock in a gale.

I sought to distract the big man. “What company were you hoping to join, Naysmith?”

“I answer to Nay—too many Smiths about.” Nay shrugged. “Home Guards, if I must. The Norrington Foot Guards is best. See more than Valsina.”

“Not the Frontier Lancers, or the Oriosan Scouts?” Leigh regarded us with a broad smile on his face. “The Heavy Dragoons could use someone like you, though I doubt there’s a horse that would carry you.”

“Some do, some don’t.” Nay tossed off the rest of his wine and started to wipe his mouth on his sleeve, but thought better of it. “Riders worry about sticking and stabbing. Been laboring for years with a hammer. Bashing and laying about with a maul is for me.”

“Your strength will serve you well in war.” Leigh finished his wine and returned the goblet to the table. “How will you fare at a ball, though? The watchers have seen we can drink, so shall we thrill some of these ladies with a turn about the floor?”

Knowing Leigh the way I did, the hint of cruelty in his question wasn’t lost on me. While there wasn’t a girl present who wouldn’t be overjoyed to be seen on Leigh’s arm—or Rounce’s, for that matter—most of the girls were from a class that would scarcely spare Nay a look. Even those girls who had learned the skills necessary for a trade would be interested in marrying, and none of them at this age had anything but dreams of bettering herself through matrimony. While all would have said they would marry for love, a title or money or lands makes a suitor very lovable indeed.

Nay looked over at the blizzard of dancers swirling in time to the music. “Don’t know this step.”

His voice carried no surrender with it, and Leigh picked up on that immediately. “Name a step, then, and I’ll call the tune.”

r“Don’t know as how it has a name.” Nay folded heavily muscled arms over his chest. “We dance it to the song ‘Firetoes.’”

Rounce hummed a moment or two, then nodded. “Firelight Dash is the step, Leigh.”

“Firelight Dash it shall be, then. Gentlemen …” Leigh waved us in his wake. I let Nay slip in after Rounce and before me, which earned me a frown from Leigh. “I meant you to come as well, Hawkins.”

“I gathered, my lord.”

Nay glanced back over his shoulder at me. “Which is it you’re called?”

“Tarrant when he’s being nice, Hawkins all other times.”

“Must hear Hawkins a lot, then.”

“Easier to rhyme than Tarrant.”

“I heard that.” Leigh turned quickly and stuck his tongue out at me. “Along came Nay and Tarrant, the fearful giant and the ant …” Spinning around again he darted up the stairs and spoke to the chamberlain, who then spoke to the lead musician. Leigh all but skipped back down the steps.

“It is set.” He smiled and waved a hand at a line of young women. “Gentlemen, choose your weapons.”

Leigh and Rounce immediately plunged into a cloud of giggling girls. Nay looked back to our left, toward a small knot of girls who were dressed as he was, but I caught his arm. He looked down with his face twisted in puzzlement, but I gave him a reassuring smile. “I have an idea, if you’re game.”

Nay grunted and nodded.

I led him over to a pair of twins, May and Maud Lamburn. The flaxen-haired beauties had bright blue eyes peeking out from beneath their moon masks. Though small enough that I dwarfed them, and close as twins always are, they were also known for a keen sense of competition. If I asked one to dance, the other couldn’t stand to be left alone, so she would accept the next invitation offered.

And, on top of that, both of them danced very well.

“May, I would request the pleasure of this dance.”

May took my hand with a smile and a nod. “I am honored.”

I smiled at her sister. “Maud, this is my friend, Naysmith Carver.”

“If your ladyship would permit …” Nay offered her his hand and she took it.

We escorted our partners onto the floor and took up positions behind Rounce and Leigh. Rounce had asked Lindsey Cotter to dance with him, but that was no surprise. He’d been sweet on her for the better part of a year. Leigh, on the other hand, had asked Nolda Disper to join him, though for size she would have been a better match with Nay. Still, with her long hair so blonde it was almost white, and her skin a gentle damask, she and Leigh seemed of a type. Her pale blue eyes proved a few shades lighter than his, and the hard nature of her stare would have chilled me to the bone.

Our partners knew the moment the first violinist put bow to string that the four couples were in a competition. The Firelight Dash is one of those festive, long-stride galloping type dances, with quick turns and laughter and gay abandon. The full-skirted gowns the girls wore that night were not well suited to it, but there Nay and I had an advantage. As we spun across the floor, whisking our partners around this way and that, we could lift the Lamburn sisters clear of the floor, freeing their trapped feet—and keeping them out from under my feet, as well.

Leigh, to his credit, realized he’d been overmatched from the start, so kept to the center of the floor and let the rest of us circle him and Nolda. He led her through a version of the dance that was more stately than frenetic. His turns let her long hair sweep out in a wondrous display, and his frequent bows in her direction made her the center of attention. He showed her off to her benefit before all, while the rest of us became fast-moving fish in an ocean of white.

I admired him for thinking that quickly. I also pitied him because Nay, Rounce, and I were having great fun in the dance. Somewhere in it, as the music took hold, all the anxiety I had been feeling about the night and its import drained away. I let my laughter mingle with everyone else’s, then drew it all back in and let it live in my heart.

The song ended all too fast as far as I was concerned. May had weathered well my clumsy leading through the dance, and even gave me a smile when I bowed to her. Nay and I both nodded to the twins as they curtsied to us, then we let the Lamburn sisters return to the coterie from which we had drawn them. Other girls surrounded them, insulating them from music with a cacophony of giggles which, for some reason, started a bit of a blush creeping up my cheeks.

Nay slapped me on the back. “Not a bad stepper, that Maud.“

“Thanks for helping me keep the peace there.”

“That was it then, not dancing?” Nay grinned ever so slightly, then rubbed a hand across his chin. “If you like, there are two other girls, my master’s daughter and friend, we could give a whirl.”

“A fair trade, I think.”

We turned and started toward the group of girls Nay had looked at before, but Rounce caught up with us and Leigh cut us off. “Where are you going?”

I fixed Leigh with a gimlet eye. “Thisis a gala, so we’re off to enjoy ourselves.”

“Ah, Tarrant, I had such high hopes for you.” Leigh shook his head mournfully. “This is not a gala, this is a livestock auction. They watch, they choose.”

I wrinkled my nose. “I’m not sure I like the sound of ‘livestock auction.’ ”

“Neither do I, dear boy, but at least we have a bid.” Leigh held up a folded slip of paper. “I was given this just now.”

I took it from him and unfolded it. Rather than chance Nay’s not being able to read, I read it aloud in a hoarse whisper. “Your demeanor and spirit impress us. Midnight, in the west garden, by the north gate.”

Nay ran a hand through his red hair. “Invite to an alley bashing, sounds like.”

“Hardly, my big friend.” Leigh took the note back from me. “We’re being invited to glimpse the future. And I think, for us, it will be a most pleasant one indeed.”

The full moon stared down dispassionately at the four of us as we waited at the garden’s north gate. Moonlight glowed off Leigh’s outfit, making him look like an overdressed ghost. Rounce kept glancing back at the dark edifice of the Senate Palace, silently lamenting that the plans he’d had for ending the evening with Lindsey Cotter would not come to fruition. I sat myself down on one of the carved granite benches and sniffed night-bloomingyismyn flowers.

Nay shuffled his feet and paced nervously along the gentle curve of the crushed marble walkway near the gate. He’d get as far as Leigh, then turn on his heel and march back toward the gate. Leigh, Rounce, and I had assured him that he was included in the message Leigh had received.

Nay had countered, “A trident only has three tines.”

“But it also has a haft, which is bigger than any of the tines, and that describes you, Nay.” I patted him on the arm and was a bit amazed at just how hard his muscles were. “You really are meant to be with us.”

Leigh had agreed. “Come now, dear fellow, do you think I would be wrong about such things? The invitation was for my companions, and you are one of them. You’ve danced with one of the dreaded Lamburn sisters, so you are clearly valiant.“

Nay scowled. “Don’t like an invite what doesn’t say who sent it.”

Laughter rolled melodically from Leigh’s throat. “Oh, but that’s the joy of the day, Nay. It’s the mystery of it all. Look at the watchers, secure in their anonymity, all wrapped up in red secrets. You know why they wear red, don’t you? It’s the color of blood and the color of life. It’s to stress their import and to show how they have the power to make our lives or destroy them.”

He lowered his voice and all of us had to lean down to his level to hear him continue. “The man who gave this note to the chamberlain had a military bearing. Even the script is the type they teach officers so orders will be clear. We’ve clearly understood their order. We didn’t drink too much, just danced, showed we are not out of control. We’ll be the winners here, all four of us, tines and haft together.”

In the garden Leigh had stationed himself on the walkway to prevent Nay from bolting. I think Nay fascinated Leigh because the man clearly was not frightened by him, nor did he particularly care if he offended the son of the city’s highest noble. Instead Nay seemed more frightened of doing something that would prevent him from reaching his dream. Being with us when he shouldn’t be could certainly do that, but running away when he should be with us would also doom him. He bounced back and forth between those two alternatives, and only Leigh’s having positioned himself to cut off any retreat forced Nay to remain with us.

Which, from the occasional smile that graced his moonlit face, I judged to be what he wanted to do anyway.

The north gate itself was not one of the garden’s best known features. A small, iron-bound oak door had been set in an arched doorway. Ivy covered the wall around it, and curled tendrils reached for the door itself. I’d not seen it before from this side, and I couldn’t recall having seen it on the handful of times I’d been walking along High Street.

Crickets competed with crunch of stone beneath Nay’s feet until Leigh hissed: “Quiet; listen.”

I heard nothing at first, then, from the other side of the wall I caught the muffled thump of horses’ hooves on cobblestone and the occasional squeak of wagon wheel on axle. The hoofbeats should have been sharp and clear, so I assumed rags had been tied over the hooves to kill the sound. That realization puckered my flesh.

Nay stared hard at the door and whatever lay beyond it. “Not liking this at all.”

“All part of the game, old shoe.” Leigh tried to keep his voice light, but he still ended up wiping his palms on his jacket.

I stood as a key rasped in the lock. Ivy leaves bounced and shimmered in the moonlight as the door opened outward, pulling free of clinging vines. From my angle I could see nothing through the doorway, but Nay bobbed his head, then nodded. He flashed me two fingers.

I smiled.Smart man. He can see two people, but doesn’t think they need to know they’ve been seen.

A voice disguised in a hoarse whisper snapped an order at us. “Come on now, the four of you. No time to waste.”

Leigh flashed a quick knowing smile at Nay, then strolled through the doorway as if he had not a care in the world. Rounce followed him, bowing his head to get through. Nay had to stoop and shift his shoulders at an angle, and I let him precede me so he’d not have any excuse to run off. I came last and heard the door squeak shut behind me.

The wagon I’d heard roll up had been a big, boxy affair, the kind that serves as both shop and home for tinkers and traders who make a circuit through the hinterlands. I saw that ragshad been tied around the hooves of the team drawing it and likewise had been wrapped around the wheels’ iron rims. The wagon had no windows that I could see, and I only saw the door as I came around the back of it. The door itself had been hinged at the bottom and served as a ramp for walking up into the interior. Two men, hooded and cloaked and masked in shadow, guided us up the ramp. Not unexpectedly, the ramp rose behind me, cutting off the light from the street before I’d gotten much of a look at the wagon’s interior.

What little I did see didn’t tell me much. Two padded benches lined each side, but the box remained otherwise un-decorated. There did appear to be a small window at the top of the forward wall that would let someone communicate with the driver, but the panel covering it was closed. When the ramp closed, I heard a bar being dropped behind it to keep it shut. Someone slapped a hand against the back of the wagon, then we started off with a lurch that spilled me to the floor at my companions’ feet.

“Really, Hawkins, time enough to thank me for including you on this adventure later. No need to prostrate yourself now …”

I made sure to press down heavily on Leigh’s thigh as I climbed to my feet. “I have no intention of letting you believe I’m ungrateful, Leigh.”

“I see that.” He hissed with pain and gently shoved me back. I stumbled into Rounce’s lap, then slid off to my left and onto the empty half of a bench across from Nay. “Well, quite the interesting little start to our adventure, is it not, gentlemen?”