When the Saints Read online

  She shook her head vigorously. “The Church doesn’t, and in this case I won’t. Blue-blood Speakers are rare and therefore precious. Besides, if Gallant falls, he may well die with it, so his life is worth very little at the moment. Your back is to the wall, Your Eminence. Obviously Duke Wartislaw blindsided you. Another military disaster like the Bavarian campaign and you will have nowhere to put that red hat of yours. I can spare Justina for a week, maybe two, which should be plenty. Take it or leave it.”

  “A quarter.”

  Again she paused, leaving him staring at that faceless veil. Finally she said, “How about a third? My final offer.”

  Zdenek mentally shuffled papers into heaps, which was his way of weighing decisions. The boy could not possibly save Castle Gallant single-handedly if the Wends had arrayed more than one Speaker against him—the yes pile. If Gallant fell, then both the boy and Zdenek himself were likely to go down with it—yes again. Archbishop Svaty might be willing to assign two or three of the Church’s Speakers to keep the Orthodox Wends from taking a Catholic fortress—the no pile. But Svaty’s price would certainly include the boy himself, and probably much else—yes. Lady Umbral was a trader in magic that the Church publicly condemned as Satanism, whatever it really believed, and thwheeved, aus her dealings must always be secret, and her reputation for honesty was vital to her continued success, but no one would ever dare denounce her if she cheated. Now that she knew about the boy, she must be bound by some sort of agreement, or she might feel free to grab him for her own purposes, leaving the castle, Zdenek, and Jorgary to fall together—yes, certainly.

  He sighed and nodded. “Your Justina must serve until the Wends withdraw, though. As you said, it cannot be very long.”

  “Until the Wends withdraw or the castle falls.”

  “If the castle and the boy survive, then you get one-third of him.” There might still be opportunities to renege on that part of the agreement. The Magnus family had a long tradition of patriotism and service to their king.

  “Agreed.”

  “The password is ‘Greenwood’.”

  “How do we arrange the travel?”

  “Brother Daniel has met Count Anton. Brother?”

  The friar nodded. “But the hour is late to go calling on a fortress under siege, Your Eminence. Men-at-arms in dangerous situations often strike first and ask questions later. Too late.” He removed his eye patch to let the visitors have a clear look at his face. “If you will come calling on me tomorrow morning at, say, terce, my lady, I shall be happy to conduct you to Cardice.”

  “I’m no ‘lady,’” the Speaker said. “Just Justina. I will see you then, Brother.”

  The women rose as one.

  “A pleasure doing business with you, Eminence,” Lady Umbral said.

  A gap seemed to open in the air itself. All three stepped through it and vanished, leaving the cardinal with his hand out, offering his ring to empty air.

  CHAPTER 2

  “Can’t you even pretend to enjoy it?” Anton raged.

  A week ago he had been Lancer Magnus, most junior recruit in the king of Jorgary’s Light Hussars, living on gruel in a repulsive attic and forced to share a bed with Wulfgang. Now he was Count Magnus of Cardice, Companion in the Order of St. Vaclav, lord of the march, keeper of Castle Gallant, one of the premier noblemen of the realm. So life felt good, with a few exceptions. One of which was his current problem.

  “Pretend how, my lord?” she said. Her voice was muffled, because they were both deep in a feather mattress and buried under a mountain of down quilts. She was underneath.

  eight="0em" width="1em" align="justify">He was on top, which he always preferred, and also inside, but not making much progress. He must have swived two dozen young girls in the seven years or so since he became capable, but none had been so unresponsive. Older women—there had been even more of those—had always agreed that he was a good lover, delivering as much pleasure as he took. But Madlenka had been bewitched, and there was only one man around Castle Gallant who could use witchcraft.

  Meanwhile, she was still waiting for instructions, although all he could do was repeat what he had told her a dozen times in the last three days. “Moan, thrash around. Bounce. Shriek. Bite and scratch. Above all, in the name of the Almighty, don’t just lie there and weep like that!”

  A week ago he had been stalking the bawds of the court, hoping to work his way into the bed, if not affections, of some rich lady who might expand his income and advance his career. Now he was married—or at least handfasted, which was as good as married—to the daughter of the previous count. Only men who admired flattish chests and sinewy legs would regard her as a beauty. Anton’s taste ran to the voluptuous. He liked buttocks he could sink his fingers into and breasts like melons, great twin pillows where a man could bury his head; not these pale, pink-tipped pears. Her ivory skin, moonlight hair, and sapphire eyes were bloodless. She looked like an ice maiden and acted like one.

  Madlenka sniffed. “I am not weeping, my lord.”

  “You have tears in your eyes!”

  “It hurts!”

  Anton made an exasperated noise. What he might have said then remained unsaid, because another man spoke right behind him.

  “Anton! Are you awake?”

  Anton withdrew, rolled off, and peered out from under the quilt to make sure the bed curtains were safely closed.

  “Otto?” He would tell anyone else to go to hell and stay there for at least two hours. “What the devil—”

  “It’s urgent. Very bad news. Put some clothes on and come out here, to the fire.”

  The door thumped shut.

  Cursing, Count Magnus struggled out of the mattress and the curtains. Shivering as if he had fallen into icy water, he quickly covered his gooseflesh with the garments he had dropped on the floor last night, which were all just as cold.

  He paused at the mirror to drag on his hat, dab some wax on his mustache, and twirl up the ends. He scowled at the bruise on his jaw and winced as he poked a loose tooth with his tongue. Anger, as much as cold, made his breath smoke. The windows overlooked the bailey and showed a thin slice of milky blue sky above the battlements on the far side. Up here in the mountains, September morninligember mgs felt like November back home at Dobkov.

  The count’s quarters in Castle Gallant were shabby and ancient. As soon as he had driven off the Wends and settled into his demesne, he would have them redecorated in the Italian style; more like, say, the bedroom of Baroness Nadezda Radovan in Mauvnik. Now, there was a woman who understood the finer points of copulation! As she should, having been at it for thirty years. He strode out into Madlenka’s dressing room and shut the door behind him, ready to face whatever disaster the new day had brought.

  Even a brother should not invade the count’s private quarters uninvited. But it wasn’t just Otto: three of them were out there, waiting for him. They must have brought a firepot, for the wood on the hearth was blazing merrily already. And they all stood up to honor the count, their host.

  At thirty-six, Ottokar Baron Magnus of Dobkov was the senior brother and head of the family. He had arrived in Gallant yesterday on what was intended to be a brief celebratory visit, but now he dared not go home again lest he carry pestilence with him. Although Anton would not admit it, he was more than happy to have his oldest brother here to lean on in the present crisis. Otto was big, solid, and battle-hardened, but those qualities mattered much less than his level head, steady nerves, and experience. Whenever there was a dispute, Otto’s opinion would always be the soundest and the safest to accept.

  The giant hiding behind the huge and very unfashionable black beard was second brother Sir Vladislav, even bigger than Otto, and a renowned warrior. He had come to Gallant to advise on how to fight off the Pomeranian army that was poised to attack the north gate. All through Anton’s childhood, Vlad had been a bullying pest, dispensing bruises on the training ground or mocking all lesser men with his cruel, hobnailed humor. But Vlad woul
d still be languishing in captivity, a hostage in some godforsaken castle in Bavaria, had Anton not come up with his ransom, so Vlad owed him a gigantic favor and was having to behave himself at last.

  And the youngest, Wulfgang. He looked small and babyish alongside the other two, but was neither. He was a superb horseman and packed a punch to fell oxen, as Anton’s sore jaw and loose tooth reminded him. No longer the amiable varlet who had tended his brother’s boots and clothes and tack without complaint last week, he was now a killer, as dangerous as a lightning bolt. Furthermore, he lusted after the Ice Maiden, and she craved him too, although she staunchly denied it. Shining like gold sequins, his pale eyes stared fixedly at Anton; his face was unreadable and almost frightening.

  The absence of middle brother Marek meant that this was a military emergency that did not concern a renegade monk.

  “Please sit!” Still shivering, Anton squatted before the fire to hog the heat. The others were all well swathed in furs and hats. Otto took the stool by the dressing board, Vlad and Wulf folded down atop clothes chests.

  “You picked the worst possible time to interrupt,” Anton grumbled, carefully not looking at Wulf. Let him yearn!

  “Oh, did we?” im we?Vlad growled. “Well, let me tell you, Count, that while you’ve been sarding your brains out, we three have been doing your work for you. None of us has been to bed even to sleep, let alone getting any of what seems to be your only interest in life.” Always the soul of tact, was Vlad.

  “Sorry,” Anton said airily, not meaning it. “Didn’t know that. Explain.” Outranking his two most senior brothers, so that they must report to him, was a pleasant novelty. In three centuries, no Magnus had ever risen to the rank of count.

  “It’s like this,” Otto said. “The rain stopped in the night, although later we had snow. The pickets on watch saw fires down at High Meadows. They woke Dali Notivova and he came and told Vlad. We doubled the guard and began reinforcing the south gate, stockpiling weapons and arrows, and so on. Didn’t think you’d want your married life interrupted.”

  “Who is it?” Anton demanded, although he could guess.

  “Havel Vranov.”

  “Sure?”

  “At first light I went and looked,” Wulf said quietly. His boots were muddy and had blades of grass stuck to them.

  “I gave orders,” Anton barked, “strict orders, that the gates were to remain shut until I said otherwise. You have no authority to overrule me.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “Oh!”

  “Arrghem!” Only Vlad could clear his throat and make it sound so much like mockery. “He says they’re flying the Hound’s pennants.”

  The Hound of the Hills, Havel Vranov, lord of the Pelrelm march, and thus a neighbor—but now a traitor to his king.

  “How many?”

  “Didn’t try an exact count,” Wulf said, his face still wooden. “Many hundreds. At least twenty knights’ pavilions. They have closed the road, of course, which is why no one got through to warn us.”

  So now Castle Gallant was truly under siege. There were only two ways in and out. The Wends held the road to the north gate, and now their lackey Havel was at the south. Not that any Magnus in history had ever dreamed of running away from danger.

  Anton turned back to Vlad. “You’re the expert, Brother. What happens now?”

  The big man laughed. “We have unlimited water, unless the enemy breaks in and takes the Quarantine Road, and even then we can lower buckets to the river. So far I’ r Ive tracked down two weeks’ rations, which could be spread out to four or five weeks, but only four days’ fodder for the horses, so we’d better start eating them while they’re plump. We can get by until mid-November, more or less. By then the Wends are going to be freezing their pretty little butts, sitting out there in the hills while the lake ices over behind them.”

  “But what do we do?”

  Vlad leered through his wilderness of beard. “You’re giving me overall command?”

  Anton restrained his temper, never an easy feat early in the morning. Vlad was notoriously prone to speak his mind, but having to accept orders from a younger brother who had been promoted to the giddy rank of count while he was still a mere knight must be straining every fiber of his self-control.

  “Vlad, I am trying to apply your renowned expertise in warfare and siegecraft. I already appointed Dalibor Notivova constable. To reverse that decision after two days would not help the men’s opinion of their new count.”

  “Dalibor Notivova doesn’t know a halberd from an arquebus.”

  “He lacks your experience, yes, but he’s a local, the men like him, and obviously he’s been deferring to you already. What more do you need?”

  “Dali’s a good man,” Wulf said softly.

  Vlad glared down at him as if about to ask how a boy knew what a good man was, and then, surprisingly, agreed. “Yes, he is. We can expect the Wends to appear at the north barbican any minute. You need to issue a proclamation that we’re under siege and all able-bodied men are to report for defense.”

  “Do it,” Anton said. “Sound the tocsin. Tell Dalibor that you speak with my voice. He won’t argue.”

  For a moment Vlad looked mutinous again, but Otto said quietly, “That sounds like a fair compromise.”

  A satisfied leer parted the big man’s beard. He nodded but did not rise. “I need weeks and we may not have an hour. We’ve got a few pathetic old firearms but almost no powder. There are emplacements on the roofs of the barbicans to anchor trebuchets, but we need timber and ammunition. I’ll have to tear down houses.”

  “Many people fled town,” Anton said. “Take their homes.”

  Showing his teeth in a ferocious grin, Vlad rose to his full, enormous height and marched out, leaving the door ajar. Wulf went and closed it, then returned to his seat on the chest.

  “Is that all?” Anton said. “Can I go back to what I was doing?” That was a second jab, but again he did not look at Wulf as he sai-bolf as hd it.

  “No,” Otto said, frowning. “More bad news. Marek has been taken from us. He was murdered last night, just after you went off to bed.”

  Dead? Marek? No! It was too early in the morning to deal with that. Anton whispered an Ave and crossed himself. Marek, Marek! Marek had always been the brother who mattered. Their mother had died bearing Wulf, and in Anton’s earliest memories, Otto and Vlad were already adolescents in weapons training. But Marek, just three years older than he, had been a brother to love and follow and look up to—though not literally, for even as a child Anton had been the taller. Five years ago Marek had been taken away and locked up in a monastery. Only yesterday he had come back into Anton’s life, arriving here in Castle Gallant, his smiling little self again.… They had barely had time to exchange a dozen words. A long chat with Marek, getting to know each other again, had been the top item on today’s agenda. Murdered?

  “By whom?” Anton had already hanged one man in his fiefdom, and he would certainly hang this one.

  “I’ll let Wulf tell you,” Otto said.

  Oh, it was like that, was it? A cold shiver of fear prickled down Anton’s back as he turned to meet Wulf’s wolfish yellow eyes. He still had not adjusted to the dramatic transformation of his dreamy younger brother. An affable, soft-spoken youth had become a sinister presence; everybody’s friend, a minion of the devil. He killed men in cold blood.

  But now he was strangely downcast. “Last night, when I went over to Long Valley to kill Havel’s in-house Speaker, Marek not only insisted on coming with me, he begged me to let him pull the trigger. He wanted to prove to us that he was still a true Magnus, I think. So I opened the gate through limbo for him, and Marek shot the bolt into Father Vilhelmas. It was Marek the witnesses saw. And it turned out that Havel had another Speaker there with him. A short while later, after you left us drinking in the solar, that one turned the tables. He appeared in our midst and cursed Marek for killing Vilhelmas. And then Marek fell back in his chair, dead.”r />
  “Who appeared?”

  “Leonas.”

  “The half-wit?” Anton exclaimed. “You’re telling me that weedy moronic brat is a Speaker, like you?”

  “Leonas is Havel’s son. Vilhelmas was a cousin. Ours is not the only family with the curse. Or gift, if you prefer,” Wulf added wryly.

  “Leonas’s not like Wulf,” Otto said tactfully. “We think the lad doesn’t really know what he’s doing. His father must have put him up to it, and very likely put him up to cursing Count Bukovany and his son, too. Havel uses him as a weapon, a miracle machine.”

  . Sze="-1"01C;Miracles?” Wulf’s face tightened. “Would a saint strike Marek dead? Or are you implying that it’s witchcraft? The Voices I heard claimed to be the voices of saints, but now I’m starting to think the Church is right, and they were demons. Remember how Marek warned us when we went to visit him at Koupel that their aid would always turn to evil? And if I have sold my soul to Satan, Brothers, then you may all be damned too, for accepting my help.”

  “I refuse to believe that,” Otto snapped.

  “Or I,” Anton said. To be told that Wulf’s miracles had twice saved his life so that he could fulfill some Satanic purpose was unacceptable.

  “I don’t want to, either,” Wulf said, “but Vilhelmas is dead, the Dominican Azuolas is dead, and now Marek is dead, and…” He shrugged and looked down at the floor. Had he been about to add that the woman he loved was married to the wrong man?

  “Where is he? Marek, I mean. I must go and see him.”

  “You can’t.”

  Otto the peacemaker intervened again. “We decided.… We didn’t know how we were going to explain his death, and both town and castle are jumpy enough after Havel’s performance last night.… Wulf took him back to Koupel, so the monks could give him Christian burial.”

  “I left him in the church,” Wulf muttered, “between matins and lauds. It seemed kindest.”

  “We must endow prayers for his soul,” Otto said.