Every Reason to Hate "The fairies' only remaining city is in the far north of Eion, north even of what was once Vutland. Ximander calls it 'Qul-na-Qar' or 'Fairy Home,' but whether those are the names the fairies themselves use is unknown.The Vuts called it 'Alvshemm' and claimed it was a city with towers as numerous as the trees in a forest." -from "A Treatise on the Fairy Peoples of Eion and Xand" THE SUN HAD ALMOST SUNK to the horizon and the lamps were being lit all over Broadhall Palace. Briony was on her way back from visiting Ivvie, who was feeling better, if not quite well-the girl's hands still shook badly, and she could take nothing into her stomach stronger than clear broth-when she was met in the hall outside her rooms by two armed and helmeted soldiers wearing the royal Syannese crest. The guards' air of tense expectancy was such that for a moment she feared they meant to kill her. She was relieved, but only a little, when one of them announced, "Princess Briony Eddon, you have been summoned by the king."
"I would like to go and change my clothes, first," she said.
The guard shook his head. His expression gave her a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach. "I am sorry, Highness, but it is not permitted."
She ran through all the possibilities as they escorted her toward the throne room. Could it be her meddling with the Kallikans? Or had something about Jenkin Crowel's injuries been whispered in the king's ears? That would be easy enough to deny-Dawet was too clever to leave any loose ends.
As she walked across the great throne room between the two tall men she could not help wondering if the covert glances from the courtiers betrayed the same squeamish sort of fascination they might have felt for a famous criminal.
Oh, sweet mistress Zoria, what trouble have I caused now?
King Enander and his advisers were waiting for her in the Perin Chapel, a high-ceilinged room much longer than it was wide. The king sat on a chair with the great altar behind him, at the feet of Perin Skylord's monstrous marble statue. The god held his great hammer Crackbolt, its massive head resting on the floor just behind the chair occupied by the Lady Ananka, the king's mistress, who was one of the last people Briony wanted to see. Equally loathsome was the presence of Jenkin Crowel, the Tollys' envoy at the Syannese court, although it suggested she had guessed right: one of the bully-boys had probably talked. Crowel smirked at her; his giant white neck ruff made him look like a particularly ugly flower. It was all she could do not to go to him and slap his pink, insolent face, but she struggled for calm and found it. She had learned a few lessons since Hendon Tolly had provoked her almost to madness at her own table.
She dropped to her knee in front of King Enander and looked down at the floor. "Your Majesty," she said. "You summoned me and I have come."
"Not hastily," said Ananka. "The king has waited for you here a long time."
Briony bit her lip. "I am sorry," she said. "I was with Mistress Ivgenia e'Doursos and your messengers only just found me. I came as soon as I heard." She looked up to the king, trying to gauge his mood, but the expression on Enander's face was a disinterested mask that could have augured anything at all. "How may I serve you?"
"You claim to serve King Enander?" said Ananka. "That is strange, since none of your actions show anything like it."
Whatever was happening here, it was obviously bad. If Lady Ananka was to serve as her inquisitor the cause would be lost before Briony even knew what was at stake.
"We welcomed you to our court." She saw now that Enander's face was flushed as though he had been drinking heavily for this early hour of the day. "Did we not? Did we not open our arms to you as Olin's daughter? "
"Yes, you did, Majesty, and I am most grateful…"
"And all I asked of you was that you not bring the intrigues of your… troubled homeland into our house." The king frowned, but it seemed as much in puzzlement as anger. Briony felt a moment of hope. Perhaps it was a misunderstanding-something she could explain. She would be contrite, grateful. She would apologize for her youth and headstrong ways, trot out whatever nonsense the king wanted to hear like Feival performing a soliloquy of girlish innocence, and then she could go back to her chambers for some blessed, necessary sleep…
A movement at the corner of her eye caught her attention. It was Feival himself, who had come so quietly into the great chapel that Briony had not even heard him. She was relieved to see at least one familiar face.
"You were extremely generous to her, my lord," said Ananka. Was Briony the only person who could hear the venom dripping from the woman's tongue? What good was beauty-a mature beauty, but beauty nonetheless-if it cloaked such a viperous soul?
Please, merciful Zoria, Briony prayed, help me to keep my temper. Help me to swallow my pride, which has landed me in trouble so many times.
"So if all that is true," said Enander suddenly, "why have you betrayed my hospitality and betrayed me, Briony Eddon? Why? Common intrigues I could understand, but this-you have struck at my very heart!" The pain in his voice was real.
Betrayed? Briony suddenly felt icy fear envelop her. She looked up at Enander but the king would not meet her eye. "Majesty, I…" She found it hard to form words. "What have I done? May I know? I swear I have never…"
"The list of your crimes is long, girl." The high collar of Ananka's elaborately beaded dress made her look like a Xandian hood snake. "If you were of common blood, any one of them would have you in the House of Tears. Lord Jenkin, tell the king again what she did to you."
Jenkin Crowel, still with a thin purple shadow beneath one eye, cleared his throat. "Within a few short days of arriving in your gracious court as a legitimate envoy, King Enander, I was set upon by thugs in the public street and beaten almost to death. As I lay in the dirt in a pool of my own blood one of the ruffians leaned down and told me, "That is what happens to those who stand against the Eddons."
"That's a lie!" Briony shouted. It was, at least in part. After she had become convinced that Crowel had poisoned her little maid in an effort to kill Briony herself, she had instructed Dawet to hire some bully-boys to give Crowel a taste of his own cruelty, and then say to him that next time he tried any dangerous tricks his payment would be worse. No mention could have been made of the Eddons because Dawet would never even have hinted to those men who they were actually serving.
"I know what I heard," Crowel said, doing his best to look both suffering and noble. "I thought I was dying. I thought they were the last words I would ever hear."
"You are as much a liar as your master." Briony forced herself to take a breath. "Even if I were behind such a terrible thing, would I have them use my name?" Just the sight of Crowel's doughy, self-satisfied face fanned the rage inside her until its flames billowed. "If I was taking revenge for the treachery your master has shown my family, then the name Eddon would be the last thing you would hear all right, you pig, but you would never have got to your feet again!" Enander and the others were staring at her, Briony realized. She swallowed. "I am innocent of this charge, King Enander. Would you take the word of this… this upstart over the daughter of a brother king?"
The king narrowed his eyes. "Were this the only accusation against you, and the only witness, you would have some case to make, Princess. But there is more."
"I am innocent of any wrongdoing, Majesty. I swear. Call on your witnesses."
"Is it not as I told you, Enander?" said Ananka in a tone of triumph. "She plays the innocent so well. And yet she plotted nothing less than to steal your son and your throne!"
Enander's throne? Oh, gods, that was treason. Even princesses might be put to death for treason, and not quickly. It was all she could do to force out the words. "I have no idea what you are talking about, Lady Ananka-I swear my innocence in front of Perin and all the gods!"
"You tried to entrap Prince Eneas, girl. Everybody knows. You made up to him, played the blushing virgin, all the while trying to lure him to your bed and bend him to your will! And that was only the beginning of your plot!"
"This is a dreadful lie!" Briony cried out. "Where is the prince? Ask him yourself. Our dealings were always honorable-which is more than I can say for what you do to me here!"
"He is beyond your reach," Ananka said with obvious satisfaction. "Beyond your lies and cozening. Eneas has been sent away from Tessis this very hour, with his soldiers. The glamour you have drawn over him will do you no good."
Briony was struggling so hard against her anger the room seemed to have gone dark except for the figures of the king and his consort. She stumbled a little as she turned to Enander. "Majesty, your son has done nothing wrong and neither have I. We have a friendship-nothing more. And I want nothing from him or you except help for my people, my country… your allies!"
Enander looked troubled. "That… that is not what I have heard."
"Heard from whom?" Briony demanded. "With respect, King Enander, Lady Ananka does not like me, that is clear, although I have no idea why…" But even as she said it she saw a look of amused complicity speed between Ananka and Jenkin Crowel and realized that the king's consort had more than a stepmother's interest in the proceedings. She has made some bargain with the Tollys, Briony thought. The bitch has some plan of her own. Even her flaring rage could not melt the chill settling deeper inside her as she realized how thoroughly matters were set against her here in Syan. "But… but that is hardly enough for judgment," she finished. "Call back your son. Ask him."
"My son has the care of the realm to think of," said Enander. "But as I said, there are other witnesses. Feival Ulian, step forth and tell us what you know."
"Feival…?" Briony stared, astounded. "What does that mean?"
The young player at least had the grace, or skill, to look troubled as he stepped out and kneeled before the king. "It… it is difficult for me, Majesty. She is the daughter of my king, and for a long time we traveled together and were friends…"
"Were? I am your friend! What are you saying?"
"… But the things she has done will not stay locked inside me any longer. It is all true-she has spoken of it often in front of me. She has had one thought, and that was to make Prince Eneas love her so that through him she would eventually gain control of the throne of Syan. First she brought me in, and also put the other players to work as her spies-I can show you the accounts. And then she set her cap at the prince. She did her best to make love to him at every opportunity, full of sweet promises, leading him on while all the while confessing in private that she did not care for him, but only the throne of Syan."
Briony gaped, then clambered to her feet. One of the soldiers caught her arm and held her in place. "Sweet Zoria, Feival, how can you do this to me? How can you tell such terrible, baldfaced lies…?" But then she saw as if for the first time the rich clothes Feival wore, the jewelry she had not given him but had not bothered to wonder about, and realized that she had been outmaneuvered since she had first set foot in the court of Tessis. Ananka had found a weak reed and bent it to her own purposes. "It is none of it true, King Enander!" Briony said, turning to the throne. "It is… it is a conspiracy, and I do not understand the reason for it-but I am innocent! Ask Eneas! Bring him back!"
The king shook his head. "He is beyond your reach, girl, as my lady said."
"But why would I do such things-why would I need to trick Eneas? Your son cares for me! He has said so himself…"
"See? " In her triumph Ananka almost rose from her chair, but thought better of it. "She as much as admits her plan."
"But I turned him down, even though his representations to me were all honorable! Ask him! Do not condemn me on the word of a single treacherous servant without hearing what your own son has to say! My maid and my friend have both been poisoned in this castle-do you not see that someone here is trying to destroy me?"
"Tell the rest, Ulian," Ananka said loudly, interrupting her. "Tell the king what this scheming creature said she would do after she tricked the king's son into marriage."
Briony started to object again, but the king held up his hand for silence "Let the servant speak."
Feival could not meet Briony's eye. "She said… she said that she would do whatever she must to see Eneas put on the throne in his father's place." He sighed, and although it might only have been at the guilt of telling such a gross lie, the young player seemed to be growing increasingly uncomfortable with his role.
Briony could only shake her head helplessly. "This is all madness!"
"And the rest," Ananka commanded. "Be not afraid. Tell the king what you told me. Did she not say that she would use witchcraft to hasten the succession if necessary?"
Briony's legs seemed to turn to water. One of the soldiers had to catch her to keep her from falling to the floor of the chapel. Witchcraft-against the king's life? Ananka did not simply want her banished, she wanted her dead. "Lies…!" she said, but her voice sounded feeble.
Even Feival seemed stunned, as though this was a depth of treachery even he had not expected. "Witchcraft?"
"Tell him! Tell the king!" Ananka seemed ready to shake it out of him.
Feival swallowed. "I… to be honest, my lady… I do not… remember that…"
"He is no doubt frightened to talk about it, Majesty." Ananka said to Enander. "Frightened to say it in front of the girl herself-afraid she will put some curse on him." The king's mistress settled back into her seat, but the look she gave Feival suggested that his new mistress was less than happy with his performance. "But you can see what sort of plot we have uncovered-what danger you and your son were in!"
Enander shook his head. Was it drink that made him flush so, or something else? Was Ananka poisoning him as well?
"These are terrible things you are accused of, Briony Eddon," the king said slowly, "and were your father not also a friend to us I would be tempted to pass sentence this moment." He paused for a moment as a quiet hiss of frustration escaped the woman beside him. "But because of the long years of brotherhood between our nations I will deal with you as carefully as if you were one of my own. You will be confined to your chambers until I can investigate this matter in the depth it deserves." He took a shaky breath. "This is as hard for us as it is for you, Princess, but you have brought it on yourself."
"No!" Briony was shaking with fury, barely able to contain herself. Treacherous Feival, cruel Ananka, even the swine Jenkin Crowel-behind those careful masks, they must all be laughing at her! "Will you again let Jellon betray my family, King Enander? Are you so blind to what goes on in your own court?"
Many of the others gasped at Briony's words, but the king only looked puzzled. "Jellon? What nonsense is this? Have you forgotten what country you are in?"
"Jellon! Where Hesper sold my father to the Hierosoline usurper, Ludis Drakava! And now this woman has come from there, schooled in treachery by her lover to bring down my kingdom-and perhaps yours as well! Can you not see? Nothing comes from Jellon but lies and betrayal!"
"You are distraught, young woman." Enander looked old and tired. "Jellon is our ally, too, and they bring much to the world. The Jellonians are very good at weaving, you know."
Briony stared at him. The king's thoughts were more than slow, they were hopelessly muddled-there was no point in further arguing. She struggled to keep the misery from her face-at least she would not let that cow Ananka see her weep. "You wrong me," was all she said, then turned and walked out of the chapel, praying that her legs would bear her. Guards silently moved in on either side of her. She would not be walking alone anymore, that was clear.
In the throne room outside, the king's counselor Erasmias Jino approached her. "I apologize, Princess," he said quietly. "I was not aware any of this was planned."
"Neither was I. Which of us do you think was most surprised?" She let the guards lead her away.
Sister Utta could not make herself stand, although the storm that raged in her thoughts demanded some physical release. She wanted to run as far and as fast as she could to escape this impossible talk, or to throw things clattering to the floor until the noise and chaos wiped away everything she had just been told. But still it went on, the tale of how the mortals of Southmarch had destroyed the Twilight People's royal family.
"It cannot be." She looked imploringly at Kayyin. "You only do this because your dark mistress wants to torment us. Such horrible tales-admit they are all lies!"
"Of course they are lies," Merolanna said angrily. She would no longer meet the fairy's gaze. "Wicked lies. Told by this… this evil changeling to make us fearful, to destroy our faith."
Kayyin spread his hands in a gesture that looked like resignation or abandonment. "Faith does not enter into it, Duchess. My mistress Yasammez ordered me to tell you the truth and that is what I did. I owe her nothing but my death so I can assure you I would not lie on her behalf, especially about this, the greatest tragedy of my people." His expression grew distinctly colder. "And now I recall some of the ways in which I am not one of you, no matter how many years I played the counterfeit. My people do not run from the truth. It is the only reason we have survived in this world… this world that your kind have made."
He turned and walked out of the room. Utta heard his light footfalls for a moment on the stairs, then the house was silent again.
"Do you see?" There was an edge of triumph in Merolanna's voice-a feverish edge, Utta thought. "He knows we have seen through him. By leaving he fairly admits it!"
After days and days of shared captivity, Utta no longer had the strength or even the inclination to argue. After all, if Merolanna needed to believe such things to keep up her spirits, who was Utta to take them from her? But even so, she couldn't be entirely silent.
"As little as I wish to admit it, much of what he said… well, it does ring in accord with the history of my order…" she ventured.
"But certainly!" Merolanna was briskly tidying up a room that needed no such efforts. "Don't you see? That is the cleverness of it! They make their lies plausible-until you consider what they are actually saying. Oh, no, it was not those monsters that came out of their shadowy country and attacked us! All of the gods-fearing people of the March Kingdoms-we lured them out, then betrayed and slaughtered them! Can you not see how foolish it is, Utta? Really, I despair of you. My husband told me of such madnesses when he came back from the wars in Settland-you have been a prisoner so long you are beginning to believe your captors."
Utta opened her mouth, then shut it again. Patience, she told herself. She is a good woman. She is frightened. And I am frightened, too. Because if what Kayyin had told them was a lie, as Merolanna so fervently believed, then the Qar were completely mad. But if it was the truth…
Then they have every reason to hate us, Utta thought. They have every reason to want to destroy us all.
The fury that was boiling inside Briony began to die down on her way back to her chambers, as if someone had taken a lid off a cooking pot. She did not have time for anger, she reminded herself: her life was at stake. At any moment they might put her in a cell, or remove her to some country estate to live as a prisoner. Ananka might even talk the besotted old king into believing that witchcraft nonsense if she had long enough to work at him. Briony's own word-the word of a king's daughter!-had meant nothing to Enander. Instead, he had sat back like the great fool he was and let his whore manipulate him…
Calm, she told herself. What was it Shaso used to say? Even as you are defending, you must be attacking. You cannot simply react to what is given you. A warrior must always act, even if only to plan the next move.
So what was the next move? What assets did she have? Dawet was gone on some errand of his own. The money Eneas had given her was mostly spent. Well, Zoria would provide for her, she told herself… but Zoria had to be given a proper chance. Briony had come to this city with nothing but her freedom. She would be happy to leave it in the same condition.
It was obvious by their embarrassed expressions that her ladies-in-waiting had heard the news. No surprise: gossip traveled fast in the Broadhall Palace. Still, it was painful to watch them try to decide how to treat her. Had they known about Feival's treachery all along? And how many of them were also Ananka's spies?
Of all her ladies-in-waiting, only Agnes, the tall, thin daughter of a country baron, even came to meet her when she entered. The girl looked Briony over carefully. "Are you well?" She sounded as though she truly cared about the answer. "Is there something I can get you, Princess?"
Briony glanced at the other young women, who turned away and busied themselves with a variety of aimless tasks. "Yes, Mistress Agnes, you can come and talk with me while I put on some other clothes. I have been in these all day."
"Gladly, Princess."
When they were in her retiring room Briony quickly began undoing the clothes she had been wearing. As Agnes helped her out of the dress and into a heavy night robe Briony watched the girl. She was a little younger than Briony but much the same height, and although she was thinner, she was fair-haired like Briony, too-which would count for a great deal.
"How much do you know of what happened to me this afternoon?" Briony asked.
Agnes colored. "More than I like, Princess. I hear that Master Feival has gone to the king and told him lies about you." She shook her head. "If they would have asked me, I would have told them the truth-that you are blameless, that you acted only honorably with his highness, Prince Eneas." She looked startled. "Do you want me to tell them, Princess? I will do it if you wish, but I fear for my family…"
"No, Agnes. I would not ask that of you or the other girls."
"The other girls are cowards, Princess Briony. I fear they would not tell the truth, anyway. They are afraid of Ananka." She laughed ruefully. "I am afraid of Ananka. Some say she is a witch-that she has the king under a spell."
Briony scowled. "Well, I can show her a little conjuration of my own-but only if you'll help me."
Agnes finished tying the belt of Briony's robe and looked up at her solemnly. "I will help you, Princess, in any way the gods will allow. I think what they are doing to you is terrible."
"Good. I believe we can manage this without any harm to your reputation here at the court. Now, listen…"
The first time she sent Agnes out, Briony went to the door with the girl so that the guards could see her in her night-robe. Modesty be cursed, she thought. A warrior has no modesty.
"Hurry back," she told Agnes loudly enough for all to hear. The soldiers turned to watch the girl hurry by, but Agnes was not the kind to draw much attention from men. She was carrying a note to the king full of the sort of pleading and vows of innocence that could be expected from someone in Briony's position, but the guards did not even bother to ask her errand, let alone read the letter.
Idiots, Briony thought. Well, I suppose I should be glad they think so little of me here.
While Agnes was gone, Briony went through the chest that contained the few things she had brought to the court at Tessis. She made a bundle of what she wanted and wrapped it in a traveling cloak, the poorest one she could find, a simple, heavy, unembroidered length of dark wool left behind by some visitor and never claimed.
Perhaps it's one of the prince's, she thought. Yes, I can imagine Eneas in just such a modest garment, leading his soldiers. It was certainly long enough to belong to him.
Agnes soon returned and Briony sent her on another errand, this one taking a letter to Ivgenia e'Doursos. Briony wanted to let her friend know what happened, and had written to tell her she had been unjustly accused, but of course wrote nothing about what she was planning to do. She had learned she could not trust anyone, not even Ivvie-in fact, she was being forced to rely on young Agnes far more than she liked, but some things could not be helped.
Briony stood in the doorway again and made sure the guards saw her. "Push it under her door," she told Agnes. "Don't wake her."
Agnes smiled. "I'll be careful."
The other ladies looked irritated that they were not being sent on these apparently important errands. Briony put them to work getting her some food.
"Bread and cheese from the common store," she told them. "Lots of it. Let no one know it's for me. And some dried fruit. Medlars, too-wrap them in a kerchief or they shall get on everything. And what else? Yes, I'd like some quince paste."
"Are you very hungry, then, Princess?" one of the girls asked.
"Oh, famished. After all, it is hard work being betrayed."
The ladies went off with wide eyes, whispering behind their hands before they were three steps out the door. Briony noticed that one of the guards had gone somewhere. The other soldier barely looked up as the two young women hurried past.
When the bread and cheese and the rest had been brought back, Briony took it to the retiring room where no one could see, unrolled her bundle, and hid the food in the center of it. "You may go to bed now," she called to the women. "I am going to wait for Agnes. I am not yet sleepy."
Disappointed in their hope to see more eccentricity-or perhaps to see Briony eat the entire mound of supplies they had brought back-the ladies-in-waiting went to the retiring room to prepare for bed. A short time later Agnes came back.
"Thank all the gods," Briony said. "I was beginning to fear something had happened to you."
"There were people in the hall and I did not know whether you wanted me to be seen or not," Agnes told her, "so I waited until they were gone. Have I done wrong?"
"Merciful Zoria, you have done nothing of the kind! Why didn't I discover you before?" She gave the girl a quick kiss on the cheek. "There is one more thing. Give me your dress."
"My dress, Princess?"
"Quiet! Not so loud-the others are just in the retiring room. We must be quick. Then take this robe and put it on."
To her credit, young Agnes did not waste time asking questions. With Briony's help she got the dress off, and as she stood shivering in her shift Briony draped the night-robe around her.
"Now help me," Briony told her.
When she was laced into the dress, Briony took Agnes to the chest. "It goes without saying that you may have any of my dresses you choose," she said. "There are several in the big chest. But I want you to have something else. Here. The fool who gave this to me did not get what he wanted for it, but he gave it to me nevertheless, so it is mine to give to you." She took out the expensive bracelet Lord Nikomakos had sent her as a love gift and clasped it around the girl's wrist.
Agnes' eyes grew wide, then a tear welled up in the corner of each. "You are too kind to me, Princess!"
"No. You still have one more job to do and it is not an easy one. You must convince the king's men when they come for me-it may be tonight if something has made them wonder, or it may not be until sometime tomorrow-that you did not know what I was doing." She frowned. "No, that will not work-you are too clever a girl. You must convince them that I frightened you into keeping quiet."
Now it was Agnes who frowned and shook her head. "I will not blacken your name, Princess Briony. Leave it to me-I will think of something."
"May the gods bless you, Agnes! Now, when we get to the door, come halfway out and no farther-and keep your face turned away from the guards."
Just as they opened the door, Briony said loudly, "Hurry, girl! You must go to her and come back quickly. I want to go to sleep!"
There was only one guard, and as Briony hoped, he only straightened up long enough to see the two familiar shapes-the woman in the robe bidding her servant go out one last time-before leaning back on the wall again.
"Princess running you near to death, is she, my lady?" he called as Briony trotted past with the bundled cloak clasped to her breast.
"Oh, yes," she said-but in a murmur only she could hear. "It's true, I am quite beside myself tonight." A moment later she had turned into the adjoining corridor.
She retraced the route she had traveled with Eneas, stopping in the stables long enough to don the boy's clothes she'd worn as a player. She thanked Zoria and the other gods that the cloak she had picked was a warm one: it might have been spring in Syan, but it was a cold night. She was also grateful that it was a market night and the palace's gates were open late as people went in and out. She buried the dress Agnes had given her in the straw and made her way out of the stables and through the gate to the town.
Briony headed straight for the tavern where the players had been staying. The Whale Horse was in a narrow street in a dark but active part of Tessis near the river docks; its sign depicted a strange sea creature with tusks curling from its mouth. Drunken men wandered past, singing or quarreling, some of them with women on their arms as drunk and quarrelsome as themselves. Briony was glad she was dressed as a man and she prayed that no one tried to make her talk. This looked like the kind of place where it might not go well for her even if she were thought a boy instead of a girl.
Nevin Hewney was sleeping with his head on a table in the tavern's main room. Finn Teodoros, in somewhat better condition beside him, still did not recognize her for a long moment, even after she whispered his name.
He leaned back as if to see her whole, then leaned forward again. "Young Tim… I mean Prin-"
Briony smacked her hand over his mouth so sharply that a less drunken man would have cried out in pain. "Don't say it! Is the company all here? "
"I sink tho… I mean, I think so. Big Dowan has gone to bed hours ago. I believe I saw Makewell chatting up a local merchant…" He goggled at her again, as if not sure he wasn't dreaming. "What are you doing here? And dressed… like that?"
"I'm not going to talk about it here. Round up Hewney and meet me in your room."
"Feival?" Teodoros went pale. "Is this true?"
"True? Do you think I would lie? He betrayed me!"
"I'm sorry, Highness, I just wouldn't have… that is… by the Trickster, who could have guessed?"
"Any of us, if we'd had any sense." Nevin Hewney sat up, dripping. He had been dousing his head in a basin of water. "Always had a taste for the better things, our Feival. I said he'd leave us someday for a rich man… or even a rich woman. Well, he found one. And he doesn't even have to swive her."
"Hewney!" said Teodoros, shocked. "Not in front of the princess."
Briony rolled her eyes. "None of it is new to me, Finn, just because I went back to being a princess-only my clothes changed." She laughed sourly. "And look! I'm back in my old clothes again."
The fat playwright looked miserable. "What will you do now, Highness?"
"What will I do? No, it is what we will do-and what we'll do is leave tonight. Feival has named you all as my spies-said it in front of the king of Syan himself. There may be soldiers on the way here already."
Hewney grunted. "That little whoreson!"
Finn blinked. "The king's men?"
"Yes, you great fool, and be grateful I thought of coming to you. This way, at least you have a chance to escape. We'll make for Southmarch."
"But how? We have no money, no supplies… How will we get out the gates?"
"That remains to be seen." She took the last of the gold Eneas had loaned her from her pocket-a shiny dolphin-and tossed it to Teodoros, who for all his consternation caught it smoothly. "Take it and get on with things. I'll wait here while you round up the others. Are they close?"
Finn looked around. "Most of them. Estir's out somewhere. And tall Dowan went out, too. Bathed and shaved." He goggled. "I think he might have a woman!"
"I don't care, Finn, but we need them all back, and quickly."
"Me, I'm going to get a jug of wine to take with us," announced Nevin Hewney. "If I'm to die, may the gods forbid it's sober."
Finn Teodoros also stood. "May the gods watch over us all," he said. "It seems the life of a princess is never dull, and almost always dangerous. For once I am glad my veins run thick with peasant blood."