Tigana by Guy Kay (novel24 txt) 📕

what is happening then. I’ll be back soon. If they are running we will at least have an excuse to be outside. If they aren’t, we’ll have to think further on this.’

She nodded gratefully and watched him go, neat and trim, infinitely reassuring in his competence. She finished her khav, looking out the window. It was still dark outside. She walked into the other room to wash and dress herself, doing so with some care, knowing it might matter today. She chose a simple brown woollen robe, and belted it at the waist. This was an Ember Day, not a time for splendour of apparel. There was a hood to hide her hair; that too might matter.

By the time she was done Scelto had returned. He had a queer expression on his face.

‘They are running,’ he said. ‘And Camena is not going to be executed on the wheel.’

‘What happened to him?’ she asked, feeling an instinctive dread.

Scelto hesitated. ‘The word is being put about that he has been granted a merciful death already. Because the actual conspiracy was from Ygrath and Camena was merely a victim, a tool.’

She nodded. ‘And what has really happened?’

Scelto’s face was troubled. ‘This may be a thing you were better not to know, my lady.’

It probably was, she thought. But she had come too far in the night, and had too far yet to go. This was no morning for sheltering, or trying to seek shelter. ‘Perhaps,’ was all she said. ‘But I would prefer you to tell me, Scelto.’

He said, after a moment: ‘I have been told that he is going to be . . . altered. Rhun is growing old and the King must have a Fool. It is necessary to have one in readiness, and it can take a long time, depending on the circumstances.’

The circumstances, Dianora thought, sickened. Such as whether the Fool-in-waiting had been a healthy, gifted, normal young man with a love of his home.

Even understanding what the Fools of Ygrath were to their Kings, even grasping that Camena had forfeited his life by what he had done yesterday, she still could not stop her stomach from turning at the implications of Scelto’s words. She remembered Rhun hacking at Isolla’s body yesterday. She remembered Brandin’s face. She forced her mind away from that. She couldn’t afford to think about Brandin this morning. In fact, she was better off not thinking about anything at all.

‘Have I been summoned yet?’ she asked tersely.

‘Not yet. You will be.’ She could hear tension in his voice; the news about Camena had evidently disturbed him as well.

‘I know I will,’ she said. ‘I don’t think we can wait though. If I go out with the others it will be impossible to slip away. What do you think would happen if we two tried to walk down together now?’

Her tone was steady and calm; Scelto’s face grew thoughtful. ‘We can try,’ he said after a moment.

‘Then come.’

Her fear was very simple: if she waited too long, or considered this too much she would be paralysed by doubt. The thing was to move, and to keep on moving, until she reached a certain place.

What would happen then, if anything, she would leave to the Triad’s grace.

Her heart beating rapidly, she followed Scelto out of her rooms and into the main saishan corridor. The first thin streaks of light were showing now through the windows at the eastern end. The two of them went the other way, passing two young castrates who were moving towards Vencel’s rooms. Dianora looked straight at them. She was pleased—for the first time—to see fear spark in the eyes of both of the boys. Today fear was a weapon, a tool, and she would need all the tools she could find.

Scelto led her, not hurrying, down the wide stairway towards the double doors that led to the outside world. She caught up to him just as he rapped. When the guard outside opened she stepped through without waiting for his challenge or Scelto’s announcement. She fixed him with a cool glance as she went by, and saw his eyes widen as he recognized her. She began walking down the long hallway. As she went past the other guard she saw that he was the young one she’d smiled at yesterday. Today she did not smile.

Behind her she heard Scelto speak one quick, cryptic sentence, and then another in answer to a question. Then she heard his footsteps coming down the corridor. A moment later the door swung shut behind them. Scelto caught up to her.

‘I think it will take a brave man to stop you today,’ he said quietly. ‘They all know what happened yesterday. It is a good morning to be trying this.’

It was the only morning she would ever be trying this, Dianora thought.

‘What did you tell them?’ she asked, continuing to walk.

‘The only thing I could think of. You are going to a meeting with d’Eymon about what happened yesterday.’

She slowed a little, considering that, and as she did, the glimmerings of a proper plan came to her, like the first faint illumination of the sun rising in the east above the mountains.

‘Good,’ she said, nodding her head. ‘Very good, Scelto. That is exactly what I’m doing.’ Two other guards walked past them, taking no notice at all. ‘Scelto,’ she said, when they were alone again, ‘I need you to find d’Eymon. Say I want to speak with him alone before we all go out this afternoon for the end of the race. Tell him I’ll be waiting in the King’s Garden two hours from now.’

Two hours might or might not be enough; she didn’t know. But somewhere in the vast expanse of the King’s Garden on the north side of the palace she knew there was a gate that led out to the meadows, and then the slopes of Sangarios beyond.

Scelto stopped, forcing her to do the same.

‘You are going to go without me, aren’t you?’ he said.

She