Tricksters Queen (40 page)

"He drink too much wine," Secret explained. "He drools on desk."

"Bean ask, can he take list away from Sevmire?" Trick relayed.

Aly stretched. "Sevmire will just make another one."

"But he will wake up with dry quill and open ink bottle and no list," explained Secret. "Bean say, he will search everywhere, and then he will think someone took it."

"Bean say, Sevmire will twitch and drink and suspect his people," added Trick. "He will think they try to take his place with Rubinyan. Bean say—says," it corrected itself, to Aly’s surprise, "that Sevmire worries all the time about everything. Bean says, if he worries more, he trusts people less."

So not only have I taught them to be spies, but it seems they're also learning to speak more like human beings, Aly mused. I wonder if this is a good thing or a bad one? "Tell Bean that by all means it should take the list if it can," she said. "And if Bean can think of more things to do to Sevmire
without
getting caught, it shouldn't worry about asking, just go ahead." I do it for my pack, she told herself. I can surely let the darkings off the leash as well.

After a moment Trick said, "Bean is very happy. He takes list into Sevmire's dung room."

"He will drop it in the dung pit," explained Secret.

Aly nodded. She loved their term for a privy. And a dung pit is where Sevmire himself belongs, she thought. Where they all belong.

She worked on papers until her belly reminded her that she had missed lunch. Out she went, in search of cold meat, bread, and some fruit. Once she had her meal in her hands, she went out into the garden to the Pavilion of Secrets. She wanted some time alone, to think in privacy of the wonderful things that had happened the night before. She knew moments like that were stolen from time, and she did not want to forget any of it. Leaning into a corner of the pavilion, she closed her eyes to remember, and dozed. When the food tumbled from her hands to the ground, the miniature kuda-rung swooped in for the feast.

She woke to their whickering and a shadow that loomed over her. Her senses identified a large body between her and escape. Aly was on her feet with two knives in her hands before she realized it was Ulasim.

He crouched to pet the clamoring kudarung around his legs and looked at Aly with appreciation. "That was very quick for someone who just woke up," he remarked. "It is as I always suspected—you sleep with one eyelid cracked."

"Only sometimes," Aly replied with a sheepish grin. She put her knives away. "If I slept that way all the time, I'd be predictable, wouldn't I?"

"Very true," Ulasim said, the corners of his eyes crinkling in his secret smile. "Nawat went out to see to his people. He said he would return for supper. Have you new information for me?"

Aly nodded and told him the news from Lombyn and Malubesang. "Nomru's people rising against the monarchs, that's bad."

Ulasim nodded. "Nomru is the chief landholder on Malubesang."

Aly bit her lip. She wanted him to look beyond the raka. "Call it a hunch, but I bet the Fonfala estates won't be far behind," she suggested, watching his face for his reaction. "They were friends, before the duke's escape. They're neighbors on Malubesang. The lands are held by Her Grace's brother. It stands to reason."

Ulasim's thin smile hooked to one side. "And the Nomrus and Fonfalas both belong to that pathetic luarin sewing circle," he added. "Why should I deal with them now, when they have been good for nothing before?"

"Because Dove is one of them," Aly informed him. "And—I think they are ripe to actually do something."

"I shall consider it," replied Ulasim. He hesitated, then grinned. "It is good to see you are not
completely
distracted by ... other things."

Aly made a face at him. The sight of the black armband he wore punctured her good mood. "I wish I could stay distracted. I need to get one of those."

"Don't feel guilty because you are alive," he counseled, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as they walked back to the house. "I feel guilty enough for twelve people."

"Because the choice of what to do about the Rittevon heirs was taken from your hands?" she asked.

The arm around her shoulders tightened, then relaxed. "That," he admitted.

"We can and will all feel guilty about that," Aly consoled him. "And we can share our feelings with our new rulers."

Nawat returned, as promised, in the late afternoon. Aly heard the bawling of amused crows and translated that they were laughing at him for changing shape and putting on uncomfortable clothes. When he emerged from the stable loft where he had changed, she was waiting for him. They kissed, and then she asked, "Would you talk to your friends for me?"

"So we are back to that," he commented, shaking his head. "My only value to you is as a crow."

"Nawat!" she cried, grabbing his shirt. "That's not true, I ..." She saw the glitter in his deep-set eyes and gaped at him. "You're
teasing
me?"

He kissed her. Even when their lips parted, he kept his arm around her waist. "You look beautiful when you are shocked. It is sweet," he said, a man's grin on his face. "This is more fun than dragging Ochobu's clothes in the mud."

Aly pushed him away lightly, not hard enough to make him let go. "I swear she still expects you to do that," she said. "And I have some fun for your kindred, if you would like to explain it to them."

He tipped his head back and called in something far better than Aly's clumsy crow-speech. Immediately three of the birds came flapping down to land in the branches of a nearby tree.

"I was thinking," Aly began, "that winged messengers come and go from the palace all the time. It would be nice if your people could force them to lose their messages or even drive them to the ground."

One of the crows admitted, in caws and clicks, that this
could
be interesting.

It would require more skill than tormenting Stormwings,
Nawat replied in the same language.

The crows flicked their wingtips and took off, already calling the news to the other crows within earshot.

"So they'll do it?" Aly wanted to know. "Or will they just talk about it?"

Nawat held her close. "It amuses them. They'll do it," he said with a grin.

That night the rebel leaders gathered in the meeting room to hear the news from all over the city and the realm. This time Nawat joined them to report what he'd been doing as a warrior and what news he had gathered from the crows. Once more Aly was awed by the change in him, from ill-at-ease bird in a human's body to confident young man. Ulasim was thanking him when suddenly their world went a bright, roaring white. The air boomed as if they sat inside a monstrous kettle drum. That vast roaring sound filled Aly's ears until she would have screamed to drown it out, except that she feared she was already screaming.

The roar stopped abruptly. Outside, thunder crashed directly overhead.

Kyprioth appeared next to Aly's chair. "This is where I leave you all," he told them as he looked apprehensively at the ceiling. "My brother and sister have returned." He kissed Aly's cheek. "Good luck. Victories, remember!" He vanished.

They didn't even wait to discuss what they were doing: all of the leaders raced outside to look skyward. Pale white flames spread from the moon, which shone full at a time when it was only supposed to be a quarter full. Bright orange waves of light spread across the sky in sheer curtains. Lightning flashed everywhere and faded.

"And so the fun begins," murmured Ulasim. He clapped his hands together and rubbed them. "Come, my friends. Let's see how much trouble we can cause."

Aly and Nawat spent the night on a pallet in the Pavilion of Secrets, talking through much of it. When dawn came, they went outside to join the fighters for morning drill. Everyone watched for dawn when they weren't actually facing off against one another. When it came, they could see the gods were still locked in battle. The sun shed light and heat as it always did, but its rays were far longer than normal, dark orange pennants around the gold disk. White, fiery veils that had to represent the Goddess drifted in the morning sky, while everywhere the sparks that showed Kyprioth and the lesser tricksters winked in and out, points of color that never stayed the same hue for more than a moment.

Aly shivered and concentrated on her staff work. It was unnerving to see a sky so different from normal. She didn't like it at all, and she was nearly certain that the others felt the same. It was a relief to go into the laundry with Nawat and take a long bath together. Afterward he left on errands for Ulasim, while Aly went upstairs to see if Dove needed anything. Once again she found Boulaj gathering up Dove's washing. The bed was freshly made, the room aired out, the water basin dumped and cleansed. "What's this?" Aly demanded with a frown. Dove's night table had been straightened. So had the stack of books next to her bed.

Boulaj faced her, determination on her long face. "Aly, you're needed for other things," she said. "I trained to be a maid as well as bodyguard for Lady Sarai, and I like it."

"She's right." Dove emerged from the dressing room she had once shared with Sarai. "Things will heat up now that Imajane and Rubinyan rule us. You re needed to do what you do best. Boulaj and I manage nicely as mistress and maid."

Aly was a little hurt that they had come to an understanding without her. The moment she recognized the emotion, she thrust it away as meaningless. Dove and Boulaj were right, and that was that. What mattered was her own ability to pass information quickly to the rebel leaders. She needed to concentrate on that and on the kind of mischief that would drive their new rulers into a rage.

Boulaj yawned. Aly looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "Late night?" she asked wickedly.

"We got
some
sleep," Boulaj replied. "And the work itself was satisfying." She caught Dove's curious glance and said, "Spy stuff."

Aly held up a finger and went to the window. Something, some sound, made the shutters quiver under her palms. She opened them. In the distance she heard a roar of noise from the direction of the market districts and Downwind. She glanced above the nearby trees and saw smoke in the distance. Without a word to the other two she raced downstairs.

Outside the front door stood Nuritin, Fesgao, and a sweat-bathed Olkey. His eyes registered Aly's arrival as he told the other two, "It was the gods fighting that set them off, my lady, sir. Over in Downwind, folk were weeping in the street over the little boys' deaths. They've got three songs written about it already, and one of them calls it
murder.
And then there was last night, and they all waited for the dawn, and saw all the lights and colors.... They went mad. They're rioting in Downwind and the Honeypot, and the folks in Dockmarket are closing up. It's just a matter of time before they call for a lockdown of the city."

"Secure the gates," ordered Nuritin. "Put more guards on them."

Fesgao saluted her. "Very good, my lady," he said.

Here in the open Aly heard the distant calls of horns and the clang of alarm gongs. She went back inside to see what her people knew.

The regents kept the city under martial law for three days, not caring if people had enough food to eat. Those foolish enough to challenge the King's Watch found themselves hustled off to local jails. If the Watchmen got very annoyed, they sent the offender to Kanodang. The fires were put out; a number of rioters were hanged. There was nothing anyone in Balitang House could do but wait it out. People crept in and out using the tunnel system, but they had to be careful. Aly nearly lost Atisa and Ukali of her pack to the Watch, until the pair's recruits spotted them and swarmed their captors to help them to escape.

The flow of information into the house continued, courtesy of the darkings, the crows, and the mages of the Chain. Through them the household learned of riots all over the cities and towns of the Isles. It was too much for the people to take, coming all at once: word of the little king's drowning, the informal coronation of two new monarchs, and the gods' battle overhead. Most riots were put down savagely. Others burned themselves out by the end of the week.

Seven days after the boy king had drowned, memorial services for him and his three dead companions were held in the Black God's temples. The people of Rajmuat came to pay their respects in numb silence, mourning not just the children but the hundred-odd others who had drowned with them, their boats capsized or their homes crushed by falling trees. After the prayers to the god ended, the faithful carried flowers down to the harbor and tossed them into the brown, soupy water. In silence still, everyone returned to their homes.

At noon that day, the regents lifted martial law, though soldiers were everywhere. Roaming the city streets, Aly took note of the damage, most of it in the poor districts of the town. Trudging back to Balitang House, she wished the people would turn that wrath on the sources of their pain rather than on their own homes. We need more rumors about the monarchs and their plans for the kingdom, she told herself. The poor need to hate the monarchs as much as they fear the gods. This time it was the gods who drove them to riot, I think. Next time it must be Imajane and Rubinyan.

During that hot afternoon's rest time, a number of people visited the house. Aly joined those who had come to see her in the meeting room. There she found members of her pack who were not out in the city and a number of trusted recruits who had been approved by Ochobu or Ysul. Vi-torcine Townsend was present as well. Aly had decided she would make a good addition to her spies.

Nearly everyone had written reports for Aly, information that had piled up while it had been so difficult for their contacts to get to them. They placed the reports in Aly's hands. A representative of the rebel spies in the palace was present, this being his normal free day. He too gave a sheaf of reports to Aly. She glimpsed at the topmost one. The first line read: /
went into a rage over a scrap of paper.

Aly nodded and yawned. That plan seemed to be unfolding nicely. Folding her hands on her belly, she looked at the packed room. "Has anyone anything special for me?"