Page 113 of Play of Shadows

‘What have they got on their faces?’ I asked, only now noticing Beretto had them too.

He took out a small brown cloth bag and opened the drawstrings before holding it out to me. ‘Ashes,’ he replied with grim determination. ‘From the Belleza.’

‘The Orchids took her from us,’ Ornella said, steel in her voice, ‘and they took our Hujo.’

‘Nearly took all of us,’ Teo added.

‘Aye,’ Abastrini grunted, coming to the front. ‘And what answer do we give, Lord Director?’

My feet were edging backwards. My grandfather’s hand pressed against my back to keep me from retreating further.

‘Me?’ I asked incredulously. ‘I’m no director– I’m not even much of an actor!’

‘That much we knew,’ Teo muttered.

That sparked uproarious laughter.

‘Listen!’ I shouted, fearful that their desperate mirth was blinding them to the danger they proposed. ‘I can’t lead you all into some grand battle. We haven’t the numbers, and even if we did, the Orchids are just puppets; they’re nothing but a symptom of the disease. The true enemy tearing our city apart is this damned “Court of Flowers”– and they’ve been hiding in the shadows for generations! I can’t. . . There’s no way to—’

How could I make them understand? It was all too big, the secrets too long buried. What hope did a troupe of actors have fighting shadows from the past? But as I stood there in front of them, it became painfully clear to me that nothing could deter the Knights of the Curtain from this holy mission they were on.

Abastrini pumped his fist in the air. ‘Then history itself is our battlefield, and on such hallowed and haunted ground must a Veristor lead the charge!’

Beretto joined in with rising enthusiasm. ‘The enemies of our city think they can hide their origins in its past? Then from the past shall we flush them out!’

Saint Zaghev-who-sings-for-tears, I thought.Through deathand misery they’ve trodden, a band of lowly actors, unbroken, unbowed.

I turned to my grandfather. ‘Was it like this with the Greatcoats?’

The old man shrugged. ‘The speeches weren’t usually so flowery– well, except for Falcio, the First Cantor, of course. But you’re dealing with actors, so I suppose you’ve got to expect a little melodrama.’

For once I disagreed with my grandfather’s blasé assessment. There was a stirring inside me, not only for the passion of my fellow cast and crew, but for what Abastrini had so keenly perceived: historywasthe battlefield. The truth lay buried there, and who but a Veristor could unearth it so that a company of actors who loved their art more than their own skins could bring the past back to life in front of the entire city?

Truth and love, I thought.The only two things worth fighting for.

Truth and love, Corbier unexpectedly agreed.

Will you help me?I asked.

The Red-Eyed Raven chuckled, for once without mockery.It looks to me you have all the help you need, Veristor. A most unusual band of warriors, yet warriors as true as any who came before them.

Damn right.

‘Knights of the Curtain,’ I cried out to them, ‘we left our audience without an end to our play the other night– tell me, is this not cause for outrage?’

‘Aye!’ the others shouted.

‘When our critics tell us, through fire and blood, that ours is a story not worth the telling, should we not give answer to that charge?’

‘Aye!’

‘When they burn down our home and murder our director tokeep us from staging our play– and that for an audience of but a paltry few hundred inside a rickety old theatre– shall we not instead share that truth before the entire city?’

‘Aye!’ they roared. ‘Aye! Aye! AYE!’

The guards inched away, apparently no longer quite so determined to strike a threatening pose before this bristling crew. I stuck two fingers inside the bag of ashes Beretto was holding out to me and very deliberately drew my own charcoal lines down one cheek and then the other.

‘I am Damelas Chademantaigne,’ I said, and for the first time in my life, that name meant something– to me, to my friends, and soon, to my enemies as well. ‘The foes of this city demand a duel? They have made a grievous error, for a duellist they have found.’

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