Page 118 of Play of Shadows

You’re saying you never spoke those words yourself?I asked Corbier.

A bark of laughter erupted from my lips.A trifle too melodramatic for my tastes.

But if the line hadn’t come from Corbier, then whose memories had caused me to shout it from the stage?

‘Damelas, what the Hells are you doing?’ Beretto whispered furiously as he and Teo cut in front of me so that their apparent duel would hide the fact that I wasn’t moving.

Stop delaying us, Corbier growled to me, trying to force my legs to carry me to the other side of the stage where Monsegino and the climax of the inevitable tragedy awaited us.Let his entrails warm my blade, or mine his, then at last I’ll be reunited with my Ajelaine!

Hearing her name shook me from my paralysis. Ajelaine, the supposedly innocent maiden for whom all this blood was being shed, never a player in this game of dukes and princes, yet always at the very centre of the board.

A now familiar itch came to me– that vexing conviction that even now our performance was just a repetition of the same lie being told over and over across an entire century. I closed my eyes and shook my head to force away the chaos all around me so that I could find a moment’s clarity.

‘What’s wrong with him?’ I heard Teo ask between grunts as Beretto’s wooden sword battered down on his wooden shield.

‘I need time,’ I told them. ‘Cover for me.’

‘Cover for you?’ Teo asked incredulously.

‘Shut up and pretend to be an actor for once, Teo,’ Beretto replied, adding a flurry of glancing blows to distract the audience. ‘Whatever you’re trying to do, brother, I’d hurry the Hells up!’

Speak to me, I begged Corbier.Tell me the truth, for once. Spurned love might start wars in books and plays, but not in real life.

You doubt the depth of my anguish?Corbier’s voice was like acold wind in my chest, but I was done being cowed by spirits.

Of course not. No one could doubt what an aggrieved lunatic you are.

Across the stage, Monsegino was making a show of searching for his enemy, just as Pierzi was doing in the past, yet both quests felt. . . staged, somehow.

What kind of man was Pierzi?I asked Corbier abruptly.

You think this is the time to—?

Was he reckless, like you? So driven by his passions that he would risk an all-out war over a woman he must have known never truly loved him? Was he truly so petty?

There was a slight hesitation before Corbier reluctantly answered,No. No, he wasn’t. Nevino was always the more reasonable of us. Even after our friendship ended, I’d never seen him act rashly– not until that night.

That accorded with the biographies of Pierzi’s life. The prince had been logical, almost calculating: methodical on the battlefield, cautious on the throne. Yet even now, in both the past and present, Nevino Pierzi appeared to be rushing to a confrontation with his nemesis, with the end result– who would live and who would die– no more certain than a flip of the coin.

My fists and teeth clenched.Think, then, damn you!I shouted at him.What could have driven Pierzi to murder and mayhem?

I don’t know! Ajelaine always understood him better than I did– and better than your farcical plays and history books. You were there with me, Veristor. You heard her warn me that Pierzi had gone mad with jealousy.

That much was true, but it was precisely what confused me the most. Why had Ajelaine spoken of Pierzi’s envy to the man sheknewwould respond with a foolhardy attempt to steal her away?

The answer was as simple as it had been elusive:because she was lying.

Corbier’s spirit erupted with outrage.Ajelainelovedme! Shewould never—

I ignored the pounding in my skull, just as I ignored the action unfolding on the stage, where the Knights of the Curtain were now taking turns to improvise scenes of the battle, using made-up dialogue to make it look as if my standing there like a statue was all part of the performance. They were doing a surprisingly good job of it.

Not the first time they’ve all had to hide my incompetence, I thought wryly.

Traitor!Corbier raged, still trying to force me to where Monsegino waited.Will you not grant me even the pretence of that vengeance that was denied me in my own time?

Not yet.

The others would have to hold this mad play together a while longer, for the answers weren’t here any more than on the field of Mount Cruxia.

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