Page 82 of Play of Shadows

She reached into a pocket of her gown, took out a gold jubilant and held it up. ‘The red-bearded fool and the minstrel attempted to draw weapons on me. Kill one of them for me. I don’t mind which.’

Two guardsmen stepped forward, spear points dipping down. Another pair unstrapped the crossbows from their backs.

‘Halt!’ Captain Terine strode forward and grabbing the two crossbowmen by the shoulders, practically hurled them bodily back into line. ‘We are soldiers of the Ducal Palace of Pertine, not hired bravos to unquestioningly execute the orders of any noble who flashes a coin in our faces!’

‘Soldiers with families, one presumes,’ the Vixen said. ‘Wives, husbands, children– that sort of thing.’

Look at the faces of the guards, Corbier urged me.See how they fear the wrath of the Lady Fox more than their commander, or even their rightful ruler? This is the price of the Violet Duke’s weakness. Any second now, one of them will do as the margravina demands, calculating that her support will ensure their survival. The minstrel or the player will die unless you act—

‘Enough!’ I shouted.

The Vixen glanced at me briefly, then immediately returned her gaze to the guardsmen. ‘I have an excellent memory forfaces, and I believe my proclivity forholding grudgesis well established.’

At that, Beretto pulled his dirk and Rhyleis produced a tiny, finger-length blade from inside her coat.

Captain Terine shouted orders for everyone to stopright where they were, but her guards, using the excuse of seeing weapons drawn to ignore their captain, prepared to attack—

It was all happening too fast! My friends were about to die and I wasn’t even carrying a damned rapier to help them!

But I didn’t need steel to save them, I realised. There had always been a way to put an end to this cruel madness. I’d run and hidden for an entire year, bowed and scraped as long as fate would allow, but that time was done now. No more running. No more rabbit.

I forced my hands to relax. Sweeping my right hand behind my back in a flourish, I bowed low, not in the way of an actor, but as one noble addressing another.

‘Gracious Lady,’ I announced, projecting my voice throughout the room.

Everyone turned to me and I favoured them all with a mocking rendition of a courtier’s smile. ‘It would be my greatest delight,Ferica,’ I declared, addressing her with intolerable familiarity, ‘if you and I were to at last consummate ouraffaire’– I looked up just long enough to wink at her, letting that word hang in the air a perilously long time before finally adding, ‘of honour.’ I glanced pointedly at Beretto and Rhyleis, then sighed theatrically. ‘Alas, the presence of these two players would distract me, lending you an unfair advantage.’

What precisely are you trying to accomplish?Corbier asked.

Well, I’ve addressed her as an equal, insinuated that I could beat her in a fair fight and implied she wants to have sex with me. If that doesn’t piss her off enough to put her off her game, nothing will.

The easy smile Ferica di Traizo habitually wore shifted, revealing the Vixen’s feral appetite beneath. ‘You’re saying if I allow your friends to leave, you will duel now, of your own free will, foregoing any last-minute appeals?’

‘Brother, what are you—?’

I cut Beretto off with a hiss and made a grand gesture to the row of windows on the other side of the throne room looking onto the courtyard. ‘You and I can watch together as the Actor and the Troubadour take their leave of us. The moment they pass the outer gates, our dance can begin.’

Ferica di Traizo stared at me, predatory eyes narrowed, seeking the trap, but anticipation quickly overcame caution. ‘Marked!’ She practically screamed the word in ecstasy and went skipping across the throne room to take a scabbarded rapier down from the wall. Examining the elaborately engraved hilt, she cried, ‘Oh, my rabbit– my darling rabbit, no lover has ever offered such pleasure as you are about to give me.’

Chapter 40

The Second

I really did have a plan of sorts. First, I needed to get Beretto and Rhyleis out of the palace to prevent Ferica di Traizo from concocting some pretext to kill them after the duel was over. The second part. . . well, that was going to be less pleasant.

You mean to taunt her, don’t you?Corbier asked.Put on foolish displays of grandiose stage-fencing techniques, grand swooping gestures to no avail so she can bat you about a while, relishing your incompetence?

Some animals like to play with their food,I replied.

And should her delight momentarily overcome her caution, you hope to then attempt a genuine blow, praying some saint grants you such extravagant good fortune that it lands somewhere other than your own foot?

See, when you put it that way—

Something hard pressed into my stomach. One of the guards was shoving the hilt of a scabbarded rapier at me.

‘Looks about the right length,’ the man muttered, sounding as if he were having a debate with himself. There was a lot of that going around lately.

‘Margravina di Traizo, again, I must protest this outrageous behaviour,’ Captain Terine said, making one last effort to keepblood from staining the gleaming marble floor. ‘Duelling inside the palace walls is beyond irregular—’

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