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Peyna stared at the boy under furrowed brows, trying to sort out this amazing flood of declaration.
Tears were standing in De
“Softly, De
De
“You’d better tell me what you came to say,” Peyna told him.
“Yes. Yes, all right.”
De
“You see,” De
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De
No wonder the boy King was so often moody and depressed. Perhaps the rumors that passed in the meadhouses, rumors that had Thomas more than half mad already, were not so farfetched as Peyna had thought.
But as De
“You heard more,” Peyna said.
“Aye, my Lord Judge-General,” De
De
He had screamed the name of the King’s magician over and over again; had begged the King to look deep into the goblet and see the mouse that simultaneously burned and drowned in the wine. Why do you stare at me so? he had shrieked. And then: I brought you a glass of wine, my King, to show you that I, too, love you. And finally he had shrieked out words that Peter himself would have recognized, words better than four hundred years old: 'Twas Flagg! Flagg! 'Twas Flagg!
De
The three of them looked at the shards of crockery.
“And then?” Peyna asked, in a deceptively gentle voice.
“Nothing for a long, long time,” De
“And he remained so for how long?”
“My Lord, I know not. The dogs had all quieted again. And perhaps l… I…”
“Dozed a bit yourself? I think it is likely, De
“Then, later, he seemed to wake. His eyes opened, at any rate. He closed the little panels and all was dark again. I heard him moving and I drew my legs back so he would not trip over them… his nightshirt… it brushed my face…”
De
“I followed him. He let himself out… I followed still. He closed the door so that it looked like only plain stone wall again. He went back to his apartments and I followed him.”
“Did you meet anyone?” Peyna rapped so sharply that De
“No. No, my Lord Judge-General. No one at all.”
“Ah” Peyna relaxed. “That is very well. And did anything else happen that night?”
“No, my Lord. He went to bed and slept like a dead man.” De
“And in the morning he-?”
“Remembered nothing.”
Peyna grunted. He steepled his fingers and looked at the dying fire through the little finger-building he had built.
“And did you go back to that passageway?”
Curiously, De
“Yes,” Peyna said dryly. “The question is, did you?”
“I did.”
“Of course you did. Were you seen?”
“No. A chambermaid passed me in the hallway. The laundry is down that way, I think. I smelled lye soap, like my mum uses. When she was gone, I counted up four from the chipped stone and went in.”
“To see what Thomas had seen.”
“Aye, my Lord.”
“And did you?”
“Aye, my Lord.”
“And what was it?” Peyna asked, knowing. “When you slid aside those panels, what did you see?”
“My Lord, I saw King Roland’s sitting room,” De
“But there was one head you didn’t see,” Peyna said.
“No, my Lord, I saw them a-” De
Silence fell again inside. Outside, the winter wind moaned and whined. And miles away, Peter, rightful King of Delain, hunched over a tiny loom high in the sky and wove a rope almost too fine to see.
At last, Peyna fetched a deep sigh. De
“You did well to come here, De
De
“And your mum knows naught of your reason for needing to be away?”
“No”
“Then the chances are very good she’ll not be touched by it. Arlen will take you up. Those are his blankets, I think, and you’ll have to return them. But there’s straw above, and it’s clean.”
“I’ll sleep just as well with only one blanket, my Lord,” Arlen said.
“Hush! Young blood runs hot even in its sleep, Arlen. Your blood has cooled. And you may want your blankets… in case dwarves and trolls come in your dreams.”
Arlen smiled a little.
“In the morning, we’ll talk more, De
De
Peyna smiled dryly. “I’m old, and Arlen is old. The health of the old is never very strong. Sometimes that makes them more careful than they should be… but sometimes it makes them dare much.” Especially, he thought, if they have much to atone for. “We’ll speak more in the morning. In the meantime, you deserve your rest. Will you light his way upstairs, Arlen?”
“Yes, my Lord.”
“And then come back to me.”
“Yes, my Lord.”
Arlen led the exhausted De