Black Rose

Chapter 9

The Girl Who Wasn't There

Road from Torina to Venceborn

Norbert made them supper of bread and cold sausage and wine, and Amber Gant ate it with cheerful appreciation.

Norbert found it hard to not look at her. Her low-cut dress drew attention to her bust, and the more wine she drank, the merrier she became, laughing at Sir Felix's quips and Norbert's dry interjections.

But it wasn't just that. It was how natural and warm and charming she was; a high-class girl like her, tucking into cold sausage and dry bread and cheap wine, and making it seem like a feast.

While she was talking, nevertheless, Norbert saw Sir Felix, behind her back, chaining the saddlebags to a tree.

When the fire died down, they rolled themselves in their bedrolls. Felix gave Amber a heavy coat, and they slept.

The next morning, as Norbert was boiling water for their porridge and Amber was making her toilet, he saw Felix discreetly weighing the saddlebags with his hands. Norbert saw him smile to himself.

Felix looked up and saw him, and came over.

'Well?' Felix said. 'You think me an old cynic?'

'Are you satisfied?'

'They have not been touched. In any case, the lock is strong, and the seals are unbroken. It seems our guest is as honest as she seems to be.'

Norbert nodded.

'I think you've taken a bit of a shine to her, no?' Felix said.

'Her conversation is very stimulating,' said Norbert, feeling himself go red. Felix chuckled.

'Maybe in a couple of years...' Felix said, and then Amber came out of the bushes and Felix walked off, laughing to himself.

'What were you talking about?' Amber said, smiling.

'Nothing,' Norbert said.

'You are a terrible liar,' she said. 'But I will not push you. Mmmm, porridge.'

They rode all that day, and once again she sat behind him on his horse, and Norbert listened to the sound of her voice, and heard her tell about the doings of the family she worked for, and all he knew was that he'd never been so happy.

To watch her eat a piece of bread seemed to him like entertainment for a king. The angle of her jaw, even the redness of her chapped hands, filled him with joy.

By the time they stopped to rest again that evening, Norbert felt that he knew what people felt like when they believed in god. For himself, he could see in her, and in her slightly travel-stained dress, all the beauty and majesty of creation.

It was hard not to make a complete fool of yourself around her. He made a conscious effort to listen to Sir Felix as well, and occasionally even smile at his terrible jokes. But after only a day and a half, the small part of his brain that always stood back and watched the rest of him was despairingly admitting that he had fallen in love with Amber.

Once again, they dined on bread and sausage and wine, augmented this time by some herbs and mushrooms Norbert had found; the study of mushrooms had been one of the few things in Academy life that he'd enjoyed, feeling like it amounted to some sort of mastery of the world, however insignificant.

They were having a most enjoyable evening when Amber stopped in mid-sentence and cocked her head to one side.

'Are those hooves I hear?' she said with interest.

Norbert got up and stepped over to the road, and as his eyes grew used to the darkness, he made out two figures riding from the north. They slowed as they drew nearer, and he stood in silence, waiting.

Finally the riders drew level, and Norbert decided that they hadn't seen him, and waited for them to pass. But then a brusque voice said 'Make yourself known, boy.'

Norbert recognised it immediately: it was Falco.

'I am Norbert, squire of Sir Felix Coulomb, and we expected to meet you further down the road.'

'Norbert,' said Allon. 'Well met indeed, lad. We rode to meet you, for there are rumours of thieves on the road.'

'There are always rumours of thieves on this road,' said Norbert.

'All the better that we came to meet you, then. Have you the bags from the city elders?'

'Safe and sound.'

'Excellent. Perhaps we might join you for food and drink. We've ridden hard and without rest since leaving Venceborn.'

They dismounted in the darkness, and walked the horses over towards the fire.

'We have a guest,' said Norbert.

'So I see,' said Allon. 'We shall have fine company, then. Who is the lady?'

'A lady in waiting of a local house. We found her thrown from her horse, and Sir Felix insisted she accompany us.'

'Sir Felix is as gallant as he is hospitable,' said Allon. As they approached the fire, Felix stood up and beamed at them.

'Why, friends!' he said. 'This is a fine chance meeting. We did not expect to see you until tomorrow, at the earliest.'

'We rode out to meet you,' said Falco. Amber rose and smiled.

'May I present Amber Gant?' Felix said. 'She is lady in waiting to Lady Wuthrose Jansons.'

Amber curtsied and blushed.

'Delighted,' said Allon, bowing and taking her hand and lowering his face over it, but not, Norbert noticed with relief, actually kissing her fingers.

'I shall feel safe indeed,' she said, smiling, 'with four fine men to guard me from the terrors of the night.'

'It is no more than our duty,' said Allon. He smiled warmly at her.

Norbert helped Allon and Falco to secure their horses. Then they sat down around the fire again, he cut more bread and sausage, and poured more wine, and heated the sausage in a pan over the fire so that some of its fat flowed and it crisped a little.

'And how is the Lady Wuthrose,' said Allon to Amber, as he took his plate from Norbert. 'Tell us her news.'

'In the pink of health,' said Amber. 'May I ask how the gentleman knows her?'

'I was billeted in her house, briefly, in the late war,' he said. 'I know her to be a woman of great honour and fine judgement.'

'That she is,' said Amber.

'Is she quite recovered from the ague that had been tormenting her?' Allon said. Amber wrinkled her brow and smiled, puzzled.

'I think the gentleman may be confusing my lady with her sister, my lady Dayesay,' she said. 'Lady Wuthrose's only health concerns lately have been a twisted ankle gained in hunting. But my lady Dayesay is wracked with ague, and the surgeons can do nothing. It is a torment to her, but her good spirits in distress are an inspiration.'

'Dayesay,' he said. 'Of course. But tell me more. Does Lady Wuthrose still convene with the wisest and most skilled? The last I heard she would have nobody to dine with her except bookmen.'

Amber laughed. Felix smiled.

'Thankfully,' she said, 'the lady's taste for conversation ranges in a less eccentric sphere, at the moment. Between ourselves, I did not enjoy constantly having bookmen staying with us. Their dietary requirements were peculiarly vexing. Not to mention their beards; we were always finding hairs in the soup.'

'Does her house fare as it used to?'

'Her fortunes have been mixed,' said Amber, 'as have all our fortunes, in the late war. You know of course of the death of her second son.'

'Alas, yes,' said Allon. 'Indeed, I was there, although I did not witness his last hours.'

'You were at Sharlackberg?' Amber's eyes widened.

'I was,' he said. 'And I would not darken the mood of the company to tell much of what I saw there. But, yes, I was there.'

'Then you know of the manner of his death,' said Amber quietly.

'Yes,' said Allon. 'We will leave it there. The lad does not need to know every detail.'

Again, Norbert thought. Whaton earthare people not willing to talk about?

'Quite so,' said Amber, and she dabbed at one eye with her sleeve and smiled brightly. 'Still, Lady Wuthrose's spirits have been buoyed somewhat by the birth of a grandson.'

'Indeed?' Allon said.

'Yes,' Amber said. 'The lady Clufrith had a fine boy a week ago, both mother and child in good health.'

'Excellent news,' said Allon, chewing sausage. He raised his cup. 'To mother and child.'

They all toasted the birth, and when Amber went to clink her cup against Allon's, she stumbled slightly and hit his cup so hard with her own that wine splashed onto him. She was most apologetic and made to wipe it off with her kerchief, but he insisted that it was no matter.

'What news from Venceborn?' she said as they sat down again, Norbert having refilled Allon's cup.

'The Provost is as reclusive as ever,' Allon said. 'He has apparently taken to dining alone, although meetings still take place.'

'What takes you to Venceborn, if I may ask,' Amber said, smiling at them all.

'Just business,' said Allon.

'The same reason everyone goes there,' she said. 'I take it your saddlebags are part of the business? They look most capacious.'

'Civic business,' said Sir Felix cheerfully, 'of such a level of dullness that it tires me even to contemplate it. Bureaucracy, my dear. There is no end to it, but the lines of communication must be kept open.'

'You are messengers?' Amber said. 'Oh, but you must not allow me to slow you down.'

'The message will take as long as it takes to send' said Allon. 'It will be none the less welcome for being conveyed with due care. Even riders must rest.'

'Very true,' said Amber. 'My own head is heavy with sleep, and your excellent wine. I hope you will not be offended if I turn in shortly.'

'Not at all,' said Sir Felix. 'In fact, we all should.'

'To where are you riding,' Falco asked Amber.

'To Venceborn,' she said, 'like you.'

'And what is your business there?'

She drew her brows prettily together, as if startled with this line of questioning.

'I am on the business of Lady Wuthrose,' she said.

'Why would she send you,' he said. 'Why not a man.'

'I am her trusted lady-in-waiting,' she said, frowning. 'She knows I will be swift and discreet. And I may be of the weaker sex, but I assure you, I am quite able to look after myself.'

'It is odd to me,' he said, 'a lone woman travelling at night.'

'We have all had to adapt ourselves to a changing world, sir,' she said. 'The war saw to that. While you men were out fighting for the king, we at home had to do your jobs, and more. I am no delicate flower.'

'Is that why you have scars on your hands,' Norbert said, and Amber smiled at him and nodded.

'You are a very observant boy,' she said. 'I have had to learn many skills that I never thought I would need. Woodcutting, carpentry. I have helped kill a pig, more than once. The war schooled us all in hardship.'

'Where are you from,' said Falco.

'These parts, sir,' she said, turning to him. 'Born and bred in the Allamont hills.'

'How came you to Lady Wuthrose's household?'

'I have lived in the lady's household since I was a child,' she said.

'That is odd,' he said, 'for I have spent much time there, and never seen you.'

'Were you backstairs with the women and children, sir?' she said.

'No,' he said.

'Then there is your explanation,' Amber said, and there was a definite tone of annoyance in her voice. 'I, for my part, have never seen you there.'

She turned to Allon.

'One meets many strangers these days, with the upheaval of the war,' she said, 'and it is not always easy to reassure oneself about people. I take it, sir, that you have no reservations about what I have told you?'

Allon hesitated and glanced at Falco, who was looking irritated by the implication that he himself had not been truthful.

'One must always be careful,' Allon said.

'But surely,' said Amber, smiling, 'concord may be had between passing strangers on the fringe of the wild?'

'Of course, of course,' said Sir Felix. 'Let's all be friends, eh? We'll be doubting our own names next.'

'I do not doubt your trust, sir,' said Amber to Felix. 'But it is this gentleman to whom I addressed my question.'

'Concord,' Allon said.

'Agreement,' said Amber. 'Mutual cooperation. We have lived through a war. May we not trust each other ever again? Must civil society break down forever, because, for a while, we could not trust one another?'

Norbert looked at them both, and had the oddest feeling that they were not just talking about being friendly, but about something else. She was looking at Allon in a pointed way, and he felt a raging stab of jealousy, until his more sensible self told him, no, that wasn't a lover's look; but it was something, all right, and he had to know what.

'You will forgive me,' said Allon after a pause, 'but my partner and I are unaccustomed to such notions.'

'What do you mean?' Sir Felix interjected.

'The lady engages in double talk,' said Falco.

'If I may say so,' said Amber, frowning, 'I find your comments more than a little impertinent. Sir Felix has offered to help me, and if you have some reservations about my credentials, or otherwise object to my accompanying you on the road, you might wish to speak to him.'

'Yes, dammit, Falco, what's the problem?' Felix said, smiling but annoyed. 'I offered the girl my help, and the least we can do is afford it to her. This is a dangerous stretch of road.'

'It is indeed,' said Falco, staring at Amber.

'Well, Falco?' Felix said. 'Explain yourself.'

There was a pause.

'Let us forget the whole matter,' said Allon.

'No,' said Falco, glaring at Allon. Then he turned his gaze on Amber.

'No agreements,' he said. 'Nothing.'

'Sir?' she said. 'What assurances may I offer you? I beg you, be candid with me.'

'Nothing,' he said.

There was a silence, as she looked from Allon to Falco, then at Felix, then at Norbert, and then back to Falco.

Then, slowly, she smiled.

And Norbert wasunnerved.

For it was not Amber's smile, wide, mischievous and cheerful.

Her mouth stayed closed, and her gaze seemed to be directed inward. This smile was sour, gloomy and resigned.

'For fuck's sake,' she said calmly to Falco.

But she said it in a completely different voice; sharp, nasal and with a strong accent of the lower-caste westerner.

Norbert saw Allon give a start, and reach down to his side. Amber glanced at him.

'Leave it,' she said quietly. She didn't even bother to voice the 't' on the end of 'it', Norbert noticed:Leave i'.

This was her true voice, he felt sure of it.

Allon paused.

Amber reached up and covered her face with her hands, and rubbed her cheeks hard with the palms of her hands, and wiped her eye sockets with her fingers, massaging her face and moving her head from side to side, as if loosening herself up.

When she lowered her hands from her face, and looked up, it had changed.

It had been glowing, round, apple-cheeked and bonny.

Now, it was...

It made Norbert feel slightly ill to look at her. For Amber Gant's face had lost everything about it that made her Amber Gant's, and had become oddly like it could have beenanyyoung woman's face. If he had been asked to describe Amber before, he could have done so in great and tender detail; now, he could not.

She looked like... no-one in particular.

She looked at them all, breathing softly as if she'd just given up a great and sustained effort, and then blew out her cheeks and seemed to recover something like her former good humour.

'Well,' she said, in a slightly exaggerated version of her former voice, 'hellow.'

Norbert was so stunned he couldn't speak. Amber looked at him.

'Sorry, pal,' she said in her new voice, with a faint smile.

She abruptly rose to her feet. Falco stood up too.

He and Allon were the other side of the fire from her. She even stood differently; before, she had stood upright with her chest thrust forward and her hands clasped at her waist, but now, she stood with her arms hanging loosely by her sides, and bounced on the balls of her feet. She looked tougher and more wiry, her dress hanging off her upper body, instead of bulging delightfully at her curves. Norbert

'What?' Felix said at last.

'I'm after fuckin' up their plan, bud,' she said cheerfully, eyeing Allon and Falco. 'They were gonna do yous both and take the cash.'

'What?' Felix said again. Amber smiled, and cleared her throat, straightening up and momentarily resuming the pert expression of Amber Gant.

'Forgive me,' she said in her fluting cut-glass tones. 'I think your associates planned to kill you, and the boy, and take the money.'

She smirked at Allon.

'But what nonsense is this?' Felix said. 'Why would you say such a thing? And why are you talking like that?'

'Sometimes I must needs pass for a different sort of girl than I am,' she said, in her crisp accent. 'No fuckin' point if I'm found ou',' she added in her other voice.

'Is this...' Felix said, looking from the girl to Allon in amazement. 'She is making it up, surely.'

'She is lying,' said Allon.

'I'm not,' she said. 'Ya spect me to believe that youse came all the way ou' here to meet 'em, just to be nice?'

She was staring at Allon and Falco with contemptuous amusement.

But if this is true, thought Norbert, if she is right, why is she saying this? Does she not know they must now kill her?

And Felix. And me.

'She is lying,' said Allon. 'We are lucky that we caught her before she made off with the money. She will pay for daring to steal from the king's messengers.'

'King's messengers,' she scoffed. 'Get to fuck. Yer no more a king's messenger than yer a king's arse-rag.'

Falco snarled, walked over to her quickly, stood behind her and grabbed her around her neck.

'What was the plan?' he barked at her.

She merely smiled at them all.

'Tell us,' he said. 'Before we beat the impertinence out of you.'

'The fuck you care,' she said, turning her head and staring up at him.

Allon drew his sword and pointed it at her face. She looked at it, and at him, and raised her eyebrows.

'Put. Tha'. Down,' she said patiently. Her low-class westerner accent made the last word come out asdowen.

'You had better wipe that smile off your face,' Allon said, visibly angry. 'I see your plan. Get to know us, then bide your time, take the money, hide it, and then when we realise it has gone, you would have helped us look for it, would you not? Deceiving us, with your airs of a fine lady. And then, while we slept, you would have made off with it.'

Norbert watched her. She was looking at Allon with her lips pressed tightly together, and her eyebrows raised.

'Well,' he said, 'your plans have come to nothing. Lucky for us, we can still tell a thief when we see one, which is more than I can say for some.' He glared at Felix, who glared back.

She grinned at Allon. He stared at her, nonplussed.

'So yeah,' she said, 'is this the bit where I'm sposed to say,And it would have worked, too, if it weren't for you meddling rogues?'

She smiled at him, merrily.

Allon went pale, thrust his sword into his scabbard and ran over to the saddlebags.

'The key! Give me the key!'

Felix hurried over to him, pulling the key from his pocket and handing it to him, and Allon unlocked the first bag and opened it.

He reached inside, and pulled out a cloth bag. He ripped it open, and dull metal discs poured out of it onto the grass.

Falco tightened his grip on the girl's throat. She winced and glanced at him, annoyed.

'Tell us where it is,' said Allon. 'Tell us where you buried it, or you are a dead woman.'

'Away and fuck yourself,' she said.

'This is your fault, you bloody fool,' said Falco to Felix. 'I said we could not trust you to do the job properly.'

'I'm only tellin' yous all this,' Amber said to Felix conversationally, 'so's you'd know these cunts were gonna take the cash and kill yous.'

Felix looked angry, dismayed, confused. Norbert knew he must feel mortified not to have realised her treachery, but now he could not trust Allon and Falco, either.

'You will shut up,' said Falco, twisting her arm up behind her back. 'We have had enough of your lies.'