sipped his tea, blowing on it between sips. Finally, he said,'I’ll do it for free if you’ll show me your giant’s ti—’
‘Forget it!’ she bellowed. ‘You’re a waste of my time.’
‘Forgive me, Elka. That was outrageously impolite of me.’
‘You cover your mouth when you belch, you drink from fine porcelain and yet you live like a slob and your mind is even filthier. What kind of contradiction are you?’
He nodded. ‘I deserve that. Again I ask for your forgiveness.’
She gave him a look of disbelief mixed with disdain. ‘I don’t understand you.’
‘Now you know why I am considered worthless in this town.’
‘What happened?’
He sighed, drained his cup. ‘I’ll have another please.’ As she poured, he looked down. ‘Have you heard of the sickness called “sullied tongue"?’
She shook her head, frowning. ‘It sounds like a jest.’
He nodded thoughtfully. ‘It is certainly an affliction that the gods had some fun with.’
Elka caught on. ‘You have this problem?’
‘You’re fast. Yes. I am openly rude to people I least want to offend. I have no control over what I say at times, or any warning.’
‘I’ve never heard of this disease before.’
‘Oh, I’ve met two other cases. One of them was the son of a prosperous merchant turned into a seeming lunatic who wandered from town to town as a beggar. The other was a teacher whose career was cut short by the onset of this disease as he hit his third decade. It seems to afflict men.’
‘And it happens constantly?’
He nodded. ‘I can behave perfectly acceptably most of the time. My affliction is actually rather mild. And yet it is offensive enough to have singled me out for ex-communication. I think the baker takes pity on me because his father and mine were friends. We didn’t exactly grow up together but he knows my outspoken words are never intentional. Again, I apologise for what I said. Being drunk keeps me lucid and my tongue clean. Ironic, eh?’ He paused. ‘Your giant arse must be stunning naked.’
She swung around and gave him a look of total disbelief. He shrugged, his expression one of mortification. ‘I will be apologising constantly if you seriously want to go ahead with your proposition.’
Elka laughed. ‘I’ve got broad shoulders, I’m sure I won’t wilt. How much?’
‘How long will it take?’
She looked doubtful. ‘I can’t say for sure. A day?’
‘Two gold trents,’ he said sharply. ‘That’s robbery.’
‘I’m an opportunist, can’t you tell?’
Elka nodded. Loethar needed help sooner rather than later. ‘All right. We’ll leave now. You’re sure Badger will be all right without you?’
‘Lo, woman! You care more about the dog than me.’ ‘The dog hasn’t tried to steal from me.’ ‘I would like to rub your breas—’
‘Let’s go, Janus!’ she said briskly, cutting him off before he disgraced himself again.
Gavriel had deliberately not woken Leo to take over watch but the king had roused himself before dawn and he’d had to come clean with the news.
‘You did what?’ the king replied, a cup of water halfway to his mouth. Leo had heard it the first time, Gavriel knew, but he was making Gavriel repeat it in order to give himself time to digest the repercussions. He’d seen Brennus take an identical approach when his ire was up.
‘I told them to go.’
‘Why would you do that, Gav?’
Gavriel hesitated.
‘Speak plainly,’ Leo urged, his voice horribly cold but calm.
Gavriel scratched his head. ‘Well, they were scared of you. Ravan is no enemy of yours and —’
‘That’s rich, coming from the person who wanted to butcher the bird at the first opportunity,’ Leo cut in quietly.
‘You’ve shown me the error of my ways,’ Gavriel replied equally quietly. ‘If not for your reluctance to kill we would not now have a new ally.’
‘Do you really believe he’s our ally, even after he ran away from us?’
‘I do. Especially now that we have permitted him to go on with his journey … whatever it is.’
‘Not we, Gav. You. You made that decision, against the wishes of your king. I wonder if your father ever defied mine?’
‘We shall never know,’ Gavriel said, keeping his tone even, not at all appreciating the way Leo kept comparing him to his father. ‘But I do know this: I didn’t like the way you looked at that boy, Leo. You don’t need to resort to acts of barbarism to prove your worth as a king. You are Valisar. No one can take that from you.’
If Leo felt any offence it certainly didn’t show. ‘But my throne has been taken from me. And now I learn that perhaps even the crown isn’t mine, that the barbarian warlord is also Valisar and every bit as entitled to wear it as I am. I can’t be sure but I imagine Loethar — my own blood — would still kill me if he could, and now I discover I have a blood brother who also wants to kill me. And I have access to protection from death, but you, my loyal Legate and champion, is steadfastly denying me that protection.’ Leo shook his head, then took a deep breath and stood. ‘I don’t need you any more, Gavriel. Your stupid Davarigon bitch has defied me and now you have blatantly defied my orders, believing you know better. My father would have had your father cleaved in two for less.’ He laughed once, bitterly, not even ashamed for such a barb. ‘Except your father was loyal in a way you clearly cannot be. He always did what my father asked of him.’
‘Yes,’ Gavriel said coldly. It was taking all of his will not to strike Leo for the way he spoke about Elka or jested at his father’s fate. Only the thought that Regor de Vis would turn in his grave if he knew his son had behaved so ignobly stayed his hand. ‘Perhaps my father would be alive today if he hadn’t. And my twin brother might be living alongside me too, and I wouldn’t have lost a decade of my life. The de Vis family has served yours faithfully, Leo, but it seems our role is to just keep on giving while you Valisars keep on taking. You’re a king, damn you. Act it! Stop bleating about who has done what to you and why your lifeis so full of woe. You’ve done nothing but cringe in the forest, Leo. Do you even really want to be king?’
Leo had fallen ominously quiet, staring at Gavriel with an undisguised rage. ‘You know I do,’ he growled.
‘Then take the crown! Stop hiding, stop blaming other people for everything that’s happened, and take responsibility for yourself. You don’t have to chop the hand off a child and eat it to protect yourself. Your father didn’t!’
‘My father was not at war.’
‘Neither are you.’
‘You heard what they said. Piven is hunting me.’
‘And Loethar has been hunting you for ten anni and didn’t find you because you were cunning and you were patient … and because you had allies like Faris and Freath. But you killed Freath because of some obsessively misplaced sense of duty that your mother would turn in her grave to learn of and you’ve driven away Faris because he rightly believes you want to maim him and turn him into a jabbering puppet. I would run too, Leo. I don’t blame Faris one bit. And I’ll be damned if I was going to let you hurt a ten-anni-old in