Several figures moved through the shadows at the far end of the hall. West strained to look, but could see little more than metal gleaming in the darkness. The foremost shape stopped beside a wounded man a few beds down.
“They are treating you well?” A voice strangely familiar, strangely different.
“Yes, sir.”
“Is there anything you need?”
“A kiss from a good woman?”
“I would love to oblige you, but I fear I’m only a king. We’re a great deal more common than good women.” Men laughed, even though it was not funny. West supposed that people laughing at your poor jokes was one advantage of being a monarch. “Anything else?”
“Maybe… maybe another blanket, sir. Getting cold down here, at night.”
“Of course.” The figure jerked his thumb at a man behind. Lord Hoff, West realised now, dragging along at a respectful distance. “Another blanket for every man here.”
The Lord Chamberlain, that fearsome scourge of the audience chamber, humbly nodded his head like a meek child. The king stood, and moved into the light.
Jezal dan Luthar, of course, and yet it was hard to believe that it was the same man, and not only because of the rich fur mantle and the golden circlet on his forehead. He seemed taller. Handsome, still, but no longer boyish. A deep scar on his bearded jaw had given him an air of strength. The sneer of arrogance had become a frown of command. The carefree swagger had become a purposeful stride. He worked his way on slowly down the aisle between the cots, speaking to each man, pressing their hands, giving them thanks, promising them help. No one was overlooked.
“A cheer for the king!” someone gurgled through gritted teeth.
“No! No. The cheering should be for you, my brave friends! You who have made sacrifices in my name. I owe you everything. It was only with your help that the Gurkish were defeated. Only with your help that the Union was saved. I do not forget a debt, that I promise you!”
West stared. Whoever this strange apparition was who looked so like Jezal dan Luthar, he spoke like a monarch. West almost felt a preposterous desire to drag himself from his bed and kneel. One casualty was trying to do just that as the king passed his bed. Jezal restrained him with a gentle hand on his chest, smiled and patted his shoulder as though he had been offering succour to the wounded his entire life, instead of getting drunk in shit-holes with the rest of the officers, and whining about such meagre tasks as he was given.
He drew close and saw West, lying there. His face lit up, though there was a tooth missing from his smile. “Collem West!” he said, hastening over. “I can honestly say that I have never in my life been so pleased to see your face.”
“Er…” West moved his mouth around a bit, but hardly knew what to say.
Jezal turned to his sister. “Ardee… I hope you are well.”
“Yes.” She said nothing else. They stared at each other, for a long and intensely awkward moment, not speaking.
Lord Hoff frowned at the king, then at West, then at Ardee. He insinuated himself somewhat between the two of them. “Your Majesty, we should—”
Jezal silenced him effortlessly with one raised hand. “I trust that you will soon join me in the Closed Council, West. I am in some need of a friendly face there, in truth. Not to mention good advice. You always were a mine of good advice. I never did thank you for it. Well, I can thank you now.”
“Jezal… I mean, your Majesty—”
“No, no. Always Jezal to you, I hope. You will have a room in the palace, of course. You will have the royal surgeon. Everything possible. See to that, please, Hoff.”
The Lord Chamberlain bowed. “Of course. Everything will be arranged.”
“Good. Good. I am glad you are well, West. I cannot afford to lose you.” The king nodded, to him, and to his sister. Then he turned and moved on, pressing hands, speaking soft words. A pool of hope seemed to surround him as he passed. Despair crowded in behind it. Smiles faded as he moved away. Men dropped back onto their beads, faces clouding over with pain.
“Responsibility seems to have improved him,” muttered West. “Almost beyond recognition.”
“How long will it last, do you think?”
“I’d like to think that it could stick, but then I’ve always been an optimist.”
“That’s good.” Ardee watched the magnificent new king of the Union striding away, wounded men straining from their cots for the slightest touch of his cloak. “That one of us can be.”
“Marshal West!”
“Jalenhorm. Good to see you.” West pulled back the blankets with his good hand, eased his legs over the edge of the bed and winced his way up to sitting. The big man reached out and gave his hand a squeeze, clapped him on the shoulder.
“You’re looking well!”
West smiled weakly. “Better ever day, Major. How’s my army?”
“Fumbling on without you. Kroy’s holding things together. Not such a bad sort, the General, once you get used to him.”
“If you say so. How many did we lose?”
“Still hard to say. Things are somewhat chaotic. Whole companies missing. Impromptu units still chasing Gurkish stragglers across half the countryside. I don’t think we’ll have numbers for a while. I don’t know if we’ll ever get them. No one did well, but the ninth regiment were the ones fighting at the western end of the Agriont. They took the worst of…” He fumbled for the words. “It.”
West grimaced. He remembered that black column of whirling matter reaching from the tortured earth to the circling clouds. The debris lashing at his skin, the screaming of the wind all around him. “What was… it?”
“I’m damned if I know.” Jalenhorm shook his head. “Damned if anyone does. But the rumour is that this Bayaz was involved, somehow. Half the Agriont’s in ruins, and they’ve barely started shifting the rubble. You never saw anything like it, that I promise you. A lot of people dead in all that. Bodies stacked up in the open…” Jalenhorm took a long breath. “And there are more dying every day. A lot of people getting ill.” He shuddered. “This… sickness.”
“Disease. Always a part of war.”
“Not like this. Hundreds of cases, now. Some die in a day, almost before your eyes. Some take longer. They wither to skin and bone. They have whole halls full of them. Stinking, hopeless places. But you don’t need to worry about that.” He shook himself. “I have to go.”
“Already?”
“Flying visit, sir. I’m helping to arrange Poulder’s funeral, would you believe? He’s being buried in state, by order of the king… that is to say Jezal. Jezal dan Luthar.” He blew out his cheeks. “Strange business.”
“The strangest.”
“All that time. A king’s son sitting in the midst of us. I knew there had to be a reason why he was so bloody good at cards.” He slapped West on the back again. “Good to see you looking so well, sir. Knew they wouldn’t be able to keep you down for long!”
“Keep out of trouble!” West called after him as he made for the door.
“Always!” The big man grinned as he pulled it shut.
West took his stick from the side of the bed, gritted his teeth as he pushed himself up to standing. He hobbled across the expanse of chequered tiles to the window, one painstaking step at a time, and finally stood blinking into the morning sunlight.
Looking down on the palace gardens it was hard to believe that there had been any war, that there were any acres of ruins, any heaps of dead. The lawns were neatly trimmed, the gravel well-raked. The last few brown leaves had fallen from the trees, leaving the smooth wood black and bare.
It had been autumn when he set out for Angland. Could it really have been only a year ago? He had lived through four great battles, a siege, an ambush, a bloody melée. He had witnessed a duel to the death. He had stood at the centre of great events. He had survived a slog of hundreds of miles through the bleak Angland winter. He had found new comrades in unlikely places, and he had seen friends dead before his eyes. Burr, Kaspa, Cathil, Threetrees, all back to the mud, as the Northmen said. He had faced death, and he had delivered it. He shifted his aching arm uncomfortably in the sling. He had murdered the heir to the throne of the Union with his own hands. He had risen, by a stroke of chance that verged on the impossible, to one of the highest posts in the nation.