Quettil opened his mouth to say something, but the King, watching Adlain and Polchiek, said, "Thank you, Feulecharo."

"I think Feulecharo should stay here, sir," Adlain said to the King. "Guard Commander Polchiek might send men to his quarters to search for a weapon, or the missing key for the door." The King nodded, and Polchiek spoke to some of the servant-guards. "Perhaps," Adlain added, "the Guard Commander would open the door again and we'll see if young Feulecharo left any blood there."

The guards went off to search Feulecharo's room. Polchiek and Adlain returned to the door.

The King looked at the Doctor and smiled. "Thank you for all your help, Vosill," he said, with a nod. "That will be all."

"Sir," the Doctor said.

I heard later that they looked all through the Duchess" apartment as well as Feulecharo's. Nothing was found. Some blood was discovered on the outer surface of the door into the corridor, and on the floor beneath. A good part of the rest of the palace was searched soon afterwards for the murder weapon, but it was never discovered. The missing key turned up, innocently enough as far as could be told, in the key cabinet of the palace seneschal.

Master, I knew Feulecharo and did not think him capable of the killing of the Duke. The King may have been overly lenient in not allowing the two lovers Droythir and Uoljeval to be put to the question by Ralinge (though I believe both were shown the chamber and had the instruments of excruciation explained to them), but I do not believe any further truthful information would or could have been extracted from them.

Polchiek might have preferred that a scapegoat was found, and Quettil fumed and raged in private for moons afterwards, they say, but apart from taking one of Polchiek's two small estates away from him, he could do no more. Polchiek had filled the ball with extra guards and by all accounts done all he could to ensure that nothing untoward occurred.

Feulecharo was lucky, I think, that he was the third son of one of Walen's more wealthy barons. Had he been of more lowly birth, instead of just two sickly brothers away from a not inconsiderable title, he might have found himself enjoying the hospitality of Master Ralinge himself. As it was, it was generally accepted that his good family name made it almost unthinkable that he could have had anything more to do with the murder of the Duke than he had claimed.

16. THE BODYGUARD

"I wish I could go too, Mr DeWar. Can't you ask my father? He thinks you're clever."

DeWar looked embarrassed. Perrund smiled indulgently at him. From his pulpit the chief eunuch Stike looked down, fat and frowning. DeWar wore riding boots. He carried a hat, and a heavy black cape lay folded over the couch at his side next to a pair of saddle bags. The Protector had decided it was time to take personal command of the faltering war in Ladenscion.

"You're better off here, Lattens," DeWar told the boy, and reached out to ruffle his red-blond hair. "You have to get well. Being ill is like being attacked, you see? Your body is like a great fortress that has been besieged by invaders. You've repelled them, you've seen them off, but you have to be good, and marshal your forces and rebuild the walls, refurbish your catapults, clean your cannons, restock your armouries. Do you see? Only if your father feels that great fortress is going to be all right can he leave it to go and fight the war. So that is your duty. To keep getting better. To get well.

"Of course your father would rather stay here with you if he could, but he's like a father to all his men, too, you see? They need his help and guidance. So he has to go to them. You must stay, and help your father win the war by getting better, by repairing the great fortress. It is your duty, as a soldier. Do you think you can do that?"

Lattens looked down at the cushions he sat upon. Perrund patted his curls back into place again. He played with a loose thread of gold at the corner of a cushion. "Yes," he said in a small voice, not looking up. "But I really would like to go with you and Father, really I would." He looked up at DeWar. "Are you sure I can't come?"

"I'm afraid so," DeWar said quietly.

The boy sighed heavily and looked down again. DeWar smiled at Perrund, who was looking at Lattens.

"Oh," Perrund said. "Come, sir. Is this the General Lattens who won so well at catapults? You must do your duty, General. Your father will be back before too long. And Mr DeWar." She smiled at DeWar.

"For all we know," DeWar said, "the war may be ended by the time we get there. That is sometimes the way with wars." He fiddled with his big, waxed hat, then set it aside on his dark cape. He cleared his throat. "Did I tell you about when Sechroom and Hiliti parted? When Sechroom went off to become a missionary?"

Lattens seemed not to hear for a moment, but then he rolled over on his side and stopped humming and said, "No, I don't think so."

"Well, one day the two friends had to part. Sechroom had made up her mind that she would become a soldiermissionary, taking the message of Lavishia to far-off lands and teaching the peoples there the error of their ways. Hiliti had tried to talk his friend out of this, still believing that it was the wrong thing to do, but Sechroom was adamant."

"What?"

"Determined."

"Oh.,

"One day," DeWar continued, "not long before Sechroom was due to leave, they went to one of their special places, which was on an island. This island was a very wild place where people went to get away from all the riches of Lavishia. There were no streams of wine and sugar water, no ready-cooked game birds hanging in the house-trees, no perfume fountains, no piles of sweet-rocks, no-"

"People wanted to get away from sweet-rocks?" Lattens asked incredulously.

"Yes, and from being able to fly, and from having hot water gush from wash basins and from having servants pander to their every whim, too. People are strange like that, Lattens. Give them every comfort and they start to pine for the rougher life."

Lattens frowned mightily at this, but did not protest further. It was obvious he thought that the people of Lavishia, or perhaps just all adults, must be quite mad.

"Sechroom and Hiliti," DeWar said, "went to the island as a sort of holiday from all the luxuries they were used to. They left all their servants behind and they even left behind the magic amulets and jewels that protected them from harm and which let them call on the local gods, and the two of them were left to fend for themselves in the wilderness. They could still find fruit to eat and water to drink, and they were able to make a shelter from the giant leaves of trees. They had with them bows and arrows and a pair of blow-pipes which fired poisoned darts, too. They had made these before they had come on the holiday and were quite proud of them They used the bows and blowpipes to go hunting for some of the animals on the island, though the animals were not the cooperative sort of animals they were used to, and they didn't want to be killed and cooked and eaten, so they were quite good at keeping out of the way of two people who were really very inexperienced hunters.

"One day, when Sechroom and Hiliti had been out trying to find some animals to shoot their poison darts at, but without success, they were returning to their leaf-shelter, arguing and becoming annoyed with each other. They were both bored and hungry and that was probably one of the reasons that they were each so upset with the other and blaming the other for spoiling the hunt. Sechroom thought that Hiliti was too aggressive and wanted to kill the animals just for the sake of it, for Hiliti was proud of his skills as a bowman and a blowpiper and at hand-to-hand fighting, while Hiliti secretly thought that Sechroom, who didn't like to kill things, had deliberately made noises so that the animals they were stalking would realise they were there and run away.