‘Ah, I see. Well, by all accounts my grandfather was an amazing man, but I doubt me very much if he was a sorcerer. For a man to rise from gardener to councillor is very, very rare, your highness, and I imagine it must have looked like sorcery to some.’
‘Oh.’ Bellyra was bitterly disappointed. ‘No doubt you’re right, good sir, but I had so hoped he was a real sorcerer! But still, it’s rather splendid to get to meet his grandson after reading about him and all. I take it your family became merchants with the inheritance he left?’
‘In a way, truly. I used to deal in herbals and medicinals, but the times are grave enough for me to lay aside my old trade and do what I can for the True King.’
‘Well, iron is the best medicinal for the army, sure enough. Do you really believe the True King will ever come?’
‘I do, and with all my heart, your highness, I believe it will be very soon.’
‘I hope so. We can’t go on like this much longer. I’m going to have to marry him, you know. I hope he won’t be too ugly, or old like Tieryn Elyc, but it doesn’t truly matter. Cook says that all cats are grey in the dark.’
‘I take it you and your mother will have no objections to such a match.’
‘My poor mother! The only thing she ever objects to any more is her wine jug running empty. And as for me, well, if he really is the one True King of all Deverry, I’d be awfully stupid to turn him down, wouldn’t I? I don’t want to moulder here the rest of my life.’
‘Your highness has a very direct and refreshing way of expressing herself, and I think, if I may speak so boldly, that you’re going to make an excellent queen.’
‘My thanks, good sir. You’re the only one who seems to think so.’ With a sigh she rested her chin on one hand and looked away out to the floor of the hall, where the men were drinking and laughing over their perennial dice games. ‘But then, we’ve got a lot in common. You’re named “no one”, and I was never properly born.’
‘What, your highness?’
‘I was born on Samaen – just after sunset, the worst time of all. The midwife sat on my mother’s legs to try to stop me coming so soon, and when that didn’t work she tried to shove me back in, but my mother hurt so badly that she made her stop shoving. So the midwife ran screaming out of the chamber and my mother’s serving women had to deliver me. They had all sorts of priests in and everything to bless me straightaway so the Wildfolk or the dead spirits couldn’t get me. I don’t remember any of that, of course. They told me when I was older.’
‘That’s an amazing tale! But you know, children are born on Samaen every now and then. Most of them are quite ordinary, too.’
‘I’ve always felt quite ordinary, actually.’ She pinched her wrist. ‘Rather solid, don’t you think?’
‘It looks that way to me, your highness.’
By then the pages and serving lasses were bringing round baskets of bread and plates of cold meats and cheeses along with goblets of mead for the noble-born and ale for their men, including, of course, the mercenaries belonging to Elyc’s foster brother. Bellyra took a slice of ham and nibbled on it while she considered the regent and the captain, who were discussing old times with a deliberate intensity as if they were trying to keep the present moment far away. Every now and then one of them would hit the other on the shoulder or arm, which she took as meaning they truly loved each other. Nevyn coughed politely to regain her attention.
‘Have there been many omens of the coming of the True King, your highness?’
‘There have indeed, good sir. Let’s see, Elyc talks about them all the time, so I should be able to remember them. First of all, he’s supposed to come before the last full moon before Beltane, which means he’d better get here soon, because that’s tomorrow night. And then he’s supposed to be from the west, but not from Eldidd. And then there’s lots of stuff about stallions running before him or bearing him, which I think is truly odd, because no one rides a stallion as a battlehorse. He’s supposed to come in an army that’s not an army, be a man but not a man –’
‘Uh, excuse me?’
‘Odd, isn’t it? I mean, either you’re a man or you’re a woman, and there’s not a lot in between, is there? But omens are that way sometimes. Let’s see, what else? Some say he’ll come practically as a beggar to his own gates, which I guess means Dun Cerrmor …’ She paused, struck all at once by a number of odd things. ‘Here! They say no one will be his herald.’
‘Do they indeed?’
‘They do, at that. And a mercenary troop is an army that isn’t an army, and that full moon is tomorrow night, isn’t it?’ She looked out over the hall, found herself staring at each mercenary in turn as her heart started to pound. She knew that Nevyn was smiling, but she was afraid to look at the old man for fear he’d break her hopes again. ‘A man that isn’t a man? What about someone who’s still a lad but who rides with the men and fights like one. He doesn’t even have a beard yet does he?’
‘Who, your highness?’
‘That blond lad over there at the last table, the one who’s sitting next to that great big tall fellow with the scar on his face and not talking to anyone. Do you know his name?’
‘The tall fellow’s?’
‘I don’t mean him. Don’t tease, Nevyn. Who’s that lad?’
‘His name is Maryn. It’s a common name in Pyrdon, where he’s from.’
‘The Pyrdon blazon’s a stallion.’
‘It is, truly.’
Her heart was pounding so badly that she felt it might thud into her mouth and keep her from speaking.
‘What made you pick out that lad?’ the old man said, and his voice had dropped to a whisper.
‘I don’t know. Or, you know, I think he’s been looking at me.’
‘He has, truly. Your highness is a very beautiful lass.’
‘Oh, don’t flatter! I know I’m plain.’
‘You’re not plain in the least. I can see that until perhaps a year ago you were all long legs and stumbles, and your face must have been too thin and pinched – but that, your highness, was a year ago. We shall have to get you a proper mirror.’
‘I can’t have one, but I’ll make a wish that you’re telling me the truth.’
‘Well, you know there are times when wishes are granted.’ He paused impressively. ‘And times when they’re not.’
‘Oh, you’re only teasing me and naught more!’
‘Wait, child. Wait and be patient for just a little while longer. I can’t promise you that everything will be well and wonderful for ever and ever, but things are going to take a turn for the better and soon.’
She hesitated, wondering why she trusted him so instinctively, but in truth, she’d simply never met anyone before who’d been kind to her.
‘Well and good, then, Nevyn. And frankly, it’d be enough to know that things aren’t going to get worse.’
At a little cough at her shoulder she turned to find young Emryc, just twelve that summer and the head page. A copper-headed lad with squinty green eyes, he always looked down his nose at her as if he pitied her, and there were times when she day-dreamed about having him beaten.
‘Cook wants to know if we should start laying on the meal.’
‘Listen,