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It’s a couple of days after our run-in with Queen Pitina. We staged four shows yesterday, and the plan is to do another four today. We’ve already completed our early morning performance. I’m helping Inez and the others clean up when someone says, “I hear you guys are the talk of the town.” I look up, smiling, but the smile disappears when I see who it is.
“Well, well,” Inez says drily. “Duke elect Kurtis. Fancy seeing you here.”
The SubMerged duke-to-be flashes Inez a smile but she’s not impressed.
“Where are your bodyguards?” I ask.
He blinks. “What do you...? Oh, Dai and Poppy. I didn’t ask them to come.”
“You should have,” I growl, cracking my knuckles, wishing I was bigger, so that it would have more of an effect.
Kurtis ignores me and says to Inez, “Sorry I didn’t come before.”
“Like I care,” Inez sniffs.
“I wanted to,” Kurtis insists, “but I’m not like the saps who’ve come to Cornan to gawp. I’m here to witness the vote.”
“You have an invite to the palace?” Inez is sceptical.
“My uncle’s the duke of a massive kingdom,” Kurtis says. “I accompany him on state affairs. When I got back the other day, he sent me to a meeting, and I’ve been rushed off my feet ever since. The vote takes place five days from now and there’s much we have to do in preparation.”
“Five days?” Inez is startled. “I thought we had a couple of weeks at least.”
“That’s what most people think,” Kurtis smirks, “but everyone who matters is present. Hugo kept trying to defer the vote – his people are still searching for Ghita – but he ran out of excuses. Anyway, I’ve managed to clear some time in my schedule and I was hoping to take you up on your offer of a tour around Cornan.”
“What makes you assume my schedule’s less pressing than yours?” Inez replies.
“I don’t assume that at all,” Kurtis says. “I come in hope, not surety.”
I expect Inez to tell the smarmy git to get lost, but instead she says shyly, “Maybe I can get away for an hour or two.”
“That would be excellent,” Kurtis beams.
“Hang on,” I stop her. “Have you forgotten we’re putting on four shows today?”
“I’ll ask Dermot,” Inez says.
“Mary...” I mutter.
“What?” she asks when I don’t continue.
“I don’t trust him,” I growl.
Kurtis laughs. “Do you think I’m going to spirit her away to Ruby?”
I blank him and say to Inez, “I want to come with you.”
“No way,” Kurtis barks.
Inez is looking at me oddly.
“You know nothing about this guy,” I hiss. “He might have been sent to trap you.”
Kurtis stares at me as if I’m insane. “Why would I want to trap a girl who makes costumes for actors?” He turns to Inez. “Is he right in the head?”
“Maybe not,” Inez smiles, “but he wants to protect me, and I like that. Very well, Archie, if you want to be my chaperone, I’d be honoured.”
“Wait a minute,” Kurtis cries.
“No argument,” Inez says. “Archie comes or I stay here.”
Kurtis shoots me a piercing look but there’s nothing he can say, so he shrugs. “Fine. Bring him along. Why should I care?”
“Wonderful,” Inez says. “Let me go clear it with Dermot.”
She scoots off, leaving me alone with the glowering Kurtis. We stare daggers at one another for a good twenty minutes before Inez saunters back. She’s brushed her hair and changed her clothes, which accounts for the delay.
“Well?” I ask.
“Dermot thinks they’ll struggle by without us,” Inez says, and off we set.
Inez leads us far away from Lot 173T. She shows us a well, apparently the deepest in all the Merge. “If you fell in, it would take you a minute of freefall before you’d hit the water,” she says.
“A good place to get rid of bodies,” Kurtis jokes.
“Don’t give me ideas,” I purr.
We climb up a ladder inside a tree and set off across some of the walkways linking the higher levels of the forest. Inez points out a house where a famous queen used to live — not a Family member, but a Born queen who was beheaded in the French Revolution.
“She doesn’t live there still?” Kurtis asks.
“No,” Inez says. “She didn’t stay long in the Merge. There wasn’t enough cake.”
The pair laugh heartily, but I don’t get the joke.
“I used to live in France,” Kurtis says.
“When?” I ask.
“The early 1800s,” he says.
“A troubled time,” Inez notes.
Kurtis nods sombrely. “I saw a lot of corpses, but they were work for me. I picked their pockets.”
“You stole from the dead?” I gasp.
“My uncle Noah and I took part in several battles,” Kurtis says. “If you can call going through the pockets of dead soldiers taking part.”
“You don’t sound ashamed,” I growl.
“Why should I? That happened in the Born.”
“Still, to steal from the dead...”
Kurtis shrugs. “The corpses had no use for their possessions, and it wasn’t as if the bodies were going to be returned to their families. We even saved a few lives when we found people who’d been left for dead. We didn’t steal from them. Noah always treated the living with respect.”
“Is he the uncle who’s now a duke?” Inez asks.
“Yes. We were killed at the same time.”
“Were you caught robbing?” I ask.
“No,” Kurtis says icily. “We were sharing an abandoned house with strangers — there were others in the same game as us and we often bunked together as we trailed an army around. The trouble was these guys weren’t pickpockets but traitors on the run. Their enemies tracked them down and set the house on fire. Noah and I tried to get out. The soldiers thought we were two of the traitors and shot us.”
“I’m sorry,” I mumble.
“Why?” Kurtis replies.
“That must have been a horrible way to die.”
He snorts. “We all died in horrible ways. That’s why we’re here.”
We stop at a bakery with a long line of people outside. Inez says their cupcakes are the best in the city. Kurtis talks about his life in Ruby while we shuffle towards the front of the queue. His uncle swiftly rose through the ranks. Kurtis doesn’t tell us what that entailed, but I imagine it involved a lot of backstabbing and slit throats.
“When will you take over?” I ask.
“No time soon,” Kurtis grunts.
“I’ve heard that most replacements in Ruby involve hostile takeovers,” Inez says with a mischievous chuckle.
Kurtis reddens, then laughs. “You’re not far off the mark. Sometimes there are smooth transitions, but they’re the exception.”
“Does that mean you’ll have to kill your uncle to fill his shoes?” I ask.
“Probably,” Kurtis says as if it’s no big thing. He catches my horrified expression and sighs. “I’m not saying anything I wouldn’t say in front of my uncle. If I don’t bump him off when he weakens, someone else will, and since I’m the duke elect, that person would kill me too.”
“It must be hard, living with that in your future,” Inez says, touching the back of Kurtis’ hand.
“It’s a burden, but one I bear willingly.” He’s trying to look sad, but I can see him struggling to suppress a smile.
“Pass me the sick bag,” I growl, but neither of them seems to hear.
We finally get to the front of the line and Inez trades a knitted napkin for three cupcakes. Kurtis raves about them, and I note with dismay how Inez blushes.
We press on, Kurtis and Inez holding hands now. Soon we come to a river of blood and trail along beside it. The river is bustling with boats, different sizes and shapes, the steers a mix of men and women. They all wear the same type of faded robes as Preston – the steer I met in Diamond – albeit in a variety of colours, and they’re all barefoot, with silver eyes.
The river loops back on itself and we cut away from it. We’re close to Cornan’s palace, the giant tree I noticed when I first set eyes on the city. We wind our way through a dense grove, and when we emerge, the palace is towering above us.
“It’s called Canadu,” Inez says. “The name was given to it as a joke by a Canadian who liked the Coleridge poem, but it stuck.”
“Nice one,” I chuckle. (I’ve no idea what poem she’s talking about, but I don’t want Kurtis thinking I’m dumb.)
We’re so close to the tree that I can barely see the upper branches or the building that perches among them – locals call it the Cuckoo’s Nest – but we’ve a great view of the main entrance. A huge door has been gouged out of the trunk. Three paths run into it and three run out. The doorway is adorned with intricate carvings and lovingly twisted strands of ivy.
Hundreds of people are lined up. Guards are checking them, and Inez tells me there are more guards inside, and at every entranceway to the higher levels.
“We stayed in the Cuckoo’s Nest the last time we visited,” Kurtis says.
She tuts. “You should have said. I could have taken you somewhere else.”
“That’s alright. See the ring of windows?” he says to me, pointing to a series of small holes around the tree. “That’s a defensive platform. There are two more rings, one halfway up, one near the top. There’s a guard at every window, every minute of the day or night. A few brave souls used to climb the tree in the old days – it was the Everest of Sapphire – but that’s forbidden now.”
“That measure was put in place when the SubMerged started to show an interest in the realm,” Inez says. “The royals were worried that an assassin might scale the tree and kill them.”
Kurtis laughs. “They were wise to be wary. They blocked all the vines inside the tree too – the ones that are thick enough to crawl through – and put locks on them.”
“Can we go in?” I ask Inez.
“I don’t think they’re admitting many people at the moment,” she says.
“I’m sure I can get us in,” Kurtis says, beaming at her.
Inez shakes her head. “No, we’ve been away from the thesps too long. Archie and I should be getting back.”
Kurtis sighs. “I probably need to show my face back at base too.” He hesitates, reluctant to let go of Inez’s hand. “Can we do this again tomorrow?”
“You mean come back to Canadu?” Inez teases him.
“I’ll go wherever you guide me,” he says.
“Swing by the lot,” Inez says. “Maybe I’ll grace you with my presence.”
Kurtis chuckles, then looks at me. “Can we do it without the chaperone next time?”
I stare at him angrily. Then Inez rips at my heart by saying, “Perhaps.” My gaze shoots to her and she flinches. She starts to say something, then scowls. “Don’t be a child, Archie. You can’t expect me to take you everywhere I go.”
I force myself to shrug. “Whatever,” I say dismissively, just about managing to keep the tremble out of my voice.
Inez bids Kurtis farewell and watches as he slips away and is quickly lost to sight in the gloom of the grove.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers.
“You don’t have to apologise,” I say stiffly. “I’m not your keeper. Do whatever you want. I’d have thought, after what you said a few days ago, that you’d be more focused on trying to find a way to complete your mission, but if you want to go make out instead, who am I to object?”
“That’s not fair,” Inez snaps. “And it’s...” She was going to say something else, but pauses and then shakes her head.
“Just check your pockets after you’re done with him,” I jeer. “Although you’re probably safe, since it’s only the stone-cold dead that he steals from.”
“Archie...” she says, but I’m not in the mood to listen, and I start back through the grove, walking quickly, blinking away bitter tears.