The Prince of Lies (Night's Masque, #3)(114)

“What happened to the landlord?” Mal asked.

“He knows to stay out of the King’s business. Now, are you going to come along quietly, or do I have to make an example of one of your friends first?”

Monkton jerked his head, and Strawhair drew a knife and laid it against Ned’s throat.

“First I want to see my wife,” Mal said. “Do what you will with these two, but if you’ve harmed a hair of her head–”

“You don’t care about them?” Monkton strolled over to the captives. “Perhaps I’ll take out this fellow’s eye. They’ll make such a handsome pair of cripples.”

He seized Gabriel’s hair and pulled his head back, holding out his other hand for the knife. Ned squirmed against his bonds and made a desperate whining sound. Overhead the floorboards creaked, and someone coughed twice. All clear.

“All right.” Mal held up his hands. “I’ll come with you.”

He stood motionless whilst the soldiers disarmed him.

“Good. I knew you’d see sense.” Monkton flipped the knife, caught it by its blade and handed it back to his comrade. “Kill them both.”

Ned lurched sideways, tipping the bench over and pulling Gabriel with him to the floor. Monkton stumbled as the two of them slammed into his legs, and groped for his sword. Mal punched the nearest soldier on the jaw before he could draw his pistol, seized his rapier from the table as the man crumpled and slashed it around in a backhand stroke that narrowly stopped an incoming blow from the second man. Disengage and counterthrust. The soldier clutched his bloodied ribs, gasping for breath.

Footsteps clattered on the stairs, but instead of the reinforcements Monkton was no doubt expecting it was Coby who appeared in the doorway, a brace of pistols at the ready. Behind her came Sandy, still in his woman’s garb but bare-headed and with a bruise blooming on one cheekbone.

“Drop your weapons,” Coby said. “All of you.”

After a few heartbeats blades clattered to the floor, and the man with the pistol slowly drew it and placed it on the table where Mal’s rapier had been. The room was silent but for the wheezing breath of the wounded man. Monkton edged forward a few inches, trying to regain control of the situation.

“Where are my men?”

“They’re sleeping,” Coby said. “Well, sort of sleeping. I’m not sure what my brother-in-law here does, but it knocks them out sure enough.”

“Useless bastards!” Monkton spat on the floor.

“Tie him up.” Mal kept his blade pointed at Monkton. “The university proctors can deal with this.”

“Oh, I’m sure they’ll be happy to arrest the ruffians who attacked men going about their lawful duties.”

“My brother will persuade them to do the right thing, won’t you, Sandy? After all, there were no other witnesses to this fight. Good of you to arrange that, Monkton, I’m much obliged.”

Monkton’s face twisted into a snarl. “You may have won this sortie, Catlyn, but the battle’s far from over.”

“Get him out of my sight.” He drew his brother aside. “Find out what he knows about Shawe.”

Sandy nodded. “It will be my pleasure.”

When Coby had finished tying up Monkton and his two uninjured men, Sandy and Gabriel marched them upstairs to join their comrades.

“I think we could all do with a drink after that,” Coby said, taking down five tankards from the bar.

“First I have to fetch the proctors’ men,” Mal said. “And a surgeon for that one.”

The wounded man stared back at them, dull-eyed.

“I’ll go,” said Ned, brushing himself down.

“Don’t be a fool. I know this town better than the rest of you put together. Just stay here and try not to get into any more trouble.”

He pulled Coby close and kissed her brow.

“Good work,” he murmured. “We would all have been dead without you.”

“Sandy’s the one you should thank,” she replied. “He bewitched all three of his guards whilst they were tying him up; I just had to untie him again.”

“Even so. You were brave and resourceful. As ever.”

“I had a good teacher.”

Ned coughed loudly. “If you two lovebirds have finished, I could do with that beer. My mouth’s as dry as a Moorish tavern.”

Mal laughed and made the sign of the fig at him, then unbolted the door.

“Lock this behind me,” he told Coby. “And don’t let anyone in, except the landlord.”

He waited until he heard the bolts scrape back into their staples, then headed into town at a jog. If Sandy could get some useful intelligence out of Monkton and his men before Mal returned with the proctors, it would save them a lot of time. Time he feared they did not have.



By suppertime Kit was hungry as a hunter and exhausted from all the chores Master Fox had set them. Thankfully Sidney was too weary for once to complain, and Heron and Shrike ignored the two newcomers completely. No one said grace, nor were there prayers afterwards as there had been in the prince’s household. Kit wondered if this were some secret academy for Papists, like they had read about in history. But surely Papists prayed too, even if the words were wrong?

After supper Master Fox gathered the older boys around him.