Page 129 of Play of Shadows
With those words, my world vanished. My fellow actors, the crowds, the palace itself were gone, and in their place was the bloody battlefield of Mount Cruxia once more.
‘Let no man interfere!’ Prince Pierzi called out. For the first time I realised his voice was deeper than Monsegino’s, his jaw wider, his bearing more terrifying. ‘On pain of death and such accursed verdicts as the gods decree for those who betray the sanctity of the duel, let no blood be shed save ours, until the soil be consecrated by vengeance too long delayed.’
Corbier echoed the instruction to his own men, and the two armies, visibly shocked by this strange command, backed off, leaving the archduke and the prince facing each other in a circle some fifteen feet wide, the perimeter formed by the thousands of armoured soldiers.
‘You’re a fool to face me alone, Pierzi,’ I heard myself say. The taste of coppery blood filled my mouth where I’d bitten the inside of my cheek.
Corbier rebuked me for my fool’s eagerness. Pierzi was no amateur– for him to openly issue the challenge when he had so much more to lose than Corbier meant he was certain he could win.
The prince’s blade darted out, again and again, in mock feints as we circled each other. ‘There was a time when I won as many matches as you, Raphan.’
Corbier’s mother had named him Raphan, which meant ‘gentle spirit’, but that was before his eyes had changed colour and she’dforsaken him. No one but Ajelaine had been allowed to call him that ever since.
‘That was a long time ago,Nevino. We were only boys.’ I brought my rapier into line. ‘Although I recall warning you even then that fencing and duelling were entirely different pursuits.’
And with that, Corbier sent me leaping across the distance separating us from Pierzi. Such bold manoeuvres were dangerous– it was perilously easy to lose one’s footing– but Corbier had aimed carefully and the heels of his boots were finding purchase on the muddy ground even as the tip of his rapier drove for Pierzi’s heart.
‘Fast,’ the prince said as he stumbled back, barely batting the attacking blade out of the way. ‘You always were damned fast, Raphan.’
‘Stop calling me that!’ I shouted, fighting to contain Corbier’s rage. ‘Raphan is a boy’s name. It’s the name one friend calls another. And we, Pierzi, are bloodsworn enemies!’ I tried a feint, aiming low before flipping the tip of my rapier up high as I lunged, making another try for his heart.
‘Your one great flaw betrays you again,Raphan,’ Pierzi said as he caught the thrust on the forte of his rapier and turned it down in a semicircle. Bringing Corbier’s blade out of line allowed him to press forward, shoving me backwards. ‘For all your speed, you are predictable, always going for the same target.’
I could no longer hold back Corbier’s fury. ‘Would that I’d been faster and my aim truer, you black-hearted bastard, that I might have killed you before you slew those two sweet boys and the woman I loved!’
Pierzi drew back, creating distance between us again. ‘Me?But have you not heard the story circulating all across the city? My nobles claim it wasyouwho crept into my castle like a Dashini assassin, you who murdered those two innocents and the helpless woman who spurned your advances. The taleis spreading already, through every malodorous tavern and sumptuous salon, the gossips repeating it far and wide, while minstrels sing this truth far beyond our fair duchy.’
‘A lie—’
‘Indeed,’ Pierzi admitted, ‘and one of many! Lies are the grease that keeps the wheels of state turning, Raphan– that’s what you never understood, even when the shifting allegiances of our Houses first began tearing our friendship apart. This world is built upon lies. You and I, we stand upon pedestals raised for us by those same noble Houses who then set us against each other, while the poor souls beneath us bow and scrape and offer up whatever meagre wealth they might have– indeed, too often their very lives– for our comforts, and all because they believe the very same lies we have always been told: that some men are born to rule and others to serve. We may all be equal before the gods, but some of us are, shall we say, more equal than others.’
‘Don’t youeverspeak to me of the lives of common folk,’ I broke through. ‘You never cared for them any more than Corbier did!’
The prince eyed me quizzically. ‘You speak of yourself in the third person now, Raphan? Is it another’s spirit who guides your hand? Shall we call this ghost the Red-Eyed Raven, then?’
I ignored the jibe and began moving again, each circle fractionally smaller – slowly, almost imperceptibly, drawing closer to my opponent. It was a trick my grandmother had taught me, one easy for even experienced duellists to miss.
‘You could have ruled unfettered, Pierzi. You could have had Corbier’s lands, his titles, whatever your foul greed demanded. All he wanted was Ajelaine.’
‘It wasn’tmygreed demanding anything,’ Pierzi said, dropping his voice almost as if he didn’t want anyone else to hear Corbier’s words.
He said something else then, so quietly that I reflexively leanedin closer to hear, and in so doing fell into a trap the rankest amateur would have seen coming. Pierzi leaped upon me, his sword arm high with the point aimed low so the force of his weight would drive it right through Corbier’s chest.
I twisted out of the way, but the price of survival was losing my balance on the muddy ground. Unable to parry, I could only knock the thrust aside with the knuckle-bow of my rapier’s guard. Pierzi, anticipating the move, caught hold of my wrist, preventing me from regaining control of my weapon, which left me with no choice but to grab Pierzi’s forearm in turn, and suddenly the two of us were caught in acorpa-té-corza, each sword hand trapped in the other’s grip.
‘Listen to me, you fool!’ Pierzi whispered, his face just inches away. ‘Nothingis what you believe.’
I was so taken aback I nearly lost control of Pierzi’s sword arm. ‘Tricks and deceptions– that was always what you were about, wasn’t it, o Prince?’
‘Aye, you blistering idiot: tricks and deception– that’sexactlywhat I’m trying to tell you!’
Suddenly I found myself looking not through Corbier’s blood-red eyes, but my own, and not at Pierzi but into the face of Duke Monsegino. From the shock on the duke’s face, he too had no idea what was happening.
‘Where are we?’ Pierzi whispered.
It was Corbier who replied, ‘Another place, Nevino– another time, inside minds and bodies not our own. We are but memories here.’
I was about to take advantage of Pierzi’s inexperience at finding himself in a different, weaker body, but Corbier held me back.
