The Outcast Blade by Jon Courtenay Grimwood Read Free Book Online Page A

closer, Alonzo said, “You knew what he was?”
    “A
krieghund
, my lord. A werebeast from the Teutenbourg forests. You told me the night I was given my instructions. But he fought hard and died well, and Lady Giulietta wouldn’t be here without him. My lord Atilo can bear witness.”
    “Do you know how my niece and he met?”
    “No, my lord,” Tycho said firmly. “I know nothing of that.”
    “And the brat…” Prince Alonzo’s voice had a studied neutrality. “To whom Leopold passed his lands and titles. Do you believe it is his? I’ve been told zum Friedland’s interests ran in other directions.”
    “Leopold claimed him.”
    “So I’m told. Does Giulietta claim it’s his?”
    Sweat beaded the Regent’s forehead where greying hair swept back in the old style. It was hot for mid-May and the man was drunk, but not enough to explain his scarlet face.
    “My lord…”
    “Answer me, damn it.”
    “You would need to ask her, my lord.”
    Outrage flooded the Regent’s features and he stood, whether to draw a dagger, stamp away or shout was unclear. But the truth was, Giulietta hadn’t named the father of her child.
I went to Leopold’s bed a maid
.
    She’d sworn those words in a chapel full of White Crucifers in Cyprus. And yet Leopold had asked Tycho if the child was his. And Giulietta claimed she was untouched still, the child cut from her by a Jewish surgeon. A riddle Tycho couldn’t begin to unravel. Since the child must have a father.
    “My lord, some things are best left unspoken.”
    Prince Alonzo sat down again. He sat, pulled his chair close to Tycho and draped one arm heavily around his shoulder. “So,” he said. “We get closer to the truth. She’s told you the child is not his?”
    “Prince Leopold told me.”
    The Regent froze. “He knew?”
    “We spoke of it only once. But Leopold knew.”
    “And my niece has never told you who the father…?”
    “As I said, my lord. Some things are best left unspoken.”
    Sitting back, the Regent clicked his fingers for the servant he’d dismissed earlier. She was young and full-figured, exactly the kind to attract Prince Alonzo’s attention, and for that Tycho was glad. Although, seeing the tightness in her eyes when the Regent wrapped his arm round her hips he felt sorry for the girl.
    “Perhaps I’ve misjudged you.”
    Alonzo was talking to Tycho obviously.
    Words had little to do with what he had planned for the girl.
    Understanding he was dismissed from his own seat, Tycho stood, bowed to the Regent and left. When he glanced back, the girl sat in Alonzo’s lap and everyone was pretending not to notice. Apart from Alexa, who looked rigid with fury.
    Her gaze nailed Tycho as he headed for the privies and fresh air outside. Apparently she held him responsible.

7
    When the servant girl reappeared next morning it was with the bowlegged gait usually found in Venetian boys newly introduced to the saddle. “Drink this,” a liveried messenger said.
    She stared at the liquid doubtfully.
    “Duchess’s orders.”
    From her vantage point Alexa discovered this did little to assuage the girl’s misery. Even three rooms away from her brother-in-law’s chambers Alexa had heard the yelps, whimpers and cries.
    She had a right to be miserable.
    Her messenger also gave the girl two gold ducats and told her to keep them hidden, five pieces of silver so people would know she’d been rewarded, and a handful of copper to buy passage to the mainland.
    There would be no child from Alonzo’s sport. With Marco, Alexa had a different problem altogether. It was not that Marco had to be restrained from bedding anything female.
    He could not be started.
    Sighing, Alexa watched the girl pocket the coins, unaware her action was observed through a spyhole. And then, that problemsolved, the duchess headed for her son’s chambers, already knowing what she’d find.
    Another girl untouched.
    No one had bothered to learn the name of last night’s offering. Infinite