Royale, he was the stellar. He was the money, too — they all knew that though he didn’t like it spoken about. Here, Poet followed Garnet around like he was some kind of stagehand. He acted aloof and casual, but his whole body snapped to attention when Garnet was talking to him. Well trained, Topaz reckoned.
The other coves who were Lords — the white-haired one and the Zafiran — stood there all growls and folded arms, acting tough.
Then there was Lady Livilla. Topaz couldn’t tell about her. She acted like a leading lady, silently swooning whenever Garnet graced her with a look, but there was something else there.
‘Your loyalty will be remembered,’ Garnet was saying now, all grand and puffed up with himself. ‘The past is forgotten. Let us move forward from this day. It is a new reign. A new time.’ He waved a hand at Livilla. ‘Clear my rooms for me. I’m home now.’
‘Where will my children sleep?’ she asked, making no move to obey him.
‘Oh, that’s another thing,’ said Garnet, in a very casual voice. ‘You have far too many courtesi, Livilla. It’s unseemly. I want you to give the children back to Poet.’
The Lady blinked. Topaz stared at her anxiously. Would Livilla give them up? Would he make her do it? The lambs had nowhere else to go, but Topaz was damned if she would let them be passed around like lost parcels.
‘No,’ Livilla said clearly.
Garnet hesitated only a moment, then gave her another of those mocking looks. Topaz didn’t like him at all. ‘You gave me an oath, Lord of Wolves.’
‘To serve you as Power and Majesty,’ she agreed. ‘But my courtesi are my own. I owe them allegiance and protection.’ Her voice faltered only on the word ‘protection’.
‘It’s unlike you to be so rebellious,’ said Garnet, as if she amused him. ‘It doesn’t matter. You can’t have a dozen courtesi. It’s not allowed.’
‘Who says?’ Livilla demanded, her voice rising. ‘Is it tradition? Is it written down somewhere? We thought women couldn’t be Kings and then along came Velody, proving us wrong.’
‘And look how that turned out,’ said Garnet.
Interesting. He was trying to keep his anger under control, but his neck had gone red and the flush was creeping up towards his face.
‘There’s a difference between saying women make bad Kings and women can’t be Kings at all,’ said Livilla firmly.
‘Is that what you want, Livilla?’ he mocked. ‘To be a King? Is that what this gaggle of street rats is all about — a grab for power?’
The Lady’s expression was gentle beneath her harsh cosmetick. ‘I can see how you might think so. The fact remains, there is no rule that says I have to give up the children.’
‘You will obey me!’ Garnet thundered. There was a power in his words that shook the floor of the Haymarket and made Topaz’s bones rattle in her chest.
Livilla took a deep breath. ‘No,’ she said. ‘Not this time.’
He shaped so fast, Topaz gasped and stepped back. It was like his body peeled into two, becoming a pair of large spotted cats with gleaming teeth, ready to pounce.
‘Topaz, now,’ Livilla said sharply, and Topaz could feel what her mistress wanted of her.
She shifted, too, letting her moist human body fall into tiny, tight, hot lizards, licking and spitting and spreading out between Livilla and the gattopardi.
Garnet’s eyes flashed, and she could practically feel the confidence rolling off him.
Topaz burst into flames. The fire burned along the skin of each of the lizards, a glorious warmth that tickled her down to her toes.
The gattopardi leaped back, keeping their distance from the flames. Topaz wanted to laugh. So much for the big scary Garnet. She could feel something else that she wanted, needed, to do and slowly shaped her small bodies back into one. She didn’t go human, though. Instead she was one large, powerful lizard, flames still running from the crest of her head to the tip of her tail as it whipped back and forth.
Livilla gasped and then started to laugh, a glorious sound of genuine surprise.
‘Garnet, dear, meet my salamander,’ she said happily. ‘I think we’ll be keeping our rooms above the Haymarket, don’t you?’
‘It’s not your fault,’ said Delphine to Macready.
A sweet lass she was, trying her best, but she had no idea. Kelpie was gone, wrapped up with that bastard Garnet, and of course it wasn’t his fault, it had been Kelpie’s choice every step of the way. It had.
But Macready couldn’t forget the