The Cardinal's Blades (41 page)

Night had fallen when La Fargue returned to the Hôtel de l’Épervier that evening.

He led his horse to the stable, unsaddled it, and carefully rubbed it down, then crossed the courtyard to the main building. The sound of laughter, snatches of song, and joyful conversations reached his ears as he went up the front steps. He smiled, entered, and, from the shadows in the front hall, watched the spectacle that presented itself to him through a wide-open doorway.

The Blades were gathered around a meal that wine and enjoyment had prolonged. They were all there. Ballardieu and Marciac were standing on chairs and singing off key. Agnès, radiant, was laughing. Leprat was clapping his hands and joining in on the chorus. And even the austere Almades could not help laughing at the clowning of the first two. The Gascon was playing at being drunk with only a little effort. Sweet Naïs was serving without losing the least bit of their performance. Delighted, old Guibot tapped out the rhythm with his wooden leg.

Ô charmante bouteille!

Pourquoi renfermes-tu

Dans un osier tordu

Ta liqueur sans pareille?

Pourquoi nous caches-tu

Sous tes sombres habits

Ton ambre et tes rubis?

Pour contenter la vue,

Ainsi que le gosier,

Dépouille ton osier,

Montre-toi toute nue.

Et ne nous cache plus

Sous tes sombres habits

Ton ambre et tes rubis.

They seemed happy and La Fargue envied their joy, their carefree attitude, and their youth. He could have been the father of most of them and, in a certain sense, he was.

Or he had been.

In former times, he would have joined in. And he was hesitating over whether or not to do so now when Naïs, in order to pass by, shut the door and left the tired old captain plunged in darkness

He preferred to go to his room without being seen or heard.

Once there, far from the noise and the warmth of the party below, he stretched out, still fully dressed, on his bed, crossed his fingers beneath the back of his neck, and waited, eyes wide open but staring blankly ahead.

Soon the Saint-Germain abbey bell tower tolled midnight.

Then La Fargue got up.

From a small casket, whose key he always kept on his person, he took out a precious silver mirror that he placed before him on a table.

In a meditative pose, with lowered eyelids, he quietly recited a ritual formula in an ancient, dread, and almost forgotten tongue. The mirror which at first sent back nothing but his own reflection responded to the call. Its surface rippled and, slowly, as if emerging from a layer of living mercury, appeared the slightly translucent head of a white dragon with red eyes.

“Good evening, master,” said La Fargue.

Ballardieu and Marciac’s song

Oh charming bottle!

Why do you enclose

In twisted wicker

Your peerless liqueur?

Why do you hide from us

Beneath your dark apparel

Your amber and your rubies?

To satisfy the eye,

As well as the throat,

Shed thy wicker

And bare yourself

No longer hide from us

Beneath your dark apparel

Your amber and your rubies.

Pierre Pevel, born in 1968, is one of the foremost writers of French fantasy today. The author of seven novels, he was awarded the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire in 2002 and the Prix Imiginales in 2005, both for best novel.

Published 2010 by Pyr
®
, an imprint of Prometheus Books

The Cardinal’s Blades
. Original text copyright © Pierre Pevel/Editions Bragelonne 2007. English translation copyright © Tom Clegg/Editions Bragelonne 2009. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the Internet or a Web site without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Cover illustration © Jon Sullivan.

The right of Pierre Pevel to be identified as the author of this work and of Tom Clegg to be identified as the translator of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pevel, Pierre, 1968–

[Lames du cardinal. English]

The cardinal’s blades / by Pierre Pevel.

p. cm.

Originally published: London : Gollancz, 2009.

ISBN 978–1–61614–245–2 (pbk.)

ISBN 978–1–61614–295–7 (eBook)

1. Richelieu, Armand Jean du Plessis, duc de, 1585–1642—Fiction. 2. France—History—Louis XIII, 1610–1643—Fiction. I. Title.

PQ2716.E94L3613 2010

843'.92—dc22

      
2010024775

Manufactured in the United States

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