Ontogeny

Chapter 17a

"They're planning something," said Matron Darniss. "Something big."

They were in their usual box in the opera house. Mandeville was wearing a bright red cape over a yellow jumpsuit and had replaced his pink face powder with powder that was a bright, shining white. The result was that everyone in neighbouring boxes and in the stalls below were staring at them. The attention made Darniss feel rather nervous, but she understood the reason for it. She was being watched. Every member of the palace staff was being watched by agents of the Helberion intelligence services searching for the Carrow agent. She could see the man now, in the box three places to her left, from which he could see her and the stage by barely turning his head. He had to be wondering whether the man with her was connected with the Carrow spy agencies, but by dressing so extravagantly Mandeville was making himself look less suspicious. Surely, a spy would try to blend in, wouldn't he? Dress much the same as all the other patrons of the opera house? They watched him nonetheless, but without much suspicion.

"Yes, we got the letters you left for us. All the meetings of the War Council. I'm not sure there's much to worry about, though. They know war is coming. They're planning how they're going to resist the inevitable invasion."

Darniss looked doubtful, though, and shook her head. "There's an atmosphere in the palace,' she said. "Everyone's tense, wound up tight as a watch spring. It's coming from the King himself and his ministers, transmitting itself to everyone around them. I feel it myself. A feeling, as if everyone's holding their breath..."

Mandeville stared at her as she searched for the right words, but she'd never been good at expressing subtle concepts, at communicating the finer nuances of meaning. She shook her head in frustration. "The closest I can... I walked out with Minister Kier's undersecretary once. I thought he might be a good source of information. He was a heavy gambler, you see. I thought that he might get into debt, that we might be able to use that."

Mandeville nodded, signifying that he remembered.

"He wasn't, in the end. He knew nothing that would have been worth the risk and the effort, but that's not important. He took me to a gambling den once. He liked the wheel most of all. I watched him losing one spin after another, and then he got frustrated and put all the money he had left on one last spin. Over a thousand crowns. I remember him watching as the wheel turned and turned, as the ball bounced its way from one slot to the next, close to the one he'd put his money on, then away from it. I remember how tense he was. How he stared at the wheel, fixed all his attention on it. His whole body was shaking, quivering with nervous energy." She turned to stare at Mandeville. "That's how the King is at the moment. Just the same. As if he's put everything on some great gamble. The biggest gamble of his life."

Mandeville looked thoughtful as he considered her words. "Were you able to get any idea what sort of thing it might be?"

She shook her head. "Nothing definite. I've tried to find out what they're talking about in their war councils..."

"Don't take any risks!" he warned her though. "We can't afford to lose you."

She nodded. "Do you think there's any chance that they might be planning to attack us?"

"That would be suicide. The slightest provocative move would give us the excuse we need to invade them, without having to worry about reprisals from the Empire."

"But if they know they're going to lose the Empire's protection anyway, sooner or later..."

Mandeville sat there in silence for a long while before speaking again. "The bulk of Helberion's army us camped along the border with Carrow," he said, "but that means nothing. They'd need to be there whether they were attacking or defending. Most of Carrow's army is camped in four large garrison cities, though. They have to be. They can't deploy along the border without betraying their intentions to the Empire. That makes them potentially vulnerable, but Helberion simply doesn't have the military force to attack all four simultaneously, which they would have to do."