Speak to the Devil Read Online Free PDF Page B

you idiot! I’m serious. These things are all genuine: baldric, marshal’s baton … letters patent creating His Majesty’s ‘dear and right trusty’ Anton Magnus—that’s me, believe it!—Count Magnus of Cardice … Here’s His Majesty’s permission and requirement that I marry the daughter, Madlenka. So what do you think of that?”
    Wulf snapped the razor closed and laid it down. He wiped his face with his rag. All the while his golden, lupine eyes stared hard at Anton. He stepped over some dirty dishes so that he was standing close, looking down.
    “Just like the fairy tales? ‘. …gave him the princess’s hand in marriage and half the kingdom and they all lived happily ever after’? But nobody heard me Speak to my Voices? Pure coincidence. Happens all the time.”
    “All right!”
Anton roared. “So I cheated a little. What matters is that it worked! The king needs us! Zdenek needs us!”
    “You say ‘us’? What exactly do
we
have to do?”
    “We have to ride like the devil to Castle Gallant. I marry the girl, take command of the troops, clean out the traitors, and hold the fort in the king’s name.”
    “Ride like the devil?” Wulf repeated in a soft whisper. He took uphis shirt from the bed. “Why us? You swore an oath, Brother. The day the Dominicans took Marek away, Father made all of you swear on the hand of St. Ulric never to tell anyone that I could Speak too. You all swore not to reveal that secret by word or deed, by omission or commission. You pledged your immortal soul, Anton Magnus, Count Nothing.”
    “I have not revealed it, nor told anyone.” Anton realized that Wulf might well be building up to a fight. It was almost a year since they’d last had a roughhouse, and Wulf had won that one.
    The golden eyes did not blink and the voice stayed low, but that meant nothing. “So why did the Spider decide to send you, only you, of all the king’s men? He asked you because of what happened at the hunt on Friday. Did he tell you to take me along?”
    “No.”
    “Did you say you would?” Wulf said, tipping his head sideways.
    Anton squirmed. He rarely won arguments with his young brother, and it would be useless to threaten him. Straight orders had been working since they signed up in the hussars, and a sharp cuff to the ear used to, but none of those would serve this time.
    “Wulfgang, I am asking you very humbly to make an exception, just this once.”
    “No. You think I want to be locked up for the rest of my life? Or tortured? Burned at the—”
    Grovel time. “But this is the most incredible chance for all of us, Wulf! I get a wife rich enough to ransom Vlad. Otto won’t have to sell off any of the family lands. And you can have anything you have ever wanted, anything my wealth can buy. I swear! You can be my constable, or master of horse, or go to Vienna to study medicine, as you talked of last year. Or Padua, or Rome.”
    “Or a monastery cell with a bolt on the door. Or a dungeon with ropes and pulleys. No. I will not make another exception. I hold you to your oath, Anton Magnus. You can jump off cliffs alone from now on.”
    “You want to see those Wend bastards raping and pillaging across Jorgary?”
    “Go and find your princess and your castle,” Wulf said, even more softly. He straightened up and turned away. “I’m not stopping you. I’ll give you all the help I can, except not the sort of help you want.”
    “Get my boots,” Anton said, raising a leg. He needed time to think.
    Wulf pulled his boots off for him. Anton stood up as straight as he could under the roof and set to work on his buttons. Inspiration was elusive.
    “Well, I respect your decision,” he said.
    “You’ll have to. I’m not changing it.”
    “The cardinal will want to know why I’m reneging. Help me think up a good excuse without mentioning yourself, please? I obviously have no more need for this uniform, not after this. I won’t even get to keep the discharge, because they’ll