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out and the screen came tumbling down and I saw the nightwing.'
'You saw the Duke?' Polchiek asked her.
She swivelled her head towards him. 'Yes, sir.'
'You saw nobody else?'
'Just the gentleman, sir,' she said, looking back to the Doctor. 'In his
shirt. He had his hand up here.' She shrugged on one side only, and looked
down to her left at the top of her chest near her shoulder. 'He was crying out
that he'd been murdered.'
'The door behind him,' Adlain said. 'There, behind where the screen was. Was
the door open?'
'No, sir.'
'You are sure.'
'Yes, sir.'
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Quettil leaned towards the King. 'My man Ralinge will make sure this is the
truth,' he murmured. The Doctor heard this and glared at the Duke. The King
only frowned.
'Is the door locked?' Adlain asked Polchiek.
Polchiek frowned. 'It should be,' he said, 'and the key should be in the
lock.' He crossed the room to the door, found that there was no key, looked to
the floor for a few moments, then pulled and pushed at the door.. He felt
inside a fat pouch at his waist, pulled out a ring bristling with long keys
and eventually found one which he tried in the door's lock.
The lock clicked, the door opened inwards and a couple of armed guards dressed
as servants looked quizzically in, straightening when they saw their
Commander, who spoke briefly to them and closed and locked the door again. He
returned to the group round the table. 'The guards have been there since a
little after the alarm was raised,' he told Adlain.
His big, clumsy-looking fingers fumbled with the ring of keys, trying to fit
it back into the pouch at his waist.
'How many keys to that door are there?' Adlain asked.
'This one, one for the palace seneschal and the one which ought to be in the
door, on this side,' Polchiek told him.
'Droythir, where was this dark bird you saw?' the Doctor asked.
'Where the gentleman was, ma'am.' Suddenly her face seemed to collapse and a
look of uncertainty and sadness wrote itself across her features. 'Perhaps it
was just a shadow, ma'am. The candle, and the screen falling.' She looked
down. 'A shadow,' she murmured to herself.
'Let the Duchess in,' the King said, as one of the guards dressed as a servant
approached
Quettil and muttered into his ear.
'The Duchess has fainted and been taken to her room, sir,' Quettil told the
King.
'However, I am told there is a young page who may have something to tell us.'
'Well then, bring him in,' the King said, sounding annoyed. Droythir and
Uoljeval were pulled back towards the centre of the room by those holding
them. The young man staggered to his feet, still weeping quietly. The girl
stared ahead, silent.
Feulecharo approached from the doors, looking smaller than I had ever seen him
look, his face almost translucent, his eyes bulging.
'Feulecharo?' Adlain said. He looked round the others. 'Page to the late
Duke,' he said by way of explanation to those who needed it.
Feulecharo cleared his throat. He looked nervously round us all, then saw the
Doctor and gave me a small smile. 'Your majesty,' he said, bowing to the King.
'Duke Quettil, sirs, madam. I know something  very little, but something  of
what happened here.'
'You do?' Quettil said, his eyes narrowing. The King shifted from one leg to
the other, winced, then nodded in appreciation as the Doctor brought up a
chair for him to sit in.
Feulecharo nodded towards the far corner of the room. 'I was in the corridor,
behind that door, sirs, earlier.'
'Doing what, might one ask?' Quettil said.
Feulecharo swallowed. He glanced at Droythir and Uoljeval, who had been
brought forward again to the side of the table, their arms still held behind
them. 'I had been asked by the Duchess to . . .' Feulecharo licked his lips.
'To follow the Duke and see what he was doing.'
'And you followed him here?' Adlain said. He knew Feulecharo a little, and
sounded purposeful but not unkind.
'Yes, sir. With the two young people.' Feulecharo glanced at Droythir and
Uoljeval, neither of whom responded. 'The Duchess thought perhaps there was
some arrangement between the young lady and the Duke. I watched them enter
this withdrawing room, and found my way to the corridor outside. I thought I
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might hear something, or see something through the keyhole, but it was
blocked.'
'By a key?' Adlain asked.
'I think not, sir. Rather by the little shutter on the far side. However,'
Feulecharo said, 'I [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]