The Goldsmith guards marched around and drew themselves up in formation, four ranks deep. There were forty of them all together, Clariel noted, which seemed like a lot of guards for only three people. There was a certain tension among them too, she saw, as if something more than ceremonial escorting might be required.

There were half a dozen Royal Guards present too, on the bridge that ran over the narrow but very deep moat before the gatehouse. In fact it looked like not so much a simple moat but a dark crevasse that might go all the way down through the hill to sea level. The guards wore the same long hauberks of gethre plates as Captain Gullaine, with red-and-gold surcoats and blackened steel helmets. They held poleaxes and had swords at their belts. Clariel noticed another ten or so above on the walls, looking down. These had short bows like the Borderers used, holding them strung and ready, but without arrows nocked. There were more still behind the portcullis at the end of the bridge, in the arched entryway to the gatehouse. Clariel also noted the portcullis was halfway down, sitting just above the level of the guards’ heads, so it could be quickly dropped.

All of which added up to a high level of suspicion on the part of … well, it had to be Captain Gullaine since the King was supposed not to take an interest in anything … Clariel wondered again about the number of Goldsmith guards they’d brought.

‘You go ahead, Clariel,’ said Jaciel, as she alighted from the palanquin with imperious ease. ‘Your father and I will follow. Where is your gift?’

Clariel looked around for the bearers who were supposed to be carrying the gold-rimmed bowl with its bright fish. After all the effort to get the fish, she’d forgotten to check that they had joined the procession and had a moment’s panic, assuaged when she saw the two men behind the palanquin with the bowl – wrapped in a cloth of gold to hide its contents – suspended under two stretcher poles, as if it were a palanquin itself.

‘Bring the bowl over, please,’ Clariel called out, waving to the bearers. ‘Take it to the guards … Oh, here they come.’

Gullaine – or Gully, as Clariel now tried to think of her, at the Captain’s request – had told her that no one would be allowed to enter the Palace proper, save for herself and her parents. Royal Guards would take the gift and convey it inside for the presentation. Everyone else would have to wait by the gatehouse until they came back out.