‘He stopped … he stopped ruling, I suppose. He lets no one enter the Palace for any serious matter, only if it be for one of the old rituals, and then only upon rare occasions. He will not hear his officers, he will not read letters or petitions, he will not sit in the Petty or the Greater Court, or sign or seal any document of state. He dismissed most of the Guard, keeping only two score, so that the city was left bereft of soldiery and order, till the Governor and the guilds stepped in. There was trouble with lawless folk, and the commoners who have ever caused trouble against the guilds, and the King to blame for it all! Now no one knows what is to come, for he does not abdicate, and Princess Tathiel is who knows where, and all must fall upon the shoulders of Governor Kilp and the High Guilds!’

‘I see,’ said Clariel. ‘I suppose this is also why Charter Magic is frowned upon now? Because the King is part of the Charter itself?’

‘Oh no, magic has been ever so unfashionable for years!’ exclaimed Valannie. ‘It is so tedious to learn, all that time memorising marks to make spells, and then if you get one wrong, your eyes might bulge out of your head or your hair catch on fire, or something even worse. Best left to those who have the time to waste on learning it all, I say!’

Clariel nodded. Valannie did not have the baptismal Charter mark, so she had no real idea of what she was talking about, though it was true that Charter Magic could twist against the wielder. But it fitted with what she had seen so far of the city, that if some difficult service could be bought instead of learned, that would be preferred.

‘And the Abhorsens?’ she asked. ‘They are seen as allies of the King who has caused such trouble to the city folk?’

Valannie looked up and shook her head.

‘No … the Abhorsens rarely come here, I doubt anyone thinks much of their connection with the King. I don’t want to speak ill of your relations, milady, though how your mother, the artist that she is, came to be born from … from …’

‘From what?’ asked Clariel curiously. Back in Estwael, though they did not often come up in conversation, the Abhorsens were held in high regard, as past defenders of the Kingdom against the Dead, Free Magic entities, necromancers and all manner of evils. Not that any of these things were considered current problems, nor likely to be in the future.

Valannie pursed her lips and tucked her chin in, before reluctantly speaking, almost out of the side of her mouth.

‘Well, just as Yarlow said in that ballad, they get rid of unwanted things, so they’re really rather like rat-catchers, or even night-rakers –’

‘Enough!’ snapped Clariel. ‘That is even more stupid than being too lazy to learn Charter Magic.’