Ten Little Wizards: A Lord Darcy Novel by Michael Kurland, Randall Garrett Page B

intent. It could be that a Polish agent would be so free of evil intent in his own mind, even while committing murder, that no evil intent would be projected.”
    “What do you think, Lord Darcy?” Duke Richard asked.
    “I wish I could say,” Lord Darcy replied. “I can’t see any relationship at the moment, but we know so little about the threat, and so little about the murder, that I dare not even venture a guess. In either case we cannot relax our vigilance. I confess that I don’t know which would be more worrying news: that we were involved with a single assassin who has killed Master Raimun as part of some obscure plot to get His Majesty, or that we have both a killer and an assassin on our hands simultaneously.”
    Duke Richard stood up, the impassive expression on his finely chiseled face almost concealing the deep worry beneath. “I have spoken to my brother about this,” he said. “His Majesty bade me inform you that he knows that the safety of the realm could not be in better hands. I will now leave this to you. Please keep me informed. You have carte blanche on the goods, the treasury, and the personnel of the Duchy.”
    The others stood as His Royal Highness of Normandy left the room by the side door.
    “Ha, hum,” Coronel Lord Waybusch said as they all seated themselves. “Carte blanche, eh? Would that I could think of something useful to spend it on. Guards we have, as many as we can find places to put them. Beyond that I’ll be damned if I know what we could or should do. You can’t fight an enemy that isn’t there. As far as the murder goes, that’s in Lord Darcy’s and Master Sean’s capable hands; and I, for one, am damned happy to leave it there. If it can be solved, they will solve it. As far as the threat to His Majesty’s life goes, that’s all it is so far—a threat. With nothing tangible to sink our teeth into, there isn’t much my people can do.”
    “We appreciate your confidence, Coronel,” Lord Darcy said. “Master Sean and I will do our best to earn it.”
    The Archbishop nodded. “Even if it should turn out that poor Master Raimun’s death has nothing to do with the plot against our King, we must not let it get lost. He was a good and worthy man; and even were he not, we must not allow any person to measure the worth of another’s life by ending it.”
    “For the death of any one diminishes us all,’” Lord Darcy quoted.
    “Indeed,” Archbishop Maximilian said. “Saint Simon spoke an eternal truth.”
    “It is the second time today that I have thought of that quote,” Lord Darcy said.
    Marquis Sherrinford coughed. “Let us not get too far afield in this discussion,” he said. “We have two paramount duties before us; first, to protect the King, and second, to solve a dastardly murder. But no matter how dastardly the murder, the duty of protecting His Majesty must come first. Both because he is the King, and because he is alive. Our duty must be toward the living, when it comes in conflict with what we owe the dead.”
    “That is so,” Lord Darcy agreed. “But we are not sure there is a conflict. It may be that it is to the interest of the living that we examine this violent and unexpected death. I have sworn an oath, as have we all, to defend and protect King John, and I intend to live up to that oath. But I have also a duty to investigate unnatural death. The fabric of society is not so tightly raveled that a cut thread does not threaten the pattern. And an unsolved murder is a cut thread which must be tied off.”
    “I did not mean to suggest otherwise, my lord,” Marquis Sherrinford said. “Although I might not have put it so, ah, eloquently.”
    “What are we doing now?” Coronel Lord Waybusch asked. “I mean, aside from myself and my men. What steps are we taking to find out how serious this threat to His Majesty is?”
    Marquis Sherrinford turned to Lord Peter Whiss. “I think, Q, that you had better answer that.”
    “I would that I had a