Lord Devere had yet to disclose the name of his brother’s vessel to our captor, so it took Malory a bit longer to become aware that Ashlee and Mr Devere were now in the city. Coming on to evening, my lord and I were loaded into a boat and rowed to shore—after admiring the ancient city from the ship for many days, I was rather curious to take a closer look. ‘The Deveres are at the home of Mr Frinkulo Maximoff for the night,’ Malory’s spy informed him. ‘He’s a gypsy trader on the far side of Little Europe.’ We had already established that Lord Devere and myself were being taken along on the ambush as leverage, and I had a strong suspicion that our kidnapping was about to turn ugly. The streets of the city were still a hive of activity; the smells of spicy food and the sound of fevered music, played on exotic instruments, had me quite enchanted. I had a burning desire to get amongst the crowd and enjoy the carnival atmosphere, but had little chance of fulfilling my desire, surrounded by Malory’s knights as we were.
