Retribution

A Ring

It was time to make an unannounced visit to the former bishop’s temple.

It took Leana and me, still largely unfamiliar with these streets, a good hour to locate the right way. We must have doubled back on ourselves twice, losing ourselves amidst the unrecognizable buildings and strange lanes, pausing to reflect upon examples of unique architecture or compelling faces among the crowds.

Priest Damsak, enveloped by a thick crimson cloak, was standing at the top of the steps of the temple. He was speaking quietly with two refined ladies, each of whom was carrying a basket of food, presumably offerings for the temple.

Distracted by our presence, he soon walked over to us with a calm demeanour and a soft gaze. ‘Greetings to both of you. How can I be of assistance today?’

It wasn’t easy to tell if his warmth was staged to hide his discomfort, or if he was being genuine. ‘We’re here to inspect the bishop’s room more thoroughly.’

‘Of course, as you wish.’ He guided us through the temple, past those who knelt before the bronze statues of Astran and Nastra, to the rooms at the back of the building. Sunlight flooded in directly through the doors behind, extending our own shadows in front of us.

‘It would be better if you attended to any other duties you have,’ I said as we reached the door to the bishop’s room. ‘We will be some time and I’m sure you have so much to do. We’ll come and find you when we’ve finished.’

‘Please call if I can be of service.’ He maintained the same expression that couldn’t be read, and then closed the door behind him.

‘What do you hope to find this time?’ Leana asked. ‘We know there’s nothing here.’

‘I’m not sure,’ I said. ‘There must be something that can connect the bishop to Grendor. Now there are two bodies, we need to find that connection. We need to check for every loose floorboard or brick. There’s a pretty good chance that Grendor and Tahn Valin had something in common, so that might well be here. Perhaps there’s a piece of paper with the name of a boat belonging to Grendor. That’s the kind of connection we’re looking for. There must be something.’

The room remained exactly as we had left it from our last visit — there was just a bed, a table and a few basic necessities. Not even the books on the bedside shelf had changed their position.

On hands and knees we pulled back the rug and tested for any loose floor tiles. Leana tapped each individual tile with the hilt of her blade, yet they all possessed the same resonance. For some time we examined the grey stone blocks that made up the walls, testing every one high and low, but again we found nothing.

The room was sound. The bishop had not hidden anything.

‘We should be honest,’ Leana muttered, ‘there is nothing here. The priest was a pure and simple man.’

‘We’re not done yet,’ I replied. ‘Try the books again, there might be some code or a note within them.’

The books were all pure and immaculate tomes of religious scripture and advice, each one beautiful with charming ink drawings and elegant calligraphy. We turned every page of every enormous leather-bound volume to make sure there was no hidden document, nothing concealed, no messages inscribed, but there was nothing. The bishop obviously treated his books with respect, too, for they were in splendid condition.

Leana gently kicked the leg of the bed. ‘Help me move this.’

We dragged the bed out from against the wall, and investigated the stonework around it, but again there was nothing to suggest anything had been hidden.

Then we pulled back the sheets of the bed and lifted up a straw-cushioned layer resting on top of the wooden frame. Leana took her blade and slashed through the material, emptying out the straw on the floor.

I heard a muffled clunk on the stone.

‘Wait.’ Leaning over I began to part the mess of straw.

Right in the centre of the pile was a small square envelope, which looked as if it contained something bulky. Leana reached in to grab it and as we stood up she opened the envelope.

‘What is it?’ I asked.

After scrutinizing it for just a moment, she eventually shrugged and handed it over. ‘See for yourself.’

Inside was an exquisite silver ring set with a vibrant red gemstone. I couldn’t work out what the stone was — it was too light and almost too imperfect to be a ruby, with a strange translucency. A white mineral vein could be discerned faintly within it, like a bolt of lightning in a crimson sky. Whatever this gemstone was, it had been cut square into the size of a small thumbnail and set with remarkable skill in a four-claw setting.

‘For a simple man who doesn’t do trinkets,’ I muttered, ‘I’d say this was something unusual.’

‘Why keep it hidden?’ Leana asked. ‘Surely rings are for wearing.’

‘Clearly this was not meant to be seen by anyone. Whether or not that’s because of some arcane rules within the temple that forbade decoration, or he was enforcing this secrecy himself, remains to be seen.’

‘Remember the bangle on the remains of his wrist?’ Leana said. ‘They allow some ornamentation.’

‘Then perhaps this was a personal gift,’ I replied. ‘A token from a loved one.’

‘He went to some lengths to conceal a gift.’

Leana was right. This had been deliberately kept secure. The bishop did not want it found. There were no discernible markings on the ring, nothing to suggest the name of the jeweller in question. The envelope itself was heavily worn.

‘Any idea what this stone is?’ I asked.

Leana held the ring up to the light of the window, then quickly handed it back to me. ‘It is ugly, but I cannot speak of its quality. But then I make a point of not being familiar with trinkets. These precious stones cannot follow us through when we become spirits.’

‘Quite. Well, we’ll just have to find an expert in the city,’ I said. ‘This is the most interesting development so far — it could be important.’

Damsak knocked on the door and called through to see how we were getting on, and it was only then that I realized just how long we had been there. I invited him in to join us.

‘Have you found anything to help?’ he asked.

‘We may well have.’ Showing him the ring, I kept a close eye on his expression as I revealed where it was found. He came across as particularly disappointed that Bishop Tahn Valin could keep such an item hidden there.

‘Look at my fingers, Officer Drakenfeld,’ he snapped. ‘Do you see a ring?’

I admitted I didn’t.

‘Exactly. We do not wear unofficial ornamentation — especially ornamentation that does not display any of our symbols, or is devoid of the markings of Astran and Nastra. Only simple pieces that are to display our rank. This is a personal trinket and we disapprove of such things.’

‘I’d say that the bishop knew all too well that you don’t wear such things either, which is why he was hiding it under his mattress. To keep it from people like you.’

‘But it makes no sense.’ The priest ran a hand through his thinning hair. ‘This is against his entire character. I never saw the bishop wearing anything like this. He was a man of simple tastes. And, for example, he even became angry when people wore fine, bright silks and jewellery in our temple. He would often make remarks to me afterwards. He himself did not like such things, you see, as it distracted from our glorious gods. All he ever wanted was to serve our gods for as long as he could.’

‘We’ll look into the matter further, rest assured,’ I said, placing the ring back in its envelope and firmly in my pocket, ‘and we’ll return with an answer soon enough. I suppose it’s pointless asking you where we might find a jeweller?’

The look on the priest’s face told me it was.

We stepped outside into the muggy warmth. Two fragrant censers had been lit and were chained up on the columns either side of us, the smoke wafting gently down the street. We went down a street to where the lanes opened out in many directions and I stood there wondering where we should go next.

As if reading my thoughts, Leana said, ‘We could just ask someone where-’

Whoosh. . In a heartbeat I felt a rapid displacement of air followed by a thud in the door behind us. We turned to see an arrow buried deep in the wood, the white fletching still visibly vibrating, but in the same instant Leana shoved me down some steps and under an archway nearby.

The arrow was still visible from where we were, and it was angled down — it was a good thing Leana had reacted so quickly, as our assailant clearly had the advantage of height.

‘They might not be so unlucky with their next arrow,’ she snapped. ‘That went straight between us. We should wait here until they have moved on.’

‘Was that an accurate warning or an inaccurate attempt at killing us?’

‘Who can tell now?’

‘I wonder if it was the same person as the one spying on us from the rooftop yesterday afternoon?’

‘Let us look at that arrow and then we might know something more.’

We waited a few minutes before walking cautiously back up the steps to the temple. The crowds around us meandered on, seemingly oblivious to the arrow and our own furtive movements.

Leana removed a dagger from her boot and began to ease out the arrow from the wood. Meanwhile I examined our surroundings to see where the arrow would have been fired from. There were any number of rooftops, but following the line of the arrow’s assumed path, it led directly towards a large building about sixty feet away, at the end of the lane. A precarious grey-stone construct with timber beams. Washing strung up across the rooftop fluttered in the gentle breeze.

‘Here.’ Leana handed me the arrow. ‘It looks common enough. There is nothing remarkable about it — not even the craftsmanship is that good.’

‘If it’s cheap and mass produced, it might be one that the military use.’

Leana shrugged and pointed to the same building I’d been eyeing up. ‘You think it came from there.’

‘I do,’ I replied.

‘Then why are we still here?’