Retribution

On the Rooftop

We were standing in one of the city’s largest brothels.

It was a fact that surprised me somewhat. Throughout Detrata — and particularly in the city of Tryum — prostitutes of both sexes and of all sizes could be found calling out to potential clients as they walked by in the street. Sometimes the transaction was even shamelessly completed on the street itself. Even in far corners of Vispasia there were taverns or bordellos with not-so-subtle insignia outside to notify passers-by of what could be found inside.

But in Kuvash there seemed to be a peculiar absence of such things. It might have been yet another sign that the city was trying to keep up appearances. I assumed they preferred to keep things like the business of paid-for sex indoors, out of sight, though whether for religious reasons or some social policy dictated by the queen remained to be seen.

There were no signs at first on the inside to indicate the building was a brothel. It was only after an awkward conversation with an old lady in charge, who was called Charka, and noticing the stink of sweat mixed with sweet incense, that I realized where we had ended up.

A large woman with angry eyes, Charka wore a light-green, almost translucent dress and not much else. That was, other than an elaborate headdress that looked not unlike a crown. Queen of this compact domain, she clearly didn’t have time for anyone who was not here to pay for time with her young men and women. Which, of course, we were not. She sat there in her throne room, a red-tiled chamber with dark, minimalist frescoes of geometric patterns on the wall. Two men were slouching, potentially unconscious after ingesting Polla-knows what substance, against the far wall, a strip of sunlight across their faces.

I explained who we were and that we needed to get access to the top of the building. Our urgency didn’t seem to register with her, but eventually after listening to my incessant demands, and with reluctance, she gestured in the general direction that we needed to go.

‘Stairs are at the end, but you watch out for my girls!’ she shouted. ‘No one likes being interrupted at work.’

Each room was only separated by a thick red curtain, and it was difficult not to overhear the exertions of the clients. Occasionally a face caked in make-up would peer out to regard us and ask if we were after any business. All I could do was smile back awkwardly as we continued on our way along the dimly lit corridors.

Three floors later, we made it to the stairs and headed straight up them. After pushing back a heavy hatch we stepped out into the brightness of daylight and a gust of refreshing air.

The roof was more or less flat, with huge stone gutters lining the perimeter. The washing we’d seen from the ground was bed sheets that rippled like banners in the wind. Presumably these were sheets that had been used by the brothel, and if so then the brothel was of a far higher quality than I imagined. But it occurred to me how they would have provided excellent cover for someone wanting to attack us earlier — as well as concealing their presence at this moment. So we remained on guard as we stepped about, looking this way and that in between flickers of coloured cotton.

With no sign of our attacker, we walked towards the crude stone balustrade. There, I stared down and noticed how there was a direct line of sight from here to the door where the arrow had impacted.

‘This must have been the spot where the arrow was fired,’ I said. ‘There’s a great view. This is an excellent position from which to rid the world of two members of the Sun Chamber. Given the vantage point, it makes me think they were trying to kill us rather than send a warning.’

‘And yet we are not even close to solving the murders,’ Leana added. ‘So who could feel threatened?’

‘We could be closer than we thought.’

‘You are ever the optimist.’

Leana scanned around the surface of the rooftop for anything that may have been discarded by accident, something that might be a vital clue, while I decided to look for the escape route of our attacker. Given the size of the building, it was possible that they might not have come through the brothel but travelled over the rooftops. My suspicion was heightened as I saw other rooftops, each with some hatch that opened up to the level below. The attacker could have gone down any one of those to make their escape. They were probably long gone.

I strolled back to the balustrade where Leana was now standing, and for a moment we remained engaged in our own thoughts. The wind stirred. Birds skittered across the city. The outside walls of the prefecture were obvious at this height, and it was moving to see how the city was cut up into two large segments. Two cities, essentially. One for the rich, one for the poor, the hills in the distance belonging to everyone.

We had not been in the city all that long. On the assumption that someone wanted me dead, it was pretty obvious that whoever fired the arrow most likely did not approve of us investigating the two murders. That was the only reason I was here, after all. It was the only reason to have built up resentment.

Logically, it followed on that whoever released the arrow must then have known something about the killings. There was every chance they were involved in the crimes themselves and looking to stop me finding them.

Yet, that thought didn’t sit well with me — if they sought discretion in this macabre business, then they were certainly going the wrong way about it by leaving corpses in public places. There was also the other possibility that they didn’t want me to stop them because there were more people to kill.

I suggested this idea to Leana, who continued to stare across the city, the afternoon sun glowing warmly on her dark-brown face.

‘A possibility,’ she said. ‘We can tell very little at the moment.’

‘Come on, we’re not going to find much else up here.’

We went back downstairs and I managed to get a moment to talk with the delightful Charka. She was a little more accommodating now that she had a cup of wine in her hands and a bowl of almonds by her side, which were quite a luxury in any city. I asked her if she’d seen anyone strange pass through and she scowled at me.

‘Of course we get strange people passing through,’ she grunted, and scooped up another handful of nuts. ‘You will next be asking if people were behaving strangely! This is a brothel. We get everyone here, and most act strangely. We are Kuvash’s guilty pleasure. People do not want to be seen here.’

‘All right, let me rephrase that,’ I continued. ‘Have you seen anyone coming through here who did not seek the company of your staff?’

She spluttered a laugh and a gentle spray of wine came out of her mouth. ‘Is he for real?’ she asked Leana. ‘“Seek the company”, he says. People come here to fuck, all right?’

‘Oh really?’ I replied, ‘I had this down as a temple and mistook you for a saintly priestess of Polla.’

‘Who the hell’s Polla?’

‘Never mind, just tell me if anyone came through who wasn’t a customer and who went up on the roof.’

She shrugged. ‘Not while I’ve been here, which has been all morning. Only people interested in that roof are those on the third floor staring up at its underside while bad lovers work away at them.’

‘I doubt love is of any concern here,’ I muttered.

Charka spoke to Leana as if I wasn’t there. ‘He’s got a sense of humour after all.’