Retribution

A Quiet Tavern

We waited in a quiet tavern on the edges of the docks. It was a stone building with a huge open fire at the centre. Several rooms sprawled out from it, some with discreet antechambers and rooms barely bigger than a cupboard. If ever there was to be a surreptitious meeting between agents, this would be the ideal place, and I speculated on the kind of conversations taking place around us.

Save for the curious antiquated maritime trinkets plastered across one of the walls, the place was not all that interesting. There were no fine frescos. The food appeared to be hearty, if a little simple, but it was enough to please Leana and myself. Though I was not so sure the princess felt the same. We took a table in an alcove while we waited for the sun to set, casually watching the tavern gradually fill up with customers who had finished a day’s work. The odour of fish, dirt and sweat soon became heady.

Whoever had been tracking us previously, assuming they were unrelated to the incident with the arrow, appeared to have left us alone. During the day there had been no one following us, no uneasy glances from the shadows. Since no one in here was eyeing us up, at last we could relax. My aches from the morning had eased considerably, making my recovery very nearly complete, and I speculated again whether or not the ring had strange properties.

A young boy brought over our food and we tucked in. My fish-based broth wasn’t going to possess any magical healing powers, but I ate eagerly nonetheless.

‘Have you ever eaten in a place like this?’ Leana asked Nambu, who looked distinctly uncomfortable. The young girl was pushing food around her metal plate and she sniffed every morsel, uncertain of its safety — or perhaps unsure of what it was meant to be. No doubt this was a change from the usual sumptuous meals served in the palace.

‘If I am honest, no,’ Nambu muttered, putting down her fork and instead seeming more interested in the people coming into the tavern.

‘Relax,’ Leana said. ‘You will be fine. These are honest people. They are not here to bother you. They wish to eat and drink after a day of labour.’

‘I know, it’s just. . I eat a lot of my sit-down meals in private, with the exception of banquets.’

‘Then welcome to the rest of the world.’ Continuing in a soft tone, I said, ‘Imagine what it is like for the others — many of them will have to go home to crowded houses, sleeping four to a room and having to urinate in a bucket. This is luxury to them. Now, you should probably eat your food. We cannot have your mother accusing us of starving you.’

Nambu began to eat and soon began to devour the rest.

After a while I asked her, ‘Nambu, you can trust the two of us now, can’t you?’

‘I believe I can, yes,’ she replied. ‘So much as anyone can be trusted.’

A cryptic answer for one so young. It sounded like words inherited from her mother. ‘Tell me, truthfully. Why does the queen want you out of the palace?’

‘She wants me protected,’ Nambu stressed. ‘There was an attack on me. She wants me safe.’

‘That’s only part of it,’ I replied. ‘She could have you protected in any number of ways. She could lock you up. She could surround you by guards.’

‘She’s already done that before and that did not exactly work out too well.’

‘Well,’ I continued, ‘she’s hoping we outsiders will take you out of the royal court. Out of your usual routines. Why would she do that? Why would she want someone she hardly knows — though admittedly someone she can trust — to look after you, to keep you away from the court, to take you from her side?’

Nambu shrugged. ‘We don’t especially get on.’

‘Rare are the youth and parent who do. Why else?’

‘So she can carry on with her lovers.’

‘She has a room for that. By Polla, we’re living in those quarters now. Why else?’

‘Her paranoia? I don’t know. Maybe she’s practising wrestling for the Kotonese Games.’

Smiling, I shook my head and leaned forward, taking a chunk of bread and dipping it in my soup. After I’d finished my mouthful, I continued. ‘She’s worried someone’s likely to get to you, but from the court — someone within her inner circle. That’s why she wants us — outsiders — to keep you out of there. She doesn’t mind, after all, that we take you to some of the more questionable parts of the city, which are hardly the safest places in the world. So, who could she want to keep you away from?’

Nambu remained engrossed in her food. ‘I know only a fraction of what she gets up to.’

‘Are you worried?’

She regarded me with her bold blue eyes. ‘Why should I be?’

‘I guess you really aren’t worried then.’

‘Besides,’ she continued, ‘Leana has taught me the basics of swordplay. I will soon be able to defend myself.’

Maybe Nambu didn’t even know herself why her mother would want her out of the way. From what little I’d seen of their relationship, it looked to me as if there was a strong bond between mother and daughter — if a little stiff and formal. So I didn’t think it was merely out of spite, or simply wanting to keep her away, that Nambu had been placed with us.

I sat back casually, placing my arm around the chair next to me. ‘Depending on how things go tonight, tomorrow I think it’ll help us all if we split up to cover more ground. Since I’ve been out of action for a couple of days, I need you both to help me speed up this investigation. I’d like you two to visit Grendor’s friends — the ones he was dining with on the night of his murder. Sulma Tan has provided their names.’

‘And if they will not speak to me?’ Leana said. ‘You know how people can be.’

Nambu appeared confused, but I knew perfectly well what Leana meant: that they would not speak to her because of the dark hue of her skin, or for being a woman, or because she did not possess a certain rank in their society. ‘I’m sure friends of Grendor will oblige if you show them something bearing the queen’s seal. Here.’ I reached into my pocket and handed over royal parchment, which featured a raised stag set within a crown.

‘Ah, I see,’ Leana replied, accepting the note. ‘Though, spirits save me, I am not good at the questioning. That is your job.’

‘You’ve coped all right before,’ I replied.

‘I am too quick to use the blade.’

‘Then use it if you need to — just try not to kill anyone.’

‘How many times have I heard you say that?’

‘How many times have you ignored me?’ I replied.

Leana lifted a heavy boot onto a stool and set about readjusting the laces. ‘What will you want us to ask?’

‘We need to know what was discussed, what he was like on the night, what he was shipping, anything notable he said. Ask them about his dealings with Naval Exports. See if you can establish links between Grendor and the other two victims. Find out more about Grendor’s time in the navy, even. Perhaps the key to solving this mystery doesn’t so much lie in the present as in the past.’

‘Yet, if they had done something bad in the past,’ Leana said, ‘neither Grendor nor this bishop behaved in a way that said they were keeping themselves hidden from society. Trying to keep their heads down. The bishop was out in front of people all the time. Grendor as well — he kept himself busy running his business. He was not shy.’

‘He was in the court often,’ Nambu added. ‘If he was trying to hide, that doesn’t seem a good place to be.’

I let out a long breath as our conversation petered out. This was going to prove a complicated case. It struck me that our chances of knowing what was going on would be enhanced with each new body — but how many more would there be before we came close? Was it even possible to prevent more people from dying, given that we had no idea who would be next? I tried again to find patterns and similarities, other than the method of death.

‘Grendor most likely was the one responsible for bringing the gemstone — which was found on the bishop, and a type of stone that he owned himself — into the country. It was a rare stone and well guarded upon entry.’

‘If they knew each other,’ Leana declared. ‘They might have people trading between them.’

‘This is not to say that Grendor and the bishop knew each other,’ I replied, ‘but that it is possible they met in some way to trade the stone. Grendor also worked with Lydia Marinus, in dealing with her salt business.’

‘They were all of a similar age,’ Leana said. ‘Late fifties, early sixties.’

‘If they had done something together in the past, how far back do we have to go? And what does any of this have to do with the mysterious stone in the present?’

I dipped another chunk of bread into my soup, half-heartedly listening to the local chatter to gauge the mood of the city. People spoke of work, mainly; of the weather or a particular haul of fish. Only one person muttered about the murders in the other prefecture, and it was wildly exaggerated.

Leana interrupted my train of thought. ‘What will you be doing while we speak to Grendor’s friends?’

Finishing my mouthful, I considered my answer. ‘I need to look into the affairs of Lydia Marinus. Of the three victims so far, her case seems more unusual, given that she spent a lot of her time outside the city. For the reasons we’ve just discussed, her past intrigues me. We might have to head out into the country to see her other residence, but I believe she had a city dwelling, which I’ll visit first and see if I can discover more about where her body was found, how far from her house it was, what the place is like, and so on. I’d also like to look into her business affairs, and to find out what she owned other than mining operations.’

Mining operations. While I had been largely thinking about mining in terms of her salt mines, only then did it strike me that precious stones also had to be dug up from the earth. The stone that the bishop wore on his ring would have come from a mine. Lydia Marinus owned a huge mining operation, but was it limited to just salt? Even if it was, then she would at least have the know-how to deal with a similar operation.

Grendor shipped to and from mines, and also — potentially — transported the rare stone in question. Those were the connections so far, even though they were rather tenuous.

‘And I suppose,’ Leana added, ‘there is also the hope that tonight’s raid will yield something.’

‘There is always hope,’ I replied.