Retribution

A Sprawling Villa

Our horses, Kinder and Manthwe, were waiting for us in the palace courtyard courtesy of the farrier Sojun, who had since left the premises. Nambu had given the order for her own majestic white animal to be brought round and moments later Sulma Tan arrived on horseback with a dozen soldiers in the blue and black colours of the equestrian regiments, each one with a hunting bow strung across their shoulders and a quiver full of arrows at the waist. Four of Lydia Marinus’ own private guard arrived a moment later, their faces glum.

Leana leapt onto her horse without the use of stirrups or saddle. As if shamed by the fact that she had not been brought up in the same way, or wishing to emulate it herself, Nambu requested for her own equipment to be removed while I helped her up.

However, I was not to be intimidated by them and was more than happy to sit in a saddle. We had a six-hour ride ahead of us through this unfamiliar landscape and comfort would be very welcome.

Dawn had only just broken. In a pale, blue light we passed along the main thoroughfares to the gate of the prefecture. The few people who were around at this hour looked up curious as to what the fuss was about, but soon returned to their routines.

We exited and continued through the second prefecture at a fair pace, our noise preceding us and clearing the route out of the city. Nambu rode beside Leana, dressed plainly again in a brown tunic and black cloak, her hair tied back in a simple fashion.

The sun was still barely touching the hills, the buildings sparser, the road muddier, the road clearer, and with haste we rode through the country.

About an hour into our journey, I became alarmed.

Leana pointed them out: in the distance were three bright banners and a few hundred cavalrymen riding across the grassland. From here they seemed to trickle down the land like a mudslide, but the colours were of the Kotonese military — equestrian regiments and archers. Further beyond, just about visible, was another unit of soldiers — this time on foot, advancing far more slowly, but probably with no less determination. They were moving in a different direction to ours, but it was clear that they were headed towards the border with Detrata. All in all there must have been two thousand soldiers on the move. If it had been raining, we’d probably not have seen them. As it was, the clear skies allowed nothing to hide from view.

I moved my horse forward so that it was next to Sulma Tan. ‘What news from the border?’ I said, and gestured to the troop movements across the far slopes.

‘Our military is dispersed around the country,’ she replied. ‘Sometimes we have large-scale exercises in order to keep them well trained, and to show other nations that we are used to armed conflict.’

‘By other nations, I take it you mean Detrata?’

‘Yes.’

‘We are all fools when it comes to armed conflict within Vispasia,’ I said. ‘It is peace that has allowed all nations to flourish. A war will benefit no one.’

‘This is true,’ she replied. ‘But we are not the ones who are beating war drums. I am surprised that Detrata wishes to act like this, considering the queen has been heavily influenced by their art and science. But we have to defend our lands. They have been given to our people, and they will remain for our people.’

‘I can find out through my correspondence what is happening,’ I said, ‘but it will be quicker to ask you outright. What have you heard of Detrata’s movements and why are you moving so many soldiers?’

‘You are Detratan,’ she replied. ‘Is it fair to discuss this? You understand,’ she tilted her head to indicate the soldier riding alongside, ‘that I must ask such questions.’

‘I am an officer of the Sun Chamber,’ I snapped, rather zealously so the soldier would understand that she was doing me no favours. ‘My duty lies with Koton every bit as much as Detrata.’

‘Well, there is no harm in sharing what is becoming public knowledge, and which you would find out in due course.’

I indicated for her to go on, now that this pretence was over.

‘There are currently around fourteen thousand Detratan soldiers massing between two settlements a mere five miles from the border. Luckily we are a nation of few large cities, so there is nowhere within their reach at the moment. But an advancing army could very easily march across the border to be in such a position.’

‘Have they made threats?’

‘Yes, yes — there are siege engines in their ranks.’

‘And diplomacy?’

‘We have heard nothing. Ambassadors have been sent to Tryum in the past five days, but as yet we have heard nothing in response.’

‘Why did you not say anything sooner?’

‘You didn’t ask,’ she replied. ‘And besides, I did not realize it was in your power to do anything. Presumably this is business of the Sun Chamber and you have people already looking into this. Astran knows, we have sent enough messages to Free State.’

‘Then I am sure the matter is in hand.’

I did not fully believe my own words. Tensions between states had been known in the past, of course, and those had been settled in a court made up of a magistrate and senior clerics from all Vispasian nations.

But these tensions were usually because of smaller matters such as trading disputes, unfair revenue redistribution and occasionally localized violence over something like the death of an ambassador. I was not wholly convinced the Sun Chamber had ever addressed the issue of such a threatening military formation on this scale. The Sun Legion was tens of thousands strong, of course, and was occasionally used to protect the peace — but those thousands were distributed across Vispasia and would take some time to bring together and make the fourteen thousand troops think again.

Lydia Marinus’ estate was about a mile long according to the map and contained a walled villa, large gardens and long rectangular lakes, tombs, statues, a theatre and grottos. At the centre was a large square residence, around a hundred yards long on all sides and designed in the best Vispasian architecture of the Old Detratan Empire. The main site was tucked into the bottom of a gentle valley surrounded by poplars on one side, and what looked like farmland on the other. A few people could be seen moving between the buildings. Two members of her private guard were out stalking the perimeter and already two riders were on their way up the hill to greet us and see what we wanted.

Presumably such a settlement did not stand still immediately when the owner died. I’d known servants to continue working long after their employer’s death, until the money had run out. Gardens still needed maintaining. Stone floors still needed cleaning. And here, farmland still needed tending to.

It occurred to me that, confronted with so many private soldiers, no murderer would seriously think they would be able to kill Lydia Marinus here. No, it would be far easier to lure Lydia away before killing her, which is exactly what they had done. Instead, a messenger breached these defences on someone else’s behalf.

‘Lydia did not build it herself,’ Sulma Tan said. ‘This site is four hundred years old and used to belong to one of the old Detratan kings. She restored everything to its former glory.’

‘This seems fit for royal habitation,’ I declared. ‘It’s breathtaking.’

‘And yet it is of no use to her now she is dead,’ Leana muttered.

‘Very true,’ I replied.

The two riders coming to meet us were dressed identically to those from Lydia’s private guard who were with us — in a dark, decorative leather breastplate, blue tunic and long green cloak.

Santhan Brak, the man I had spoken to at Lydia’s house in Kuvash, nudged his horse forward and began a terse conversation with them, while I regarded the villa. At first I thought it would have been a breathtaking place to live, to be able to walk among the pools and statues, smelling herbs from the gardens, being away from the hubbub.

Living here, I thought, I would always speculate at the number of places an assassin could hide. But she did have her own guard to protect her. In fact, on closer inspection, there were stables and an area that looked like a barracks of sorts. At least another four of these guard were walking across a courtyard. There were more military personnel milling about behind the gardens. Some were sprawling on benches, their swords no longer fixed to their waists.

Yes, it was a safe place. It was a haven. The reasons for staying away from the city were obvious, but. . why abandon this? She had essentially run away from her own guard, and from the safety of her property. Surely, if it had been a business meeting of some importance, she could have arranged for it to have taken place here? What could have been so serious to make her leave on her own?

Santhan Brak had negotiated our way inside and, after a brief exchange of words with those who had come to meet us, we guided our horses down the track and towards the villa.

Everyone gathered in the main residential quarters of the villa. Standing in the atrium amid old-style frescos and glorious scenes of Detratan history, I felt as if I had suddenly been transported back to my old country. It was curious, though probably not an important point, that Lydia had opted to restore a villa that had links to Detrata, a country where we had both been born. It was possible she could never quite let go of her roots, that she never felt a full part of Kotonese society.

Standing on a small stool, to raise myself above the gathered ranks of guards, servants and soldiers, I cleared my throat, ready to issue the day’s orders.

‘Days ago Lydia Marinus was found dead not far from her home in Kuvash,’ I began. ‘Her body was covered in hundreds of wounds and she probably suffered in terrible pain before her throat was cut.’ I examined the glum faces, many of which visibly showed they were disturbed by the details. ‘She left this property without telling anyone. She took her horse and rode to the city alone. The next time she was seen, she was dead. My name is Officer Lucan Drakenfeld of the Sun Chamber, and I am overseeing the investigation into Lydia’s death. There have been other, similar murders that we suspect are connected to hers. Those people also died in a similar, grim manner. With the full cooperation of Santhan Brak, who many of you will know, I have brought with me a number of people from Kuvash and we have come to search the property, and you can help us. We are to scrutinize every room and every building. Santhan Brak will direct you into various quarters. You are to open every drawer and cupboard, and look in every pot. This is not a permit to pillage her belongings — we will conduct searches when people leave. Sulma Tan here,’ I gestured to her with an outstretched hand, ‘will see to it that you spend an evening in gaol if you so much as take a scrap of cloth. However, there will be financial rewards for anybody who produces beneficial evidence.

‘You must report anything that stands out as strange, but I am particularly keen on two things. The first was a note brought to Lydia by messenger on the day of her disappearance. I strongly believe that whatever was in that note was directly responsible for her leaving the property without telling anyone. That note led to her death, and that note has not been found. Secondly, there is a. . type of ruby, which I believe links these cases, so any items of jewellery — especially if it is found in a concealed location — must be reported to us instantly. As I say, rewards for such a discovery will be significant. Finally, I would be very grateful if any journals, ledgers or papers could be brought to my attention, no matter how incidental you think they may be. Should anyone need to find me, I will be ensconced in Lydia’s living quarters for the next couple of hours. If the search yields nothing today, we will stay the night and continue through to the next day.’

There was a discernible groan from some of them, and I could well understand the sentiment. It wasn’t as if I wanted to remain here all that time myself. Everyone filtered out until the room was empty, and the search of this enormous property began in earnest.

Leana, Nambu and myself were shown into Lydia’s private bedroom, while Sulma Tan told us that she would investigate the adjoining study and examine the papers.

I opened ornate wooden shutters to allow the sun inside and terracotta and blue colours soon filled my vision. Sparsely furnished, the space was large enough for forty or fifty people to sit comfortably. Even the bed, under another set of shutters, was big enough to accommodate four. The shutters opened up onto a delightful garden, a warm suntrap with vines growing around the property and the slow trickle of a fountain just out of sight. I imagined how peaceful this would have been for Lydia to wake up to, or even to still her mind at night while remaining on top of her businesses. A tranquil haven indeed, and not the sort of place one would willingly want to leave.

Inside the bedroom there was little else of notice — a chair, a desk on which stood a silver-rimmed mirror, as well as several items of make-up in a closed wooden box and the peeling of a wax seal. Had this been where she read her final message, the one sent from Kuvash to lure her away from her well-protected villa? There were no markings, no obvious lettering in the wax, nothing to distinguish it from a hundred other letters that may have passed through her hands.

Everything around us, as expected, showed superb craftsmanship. Again Lydia’s wealth did not reveal itself in garish ornamentation, but in the details. Even rebuilding something that had fallen into disrepair as opposed to building something new showed a reverence for traditional skills.

I stood directly in the centre of the room, trying to get a better impression of who Lydia was and wondering what could possibly have made her a target. What could a neat, tasteful mature woman have done to warrant such a painful death? What could someone who spent so much of her time away from the rest of the world have managed to do that matched Bishop Tahn Valin and Grendor?

While Leana searched for hidden compartments around the walls and under the bed, Nambu opened the drawers of the desk one by one, rooting around inside and making general noises of dissatisfaction. Eventually she called me over, whereupon she presented me with several items of jewellery in her outstretched palms. There were golden necklaces set with emeralds, a diamond ring in an onyx box, a sapphire brooch, and a bracelet in the shape of a serpent.

‘Are these any use?’ she asked.

By which she meant, presumably, are any of these potentially the red stone I had labelled as evum?

‘This is a good find, Nambu, but sadly none of these seem to be what we’re hoping to find.’

She had a look of determination on her face as she placed the items back in the drawer. There was a wonderful focus to the princess, a desire to be helpful, to be more than a shadow.

Leana called from beside the bed: ‘This might be what we are looking for.’

She was crouching over a tile that she had prised open with her sword, which was now on one side. A small pile of items lay on the other side.

‘What have you got?’ I asked.

‘Personal items. One of which is a ring and, spirits save me, it is very much like the bishop’s. .’

As she held it up to me, my heart skipped a beat.

The stone was much larger than the bishop’s, and was fixed within a gold four-claw setting that formed the teeth of a serpent. The body of the serpent formed the ring itself. The craftsmanship of the piece was sublime. It was a heavy item, far more so than the bishop’s, which I pulled out of my pocket to compare. Kneeling on the bed, I moved the rings into the direct light of the window. The gemstones possessed the same strange sheen and cloudy colour as each other. There was no doubt in my mind that they were the same material and I asked Leana to verify this for me.

The discovery of this ring could certainly confirm a link between all three murders. Whatever evum was, people were definitely being killed because it was in their property or upon their person. The question lingered as to why Lydia had not taken it with her when she’d left for the city alone.

‘Looks the same,’ Leana said eventually.

‘I think so too. Though Lydia’s shows far greater effort has gone into the design of the ring. I wonder why that is?’

‘The bishop could not afford the same jeweller to do the work?’

‘Yes. But what does that say — Nambu, what do you think?’

I knew the answer but the princess lit up at being brought back into the process. ‘It says that they had to get the stones set themselves.’

‘Absolutely. The bishop opted for a cheaper, more austere rendering — Lydia could afford something notably better. Grendor of the Cape decided to have his set in an amulet instead.’

‘What is the significance of that?’ Leana shrugged.

I did not have a clear answer for that question, but thought that it had something to do with the secrecy of the material. Using different jewellers meant that no single person would become intimate with the material or ask too many questions. Alternatively it could mean that the stones were so rare that a jeweller had given up his business, even passed away, before he had the chance to work on the same stone.

The whole case was frustrating me. We were always one step behind a killing, never really having the opportunity to discover why this was happening. The fact that there were multiple bodies helped and hindered — it was like we were being set a puzzle, deliberately and consciously.

‘Again, this was hidden close to the bed,’ Leana said. ‘I wonder if this is simply a convenient hiding place to hide things within sleeping distance?’

She might have kept it there to make the most of the properties of the material, I wanted to say. To use the stone’s life-affirming powers.

Each time I had to keep myself from confessing these fanciful thoughts. Among us all, only I had experienced the effects of the stone, but people would start to think I was insane for believing this, like some gibbering old hermit who thinks he’s a god.

‘Who can say,’ I replied. ‘No one else has access to her room, so no one else could stumble across it by accident. We should remember that she did not have the problem that the bishop did.’

‘What was that?’ Nambu asked.

‘The bishop did not wear such decorations. It was frowned upon in the temple.’ I gestured to the items that Nambu had found. ‘As you see, Lydia was able to wear jewellery without there being reason to upset any gods — or priests. That makes this doubly curious that she had hidden it. Whereas the bishop had good reason, Lydia — on the surface — did not. Yet she wanted to hide it. She did not wish it to be known.’

‘She was worried about it being seen,’ Leana declared. ‘Maybe that’s the real reason the bishop did not wear it too. Nothing to do with decorations.’

‘I think that might be the case. And let’s not forget that Grendor of the Cape had worn an amulet featuring this gemstone, but he had worn it underneath his shirt. He, too, did not make it public.’ I got off the bed and paced about the room. ‘Let us continue with this theme, then, that the stone was something known only to a few people.’

‘Yet,’ Leana added, ‘precious enough that people kept it nearby at all times. Worn close to their chest, or kept close to where they slept. Yet what I do not understand is why not fashion it to wear in the open? A skilled goldsmith could have made a container for it.’

‘I suppose it’s pretty clear what happens if this ring is known publicly. If it’s the reason they’re all dead, then there’s a very sensible explanation for not wanting it to be known. It seems unlikely that they knew they were going to be killed for wearing it. Which makes me suspect that wearing the stone came with shame and fear.’

‘Were they really murdered simply because they wore a stone?’ Leana asked.

‘Hmm. It’s hardly plausible that they would be butchered for the simple act of wearing it,’ I replied. ‘No. The rings, the stones, they represent something else entirely. There was a connection, certainly. An organization? A corporation? And how far back does it go, because these victims — none of them were young. There’s history here, something that has gone on for a very long time, and all we have to show for it so far are two items of jewellery. But it’s more than we had before. We just need to get to the heart of these stones. Why does no one know about them, other than the victims? Not even the jeweller had seen it before.’

Sighing, I put the rings in my pocket, sat on the edge of the bed and gestured at the scrap of paper that Leana had pulled out from the floor. ‘What does the letter say?’

Though it was unlikely, perhaps there was a chance it was the message that had lured her to the city.

Leana unfolded it and scanned down the page. ‘A love note. She was in a relationship with a woman back in Detrata, someone called Leyanda.’ A pause, her tone changing to one of surprise. ‘The daughter of Senator Chastra. Bitter old man. They speak of hidden desires, the inability to express their true feelings. . the usual kind of nonsense. How you Detratans have the luxury to worry about such matters.’

Leana handed me the note and I glanced over it briefly. It told us little about the case. It was indeed just a note that Lydia had wanted kept out of anyone’s hands — possibly more for the other woman’s sake than her own. Chastra, as I remembered, was a truly embittered man with a vicious tongue. No doubt he had chosen a suitor for the woman already, another business proposition to further himself in the world.

In the rest of the pile of items that Leana had drawn up, there was nothing else important to the case, at least, not that I could see. A dried flower, a silver chain, a seashell, all of which could have been tokens from Leyanda, memories from a particular day, a treasure to keep close at hand when the sentiments became overwhelming.

While I contemplated the ring further, the search continued.

Now and then one of the guards would bring a box of items for me to sift through — various personal letters, all of which were very businesslike. There were relatively few other trinkets. Usually people of such wealth had no problem in showing it off, yet Lydia clearly was not cut from quite the same cloth as others. Did it mean anything? Was she like a puritanical priest and expecting death at any moment — so did not clutter up her life with trinkets that couldn’t be taken with her into the afterlife?

As the sun dipped towards the horizon, it was becoming painfully obvious that we would not find anything to help the case. With each passing hour, my frustrations grew.

That was until Sulma Tan called me into the adjoining study.