Retribution

I Know You

Alarmingly bright-blue eyes stared back at me. They were set within one of the most defiant faces I had ever looked upon. The woman was young, no more than twenty-five summers old. Her long, chestnut hair came down to her waist, though it was held back with several bands. A fitted leather breastplate protected her wiry and muscular frame, and she wore solid boots and plain brown trousers. After acknowledging my presence she settled back on her chair; her hands had been tied behind her back, but she wasn’t disgruntled. She now appeared completely serene. Happy, almost.

Nine of us gathered in the Kahn brothers’ front parlour. The fire crackled away gently, and added light came from a dozen candles. The open shutters brought in a gentle breeze and the sight of an indigo sky filled with stars.

Two soldiers stood just a step behind her, should she try to escape. This struck me as especially curious — they obviously saw her as a threat, and the black eyes and bloodied noses suggested that she had not exactly given in easily before being captured. Four weapons had been taken from her person, all of them knives of varying length. Two were standard military issue, according to Sulma Tan, but the others were not — they were sharp hunting knives, crafted exquisitely with various animal motifs and ivory handles.

Despite the number of guards in the neighbourhood, her arrest came when the two brothers were singing quietly to each other in their small enclosed garden. Somehow, and with considerable skill, she had managed to make it to the house without being seen, climbed over the wall and attempted to strike at Han.

But she did not see the soldier sitting quietly just inside the wall. He had leapt up to grab her outstretched arm, and a fight ensued. As the brothers ran inside for help other soldiers came outside and attempted to subdue her.

One of the soldiers had heard movements of a second person outside the wall and, after clambering up to take a better look, saw a single figure running down a passageway. A small unit was despatched to investigate.

All we had was this one young woman, whom the guards did not recognize.

But I did.

When I had visited Sojun, the farrier who looked after our horses, he had later been with this woman. What was it he said? That she trained horses for the military?

As we stood around her, watching her, I decided to keep that information to myself to use at the right moment.

Only I simply could not connect her with the events surrounding the series of murders. Murderers generally know their victims. They share a social stratum, for example. They possess a rivalry for a seat of power, or a lover. Generally they are of the same class, made of the same timber. But the people who had been killed were several stages higher up the hierarchy of Koton than someone who served the military. Was she an assassin, hired on behalf of someone else? She didn’t seem to fit the mould at all. There was something strange about this case and her polite refusal to answer any questions made it all the more baffling.

‘What is your name?’ I asked at first, in both Detratan and Kotonese.

Her smile was indifferent.

‘Why have you come to attack Han and Lunus?’

She glanced to the floor, the smile fading somewhat, but she did not seem distressed. She was at ease in this awkwardness.

‘We can have you tortured if you won’t speak now,’ I said, an empty gesture for I rarely resorted to such measures.

She rolled her eyes, as if she had been expecting me to say it.

One of the soldiers whispered in my ear, ‘We’ve tried all that, sir. She wouldn’t say a thing before. Probably won’t now. Tried to rough her up a little, but she just accepted the pain. Closed herself off to it all — seen that before in the field.’

I sighed at the fact that they had resorted to violence so soon. It was never my preferred way of doing things as it was crude and often ineffective. Any answers obtained by such methods were spurious at best. So if they had tried this, the young woman clearly was not going to respond to variations on the theme.

‘Clear the house,’ I said, my eyes fixed on her.

‘Sir?’

‘Leave me with her,’ I said.

‘She’s-’

‘Just do it,’ I snapped.

That got a reaction out of her, but it wasn’t much — just a slight surprise, which I counted as a victory of sorts. Any reaction would have done.

Leana exchanged glances with me and she knew that I truly meant to be alone with the woman, but she had seen my various methods by now. She steered a surprised-looking Sulma Tan out of the room, and soon the footsteps and disgruntled voices could be heard outside in the courtyard.

The door closed and it was just the two of us.

Closing the shutters, I looked over my shoulder and spoke quietly to her in Detratan.

‘Sojun’s a good lad, isn’t he? He doesn’t say much though. You must have picked up that habit from him.’

In an instant, her countenance had changed. If she had been in control before, she wasn’t any longer, now that I had access to information that she didn’t want revealed.

‘That’s right,’ I continued. ‘You’re his. . lover? Or is anything more formal developing? There’s nothing quite like young love, is there? These things don’t usually last though. Marriage isn’t often about love, is it? You’ll find yourself married off before long. Do you-’

‘Let me go.’ A firm, crisp response. She was used to giving orders no doubt. ‘I’ve not done anything to deserve this.’

Inwardly I smiled, but didn’t show it. Right now I wanted reactions from her, and it was working. It was true we’d not caught her doing anything specifically wrong — we had not caught her in the act of murder. But, if she had been responsible for the other deaths, if she had even been involved in some slight way, she must have felt that it was all over now. A sense of relief, of sorts, must have been developing inside her.

‘Before the sun rises we will have your home searched,’ I said. ‘We will want to search the property of anyone who is involved with you. That means Sojun’s dwelling as well.’

No response now.

‘Was he the one running away earlier, when you were caught?’ I asked. ‘That was not particularly protective of him, I must say.’

She didn’t react to these statements and it wasn’t surprising. They were not sophisticated, but I still wanted to explore her state of mind. I was worried we knew too little and that she was someone of control. She had to be liberated of this notion and made to feel vulnerable.

‘We will bring him in to answer questions — of that you have my word.’ I crouched down before her, once again in awe of the brightness of her eyes. ‘You were going to kill Han and Lunus Saul Kahn tonight. You were going to cut them up, slowly, in whatever workshop you have, and then you were going to leave their bodies in a public place. You were going to do this to teach them a lesson. They were the last names on that list, weren’t they?’

‘List?’ She looked up at me. ‘I have no idea what you are talking about.’

The list to her would have been a mental one, of course. It was sheer coincidence that our physical list was the same.

‘Don’t concern yourself with how I know such things,’ I continued. ‘All you need to do is start telling me the truth. Only then can I begin to help you.’

She snorted derisively.

‘You do not think the truth worthwhile?’

No response came, but she was no longer acting smug or complacent. We had crossed a barrier of sorts.

‘I know all about Evum.’

There.

A flinch: inner pain.

‘I’m going to travel to the island tomorrow morning.’

Her face changed and she glared at me. ‘You do not know the first thing about Evum.’

I let her stare at me. I gave her the chance to witness my calm expression.

‘Then why don’t you start telling me about Evum? Talk to me.’

‘No.’

‘Why not?’ My voice was soothing.

‘Because you won’t believe me,’ she snapped.

‘You don’t know that. I’ve seen many sights in Vispasia — and beyond — and there are many things that do not fit our common logic.’

‘You still won’t believe me,’ she said. ‘This country is not what you think.’

‘You can tell from my accent that I’m not from Koton,’ I replied. ‘I don’t care what this country is or is not. All I want to know is why so many people have been killed and what they have to do with the island of Evum.’

‘If you don’t know that, then it proves you know nothing at all.’

‘Maybe. But by giving such a response you’ve proven that you’re somehow involved with their deaths. Who else could know of such a connection?’

‘Plenty of people.’

‘None who I’ve met,’ I replied. This was delicately poised. Perhaps focusing on her initial reaction to the name of the island would reap more benefits.

‘What’s Evum like?’ I asked.

‘You’re going there,’ she grunted. ‘Find out for yourself.’

‘The place obviously means something to you. Why not let me help you?’

She sneered at the comment. ‘How can you possibly help?’

I paced the room and reached into the depths of my mind, trying to ascertain why this young woman could possibly have wanted to kill people more than twice her age.

‘What exactly did they do to you,’ I continued, ‘all those years ago?’

When she looked up at me her eyes lacked the lustre they had only moments ago. She possessed a face full of potentially vivid expression and it grew to one of sadness, which changed to anger. Then she regarded the floor once again.

I crouched before her, and stared up. ‘You must have been a child, back then. What did they do to you?’

A spatter of laughter came from outside; the soldiers had found something amusing.

‘Ask the Kahns,’ she sighed.

‘They have remained rather silent when questioned. If they’re hiding something that you know about, and that you’re angry about, then keeping it to yourself will not progress matters any further.’

Again, the silence.

‘Do you realize the trouble you are in? You are already likely to be charged with attempting to kill these two men. It may well make you a suspect in the series of recent murders, even without evidence, depending on how the court sees fit. You could be executed.’

She remained in this quiet state for the rest of the evening. I was not certain if I had pushed things too far, but I had certainly opened her up more than before. This was progress.