Retribution

Decisions

While guards stood watch over her, I took the Kahn brothers into their small garden once again, under the pretence of having them show me her route of attack. I stood upon a stone bench to peer over the wall. A network of small passageways extended in two directions, through which it was possible for anyone to have escaped with relative ease.

Stepping back down, and aware that the others were out of earshot, I asked them some direct questions.

‘What did you do all those years ago to make a young woman so angry with you that she came here, in the dead of night, to kill you both?’

Han was clearly taken aback by my question. It even disarmed the usually steady Lunus, who opened his mouth as if to speak and then paused. Eventually he extended his arm and said, ‘I have no idea why she is here. She’s insane, quite clearly.’

‘With effort even the acts of a madwoman can be understood. Did you abuse her as a child?’

‘Certainly not!’ Han protested. ‘Just because I live with my brother, it does not make us wish to commit foul deeds with children. We are sophisticated people. We abhor such sentiments.’

Moonlight glimmered off a window in an adjacent house and caught my eye, reminding me just how late it was.

‘I’m going to request that you remain in your property for the next several days.’

‘Are we under arrest?’

‘No,’ I cautioned. ‘But for the sake of this investigation, and given the lack of information and clarity, you must remain here until we are satisfied. You are not to move — and we’ll keep a guard on your door.’

‘How long could it take until you are satisfied?’ Lunus asked, slipping down to sit on a bench. The despair was clear on his face.

‘As long as necessary.’

I marched back through their house and looked at the young woman, who still remained nameless, and who was still on the chair. At that point I realized the world of the Kahns had been kept quite separate from her own. I needed to bring them together, even if for a moment, so I called the brothers back into the room and had them stand in front of her.

They were reluctant to do so and their hesitation betrayed them badly.

The woman spat at their feet, but said no more.

Why wasn’t anyone saying anything?

There was a ruckus outside and to my surprise moments later two soldiers smashed back the front door to the property and threw the battered but living body of Sojun into the room. The woman reacted as one might expect of a lover, shocked and concerned, but she adjusted her manner accordingly.

‘Elliah,’ Sojun muttered, blood dripping from his mouth.

She sighed, disappointed that he had given her name. Sojun would be the weak link in all of this.

One of the soldiers stepped forward. ‘We found him around the side of the property trying to look in to see if this bitch was still alive. He’s strong, I’ll give him that, but no skilled fighter.’

I nodded my appreciation to the soldiers and walked over to Sojun, looking down at him. I gave an audible sigh. ‘I hope you treat my horses better than you do other people.’

I felt that the two prisoners would be beneficial — I would play them off against each other, until we had a confession. ‘Let’s take these two back for questioning — separate cells. Sulma Tan, can you arrange for your queen’s torturers to be woken and brought to the palace. We’ll need them tonight.’

‘How many?’ she asked.

‘Just two.’ I stared down at a petrified Sojun, and encouraged his fear to deepen. ‘Tonight we get answers from these two, or we end up with two more corpses. Unless one talks, in which case freedom for both might be considered.’

Midnight, and deep in the dungeons of the queen’s palace, where much older violence was visible in the scuffed and stained brickwork, we commenced our questioning.

It was prudent to let Sojun witness one of the torturers arrive and set up. The torturer was a sickly-looking man in his late fifties, dressed in a simple green tunic, and who carried with him a satchel full of mind-boggling instruments. He greeted me softly before laying out some of his devices on the floor, asking whether or not we had various straps and so forth. One of the guards went away to fetch what was required but, of course, I had no intention of torturing Elliah or Sojun, at least not today.

If they had committed a crime then they would most certainly not be freed, but it was important they did not know what their fate would be.

It must have been midnight by this time and the two of them were now in, for me, a perfect situation. Neither of them would know what the other was going to say. Neither would witness a confession from the other. Neither would be aware if they had been betrayed by their lover.

One of them could, of course, tell me everything — and I only needed one of them to do so — but it would be extremely unlikely that both would remain silent. Should that be the case, then I would be forced to have one of them watch the other be tortured. But such were the benefits of having true partners in crime in such a predicament, it seldom came to the breaking of skin.

As I suspected, it was Sojun who told me everything. The torturer had only to pick up a large blade and, in the doorway, mutter ‘Ladies first’ before walking off. It was his first move in torturing the captive, implying that another such official was in her cell waiting for my word to begin.

Sojun could not let his lover suffer. It was apparent in his pained expression from the moment he had arrived. For a big man, he was certainly soft inside.

‘Wait,’ he began. ‘Before you go to her. .’ Sojun sighed.

‘Yes?’ I asked.

‘Look, this ain’t my battle.’ Sojun tried to rearrange the chains around his ankles. He took a more upright position on the floor, pressing himself up against the cold, stone wall. Muscles, from hundreds of days hammering in his workshop, were visible underneath his white shirt. His eyes flickered in the light of the cresset. ‘I’m not doing any of this for me. Never have. Understand that.’

‘You kill people for her?’

‘It’s not like that,’ he replied. ‘Isn’t that simple.’

‘It never is.’ I dipped a cloth in a bucket of water and handed it to him, so he could wipe the blood from his face. It was a conscious gesture that I was here to help, that I was on his side.

‘I’m only telling you this now, because there’s a chance of some good coming from this mess. We’ve done our work. But you’re an outsider. Not part of this nation. You could do something.’

His words had my curiosity piqued. I gestured for him to continue.

‘It’s her war. Her battle. There are others involved, too. They do the killing, different ones at different times, though most are there to watch. To see it come to an end. I’m just around to help her. Didn’t want her to do it alone. If I give you names will you let her go free?’

‘That depends on how helpful it is, but yes, that can be considered.’ It felt as if I had winced at the lie, but I hoped I was a good enough actor at concealing it.

‘I’ll want your word before I give names.’

‘I can’t promise anything, Sojun,’ I said softly. ‘These are not my laws. These are not my people who have been murdered.’

‘She’s fighting on behalf of others.’

‘Fighting. Is there a war going on?’

‘There has been for decades, though no one would know about it. Not all wars require armies. You need to realize that this is all a lot more than revenge. This ain’t just getting one back. I’ll tell you, and you’ll understand. Maybe you’ll go easy on her. Maybe you’ll help.’

‘But it is revenge of a kind, isn’t it? For the past.’

He grimaced. ‘Twenty years ago, it all happened to her. It’s why she’s got the scars. She was a kid, Elliah. An orphan. Tough little nut to crack, so she keeps telling me, but I’m not so sure. Her memory is sketchy as to why it happened. But she ended up on an island.’

‘Evum.’

He raised his head, acknowledging the fact that I knew more than he originally thought. A glimmer of optimism flashed through his eyes. ‘That’s right. Evum. There’s a mineral there that they mine.’

‘Who mines?’

‘The children. Kids. They spend all day and night scrambling through the narrowest of tunnels, trying to get the mineral. There’re dozens of them there at any one time. I’m sure some must get forgotten about, and die somewhere deep underground. But that’s the funny thing about that mine — from what Elliah says, it seems to keep them going. Keeps them living for longer than they should. Of course, that’s why the cult has it mined in the first place. For long-lasting life. To stay young. To heal quickly.’

I reached in my pocket and brought out Lydia Marinus’ ring. ‘This is the mineral, isn’t it? This is what everyone is after?’

He squinted in the poor lighting. ‘Aye, could be.’

‘Who is “everyone”?’ I continued.

Another shrug. ‘Those who operate the place. I don’t know who. Never asked, never wanted to know. Less I knew, the better. I get the idea there’s a lot of them, and they’re rooted deep in this culture of ours.’

Sojun’s words were rather fanciful. The only reason he might have for such an imagination would be to make his own role in the deaths seem somehow less of an event, to give me the impression that there was something more sinister and profound, and that his murderous acts were mere footnotes.

‘What was Elliah’s role on Evum?’ I asked.

‘She worked the mines like any other kid. She was five or six summers at the time. She’s got vague memories of a mother, but nothing much. She was taken off the streets. They did things to her there — the people, the guards. The rich men and women who came from afar to get a tiny piece of their precious mineral. Sometimes it was merely hitting them. Other times. . Those kids didn’t really stand a chance of having a childhood. There were dozens of them there, same age as her, crawling around, being abused. You know how these things work — a man of the world like yourself. You know how low people can get when they’re isolated. You know it isn’t pretty.’

‘Yet she managed to escape. .’

‘Some of them did. Elliah told me that many tried to swim from the island. Most died at sea from exhaustion or they turned blue if the water was cold. A few — a tiny handful — managed to escape on boats when the wealthy types came to visit, when a ship went back to the mainland. Occasionally, when pirates used the island, kids might flee on board one of their rogue vessels. To a worse fate, who knows? Maybe they became pirates themselves. That’d be a better life at least. Some made it back though. Elliah was one of those — she left after just a couple of years on the island, stowing away on a vessel. When it moored in a cove, at night she jumped overboard and swam ashore. Somehow she scraped by until she was old enough to join the army. She did well there. Never seemed to feel pain. Always had something to prove. Impressed her commanders. Managed to make something of herself in a regiment full of men.’

‘How did the two of you meet?’

There was a tenderness now about the way he spoke. The lines of affection were around his mouth and eyes. ‘It was years ago, when she’d come to have her horses cared for at our stables. We were both young. You know how these things happen.’

‘When did she first suggest killing those connected to the island?’

‘She didn’t. She was contacted by another survivor. There was a group of them who had got away from Evum. One of them was a little older and remembered her. Got some information. Names, and the likes. Knew who was involved. Knew who shipped things back here. Knew what was going on. They had a network. She told me about it. I’m not a man who fears a little blood. It was justice, wasn’t it? Killing them like that.’

‘Justice is not yours to decide.’

‘Don’t talk shit. Who else is going to see these powerful people get punished for what they’ve done? Soldiers? They’ll not touch those higher than them.’

‘Give me the names of those involved, Sojun, and this will all be over. There’s no opportunity to escape and we will find the others, just like we found you. If you help us — if you speed things up — then we can see about some sort of justice. I will try to help you.’

‘Don’t care about me, officer,’ Sojun grunted. ‘See that Elliah goes free instead.’

‘I will give you my word I will do my very best to argue her case for freedom — that’s all you can hope for, given the circumstances. The queen will listen only to her own conscience. But I will try.’

‘Aye,’ he breathed.

Sojun listed four names, only one of which I recognized. Brell the eunuch. The figure who stood beside the queen every day, who shadowed her in her court and offered vague witticisms and scowling expressions. Sojun told me that, because the queen never trusted being surrounded by people who remembered the old days, she preferred the company of the young. Brell had been in her employment for two years. He would have known through his association with the queen when certain people would be in the city and their movements. And he was in a position to acquire addresses. In fact, he would have been the perfect informant. All of this explained just how it was possible to run rings round the authorities, and to capture some of the most important people in the city.

There was simply no single murderer.

I wrote down the names and their potential whereabouts. All of them were to be found in the wealthier prefecture. In hushed tones in the corridor I instructed a soldier to gather together a group of armed guards, with Sulma Tan’s permission, and the raids of their properties began in earnest.

‘I was the only one in the group who hadn’t been affected by whatever went on on that island,’ Sojun grunted. ‘As I said, wasn’t my battle. Did what I did because of Elliah.’

‘And what did you do for her? Did you do the torturing? Did you inflict any wounds. Did you cut up the bishop?’

‘No. I did none of that.’ A sigh and a distant gaze. Sojun drew his knees to his chest, rattling his chains. ‘We used the cellar underneath the stables, where I did my metal work. And metal work was all I did during the act. Didn’t do any killing myself. The stables are out of the way. Noises are to be expected at all hours. We’d get complaints all the time, since it was a good location, but no one would notice a little more activity. The noises I made drowned out whatever screams there were, but those victims were usually unconscious and, as I said, we were in the cellars. It’s quiet in there. No one can hear you. Get knocked out and you might never be found until a client wants his horses back. I didn’t ask what they did at the time. Didn’t really want to know. Not my business. But I understood, right? I knew what those kids had all gone through. Knew what needed to be done. If I could help them do that, help them sort their heads out in this way, then I considered it a good thing. And you never know — by removing this scum from the city, the ringleaders of this kind of operation might prevent more of the same from happening. That was our justice — it was done to help people there. Astran knows that island isn’t on any map.’

The question of why now still lingered, but the solution was simple enough: ‘You only started doing it now because you discovered the bishop would be leaving soon. That’s what started it all.’

He gave a nod.

‘How come his body had been dismembered, while the others weren’t?’

‘Have you ever killed a man? Well they hadn’t. They were scared. Didn’t know what to do. They messed it up.’

‘So once you had killed him, that started the momentum. You had to go on.’

‘The rest wanted to take ’em out as quickly as possible and then get out of the city. We were all in this as one — and weren’t going to rest until we’d finished. We had learned movement, behaviours. We conferred. We plotted. You don’t do a thing like this on a whim.’

Sojun went on to say that the activity on Evum need not be restricted to the past. It was very likely it was still happening and that the Sun Chamber should do something about it.

I had my doubts we could do something. Though unethical, there was nothing within the legal framework to prohibit children from working, no matter how poor the conditions. As for abuse, however, though many of us might be clear on rights and wrongs, the law did not always support the matter. The law was a blunt hammer, not a fine scalpel. Yet again my investigations were taking me deep into uncharted waters.

‘How come no one came to the authorities to report what had gone on there,’ I said, ‘on Evum? It’s possible that help could have been found eventually.’

A shake of the head, and his words were not bitter, simply sad. ‘You think anyone would give a shit? The island doesn’t exist, as far as the authorities are concerned. It isn’t on a map. We couldn’t get there to free others. You think someone’s going to believe people like us against the likes of Grendor of the Cape, or that Lydia Marinus woman? She was the worst, of course. She stole children through her orphanages. Vanishing them. Bet it still goes on. We heard that she educated children.’ He gave an emotionless laugh. ‘I wonder if she teaches them about morals? But anyway. You tell a soldier, he doesn’t care. You crawl to the politicians, you beg outside of their houses for a moment of their time, and they give you a hollow look. Tell you to stop wasting their time. They’re not going to bring change — only action is.’

‘What about the queen? Brell, the eunuch — he was close to the queen. I’m sure he could have said something about what was going on there. She might have even listened to him and sent an investigative team?’

‘No.’ Sojun shook his head and gave a sigh. ‘You don’t get it, do you? There’s ways of justice. Some things have to be done right. Done in person. To release the ghosts that follow Elliah around day and night. Brell wasn’t going to tell the queen. He more than any other wanted to bring about its end himself. Ask him how he became a eunuch — and watch his face. That’ll tell you far more than I can about what it means to him.’

‘This sounds more like revenge than justice.’

‘I’m telling you, officer. There was no other way to do what’s right by those kids. You might think badly of me, but I know in here,’ he thumped his wide chest, ‘that I done the right thing.’

The guard slammed the door firmly and slid the bolt across.

‘How many soldiers can be spared?’ I asked Sulma Tan as we turned our backs on the cells. Cressets lined the corridors, and there was no one else nearby save one guard deeper into the gloom.

‘In reality?’ she replied. ‘None. But we can make allowances.’

‘If there’s activity on Evum even now, there is likely to be protection. We may need some good warriors.’

‘Most of them are reinforcing the borders as we speak. That’s why there are so few guards around the palace now.’

‘You must have some in the city you can spare?’

It was difficult to read her expression in the dark, but her initial silence felt awkward. ‘If I spare some soldiers, what will be my excuse? How will I explain why two dozen men have been taken out of the city?’

‘A good point,’ I conceded.

‘We should now tell the queen everything,’ Sulma Tan replied. ‘Her eunuch, Brell, is about to be arrested. Though he does not live near her quarters, she will find out about this in the morning. She will have questions of her own as to why he is being taken, yes.’

‘If we have time to explain, the morning would be an appropriate moment to tell her.’

‘No,’ Sulma Tan said. ‘Tonight. I will tell her tonight. She should know as soon as possible else we risk angering her.’

‘Will you need me there?’

‘Not officially. No, go. Go and sleep. I will make the provisions for soldiers to make the journey across to Evum. They will be ready for us to leave first thing in the morning unless you hear otherwise.’

‘I’m incredibly grateful for all your help,’ I said, pausing to stress the point with sincerity. ‘This case would not have been resolved without your assistance. When I report to the Sun Chamber, and to your queen, I will make sure that you receive the credit you deserve.’

There was a look in her eyes that almost reached happiness, but she was too tired to fully commit herself. ‘This is merely my job.’

I shook my head. ‘You’ve gone beyond what’s required of a station like yours. I’ve been in several large cities of Vispasia and liaised with dozens of administrators and officials. You have been open, clear, informative and helpful. Others would be lucky to show one of those positive qualities.’

‘We have not finished yet. We will have all our answers when we arrive on Evum, and only then. For now, get some rest.’

I continued back through the labyrinthine corridors with Leana. Together we headed back to our quarters, a burning torch lighting our way.

And when we arrived, we saw the sprawled form of Allius Golt.