Retribution (Drakenfeld 2) (32 page)

The process felt incredibly isolating, especially given that these quarters were hidden away from the world. Few people knew we were here and no one else knew I had these documents. Sometimes these moments could be revelatory; other times I felt that I might die and no one would know or probably care. There would be some paperwork back in Free State, but usually the only people who were concerned about my business were connected to the cases we worked on, and therefore had an interest in my remaining alive.

Eventually, another name presented itself.

Marinus Mining.

Marinus as in Lydia Marinus.

Another connection – that was worth waiting for. Marinus Mining had been Lydia’s company, then, with a quite legitimate trade, and which had been recorded in the other ledgers. However, in these hidden documents, her company was discussed in the same breath as the mysterious evum.

A gentle knock at the door startled me. I stood and cautiously walked towards it. A moment later a voice came. ‘It’s me, Sulma Tan.’

‘One moment.’ I slid the bolt back and opened the door.

Sulma Tan stood there, her hair pinned up though a few strands hung down across her face. She was wearing a white shirt tucked into black trousers. ‘I hope I am not disturbing you.’

‘Not at all,’ I said, and stepped back for her to enter. She was such a heartening sight after staring at papers for so long.

‘I was up late working.’ She smiled knowingly. ‘It seems you are too.’

‘Yes, sometimes I long to work more in alignment with the sun,’ I replied, taking a moment to scan the corridor and then closing the door.

‘I came alone,’ she said, her eyes glimmering in the candlelight. ‘It’s quite all right – there was no one following me. I walked past to see if you were still up. When I pressed my ear against the door I could hear you sliding papers across the desk. I know that sound well enough by now.’

‘How goes the census?’ I asked.

‘It is almost finished. We will present to the queen in private before going through the motions in the court – she wishes to know these things well before the court in case there are any surprises. She will probably ask a thousand questions and expect them all to be answered in public. It will be a long morning, and then she will want to dwell on matters. More questions will come in the following weeks.’

‘Well, it’s nice of you to visit given how busy you are.’

‘The work is done. I needed a distraction, and I was interested in seeing how you were healing.’

‘Carlon sent you to check on me,’ I muttered.

‘No, I sent myself,’ Sulma Tan replied. ‘Besides, your Sun Chamber work offers more curiosities and a greater sense of adventure.’

‘If that’s what you wish for.’

‘Sometimes I do wonder how long I can sit at a desk. My back aches sometimes from copying papers, and I am only thirty summers. I have to stretch and bend morning and night to ensure that I am not a cripple like some become in my trade.’

‘The Sun Chamber isn’t for everyone,’ I said. ‘Though you clearly have the mind for the job.’

She made a non-committal expression. It did not seem likely that she would leave her life’s work to run around Vispasia – it was a more fanciful moment, perhaps, but the Sun Chamber could really make use of someone as knowledgeable as Sulma Tan.

‘Not every culture allows women to flourish like Koton,’ she said.

‘For all the concerns about Koton being a backward nation, it really is not so. You yourself are very driven, and you are in a position to change things.’

‘You would be driven if you had my kind of upbringing.’

‘Yours was a bad one?’ I asked.

‘Not a bad one; we were reasonably well off. My father died when I was very young and left us a good amount of money for years to come. But my mother filled the home with many strange men seeking to fill some kind of void. Many of those men were abusive, not so much striking her but belittling her, saying that she would remain worthless. I remember holding my sister close in bed as one of her lovers attempted to beat down our front door at some ungodly hour of the night. Yet, the next morning, my mother brought him in. She was vulnerable. I vowed to myself then to never be reliant on another man, to be in such a position.’

She said all this quite calmly. There was no bitterness, no anger, just a quiet determination. We continued our conversation for a little longer, she giving me some of the colour of her life, and asking the same of me, of my time in Detrata and some of the things I had seen in the Sun Chamber. She asked again about my seizures and I trusted her with talking more about them, though it was still uncomfortable for me. She was interested that I had not suffered a seizure for a while.

Eventually we focused on the case again, but not before she had berated me for leaving the lid off the pot of ink.

In hushed tones I told her all we had discovered so far, reminding her of the bodies and of their previous occupations; of the gemstone, who owned it and our information from the jeweller. Then I told her of Grendor’s offices, our night-time raid and the documents we had taken.

‘But it is only with these papers,’ I gestured to the desk, ‘that I can truly start to connect them all. Assuming this “evum” was indeed the strange gemstone, it highlights a direct connection between the three dead bodies. The bishop had worn evum on a ring, and so had Grendor, according to his wife, with his missing amulet. Lydia’s company had possibly helped to bring the evum out of the ground and moved it, perhaps with shipments of her own legitimate goods – salt and the like. But ultimately Grendor’s business had been responsible for the shipping of evum.’

‘You think all three are related to it . . .’ she breathed. ‘But I have never heard of evum. In the records of the census, even the older ones within the manuscript hall, I don’t remember the word evum. We have salt, copper, tin, coal, building materials such as slate and limestone, precious stones, and so on, but nothing like evum.’

‘So evum remains a secret to all,’ I whispered.

‘Why do you think they are after this mineral? If it is indeed simply like a ruby, I can’t believe there would be all this trouble over a decorative trinket.’

Because of its properties,
I wanted to say, noting again how little I ached from my attack. But that made me feel foolish and little better than a street soothsayer. So instead I simply shrugged.

‘It can’t be simply for the money, either,’ I said, ‘since a precious stone or a mineral needs an active demand from people in order to create a decent business out of it. Should you come across emeralds and diamonds, there are enough wealthy individuals across Vispasia to pay a handsome sum for one. Should you come across iron, there are industries who need it. But evum has no such market. It has no clientele. It remains an unknown entity. All we know is that certain people have come into contact with it – and those individuals, or some of them, have been killed in a ritual manner.’

‘Which implies
someone else
knows about evum,’ Sulma Tan added. ‘Enough to murder three people horribly.’

‘This gives the investigation some hope at last,’ I said.

‘What is your plan now?’ she asked.

‘Tomorrow I wish to visit the city quarters of Lydia Marinus to see if there is anything there. Also I want to examine her other residence out of the city, and to look at her mining operations – wherever they are.’

‘Yes, yes – I can have the route drawn up for you by noon,’ Sulma Tan said keenly. ‘I know of her properties.’

‘That would be very kind. Could you bring them to her residence tomorrow morning?’

‘Of course.’

‘And . . . could you tell me where she lived? My knowledge of this city remains relatively poor for the moment.’

‘It’s an attractive property not too far from the palace. A quiet house on a wide street.’ She added softly, ‘One day, if I have a dwelling of my own, I would like it to be styled like this one – though a mere fraction of the size. Simple and pretty.’

‘Like the old styles?’

‘No, just uncluttered. My mind is cluttered enough.’

‘I’ll pay extra attention to how it looks in that case,’ I replied, then tried to stifle a yawn – but was clearly failing.

Sulma Tan regarded me knowingly, ever-familiar with working late by candlelight. ‘You should get some rest. Come and find me in my offices when you are ready – I’ll only be reading over my reports for the queen – and I will show you the way to Lydia’s house.’

With that she rose and walked to the door, turning just before she opened it. ‘Officer Drakenfeld, thank you for keeping an eye on the princess. She is old for her years, and very smart – we often talk of natural sciences and art, and she has a thirst for knowledge. With her accompanying you about the city, it will help her to grow. That will be good for Koton in the future.’

‘It’s not a problem – we’re finding her to be rather good company,’ I replied honestly, which pleased Sulma Tan.

The following morning, one of the queen’s private messengers arrived with a missive that had just been delivered to the palace.

‘The messenger who gave this to Sulma Tan said it was urgent,’ she announced, ‘and the second secretary wanted to ensure it reached your hands quickly.’

‘It has the Sun Chamber seal,’ I noted. ‘Please, thank Sulma Tan and tell her that I’ll call on her office later.’

‘She said that she will be an hour with the queen,’ the messenger replied, ‘no more.’

As she left, I headed back inside and opened the message while Leana started Nambu’s morning practice session.

Inside the tube were my latest wages, in the form of a credit note from the Sun Chamber, with instructions to visit only the Crannan Family Bank in order to draw out the money. This came as something of a relief, as I was beginning to run low on coin. A shortage of funds also meant that I would be unable to bribe people should it be necessary – as it so often was in my line of work. Aside from giving Leana her allocation, the arrival of wages also meant that I could make a further payment at the stables, where our horses were still being kept. It was important that the animals were well exercised, especially as the following day I had plans to ride out of the city. So my morning was going to involve matters of housekeeping.

Nambu and Leana moved through some slightly more complicated moves. To correct Nambu’s posture Leana guided her with a whisper, informing her exactly of what to look for in an attacker’s movements, of what was left exposed. Leana’s combat style had always been a bit of a mystery – and it certainly wasn’t for the lack of my questions on the subject. She had rarely opened up about her time in Atrewe, even after all these years, and didn’t comment about the skills she had learned there. It was as if she refused to acknowledge the existence of her own past, and committed her mind utterly to the present tasks at hand – which was no bad thing.

What little I had seen of Nambu could be seen in the sons and daughters of powerful people all over Vispasia – occasional bouts of defiance in their parents’ presence, but with genuine uncertainty about their own position in the world, a tentativeness that could increase outside their normal circles.

Nambu was bringing out a more caring side of Leana, a side I hadn’t seen before – she was helping Nambu grow and become more confident. The two of them finished their moves and Leana placed a hand on Nambu’s shoulder. ‘You learn quickly.’ She turned to address me. ‘Lucan, with your permission, before Nambu and I visit Grendor’s friends, we will go for a run through the streets – she has been kept like a caged bird too long. She needs to be built up – stronger – and we will transform her with more speed.’

I’m sure such a rigorous exercise routine all went under the banner of ‘caring’, somehow. ‘If that’s fine with the princess?’ I glanced towards her.

Nambu shrugged. ‘If it is to make me better.’

‘A strong body is as important as a strong mind,’ Leana replied.

‘Just make sure you cover yourselves so you’re not identified,’ I said. ‘It pays to be cautious, especially after what happened last night.’

‘Will you tell my mother about that?’ Nambu asked.

‘Do you want me to?’ The thought had crossed my mind, but only because the queen wasn’t being completely honest with me over why she had given her only daughter to strangers.

‘I would rather you didn’t.’ Nambu had more than a hint of pride in her voice. ‘I assure you, I have nothing to hide. I could just do without a fuss being made. Besides . . . I am enjoying being here and she might take me back to some awful cold room again, with nothing but books and a view across the city’s rooftops for days on end.’

‘Then there seems no need to let her know.’

Again, it occurred to me that the queen would not want her back – that she wanted Nambu out of the way. The queen might not be able to trust people in her court. I also considered that, if this was the case, she would not want any of her own
untrustworthy
guards placed on the door to a room that wasn’t, in practical terms, supposed to exist. It bothered me that the queen might not trust her own people. Was that the simple paranoia of a royal holding on to power? The fear that someone would thirst for the crown so badly that they would not only kill the queen but her daughter too?