Tempt the Devil (The Devil of Ponong series #3) (27 page)

“That would be because she put another one on under it.
Don’t ask me why. On our way to your office, after we brought Mityam here and
left him to rest, she stopped in the marketplace and bought a men’s sarong from
one of those women who walk around with a basket on her head. She bought a
man’s blouse too. Then she put them on under her clothes, right there in a
tamtuk stall.”

“And you never left her side?”

“I didn’t watch her put on the extra clothes, but she wasn’t
more than five feet away, right until she walked into your office.”

She was innocent of Turyat’s murder, or she had pulled off
an impossible trick.

Kyam turned to Mityam. “I know your reputation was made
interpreting our constitution, but do you have any insights into murder, Mister
Muul?”

Mityam grinned at his tea as if he shared a secret with
it. “Not professionally, but it is a little hobby of mine. Cases, I mean. I
haven’t left a trail of bodies behind me in Surrayya.” He smiled at his tea
again. “That you know of.”

“Your wit in court is legendary.”

“Your grandfather, Theram, doesn’t always find me so
amusing.”

“He wouldn’t.”

Rather than pull his desk chair over, Voorus settled
behind Kyam and extended his long legs under the coffee table. Kyam’s neck
twinged every time he turned back to include him in the conversation, so he
concentrated on Mityam. He had a feeling Voorus might prefer that. They’d never
been close friends, but they’d never been awkward together. QuiTai had only
told Voorus this morning that he was Kyam’s half-brother. Maybe he was still in
shock.

“I’m looking into the murder of ex-Governor Turyat,” Kyam
said. “I’ve never had to make a case that could bear legal scrutiny. It’s
different in Intelligence. Motives are presumed to center around espionage, and
you proceed under the assumption that it’s your right and duty to be judge,
jury, and executioner.”

Mityam directed a knowing nod at Voorus. “How is that
different from how Chief Justice Cuulon runs Levapur?”

“We have a lot of work to do here to reform the justice
system, I’ll admit.” Kyam waved off the refill of tea offered by Voorus. “But I
don’t have time for that now. I want to talk to you about murder. What kind of
person is a typical killer?”

“A husband. Or a father.”

“Are you being funny?”

Mityam sighed. “Sadly, no. If your victim was a woman,
forty percent of the time her husband or lover killed her. Higher than that if
she was pregnant. That’s not just Thampur. Across the continent, it’s a sadly
consistent number. Except, of course, in Ingosol, but let’s ignore them since
most people on this island have a fixed gender. Men tend to be killed more
often by strangers than women are, but still overwhelmingly they are killed by
someone they know. No wonder some people chose to be hermits.”

“That doesn’t help me. Turyat knew QuiTai.”

“Are you trying to prove her innocent, or find the killer?”

“That’s the same thing, isn’t it?” Voorus asked.

“Innocence is almost impossible to prove. Find a better
suspect instead.” Mityam suggested.

“I’m trying! Either I can look at who might want to kill
Turyat – I haven’t had much luck there – or I can look into who
might want to frame QuiTai for murder. That list is longer and much more
complicated.”

“Frame QuiTai?” Mityam laughed. In the uneasy silence that
followed, he glanced from Voorus to Kyam. “She’s a retired actress who runs a
brothel. Who would want to frame her for murder? Another brothel owner? Did she
have a rival in love? Is she up to her old tricks seducing the power brokers?”

Kyam wondered if Voorus wanted to handle this, but the
captain raised his hands and shrugged elaborately.

“You knew QuiTai back in Surrayya?” Kyam asked.

Mityam settled back as if ready to take a long sail
through his sea of memories. Kyam’s teeth ground together.

“The first time I met her, I brought flowers for Jezereet
and handed my cloak to QuiTai. I never made that mistake again. Fascinating
girl – once you got past the eyes and her nature, of course.”

Voorus choked out, “Her nature?”

Kyam bristled too, but he didn’t have time to lecture
Mityam. The more interesting thing was Voorus’ seeming change of heart about
QuiTai. Something clearly had been going on between the two, even if they weren’t
lovers.

Even though he felt it was a waste of time, Kyam decided
to give Mityam a truer picture of QuiTai in the hopes that it would trigger the
man’s insight. “Maybe you’re not aware of QuiTai’s career since she returned to
Levapur. She opened the Red Happiness with her spouse, Jezereet Karula–”

Mityam made sympathetic noises. “I understand our beloved
Jez passed away last year. A great loss to the stage. QuiTai was devoted to
her.”

“Before that, QuiTai and Jezereet’s daughter was killed by
werewolves,” Kyam said.

“The whole family was slaughtered, right in front of her,”
Voorus said.

Polite sorrow sat like a mask on Mityam’s face. “I hadn’t heard.
How terrible.”

Kyam hoped Voorus would stop interrupting. “At which point
QuiTai took up with a local criminal known as the Devil.”

“Isn’t that always the case with women of her caste? They’re
sexually attracted to the brutes.”

Even though he sometimes thought the same thing about
QuiTai, Kyam was deeply angered by Mityam’s words. Voorus grunted and shifted
in his chair. They didn’t have time to behave like frosty, overly polite,
wounded Thampurians, though, so he plunged ahead with her history. “The Devil
was, by all accounts, merely a local thug among many small gangs. He didn’t
stand out enough to make a lasting impression on anyone. But after she took up
with him, he consolidated power. Anyone who didn’t join him disappeared, or so
I’ve heard. This was before I arrived in Levapur.”

Voorus nodded. “Although there are always fools who test
the Devil’s power.”

And sometimes, they
win.
Kyam thought about the two bodies found in the alley last week.
Someone was after the Devil. He could probably protect QuiTai from the militia,
but not from the Devil’s enemies. He wouldn’t even know where to look for them.

“So you see, if you look at who might want to frame QuiTai
for murder, you have all the thugs forced to surrender power to the Devil, and
anyone wanting to take over the Devil’s networks,” Voorus told Mityam.

Kyam wondered when Voorus had become such an expert on the
Devil.

Mityam seemed to think they were telling sailors’ tales. “But
why would they go after the Devil’s woman?”

How could he explain it to Mityam? “It’s… she’s… No one
knows who the Devil is. You can’t attack him. It’s like trying to grasp a
smoke wraith
. He’s nowhere. He’s everywhere. Only
QuiTai seems to know who he is. But his anonymity is his weakness too. Kill
her, and you’ve hit the Devil where it hurts. Her lieutenants wouldn’t know who
to report to. A dozen people could claim to be the real Devil. It would be
anarchy.” It left a bad taste in his mouth to admit it, but it was true.
Lizzriat was right. Without QuiTai’s iron fist, Levapur’s underworld would be
far more dangerous and deadly than it was now.

The Devil, though – Kyam could execute him and no
one would miss the bastard. He could free QuiTai from the Devil’s clutches.

No! He couldn’t think that way. He wouldn’t choose the
Devil’s name over his freedom.

Did QuiTai know those thoughts would creep into his mind?
She probably put them there.

“This is a fantasy.” Mityam laughed uneasily.

Kyam forced himself to stop obsessing about the Devil. “That’s
just the local angle on who might want to frame her. My Grandfather is another
good suspect,” Kyam said. “Although he’d be acting through an agent, and who
knows who his agents are?” Except that he knew one. Nashruu.

Voorus sprang out of his chair. He smoothed back his hair
as he paced the room.

Mityam leaned back and watched Kyam over the rim of his
teacup. “This is interesting. Why would Theram Zul be interested in a former
actress? Although did you know she was once a magician’s assistant? And before
that, she was a lady pugilist. She had to flee Thampur after she knocked out a
Thampurian woman in the ring. It seems no one explained to her that the
barbarian girl is supposed to lose. She thought it was a real fight, not a
staged one.” Mityam clapped his fist against his thigh as he laughed heartily. “Knowing
our QuiTai, she knew she was supposed to lose but won anyway. She told me that
she escaped the country in a dirigible, minutes ahead of the police.”

When this was over and QuiTai was safe, Kyam vowed to sit
down with Mityam and listen to every QuiTai story the old man had – but
this was not the time.

He tried to keep the impatience out of his voice. “Mister
Muul, you have to stop thinking of QuiTai as a performer. See her for what she’s
become. She wields major influence on Levapur’s political landscape. From the
fashions Thampurian women wear to the price of whiskey, her fingers are in
every rice bowl. She’s started riots–”

“And stopped them,” Voorus said.

Kyam shot him a look and turned back to Mityam. “She’s a
shadow government.”

“And she’s a thorn in Theram Zul’s side.” Voorus smiled.

Mityam seemed pleased about that. No doubt he’d pass that
gossip back to his family in Surrayya as soon as he could get to a farwriter.
There were many members of the thirteen families who would love to see the Zul
family’s grip on power broken. Kyam didn’t care. By its nature, power was
fleeting. To think the Zul family could remain on top forever was foolish.

“Well, my boy, you had better hope that the murderer meant
to kill Turyat and only framed QuiTai by accident, because if she’s as
nefarious as you say, there’s no telling who might want her out of the way,”
Mityam said.

“If she were Thampurian, she wouldn’t have been accused. I
mean, her alibi would have been enough. Instead, it’s ignored,” Voorus
grumbled.

Kyam agreed with that but didn’t want to prompt Mityam
into another lecture. He got quite enough of that from QuiTai. “That’s because
Cuulon is seizing the opportunity to get rid of a witness to his crimes instead
of looking for Turyat’s real killer.”

Voorus grumbled, “Unless he is the real killer.” From his
expression, it was clear that that had slipped out before he thought it over.

“Oh, hell.” Kyam covered his face as he realized Voorus
might be right. “And I warned him that I’m looking for the truth. I think I
moved her execution up by several hours.”

His ticket out was slipping away. He had to fix this. He
had to save her.

As if he
read Kyam’s thoughts, Voorus jumped to his feet. “I’m coming with you.”

~ ~ ~

As Kyam and Voorus rushed toward the town square, Kyam
pulled his watch from his pocket and consulted it. He also glanced at the sun,
and saw it was already below the top fronds of the palm trees. There wasn’t
much time left. Executions were typically held at sundown, although if Cuulon
wanted to, he could kill QuiTai before then.

It seemed as if the entire town had risen from the midday
rest and gone to the marketplace so they could be in his way. Kyam and Voorus
pushed through the throngs to the funicular station. Fishmongers swarmed the
funicular cars to haul the daily catch to stalls in the marketplace. The engine
behind the shack puffed the stench of overcooked juam nut oil into the air.
Kyam wasn’t sure which stink was worse. At least the fish smelled of ocean.

His hand passed over his eyes. He missed the sea. Although
he lived on an island, the water taunted him, rushing over the sand to greet
him on the beach and then dancing away from his outstretched fingers. He wanted
to stand on a deck again and feel the ship heave under his boots as if it were
a great beast. He missed skies of churning gray clouds and foam-topped waves
breaking over the railing, uncertain winds changing direction like a school of
silvery fish on the reef. He wanted off Ponong. He hated his Grandfather for
marooning him here, but he hated QuiTai even more for offering to help him
escape and then betraying him. She’d broken his heart for this damned island.
But now she could give him his ticket home.

“Governor
Zul!”

Kyam
lowered his hand. He saw RhiHanya first, because she was the sort of woman who
drew your attention, but LiHoun had been the one to call out his name. He saw
the old cat-man through a narrow break in the crowd. He also saw a young
Ponongese woman with them.

“Is that
PhaSun with them?” he asked Voorus.

“Yes. The
little viper.”

Kyam shot
him a warning look. He glanced around at the crowd to see if any of them had
heard the slur. They seemed too intent on the hard work of offloading the heavy
baskets of fish to notice a couple of Thampurians.

“We’re surrounded by them, Voorus, try to be a bit more
polite,” he whispered.

Voorus looked confused for a moment and then grimaced. “I
didn’t mean like a snake. I meant she’s… Oh, never mind.”

The crowd moved for RhiHanya, and LiHoun was able somehow
to contort around baskets and people with odd grace despite his age, but
Pha
Sun shoved and cursed to get through.

“Governor Zul, we have brought PhaSun, as you requested.”
LiHoun gestured to the petite, curvaceous young woman wearing a bright pink
sarong.

“Can it wait? We have a bit of an emergency down at the
fortress,” Kyam said.

RhiHanya and LiHoun exchanged a worried look, but PhaSun
stepped forward. “Are you going to see QuiTai? Are you going to tell her what
Inattra did?”

Kyam looked at the funicular. It would be empty soon. He
couldn’t risk missing it when it left the station, but when would he have
another chance to talk to her? Too much was happening at once. “Captain Voorus,
could you tell the funicular operator I need him to hold the train for us?”