by Trevol Swift
“Thank you for your understanding, Abbess.”
“Understanding? Yes. I’d hate to have your explorations about the abbey hindered by a divided focus.”
Jhee searched for Shep again. The horticulturist stopped her before she left.
“I have those supplies you wanted,” Sister Serra said. “Stop by the agri-pods. I may be able to provide additional help.”
“Thank you, Sister Serra.”
The Temptation
After Jhee and Bax collected Mirrei and Kanto, they found Shep in the garden once again.
“So, what is my fate, Justicar?” Shep asked then tugged on his forearm hairs.
“This matter fell under the abbess’s jurisdiction. She won’t pursue any additional punishment. They explained the terms?”
“They’ll give me until the rest of the day out here to reflect, but they have asked I remain in our room until we leave.” Shep stared out into the distance. “A fair ask.”
Jhee sat the bench beside Shep. She stroked his face. He kissed her palm and traced his eye scar with her thumb. He froze when he saw the discolored sigil on her arm.
“How bad?”
“Level two.”
He stifled a sob. “I’m sorry. You and the others might want to secure separate rooms for yourselves as a precaution.”
“No, dear one, no. The dish you grabbed was blood porridge.”
“Makers.” Shep tugged the hairs of his arm. “I like it here. It’s very peaceful. A great many veterans reside here. It’s good to be around others who know what it’s like.”
“Indeed,” Jhee said. He took her hand and gently squeezed it. Despite what happened, she liked seeing how easy and untroubled he was. Her caretaker. Everyone’s caretaker. She only wished she looked after him as well as he did the rest of them.
Jhee took a stand and dusted herself off.
Shep did too. “Let’s go for a walk.”
They walked through the courtyard and gardens. Shep’s hands clasped behind his back and hers dignified and tucked into the sleeves of her robes. The minutes’ respite, the privacy, the open space, and the beautiful surroundings emboldened her. She slipped a hand over and looped it through his arm. She kept public displays of affection to a proper minimum nowadays. She never wanted to make Kanto and Mirrei feel uncomfortable or left out, so she tried to maintain a certain equanimity to how she behaved towards them. Yet, her urge to be fair sometimes shortchanged Shep. With the junior spouses elsewhere and the location so secluded, she indulged herself. Droplets of moisture glistened in his blue-gray body hair. Mindful of prying eyes, she reached over and stroked his forearm.
Shep pulled her into one of the alcoves. Jhee taken aback gave a quick glance around. They ensured no one watched before he slipped an arm around her waist. She and Shep nuzzled their noses together gently, before succumbing to a kiss. Jhee squeezed his upper arms for encouragement.
“I miss being alone with you,” she whispered.
“Me too.”
“One room. We’d have to be quiet.”
“As I recall, I’m not the one who had trouble keeping quiet.”
They shared another deeper kiss. Then stood for a moment with their escae together.
“Sometimes I can’t breathe for wanting you.”
They could find a discrete place now if they wished to find a few moments pleasure with each other. Behavior as fair to no one as it was improper. She had to conduct herself with the honor and decorum required of her office. She had to respect the abbey’s rules. He deserved more than a few stolen moments.
“It’s so tranquil here,” he said.
“Perhaps we should forget the capital and simply take up on one of the nearby isles.”
Shep smiled. “Yes, and we could work the seas and dive like we did as children. We’d fish and build a good home just the four of us with none of the pressures or intrigues of court.”
“I don’t know. For myself, I think I’d set up a cyphering school or a more permanent judicial arrangement helping refugees secure aid along with work credentials. Perhaps a tailor’s shop or music school for Kanto. For Mirrei, a lab. No, a community center or garden where she could sell embroideries, do light healing work. It would be just lovely, don’t you think?”
“Yes. Yes, it would.”
Jhee and Shep stared at each other. Neither seemed convinced. She saw his scars, and he saw hers. As quickly as they had abandoned decorum, they regained it and want back to their proper distant postures. Nothing but a respectable married couple. The look on their faces returned to somber as the dream of a simpler life flew from their minds.
“Could you imagine Kanto here? Stuck on another rural isle too small for him or his vision?”
“No. No, I can’t. He’d be bored beyond belief within a full-month.”
“Less.”
“He deserves a say.”
It still felt surreal to be the head of household. Jhee’s inheritance a fluke, the result of various coincidences and tragedies. She was not even supposed to be a justicar or magistrate. Her plan had long been to become a professor or fellow at some academy branch. Those were in the days of the Arcane Rehabilitation and Restoration Initiative. Before she enlisted in the military to follow Shep. She had been so young and naive. True, the intelligence pool was usually a nepotist scheme to avoid heavy combat. It had been the best place for her considering. She took the work seriously, which did not go unnoticed. Her head for details landed her several, critical military intelligence assignments despite the cloud surrounding her. Perhaps even because of it. For information the Central Authority did not wish to entrust to conch, ether, or parchment, they used ciphers she designed and her encoding skills to hide their messages.
14 Broken Promises and Remedies
The Fallout
Jhee stared at her conch, sitting alone on the charging station. Kanto and Mirrei had slipped out some time during the night. She paced and tapped her conch against her hand. Where were they likely to have gone?
Jhee yanked open the room door. They walked into view, giggling.
“Morning, denbe,” Mirrei said. “We charged your conch for you.”
Jhee turned the conch over and over in her hands. She still had not left the doorway. “Thank you.”
The junior spouses’ faces sobered as they brushed past.
“Mirrei agreed to take a look at our conchs.”
“Where were you two? I thought I warned you not to go wandering about alone, especially you Kanto.”
“Denye wasn’t unaccompanied. He was with me. Kanto and I ate with the laypeople. Not everyone can be so lucky as us to eat from the high tables. What they have to eat was a water’s worth less lavish than what we’ve eaten over the past few days.”
Kanto wrinkled his nose and looked ill. Eating from the high table suited him fine. Therefore, it had to be Mirrei’s half-drowned idea.
“Do your poverty tourism another time. I am well-appointed, and you are provided with the finest food, clothes, and medicine. And you always will be for as long as I can sustain it. You know how lucky you are. Can’t you just enjoy it?”
“Pause, respite. Mirrei, could you give me a moment with our denbe?”
“Fine.” Mirrei stomped into the next room.
“I suggested we give you and Shep some space,” Kanto said.
“You should have informed me of your whereabouts regardless.”
“Had you kept your promise, you’d know our whereabouts.”
“My promise?”
“Whose day is it?”
The indignation which had stiffened Jhee’s posture and made her so haughty drained away.
“You don’t remember, do you? Today is Mirrei’s day. Yesterday was mine. We moved around the days. Remember? Did it even cross your mind to ask me?”
“To spend the day with Shep? He was in crisis.”
“About anything? You think me petty or insensitive. I am not without empathy. All you had to do was ask or inform me
even. But I didn’t even cross your mind. It was our day, and I got to spend it watching you sharing passionate embraces with another while plotting to send me away.”
Jhee deflated even further. “The whispering wall.”
“You’re going to send Mirrei and me away once we reach the capital.”
“It’s more complicated than that. That was always the arrangement. In the capital, there will be those richer and more powerful than I. Or whose goals simply align better with yours. You want more than I can give you and you should have it. Politicking and power bring out the worst in me. My best life is a modest one. I’d still be a provincial official if I could. That would never suit you.”
Kanto sighed and softened his tone, “How would you know? Did you ever ask, or did you just assume? I’ve committed to you and your household. A commitment I wish went both ways.”
“Once we are somewhere with more options, I don’t want you to feel obligated.”
“Obligated? Neither Mirrei nor I want to be an obligation. What we want is your enthusiastic affection. What really happened to your belongings?”
“I gave them away.”
“You what?”
“It had to be done. You wouldn’t understand.”
“What I don’t understand is why you were wearing them in the first place. Those robes were not for running around in the dark or repairing ships. You even lost the poultice. Typical. It’s not about the robes. It’s not about days. It’s about respect and consideration. You have no respect for the gifts we give you. You have no respect for us, or perhaps just me.”
Kanto stopped. The truth of the thought fixed itself in his expression. Jhee realized too, seeing his reaction. He folded his hands into his robes and composed himself.
“I see,” Kanto said.
“I’ve always been respectful to you.”
He guffawed. “Proper, yes. Respectful, debatable. When we are together, you are always proper, a perfect gentlewoman. You were always perfectly proper. I could tolerate your reserve, your aloofness when I thought it simply your nature or a tactic. Some denbe do that, so none of their spouses know where they stand. In one glimpse, I saw otherwise. With him, you were vulnerable, open. I heard the desire in your voice. The way you spoke to Shep. The way you came alive in his arms for that one instant he kissed you. It’s more than what I heard or saw. It’s the affectionate and sometimes longing way you react to him. It’s so effortless. He doesn’t have to use tricks to stir passion in you. It’s written in every way you touch each other. To sense the history there, to understand how he gets a part of you, I can never hope to....”
“Missing your day was unfair and inconsiderate. I remember we chose the day schedule because we thought it would be more equitable. Everyone received their own day instead of grouping it by activity. Fancy balls or political functions, which I hate and would have avoided, meant I might never spend time with you. I mishandled this. The respectful course would have been to ask to suspend the schedule during the investigation and not set up expectations for how much time I’d spend with you.”
“Or as now, I’d be left the sole objector while Mirrei and Shep accepted it.”
Jhee glanced at her things where she kept the broken music box. It might make the perfect peace offering, but judged the gesture too manipulative or worse, maudlin. Instead, she thrust a handkerchief at him. “What can you tell me about this?”
Kanto wiped his hand down his face then took the handkerchief with a sigh. “Nice scent, a Winter or Spring Forest fragrance, but the pattern’s at least a decade out of fashion. Where did you get it?”
“I must have picked it up from somewhere. Is there anything I can do to make up for my oversight?”
“Is this where you attempt more matchmaking between the vizier and me? Or make another promise you break? Communicate with me honestly, so I don’t have to assume or speculate and can serve your household properly. Unless... it’s not about me, but you. You think I settled. You think this isn’t where I want to be. It was. Until this moment. I’m not sure if I can do this.”
“Will you be taking leave of us once we reach the capital?”
Kanto tucked his hands into his sleeves and stiffened his spine. “I haven’t decided yet. If I may take my leave of you, denbe? Only to the next room.”
“Of course.”
“Thank you.” Kanto stalked to the stool by the window and took up his sketchbook without further acknowledging her.
“Whelm!” Jhee said.
The Mineral Springs
Mirrei poked her head into the antechamber. Jhee remained in the antechamber where Kanto had left her, but she had settled into one of the tea nook chairs. He sketched furiously by the window.
Mirrei pulled up the other chair. “I trust you’re in a better mood.”
“Your trust would be misplaced.”
“Let’s relax with perhaps a soak in their open-air mineral springs.”
“Open-air.”
“It’s not that bad out now. There’s a nice mist to provide a little privacy. Hm? Hm?”
Mirrei leaned in and nuzzled Jhee’s cheek.
“As you wish.”
Eternal praises and the First Makers’ blessings to the intrepid soul who had carved steps into some of the mineral springs. They made it so much easier on Jhee’s knees and feet as she and Mirrei descended into the healing pools. After a few moments, her aching muscles relaxed. The young woman had been right, even with the drizzle and fog this had been worth the chance.
Jhee licked her lips. The minerals tasted sharp and salty, but sweeter than the salt taste of the sea air.
“Did you take your saline?”
“I must have forgotten in the excitement. Did you take your inhaler?”
“I must have forgotten in the excitement. Travel on the yacht had been so peaceful. To tell the truth, I had gotten rather used to not taking it.”
The still, warm water had a particulate size too small to be detected by the unaided. Jhee murmured a basic cypher to enhance her sense of touch. Her skin tingled from the slight grittiness. Her imagination? The healing properties of the waters? She sighed. She might stay here forever.
Mirrei swam by her naked. On a sunny day, the waters may well have been crystal clear. Now, though, they had a grayish sheen which made them murky. Jhee barely made out the outline of her body. Wisps of steam rose from the pool’s surface. Mixed with the fog, they caused a wavering haze which obscured the other springs. Jhee was glad Mirrei had the opportunity to take the waters with her. She only wished she could show her and Kanto the sights of the island. She felt terrible for them holed up in their room the whole time. And before that, cooped up on the yacht. It was bound to make them a little cabin cross. Here, she felt it a necessary precaution, though. She became all too aware of her bug bites again as the minerals irritated them.
Mirrei floated to Jhee’s side. Her ears had perked up, and her pallor no longer quite looked so peaked. They shared a few kisses. “You’re investigating a crime.”
“A small matter.”
“Murder.”
“Nothing for you to worry about.”
“Then why have you kept us locked away and under constant supervision while you run about the place tipsy turbulent?”
“I can’t get anything past you, can I?”
“You don’t have to hide it if you are.”
“There seems to be something odd happening here. I’m just curious as to what. It will probably turn out to be routine. You know me. Looking for mysteries everywhere.”
Mirrei tilted her head at Jhee. “You’re a better liar than this.”
“I found strange occurrences and incidents. Nothing I would stake my legal tabard and credentials on.”
“Now, that was the truth.” They left the springs and made their way to the nearby sauna. “Do you want another day off so you can work?”
Jhee grabbed a package of Tranquility Bridge’s patented mineral salts. She poured the salts into the s
teamer and ladled water on to the warming stones. “That won’t be necessary. The horticulturist offered me this. She called it ‘seed of enlightenment,’ a study aid.”
Mirrei turned the plant over in her hands then took a good sniff. She wrinkled her nose. “Maate-Kheru Verdalia. Brightshade, sometimes called seed of enlightenment. A hallucinogen and natural insect repellent. Most plants of that Maker taxonomy are. Seems as though you should have taken some. You would have avoided your current discomfort. One of its derivatives also treats migraines.”
Jhee put some spike leaf gel on her insect bites. “Explains why the insects swarmed me yet left her unmolested. Would you like to work the case with me?”
Mirrei swirled her hands throughout the steam. “I’m not sure what help I’d be. Another trip to the horticulturist is definitely in order. You look like you are in need of another poultice.”
“I’m sorry I gave your previous one away.”
“May I ask to whom?”
“Refugees. Their camps are on the beach on the far side of the fishing village. The conditions they live in... It’ll break your heart.”
“Then why should I mind if you gave it away? Seems they needed it more. Speaking of, don’t forget to take your neutralizer and change out your spare.”
Jhee had a quick puff while Mirrei popped a saline tablet. “Happy now?”
“Denbe, you told me the number one cause of death in our district was poison.”
“Natural causes.”
“You meant poison. Difficult to tell without autopsies.”
“That it is. Good on you for catching that. Thank you for setting up that alert on my conch. For that and making me address them.”
“If you are going to take the time to set them, you should not ignore them.”
“I know. With the move and the travel, I had let them slide. Four people died in the few weeks before we arrived. According to the abbey’s public records, the deadliest period since they had a boat capsize and a scaffolding collapse during renovations.”
“Unusual enough for the search to catch.”