Mermaid Precinct (ARC)

by Keith R. A. DeCandido

  That surprised Torin. “I didn’t realize you took in full-bloods.”

  “We took in anybody. That was the point. Yes, most of our population were halfbreed elves, because they were hunted down everywhere else, but we took in plenty of others.”

  By this time, they’d reached the River Walk, bringing them to Mermaid Precinct. It was midday, and several of the fishing ships had come in or were coming in with the day’s catch, which would be many people’s dinners tonight.

  Snaking their way through the crowds—the increase in Cliff’s End’s population made the docks a nightmare to navigate, especially around midday—all conversation ceased, as the crowds and noise made it impossible to speak audibly. By the time they made it to the far end of the precinct, where the new dock extension was being built, Torin felt physically exhausted from pushing his way through the crowds. Whatever inkling the populace might have had to step aside for members of the Castle Guard was no match for their desire to purchase fish at midday, it seemed.

  Jayson and Gonzal from Mermaid Precinct were standing near a black dinghy. Torin noticed that it had a flagpole but no flag.

  Gonzal stepped forward to greet the detectives. “Lieutenants. That’s the Pirate Queen’s sailing master. S’all he’d say, though, ’cept that the Pirate Queen’s dead, and he wants you two—well, you, Lieutenant Tresyllione—t’be the ones t’investigate.”

  Danthres barely acknowledged Gonzal before continuing forward.

  Indicating the dinghy with his head, Torin asked, “Is the boat not flying a flag?”

  “Oh, it was, but we asked the gentleman t’take it down. Figured it’d attract attention, y’know?”

  “Good idea,” Torin said.

  He then jogged to catch up with Danthres, who was approaching the dinghy. “Lisson? Is that you?”

  The gentleman on the boat broke into a huge grin. “It is you! The Cap’n said you were workin’ for the Castle Guard doin’ detective work—heard you solved Gan Brightblade’s murder.”

  “We both did,” Torin said. “I’m her partner, Lieutenant Torin ban Wyvald.”

  Lisson frowned. “Ban Wyvald? You’re the Chief Artisan of Myverin’s son?”

  “No longer—now I’m the High Magistrate’s son, as my father was promoted.”

  “You’ll be amused to know that there was a bounty for you during the war. Cap’n thought about trying to track you down—least that’s what I heard. I was just a deckhand back then.”

  “Which is when I knew him,” Danthres said. “So the Captain is dead?”

  Nodding, Lisson said, “Yes, and we believe she was murdered. I’d like you to come with us to Rising Jewel and investigate.”

  “Why won’t you bring your ship here?” Torin asked.

  “I doubt we could fit all three of her boats here,” Danthres said with a glance at her partner.

  “Actually,” Lisson said with a sigh, “it’s just the one ship. The Cap’n got rid of Heart of Silver and Dwyte’s Revenge.”

  “How come?” Danthres sounded surprised.

  “It became too difficult to wrangle three ships. And our numbers have been down consistently over the past few years—too many crew retiring, not enough replacements. In any case, if you step onto the dinghy with me, I can take you to—”

  Torin folded his arms over the gryphon medallion etched into the chest of his leather armor. “Absolutely not.”

  Lisson frowned. “Whyever not?”

  “You expect us to simply hand ourselves over as your prisoners?”

  “You won’t be our prisoners. We wish you to investigate the Cap’n’s death, as I said.”

  “And why should we believe that you’d do this?”

  Lisson smirked. “Well, your Castle Guard does have a reputation for solving such murders. Even of famous figures in Flingaria—not just Gan Brightblade and Olthar lothSirhans, but also I believe you uncovered Lord Blayk’s conspiracy to murder his father Lord Albin.”

  Torin waved an arm back and forth. “It’s nothing to do with that. You’re pirates. It’s difficult to trust you under the best of circumstances. You mentioned my father—a year ago, he attempted to bring me home. Obviously, he did not succeed. Just enough time has passed for him to have returned to Myverin in failure and for the council to then put out a bounty on my head to make another attempt. For that matter, Danthres and I have made many enemies outside Cliff’s End—two years ago, we exposed a wealthy gentleman in Treemark who was hoarding Hamnau gems. The Brotherhood of Wizards confiscated them. For that matter, I can’t imagine that the conspiracy Lord Blayk masterminded only involved him. And those are just the people I can think of off the top of my head who might wish to pay for us to be captured and brought to them. I’m afraid that sailing with you to your boat is out of the question.”

  For a moment, Torin feared that Danthres would go against his feeling, letting her familiarity with the Pirate Queen cloud her judgment.

  Luckily, his partner was smarter than that, which was one of the reasons why he liked being her partner.

  “Torin’s right,” she said. “We’ll need more if we’re to go with you.”

  “You knew the Cap’n, Danthres, don’t you wish to give her justice?”

  “Yes, I knew her—two decades ago. All I know of her since is her reputation, which, as my partner has cogently pointed out, is as a pirate. By definition, her life—and yours—is one of criminality, and our function is to stop criminals, not help them. And we have nothing to prove what you say.”

  Lisson stared at her for a second, looking disappointed. Torin would gladly live with that disappointment, and was prepared to turn around and wade through the crowds at the docks to go back to the castle.

  However, Lisson then put his hand over his heart and said, “I swear by the soul of Dwyte that I speak the truth when I say that the Cap’n is dead, and we wish you to investigate her death as you would any murder in Cliff’s End. I also swear by the soul of Dwyte that you will come to no harm on Rising Jewel and will be returned to the dock when your work is done.”

  Before Torin could scoff at that, Danthres said, “Very well. Let’s go.”

  “Excuse me?” Torin couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “One oath and you trust this—this criminal?”

  “Yes,” Danthres said, “because the oath is sworn on the soul of the greatest pirate who ever lived. Dwyte was the pirate who harried Baron Alomgord’s forces for years. Any pirate who goes back on that oath is put to death.”

  Lisson regarded Torin intently. “I have never before sworn that oath, Lieutenant ban Wyvald—because nobody has ever doubted my word in the past. Yes, I am a pirate, but that simply means I live beyond the laws of mortal governments—as do we all. We do, however, live by our own code, and the most sacrosanct part of that code is to swear on Dwyte’s soul.”

  Danthres put a hand on his shoulder. “Torin, trust me. Please.”

  Torin sighed. “Very well. You, I trust, Danthres, always. If you believe this oath will protect us, then I will agree to sail to the pirate ship.”

  “Thank you.” Lisson’s words were passionate, and heartfelt, and Torin almost believed in their sincerity.

  “We should also send for Boneen,” Torin added.

  “Who is that?” Lisson asked.

  “Our magickal examiner,” Danthres said. “A mage on loan from the Brotherhood of Wizards. He casts a spell that enables him to see what happened in a particular place in the past.”

  Lisson shook his head. “That would be a waste of time, I’m afraid. Rising Jewel is quite heavily warded against all spells.”

  Torin’s eyes widened. “All spells?”

  “It was a very expensive undertaking—and quite all encompassing. I think that’s also truly part of why she pared down to a single ship. Renewing the wards is even more costly.”

  “Very well, though that will make the process more complicated,” Torin said with a sigh.

  Danthres shrugged as she stepped onto the dinghy
. “It’s not as if it’s the first time we’ve been unable to work with a peel-back.”

  “True.” Torin turned to Gonzal and Jayson. “Send a message to Captain Dru, please, and let him know where we’re going and what we’re doing.” He hesitated, then added, “If we’re not back by the end of shift, assume that we’ve been kidnapped by the Pirate Queen.”

  “Torin!” Danthres said.

  “Forgive me, Danthres, but I prefer to have a contingency in case your old friend here whom you haven’t seen in two decades is an unscrupulous pirate who goes back on his word.”

  Lisson gazed at Danthres. “Your friend is quite obdurate.”

  “My partner is correct in his misgivings. He doesn’t know you and has no reason to trust you. For that matter, as he points out, I haven’t seen you in some time. Do you blame us for taking steps to ensure our safety?”

  “I suppose not.” He lowered his head and sighed. “Forgive me, Danthres, but the Cap’n’s death—”

  She put a hand on his shoulder. “I understand.” Then she looked up at Torin. “Shall we?”

  Nodding, Torin also hopped onto the dinghy. “Let us go to our aquatic crime scene.”

  FIVE

  Manfred was trying very hard not to giggle watching Aletha lothLathna “training” her new partner, the freshly promoted Lieutenant Dannee Ocly.

  “So when you’re done with the report—” Aleta started, pointing at a scroll that contained the report on the Gorf case that she’d been forced to close on her own, since the other four detectives had been busy with other cases.

  Dannee didn’t let her finish, of course. “I sign it and then give it to Ep. We can summon him through that window.” She pointed a stubby finger at the picture window that showed the amazing view of the Forest of Nimvale. After a year, Manfred was still captivated by the beauty of the forest as seen through that window, especially watching it change with the seasons. (It was amazing at midwinter.)

  Aleta let out a long sigh. “Would it be too much to ask that I be permitted to finish a sentence once in a while?”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry!” Dannee’s face fell. Her visage had the compressed quality usually seen in dwarves, complete with the mustache common to dwarven women, and it looked hilarious all wide and frightened like that. Not to mention that face, the coarse hair of a dwarf, and the small hands and stubby fingers of a dwarf all on someone who was the same height as Manfred himself. “It’s just—I’ve been waiting for this day for so long, and—” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Lieutenant. Please, continue.”

  Now Aleta smiled indulgently. “It’s all right. And you should call me Aleta. We’re colleagues now.”

  “Right, right, right, I keep forgetting.”

  “I was the same way,” Manfred said from his desk. “Torin kept having to remind me to call him, uh, Torin.”

  Kellan came into the squadroom with Sergeant Jonas.

  “Hey, partner,” Manfred said. “All done with the magistrate?”

  Nodding, Kellan hung his cloak up on the pegboard before moving to sit at his desk, which was next to Manfred’s. “Yeah. Gave him five years.”

  Slamming his hand on the desk, making the scrolls on it bounce and startling the others in the squadroom, Manfred stood up angrily. “Dammit, that’s the minimum sentence.”

  Dannee made an “eeep!” noise and cringed, while Aleta immediately went for her sword before realizing it was just Manfred letting off steam.

  “What is it now?” Aleta asked, taking her gloved hand off the hilt of her sword.

  “Avnarro got the minimum for robbing those stands down Jorbin’s Way.”

  Dannee rubbed her furry chin. “Five years is still a really long time when you’re all alone on the barge. Don’t you think he’ll be miserable enough?”

  Kellan stared up at him. “C’mon, it was his first offense, we caught him in about ten seconds, and he confessed before we could even ask him anything. He knows it was stupid, and he’ll spend five years on the barge realizing he was stupid, and we’ll never see him again because he’ll be scared shitless. This guy wasn’t your criminal mastermind, y’know?” He grinned. “’Sides, that isn’t the important part.”

  Manfred frowned. In truth, Dannee’s comment had extinguished his frustration, and he sat back down. “What’s the important part?”

  “We’ve now closed twelve cases in a row, all of which resulted in imprisonment or execution. That’s gotta be a record.”

  “Not hardly,” Jonas said. “Nael and Karistan hit thirteen in a row twice, and so did Iaian and Linder once.”

  “Fine,” Manfred said, “so we close our next case and—”

  “And you’ll be tied for third.” Jonas smiled viciously. “The captain and Hawk hit fourteen in a row.”

  “So what’s the record?” Kellan asked.

  Aleta rolled her eyes. “Let me guess—Torin and Danthres?”

  Jonas shook his head. “No, the most they’ve closed in a row has been six. No, the record is fifteen by two of the first people Captain Brisban hired to be detectives when Lord Albin first made the Castle Guard into an investigatory agency, Lieutenants Morlland and Jhimi.”

  “Fine.” Manfred leaned back in his chair. “We just have to close three more cases, and we dethrone those two.”

  Kellan put his head in his hands. “Great, now you’ve jinxed it.”

  “Oh, stop it. There’s no such thing.”

  “In my experience, Wiate doesn’t waste much time yanking the rug out from under people who get too arrogant.”

  Manfred stuck his tongue out at his partner. “I’m not arrogant, we’re just that good.”

  “You’re lucky,” Jonas said. “I was just a guard when Nael and Karistan had their streaks, but I can tell you this—they weren’t great detectives. I mean, they were fine, don’t get me wrong, but not great detectives. But they got lucky. And so did you.”

  “Hey, that’s not fair,” Kellan said. “Closing the Cuir Mak case took a lot of effort.”

  Jonas nodded. “And the next five cases after that were all so easy that one of the dumber guards could have closed them. The point is, these streaks aren’t about skill, they’re about luck and skill. Morlland and Jhimi barely even knew how to be detectives because the job was so new, but they managed to stumble their way into some easy cases—partly because some of the laws have changed since the Castle Guard was repurposed. Torin and Danthres have never closed more than half a dozen in a row, and they’re better detectives than you’ll ever be.”

  Aleta frowned. “That’s not fair.”

  Jonas pointed at Manfred and Kellan. “Sorry, I was referring specifically to those two.”

  “Hey!” Kellan said. “That’s not fair!”

  “Who said life is fair? It’s true. Eventually, you’re gonna get a case you can’t close. Happens to everyone. Might even be the next one through the door, since you two are up next.”

  The sergeant then went back out the door into the main part of the castle with his scrolls, his green cape billowing behind him.

  “You realize he’s full of shit, right?” Manfred said to Kellan.

  “No, you’re full of shit. Look, I admit, we’ve done some good work, but we’ve also had some easy ones.”

  As Kellan spoke, Aleta was saying to Dannee, “So now we file them with Ep. The thing about Ep is that he loses everything, and whatever he doesn’t lose, he misfiles. I remember one time, Horran and I were trying to dig up an old file on a child abduction case from about five or six years back. Took three days for Ep to locate it.”

  “Really?” Dannee shook her head. “You know, I’d heard that about the imp, but I was surprised. In my experience, imps are very well organized.”

  Manfred’s eyes went wide. “Excuse me?”

  Kellan added, “Yeah, Dannee, your experience is way different from ours.”

  Dannee turned and regarded them curiously. “How many imps have you dealt with?”

  “Um...” Kellan shift
ed in his chair. “Well, just this one...”

  Manfred, though, had more of a leg to stand on than his partner. “Back when I first came up, I was assigned to Unicorn, and there was a domestic involving an imp. It was a big mess, the imp screwed everything up so bad. Ep’s not as bad as that shitbrain imp was, but he’s still pretty awful.”

  “That’s really bizarre.” Dannee looked at Aleta. “May I file the paperwork, please, Aleta?”

  Holding up her hands, Aleta said, “I also need the file for the Abinori case. I’m testifying before the magistrate tomorrow on that one, and I want to go over it in the morning.”

  “I can do that, but why not wait until morning?”

  Chuckling, Aleta said, “Haven’t you been listening? It could take him that long to locate the file.”

  “It won’t. I promise.”

  “All right.” Aleta sounded as dubious as Manfred felt. “But if you lose your temper in frustration, we’ll all understand.”

  With a pleasant smile, Dannee took the paperwork from the Gorf case and then approached the picture window.

  She turned to Aleta. “I say the name of the case, right?”

  Aleta nodded.

  “Sen fin heriox Gorf.”

  Manfred blinked. “What did she just say?”

  Kellan seemed stunned, and didn’t answer—though the question was rhetorical in any case.

  That didn’t stop Aleta from answering. “I don’t recognize any of those words. Well, except Gorf, obviously.”

  Even as they expressed their confusion, a portion of the window twisted and reformed into the bearded face of the imp.

  Ep spoke in a similar tongue, though he spoke so fast, Manfred couldn’t even make out the words.

  “Guvni fan hel heriox Abinori,” Dannee said as she placed the Gorf scroll into Ep’s beard.

  Another scroll came out a second later, which was the fastest Ep had ever retrieved a case file, wrong or right, in the year Manfred had been a lieutenant.

  Some more rapid-fire gibberish from the imp, then both Ep and Dannee laughed heartily, and Dannee said, “Ava say fon ava torc.”