Aleta just pushed her way through. Lots of people got out of her way at the sight of her Guard armor, but those who didn’t, she shoved gently aside. Luckily, she knew her own strength, and she was able to use just enough force to move them without hurting them.
“Hey, watch it!”
“Stupid guard…”
“Get out of her way, y’shitbrain!”
Aleta ignored the shouting, did not waste energy shouting back or trying to importune the citizens of Cliff’s End to help her stop a murderer. That way lay frustration and a lack of assistance, especially here in Goblin, so she just kept running, never taking her eye off Xeros.
He turned onto Phar Way, and Aleta smiled. That was a dead end, and the only structures there were whorehouses—low-cost ones for folks who couldn’t afford the brothels on Sandy Brook Way—which weren’t open at this hour, and a cobbler who’d gone bankrupt and whose store was shuttered.
Running into Phar Way, she saw Xeros pull up in front of the closed cobbler’s, and turn around frantically. “Shit!”
Aleta stood with her hands on her hips. “Are we done with this idiocy?”
“I didn’t do nothin’!”
“Yes, you did. You killed Soza Lambit in the Dancing Seagull. I’m arresting you for homicide.”
“You can’t do that!”
“Can’t I?” Aleta said those words very quietly.
Xeros swallowed hard. “I mean, it ain’t homicide when you kill a bahrlan. Worst that is is animal mutilation, or somethin’!”
“So you admit to killing him?”
“I—” Xeros hadn’t realized that he’d caught himself up in a confession. “No, I mean, if I’d killed—”
Holding up a hand, Aleta said, “Please stop. Our magickal examiner cast a peel-back on the Seagull. He clearly saw you strangle Soza Lambit while the bar fight was going on. I don’t suppose you started that?”
“Nah, but I woulda. I mean, the stupid bahrlans are all over the place! Sick of ’em. An’ sick’a that Soza shitbrain, too. He got me fired from m’last job, complainin’ ’bout my work! Where does some filthy bahrlan get off tellin’ me, a loyal, tax-payin’ citizen’a Cliff’s End, how t’do my job?”
Aleta walked up to him and yanked his arms behind his back. “C’mon.”
Of Dannee, there was no sign. Aleta sighed and headed back to where she’d last seen her partner, which was the boarding house.
Sure enough, as she approached—which took much longer, as she followed existing foot paths rather than jumping a fence, plus she was walking while encumbered with a prisoner, not running—Dannee stuck her head out the same window Xeros had crawled out of.
“Oh, good, you’re back—and you got him!”
“No thanks to you,” Aleta said. “Where were you?”
“Um, here.” Dannee looked confused. “By the time I got around to the other side of the house there was no sign of either one of you. I don’t run very fast, and I had no idea where you got to. So rather than wander around the area trying to find you, I figured it might be useful to investigate Xeros’s room.” She smiled. “And I was right. You should come in here. Oh, and I sent one of the youth squad to find a guard, so they can take him away.”
Aleta’s angry retort died on her lips. Everything Dannee had said was completely sensible. Yes, it would be good to have backup when chasing a prisoner, but only if that backup could actually assist. While Dannee’s legs were much longer than that of a dwarf, they were on the short side by human or elven standards.
“Be right there.” She dragged Xeros around to the front of the house and walked in the front door, pausing en route to pick up her cloak off the ground. She’d half expected it to have been stolen. At least now she wouldn’t have to fill out any paperwork about losing it...
The dwarf who’d answered the door was in the hallway. “Ah, I see you caught him! Well done! I had no idea that a murderer was staying here, of course.”
“Oh, I’m sure you didn’t. You just figured he was a run-of-the-mill criminal, so you gave him a chance to leave without being arrested, thus forcing me to chase him down on foot, which I very much did not enjoy doing. Rest assured, I will remember that you made me do that the next time I need anything that relates to this boarding house of yours.”
At that, the dwarf swallowed audibly and tried to shrink into the wall.
Out of the corner of her eye, Aleta caught Xeros mouthing a thank-you to the dwarf, to which the dwarf’s only response was a scowl.
She entered the room, which was a basic boarding-house room: bed, water basin, desk. Not much by way of decoration.
Dannee held up a small stone encased in glass. “I found this on the desk. It has his name on it, as well as a date that I can only assume is his birth date.”
Aleta shrugged. “Okay.”
Realizing that Aleta had no idea of the significance of this stone, Dannee asked, “Do you know the history of Barlin?”
“Just that it was built on the plateau of Tserin’s Peak.”
Dannee winced. “No, that’s Iaron.”
Aleta sighed. She could never keep the other human city-states apart. “Fine, then I don’t know the history of Barlin.”
“It was founded as a mining colony at first, as there was a rich deposit of gold there. It’s all tapped out, now, but there was a vein of pyrite that fooled people into thinking it was gold. Still, it’s pretty, and about fifty years ago, a law was passed that every new child born in Barlin was given one of these stones. It was a source of pride for the city-state that their natives could have a token that showed that they were born in Barlin.”
“Do you have one?” Aleta asked.
Dannee shook her head. “No, I wasn’t actually born there. But he was.”
Looking at Xeros, Aleta saw that he looked more than a little abashed. “You’re from Barlin? You just went on at great length about ‘bahrlans’ and how awful they are, and you’re one of them?”
“I am not! I came here on my own years ago! I ain’t no stinkin’ refugee!”
Brenn from Goblin Precinct came through the door. “There you are—got a message that one of you guys wanted us?”
Aleta practically threw Xeros toward the guard. “We did. Take this shitbrain to the hole. He’s the one that committed the murder in the Seagull.”
“Shouldn’t he go to Mermaid, then?” Brenn asked.
“Technically, this boarding house is in Goblin, since it’s on the north side of the River Walk, and besides, all of Mermaid’s too busy keeping the gawkers away from the Pirate Queen. Just take him, please?”
“Fine fine, don’t go strangling me in my sleep or nothin’.”
As he left with the prisoner, Aleta called after him. “Keep making comments like that, Brenn, and I will strangle you, and I won’t wait until you’re asleep!”
“Look at that,” Dannee said with a big smile.
Aleta turned to face her partner. “Look at what?”
“We just put our first case down together!”
That improved Aleta’s mood tremendously. “We have, haven’t we? Let’s finish searching this room—”
“Oh, I’ve already searched it. There wasn’t anything else of use. I mean, it’s not like I’d find the murder weapon, since he used his hands.”
“True.” Aleta took one quick glance around the room just to be sure. “Fine, let’s get back to the castle, fill out the paperwork, and then go get a drink at the Old Ball and Chain.”
“Ooh, that’d be great! I’ve never been there!”
Aleta blinked. “How have you never been to the Chain?”
“I usually like to just go home after a shift. You know, relax and not see the same people I just spent half a day with. But for this? I’ll definitely come out. In fact, I’ll even pay for the drinks.”
“Excellent.” Aleta was going to offer to pay for the drinks herself, but if her new partner wanted to have that honor, she was not going to gainsay her.
The pair
headed back toward Meerka Way.
EIGHTEEN
Voran had been reluctant to be imprisoned in the dungeons in the lower reaches of the castle, but as the lieutenants explained it to him, the alternative was to go back to Rising Jewel.
At this point, Voran suspected that he would not be welcome on the vessel, particularly based on the look Boatswain Rodolfo had been giving him ever since he volunteered to speak to the Castle Guard. He had lied and said that it was about business unrelated to the ship, but he didn’t think Rodolfo believed it. In fact, Voran was sure that Rodolfo knew he was providing information about Princess Lillyana’s death, and Rodolfo didn’t seem pleased that Voran was telling the Myverin and the half-elf and not the other members of the crew.
But then, they weren’t “other” members of the crew, truly. For all that Voran prepared their meals all this time, for all that they made requests of him for particular meals, he wasn’t part of the crew. He pretended to be, of course, because that was his task, but it was over now. With Princess Lillyana dead, he had no reason to ever set foot on Rising Jewel ever again.
“I’m afraid,” the Myverin had said, “that the only alternative to escorting you back to the Rising Jewel is to put you in a cell as a protected witness. We will make the cell as comfortable as possible—a consideration that actual prisoners do not get. For one thing, we might actually be able to give you a mattress.”
“It’s fine, Lieutenant,” Voran had said, and he wasn’t lying. Once the Myverin lieutenant had brought him to the cell, he’d laughed.
“Something amuses you?” the lieutenant had asked.
“In comparison to my cabin on Rising Jewel—which I share with three other people, and on which I sleep on a hammock that gives me motion sickness—this is positively luxurious.”
He’d slept like a rock that first night, and then had been told by the guard that the lieutenants were in the midst of other business and would be back later. However, the guard had been authorized to bring him food, reading material, or other things he might like, within reason.
All Voran wanted was food and for this all to be over with.
“Later” turned out to be the following morning, when the guard unlocked Voran’s cell and escorted him back up to the detectives’ squadroom, specifically the same interrogation room where he’d been questioned two days earlier.
He waited there for some time before the two lieutenants finally entered.
“Good morning, good sir,” the Myverin said. “Our apologies for keeping you in that cell for so long, but we had to investigate your claims.”
That took Voran aback. “Excuse me?”
“We had to be sure,” the half-elf said, “that your claims were true. After all, if we simply believed everyone who spoke in this room, no one in Cliff’s End would have ever committed a crime.”
Voran shifted in the uncomfortable stool he’d been sitting on. He hadn’t expected that. “How—how did you—”
The Myverin smiled. “We travelled to Velessa. The Castle Guard has a wizard in its employ, you see, and he’s more than capable of casting a Teleport Spell.”
“I see.” Voran hadn’t expected this, but as he thought it over quickly, he realized it didn’t matter much. He had been told there were records in Velessa of the princess’s existence, and the lieutenants seeing them would only add validity to the Cabal’s mission.
Not that it had a mission anymore. The princess’s death negated their ability to install her on the Silver Thrones.
The Myverin sat in the chair opposite Voran, while the half-elf kept wandering about the room. It was very disconcerting, truly—she’d lean against a wall, then push herself off and wander to the other side, then lean against the door, then sit on the edge of the table that lay between Voran and the Myverin.
Trying not to let the half-elf’s perambulations distract him, Voran cleared his throat and spoke. “I had a good deal of time to think in the cell you put me in—not much else to do, really...”
“Again, apologies,” the Myverin said.
Holding up both hands, Voran said, “No, no, it’s fine. As I said the other day, it was something of a luxury after a year on Rising Jewel. It’s been some time since I’ve had that much privacy and quiet.”
The Myverin glanced at the half-elf, currently inspecting her left glove while leaning against the door. “I do believe that’s the first time the cells in the hole have been complimented for either of those aspects.”
Voran chuckled. “You must not have had many sailors in here, then.”
“Oh, we’ve had plenty,” the half-elf said. “But they’re not usually as talkative as you.”
“Fair enough. In any case, I was thinking about who might be responsible for poisoning Princess Lillyana, and I keep coming back to the people I signed on with—the four refugees from that commune to the south.”
“Sorlin, you mean,” the half-elf said. She was now sitting on the edge of the table again.
“Right.” Belatedly, Voran realized that, as a halfbreed, the lieutenant was likely at least familiar with Sorlin, if not actually from there. “Of course, you know of it. The princess travelled there often, I’m told, before it disbanded, and she regularly spoke very highly of the place.” He smiled. “I suspect she would have liked both of you, in fact. She had a soft spot for halfbreeds, and she spoke often of how she envied the people of Myverin their lifestyle.”
The Myverin scowled. “Most of those who envy the lifestyle of my homeland have never lived it. In any event, you mentioned that the Sorlin refugees were possible suspects?”
“Yes. You see, she favored those four quite a bit, especially the boatswain.”
“So what?” the half-elf asked.
“Well, obviously, my entire plan was to take her away from the ship. They’d only been on board a year, and I suspect they signed up with the notion that they’d be serving under the legendary Pirate Queen for a lot longer than that. Finding out that she was leaving may have led one of them to kill her rather than allow that to happen. Honestly, my silver pieces would go on Rodolfo.”
“Why him in particular?” the Myverin asked.
“He was next in line. Well, not next in line, but after serving on that ship for a year, I can assure you that neither the quartermaster nor the sailing master were going to take over. That puts the boatswain in position to take over.”
“What makes you say that with regard to Chamblin and Lisson?” The half-elf was now pacing behind the Myverin.
“Nothing specific, they just seemed—I suppose, tired of it all. It felt to me as if they were only continuing to serve out of loyalty to Princess Lillyana. Had she been able to go through with our plan, they likely would have retired to some island on the Garamin with their accumulated ill-gotten gains.”
“You suppose?” The half-elf stopped her pacing. “Didn’t the Captain discuss it with you?”
“The disposition of her crew? No. I didn’t really care about them all that much—my job was to convince her to claim her birthright.”
“So you didn’t discuss the crew,” the Myverin said. “What did you discuss?”
“Excuse me?”
“Following our journey to Velessa, we now know the circumstances under which the Pirate Queen—or, as you say, Princess Lillyana—departed Velessa and ceded her claim on the throne to her younger sister. What we do not know is how you convinced her to reverse that decision.”
Voran smiled. “It was easier than I had imagined.”
“Was it?” The half-elf’s question was dripping with sarcasm and doubt.
“No one was more surprised than I, Lieutenant,” Voran said. “I had expected resistance, of course, but she was surprisingly amenable to the notion. She told me that she wasn’t getting any younger and that gadding about the Garamin was, as she said, ‘a game for children.’ The notion of life in a castle, sitting on one of the Silver Thrones, was one she found very appealing as she grew older.”
“Interesting,�
�� the Myverin said.
The half-elf finally sat down next to her partner. “Not especially.”
“You don’t believe me?” Voran asked. It was obvious that the half-elf didn’t trust him, but at least the Myverin seemed to at least be considering what Voran was saying.
“I don’t believe that the Captain never discussed what would happen to her crew with you. She was devoted to her crew and they to her.”
“Absolutely,” Voran said quickly. “However, from the moment I revealed my true nature, she no longer considered me part of her crew.”
The half-elf nodded. “As well she shouldn’t have.”
Voran ignored her tone. “I have no doubt that she intended to take care of them.”
“Interesting,” the Myverin said again, “especially given what you said before.”
Opening his mouth and then closing it in confusion, Voran just stared at the lieutenant. “What—what did I say before?”
“Your assumption was that whoever poisoned the Pirate Queen did so out of fear that, should she sit upon one of the Silver Thrones, she would condemn her former associates as pirates.”
Again, Voran shifted on the stool. “I was merely speculating. Truly, all I may do is speculate—as I said, she didn’t discuss that with me. Our conversations were focused entirely upon the process by which we would place her on the throne.”
“And how exactly would you do that?” the half-elf asked. “You’re aware, yes, that the king and queen have an army at their disposal? How would you get past the Royal Guard?”
“We wouldn’t have to!” Voran chuckled. “Come now, Lieutenants, you said you went to Velessa so you know that Princess Lillyana’s claim was completely legitimate. Our plan was no more complicated than to bring her to the castle and have her take her rightful place. We none of us want bloodshed, just an orderly transfer of power. Besides, violence would end poorly—people who try to kill the king or queen are boiled in oil, everybody knows that.”
The Myverin leaned forward. “And the Pirate Queen was going along with this plan?”
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