The Eyes of a Doll (The World of Shijuren Book 2)

by Howell, Rob

I raised my eyebrows.

  He smiled. “Remember, I have an interesting profession.”

  “Of course. In that case, I’ll have to ask them to come here.”

  “That would be good. Better yet, send Ragnar’s boy. They’ll be more likely to come.”

  “If Ragnar and Zoe allow it and he’s willing.”

  “He’s willing. He’d do just about anything for you.”

  “I guess he might, at that.”

  I waved Ragnar over. Not surprisingly, he scowled when I mentioned Kapric and Zvono, but he allowed that sending Eirik might be best. Eirik, who looked up to me far more than was healthy, quickly agreed.

  “After your chores,” I said. “I don’t want Deor to be miscared for.” I could barely say that with a straight face after all Eirik’s spoiling of my friend.

  “Oh, I’d never… I mean, I’ll make sure Deor’s taken care of.”

  “And the other horses? And everything else?”

  He nodded vigorously.

  “Absolutely, milord.”

  “Milord?”

  “Uh… Edward.”

  “Thank you, Eirik.”

  “Oh, you’re welcome.”

  Cheerily he went off to the hidden smiles of everyone around.

  Chapter 13

  Early Morning, 3 Blommemoanne, 1712 MG

  Heavy pounding on the door woke me.

  “Be gettin’ up, Sevener, and be comin’ down to the taproom.”

  Ragnar’s terse sentence bothered me more than the brusque awakening. He only became terse when he was livid.

  I quickly threw on a tunic and pants and buckled on my belt with my saex. With my winingas and turnshoes in my left hand and my scabbarded sword in my right, I hustled downstairs.

  I found Zoe with her kit of herbs and salves taking care of Honker, who had clearly been beaten. He sat there leaning to his left, favoring the ribs that Zoe was examining. A trail of dried blood ran from his nose down his chin to stain his tunic. Both eyes were blackening.

  Karah sat a steaming bowl of honeyed gruel in front of him. He barely noticed.

  “What happened, Ragnar?”

  “Someone was to be settin’ on Honk when he was to be walkin’ to work.”

  “Who.”

  “I’m not to be knowin’ yet. We’ll be askin’ him, won’t we?”

  I suddenly had a dreadful thought.

  “Where’s Eirik?”

  “He’s to be bein’ in the stables.”

  “He hasn’t left?”

  “To be sending the message to Zvono and Kapric?”

  I nodded.

  “No, I’m to have been stopping that. I’m not wantin’ him to be leavin’ just now.”

  “Good. Let me wrap my legs and put my shoes on, and I’ll go get them.”

  He left me to finish dressing, returning as I buckled on my sword belt.

  “I’m to be thinkin’ yer to be payin’ attention to them as around you out there, me lad.”

  “That I will.”

  He followed me into the Fourth Serpent and we looked around. For the moment, the sun still sat behind the building across the street, so our eyes adjusted quickly. The people passing by cheerfully greeted Ragnar.

  “I’ll be back soon, Northman.”

  He nodded. “I’ll be sendin’ word from them as live around here that Honker’s family is to be needin’ to come here.”

  “Good.”

  I walked down the Fourth Serpent with Ragnar keeping an eye on me until the road curved away from the Faerie.

  Lack of attention to my surroundings had gotten me mugged by Andreyev, Markov, and Gibroz’s other two thugs. It had been a long month since. I made my way to the Heartsquare briskly, but not so swiftly I did not notice that someone was following me.

  Desimir had taught me the basics of following someone, lessons he had learned as a child in this corrupt city. My follower, a slight man in rough clothes not unlike those Aca had been found in, seemed to be as rudimentarily skilled in the process as I was.

  I decided my best choice was to keep going, but my right hand was ready for sword or saex as needed. I had watched Frano, a messenger of the Gropas, assassinated swiftly and easily in the Stracara in part because he had been an easy target. I wanted to at least make them work to kill me.

  I wound my way back and forth amongst the wagons and the walkers instead of cutting a straight path. The occasional curses as I cut through traffic were a cheap price to pay for not remaining exactly where any assailants might expect me.

  As I reached Heartsquare, I stopped briefly to look for threats. Other than the man following me, I saw none. I went up the steps into the Imperial building and immediately downstairs into the labyrinth of its lower floor. With only two missteps, I successfully wove my way to the room where the Emperor’s quaesitors made their home.

  Zvono was standing at the back of the large hall when I walked in.

  “Sevener,” she called. “Get back here.”

  I walked to Kapric’s small office at the back. Zvono leaned on the wall.

  “What have you learned?”

  “I’ve learned more than I can tell you right now. You need to come to the Faerie.”

  “We do?”

  Kapric leaned back in his chair.

  “Yes, you do,” I snapped. “For one, Honker’s there with black eyes, a bloodied nose, and ribs that feel like Weyland’s been using them for a forge. I’m thinking he’s got these things because of our bodies, and I bet you want to be there when we talk to him.”

  “You do like to push things, Sevener,” said Zvono.

  “I’m not in a good mood right now. He’s a good man, harmless, and he’s just gotten pounded. I think you two are the key to me doing some pounding of my own, and I’ve got this self-satisfied statue sitting smugly behind his desk.”

  Kapric started to respond in kind to my anger, but suddenly smiled broadly. Well, broadly for him.

  “Well, you’re right about all that.” He glanced at Zvono. “Let’s go see what he wants, shall we?”

  Zvono shook her head.

  “You two damned herd bulls.”

  “One more thing, a person tailed me from the Faerie. I’d be shocked if he weren’t waiting for us. Honker was ambushed in the street, so…”

  “So we should be prepared.”

  “Yes, Zvono.”

  “I think we’ll be, Sevener, but thanks for your concern.”

  The two quaesitors shared a dark smile. They smiled again, once, when they recognized the man tailing us. Nevertheless, we reached the Faerie without hindrance. The follower stopped in the Square of Legends, presumably staying there to watch for my return.

  By this point, Honker looked significantly better. The blood had been cleaned off his chin. He wore a different tunic, one of Ragnar’s I assumed. He was finishing the honeyed gruel, not swiftly or smoothly, but capably despite the pain.

  Judging from his posture, his ribs probably felt better. I guessed that one of Zoe’s salves had helped.

  Kapric and Zvono were polite as they sat at the table. I joined them.

  “What happened, Harald?”

  “Well, uh, quaesitors, uh, it was nothing.”

  Kapric snorted. “Nothing? I’ve been beat on before. That nothing is something.”

  I tried to picture Kapric on the end of the same kind of beating Honker had received. I could not.

  “Uh, no, it was something, but I mean it was nothing for you.”

  “This is my job, Harald. The Emperor expects me to look into people getting beaten. Are you willing to tell the Emperor I can’t do my job?”

  Harald looked panicked, flicking his eyes from Kapric to Zvono to me to Ragnar and back.

  “But, I…” He paused.

  “Did they tell you not to talk about it?”

  Honker looked at me with a wild stare but finally nodded slightly.

  “Who was it?”

  He started shaking his head. Kapric moved to say something, bu
t I forestalled him with a hand.

  “Honker, look at me.”

  He looked up.

  “They know you’re here. They know I’m here. They might think you’re telling me right now.”

  His look turned horrified.

  “We have to find them before we can stop this. They won’t stop on their own.”

  “But they said they would”

  “Are they the kind of people who’ll keep their word?”

  “Uh…”

  “I bet not. Ragnar will let you stay here while I figure out who they are and how to handle them.”

  “That’s to be bein’ true, and yer to be knowin’ that goes for you and all yer family, not that I’m to be thinkin’ any ill of yer neighbors or yer son’s forgemates. It’s to be bein’ time that yer to be all stayin’ here. Yer lad and mine can reshoe all the horses and repair a number of things in the stables. I’m to be bein’ appreciative of that. Yer bonny lasses can be helpin’ Zoe in the kitchens and maybe pickin’ up some of her talents. Yer to be knowin’ this is to be bein’ this is best of choices.”

  Honker looked around and finally slumped over. “You’re bein’ right of course, it’s just…”

  “It’s just a hard set of choices you and your family face and it’s no fault of your own.”

  He nodded.

  “Anyway, they said that this beatin’ was because I’d been talkin’ to you in the first place. They said I should know better than to stick my nose into kral business.”

  “We’re glad you did,” said Zvono. She flipped out her wax tablet. “Tell me everything.” Her purr was almost as loud as Melia’s.

  “Uh, well, I was walking to work this morning, and three of them stopped me.”

  “Go on.”

  “They beat me.”

  “Yes, they did. Did they say anything?”

  “Uh… yes, they did.”

  “What did they tell you?”

  “They told me, uh, this is, uh, what people get for talking to queasies… uh, I mean quaesitors.” He looked down and mumbled, “Sorry.”

  “We’ve heard the term before, Harald.” Zvono smiled.

  He nodded but continued to look at the table.

  “So they told you not to talk to the queasies?”

  He smiled slightly and nodded again.

  “What else did they say?”

  “Uh, that I should keep out of their business.”

  “What is their business?”

  He looked suddenly confused. “I don’t, uh, know, at least not surely.”

  “They didn’t tell you?”

  “Uh, no, they just told me not to mess with it.”

  “Alright.”

  Zvono paused.

  “What did they look like?”

  “Huh?”

  “Were they dressed well?”

  He shook his head. “Not particularly.”

  “What kind of clothes did they wear?”

  “Uh, nothing fancy. I mean, the kind of things I might wear.”

  “Workman’s clothes?”

  He nodded.

  “Rips and tears, or nice and new?”

  “Rips and tears.”

  “Did the clothes fit?”

  He looked at Zvono questioningly.

  “Were the clothes they wore obviously too big or too small?”

  He shook his head hesitatingly.

  “Did they have jewelry?”

  He thought for a moment.

  “Not that I saw.”

  “Did they have armor?”

  He shook his head.

  “Weapons?”

  “I guess,” he said after a pause. “I mean, long knives and daggers and what-not.”

  “No swords or spears?”

  He shook his head firmly.

  “Excellent, you’re doing great.”

  He looked up and smiled shyly at Zvono.

  “Did they say any names?”

  He thought for a moment and then shook his head.

  Zvono, as was her way, asked all of these questions several times, each times phrasing them differently. After a while, she looked at her notes for a moment.

  “Three men dressed in well-used working clothes beat you on your way to work. They told you to keep out of their business, a business presumably illegal. They didn’t have weapons or armor. Do I have this right?”

  He nodded.

  I leaned forward. “I have a question.”

  Honker looked at me.

  “How did they speak?”

  He looked confused, but Zvono slapped the table in frustration.

  “Idiot!”

  I smiled at her as she shook her head. Honker recoiled in fear.

  “She’s not angry at you, Honker.”

  “No, goodman, I’m referring to me.”

  “You don’t make mistakes often. Don’t dwell on it.”

  She sighed and nodded her thanks. I turned back to Harald.

  “Honker, how did they talk?”

  Still nervous, he hesitated, before admitting, “Well, I only heard the one.”

  “That’s fine. How did he talk?”

  “Uh, he, uh, just talked.”

  “I’m sorry, let me sharpen the question. Did he have an accent?”

  “An accent?”

  “Yes.”

  “Uh, I mean, I can’t say. I didn’t hear nothin’.”

  “They talked like Kapric and Zvono talk?”

  He looked nervously at Kapric but nodded.

  “No accent that you noticed.”

  He frowned.

  “Was I supposed to be hearin’ an accent? I wasn’t really payin’ attention.”

  “No, Honk, you weren’t, I was just making sure they didn’t talk like Lezhans.”

  “Oh, no, that they didn’t.” He beamed in his relief.

  “Thank you, Goodman Harald,” smiled Zvono. “You were very helpful. And don’t worry, we’ll take care of you.”

  He nodded, still clearly uncertain.

  I looked up.

  “Zoe, you have a place to put him? He’ll be stiff tomorrow of course, but he should probably lie down for a while.”

  Zoe agreed and shepherded Harald upstairs, calling back, “I’ll be sendin’ them as is his kin up to the same room as they’ve begun arrivin’.”

  “Thank you.”

  Chapter 14

  Morning, 3 Blommemoanne, 1712 MG

  “Have a seat at my table,” I told Kapric and Zvono. “I need to get something from my room.”

  By the time I had returned with Gibroz’s scrolls, they were at my table, drinking from the pitcher of lakewater Karah had left.

  “I’m an idiot,” Zvono was muttering as I sat.

  “Never mind that,” insisted Kapric.

  I nodded.

  “You’d have remembered the accent soon enough.”

  “Still…”

  “Enough,” ordered Kapric.

  “Let’s just focus on what that tells us,” I added.

  “That it’s not just Lezhans who are involved.”

  “Yes, Zvono, but there’s more to it than that.”

  They looked at me.

  “Your dead man was named Aca, and he was one of Gibroz’s men.”

  “Aca? I didn’t recognize him.”

  Kapric snorted. “He’s not one of ours, Zvono, so you probably wouldn’t have.”

  Confused, I looked at Kapric. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean he’s not like the Blazevics who kept attacking you. We deal with them and their ilk quite often. We know Aca does things for Gibroz, but he’s not hired muscle. As far as we know, he’s never killed anyone.”

  “So he might be known to other quaesitors?”

  Kapric shrugged, and I continued.

  “But in any case, you don’t pay that much attention to him.”

  He nodded.

  “Well, somebody was,” I declared. “Or at least someone was looking for anyone who might be tracking what was passing along the
Kopayalitsa right now. Gibroz told me that a Lezhan kraljevic named Ylli is cheating him by sending more along the Kopayalitsa than he is reporting to Gibroz. So, he sent Aca to look into it.”

  “And you think that’s why Aca was murdered,” muttered Zvono as she noted his name in her tablet.

  “It’s the simplest reason that supports what we know.”

  They nodded.

  “It’s a working theory, but let’s not forget it’s only a theory.”

  “That’s your job, to keep looking at other possibilities. My job is to deal with Ylli.”

  They looked at me sharply.

  “What do you mean, Sevener?” Kapric shook his head. “You realize you cannot take him on by yourself, right? He is a kraljevic with scores of blades at his disposal.”

  “Yes, but I’m not really trying to get rid of him, just find out if he’s behind Aca’s murder and get him to stop worrying about Harald.”

  “Which he clearly is.”

  “Which someone clearly is. The lack of a Lezhan accent bothers me.”

  “Me as well, Sevener, me as well.”

  “Whose lack of a Lezhan accent?”

  We looked up as a new voice intruded into our conversation.

  “Sebastijan,” hissed Kapric.

  “It’s good to see you too, brother.”

  “Never mind that,” I interjected. “I need both of you right now. Fight amongst yourselves later.”

  Kapric grunted, which was the best I could expect. Sebastijan merely shrugged and sat down.

  “Whose lack of a Lezhan accent?” he repeated.

  “Honker was attacked this morning by three thugs. One of them told him to stay out of their business and not to talk to the quaesitors. The speaker didn’t have a Lezhan accent.”

  “Interesting.”

  He thought for a moment.

  “Either Ylli has Achridan help or Ylli’s not involved.”

  “How likely would it be for him to have some Achridans taking his money?”

  “Very, but it would be risky for whoever is helping him without Gibroz or Katarina allowing it. Like maybe someone helping Ylli and Gibroz work together. Neither Gibroz nor Katarina would want to let Lezhans work for Ylli on their turf. Anyone caught helping Ylli or other Lezhans would likely be killed out of hand.”

  Karah brought him a mug, and Sebastijan immediately filled it with lakewater. She took the pitcher to refill it.

  “Whoever did this is open enough to attack Harald,” I mused as he took his first sip.