Aitrus sat back, astonished. Then, “So why are you showing me all this?”
A’Gaeris sat forward, the fire of indignation in his eyes suddenly. “Because no one would listen to me. But you, Aitrus, you could do something. You could even get to Lord R’hira himself.”
“But why?”
‘Because I, who was once an honest man, was barred from the guild for something I did not do, while this Lord’s son, this rock-worm, can do as he will and get away with it. That’s why!”
A’Gaeris’s face was dark with anger. “You must understand. Veovis came to me. And they found out. They must have been watching him. That is why he killed them.”
The room was silent. Aitrus stared at the Philosopher coldly.
“I do not believe you,” he said, finally.
“No,” A’Gaeris said sadly, “yet it is true.” He pointed to the last thing in the pile—the Linking book—his eyes grave. “See for yourself if you do not believe me!”
§
Veovis stepped from the boat onto the bottom step, then turned, looking back across the lake toward the sleeping city. Beneath him, dark as pitch, the water lapped softly against the stone. Above and to his right, beyond the stone lip of the harbor wall, a lamp burned steadily atop its pole, reflected in the water farther out.
The great cavern was silent, as if empty of all other life. Only the faint, dull air-rhythm of the great fans could be heard, distant like a heartbeat.
Veovis stretched and yawned. He had much to think about, yet he was tired now and experience had taught him not to make decisions while in the grip of such lassitude. He would sleep on the matter, and in the morning, fresh, reflect anew upon the problem.
He climbed the steps, up onto the black stone jetty. Lianis was awaiting him there, two servants with him. As Veovis emerged, one brought a cloak and wrapped it about his shoulders, while another held up a lamp to light his way.
“Lianis,” he said, greeting his advisor. “You did not have to wait up for me.”
Lianis fell in beside him as they walked across the flags toward the mansion. “You have visitors, my Lord.”
The news chilled Veovis. He glanced at Lianis, then looked away, troubled. Had he been watched? Had someone witnessed his meetings with A’Gaeris? For if so he would be hard stretched to explain his comings and goings.
“Where are they?” he asked, stopping as they came beneath the arch.
“In your study, my Lord. I thought it best to keep this matter discreet.”
“You did well,” Veovis answered, touching his arm briefly. They walked on, through the great doors and down the broad, high corridor, the servant hurrying to keep up with them, his lamp throwing their shadows on ahead of them as they approached the great staircase.
Coming to the first step, Veovis turned to Lianis again. “I will take things from here, Lianis. Send one of the servants in with wine in a brief while. I shall send for you if I need you.”
“My Lord.” Lianis bowed then backed away.
Veovis climbed the stairs alone. At the foot of the steps, the servant held the lamp high, lighting his way as best he could.
His study was to the left. As he stood before the door, Veovis tried to calm himself and still his swirling thoughts. Things looked bad. He had met with a sworn enemy of the D’ni state. And why? To discredit an opponent. It was that simple, and no end of sophistry could cloud the matter. Yet against that was what he now knew of Aitrus and the illicit Ages. Was that enough? Might he claim, perhaps, that he had known before the meetings—had known and wanted confirmation?
Perhaps.
He grasped the door handle and turned it, stepping into the room, a smile forming on his lips.
“Guildsmen…”
The smile froze. Facing him, rising from a chair beside his desk, was the outsider woman, Ti’ana. Cradled in her arms was the half-breed child. As the door clicked shut behind Veovis, she took two steps toward him, her dark eyes accusing him.
“Where is he, Veovis? Where is my husband?”
§
Aitrus sat in his study, the Linking Book open on the desk before him. If what A’Gaeris said was true, he would find the bodies of the two young guildsmen on the other side. But could he trust A’Gaeris?
Who knew what kind of Age this really linked to? For all he knew it could be deadly, the air poisonous. On the other hand, it was, in all likelihood, the only real piece of evidence he had against Veovis—if things were as A’Gaeris claimed.
Aitrus reached out and closed the book. To link was too risky. If he had had a breathing mask and a second linking book to bring him back to D’ni, he might have gone…
If. Besides, there were Anna and Gehn to think of now.
Taking a sheet of vellum from the side, he took his pen from the inkstand and began to write, penning a note to Grand Master Jadaris of the Maintainers. He would send him the linking book and let him decide what should be done. In the meantime, he would take Anna and the child to Gemedet, away from things.
Aitrus signed the note then stood. He did not feel like sleep—his mind was much too filled with things for rest—yet he felt the need to see Anna and Gehn. Walking through to the bedroom he stopped in the doorway, listening for their breathing in the darkness.
Nothing. There was nothing. Slowly he tiptoed across, then crouched beside the bed, putting out his hand. The bed was empty.
He stood, then went across and lit the lamp. The bed was made. There was no sign of them in the room.
For a moment or two he could not think. When he had left, four hours ago, they had been here, asleep.
Aitrus went out, then knocked on the end door, waking his house steward.
“Were there any callers while I was gone?”
“A Messenger came,” he answered, sitting up. “From the Guild House. He brought a message for you from your father. The Mistress—Ti’ana—came down and took it from me. She spoke to the man.”
“Did you hear what she said.”
“No.”
Aitrus thanked him, then went back to his study. There was no sign of the message, but whatever it was, he knew exactly what Anna would have thought. He had told her he was going to the Guild Hall, and any message would have reached him there.
Unless he had not gone to the Guild Hall.
She would have remembered the anonymous note, and, piecing things together, would have gone after him.
Maybe. But why take Gehn? Why not go alone? Unless she had not gone to the house.
Gemedet, then? But again, why, in the middle of the night? Why not wait for him to return?
No, only her fear for him would have made her go out after him. But why should she be afraid? Unless she already knew—knew at some deeper, instinctive level—that Veovis was behind it all.
K’veer!
No sooner had the thought been spawned than it became a certainty in his mind. K’veer! They had gone to K’veer!
Whirling about, he hastened across the room and out, then ran down the corridor, not caring if he woke the house. His booted footsteps thudded on the stairs, yet as he threw open the door, it was to be greeted by the sight of men carrying lamps at his gate and, just beyond them, a dark sedan, suspended between eight uniformed runners. Veovis himself stood beside the carriage, talking to someone within its shadowed interior.
A sudden anger boiled up in Aitrus. Striding down the path, he confronted Veovis even as he turned.
“What are you doing here?”
Veovis stared back at him haughtily.
“Come!” Aitrus demanded. “What do you want?”
“Want?” Veovis’s face hardened. “Nothing from you, Aitrus. I deal only with men of honor.”
Aitrus bristled. “You dare to question my honor?”
“Say only that I know who D’ni’s friends are, and who its enemies.”
Aitrus felt a flash of hatred ripple through him. He wanted to strike Veovis. To break him as one might dash a plate against the ground.
<
br /> “You had best hold your tongue, Lord Veovis, before I rip it from your mouth!”
Veovis’s eyes flared. “It is you who should be careful, lest I teach you a lesson in manners!”
Aitrus clenched his fist, then, knowing that violence would solve nothing, forced himself to be calm. “I know to whom my loyalty lies well enough, Veovis. Would that I could say the same of you.”
“I give my loyalty to those who deserve it,” Veovis responded. “It is no cheap thing.”
Aitrus frowned. If that was a jibe at him he did not understand it. What did Veovis mean? Changing tack, he asked the question he ought to have begun with.
“Where is my wife? Where is Ti’ana?”
Veovis’s lips formed a sneer. “Do you not know, Master Aitrus? Surely it is a husband’s duty to know where his wife is!”
Aitrus took a step closer, so that his face was but a hand’s width from Veovis’s. He spoke quietly, threateningly.
“Do you have her?”
For a moment Veovis simply stood there staring back at him, his eyes yielding nothing, then he turned and, drawing back the curtain of the sedan, reached in and, grasping her roughly by the hand, tugged Anna from her seat.
Anna glared at Veovis, then turned back, reaching in to take the sleeping child from the nurse within the sedan.
“A pretty pair you make!” Veovis said, a heavy sarcasm in his tone now. “Neither knows where the other is!”
Aitrus looked to Anna, his eyes concerned, but she shook her head, as if at some unspoken question. Cradling Gehn, she moved past Aitrus, then turned, standing at his shoulder.
“Thank you,” she said, speaking to Lord Veovis. “I am sorry to have troubled you.”
“No trouble,” he answered, his cold eyes never leaving Aitrus’s face. “No trouble at all.”
§
“Master Aitrus. Their Lordships will see you now.”
Aitrus pulled himself up off the bench, then followed the guildsman along the corridor to where two guards stood before a pair of huge double doors.
For a week he had wrestled with his conscience, not knowing what to do. It was A’Gaeris’s role in things that worried him most. The man had no love of D’ni, and to bring down D’ni’s favorite son, Veovis, would fit in well with any plans he had for vengeance. All well and good, yet Aitrus had seen the book, and still had the linking book in his possession. That was Veovis’s hand and no mistake. And A’Gaeris’s indignation, that burning sense of injustice Aitrus had glimpsed the last time they had met, that, too, had seemed genuine.
Anna had begged him to go straight to Master Jadaris and leave the Maintainers to deal with the matter, but that would have meant going behind Lord Rakeri’s back, and that Aitrus would not do.
And so, eight days on, he had gone to see Lord Rakeri in his rooms in the Halls of the Guild of Miners. The old man had greeted him warmly. There, over a cup of mulled wine, he had told the old man of his son’s activities.
Aitrus could see how torn the old man was. He had always treated Aitrus like a second son, even after the breach in Aitrus’s friendship with Veovis, but suddenly there was a coldness, a distance in his manner. The old man had stared long and hard at the linking book, and then he had nodded.
“Leave it with me, Master Aitrus,” he said, his voice cold and formal, “I shall make sure that the matter is fully investigated.”
A long silence had followed. But now, a full month after that audience with Rakeri, the matter was to be decided.
As the doors swung back, Aitrus looked about him. Beside the five Lords who sat behind the great desk on the far side of the chamber, there were six others, seated at desks to either side of the room. To his left were three guild scribes, to his right two senior guildsmen in the Guild of Maintainers, and, slightly apart from them, their Grand Master, the elderly Jadaris.
There was no sign of Veovis.
Aitrus felt relief flood him. He had been feeling awkward enough about this, but had Veovis been there in person it would have been far more difficult.
“Take a seat, Master Aitrus,” Lord R’hira said, looking up from a document.
Aitrus sat, then glanced at Rakeri. The old man was looking down, distracted, it seemed, the fingers of one hand drumming idly on the leather cover of an official-looking file. He did not look well these days, as if the cares of this inquiry had fallen heavily on his shoulders.
R’hira looked directly at Aitrus. “In view of what you told us, a unit of the City Guard was sent to the house in J’Taeri District and a thorough search was made. Unfortunately, no trace of any of the papers you mentioned could be found. This is not to say that they do not exist somewhere, but without them we have only your word. That in itself is no small thing, Guild Master Aitrus, yet it is not evidence, as defined by D’ni law.” He paused, then. “It comes down to this. After long consideration we have decided that we cannot possibly risk using the linking book. To risk a third life would be, we felt, a reckless chance, and without the direct evidence of which you speak—that is, the bodies of the two guildsmen—then it is a matter of your word against that of Veovis.”
Aitrus blinked, surprised.
“Forgive me, Lord R’hira, but I find this situation intolerable. Either I am a liar or Lord Veovis is. If you will not send another guildsman, I am prepared to go.”
There was a moment’s silence, then Lord R’hira nodded. “It shall be as you say.”
Aitrus stood, then walked across and, taking the Book from Lord R’hira, and a Linking Book, he opened the Book in question, placing his hand against the glowing panel.
There was silence in the room. A few moments later Aitrus reappeared, his face ashen.
“It is true,” he said. “There are bodies there.”
§
That evening a warrant for Veovis’s arrest was issued. Though the day was now advanced, K’veer still blazed with lights. Every room was lit, every lantern burned brightly. Men from both the City Guard and the Guild of Maintainers were everywhere; in every room and every corridor. It was clear that a thorough search of the island had been undertaken.
Climbing the great stairway at the heart of the rock, Aitrus began to wonder just what he had set in motion. It was true what people said about the messenger who brings ill news.
Passing the entrance to the Book Room, Aitrus saw how armed teams of Maintainer guards were waiting there, ready to link into the family Ages. That, as much as anything, told him that they had not yet taken Veovis.
So he is guilty, he thought, surprised despite all, for some small part of him still held that this was all a mistake and that an explanation would be found. But no. If Veovis was missing, then there could be but a single explanation.
Master Jadaris was waiting for him in Lord Rakeri’s study, near the very top of the island mansion. It was a regular cave of a room. There were no windows; instead, huge, book-lined shelves filled every inch of the walls.
“Ah, Aitrus,” Jadaris said, looking up at him from behind the great desk. The Linking Book lay before him, open, the tiny panel glowing in the half-light of the room. “We have searched high and low, but there is no sign of Lord Veovis in D’ni. In the circumstances I have given the order for the family Ages to be searched. That will happen now. But there is one other matter we must deal with.”
Jadaris waved a hand over the Linking Book. “A guildsman ventured in four hours back. He found another Book at the foot of the slope. It linked back to this very room.”
Aitrus nodded soberly. There was a moment’s silence and then Master Jadaris stood.
“So, Aitrus. Will you link through with me?”
§
They linked to a cave on the eastern slope of a large, mountainous island. A cluster of smaller islands surrounded I, linked by suspended wooden bridges. It was on one of these that they finally found the two guildsmen, lying side by side in a hut beside the cliff’s edge, their hands and feet bound tight. They were long dead, their cloaks stiff with the
ir own dried blood, their throats slit from ear to ear. On the floor nearby was the dagger that had been used to kill them, lying beside its sheath as if abandoned.
It was Veovis’s weapon. One he had been seen to carry often.
Aitrus saw how Jadaris stared at the dagger; saw the strange flicker in the muscles of his neck, the sudden change in his eyes, and knew that this had finally convinced him. These were his men who had been murdered—his young boys. To see them like this—trussed and butchered—had clearly shocked him deeply.
As a team of Maintainers arranged to bring the bodies back, Aitrus and Master Jadaris linked back to K’veer. There they were greeted by the news that Veovis had been taken in Nidur Gemat and was being held in the Book Room down below.
They went down, Aitrus hanging back as Jadaris walked across to confront Veovis.
Veovis’s hands were bound behind his back. Two guards—Maintainers—stood to either side of him, yet Veovis seemed unrepentant. His head was raised defiantly and his eyes burned with indignation.
Jadaris held the sheathed dagger out before him. “Is this yours, Master Veovis?”
“It is,” Veovis said. “What of it?”
“You do not deny it, then?”
But Veovis seemed not to hear. He took a step toward Jadaris.
“What have I done to deserve this treatment, Master Jadaris? Am I a common criminal to be bound and herded like an animal?”
“We found the bodies,” Jadaris said.
But Veovis did not seem to be listening. “I am not normally an impatient man, but I warn you, Guildsman. Unbind me now or you shall answer to my father!”
A shiver went through Jadaris. “It was your father who ordered it.”
Veovis fell silent; the words had taken him aback. “Impossible,” he said. “He would never have given such an order.”
“Never?” Jadaris seemed to watch Veovis a moment, then: “Do you deny the charges?”
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