Rael (Wine of the Gods Book 27)

by Pam Uphoff

  Ryol looked around with a smug smile. "Grandad said that was excellent, and took me shopping. We got everything pink."

  Rael snickered and the kids galloped off.

  "May I correctly assume that she's tried temper tantrums before?"

  Jess rolled her eyes. "Yes. At high volume and full theatrics. Thank the One that stage didn't last long."

  "Well worth rewarding with enough pink to make one puke." Rael frowned as the kids galloped back, casting odd looks over their shoulders.

  "Aunt Rael! There's a lady in the rock. I think she's asleep." Ryol glanced back again.

  Arno grabbed Rael's legs and hid behind her. "I think she's dead."

  Chapter Four

  Monday, 13 Emre 1402yp

  Kael lay inside the cave.

  Rael felt detached as she reached for the extended wrist, watched her biomother's chest. Surely she was breathing? Yes, but if that was a pulse it was horribly fast.

  She pulled out her comm, looked around at running footsteps. Ox, thank goodness. "She's breathing, has a pulse. I think."

  Ox looked around at the immaculate paving stones, the newly laid sod around the rock.

  "It's not a crime scene . . . is it?" Rael tapped the emergency code.

  "She's never been here. And . . . I don't think she's drunk."

  Drugged? Poisoned? Why? How? Rael's breath caught. "Check your grandfather."

  "Shit!" Ox grabbed his own comm, while Rael talked to the emergency people.

  The medics were quick. Must be a slow morning. Rael stomped hard on incipient panic. Kael was extricated, electrodes stuck on. A heartbeat both weak and fast. Irregular. Blood pressure low and dropping. Bruises all over the skin . . . capillaries leaking . . .

  Rael remembered distant lectures, one of the poisons Princesses used . . . rarely, as it was one of the few easily reversible poisons. Except past a certain point . . . "Get a blood sample. I'll tell the lab what to look for."

  "She's not going to last long enough to . . . "

  Rael turned and ran for the house. Her pack, stuffed out of the way. The little flask . . . She sprinted back out. Medics, pushing fluids . . . She tipped the flask into Kael's mouth. Not too much, don't . . .

  "Choking her isn't going to help!" a medic snarled.

  Rael stepped back fumbling the lid with shaking hands. Road was there, took it from her and screwed the lid on. Set it out of the way. Rael concentrated on breathing steadily. If someone was shooting at me I wouldn't be fazed.

  Ox sighed. "What do you know?"

  "There's a poison I learned about, in Princess school, that acts by breaking down capillary walls, producing bruising like that. That's why I wanted the blood sample. To test for it. There is a counter-agent."

  "Which you happened to have handy?"

  She shook her head. "I don't . . . my job does not . . . I don't carry either poisons or antidotes. That was Comet Fall Joy Juice. It's got so many healing nanos in it, it has to be experienced to believe."

  A deep sigh. "And it's illegal. Rael, you are a policeman's worst nightmare." His comm dinged and he stepped away to talk.

  Road looked between patient and house, clutched her hands and headed for the house.

  Things were still beeping on the medics' equipment, but they looked a bit less frantic. Not happy, but . . . not like they were losing ground.

  Two of them trotted off. The two remaining were keeping an eye on their instruments and patient, while packing up around her. The other two returned with a float pallet. Kael was lifted, strapped in and removed.

  Raod, coming back from the house, stepped out of the way.

  Rael started to follow, and Ox touched her arm. "I'll drive you. Grandfather's princess apparently strong armed him into the hospital, and ordered every test known to man be performed instantly."

  "Good." Rael felt shaky, tried to pull herself together. "Where did I put . . ."

  Raod stooped, turned and held out the flask. "Here. Do you want me to keep . . . no. Take it with you in case Grandfather Ahvi is . . . sick." She wrung her hands, and smiled wryly. "The life of a policeman's wife. Starting already."

  ***

  The woman was tall and elegant. Cheek bones, and long legs. Every man in the hospital waiting room was glancing her direction. Even Ox noticed.

  And she's no prettier than Raod.

  Rael walked across the lobby to her. "Princess?"

  "Loik. Of course I know who you are." The woman gaze dropped to the small open box in her hand.

  "How is Ahvi?" Crap, is that a poisons case? Yes, indeed. A fair selection of the standard stuff. With antidotes for the three that have them.

  "He'll be fine. Very small traces of B456CD. I offered them the antidote but they said its effects were likely worse than the tiny amount of poison he was dosed with." She snapped the pretty little box closed.

  Rael glanced toward Ox. Who was talking to a young man in a white coat, but his eyes were on her. She abandoned the princess and crossed the room.

  "How is my . . . mother?"

  "Improving." He darted a look toward Loik. "We assumed Senior Administrator Kael was dosed with the same substance as Councilman Ahvi, and administered the counter-agents we had available. Princess Loik offered her supply, but under the circumstances . . . umm . . . "

  "Sticking to commercially available products is entirely understandable." Rael bit her lip. "Do we need to check any other guests at the party last night?"

  Ox winced.

  Rael grabbed her comm. "I'm going to check on a few people, starting with my parents."

  Suggestibility being what it was, several people immediately felt poorly. But no one else tested positive.

  Chapter Five

  Monday, 13 Emre 1402yp

  "So, tell me, almost sister-in-law, about princesses and poisons and what you were looking at in Loik's hand.

  Rael grinned. "Poor cop, out here in the sticks and unacquainted with Princesses of the deadly and trained variety. Loik was openly displaying her brag case. Rather pointedly letting me see that the poison in question had not been used." She tried to keep a straight face and not obviously notice how many cops were trying to eavesdrop.

  "Brag case?"

  "Yes. As we show competency and knowledge and whatever, we are allowed to carry poisons. The better you are at dosing and so forth, the more you are allowed to carry. We buy fancy little pillbox sized cases and brag about how deadly we are. Loik had a very broad selection, all color coded, seals that change color if broken, all intact and all. Stupid really. All one would have to do is discard the very small container and shift things around. Oh sure, she had both B456CD and the antidote, seals intact. But picking up an extra is no big deal, in those circles."

  Senior Investigator Uqpy, more often called Puppy, gave up on subtlety and stomped around to glare at her. "Where's yours?"

  "I'm not an assigned princess, don't carry it regularly. It's in the locked safe in my Versalle barracks room." She frowned. "It's been, oh, well, I never did carry it, since I left school. Almost ten years."

  Ox narrowed his eyes. "You didn't graduate until you were twenty-eight?"

  "I did some post grad work . . . Oh, for the One's sake. Yes, I'm a trained assassin—all princesses are—as well as a spy, an infiltrator, a saboteur, a mole, and anything else the One needs. No. I did not poison anyone, either on purpose or accidentally."

  "The One isn't going to mess with the election?" Ox frowned down at her.

  "No. Mess with some specific candidates? Not to my knowledge, but I am not in a position to know." Rael spread her hands. "Sorry guys. I really am no more clued in than you are."

  Puppy stomped around and stood shoulder to shoulder with Ox. "What about what you did to Agni?"

  Rael started giggling. "Never touched him." Wiped her eyes, and got her humor under control. "Actually, the One is in an odd sort of condition right now, with two alternate philosophers. The reach of the hive mind is very short right now, and thus in Makk
ah, so far from other Oners, a bit isolated. I doubt they can come up with a coherent strategy to affect the election until they repair the split. And they were much more subtle, the last election."

  Puppy sniffed. "The One didn't do anything in the last election. The old Orde's campaign was sideswiped by a ministry leak, some ditzy red . . . headed . . . Oh. Shit. A ditzy redheaded secretary who accidentally attached some sensitive documents to an electronic press release and sent it to every damned news outlet in the Empire . . . Oh . . . Bloody . . . "

  Rael gave them her most innocent look and spread her hands "You're right. Where would the One find a ditzy redheaded secretary? It must have all just been a stupid error."

  Ox pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why would the One not like the president who was going to expand the One's influence?"

  "Because that President Orde was doing it all himself, for himself, not consulting with the One, not asking for approval, not acknowledging the One's authority? Undermining the One's authority?" Rael shrugged and tapped her fingernails on the desk she was leaning on. "But the issue here? The presidential race hasn't even started yet. So, what about non-political motives . . . Kael is a very abrasive person. But she's nine years older than her half-sister Kyol, they were neither buddies, nor rivals. Mead, Dad's cousin from New York, worked with her for fifteen years. I . . . " Drat, hate to say this. "Have never actually asked if they were lovers. There were . . . words exchanged a few days ago. I picked them up at the airport at about the same time. It very much had the atmosphere of reminiscing former lovers turning into a blame fest."

  Puppy smiled. "And I'm sure you can give us every word and expression?"

  "Including the part where they were both yelling and Mead's grown son and daughter got into the act? Sheesh. Not that it went very far, but for a moment there I was hideously afraid I was going to find out if youth and surprise could beat age, guile, experience, and strength."

  Puppy raised skeptical eyebrows. "Thought she was an administrator?"

  "Now. She got promoted out of field work, where she was an Action Team Leader."

  Puppy choked. "Action . . . Leader."

  Ox shifted. "So it could have been a lover's quarrel, or she pissed off her daughter, or she accidentally took most of the poison aimed at Ahvi. For Ahvi's part, we've got the One, or a political rival. Bloody hell."

  Puppy looked at Ox, this time. "Ahvi have any domestic enemies?"

  "Three fourths of the family, and all three of the exes and most of the former-in-laws, however exquisite the manners, when in public. But I'm the only one here."

  Puppy nodded. "And you're not terribly murderous. Although killing that infuriating sister-in-law, I could understand . . . "

  Rael giggled as infuriatingly as she could while Ox sighed.

  "Don't joke. It could have been a double murder. And no doubt I'll be hearing from Paris."

  Rael nodded. "With a possible attempted assassination of a potential presidential candidate, I suspect someone is enroute already."

  Chapter Six

  Tuesday, 14 Emre 1402yp

  Rael was halfway down the stairs when the door chimed.

  "Unknown visitor, blocked identification." The auto announcer had a distinctly snotty tone.

  Rael could see enough through the glass for recognition. "Ox, here's your Interior Directorate tormentor. I suspect you'll like him." She opened the door and waved the man in. "Hey Izzo, you here officially? Thought you were Central Division's pet."

  The man was barely over Rael's height, blonde haired and fit. "Unfortunately there were a couple of retirements and I got promoted. All hail the new subdirector of the Western Region."

  "Subdirector! Ooo, getting up there . . . wait, what do you mean, Western Region? This is the South American Region!"

  Ox snorted, behind her. "Watch the news lately?"

  Izzo grinned. "North and South America, together have so little need of Imperial oversight that they decided a single subdirector could handle it. It's supposed to be a sinecure, get a few reports in from the Regional offices, stick them together and pass them to the Director. Three days in, and here I am trying to keep out from underfoot in an attempted murder involving a possible presidential candidate and a presidential guard."

  "Must have done something bad in a former life." Ox stuck out his hand. "Senior Administrator Ahxe Withione."

  Izzo raised an eyebrow. "Black Point accent?"

  "Yeah, and yours is too completely Parisian to be authentic."

  "My parents are Alcairo, but I was born and raised on Homestead. The worst of your imagination cannot touch the accent I started out with. Now, what the One is going on here?"

  "Attempted murder. A near-fatal poisoning. The victim appears to be recovering due to being dosed with a substance that is probably illegal."

  Izzo looked back at Rael.

  "Yes, I dosed her with Endi's Joy Juice." She huffed out an irritated breath. "I know I ought to have let her die. But however bad our relationship, I'm not going to stand by and let my biomother die. I'd like to think that I'd, umm, skirt around the edges of the unlicensed medicine laws for anyone, not just family. But family is who it was happening to."

  "Right. I'll have to get clarification on just how many of which laws you broke, for which Orde and Urfa will no doubt arm wrestle to see who gets to pardon you. So let's back up to the other crime . . . "

  Ox sighed. "We actually have two victims, former councilman Ahvi got so little that it was only detected because we suspected he might have been poisoned and had him tested. He is my grandfather, who is here for my wedding." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "There was a party, two nights ago now, at my soon-to-be in-laws' home . . . "

  He continued with the tale of Ahvi and Kael's meeting.

  "Which is, of course, why we had him tested when Kael . . . was found with possible poisoning symptoms." Rael shrugged. "The medics were too busy trying to keep Kael alive to pull a blood sample immediately, but after my dosing her with the Joy Juice, she still showed traces of B456CD. It's . . . well, a common poison that all princesses will be familiar with, although probably less than half carry it. Practically an antique, the hospital here had a test on hand that could detect it, and a reasonable array of counter-agents."

  "She was found? Where, when, and by who?" Izzo reached into a pocket, stopped, withdrew his fingers.

  "My sister's four year old twins, mid-morning—I'll check the time of my call into emergency services . . . "

  "Ten thirty-two." Ox put in.

  "In a large rock sculpture in the back yard here." Rael finished. "And Ox, don't let his fancy Parisian Mover-and-Shaker suit fool you. He put in, what? Twenty-five years of police work before he ever went to college."

  "Some of it while I went to college." Izzo shrugged and looked apologetically at Ox. "So just tell me to butt out if I get too hands on. I'm not here to play cop. I'm here to find out if the upcoming presidential competition has hit the assassination level of play."

  "Will do." But Ox's shoulders had relaxed a bit.

  Cops. Knowing that Izzo is "one of us" will help.

  Ox waved around. "The house is new. We showed a few people around Sunday, before the party, including grandfather Ahvi. Not Kael. Party Sunday night. Moving day Monday, with mostly new furniture being delivered from multiple sources. Trucks in and out of the driveway, men hauling stuff in and packing material back out. I've got people . . . excuse me, Senior Investigator Uqpy has people out talking to all the workmen. What trucks did they see, and did they see anyone carrying anything around the side of the house, rather than the front doors.

  "But some of the kitchen and patio stuff went around the side."

  "And you think someone delivered Kael while the chaos was in full swing." Izzo huffed in irritation, and finally gave up and fished for a toothpick.

  Rael glanced pointedly at her watch. "You lasted almost five minutes that time."

  Izzo scowled. "Guards. They bet on anything. Everyth
ing."

  Ox eyed him. "Thought you were Interior?"

  Rael snickered. "He's not officially one of Urfa's in group, he just happens to get invited to most meetings."

  Izzo sighed. "Anyway. I actually came here to introduce myself, check out the ground, and then go cross swords with Ahvi. So show me this rock sculpture and I'll get out of your way."

  The back doors were blocked by two small forms glued to the glass.

  Ryol looked around. "They're taking away the ropes, can we go out and play?"

  "If there's no more dead people out there." Arno spotted the stranger and shut up.

  "She wasn't quite dead yet, and it's very lucky you found her when you did. She's in the hospital and feeling much better." Rael eyed the kids. "I'll bring her around so you can see for yourselves."

  Ox paused, shrugged. "Even exposure to that woman beats nightmares."

  Izzo grinned. "I've not formally met her, but I've been in meetings where she reported on Comet Fall. An, umm, interesting woman."

  Rael's turn to pause. Comet Fall? Aunt Kael never mentioned serving on that particular world. I hope I'm not going to have to check for assassins from there.

  Izzo was duly impressed by the rock. Frowned around at all the rough surfaces and plants.

  "We fingerprinted all the slick rock faces around the cave entrance. Found nothing that didn't belong to people who had seen it the day before." Ox shrugged. "Everyone knows to wear gloves these days."

  "And she's a large woman, probably either two people carrying her or a small floater." Izzo grinned suddenly. "I'd better leave before I get too far into cop mode. A pleasure to have met you, Senior Administrator."

  "Likewise, Subdirector." They shook hands and Izzo was escorted out around the house.