Islands of the Inner Sea

by L J Chappell

  Chapter Six

  Choices and Destinations

  1

  The others were still in the hotel’s lounge, with partly full glasses in front of them: they had been joined by Vander and Aruel who were sitting huddled together against each other.

  ‘Well?’ Slorn asked.

  ‘It’s Aruel’s room,’ Vander said. ‘Someone’s been there searched it – everything’s all over the place.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘They’ve taken the rest of the jewels,’ Aruel explained, distressed. ‘That’s all the money we’ve got. And we don’t feel safe, not any more; not safe enough to go back.’

  ‘Can you help?’ Vander asked.

  ‘We’ve done our job,’ Slorn shook his head. ‘We discharged the terms of the contract when we delivered you. Our business is complete. Whatever this is about, it’s nothing to do with us.’

  ‘Fine,’ Aruel said, coldly. ‘Then I’ll pay you.’

  Lanvik wondered what she was planning to pay them with, if she no longer had the jewels.

  Slorn said nothing for a few seconds: the rest of the Company simply waited. Eventually, with a slightly exaggerated sigh, he sat down opposite Vander and Aruel and asked them: ‘When did this happen?’

  ‘We went to the room just after we saw you this morning and left the jewels there,’ Aruel said. ‘We only went back there now, a few minutes ago. That’s all we know.’

  ‘You went back to the hotel room this morning?’

  Lisamel elbowed Slorn: ‘They haven’t seen each other for months,’ she said. ‘Of course they went back to her room.’ Magda looked slightly embarrassed.

  ‘We’d seen you – we knew where you were staying: but you left the jewels there?’ Kiergard persisted, still puzzled.

  ‘I thought that would be safer than carrying them around outside. And Vander said he trusted you. If you’d wanted to rob us, you could have taken everything we had in the square.’

  ‘You came straight here from the hotel?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Good. Now …,’ he thought for a moment, and then continued: ‘It’s unlikely that our mysterious thief is simply an opportunistic burglar – that would be too much of a coincidence. More likely, he was specifically looking for you or those pretty jewels of yours.’ He smiled at Aruel. ‘So why don’t you tell us about them?’

  ‘They’re some of the State Jewels of Arrento,’ she said immediately. ‘I had to steal them, since I don’t have much money of my own.’

  ‘We can assume that people know that they’re missing and are looking for them. But what about you? Will people have noticed your absence and be looking for you as well?’

  ‘They might be.’

  ‘You don’t think they were looking for Vander?’ Ethryk asked.

  ‘If news of his escape is ever going to break, then it hasn’t yet: if word had reached the Inner Sea, that would be the only thing that anyone was talking about. But they’re not. So it hasn’t. Am I right?’ he asked Aruel and Vander.

  ‘Yes,’ Vander agreed.

  ‘Then we’ve travelled faster than the news. A few might know already, by express messenger, but how could anyone have tracked him to Perastia unless they’ve been following us since Tremark? So no, it’s much more likely that they were looking for Aruel and the jewels. They may have been watching Hirendra, in which case it makes perfect sense that they arrived here now.’

  The others nodded their agreement with his reasoning.

  ‘Good,’ Kiergard nodded. ‘Whoever this unknown agent is, they have either accomplished their mission or they have not. If they have then they will be planning to leave shortly, so we must act quickly. Is Hirendra staying at the same hotel as you?’

  ‘No, she isn’t. I hadn’t even told her where I was staying.’

  ‘Good: that’s very sensible. I want you to tell Thawn and Karuin where she’s staying, and they will make sure that she’s alright and take her somewhere safe. They’ll make sure she’s not being watched.’

  Everyone else returned to the Dolphin Square.

  Kiergard, Magda and Lanvik visited Aruel’s hotel with her while the others waited, as discreetly as possible, outside.

  ‘This lady is staying with you,’ Slorn marched angrily up to the desk, ‘and her room has been broken into. Has anyone been asking after her?’ He didn’t really give the man at the desk time to answer before pressing him: ‘Well? Well?’

  ‘I’ll fetch the manager.’

  ‘I think you’d better.’ A shorter, fatter Terevarna came out from another room and Kiergard Slorn repeated his question. ‘She is an important person, a woman of some rank, and it seems that her security has been compromised.’

  ‘There was a man,’ he told them: ‘a Madarinn, asking after her earlier.’

  ‘And you told him what room she was staying in?’ Slorn sounded outraged. ‘Are you in the habit of sharing your guests’ details? We can have you fined for this, or have your licence revoked. You should be closed down.’

  ‘He had a ducal warrant,’ the manager objected.

  ‘And how closely did you look at that?’ Slorn sounded both angry and baffled. ‘Really?’

  ‘Our associate has been targeted by common thieves for months,’ Magda explained. ‘But this is the first place that anyone’s been taken in by their counterfeit credentials.’

  ‘It looked genuine to me,’ the manager said, stubbornly.

  ‘What did he look like, this Madarinn?’ Slorn asked.

  ‘About your height, but younger; thin and wiry; short hair, thick eyebrows. He had a little scar up here, on his left cheek, near the eye.’ The man illustrated with a finger on his own face.

  ‘Would you say he had an Arrento accent?’ Lanvik asked.

  ‘Yes, yes, that’s him. Arrento, or somewhere close by.’

  ‘That’s our man – the man who’s been following her,’ Slorn nodded. ‘What time was he here?’

  ‘An hour – maybe an hour and a half ago. Two hours. A bit after lunchtime, anyway.’

  ‘Did he say anything that might help us find him? Anything at all?’

  ‘No. No, he didn’t.’

  ‘Thank you for your assistance. And you’d better hope that we find him and recover the lady’s property, otherwise we’re going to have to place charges with the Guard.’

  Outside, they briefed the others.

  ‘Well, that settles it,’ Vrosko Din nodded. ‘This was someone specifically looking for Aruel.’

  ‘That warrant’s a concern,’ Menska added. ‘He’ll be able to get help from the local authorities: at least here in Perastia, if not across all of Carissola.’

  ‘Yes, and it means you’re lucky you came straight to us,’ Slorn told Aruel. ‘If you’d reported this to the local Guard you’d probably be sitting in a detention cell now, waiting for transport straight back to Arrento.’

  ‘Why does Lanvik do the interesting things?’ Garran interrupted.

  ‘What?’ Kiergard Slorn said.

  ‘It’s bad enough that you always take Bane and Magda with you, but Lanvik’s only just joined. And he doesn’t look at all dangerous … not with those round eyes of his.’

  Slorn laughed: ‘No, he doesn’t look dangerous, but just having a Human with us really disconcerts some people: haven’t you noticed? They get a bit nervous, a bit unsure of themselves – less confident. Just as much as having Bane with us, when they have to look so far up to see him.’

  ‘I liked your question with the accent,’ Magda congratulated Lanvik.

  ‘Thanks.’

  Slorn turned back to Aruel: ‘Go to your room now, pack anything you might need as quickly as you can. This man could come back at any time, and we don’t know how many others he might bring with him. Do you want someone with you?’

  ‘Yes,’ she admitted, suddenly seeming a little less sure of herself.

  ‘Bane: you go with her, just in case. And make sure she’s quick.’

  ‘I’ll go, too,’ Vand
er said.

  ‘No you won’t,’ Slorn disagreed. ‘You would slow her down. You come with us.’

  He split the Company into groups: ‘Menska, Lisamel, Tremano – get down to the harbour. We don’t know what orders our mystery thief has: if he was only looking for the jewels and not the girl then he might leave at once. If any ferries are about to depart then search them for this man, and find out what boats have sailed in the last two hours, and whether last-minute passage might have been sold to a man matching his description. And check with the owners of private boats in case anyone has been asking about passage to Arrento.’

  ‘And the rest of us?’ Lanvik asked.

  ‘We’ll try to find him, discover who he is and why he’s here, and recover the jewels. If he’s here for Aruel, then he will still be in Perastia and he’ll use his ducal warrant to enlist the aid of the local Guard to get her found, taken into custody and escorted back to Arrento. Fortunately, even if he’s already contacted them, the Guard are probably not moving quickly.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘We have a description and we know that if he followed Hirendra, then he hasn’t been here long. We’ll split into three groups and do what he did – ask at all the hotels and inns we can find. Garran – you can join the interesting group with me, if you like.’

  ‘Sure,’ Garran feigned enthusiasm. ‘I wouldn’t miss it.’

  ‘Great. Lanvik and Vander – you’re with me as well.’

  Starting with the other hostelries around the Dolphin Square, they asked at the desk whether there was anyone staying who might be from Arrento, and then whether they matched the description. A small bribe was normally enough to assuage any qualms about handing over the information.

  Bane and Aruel caught up with them. She had brought just one bag with her, which they left behind the desk of the next hotel they checked with a promise to collect it later in exchange for a shilling.

  They found their first match before they’d gone far. At the fifth place they tried, they were directed to a first floor room.

  ‘Shall I break the door down?’ Bane asked, as they climbed the stairs.

  ‘We should knock first,’ Slorn told him. ‘We’ll only break it down if he decides to be rude.’

  So they knocked. A voice from inside asked: ‘Yes, who is it?’

  They knocked again, and the voice repeated: ‘Who is it?’

  ‘It’s the Guard,’ Bane said.

  ‘Good,’ the voice said, irritated: ‘It’s about time.’

  Bane knocked again.

  ‘Gods! Wait a moment, why don’t you!’

  They heard the click of the latch, and Bane pushed the door all the way open with his left hand.

  The man inside matched their description. ‘You’re not the Guard,’ he protested, desperately trying to shut the door in their faces.

  ‘No,’ Slorn agreed, walking into the room. ‘No we’re not, but we’d like a word with you anyway.’

  ‘Hello, Sigierno,’ Aruel greeted him.

  The man peered past Kiergard Slorn and saw her for the first time. ‘Aruel,’ he said, with a degree of venom. ‘The things you did before were stupid and petty, but this time you have gone much too far. This time, there will be serious consequences: this is too big to overlook. I’m taking you back home with me.’

  ‘Friend of yours?’ Slorn asked her.

  ‘Not a friend,’ she said. ‘This is Sigierno from the palace: a cousin of some sort. No-one important …’

  That was the point that Sigierno “from the palace” caught sight of Vander behind her.

  His jaw dropped with recognition and he took an involuntary step backwards as if he’d been physically struck. ‘What have you done?’ he asked, horrified. ‘This is … This is …’

  ‘Yes,’ she agreed. ‘Yes, it is.’

  ‘Gods,’ the man said. Then he repeated: ‘Gods.’

  It was a mistake to bring Vander, Lanvik thought. He could see that Kiergard Slorn was thinking exactly the same.

  The look on Vander’s face was … well, it wasn’t haunted, but it was very uncomfortable. As if Sigierno’s extreme reaction had suddenly reminded him of just how drastic the consequences of his rescue might be, and of how anyone who had known him was likely to react if they ever saw him alive.

  ‘Gods,’ Sigierno repeated a third time: he had started shaking his head, slowly, as if he couldn’t actually believe that Vander was here. In front of him. Alive.

  ‘I have the jewels,’ Aruel interrupted. She had pushed past the others into the room, apparently oblivious to the unfolding moment of drama, and found her purse sitting on a table. She opened it and looked inside: ‘They’re all here.’

  ‘Good,’ Slorn said. ‘That’s what we came for. Now, this cousin of yours … what do you want us to do with him? Kill him? If we don’t kill him, he will go back to Arrento and tell everyone about Vander. That might make things more difficult for both of you.’

  Despite the immediate threat to his life, Sigierno still couldn’t take his eyes off Vander.

  There was a long pause. ‘We can’t kill him,’ Aruel said at last. ‘I grew up with him.’

  Lanvik had seen her hesitation, but it hadn’t seemed like the hesitation of a conscience. He wondered what she would have said if Vander hadn’t been there to hear her and to judge her.

  The tension of the moment was suddenly broken by the sound of a group of men, entering the hotel downstairs, accompanied by the clink of metal against metal.

  ‘That sounds like trouble,’ Slorn said.

  Garran ran silently to the top of the stairs and looked down: ‘Local Guardsmen,’ he warned the others a few seconds later, closing the door behind him.

  Sigierno lifted his head and sneered at them: Lanvik was beginning to think that the palace in Arrento must be a really unpleasant place, if this man and Aruel were in any way typical. ‘You honestly thought I was alone here, with no allies? Well, now you’re going to find out exactly how much trouble you’ve all landed yourselves in.’

  2

  As Kiergard Slorn locked the hotel room door from the inside, Sigierno assured them: ‘You and your friends have nowhere to go. It would be best if you give yourselves up now, before you are injured or killed.’ He gave a little unpleasant laugh, just before Bane hit him across the side of his head.

  Kiergard Slorn stepped forwards, caught the man as he crumpled and then let him slip to the floor. ‘Thanks.’

  ‘My pleasure,’ Bane commented.

  ‘Out the back way, I think,’ Slorn suggested, nodded to the balcony.

  They were on the first floor. He and Bane checked the paving below, and then vaulted in unison over the low wall and down to the square, rolling away as they hit the ground. Garran followed them, a little less flamboyantly, and then the other three clambered awkwardly over the edge and were caught one at a time by those waiting below. After each landed, they sprinted round the corner and out of sight.

  ‘You all heard – he’s already contacted the town Guard,’ Slorn said, when they were together again. ‘He’ll get all the assistance he wants from them, thanks to that warrant, so we’ll have to hurry. He’s also seen us close enough to give a good description, as has the man at the desk downstairs, so we’re no longer safe in Perastia. Fortunately, unless the Guard choose to break his door down, nothing’s likely to happen until he comes round, but that won’t take too long …’

  ‘I hit him quite hard,’ Bane volunteered.

  ‘It still won’t be that long,’ Slorn assured him. ‘We need to find the others and get away from here.’

  They collected Aruel’s bag and then found the other two groups, who were still searching from hotel to hotel. Finally, they met Karuin, Thawn and “Nanny” Hirendra back at the Company’s hotel: not inside, but watching its front door from an inconspicuous position opposite and waiting for the others.

  ‘What’s been happening?’ Vorrigan asked, now that they were all together again.

  ‘We have to l
eave,’ Kiergard Slorn explained. ‘Quicker than we thought.’

  ‘Again?’

  ‘Sorry, yes. But thankfully, we should be very good at it by now. And we need to avoid the attentions of the Guard, if at all possible.’

  ‘Naturally we do. Who will they be looking for?’

  ‘Certainly Vander and Aruel, and most likely me, Bane, Lanvik and Garran.’ He turned to Karuin and Thawn: ‘Is the hotel clear?’

  ‘So far,’ Karuin told him. ‘We haven’t seen anything.’

  ‘Right, then everyone should pack. Quickly.’

  Like the others, Lanvik had hardly unpacked at all, so it took him less than three minutes to be ready: those three minutes included a careful look around the room in case Ethryk had missed something. Despite his speed, he was one of the last to reach the desk. Vorrigan was already settling their account.

  ‘We need to find somewhere private to talk,’ Kiergard Slorn said. ‘Somewhere the Guard won’t start looking for us.’

  ‘There’s a temple along that way,’ Garran pointed to a street on the left. ‘It’ll be quiet at this time in the afternoon.’

  He was right – the temple was all but deserted. Even better, it was cool and dark inside and there were a number of side-chapels which offered some privacy as well as muffling their voices. They didn’t see any Priests, but there was a fat bustling boy dressed in white who seemed to be keeping the place clean and tending to the candles. His work-rate slowed to a crawl, and he stood and peered curiously at them. They paid for some candles, and that seemed to be enough to dull his interest: he wandered away and resumed sweeping.

  ‘We need …,’ Kiergard Slorn started.

  ‘Before anyone says anything,’ Hirendra interrupted him, ‘this business is all about Aruel and the jewels, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes it is, Nanny,’ Vander told her.

  ‘Well, in that case, I should go back home. They’re not interested in me, and I haven’t done anything wrong. I don’t really know anything – I don’t want to know anything – so there’s nothing they can do to me.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Even if I wasn’t, I’m far too old and unfit to become some kind of fugitive and I certainly don’t want to get involved in any fighting. This last half-hour has been about as much excitement as I can stand. I just want to go back home and sleep in my own bed.’