by T. A. White
Her attention dropped to the floor. Whatever had pinned Ronald to that pole had dragged him across the floor. She was willing to bet that was what had caused the scuff marks leading to the window. Whatever it was had to be strong to hoist a full grown, struggling man up to impale him on that pole.
“What made you come in here?” she asked from her spot before the window.
The servant blinked, struggling to keep his gaze from being drawn back to the chair with the body. Tate stepped forward and to the side, hoping that it would allow him to concentrate long enough to answer her questions.
“We were running low on ice. The majordomo asked that I refill the ice containers as it seemed the guests were apt to require additional drinks.”
Tate noted the ice buckets lying on their side on the floor. There was a small puddle beneath one.
“Where do you keep your ice?”
“In a cellar off the kitchen.”
“And where is that?” Tate asked.
He pointed to the back of the house. “In the east wing, several rooms down from the banquet hall.”
“On the first floor?” Tate lifted an eyebrow. If it was the same banquet hall they’d eaten in, she already knew the answer. That didn’t explain why he was up here on the second floor, on the complete opposite side of the house.
“Yes.”
“Where were you when he gave you this order?”
“Near the study where the guests were getting refreshments.”
There had to be a more direct path to the kitchen then going up the stairs. This room wasn’t even on an indirect path. From the mental map Tate had formulated of the place, it was pretty far out of his way.
“Why did you come this way?”
He flushed, and his eyes shifted away.
Tate’s voice had an arctic chill to it. “I would suggest you tell the truth. There’s been a murder which now requires a very delicate balancing act. The people downstairs will be looking for someone to blame. I would recommend not giving them a reason to look to you.”
“I second that opinion,” a deep voice said from the doorway.
Ryu’s eyes went directly to Tate as he stepped inside followed by Jost. His gaze ran over her, and it looked like he had to fight against himself to keep from taking a step towards her. If she didn’t know better, she would have said he looked concerned. About what? Her?
Jost didn’t look pleased to be called out of the gathering. Neither looked surprised at the sight of the body. Dewdrop must have briefed them on the way up. He stood in the doorway but didn’t try to join them in the room. Instead he faced the hallway to guard against any unexpected guests.
The servant dropped his gaze. “I had hoped to run into someone up here.”
Tate studied him. He was young and attractive. There were only a few reasons that she could think of that a young, attractive man might risk his employment by courting distraction while on the job.
“And who might that be?” Tate had a good guess.
His voice was shy. “There’s a woman who takes care of the upstairs. She has the prettiest smile. I thought I might spend a few minutes talking to her if I took this path since she had to take care of a few of the guest rooms.”
Tate looked at Jost. “Is anyone staying here tonight?”
She had thought the guests had procured lodgings on opposite sides of the city given the antagonism they felt for one another.
He shook his head. “No, but the rooms would have been prepared just in case.”
“Can she corroborate your story?” Tate asked. She didn’t think he was guilty, but then, a skilled assassin would need to be a good liar.
He shook his head. “We didn’t have plans to meet, and I didn’t see her before I stumbled onto this.”
“You just passed this way on the off chance that she might be available to smile?” Jost asked with a raised eyebrow.
The man flushed again and ducked his head in a nod.
“So you wanted to make eyes at a pretty maid. What happened next?” Tate asked.
“I didn’t see her in the main hall so I wanted to check the servant quarters before taking the back stairs down to the kitchen. That’s when I opened the door and noticed someone was sitting there.”
“How did you discover he was dead?” Jost asked. He was bent over for a closer look at the man’s wound.
“He didn’t answer when I greeted him. I would have just kept going but guests don’t normally come back here. They stay on the other side of the wall. He didn’t answer so I walked closer. That’s when I noticed the blood.” The man’s face got a little green at that admission.
Tate hoped he didn’t throw up on them. It was enough that she could smell bile mixed with the death.
“Then I noticed his throat and his chest.” The servant’s throat moved convulsively as he swallowed. “That’s when I ran to find help.”
“Did you notice anything before you came in?”
He shook his head.
“Nothing?” Tate asked. “What about any guests lingering in the hall?” Another head shake. “On the stairs?”
He hadn’t seen anything there either.
“Thank you,” Jost said before Tate could ask another question. “Wait in the room across from this one. We’ll want to question you and anyone else on staff, so don’t go anywhere.”
A threat was inherent in Jost’s voice, warning the man that if he did go anywhere he wouldn’t like the consequences.
They waited until the servant had exited the room and Dewdrop had pulled the door shut behind him.
“If this blood is anything to judge by, looks like his throat was ripped out before the person took his heart,” Jost told Ryu. “Both wounds are mortal. I doubt he would have survived even if he’d been discovered right after the attack.”
Ryu circled the chair to stare down at the body. His dark eyes cataloging every detail.
“Did the man tell you anything of note before we arrived?” Ryu asked.
Tate shook his head. “Nothing more than he’d been sent to fetch ice.”
“And evidently took a detour to say hello to a pretty girl,” Jost murmured in a sardonic voice.
“Bet it’s the last time he does that,” Tate said.
“I doubt it. Youth is amazingly resilient,” Jost said. “And the hormones of young men are a fearsome thing.”
They all turned back to study the corpse.
“There’s more,” Tate said.
Both men looked at her with raised eyebrows. She nodded to the open window. Ryu looked out first, his hands wrapping around the frame as he leaned forward to get a good look at the man pinned to the side of the wall like a shish kabob.
He stepped back, letting Jost take his place. Ryu moved close to Tate and touched a piece of hair lying against her shoulder. His eyes searched hers as if reassuring himself that she was fine. She opened her mouth to ask him why he was acting so out of character but never got the chance. He stepped away at the sound of a low string of curses from Jost as he ducked back inside and glared around the room.
“Just how bad is this?” Tate asked, setting Ryu’s odd behavior aside for now.
Ryu and Jost were silent for a long minute.
“That’s what I thought,” she said.
They didn’t need to say in words what their silence practically shouted. Tate didn’t see how these talks were going to succeed. Not when they already had bodies from two of the three factions.
“Any chance we can hide them?” she asked. “Not forever. Just until the culprit can be found.” And shoulder all the blame went unsaid.
“There are too many ways that can backfire on us,” Ryu said.
She sighed. She had a feeling he was going to say that.
Jost didn’t look any happier at the statement. He looked like he wanted to rip the bodies to pieces himself. But Ryu was right. There were too many ways hiding it could go wrong. Too many people already knew.
Tate doubted the servant would
be able to keep his mouth shut and short of killing him or locking him up, which Tate wasn’t willing to do, there was no guarantee of his silence. It was unlikely they’d be able to get rid of the bodies unseen. Not with this many people around the mansion. There was also the small fact that their people would notice them missing and no doubt trace their disappearances to this evening.
“You know how this looks,” Jost said, looking at Ryu.
“I do.”
“They’re going to blame the Silva.” There was a beat of silence as they all looked at the body. It looked like it had been mauled by a lion. Or a certain bearcat. Tate kept that observation to herself. “You know what will happen if there’s another incident like the one at Rohar.”
“What incident?” Tate looked between the two when neither answered. “What incident?”
Jost folded his arms across his chest. “The locals blamed the Silva for some dead livestock that looked like it had been mauled by animals. Things escalated. They tried to have several Silva youths arrested for the crime. The Silva felt like they were being persecuted so they retaliated.”
“Nearly a hundred people on both sides lost their lives in the resulting bloodshed,” Ryu said in a quiet voice. He seemed almost removed from what was happening. Pensive. Like his mind was miles from here.
“That doesn’t even account for how many people starved to death all over the empire because the Silva shut down the trade routes between their lands. No food could get in or out. For Aurelia, who counts on farms that rely on those routes, it was not a good winter.”
“What do we do then?” Tate asked when it seemed nobody would add anything.
“Someone will have to investigate,” Ryu said after a long pause.
Jost didn’t look happy at the pronouncement. Tate didn’t blame him. His job had already been difficult. Adding a couple of bodies on top of things would make it downright impossible.
“We’ll have to call in the Black Order,” Ryu continued.
Jost swore, propping his hands on his hips and bowing his head. “I hate dealing with them.”
“We have no choice. The Kairi and the humans will try to blame the Silva. Unless someone can be proven guilty of these murders, the Silva’s Harridan will cut those trade lines and pull her people back into their territory.”
“You know what the Black Order’s like,” Jost said.
Tate didn’t. She’d heard of them, the order that was part civil service and part extortionist. People bribed them for protection from the Night Lords and the monsters in the catacombs. They helped in enforcing the Emperor’s laws even if the amount of coin determined which laws were enforced.
“I do,” Ryu said.
“They won’t deal with me. Not after that incident in Grenala. I’m still on their wanted posters.” Jost looked around the room with frustration.
“We’ll have Tate oversee them. They don’t know her so it’ll be our best chance for an impartial investigation. It will also give you a reason to distance yourself and stay neutral.”
Tate considered Ryu. He seemed off. Almost like he was just going through the motions. He didn’t venture near the body and after the one look outside, he kept his back to the window. Even his dragon seemed agitated from what Tate could see. He was mostly hidden by Ryu’s high collar, but the tip of the dragon’s wings were present as he paced back and forth along Ryu’s collarbone. Every few steps the wings would unfurl and stretch.
Jost looked at Tate, obviously expecting some kind of protest. She stared back. She wasn’t going to give it to him. She had every intention of staying close to this investigation. Neither one of them had put the marks or wounds together with Night. She didn’t want to risk that changing.
Tate knew that Night had nothing to do with this, but she’d seen how people treated him. Like a feral animal that should be put down. The Silva knew about Night. It was entirely possible if the finger landed on them, they’d point it right back at Night. The best way she could see to control the situation was to stay close.
“I’ll do it. What do you need me to do?” She knew nothing about how investigations were conducted or what went into overseeing the Black Order, but she’d learn.
Her answer seemed to jar Ryu out of whatever odd mood he was in. He studied her, his dark eyes suspicious.
“Most of it is monitoring their progress. They’ll have to report their findings to you. If they need help they can ask you for it,” Ryu said.
Sounded easy enough. She nodded at him, letting him know she would do it.
“Why aren’t you doing this?” she asked in curiosity. This seemed like the sort of thing he tended to involve himself in. “Don’t you normally like to take control in situations like this?”
Ryu took a deep breath and released it slowly. Tate knew from past experience this was his way of managing the frustration of having her question him once again. She got the sense people usually just fell all over themselves to do what he wanted.
Tate, on the other hand, always had questions. Not all of them were designed to irritate him. That was just an unexpected bonus.
“He can’t. He already has another matter to attend to,” Jost said before Ryu could say anything cutting.
“Involving the duke?” she asked.
He had arrived with the duke’s party.
Curiosity rose. Now Tate wanted to know what was so important that Ryu couldn’t be pulled off his current task to deal with what Tate had been told had the potential to divide Aurelia and its empire.
Ryu ignored her question. “Just gather information and report it to the Black Order when they get here. They’ll take it from there.”
Tate studied Ryu. She was missing something. She just couldn’t put her finger on what.
“This isn’t going to make me anymore popular with the Kairi,” she said, never taking her eyes from them.
Jost gave a sly smile. “I don’t know. You seemed pretty cozy with them during dinner and afterward.”
“If you call arguing cozy,” Tate said.
“The Shodon doesn’t usually allow the rank and file to converse with him, and I’ve never seen him voluntarily let a Silva address him. Only when at court and only if they are influential,” Jost said.
Ryu studied Tate thoughtfully. She could practically see the wheels in his head turning as he thought of ways to take advantage of what he’d just learned.
“What did you discuss?” he asked.
She gave a half shrug. “Not much. He asked me how Umi had died. Whether she had gone with dignity.”
“Your answer?”
“Said she never saw it coming.”
It was true in a sense. She hadn’t expected Kadien’s betrayal.
“Rumor has it that she was a favored granddaughter,” Jost said.
Tate glanced at him, wondering where he’d gotten his information from. The Kairi didn’t strike her as the type who had loose lips.
“Did he say anything else?” Jost asked.
“Just gave me a couple of tips about the duke and his daughter. Don’t know if they were designed to help or hurt.”
Given that Tate had been partially responsible for his granddaughter’s death, she wasn’t sure how much she trusted anything the man said.
Relationships were a tricky business. Umi might have betrayed her people and brought shame to the family name, but that didn’t erase the ties of emotion fostered over the course of a lifetime. You could love someone and hate them too. That love might even lead you to misplace the blame on others.
“Best to be careful with him. The old man is tricky. He has held his position this long by being good at the political maneuverings of both the Kairi and the Emperor’s courts,” Jost warned.
“Dig around. See what you can turn up,” Ryu ordered.
Jost shot one last glance at the body and swore. “This is going to make things worse than being caught between two mating sea serpents. We’re going to get savaged no matter the outcome.”
Tate
couldn’t help but agree.
Chapter Eight
Jost and Ryu decided there was no reason to postpone telling the rest of the gathering what had happened.
Ryu pulled away from them before they reentered the crowd. He hung back letting them continue on without him. Tate took it to mean that his companions didn’t know of his involvement with Tate and Jost. She wondered if they knew of his status as Dragon-Ridden. She doubted it. She seemed to remember Roslyn saying she’d only met one in her life and that the meeting had seemed to be a distant, not fond memory.
Would they notice his absence after the announcement? She would have, but then she knew just how sneaky Ryu was.
Tate and Dewdrop flanked Jost as they walked into the room, where Danny tried in vain to placate the rest who knew something was happening but hadn’t figured out what. The group quieted once they saw the Jost and Tate.
Dewdrop stuck close to Tate. “How bad is it?”
“Pretty bad. Ryu and Jost haven’t said anything, but I have a feeling this may derail the mediation,” she said in a hushed voice.
She followed Jost to where the Shodon held court, his guards looking ready to bar anyone from getting close. Jost and Ryu had decided that they should be told about their companion’s death first. The guards let them through at a sharp word from the Shodon.
Gabriella caught Tate’s eye and lifted one eyebrow. Tate didn’t respond and turned her attention back to the conversation taking place in front of them. She doubted the other woman had killed the man upstairs but that didn’t mean she wasn’t involved. At this point, it was best to separate herself from others so she could look at things objectively.
Tate and Dewdrop hung back at the edge of the circle. She’d like to avoid drawing notice until necessary.
“How does this affect us?” Dewdrop asked. What he was really asking was if there was a way for them to cut bait and run.
“They’ve put me in charge of working with the investigators.”
“Who is investigating?”
“They’re calling in men from the Black Order.”
His groan was small and went unnoticed by the others.