by Tom Lloyd
Enchei draped his coat over an armchair and went to the iron stove in the far corner to fetch an ember for his pipe. Once it was lit he returned to the goshe, again picking up the long-knife in a way that looked as if it was more out of habit than for any real reason.
His skin was stained with ink from his trade ; blues and reds swirling around his tanned, greyish fingers. After years working as a sanctioned tattooist – in an Empire where every man, woman and child were marked with their caste and House – it was a mark of honour, one that showed his experience.
Like many looking for a fresh start in life, Enchei had joined the House of the Sun rather than been born into it. Every noble House had authority over its subjects ; to leave your nation of birth and join another would have been unthinkable before the power and domain of the Imperial House became more than nominal – before the Emperor’s authority had been changed from temporal to spiritual. Even now the act was not to be taken lightly. It meant placing oneself at the whims and greed of officials, but Enchei had a skill that was always in demand and little interest in advancement.
‘However they faked it,’ Narin continued at last, ‘that detail alone is enough of a scandal. The temples have been looking for an excuse for years to go after the goshe order, half the entire Empire’s warrior caste too. Treating all their members as equals is enough provocation, but changing the caste tattoos too …’ Narin shook his head. ‘They’ll see it as great a threat to the Empire as any merchant house manufacturing guns. Stars above, there are Shure training houses in every city you could name – the goshe order is probably bigger than any one merchant house !’
‘Quite a step from here to there,’ Enchei pointed out, ‘so I don’t reckon that’s your first concern. More likely it’s professional killers learning their skills from the goshe and you’ve pursued assassins before.’
‘Wish it was as simple as that.’
‘Aye, Lord Shield spoke to you. That’s interesting right enough. Bet you he didn’t bring up the tattoos though.’
‘I think Shield threw him from a damn roof !’ Narin hissed, trying not to shout in his alarm. ‘What in the name of Pity’s tears have I got caught up in ?’
Enchei puffed on his pipe, frowning. ‘Something, that’s for sure. Remember those spirit traps I set in the summer ?’
‘Spirit traps ? You mean those bloody bone charms I helped you hide ? I remember coming a hair’s breadth from falling off a bloody roof and you laughing about it. You told me they were protective wards.’
Enchei grinned briefly. ‘Aye, I did, didn’t I ? Well they’re there ta keep me safe, sure enough.’ His hand went to the fetish at his neck, an animal bone of some sort. ‘Anyways, they trap spirits ; knot ’em up good for a few hours they will, but they’ll also catch echoes.’
‘Echoes ? Echoes of what ?’ Narin demanded, startled that the spirit traps had been anything more than heathen superstition.
Enchei claimed to hail from the north-east, some obscure region of House Falcon’s sovereign land no one had ever been to. Narin knew such remote parts were of little interest to the ruling lords, so old superstitions and shaman magic quietly survived in the shadows. Compared to the Gods-fearing folk of the Imperial City, Enchei looked eccentric and anachronistic with his pagan trappings, but Narin had always assumed it was just a facade.
‘Calls, screams, warnings ; depends, really. What’s important is this – one o’ my spirit traps caught the echo of something big and noisy. My guess is that was your little encounter.’
‘Big and noisy ? Like a man falling off a roof ?’
Enchei waved dismissively. ‘Don’t be daft, nothing like that. It was nothing you’d hear yourself, but if this one’s not just some simple goshe, it’d have startled the shit out of him. Mebbe enough to make him lose his footing and fall – certainly enough to attract the attention of any nasty that happened to be in the area.’
‘Like a God ?’ Narin asked, already knowing the answer.
The old man nodded. ‘Shield was in ascendancy last night, no ? If he was looking down at the city, he’d have heard it, along with any spirit or demon in the vicinity. My spirit-traps can only tell me there were screams in the night, not what they said. Lord Shield would’ve heard it all clear as day.’
‘Shield asked me a question – “who is the moon ?” – he expects me to investigate this goshe and find the answer.’
‘So he don’t know what’s going on most likely, just caught a fragment of the screams and hopes you can provide him with a few pieces of the puzzle. Not good that a God’s involved, but it could be worse.’
‘Worse ?’ Narin exclaimed. ‘How, exactly ?’
The older man shrugged. ‘There ain’t a God at the heart of it. Shield’s late to the game and just taking an interest because he’s a God and can stick his nose wherever he damn-well wants. If this was his game though, or another God’s, you’d be more buggered than you know. As it is you’ve got a divine charge and mebbe even an ally if it all goes to shit. Not the finest hand a man ever got dealt, but not certain death either.’
Narin scowled as he recognised the truth in Enchei’s words and bent over the goshe. The man’s face was a little darker than Narin’s own, his stubble and hair almost black while his features were small and surprisingly neat, considering his fighter’s build. The man was heavily muscled, marked with more than a dozen scars in addition to a mass of bruises from the previous night. Narin had dragged a bonesetter he knew out of bed to tend him. The man had been furious at being woken so early in the morning only to discover no obviously broken bones – the result of Shield’s intervention, Narin guessed. All the same the bonesetter had wrapped the goshe’s left arm, ribs and right wrist and stitched the cut on his forehead.
On the goshe’s right shoulder were symbols tattooed in black, something required of every citizen of the Empire, but these ones had troubled Narin. He hadn’t been able to explain to Enchei exactly why that had been, but the two were close friends and Enchei had been happy to indulge a hunch.
‘House Shadow,’ Narin read, ‘military service, craftsman caste. No goshe mark, but I don’t think they all do that anyway.’
‘He look Shadow ta you ?’ Enchei asked.
‘I don’t know. You don’t exactly get many of them round here.’
The old man shook his head at his friend’s ignorance. ‘Well fortunately for you, one of us has left this bloody city and seen something o’ the Empire. Travelled a ways through Kettekast and can’t say I’d have guessed he was a Shadow.’
Kettekast was the sovereign land of House Moon – one of the Empire’s ten noble Great Houses that ruled the known world. Within that domain lay House Shadow’s own lands, a subordinate nation but Narin couldn’t remember exactly where it lay. Most maps of the Empire he’d seen only marked the domains of the ten Great Houses and tiny Imperial warrants granted to merchant houses. Everything was secondary to the Great House hegemonies and for outsiders the details mattered little.
‘It’s hardly proof the tattoos are fakes,’ Narin said.
‘No, what makes the tattoo a fake is that I say so. It’s a good one, would fool more’n a few tattooists I reckon, but it’s not old enough to be the one he got as a child.’
‘I don’t buy the military service either,’ Narin added, ‘doesn’t seem to fit him.’
‘No ? Big man with scars in the military – not beyond the realms of possibility ?’
Narin shook his head. ‘The goshe use physical training to purify the mind, the Shure teaching martial arts anyway. It’s all about enlightenment through perfecting skills, even at free hospitals the basic idea remains the same. They’re also Shure, just teaching medicine instead.’ He pointed at the thick slabs of muscle on the goshe’s arms and chest. ‘A man this size, taught to seek perfection in the martial arts ? Doesn’t strike me as someone not to be noticed and promoted. He’s a few years older than me so must have served a full term, and if he was an idiot it’s unlikely he’d be
caught up in something Lord Shield would take interest in, certainly not on a solo mission.’
Enchei nodded. ‘And there’re no scars on his back, so a bad attitude wasn’t holding him back.’
‘Do you … do you think he could be an Astaren ?’ Narin asked quietly.
In spite of everything, saying the word sparked a flicker of excitement inside him. The Imperial City was a sheltered world to grow up in and the House of the Sun’s elite Astaren warrior-mages had been obliterated centuries ago along with its warrior caste. Like the rest of the city, everything Narin knew of the Astaren came through rumour and myth. A secret kept even from the lords and generals of their own Houses, the Astaren were warrior-mages who formed the secret core of each army, performed the impossible and answered only to the Gods.
Enchei puffed out his cheeks and frowned at the goshe. His curled greying eyebrows twitched as he thought, absent-mindedly twisting the bone fetish around his neck through his fingers.
‘Doubt it. They’d probably have tracked you down by now if you had one of their own,’ he said eventually. ‘Let’s hope he ain’t, eh ? Near enough the games of Gods in terms of us getting out alive.’
Narin let out a deep sigh and nodded his agreement. Normal folk getting caught up in the machinations of the Astaren rarely fared well and it was one additional complication he didn’t need.
‘Quite a night you had, then,’ Enchei commented. To the older man’s astonishment, his idle comment seemed to deflate Narin completely. The Investigator’s head dropped and he dropped back into a chair and slumped.
‘Stars above, what’s come over you ?’ the old man exclaimed. ‘Don’t tell me you argued with that girl of yours ? That’s where you found him, right ? Out seeing Kine ?’
Narin shook his head miserably. ‘If only we had argued,’ he admitted.
The Investigator fell silent, unwilling to say more. Enchei was his closest friend and the only other who knew of Narin’s relationship with Kine, but somehow he feared to speak the words in the light of day. The idea of children had been a small fantasy they had each mentioned on occasion over the last year ; wilfully dreaming of a life they’d never have. While it remained just between him and Kine, it wasn’t quite real yet – but telling another would make it so.
‘Well, spit it out, boy. It’s because of me the two of you met ; reckon I feel some sort of responsibility.’
Enchei stood and headed around the makeshift bed Narin had set up. He put a hand on Narin’s shoulder and bent down until the Investigator met his arresting, cobalt-blue gaze.
‘Better we hadn’t met I think,’ Narin sighed.
Enchei made a disgusted sound and stepped back. ‘You say that again and I’ll smack you round the head. I ain’t saying it’s the best way of falling in love, her being married to a Wyvern nobleman and all, but we all get dealt a shitty hand sometimes. I could’ve picked life to go a better way too.’
‘You don’t understand,’ Narin insisted, ‘Enchei, she’s pregnant.’
The older man stopped mid-reply. ‘Pregnant ? Ah. That could prove inconvenient.’ He scratched his jaw and held up a finger like a schoolmaster waiting for his pupil’s attention. ‘Now I know I’m old and forgetful, but when you saved that nobleman’s life like the hero you are, hadn’t they just cut his balls off ?’
Narin groaned and pressed his fingers against his temple. ‘What was I thinking ? As soon as she starts to show, he’ll know she’s taken a lover and have her killed !’ His voice became panicked at the very thought of it, his heartbeat jumping rapidly though he couldn’t even find the strength to rise.
‘Don’t be so foolish,’ Enchei said in a sharp tone, ‘it’s not so drastic as that.’
‘What ? The man’s been castrated ! He knows he’s not going to be the father, how long before he works out it’s me ?’
‘Hah, Lord Cail Vanden Wyvern ? For a man of the noble caste, he’s a spineless bureaucrat and not the cleverest either. I’d be surprised if he got that far in nine months – which is, by the way, how long you’ve got to find a solution.’
‘He’ll know long before then !’ Narin protested, only for Enchei to dismissively wave his words away.
‘That there’s a child coming, sure, but the man’s not going to announce to the whole of House Wyvern he’s been cuckolded, is he ? Remind me why he thinks you’re the greatest Investigator of all time ?’
‘Ah, because you saved him from assassins and made me take all the credit ?’
Enchei wagged a finger in Narin’s face. ‘Try again.’
‘What ? What are you talking about ?’
‘Poor Kine, the child’s likely to be simple,’ Enchei sighed, shaking his head theatrically. ‘Saving his life was one thing, but covering up the fact his balls got cut off for not paying a gambling debt ? That’s what made you the shining sun of the whole Imperial House, in Vanden’s eyes.’
Narin was so bemused he didn’t even bother objecting to Enchei’s irreverent turn of phrase comparing him to the Emperor. The old man had joined the House of the Sun gladly enough, but had only ever managed a sort of gruff affection for their young Emperor descended from Gods.
‘So I helped …’ Suddenly it all fell into place and Narin gasped. ‘Oh for Pity’s sake, I must need more sleep. Of course – it’s the only heir he’ll ever have ! He’ll not endanger that, no matter how angry he is with Kine. It’s not as though he can prove the child isn’t his, someone’ll ask why. He’d most likely take his own life than live with the shame of the truth getting out. Wyvern skin varies quite a lot – might be he can accept the child as his own even if I am the father. Kine’s darker than he is. So what do I do ?’
Enchei looked down at the unconscious goshe beside them. ‘You’ve got more pressing problems, hey ? There’s a God waiting for answers from you and when this one wakes up, my guess is you’ll not have time to worry about Kine for a week or so.’
He headed back over to the stove, beside which he’d deposited a hessian bag. From the bag he pulled a clay wine bottle and several wrapped packets which were each set out in an orderly line. ‘Go find the lovely Sheti, ask her if she wants to eat with us after she’s finished her duties. There was squid and dappled crab at the market today – what I’m planning requires a more appreciative audience than you.’
Narin didn’t move from his seat, watching the man with astonishment. ‘You hear all my problems and all you care about is cooking to impress a widow ?’
‘The best solutions are always found over a meal,’ Enchei said with a flourish of a kitchen knife. ‘Have I taught you nothing these last two years ? If you think it’s just the sum of my wisdom on the dachan court you should be picking up, you’re more simple than any of us are willing to admit.’
‘And what about him ?’ Narin demanded, pointing at the goshe. ‘What do you propose I tell Sheti about him ?’
Enchei shrugged and fished from his bag a knobbly vegetable Narin didn’t recognise. ‘Tell her the truth, or some approximation of it. That woman’s seen life in all its colours and was no fool to start with – plus, she does chores for this whole compound,’ he said, gesturing to the square of housing Narin’s rooms were within.
‘That means not only is she around during your shift hours to keep an eye on him, she also hears gossip from all over the city.’ He smiled and looked up with a comically wistful expression. ‘Us lonely old men love to gossip with a pretty face – and anyways, it’s not as if she’s the only one you’ll have to tell.’
‘What do you mean ?’
Enchei laughed. ‘Investigator Narin Deshar, your life is not your own. You might be the rising star of the Lawbringers, but there’s one star risen higher than yours that you still bow to.’
‘Rhe ?’ Narin said with a sinking feeling. ‘Stars of Heaven, why ?’
‘Aha ! The one and only Lawbringer Rhe,’ Enchei exclaimed, arms raised in theatrical adulation. ‘Scourge of the criminal classes, slayer of generals and insufferable bore. Lawb
ringer Rhe indeed ; the man under whose tutelage you’ll ascend to the rank of Lawbringer, assuming you don’t get yourself brutally murdered first. The man whose sharp eyes will soon enough notice his protégé’s distracted state and time spent on a side matter – then do what comes naturally to such a sanctimonious, arrogant shit : investigate.’
As the evening light turned the vast white walls of the Imperial Palace golden, Sheti realised she had been lost in the sight and shook herself back to her senses. She set her sewing aside and blinked out through the window at the skyline beyond, breathing in the scents of jasmine and honeysuckle that drifted up from the garden below. Far in the distance, around the towers and sharply peaked roofs of the Palace, long-winged birds turned lazily through the thermals. The day’s warmth remained and when she leaned out over the window to look down at her small corner of the garden, she could hear the contented hum of bees as they attended to the flowers.
It was an indulgence, she knew, to have her part of the communal garden taken up by flowers, but her needs were modest now that family life was behind her. The tall plants and bushes provided a snug, secluded spot in the sun where she could work, partitioned from the rest of the grounds by a prickly hedge the chickens and geese steered clear of. She turned her head right and looked down the length of the communal garden. It was empty of people, but a pair of geese waddled between neat plots of beans and tomatoes, their bamboo frames shaded by lemon trees.
‘My boys are improving,’ she said with a smile. ‘I’ll make peasants of them yet !’
Though she had two grown sons of her own, Sheti had spent almost a decade working in this one Imperial compound for unmarried men. She had moved there soon after her husband’s death and regarded many of the residents with maternal fondness. The Imperial staff who lived there had mostly grown up as orphans within the colleges of their professions. After a childhood in college dormitories and being worked hard from an early age, most were shy of anyone beyond their own small world and so unused to the presence of women they frequently never married.