Moon's Artifice

by Tom Lloyd

  Rhe shifted his grip, holding the stave in the centre once more and beckoning Narin forward. The Investigator copied him and moved to attack with shorter strikes of each end, watching Rhe for where he would counter-attack.

  ‘We have only questions,’ Rhe said as they sparred, clearly holding back as he warded Narin off, ‘but still they tell us something.’

  ‘If something needs to be hidden,’ Narin said, kicking out at thin air as Rhe avoided his sudden strike, ‘it tells us they have something to hide – more than that, even. The fire did not kill the victims, yet they were able or prepared to cover up their actions.’

  ‘So unlikely a God.’

  Narin grunted, too intent on defending Rhe’s quickening blows to reply immediately. ‘A God doesn’t fear reprisals,’ he agreed, ‘but Lord Shield could have acted more directly than he did. He might not want his involvement known in this instance either.’

  ‘Why leave a body at all then ?’

  Narin paused and realised Rhe was right. Surely a God could leave no trace if they wished ? ‘So a mortal. Astaren ?’

  ‘Quite a coincidence if so. The same area you find a goshe being chased by a God. If your man is an Astaren agent, why have they not found you yet ? Or do we all ascribe too much to their mystical abilities ?’

  Narin grimaced. ‘I’ll ask them when I wake up with a knife to my throat.’

  As Rhe made to reply Narin made his move, stepping in and hooking Rhe’s weapon-arm. He turned into the Lawbringer and dipped his shoulder, dragging the bigger man over it even as Rhe tried to spin away. Narin drove his leg forward in anticipation and caught him just in time, using his hip as a pivot to haul the Lawbringer over and finally break his superb balance.

  Rhe hit the ground hard, but he was moving even as he fell. Narin felt the man’s stave behind his knee before he’d released Rhe and in the next moment he was pitched backwards with Rhe rolling on top of him, stave ready at his throat.

  ‘Excellent,’ the Lawbringer panted, a trace of colour appearing in the faint blue-grey tint of his skin. ‘Few Lawbringers would have caught me that way.’

  The Investigator grunted and mentally cursed – both at the elbow pressed heavily on his ribs and the Lawbringer’s praise. Arms splayed wide, he felt like a turtle flipped on its back. Catching Rhe off-balance hadn’t been enough to stop the Lawbringer finding a lethal opening.

  Aren’t you a good puppy, Narin ? he thought darkly. You get a treat for impressing master.

  ‘Narin !’ yelled a voice from somewhere behind them. ‘Narin, come quick !’

  The two men turned to look even as the shout came again and Narin realised it was Investigator Diman calling. Rhe rolled to one side and Narin groaned as the weight on him was relieved. He lay on his back a moment longer, staring up at the sky, before he found the strength to haul himself upright once more.

  ‘That’ll be fun in the morning,’ he muttered as he gingerly retrieved his stave and turned to face Diman. ‘You called ?’

  Diman padded to a halt, his face flushed with animation but abashed in the face of the legendary Lawbringer. ‘Investigator Narin,’ he said formally, trying to present himself with the expected dignity after having sprinted around the corner. ‘You asked me to keep an ear open for word of the goshe.’

  Narin glanced at Rhe and nodded. ‘And ?’

  Diman’s face lit up again. ‘And there’s a woman just run into the great hall – bleeding and shouting all sorts ! Some goshe just tried to kill her, she says, and murdered her sister this very morning !’

  ‘Murdered ? Where ?’

  ‘The bloody— Ahem, apologies, Lawbringer. At the Raven free hospital, so she says. She’s, well she’s scared and angry – yelling all sorts. Something about poison and foxes ; I didn’t stop to hear too much, just sat her down with someone to watch over her and said I’d come fetch you.’

  Narin looked down at himself and dusted the worst of the sand from his clothes, aches forgotten but all too aware of Rhe’s scrupulous gaze. A Lawbringer must be composed and serene ; thoughts free of emotion and the cares of the world. Without warning Kine’s face appeared in his mind – her smooth dark skin and easy smile.

  I must be a Lawbringer, he realised, and soon, if I’m to help Kine and our baby. Whatever shit I must eat as I deal with idiot noblemen, I must win Rhe’s approval. Even if it means looking as soulless as he does.

  ‘Thank you, Investigator,’ Narin said calmly. ‘With your permission, Lawbringer ?’

  Rhe watched him a moment without blinking then inclined his head. ‘A crime,’ Rhe commented. ‘It seems your instincts are as sharp as your throws. Lead on, Investigator – the matter is yours to pursue.’

  They found her huddled in a side chamber of the great hall, one hand thrust inside her coat as she stared suspiciously at the faces around her. A young Investigator named Eperei stood a few yards away – a wary distance from the injured, wild-eyed woman who looked ready to hit out at anyone coming closer. Narin crossed the great hall that served as entrance to the Palace of Law, noting the glances Rhe’s presence drew from many of those present. It was quiet in there ; the avenues of slender pillars that ran down each side of the high, airy hall empty and echoing.

  The whole building was built of pale stone and was austere in its adornments – the only colour being the yellow on the two dozen banners bearing the Imperial sun. Against all that, the young woman in muddied, blood-spattered clothes and a scorch-mark on her face was a stark contrast.

  She sensed them approaching and looked up with fear in her eyes. From the way her hand was hidden he knew she had a weapon, but if half of what Diman had said was true he could understand the urge to have a blade close at hand.

  ‘Mistress,’ he said gently as he reached them, ‘my name is Investigator Narin. I understand I may be able to help you ?’

  ‘Why not him ?’ she snapped, glancing at Rhe as the Lawbringer stopped a yard behind Narin. ‘I need a Lawbringer, not his monkey.’

  Narin inclined his head, trying not to rise to the comment. ‘This is Lawbringer Rhe – he oversees all I do, however, I may be better able to help you.’ He held up a hand to stop her instinctive retort. ‘Please, right now that doesn’t matter. Tell us both what’s happened to you.’

  She pursed her lips, body tense though he could see her left hand shaking. ‘Here ?’

  ‘Somewhere more private, perhaps ?’

  Narin pointed back across the hall towards a wide stairway that stood behind the brass-fitted desk where a white-bearded Lawbringer supervised all those who entered. He had half a dozen young Investigators waiting on his command, ready to be directed towards visitors or sent to carry messages, while behind him the stairway led to a maze of offices that surrounded the Chamber of the Lawbringers.

  ‘A room upstairs ?’

  She nodded and got to her feet with a grimace of pain.

  ‘Do you need a doctor ?’ he asked gently, only to have her flinch at the word.

  ‘Any doctor comes near me I’ll cut his throat,’ she growled.

  Narin paused. Threats like that were not what he wanted to hear from an armed woman. From the scorch-mark on her head and generally battered demeanour, he didn’t think she was anything more than a victim who’d fought back, but that was beside the point.

  ‘What’s your name ?’ he asked, standing in her path as she made to follow him towards the stair.

  The young woman paused and squinted at him as though he was mad. ‘My name ? Kesh – Kesh Hinar Vesis. Why ?’

  ‘Well, Mistress Hinar,’ Narin said, ‘you’re here in the Palace of Law now. There’s no one going to hurt you, but we can’t let you hurt anyone else either – understand me ? If there’s someone after you, they’ll have to get past me first, and if they’re having to take me down they’re not watching Lawbringer Rhe properly, if you get my meaning. So let’s go and have a talk somewhere quiet – but first, please take your hand off the knife in your coat. I don’t want to have to explain
anyone getting hurt by mistake. My superiors look down on that sort of thing and I’ve already got one unconscious man on my account this week, okay ?’

  Kesh’s eyes widened, in her shock not realising how obvious she’d been about gripping her weapon. Eventually, she nodded and jerkily removed her right hand from inside her coat, revealing another blackened burn on the back of her hand.

  ‘You sure you don’t want a doctor ?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Narin sighed. ‘Very well. Diman, could you please fetch some clean water and a cloth ? That is, if you wouldn’t mind me cleaning your wounds, Mistress Hinar ?’

  She shook her head so he stepped back and directed her towards the stair, Rhe moving ahead of them and Narin falling in beside her. Kesh limped forward a few steps, eyes on the other faces in the hall still, then seemed to straighten and move with greater purpose.

  ‘That’s really Lawbringer Rhe ?’ she muttered, looking askance at Narin.

  ‘It is,’ he confirmed.

  ‘Thank the Gods,’ she said with a sudden rush of relief in her voice.

  She almost missed her step as the tangled ball of fear and tension within her seemed to partially unravel, but when Narin put out a hand to steady her, Kesh withdrew like a scalded cat. Her hand twitched towards her coat again. Narin was careful not to react and Kesh caught herself in time.

  ‘Don’t,’ she muttered. ‘Just don’t.’

  Once her story was told the three of them sat in silence. Narin was lost in his own thoughts, Kesh in the emptiness of grief. What Rhe was thinking, Narin couldn’t tell – not even whether the story had affected him. It prompted a memory of that morning, when Rhe had been holding the baby back in Wolf District. With a start, Narin realised it was loss he was feeling – a grief of his own at the child he’d most likely never hold. The Investigator lowered his eyes, feeling ashamed to be thinking of himself in the face of Kesh’s truer hurt.

  ‘You mother is safe,’ he forced himself to say – dully repeating what she’d only just finished telling him. ‘She will not return to the boarding house.’

  Kesh nodded. ‘I told her to run, to tell no one where and go nowhere I might guess … in case …’

  Unfinished, her sentence told Narin everything. He dipped his head in acknowledgement. ‘That’s good, but I’m still worried. We cannot protect her if we don’t know where she is.’

  ‘She’ll be here !’ Kesh insisted fiercely. ‘In the morning, she’ll come ! I trust Master Hamber, he’ll give her the message true and make sure she follows. The goshe can’t check every tavern and boarding house in the harbour ; she’ll be safe for one night and make it here in the morning. I couldn’t take the risk of fetching her. I couldn’t risk leading them to her !’

  ‘You lost your sister and killed a man,’ Rhe began suddenly. ‘Encountered demons and ran halfway across the city – yet still you had the presence of mind to keep your mother safe. You are a remarkable young woman.’

  Kesh scowled and flexed the fingers of her newly bandaged hand. ‘Didn’t run,’ she said quietly, ‘if I had, that bastard Perel wouldn’t have got ahead of me.’

  ‘Perhaps. It is just as possible he would have gone straight to your boarding house – or caught you on the run and not taken the time to do it quietly. It doesn’t matter now – he is dead, you are not.’

  ‘What now ?’

  Rhe turned to Narin and stood. ‘Now, I will take my leave. This alley where you left the goshe’s body – I think I can find it from your account. If I can find the body before his comrades do, or it is mysteriously burned to nothing, we learn something new. I will take some Investigators with me and pay the goshe hospital a visit afterwards – these doctors have some answers to provide.’

  ‘Wait,’ Narin said, ‘perhaps you shouldn’t.’

  Rhe frowned. ‘And why not ? Mistress Kesh’s allegations are serious and we are the guardians of the Emperor’s law. It is our duty to investigate.’

  ‘I realise that,’ Narin explained, ‘but they’ve had time to hide any evidence. What if they have removed the goshe’s body already ? Emari’s too ? The Father mentioned others, he might well have sent them on to cover their tracks – then we have merely the word of a lower-caste woman against high-castes.’

  The Lawbringer was quiet for a moment. The law favoured the testimony of the higher castes, but for Rhe that usually meant that his word was tantamount to certainty given only the extended Imperial family were ranked higher. Rarely did he have to stop to consider such weighting the way Narin did.

  ‘This remains your investigation,’ Rhe said finally. ‘What do you suggest ?’

  ‘That we wait, at least for the night. They don’t know where Mistress Kesh is, do they ? Her mother’s fled the house ; it’ll be empty when their agents reach it. Could she not have fled with her mother rather than come to us ? They might spend the evening searching for two women in hiding rather than one, content in the thought that it’s merely a question of time and Kesh can pose them no real threat.

  ‘Once we announce our involvement, they know we’ll be investigating and can act accordingly. If we don’t go to the hospital, they’ll believe we know nothing of the plot yet – it might make them over-play their hand.’

  Rhe gave a small nod. ‘My first thought was to go there and find this doctor, yes. That would be simple enough for them to predict. If they do they would move Emari’s body without delay and leave no evidence for us to discover.’

  ‘Exactly,’ Narin agreed, ‘the Lawbringers bear the Emperor’s authority – they know we wouldn’t fear to march straight in and search the entire building.’

  ‘So,’ Rhe said slowly, ‘we will outmanoeuvre them instead. I will go to this alley still, but with my badge of office concealed. If there is a body to find I can do it alone and unobtrusively. Our priority is to keep Mistress Kesh safe, and her mother too when she comes to us. Narin, that will be your task. Mistress Kesh needs protection and being surrounded by Investigators is as good a place as any, so take her to your home. That woman at your compound, Mistress Sheti ? You’ve known her for several years now, you can trust her ? Good. It might appear improper to have a young woman stay in your rooms alone and now is not a good time to invite gossip, so recruit her to the cause. I doubt any of you will be getting much sleep anyway and there is something there you should show Mistress Kesh.’

  Narin gave a start. ‘You’re sure now’s the time for that ?’

  Rhe nodded. ‘She is a remarkable young woman,’ he repeated, ‘I have faith in her resilience.’

  ‘What are you talking about ?’ Kesh demanded, ‘what in Jester’s name is going on ?’

  Narin turned towards her with a faint sense of dread in his heart. Rhe didn’t wait for his Investigator to speak but turned and left the room without a further word. Once the door slid shut behind Rhe, Kesh repeated her question and Narin meekly submitted.

  ‘This missing guest of yours,’ he said hesitantly, ‘this Master Tokene. I …’

  Kesh jumped up. ‘What ? You know where he is ? Take me to him !’

  ‘I can take you nowhere until I have your knife,’ Narin said as gently as possible. ‘First though, I think I should explain.’

  Kesh opened her mouth to shout some sort of curse at him, then stopped and pressed her lips together so tightly they went white. ‘Very well, explain,’ she said in a restrained voice. ‘I’m keeping the knife, though,’ she added as she forced herself to sit back down again.

  ‘He’s no threat to you.’

  ‘Good – that’ll make it easier for me to cut off every finger and toe until the bastard tells me why my sister’s dead. How do you know where he is ? Did you arrest him ?’

  Narin grimaced. ‘Not quite. He surprised me in the street a few nights back – I thought he was attacking me and I knocked him out, but he might have been looking for my help. I think he’d been thrown from a rooftop – perhaps by your fox-demons, perhaps by a God. Either way I’m charged with finding out w
hat’s going on, but no one’s losing their fingers in the process. That’s why I was fetched just now. He was dressed as a goshe and I asked to be summoned if there was any unusual news involving them.’

  Kesh didn’t respond, her gaze dropping to the table they had been sat around.

  ‘I mean it,’ Narin said in a warning tone, ‘you try to use that knife on him and I’ll break your hand before you do. Similarly, if he tries to escape or hurt you, I’ll do whatever I must to stop him. So don’t give him the excuse – give me the knife.’

  The young woman glowered. For a while she didn’t speak but eventually she looked up and nodded. ‘I’m keeping the knife. I don’t trust anyone right now, not even bloody Lawbringer Rhe himself, but I promise I’ll not try to kill him. My word’s as good as you’re going to get. I’m no liar but there’s no way I’m passing the night without a knife close at hand.’

  She sighed and her exhaustion was clear to see. ‘You’ll just have to trust that I want answers more than I want to kill him. He’s a goshe agent and probably a killer too, but he’s not the one giving the orders. There’s someone else to blame ; maybe that Father at the hospital, but either way I want to know who and why before I watch them executed.’

  Narin sighed. ‘I suppose that’s as good as I’m likely to get. Just don’t expect your answers too soon ; he’s been unconscious since I dragged him home.’ He stood. ‘Let’s go. If they’re still looking for you, their next move might be to check here. Best we leave through a side door and get you out of sight as soon as we can.’

  He paused and looked her up and down. Her shirt was torn and spattered in blood, while mud was smeared all the way down one trouser leg.

  ‘Maybe a change of clothes first ?’

  The journey to the compound was fraught for them both. Kesh jumped at every unexpected noise and movement, and Narin was barely any calmer. The Palace of Law was an expansive complex, however ; the spread of dormitories, courts, shrines and training grounds meant it covered a large area, so they easily found an unobserved door to slip out of.

  In a borrowed coat and clean, albeit ill-fitting, shirt, Kesh waited in the shade of the doorway while Narin scouted the streets beyond. She was silent and tense even before she walked out at Narin’s gesture. Head covered with a married woman’s scarf and hands balled into fists, she wordlessly followed him through a deserted alley in the opposite direction from where they were heading.