The Imposters of Aventil

by Marshall Ryan Maresca

  “I’ve observed a fair degree of lax methodology at the Aventil stationhouse, and I have my suspicions regarding corruption—”

  “It’s more than that,” Jace said. “We’ve had things go missing—files, evidence, the like. And we didn’t take anything from the files. We wrote out new copies and brought it here.”

  “Hmm,” Minox said. He wasn’t quite sure what to think of this. Not that he didn’t want his own version of the file archives that he could peruse at his leisure, but that was mostly so he could keep working after going home. “I have been focusing on the wrong elements here. We stayed the entire night in Aventil instead of going home. This is quite improper.”

  “We didn’t sign out, that’s true,” Jace said. “But you were in no condition to do anything but sleep.”

  “The tower collapsing . . . I made quite a spectacle of myself, didn’t I?”

  “You could call it that,” Jace said, pumping water in to the teakettle. “I call it saving people.”

  “Yes,” Minox said. He flexed his hand. Jace must have taken the glove he usually wore off of him in his sleep, so he looked at it in all its black, glassy strangeness. Somehow his hand, the way he controlled it magically, was able to connect to the Thorn—the true, proper Thorn—and his magic. In some way, he could still feel a curious tendril of that connection to the Thorn. He had no idea how or why such a thing had occurred. Perhaps the Thorn was just as rough and instinctual with his magic as Minox was. He had—

  “Of course!” Minox shouted.

  “What is it?” Jace asked.

  “Mister Sarren—the witness who saw the attack on the lieutenant—is a magic student. And the Thorn is absolutely a mage, as we saw.”

  “We knew that already, Minox.”

  “No, my point is, we—Inspector Rainey and myself—we thought Mister Sarren had known the man who attacked the lieutenant was not the Thorn because he recognized the lack of magic.” Mentioning her reminded him that he had certainly broken the spirit of his promise, if not strictly the letter. “Inspector Rainey is going to be cross with me for not signing out and going home.”

  “My fault.”

  “I am the ranking officer and the adult here, Jace. But—”

  “You were in no shape, Minox,” Jace said forcefully. “Back to what Sarren recognized.”

  “Yes,” Minox said, recognizing the same tone he used with Evoy, and with their grandfather before. It was a little troubling that Jace had felt the need to do that, but Jace was right. His thoughts were unfocused. “Mister Sarren knew the fake was a fake because he knew he wasn’t a mage, but how does Mister Sarren know the actual Thorn is a mage? Is that public knowledge?”

  Jace thought on this for a moment. “I don’t think it’s in the papers, but it’s hardly a secret. Any gang kid would likely know.”

  “But a University student? Would they know?”

  “Depends on how much attention they’re paying to the world out here, you know?”

  “I might be operating from the unfounded presumption regarding how sheltered the life of a University student would be, but I would think the dealings of the street gangs, Constabulary, and vigilantes wouldn’t be in their field of knowledge. Unless they had cause.”

  “All right,” Jace said. “What’s the cause?”

  “That the Thorn is a magic student. Therefore, it’s quite likely Mister Sarren’s certainty comes from knowing who the Thorn is.”

  Jace nodded. “Makes sense. The Thorn, he’s about my age.” Jace was having difficulty balancing his duty and his faith in the Thorn’s decency, it was clear on his face. Minox wondered what Jace would do if given the opportunity to capture the Thorn.

  In truth, Minox wondered that about himself.

  Jace must have sensed he was lost in thought. “So what do we do?”

  Minox grabbed his glove and put it on. “We hurry home—Mother and the aunts must be in a state—and then head back out here for today’s sign-in.”

  “No need for the first part,” Jace said. “I’ve had night pages send word to the house. We’re square.”

  Minox shook his head. “That is beyond your station, you are aware of that.”

  “While you were sleeping, Ed and Ferah came in so she could check you out.” Their cousins. Edard was footpatrol in Dentonhill, and Ferah was a Yellowshield in the same neighborhood. The members of the family who worked closest to here. “She said you seemed fine, but you should probably eat something once you woke up.”

  Minox nodded. That was imperative. “Well then, you know this neighborhood best.”

  “Get your boots on,” Jace said, pointing them out by the door. “There’s a great cresh roll shop down the street.”

  “Inspector Rainey will be quite cross with me still.”

  “Well,” Jace said calmly. “I can’t be expected to solve everything. I’m just a cadet.”

  Kaiana was awoken by someone pounding on the carriage-house doors. “Miss Nell! Miss Nell! Are you in decency?”

  She got out of her bed and grabbed a shawl to wrap around herself—mostly for propriety, since it was already incredibly hot this morning—and went out to the main doors. “Who’s there?”

  “It’s Master Bretten, Miss Nell.”

  Her actual boss, which was shocking. She hadn’t seen him for more than five minutes since her promotion. So far he had had all his instructions delivered in writing, which Kaiana always suspected was some sort of test to see if she could actually read. She opened up the door. “Morning, sir. Is there an emergency?”

  “There’s madness is what there is,” he said, pushing his way into the carriage house. He stopped and sniffed the air in the carriage house. “You really sleep in here?”

  “My designated apartments aren’t ready,” she said. “I was told they wouldn’t be until the end of Soran. That is, after they weren’t ready at the end of Letram.”

  “That’s appalling,” Bretten said. He shook his balding head. “I don’t know what that’s about, but I don’t approve.”

  “Is that why you’re here?”

  “No, no,” he said. He reached into his satchel and pulled out a sheaf of leaflets. “The campus cadets and the Vice Dean of Safety had these printed up overnight, and want them posted all over the grounds. Someone got the idea that job falls on our shoulders.” He handed them over.

  WARNING! STUDENTS AND VISITING ATHLETES!

  AVOID ENTERING THE AVENTIL NEIGHBORHOOD UNLESS

  STRICTLY NECESSARY

  ESPECIALLY IN NIGHTTIME HOURS

  If you must travel in the Aventil neighborhood for any reason, be vigilant! Always know how to find whistleboxes and Constabulary!

  DO NOT ACCEPT ‘SAFE WALKS’ FROM STREET PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY IN GANGS.

  Aventil gangs can be recognized by their chosen markings. AVOID people with tattoos (especially roses or collars), scars, green caps, or handkerchiefs around their ankles.

  DO NOT TRUST ANY STREET PEOPLE!!

  ONLY CITY OFFICIALS ARE SAFE!!

  “This is . . . strong,” Kaiana said. “This is what they want to put out there?”

  “You did hear there was a gang war on the street last night? The mutts and the booters or whatever were fighting, and tore down a whole building. Tore it down. A building. We don’t know how many people died.”

  “I heard something about it,” she said. She was still waiting to hear Veranix’s side of things. He was angrier last night than she’d ever seen him.

  “They want these mostly along the south lawn, especially by the gate. Put your people on it.”

  Kaiana nodded. “I’ll get on that, in addition to our basic upkeep.”

  “Which reminds me, have the hedges by the tetchball pitch roped off. Those poor things have been wrecked the past couple days.”

  “Yes, sir.”

 
He went to the door. “And, I’ll . . . I’ll lean on the housing about your apartment. That needs to be squared.”

  “I appreciate it, sir.”

  He grumbled something and went back out into the morning.

  Kaiana got dressed in her work gear and finished off the last of her bread and dried lamb for breakfast. The bread smelled like it was on the verge of going moldy, but it looked fine enough. She was going to have to go to the campus stores to replenish, especially if Aventil wasn’t safe. She hated that. The women in the campus stores always looked at her with such naked aggression. The Aventil grocers had the decency to merely be brusque with her.

  She went off across the grounds to find her work crew, pamphlets tucked under her arm. She wondered how the students were going to take this “warning.” Likely, most of them would ignore it. They wanted drinks and revels, and if they couldn’t find them in the social houses like Jiarna, they would find them elsewhere.

  Or worse, they’d decide Aventil wasn’t safe, so they’d go into Dentonhill.

  She was so lost in thought she didn’t even notice the man coming up close to her.

  “It’s Kai, isn’t it?”

  She startled, and almost struck out at the man. He was wearing an ill-fitting Pirrell jacket, unshaven and unkempt, and Kaiana’s instinct was to scream until she recognized his face. Veranix’s Rose Street Prince cousin.

  “What are you doing here? You can’t be on campus.” She handed him one of the pamphlets. “Especially now.”

  He took the pamphlet and glanced at it. “I don’t care about this sewage. I need to . . . I need to talk to him, but I don’t know where he would be.”

  She glanced around to see if anyone was noticing them. At best, Colin looked like a Pirrell boy who woke up in a very wrong place this morning. Even that wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny—college boys didn’t have teeth or fingernails like Colin. “Don’t you send him signals?”

  “Too big to wait, or to risk him coming out.”

  “It’s that bad?”

  He nodded. He looked far more spooked than she imagined any street kid ever would.

  “Damn and blazes,” she muttered. “All right, see that building in there?” She pointed out the carriage house.

  “Yeah, that your flop?”

  “Go in there. Second stable, find the trapdoor. Go down that and wait at the bottom. I’ll send him to find you there. Hear?”

  “Heard,” he said.

  “And don’t be seen.”

  “Last thing I want,” he said. “I cannot wait long, though. Got?”

  “Got. Go.”

  He slipped off toward the carriage house. Kaiana doubled her pace to find her work crew. As far as she could tell, none of the few people out on the walkways this morning paid her or Colin much mind, even though the two of them stood out far more than anyone else.

  “Miss Nell?” someone called out across the lawn. Ebbily, running over to her. “Good morning to you. We’ve, uh, got something that—”

  “Requires my attention?” Kaiana sighed. “Doesn’t everything today?”

  Chapter 14

  VERANIX WASN’T IN any mood to eat breakfast, save for the pure necessity of it. Last night had taxed him in every way he could imagine, and sleep hadn’t helped. Every bit of his body hurt, and he couldn’t imagine how he’d feel if it wasn’t for the khenas oil and oxaym. Of course, if it hadn’t been for Blackbird.

  Emilia. He told himself as he ate. Her name was Emilia.

  “Vee,” Delmin whispered from across the table. “Your concentration is slipping.”

  Veranix nodded and returned his focus to maintaining the illusion of his face not having several bruises and a gash across the eyebrow. He hadn’t even noticed the last one until Delmin mentioned it in the morning. It was going to leave a scar. He was going to have to manufacture some semipublic accident to “cause” the injury, so no one would question its origins.

  “What’s in store for you today?” Delmin asked lightly.

  “Tetch team has to play Korifina,” Veranix said. “But I’m not—”

  “You should be on hand,” Delmin said.

  “Why? For the appearance of normalcy?”

  “I was thinking actual normalcy,” Delmin said. “Look, you—” He lowered his voice. “You went through some real grind last night, and—”

  “You don’t even know,” Veranix said. Which was true. Veranix had glossed over everything involving Emilia. Fortunately Delmin hadn’t bothered pressing for details.

  “And you need something that isn’t about any of this.”

  “I don’t think you fathom what’s going on out there,” Veranix said.

  “I know they locked down the gates, put out those flyers,” Delmin said. “It’s scared the University far more than even Jensett did.”

  “I’m not talking about the gang fights. I’m talking about the—”

  “Mister Calbert?”

  They were interrupted by a young kid in a work smock. Veranix imagined he was someone on the grounds crew by the look of him.

  “That’s me,” Veranix said.

  “Beg your indulgence, sir,” the boy said. “I was asked to look for you in here by Miss Nell. She said to tell you you’re needed in a meeting.”

  “A meeting?” Veranix asked.

  “She said you would know where.” The boy glanced around nervously. Grounds crew never came into the dining halls, and while most of the boys eating were athletes from other universities, there were enough U of M regulars who were giving him an odd regard.

  “I appreciate it,” Veranix said. “We’ll be there in short order.”

  The boy nodded and raced out.

  “That was odd,” Delmin said. “What could be such an emergency that Kaiana would send him in here to get us?”

  Veranix took another bite of potatoes. “You think it’s an emergency?”

  “She thought it merited interrupting your breakfast,” Delmin said.

  That got through his skull. Veranix grabbed two more rolls off the tray and got to his feet. “Let’s go.”

  Delmin caught up to him at the storage closet. “You’re going this way?”

  “We’ve already created enough spectacle in the dining hall. No need to have gawkers notice us walking over to the carriage house.” He had grown far too incautious in this business. Emilia had been able to track him, and Fenmere’s man had been ready for him, and the imposter . . .

  Veranix magicked the door open and latched it behind them as they went down into the Spinner Run.

  “Whatever this is about,” Delmin said as they walked down the passage, “you can’t run off like a wild chicken.”

  “When do I run off like a wild chicken?” Veranix snapped back.

  “Regularly,” Delmin said in unison with another voice at the end of the Spinner Run. Veranix drew numina in hard and fast, his hand glowing with power. Before he released it, the light revealed who the second speaker was. Colin.

  “What the rutting blazes are you doing here?” Veranix snapped.

  “Morning to you, too,” Colin said.

  “Vee, who is this?” Delmin asked nervously. “He’s a—”

  “He’s Colin,” Veranix said. “My cousin.”

  “Your—right. I had—of course.”

  “Things must be bad for you to actually come here,” Veranix said.

  “Yeah, well, I wanted to see the plush Uni life,” Colin said. “Didn’t know it would be a spider-filled tunnel.”

  “Nothing but the best here,” Veranix said. “Kaiana sent you down here?”

  “Guess she needed me out of sight.”

  “Come on,” Veranix said, climbing up the ladder. “I imagine we’re going to have to figure out how to get you off campus.”

  “Off is easy,” Colin said. “I just
show my arm, and a bunch of the Uni boys will come drag me away.”

  “Unless they drag you to the Constabulary,” Delmin said.

  “Good point, Uni,” Colin said. “I take it this jake knows what you do?”

  “Delmin, Delmin Sarren,” Delmin stammered out, offering his hand to Colin. “It’s a real pleasure, sir.”

  Colin took the hand cautiously. “Wasn’t expecting that.”

  Delmin shrugged. “Twice now I’ve ended up in the thick of things as part of his—”

  “Vendetta?”

  “Vocation,” Delmin offered. “Both times I ended up standing shoulder to shoulder with a Rose Street Prince. Both times they did the name proud.”

  Colin looked up to Veranix, still on the ladder. “Hetzer,” Veranix said. “And Jutie.”

  “Good Princes both,” Colin said, a hint of a crack in his voice. “Thank you for saying that, Mister Sarren.”

  “Let’s get on with this,” Veranix said, pushing open the trapdoor. “You’re obviously here because things are horrible.”

  “What’s horrible?”

  Veranix jumped, again nearly drawing on magic to blast whoever was speaking. Jiarna and Phadre both were waiting in the carriage house.

  “Don’t do that,” Veranix said, dissipating the numina he had built up. “Saints, it’s a wonder I have any wits to me at all this morning.”

  “Aren’t you a snarly cat,” Jiarna said.

  “What are you doing here?” Veranix asked.

  “We came in this morning for the Tournament,” Jiarna said. “Kaiana spotted us and said we should come here, and—oh, mercy my.”

  Colin had come out of the Spinner Run. “This is more of your crew?” he asked.

  “You’re acquainted with this ruffian?” Phadre asked.

  “None of that,” Veranix shot back. “He’s family and he’s part of this, and if you have a problem—”

  “No one does,” Jiarna said, giving a pointed stare at Phadre. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, Mister—”

  “Colin,” Veranix offered.

  “Charmed,” Colin said.