“I’ve already gone through all the Lirelei records,” Kirrana assures me. “I didn’t find anything else that stood out.”
It’s a bit like looking for a glass bead in a horse pasture, when you haven’t any idea what the bead even looks like. At some point, Kirrana produces a small stash of snacks and we break to eat, then go back to reading.
“Where are last year’s records?” I ask when I finish with the final book in my stack.
“Still at the river wardens’ office, I expect,” Kirrana says. She sits back and stretches. “Incident logs are sent up semiannually unless there’s a big enough incident to warrant an investigation. Loading ledgers . . . there’s only a rush on those when it’s a five-year tax assessment to adjust rates. We had one two years back, so no rush this year.”
I rest my chin on my stack of ledgers. “We’ve found enough to raise interest. It might be enough to get the princess and . . . her allies to launch an investigation.”
I wish, though, that there was some way to take down those at the top—the mages who are betraying our people. I don’t want to hurt our royal family, or bring about the anarchy Bren spoke of. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with the regrets the archer gave voice to in her journal. But when I consider that the Circle is actively enslaving our people, and will walk away untouched, my anger hardens into a fist in my belly.
“You want another anomaly,” Kirrana says. I blink at her, and she adds, “To fully convince the royals to investigate Berenworth. The company is powerful enough that a single anomaly and a coincidence or two won’t be enough. Right?”
I nod, even though that wasn’t what I was thinking. But she is right.
“Well,” Kirrana says, springing up and industriously stacking ledgers. “I say we go for a walk. It’s a lovely spring day. Let’s get this put away and go visit the river wardens.”
“Is that a good idea?” I ask, taken aback. “Will they even be open?”
“Yes and yes. Palace offices are closed an extra day; everything else is back to business as usual. But I’ve been to the wardens’ office before, and they know me. They won’t be surprised to see me. Come on,” she urges me.
Laughing, I push myself to my feet and help her clear off the table, carefully returning each ledger to its place. The docks are on the east side of the city, nowhere near the Scholar’s territory. In full day, in Kirrana’s company, it should be fine. I do, as I promised Captain Matsin, write a short note to Mina advising her that I am going for a walk with a friend but will be back by early evening, and we collar a page out on the paths to deliver it for me.
Then we continue past the practice fields, where guards are drilling, and on to the side exit. Out on the street, Kirrana hails a passing wagon for us, in an effort to save my foot the walk. The middle-aged woman who drives it won’t even take a coin in exchange for a ride on her crates to the other side of the river. Her brow furrows as she notes the faded yellow bruises on my cheek, but she says only, “I’ll take you across the bridge to River Road, but you’ll have to walk down to the docks yourselves.”
We rattle along in the spring sunshine, Kirrana pointing out various historic buildings and points of interest. The bridge we take is humbler than the one the princess’s carriage crossed over for the wedding ceremony. While I can just see the thin towers of the temple to the north of us, most of the view is taken up by a dock. More than a dozen boats are moored there, at least half of them actively loading or unloading.
Kirrana points. “See the galleys with the green-and-white pennants? Those are Berenworth’s.”
I run my gaze over the boats, searching. All but one are merchant galleys, with space for at least one set of rowers, though the oars are pulled in right now. They aren’t the deepest vessels—they can’t be, on the river—but there’s space for a single-level hold beneath the rowers, and a small cabin on deck for the kitchen and the captain’s quarters. Looking over them now, I spot three different galleys flying Berenworth’s colors.
“Here we are,” our driver announces as we reach the end of the bridge. She pulls off to the side, where the bridge intersects with the road to the dock. “You two enjoy your day!”
We thank her and clamber out of the wagon. It’s a short walk down the road to the multiroom building that serves as the main office for the river wardens.
Any anxieties I’d entertained about our showing up unannounced are eased the moment we walk in the door.
“Kelari,” the head warden says with a smile and bow to Kirrana. He’s a tall, lanky man with the longest mustache I have ever seen. “It’s always a pleasure. Do you have another project to check on?”
“Always something new,” Kirrana agrees pleasantly. “Today I need the loading ledgers from last year. A discrepancy has been noticed, and they want me to make sure it didn’t get carried over.”
“Of course,” he says, and takes us to the records room in back. The room is relatively bare but for a central table—low, with cushions around it, just like at home! And a wide window, unshuttered to allow in the sunshine. The monthly ledgers are lined up on a shelf, with other shelves reserved for additional reports.
He waves toward the ledgers. “You’re in luck. We were planning to send these up next week, and then you’d have had to fight the administrative building for them.”
“I’m glad you’ve been slow,” Kirrana says with a grin.
He laughs. “Let me know if you need anything.”
Kirrana assures him she will, and with a quick bow, he departs, closing the door behind him. Kirrana hands me the first set of ledgers and quietly lifts down the incident reports for her own review.
About halfway through my second ledger, I pause. “This is odd,” I say. I flip back a page, then forward.
“What is it?”
I turn back to the loading bill. “This was the only ship loaded on this date. It’s one of Berenworth’s.”
Kirrana gets up and comes to look over my shoulder. “About a year ago, hmm? That is odd. There’s always more movement than that on a particular day. What about the next one?”
“Very busy,” I say. In fact, there were no fewer than ten ships loaded the next day—more than usual. “Were the offices closed for some reason?”
I flip back again.
Kirrana frowns. “Look, there’s nothing recorded for the two days before that.”
“The queen’s death,” I say, staring at the date. “The city was shut down for the three days of mourning, wasn’t it? This ship should never have been loaded.”
“It’s possible the warden wrote down the wrong date on the first log after reopening,” Kirrana says in a voice that clearly suggests she doesn’t believe herselfit.
“It’s also possible they forgot to change the date when they wrote up the log.” I squeeze my eyes shut. “When I first started asking questions, I heard a rumor that nearly two dozen children disappeared over those days.”
“I’ve . . . heard that too.”
I look up at Kirrana. “That would be the sort of cargo that would need to be loaded as soon as possible.”
“Exactly the sort of thing a corrupt warden would come out to approve so no one would ask questions later,” Kirrana agrees softly. “He was probably well paid for his troubles too.”
It’s only a date, one day off from the rest. The cargo itself is all innocuous—sacks of grain, crates of carpets. Kirrana goes back to her wax tablet and makes a note of the log date. There are precious few words on her tablet, just cryptic references to the logs and ledgers that bear each anomaly we’ve identified. Enough for us to find them again, but not enough for anyone else to know what they’re reading.
I look again at the page before me, trace the black stamp at the bottom. It’s the Berenworth seal, used by each captain alongside their initials to prove their relation to the overarching company. Two thin circles frame a center with calligraphic writing decorated with three small star-shaped flowers. A variant of asphodel, I think. The wr
iting says, From the earth, the wealth of man. I suppose it sounds like a perfectly valid motto considering Berenworth’s investment in mines, and that the wealth of the asphodel is in its roots, which have a number of medicinal uses. But it still rubs me the wrong way. Perhaps it’s the implication that one can just take what one wants.
“Do you think it’s enough?” Kirrana asks.
“It might be. Do you think we’ll find anything else?”
“I doubt it,” she admits. “To find out more, you’d need an informant on the inside, or a contingent of guards who can inspect the ships for—well, for children.”
We don’t have any informants, and I wouldn’t know how to go about cultivating one. But the royal family certainly has soldiers, if they’re willing to use them. That will be up to the princess, and Kestrin, and his cousin Garrin, who offered to shield them both from the impact of this investigation. Garrin wanted an angle that wasn’t the Circle, and now I have one.
“I’ll talk to the princess,” I say. “I think we have enough to warrant their attention.”
“I’m glad,” Kirrana says. “I’ll keep my tablets with me for now. Let me know if you need anything from them.”
“I will,” I promise.
Chapter
41
Kirrana sets off directly from the docks to spend the rest of the day with her family. Emboldened by our earlier ride together, I keep an eye out for carts and wagons driven by women, and manage to buy a ride back to the wide plaza before the palace for the price of the spare coin in my pocket. It’s certainly the best way to cross the city without drawing notice or further blistering my foot.
As the cart rolls away, I become aware of a man approaching. I glance sideways to find myself looking at Captain Matsin, wearing an older set of leather-and-velvet armor.
“Kelari,” he says, his expression grim. “May I walk you into the palace?”
I have the distinct feeling he wants to chastise me more than he wants to walk, but I dip my head and start forward.
We pass through the gates in silence. Just when I’m beginning to wonder if he means to speak at all, he says, “I saw you leaving the palace earlier today with another young woman.”
He must have been in the practice fields, then. “Yes,” I say.
“I followed you.”
“What?” I turn toward him, shocked. He’s been following us all afternoon?
He meets my gaze. “It only took me a few minutes to realize there was someone else following you, closer behind you than I was. I continued after you to make sure you remained safe. Were you any more aware of them than you were of me?”
My mind goes blank. I shake myself, try to rattle a few thoughts free.
“I thought not. They followed you back, and I decided it best that I come forward and walk you in.”
“Did you recognize them?”
“No. They weren’t dressed as a soldier, but they moved as if trained.”
I take a shaky breath. Who would be following me? If it were the Scholar’s men, they could have easily apprehended me on my way back, or at least made the attempt.
“You don’t know why you were being followed?” Matsin queries.
There’s definitely more than one possible reason.
“The man was a Menaiyan, so it likely doesn’t have anything to do with the princess’s brother. Are you involved in anything else that might incite interest?”
I eye him warily. He isn’t trying to trick information out of me, is he?
Matsin sighs. “Don’t tell me. Tell the princess. And I suggest you send word to your friend to be careful as well.”
An excellent idea. Since I don’t know where Kirrana lives, Matsin escorts me to the women’s residence, where the elderly caretaker gives me the appropriate directions. Then I return, finally, to the royal wing, my limp distinctly more pronounced.
I write a quick note to Kirrana, advising her that we were followed and counseling her to be careful until we can find out who it was.
Write me back, I say at the end. Just let me know you got home safely.
The note entrusted into the hands of a page for immediate delivery, I go in search of Alyrra. Matsin’s news has disturbed me enough that I know I need to share everything we’ve learned—before anything else might happen.
Thankfully, Alyrra is in, and within half an hour she manages to arrange for Kestrin and Garrin to join us in her new interior sitting room to hear my news. Kestrin wears the same faintly glowing expression as Alyrra; it’s endearing and makes him seem boyish again, as he did the night of the sweetening. Theirs might be an arranged match, but they are certainly happy in it.
Garrin is more somber, though he stretches out his legs and looks at me from deep brown eyes with their frame of lashes as if he were a court beauty in his own right. He probably is.
“We spoke just a few days ago,” he says amiably. “Is there really news again so soon, kelari?” He pauses, his brow furrowing. “I hope you have not delved further into your questions regarding the Circle.”
“No, I have left them out of it completely, as you counseled, verin.” As much as it irked me to do so.
“Then please,” Alyrra says. “Tell us what you learned.”
It takes a surprisingly short amount of time to explain the research Kirrana and I completed, outlining the anomalies related to Berenworth: the gemstones that would be prized as amulets, the port warden’s death and captain’s removal, the overseas mines, the loading of cargo on a day when the docks should have been closed, and the coinciding disappearance of a great number of children.
“You’ve been busy,” Garrin says quietly. “I am impressed, kelari.”
“My friend did much of the research, and knows the records well. I couldn’t have done it on my own.”
Alyrra nods. “It’s a great deal to consider.” She turns to the men. “How much do we know about this company?”
Kestrin shrugs. “They’re well known and seem legitimate. There’s no need for them to be involved in something as unsavory as this, given the level of business they are engaged in. But it’s also quite possible they are. It is easy enough for a man to take advantage of another in order to grow just a little richer; I wouldn’t be surprised if it were even easier for a company to take advantage of the most vulnerable at their fingertips.”
Garrin shifts, crossing his arms. “I have to say, I find it hard to believe that Berenworth is involved in chasing down children in back alleys. That is how it is done, is it not? I think it more likely that some of their captains are illegally transporting a few children and bringing back payment with them than that the whole of the company is engaged in the widespread disappearances we have heard about.”
I take a deep breath and hold it, trying not to say anything too insulting of Garrin’s intelligence. Sheltered as he is by living in the palace, he still doesn’t believe the issue is as big or as real as it is. This isn’t just a couple ships taking a dozen children out of the country every month. It’s much bigger and more devastating than that, and it must, by necessity, be organized.
Thankfully, Kestrin saves me from the words at the tip of my tongue. “It’s possible, cousin, but I disagree. The involvement of the Circle, which appears irrefutable at this point, implies that they have an ally they would trust not to betray them. They wouldn’t deal with individual slavers, or captains. Not directly, even if such exist. There must be someone organizing it all.” He nods to me. “There’s enough oddity to what you’ve uncovered, kelari, that I do think it should be looked into. Quietly.”
Garrin sits forward, his expression grim. “Agreed. If these are just coincidences, we don’t want to raise concern among the merchants and their companies that we’re investigating them needlessly. If Berenworth is truly involved, we’ll need ironclad evidence to back up our claims before word gets out.”
“You’ll take this on, then?” Kestrin asks him.
“Of course, cousin. Did I not say I would?” Garrin turns
to me. “Have a copy of the evidence you have gathered delivered to me. I will start with that. I have a few men who can begin looking into Berenworth, both from the records side of things and from the outside.”
“My friend has the notes we took with her. I’m sure I can get a copy.” I hesitate, knowing I need to share this as well. “Captain Matsin informed me, on my return from our research this afternoon, that I was followed from the palace. It’s possible someone has already found out what I am working on. Though I don’t know how they could, as I haven’t spoken of it to anyone but my friend, and you.”
And Bren. The thought occurs as the words leave my mouth. Would he have me followed?
Kestrin and Alyrra exchange a look. Garrin frowns. “That’s concerning. If you need to leave the palace again, I’d prefer you take a guard with you.”
I nod.
“Your friend returned safely?”
“She’s with her family right now. I’ve written to tell her to be careful.”
Kestrin nods and says, “See that she has an escort on her return. Like you, she should be careful for the next few weeks, till we’ve uncovered what’s happening and who is involved. If she prefers to remain with her family, that can be arranged.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll speak with my father about all this as well,” Kestrin says. “He may wish us to involve Melkior.”
That would be the lord high marshal of Menaiya. Arguably, he would be the person to head up such an investigation, rather than Garrin, but perhaps that’s only once it becomes official.
Garrin nods. “I’ll wait till I’ve heard from you. There’s no immediate rush.”
No rush? There are children being stolen every day. But perhaps, if you’ve never seen it, never held your friend while she wept for her stolen sister, then taking your time seems of little consequence.
“What about me?” I ask. “Is there anything more I can do?”
The Theft of Sunlight Page 31