Valverna

by A Clarkson

  “Where is Magnus?” Ira asked frustratedly under her breath. “Man makes a big fuss about having backup and not going into fights alone, but when push comes to shove, where is he?”

  She wasn’t really speaking to William, but the kid turned white at her question, and she realised something she hadn’t noticed before. She sent William to go get Magnus. But if William was here, and Magnus wasn’t…

  “William,” Ira was trying for kind and coaxing, but she never had been very good at either of those emotions. She blamed a lack of maternal figure in those early years. Thanks a bunch Ms Breckinridge. “Where is Magnus?”

  “I’m sorry,” came his whispered response.

  Ira wasn’t sure what he was apologising for, but had the sense that it had something to do with him being here, when Magnus wasn’t.

  Before she could ask any more questions, she heard the orphanage door open and the sounds of men chatting quietly as they moved through the courtyard. She heard Magnus muttering something about a pompous merchant needing their damn ego stroked before the sounds abruptly stopped and Ira guessed they had noticed that the men were no longer at their posts.

  Heaving a big sigh in preparation for the lecture she knew was certainly coming, Ira hollered, “In here!”

  Rather than running in guns blazing, Magnus called out in return, “Ira, are you hurt?”

  “I’m fine Magnus,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “But we have two injured and one dead.”

  A slight pause was followed by the sounds of men moving around the stables, but they still didn’t enter.

  “Are you being held against your will, Ira?”

  “Are you kidding me right now?” she grumbled under her breath.

  Giving William a look that said this talk wasn’t finished, Ira said, “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

  Marching to the door, Ira rounded the corner to see Magnus and two of his men with weapons drawn, poised for an attack.

  “Would you get your butt in here already! You missed the party, the bad guy is already gone.”

  He swept his gaze over her, “You don’t seem injured.”

  Ira clenched her teeth and prayed for patience, “I’m fine!” she squeezed out. “But we have two in there-” she pointed towards the interior of the barn “-who aren't. So would you please cut the dramatics out here and come help!”

  ***

  As expected, Magnus was spitting mad.

  Ira remembered with amusement when she thought him unshakeable. Clearly he just needed to spend some time with her. Now he seemed thoroughly shaken all the time.

  She had to admit, she kind of liked that she had this effect on him. No matter the reason.

  “What happened?” he squeezed out when they were finally back on the barge. She was impressed that the inquisition held off this long.

  “Brian Wick is the murderer,” she said, stunning him off his intended war path. “It turns out that he killed his family and passed off Jeffrey Rose’s body as his own,” Ira explained with a grimace. “He was more than happy to brag about his cleverness in pulling it off in fact.”

  “Why didn’t you come find me before confronting him?” he asked, remembering why he was so angry to begin with.

  Ira pursed her lips slightly. “I sent William to fetch you. Which he clearly failed to do.”

  “The kid?” he asked in obvious surprise. This conversation wasn’t going at all as he planned, Ira mused.

  “Yes.” She looked at him accusingly. “Did you scare him off?”

  Magnus looked genuinely baffled, “I never saw him again after he dropped me at the office.” With a guilty look he added, “Do you think he was too nervous to come and speak to me?”

  “I don’t think that was it,” she responded honestly. “He seemed very nervous when I asked him where you were. More than simply having dodged the task.”

  Ira thought again for a moment, it didn’t make sense. “And if that was the case, why was he out in the stables at all? If he was too nervous to find you, surely he wouldn’t follow me somewhere I warned was dangerous.”

  Dismissing William’s strange behaviour for the moment, Ira shook her head and brought them back around to the more urgent matter.

  “Whatever the reason, William was in the stables and Brian threw a poisoned knife at him. He claims to have an antidote, and believed I would be more motivated to find his missing research if he poisoned the kid rather than me.” She rubbed her head in irritation. “He’s right too.”

  “Why does he assume we have the research?” Magnus asked suspiciously.

  Taking a deep breath Ira admitted the piece of information Brian gave her that she dreaded the most. “He said that the research had somehow been placed onto a stone.”

  Magnus’ eyes darted to her chest where her amulet lay, and Ira nodded sadly. “Yeah I think so too. Though I have no idea how that is possible,” she confessed.

  Magnus rubbed his face tiredly, “So let me get this straight. You believe that your necklace has somehow been used to store the research from the lab in Caldessa, and that Brian Wick, who we believed was dead, wants to trade it with you in exchange for an antidote to an incurable poison?”

  “That about sums it up,” Ira agreed, relieved that Magnus hadn’t asked her to explain how a stone could somehow store the research. His lack of questions did make her wonder if he already knew about the dragon eyes. Was that why he bought one in the desert? Perhaps he would know how to extract the research.

  “If I didn’t know better I would think this is all a big joke,” he grumbled quietly, rising to pour them both a drink.

  Ira huffed a laugh. “As much as I would like that to be the case, we have until sundown tomorrow to produce the research or both William and the guard will die.”

  “So what do we do now?” he asked softly after neither spoke for a few moments. “How sure are you that the research is on your necklace?”

  “Not sure at all,” she responded. “I find it almost impossible to believe. But...” she shook her head, “But the timing adds up. According to Brian, Pimento took a copy of the research during his last visit three months ago because he suspected that someone spilled the beans on their findings.” Ira took a large swig of her drink before admitting, “I gave my necklace to Clarisse just over three months ago.”

  “And David’s trip out to the compound was right at that time as well. Within a few days of John’s trip to Caldessa,” Magnus added, reaching the same conclusion.

  Ira nodded sadly. “Which would mean that Clarisse really did take my necklace on purpose to send to John. She really was involved.”

  Magnus was silent for a moment before asking softly, “Isn’t that what you were hoping?”

  Ira leaned forward, and grasped her head in frustration. “I don’t even know. I don’t know what I wanted, or if it would have been better that she was never involved at all.”

  She looked up to meet Magnus’ eyes with a pleading expression.

  “If she was involved, what does that mean about how well I really knew her? The Clarisse I knew wasn’t involved in secret research and stealing jewelry! Let alone fighting murderers,” she said in exasperation. “Who was this woman? Did I even know her at all?”

  “We never know everything about the people we love,” he said softly.

  “Everything?” Ira spat in fury. “I would take knowing anything at this point. I feel like everything I knew was a lie! How can I even claim to have known her at all?”

  “Maybe you knew her as she wanted you to. The version of her she wanted to be for you,” he said softly. “Don’t let the things you didn’t know about her change your opinion of the woman you knew.”

  “How can I not?”

  “Did Clarisse cook?” he asked suddenly.

  Taken aback, Ira frowned slightly, “Yes, she loved to cook.”

  “And what was her favourite thing to cook? What did she cook the most?”

  “Rabbit stew I suppose,” Ira hedged, s
hrugging slightly.

  “You know these things about her because you knew her. You probably could tell me her favourite coat, or whether she enjoyed reading, or her favourite time of year. Even where she liked to go for walks,” he explained. “This is the woman you knew. Not the secrets she kept, or where she came from. But this woman. The one who liked to cook rabbit stew.” Leaning forward, he reiterated earnestly, “Don’t let what you didn’t know about her, change what you do.”

  Feeling moisture on her cheek, Ira turned away and quickly wiped her face. He was right. Ira may not have known everything about Clarisse. But she still knew her.

  A sense of determination moved through Ira. Enough. She’d had enough. She had allowed all that happened to eat into her until she was doubting herself and everything she knew. Not anymore.

  She needed to put an end to this ratrace, and now.

  They now knew Brian was responsible for Clarisse and Bill’s deaths. She had her murderer. So why did this feel wrong? Why did it feel as though they were still missing something?

  As if sensing her thoughts Magnus asked, “What’s bothering you?”

  “Doesn’t it all seem a bit anticlimactic?” she asked. When seeing Magnus’ disapproving frown she quickly rushed to add, “That’s not what I meant, it’s just that it feels…”

  “Unfinished?” Magnus offered when she didn’t continue.

  Nodding Ira continued, “Exactly. It just feels as though we have been offered up this nice villain on a plate, and I just find it all a bit too neat. I mean, was this really all just some psycho chemist on a power trip? That just doesn’t seem to tie in to what we discovered about the rybrum and the slugs.”

  “We know he has been working with someone higher up,” Magnus countered. “He wasn’t doing this alone, we just don’t know who.”

  “You think he was just an attack dog?”

  He nodded, “Unfortunately I do.”

  Chapter 25

  The Trade

  Ira looked at the fields before her. It had been almost two weeks since she stepped onto these fields. She couldn't remember the last time it had been so long. Ira had worked in these fields since she was seventeen. The musky smell of slug had dogged her steps from that day, and she had never been able to break free from the identity these fields pushed upon her. She was a slugger.

  A part of her loved these fields. She loved the open air and lush green plants, the peace and solitude. But so much of her hated it. She hated that these fields allowed the opinions of others to affect her opinion of herself. She hated that they made her look at herself with disdain and isolate herself from those who cared for her. She also hated that these fields had been her salvation from poverty. She hated that she owed them that. Owed them for giving her a way to earn a living that pushed her into the third ring.

  But mostly, she hated what these fields represented, both to the people who owned them, and to those who toiled in them every day. These fields were life. They were money. They were power. And nobody in Valverna could ever forget it.

  Ira’s leg was still killing her, the ointment made it possible for her to move on it, but the pain was already beginning to leak through. She wasn't sure it would hold for long.

  Her head had cleared after the pounding it took the other night, and she was fairly confident that as long as she didn't take another direct blow she would manage until the leg gave out.

  Magnus hated this plan, but she won him over with her flirtatious smile.

  Yeah right, she thought. In reality she wore him down with enough badgering that he eventually caved. It helped when she reminded him of his promise to let Ira have a go at the murderer when they found him. Magnus tried to argue that she wasted her chance in the stables. Ira strongly disagreed.

  The biggest issue arose when Magnus admitted that he wanted to take Brian alive. If he really did have a powerful benefactor, they needed to find out who. With Brian dead, their leads would be lost.

  Ira chewed that over but ultimately agreed. Brian was just a pawn after all, even if he was a spiteful pawn. Whoever sent him on this gruesome crusade needed to be found. Ira also needed to know if Brian was connected to the Brotherhood. The more she thought about it, the more she wondered why they suddenly started targeting her, after twenty years of leaving her be. Ira felt that the timing was too close to be a coincidence. She knew the Brotherhood were connected to this somehow, and she would figure it out.

  The plan was simple: draw Brian out somewhere private where they could do a sneaky snatch and grab without alerting the city guards. Magnus had a suspicion that the emergency messenger he received at the orphanage was constructed to get him out of the way. That meant that Brian’s benefactor was powerful enough to be able to interfere if Brian was captured, so Magnus and Ira needed to keep the whole thing under wraps as much as possible.

  Ira guessed that Brian’s employer had a vested interest in protecting these fields, and she was confident they could use that to their advantage. After all, Brian couldn’t risk the wrath of someone he depended on to fund his future lab.

  The feeling of being watched was making her skin crawl, and she moved into the cover of the leafy rybrum plants, desperate for the false sense of protection the rybrum offered. Ira knew Brian would follow her. She had a feeling he hadn't let her far from his sight since their confrontation yesterday. She didn’t doubt that if she snuck off to some secret hiding spot to retrieve the research, he would have been on her in a heartbeat, deal or no.

  Ira wasn't sure how much time William or the guard had left. She wasn't sure if they would make it, or even if Brian really had an antidote at all. This could all be a big set up. But Brian was right, she wouldn't risk their lives on uncertainty. She had to try to save them, even if it was all for nothing in the end.

  People always said there was no honour amongst thieves. Ira thought that was bullshit. There was lots of honour among thieves. Among child murderers however? Not so much.

  Ira had spent so many years in these fields she could navigate them blindfolded. She even did on one or two occasions just to spice things up a touch. She eventually stopped in a small clearing in the eastern fields, far from the workmen's sheds and field guard offices. The last thing she needed was an innocent bystander showing up to interfere. Beyond the clearing the fields were densely packed with rybrum, providing ample cover for Magnus and his men.

  It didn't take Brian long to join her. He was eager to finally have what he had been searching for. Eager to start his new life, Ira thought bitterly. The life he paid for with the blood of his own children.

  "Interesting location for our little rendezvous Ira. Were you hoping to get me alone?"

  Ira shivered in disgust. She would happily take a giant slug over this slimy man any day.

  "Not what you were hoping for, little slugger? Don't worry," he sneered at her, "Slug Grubs aren't my type."

  Ira had never been more pleased to be a slugger. Even thinking that this disgusting creature could be remotely attracted to her made her want to gag.

  “Do you have the antidote?” Ira asked, not wanting to deal with anymore of his small talk.

  “Straight to business is it? Very well.” He dipped a hand into his coat and withdrew a vial filled with a greenish liquid.

  “Your turn,” he said simply.

  Ira looked at the vial in his hand. “How do I know it will work?”

  Brian simply rolled his eyes. “You don’t. But as we agreed yesterday, you don’t really have a choice.”

  Ira tilted her head in acknowledgement of that fact, and withdrew the brooch.

  “This is it?” he asked skeptically.

  Ira simply nodded again.

  Smiling victoriously, Brian advanced cautiously as though approaching a wild animal, the vial held out in his palm as though an offering.

  Taking the proffered vial, Ira dropped the brooch into his open palm.

  “How does it work?” she asked, looking at the concoction in her hand.

/>   “It’s quite simple really,” Brian confessed, tucking the brooch safely inside his coat. “Inject whoever is poisoned before the venom has a chance to fully mature, and the effects should be completely reversed within a day.”

  Well she’d be damned, he really brought an antidote.

  “It won’t matter though,” he said, interrupting Ira’s thoughts.

  She looked up at him, and saw that he had drawn his sword. “Because you will be dead.”

  Spinning away from his thrust, Ira shoved the vial into her pocket, praying it would survive, and pulled out her own sword.

  She expected a fight, but had agreed with Magnus that she was in no fit shape for one. The plan was that she would make the trade, and then his men would move out of the rybrum surrounding the clearing and subdue Brian.

  He advanced again, bringing his sword down hard. Ira stopped the blow but felt the resounding shock vibrate through her body. She was not well enough for this kind of a fight. She was a superior fighter, but with her leg barely keeping her standing, and her shoulder still recovering from the bolt, she was severely weakened.

  Ira held him at bay with all of her strength, her shoulder barking in pain as she tried to keep that poisoned blade from meeting its target.

  Where was Magnus? Why hadn't he moved in yet?

  As if sensing her thoughts Brian smirked at her, "Waiting for someone?"

  The sound of fighting suddenly reached them through the rybrum. Alarm must have shown on Ira’s face as Brian smiled viciously, "You didn't honestly think I would come alone did you?"

  Realizing that Magnus wouldn’t be leaping out of the bushes any time soon, Ira knew she needed to end this fight quickly. Brian was a less skilled fighter, but what he lacked in skill he more than made up for in sheer strength, even with the arrow wound she gave him yesterday. Ira’s biggest concern was the poisoned blade that would kill her with even the smallest of cuts.

  With all the false bravado she could muster, Ira sneered, “I was counting on it. I knew your master would never let you off the leash long enough to mess this up.”