Princeps: A Novel in the Imager Portfolio (46 page)

“… the eruption, it was bad enough, and the thefts and the violence that followed was worse, and the east bridge being impassable and the lack of water, and the low prices of flour … but now…” Andryt stopped abruptly and shrugged, as if whatever he might be asking could only be obvious.

“Factor Andryt … I am afraid I do not understand. You are suggesting something that is even worse than everything that has already happened, but you do not tell me what this disaster is.”

“Is it not obvious? Did he not precede me into your presence?”

“Factor Lysienk? He’s obviously less than honest, but it might help if you told me why he is a greater disaster than lava, ash, ground tremors, violence, and flooding.”

“Those who do not sell their best to him … bad things happen to them … He has mentioned … my family … made suggestions about the daughters of others … he is an evil man…”

“You never did tell me what you factor…”

“The finest in fruits, the best apples, pears, and peaches, and all the berries that the hills support…”

“If your produce is so superior, why do you worry about Lysienk? Why is everyone so afraid of him, then?”

“Because everyone who crosses him suffers most terrible things. They are so terrible … he might be…” Andryt shook his head.

“He might be what?”

“I cannot say … only…”

“The spawn of the Namer?” suggested Quaeryt.

“He is worse…” Andryt shivered. “He might … might even … be an imager.”

“Oh…” Quaeryt frowned. “Why do you think that?”

“Because of what has happened to those who cross him. They drop dead while at dinner. They are found lifeless in their beds. There are no wounds. There is no sign of poison. Leforyn’s horse broke a leg while he was crossing the river, and Leforyn hit his head on the bridge and fell into the water and drowned. These things happen. They do not happen all the time. They happen often to those who cross Lysienk. They should not happen just to those who owe Lysienk golds and refuse to pay or to those who have crossed him. Yet this is the way it has happened for the past years, ever since this … imager came to Extela.”

“How much do you owe him?”

“Nothing.”

“How did you cross him?”

“Why do you ask me such questions?”

“Because no one talks about Lysienk. I know. I’ve made inquiries. You’re talking. You’ve come to me because you have nowhere else to turn.”

“He wants me to sell my goods and warehouse to him. I do not wish that. Not now. He is most insistent.”

“Why your goods and warehouse?”

“I have the best flour mill in Extela, and now that there are fewer mills, there are growers who will sell only to me…” Andryt shrugged. “I refused his request for my daughter’s hand.”

“She is beautiful?”

“Every father thinks his daughter is special, but Marah is indeed special and beautiful, and I would not see her in his hands. Yet … to who else can I turn? No one else will help … or even say anything.”

Quaeryt nodded. “I can only say that I will see what I can do.”

Andryt sagged where he stood, looking crestfallen.

“Factor Andryt … I cannot ride out of here with a patrol and throw this man into a cell in the gaol because accidents have happened. I can see that he is not a good man, and I will deal with him. That is all I can promise.”

“I have your word?”

“You do.”

“I asked … the soldiers. They said you were a man of your word. Will you keep that word, even if an accident befalls me?”

“I will … but please do not let us talk of accidents.”

“There have been so many … so many around this evil man.”

“I’ll do what I can…” Quaeryt said again.

It took a bit more time before he succeeded in reassuring the nervous factor and saw him out. After Andryt left, Quaeryt just shook his head … but he had to admit that the factor might be right. Accidents such as those he had described were one way a hidden imager might well operate.

Quaeryt felt a tight smile on his face. He’d done things like that, most recently with High Holder Wystgahl.
But doesn’t the reason count for something? You acted to stop fraud, theft, and starvation. If this … Lysienk … does what this factor thinks … he uses imaging in order to create a form of fraud and theft.
He shook his head. Some people would see no difference, would only condemn the act, and not the reason, even when the law, such as it was, was unable to stop such theft.

And all that meant … If Lysienk were truly an imager … and as evil as he appeared to be, Quaeryt would have to do something … both to implement his own plans to make Telaryn a better and safer place for scholars and imagers, and to stop the corruption in Extela that seemed to pervade everything. Still … he likely had few days, if not longer.

In addition to everything else, he also couldn’t help but worry about the homily he needed to deliver on Solayi evening, and that led to worries about meeting with Siemprit’s junior chorister, which was something he didn’t really want to do, because the whole issue would be moot, one way or another, in less than a month, when Third Regiment left for Ferravyl. Part of his reluctance, he knew, was because he’d felt Siemprit was like too many he’d met in Extela. Even though the chorister had never spoken a word about it, Quaeryt sensed that Siemprit was far more interested in coin than in what chorister might be best for the officers and men of the regiment, something Quaeryt had never felt when he’d dealt with Phargos, the regimental chorister in Tilbor.

The business with Andryt and Lysienk concerned him the most … for more than one reason, including the fact that even if Lysienk weren’t an imager, the slimy factor was giving imagers a bad name.

He decided that he needed to ride over to the Civic Patrol station, just on the off chance that Pharyl might be able to tell him more. He left the study and walked down the corridor to the duty desk.

“I’ll need the mare,” he said to the young ranker standing there—not the duty squad leader, who would have been there most times. “I’m going over to the Civic Patrol station.”

“Governor, sir, you might want to wait just a few moments before leaving.”

“Oh…”

“The factor who came to see you, the second one, he had an accident.”

“What sort of accident?”

“He was going out through the gates. He got maybe thirty yards from the walls, and his horse bucked and threw him. He came down on his head. That’s where Squad Leader Daerk is, sir.”

Quaeryt froze for just a moment. “I think I’d better take a look.”

“Ah … yes, sir.”

Quaeryt did not quite run from the building, but he did walk as swiftly as his leg would let him, until he was approaching the squad leader and another ranker standing over a prone figure.

“Governor, sir.”

“What happened?”

Daerk turned to the ranker. “You saw it. Tell him what you told me.”

“Yes, sir. We didn’t see it, sir, not exactly, because that other factor was yelling at his men. They were over there.” The ranker pointed. “We heard the horse scream. When we turned, it was sort of … I couldn’t say … but the factor was on the stones. We ran toward him, and he was half muttering, half yelling, and then he just sort of stiffened up, and he died.”

“Did you hear him say anything?”

“There was something about an accident, but it didn’t make any sense. That was the only word that I could make out. I wanted to ask the other factor, but he was gone by then.”

“Do you have the horse?”

“Yes, sir. Over there.”

“Would you check it for tenderness or soreness around the hindquarters and flanks?”

“Yes, sir.”

Quaeryt could hear the puzzlement in the ranker’s voice, but the man walked toward the two others who had a mount between them.

“You think something strange, sir?” asked Daerk.

“I just thought it might be a good idea to see if the horse was injured and that was why he threw the factor.” He glanced down at Andryt, who lay on his back, his face still in a half grimace, as if he had suffered great pain, and then died so quickly that the muscles had remained partly distorted.

Less than a half quint later, the ranker walked back to Quaeryt with a quizzical expression on his face.

“Yes?” asked Quaeryt.

“Well … sir … there’s no mark anywhere, but there’s a place on the gelding’s rump where, if you touch it, he shies away. Has to hurt a lot.”

“Thank you. It might be an insect bite or something. Sometimes they don’t show.” Quaeryt knew it was likely nothing of the sort. “Thank you.”

He looked back down at the contorted face of the dead factor. He had no doubts how Andryt had been murdered—something imaged into the mount’s hindquarters, enough to make him buck, and then poison, most likely pitricin, imaged into Andryt’s brain.

And that meant he had an even bigger problem on his hands.

The rest of the day was filled with details and more details, but the notices were posted, the document copies made … and Pharyl sent a message informing Quaeryt that there would be another theft hearing on Mardi. That reminded Quaeryt to send one in return, asking Pharyl to look into the family and business affairs of Factor Andryt, since the factor had died in a strange accident.

When Quaeryt finally reached the villa, it was a good two quints past fifth glass, and Vaelora had a worried expression on her face when he stepped into the entry hall, after having unsaddled and groomed the mare.

“You look worried, dearest.”

“I am.” He glanced toward the archway and the corridor beyond.

“Rebyah and Alsyra are in the kitchen. Shenna has gone to see her family. Why? What happened?”

“Another problem of a serious nature.” He went on to tell her about his meetings with Lysienk and Andryt … and the results.

“That’s terrible.”

“Will Shenna be here tomorrow?”

“You’re not thinking of still having her meet with someone like that?”

“I am. I think it’s the only way to resolve the matter. It’s very important that she meet with him, and that not either one of us is present.”

“Quaeryt…”

“Dear … please.”

“All right … I know you know what you’re doing, but I still worry.”

So do I.
“Sometimes, the choices are between bad and worse.”

“There are getting to be too many of those.” Vaelora’s voice was between dry and tart.

“I know. Can we enjoy dinner?”
Exactly what else can you do right now?

Vaelora did smile, if faintly.

47

Samedi morning Quaeryt was groggy, but still managed to struggle out of bed, noting, as he had not the night before, that there was a more elaborate coverlet—which he had tossed back the night before. He also noted a pair of matching straight-backed chairs, one beside each armoire.

“It is looking better, don’t you think?” asked Vaelora.

“I do indeed.” He had to wonder about the costs, but Vaelora had not asked him for golds.
Not yet, anyway.

He dressed quickly, as did Vaelora, but took his time over breakfast, so much so that Vaelora looked at him and asked, “Are you going to the post later this morning?”

“When will Shenna be here this morning? Remember?”

“She should be here anytime now. I still worry about her talking to Lysienk.”

“Don’t,” said Quaeryt. “He can’t get what he wants unless he talks to her. And I may need evidence from someone else…”

“But if he’s that clever…”

Quaeryt just looked at Vaelora.

“Oh…”

“There may not be any other way. Not given the way he’s done things.”

Vaelora nodded sadly.

What are you supposed to do? Let him image person after person to death? When there’s no proof that will stand up in a hearing?
Quaeryt wanted to shake his head. He didn’t.

Quaeryt was just finishing the last sips of a third cup of tea when Shenna arrived. He stood.

“Good morning, Governor.”

Vaelora’s private secretary was petite and pert, with wavy black hair. Quaeryt wouldn’t have called her pretty. Cute, perhaps, if slightly chubby, but she had beautiful hazel eyes.

“We need to discuss a matter with you.” Quaeryt glanced to Vaelora, and then back to Shenna.

“Yes, sir.”

“You will be approached by a Factor Lysienk, either in person or through a note. He represents himself as a provisions factor. You are to agree to meet with him, but on a day after Mardi. If he does not wish to meet in the villa, you are to insist on meeting with him somewhere close to the villa, either right before or right after you are to begin work. If he defers, explain that your mistress keeps a close eye on you, that you are new to the position, that such positions are hard to come by. It is very important that Vaelora and I know where and when you will meet, but we will not be present.”
Not visibly.
“He will suggest that you purchase various provisions for the villa through him. He may even offer you some inducement. You are to appear reluctant, but do not get angry or rebuff him. You do not wish to make him angry.”

The young woman’s brow furrowed into a frown. “He wants to bribe or force me into paying more for provisions?”

“That is most likely,” said Quaeryt. “He has done this before. He may tell you that I have already agreed to the arrangement … or hint that. You tell him that I requested you meet with him and hear him out.”

“He will want an answer,” said Vaelora.

“Tell him that Vaelora has not completed making a listing of what the residence will need on a continuing basis, but that the list will be ready in a day or so, and that he or his man can call on you at the residence then.”

Vaelora nodded.

“Will that not seem as though I am dishonest?”

“You will not have agreed to any price at the end of the meeting,” Quaeryt pointed out. “Meeting with a produce factor does not make you dishonest. You will likely meet with a number to determine who will best serve for what.”

“Then…” Shenna shook her head, then looked to Quaeryt. “You’re trying to trap him, aren’t you?”