The Raven Ring (14 page)

“You know, if one of the Aurelicos is working Ciaron, we’d better send word to the palace,” Sunnar put in thoughtfully. “And to some of the noble houses, too. Lady Trewisha Povarrella has a diamond necklet that’s enough to tempt
the
Aurelico himself.”

Charis shook her head. “Sunnar, we’re talking about an Aurelico, and we don’t even know what he’s after. You can’t expect everyone in the city with something worth stealing to triple their security.”

“No, but when whatever-he’s-after turns up missing, it’ll be the fault of the palace sentries or the lord’s watchmen, not the City Guard.”

“True.” Charis crossed to the table and began rummaging through the litter. “Where’s the clean paper? I’ll write a quick note to the head of the Palace Watch now, and we can send the details when—”

With a muffled rattle, a white square poked through the slot beside the door and fell into the willow basket below. The two guards turned as one to look at it.

“Now what?” Sunnar grumbled as he stood up. He plucked the note from the basket, flipped it over, and groaned. Charis turned and glanced at the dark blob of wax, then rolled her eyes.

“The official seal of the Imperial Guard,” she said with disgust. “What do they want this time? And why in hell can’t those lazy oafs use proper channels for it?”

Sunnar thumbed his ear at the letter, then slid the same thumb under the seal, breaking it. He unfolded the paper and squinted at it. A moment later, his face settled into an official, expressionless mask. “See for yourself, Charis,” he said, passing her the note.

As she read the message, Charis’s eyebrows rose. “Well, look at this. Another timely warning from the Emperor’s high-nosed and most excellent Imperial Guards to us lowly folks who patrol the streets every day. It seems there’s a young, red-haired Cilhar woman, name of Eleret Salven, whom they expect will get into some kind of trouble on her way out of the city, maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe three or four days from now. We’re to keep a weather eye out for her and send her along as soon as we find her. Signed and sealed, et cetera. Idiots. I’ll wager they’ve known about this for a week.”

“I don’t think so,” Eleret said. “I saw Commander Weziral this morning. I’m sure he’d have warned me then, if he’d known anything.” Had it only been that morning? It seemed more like days.

The two guards looked at her. “You know the Commander?” Sunnar said at last.

“Not really. It was business.” Eleret did not feel like explaining about her mother and the kit bag and the Commander’s misgivings. These people were friendly enough, but she had known none of them until today. “It’s a long tale.”

“I’ll bet,” Sunnar commented sourly.

Charis refolded the note and tucked it under her belt. “It doesn’t matter. Unless you have something to add, my lord, we’d best be going. Idiots or not, the Imperial Guard doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

“What?” Daner said, startled.

“Got salt in your ears?” Sunnar said. “That note said to bring her along to the Guard as soon as we found her. That means now.”

“But if the note was a warning, surely there’s no need for us to go all the way back to the Imperial Guard offices,” Daner said, plainly taken aback.

“
If
all the Guard wanted was to warn her, and
if
the warning had to do with the three Syaski who attacked you, you might be right,” Charis said. “But we don’t know that.”

“And it’s possible the Commander remembered something he didn’t tell me this morning,” Eleret put in.
Or that he’s learned something more about Mother’s death, or discovered why so many people are interested in her kit,
she added silently. “I’d like to find out.”

Daner looked at her with an air of mild irritation. “I thought you were in hurry to leave.”

“I am. But information is always good to have. The more you know of danger, the better you can prepare for it.”

“I’d rather avoid it, myself,” Daner said, smiling as he stood up. “Very well, if you’re willing, we’ll go.”

“Thank you, my lord, Freelady,” Charis said, and waved them out the door as if she were afraid they might change their minds if she gave them an opportunity.

By the time they reached the headquarters of the Imperial Guard, it was late in the afternoon. Eleret led the little group straight to Commander Weziral’s office, which caused Sunnar to remark caustically on her obvious familiarity with the building. As she did not want to become involved in a comparison of Ciaronese streets and buildings to mountain byways, Eleret let the remark go by without comment. She was a little surprised that no one stopped them to ask their business, but after some consideration decided that the presence of the two City Guardsmen made their party suitably official looking.

The tall officer with the face like chiseled rock was alone in the outer room when they arrived. He remembered Eleret, and went in at once to notify the Commander. A few minutes later, he returned and ushered them inside.

“Good afternoon, Freelady Salven,” Weziral said as they entered. “What can I do for you? You haven’t run afoul of our city compatriots here, have you?”

“Not exactly.”

“Then what brings you back so soon?” The Commander leaned back in his chair, his expression one of polite inquiry.

“I thought you wanted to see me,” Eleret said, puzzled by his reaction.

Weziral frowned. “I’m certainly happy to meet you again, but I get the impression you have something more specific in mind. Why?”

Suddenly at a loss for words, Eleret looked over at the two City Guards. Charis stepped forward and bowed. Pulling the note from her belt, she handed it to Weziral and said, “Because of this, Commander.”

The lines at the corners of Weziral’s mouth deepened as he read the note. “Have a look at this, Hara,” he said, tossing it to the rock-faced officer.

“If we’ve misunderstood—” Charis said in a formal, apologetic tone, but the Commander cut her off with a wave.

“No, I don’t think you did,” he said. “Well, Hara? What do you make of it?”

To Eleret’s surprise, the officer’s lips set in a hard, tight smile. “It’s got the right seal and the right wording, sir. Someone here sent it. And I know it wasn’t authorized, unless you ordered it yourself, sir—”

“Which I didn’t.”

“Then there’s only one person who could have sent it.” Hara’s expression grew even more grimly amused. “Birok Maggen, the City Liaison’s aide. He’s abused his position in small ways many times, but he’s been careful not to go too far. Until now.”

“By the time I’m through with him, he’ll wish he had stayed careful.” Weziral drummed his fingers against the tabletop. “Why do you suppose he did this?”

“I expect he wanted to cause a few difficulties for Freelady Salven,” Hara said. “He was with Sergeant Giancarma and me when she arrived this morning, and made himself rather disagreeable. I gave him penalty duty afterward, and he’s the sort that would blame her for it. Forcing her to make an unnecessary trip back here is just the kind of petty reprisal he would think of.”

“It still doesn’t explain why he took such a chance.”

“Actually, it wasn’t much of a risk. Look.” Hara held out the note, pointing to the last few lines. “From the way this is written, most guards would assume she was to be taken to the Liaison’s office in the east wing. As long as he was the one on desk duty there for the next few days, no one else would know a thing about it.”

“Really.” The Commander’s voice was dry. “We’ll have to do something about that, Hara. I can’t have minor officials abusing the authority of the Imperial Guard. Especially not civilians.” He turned to Eleret. “I’m sorry about the inconvenience, Freelady. It won’t happen again.”

Eleret hesitated. “I can’t be positive, Commander Weziral, but I think it was meant to be more than an inconvenience.”

“How could it have been?” Daner said. “There’s nothing to show that this person—”

“Birok Maggen,” Hara put in.

“—had anything to do with the Syaski who attacked us.”

“What attack?” Weziral demanded.

“Three Syaski jumped us in an alley,” Eleret said, wishing Daner had not brought it up. “It doesn’t matter, and it’s not what I meant anyway. I think Maggen was after Mother’s kit.”

The Commander bit back a comment and sat very still for a moment, watching them with an expression that prevented anyone from adding anything more. At last he shook his head. “Sit down, all of you. That includes you, Hara; I may want a second opinion on this later. Once you’re settled, I want an intelligible story out of each of you, with as few interruptions as possible, and none of you are leaving until I get one.”

NINE

I
N THE MOMENT’S SILENCE
that followed Weziral’s pronouncement, Sunnar and Charis exchanged a sour look. Then Daner bowed, smiled, and sat down in the chair in front of the Commander’s desk. Eleret sighed and gave in. She presented Daner and the two guards to Weziral while Hara went out for more chairs, and in a few minutes everyone was settled.

Weziral smiled at the motley group and leaned back in his chair. “Thank you, Freelady Salven. Now, I would like to hear what has happened to bring you back here so soon and in such interesting company. I would also like to know why you have such decided opinions about Birok Maggen, a man you have met only once.”

“Twice,” Eleret said. “He was waiting in the hall as I left, and he offered me five stars for Mother’s kit and everything in it. That’s why—”

An exclamation from Sunnar interrupted her. “Five stars? For a kit bag? What have you got in it, rubies?”

Daner shook his head. “Eleret, five stars is a price for a war horse or a wizard’s sword, not a travel pack.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“Are you sure about this, Freelady?” the Commander asked, leaning forward once more. “Can you remember what he said?”

“I haven’t had time to forget. It only happened this morning.” Eleret thought for a minute, deciding where to pick up the conversation. “He stopped me in the hall as I left and said, ‘You came a long way to get that. It’ll be awkward and heavy to carry all the way back, maybe dangerous, even. So I’ll buy it from you. The whole thing. I’ve got a cousin who needs outfitting; this way I can get him fixed up and do you a favor at the same time. Money’s easy to carry.’ I told him I wasn’t interested, and he said, ‘I’ll pay three stars. That’s more than it’s worth.’ When I said it had belonged to my mother, he said, ‘All right, four stars. You can buy a lot of sentiment for four stars.’ I said I was still not interested, and he said, ‘Five, then!’ I told him again that I wouldn’t sell and started walking away, and he said, ‘You’ll be sorry you didn’t sell it to me. Wait and see.’ That’s all.”

“By the Harp-sung Fires!” Hara said, staring at her. “You can give his very words!”

“That’s what the Commander asked for, wasn’t it?” Eleret responded with mild puzzlement. She was beginning to get used to the Ciaronese regarding perfectly ordinary things as remarkable, but she still didn’t understand why they made such a fuss about it.

“It was, and I thank you for it, Freelady Salven,” Weziral said. “The rest of your story need not be so detailed. If I want more than you tell me, I’ll ask.”

Eleret nodded and gave him a quick summary of the day’s events. She left nothing out, from her encounter with Grand Master Gorchastrin to the arrival of the supposedly official note at Sunnar and Charis’s duty hut. At Weziral’s request, she explained how she had known that her bags had been searched and the reasoning behind her decision to leave the city as quickly and quietly as possible. She mentioned her suspicions of Jonystra Nirandol, and her worry that someone might have followed her and Daner along the crowded avenue. And she described as clearly as she could their meeting with Karvonen Aurelico and the fight that followed.

“You’re sure this thief didn’t set you up for the bowmen?” Hara asked when she finished.

“If he had been working with the Syaski, he wouldn’t have given us any sign that they were about to attack.”

“A good point,” Weziral said. “And if he is an Aurelico, he can’t be the person who tried to break into my office twice last week.”

“Why are you so sure of that?” Daner said, frowning. “He’s a thief; he said as much himself.”

“Weren’t you listening back at the hut?” Sunnar demanded before Weziral or Hara could reply. “The Aurelicos are
good.
If one of them wanted to snoop the Commander’s office, it wouldn’t take him two tries to get in, and except you noticed something missing, you’d never know he’d been there.”

“Unless he wanted it that way,” Charis added.

The silence that followed was long and thoughtful.

“Maggen’s still the more likely culprit,” Hara said finally, shaking his head in regret.

“For a break-in?” Sunnar said. “I thought you said he worked here.”

“In the building, yes, but not near this office,” Hara replied. “Normally, his duties don’t bring him around more than once a month, and that’s just to deliver a report to the Commander or me. Come to think of it, he’s been hanging about for the past two weeks like a seagull waiting for the cook to dump slops.”

“I think we’d better have a talk with Birok Maggen,” the Commander said. He picked up the folded note and tapped it gently against the pile of paper that lay on the table in front of him. “Fetch him in, will you, Hara, and let’s see if we can find out what he’s after.”

Hara bowed and left the room, and Weziral turned back to Eleret. “Now, you said something about a person watching your fight in the alley. Did you recognize him?”

“No,” Eleret said. “I don’t even know for certain that it was a man. All I really saw was the cloak and hood, and a hand pointing, and only for an instant.”

“I didn’t see anyone,” Daner put in.

“I know,” Eleret said, nodding. “If he’d had a bow or a throwing knife, you’d be dead. Your right side was wide open from that angle.”

Daner sat back, disconcerted. “I was
busy.
Those two swordsmen weren’t exactly amateurs.”

“They still weren’t anywhere near as good as you are,” Eleret pointed out calmly. “They only lasted as long as they did because there were two of them. And because you were blocking my throwing lines.”