Moon's Artifice (14 page)

Unfinished, her sentence told Narin everything. He dipped his head in acknowledgement. ‘That’s good, but I’m still worried. We cannot protect her if we don’t know where she is.’

‘She’ll be here !’ Kesh insisted fiercely. ‘In the morning, she’ll come ! I trust Master Hamber, he’ll give her the message true and make sure she follows. The goshe can’t check every tavern and boarding house in the harbour ; she’ll be safe for one night and make it here in the morning. I couldn’t take the risk of fetching her. I couldn’t risk leading them to her !’

‘You lost your sister and killed a man,’ Rhe began suddenly. ‘Encountered demons and ran halfway across the city – yet still you had the presence of mind to keep your mother safe. You are a remarkable young woman.’

Kesh scowled and flexed the fingers of her newly bandaged hand. ‘Didn’t run,’ she said quietly, ‘if I had, that bastard Perel wouldn’t have got ahead of me.’

‘Perhaps. It is just as possible he would have gone straight to your boarding house – or caught you on the run and not taken the time to do it quietly. It doesn’t matter now – he is dead, you are not.’

‘What now ?’

Rhe turned to Narin and stood. ‘Now, I will take my leave. This alley where you left the goshe’s body – I think I can find it from your account. If I can find the body before his comrades do, or it is mysteriously burned to nothing, we learn something new. I will take some Investigators with me and pay the goshe hospital a visit afterwards – these doctors have some answers to provide.’

‘Wait,’ Narin said, ‘perhaps you shouldn’t.’

Rhe frowned. ‘And why not ? Mistress Kesh’s allegations are serious and we are the guardians of the Emperor’s law. It is our duty to investigate.’

‘I realise that,’ Narin explained, ‘but they’ve had time to hide any evidence. What if they have removed the goshe’s body already ? Emari’s too ? The Father mentioned others, he might well have sent them on to cover their tracks – then we have merely the word of a lower-caste woman against high-castes.’

The Lawbringer was quiet for a moment. The law favoured the testimony of the higher castes, but for Rhe that usually meant that his word was tantamount to certainty given only the extended Imperial family were ranked higher. Rarely did he have to stop to consider such weighting the way Narin did.

‘This remains your investigation,’ Rhe said finally. ‘What do you suggest ?’

‘That we wait, at least for the night. They don’t know where Mistress Kesh is, do they ? Her mother’s fled the house ; it’ll be empty when their agents reach it. Could she not have fled with her mother rather than come to us ? They might spend the evening searching for two women in hiding rather than one, content in the thought that it’s merely a question of time and Kesh can pose them no real threat.

‘Once we announce our involvement, they know we’ll be investigating and can act accordingly. If we don’t go to the hospital, they’ll believe we know nothing of the plot yet – it might make them over-play their hand.’

Rhe gave a small nod. ‘My first thought was to go there and find this doctor, yes. That would be simple enough for them to predict. If they do they would move Emari’s body without delay and leave no evidence for us to discover.’

‘Exactly,’ Narin agreed, ‘the Lawbringers bear the Emperor’s authority – they know we wouldn’t fear to march straight in and search the entire building.’

‘So,’ Rhe said slowly, ‘we will outmanoeuvre them instead. I will go to this alley still, but with my badge of office concealed. If there is a body to find I can do it alone and unobtrusively. Our priority is to keep Mistress Kesh safe, and her mother too when she comes to us. Narin, that will be your task. Mistress Kesh needs protection and being surrounded by Investigators is as good a place as any, so take her to your home. That woman at your compound, Mistress Sheti ? You’ve known her for several years now, you can trust her ? Good. It might appear improper to have a young woman stay in your rooms alone and now is not a good time to invite gossip, so recruit her to the cause. I doubt any of you will be getting much sleep anyway and there is something there you should show Mistress Kesh.’

Narin gave a start. ‘You’re sure now’s the time for that ?’

Rhe nodded. ‘She is a remarkable young woman,’ he repeated, ‘I have faith in her resilience.’

‘What are you talking about ?’ Kesh demanded, ‘what in Jester’s name is going on ?’

Narin turned towards her with a faint sense of dread in his heart. Rhe didn’t wait for his Investigator to speak but turned and left the room without a further word. Once the door slid shut behind Rhe, Kesh repeated her question and Narin meekly submitted.

‘This missing guest of yours,’ he said hesitantly, ‘this Master Tokene. I …’

Kesh jumped up. ‘What ? You know where he is ? Take me to him !’

‘I can take you nowhere until I have your knife,’ Narin said as gently as possible. ‘First though, I think I should explain.’

Kesh opened her mouth to shout some sort of curse at him, then stopped and pressed her lips together so tightly they went white. ‘Very well, explain,’ she said in a restrained voice. ‘I’m keeping the knife, though,’ she added as she forced herself to sit back down again.

‘He’s no threat to you.’

‘Good – that’ll make it easier for me to cut off every finger and toe until the bastard tells me why my sister’s dead. How do you know where he is ? Did you arrest him ?’

Narin grimaced. ‘Not quite. He surprised me in the street a few nights back – I thought he was attacking me and I knocked him out, but he might have been looking for my help. I think he’d been thrown from a rooftop – perhaps by your fox-demons, perhaps by a God. Either way I’m charged with finding out what’s going on, but no one’s losing their fingers in the process. That’s why I was fetched just now. He was dressed as a goshe and I asked to be summoned if there was any unusual news involving them.’

Kesh didn’t respond, her gaze dropping to the table they had been sat around.

‘I mean it,’ Narin said in a warning tone, ‘you try to use that knife on him and I’ll break your hand before you do. Similarly, if he tries to escape or hurt you, I’ll do whatever I must to stop him. So don’t give him the excuse – give me the knife.’

The young woman glowered. For a while she didn’t speak but eventually she looked up and nodded. ‘I’m keeping the knife. I don’t trust anyone right now, not even bloody Lawbringer Rhe himself, but I promise I’ll not try to kill him. My word’s as good as you’re going to get. I’m no liar but there’s no way I’m passing the night without a knife close at hand.’

She sighed and her exhaustion was clear to see. ‘You’ll just have to trust that I want answers more than I want to kill him. He’s a goshe agent and probably a killer too, but he’s not the one giving the orders. There’s someone else to blame ; maybe that Father at the hospital, but either way I want to know who and why before I watch them executed.’

Narin sighed. ‘I suppose that’s as good as I’m likely to get. Just don’t expect your answers too soon ; he’s been unconscious since I dragged him home.’ He stood. ‘Let’s go. If they’re still looking for you, their next move might be to check here. Best we leave through a side door and get you out of sight as soon as we can.’

He paused and looked her up and down. Her shirt was torn and spattered in blood, while mud was smeared all the way down one trouser leg.

‘Maybe a change of clothes first ?’

The journey to the compound was fraught for them both. Kesh jumped at every unexpected noise and movement, and Narin was barely any calmer. The Palace of Law was an expansive complex, however ; the spread of dormitories, courts, shrines and training grounds meant it covered a large area, so they easily found an unobserved door to slip out of.

In a borrowed coat and clean, albeit ill-fitting, shirt, Kesh waited in the shade of the doorway while Narin scouted the streets beyond. She was silent and tense even before she walked out at Narin’s gesture. Head covered with a married woman’s scarf and hands balled into fists, she wordlessly followed him through a deserted alley in the opposite direction from where they were heading.

The afternoon had turned cool and grey, muting the city’s colours and promising another night of fog in the Imperial City. As they reached the end of the winding alleyway, Kesh stopped and at last lifted her head to the view ahead of them. Past the pale stone buildings of the Imperial District, rising high atop a stark outcrop of rock thirty yards above the roofs below, was the Imperial Palace.

This close, Kesh felt its presence like a strong wind blowing into her face and she took a pace back at the sight. The Palace was a vast building, built long before the first Gods had ascended to the stars, that she knew, but up close – barely a hundred yards from the nearest of its cold white columns and curved roofs – it became an entirely different prospect.

More than a mile long and seven oversized storeys high in the central block, the Palace complex appeared to be carved entirely of ice by the hands of giants. The adornments that hung from its huge pillared flanks seemed mere foolishness – a vain attempt to stamp man’s authority on a creation the world of man had inherited from a dead race. There was an organic sweep to its lines, the pillars reaching up like trees, the stepped roofs all gently curved.

‘I’ve never been so close to it before,’ she muttered. ‘Gods – look at it !’

Narin hurried back to her, impatience in his face as he followed her gaze. ‘The Palace ? Haven’t you lived here all your life ?’

Kesh nodded, swallowing as she did so and unable to tear her attention from the gigantic, unnatural edifice. ‘Never come to this part though.’

‘Why not ? Weren’t you even curious as a child ?’

‘Of course, but …’ She gestured towards the Palace, then at the grand granite buildings skirting the outcrop of rock ahead. ‘Look at them, this half of the district’s not for the likes of me. You don’t get much of a sight of it from the west, the streets are too narrow, and Crescent-side it’s sheer cliffs with little to see. We were scared to come this close, didn’t think we were even allowed east of the Knight’s Path Avenue. A few of the older boys claimed they’d gone up to the Gate of the Sun or one of the grand temples, but no one ever believed them. And once I was older … well, I’m just servant caste. These streets aren’t for my sort.’

‘Because of your caste ?’ Narin said in a strangely stern way, as though she’d committed some breach of etiquette.

Kesh nodded, suddenly wary of him. The Investigator radiated anger and disapproval. For a moment she found herself wanting to put her fingers around the grip of her knife, but then he turned away.

‘Come on,’ Narin snapped, ‘we need to keep moving. You can marvel at your betters another day.’

Rounding the sprawl of the Palace of Law they avoided the busy streets where shops and stalls were established, keeping to side-streets that ran in parallel. The Investigator set a brisk pace but it was one Kesh was happy to match, every casual glance from passersby enough to send a jolt of panic through her chest. Unbidden, her thoughts returned to Emari – the little girl’s face as it had been in her arms, asleep but indefinably less her sister than when she’d watched the girl sleep before.

Thin tears began to trickle down her face, but Kesh angrily wiped them away before the glowering Investigator noticed them – knowing it would draw unwelcome attention and not wanting to show the whole Empire her pain. That was a private thing, something to be jealously guarded until she could be with her mother again ; the only one who could feel the same loss that ate at Kesh’s heart.

It didn’t take them long to leave behind the towering grey stone buildings of the Imperial administration and noble families. Abruptly, they came to a rougher district – still smart by the standards of the Harbour Warrant, but lacking the ornamentation of the various palaces and lesser palazzos on the eastern half of the island. The buildings were stone and wood now, fenced compounds with pitch-sealed overhanging roofs that met their neighbours at the corners to create arches at the end of each side-street.

The people were more normal too, dressed to work rather than compete with their peers and walking with purpose instead of slow, haughty indifference. Kesh followed Narin closely, the man walking with the assurance of someone who knew those streets well, of someone close to home. She was just about to relax as they turned a corner and Narin headed for an open compound gate, when a voice called out across the street towards them.

‘Investigator !’

They both stopped, Kesh’s hand diving for her knife even as she turned. Narin had moved even faster, whipping his stave from his back and bringing it up to guard position in a heartbeat. But no attack came, only an amused sound.

Kesh narrowed her eyes on a man leaning against the wall of the compound across the street, local-born by his face. He wasn’t a goshe – no, he wasn’t dressed like a goshe – but even she had to admit it was a strange disguise for a goshe agent to adopt. The stranger was not much older than Narin, she guessed, but slim and wearing a grey sleeved cape over an expensive-looking tunic, britches and tall patterned boots. The cape looked like an academic’s robe, but the rest screamed high-caste, however muted the dark green tunic was compared to what some noblemen wore. The man shifted position slightly and just inside his robe she glimpsed the ornate handle of a rapier – noble caste then, unless he was a strangely traditional-minded warrior caste.

‘Investigator,’ the man repeated. He pushed himself off the wall and offered them a small bow. ‘Might I have a word ?’

Narin was frozen to the spot for a moment, then recovered himself and lowered his stave. He bowed low, watching the man carefully, as Kesh belatedly knelt, head dipped enough that her chin touched the hand that refused to release the knife inside her coat. Both glanced behind them as though this was a ruse of some sort, but no assassins appeared and reluctantly Narin advanced towards the speaker.

‘My apologies, sir, but I am on urgent Lawbringer business.’

‘Oh come now, make an exception,’ the man said cheerfully. ‘I’m here in friendship and I’ll only take up a moment of your time.’