L. E.Modesitt - Imager’s Intrigue

I certainly would have been less than pleased, but I’d seen how little elvers cared for anything but a supply of the weed, and it was hard to imagine that unless you’d been attacked by a crazed elver…or seen the emaciated and wasted bodies.

“Mama has some news for you,” announced Betara.

“She’s upstairs?”

They both nodded, and Seliora and I led the way up to the third level. Before long, the four of us were seated around the plaques table, and Mama Diestra had shuffled the deck and set it to the side.

“We have reports of three more Pharsi deaths, all of them in Ruile, this time,” said Diestra.

That didn’t surprise me, especially after my day. Still…

“Does anyone know where the stronger weed is coming from?” I asked.

“What would be your thought?” Mama Diestra looked at me intently.

I couldn’t help but see the tiredness in her bloodshot eyes, a tiredness held in check by sheer force of will. “I don’t think that anyone could grow as much under glass as we’re seeing. That suggests it has to be coming from the Sud Swamp or the lands surrounding it.”

“What else does that suggest?”

I took a moment to consider because the implications weren’t exactly good. From what I recalled from my study of Solidaran jurisprudence, there weren’t any penalties for growing elveweed, only for providing it to smokers directly. I suspected that was because no one had ever grown it in Solidar. “You’re suggesting a High Holder, probably one who is either debt-ridden or greedy.” If not both.

She nodded. “It’s being hidden in grain and other shipments on the ironway from what we can determine. The dealers pay off the loaders.”

“But not with the weed,” I replied. “Otherwise, we’d have deaths of ironway loaders. Did the deaths in Ruile come after you started sending out inquiries?”

Betara frowned. Mama Diestra nodded.

“So it’s likely the weed is coming through the ironway from Ruile and being sent east and west from there. Do you have any proof of why it’s only going to the five cities?”

“No. We’re only surmising it’s those five cities, but there aren’t any reports of the strong elveweed in other cities.”

That made sense to me, except I couldn’t have explained why. It just did.

Mama Diestra looked across the plaques table at me. She smiled, sadly. “Much as has been expected of you, Rhenn, even more will fall onto your shoulders.”

As if I needed that…

Seliora looked to her grandmother. “Is it anything you can tell him?”

“Only that you must survive stone and fire…and that there will be times when no place is safe.”

Seliora looked hard at Diestra.

“I have seen you emerging from piled stones with fire in the distance. That is all I have seen.”

I tried not to shudder.

Seliora turned to me. “You’ve seen it, too, haven’t you? That night…”

I nodded. “That was all I saw, too.”

A long silence filled the plaques room.

“Dinner is almost ready.” Betara looked at her mother inquiringly.

“I’ll have the broth Aegina fixed and the plain noodles. That will be enough.”

I could tell Betara wanted to insist that Mama Diestra eat more, but, good daughter as she was, she only smiled. “I’ll bring it right up.”

Seliora and I followed Betara down to the main level. We did hold hands, and I knew dinner would be tasty and that no one would mention all the problems.

I woke up with the sun on Solayi, calm and peaceful, until I sat up and tried not to think too hard about all the scattered and seemingly unconnected things that I felt were somehow linked in a far larger pattern. The problem was that I didn’t have enough information to know whether I was correct or whether I was merely wishing that they were all connected.

At breakfast, Seliora and I refrained from talking about Haerasyn. What was there to say?

“Have you decided what to wear to the Autumn Ball?” I managed not to grin.

Seliora raised her eyebrows. “Husbands have been shot for asking that question.” But she laughed. “Yes. It’s a surprise.” Her face turned serious. “What do you think will happen there?”

“I’d be surprised if anything happened there. I’d also be surprised if we didn’t learn something that someone wished we wouldn’t.”

“That’s why we were asked?”

I shrugged, then scooped up Diestrya off the chair beside me just before she had managed to climb into position to grab a knife.

“Did you ever find out what the banque explosion was all about?”

“Someone used the death of the clerk to call my attention to a whole raft of things, and I can’t believe that transfers and possible payoffs to Cydarth and Caartyl and missing funds to the Portraiture Guild are related, especially given the small amount that was taken.”

“A hundred golds? That’s not small.”

“If you’re embezzling from a banque, that’s enough to put you in the work house for life. You’d be better off stealing a thousand and vanishing.” I thought again about the precise writing on the note that I’d placed in the hidden strongbox in my main floor study. That writing suggested something carefully planned…but I still couldn’t figure out what really had been intended.

Seliora tilted her head. “Maybe they’re related in a different way.”

“What do you mean?”

She shook her head. “I can’t say. It’s just a feeling.”

“You’re probably right, but I wish I could figure it out.” I paused. “The dead girl who was supposed to be an elver and wasn’t bothers me, too. She didn’t die on that bench. She’d been moved from somewhere else. I wish I knew why.”

“To get your attention. Because you’re the only Patrol Captain who could stand up to a High Holder.”

That also made sense. “Someone else was watching the girl, and she was going to tell someone. She was killed, but before her body was found, they moved it?” I almost shook my head. “That’s not only far-fetched, but dangerous, if not really stupid.”

“Not for another High Holder.”

With more than a thousand High Holders, and a good hundred having estates around L’Excelsis, even if Seliora happened to be right, that didn’t help matters much, especially since neither the Collegium nor the Civic Patrol had jurisdiction on the lands of a High Holder, except with evidence of a capital crime definitely linking specific people or locations to that crime. I couldn’t very well visit every one of them, just on suspicion, even if I had a good idea…which I didn’t. And whoever moved the body had to know that as well.

Had she been moved all the way from somewhere near Ruile? It was cold enough to use the ironway, and no one would ever open a High Holder’s crate or trunk. That possibility gave me a very chill feeling, especially since the stronger elveweed had to come from there. I’d have to talk to Dichartyn about that, since I certainly had no legal authority that far from L’Excelsis.

At that point, Diestrya indicated that certain functions needed to be catered to, and we left the breakfast room.

The morning was sunny, but the clouds swept in from the northwest, and by mid-afternoon a chill drizzle had settled over Imagisle. I fired up the stove in the family parlor, and, after Diestrya’s afternoon nap, Seliora and I alternated reading, while whoever wasn’t reading was playing with a very cheerful, but very active daughter.

After an early supper, I didn’t really want to go to services, but Seliora and I exchanged glances, and our looks told each other that we needed to. We both were hoping for something inspiring from Isola’s homily. Leaving Diestrya in Klysia’s care, we made our way southward along the stone walk above the west river wall.