L. E.Modesitt - Imager’s Intrigue

Just as I caught up with Kemantyl and Clursyn just east of the corner of Fuosta and Quierca, I got a glimpse of a taudis-kid running down the alley away from the three of us. To which taudischef was he reporting?

“Captain…” offered Kemantyl, the swarthy and squat senior patroller.

“Just keep walking and tell me what you’ve seen recently.”

“Yes, sir.” He glanced down the alley. “I can’t say as I know the taudis-kid, but he just watched us.”

“We’re in Horazt’s territory. He won’t do anything.”

They both shook their heads.

“He won’t, but…” offered Kemantyl.

“He’s got a problem,” I finished, “and that means one for us. Until he shows up, we’ll just follow your round.”

I started walking, and they stepped up, flanking me.

“Yes, sir.” Kemantyl coughed, then spat to the side. “Hate this weather. You remember Sostrys, the crazy tiler?”

“The one whose head got bashed?” As I recalled Sostrys, he’d been calm, but he was one of the few men in L’Excelsis who stood close to a head and a half taller than I did, and I was far from short. Sostrys also had shoulders to match his height. “Has he had one of those fits where he-”

“No, sir. He’s gone. No one’s seen him around here. But…my cousin Elhyr, he’s in Sixth District, and he thinks Sostrys went after the druggers.”

“The drug runners?”

“No, sir. The dealers in the Hellhole.”

“Why would he do that?”

“There was a girl…the one we found last Meredi…she was his niece.”

That meant she was either his daughter or his niece. “Elver?”

“Not that long. She wasn’t scrawny and yellow-gray when we brought in her body. Anyways…well…we heard about Captain Kharles…and there was trouble…and everyone knows how you feel about the dealers.”

“Do you know what happened?”

Kemantyl glanced around, then spat again. “Elhyr says…well…the word is that Sostrys killed one and banged up another one before they shot him and dumped his body in the east sewers.”

That was all I needed-elveweed dealers coming into Third District. My patrollers didn’t need to take them on as well, either. “I appreciate knowing that. I didn’t have anything to do with it, but things are getting hot with the dealers. Someone outside L’Excelsis is supplying them with the stronger weed, and it could be they’re getting more guns as well.” That was speculation on my part, but I had the strong feeling that was the way it was. “Just be careful when you see taudis-types you don’t know.”

“We’ve been thinking that way, sir,” added Clursyn.

Almost no one was outside in the ice-rain, but we covered three blocks, with me listening to their observations on what had been happening on their rounds, before I saw Horazt, standing under a narrow porch roof just outside the doorway of a house he frequented.

“Looks like someone’d like a word with you, sir.” Clursyn’s tone was deferential, but worried.

“I’ll have to see what he has to say.” I walked up to the small porch and out of the icy rain, if barely.

“Master Rhennthyl.”

“Horazt.”

“I’ve heard a few things.”

“Would they have anything to do with the elveweed dealers?”

“They might.” He paused. “How is Shault?”

“He’s doing well. I expect he’ll become an Imager Tertius before too long. He’s bright and talented. He is a bit stubborn.”

The taudischef nodded. “Sostrys…you know him?”

“The big crazy tiler?”

“He left. He won’t be coming back. Some others might be. Word is that some of your patrollers might be in for some long sleeps.”

“I heard Sostrys got pretty upset.”

“He did. Word is that he put a tiling trowel through Dimanche, the dealer in the Hellhole. That was after they shot him four times. Coddyl may never walk straight again, either. Won’t be able to sign his name, either. If he ever could.”

I’d never known the names of any dealers. No one had, so far as I knew. That Horazt was telling me…in that sense, I wished he weren’t. “Do you know when we might see visitors? I’ll be accompanying the patrols at night, and any word might be helpful…for both of us.”

“I’ll have my eyes and ears watch.” He paused, then flashed a brief smile. “But the druggers’ strong-arms don’t like ice-rain much.” He stepped back. “Thought you’d like to know.”

The door opened, and he slipped inside.

I walked back to the two patrollers.

My winter cloak was soaked through and coated in ice by the time I got back to the station. So was my visored cap, and my ears burned as they thawed out. Alsoran was waiting in his study, standing by his desk.

“Captain…”

“It’s worse than that.” I told him what I’d learned.

“When do you think?”

“That depends on the weather.”

“Why would anyone tell Horazt?”

“I’m sure the dealers didn’t. Probably one of the drug runners into Third District. They’d be afraid that they’d get swept up into the work houses. They’re so dependent on the weed that the withdrawal would kill them.”

“They’d just find others. That’s why we don’t try to throw them in the work houses now, unless they cause other trouble.”

“But they know we could.”

“What do you plan, sir?”

“Spending some nights here. What else?”

Seliora would understand. She wouldn’t like it, but she’d understand.

Lundi night, after a hurried dinner, as I stood in the doorway, ready to leave for my session with Draffyd, I said quietly to Seliora, “After I get back, we need to talk. Things are not getting better.”

Holding Diestrya on her hip, Seliora nodded slightly, her black eyes fixed on me. “I know. I’ll be here.” She smiled at our daughter. “Say goodnight to Dada.”

“Goodnight.” The single word came out cheerfully and with a smile.

“You be good for your mother.” I bent forward and kissed my daughter, then stepped out into the chill. Although the ice-rain had stopped, mist rising off the warmer waters of the river drifted across Imagisle. I walked quickly southward toward the quadrangle and the infirmary.

As I reached the middle of the quad, I caught a glimpse of movement to my left, behind the hedge I suspected had been placed to keep young imagers from cutting from sidewalk to sidewalk and wearing a path in the grass. Immediately, I raised concealment shields and eased forward and around the trimmed boxwood, trying to determine who might be doing what to whom…and why. Through the swirling mist, in the gloom on the far side of the hedge, I saw three junior imagers standing on the icy grass, two of them clearly trying to intimidate the third.

The single young imager was a girl, and she was only slightly shorter than the two youths. Both youths carried half-staffs. She carried nothing-except confidence, evident from her posture. That worried me, but I listened as I eased forward.

“You think you’re so good. You’re just a girl. Girls aren’t real imagers.”

“Maitre Kahlasa is. So is Maitre Dyana,” replied the girl.

“They’re old,” said the other youth.

“They really can’t do anything, not like Master Rhennthyl can.”

That was all I needed, young imagers acting like bullies, thinking they were emulating me…and attacking another junior imager.

The taller boy jumped forward and struck at her with the staff, except that the staff stopped short of her in mid-air and vibrated as it hit her shields.

Then the other youth began to beat on her shields.

I could sense the girl’s dilemma. I’d been there. She could hurt them, possibly kill them, but she wasn’t skilled enough to figure out a way to disarm junior imagers without inflicting injuries, possibly severe or fatal ones. And her shields weren’t developed enough that she could avoid all of the force and pressure of their blows, force that would eventually break her shields. I didn’t want to interfere, not immediately, because, if I did, the boys and their friends would likely just wait for another opportunity when no master was around.