Lawrence Watt-Evans - The Spell of the Black Dagger

Lord Kalthon nodded, and turned to Okko. "See to it," he said. "Find this Katherian."

"If he hasn't already left the city," Okko grumbled.

That evening at supper, Lord Kalthon remarked, "It took a demonologist and two warlocks to bring that Katherian fellow in, and that's without counting that it was Okko's magic that found him for us in the first place."

Sarai looked up from her plate. Tired of the endless round of quarrels her father was asked to resolve, she had left around midafternoon, before the Tintallionese demonologist had been apprehended. "Really?" she asked.

Lord Kalthon nodded. "He was boarding a ship bound for Ethshar of the Rocks when the guard caught up to him-the ship's captain had hired him to fend off pirates, but I think he was just as interested in getting back to his homeland and away from here as in the wages."…

"What happened?" Sarai asked, putting down her fork.

"Well," her father said, with evident relish, "he conjured up a demon right there, a shapeshifter, so the guards all backed off-we don't pay them enough to fight demons, and we don't ask them to fight demons. We'd sent along that Rander of South-beach, who tried to banish the shapeshifter or conjure up something of his own, but Katherian was fighting his every incantation, and Rander was pretty clearly outmatched right from the start. Katherian couldn't call up anything else, Rander did that much, but he had that first one. Fortunately, one of the guards had the good sense to run to the Inner Towers-this was all in Seagate itself, not out on the moles-and fetch out the magician on watch duty there, who happened to be a warlock by the name of Luralla. She tried to subdue Katherian, and the shapeshifter went after her, she was able to restrain it, but white she was doing that she couldn't hold Katherian, so she sent the guardsman to fetch another warlock, and the three of them finally brought the fool in." Lord Kalthon shook his head in dismay. "Some people," he said, "are more trouble than they're worth."

"So what happened?" Sarai asked. "Did he do it? I mean, did Katherian rob Kallia of the Broken Hand?"

"Oh, yes, of course," Kalthon replied. "Okko couldn't do much with him, since he's a demonologist, but Rander and Mereth and a witch by the name of Theas that we found all swear it was Katherian's shapeshifting demon that robbed Kallia and killed her guardian."

"But he didn't confess?"

"No." Kalthon shook his head. "They rarely do, you know."

"Where is he now, then, in the dungeons?"

"Dead, I'm afraid," Kalthon answered. "With magicians, one can't take too many chances. Especially not demonologists. Witches are mostly harmless, so far as we know, and warlocks have their limits, and a wizard or a sorcerer can't do much of anything if you take away all his equipment, and the gods won't help a theurgist do serious violence, but demonologists-well, sometimes I think the Small Kingdoms that ban demonology outright have the right idea."

"You had him executed?" Sarai asked, startled. "So soon?"

"No, no," her father said, "nothing like that. He was killed trying to escape. When we had him brought in for trial he conjured a minor demon to distract us, right there in the justice chamber, and then ran for it. One of the warlocks burst his heart." He glanced at Kalthon the Younger, who was listening intently, and then added, "I told her to."

"What happened to the demon?" little Kalthon asked. "The one he conjured in the chamber."

"The guards killed it," the Minister of Justice replied. "Cut it to pieces with their swords, and eventually it stopped struggling." He sighed. "I'm afraid that Irith isn't very happy about it."

"Who's Irith?" Sarai asked.

"She's the servant who cleans the justice chamber every night," Lord Kalthon explained. "I told her that if she couldn't get the stain out, not to worry, we'd hire a magician to do it."

"Will you really?"

"Maybe," Kalthon said. "We've certainly used plenty of magic already on this case." He sighed. "More than I like. There are too damn many magicians in this city."

Sarai nodded.

"And that reminds me, Sarai," her father said, picking up the last drumstick. "Have you been dabbling in magic, perhaps?"

Sarai blinked, astonished. "No, sir," she said. "Of course not."

"So you really figured out that it was this Katherian all by yourself, then? Just using your own good sense?"

Sarai nodded. "Yes, Father," she said.

Kalthon bit into the drumstick, chewed thoughtfully, and swallowed. "That was good thinking, then," he said at last. "Very good."

"Thank you," Sarai said, looking down at her plate.

"You know," her father continued, "we use Okko and the other magicians to solve most of the puzzles we get. I mean, the cases where it's a question of what the facts are, rather than just settling an argument where the facts are known."

"Yes, sir," Sarai said, "I'd noticed that."

"Every so often, though, we do get cases like this one, with Kallia and Heremon and Katherian, and sometimes they're real tangles. They usually seem to involve magicians, which doesn't help any-such as the one where a man who'd been turned to stone a hundred years ago was brought back to life, and we had to find out who enchanted him, and then decide who owned his old house, and whether he could prosecute the heirs of the wizard who enchanted him, and for that matter we couldn't be sure the wizard himself was really dead…"He shook his head. "Or all the mess after the Night of Madness, before you were born-your grandfather handled most of that, but I helped out." He gestured at Kalthon the Younger. "Your brother will probably be the next Minister of Justice, you know-it's traditional for the heir to be the eldest son, skipping daughters, and I don't think Ederd's going to change that. But I think we could use you-after today, I think it would be a shame not to use wits like yours."

"Use me how?" Sarai asked warily.

"As an investigator," her father said. "Someone who goes out and finds out what's going on in the difficult cases. Someone who knows about different kinds of magic, but isn't a magician herself. I'd like to ask the overlord to name you as the first Lord-or rather, the first Lady of Investigation for Ethshar of the Sands. With a salary and an office here in the palace."

Sarai thought it over for a moment, then asked, "But what would I actually do?"

"Usually, nothing," the Minister of Justice replied. "Like the Lord Executioner. But if there's ever anything that needs to be studied and explained, something where we can't just ask Okko or some other magician, it would be your job to study it and then explain it to the rest of us."

Sarai frowned. "But I can't know everything," she said.

"Of course not," her father agreed. "But you can learn as much as you can. The overlord doesn't expect his officers to be perfect."

Sarai, remembering what she had heard of Ederd IV, overlord of Ethshar of the Sands, wasn't any too sure of that. "What would I do when I can't…"

"You would do the best you can," her father interrupted. "Like any of the city's officials."

"I'd need help sometimes," Sarai said. "You'd be given the authority to call on the guard for help- I'll ask Lord Torrut to assign you a regular assistant. And you could hire others."

"Father, if we need someone to figure out these things, why hasn't anyone already been given the job?"

Lord Kalthon smiled wryly. "Because we never thought of it. We've always improvised, done it all new every time."

"Have you talked to the overlord yet?"

"No," Lord Kalthon admitted. "I wanted to see whether you wanted the job first."

"I don't know," Sarai admitted.

There they left the matter for a sixnight; then one evening Lord Kalthon mentioned, "I spoke to the overlord today."