“I need to brief you first, Maitre.” Then I turned. “You three are to say nothing until Maitre Dyana questions each of you. Do you understand?”
I got three cowed nods, then looked at Beleart. “Make sure they don’t.”
“Yes, sir.”
Only after Maitre Dyana and I were alone in the conference room off the reception hall did she smile. “You put on quite a performance, Rhenn.”
“I had to.” I explained exactly what had happened, adding, “I don’t know how much force she put behind the mallets, but it wasn’t insignificant. One of the mallets split when it hit my shields. I can understand her anger. They were taunting her that women imagers couldn’t do what men could. Like someone else, years back, I think she needs some training in less lethal ways of protecting herself. You know why I told her to keep quiet.”
“Very wise. She knows she might not have struck them, but she will worry that, if you hadn’t, if she had, she might have killed them.”
“I thought it might be best if you handled it from here.”
“I can do that.” Her eyes twinkled. “By the way, Rhenn, exactly why were you headed down here at this time of night?”
“Maitre Poincaryt scheduled me for another session with Draffyd. I attempted to use imaging to keep a child from a poisoning death.”
“What happened to the child?”
“He’s fine. Maitre Poincaryt worries that it might not go so well next time. He’s right, but the boy would have died.”
She laughed gently. “If those three you terrified only knew…”
“They haven’t learned enough to know.” Just as I hadn’t, once upon a time.
Dyana nodded, and we walked back out to the three, where I took my leave and hurried to the adjoining building that held the infirmary.
“Disciplinary actions?” asked Draffyd as I walked into the surgery.
“I ran into two youngsters trying to beat up a young second named Tomai.”
“She couldn’t have had a better master come along,” Draffyd said. “She reminds all the older masters of another young second some years back.”
“I thought you might say something along those lines,” I said ruefully. “I managed to temper her strikes enough that she didn’t kill them.”
“Are you sure that was wise?”
“I haven’t heard that either Silmyn and Torgast were the kind of bullies like Johanyr or Diazt.”
“They’ve been a bit of a problem, but, you’re right, nothing like Johanyr. He had as much raw ability as you did.”
“He didn’t want to work.”
“It’s probably better that way.”
“Is he still at Mont D’Glace?”
“I suppose so. We would have heard, otherwise.” Draffyd pointed to the surgical smock on the peg beside the door and the cadaver on the surgery table. “We need to get to work.”
What he meant was that I needed to get to work.
Two glasses later, I washed up and left the infirmary. I might not have looked green, but my internal organs were somewhat unsteady. Still, the mist and cold helped enough that I was merely chilled through when I closed our door behind me.
Seliora appeared immediately. “You must be cold. I have some warm mulled wine for you.”
I couldn’t help putting my arms around her, and just holding her.
“How was Master Draffyd?” she finally asked.
“He was fine. I’m glad he’s the imager surgeon and not me.”
“You could do some of that, couldn’t you? Now?”
“A little. If someone would die otherwise.” I shuddered.
“Go sit in front of the stove. You’re freezing.”
I took off my cloak and hung it up, then followed her directions, taking one side of the settee directly before the stove in the family parlor.
Seliora reappeared with two mugs and offered me one, then settled beside me. “You’re worried. More worried than I’ve ever seen you.”
“Even more than when Iryela’s father was after you and my family?”
“More than that,” she said.
I held the mug to my lips, letting the cinnamon-clove steam wreathe my face for a moment, then took a small swallow of the wine before I spoke again. “There’s more to all of this than just elveweed and friction between freeholders and factors and the High Holders.”
“You think the Ferrans have more spies here causing trouble?”
“I don’t think there’s any doubt about it. But the stronger elveweed comes from Otelyrn. I mean that it originally grew only there, and that points to Stakanar or Tiempre.” I took another swallow of the wine. I was beginning to feel warmer. “It’s also caused another problem.” I had to explain to Seliora why I’d be changing our schedules for a while. She listened while I talked. When I finished, I waited.
“You’re as bad as any Pharsi when it comes to protecting your own,” Seliora said quietly.
I didn’t mention that Mama Diestra had made that point before we were married. But the plain fact was that it would be difficult for taudis-toughs to kill me. Difficult, but not impossible. But…if they went after my patrollers, and I wasn’t there…before long I’d be totally in effective as a Patrol Captain. “There’s another problem. They’re putting the word out that Kharles was shot because I meddled in their operations in his district.”
Seliora stiffened.
“I didn’t. The crazy tiler lost his daughter. Maybe she was his niece…” I explained the rest of the story.
“It’s all a set-up to get to you,” she said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the two dealers Horazt named are being exposed to punish them and that the others let Sostrys get to those two.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised at that, either, but it doesn’t change anything.”
“No. If you’re there, even if some patrollers do get hurt, your men will stand behind you. If you aren’t…”
She didn’t have to finish the sentence.
Eventually, we went to bed, first to hers, and then, as always, I went to my own-knowing that, uneasy as I was, my dreams might lead, as they occasionally had, to unthought dream-imaging.
22
On Mardi, I skipped the early-morning exercises and slept later-not all that much later, given Diestrya, but I needed as much sleep as I could get, and I was grateful that my disturbed dreams hadn’t led to sleep-imaging. Even so, I didn’t head in to the station until close to ninth glass, but the day was still damp and chill.
Lyonyt greeted me with an announcement. “Captain, we just got a report. First District thinks they just picked up the body of that elver you asked about. Red hair…same scar along the forearm.”
“Thank you.” I couldn’t say I was surprised that Kolasyn’s brother was dead. The only questions that had ever been in my mind were when he would die and whether anyone would find his body. Some elvers could put in a day’s work, go home and smoke a weed-pipe or two, got to bed, and get up and go to work. Then, there were the ones for whom smoking the weed was life itself. They died hard and young. Haerasyn had clearly been one of those. “I’ll have to go down to First District in a bit.” I paused. “We haven’t had any word from any of the goldsmiths, have we?”
“No, sir. I’d say it’s not too likely now.”
“You’re right about that.”
After checking the logs and the reports and finding nothing out of the ordinary, I walked into Alsoran’s study. I didn’t close the door.
As usual, the lieutenant was on his feet. “I heard about your relative.”
“It had to happen. It’s better that it’s over. I’ll go down there and take care of matters after we’re through here.” I gestured to the chairs, then took the one facing his desk. “What’s happened that’s not in the logs, if anything?”
“We’ll need to rework some of the rounds tonight. Last night, Vaeryn got his foot run over by a cart, and Socaryt’s out with a flux of some sort.”
“Is the foot something that will heal?”
“The surgeon thinks so, but it will be weeks, if not longer.”
“Can he handle the duty desk on the midnight to morning shift?”