“Yes. What was your game?”
“Trying to learn what was going on. Remember, all I really knew about was that our hostess was having problems with her land; I didn’t even know that the investigation into Fyres’s death was phony.”
“And that’s what you were trying to find out?”
“Yes. And I did, both from Domm’s reaction and from yours, although I misread a look you gave him as indicating that you didn’t know what was going on, when in fact the look was just one of contempt for him being such an idiot as to let me pump him like that. That was the last thing I got, and what made me decide to come to you now.”
She nodded. “Then what?”
“Then we come back to Reega. If it was her who set up Fyres, and, from what you say, I’m sure it was, then it fits even better. When I showed up at her door, she panicked. She thought it was all going to come out, and someone—namely Loftis—would really investigate dear Papa’s death, and she’d get caught. So she—”
“Arranged with Domm to kill Loftis,” said Timmer, very slowly and distinctly.
I nodded. “That’s how I read it.”
“So why did you kill Stony and all those others?”
I smiled. “Well, actually, I didn’t.”
She frowned.
I shook my head. “I did kill Stony, but I put no spell on him to prevent revivification. I had no reason to, and, even when I did that sort of thing, I didn’t use spells because I’m not fast enough with them. And I certainly had no time then.”
“But who—”
“Think it through,” I said. “Domm has killed Loftis. Stony and Loftis know each other, and Stony is in touch with powerful people in the Empire.”
“Does Domm know that?”
“He has to at least be pretty sure about it. So Domm uses me to set up Stony, knowing that, eventually, I’ll be sure to go blundering into Vonnith’s place, or Endra’s, or Reega’s.”
“Wait. He used you to set up Stony?”
“Yeah. That’s how I read it. He probably thought I’d be killed, too, which would have been fine, but he had some of his people there to make sure Stony didn’t get out alive in any case.”
“Did you spot them?”
“No. But I got away.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I shouldn’t have been able to escape. My familiar here”—I gestured to Loiosh—”was injured, and that slowed me down. And, for various reasons, I can’t teleport. And the Jhereg wants me bad. So how could I go tromping away from there through the woods and escape without even having to draw my blade? Answer: because Domm arranged for a teleport block around the house and grounds to seal Stony and his people in, then—”
“Did you feel a teleport block?”
“No, but I wouldn’t, for the same reason that I don’t teleport myself.” She looked a question at me. I said, “I, uh, I have a device that prevents anyone from finding me with sorcery, and it has the side effect of preventing me from detecting it. Loiosh here usually lets me know if there’s sorcery happening around me, but, as I said, he wasn’t in any shape to do that then.”
“Sorry about that, boss.”
“Don’t sweat it, chum.”
“When did you work all this out?”
“Just a little while ago, when my friend informed me that Stony was unrevivifiable and that there’d been a mass slaughter in the house. My first thought was that it was being done so I’d be blamed, but that didn’t make sense. The Jhereg were after me already, and they, frankly, have better resources for that sort of thing than the Empire, so what was the point? The point, of course, was Domm.”
“Yes.”
“And now, Ensign, can you figure out why it was not only Stony whose death was made permanent but also three of those Orca who are Vonnith’s private guards?”
She nodded. “Three of the four who killed Loftis.” She frowned. “What about the fourth?”
“I would imagine,” I said, “that he died of the wounds I gave him, and was given to Deathgate Falls. And, as far as I’m concerned, you now know everything.”
She nodded slowly. Then she said, “Why did you tell me all of this?”
I shrugged. “A number of reasons. For one thing, I rather liked Loftis.” She frowned, but didn’t speak. “For another, it annoys me to see these people tromping over lives like that—Loftis, Stony, all of those people whose lives have been messed up by the shipwrights closing and by the banks closing. And, for another, I want something in exchange.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I believe that, Jhereg. What do you want?”
I said, “There are no witnesses who can implicate Domm, you know.”
“Except Vonnith.”
“Yes. Except Vonnith and Reega. Will you be going after Vonnith?”
“Maybe. I don’t know if I can touch her. I’ll have to check with—” She got a look of distaste on her features. “With Shortisle and Indus.”
“Reega?”
“Not a chance. She gets away with it.”
“I thought so. Well, that’s fine. I don’t care. Everyone involved in killing Fyres deserves an Imperial Title, as far as I’m concerned. But I do care about Vonnith.”
“As I say, I don’t know if I can—”
I held up my hand. “You can put pressure on her, and a little pressure is all it should take.”
“For what?”
“To get her to cough up the deed to a small piece of property on the north side of town. A very small piece, a couple of acres, with a hideously ugly blue cottage on it. There’s an old woman living there. I can’t pronounce her name, but here it is.” I passed it to her and enjoyed watching her lips move as she tried to figure out how to say it.
Then she said, “That’s all you want?”
“What do you want, Ensign?”
She glared at me. “I want ...” She stopped glaring, but continued staring, if you know what I mean.
“What do you want?” I repeated. “What would please you right now?”
“I ...”
“Yes?” I said.
“Are you—?”
I looked away and waited.
Presently she said, “You used to be in the Jhereg?”
“Yes,” I said.
“And what, exactly, did you do?”
I turned back to her. “You know what I did.”
She nodded slowly. “The deed to the land for the old woman—that’s what you’re getting out of this?”
“Yes.”
“That’s all?”
“That’s all.”
“What about Fyres’s personal notes?”
I extracted them from inside my cloak and put them on the table. She looked at them, riffled through them, nodded, and put them in her pouch.
She said, “Are you, uh, going to be somewhere for a while?”
I remembered the area and said, “This is as good a place as any, I think.”
“Yes,” she said. “I suppose it is.”
She looked at me for a long time, and then she picked up her dagger and sheathed it. She reached for the wine, poured herself a glass, held it up to me, and drank. She held out her hand to Loiosh. He hesitated a moment, then hopped over to her wrist. She studied him for a moment, looking closely into his eyes and showing no sign of fear at all.
“I’ve never been this close to one of these before. It looks very intelligent.”
“More intelligent than me sometimes,” I said. “That’s just banter, Loiosh. Forget I said it.”
“No chance, boss. You’re stuck with that forever.”
She held her hand out and Loiosh hopped back over to my shoulder. She took out a handkerchief and wiped her wrist, then folded the handkerchief and put it away.
Then she looked at me and nodded.
“You got it, Easterner,” she said.
And then, Kiera, I waited. And, as I waited, I was just a bit nervous.
I mean, you speak Jhereg—You know what we were talking about, or, rather, not talking about; and of course I knew, but I wasn’t sure if Timmer knew. I thought she did, I hoped she did, but I didn’t know, and so I sat there and waited and was nervous, in spite of Loiosh’s comments designed to irritate me into relaxing.