It was a short drive from the House of Von Kiviri in Grand Market to the Viridlen townhouse in Old City. When Ronir-Varros and Chief Rhellmanos knocked on the door, it was answered by a butler in the eye-watering Viridlen livery of bright green and salmon-pink. The butler looked down his nose at them, and said, "Tradesmen use the back entrance," before trying to shut the door in their faces. Ronir-Varros quickly reached out and jammed the door open with his dispatch box. "We are not tradesmen," he snapped. "I am Deputy Minister Ion Ronir-Varros of the Ministry of Special Projects, and this is Chief Investigator Lecon Rhellmanos of the City Watch. Is your master in?" The butler reluctantly opened the door. "I am afraid Baron Viridlen is not at home at present; he is on his country estate. Lord Roger is home, but he is not receiving guests at present." He glanced around, then leaned in closer to Ronir-Varros. "As a matter of fact, sir, he's horribly hungover. Been drinking like a fish, this last week, not like him at all. Seems quite upset about something." "Well, he'll see us, hungover or not," said Ronir-Varros. "Now, will you let us in?" The butler sighed, and stepped out of the way. "I'll show you to Lord Roger's room," he said. * * * * * When they reached the door to Lord Roger's room, the butler knocked and called out, "Deputy Minister Ronir-Varros and Chief Investigator Rhellmanos are here to see you, my lord." He paused, waiting for a reply, but instead of a voice, a loud thud, like a chair toppling onto the floor, was heard. "Oh, *damn*," said Ronir-Varros. He shoved the butler aside and tried the knob. The door was locked. Ronir-Varros stepped back, and said, "Break it down, Chief. Now!" Without hesitation, Chief Rhellmanos took a few steps back, then smashed into the door with his left shoulder. With a loud crackle of splintering wood, the bolt tore through the door-jamb and the door swung wide. Thus revealed was a scene of squalor and desperation, centered around a young man slowly strangling as he hung by the neck from a rope tied to the unlit chandelier in the center of the ceiling, a chair lying overturned beneath him. Ronir-Varros, Chief Rhellmanos, and the Viridlen family butler rushed into the room. While Ronir-Varros and the butler supported Lord Roger's weight, Chief Rhellmanos righted the overturned chair and stood on it to cut the rope with his service sword, allowing Ronir-Varros and the butler to lower Lord Roger to the floor. The noise had attracted servants from other parts of the townhouse, crowding around the doorway trying to see what was happening. As the butler and Chief Rhellmanos removed the noose from Lord Roger's neck, Ronir-Varros turned and stabbed his finger at first one footman, then another. "You," he said to the first, "go and fetch some brandy. And you," he said to the second, "go and fetch a healer. Hurry, damn it!" * * * * * The healer, a priest of Arlova, came, and after a brief examination, declared that Lord Roger would survive, although he'd be quite hoarse for a time, and he would have a truly spectacular bruise around his neck. Before the healer left, Minister Ronir-Varros made it clear to the man that keeping his mouth shut about what he'd just seen would be a very good idea. Then he turned to regard Lord Roger, who was lying in bed, fingering the bandages around his throat. "You, sir," said Ronir-Varros, "have been incredibly--no, *cosmicly* stupid. The gods weep! What in the Halls of Nightmare were you thinking? Or perhaps the question should be, what were you thinking with? Because it sure as the Halls wasn't your brain, if you even have one! Arrgh!" He reached out and tapped Lord Roger in the middle of the forehead, saying, "Takes kidneys, oh yes." He stepped back, and said, "Chief, you talk to him--I'm afraid if I question him, I won't be able to keep my temper." Chief Rhellmanos sighed, and said, "Now, Roger, we know you shot Erik von Kashaar in the ear with a one-shot springbow, but we need the details from you--and we need to know: did you join the Direct Intervention Section just so you could kill von Kashaar?" Lord Roger shook his head in denial. "No, sir," he rasped painfully, "At the time, I just wanted to do something with my life." He gently touched the bump on his nose where it had been broken and healed crookedly. "When Erik beat me up after I challenged him to a duel, I realized just how useless my life was. I joined to give myself a purpose." "Why not join the army?" asked Chief Rhellmanos. Lord Roger made a noise halfway between a laugh and a cough. "Flat feet, would you believe? Still, my University Degree was Northern MidSea Languages, so the Ministry was happy to have me. And at the time, I had the most important qualification for an agent of Direct Intervention: I didn't really care about survival, not after Ava threw me over for Erik." "And your record was excellent, especially in that matter of the Olozog tribal chief who thought he could get away with murdering Sedonian merchants, and the matter of the Shanari /ardsul/ smugglers in Jabau," said Ronir-Varros. "So what changed? Why did you shoot von Kashaar?" "May I have some water?" asked Lord Roger, gesturing to the glass and carafe on his bedside table. After Ronir-Varros had given him a few sips of water, he said, "It was pure chance. I had returned from an assignment in Pran--I was tracking a Vizinian independence agitator, but the intelligence was out-of-date. I was going back to HQ to debrief adn return my equipment, when I saw Erik in the street, in Riverside." He paused for breath, then continued, "He'd just been accosted by a beggar who was clinging to his sleeve. Erik struck at the beggar, the beggar swung back, and they started fighting. Erik totally outclassed the beggar, and if Erik's companion hadn't pulled them apart, Erik might have seriously hurt the old man. Watching that brought all the anger, the rage back, like a wave on the beach." "So what happened then, Lord Roger?" asked Chief Rhellmanos. Lord Roger coughed, and whispered, "I followed them back to that apartment of Erik's. I saw them go in, then Erik's companion came back out." "Can you describe him?" "Tall, thin, brown hair, some sort of tattoo on his face. There was something about him, like my eyes didn't want to focus on him. After he left, I waited until it got dark, about an hour, then I broke into the apartment house. The landlady had locked up, but she hadn't barred or bolted the door. I picked the lock and was inside. I went up the stairs, found Erik's rooms. The door was open a crack. I could see Erik inside, dozing on a chair by the door. I slipped in, and I shot him in the ear with my oneshot. He had a locket around his neck that Ava had given him, and I took that. I saw that Erik had a small hand-crossbow on his bookshelf, and I took it and dropped it by his chair, to make it look like a suicide. Then I slipped out of the building, and went home and got drunk." Lord Roger coughed again, and said, "I didn't feel like this, those times in the Olozog Hills and Jabau. Those were just killings, executions. What I did to Erik, that was murder." "Actually," interjected Ronir-Varros, "it wasn't." Lord Roger looked blankly at him, "Sir?" "Erik von Kashaar was already dead when you shot that bolt into his ear, Lord Roger," said Chief Rhellmanos. "The most you can be charged with is breaking and entering, and mutilation of a corpse. First offender and a noble scion, you'd probably get off with a suspended sentence and a fine." "On the one hand," added Ronir-Varros, "I'm disappointed that you tried to commit murder with a weapon that could be traced back to the Ministry, and I'm disappointed that you failed to check to make sure that your target was still alive before you tried to kill him. On the other hand, if it wasn't for your little escapade, Roger, we'd likely never have realized von Kashaar *was* murdered by someone else." Through this Lord Roger had grown rather pale. "So . . . I didn't murder Erik," he said, fingering his bandages again, "And this, this was--" "For nothing," said Ronir-Varros. "Tell us, after you left the apartment, did you see von Kashaar's companion again?" "Yes," replied Lord Roger softly, "about three minutes after I left the apartment. I passed him on the street, he was heading back to the apartment. When I passed him, for a moment, it felt . . . vile, like I was dipped in some sort of light oil, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. Made me shiver. I hurried after that." "All right, Roger," said Ronir-Varros, "believe it or not, you've helped us a great deal. I'm going to hold off on making any decisions until you've had some time to recover, but at best you're looking at being transfered from Direct Intervention to Analysis. Now, one last question: What did you do with the locket you took from von Kashaar?" "It's in the drawer of the bedside table," rasped Lord Roger. He hesitated, then said, "Will you be telling my father, sir?" Ronir-Varros sighed as he took the locket from the drawer. "Baron Viridlen needs to know what happened to his son and heir apparent, Roger. Your butler is probably already writing a letter to summon him back from the country. You have to tell him the truth." Lord Roger sighed, and settled back into his pillows. "I will, sir. Thank you, sir." Ronir-Varros smiled faintly. "You're welcome." He left the room, followed by Rhellmanos. Before they left the Viridlen townhouse, Ronir-Varros had a quiet word with the butler about informing Baron Viridlen about what had happened. "Don't mention the suicide attempt, just tell the Baron that an emergency requires his presence here in Thalsedon. Let Lord Roger tell the Baron what happened and why." * * * * * As they got back into their coach, Rhellmanos said, "That was kind of you, Ion." "Mm-hm," said Ronir-Varros absently as he fiddled with the locket that Lord Roger had taken from von Kashaar. "It was the least I could do. Baron Viridlen is a friend of my family." He prodded the locket some more, before he handed it to Rhellmanos, saying, "It looks like this locket is designed to open up, but I can't find the catch. Why don't you give it a try?" Chief Rhellmanos looked at the rather large locket, and smiled. "Ah, I've a locket just like this. My wife gave me it to me on our anniversary." He pressed a small catch near the ring that held the locket on the chain. The locket popped open, revealing on one half a small portrait in enamel of von Kashaar, and on the other half a portrait of a young woman who must have been Lady Ava. Something fell out of the locket onto the floor of the coach. Rhellmanos put the locket into a pouch on his belt, and reached down and picked up what proved to be a small key. "It's got an engraved inscription on the shaft, quite small" he said, "yM.g.Ch.Sed.A113, looks like." He handed it to Ronir-Varros. "/Yuni Minaltasis gyo Chayun Sedon/," said Ronir-Varros, "The Temple of Sedon, A113. That's a deposit box key--you said that von Kashaar's rooms had been searched when the watchmen broke in?" "That's right," said Rhellmanos, snapping his fingers. "This must be what the murderer was looking for. He stabbed von Kashaar in the street, left him alone to die, then went back to search the apartment for incriminating evidence." "But," said Ronir-Varros, picking up the thread, "that young dunce, Lord Roger, had broken in while the murderer was gone, and took this locket with the key in it, without knowing what he had." "Exactly!" responded Rhellmanos. He cocked his head questioningly, "You realize that from what Lord Roger said, first, Taloc von Kiviri is our prime suspect; and second, Taloc von Kiviri is a mage, or worse?" "Oh, indeed. I think that we should first stop at the City Courts and get a warrant to find out what's in Erik's deposit box. Then we can think about rounding up some back up and tracking down Director von Kiviri." Andrew ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
