Chapter 17
It had been a powerfully awkward thing to meet my sister’s betrothed the other night without any preparation—yet it was less awkward than the process of taking young Ippeas Armenta to the canton custodi office, shepherding him through its many warded walls and barred doors, and finally seating him at the small, bland table in the small, bland induction room, where common criminals, purse-cutters, and stumbling drunks were processed before being sent to the cells.
Neither of us looked at each other as Seriv went about his work, filling out the proper records and removing Ippeas’s valuables from his person.
I felt rather like a medikker might when it is their friend who is forced to strip nude and shave a delicate spot before an invasive procedure.
When Ana finally sat down before him, it felt like a blessing: we now had someone to stare at besides each other.
Ana smiled a particularly smug smile as she sat, as if she’d just caught a child sneaking sweets from a jar, and cheerily said, “So!”
Ippeas sighed. “So.”
“Not a very great sign for the noble and prestigious clan of the Armentas! Two of their young sons, both imprisoned in this jailhouse, both having been present when a Burav perished—if not the whole damned lot of them. I expect the washerfolk of Lacanthim have much to titter about, yes?”
Ippeas remained silent, which I grudgingly respected.
“Why not start at the beginning?” she asked. “How was it, Master Ippeas, that you came to be present at the Burav mansion on the night of the fire?”
Ippeas thought about this. He appeared to slowly deflate. “By being an idiot,” he said.
“An understandable sentiment,” said Ana. “And an accurate one, I suspect. But I will need the whole story.”
“It was a letter I got, ma’am.”
“What letter? When? From where?”
“At my drover’s station post yesterday. It was brought by scribe-hawk. Very expensive. And it was addressed to me and marked very urgent. Was written right there on the package front.”
“Who was it from?” I asked.
“It didn’t say. Or, at least, it didn’t say the name.
But it claimed to be from a servant at the Burav mansion, one who had been close to Zansay.
They said they’d taken the risk of commandeering one of their master’s hawks to send me the message—because they were offering me evidence that would prove Castus was innocent.
” He fumbled with a button on his shirtfront.
“I had been so troubled by what had happened to Castus, you see…”
“Did you keep this message?” asked Ana.
“Ahh. No.”
“And why not?”
“The message told me to burn it once I had read it. Which, ah, I did.”
“Oh, dear,” she muttered. “So—you, I take it, believed this message?”
“Well. I wouldn’t have, normally,” he said slowly. “But Signum Kol here had said just the other night that he believed Castus didn’t do it. So I paid it a great deal of attention.”
Seriv turned to stare at me.
“I said I did not say that!” I sputtered. “I was very careful to say no such thing!”
Ana waved a hand. “Enough! That was surely not all. I feel there must be another reason you trusted this letter, sir.”
“Well. Yes. Because the message included…details. About me,” said Ippeas. He colored and looked down at his lap. “And my betrothed. Things only Castus would know.”
“I see…” said Ana. “Things only Castus would know…or Zansay, I take it? For he’d tell his lover, and she would then tell this servant. Which would indicate that this servant was trusted by Zansay, at least? And thus worth believing.”
“Y-yes,” said Ippeas. He shot a furtive look at me.
“What did this message tell you to do, Master Ippeas?”
“To come to the Burav estate, just past midnight. The letter came with a small reagents key, so I could get in past the vinegate at the servants’ portal.
They told me they would be waiting just within the servants’ door of the mansion.
They said all the Buravs would be occupied with…
” He shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
“Well. With Zansay’s funeral rites. They would meet me, tell me what happened, and give me the evidence to clear Castus’s name. ”
“Did the young Miss Kol know of this message, or your midnight task?” asked Ana, sighing once more.
“No! I didn’t tell Fotia. I told no one! I did rent a room in town, at our usual tavern, but that wouldn’t be of much note. I didn’t wish to implicate anyone in case this all went awry!”
“Which it did, sir?” said Seriv.
“Somewhat. I mean, I walked up to the house, yes. Or snuck up, like a…a child playing at bandits, I suppose. But when I got close, I saw that all the windows about the servants’ door were shuttered and dark.
I couldn’t see anyone waiting for me. Yet many other windows were lit, and I could hear many folk within.
The madness of it all became too much. I realized I was being a fool. And that was when I was…startled.”
“By what?”
“By a valet,” sighed Ippeas. “Fellow was lurking at the hedges, in the shadows—and drinking. He was quite drunk. He mistook me for someone else, and apologized. Said some queer things to me. Made me lose my nerve. I’d been spotted, after all.”
Ana raised a hand. “What queer things did this man say to you?”
“He…he mistook me for Burilis Burav, actually. I suppose we look alike in the dark—perhaps it’s the beard. And he was drunker than a boiled owl. I worried he’d keep talking to me, and realize I wasn’t him!”
“Yes, yes,” said Ana. “But what did he say?”
“Let me think. He said—Off on another forest jaunt, Master Burav? I’ll tell no one. But why’ve you not got your lantern and smokes, sir? I just burbled something then, said good point, and then turned and walked away.”
Ana frowned, thinking, and turned to me. “He thought he was Burilis Burav? And he expected him to have a lantern and…and some kind of smokes?”
“I’ve no idea, ma’am,” I said honestly.
“Nor I,” said Seriv. “But…he said forest jaunt, Master Ippeas?”
“He did,” said Ippeas. “What Burilis Burav might be doing in the old forest, or even how he’d enter it, well…I don’t much like imagining it.”
An anxious silence filled the dank little chamber.
“What then?” said Ana.
“Well. Then I turned and ran away, like a damned coward…but as I did, I heard the screaming.”
“The fire?”
“Y-yes. I was close to the wall, and I looked back. Saw the flames in the windows.” He sighed. “So. I came running back.”
“You came running back?” said Ana, surprised.
“Well, yes. I wasn’t about to let those people burn!
The servants’ door was all alight by then, but I was able to get into the kitchens.
I saw a girl there, passed out from the smokes, and I hauled her away.
Once I’d gotten clear I about near fell to my knees, coughing.
When I’d recovered, the whole house was burning.
Those who could flee had done so. I could help little more. So I fled. Again.”
We all stared at him, astonished.
“What?” he said slowly. “What is it?”
“The kitchen girl you saved,” I said, “was the very one who gave us testimony against you, and caused us to seek you out!”
“Ohh,” he said. A sheepish look stole across him. “She, ah, saw me, then.”
“She did,” said Ana. “But, sir, comprehend this! She did not see you about to commit a crime—she saw you nearly get murdered. Because you understand the situation, yes? Someone wished for you to enter the Burav mansion that night. I think they intended for you to die there.”
He took a slow breath in and nodded. “That had occurred to me. And, from what Kol had mentioned the other night…I’ve come to think that maybe the deaths of my cousins have been no accident, either?”
“We strongly suspect not,” said Ana.
Ippeas stared into the tabletop as he struggled with this. “But…but I’ve no idea why they’d wish to target me as well!” he burst out finally. “I can’t inherit! The inheritance passes through Velona Armenta! My father shall never take the whole of our spreads!”
“Does the killer know that?” said Seriv.
“Well, they certainly seem to know a great fucking deal about everything else!” said Ana. “Including, apparently, gossip about young Ippeas here, and Din’s damn sister! Let us presume they know plenty!”
Ippeas and I both glowered at Ana at that, then glanced at each other, and steadfastly stared at the floor.
“Is there any more?” demanded Ana.
“N-no. I came back to the Crooked Horn, and tried to bathe without anyone spotting me. By then the streets started filling with custodi. Asking if they’d seen anyone suspicious fleeing back here in the early morning.
And I knew someone had to’ve seen me. I am no talent at sneaking, obviously.
So. I figured I’d wait for you here. And turn myself in. ”
“Very commendable,” said Ana. “One last thing, Master Ippeas—have you had any unusual dreams recently?”
“D…dreams?” said Ippeas. “I don’t believe so? Not unusual ones—or not that I can recall.”
“You’re sure? No dreams of being trapped in place, or performing some act?”
“N-no…?” he answered, mystified.
“Thank you. Now—we have one last thing for you to do. Specifically, to lick.”
“To what?”
I pulled one of Tauri’s wheels of green testing parchment from my pocket, pulled off a strip, and handed it to him. “Please lick this,” I said. “A test, you see.”
“For what?” he said uncertainly as he took it. Then, with a shrug, he licked it. “What is it you seek?”
We didn’t answer. The parchment in his fingers had turned a bright, clear orange.
—
Ana waited until Seriv shut the door to the chamber before scoffing, shaking her head, and saying, “He is a well-meaning boy. Not a bright one! But a decent one, and a brave one at that, I suppose.”
“And he is infected,” I said tersely.
“Yes,” sighed Ana. “Apparently so.”
“Is the whole of the Armenta estate infected as well, you think,” said Seriv, “just like the Buravs?”
“Possibly! I shall send word to Commander Tauri to test that place swiftly. But while Ippeas has been poisoned, I am unsure if he has been conditioned yet. He’s not had the dreams! For now, I am far more interested in what that sotted servant said to him.”
“Yes—Burilis Burav has been going into the forest,” I said. “And has been bringing lanterns and smokes with him…”
“Indeed,” growled Ana. “That is most very interesting to me.”
“I can’t imagine what’s in the forest for him,” said Princeps Seriv.
“All that is known with any certainty is that there’s a smattering of old Daljeni shrines—which the Buravs didn’t consider holy, being Kurmini.
But more to the point, no one goes into the wood.
You can’t get four span past the tree line before your heart fills with panic, and the branches block your way. ”
“So we are told,” said Ana softly.
We both looked at her.
“Might you know otherwise, ma’am?” I said.
“I have suspicions,” she said, “which I will confirm when I corner Commander Tauri later.” She turned her blindfolded face to Seriv.
“Princeps—I think you should lock the young Master Ippeas in one of your nicest cells here. Not because I think him guilty, but because I think someone has tried to kill him, and will surely try again! More, there will be many who shall suspect, hate, and damn the Armentas now. Especially given that someone surely saw us bringing Ippeas Armenta here, and that will set tongues a-wagging!”
Seriv rubbed his face. “Ah, hell…you speak truth there, ma’am.”
“We are all in quite the shitpot, yes!” said Ana.
“Yet I note this attempted murder was much, much sloppier than the killing of all the Armentas, as well as Zansay’s butchering.
Attempting to lure someone into a hostile house with vague offers of exculpatory evidence?
It’s nonsense. I mean, only a fucking idiot sends a completely anonymous note that says, quite literally, ‘Burn this note.’ Though I confess, I’m shocked Ippeas actually did it!
Perhaps you should lock him up for being a damned simpleton!
” She raised a finger. “But you shan’t lock him up alone! ”
Seriv frowned. “Pardon? I mean, I’ll keep young Castus here, certainly…”
“No. I wish you to put Din in a cell here as well.”
I turned to her. “Ah. You what? Why?”
“Because you are plainly exhausted, boy,” she said.
“And need sleep. You have yawned ceaselessly all morn, it is terribly fucking irritating! More, I wish you to be in the right place when hell comes calling for you. For it was one thing for you to lock up your sister’s friend—but now you’ve gone and done it to her husband-to-be, true? ”