Chapter 15 #2
He sighed. “Suspect we’ve got a wide search ahead of us, sir. But—we seek a Tala man, looking like a field hand, moving about here before midnight.” He glanced at me. “Folk of all kinds serve the families, but…I will say a Tala field hand is much more likely to serve the Armentas, sir.”
“We don’t yet have evidence to suspect the Armentas, Seriv. As you know.”
“I do, sir. But common folk don’t need evidence. A story’s good enough.”
I sighed, thanked him, and sped off to find Ana as the sun crawled into the sky.
—
I found her sitting in the main path of the Burav estate gardens, hunched and leaning among the blossoms and blooms. As I neared her, she called out, “Your gait is quite wearied, Din!”
“You know my gait at this distance, ma’am?”
“I’d know it at a quarter league, boy. Come and report.”
I stood before her, took a wheezing breath, and did so, recounting all I’d seen and all that Seriv had told me.
When I finished, she reached out and gently grasped the stalk of a nearby flower—my memories whispered that it was diamdouni—and her white fingers crawled up until they found its bloom.
Her index carefully explored its petals like a bee might seek its nectar.
“A bleak morning,” Ana said. “Yet I note—the house has not crumbled, or caved in?”
“True. It still stands.”
“Hum. The fibers of its vine are strong? You don’t see any fraying?”
“Not from here, no.”
“I suspect it is covoli-vine, then. Famously fire-resistant. Burilis Burav, being both a former Apoth and an Orbiis officer with great knowledge of environments, likely selected it as the safest building stock for his family. So. You can make your inferences at your leisure…”
I nodded gloomily. “The fire was no accident.”
“Oh, not at all. Covoli-vine would not have permitted the blaze to spread so quickly that it surprised the entire household! A reagent did this, then, a…a compound. Something akin to phalm oil—though that would have destroyed even this house, as it can turn a leviathan’s carcass to ash.”
“Is there any chance we could track the reagent? See who could have purchased or stolen any hereabouts?”
“I doubt it,” she said scornfully. “Think, child! How was most of the land of this canton made?”
“Ah,” I said. “They burned back the old forest…”
“Correct! They have not done so to any great degree in years, but I’d not be surprised at all if a dozen casks of foul reagent were found sitting in the dusty corner of some fucking shed about.
And now we have a Tala fellow sneaking through the grounds!
That will fuel a fire of gossip perhaps as dangerous as the one that consumed that house.
But your kitchen maid did not say that this Tala creeper wasn’t carrying, oh, several casks under his goddamn arms like a porter at a sot house, did she? ”
“She did not, ma’am. Rather, she said he looked nervous as he approached.”
Ana cursed, then fell silent in thought.
I gazed at the blackened skeleton of the Burav estate. Someone sobbed in the distance, crying out a name. From the pitch and frequency of the calls, the person was not found.
“I suppose,” I said, “we can now assume Burilis Burav was not our killer, then.”
“Can we?” she said. “I feel rather less than cavalier to assume a single fucking thing, Din! Be cautious about the ruins of a fire—especially in an investigation.” She raised a finger.
“Someone is asking for you now. I can hear it, and they will come soon. But before you go, I wish to revisit a detail I ignored last night—those lights you said you saw in the forest. We’ve not had a chance to discuss it much. ”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Where did you see them? Tell me exactly! For while the elevation of these lands is mostly consistent, it is not perfectly even.”
I did so, describing the exact location where I had spied their flashing.
Her face grew grave. “Can you repeat how they flashed for you?”
“You think it wasn’t some spirit light,” I said. “But a code. A signal?”
“Yes! Obviously! That is what I suspect, at least.”
“But it came from deep in the forest. How could someone reach those inner recesses, ma’am?”
“Well, I don’t fucking know, child!” she said, exasperated. “Just tell me how it flashed!”
I took a breath and summoned up the memory, describing the length of each flash, and how it had fluttered after. When I looked back at Ana, her face was pinched in thought.
“Thank you,” she purred softly. “That gives me much to think on.”
“Is it code, ma’am? What does it mean?”
“At first glance, it is gibberish. But…it is very intentional gibberish. You must give me time with it. Yet regarding the house, and those ashes…I am much less optimistic there! Imagine all the secrets turned to cinders, then dust. It pains me. There was so much to read! And yet, a picture emerges, even now.” She licked a finger, rubbed its tip across her soot-stained brow, and tasted it.
“Seriv spoke truth. This feels arranged.”
There came the sounds of footfalls on gravel, and a young custodus scurried down the path to us. “Signum Kol? I’ve a message from the princeps, sir. We’ve found a witness.”
“A witness to what?”
“To how the fire killed the Buravs, sir.”
—
The man sat huddled in the smoke and mist, clutching a cup of clar-tea and shivering.
His beard was patched in places from fire, and his face and hands were badly burned, but the medikkers had already applied pastes and grafts to heal his wounds.
As he drank his tea, I saw that his eyes were deeply dilated: they’d given him sedatives, I estimated.
Probably katapra. I would only get an hour or so of use of him.
His name was Kiva Kozder, he told me, and he had been a valet to Orman Burav, nephew to Burilis. I noticed his use of the past tense immediately.
“I served my master for eleven years,” he continued huskily. “And I…I pray he has found sun and blossoms in the pastures on the other side of this world.”
“He is dead, then?” I asked. “You know this?”
Kozder shut his eyes and nodded.
I sniffed deeply of my vial. The aroma of lilacs was weak to me: I reckoned my nose had been dulled by the smoke. “Can you tell me what happened?”
“I only saw some of it,” he said softly.
“Only some. But…” He drank his tea. Instantly his hands grew steadier.
“The prime father Burilis—he called for the full family to be present for the memorial rites of his daughter, poor Zansay. He expected her body to be delivered to them soon, and it’s our custom to entomb her swiftly.
They were to honor her with wine and torchlight, in…
in keeping with the Bero pantheon. Are you familiar, sir? ”
I nodded, trying to suppress my impatience. The Bero pantheon was much favored among Kurmini folk. It did not surprise me at all to find that the Buravs did not worship the Daljen, as the Armentas did.
“The whole family was in attendance,” said Kozder. “They all came.”
“What was the number, in total?”
“There were thirteen present, sir.”
I frowned. “We were told that fourteen of the Buravs were at the house. Was someone missing?”
“Well…y-yes. True. Jalin was not there. Or not at first.”
“Was that unusual?”
“N-no. He was terribly grieved by his sister’s passing. And more, Jalin…did not get on well with the rest of his family.”
I raised my eyebrows at him.
“Not enough to try to kill them all!” he said, aghast. “He struggled under the weight of being his father’s only son. And he disliked the cattle trade, and many thought him too weak for it. But he was there, sir, in the house—he simply came later. He could not have been the killer.”
“Where were these rites held?”