Chapter 33 Sheuan
Sheuan
Langzu – inner Bian
By the Sovereign’s decree, all citizens who have committed major offenses – such as murder, treason, or grand theft – shall be executed by banishment into the barrier between Langzu and Kashan.
However, all such criminals shall also be given the opportunity to beg clemency at one of Kluehnn’s dens, as Kluehnn is merciful and sees value in those society no longer has use for.
Members of noble and royal clans who commit such offenses shall be beheaded in the Sovereign’s court.
There shall be no opportunity for clemency.
The castle felt more and more like a prison these days.
Or perhaps, more accurately, it was the workshop and the castle that made Sheuan’s prison.
She went to the workshop to make the filters and the enforcers followed her.
She wandered the halls of the castle and the enforcers watched her.
Time marched on and she badly needed a way to take control of the situation.
Would the Sovereign extend the use of the filters to her, when restoration came?
Somehow she doubted it. She’d already secreted several of them away, just as a safety measure.
Letting her be swept into restoration would be an easy way to rid himself of her, but he could still choose to have her executed.
How easy it would be for him to accuse her of theft or treason.
The way he had with her father.
She needed the information her father had found; she needed to leverage it before the Sovereign could kill her.
So she went through what she already knew, how it all fitted together, as she strode through the heat-baked streets of inner Bian, two enforcers following on her heels.
She’d indulged in a parasol today instead of a hat, the light dim through the painted paper.
Though she supposed it wasn’t really an indulgence if she had good reason for it.
The Sovereign had smuggled god gems. He’d been good at it.
So good that he hadn’t been caught and had gained power and notoriety for his exploits – so much so that the Hangtao clan had started sniffing around and trying to find out who he was.
The Sovereign, sensing the danger he was in, had looked for an ally, one who could partner with him in taking down a royal clan.
He couldn’t have done it himself. And that ally was, naturally, his biggest customer.
Mitoran had always taught Sheuan she should form alliances with the enemies of her enemies.
And the Sovereign had gone and done just that.
He’d given magic to his enforcers. But what had he known about magic and how did he know how to use it? That was a question she hadn’t been able to solve with the knowledge she had. But it was a question she was intent on answering today.
She ducked into the Reisun workshop, and to her satisfaction, this time the enforcers didn’t argue with her. They waited outside, by the door.
For a while, she did as she was supposed to – constructing filter after filter.
The cloth had to be layered in a certain way, the rubber seal fixed so there were no gaps.
She was running low on the proprietary cloth Mull had woven from Kashani fibers.
Another problem for another day. She had records of his supplier, but she’d have to be careful when she sent someone to obtain the fiber, when she sent it to a weaver.
All these steps had to be obscured, or the Sovereign’s spies would find her secrets without her having to spill a word.
She stopped to eat a basket of steamed bread she’d brought with her, and finished just as the sun was beginning to dip toward the horizon, the light changing from bright to a burnished copper.
Quickly, before the workers left for home, she changed into a freshly laundered work outfit, shucking off the loose silk dress she was wearing.
She pulled aside the woman she’d marked a few days before as being a similar height and build, handing over the dress and the parasol before she could protest. “Go out the window,” she told her. She pressed five parcels into her callused palm. “The money is yours. You can change behind my screen.”
Don’t give them a chance to say no. She couldn’t escape Mitoran’s lessons, not even now, as the Sovereign’s wife. Make it easy for them to say yes.
The woman glanced at the coins in her palm, her eyes widening slightly, before she let herself be guided behind the screen where Mull’s workbench was.
Only a couple of other people noticed this exchange; most were getting ready to return home, stripping off their work outfits in the changing area, grabbing their bags from near the door.
It didn’t matter. There wasn’t enough to tell, and the workers were exactly the type Mull liked – they kept to their own business.
The woman came out from behind the screen once all the other workers had left, dressed in Sheuan’s clothing, the parasol at her side.
She looked a little anxious, so Sheuan put a hand to her shoulder.
“They won’t care. What they care about is following me, not about who you are.
” She couldn’t be quite sure about that, but the worker wouldn’t know where Sheuan was going, so it was pointless for them to interrogate her.
Sheuan gave her a hand up to the window, and then she was in the alleyway, the parasol raised, and heading toward the street.
Sheuan waited by the door until she heard a startled murmur, followed by the retreating footsteps of the enforcers. Then she ducked into the street and locked the door behind her.
The only conclusion she could come to when she ran over all the knowledge she had was that the Sovereign must still be smuggling god gems. He must be using them for whatever magic he was engaging in.
And the god gems always went through a realm’s government before they made their way to the dens.
They had to pass through the Sovereign’s possession.
There was a warehouse near the dried-up lakebed where god gems from the mines were ferried to, cataloged and counted, and then sent to the dens.
The Sovereign had to keep track of which clans were meeting their tithes, contributing appropriately to the mining, of course.
Convenient.
The streets were always busier once the sun had begun its descent, the air cooling to a more tolerable temperature.
Servants and some clan members moved around her, completely unaware of her presence.
There was something delightful about passing through a crowd unnoticed.
Like she was holding a secret that only she knew.
She passed carts of wares – bolts of cloth, bundles of dried herbs, stacked pottery.
Light began to shine from between shutters, casting a glow across the plastered walls of buildings.
The tiled roofs faded, bit by bit, into the night sky.
The castle stood behind her, above it all, a shepherd over its flock.
The taste of the air changed when the sunlight faded, going from baked clay to something dark and loamy.
The faint smell of smoke lingered as she made her way to the edge of the lakebed, the charred remains of funeral fires black marks on the dusty ground.
She didn’t light a lantern, taking care on the uneven ground, her pulse quickening.
A light at this time of day would stand out like a star against the sky, and she didn’t want the enforcers at the warehouse to notice her.
The warehouse itself was a nondescript building, tucked in amongst other buildings at the edge of the lakebed, one long road passing by them all.
It had a few small windows on the ground floor, more on the upper floor, and only one door.
The whole thing was painted in a drab beige; Sheuan couldn’t tell if that was a deliberate choice or just years of dust from the lakebed coating whatever color originally covered the walls.
She ducked into the nearby rocks as a cart approached, a lantern swinging from the corner.
Gems moved constantly to and from the Sovereign’s warehouse.
And since gems were valuable, the warehouse was nearly surrounded by enforcers, each one armed with at least two blades, their blue jackets faded to a dusky gray by night.
It wouldn’t be easy to get inside. She’d considered the possibilities.
She could throw her weight around, as the Sovereign’s wife.
It would be hard for them to say no to her, especially if she said she had been directed here by the Sovereign.
But word would get back to her husband quickly, and in spite of whatever excuses she might come up with in the meantime, he’d know what she’d been up to.
She’d have to break in.
She could already hear Mitoran’s voice in the back of her head as she crept toward the building.
If you have to resort to trespassing, to physical confrontation, to actual seduction, you’re already losing the game.
These ways are how you get caught. Act with subtlety and no one will know your true purposes.
This went beyond that, those silly games, those morsels of information she’d fed, bit by bit, to Mitoran. She didn’t have the time and she was certain the Sovereign already knew what she wanted. The key was to get to it before he could stop her.
So she circled the warehouse and watched the enforcers as they patrolled, counting them as they stepped beneath the lanterns, noting the pattern of their movements.