Goblin Precinct (Dragon Precinct) (18 page)

Lying on three of the cushions were three men, with big, goofy smiles on their faces.

One of them waved at Dru. “Hi there! Wow, there sure are a lotta ya.”

For several seconds, Dru stood there, still holding his sword.

“You guys wanna take a seat?” another asked.

Only then did Dru register that some of the others had come in: Torin, Afrak, Grovis, Osric, and Iaian. Nobody else would fit.

Dru looked down at them. “Did you three rob the Cliff’s End Bank?”

The third one bit his lip. “Yeah, sorry about that. We didn’t mean to, but we didn’t have no other way’a gettin’ the money we needed for the deal with Kempog. See, we was gonna buy us a whoooooooooole lotta Bliss, and then take it out onto the
Amarilla
to sell out on the islands. It was a
great
plan! Gavin put the whooooooooooooooole deal together!”

“Uhm,” the first one said, “we prob’ly shouldn’t be tellin’ stuff like that t’the Swords. I mean, they don’ like it when people rob banks.”

“Or kill one of our own,” Dru said tightly.

The second one smiled. “Oh, you mean the guy with the dreadlocks? He kinda killed Gavin, which was a total bring-down, y’know? So we hadda do somethin’.”

“It wasn’t really fair, though, was it?” the first one asked. “I mean, there was three of us an’ only one’a him.”

“Yeah, we should apologize to him when we see him next.”

Dru just stood there in open-mouthed stupefaction.

Afrak put a hand on Dru’s shoulder. “Been seein’ this for a month now, Lieutenant. These shitbrains’re Blissed out. Ain’t gonna get nothin’ useful out of ’em.”

“Yeah.” In fact, they got plenty out of them, as they’d just completely confessed.

But they were just so—so
relaxed
and happy. Dru had wanted desperate bank robbers, confused and angry after their job went bad, who’d put up a fight so Dru would have an excuse to beat the shit out of them.

He had no idea how to respond to this.

Luckily, Osric did. “Gather these three happy idiots up and bring them to the castle. They just confessed in front of plenty of witnesses. I can’t imagine the magistrate will take long to condemn them.”

Shuddering, Dru then said, “Yeah, Cap’n.”

This wasn’t how he wanted to avenge Hawk’s death.

SEVENTEEN

WHEN JONAS BROUGHT DANTHRES THE HOT MUG OF TEA, SHE reached for it eagerly. “Thank you, Jonas. I
hate
magic.”

“So you’ve mentioned,” the sergeant said before dashing out of the squadroom, his green cloak billowing behind him.

She was standing outside the third interrogation room, leaning against the door for support as she sipped the herbal tea, hoping that it would cure the rumbling in her stomach.

“How much longer—” Fanthral started, but then Danthres just looked at him, and he slumped his shoulders. “Very well, we shall wait until you are ready.” He shook his head. “But I must know why Elthor lothSerra was targeted.”

Danthres was too queasy to argue that this was a fool’s errand all over again. Besides, she was hoping he might relent and tell her more about Sorlin.

Then his ranting gave her a better idea. “Actually, Fanthral, I’m going to need a few more minutes for my stomach to settle. Why don’t you go ahead and start questioning her?”

Fanthral straightened. “I would like that very much. Thank you, Lieutenant—I’m grateful, truly.”

With a bit of a flourish, Danthres opened the door to the interview room to let him in—and then kept it open, standing just outside and to the left so that the occupants couldn’t see her in the corridor, but she could still hear everything.

Morenn spoke as soon as Fanthral entered. “I hope you’re the person in charge of getting me out of these restraints.”

“I’m afraid that lies within the purview of the Brotherhood of Wizards.”

“Of
course
it does. Well then, let me assure you that I have committed no crime and you have no business detaining me.”

“I’m afraid
that
lies within the purview of the Castle Guard.”

“So you’re neither a wizard nor a guardsman. What
is
your function, exactly?”

“I serve the Elven Consortium.”

Danthres heard Morenn snort. “Is
that
what the elves’ latest pathetic attempt at a government is calling itself?”

Ignoring the dig, Fanthral said, “I have been tasked with retrieving members of the Elf Queen’s court and bringing them home for war trials.”

Morenn chuckled. “You’ve learned my secret—I’m actually Idiot lothMoron in disguise, cleverly hiding from my past crimes in service of the Elf Queen by posing as a female wizard, because that’s a disguise
guaranteed
to give me a low profile.”

Danthres smiled with admiration as she swallowed more tea. She liked Morenn’s style.

“Do not toy with me, woman, or—”

“Or you’ll imprison me in the castle in eldritch restraints?”

Fanthral said nothing in response to that, and Danthres had to force herself not to laugh out loud.

After several seconds, Morenn asked, “I’ve been alive for some thirty years, Mr. Elven Consortium, and in all that time, I’ve never even set foot in elf country. I’ve never even been as far west as the Nemerian Wastes. I can count the number of elves I’ve had dealings with on the fingers of my hands and I can assure you that none of that tiny number were of noble birth. I therefore can conclude wholeheartedly that I have no business whatsoever with you.”

“So you deny that you were hired to give this Bliss of yours to Elthor lothSerra so that he would overdose on it and die before he could answer for his crimes?”

Another snort. “If someone had paid me to do that, I wouldn’t need to rely so much on that stupid dwarf.”

Gulping the last of her tea, Danthres made note of the fact that Morenn and Kempog’s relationship was not the most cordial. That would be useful.

“In any case,” Morenn continued, “I’ve been working to fix the escalation problem with Bliss that leads to overdoses. I don’t
want
people to die, I want people to be happy. That was the whole point. I don’t know who Althor lothSeer even is, and—”

“It’s Elthor lothSerra,” Fanthral said tightly.

“I don’t care if it was Olthar lothSirhans himself. The point is I don’t know him, I can’t help you, and I won’t talk to you any longer.”

“You will tell me what I wish to know, woman! Who targeted lothSerra?”

Morenn did not reply.

“Answer me!”

Still nothing.

Then Danthres heard the sliding-metal sound of a sword being removed from a scabbard, which was her cue to enter.

Morenn was hovering in the air, still bound by the magickal restraints, hovering near the small wooden table. Fanthral was standing before her, his sword out.

“Fanthral, that’s
enough
!”

“I am handling this, Lieutenant.” Fanthral did not look at Danthres, instead staring at Morenn with fury in his eyes.

“No, you’re not. You’re here as a courtesy extended by the Castle Guard, and you just used all that courtesy up. Get out.”

Fanthral continued to not move.

Danthres sighed. “This woman is wanted for questioning by the brotherhood. Do you really wish to get on their bad side?”

That got Fanthral to lower his sword.

“C’mon.” Danthres led him out the door and closed it.

As soon as the door shut, she smiled. “Thank you, Fanthral, that was
perfect
.”

The elf opened his mouth as if he was about to yell at Danthres, then shut it again and looked at her in confusion. “I’m sorry?”

“I’m grateful to you for softening her up like that. It’ll make my part easier.”

“I—”

“Ah, Tresyllione.” Turning, Danthres saw that Boneen was entering the squadroom. He was looking even more wiped out than he had after coming back from his wizard meeting. “How fares our guest?”

“I’m about to talk to her. What happened with Hawk?”

Boneen quickly filled Danthres (and Fanthral) in on the events that took place on Auburn Way that morning.

“Damn,” Danthres muttered. She’d always liked Hawk. He was only an okay detective, but he and Dru did their jobs well. They were certainly more palatable than the past-it Iaian and the never-had-it Grovis. He deserved better.

“Now that I’m done with that, I need to deal with that woman.”

Danthres frowned. “What do you mean by ‘deal with’?”

“The brotherhood has declared that all traces of Bliss must be eradicated, and that the woman in there—”

“Her name is Morenn,” Danthres said.

Boneen nodded. “That Morenn must be delivered to them posthaste.”

“And how exactly are you going to accomplish that?”

Frowning, Boneen said, “Delivering her is as simple as—”

Danthres waved a hand across her face. “No, no, not that part, I mean eradicating all traces of Bliss. I don’t know
that
much about magic, but isn’t that the sort of thing that the original spellcaster needs to do?”

The sour expression on Boneen’s face answered Danthres’s question for her.

She went on: “So you need her help.”

“I suppose I do, yes.” The reluctance in Boneen’s voice was palpable.

Shaking her head, Danthres said, “That’s just typical. You won’t even let this woman into your precious cabal, yet you have to beg for her help before you condemn her.”

“She came pre-condemned, Tresyllione. As I explained to your partner, it’s called the Brotherhood of Wizards for a reason. Our official position is that women do not have the requisite strength of will to perform the disciplines of magic.”

“What utter shit.”

“Well, of
course
it’s utter shit!” Boneen shook his head. “But there’s precious little I can do about it.”

Danthres put her hand to her forehead in disgust. “I knew the magickal community thought poorly of women, but I had no idea that you’d codified it.”

“We’re wizards, Tresyllione, we codify
everything
.” Boneen sighed. “In any case, there’s nothing for it. I must get her to eliminate Bliss, and then take her to Gunderson.”

“Good luck with that.” Danthres barked a laugh of derision. “She won’t help you.”

“She won’t have a choice.”

Fanthral finally said something. “The lieutenant is right. This woman is stubborn, and I doubt that even you could get her to cooperate.”

“But I might be able to. Can you remove the restraints about ten seconds after I walk in?”

“Of course I can,” Boneen said. “Why would I want to?”

“Because unlike you or Fanthral, I’m a practiced interrogator. I’ve spent the last decade going into that room and getting people to do things they don’t wish to do. It’s usually to confess to a crime, but this will be much the same thing.”

Boneen regarded Danthres dubiously, then let out a long sigh. “Oh, very well, you may give it a try. But understand something, Tresyllione—while the brotherhood wants both the drug eliminated and Morenn in their clutches, they’ll settle for the latter. Unlicensed magic is a sad reality that the brotherhood will live with if they have to. A woman mage, however, is something for which they have absolutely
no
tolerance.”

Danthres nodded, as if understanding, though she in fact didn’t comprehend it in the least. She approached the door. “Ten seconds after I shut the door, drop the restraints.”

“Very well.” Boneen started muttering something to himself, no doubt getting the spell ready so he could speak the final syllable at the appropriate moment.

Danthres re-entered the room, shutting the door behind her. Morenn still hung in the air near the table, the room’s only lantern casting a large shadow that looked like a manta ray on the back wall.

“At last, someone in authority.”

“I’m Lieutenant Danthres Tresyllione. Would you like to be free of your restraints?”

“A great deal, yes.”

“Very well.” Danthres snapped her fingers, just as her ten seconds expired.

The restraints faded to nothing, and Morenn fell toward the floor, but Danthres reached out to catch and steady her.

“Thank you.” For the first time, Danthres heard something other than anger in the woman’s voice. Her gratitude was genuine. “You’re a woman.”

Danthres smiled. “And you say the detectives are observant. But yes, I am a woman. Please, have a seat.” Ignoring the uncomfortable stool on the other side of the table where suspects usually sat, Danthres instead indicated one of the two comfortable chairs that were there for the detectives. When she and Torin worked together in here, of course, they used both chairs, though rarely did they both sit at the same time. Constant movement did wonders for keeping suspects from feeling at ease.