Stealing Sorcery (44 page)

She shook her head. “No. I wasn’t strong enough – I don’t have much skill at water shaping. Just a little bit of water calling training, from when I was a little girl.”

“Why did you believe your sister may have had something to do with making the poison?”

The Rethri sorceress closed her hands into fists. “When I inspected the wound, I realized the poison involved components from multiple different dominions. That made it harder to treat, so all I could do was slow it down. I put up a wall to protect Maer, Jonan, and Nakane and went out to fight with the remaining assassins – and I chased the ones who were still standing away. I released all but one of the assassins I had captured. One that I recognized, though he did not seem to recognize me.”

Vorainna opened her left hand and wrapped it around her right fist. “Shivarin was Liarra’s bodyguard when she was a child. He’s served House Dianis for more than three decades. I remember him being kind and, above all, loyal. He was barely conscious when I found him – the cold from my prison had made him weak. I released him from the ice, but bound in him with my vision. I made him speak.”

“Loyalty. That’s what drove him to go – along with a dozen others – to kidnap the remaining members of House Theas. They would have spared no one. Most of them belong to some kind of organization. It sounded like a cult to me, but Shivarin wasn’t one of them. I couldn’t make him tell me who gave him his orders – his desire to protect his master was too strong for me to break in limited time. And so I freed him, but not without leaving a mark.”

“You planned to track him later,” Jonan noted. Vorianna nodded in reply.

“An organization. That’s progress, at least. Does this group have a name?”

“He called them ‘Disciples of the First.’ Unfortunately, since he was not a member, he didn’t know many details – but his impression was that this was primarily a political move. He would not have agreed to kill anyone. His belief was that the captured family members would be ransomed to Edrick Theas, but I believe it was intended to be a trap for Edrick.”

“I…know of that group.” Aladir looked downcast. “Though only in vague terms. Five years ago, when Lord Lorian Augusti was found dead in his home, and the man we arrested for the crime claimed to be a ‘disciple’ of that organization.”

“I remember that.” Lydia took a sharp breath. “Something…Wydman, I think?”

Aladir nodded. “Tyrus Wydman. He had been a petty thief, with no ties to any known criminal organizations, but he somehow bypassed significant sorcerous defenses to assassinate Augusti – who was a renowned duelist. By the time we caught Wydman, he was deep in the throes of substance withdrawal – ‘Ash’, I think.”

Lydia hadn’t been a part of that investigation, but Aladir had told her about it before. “Didn’t he claim that he could see the future?”

“Right. He said he was a Disciple of the First and a servant of the Shrouded One. He insisted that Augusti had to be killed to preserve the fate of the world.”

“Well, that certainly sounds ominous,” Jonan remarked. “But charismatic leaders often use sorcery to manipulate their followers and make them see things that aren’t there.” He gave Vorianna a meaningful look.

Aladir turned to Jonan. “That’s essentially what my commander said at the time. But, regardless of their leader’s actual capabilities, I believe this Shrouded One exists – as does his organization. Wydman could not have had the resources to perform an assassination of that level of complexity on his own, and his withdrawal symptoms made him sufficiently incoherent that he could not identify his cohorts. Even if he did identify someone, we couldn’t trust it to be anything other than a hallucination from his drug use.”

“That’s a cruel tactic, but I can’t say it sounds ineffective.” Jonan scratched his chin. “So, Vorianna, you believed your sister may have been a part of this group because of her association with the guard you interrogated?”

Vorianna nodded. “And because of her knowledge of obscure poisons. As I’m sure Aladir is aware, a doctor is one of the most dangerous possible assassins.” She took another step back. “But I can’t believe she would have done something like this knowingly. She’s never…she wouldn’t want to do anyone harm.”

Lydia nodded. “Let me ask you a question, Vorianna – or, let’s dispense with that for now. Rialla. That multiple dominion poison. Do you believe your sister has the capability to make something like it?”

“Yes, but she’d never—”

“Perhaps she wouldn’t have used the poison herself, but she may have made it, if only for research purposes. When I inspected the poison, I found that it had been altered before it was cured. The alteration to the poison made it appear to be the same as the one that had killed Kalsiris. I can think of no motive for altering the poison other than misdirection – someone wanted anyone who inspected the poison to believe it was the same type that the assassin used before.”

Which, of course, means Liarra Dianis is the primary suspect. She could have altered the poison herself before treating it, which would have removed the vast majority of the evidence of her involvement. As someone from House Dianis and a specialist in poison research, she would also have been familiar enough with the types of sorcery used to investigate poisons to take that kind of precaution.

This also implies that whoever made the second poison was aware of the composition of the first. That could mean there are multiple assassins working together, or it could mean that whoever made the alteration to the poison had an opportunity to investigate Kalsiris’ body and wanted to deflect blame for the second attack onto the original assassin. Interesting.

Jonan rubbed his head. “If you’ll forgive me for interjecting, I think I have a way we might be able to gather some more evidence one way or another, if one of you will help me walk. I’m still feeling a little lightheaded.”

Vorianna took a step closer, but Aladir moved to intercept her. “I think it would be best if you stay out of reach until we can confirm your innocence, Miss ‘Vorianna’.”

“I will assist Jonan.” Lydia slipped an arm under Jonan’s uninjured shoulder. “Let’s see this evidence of yours.”

***

The room was filled with mirrors, but none of them carried Lydia’s reflection.

Glancing from side to side, Lydia marveled at the vast array of images displayed in each of the shining surfaces.

In one, she saw a pair of guards moving with purpose down a hallway.

In another, the last remaining member of House Theas living within the manor, her hands smudged with ink. Nakane scratched at a piece of parchment with a quill, then as Lydia watched, tore the scroll to shreds and tossed the remains into a pile of similarly destroyed documents on the side of her table.

In a third, she saw Baroness Theas’ chamber, now empty. It was to that mirror that Jonan moved, slipping free of Lydia’s grasp. “Thanks for the help. I can take things from here.”

“What is all this?” Aladir watched the mirror in which Nakane was pictured, a look of concern on his face.

“One of our security measures.” Rialla folded her arms. “Maer is usually in here – I think that’s how he found us last night.”

Lydia glanced at Jonan. “I knew you said you were taking some precautions, but this—”

“Another of my many secrets, ruined. Alas. But in this case, it may provide us with a bit of insight.” He ran his finger across several symbols etched on the side of the frame of the mirror that displayed Nedelya’s room, and the image within blurred and shifted. “This might take a while.”

Rialla frowned, tilting her head to the side. “What are you doing? Even I haven’t seen you making changes to these.”

“Finding the right moment. You may want to take a seat.”

At first, Lydia watched in fascination as Jonan touched the symbols and the surface of the mirror. She realized that the image had initially showed the current state of the baroness’ room – like looking through a window – but now, he was somehow shifting the image back to a previous point in time.

Some sort of sight sorcery effect combined with the Dominion of Memory, perhaps?

She had used one of Jonan’s hand mirrors to send him messages for several months, but she never had known he had access to something more sophisticated. This seemed to resemble the World’s Memory, a legendary artifact capable of seeing through time itself.

Perhaps that was his inspiration for all this.

As minutes passed and the image continued to show nothing of interest, Lydia felt her mind wandering to the letter that Aladir had discovered within the room they were watching.

She sat down, motioning for Aladir to sit next to her. “Aladir, can I see the letter you were showing me earlier?”

He frowned, as she had expected – he probably did not want the other two being aware of its existence. But, so long as they did not know the contents of the letter, she didn’t think looking it over would be a problem. “Fine.”

He passed it back to her, and she examined the words again.

Do not mourn me. I am doing what I must do in order to protect what remains of our family. Am I taking the coward’s path, to avoid facing you? No. I wish that I had the time left to see you one last time, but that is not to be. Sometimes fate forces our hand – and for that, I am sorry.

Lydia frowned, glancing at Vorianna nervously and then back to the note - and considered the unusual structure again.

It was one of the simplest forms of hiding a message within a message. All she had to do was take the first letter of each word to form another.

Dianis.

Lydia folded the letter and handed it back to Aladir.

This had been no suicide – at least, not without provocation. With her final words, Nedelya had named her killer’s house.

She had not, however, named her killer.

“Ah!” Jonan pulled his hand away from the mirror. The image on the glass was Nedelya Theas, standing on the windowsill, preparing to jump. There was no one behind her – no other figure to force her out.

The baroness looked back into her room one last time – mouthing something Lydia failed to catch – before turning and stepping into the open air.

“Go back further,” Lydia instructed.

Aladir put a hand to his forehead. “I’m not sure I wanted to see that.”

Jonan complied with Lydia’s request, moving his hand to the sigils again. They watched with fascination as Nedelya reappeared in the room, moving backward until she sat at her writing table – and a figure moved backward into the room.

Torian Dianis, Rialla and Liarra’s father.

Jonan continued to move backward until he found the moment where Torian first entered the room – and then pressed a series of sigils, showing the scene playing forward as if it was occurring in the present time.

Torian Dianis stood near the door to the chamber, folding his hands in front of him. Baroness Theas had been sitting in a chair near the window when he entered – the same chair that she sat in when she watched the games of Crowns that Lydia had observed with her. She had a book sitting unread in her lap.

She did not stand when Torian entered. She simply spoke, showing no sign of concern.

Aladir stood and walked closer to the mirror. “Does your mirror store their voices? I can’t read her lips, and Torian is facing away from our view.”

“No, only an image. I do not have any knowledge of sound sorcery.” Jonan looked down. “I’m sorry; it’s the best I can do.”

Vorianna had backed away to near the entrance to the mirror room and she was clenching her jaw tightly, a look of intense focus on her face.

As the scene played out, Nedelya stood, looking bemused, and then moved to a writing table. Torian walked closer, leaning over her, and waving a hand at the inkwell.

And Lydia watched as Nedelya wrote the letter that Aladir had just shown her, under Torian’s watchful eyes.

She wrote slowly, deliberately, and Torian demonstrated growing frustration as he watched her.

He forced her to write a suicide note – but she took her time, thinking about each line carefully, so that she could implicate him in the only way she could think of.

When she had concluded writing the letter, Torian raised a hand, pointed at Nedelya, and left the room.

“Jonan.” Lydia stood up. “Move the image back to where he is leaning over her while she writes the note – and keep the image there.” She turned her head toward Vorianna. “I’m sorry; it would appear that Torian is at least involved, if not the killer himself.”

Aladir stood next to her. “I believe we have an arrest to make.”

Vorianna’s expression was venomous as she said, “I will accompany you.”

***

Torian Dianis was sitting in the courtyard, playing a game of Crowns against Liarra, when Aladir arrived with the city guard at his heels.

The swarm of guards that arrived to arrest Torian was more than Lydia judged to be strictly necessary, but Aladir always did pride himself on being thorough.

“What’s all this?” The blue-eyed Rethri glanced around briefly as the guards formed a ring around him, and then looked back toward the board on the table. Aladir stepped out of the ring of guards, drawing his sword.