The Fire Seer and Her Quradum (12 page)

If she summoned fire near the dogs, she’d probably only scatter them, which wouldn’t help.

The growling and snarling ended. Tentatively, she and Mandir approached the area where they’d heard it, but there were no dogs there now.

“Who’s there?” called a voice from their left.

Taya turned and saw a man’s dark frame outlined against the sky, but she couldn’t tell who it was. Maybe Tufan, but more likely it was one of the brothers. He appeared to be holding something long and straight—a walking staff, perhaps, or a weapon.

“Runawir?” said Mandir.

As the figure came closer, Taya saw the scar on his face. It was indeed Runawir.

“Ah, it’s you,” said Runawir. “Are you helping with the dogs? There’ll be a price to pay tomorrow if Tufan learns they got out.”

“I imagine,” said Mandir.

“You should get a stick,” said Runawir. “You’ll need it to move the dogs.”

Mandir shrugged.

Taya thought a stick would be a good idea, but she had no idea where to find one in this darkness. She and Mandir could summon fire for light and search that way, but a fire at close proximity would ruin their night vision and probably scare off the dogs.

“Keep looking.” Runawir walked away.

They kept searching, moving toward the river since Setsi and Nindar were covering the ground near the stable. On a rise near the bank, she spotted a low, dark shape. She pointed. “Over there.”

“I see it,” said Mandir.

They approached carefully. The animal, seeing them, raised its hackles while lowering its ears and tail. It growled.

Taya halted. She wasn’t sure how to handle the dog now that they’d found it, and its body language was mixed. The hackles and growling were aggressive, but the lowered ears and tail suggested fear.

“Get behind it,” said Mandir. “See if you can drive it in the direction of the pen. I’ll block it from going upriver.”

Taya circled around the animal until it was between her and the approximate direction of the dog pen. Then she drew her hand across her body, summoning a swath of fire.

The dog turned and fled—straight at Mandir.

“Flood and fire!” he cried, summoning flames of his own. The dog changed direction and bounded away.

Taya gave chase, but the dog quickly outpaced her. “Where’d it go?”

Mandir came up, panting, beside her. “I have no idea. I think we need sticks.”

“It would be easier to find them in daylight.” Tufan’s property was dry and barren. She’d seen a few spindly trees clinging to the riverbank, but couldn’t remember their exact locations.

In the distance, she spotted two figures—a boy and a dog. The boy was limping, and it appeared the dog was following him.

She headed toward them.

“Taya,” called the boy, who turned out to be Nindar. “I found a way to get them in the pen. Look!”

He was carrying a long stick, and on the end of it he’d stuck a piece of meat. He was holding the meat just out of reach of the dog, and the dog was following it, lunging and trying to grab it.

Trust a boy to come up with a better solution than she and Mandir had. “Clever.”

“You got any more sticks like that?” asked Mandir.

“No, but you could get more meat from the kitchen for me.”

As Taya jogged with Mandir back to the main house to fetch the meat, she heard a gate slam somewhere behind her. It sounded like Nindar had successfully penned one dog. “How many dogs are left?” she asked Mandir.

“No idea.”

A shrill whistle pierced the darkness, followed by barking from several directions.

Taya stopped short. “What was that?”

Mandir sounded grim. “I think Tufan knows his dogs are out.”

The whistle blasted again, followed by more barking—closer this time.

Cautiously, since she didn’t want to be seen, she moved in the direction of the sound. She saw a group of men walking in the moonlight: Tufan and two of his guards. Several dogs cringed and slunk around their feet, offering obeisance. Another dog joined the group, barking wildly. Tufan, who held a long stick with a knob on the end, brought it down on the barking dog’s back. The animal yelped.

“Quiet,” Tufan said, heading toward the dog pen.

“I think we’re not needed anymore,” whispered Mandir.

“Why is it so easy for him to collect the dogs, and so hard for us?”

“The puppies imprint on him from a young age,” said Mandir.

She headed back to the main house, feeling discouraged. She and Mandir had been no help at all. Now that Tufan was involved, there might be consequences tomorrow, if not later this evening. She feared Setsi might bear the brunt of those consequences, since he seemed to be in charge of the dogs’ care.

“Could the dogs have dug out of their pen?” she asked Mandir.

“Unlikely,” he said. “There are stones sunk into the ground, all around its perimeter, to prevent that. It’s more likely someone set them loose.”

She knew that the boys picked on each other, but doing something that would anger Tufan seemed risky. Setsi might be the most likely to be targeted, but Tufan struck her as volatile and capricious in his aggression. He could turn on anyone. Why beard the lion in his den when one could not be certain how he would react?

Never mind; nothing could be done about it now.

Back in the guest room, she climbed into bed. Mandir followed, and moments later, his strong arms encircled her. She snuggled up to him, knowing that lovemaking wasn’t an option, but enjoying the closeness nonetheless. For all the horrors of this place and all the uncertainty, at least they had each other.

Chapter 13

Mandir slept more deeply than he’d expected to, given the evening’s events. When he awoke, sunlight from the window painted a slash of warmth across his face, and someone was knocking on the door.

“Coalition?” a voice called.

Mandir’s half-conscious mind struggled to process words.
Coalition
—that presumably meant him or Taya, although they weren’t usually addressed in that way. The voice was familiar. Which of his brothers did it belong to? Ilinos, probably.

“Coalition mages?” called Ilinos. “Tufan is dead, and the guards want everyone in the dining room.”

Tufan is dead
. The words sliced through Mandir’s torpor like a knife through butter. Had he heard that right? He scrambled to his feet, hurried to the door, and yanked it open. “What did you say?”

Ilinos’s black eye had matured during the night into an uneven ring of puffy, purpled skin. “Tufan is dead.”

“How can that be?” said Mandir.

“The guards say he died during the night. Nobody is to leave the house until they figure out who killed him. They want us all in the dining room.” Ilinos hurried off, leaving the door swinging on its hinges.

Mandir turned to Taya, who stared at him in shock.

“Tufan is
dead
?” she said.

“It sounds like the guards think he was murdered.”

Taya’s eyes lit. “If Tufan is dead, our problem is solved. We can take Nindar and Setsi away from here.”

“We’d best not talk about that right now.” If someone had murdered a prince of the realm, he and Taya would do well to refrain from gloating over how that benefited them.

“Nobody is to leave until they figure out who killed him,” said Taya. “Does that apply to us?”

“I’m sure it does.” Everyone in the house would be a suspect. Mothers help him, if only he hadn’t acted the fool yesterday at supper, demonstrating for everyone his hatred for Tufan and his inability to control his temper. After that performance, Mandir might find himself the primary suspect.

“Let’s go to the dining room,” said Taya.

Mandir took a few minutes to straighten his clothes and hair—no time to shave this morning, or to bathe or even change—and headed there with Taya.

He felt as if he were floating numbly in a nonsensical dream. Tufan, dead—
truly
? So many nights, he’d prayed for it to happen, and now it finally had. He didn’t grieve for the man—probably no one would—but Mandir didn’t feel exactly happy about being fatherless. Instead he felt cast adrift, a raft in the river whose tether had broken from shore.

The dining hall was crowded with people, some sitting at the table and some standing against the wall. Most of Mandir’s brothers were present, as was Shala. Mandir scanned their faces, looking for hints of how each of them felt about the prince’s death. Most of them looked shocked, even the usually implacable Runawir. He supposed this was a lot for his brothers to take in. They’d never lived in any environment but Tufan’s household, and now that he’d died, it was hard to say at this point what would become of them.

The palace guard Bel-Sumai held court at the head of the table, with all three of the other guards at his sides. “I’ll be talking with each of you individually—” He spotted them. “Coalition. Have a seat.”

There were no two adjacent empty seats, so he and Taya sat on opposite sides of the table.

“As most of you now know, Prince Tufan died last night,” said Bel-Sumai. “We believe he was poisoned.”

“What were his symptoms?” asked Mandir.

Bel-Sumai frowned. “This crime is not within your authority, Coalition.”

“If magic was involved, it is,” said Mandir.

“Magic wasn’t involved,” said Bel-Sumai.

“With respect, sir,” said Taya, “that’s for us to determine.”

Bel-Sumai looked annoyed. “Very well. You can look at the scene later to see for yourselves that there was no magic involved. Bel-Zaidu, Bel-Apsu, Bel-Ditana and myself are the designated agents of the king and, as such, are responsible for all arrangements concerning the prince’s death.” He nodded toward each of the guards as he named them. “Since we have no means of delivering the body to the palace speedily enough for services there, we will hold the funeral here. My fellow guards and I will also investigate the prince’s death, determine who killed him, and bring that person before the king for trial. No one may leave the property until—”

Bel-Sumai paused as someone Mandir had never seen before entered the room. The new man was gray-haired and too old to be one of his brothers. His pallor suggested that he was sick. No—
hungover
. This must be the tutor with the drinking problem.

Bel-Sumai acknowledged the tutor with a nod. “No one may leave the property until I, as the highest-ranking of the king’s agents, say they may do so. Anyone who departs without our permission shall be declared a fugitive of the crown and executed for treason. Is that clear?”

Assents around the table.

Ilinos ran into the room, panting. “I can’t wake Yanzu.”

Bel-Sumai blinked. “Why, is he passed out from drink?”

“I don’t know.”

Runawir shoved his chair back from the table. “I’ll help you.”

“I’ll come along,” said Mandir.

In the end, almost everyone traipsed down the hall to Yanzu’s room and crowded around his bedroom door without entering. Yanzu was lying in bed, quite still, wearing his nightclothes.

“Is he breathing?” Mandir asked.

The others hung back, so Mandir pushed his way into the room. He wasn’t squeamish; he’d seen dead bodies before and unconscious ones as well. He placed a finger on the side of Yanzu’s neck to feel for a pulse. He couldn’t find one—yet Yanzu’s body felt warm. Stepping closer, he leaned down and put an ear to the man’s chest.

“No heartbeat,” said Mandir. “And no pulse. He’s dead.”

Around the room, several people gasped.

Mandir stared at the corpse, perplexed by the lack of life in a body that had been so full of life yesterday. Not that he’d ever liked Yanzu. But this was his brother, whom he’d known for years, and death was so fundamentally disturbing. One expected it to happen gradually, but in reality it was so sudden.

Taya slipped up beside him. “Two deaths in one night,” she murmured.

“Everybody out,” said Bel-Sumai, gesturing the brothers and Taya toward the door.

“You said we could see the crime scene,” said Mandir.

“I meant the other one,” said Bel-Sumai. “But look around, if your Coalition insists on it.”

Chapter 14

Taya wished she and Mandir could have privacy while they examined the scene and body. She had a dozen questions she wanted to ask her partner, as well as some ideas on which she wanted his opinion. Not only that, she was concerned about his emotional state. While she knew that Mandir loved neither of the dead men, the fact remained that he’d lost his father and one of his brothers in a single night. That had to affect him.

But Bel-Sumai’s hostile eyes left her holding her tongue. Mandir had confronted and embarrassed Bel-Sumai yesterday at supper. Now the guard had the opportunity to take his vengeance, if he chose to do so.

Of the two crime scenes, this one was the fresher; it might have more to tell them than Tufan’s room, which the guards had surely been over by now, obscuring possible clues.

Yanzu’s room was similar in layout and furnishings to her own guest room. A small washroom contained a ewer half full of water and a chamber pot, which had been used. Back in the main room, a single window faced west into a hazy morning fog. She leaned out the window, breathing in the fog, and checked the ground below it for footprints. The earth, though slightly moistened now by the morning air, was hard and cracked from weeks of dry weather. No footprints showed, nor were they likely to on such ground.

Mandir was looking at the body. Leaving that to him, she explored every corner of the room. Its furnishings consisted of a bed, a table with three chairs, and several chests and cabinets, which held clothes and a few writing tablets and personal items. On the table sat a cup with a bit of clear liquid in the bottom. She leaned down to sniff it. It smelled like nothing. “Mandir.”

He came to the table, peered into the cup, and sniffed it. “Looks like he had a cup of water after dinner, probably poured from that ewer in the washroom.”

“What do you think killed him?”

“I’m not sure,” said Mandir. “Come and look.”

She followed him to the bed.

Mandir rolled the body over, showing her Yanzu’s wholly undamaged back and sides. There was a bandage wrapped tightly around his left bicep, stained with blood that had soaked through and dried.