‘What is so special about your goddess that makes you regard her so highly?’
‘Nothing, I suppose, which is exactly why she is special. She encourages me to cast light into dark places, to investigate matters in the physical plane as best as I can, to the best of my abilities and to the benefit of Vispasia. She enables me to think on my own, to question everything. We respect our gods and goddesses like we would our own parents, but Polla seems to be a goddess whose advice is constantly effective. Her scriptures are practical, not judgemental; her priests and priestesses full of useful advice.’
‘She sounds far more pleasant that Trymus. His priests seem more concerned with perpetuating his own glorious myths and moral absolutes than with advice.’
‘You spoke of shame on my family,’ I said, ‘but do you have no shame about your sexual unions with your own brother?’
I expected her to say nothing, to look away, but instead she began to justify her actions. ‘We shared a mother and a father – it hardly seems much of a bother to share a bed as well.’
‘The gods disapprove,’ I replied. ‘The laws of nature disapprove. But, more importantly, the laws of Vispasia also disapprove.’
‘Laws and gods… they do not understand matters of love. Our union was one of deep affection, full of tender and caring gestures. How many marriages in the city can claim such enjoyment? Not that many, I’ll wager. How many women can claim to be so happy? Again, far too few. We have always been close, Licintius and I. The first time we slept together, it felt so perfectly natural – the most natural thing in the world, in fact. We merely had to create the pretence that it was not going on.’
‘I could never connect your very austere room, and the fact that no one could actually claim to have been sleeping with you, with the reports that you flirted with everyone around you, and led a rather wild social life. It simply made no sense.’
‘Well, now you know,’ Lacanta said.
‘It’s such a shame that an innocent priestess had to lose her life over it. So many people have ended up dead because of your actions.’
‘Who else?’ she asked, quite surprised.
‘You realize General Maxant is dead?’
‘No… No, I didn’t. What happened?’
She could have been lying about her ignorance, but I told her anyway – that he was murdered, that it was staged to look like suicide. I admit to still not knowing why Maxant died. My suspicions were that the king had silenced his general for knowing too much, but there was no proof of this.
Lacanta told me that she did not know Maxant well enough, but he seemed an honest if somewhat dull person. ‘Hardly a man one could have a meaningful conversation with,’ she said. Lacanta received little contact from Tryum and knew nothing of what was going on there. I tried to question what the arrangement was between her and her brother, how often they might meet up, but she was not forthcoming on the details.
In the end the clouds began to move in, bringing in a gentle, sideways rain that I first mistook for sea spray. Our conversation had, for the moment, reached an end. Together we headed inside.
The Sun Chamber Commissioner
Five long, repetitive days later we received notice that one of the most senior Sun Chamber officials was already on their way to the villa from Free State, and they would arrive the following evening.
Upon receiving the message, Callimar looked at me and muttered, ‘You realize I’ve never even met a Sun Chamber commissioner, let alone worked with one?’
‘Well, don’t look at me like that,’ I replied, ‘neither have I.’
‘Why are they sending her and not an administrator, or a commander?’
I shrugged. ‘Maybe they fancied a holiday in Destos.’
We waited another six days, as it happened, due to the rough weather around the coast. The storms were glorious: forked lightning ripped between clouds in the late afternoon in a way I hadn’t seen for years. However, the mornings were deceptively calm, allowing me to wander the local paths and discovering several plants that Lacanta said grew only in this region.
No incidents had occurred with her: she had been an intelligent and polite companion, and not at all as I had expected. It was obvious to see how she would have worked her brother’s policies through the Senate so effectively, and made the hearts of many a senator skip a beat or two in her company.
On the morning of the sixth day, an entourage of Sun Chamber officials and soldiers were spotted approaching, so Callimar – strangely nervous – arranged for his veterans to tidy the place up as if it was on military parade. We saw to it that Lacanta was put in her room with two guards; her eunuchs, too, were under watch.
The rest of us stood on the front lawn, looking up to the dirt track, waiting for the arrival of our officials.
Eventually, they came: there must have been twenty horses at least riding down to meet us, with a dozen soldiers on foot. On the horses rode officials in resplendent Sun Chamber robes: largely black or dark colours, but with bold, yellow detail, and a huge embroidered golden sun upon the chest and back. They passed the line of trees and down into view, the officials at the front riding towards where we were standing.
One woman raised her palm for the entourage to stop. A man behind slipped off his horse and moved around to ease her down to the ground. She must be the commissioner.
After she had dismounted, the others followed suit. Two women and four men, each of them much older than myself, stepped in alongside her, each garbed in their fine silken robes of office.
The commissioner stepped forward to greet us. She was a woman of at least fifty years, with a good posture and ferocious, dark eyes. Her shoulder-length grey hair contrasted with her tanned skin; her nose and face were broad, and she had clearly become used to a good meal or two in later years.
‘Which one of you lot is Lucan Drakenfeld?’ she called out above the noise of the sea.
I stepped forward and descended to one knee.
‘Oh do get up, Drakenfeld,’ she said. ‘You’re the bloody reason I’ve come all this way. Save the ceremony for Free State.’
‘Thank you for coming so soon, ma’am,’ I replied.
She waved away my politeness and regarded the villa. ‘Does this place have couches? Does it have a stove?’
‘It has both,’ I said.
‘Good. My arse is sore and I’ve not had anything decent to eat since we left land.’ She stormed inside, the others following in a long, equally glum chain. I suspected I was not the only one who didn’t like travelling by sea.
We commandeered one of the studies, which did not have too many scrolls or books – but there were chairs and desks, which was enough to claim this as a base for operations.
I stood before the group of officials and the rather miserable commissioner, who introduced herself as Commissioner Tibus, third in rank of the entire Sun Chamber. Like Callimar, I had never met someone so senior, and I found myself quite nervous. It didn’t help that her temper could have been improved.
I set out the scene for the officials, starting with the night back at Optryx where Senator Veron summoned me because of the murder of Lacanta, sister of the king. I took her step by step through my findings and methodology, discussing the trail down-city to investigate the actors, Drullus’ death, my observations around the king’s residence, discussions with other senators, the picture of deceit that had been cleverly built up over a long period of time, Maxant’s death and, finally, the missing priestess of Ptrell – whose symbol I had seen in Optryx.