“I’ll catch up with you,” I told Smultyn, before I headed down the side street.
“Yes, sir.”
Jadhyl just waited until I stopped, then inclined his head. “Master Captain.”
I’d never seen anyone who looked quite like the east-end taudischef, with his faintly golden-tinged skin and his natural golden-brown hair and piercing eyes. He always spoke in a way that I could only have described as slightly over-precise. He’d never said where his parents had come from, only that they’d died when he was young, and he’d avoided answering me the one time I’d asked. I’d never asked again, because there wasn’t any point in it.
“Jadhyl.” I nodded in return. “I thought you might like to know…” I explained about the explosion, then finished, “If you hear anything, I’d appreciate what ever you might wish to share with me.” Before he could reply, I added, “There’s one other thing. We had a smash-and-grab at the silversmith’s-Alaint’s place just off the Midroad.”
“He’s not that friendly,” replied Jadhyl. “Kantros wasn’t much of an artist, but he’d smile now and again.”
“That’s true, but one of the serving girls got a look at the thief. He was wearing orange under his black jacket. Now…if he was a Hellhole tough out of his territory…”
“Thank you. I do appreciate your courtesy, Captain. I don’t mention that often enough. Would that your predecessors had been so. I’ll talk to Deyalt. If it’s someone who shouldn’t be wearing orange…we’ll take care of it.” Jadhyl smiled.
His words meant I’d have to tell Horazt.
“On the other matter…I have not heard anything, but if I do, you will know. Explosions…” He shook his head, then smiled again. “My nephew Gayhlen. You might recall him?”
“He’s the one at the woodworks.” Among the taudischefs, “nephew” usually meant a son born of a woman not a wife or a permanent companion.
“Yes. Fuhlyt says he could pass the apprentice-level skills for the woodworkers’ guild.”
I nodded. “Is he truly the kind who will work hard and not cause trouble?”
“I would not ask otherwise, Captain.”
“Then he may list me as a referring sponsor.”
“Thank you.” He smiled. “He’s a good boy, and it’s best if he leaves the taudis.”
What that meant was that Gayhlen was hard-working and gentle-natured, and thus unsuited to his “uncle’s” occupation.
After I left Jadhyl, I had to walk quickly for a good block before I caught up with Smultyn and Caesaro. Smultyn looked at me inquiringly.
“He doesn’t seem to know about the smash-and-grab, but…we’ll see. He wanted to see whether one of his nephews who’s been taught by Fuhlyt might be considered as an apprentice woodworker.”
“Some of those kids are good,” said Caesaro. “A couple of them are selling wooden boxes and little things. They’re not bad.”
“The more of them that get into real work, the better for us,” added Smultyn. “We’re not seeing near as many elvers anymore.”
Part of that was because I’d pressed the taudischefs to avoid selling elveweed to the younger people. There wasn’t any way that those already addicted would change.
I stayed with the two patrollers all the way to the Plaza SudEste and then down Quierca for a ways before I left them. Nearing Fuosta, I saw a short, dark-haired, and all-too-familiar figure ahead. Horazt was the first taudichef I’d met, because his “nephew” Shault had shown imager talents, and I’d been Shault’s unofficial preceptor and helped ease the boy-now a youth and a promising imager secundus-into the routine and discipline of the Collegium. Horazt had a worried look on his face.
What concerned me more than his expression was that he was looking for me. Horazt was the most secretive of the three taudischefs in Third District, and I’d been fortunate that he’d had a problem with Shault, or I’d probably never would have been able to work with him.
“What is it?” I asked, pleasantly, but without smiling.
“Elveweed, Master Rhennthyl. The latest batches have something different…It’s not good.”
“Is it poisoned? Is it from some place besides Caenen?”
“The carriers claim it as good as the best Caenenan green.”
“As good as? Where is it coming from?”
“It’s not from Caenen. It’s too fresh, but they say we can’t get any other.” Horazt glanced toward the taudis wall, not quite meeting my eyes. “Three long-timers had half a pipe and went screamer. They weren’t the type. Deyalt had that happen twice this week. Doesn’t look any different. Doesn’t smell that way. I’ve tried to warn all the runners, but they won’t go against their dealers. Since you took over, none of them ever come here, and I don’t know where their safe houses are. Not now. I’ve warned the users I know, but most of ‘em won’t listen or don’t care. I thought you might want to let your patrollers know.”
Bad elveweed on top of everything else. “Thank you. I will let them know. There are two things you might like to know…” I went on to tell him about the smash-and-grab and the explosion.
He just nodded.
I headed back to the station, where I spent the rest of the afternoon occupied with more of the usual duties of a captain-some of which included interrogating two of the taudis-dwellers picked up for assault, revising the patrol schedules for the next two weeks to take into account the promotion/transfer of Charkisyn to Fourth District when we wouldn’t get a replacement for three weeks, checking the charging reports against our arrest records, and accompanying Gervayn on part of his round. I mentioned what Horazt had said about the elveweed to Alsoran and told Lyonyt to put a caution in the duty book for all patrollers. Beyond the worry about elver deaths, there was something about it that nagged at me. For one thing, there were only a few areas of Solidar where elveweed would even grow-unless someone was growing it under glass, and that was far more costly than harvesting it in the wild from the jungles of Otelyrn and shipping it half the world away.
The duty coach arrived at half-past fourth glass and proceeded to NordEste Design where I got out and walked to the door, shields in place, and then walked back with Seliora and Diestrya. I carried our daughter. Once we were back at the duty coach stop on Imagisle, Seliora carried Diestrya to the house, while I hurried south to the Collegium Quadrangle and then across it to the administrative building on the east side. Master Dichartyn was in his study, as he usually was between the fifth and sixth glass of the afternoon. I slipped into the chair in front of his writing desk.
“So…what can you tell me about the explosion?” He set down the sheets of paper he’d been reading and lifted his dark gray eyebrows.
“I’m supposed to get a full report from Jacquet tomorrow on the details, but it was a bomb with a defined blast pattern, and someone pinned a note on one Broussard D’Factorius after the blast. The note was ostensibly from ‘Workers for Justice,’ but otherwise unsigned…” I went on to tell him what else I knew.
“Broussard’s a rather undistinguished factor except for two things,” mused Dichartyn. “He’s essentially a freeholder, as well as a factor, with close to enough lands to qualify as a High Holder, but he’s rejected any approaches along those lines. He’s also come afoul of a High Holder named Haebyn. Haebyn has been a fierce opponent of ancillary water rights, especially to freeholders who use them to produce grain in dry years.”
“I think I need more of an explanation.”
“Think of ancillary water rights as the right to divert excess water in high run-off times. Broussard has obtained considerable such rights on the Piedra River. This infuriated Haebyn, and he has tried to come up with every possible way to give grain shipments from High Holders priority on the ironway. He pressured Glendyl to delay delivery of locomotives to ironway companies that didn’t provide that priority. There were even rumors that golds changed hands, and there were apparently some delays. Needless to say, Broussard was less than pleased about such efforts, and he persuaded Caartyl to push through an amendment to the Cartage Code that made granting priority on any commercial transport a matter only of shipping charges, with criminal penalties for violations, both for the carrier and anyone who attempted to obtain such a priority.”