“We should leave a bit of a mess,” said Sabetha, tossing a wineglass into the steaming bath. “Pour some of these bottles into the floor drain. Whoever cleans up will be able to report that Lord Boulidazi must have had a lotto drink before he went off to have his … accident.”
“Lovely notion,” said Locke, elated. “Right. Fix this place up. I’ll get a carriage and tell the Aquapyria folk that Boulidazi will be here another hour or so. Let’s have Calo roll off quietly, and we’ll all sneak out and meet up on the next block. Then back to Gloriano’s for the, ah, last scene of this production!”
Not half past the sixth hour of the evening, Calo, Locke, Sabetha, and Donker clattered in a leisurely fashion through the neighborhoods of Espara, plainly dressed and with their theatrical property tarped over. Nobody recognized them or gave them any trouble.
At Gloriano’s, they found the rest of the company safe but for many rampant cases of nerves. As per the plan, they had chased off all the would-be drinking fellows and raconteurs and parasites with the story that they wanted order and sobriety prior to the Penance Day performance, promising a huge debauch afterward. Locke grinned, and immediately huddled in a whispered conference with Jean, Jenora, Alondo, Chantal, Sylvanus, and Bert.
“We’ve done it!” Locke said. “Stay-Awake Salvard will hold the money. Jasmer and Giacomo have gone off to leave it with him. You’ll all have to take it slowly, bit by bit. And be sure that Donker gets a full share; he’s what you might call fragile.”
“My cousin’ll find his feet soon enough,” said Alondo. “And I’ll make damn sure he gets his cut.”
A general air of relief swept the room. Although Locke wasn’t relishing the task of dressing Boulidazi’s corpse, and he knew neither of the Gloriano women would appreciate the only obvious location for an all-consuming accidental fire, the worst was past and the rest could wait for the fall of darkness. Jenora’s aunt set to work roasting long strips of marinated beef in her wood-fire hearth. Sylvanus made the acquaintance of a bottle of plonk, and the others relaxed with cups of ale.
Just after the seventh hour of the evening, Galdo burst into the room, covered in sweat and quite alone.
9
“I’M SORRY,” Galdo gasped, as soon as they’d all moved to the privacy of the room where they’d unveiled Boulidazi’s corpse that morning. “I’m so sorry! He asked me to make sure the carriage was held. He sounded so damned reasonable, like wedo, you know? He said that if he had to walk back to the inn he’d strip my hide. He took the box … about fifteen minutes later I lost patience. I went looking for him, and when I asked Salvard’s clerk for Jasmer Moncraine, the man looked at me like I’d been drinking. That’s when I figured it out.”
“Moncraine’s taken the money and buggered us all,” whispered Alondo.
“ Beggaredus all,” said Jenora. “I can’t even … I don’t know what to say. It’s like all the gods are having a long hard laugh at our expense.”
Sylvanus threw his bottle to the ground and buried his face in his hands. No more eloquent commentary was possible, thought Locke, than that a situation would make Sylvanus Olivios Andrassus waste wine.
“I’m a gods-damned fool,” said Galdo. “I should have known.”
“He’s an actor,” said Sabetha. “More’s the pity, a good one.”
“Let’s get after him,” said Calo. “He can’t be dumb enough to have gone to any of the landward gates, the way they’re guarded! He’d be insane to put himself on the roads knowing an alarm was a few hours behind at best. So where would he go?”
“The docks,” said Chantal.
“Well, then, let’s find him and cut off that damn hand he was scheduled to lose! He’s a big old fellow, how hard can it be?”
“We’ve got no standing here,” said Locke. “Remember? We’ve got no right or call to push anyone around; we are merely actorsso long as we’re in Espara.”
“And you’ll never find him,” said Jenora. “Castellano’s right, Jasmer won’t go by land. The docks are thick with Syresti and Okanti. He’ll get out on his choice of ships and no nightskin will ever breathe a word of it to the constables. The dock workers have no cause to love the countess’ servants.”
“So we just … we just let him fuck us!” said Bert. “Is that the plan?”
“No,” said Sabetha. “There’s one thing we can do very easily. We can make it look like Jasmer Moncraine killed Lord Boulidazi.”
“I like the sound of that,” said Locke. “It’ll certainly give the story more weight than Lord Boulidazi getting drunk and setting a stable on fire.”
“A stable!” cried Jenora. “You can’t mean—”
“I’m sorry, Jenora, I know I should have said something sooner. But it’s obvious. We can’t burn the inn down, and we can’t just have him spontaneously combust in the yard. Don’t think of it as losing a stable; think of it as not letting your aunt hang.”
“Giacomo, what did you tell the carriage driver after you realized Moncraine was gone?” said Jean.
“I gave him two coppins for his trouble and told him I’d decided to stay a while,” said Galdo. “I didn’t know what to think. I just didn’t want to cause a scene.”
“Well, you’ve saved us by keeping your head,” said Sabetha. “Here’s the new story. After the play, I went with Boulidazi to the bathhouse. Boulidazi received the money from Malloria; she’ll testify to that, and she has her sealed chit to prove it. We claim that we don’t know what Boulidazi did with the money; all we know is that when he came back here to have a talk with Jasmer, he did not have it with him.”
“Simple enough so far,” said Chantal.
“Simple is how it stays,” said Locke, looking at Sabetha. “If I can presume … I think I know where Verena’s going next. We allsaw Boulidazi come here. We allsaw Moncraine come here. They had a long private conversation, then an argument. They went out to the stables together for some reason.”
“A few minutes later we noticed the stables on fire,” said Sabetha. “Boulidazi dead in the wreckage and Moncraine vanished into the night. His guilt will be clear even to a child.”
“We’ll need to bring Mistress Gloriano in on this,” said Jean. “I’m sorry, Jenora, I know we meant to keep her out of the lies, but she of all people has to tell the constables that Moncraine and Boulidazi were here tonight.”
“There’s no helping it, Jovanno, you’re right.” She put her arm over Jean’s shoulder. “Auntie won’t be best pleased, but Ican get her to do anything we need. Don’t worry about her.”
“This is still a miserable mess,” said Chantal. “Boulidazi’s people may yet try to wring every copper they can from us. Maybe even fold the company and take its assets. Hell, that’s assuming the constables don’t just throw us all in the Weeping Tower as assumed accomplices.”
“I think,” said Locke, “that we might just have a friend in a fairly high place. Or, if not a friend, someone with an abiding interest in keeping scandals as subdued as possible.”
“There’s no subduing the fucking murder of an Esparan lord!” said Bert. “Maybe you Camorri will get yourselves off the hook, but the rest of us—”
“No,” said Locke. “We are absolutely notabandoning you, any of you. Haven’t we done enough to convince you of our sincerity? And haven’t we pulled off some amazing things together already?”
“Fair enough,” grumbled Bert.
“ Moncrainefucked us, so we’ll allfuck him right back,” said Locke. “And for what he’s done, let me assure you … he’s made an enemy of our master back in Camorr. He must know it. He’s got enough money to live on for a couple of years, but he’ll never be able to stop running. As for the company … I’m sure we can convince our master to lend a hand there as well. He has resources beyond what you’d believe.”
“At this point I’d believe just about anything,” muttered Alondo.