Bruda lost some color.
These Herodians were something. Hell on a six-legged camel in a gang, withtheir vaunted discipline and religious fervor. But catch them solo with acrack like that and they drizzled down their legs.
Of course, Bruda was the investigator of record in the hard, messy death ofGovernor Straba. Not a very good investigator, Colonel Bruda. He hadn't caughta whiff of the truth. He had no idea that Azel wasn't the killer.
Let him think whatever he wanted if it kept his knees knocking.
Azel had traced the murderer but had kept that to himself. It might be usefulsomeday.
"You'll have to wait a few minutes, Rose. He's with someone. But he knowsyou're here."
"All right." Azel went to the window and contemplated the harbor. For theserenity of the sea ... The serenity that masked the darknesses moving in thedeeps, beneath the turquoise surface. Heavenstone, the Dartars called it. Ha.
Nothing to do with heaven. Gorloch knew.
Gorloch knew that behind every facade there was nothing but shadow.
Ultimately, there was nothing but The Shadow.
Gorloch knew.
Bruda made little noises behind him as he tried to work but could not concentrate. Azel heard his sigh of relief when the room's second door opened.
"Rose?"
Azel turned. "Ah. My favorite courtier."
The man's name was Taliga. Like all the Herodian aristocracy he was short andbald. Azel made no secret of the fact that he thought Taliga an incompetentasshole who would starve to death quickly if ever Cado-his brother-in-law-gotan attack of smarts and planted a boot in his butt.
On some level Taliga was aware that he was a parasite. He hated Azel forwaving it in front of him, in public. He was Azel's deadliest living enemy.
Azel knew that. He had created Taliga deliberately. Someday the Herodianswould deem him a greater liability than an asset. When that decision was madehe wanted the sanction handed to an incompetent first. Taliga was his alarm.
He did not bait the man today, beyond the initial crack. He attempted smalltalk, grinning all the time. Friendliness, too, would set Taliga's teeth onedge. It was a Herodian maxim that your enemies were at their friendliest andmost solicitous just before they sank the knife in your back.
The military governor awaited them in a small, spartan room on the highestlevel of Government House. His own quarters. He took the admonitions of hisfaith personally. He said, "Thank you, Taliga. Good morning, Rose. It's been awhile."
Azel waited till Taliga was out of the room. "Hasn't been anything worth coming in about."
"What did you do to Taliga this time? He was severely distressed."
"Nothing, General. I was the soul of civility. I asked about his wife anddaughters. I commiserated properly when he reported that your sister has beensuffering from a recurring flux."
"You're a dangerous man, Rose. You know us entirely too well."
"Sir?"
"And you dissemble altogether too convincingly. But I suppose that's whyyou're so good at what you do and I should be thankful you work for me and notfor my enemies."
"There's truth in that, sir."
"You're also altogether too blunt. It makes you needless enemies. SomedayTaliga will try to kill you."
"To carry bluntness a step further, sir, if he tries that they'll find piecesof him in every quarter of Qushmarrah." "He's not much, Rose, but he'sfamily." Azel restrained a smile. Something had given unflappable, pudgy, buttough-as-shield-leather Cado a sour stomach and he wanted to work it off withsome verbal fencing. "I like working for you, sir. But I like being alive evenbetter. I ain't let nobody push me since I was seven years old. Ain't likelyI'd start now. It's like, anybody who ever leaned on me and had to pay theprice belonged to somebody's family."
"So. Let's stop being bull apes pounding our chests. You're here after a longdrought. Does this mean there's finally something worth reporting?"
"Not much. The Living are either felling apart or going undergroundcompletely. Probably both. And mostly felling apart in the Hahr."
"That's where al-Akla executed those men." "One sign of an impendingcollapse." "Al-Akla's little scheme is beginning to work, then." "Those guysmade it work. The thing that brought me in, it ain't much more than a rumor, but if it's true it's sure the Living is coming apart, at least in the Hahr."
"What's the rumor?"
"A guy named Ortbal Sagdet got himself killed down there last night. That's afact. I checked. The rumor is, he was the Living's number one boy down there.
Thieves got him, looks like. Thieves usually know enough not to mess aroundwhere there's gonna be comebacks that'll get them dead."
"How soon can you get a confirmation on whether or not this Sagdet was whatrumor says?" Cado's piggy little eyes were sparkling. "Never." "Eh?"
"How am I supposed to get your confirmation?" "You belong to the Living."
"I'm what they call a ground-level soldier. The bottom of the heap. And I'mnever going to be anything more."
"Why not?"
"The Living is an Old Boys outfit. I got three marks against me. The big oneis, I wasn't out there to get my butt kicked at Dak-es-Souetta. The other twoare I didn't get it kicked at the Seven Towers or on the Plain of Chordan, either. So it won't ever matter who I am or what I could do for them, I'llnever be anything but a spear carrier."
Cado got up and went to a window. Physically he fit the stereotype of theHerodian ruling class. He was short, bald, and plump. He could posture, bepompous, and was vulnerable to flattery. Like the rest. Unlike most, though, there was a razor-sharp mind under his shiny pate. "Where were you in thosedays, Rose?"
"Out of town."
"You did say you used to be a sailor, didn't you? That that was how youlearned Herodian. And there's little room on the seas these days forQushmarrahan ships. Well, no matter. We're here, and it's now. If there is away to identify Sagdet positively as a high officer of the Living, I'd begenerously grateful."
"If there's a way I'll find it, sir."
"I know you will. And what of our friend the Eagle? Anything to report there?"
"I screwed up. I got me a job grooming horses for them but the first day, oneof them got to mouthing off about city people and I broke both his legs forhim. I didn't figure it would be smart to hang around after that."
"You're a man of great violence, aren't you?"
"Sometimes that's the only way to get a message across. I never saw you guyssending out missionaries to spread the One True Faith."
"A point. I ..." Cado went red with anger.
Azel faced the window as an ensign invaded the room, so excited he hadn'tbothered to knock, so young he still had hair. "Sir!" he exploded. "Signalfrom the South Light. The new governor's galley is in sight."
"Damn! The bastard would have good winds coming across, wouldn't he?" Cadokicked a stool across the room. "Machio, don't you ever bust in here like thisagain. If it's the end of the world in five seconds you knock and wait.
Understand?"
"Yes sir."
"All right. Thank you. Get out."
The ensign went, tail between his legs.
"Our troubles redouble when we're least prepared to handle what we alreadyhave. Rose, I want you to stick with me today. I want you studying this Sullopig from the beginning. He's the first one they've sent who could be genuinelydangerous."
"Stay with you? For the public reception and everything?"
"Yes."
"Too dangerous. There are people who would recognize me. I'll have no value ifanyone suspects I work for you. Not to mention it might shorten my lifeexpectancy."
"I want to explore your thoughts about what al-Akla might be up to in the Shu.
I'll have you outfitted as a soldier in my personal bodyguard. You'll pass.
Nobody looks at the men behind the commander."
"In the Shu? He isn't up to anything in the Shu that I've heard, sir."