'Doing well, you dogs,' bellows Gurd. And don't worry about me, when the Ores arrive I'll be cutting them down while you weaklings are still in your beds.'
Gurd picks up his axe from behind the bar and brandishes it to show he's lost none of his prowess. The mercenaries roar with laughter, drink heavily, and ogle Makri. Makri has a purse slung round her neck in which she puts her tips, and I'd say she was doing better than she has for a while. The war is good business, at least for the taverns and the brothels.
Tanrose and Gurd seem to be reconciled. Maybe not in immediate danger of getting married but at least friendly again. As a result of this - and the upturn in business - Gurd ceases to be as miserable as a Niojan whore and once more becomes the cheerful Barbarian with whom I marched all over the world. It's a welcome change. As is the return of Tanrose to the kitchen. For the first time in months I'm well fed. Facing extra demands for food, Tanrose has retained the services of Elsior and is teaching her the proper art of cooking. A commendable idea, as I point out to Makri. If Tanrose gets killed in the war I'll still be able to get a decent plate of stew.
Are you going to be a troop commander or anything?' Makri enquires.
A commander? Me? I doubt it.'
'But you're a Tribune. You're on the Lesser War Council. And you've got wartime experience.'
'All good points,' I agree. 'Except I got thrown off the Council. And the rest doesn't count for much in this city. All the commanders come from the senatorial class. No one with "ax" or "ox" in his name ever got promoted in the Turanian army. Anyway, since I took on the defence of Senator Lodius I've been frozen out. I'm about as welcome as an Ore at an Elvish wedding up in Thamlin. I've spent three weeks investigating the case, and I've hardly learned a thing.'
'Why are you still on the case? Lodius doesn't want you.'
'I was hired by his wife. I took her money. Lodius is my client whether he likes it or not.'
That's the theory anyway. In practice I'm making little progress. My investigation has been blocked on all sides. Any official I want to talk to is either busy or not available. The city authorities are keen to pin the murder on Lodius and it's not hard to see why. Lodius has so much support from all parts of the disaffected population that they haven't dared to move against him before. Now, with the Ores practically at the gates and the population rallying round the flag, it's the one really good opportunity the King and his party will get to put Lodius away. If the Traditionals had tried to pin a murder on Lodius at any other time, the city would've been torn apart by rioting. But now, they might just get away with it.
'So let him hang,' says Makri.
'I can't. Not if he's innocent.'
Makri shrugs. Any time Makri suspects I might be following some sort of ethical code she laughs, and points out the numerous occasions on which I've acted with a notable lack of ethics. I don't know if she means it. She's an ethical woman herself, in her way.
'You're not really so bothered by that, are you? I mean, whether he's innocent or not? You just hate to give up on a client.'
'Maybe.'
'I can understand that,' says Malm. 'Sometimes in the arena they sent me in with a partner. I never liked it when they got killed. I used to protect them. Kill their opponents for them. Sometimes, anyway. But maybe that was just because I liked killing.'
'You liked killing?'
'Of course.'
'You must be looking forward to the war.'
'I am.'
'We're quite likely to get killed ourselves,' I point out.
Makri shrugs. She doesn't care about dying, as long as she has the opportunity to kill a lot of Ores. Makri's hatred for Ores is very intense.
I'm pondering my next step in the investigation. Thanks to Astrath Triple Moon, I've seen the best pictures available to the Sorcerers Guild when they tried looking into the past. We didn't fare much better than Old Hasius the Brilliant. There are too many people around and nothing is really clear. Astrath is slightly puzzled. By his calculations, the alignments of the moons at the time of the crime should allow for better sorcerous examination.
'Is something blocking it?'
Astrath doesn't think so.
'The pictures aren't as clear as I'd expect, but sometimes that just happens. Sorcerers can't explain everything.'
Astrath Triple Moon's pictures do tell me more than Hansius did. Lodius spent some time hanging round in the corridor before the meeting, which looks bad for him. But there was plenty of movement in that corridor: Senators walking this way and that, engrossed in private discussions; Praetor Capatius engaged in some sort of debate with Prefect Drinius, and joined by Cicerius and Hansius; Consul Kalius and his assistant Bevarius talking to Rittius. There's no sign of anything suspicious, however, and none of them entered the kitchen, as far as can be seen.
With official avenues blocked, I've been visiting supporters of Lodius, trying to make some sort of breakthrough from a different angle, but even that's proving difficult. Lodius's supporters are themselves suspicious of me. They know that the Senator doesn't trust me.
I did manage to speak to the man responsible for cooking the pastry which killed Prefect Galwinius. And in some ways my visit to the consular kitchens was very rewarding. Erisox, the man in charge, is a master chef and not too stingy at dishing out samples. From the moment I first tasted his food I recognised him as great man and it was a pleasure to meet him. We talked of pastry, venison, fish, yams, and other items of interest. He enjoys all aspects of food, and just because he spends a lot of time making fancy little dishes for the Consul's guests doesn't mean he disregards the importance of a hearty bowl of stew in winter.
Unfortunately, great man or not, he couldn't tell me anything about the murder. He swore that no stranger had entered his kitchen. I questioned him fairly intensely on the matter but he was adamant. No one had disturbed him as he prepared the food and he hadn't left the kitchen for any reason.
I'm inclined to believe him. I trust a man with such a great talent for food preparation. But of course Erisox couldn't see what happened to his pastries after they left the kitchen. The food was taken out on trolleys, some of which were left in the corridor for a space of time before being brought into the meeting room. I wish that Lodius hadn't been hanging round in the corridor, without a good explanation for why he was there.
I tried following up the carasin angle, attempting to find out who else might have brought some of the poison into the city, but the trail led nowhere. I've learned quite a lot about the manufacture of vellum, but other than that, nothing. It's the sort of task which really requires the services of a large body like the Civil Guard, but that's not going to happen. Guardsman Jevox, one of my few contacts in the force, told me at once that I was wasting my time nosing round the Guards. No Civil Guard is helping me on this one.
The one aspect of the case I've made progress on is the matter of Galwinius's law suit against Lodius over the matter of the forged will. Officials at the Abode of Justice weren't shy about handing over details of that and it looks bad for Lodius. Statements taken in Abelasi and a Sorcerer's report on the will both suggest that there was an attempt to defraud Galwinius. Given that the beneficiary of the fraud was Lodius, he would have had a hard time explaining the matter to a judge. But again, the Traditionals had it in for Lodius. Who's to say
Galwinius wasn't participating in some plot cooked up in the Palace to discredit him? Till I've made more investigations, I'm keeping an open mind on the matter.
One straw I've succeeded in clutching is that there are several other people in Turai who might well have been pleased to see Prefect Galwinius dead. The Society of Friends, for instance. They control all organised crime in the north of the city and Galwinius had just closed down two houses of ill repute which bordered on Thamlin. It's possible the Society might have taken revenge. Organised crime hasn't previously dared to assassinate such a senior politician but as their wealth has grown, so has their ruthlessness. I don't really think that they'd risk murdering a Prefect, but it's a sign of the confusion in the city that there are people who are prepared to believe it might be true. Just like there are people prepared to believe that the Association of Gentlewoman organised Galwinius's murder because he refused to commute Herminis's death sentence. .