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I didn’t get to read through Mother’s notebook for Inda before Amalis reported to the castle. I barely had time to review Amana’s report of her overnight investigation, then flip to the Viscount’s information in the notebook to skim through it while he waited for me in the solarium.
That was my own fault, though. I took much time reviewing the recordings from Amana and the Viscount’s [Blood Sigil] bugs, when I should have handed the job off to one of my incarnations.
I’m sure they would have reminded me, had they been awake, but when Gaia put me to sleep, my spiritual vessel contracted to its natural resting state size and they went to sleep as well. It didn’t occur to me to expand it again until I thought about how I should have let Daq or Kwelabi monitor the blood magic while I read the notebook.
But checking the [Blood Sigil] hadn’t been a waste of time. The information from Amana’s bug corroborated her report perfectly. If I still had any worries about her being under the influence of a dark spirit (although Oberon’s mages had already cleared her) and not being honest about what was going on in Narses, this helped to remove them.
While I was sound asleep, my sister had pulled an all-nighter, first spending several hours with Rod, coordinating the handover he mentioned, then flying out in secret to check on the riverfront docks.
It was something she could have done at any time, but because she had already been convinced there was no missing cargo to find, she had never done so. If she had, she would have surely discovered the warehouse we raided and three others full of hidden contraband, including slaves. Of course, whether she would have known human law well enough to understand they were contraband before I explained it to her the previous night is another question.
And I learned that the viscount had sent his investigators to one of those other warehouses, that he knew was controlled by Beretin, and found more contraband. So Amalis was not trying to hide anything. He was genuinely investigating.
And he was genuinely frustrated that none of it was the materials that had been listed on the cargo manifests of the riverboats which had been destroyed in the raid. So, while he did now suspect Beretin, he did not yet believe Amana’s theory as to how the enemy had pulled off their attack.
Or he just didn’t want to believe it. His port inspectors were the ones who had failed to prevent the Trojan Horse-like attack hidden in those riverboats, after all.
My quick review of Mother’s information on Amalis revealed a lot about his family position, but didn’t give me a lot concerning the thoughts in his head. His ancestor had been one of the ‘robber baron’ lords operating on the Hart River following the breakup of the Pendor Kingdom, collecting taxes on the shipping trying to pass their castle, although his family had been elevated to viscount a few generations before that period. He had wisely chosen to negotiate a surrender when my father showed up while reuniting Pendor under the Orestanian banner.
He was unable to keep his castle and territory, but he and his people became father’s vassals and joined the effort to rebuild the capital of Narses. Now, a thousand years later, Lord Orgo Viscount Amalis still held that title, a long run for a mortal noble house. Of course, it’s more common for city lords, who have no personal territory that can be usurped by force of arms.
The Lord Mayorship of Narses, unlike such posts in other regions, was a rotating presidency with a set term. Every five years, the lord whose turn it was took office, the previous lord took a five year break, and the two remaining urban barons in the city served as the Lord Mayor’s lieutenants. Orgo had been serving for three years.
I closed the notebook and slipped it into a desk drawer, then told the footman standing by to show the good viscount in.
He hesitated, looking nervous, and asked, “He has brought several subordinates. Shall I show them all in?”
“Just His Lordship for now, please,” I answered with a smile. “Let the others know they will be called in after the Viscount and I have spoken privately.”
I shook my head as he departed in a hurry. All the staff, with the exception of the two maids who came with me from Atianus, were walking on pins and needles.
Amalis was blustering as he entered, “You should not be using Her Grace’s…”
Then he cut off as he saw who was behind the desk.
The vaulted roof of Mother’s ducal office, at the very end of the solar (the fourth floor of the Main Hall Keep) ends in a gorgeous half-dome skylight. Her desk sits below it, giving excellent light for reading during the day. Between her desk and the door lay a double row of seats facing a table, to function as a boardroom when she met with her senior vassals. So he was quite distant from me and had managed to get that far into his sentence before realizing it was my raven hair and not my sister’s rose-tinted blond at the other end of the room.
He stood frozen as the footman closed the door behind him, staring at me in confusion.
Amalis reminds me of a cheesy old Hollywood movie Chinese villain, from the day when Caucasian actors played Chinese characters rather than actual Asians. His fu manchu beard kind of completes the image.
I asked him, “Did you not hear from His Royal Highness, My Lord? My sister has turned over military and civilian leadership to His Highness and myself.”
He recovered and cleared his throat. “I did indeed, My Lady, but I was instructed to come report to her, so that’s who I came to meet with.”
“Last night, I did not yet know that Amana would be leaving this early. I thought she would still be helping today, but she left on a mission this morning.”
“A mission?” he retorted, looking astonished. “When we still need her help to defend the capital?”
“My grandfather the Fairy King sent an excellent squad of fairy warriors to reinforce our defenses, My Lord. We can spare one fairy mage.”
“What mission is so important that we have to spare her?”
It was interesting to hear. He didn’t like my sister one bit, and had fought with her, but apparently he valued her, anyway. At least, as war materiel.
“That information is absolutely confidential for now, My Lord,” I answered. “But it is indeed that important.”
I held out a hand, gesturing towards one of the chairs closest to my desk. “Please have a seat, My Lord.”
He finally advanced, his dark eyes still watching me as he moved to the near end of the boardroom table and took a seat. I had the impression that he could see a dangerous animal in the room.
“So where is His Royal Highness?” he wondered, looking around. “Isn’t he in charge now?”
“My fiancé is busy with something this morning, My Lord. But, while the Viceroy of the South is my superior as His Majesty’s representative, I am in charge of this duchy. You would be meeting with me even if he were available.”
He looked a tad unconvinced. Perhaps he thought I was acting out of turn in Rod’s absence. So I raised my chin and eyebrow while saying, “It has been centuries since we had a viceroy here on the home continent, so perhaps the law is a little obscure for you. A viceroy is the King’s proxy over either conquered territory or the King’s direct domains overseas. This duchy is neither, so Prince Roderick cannot directly rule it. I, on the other hand, am the daughter of the late Duke and the rightful heiress, and the Privy Council has confirmed my inheritance. For all practical purposes, I am already the Duchess.”
“But the Privy Council declaration…”
“You should re-read it carefully. It was worded so that commoners would assume Rod would be the one in charge, so they would not grow fearful of me, but it also calls me his peer. That was on purpose, and you, as a noble lord, are supposed to read between the lines and understand the implication of that term.”
He scowled and pressed his lips together, but he didn’t retort. He didn’t look happy, though.
I could understand. This man had inherited his title when my father was still alive. He had grown up during Lord Egon’s slow descent, as the demon god possessing him slowly gained control. Rather than the good monarch my father had been during the previous thousand years, Orgo’s example for a vampire ruler was the madman at the end of his days.
I decided to throw him a bone. “As King Gerald’s representative, Prince Roderick can overrule me. I believe he would not do so unless I made some gross misjudgment and he felt he had to. As a betrothed couple, we have quite a lot of trust in each other, so I doubt he will.”
He cleared his throat again, grimaced, then finally nodded.
“That was one of the conversations I wanted to have with you,” I continued. “I would also like to hear about your investigations so far on that Beretin fellow.”
He gave me a look that was almost a glower, then nodded again. “Of course. We’ve been looking for other warehouses controlled by him…”
The rest of his report was somewhat in line with what I had gathered through the sigil. He wasn’t deliberately hiding or twisting any facts, but he had drawn some different conclusions about the findings. Probably thanks to Amana having found more than him, I was pretty much convinced Beretin was up to his ears in illegal activity. Amalis wasn’t yet convinced.
“We have to be careful not to jump to conclusions, My Lady,” he cautioned. “His cousin is Viscount Beretin. The cousin’s territory in the Tain delta region is an important grain production region and Mr. Beretin’s political position is strong because of it.”
“And wouldn’t Viscount Beretin possibly be complicit? Aren’t there ocean shipping ports in that region?”
Amalis scowled again. Maybe he thought I was being stubborn.
I added, “Those contraband slaves aren’t damning enough evidence for you?”
“It would be, if we could show that either Mr. Beretin or his cousin owned them. He is in charge of customs inspections in that district, and he might have had a reason for waiting rather than seizing them immediately.”
I blinked. That seemed a little too unlikely. “Such as?”
I think he knew he was reaching, but he still suggested, “Perhaps he intended to entrap the real perpetrators.”
“My Lord, he deliberately entered a fight with you to keep you out of the warehouse!”
His brows bunched up. Then he nodded and replied, “My Lady, it would be very problematic to arrest him without absolute evidence that he was behind it. He has business ties to the warehouse, but it is not directly his property. And his cousin… he’s one of Her Grace’s senior vassals. And as you suggested, could be complicit.”
“So the one who is waiting rather than going after the culprits immediately is you?”
The Viscount hesitated, then admitted, “Until last night, I thought Mr. Beretin could be guilty of some bribery or customs embezzlement, but not something as dramatic as what we found. I have not had enough time to decide what our response should be.”
I had been prejudiced at the beginning because of his hostility toward my sister, but I was beginning to think this man was trustworthy. I knew nothing about his underlings who were waiting in my solarium though.
After pooching my lips in thought, I wondered, “How well do you trust the subordinates who are out there waiting to come in?”
Another hesitation, then another admission. “One of them, Astina, may or may not have ties to the Beretin house. His wife is from their extended family.”
“Do they know about my mother’s death yet?”
“Yes, My Lady.”
“Alright. Let’s have them in, now. We won’t talk about Viscount Beretin for now. And we’ll stick to your narrative with them. But I will tell you one thing first.”
I tapped Amana’s report.
“My sister did some investigation last night as well. She found more warehouses and more contraband.”
He looked disturbed. “She was doing so without a warrant?”
Orestania is a country of laws. We do have rules about search and seizure, habeas corpus, and all those other niceties. And although they are often broken or bent in other territories, they are fairly diligently followed in Pendor and at the national level.
“My sister is not officially any part of the government, My Lord. Our people can treat it as an anonymous tip.”
I tapped a call bell on my desk that was for summoning the footman when he was outside the door. He opened it immediately.
“My Lady?” he asked, still sounding nervous.
“Send the rest of the lord’s party in, Hedrit.”
“At once, My Lady,” the footman nodded and retreated.
After the door closed, I told Amalis, “You’ll keep my sister’s report confidential from them for now.”
He gave a troubled nod, while contemplating his hands. He looked pretty deep in thought.
The door soon opened again, and I prepared to greet the Viscount’s people, only to be surprised to see Rod’s face.
He looked badly agitated. “Ti, come to the command center right away! You too, My Lord.”
It sounded awfully urgent, so I stood immediately, but I did ask, “What’s going on?”
And why did you come to fetch me instead of a messenger? I wanted to add.
