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I walked downstairs, ignoring the eyes gazing at me, and walking out into the street. The heat was as suffocating as always, but now it felt more unbearable than usual.
I didn’t know exactly where the treasurer lived, but I had a guess, so I made my way towards the villa district. The ledger in the workshop probably had an address in it, but that was even riskier than this plan.
The path lead through the bazaar, and no matter how hard I tried, every familiar scent hindered me a bit more. The bitter aromas of the spice shelves, the sweet smell of fruits, everything lured me like a candle did a moth. Before I knew it, I was walking with an orange in my hand, then a roasted meat kebab with flatbread on the side. Although Ezair was somewhat right about my discrediting of humans compared to the full-powered djinns at home, one thing I didn’t look down on was the food; the cavalcade of flavors and scents creating perfect harmony, covering my nose, then my tongue, and finally filling my stomach.
Before I could emerge from among the street stalls, a stray cat jumped in front of me staring at my lunch. By the look in his eyes, he was starving, so I sat down on a barrel and held a bit of meat towards him. There was some odd similarity between us as we ate.
I saw a little boy dash through the street with stolen dates in his hands, and merchants picking from a bowl of roasted eggplant as they argued over something. A group of women dunked some bread into yogurt sauce while listening to a tale of one among them. A little girl chewed on an apple, yanking on her mother’s clothes to get her to buy something from the toy stall. They were different people with different lives, but still similar to each other – and to me.
I had lived exactly like them in the last few years, I’d followed every written or unwritten rule, but I hadn’t felt like one of them for a second. I didn’t even know if I wanted to be one of them.
The stray cat rubbed at my feet and jumped up next to me, licking my fingers, looking for gravy. I gave him another piece. I still had an orange left, but I had to be ready for the next time Ezair didn’t buy me breakfast, so I just breathed in the fresh citrus smell and put it away.
The world was a lot nicer with my stomach full. The sky got a little bluer, and the roar of the crowd was less annoying. Slowly but surely, I accepted the fact that Ezair was right; I would have never run away at home. The whole reason I had ended up here was because I had tried to be bold, helping those who couldn’t have helped themselves. I defied odds, challenged the impossible and almost won.
Fine. Let’s give it a try, for old times’ sake.
I filled my canteen with water, and searched for someone who could direct me to the late treasurer’s residence. One housemaid sent me to another, but after half a dozen of them I found someone who worked next door and knew the way. I bought her some sugared lemon peels as thanks, then took off before she could look at me with the same, heart-melting eyes as the stray cat.
The treasurer’s villa was smaller than I expected. Three floors of plain white stone walls with small, shutter-covered windows to keep out the scorching heat and a modest, albeit decent garden. The only sights were the olive trees, lining the pebble covered road to the entrance, and some pink oleanders planted at the wall.
I had two options. One was to sneak in undetected, catch and interrogate someone, and then leave before they could memorize my face. Or I could just walk through the front door with a clever cover story and question everyone.
I wasn’t sure I could come up with a good enough lie, and breaking and entering was too tempting. If Ezair was right and I hadn’t lost every skill I had along with my magical power, I was surely capable of sneaking into an unguarded house, even as a human. That had to be easier than slipping between amorphous clouds and waves.
If I couldn’t do it, that was the ultimate sign to let go of my past and learn to play this game differently, but I had to at least try. And I could always come up with a cover story if I screwed this up.
I climbed over the stone wall, then snuck through the garden, hiding behind the plants next to the pathway. The ground-floor windows were closed, but I saw a single one open on a floor above me, possibly to air out a room. That meant the servants still took care of the house: they just preferred not to show themselves.
I couldn’t find a back entrance, although it was really improper for servants to use the same door as the lords and ladies. There was, however a small balcony to the side where I could possibly climb with a little dexterity.
At first, I tried to use the oleander pots as leverage, but they weren’t nearly enough. I ended up dragging an empty stone vase over, which was tall enough for me to catch the lower part of a broken stone railing. I hung in the air for a while, then gathered my strength to pull myself up so I could release the grate and hold on to something higher. My foot slipped, and I was just able to catch the railing again before I fell. A silent swear escaped my lips, but I had set my mind to this and wasn’t about to give up.
In the end, I rolled onto the balcony. It was harder than flying up as weightless air, but that’s how I was now, and more effort meant a greater appreciation of the eventual success.
I peeked through a glass door, but all I could see was a darkened room. I tried the doorknob in case I got lucky, but I didn’t. They had locked it from the inside.
Luckily, the terrace was full of empty stone vases, so I grabbed one and smashed it against the door. The shattering glass made quite a noise, but I had little choice.
The room was fairly vacant, with a dressing table, a bed, and a wardrobe. Everything looked expensive, so I guessed I had broken into the late lord’s bedroom. Some old habit told me to look into the drawers and the closet, but there was a noise coming from the hallway. I ducked down and rolled under the bed.
Someone put a key in the lock, which meant I couldn’t have left the room anyway, so it was, perhaps, a fortunate event that someone came looking. A careful, tiny leg entered the bedroom.
“Hey...?”
He sounded young, not even adolescent. Luckily the child was more afraid of me than I was of him. At least a little bit.
“Who’s here?” he asked again.
I waited until he walked up to the broken window and bent down to inspect the sorry remains of the balcony door. I chose this moment to climb out from under the bed and quickly got behind him, covering his mouth and holding the fragile, little body so he couldn’t move.
“Don’t yell. I don’t want to hurt you. I’ll let you go if you promise to answer me quietly. Okay?” I whispered. The child just moaned and dropped the stick in his hand in a panic. Until then, I hadn’t seen him holding anything. His muscles were quite stiff, and he didn’t even dare to breathe.
“Good. Now I’ll take my hand off your mouth.” I gently lowered my hand to his neck so he could speak, but I was ready to squeeze it at any moment. I didn’t think I could seriously hurt a child, but I tried to look threatening. “Some two days ago, there was an inspector here. Tell me who spoke with him.”
“Ta...” he began stuttering. “Tamen talked to the soldiers. He always takes care of this when the Lord’s not here.”
So Tamen. I at least had a name, even if it didn’t mean much at first. But if he was the leader of the servants here, he was my best chance.
“Have you seen anyone who didn’t belong here lately? A new maid, for example?”
The servant shook his head.
“This is very important. Are you sure about this?” I asked again, with more emphasis.
“I don’t... I don’t know. I... I can’t see at all. But there weren’t any new voices...”
That’s what the stick was for. I was interrogating a blind servant who just tried his best to take care of the house. I couldn’t afford to get sentimental now, so I just gulped down the shame and focused on the task at hand.
“Where can I find Tamen?”
“In the kitchen. I think.”
“Where’s that?”
“‘Downstairs. Towards the street.”
I didn’t want to torture the poor kid any longer, so I slowly let my hand slip from his neck.
“I will let you go, but you must not run away. Understood?”
The servant stood there like a salt idol, so I stepped back and closed the room on him.
The stairs led to a huge lobby, directly next to the front door. I sneaked down, glimpsing into the two smaller corridors on both sides. The servant boy had not told me which way it was to the kitchen, so I had to rely on my senses. The kitchen meant food, and that meant mouth-watering smells, so I was quite sure that I had to go left.
When I got to the kitchen, I saw two figures fussing about. One was a boy, around fifteen. Besides him was a sturdy woman with a meat cleaver in her hand, chopping up a goat for dinner. It was rather frightening as she slammed the blade into the table with decisive, rhythmic movement over and over again.
“Excuse me! I was told I’d find Tamen here,” I said aloud, trying to avoid the cook throwing the cleaver at me in her surprise.
The young boy turned towards me. He was tall, with slightly lighter skin and hair than most seirs, although not even close to Sheen or the Viper Chiefling. He had a straight nose and sharp features, but his face still showed some charming, childish roundness.
“I wasn’t expecting guests for today,” he said.
“I’m really sorry, but things came up, so I couldn’t announce my visit. I’m Inspector Rashad’s partner.”
It was a simple yet ingenious lie, the best I could come up with on the spot. A young inspector in training, trying to wrap up her teacher’s case and save him from certain death. In fact, I’d blended my own story with Ezair’s, so one could even think of it as half-truth.
“I was quite sure I told the inspector everything I knew. What else do you want?”
“The inspector mentioned that the lady of the house got the poisoned perfume from a woman. I’d like to know who she was and what she looked like.”
The boy sighed.
“As I told the inspector, all I know is that my mother went to the Asbith perfume shop to order a special fragrance, and then a young woman about your age arrived with the bottle. She was short, dark-skinned, black-haired, and there was a tiny dot in the corner of her eye.”
I nodded and tried to engrave the description in my memory as much as possible. We could do something with that, especially since she had a specific feature.
“I see. Are you sure she was the poisoner? There were no other women you saw around the day of the murders?”
“My mother was a nobleman’s wife, gossiping with others was the only amusement she got,” Tamen answered, whisking away a lock of hair from his eyes. “She had quite a circle form other wives around the district, but they are over thirty years old.”
So, the young woman with the dot by her eye remained the prime suspect, but I wanted to be thorough as a good inspector.
“Have you spotted any new faces in the gossip group? In the last few weeks, let’s say.”
“I haven’t,” Tamen said, folding his arms. “Did you find out anything new?”
“We’re investigating every possibility, considering every motive,” I replied, proud of myself, as it sounded very inspector-like. “Sadly, I can’t say more, but I am very grateful for your cooperation. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I want a fair sentence as much as you do.” He nodded. “Have you talked to the clerk?”
“Master Tamen, it’s not appropriate to talk like that,” said the cook. “The gentleman is currently your guardian.”
The boy rolled his eyes.
“What clerk are we talking about?” I asked.
“The one sitting in my father’s office right now. Didn’t you see him first?”
“I didn’t. I tried to follow Inspector Rashad’s trail, and I didn’t know they had replaced the treasurer so soon. Who’s in his position now?”
“An over-complimented copycat named His Excellency Arjun Sikdar, Prince’s Councilor. I’m sure you’ve heard of him,” Tamen said, with so much bile I could almost taste his distain.
“Naturally,” I said confidently. I’d never heard of him in my life, but I was sure an inspector would have. “I’ll definitely go see him. Can you give me a description of him? Just so they can’t get rid of me or trick me. You can’t be sure of anything in this case.”
“He’s that snake in man’s clothing, standing next to the prince during the parades. Long hair, always smelling of oil... But perhaps the easiest way to recognize him is to look him in the eye. They light up like a bowl of water in the moonlight, and no one knows what makes them so vividly blue. Like a sapphire.”
Even though I had expected this, it didn’t upset me any less. That damn marid... But at least the threads were leading toward the same direction. It was fortunate that I had blown out some steam on Ezair and filled my stomach as well, so I maintained a calm look and just nodded.
“Oh, so that’s him. I’m very grateful for your help. Watch out for him, though. Some people whisper some quite disturbing things.”
“You don’t have to warn me. If it were up to me, he would’ve been kicked out a long time ago.” Tamen’s face revealed an angry grimace for a moment, but he quickly smoothed out his features, returning to the mask of indifference. I wondered how many times this poor kid was forced to do that.
“Is that so? I see I didn’t win your sympathy.”
I was struck by the stench of patchouli oil before I heard a surprisingly familiar, flattering sound. The marid stood right behind my back, I could feel his gaze piercing through me.
“I’m deeply sorry that you feel that, Master Tamen. Miss Zaira, welcome to my humble abode.”
Oh, fuck.
I slowly turned towards him, knees trembling. If nothing else, at least I knew his name as well now. That son of a bitch.
“Councilor... I was on my way to see you.”
Even my racing heart, trembling hands, and sweaty palms could not stop me from lying. Even though he had called me by name, I tried to maintain my cover for as long as possible.
“You know, the door works well. It was recently oiled. Did you necessarily have to break the balcony window?”
Tamen took turns looking at me and the councilor, but in the end, he rested his particularly prickly gaze on the marid.
“I beg your forgiveness,” I said. “I will compensate for the damage. Unfortunately, it’s part of the prudent procedure.”
“It would seem it wasn’t prudent enough.” He smiled, his hands twined behind his back. “Master Tamen, may I ask you to leave us alone?”
“No, you may not,” Tamen said, straightening up so he could rise above the councilor by a few inches. “Whatever you’re talking about, as the heir to the estate, I deserve to hear it.”
I wish I could have thanked Tamen out loud, as I was sure he had just saved my life.
Arjun sighed. “Be it that way, then.”
“I am surprised that the councilor prefers the kitchen as the place of conversation,” I said.
“If you wish, we can settle this in my office.”
He turned sideways so he could point the way to the parlor, but also to get between me and the front door. Perhaps he was afraid I’d run, just as I had in the workshop.
Sadly, it seemed what he had implied through the rain was true. I really didn’t have anywhere to run, so I was forced to improvise again and somehow talk myself out of this situation. The problem was that while this worked when people were insecure and afraid of spirits, councilor Arjun Sikdar could hardly be affected by that.
“Whichever Master Tamen finds more comfortable,” I said. After all, he was the master of the house, and the councilor was the intruder.
Tamen walked past us and marched towards the office, so I followed him without saying a word, making it clear to the marid that I didn’t recognize his authority.
The office was tiny and seemingly unused for quite some time. The man locked the door behind us, while I settled in a chair behind a small desk.
“Now you can tell me why you’re here before I notify the city guard,” Arjun said, carefully organizing his fingers so each touched the opposite end. Even his gestures were irritating to no end.
“Well, I had some questions about this investigation, but Master Tamen was kind enough to answer them.”
“Investigation... Please, leave these jests for now. This case is already settled, sadly not in your favor.”
Tamen looked at me suspiciously. “What would that mean?”
“Oh, the young master doesn’t know? This woman, Zaira Asbith, is responsible for the deaths of your parents.”
I couldn’t decide what bothered me more; that he didn’t realize I wasn’t entitled to my father’s last name, so he misnamed me, or because he treated it as a fact that I was responsible for something I didn’t do.
“That’s not true. And you know that.”
“Facts are stubborn things. His Majesty, Charta Vivekanda, in his ruling wisdom has already delivered the verdict in light of the evidence presented to him. Or am I wrong to say that you’ve been on the run from the guard for three days?”
“There was no evidence presented to him, because he imprisoned the only one who was investigating. Yes, I panicked and ran away when his soldiers grabbed my father—who’s almost eighty years old—and put him in jail with no trial. But you can’t think I’m so stupid that I would return here on my own initiative if I was guilty. If I had actually killed the treasurer and his wife, I’d already be on a boat, on my way to an outer island. Of course, you know that very well. What are you planning to do, councilor? Turn me in and execute me without proof, like my father?”
I had no reason to keep lying. If I lost Tamen’s trust, I just hoped he hated the water djinn enough to sympathize with me. I really cared about what the hell a marid wanted from me, and why they didn’t let me live peacefully in this world.
“What am I planning? Do you think I am the one who wants your death? Or the old perfumer’s? No, I’m just a servant for greater lords, miss, and there’s nothing personal about it.”
“That’s great news,” I said, not giving him a chance to continue. “Although I find it sad that such a great and influential man is an errand boy to someone else, but if you don’t have any problem with me, then I have none with you, so we can shake hands and get on with our jobs. Isn’t that right?”
“Don’t rush this, miss. Just because I don’t have a problem with you doesn’t mean I’m going to let you go. You know, my employer is terrifying when he gets fired up.”
I had tried to convince Arjun Sikdar to let me go, but at the same time a few snippets of information caught my attention. The fanatics and the Court of Fire fit the picture, and a fired-up efrit could strike fear into anyone. I didn’t understand why I took it for granted that there was an efrit somewhere in this story, but I would have bet a generous sum on it.
But since arriving here, I had learned the greatest tool one could use in moments like these. I cleared my throat, smoothed down my hair and looked into his brilliant eyes.
“Let’s make a deal.”