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Strumheller and I found him nearly beaten to death on the floor of his study. The men who beat him
kidnapped Flori. They think that Bal knows something, or has something they want. Baron Strumheller
and others are trying to find Flori, and he brought us here because he thought we would be safer.
Merivan absorbed that.  What has your husband got you mixed up in now? she demanded.  Those
Rivermarch dealings of his . . .
Telmaine chewed on the inside of her lip. She felt no urge to defend the demimondaines, since she felt
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much as Merivan did, albeit for different reasons. Her Bal was made for better things than the free
hospital in the Rivermarch. She had to resist the urge to defend Bal, because in doing so she was likely to
let slip more than her sister should know.
Merivan threw up her hands.  I cannot reason with you with that mulish expression on your face.
 You re not reasoning, Telmaine said, provoked beyond circumspection.  You re hectoring, nagging,
and badgering. I know it s because you care, but, Meri, I ve had a terrible two days, I m worried about
my husband, frantic about my daughter  I ve used magic to heal my husband and I might be falling
in love with another man, and a mage besides  and I m tired .
 You should come home with us. Theophile has contacts, and failing that, he would be able to pay for
agents.
 Bal shouldn t be moved again until he s stronger, and we re all safer here.
 Safer? Merivan said.  From what?
 I don t even know. Ishma Baron Strumheller doesn t know.
Merivan couldn t miss that revealing Ishma  .  Oh, Telmaine 
 Yes, Telmaine said in bitter exasperation,  you told me I d come to a bad end, and maybe this is it.
Are you satisfied?
That checked her sister in midflight.  No, she said in a hurt tone.  It may surprise you to know that I am
not.
Telmaine bit her lip.  Please let Mother know that you have found me. I don t expect to stay here any
longer than we must any longer than it takes for the investigations to conclude and allow us to go home
and for life to get back to normal. And Merivan though it doesn t sound like it I am grateful you came
to find me.
 You re right, Merivan said,  it doesn t sound like it. I suppose it is easier for you, with your free and
easy attitude to propriety.
 That s an old 
She stopped, hearing footsteps outside. Not the near-noiseless ones of the servants, but heavy footsteps
from men climbing abreast up the stairs in a rhythm of carpet-muffled and floor-resounding footsteps. Her
heart rate doubled. The footsteps approached, but did not reach their door. When the pounding came, it
was from elsewhere in the corridor. A harsh voice demanded that a door be opened. Neither sister
breathed, for listening. Then she heard Ishmael di Studier s distinct, deep tones, suddenly ending in a
bark of pain.
Six
Ishmael
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 Ishmael had only warning enough of his arrest to realize the futility and dangers of flight. When Eldon
shook him awake, it was to tell him that the men had already encircled the wing of the house, armed and
in force. His servant had heard Casamir Blondell in the side vestibule, talking to the superintendent about
a warrant for murder. Tercelle Amberley, almost certainly, if not the man he had shot while
escaping but how had his disguise been penetrated so quickly? Ruthen would not have betrayed him.
Was it Blondell s doing, then, and if so, why? There was bad blood between them, but surely not that
bad. He swiftly rejected the possibility of testing his luck against their mettle; escape was too unlikely to
be worth the punishment that would befall Lorcas and Eldon for forewarning him. He rolled out of bed,
shedding his rumpled shirt.  Get my leather vest. The leather vest, with its stiffening of metal links, was
armor against knives, and protection for his ribs, at least the first time anyone went at him.  If this goes
ill, he said,  y need t tell the Hearnes that it s Guillaume di Maurier who s gone seeking their daughter;
Hearne knows him, and I m sure Lady Telmaine knows of him. He pulled on the vest, a clean shirt, and
gloves, and when the footsteps and the pounding came, he made his menservants stand well aside, out of
the line of any fire, and opened the door himself.
Sonn resolved two heavy pistols, pointed at his head, from the agents on either side of the city
superintendent. He wasn t sure whether his nobility or his villainy merited such attention. Behind the
double rank of public agents stood Casamir Blondell, his form indistinct amongst the echoes, but his
expression twisted in anger and loathing. The extremity of that expression gave Ish the briefest of warning
before they laid hands on him it had, he thought, taken them rather a long time to appreciate that in his
shirtsleeves, with his gloved hands spread, he offered neither threat nor resistance. He tensed involuntarily
as they hauled him forward, reacting to too many memories of similar manhandlings, but he did not resist
as they dragged him into the corridor.
 Ishmael di Studier, Baron Strumheller, the superintendent said,  we are arresting you in the name of
the archduke on suspicion of the murder of Lady Tercelle Amberley one night past, and on suspicion of
sorcery committed against Lord Vladimer Plantageter two nights past.
He stiffened in their grasp, his mind suddenly locked with horror at the second accusation and its
implication.  Vladimer  he started to say, unwisely, and the men holding his arms turned the joints
upon themselves with the elegant efficiency of men practiced in the technique. He cried out once, in
agony, and hung between them, gasping.
 Lord Vladimer, as you surely know, lies senseless in the ducal summer house, hissed Blondell.
The superintendent s expression shifted subtly toward distaste. Ish could not allow himself to hope, not
with the charge of suspected sorcery against him, but he knew Malachi Plantageter to be as scrupulous in
the discharge of his duties as the realities of politics allowed. He had descended from the old nobility he
shared the ducal surname to this lowly public service, and made it his own. Ishmael said, in a low voice,
 I am innocent   a gesture from the superintendent stayed any move to silence him  of both those
charges, but especially of th last.
 The law grants that possibility, the superintendent allowed,  and ensures all men a fair trial, whatever
the charges, witnesses, and evidence. I will ensure you are guarded, until we know the outcome of Lord
Vladimer s affliction and know the exact charges to be laid.
He heard the threat and the promise in that, stretched as he was in painful suspension between his
guards. Murder was a capital charge, one that would leave a man shackled outside to await the day.
Proven sorcery and there was a conundrum, since the witnesses who could disprove it would hardly
be considered upstanding citizens and witnesses could have him exiled, confined to an asylum, or [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]