The Fire Seer and Her Quradum Page 14

  “Maybe her baby is,” said Mandir. “Is it yours?”

  “Remember when you used to get mouthy and I’d dunk your head in a bucket of horse piss?”

  “What a fond memory that must be for you,” said Mandir. “I’d love to see you try it now.”

  Runawir went absolutely still. Mandir almost had him.

  “No matter how big you get, I can always thrash you,” said Runawir.

  Taya stepped between them. “Let’s not resort to this childishness.”

  Mandir pushed her gently aside, not wanting her to take a stray punch when Runawir exploded. “If you think you can thrash me, do it. Or has your sword grown as limp as our father’s?”

  Runawir charged.

  “No!” shrieked Taya.

  Mandir deflected the first punch almost without thinking. He’d seen most of what he needed to see in Runawir’s initial rush: the man had no fighting skills at all. He’d beaten Mandir when they were younger, but only because Mandir had been inexperienced and Runawir had been older and bigger. Now Mandir had the size to rival Runawir’s—but more importantly, he’d had training. And he could see that Runawir would be no challenge for him at all, even if he never touched his magic.

  He turned to let a second punch glance off him. Then he looked for Taya. She’d retreated out the door and was safely out of range, so he knocked Runawir’s feet out from under him.

  He worried then that he’d been too aggressive and given away the game, but Runawir didn’t catch on that he was outclassed. Blinded by rage, he lunged at Mandir. Mandir kicked at him ineffectually, allowing him to get to his feet and throw another punch. Again, Mandir turned so that the blow glanced off without doing much harm. When the next punch came, he intercepted Runawir’s arm and twisted, using the man’s own momentum to fling him across the room.

  Runawir slammed into a cabinet. When he recovered, he came at Mandir again, roaring. A knife flashed out of his pocket. That was what Mandir had been waiting for.

  He called fire into the hilt of the knife. The hilt turned red-hot, and Runawir dropped it with a shriek of pain. While he was off balance, Mandir kicked him to the floor, careful just to knock him down, though he could easily have broken the man’s kneecap.

  He moved to the knife and stood over it. “How curious. That looks like the knife you stabbed Yanzu with.”

  Runawir, doubled over and clutching his burned hand, twisted his head to look. “I didn’t stab Yanzu with anything.”

  “No?” said Mandir. “It’s got blood on it.” Lazy man—he hadn’t even bothered to clean the blade.

  “What’s going on?” called Bel-Ditana from the door.

  Mandir turned and saw that a crowd had gathered with Taya in the doorway. “Runawir’s the one who stabbed Yanzu last night. He pulled the knife on me during a fight.” He picked up Runawir’s half-mended shirt from the bed and wrapped it around the still-warm hilt of the knife so he could pick it up. He showed the blade to Bel-Ditana. “See the bloodstains? I imagine you’ll find this weapon is the right size and shape to have inflicted the wound in Yanzu’s arm.”

  Bel-Ditana accepted the knife and peered at it from all angles.

  Mandir collected a bemused-looking Taya, and headed back to the guest room. Once there, he closed the door and said, “You can have it out with me now, if that’s your intent.”

  “No need,” said Taya. “You warned me you were going to provoke him. Although I didn’t realize you meant to provoke him into an actual fight.”

  “I needed him to pull that knife on me,” said Mandir. “I knew he had it—but it wasn’t as if I could search him.”

  “How did you know he had it?”

  “Because I know him,” said Mandir. “He’s always carried a knife, and he’s used it before in household squabbles.”

  “Clever of you to provoke him into showing it,” said Taya. “But that bit where you silenced me and said it was a discussion between men? Ugly.”

  Mandir laughed. “It’s a good thing I warned you. You might have burned me to a cinder otherwise.”

  “Yes, good thing,” said Taya. “But you’re still going to have to make it up to me.”

  His brows rose. Those words held a hint of seduction. “How should I make it up to you?”

  “I’m sure you’ll find a way.”

  He turned to her then and looked at her, really looked at her. He felt like he’d been in a trance over the last couple of days, ever since he’d entered this household that was so full of ghosts from his past. It had taken all his energy just to keep his head on straight. But now Tufan was dead. The ghosts, while not gone, were fading.

  And Taya had never been as beautiful as she was right now, with that teasing look in her eyes.

  He grinned and took a step toward her. “I think you like watching me fight.”

  Her face quirked. “Any woman would—when you’re not being a bully, anyway. You’ve had training, haven’t you? Not just in magic, but in fighting hand-to-hand.”

  “Lots of training.” He continued to advance, steering her toward the bed. “Hand-to-hand combat...archery...wrestling...” He’d backed her as far as he could take her; she was standing just in front of the bed. “I’ve got an idea. How about I make it up to you right now?”

  She sat. “I thought you weren’t comfortable doing that under your father’s roof.”

  “It’s not my father’s roof anymore.” He pushed her down on the bed, a little harder than he’d intended—his muscles were primed for action after that fight with Runawir. Then he covered her mouth with his.

  “All right, make it up to me now,” she murmured into his mouth. “But I expect a performance as fine as the one I just saw, if not better.”

  Mandir peeled her shirt off and over her head. “Woman, I’m going to make you scream louder than Runawir.”

  Flood and fire, he’d missed her body—those beautiful breasts with their dark nipples, her amazing curves. He yanked off his shirt, determined to pay proper attention to each part of her body he’d neglected of late. While his eyes were drawn to her breasts, he started with her earlobe, which he’d discovered was exquisitely sensitive. Just his breath upon her neck could make her shiver.

  But Taya was having none of it. She kicked off her pants, drawing him closer, placing his hand upon her breast. Some days she liked it when they went slow, teasing and playing before they went on to the primary event. Other days, and today appeared to be one of them, she just wanted him to fuck the daylights out of her.

  Very well, he knew how to settle this spirited creature. He kicked off his own pants and took her straightaway, pressing her down onto the bed. She hissed as he entered. He was hard as polished brass, she as slick as river water.

  Now he had her, and she’d have to take things at the pace he desired. He captured her mouth with his own and let her feel the weight of his body, the strength of his motions. Toying at first, he searched for the elusive rhythm that made her quiver beneath him.

  He found it.

  As she responded, he absorbed her moans with his kisses, her bucking body with his own. He felt his climax building but tried to delay it by distancing himself from the act for a moment. She was reaching that point where the pleasure became overwhelming. He wanted to keep her there as long as he could.

  “Mandir,” she moaned.

  As her body shuddered beneath him, he let himself go, riding her climax into his own. When it was over, he lay beside her, conscious of the need to get back to work but putting that off for a few minutes. There was little he liked better than lying in bed next to a satisfied, well-fucked Taya. “It’s over. I can’t believe it’s finally over.”

  “What’s over?” she asked drowsily.

  “This place. Tufan.”

  “Thank the Mothers for that.”

  He kept realizing anew that Tufan was dead. Each time he forgot and then remembered it, it sank in a little more. Tufan would never rape another woman, never beat another child. It was well and tr
uly over. A tremendous weight had been lifted from his shoulders, one he hadn’t realized he’d been carrying.

  “How are you feeling?” asked Taya. “It must be a shock to lose your father and brother so suddenly.”

  “I feel good, actually.” Mandir reached for the words to explain. “When I was young, I thought the world was more absolute than it really was. I thought if Tufan had power over me now, he’d have power over me forever. If I was miserable now, I’d be miserable forever. Of course, that’s a child’s thinking, and I outgrew it. Yet there’s a part of me—some inner child, perhaps—that believed Tufan would rule here always. That child inside of me is now blinded by the rising sun, because he thought the night would go on forever.”

  Taya clasped his hand in her own. “As we say in banana country, even the mightiest monsoon runs out of rain.”

  Chapter 20

  Taya didn’t want to go back to work. It was lovely lying in bed with Mandir with her body so relaxed and so perfectly sated. Mandir was usually a good lover, but this afternoon he had outdone himself. Her eyelids drooped. She could easily spend the rest of the day in bed.

  But she couldn’t indulge herself any more than she already had; they needed to get back to the murder case. Mandir had demonstrated to Bel-Ditana and everyone else who’d been watching that Runawir had stabbed Yanzu in the arm, but that didn’t necessarily mean Runawir was the murderer, or that she and Mandir were safe from being accused themselves. Their best defense was still to find the murderer, along with sufficient evidence to convince the palace guards.

  So far she and Mandir had interviewed Shala, Setsi, and Runawir, if one counted the confrontation between Mandir and Runawir as an interview. They still needed to talk to Nindar, Shardali, Ilinos, and the tutor. She’d love to interview each of the palace guards as well, since as far as she was concerned, they were suspects too, but that wasn’t going to happen. The palace guards would interview her and Mandir, not the other way around.

  Mandir seemed to be drifting off.

  “Do you think Runawir is the murderer?” she asked him.

  Mandir’s only response was to shift a little on the bed.

  She couldn’t let him sleep through the afternoon, not with a murder investigation in progress. She swung out of bed, hoping her absence would prompt him to wake. “You knew he’d been the one to stab Yanzu last night. Does that mean you think he’s the murderer?”

  Mandir drawled his words into the straw tick. “I really don’t know.”

  “Do you have a theory at all?”

  “No.” Mandir sighed and rolled onto his back. Raising his arms above his head, he stretched luxuriously.

  Taya was distracted for a moment, watching the muscles ripple across his chest.

  “We need to talk to more people,” said Mandir. “Trouble is, some of them are going to lie.”

  “Nindar won’t lie.”

  “Not unless he has something to hide,” said Mandir. “But I don’t think he knows anything we didn’t already get from Setsi. As for Shardali and Ilinos, they lie so routinely that anything they tell us will be worthless.”

  “There’s also the tutor.”

  “All we know about him is he’s a drunk.” Mandir heaved his bulk out of bed. “Let’s get your timeline and fill in what we’ve learned.”

  Taya found her clothes, which she’d carelessly flung on the floor—or perhaps Mandir had done that; she couldn’t remember—and put them on. She turned to see Mandir heading for the table, stark naked, carrying two tablets and a stylus.

  Taya eyed their window. “Putting on a show for your brothers?”

  Mandir grinned. “I’m putting on a show for you, banana girl.” Nonetheless, he grabbed his pants from the floor and slipped them on. Then he went to the table and laid down the tablets. “Here’s what we had earlier this morning.”

  Taya reviewed what was on the tablets.

  Ilinos lets out the dogs

  Setsi tells us the dogs are out

  We go outside with Setsi and Nindar

  We see Runawir

  We see Setsi luring a dog

  We see Tufan calling his dogs

  A bracket around the last line indicated that it was one of the possible times during which Tufan’s cup could have been poisoned, because when Tufan was out calling his dogs, the wine cup had been unattended outside his door.

  “We can add a few things to that list,” said Taya. “Right after Ilinos lets out the dogs, we can put Setsi tells Runawir and Setsi tells Shala.”

  “Right.” Mandir called water from the air and smoothed it over the clay. Then his stylus hand went to work transcribing. “Also, Shala goes out. But now it gets more frustrating. Because we’ve got Setsi sees Runawir and Setsi goes to the kitchen for meat, but we don’t know if that was before We see Runawir or after.”

  “I wish I knew where to place the fight between Runawir and Yanzu.”

  “So do I,” said Mandir. “But we don’t even know if the fight happened inside the house or outside.” He waved the tablet gently in the air to dry it. “We know one thing for certain—the murder happened sometime after Shala goes out. But that’s about it. We need to talk to more people.”

  Someone knocked on the door.

  Taya went to answer it while Mandir, still bare-chested, ran to the bed to grab his shirt. He was just pulling it over his head when she opened the door.

  It was the palace guard Bel-Sumai. A little frisson of fear ran through her at the sight of him. This man had the authority to do her and Mandir harm, and she didn’t trust him. “What can we do for you?”

  “I need to talk to each of you,” said Bel-Sumai. “One at a time. Mandir first.”

  Taya turned to Mandir, now fully clothed though his hair was mussed. She hoped the room didn’t smell like sex.

  Mandir nodded and left with Bel-Sumai.

  ∞

  Mandir knew he’d have to tread carefully during this interview. Bel-Sumai had the power to make his life miserable, and on top of that, he had the motivation to do it. Mandir wished for the thousandth time that in his youth he hadn’t salted so many once-fertile fields. He could have been planting seeds, which by now would have grown into a network of friends and allies.

  But instead he’d salted himself a network of enemies. He and Bel-Sumai ought to be working together on this investigation, since each of them had access to information the other didn’t. Unfortunately, the trust they might have enjoyed was spoiled. Seeds didn’t grow in salted fields.

  Bel-Sumai led him to Tufan’s chambers. Bel-Apsu was sitting in a chair near one of the windows, presumably keeping watch over the crime scene. Mandir glanced at the bed and saw that Tufan’s corpse was in fact still present. It was wrapped in a blanket, so at least he wouldn’t have to look at the dead man’s face.

  “I’m glad we’re sitting down together,” said Mandir, hoping to seize some control of this interview. “Taya and I have learned a few things we’d like to share with you.”

  Bel-Sumai’s jawline quirked, and he gestured Mandir toward a chair. “I thought you said you weren’t sharing anything. Something about your visions being for Coalition ears only.”

  Mandir took the indicated seat. “Taya and I discussed that and decided that given the importance of this investigation, we should tell you what we’ve discovered.”

  “All right, tell me what Taya saw in her fire vision.”

  “First things first,” said Mandir. “Taya and I detected nepenthe in Tufan’s wine cup and Yanzu’s water cup”

  Bel-Sumai picked up a tablet and stylus as if preparing to take notes. “Tufan always puts nepenthe in his nightcap. As for Yanzu, he and his brothers—your brothers—have been known to steal nepenthe from time to time.”

  “Given the quantity we detected in a tiny taste from each cup, we think they took too much.”

  Bel-Sumai’s brows rose. “You think Tufan’s death was accidental? An overdose?”

  “I wouldn’t rule it out,” said Ma
ndir. “Another possibility is that his wine was poisoned before he added his nightly dose. Shala left Tufan’s cup unattended on two occasions. The first was in the kitchen, while she went out to try to round up the dogs, and the second was outside Tufan’s door when she delivered the cup and nobody was there.”

  “Who would you say has motive for poisoning both Tufan and Yanzu?” asked Bel-Sumai.

  “Everybody.”

  “I’m aware that Tufan and Yanzu had enemies,” said Bel-Sumai. “But they’d had those enemies for a long time, and until now nobody had moved against either of them. I want to know what made somebody, last night, cross over from inaction to action. I believe you’re the one with the clearest motive. We all saw you try to kill Tufan at supper the night he died.”

  Mandir swallowed. “I didn’t try to kill anybody. I yelled at Tufan, and I called him out. But that’s not murder. In the end I walked away.”

  “Because your partner intervened.”

  Mandir shook his head. “Even if Taya had said nothing, I would have backed down.”

  “That wasn’t your only violent outburst yesterday,” said Bel-Sumai. “I have it on authority that you also beat Ilinos half to death.”

  “I apologized for that,” said Mandir.

  “And I’m sure Ilinos forgives you, because obviously a few words of contrition mean more than bruises that hurt for weeks.”

  This interview was going worse than Mandir had thought it would. Bel-Sumai was right that Mandir had struggled to control his anger here, and he’d twice erupted into violence. Three times, if one counted his provocation of Runawir. But that didn’t mean he’d killed Tufan or Yanzu. “Both times I erupted, it was in the heat of anger. Poisoning, on the other hand, is a calculated and premeditated sort of crime.”

  “Maybe you switched tactics,” said Bel-Sumai. “Last night at supper, you wanted Tufan dead. This morning, he is dead. You expect me to believe that’s coincidence?”

  “Yes, because it is coincidence,” said Mandir. “If I’d been planning to kill Tufan, do you think I’d have called him out so publicly, so visibly, at supper?”