The Songstress Murders

by J. B. Garner

  “Foolish girls, you had to make this difficult. This could have been painless and quick, though extracting the spirit from the golem might have been painful either way.” He sighed deeply and ran his knife across his palm. “If you think the Ragnard is my pet, you really aren't ready for this.” Blood dripped on the ground and caught aflame. “I'm sorry, Alysa, I really am. I did love you and your mother.” Sulfur and ash started to billow out of the ground and grass turned into an expanding patch of fire. “You don't understand the power of temptation, but you're about to.”

  With the elixir running through my heart, I felt no fear as the small flame erupted into a burst. From that burst came the Ragnard itself, black nothing signifying its insatiable hunger wrapped in a wreath of fire. It had no mouth but its voice pierced even helmet's magical defenses like needles in my head.

  “And so the daughter surpasses the father, as we grew fat upon the flesh and blood below. Such hunger, such naked desire, limitless ambition, you are so much more delicious than poor Aiden.” Words danced like knives on the brain but pain was sweet. Bard's songs were rising in tempo and arrows spun away from Father, but I barely noticed. “You know what the Ragnard is, Alysa. You know we have the power to sate your every desire. Just think about it … logically.”

  Father's mouth opened in cries I couldn't hear, not over Ragnard's promises. Bard's arrows melted across the fiend's body and songs only made the flames waver slightly. I thought now that Ragnard was still at full strength; never consummating contract with Father that I was sure would weaken it. Ragnard was also correct; at least with deadened emotions it seemed correct. Let the words of the ritual slip as I considered the offer.

  Redmane's first bolt hit then, though I barely noticed, much as Ragnard barely noticed it strike it in the side. I did look up when I heard her voice.

  “Milady, dear Bard, flee!” She shot a bolt from a small crossbow up into the air, which burst white in sky.

  Ragnard in my head again. “Your ultimate prize is here, Alysa. Of course, you will never have your hunger for her sated, not while there's another. You know that, don't you?” Pain had now soaked into delightful numbness. “We can help you, but you have to fulfill the contract. Give us the last blood of the Hsu.” It made perfect sense then. “It is what you want anyway, yes?”

  Father cringed against Grandfather's crypt as Vela stepped between me and Ragnard. The golem strummed at its lyre inhumanly, weaving a banishment ritual. I figured it wouldn't work, but couldn't risk it, not then. Ragnard was right. It was the answer, at that point, and every word it fed into my mind was accurate.

  I gestured at the Bard, focusing on geasas woven into its diamond-and-silver core. Surprised when it resisted, tried to keep singing and playing, but I focused all my will on it. Its song turned to a pained wail and the golem fell to its knees from spiritual shock.

  Redmane rushed from me to its side. “I would damn you, beast, if you didn't come from the Pits. What did you do to her?”

  Ragnard spoke to me instead. “See, Alysa? See how your desire cares more for a hunk of metal than for you? It will never change, even if you melt it down for scrap. The Ragnard can give her to you, though. You have studied us; you know we have the power.” Beast seemed to ignore Redmane's threats and Father's cringing, stepping off to one side, leaving no damage but flaming footprints.

  I beg no forgiveness for what happened next. Only know how seductive Ragnar's voice was, how deadened my feelings were from the elixir, and how deserving Father was of death. Looked up at Father and nocked arrow.

  “I am not sorry for this, Father.”

  Was about to let fly when Redmane interposed herself. “No, Milady, please! You can't do this. I can see the flames around you; don't dance to the beast's tune!”

  “Move, Vela,” I heard myself say, echoed through my helmet's motionless lips. “Let me do this so we can be happy.”

  Father's cringing increased, trying to squeeze behind Redmane's form as she spoke. “Milady, we have danced this dance before. You know I will never move and I know you will not shoot. Lower the bow and let us deal with the real enemy.”

  My vision was awash with fire and sulfur filled my nose. Talons raked across mind again. “You will have nothing if you do not give us the blood, Alysa. Think of the power you have already and the power we will give you. Shoot through her.” Pain turned to soothing heat. “We pledge to bring her back to you. We will sate your hunger, Alysa.”

  I now know why Father did what he did. It all makes sense now, made sense that moment. Ragnard was the answer to every problem, if you only give it what it wants. It could provide anything and always knew every desire, every hunger.

  “Vela, I love you.” I let loose the string.

  A flash of silver and rush of wind filled my vision and the arrow struck home, but not through Vela and into Father. The Bard, somehow, despite every geasa and mental command, had moved with precision only an automaton could, putting itself in the way.

  An arrow awash with flames from the beast shot straight into the golem's core and, before thought caught up, I added another. Father was still alive, but Vela would be free from Bard's clutches. She would love only me. But Vela did not cheer.

  Continued from the journal of Inspector Vela Redmane, 21 Octavian 736 PC:

  As the Silver Bard stumbled forward, harsh light spilling from where Milady's arrows awash with the Ragnard's flames had cracked through her chest, my heart felt as if arrows had pierced it too. Only reflex let me catch her form, pulling her close, hoping against hope that life had not already escaped her. I don't know why Milady did not continue her rain of arrows. Perhaps the Bard's form presented too hard a target to penetrate cleanly enough to then punch through me to Aiden.

  There was still fading warmth as I pulled the Bard close, sobs already threatening to catch in my throat. “Do not cry, Vela my dear, you cannot fear. My life may fade, Zain may claim, but joy was made, I knew love's flame.”

  “You can't, please.” The rest of the world faded away and, for those few moments, my focus, my world was the Bard as she smiled at me, her form starting to stiffen back to inanimate metal, and, despite the tears streaming through my fur, I managed to speak. “I wanted to grow together with you, with you both. I have never burned with a love so fierce.”

  “Show me then, as my heart beats slow, as the lights dismiss. So cold is the wind's blow, heat me with one last kiss.”

  Her form was leaden and her arms and legs were rigid, but the last vestiges of warmth still flowed through her body and her lips as I kissed her fiercely. Maybe if I could just express my love hard enough, passionately enough, I could press my warmth, my life, back into her splintered heart. It was a naive wish and, as those silver lips grew cold and stiff, that naiveté was purged, cut away with one savage swipe. In its place was a fiercely glowing anger.

  The world crashed back in as I let the now-inanimate body fall to the ground with a resounding thump of metal on earth. The Ragnard still observed and, if I imagined features on its hideous absence of form, I knew it would have an expression of smugness. How long would it remain content in simply pulling Milady's strings like a marionette before it destroyed us?

  As for Milady, she raised another arrow, tracking the now-fleeing form of Aiden Hsu. He must have taken the moment's distraction of the Bard's death to decide to make a break for it. He would surely die any moment.

  Before that could happen though, I embraced that anger and let out a terrible shout, “Alysa!”

  I can't be certain if it was the shaking rage in my voice or the use of her proper name, but my cry must have startled Milady, throwing her aim wide, the arrow piercing deep into a far grave marker. She spun back to me, her face still hidden behind that perfect, impassive mask.

  I greeted that look with a pitched flask of acid. The ceramic shell broke, splattering the accelerated formula over that face. She cried out and began to tear the hissing, popping helmet off of her head. “Vela, why are you so angry? W
e can be -”

  I interrupted the foolish words spilling out of her beautiful mouth with a shot from my hand crossbow as I advanced. It was a futile gesture, even with the burning flare attached to the bolt, but it seemed to give Milady pause. Shock permeated her face and I could finally see her face as she cast the rapidly dissolving silver-steel mask away. The dull, monochromatic eyes of one overdosed on calming elixir caught mine, though color was starting to return rapidly to them. It explained why she had been so easy and receptive to the temptations of the beast, but still didn't explain its passiveness. While my rational mind tried to chew on that, my heart still was at the buckboard, whipping my body onward.

  I ate the distance between the two of us as Milady raised her hands defensively, looking as if in shock. “Please, beloved, I did this for you. I just wanted to love you.”

  It was the honest truth, I knew it in my heart, but I did not care. There was a blur as my hand flew of its own accord and Milady's head snapped to one side from a vicious slap. “How could you love me when you would do this? Do you not know my heart?” She held her mouth in shock, stepping back from my continued advance. “I would have loved you both with all my heart. Now, I have nothing.”

  “Vela, no -”

  Black tendrils wormed into my mind. “A new hunger, a new desire, it is so pleasing to us! Vela Redmane, you know we can bring her back. She's just a golem; you know we have the power. All you must do is follow what is in your heart this very moment. Give into the hunger and spill the blood!”

  I recoiled away from both Milady and the Ragnard in horror, hands to my head. That is the true power of the Ragnard, I now know, that ability to penetrate into our hearts and souls, to see our brightest and darkest desires. Until you encounter one, you can never know the temptation they offer, with their vast power and intimate knowledge of your secret self.

  However, in that same moment, in the very thrust of temptation it attempted to drive through my defenses, I realized then what the Ragnard intended, why it was acting as it did. It was a hunch, a gut instinct, based on evidence, yes, but not conclusive. Still, it was all I had.

  Milady stepped away, her armored heel catching on Ria Hsu's grave, and she fell backwards over it, still shocked into contrition. The Ragnard itself walked closer to me and I could feel its hunger and now its desperation. “Do it, Vela Redmane! Fulfill your desire, kill the one who broke your heart, and claim the contract for your own!”

  It took every last shred of willpower and bit of cracked faith in me to hold my ground. The Moral Compass, which had been burning hot against my breast, now flooded with soothing, reassuring warmth.

  The beast stalked closer but drew up a few paces away, its thoughts scrabbling like a stray dog at my mind. “Why do you hesitate, mortal? Has sense left you? Speak!”

  “Your power is almost gone, isn't it?” I puffed out my chest and tried to sound confident, despite the flames licking closer. “You aren't incinerating us where we stand because you can't. There was never a last fulfillment waiting to be made. Your contract is almost ended along with your power on this world. That's why this anniversary is so important … because Aiden's pact with you is about to end and now you need it renewed with more Hsu blood.” If I was wrong, I was about to die. If I was right, I might still die, but I would have the small satisfaction, amidst all this pain, that I was right and that those remaining would be safe.

  The heavy chimes of the Noble Quarter's clocks resounded through the air, signaling nine bells, and each chime seemed to send a shudder through the Ragnard's form. “You still have time, Redmane, to sate every hunger, gain every one of your heart's desires. Aiden has committed countless crimes and Alysa has herself murdered five men and the woman you love. To kill either of them would be your mortal justice!”

  “Go back to the Pits, demon.” I wiped furiously at my soaked cheeks. “Your time is up.”

  Though I couldn't hear the ticks of the clock, I could imagine them in my mind's eye, as the darkness began to tear apart with each passing moment. A scream, the sounds of the tormented souls in the depths of the Pit, gouged across my mind and I feared that my sanity would unravel with the demon's form in our world. Fortunately, as I slumped, supported by the same crypt that Aiden had originally cowered against, only the demon disintegrated, leaving my heart and mind to their respective agonies.

  I could hear the buzz of wings approaching, but I ignored them. I knew that the Fortuli would come in response to the flare, bringing with them their cargo of the High Purifier and her inquisitors. I didn't care, though, as I looked for both of the Hsu, pulling my manacles out of their holster.

  Aiden was only a few dozen paces away, fainted behind a large gravestone. Milady, though, was gone, fled during my confrontation with the Ragnard. It didn't matter, I realized as I clapped the irons on Aiden's unconscious form, because I knew where she would go.

  In the end, Milady had been right. Everything I loved had come from her. The Bard had been every good thing that had lived in Milady's heart and now that was dead. It was the good that I had loved, that I had seen vestiges of in Milady, but that was all over now.

  As Hive and cleric alike landed around me, I slowly made my way to the side of my silver angel, the one soul I truly loved, and sang one last song, the song she had written for me, until tears and sobs choked off my voice.

  Continued from the written statement of Lady Alysa Hsu, dated 25 Octavian 736 PC, authenticated by Chief Inspector Verdigan Feathers, Second Ward Watch:

  I fled to the manor, tearing off now-pointless armor with every step. Each movement more painful than the last as tears poured out unbidden, elixir wearing off and heart breaking apart all over again. The only thing I could manage to think to do was to make sure that Xian had its final orders. Promised to make things right to Redmane and still meant it.

  In the end, could not believe what I had just done, no matter jealousy or justice. Ragnard's manipulation was no excuse. After all, it simply offered me what I really wanted, nothing more. Its influence may have been strong or may have been weak, but either way the failure was mine. Vela did not fail either time she faced it so what excuse could I have? It was my fault.

  I collapsed at the door to the sanctum wracked by sobs. Couldn't stand the pain; I threw off my legs and sat against the door. Waited there, not knowing what else to do. Redmane would come, I knew that, I knew she would come for revenge. I deserved to die, wanted to die.

  As with every other time, I underestimated her.

  She did come. Maybe she walked right in or picked the locks. I just know one moment I was alone, all tears sobbed out of me but with no strength to move, and the next could see her boots in front of me.

  Vela said nothing. Sat right beside me and that silence gave a moment of hope.

  “Vela, I am sorry. I was so weak, but I can make up for it. I can get better.” Bargaining was all I had left.

  “I don't think you can, Milady.” Her husky voice was low, hollow. As if something was broken inside. “I love you. I still do.” She turned her head to look at me, our gazes met. Gone was the warmth that thrilled me. Cold eyes met mine and fear gripped me. “But I won't let you get away with this.”

  “They all deserved to die, probably would have been executed and … I can make the Bard again. I can restore her heart. I can -”

  She cut me off with a sudden kiss, cold and passionless. When she pulled back, she said, “I wish I could believe you. I wish I could let you go and you could fix all of this. But I can't trust you, can I? I would wonder every day, every night, when you would again decide that you knew best, when you would lie to me, when you would do whatever you deemed was necessary for our love.

  “I promise that I'll visit you in the Gaols when I can.”

  “No, no, you won't do this, will you?”

  I was so distraught that I didn't notice when she locked the manacles over my wrist.

  “Lady Alysa Hsu, you are under arrest for murder.”

  From Th
e City's Herald front page, 22 Octavian 736 PC:

  Lord Aiden Hsu and his daughter, Lady Alysa Hsu, the last members of the noble Hsu clan, were arrested by the City Watch yesterday morning after a strange incident on the Hsu estate. Eyewitness accounts describe strange pyrotechnics, a flare igniting over the compound, and multiple flights of Hive soldiers over the Ward, before Watchers moved into the estate. Lord Hsu is charged with multiple crimes, including smuggling, conspiracy, and consorting with creatures of the Pit, while Lady Hsu has been charged with multiple murders connected with the Foi clan that have thrown the Second Ward into turmoil this past week, as well as the destruction of the minor celebrity golem known as the Silver Bard.

  From the journal of Inspector Vela Redmane, 27 Octavian 736 PC:

  Scoven had cut me off from the Scale's copious supply of medicinal alcohol early the night before, so I awoke this morning startlingly, painfully sober. The old sea dog certainly understood the reasons for my actions, but no doubt thought he was acting in my best interests. He was probably right, so I pledged, trying to get the dry-muzzled feeling out, not to hold it against him.

  Though my personal life was shattered into a million pieces, my professional life was in good order. Between Aiden and Milady's extensive confessions and the evidence culled from the two Hsu holdings, convictions on all charges would be child's play once the trials came up. The Herald would love the sensational aspects of both cases and my reputation as a detective would no doubt be solidified. The Chief, at the very least, was extremely pleased with my performance. There was even a small bright spot as, despite all expectations, perhaps because of the Ragnard's flight, Cline was making a slow, painful recovery.

  Still, that bit of happy news did little to budge my depression. I simply found it hard to care at this point. Even Orveel could offer faint comfort. Despite those cracks in my heart, the pain that simply rising up in the morning seemed to cause me, there was one thing I forced myself to remain adamant about. I would not let myself become bitter and cynical as Milady had. I would not turn my back to Myrien. There had to be a deeper purpose to what happened and there had to be a path back to the Garden's shade.