“Yes! Sorry, I am just so tired, my mind is all over the place.” Her face had turned red in an annoyingly adorable way, making the light scattering of freckles on her face stand out even more. He wondered how Valtrek got anything done when she was a child.
Locksher sighed. “Just sit down, would you? Tell me what is going on.”
Vannya looked around for someplace to sit, but there wasn’t a chair or anything nearby that wasn’t covered with books or boxes or any other assortment of objects. Locksher gestured towards a large desk in the back of the room and after walking around some particularly tall stacks of books, she did see two chairs. He flopped into one chair while she eased into the other and began her story.
“It was a few weeks ago, just after the Apprenticeship ceremony. Oh, did you know that Justan was raised to the office of Apprentice early?”
Locksher smiled. “Oh, really? Well good for him. In his first year too, how nice indeed.”
“Well the next day, he and Piledon both disappeared. No one knew why. Justan’s things were all gone while Piledon’s things were still a jumbled mess. Some students were saying that Justan had taken Piledon with him, but then why would Piledon leave all of his clothes behind?”
“Interesting. Did the council find out where Justan went?” Locksher asked.
“For the first day everyone was pretty worried, but then my father told the council that he had sent Justan away to study with a different wizard somewhere abroad. That made a lot of the council members pretty angry, especially when he admitted that he had let them take the rogue horse with them-.”
“By the gods, girl! Slow down. Let me digest what you say before prattling on.” He leaned back and closed his eyes.
“Sorry.”
“Alright. Questions then. In order of importance. You said, ‘them’. You said, ‘let them take the rogue horse with them’. Who else left with Justan? I am assuming that Piledon isn’t one of them or we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
“Sorry. Again, I haven’t got much sleep and . . .” Locksher was twirling one finger to tell her to get on with it. She frowned and cleared her throat. “My father sent Justan, Qyxal and one of the guards named Zambon away from the school that night with the rogue horse and two warhorses.”
“Aha!” Locksher grinned. “So, let me see if I follow. Your father took Justan on as his own apprentice, correct?”
“Yeah . . .” Her brow furrowed in confusion. “How did you come to that conclusion?”
“For your father to have the authority to send Justan out of the school without council approval, he would have had to take him on as his personal apprentice. Since everyone knows how much Justan loathes your father, it also makes sense why he would need to send him to learn from someone else.”
It took her a moment to follow his round about way of thinking. “Right, that makes sense. You’re right, father did take him on as his apprentice and the council signed off on it. That is one of the reasons they are so mad at him. That and the rogue horse situation.”
“That would be why Qyxal left with him.” Locksher deduced.
“Right,” She said, though she looked at him with suspicion. “My father told the council that the rogue horse belonged to the elves and that he had authorized Qyxal to return it to his people-.”
“And since the creature is not MageSchool property, the council had no say in the matter,” Locksher finished. He laughed out loud. “Oh, I am sure that had them hopping mad, having such a prize taken out from under their noses!”
“Why do you take the idea of a rogue horse being here in the school and alive so lightly? All the other wizards are still talking about it.”
“Bah, you can’t study a rogue horse. They die in captivity, everyone knows that. I mean, I am curious about their origins just like everyone else, I must admit, but I can find that out through other kinds of research. It is best that such a beast remain with the elves. If anyone could keep a rogue horse alive, it would be them.” He leaned forward. “So what is your father’s explanation for sending Justan away?”
“He won’t say. He won’t tell the council anything until he is sure that Justan has arrived at his new location safely. He won’t even tell me what is going on.” Her frustration with that fact was evident on her face.
“Ah, so he is concerned that the council will try to go after Justan once they know. Hmm . . . this does make your father a suspect you know.”
“What? How is that possible?”
“If Piledon is really dead, then maybe he overheard where Justan was going and Justan or your father could have killed him to keep it quiet. Or the council might think that Justan killed Piledon and Valtrek sent him away to cover it up. Or Valtrek killed Piledon and sent Justan away to make it look like he did it. The only way your father gets out of this is if he can prove that neither he nor Justan had anything to do with Piledon’s death. Then he will simply need to have a really good explanation as to why he isn’t telling the council where Justan is.”
She stared at him with her mouth open.
“Do they have Piledon’s body?” he asked.
“No.”
“Well? Tell me what proof Randolph has that makes him so sure Justan killed the cadet.”
She gathered her thoughts, “Uh . . . Well, I have been looking into this quite a lot. It’s why I have gotten so little sleep. You see, they found blood in the room. A lot of blood. They have witnesses that say Justan promised to kill Piledon if he ever touched his things. They have his leaving to coincide with Piledon’s disappearance and I am pretty sure that Wizard Randolph has something else he isn’t revealing until the trial.”
Locksher nodded quietly, stood and opened one of the many drawers in his desk. He pulled some items out and turned back to her.
“Let’s go then,” he said, excited for the first time in days.
“Wait, do you think he did it?” she asked.
“Do you?”
“Of course not. Even if he did kill Piledon, he would have had a good reason for doing so. It is not like him to run away.”
“Then let’s go see what evidence they missed,” Locksher said with a grin and made his way past the obstacles and out the door.
Vannya followed after him, shutting the door behind her. He hadn’t waited for her and she had to catch up with him in the stairwell.
“So where do we start?” she asked.
“The place where the cadet was killed, of course. The best place to start looking for evidence is the scene of the crime.”
They headed down the long stairwell and exited the MageTower. They walked over the drawbridge and down one of the pathways that meandered through the manicured MageSchool grounds. Several Wizards called out to Locksher as they passed but he shut them down with a polite but curt nod as they strode by. Several of the male students waved to Vannya as well and she shot each one a glowing smile that left a rosy cheek and goofy expression on their faces. Locksher shook his head.
Their path took them away from the center of the school and around the class buildings to the cadet dormitory. The door to Justan and Piledon’s room was sealed with a rune. Locksher touched the rune and it glowed briefly. “Locksher, Wizard of Mysteries,” he said and the door opened.
“Blast it!” he swore as they stepped into the room. “They cleaned!”
The place did look like it had been scrubbed down. The floor was spotless and all traces of Piledon’s messiness were gone. The only traces of Justan’s presence left were his elements trophies on the desk in his side of the room.
“Look at that! Clean linens and everything! The rooms weren’t this clean when I was a cadet, I can assure you of that,” Locksher fumed. “They know to leave things alone until I get here. It is almost as if Randolph doesn’t want the truth known.”
“Maybe they wanted to make the room available for the next students,” Vannya said from behind him. “But why leave his trophies here if that was the case?”
“Exactly,”
Locksher said. “Luckily I have other ways of finding out what happened. Where did they say the blood was found?”
“On the bed.”
“Hmm . . . so they changed the linens. But did they change the mattress? If I know Professor Beehn, he wouldn’t have let them procure a new one.” He pulled the blankets and linens from the bed and saw that the mattress was clean. He turned the mattress over. “Of course they cleaned it with magic. Vannya, will you hold the mattress up for me please . . . Thank you.”
She held the mattress up while he reached into his robes and pulled out a pipe and a pair of glasses. From another pocket, he retrieved a small box that when opened appeared to be stuffed with little packets of tobacco. Each one was marked with runes.
“What are you doing, sir?” Vannya asked.
“The cleaners here are very efficient. But it is very hard to get rid of blood completely. You see, our souls, the life within us imprints on our blood. No matter how hard you clean, even with magic, there is always a residue of that life force left behind.” He flipped through the packets of tobacco until he found the one he was looking for and stuffed some of its contents into the pipe. He put the glasses on and with a quick spell, lit the pipe.
Acrid smoke belched from the end and Vannya wrinkled her petite nose in distaste. She coughed and sputtered, “How is smok-king g-going to help?”
“Oh, sorry.” He fumbled in his robes and brought out another pair of glasses. “Put these on. It should help.”
She laid the mattress down and put them on. To Vannya’s surprise, her coughing stopped. “Why do these glasses help my breathing?”
“Magic,” he said. “Lift the mattress back up please. Now this tobacco is specially treated to bring out the traces of life energy left behind by blood. The glasses will help us see if Piledon really died in this bed.”
He took a deep puff, leaned close to the mattress and blew the smoke directly onto it. There was no change.
“That’s funny. Put the mattress down, let’s try the other side.”
“Sir, wait.” Vannya said and pointed to the other side of the room.
The bed on Justan’s side of the room was glowing with a dim light. Locksher walked over, pulled the blankets off of the bed, and blew smoke directly on the mattress. A silvery glow radiated heavily around the edges of the mattress but the center was dark.
“Was there only blood on the edges?” she asked.
“Evidently he was laying on the bed when it happened and the blood pooled around him.” Locksher turned to Vannya. “Didn’t you tell me that they found blood on Piledon’s bed?”
“Definitely. That is what Wizard Randolph’s findings were.”
“Then why is the blood in Justan’s bed, do you think? Oh, look over there.” He pointed to the foot of Piledon’s bed. There was a tiny trail of glowing spots leading from the foot of the bed to the door. “So the incident happened on Piledon’s bed and the mattresses were switched.”
“So that proves that Wizard Randolph is tampering with the evidence!” she said.
“Well, maybe. Or someone else did . . . Or the person cleaning the room was just careless and didn’t put the mattress back on the right bed.”
“Oh,” she said, sounding disappointed.
“At least we know that Piledon was killed in here. Unless . . .” He paused and placed one hand on his chin, his brow furrowed in concern. “Oh I hadn’t thought of that before . . . Unless it is Justan that is dead.”
“What?”
“Well no one has seen him since that night,” he explained. “But then your father would have to be involved because that would mean that he was lying about sending Justan off . . .” He trailed off as he saw the horrified look on Vannya’s face. “Sorry, sorry. I don’t really think it’s likely. I just tend to mull over all the possibilities and when someone is with me I tend to think aloud.”
“O-okay,” she said. “Besides, I have proof that Justan knew he was leaving so it couldn’t be the case. Besides, my father would never-.”
“You do? Can I see this evidence? It might tell me something that will help.”
Her hand flew to the pocket of her robes. “Oh, I-I would rather not. It is kind of a personal thing and uh . . . I would rather not have anyone read it unless I have to.”
“Ah, so he left you a note. That explains why you haven’t been able to sleep. More than friends, eh?”
She opened her mouth as if to refute what he was saying, but no words came out.
Locksher chuckled. “Well hopefully we won’t need it. But I will warn you that it could be a critical piece of evidence. If that’s the case, the whole council will have to read it.”
He ignored the look of horror on her face and continued, “So we know that Piledon was killed in this room and his body was taken out through the door . . . Say, did anyone think of the possibility that this could all be an elaborate prank on Piledon’s part?” He smiled and shook his head at the idea. “Can’t you imagine him doing it? Justan leaves in the night and he takes the opportunity to stage his own death. It would be just like him wouldn’t it? He could be hiding in a friend’s room somewhere laughing about this right now.”
“That’s not funny,” she said. To his surprise, there was sadness in her eyes.
The smile faded from his face. “You are right.”
With her reminder, the thought of Piledon somewhere laughing about the whole thing reminded him of the way the kid seemed to find humor in every situation. He pictured the smile that always seemed to be plastered on the cadet’s face and the investigation seemed a bit more personal. Annoying as he was, Piledon had been full of life. This case was about more than just proving Justan innocent.
“Forgive me, Vannya. Sometimes I get carried away.” He cleared his throat. “Now where have they searched for the body?”
“The gardens, the storage building, the dormitories . . . Wizard Randolph supposedly even left his body in spirit form and searched around outside of the school.”
“Really? How brave of him,” Locksher said. Leaving one’s body was one of the most risky tricks a wizard could use. It could leave him completely vulnerable to attack. “Alright then, let’s conduct a search of our own, don’t you think?”
Locksher put the pipe and glasses away and exited the room. He left the cadet dormitories and headed towards the center of the school, Vannya walking beside him.
“So where do we start looking?” she asked.
“Well, we aren’t going to start now. I have some sniffing around to do and then I have some announcements to make, then I have that meeting with the council this evening . . . Vannya, why don’t you go back to your studies for now. Meet me at my rooms first thing in the morning.” He started to walk away, but stopped. “By the way, if you want to tag along with me tomorrow, you had better get some sleep tonight. Go to bed early. I don’t care if you have to ask your roommate to cast a sleep spell on you.”
“Yes, sir.” She looked a bit disappointed.
“Don’t worry, Vannya. If my plans work out, we should have this thing cleared up before the council meets again tomorrow night.”
Chapter Four
The next morning Vannya was at the wizard’s door first thing after breakfast. She had taken his advice and went to bed early the night before. She felt good for the first time since Justan had left. Finally she was doing something instead of standing around and waiting.
Locksher met her at the door. “Good morning. Let’s get going, then.”
He thrust a small notebook and a small metal rod into her hands and headed towards the stairs. Vannya stared at the rod a bit before she followed. It was smooth and cylindrical with a wooden cap on one end. She ran to catch up to him.
“What is this?” she asked, holding out the rod.
“That, Vannya, is an ink cylinder. They are the new big thing at the gnomish library in Olivera. I brought back a pile of them. That little metal cylinder is filled with ink. What you do is take the wooden cap off
and there is a tiny brush coming out of the end that always stays wet with ink. It is an ingenious device. No quills or inkwells or anything. Just make sure you put the cap back on, I ruined a set of robes on the way back just tossing one in my pocket.”
She smiled with delight at the little invention. “So why did you give it to me?”
“I want you to take notes. I am a professor after all and since you’re a student, we are going to turn this investigation into a learning experience. Pay attention to every detail and we will see if you figure out who the murderer is before I reveal it at the council meeting tonight.”
Hunt of the Bandham (The Bowl of Souls: Book Three) Page 4
