Imager's Intrigue: The Third Book of the Imager Portfolio

by Modesitt, L. E. , Jr.

  “Just one, sir.”

  That was about what I’d expected, because elvers tended to come into coin near the end of the week, either through casual labor or from pilfering money from those with whom they lived and who were generally paid on Vendrei.

  At that moment, Zylpher, one of the junior patrollers in Third District, rushed through the door. “Captain! There’s been another explosion! This one was in the Banque D’Excelsis, the one on the Midroad just south of Plaza D’Este. Khallyn had me take a hack. It’s waiting outside.”

  That branch of the Banque D’Excelsis was in Third District, if barely, and that meant I’d need to look into it, and in a hurry. “Lyonyt, send a messenger to headquarters and have them send an explosives expert to the banque. Also, tell the lieutenant that’s where I’ll be.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  I hurried back out through the door I’d entered moments before, followed by Zylpher.

  The hacker took us up Elsyor, but with all the congestion near the Plaza we got out a block away, where I hurriedly paid the driver and then half-walked, half-trotted the distance to the banque.

  People had stopped and were looking at the front of the banque. Khallyn and two banque guards had stationed themselves before the entrance to the building. I stopped for a moment to survey the scene. The damage appeared to consist of a set of iron doors bent apart and a great deal of broken and shattered glass scattered everywhere. What I didn’t see were metal fragments or anything like shrapnel or grapeshot.

  As I stood there, a messenger hurried up to me. He wore the orange and black sash of one of the private services. “Sir? Are you Patrol Captain Maitre Rhennthyl?”

  “Yes.”

  He extended an envelope, unsealed. “This is for you, sir.”

  “Can you tell me who sent it?”

  “No, sir. He didn’t give his name. He paid a gold for an anonymous private delivery.” With that, the young messenger was gone.

  I wasn’t sure I wanted to open the envelope, thin as it was, but I eased shields around it as I slipped out the single sheet. The lines were written so perfectly they might have been engraved.

  The explosion was to get your attention…and that of your superiors. Ask the banque’s director about the missing funds in the account of the Portraiture Guild and about the recent drowning of a clerk and the accounts he tended. You might also find certain fund transfers of some interest, particularly those sent to Councilor Caartyl from the Banque D’Solis and a smaller amount from the Banque D’Ouestan to a Cydarth D’Patrol.

  Khallyn and Zylpher both looked at me.

  “Some information.” I slipped the envelope into the inside pocket of my tunic. “Zylpher, if you would take Khallyn’s place here?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  When I stepped through the bent doors, followed by Khallyn, another burly guard stepped forward as if to block our way, then took in the uniforms. “Sir…”

  “Patrol Captain Rhennthyl and Patroller Khallyn.” I smiled politely.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I’d like to see the director about this.” I gestured back to the front of the building and the windows that had shattered against their iron bars.

  He didn’t look very happy, but I hadn’t met a guard yet who wanted to turn away a Civic Patrol Captain who also wore the emblem of an imager, although I doubted he knew I was a master imager as well.

  As I stepped past him, a thin man in a blue pinstriped jacket and trousers, with a cravat patterned in silver crescents, stepped forward. His face was dominated by sweeping waxed black mustaches and slightly bulging green eyes. “Officer…everything is in hand here.”

  “Captain, Captain Rhennthyl. Also Master Imager Rhennthyl. Physical violence against an inhabited structure and injuries to inhabitants is a criminal offense, even when it involves the interior premises of a private enterprise.” I smiled politely. “Perhaps you could tell me exactly what happened here. Oh…and you are?”

  “Director Tolsynn. This is my branch.”

  “Good. What happened?”

  “We hadn’t opened for the day. A wagon stopped in front, and two men jumped out and rammed the door ajar. They forced something between the doors and drove off. It exploded. Some of the clerks were cut by splinters and glass, but no one was seriously injured. A few have cuts and scratches.”

  “Did anyone see the men well?”

  “I only saw that they wore dark brown, with hoods. Cheluryn was the closest clerk. And Mhanyn. He was the guard. He was about to unlock the door.”

  “If you’d have them talk to Patroller Khallyn…” I nodded to the dark-eyed patroller. “I’ll need some more details from you.”

  Tolsynn glanced to his left, toward the guard who had wanted to stop us.

  “Khallyn, if you would find out what you can from the guard and the clerk?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  I looked at Tolsynn. “Please continue.”

  “Captain…no one was seriously hurt, and nothing was taken.” He shifted his weight from one foot to another.

  “A bombing that causes damage to a banque and injury to its employees is not trivial,” I said mildly. “It’s also against the law, and enforcing the law and finding the perpetrators—and the reasons for their actions—is the duty of the Patrol.”

  At my mention of reasons, I could sense an increase in tension. “I see you think there might be someone who had a reason to bomb this branch of the bank. Could you tell me who that might be and why?”

  “I cannot. I really don’t know of any reason.”

  I had a good idea that he was lying. “I presume, with your location here, that you handle the accounts of some of the Guilds and factoring associations.”

  “Our client list is privileged, Captain.”

  “I did not ask who your clients were, Director.” I smiled coldly. “I asked if you had clients of that nature.”

  Tolsynn moistened his lips. “It would be logical to assume that.”

  “Would that assumption be wrong?”

  “No, but I shouldn’t say more than that.”

  “Has any client indicated that you needed to take special precautions?”

  “Of course not.” His tone bordered on outrage.

  “There is one other matter that might be related…”

  “Oh?” His tone was close to that of dismissal.

  “The clerk who was recently found drowned.”

  His eyes flickered. “I don’t understand. What does Kearyk have to…What business is that of the Patrol?”

  “It could be that people don’t believe that Kearyk drowned. Not on his own accord, at least. It just might be that drowning was a convenient way to keep matters from being exposed. So-called accidents and suicides do happen that way.”

  “That’s a serious allegation, Captain.”

  I smiled again. “I don’t believe I alleged anything. Bombing a banque is a serious offense. When a bombing occurs following a drowning of a clerk and the Patrol is informed that the two might be connected, we are obliged to pursue the matter.” I waited a moment. “What can you tell me about Kearyk?”

  “He was an account bookkeeper. He’d been with the bank for eight years. Very neat. Very well groomed. Very accurate with his figures. He was very reliable.”

  “Where did he live?”

  “How would I know? He was referred to us by the Grammaire D’Martradon. That was years ago.” Tolsynn looked past me.

  I turned. A squat patroller with a leather case stood just inside the doors. “Excuse me for a moment. We have a few more things to discuss.” I walked over to the patroller with the case.

  “Captain…I’m Chenoyt. You sent for me? With reason, it appears.”

  “I did. We’ve tried to keep people clear, but I’d like you to look all this over and tell us what you can.”

  He nodded.

  “If you don’t need me at the moment…”

  “No, sir.”

  I returned to Tolsynn. “We were
talking about your clerk Kearyk. Would you care to give me your thoughts on his drowning and the disappearance of funds from the account of the Portraiture Guild?”

  Controlled as he was, Tolsynn still twitched. “There’s no problem with the accounts.”

  One of the many things I’d learned over the years was that the world was far smaller than people realized, and that someone always knew someone else. Most times I had to look to find the connections. Once in a while, as now, I already knew. “You know, or perhaps you don’t, that before I became an imager and a patroller, I was a member of the Portraiture Guild. What you probably don’t know is that the head of the Guild is the cousin of a well-known Maitre D’Structure. Now…we can discuss these matters now, or Master Reayalt and Maitre Schorzat can come and discuss them, doubtless with less courtesy.”

  “We’d best go to my study.” Tolsynn didn’t quite sigh, but I could sense the resignation.

  I followed him to a study smaller than mine at Third Station. He did not sit behind the narrow desk, but stood beside it, clearly hoping our talk would not take too long.

  “After Kearyk’s death was reported,” he said after several moments, “I immediately audited the ledgers and the accounts he handled. I didn’t expect anything unusual. That’s just the normal procedure when an employee dies or leaves. It’s to make sure that whoever takes over the accounts starts with a balanced and accurate set of records. The accounts balanced, but…there was a letter from the clerk at the Guild claiming that the account had one hundred golds missing, and with the letter was a listing of withdrawals and deposits. I checked the daily ledgers and found a withdrawal that was not in the list sent by the Guild, but it was the last one of the day, and the hand was different.”

  “Someone entered it later?”

  “Kearyk was the one who closed the daily ledger that Meredi, but the hand wasn’t his.”

  “He could have disguised it.”

  Tolsynn shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

  “That suggests someone had access to more records than that one ledger,” I pointed out.

  “We’ve checked through all the ledgers. We’re not finished, but so far, there seem to be no other discrepancies. We have, of course, returned the hundred golds to the Guild account.”

  “Might I see one of the daily ledgers?” I asked.

  He turned to the case beside the desk and handed a wide ledger to me. While the account book was bound, the binding was secured with brass screws so that pages could be added.

  “Could you show me a page that closes the daily transactions?”

  Tolsynn turned several pages, then pointed. Right below where the last entry was a stamped ornate foil seal pressed into the paper.

  “Who has access to that seal?”

  “I do. So does the head clerk. No one else.”

  “Where is it kept?”

  “In the vault at night. It’s locked in the head clerk’s desk during the day.”

  I nodded. “I may have some more questions for you later, Director.”

  “Do you have any idea…why?”

  “Someone wanted to send a message to the Patrol. I don’t think it has much to do with the banque, but it’s too early to say. I’ll let you know as soon as possible what else we find out.” I stepped back and nodded. “Thank you very much.”

  It was clear enough to me that neither Tolsynn nor the head clerk had anything to do with matters, except as unwitting accomplices, but someone in the banque did, someone who knew the routine, probably poor Kearyk, who had been pressured to switch a single page in the ledger and enter the withdrawal on the Guild account. The entire routine had been designed to call attention to the funds transactions involving Caartyl and Cydarth. The bigger questions were who was behind the gambit and why.

  Once I left Tolsynn, I made my way to Chenoyt, who was closing his leather case. “What have you found out?”

  He lifted the case, then turned to me. “This wasn’t so much a bomb as an explosive. It looks like they used damp guncotton packed in heavy pressed paper with a fuse set to ignite a dry guncotton primer.”

  “They wanted a big explosion but limited damage?”

  Chenoyt nodded.

  “If you’d write that up for me…and headquarters.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Thank you.”

  Before we left, I talked to Khallyn, but he hadn’t discovered that much more than we’d heard when we’d first gotten to the bank. So I left the two patrollers and hailed a hack.

  When I returned to the station, I stopped at the duty desk. “Lyonyt, send an inquiry to the other districts. See if they have any information on a bank clerk by the name of Kearyk D’Cleris. He drowned recently. Send whoever’s on unattached duty to the Grammaire D’Martradon to find out what they can on him. He left school there maybe eight or nine years ago, but they might have records, or someone might remember him.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  I headed to find Alsoran and to brief him. I wouldn’t write up a report for the commander until I got the rounds report from Kallyn and Zylpher and the report from Chenoyt. I’d also decided that I wouldn’t be able to accompany any patrollers.

  By the end of the day shift, I had a written report on the banque explosion and some information on the drowned clerk. The drowning had been reported in District One, because it had taken place in the River Aluse a mille south of the Bridge of Hopes. That was where Kearyk’s body had been found. I decided against talking to the clerk’s family until I had checked with Dichartyn.

  When I picked up Seliora, she looked concerned, but I didn’t ask about what, just helped her and Diestrya to the duty coach and boosted my daughter inside.

  As the coach began the trip to Imagisle, Seliora asked, “What was your day like?”

  “Another elveweed death and another explosion. This one was at the Banque D’Excelsis near Plaza D’Este. We’ll need to talk about that later, and I’ll need to tell Master Dichartyn when we get to Imagisle. What about your day?”

  Seliora’s eyes widened slightly, but she nodded and said, “Odelia didn’t come to work today.”

  “Do you know why?”

  “Even Aunt Aegina doesn’t know. She left to go over to Kolasyn and Odelia’s place just before you came.”

  I did know that, after Kolasyn and Odelia had gotten married, less than six months after Seliora and I had, Odelia had moved to the quarters over the small metal-working shop Kolasyn had inherited from his uncle, for whom he’d been an apprentice. “I hope everything’s all right.”

  “It’s my fault. Yesterday, she was complaining about Haerasyn again. I said that, if he wanted to destroy his life, she and Kolasyn couldn’t do much to stop him. She said that I was cold and hard-hearted, and that she didn’t see how you could stand me.”

  I managed not to swallow. “You didn’t tell me that.”

  “It hurt too much. I wanted to think about it.”

  I put my arm around her. “You were right about Haerasyn. It’s not as though he doesn’t know the dangers. He’s ignoring them, and he’s using Kolasyn’s coins to buy elveweed.”

  “I think Haerasyn’s pilfered coins from Odelia’s wallet, too. That’s from what she’s sort of said at times.”

  “Pilfer…pilfer…” contributed Diestrya.

  “Pilfer means to take from someone,” Seliora said. “You shouldn’t pilfer. It’s not good.”

  Diestrya nodded. “Not good.”

  Once we reached Imagisle, I left Seliora and Diestrya and walked swiftly to and across the quadrangle to the administration building. Dichartyn’s door was closed. I knocked. “Rhennthyl here.”

  Master Dichartyn opened the door.

  I saw a young imager seated before his desk, as I once had been.

  “It’s urgent?” He raised his eyebrows.

  “Relatively. It’s about an explosion at the Banque D’Excelsis.”

  He turned. “Eamyn…we’ll have to cut this short. Read the next section
of the anatomy text and the next chapter in the history.”

  Eamyn rose quickly and scooped up his books. He was around seventeen and had just made tertius. I recalled that, because Dichartyn had asked me to spend several glasses with the young man in the spring, telling him about how the Civic Patrol worked.

  “Sirs,” he said as he left, inclining his head.

  I closed the door and launched into briefing the Collegium’s head of security, a position listed nowhere. When I finished, I waited for the inevitable set of questions.

  Instead, Dichartyn nodded and simply asked, “What do you think?”

  “All I can surmise is that the explosion and the alteration of the ledger were set purposely to establish the credibility of the note I received…and to create enough of a crime to allow me the legal ability to question the branch director.”

  “You didn’t ask about Caartyl or Cydarth?”

  “No. It struck me that a tip about missing funds could have a legal tie to an explosion, enough to warrant questions, but that wouldn’t allow me to look for perfectly legal fund transfers.” I paused. “I mean that the mechanism of the transfer was legal.”

  “I understood what you meant.” Dichartyn nodded. “There are two possibilities. First, someone wanted you to overreach and to embarrass the Collegium and the Patrol. I doubt it, but that is a possibility to be considered. The second is that the plotter wanted to call the Collegium’s attention to Caartyl and yours to Cydarth. Did you enter the note as evidence?”

  “I haven’t yet.” I knew that withholding it was scarcely legal, and that not turning it in represented another possible trap, but so did turning it in, under the circumstances.

  “There’s some danger in that, but I’d agree. Just keep it safe.”

  I nodded. “Could it be an attempt to remove Caartyl from the Council for misfeasance or malfeasance?”

  “Whether it is either would depend on the source of the funds. What if it’s simply an inheritance or the payment of an old debt that someone is trying to characterize as something untoward by linking it to an actual embezzlement?”

  “And what if someone, knowing that Cydarth is not among my most favorite of superiors, is trying to get me to act against him?”