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Challenging Fenin had not gone as planned. Not in the least. Linna clutched her satchel to her chest and glanced over at Lem, who had gone pink from fury. They were sitting in the snow on the road a fair distance away from the manor, whence they had been expelled with a vehemence a few minutes prior.
“He’s a liar,” snarled Lem, glowering in the manor’s general direction. “If we have the report, he can’t have it. What is he playing at?”
“Maybe he has a copy,” Linna offered uncertainly, “Or what we have is a copy...”
“How legitimate was your source, Professor?” There was that, too. How reliable was Esmine? She sighed.
“Legitimate enough. I have confirmation that he was in the manor and took the papers, but not whether or not there are other ones. Or if there were any other trespassers, for that matter.” Lem grimaced.
“If you’d let me interrogate–” He turned to her, a pleading note in his voice. She would have agreed, but Esmine was a child, and her student, Demon of Haz Gate or not. She folded her arms.
“He requested to remain anonymous. Please, Peacekeeper...” Lem waved a hand distractedly.
“... You don’t need to be so formal with me. Fenin will get his hands on the mayor and I’ll be out of a job...”
“Oh, he wouldn’t dare!” Linna puffed up to her full height of a little over a meter and a half, brushing snowflakes out of her fluffy, pale-lilac hair. “His job is to lead this town, not be lapdog to some Panseyan bastards who–”
“Professor, that sounds dangerously like treason.” Lem’s tone was one of mixed amusement and concern. She frowned. Treason and treason, again and again. Treason was for Pansey and the big port cities, not for places like Haz. And yet she had a stolen Imperial document in her bag and the memory of a lanky Southerner with a formal manner which veiled threats, and there was a Councilman with his throat slit, and there was no way to deny any of it.
“The Rot on treason,” she muttered. “And honestly, you don’t need to be formal either. The name’s Linna.”
“... Call me Karz, in that case.” She nodded, and just like that they were partners. She just hoped she wouldn’t have to cover for any further crimes. All they had to do was hold out until the Inspector came, even if they couldn’t solve the case themselves.
..................
Safely out of Professor Nyx’s field of vision as of ten seconds prior, Esmine kicked the tree hard enough to make it drop a branchload of snow onto him, and then rounded on the branch with an angry snarl. It was significantly beyond his reach, which only served to annoy him further. He made a futile grab for it, then slumped against the tree, dark brown eyes narrow and darker than usual, thin lips drawn back from his teeth in an expression of disgust. Bel glanced hesitantly at his left foot, his lips trembling.
“No, I’m fine,” Esmine managed through gritted teeth. “I’m fine. Don’t cry about it.”
“... Professor is sad,” the lilac-eyed boy murmured. “Professor is sad and you are angry.” The sentence ended in an unhappy whimper. Esmine shut his eyes and composed himself. When he opened them again they were gleaming, and his voice was back to its monotone.
“We can make Professor Nyx happy again, though. Did you know that?” Bel tilted his head uncertainly and stayed silent. “We can. We just need to find out if Fenin is telling the truth. If he is, we’ll be able to find the other set. If not, we’ll prove he’s lying. It’s simple.”
“... It’s simple...” Bel echoed softly. “Esmine... we can fix the thing?”
“Precisely. Now come on. You like adventures, don’t you?” Esmine, hands in his pockets, turned back towards Fenin manor. “Let’s go on an adventure, Bel.” The daintier boy climbed to his feet and followed him, clinging to Esmine’s sleeve with one snowy-white hand.
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The door was locked, not unexpectedly, so Esmine set about tossing pebbles at a second-story window until Riccio opened it. The last pebble bounced off of his forehead, making him yelp. Bel winced. Esmine smirked.
“You two? What’s going on? Do we have school again?” Riccio leaned bodily out of the window, the whirling snowflakes catching in his curly brown hair.
“No. Let us indoors, we need to be Inspectors again.”
“Oh, alright...” Riccio vanished from the window, and a few minutes later opened the side door for them. “Did something happen?”
“Somewhat,” Esmine admitted. Riccio’s indigo eyes widened, but he didn’t ask for clarification. “We need to get upstairs again. I must have missed something the first time.”
“... The thing was hiding, maybe?” offered Bel in a show of solidarity. Riccio failed to suppress a snort of laughter at the sentiment, and started up the stairs again.
“Come on, then. Wouldn’t want the paper to run away, huh?” Esmine glared at him, brushing snow off of his coat, and was about to answer when they heard heavy footsteps on the stairs. Riccio froze, startled, and Esmine made a clumsy gesture towards the door, when suddenly Fenin’s deep voice rang out, laced with poorly- restrained rage.
“I’m sure nothing will run away from anyone today.” The man coming down the stairs was huge. Perhaps he wasn’t huge for a Southerner, but in Haz he towered over the locals, and he certainly towered over his ten-year-old charge and the boy’s classmates.
Regardless, he was tall and heavyset, with deep blue eyes and carefully trimmed full beard. That was as much as Esmine waited to process before he bolted to the door, wrenched it open, and shoved Bel through it, fully intending to follow suit immediately. A strong hand caught the back of his coat collar and hauled him backwards. Not for the first time that day, Esmine lashed out viciously, and this time he managed to kick the object of his anger.
“Demon brat!” Fenin loosened his grip for a moment, and Esmine wrenched himself free and tried to dodge around the man, who took a swing in his general direction. Riccio tried to intervene, and his uncle’s fist narrowly missed his head. The next instant, Esmine was pointing a knife at the man.
“Don’t– Do not act to harm your family,” Esmine said, dark eyes looking almost black. Fenin glowered at him.
“Do not pull a weapon on the master of the house,” was his response. Silently, Esmine handed the knife to Riccio.
“Do not threaten a child,” Esmine added over his shoulder as he walked out the still-open door. Behind him, Riccio hastily stashed the knife in his pants pocket and fled up the stairs.
..................
Riccio fled up the stairs in a panic. He had seen his uncle angry before, but never like this. And now his friend was in trouble too; he’d have to apologize to Esmine later, though he didn’t really want to face the other boy. Tomorrow, then. He’d settle everything tomorrow.
As he turned down the hallway toward his room, however, Riccio slowed down, closing one hand around the knife in his pocket. The cold wind whipped around him, sending small snowdrifts and torn scraps of paper scattering the length of the hall, and the door to his uncle’s office swung on its hinges. A particularly strong blast of icy wind slammed the door shut loudly, and Riccio stumbled back with a yelp.
“Uncle! Uncle, something’s wrong!” His uncle reached the top of the stairs with remarkable speed, and stood there, surveying the scene with a look of disgust on his face.
“... Of course. That fool of a boy was only a distraction.” He stormed towards the office. Behind them, the manor’s two servants hastily joined them at the top of the stairs. “Riccio, go to your room. The thief may still be in here somewhere.”
Riccio obeyed shakily, and soon was sitting on his bed, wrapped in all of his blankets, still clutching Esmine’s knife. There was a thief in the manor. Or there had been. Regardless, someone had broken into the manor, and had wanted to steal something. He wondered if this stranger had been after Esmine’s precious thing as well. If that was the case, what was this precious thing that was causing so many problems? It made his head hu
rt to think about it, so he resolved to ask Professor Nyx about it as soon as he could. With that thought in mind, he set about gathering his outdoor clothes.
..................
Haz Gate was a small town. It took a rather short time for an alarm raised at the manor to reach the main square, and the fact that it was, in this case, directly preceded by a terrified, snow-covered, and rather bruised Bel meant Linna Nyx was the first person to find out. The boy clung to the front of her coat, shaking and whimpering as she stroked his fluffy, nearly dead-white hair.
“Bel, my dear. What happened?” She hadn’t really expected an answer. The boy didn’t usually talk, so she usually made do with educated guesses.
“...Esmine’s in trouble.” The fact that he had answered was progress. The fact that Esmine was in trouble was not. The fact that he was dragging Bel into trouble with him was the opposite of progress. Linna drew the boy closer to her protectively.
“Do you know where he is?”
“... Manor. He went to make Professor happy again.” Oh. Oh, that was bad. She felt a stab of anger. So much would be easier if Esmine didn’t meddle. At this point she couldn’t even vouch for his intentions. Bel made a high-pitched noise that made her head hurt, and she shushed him gently and led him back towards her house. It wouldn’t be the first time that the boy had slept there.
She had barely managed to detach Bel from her person and deposit him, safe and wrapped in a spare coat and a quilt, on her couch when she saw the figure skulking around at the window. Esmine. She started to formulate a plan.
If nothing else, Esmine was as predictable as a child should have been. He entered when she opened the door, and followed her into a side room in his usual silent manner.
“What did you do?”
“I was looking for the thing I had missed. I was caught. That is all.” His answer was precise and cool, but his face was drawn into a vaguely angry expression that used too many teeth. Linna’s stomach turned. Not progress. Regression.
“Bel is hurt, and the entire town is calling you a thief and a killer.”
“...Again,” he added, with a smirk. That did it. Linna moved more quickly than she thought she could as she stepped out of the room and started to shut the door.
“You are going to stay in there tonight. Do not argue with me, and do not try to escape.” She caught a brief glimpse of his eyes, blank and black but wide with surprise as she bolted the door with a vehement gesture.
..................
Riccio Fenin pulled his hat tighter over his ears. He hadn’t lived in Haz Gate for very long, but he was starting to be able to tell when the weather was changing. The wind was howling through the mountains and stirring up snowdrifts, while heavy clouds blotted out the the entirety of the sky and the highest peaks of Mount Yad and Mount Tila. This was the beginning of a storm. Even the familiar route from the manor to the school and Professor Nyx’s house looked almost foreboding, and every snowflake seemed to cast a huge, monstrous shadow. He wondered where Esmine was. The strange boy knew all about the monsters that could lurk in the darkness in Haz.
He turned a corner carefully, and spotted something moving on the otherwise empty road. For a brief moment, his mind swarmed with warnings and pictures of demons and bipedal beasts, but the next minute the dark silhouette raised a hand in greeting. Human. Lanky, but human. Also carrying a lantern, which explained the odd shape. A flicker of light illuminated the area.
“Hello, stranger-gent,” drawled Riccio, putting on his best attempt at a Hazi accent. He wasn’t sure why he didn’t want to be recognized. The stranger didn’t question it.
“Evening, my boy. Where are you going in such weather?” His accent was harder to place. Riccio decided to ignore that too.
“To see my teacher,” he replied warily, then gestured at his bag. “I’m bringing her a present.” The tall man laughed.
“Such a goodhearted young adventurer! But it’s getting dark quickly. You will lose your way.”
“No I won’t! I walk here every day!” The man laughed again.
“I am sure. Well then, escort an old man to the town square, would you? That is the same way...” He didn’t look all that old, just tall. His long hair was reddish-brown and his eyes were bright in his copper-colored face. Maybe the same age as Riccio’s father and uncles.
“Fine. Come on. We don’t want to catch the storm.” They trekked on in the small circle of light, Riccio occasionally shooting glances over his shoulder at the stranger, who was looking around with his gleaming eyes.
“My, this storm shall cause a lot of trouble for some, shall it not?” He had dropped back into a proper Panseyian accent. Riccio thought the man would fit right in in the capital.
“Like who?”
“Have you ever seen frost caught on a spiderweb, child? A trap entrapped? It is a most fascinating spectacle.” Riccio had literally no idea what that meant, but it certainly sounded dramatic.
“I have not...?” A spindly hand dropped on his head for a moment, and Riccio tensed.
“I suppose not. You are too young...” The man’s hand dropped to his side. “I do believe that is your destination up ahead. Be mindful, and do tell the good professor that Elias Tenri sends his regards, hm?” Riccio hadn’t been so glad to flee a perfectly respectable conversation in years, and stirred up a series of small tornados in his wake as he ran to the schoolhouse, aware of Elias Tenri’s bright eyes following him.
..................
The schoolhouse door was locked. Riccio considered knocking, but thought better of it. Professor Nyx was probably sleeping at home anyway, so he turned his attention to the little house next door, which was also, alas, locked.
He wandered around it cautiously, safely out of view of anyone on the road, and eventually found an unlatched window. It took twenty minutes and falling out of a tree twice, but eventually Riccio made it inside. The room was dark and silent except for the soft sound of someone breathing, but Riccio didn’t think too hard about that. There was a tiny figure wrapped in blankets on an armchair, so he curled up on the couch.
Everything would be fine. He’d see Professor Nyx in the morning and she would figure everything out. With that comforting thought, Riccio drifted off to sleep as outside, the night turned almost white with quickly falling snow.
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Eight-year-old Selette Besari wasn’t scared of very many things. She knew that sometimes her brother didn’t come home, and that it was best not to ask questions about it. She knew that people died, and sometimes they died when and where they weren’t supposed to, but she also knew the entirety of the Peacekeepers’ Creed and the names and faces of all the Peacekeepers in Haz Gate. She knew all the old methods of predicting the weather, and how to survive in a storm. All in all, she knew she shouldn’t have been worried when her brother didn’t come home before the storm started. She had no reason to be staring out the window into the practically opaque night, hugging her doll and waiting.
On the street below, a shadowy figure passed by, bent against the wind. An adult, certainly. Too tall and too clumsy to be Esmine. As she watched, the shadow was met by another, and they walked together. Were they friends? Selette wished she could see their faces. A particularly fierce gust of wind turned her whole view white for a moment, and by the time she could see them again the shadows were almost too far away to make out. The taller one bent towards the shorter, and Selette strained her eyes to see, but another gust obscured them from view permanently.
She didn’t sleep for a very long time that night, and when she did she was still curled up against the window, her doll tucked under her chin and her hair half undone from its usual pigtails.
CHAPTER FOUR
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THERE WAS SOMETHING ODD IN the air. Morning had dispersed the worst of the storm, but snowflakes still streamed past the windows. Inside Linna’s house, Riccio Fenin sat morosely at her kitchen table, chewing on a slice of the thick dark
bread that was common north of the Yebel and pouting. He had told her some incoherent story about thieves in his uncle’s study and Esmine not being to blame for anything, and Linna had promised to look into it, but clearly that had not been enough. Bel had refused to leave his armchair, even though she had fully planned on his sleeping on a couch, and was also refusing to eat. At least Esmine was still where she had left him, even though he had taken to growling at the door. It had been rather a long time since he had last actively growled at her.
“Professor...?” Riccio asked finally, not looking at her. She wondered what was bothering the boy this time.
“Yes? What is it?”
“... I met Elias Tenri on the road.” Oh. That was undoubtably a legitimate thing to be unnerved by.
“Did he have anything to say?” The boy shook his head slowly in response.
“... Something about spiders and frost. I didn’t understand him.” Well, that was hardly a surprise, really. Linna wasn’t sure she understood half of Dr. Tenri’s metaphors either, and she was an educated adult.
“It’s probably for the best,” she replied firmly, and got up with intention of trying to force some food into Bel one way or another, when there was a sudden knock at the front door. Riccio started, then ducked behind the nearest thing that was larger than him. Bel peered uncertainly over the back of the armchair. Linna fought the urge to answer the door with the nearest sharp object in hand.
“Linna! There’s been another murder!” Karz Lem stood in the doorway, eyes wide and worried. It took Linna altogether too long to process his words.
“Another murder...? Who? What happened?” It felt surreal. Who would kill two people in Haz Gate? Who would bother getting murdered in Haz Gate, even? Riccio had followed her to the doorway and evidently had heard the Peacekeeper’s announcement as well.
In the Snows of Haz Page 3
