Drakenfeld

by Mark Charan Newton

  ‘I have seen no evidence of criminality on his part,’ I finished.

  ‘That’s because he’s in awe of you,’ Veron laughed. ‘It must be rather lovely to be envied.’

  ‘I don’t see how – I don’t see why.’

  ‘It’s rather simple. Not only are you an officer of the Sun Chamber – a station which even the most honest of them could only ever dream of obtaining – but you’re also a Drakenfeld. Your father did more to help this city than any of those cohorts combined will achieve. His name carries prestige, and you carry that same name.’

  Wearing an eye mask, a girl danced slowly on stage, rather near us, moving her arms through the air as if she was swimming deep underwater. It was an utterly enchanting move, but seemed to be technically brilliant as well.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Veron continued, ‘his name must be a lot for you to live up to.’

  ‘Only in Tryum.’

  ‘You’re working on a case that is the talk of Tryum, at least. And speaking of the talk of Tryum . . .’ He leaned in a little closer. ‘It seems our glorious General Maxant will be entering the political arena very soon.’

  ‘He seeks a place in the Senate?’ I replied.

  Veron nodded. ‘With Lacanta gone, the king will need a new figure to help him influence senators, someone with a bit of presence in the absence of Lacanta’s skills behind the scenes.’

  ‘He doesn’t strike me as a man of politics.’

  ‘It’s the only way for him to go. The people are fond of him. He has significant financial resources at his disposal now. He’ll do well. The king is going to have him by his side at the Stadium of Lentus in a couple of days’ time – you’re welcome to accompany me to that, by the way. In fact, I insist.’

  ‘I’d be delighted to do so, thank you. I haven’t seen one of those races in years. Are they still as brutal as they used to be?’

  ‘A little more so now the rules have been relaxed even further. Perhaps they’re the perfect way to honour a general who has been away on a brutal campaign for years, though I believe it will also feature a funeral speech in honour of Lacanta. You’ll want to attend for that reason alone, no doubt. But before this, Maxant will be making a speech tomorrow afternoon.’

  ‘To the Senate?’

  ‘No, to the people,’ Veron said. ‘His streets are going to be in one of the lower regions of the city – possibly Vellyum – to help the king establish even more popularity with the poor.’

  A cynical move, but perhaps good tactics on behalf of Licintius. ‘I may wish to hear what our victorious general has to say for himself on political matters.’

  ‘I thought you might,’ Veron replied, but he wasn’t looking at me – he regarded the women on stage.

  My gaze followed his. Of the three women who were now dancing, I thought I recognized one of them – it was the woman I saw walking by my house recently, the one who’d strolled straight out of my past.

  Initially it was only because of a scar on her back that I recognized her, but then her movements and the shape of her limbs confirmed who it was. Watching a little more attentively, I could hardly believe who I was seeing. She wore a green eye mask, and a green wrap of cloth around her breasts and waist, and I was absolutely certain it was her.

  Titiana.

  I watched her dance right in front of me, her face tilted away as part of the routine, but soon she came within touching distance. Her bronzed legs were almost precisely as I remembered, as was the rest of her lithe body, currently arching back over. When she rose to the top of her pose with her dark hair spiralling down, she looked right at me – and froze.

  The music continued, but she didn’t move for several heartbeats.

  We continued staring at each other and she realized she had lost her place, falling far behind the other women. Her dark eyes were just as incredible as I remembered; they possessed an intensity that made me feel guilty just for looking at her. She tried to compose herself and rejoin the others, soon hiding the fact that she had ever been out of rhythm in the first place.

  The song finished, the music stopped and the woman I was convinced was Titiana turned to escape behind the stage and out of the back of the room. I leapt up and tried to pursue her, but two hefty-looking men wearing short daggers intercepted me. No one wanted a scene here. I heard Veron muttering something to me, but all I could do was babble that I’d be back shortly.

  Where was the damn exit? I ran past all the guests towards the entrance, and back outside. The streets were cool, thronging with the energy of night and all that might entail for the people of Tryum. I hurried around the side of the building into one of the alleyways, just as the back door to the bar opened up – and that was where I dashed.

  ‘Titiana.’

  She slammed the door, breathless, and slowly turned to face me. No longer wearing her mask, I knew for certain it was her and no other.

  In a rapid move, Titiana slapped me across my right cheek.

  That really hurt.

  ‘I probably deserved that,’ I breathed.

  Her face was heavily made up for the stage, and I wished she would wash it all away to reveal who she was. She moved to strike me again; I caught her wrist this time. Titiana moved her other hand and I grabbed that, too. ‘I heard you were back, you bastard.’

  ‘You can’t still feel such hatred for me?’ I asked, exasperated.

  ‘I can – and I do,’ she replied.

  Whether she pulled me or I pushed her gently back against the door, it was impossible to tell, but it was certainly mutual. Her lips moved to within inches of mine, and we just remained there, knowing exactly what to do, but uncertain of the consequences.

  Titiana shoved me back and said, ‘We can’t. Not again. I’m a married woman now – a lady of Tryum.’

  ‘You were the last time,’ I replied. ‘Or at the very least, you were on your way to being one.’

  ‘It’s different now. And you can’t tell anyone you know me.’ No longer could she focus on my face. Instead her attention was taken by anything either side of me, anything other than me.

  Our foreheads touched gently. ‘I’ll not breathe a word of it. Why would I want to share this good secret? I’ll happily come back and pay double for private dances. Triple even.’

  ‘I didn’t think the Drakenfelds were the type to come to such places.’

  ‘Admittedly this isn’t my usual night out. It was Senator Veron who brought me here. For a moment I was worried he was going to drag me into a brothel.’

  ‘I’ve heard about him,’ she replied. ‘The senator who spends more time at dinner parties than engaged in Senate business. He comes here a lot.’ She paused for a moment, her anger gradually diffusing. ‘So what are you doing back in Tryum? I thought you’d gone for good.’

  ‘I came to attend my father’s funeral,’ I said.

  Titiana’s expression grew sorrowful and for a moment she seemed lost for words. ‘I’m very sorry for your loss. I heard he had passed away. He was a good man. But how long have you been back?’

  ‘Only a few days. I’ve since been attached to the Lacanta murder.’

  ‘Really?’ Her awe came and went like a puff of wind. ‘So, you’re still with the Sun Chamber . . .’

  There was a bitterness in her voice. Conscious she was hardly wearing anything, I took off my cloak and put it around her.

  ‘We should not be here, Lucan. What if somebody sees us?’

  ‘This is one of the least suspicious acts in the vicinity of this tavern. What if someone saw you in there?’

  ‘I take such a risk each night.’

  ‘Why do you need to work here?’

  ‘Because of the money. It pays well and there isn’t as much danger as you’d think. I’m an attractive woman and all I have to do is dance and occasionally speak pleasant words to gullible but rich old men. There’s nothing else involved – people go down-city for more.’

  ‘I know the types that come to these places. You’re a smart wom
an – you could be doing something safer for the money.’

  ‘I could have, but not after what you did.’

  The guilt hit home, but I tried to ward it away in my mind with the logic that ultimately she was the one who had broken the law. ‘Let me take you out for something to eat tomorrow. I want to speak to you more. That’s all I want. Simply to talk.’

  ‘Then what?’ Titiana snapped. ‘Sleep with me until you’re satisfied, and leave me in the middle of the night?’

  ‘You know that’s not what I would ever intend to do, and if I did when I was young, that was because it was mutual, and we didn’t want anyone to find us together.’

  We said nothing for a while, though it wasn’t awkward and didn’t seem to matter. The contours of her face seemed so familiar, which in itself was a strange sensation.

  ‘I must go,’ she whispered eventually.

  ‘Tomorrow. You know my old house?’

  ‘I can’t exactly forget it,’ she replied.

  ‘You’ll come then?’ I asked. ‘Tomorrow evening, at sunset.’

  ‘OK.’ Titiana opened the door behind her. ‘But I really must go.’

  With that she disappeared back inside the tavern, closing the door behind her.

  Veron was standing outside waiting for me, his hands in his pockets, and he was grinning like a child who had just discovered the taste of sugar.

  ‘So,’ he declared, ‘finally there is a woman who gets the blood pumping through the veins of Lucan Drakenfeld. And a dancer, too! Now I’m jealous. You know, I was starting to think you possessed the libido of a statue.’

  ‘You’re going to want to know who she is, aren’t you?’

  ‘I am.’

  ‘I thought you might,’ I replied. I looked up and down the street, and it was busy with evening activity. ‘Let’s go back to mine – it will be a lot quieter there.’

  ‘As long as there is wine to go with this story of yours, I do not mind.’

  Nostalgia

  In the calm sanctuary of my garden, we sat on the edge of the fountain, regarding the shadows beyond the regularly spaced columns. Leana had gone out for the evening, and Bellona decided she would light some cressets and candles on our behalf. Despite saying that we didn’t mind the darkness, she was terribly keen to impress our visitor.

  Class divisions weren’t that noticeable during my time in Venyn, but in Tryum I felt guilty every time I spoke with Bellona. For many, to see a senator, king or queen could seem like walking with gods. It wasn’t right, it was something which even Polla had disapproved of, but how could an entire culture be changed?

  We settled in. I gathered my thoughts.

  Senator Veron reached down to scoop up the cup of wine by his feet and, once he’d taken a couple of gulps, he motioned for me to tell the story, as if I had become his entertainment for the evening. ‘When you’re ready, Drakenfeld.’

  My mind travelled back all those years, to simpler times, when all I cared about was my studies, listening to a good tune played on a lyre and feeling the body of one girl in particular against my own.

  ‘Everything I know about love I learned from Titiana,’ I began.

  ‘Just the one teacher?’ Veron smiled.

  ‘I was twenty summers old, and she was seventeen. I’d completed my third year of training for the Sun Chamber that very year and was shadowing my father on some of his minor work, when our paths crossed at a festival celebration. She was the daughter of a cleric who worked under Licintius’ father, and came from a reasonably well-to-do family. Her father made the mistake of being caught in private discussions with a non-royalist faction of the Senate, and found himself booted out. That meant Titiana and her family were soon fighting for their status. So her father lined up Titiana for marriage to the son of a senator.

  ‘That didn’t stop our affair, however. Perhaps I hoped we could be something more, but that was not for us to say – that was for our mothers and fathers to decide. My mother might not have minded had she been alive. She was from Locco, near the deserts, and attitudes on sexuality were more relaxed there. If you loved someone, you could choose to marry them, as strange as it sounds. Anyway, the life of someone attached to an official of the Sun Chamber is not always a happy one given our often constant movement about the continent. Our passions were confined to sudden, discreet moments, wherever we could find them. We knew it was wrong.’

  ‘That often makes it all the more interesting,’ Veron commented.

  ‘I don’t know what it was about her that appealed so much. There were so many qualities. Perhaps it was her stubbornness, a wish to be her own person, a refreshing change for the families of this city. Perhaps it was the way we could converse about the great poets of the past, as well as speculate on the meaning behind the stars. Perhaps it was—’

  ‘The fact that she possessed the beauty and body of a goddess?’ Veron interrupted.

  I smiled. It was some effort to pretend I was above all that, but that would have meant lying to myself. ‘You never got to see her eyes. Such big oval eyes. You’d think they were the colour of chestnuts at first, but there were so many shades beyond. I could stare at them all day and never reach the other end.’

  ‘My gaze didn’t get that far,’ Veron replied.

  ‘So there we were,’ I continued, ‘two young lovers of Tryum doing the things that young lovers do.’

  ‘And what happened to this great passion?’ Veron asked. ‘She was betrothed to someone else and that was that? You left the city, jaded, never to return?’

  ‘Not quite,’ I replied, and sipped my cup of wine.

  ‘Well, what else could it have been?’ Veron laughed. ‘You didn’t arrest her, did you?’

  I said nothing.

  ‘You did arrest her.’ Veron clutched my arm with excitement. ‘By Trymus’ tomb, you’re certainly efficient, Lucan Drakenfeld, I’ll give you that much.’ He sat back still chuckling to himself. ‘I can’t believe you’d do that to your own lover.’

  ‘No, it wasn’t like that,’ I protested. ‘Not quite anyway. Let me explain. Her family was starting to suffer and they were losing money. Titiana and her sister took it upon themselves to make money for the family funds. Her sister took to sleeping with senators and selling their gifts, while Titiana stole from well-to-do houses, family connections and so on. I caught her with jewellery she’d taken from a lady in Tradum and she confessed everything. I didn’t have the money to help her, since all I had was an allowance from my father. I didn’t know what to do. So foolishly I turned to my father for help, hoping he could lend me the money and . . .’

  ‘Did he not help?’

  I snorted a laugh. ‘He informed the Civil Cohorts, who later arrested her, took her confession and let due process take its course. What surprised me was that the lady whose jewels Titiana had stolen actually decided to go ahead and prosecute her, rather than forgive her, despite my efforts at reasoning with the old bag.’

  ‘Well, she was fully entitled to do so,’ Veron observed.

  ‘Though I didn’t think she would to a young woman whose family had fallen on hard times.’

  ‘And her punishment came shortly after?’ He seemed to enjoy this story, thriving on a bad story that had happened long enough ago for him to bother with sympathy.

  ‘She was to be whipped in public. It was not as brutal as it could have been, thank the gods, but it was enough. I tried to help out, once justice had been administered, but understandably she wanted nothing more to do with me. The last time I saw her, she ripped off her dress in public and showed me the wound on her back, which was so raw. She told me that I had done that to her.’

  ‘Nonsense,’ Veron said. ‘She brought it on herself.’

  It was my father’s fault, I told myself, though in my darker hours I felt the blame ultimately belonged with me. ‘At the time, Titiana was not in the mood to discuss the technicalities, which was perfectly understandable. We never spoke again. Shortly after that I decided that there was not
hing left for me in Tryum so I ventured across Vispasia.’

  ‘To forget about a woman,’ Veron added.

  ‘Not entirely, but she was a large part of that decision to leave. There was nothing here for me other than the shadow of my father and a woman who wished me dead.’

  Veron clapped me on the arm. ‘I guess that explains why you’re in no hurry to find a wife. It’s a fine story, Drakenfeld.’

  ‘And I wish none of it was true,’ I sighed.

  Politics

  We talked a little more about love, something that Veron and I both admitted was a distant memory. People did not marry for love in Detrata, not unless it was coincidence or the gods smiling upon them. Marriage was to bind families and their businesses, to bring stability where there was none. A happy, loving union could develop from time to time, of course, but generally with luck a good partnership could be formed and a strong bond forged between families. It was, Veron confessed, how he and his own wife had been paired up.

  Deciding to change the topic I asked for more details about Lacanta’s dealings with the Senate. Veron mentioned again the king’s desire to influence senators, and that Lacanta was his only effective method of persuading others.

  This bold, political Lacanta was the one who everyone knew, but it couldn’t have been the whole picture. Next I intended to explore the Senate, just in case Lacanta’s actions there had caused bitterness to rise up against her. Could she have delved too far into the dealings of others to warrant being killed?

  ‘Lacanta’s murder,’ I continued, ‘has so far taken me to the lowest regions of Tryum, but that doesn’t feel right. Most murders tend to happen between people who know each other, people of the same class – such as political rivals. Unless Lacanta regularly cavorted with the poor, I feel I’ve been looking in the wrong place. My investigation ought to focus up-city.’