Riddle of Fate

by Tania Johansson

  “When you were waiting at the bell tower.” He grinned at the incredulous look on her face. “I said the Company has never tried to employ me. I didn’t say I don’t have any tricks up my sleeve.”

  “Why did you make me come all the way here? Why not speak to me there and then?”

  He quirked an eyebrow at her. “What do you think your reaction would have been if I walked up to you out there and said: ‘Hello, Merrit has been murdered.’?”

  She sniffed. She would probably have run away from him, but there was no way she was going to admit to that! “I think you would have found me most composed.”

  He grinned and a dimple appeared in his right cheek. Khaya wiped away the smile that had snuck onto her face. She wouldn’t let this man’s charm and good looks distract her. She still didn’t know who he was or if she could trust him. “Well, I guess I have to be on my way then,” she said.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I don’t think I want to say. After all, I don’t know you. I don’t even know your name.”

  “It’s Derrin. And if you are thinking of going home, I would strongly advise against that.”

  “And why is that?”

  “When they find out that Merrit is dead, who do you think they will want to speak to first?”

  She shrugged. “His friends, his family. I don’t have anything to hide anyway.”

  “Merrit didn’t have any family in the area and his circle of friends was limited. Besides, we both know it was most likely the Company who murdered him or arranged the whole thing at the least. We also know why. They will want to find someone to take the blame. In fact, I am sure they committed this deed knowing full well who they would be framing.”

  “You are suggesting that person is me.”

  “Of course.”

  He said it so matter-of-factly. As if he was telling her about the weather.

  He leaned forward in his seat, his elbows resting on his knees. “They need you out of the way, Khaya. They believe you will go crazy – start killing people. They can’t let that happen. They are a secretive organisation and they plan on staying that way. Rather than cleaning up after you, they want to prevent the mess. That’s why Leena and Merrit are dead.” He paused. “And if you let them, you will be next.”

  “Why would they not come after me first?”

  “That I don’t know. Perhaps they were hoping to learn something from you first. Or maybe the plan was to blame you for both murders.”

  She mulled this over. It was possible. And entirely irrelevant at that moment. She scraped her courage together. “I guess that means I’ll be travelling alone then. Thank you for your help, Derrin.” She stood as she said the last.

  “I would advise against that as well.”

  She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “Why?”

  “They will be watching the roads now. They must at least suspect that you will try to flee.”

  She shuddered, feeling trapped.

  “I suggest we book in here for the night and decide in the morning what we will do next.”

  “We?”

  “Yes. Not to sound rude, but it seems to me that you could do with a helping hand. Besides, it would arouse fewer suspicions if we get a room together. Seedy inn as this is.”

  “I'm not sharing a bed with you,” she gasped.

  He put his hands up. “I would never suggest such a thing. I'm a gentleman.” He put his hand over his heart, a lopsided grin showing off his dimple.

  She hesitated. “How do I know I can trust you? Who’s to say you don’t kill me in the middle of the night? Or that you aren’t the one who killed Merrit? For all I know, you could have been sent by the Company. You do seem to know an awful lot.”

  “Believe me, I wouldn't need all this cloak and dagger if I wanted to kill you. You were vulnerable enough standing out there by the bell tower. Silly idea that was,” he added, almost too low for Khaya to catch.

  She nodded once and swept from the room. The innkeeper scampered to stand behind his desk. Had he been listening in? “We’ll have a room, please. One room,” she said, keeping her back straight and chin up. She didn’t want anyone – not even the innkeeper of a seedy inn – to think she was a floozy.

  The innkeeper looked over her shoulder and she followed his gaze to find Derrin’s face blank. He looked at her innocently and she shook her head. The innkeeper led them down the hall, which was dotted with old paintings. Most of them had paint chipping away or corners standing up like dog ears. She grimaced and avoided touching anything.

  The man unlocked a room and left the key in the door for her before shuffling away. Khaya thought she heard him murmur something about ‘strange woman’. She brushed it off as she entered the room. Derrin closed the door behind him. It wasn’t a small room, but suddenly it felt like a closet.

  The bed was pushed up against the walls in the corner of the room. A double bed. She glanced over at Derrin. He'd best not be getting any ideas about sharing the bed. He didn’t seem to take any notice of her glare. He was standing by the window, peering out. “What are you looking for?” she asked.

  “Nothing in particular,” he said. “And anything at all.”

  She snorted. If he was trying to sound mysterious, he was failing. Badly. She looked at the basin under the rickety wash stand. There were two dead flies in it and a brown smear. She didn’t even want to think about what that might be.

  A wash would have been nice, but she thought that would probably be counterproductive in this place.

  He glanced at her over his shoulder. “Go ahead and get into bed. I will be staying up a while longer. Just to make sure you weren’t followed here.”

  And what made him so sure he wasn’t followed, she thought irritably. She swallowed the question and pulled the blankets off the bed. She sniffed at them and grabbed the lamp, holding it low above the bed to inspect the sheets.

  Derrin chuckled. “Will you put that thing down before you set the bed alight?”

  “Hmph,” she said. “Burning down might not be the worst that could happen to this dump.” Satisfied that the bed at least looked decent enough to sleep on, she left the blankets off and curled up on it.

  “Aren’t you going to be cold?”

  “You can use those,” she said. “I’d rather be cold than sleep under those musty things.”

  She furtively glanced at the stranger several times before she finally fell asleep. He hadn’t moved from his post by the window.

  Chapter Ten

  Beautifully Dangerous

  Derrin’s notebook dropped from his hand, thumping to the floor. Khaya bolted upright. He mouthed ‘sorry’ at her and picked it back up. Writing things down always helped him get things straight in his own mind.

  “What do we do now?” Khaya asked.

  “You stay here, out of sight,” he said, slipping his notebook in his pocket and standing up. “I’m going to see what’s happening out there.”

  “You want me to stay holed up in this dirty room? Doing what?”

  He pulled a bag from his pocket. She yelped when something wriggled inside it. “What is that?” she asked.

  “This is what you will be keeping yourself busy with. When I come back, I want you to be able to tell me what's inside the bag. And you’re not allowed to open it.”

  She frowned and her nose wrinkled. “How am I meant to tell you that if I can’t look at it?”

  “You need to master your new ability. I have a feeling that before long, we will have need of it.”

  She eyed the squirming bag dubiously as he walked out.

  Derrin took a few steps down the hall before Leaping to Merrit’s home. He needed to see if it played out the way he thought it would. It frustrated him how slowly humans travelled. Leaping was essential for one in his occupation. If he had to travel by foot or even on horseback to get from one case to the next, countless souls would get lost before he could reach them.

  Men were coming and going from the ho
use. He recognised Peater, Khaya’s supervisor. He was speaking with one of the lawmen. “I’m not sure, sir,” Peater was saying, “as I said before, she seemed troubled yesterday, but when I asked her if anything was the matter, she said not. She left a little late from the library, but I was expecting her in at the usual time today. That’s why when both she and Merrit failed to turn up this morning, I was very concerned.”

  The lawman was scribbling notes down with his quill, a small inkpot dangling from his belt. “What was the relationship like between Miss Pherela and Master Pem?” he asked.

  Peater shrugged. “I think they were on friendly terms. Merrit asked Khaya out with him on several occasions. I think they went out a few times recently, but with different intentions.”

  The lawman nodded, one eyebrow lifting, while scribbling Peater’s answer down. “What do you mean? Master Pem was pursuing Miss Pherela and she was not interested?”

  “I hadn’t thought about it in that light, but I guess that is a possibility.”

  Derrin snorted. Peater was obviously trying to make cast suspicion on Khaya. The lawmen of course had no idea what really went on inside the library, but it seemed the Company was trying to use them to bring her in.

  A crowd had formed and he studied the faces. Brier was there as he’d thought he might be. Interesting. He wasn’t speaking with the lawmen and he was standing in amongst the throng. One of Merrit’s neighbours was making their way over to Brier and Derrin followed, but stopped a short distance away. He wanted to remain within earshot of Peater.

  “Brier,” the man, Derrin thought he was called Jerrem, said, “do you know where Khaya is?”

  Brier had been turning away. He’d seen Jerrem approaching and seemed reluctant to talk to him. A dark scowl clouded his face as he turned back. “Why would I know? If I knew where she was, I would be asking her to speak with the lawmen to clear her name.”

  “What did you tell them?”

  “Who?”

  Jerrem’s eyes narrowed. “The lawmen of course. Surely, they've questioned you. You are in a relationship with her, aren’t you?”

  “No, I haven’t spoken to them. And Khaya and I are friends, nothing more.”

  Jerrem laughed. “There is nothing to hide, Brier. Not in this modern age.”

  “I am telling you,” Brier said, jabbing a finger at Jerrem’s chest, “we are friends.”

  Jerrem’s laughter cut off at Brier’s tone. He held up his hands and said, “Very well. I still think you should speak with the lawmen.”

  “And I think it would be in your best interests to keep your opinions to yourself,” Brier said, his voice carrying a threat, his face cold.

  Jerrem watched after him as he strode away.

  What was going on there? Derrin had never liked Brier, and he had his reasons for it, but he’d been convinced that the man loved Khaya. He wasn’t acting like someone who loved her, though. Or perhaps he thought he would only make things worse if he spoke with the lawmen. Derrin would have to keep a closer eye on him.

  A bald man was having a whispered conversation with Peater. Derrin thought he’d seen him at the library before and sidled closer to hear what they were saying. “…imprint is definitely hers. No doubt about that,” the bald man said.

  “Do you think this means she's gone crazy?”

  “I think that is implied by the dead co-worker, don’t you?”

  “And you're certain that it wasn’t Company orders?” Peater asked.

  “If it was, it was over my head,” he said, his sharp nose wrinkling. “We have to find her. As soon as possible. If she is capable of killing a co-worker, then I'm sure it won’t be long before more bodies turn up.”

  “We'll put a team together. We’ll patrol all roads leaving Arroe. We will find her.”

  The bald man strode away without another word.

  So, if it wasn't the Company setting her up, then who?

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  Derrin found Brier at a tavern not far from Merrit’s home. He did enjoy the predictability of human actions. Brier was sitting alone in the far corner, his back to the wall. He had the hood of his cloak pulled up over his head and his eyes were hidden in shadows. It was clear, though, that he was keeping watch. But, was he waiting for someone or was he afraid someone was coming to look for him?

  For a moment, he thought Brier’s gaze settled on him before scanning the room again. That was impossible. Humans could not see him. He still didn't really understand why Khaya could. It had to be related to what happened all those years ago, but he didn’t understand it any more than he understood why most humans clung to life so.

  Two men entered the tavern. No, not men. There was no mistaking a Collector for a man. Yet, Brier clearly saw them. And stranger still, the Collectors strode over to him – sat down across from him.

  In all the decades that Derrin had been a Collector, he had only once come across a human able to see a Collector, and that was Khaya. And she was different. She was connected to him. Even if she couldn’t remember him.

  Derrin kept his head down. He couldn’t risk the Collectors seeing him. They were too far away for him to hear what was said, but he didn’t need to. This meeting confirmed it. Brier was the human the Order had sent after Khaya. Where did Merrit’s death fit into their plans? It didn’t make sense. Did he kill Merrit? And if he did, to what purpose?

  Derrin slipped out of the tavern before being seen. He walked into a nearby alley before Leaping back to the Orange Tree Inn. Collectors were able to see where a doorway for a Leap had been made – as well as where it led – a good ten minutes after it was made.

  Derrin tapped on the door before walking in. He frowned as he pushed the door open. The room was dark and no lamp had been lit. His stomach became a hard pit of tension as he stepped into the room, not knowing what he would find. A faint burnt smell hung in the air. “Khaya?”

  A whimper.

  “Khaya, are you hurt?” he asked.

  She didn’t answer. He squinted to see her silhouette huddled on the bed, her back leaning against the wall. Derrin lit a lamp.

  Her eyes were red rimmed. She sat staring at him without saying a word. Then he saw it. The bag he’d given her was on the floor. The drawstring was still pulled tight, but there was no longer any movement.

  “What happened?” he asked, knowing – more or less – what the answer was going to be.

  She gave no response apart from her mouth pulling into a tight line. He picked up the bag and pulled it open. He grimaced. “What happened?” he repeated.

  “I did what you asked. I used my cursed ability. Did you know what would happen?”

  “Did I know you would kill it? No, of course not.”

  “It was an accident,” she hissed through clenched teeth.

  “I’m sure it was, Khaya. Do you want to tell me what happened?”

  She swallowed hard and, turning her face away, blinked back tears. She took a moment to compose herself before speaking. “I tried to look inside the bag with my ability. Took me a while before I managed to sense it in there. It was amazing.” A small smile appeared on her lips and she looked up at him. “I could see its little heart beating, the blood rushing from one chamber to the next and through its body. I saw its lungs fill and empty of air.” She fell silent and was staring at the wall as though watching it all again. “Then I found its nerves. Remarkable. Like little lightning bolts shooting from one part of the body to the next. I couldn’t draw my attention away from it. I… I don’t know what happened. One moment I was just watching it, the next –” her voice faltered. “I got so fixated on this display and I wanted to see more of it. The next thing I knew, there wasn’t anything happening at all. Its heart had stopped and its lungs were still. And then I smelled it.

  “It was as though an actual lightning bolt had hit it. I killed it.”

  “I shouldn’t have given you a live subject to start with. I’m sorry. I’ll get rid of it.” He scooped the bag up and dispose
d of it outside. When he walked back into the room, Khaya had composed herself, her red eyes the only thing betraying her anguish.

  “Do you think I killed Merrit?” she asked.

  “Do you?” Derrin knew that it couldn’t have been her. He also knew that the Company claimed people with two abilities went mad. He wasn’t certain if he believed that either.

  “I don’t think I did,” she said after a pause. “When I run the events of the night through my mind, there seems no time unaccounted for. I don’t see how I could have.”

  “But?”

  “Would I know if I was mad? Would I be aware of it?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t believe you killed him, though.”

  Her eyes lifted to meet his, tentative hope in them. “Why not?”

  “You didn’t have the time.”

  Her face fell. “Oh.”

  Derrin shifted from one foot to the other. Did he say something wrong? “I went by Merrit’s house.”

  “You could have been seen! Don’t you think that was a foolish risk?”

  “I wouldn’t worry about that. We have a problem.” She pursed her lips and he continued, “Your imprint was found at the scene. Someone is trying to set you up.”

  “That must be the Company,” Khaya said. “Who else would know about that, not to mention be capable of that?”

  “You could be right, but we should keep an open mind. How long have you known Brier?”

  The corners of her mouth twisted down. “About a year. Why do you ask? Was he there?”

  “He was. You’ve taken him to your bed, haven’t you?”

  Khaya’s cheeks flushed. “I don’t see how that could possibly be any of your concern.”

  “I’ll take that as a yes then. Strange…”

  “What are you talking about? What’s strange?”

  “I don’t know yet. Have you ever known Brier to meet with anyone unusual?”

  “No. Tell me what you saw today.”

  “I don’t know yet. I am trying to find out what it means, but until then, I wouldn’t like to speculate.”