by Guy Antibes
As they rolled into the courtyard, Hadis Torkin greeted them. The soldiers took their leave.
“You have returned. Did you fight the entire Vaarekian army?” Hadis said with a smile.
“We fought more than our share. We would like a word. I don’t think we will stay long, but there is a task I need to perform here. We can talk about it when everything is a bit more private,” Sam said.
Hadis looked at Plantian. “You were injured?”
“I was. My stitches are itching to get out. Is Sinna around?” Sinna was the Head Proctor at the Order.
After laughing, Hadis nodded. “She will supervise, will that be acceptable?”
Plantian nodded. “It wouldn’t hurt to examine the three of us in the wagon. Mito is so sewn up, he might be infected, and it would take us too long to figure out where with all his cuts.”
Hadis laughed again. Sam just shook his head. Plantian wasn’t so bad at talking like a Zogazin, after all.
After examination at the hospital, only Sam and Plantian left it. Mito did have some issues with his wounds, and so did Glory. The trip might not have been the best for them, but it was better than being attacked in Hizor, should more assassins linger in the city.
Hadis invited Sam and Plantian to the administration building. Sam smiled when he saw Hilsa in attendance.
“You are not dressed in white?” Sam said.
Hilsa laughed. “I am furthering my personal worth in other ways,” she said. “What brings you back to Alloren?”
Hadis nodded. “That is why we are here, Hilsa,” he said, patiently.
Sam told them of his adventures and how Glory and Mito ended up with him and Plantian. He ended with their adventure in Hizor and their trip to Alloren.
“Then you are here to catch a spy? I am sorry, but Hilsa beat you to it. She refused to rest after the assassins drove you out of our midst prematurely,” Hadis said. “I would have eventually kicked you out, but they forced you to leave earlier than you should have.”
Sam smiled. “Why don’t you tell me how you found the spy?” Sam asked.
Hilsa grinned. “I would have thought the Vaarekian restaurant would have been the center of the activity, but the owner and his crew were slaughtered. Then I thought, who would be in a position to know that you arrived at Alloren and was able to track your movements?”
“And you found such a person?” Plantian said.
Hilsa nodded. “I did. The housekeeper at the visitor’s boarding house. That is always the place where we keep visitors. She can also keep track of who is coming and going.”
“So what did you do next?”
“I had to snoop, of course. You know all about snooping, don’t you Sam?”
“I have had some experience,” Sam said.
“Me, too, in my own way. So I checked around and found she was new to the position.”
“She seemed to be around before Alloren was built,” Plantian said.
“Not so. Her son, a recently-accepted member in the order, secured the position for her after the previous housekeeper died only days before we arrived,” Hilsa said.
“And the investigation into the previous housekeeper suggested that the death wasn’t confirmed as natural causes?” Sam asked.
“Obvious, after the fact, isn’t it?”
“What happened to the son?”
Hadis grinned. “Would you like to talk to him? He has been reluctant to implicate his mother, and she has done likewise regarding her son.”
“Who hired the assassins?”
Hilsa shrugged. “I am only so good,” she said.
“So the job isn’t yet complete. Are they in jail?”
“For the time being,” Hadis said. “The local authority can’t hold them for much longer without something more than Hilsa’s suspicions.”
Sam thought for a moment. “When did you find out Plantian was at the Order? Did you tell Renatee?”
“Of course I told Renatee. Plantian sent him a letter, too,” She looked at Professor Plunk. “Didn’t you?”
“I did,” Plantian said. He finally smiled and shook his head. “And Okanna knew about it and went into action. The assassins probably didn’t live in Alloren, did they?”
Hadis shook his head. “They didn’t. All of them arrived on the same day from Hizor, three days before the attack.”
“Everything must be connected. The old housekeeper was killed, and the current one took her place not long after Plantian told Renatee he was coming,” Sam said. “Can I examine the rooms of the mother and son?”
“That isn’t something we do in the Order,” Hadis said.
“It is if you are harboring a murderer,” Hilsa said. “Don’t go high and mighty on me, Hadis.”
“Now, Hilsa,” Hadis said. “There is no need. I will let them look.”
Sam looked at Plantian and then at Hilsa. He raised his eyebrows and nodded toward Hadis.
“Yes, we are more than friends, Sam.” Hilsa said a bit snippily.
Hadis sighed. “There was a reason she stayed at the Order.” He patted Hilsa’s hand. “We are to be married.”
“Only if they get to look at the evidence,” Hilsa said, and then laughed.
“I suppose a little more snooping is in order. I will allow it if you demonstrate what you have learned since you left us. It sounds like you have progressed significantly as a pollen magician.”
“I was a non-practicing pollen expert, so it wasn’t so hard to put my knowledge to practice. I’m still learning.”
Plantian chuckled and shook his head. “I’m the one who is learning.”
“Snooping. We have to focus on snooping,” Sam said.
~
“This is highly irregular,” said the housekeeper for a house filled with Order members. She led them to the top of the building. She and Plantian were out of breath by the time they reached the top. “Gizzel is such a nice boy. I don’t know how you can think he did such an awful thing as to hire assassins.”
“We don’t think he did the hiring of the assassins,” Sam said. He didn’t mention the possible murder of the previous housekeeper.
The sitting room was very clean when they walked in. It looked identical to the little flat Sam had stayed in at the boarding house.
“Did you tidy up Gizzel’s room after he was apprehended?” Hilsa asked.
The woman blushed. “Well, I did want to make him comfortable when he returned.”
Sam, Hilsa, and Plantian went through the room. Sam looked for pollen patches and hidden panels but didn’t find a thing.
“There is nothing here,” Plantian said. “This is cleaner than my house ever was, even with a housekeeper.” He winked at the housekeeper, still watching from the doorway, who smiled, a little embarrassed from the compliment.
Sam was about to give up, but he thought hard. What was he missing? It finally dawned on him. “What did you do with the refuse?”
“Refuse?”
“Papers and trash. Certainly, Gizzel wouldn’t have left the room so clean. As Professor Plunk said, only a housekeeper such as yourself would have left the room so spotless.”
“It is in the empty room next to this one,” she said. “This room is so far up, I often don’t carry trash that won’t spoil all the way down. Gizzel used to help me carry all the bags down, but since he has been away…” She shook her head and pointed out the door. “It is in a spare room,” she said to warn them before she opened the door.
Bags of trash were on the floor. The room was orderly otherwise. Sam was surprised by the lapse in the woman’s habits, but as she said, the person who carried the bags down the stairs was currently in the custody of the constables of Alloren.
It gave Sam the chance to see what Gizzel might have tried to hide.
“His pile is over there,” the housekeeper said. She pointed to fewer bags huddled around each other.
Sam called Plantian over, and they sat on the ground going through papers, pollen papers, pollen tissu
es, and other things. Sam let Plantian handle the pollen items, since his touch might destroy any evidence.
“This might be something,” Plantian said, handing a list to Sam.
It was written in Zogazin, but Sam had a better chance understanding written Zogazin than the spoken kind. At first, the list looked mundane, but then he spotted the word Hizor.
“Can you read this for me?” Sam said to the housekeeper, keeping an eye on the mess they were making.
“Only if you promise to put those papers back in the bags.”
Sam smiled. “I will do better than that. Plantian and I will empty this room.”
“You’ll do that for me?”
Sam nodded. “I will.”
The housekeeper brightened, her face a little less hostile.
She began the list, but Sam waited impatiently for a better translation of what the fifth item was.
“Notify Tummy that the visitors from Hizor have arrived.”
She read through the rest, but nothing else held any meaning for Sam.
“Tummy as in stomach?” Sam asked the housekeeper who nodded. “Who is Tummy?”
“I clean up after them, but I don’t live with them,” the housekeeper said, getting up and returning to her observation post.
Sam looked at Plantian with an open-mouthed smile and nodded, so they would both laugh.
“Tummy. A fat person?” Plantian said.
“Or a nickname of some kind,” Sam said going through the rest of Gizzel’s papers, finding nothing else. “It looks like we will have another look at his room.”
Sam couldn’t find anything with the same sounding word in any of the young man’s papers.
“Are you going to move my bags now?”
“One more question. Does Gizzel have any close friends in the building?”
She nodded. “Torgen Pinnan on floor three. They are very close, I think.” She put her hands on her hips, signifying her unhappiness.
“Okay. Bags first, and then we talk with Torgen,” Sam said.
Sam opened the window of the unoccupied room that looked out at the back of the house. Far below was the refuse pile. Sam was in luck.
“Bring the bags to me,” Sam said.
The housekeeper’s eyes grew huge. “I’ll not have you spreading the garbage all over from here to Hizor!”
“That won’t be the case. Look,” Sam took a deep breath and hoped his idea would work. He created a tube of pollen that was three feet wide and extended all the way to the ground. “We will toss them in here.”
The housekeeper looked down to the ground. “I could have done that.”
“You can do that the next time,” Sam said. “Come on, Plantian. I have to hold this mouth open while you feed it.”
The housekeeper laughed and joined in. They didn’t take long to empty the room. The pollen bag was full of bags, but Sam sealed the tube and let it fall to the ground. “A pair of scissors or a sharp knife will free the bags.”
“Who wants them free? I’ll have the refuse man take the tube as it is!”
Plantian forced a laugh. The housekeeper left the room, and the professor shrugged his shoulders at Sam.
They descended to the third floor and stood in front of room number five.
“He may not be in,” the housekeeper said.
A tall, skinny man about Mito’s age answered the door.
“Torgen Pinnan?”
“Yes? What do you want?”
Sam was relieved there was no joke attached to the man’s reply.
“We are looking for Tummy.” Sam looked at the housekeeper. “Did I pronounce it right?”
The housekeeper shook her head and said the word. As far as Sam could tell, it sounded exactly as he had said it.
“I can tell you she isn’t here,” Torgen said. “How do you know her?”
“Is Tummy Gizzel’s friend?”
“Girlfriend. Sometimes we go out together.”
“Where does she live?” Plantian asked.
Torgen shrugged. “In the next building, why? Does this have to do with his arrest?”
Sam nodded. “If he is to be released, we need to get to the bottom of the charges. Tummy can help us do that.”
Torgen nodded. “Anything I can do to help, except Tummy isn’t a good influence on Gizzel.”
“Oh?” Plantian said.
“Not at all. I think she is filling his head with nonsense. He has even said she promised him he might be running the Order before long. He said it like it wasn’t a joke, either. It was kind of weird.”
“When did he make the claim?” Sam asked.
“Within the last month or so.”
“Thank you, Torgen.” Sam turned to the housekeeper. “And thank you, too!”
“Anytime,” the housekeeper said.
Sam and Plantian escaped from the house and walked across to the other building. They found the housekeeper cleaning a room on the ground floor; her cart nearly blocked the corridor. She was the oldest housekeeper they had encountered so far.
“Hello. We are looking for Tummy.”
The woman looked at them. “It is right here.” She patted her stomach and laughed.
Sam and Plantian joined in as best they could. “Tummy is Gizzel’s girlfriend.”
“Oh, that Tummy,” the woman said. “She doesn’t have much of one to speak of, but we are all that way when we are young,” the woman cackled.
“Is she in?”
“Most likely. Most of my girls are getting primped up for dinner.”
Sam smiled. “We need to talk to her. It is about her boyfriend.”
“Oh. Room Two on the next floor. You can go yourselves. Just turn aside if you see one of my girls naked running through the halls, won’t you?”
Plantian laughed, but Sam couldn’t. They fled from the woman and in a few moments stood at the door to Room Two on the second floor. Plantian knocked.
An ordinary-looking woman answered the door. She was rail-thin. Sam couldn’t help but look at her stomach.
“Have you come to stare at me?” she said laughing.
“Not really,” Plantian said. He looked at Sam to say something.
“You are Tummy?”
She pouted. “My friends call me that. You aren’t my friends,” she said without a speck of humor.
“We are trying to clear Gizzel’s name.”
The woman turned red. Her eyes shifted between the two of them before she tried to slam the door. Plantian had dropped a pollen block between the door and the jamb. Sam pushed the door open as Tummy backed up into her tiny sitting room.
“Stay away from me!”
“We aren’t going to attack you, Tummy.”
“Don’t call me that! My name is Lillin, Lillin Horinen.”
“What exactly is your relationship with Gizzel? Torgen Pinnan says you are Gizzel’s girlfriend. What will Gizzel say about that?”
“I’m not his girlfriend,” she said. “Torgen is lying, of course.”
“Of course. Who were the visitors from Hizor that Gizzel told you about?”
“What visitors? Oh, that. A boy and that wretched Forinin woman had arrived from Hizor. He wanted me to welcome them to the Order.”
“But they came to Alloren weeks ago, long before the note was written,” Sam said. He really didn’t know when the note was written, but as clean as Gizzel’s housekeeper was, it wouldn’t have been before Sam arrived at the Order.
“Maybe it wasn’t them,” she said. She closed her eyes. She was going to make something out of pollen.
A sheet materialized in front of them. Sam took his spectacles off, while Plantian struggled with the pollen cloth. Sam calmly watched her take papers from the middle drawer of a chest and slap them on the bottom of the same drawer with a pollen patch before she ran out the door to the hallway.
“You can go after her,” Sam said.
“Not me, you’re younger than me.”
Sam shrugged and took off down the stairs.
He exited the building and saw Tummy heading for the main gate. Sam yelled for someone to stop her.
Tummy wasn’t a particularly swift runner, so Sam caught her before anyone else. He led her to the guards. “Put her under arrest. She is a spy along with Gizzel and his mother and is guilty of assisting an attempted murder and possibly assisting with a murder. If you doubt me, take her to Hadis Torkin. I have to get back.”
Sam trudged back to the building and found Plantian patiently waiting, the pollen sheet wadded up against the wall.
“Did you catch her?” he asked.
“I did,” Sam said, sitting next to the professor. He looked at the pollen sheet and laughed. “She didn’t know I could see through pollen. I watched her take papers from there and attach them to the underside of that drawer.”
“You did?”
Sam nodded. He stood and retrieved the drawer. “Not bad for how quickly she had to work,” he said.
“Every member of the Order of Ren is at least very good,” Plantian said.
Sam took out his gold tip and ran it around the edges. He peeled back the pollen and looked at a stack of twenty pages.
“Hidden treasure,” Plantian said.
Sam looked at him. “You should have been born in Zogaz.”
“Renatee has told me that many times, but I can’t stand the food.”
Sam laughed. He began sifting through the pages. “These are very incriminating. Gizzel and his mother were up to their eyeballs in Kreb’s work. Here is the order to remove the old housekeeper. From what I can tell, Tummy was the one who fed her poison.”
“Why did she keep the evidence?”
Sam shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe she didn’t trust her superiors to give her proper credit for her nefarious deeds when Kreb was to take over Zogaz.”
“And they were nefarious,” Plantian said playfully.
This time Sam actually felt like laughing.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
~
S am stood in the Order’s courtyard. Glory, with a new knitted hat to cover her chopped up hair, and Mito, in much better shape than when they had arrived, sat on the driver’s seat of the wagon. Plantian had made a comfortable place in the wagon’s bed. Emmy sat next to Sam. He would have liked to have used the dog to solve his crimes, but she wasn’t needed this time.
