Murder of the Belvedere Eye

Chapter 7

7- A Homely Servant

A homely servant carrying a tray of goblets walked down a dark corridor. In one hand she held a small oil lamp with a skin screen. I asked where Lady Harlen’s room was. She jumped when I spoke. The tray of goblets fell to the floor, spilling wine and shattered crystal.

“Oh no!” she said. “Oh, Gods no! Magician, you startled me, coming out of the shadows! How didn’t I see your magnificent robes? Can you fix these with a spell?”

“I am no magician,” I said. “Where is Lady Harlen?”

I showed her the Lord’s necklace. She turned and pointed. “Down this wing. Her room is the top floor.”

“Who committed the murder against the Belvedere Eye?” I asked fishing in a puddle.

“Someone who needed her gone,” she said.

I left her there, amongst the shards and wine, and headed the way she had pointed.

#

Lady Harlen’s door was at the top of a narrow stair. I knocked.

Nobody answered.

I knocked again.

I twisted the handle. Locked. I thought about what Harlen had said about the necklace’s charm and held it to the door. I smelled ethanol and grease, and the bolt thunked.

“Hello?” I called out. I pushed the door open a crack. “I’m coming in, with the authority of Lord Harlen!”

A pair of snores filled the air. One was the king-brother, sleeping nude under a woven blanket. A leg hung off the couch.

I moved past him. I searched the room. There were chests and crates stacked against the walls. They were full of décor and clothing from distant shores. Small jewelry boxes crowded a bookcase. One such box was hidden inside a false book. I pocketed it. I heard the wind whistling. I felt around the top and sides of the case. It moved slightly as I pushed. It was on wheels. Behind it was a staircase that went up.

I put the bookcase back. On an ornate desk, a leather-bound book was laid open. It was a numbers book. The estate was hemorrhaging money to keep the Belvedere Eye and all the guests that had come for the summer. The guard’s salary was listed beneath it as if it were as great an offense, but the number was a quarter of what was spent on the seeress’s doctor.

I left the book as it lay and listened to the second snorer. I followed it to a skinny door. It opened for Lord Harlen’s charm. Beyond the door was a lace curtain. I brushed it aside. I found myself in a bedroom of cats. They swirled around my canary legs. I shuffled my feet, nudging them out of the way as I went to the window. I peeked through the curtain. It was the surest view of the belvedere, as I was told. The garden was laid out like a map. I could see all the way to the gate.

“…and if that damn sniffer sticks his nose into the hornet’s nest, I’m telling you…”

A voice came from the main room. I heard the bookcase roll open.

I swore, looking down at my yellow robes. I pressed myself up into a corner and pulled the sheer curtains over me. I looked down. The robes had turned from canary yellow to stormy gray. The musk of magic wafted across my nose and then was gone.

“…I’ll talk with you tomorrow, Pollick. Go see if you can get another group of men together. That mangy cat won’t see the sun rise.”

The outer door opened and closed. The man who was left in the room set the lock. Footsteps approached the skinny door, and it opened. The cats in the room scampered under the bed.

“Mother, you left your door unbarred again!” Belham walked towards the bed and began to shed his clothes. The woman snoring choked and then she sat up.

“I locked the door, Belly. I always do, just as you say.”

“Why is that man sleeping on your couch? Does he not have his own room? I cannot believe you left the door unlocked with that fool just outside. Did he-”

“No, dear. He tried, but was so tired. I put him to rest there. I didn’t have the heart to have him walk across the whole estate.”

“His room is only a floor below.”

“I couldn’t risk it. He was so ready to give in to the fall,” she whispered. He climbed into bed.

“You are too pitiful, Hallie.”

I focused on a cat that had sat on my feet. No words were spoken from the bed, but the sounds they made were a guttural prelanguage. I sang a song in my head as loud as I could think, but the slurps and smacks made me wince. It sounded like a toothless person eating porridge.

“You’re upset today,” Lady Harlen said when they had caught their breaths.

“Of course! Why does that crooked skeleton insist on keeping me out of every bit of business? I told him I could handle it. Any other father would be glad to let his son take charge.”

“But things are not all bad. The king-brother lives. He is indebted to my kindness. There will be no other investigation. The seeress is gone. Have Pollick’s men killed the outsider?”

“They brilliantly failed,” Belham spat. “They approached him in front of the drrr garden, where a magician was smoking his pipe. I could see the ember from on the roof, for the sake of the Gods! Perhaps the Street Cat is dead. They bled him well. But those magicians are worse than Father about being where they shouldn’t be and doing what they shouldn’t do.”

“I don’t like it when you say the cat is dead, Belly.”

“He is no cat, Mother. He’s a clump of dirt that needs to be flattened.”

“I am not dirt,” I said, stepping from the curtain. Lady Harlen shrieked. She threw a quilt over her bald head.

“You! What are you doing here?” Belham fumed.

“I’ve come to ask a few questions,” I said. I held up the necklace. The lady’s eyes widened. Her son’s narrowed. He sprung off the bed at me, his body shining in the lamplight.

He yelled as he hit at me. I shoved him off. He skittered across the ground. I held the charm to his face. He writhed away from it, like a snake from fire. “That’s my necklace!”

“You didn’t watch us, did you?” the lady asked.

“I saw your disgusting ritual,” I furled my nose. The room stank of their act. “Did you kill the Belvedere Eye?” I looked into Belham’s eyes. His body relaxed. He smiled.

“No,” he said.

“No?” I turned to the lady. “Did he?”

“No,” she said, “he cannot lie to the keeper’s necklace. He worships it more than the Gods.”

“But you had something to do with it.”

“Yes,” he laughed. “But I did not kill her.”

“You saw the murder,” I said, turning to the mother, “right?”

“I did.”

“Who was on the tower with her?”

“Nobody!” she shouted.

“How can that be?”

“She was the only one on the tower!”

“You can’t mean-”

I looked towards Belham. He tackled me into the wall. He scratched at my face and bit my arm. His hands slipped to my wrists, trying to loosen my grip on the necklace. He grabbed its golden chain. I reared my head back and cracked my skull against his temple. He wobbled backward, reaching out for balance.

“What are you doing?” Lady Harlen yelled.

“Justice,” I said, hating the way it flicked off my tongue. But it was out before I could stop it. Curse those magicians and the thoughts they put in your head. “You wear the lord’s quilt, Belham. You are not smart, nor clever. You value your freedom over the legacy of your father. You wanted the seeress dead- why?”

“Not clever?” the son asked. He looked at me and smiled with blood-stained teeth. “If I’m not so clever, you tell me, pussycat.”

“The Belvedere Eye was getting in the way of your freedom… no. Your ability to rule. She was saying things that she shouldn’t have been. Your father spent more than he had to ask her questions, which means he was asking about something he cared about deeply. His succession. Her answers led him to doubt your ability. You worried that the seeress would go too far. Say something of your relations with your mother. Then there’s the books. You are going to inherit a land and business of debt. You needed the king-brother on your side. You poisoned the wine to return to the palace, so that the king might fall to an early death. Then Charles would rule, a true friend that remembered how you so carefully nursed him back to health after his love was lost. You told Ezema something horrible. Something dark and true. You made her see nothing inside herself- what is it that you said that would make that girl kill herself?”

“You are spot on, Street Cat. I could have used a man of your talent in my ranks. But no, alas, you’d be too smart. Your head wouldn’t fit into a guard’s helmet, nor your stomach into a counselor’s robes. I only visited her once. I paid and asked the seeress what would make her want to kill herself.”

“And what was her answer?”

“If it was the only way to save her beloved,” the young man snorted. “What sham, love.”

“How did you poison the wine?”

“With a little heat and Hallie’s careful fingers,” Belham smiled. “It was her idea after all.”

“What is all this yelling?” The king-brother walked in. The lord-son lunged out. He had pulled a blade from his clothing heap. He brought it down in a quick stroke. I met it with my left palm. The blade slid and caught in my flesh. My right hand came from the other side. I backhanded him where the skull was soft from my headbutt.

He clattered to the ground like a bag of bones.

Lady Harlen screamed. She ran out of bed, naked and bald as a desert cat.

“It was he who conspired against the Ezema,” I said, pointing to the fallen man. “He used your love against the girl to make her take her own life!”