The king and the prince were eating grilled taragg ribs, qith spicy peppers, which I knew to be one of the king’s favorite dishes. I had no idea what the two consorts were eating. Some kind of human food, no doubt, that Prince Vannos had ordered from the traders for them to consume.
“General Vargarra,” King Davos called out as soon as he saw me. “Why don’t you fix yourself a plate and have midday meal with us?”
I looked at what the consorts were eating dubiously and Blake smiled at me. “You can have the taragg ribs, though I wouldn’t advise the nasty stuff. You don’t have to have any of our food. Though I assure you it’s better than it looks, General, and very healthy. It’s yogurt, topped with cucumbers, olives, and tomatoes. You should try some.”
I shook my head respectfully. It sounded horrible, and I knew what yogurt was—it was created by fermenting milk with bacterial cultures, which was just disgusting. “Perhaps another time, Your Highness. I’m afraid I have some upsetting news. Prince Larz’s consort was attacked again just a few minutes ago in his room.”
“Yes, we heard the commotion and Bryos yelling about it.
Only the two consorts looked overly concerned or upset. The Consort Blake looked a little alarmed, as well, and everyone stopped eating to stare at me in surprise.
“Oh no. Is Janos all right? What about Larz?” the consort asked, half rising from his chair.
“Larz was downstairs when the attack happened, and Janos is fine now, though naturally, he’s shaken. It was Taran who noticed his door slightly ajar, and when he went to investigate, he found General Luc Dimitri in his room, trying to jam a pillow down over his face in an attempt to suffocate him. He and Taranstruggled, and Dimitri struck Taran as he tried to get away. Thankfully, both he and Janos will recover. Prince Larz is with them now.”
“Dimitri?” Davos exclaimed. “That human general friend of Larz?”
“Larz must be so upset. I should go to them.”
He started up out of his chair, but Davos pulled him back down. “Finish eating, nobyo. It sounds like most of the excitement is over now. I assume you have Dimitri in custody?”
“He’s dead, Your Majesty. After he attacked Janos and Taran, he ran up to the roof and fell or jumped from the rooftop.”
“Excellent. That worked out well, then, didn’t it? Saves us the trouble of a trial and execution.”
“Davos, what a terrible thing to say,” his consort chided him.
“There’s only one problem, Your Majesty. I don’t think Dimitri accidentally fell. And I don’t think he wasn’t acting alone. He seems to have no motive to want to kill Janos.”
“I thought you said motive wasn’t important,” the Consort Blake said.
“It’s not as important as opportunity, and not strictly required for a legal conviction, but establishing motive is still important in a case and highly effective for convincing me of a person’s guilt when I’m investigating. I think someone paid him to kill Janos and paid him very well. Like I said before, Prince Larz was hit on the back of the head at the meeting, more than likely to get him out of the way and stop him from interfering. Taran was probably a mistake, simply because Dimitri attacked the wrong man in the dark. I think Dimitri tried again to kill Janos with the collapse of the bridge, and then again this morning, when he made his third attempt. I don’t think he was ever after Taran. Dimitri was in Janos’s room, after all. Taran just got in his way.”
Prince Mikos nodded. “Like you did, for that matter. You were on that bridge too, and some of the guards could have been as well, from what I heard, except for Janos saying he had a bad dream and asking that no more weight go on the bridge as you went across. You say that you don’t think Dimitri was acting alone, and that you think someone may have paid him to kill Janos. Who do you think this person is? Do you have a suspect in mind?”
“I have ideas, Your Royal Highness, but nothing conclusive and I can’t point to anyone in particular. Though we all know who wishes Janos harm. I think it’s a strong possibility that it may have been funded by one or more of those Tygerian family members of the missing boys, who finally got tired of waiting for them to come home, or for us to do something to bring Janos to justice. Perhaps we need to look into that aspect of it. See if anyone who’s here with us on Moravia could be in any way affiliated with the familes.”
“General,” Davos said. “You surprise me, though I definitely agree. I’ll see to it that it’s done. Might I ask if you, by chance, were related to any of those boys?”
“No, I wasn’t, Your Majesty. Though my former husband was. His father was on that ship. One of the adult instructors who were slaughtered when they tried to fight off their attackers.”
“I’m terribly sorry.”
“Thank you, sire. It was all a long time ago.”
“Tell us more about why you think someone may have been up there on that roof with Dimitri,” Prince Vannos asked. Up until then, he had been quietly listening.
“I believe there were signs of a struggle up on that roof. A struggle that Dimitri lost. I think whoever was up there with him decided to cut his losses before Dimitri was found and interrogated, because Dimitri was seen, and he had to know itwas only a matter of time until we found him. He had no real chance of escape from this palace and nowhere to go if he did manage it. Luc Dimitri was thrown off that roof and deliberately murdered to silence him.”
“That would mean your suspect would more than likely be Tygerian,” Davos said.
“Yes, I think so, Your Majesty.”
“That’s right,” came a voice from the doorway. It was Larz, looking fiercely angry as he stood there, glaring at his father. “So now the question is, what are you planning to do about it? I agreed in good faith to come here to meet with you and try to settle some of the issues between us. Vannos and Stefan assured us this would be a safe place for my family.”
Vannos’s face turned red and Blake quickly put an arm around his shoulders to comfort him. Since Vannos was almost twice his size, it should have been an absurd sight, but it wasn’t that at all. The love that Blake felt for all of his children was too obvious, too intense.
Larz must have seen it too, because he quickly rushed on. “Vannos, I think you and Stefan have done all you can to ensure that. Please don’t misunderstand.” He turned his wrath then on his father and older brother. “But Father, first you try to arrest my mate behind my back, and now you’ve brought a murderer into the palace. One of your own men!”
