Page 32 of A Trade of Blood

I did the same, not comprehending her worry—and then I realized I was fairly drunk. I turned about, squinting in the rain—suddenly it was very hard to make sense of the glimmering nightscape of the churning streets—and saw that another rider was arriving, atop another destrier.

The man was clad in the yellow embossed leather armor of the Armentas, though his was of very fine make. As he leapt down from his destrier and pulled his helm from his head, I saw he was a Tala man—not as tall as I but more broadly built—with a wide face, thick beard, and a constellation of tiny scars across one cheek and down the left side of his neck. A cheerful blunt instrument of a fellow, I thought, though at the moment I did not sense any malice from him.

Yet from his build, his beard, the way he carried himself: this was clearly the son of Trikao Armenta.

His gaze fell upon Fotia, and his expression changed to one torn between relief and exasperation. He shook his head, advanced, and said, “Fo, what do youmeanriding off like that, especially on a night like…”

He paused as he saw me. Then he blinked at me for a moment, took in my uniform, then peered at my face and glanced back and forth between me and Fotia. “I…what?” he said.

Fotia pointed at me with a finger, and said with a noticeable slur, “ ’s my brother. Din.”

—

There were manypoor ways to meet one’s potential future sibling-by-law, yet as I stood blinking in the rain, I couldn’t imaginea worse way than doing so when you are drunk and he is utterly unprepared—especially when the man in question is of gentry stock and you are currently investigating his cousin for murder.

I fumbled in my memories for how to manage this situation and found nothing. Slaughter and combat were easy things compared to this deathly awkwardness.

“Fotia…” said Ippeas Armenta slowly. “Ahh. Are you drunk?”

“No,” said Fotia. She swayed slightly on her feet. “Well, no, not quite. Or yes.”

I sighed. “Why don’t we all sit down?”

Over the next rambling, freewheeling ten minutes or so, Fotia and I struggled to explain to Ippeas my appearance here in Lacanthim. It suddenly all felt very petty: with death and war stalking this place, how could family squabbles ever hope to matter?

“So,” Ippeas said slowly at the end of it. “You, Signum Kol…” He paused, as if testing out the name of his potential brother-by-law. “…are here to try and keep my family and the Buravs from going to war.”

“That’s one of my duties, true.”

“It’s surely the most difficult of them…And,you are here to try to determine Castus’s guilt. Though, to hear the chatter, his guilt is very obvious…?”

“But hedoesn’tthink it was him, Ip,” said Fotia. “He thinks he’sinnocent.”

“I did not say that,” I said quickly.

Though I cringed internally:Ip?

“How can he be innocent?” said Ippeas, looking to me. “I mean—didn’t he run out of the room all bloodied?”

“I didnotsay he was innocent,” I said. “But I also can’t explain what he did. I’d like to hear your and Fotia’s stories of Castus’s movements and behaviors in the days before, to try to explain it.” I shot a glance at Fotia. “If you’re capable of giving them.”

Ippeas blinked miserably. In that gesture I caught a flash of his father, so deeply forlorn that it was woven into his every movement. “What we know…Well. Have you told him, Fo?”

“I’ve told him nothing,” said Fotia, “and notthat,not yet.”

“Told me…?” I said.

Ippeas sighed. “Of his dalliance.”

“Ah. You knew about Castus and Zansay,” I said.

“Yes. Castus chose us to be his confidants, of all people.” Ippeas glanced around the sotbar. “But we must speak quietly now! If my father hears mention of this, he’ll have my damned head.”

“What can you tell me of the relationship?”

“Well, I knew it was insane! And I knew they met once a month. But did he worry about what would happen if they were discovered? About the possibility of clan war? No! No, he worried instead that he couldn’t bring her gifts, for she was just as rich as he was. He spent his idle days thinking up silly things to give her. Flowers. Trinkets. Shows of affection.” A resentful frown briefly coursed through his face. “Such are the things the prime children may worry about, I suppose…”

“And no one else knew, besides you two?” I asked.