AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Rafe Foulkes!” Billie shouted, then laughed as she reached Hayk. She’d handed the book off to Lefric at some point, so she was able to grab Hayk with both hands and shake him while squealing, “Rafe Foulkes!”
“Who is Rafe Foulkes?” I asked, glancing between Billie and Hayk and Lefric.
Hayk burst into laughter, and I whipped back to him, my brow shooting up.
“Master Rafe owns the brothel just across the way from Master Daron,” Hayk laughed. “He’s Master Daron’s fiercest competition.”
“When he’s found out as a spy for King Julius, it will put him out of business,” Billie laughed along with her brother. “Master Daron could buy him out, like he’s been saying he will for ages. And if we make it clear that we had something to do with uncovering the conspiracy, this information could be enough for Master Daron to shave a year off our contracts at least.”
My hopes instantly soared. If there was a chance, any chance at all, that Hayk would be freed from whoredom, I would do whatever it took to see that happen.
“There’s actually more than that,” Lefric said as he joined us, the others with him.
“More?” I asked, glancing to Lefric, then my other friends. They all looked excited.
I forced away the pitiful instinct to immediately set myself apart from them. I’d missed out on something yet again, but I wouldn’t have traded my lunch with Hayk for the world.
“One of the spies listed where Hadrian recorded names from Good Port is someone called Jasur Jamshid,” Peter explained, his expression bright with intrigue. “He works for the Arzumanyan family.”
“In the same capacity as Eneko worked for the Hakobyan family,” Neil finished his thought.
“He has to be the third person who was in league with Gregorius and Eneko,” Lefric said, nearly as excited as Billie. “I’ve only seen the man from a distance, and I’ve never visited the Arzumanyan estate, because Sanzhar Arzumanyan is Vikhrov’s staunchest opponent on the Council, and if you ask me, it’s far more likely that the Arzumanyan family is in league with King Julius than the Lobe family, because Vikhrov and Ivor Lobe actually do get along, even though they’re competitors. And some of the other names in the journal are minor clerks and people who work for the Lobe family, but not names I would have recognized because they aren’t as important as Eneko or Jasur, but I would be willing to believe they’ve been doing the same thing with Ivor Lobe’s books as they did with Olympus’s books so that the Arzumanyan family would actually be the wealthiest family in Good Port if there was another election, and—”
“Shut up already, Lefric,” Jace growled, stepping half in front of him. He stared at me and said, “Basically, we think we’ve figured out what’s going on in Good Port, we just need to prove it and capture the guilty parties before they get away.”
I caught my breath. It was impossible. There was no way that my friends could have solved two murders and uncovered a conspiracy in the space of time it took for me to have a chat with Hayk.
Then again, they’d been chipping away at the mystery for over a week now.
“You need to tell Magnus,” I said.
“We need to tell Olympus and Vikhrov,” Lefric corrected me. “They’re the ones who have the power to speak to the Council and make certain that the Arzumanyan family is investigated.”
“Do you think the entire family is guilty, or just the servants?” Billie asked, as if the idea had just occurred to her.
“I bet it’s the entire family,” Hayk said. “Last time Naufal Arzumanyan called me up to the estate—”
He got no further than that—and honestly, even those few words had prickles racing down my back—when a commotion near the gate that led to the right of way path we’d taken down to the harbor caught all of our attention.
I immediately thought Dmitri had tried to sneak out and had been caught, but a second look as we all started in that direction made it clear that someone was trying to get in. And they weren’t happy about being forbidden entrance.
“Someone needs to send for Lord Vikhrov,” the guard at the door told Lefric when we came close. He spoke to Lefric as though he were an important member of the family and not another servant. “I don’t think she’s going to take no for an answer for long.”
“Who is it?” Neil asked, craning his neck to try to look through the narrow slats in the gate.
“Yes,” an angry female voice shouted from the other side. “Send for my father. I’d like to hear what he says when you tell him you’ve forbidden his eldest and most prominent daughter from entering her own home.”
I blinked and exchanged a look with Hayk. The guard and Lefric seemed to think the arrival of who I assumed was Lord Vikhrov’s daughter was momentous, but I still didn’t have a clue what was happening. It made things even more interesting as I had no idea what might happen next.
“Zendaya?” Lefric blinked a few times as well, glancing to the rest of us, as though we would have an answer.
A moment later, his face popped into utter shock.
“Zendaya!” he whispered, hurrying away from the gate and shooing or pushing the rest of us away as he did.
“Is something wrong with Vikhrov’s daughter?” Jace asked as soon as we were far enough away from the gate that we wouldn’t be overheard.
“Shouldn’t Lord Vikhrov’s own daughter be allowed into the estate?” Sebald asked, looking as confused as I felt.
