Of Noble Chains (The Ventori Fables) (18 page)

“Something Cindel seemed to be working on,” he said as Zia began to flip through the pages.  It was accounting papers, with large sums of money being transferred to different accounts.  Zia noticed that some were highlighted, with corresponding dates; one of the highlighted dates was the day after her brother’s death.  Aeryn continued, “It seems that some money was transferred from Achaicious’ account to his assistant’s, with another off-shore account sending money into Achaicious’.”

“So he was paying his assistant?” Zia questioned, still distracted by the news of her brother.

“Four of the dates are highlighted,” Aeryn went on, “each after a Ventori was killed.  It’s in the second file.”

Zia sat next to her mentor, getting that sinking feeling in her stomach.  She opened the other file, there were only abbreviations, and then clan names. 
AC – Neith, LU – Jasper, DN – Medea, DR – Jasper. 

Aeryn was studying her, she could feel his eyes on her.  Was he trying to judge what, if anything, she had figured out?  Was this another test?  Zia kept herself composed, and declared, “So he was being paid to kill Ventori?”

“Seems that way,” Aeryn said, shifting his eyes back towards the computer.

“Achaicious paid his assistant to kill Ventori?” Zia repeated, clearer this time.  But what she really wanted to say was that he paid his assistant to kill her brother.  Zia’s eyes went over the words again, and she felt a fire growing inside of her.  Her brother’s unsolved murder, that was so obviously a murder, had been declared an honourable Ventori death.  He had been Tracking something, and she was told whatever it was had killed him; there was nobody caught for it.  She remembered how easily the Light Guard had brushed it off.  She could still see the blue dust that had been on Donataen’s shoes when she had found him.  Still hear the movement that had been nearby.

“He did,” Aeryn sounded so sure of it, but he had yet to get into Cindel’s computer.  It was then that Zia began to think he only became her mentor because of her name, and it had nothing to do with her abilities.

Aeryn could tell that Zia had already put two and two together.  The same man that killed Cindel had also killed her brother.  What he couldn’t tell was if she had linked him in as well.  She was good, he thought, but maybe not good enough.  Either way, he planned on bringing her to catch Achaicious, and finally bring justice to all the murdered Ventori; but first he needed to get into Cindel’s computer.  It was harder than he had thought it would be; she was always terrible at keeping her password a secret, but apparently she had learned a few tricks since he had last seen her.

As Aeryn was about to type in another guess at the password, the computer beeped, and the screen went black.

“Did you get it?” Zia asked, not letting go of the files.

“I didn’t do anything,” Aeryn leaned in closer to the screen and so did his student.  They stared and waited, when finally it lit up again.

The cursor blinked in the top left corner, a black mark on the otherwise pristine screen.  Words began to glide across it, and it gave them some important information.

“There’s another transfer,” Zia stated, “going from that off-shore account from across the waters.”

“It’s going into Achaicious’,” Aeryn concluded as he read the words, taking the files back from Zia.

“No,” Zia argued, “it’s going into his assistants now, Delmont’s.  It’s for Trenton’s father!”

“What?” Aeryn furrowed his brow, for once being out of the loop.  He didn’t like being out of the loop.

“A boy at the library,” Zia explained, “his father supposedly committed suicide last night by the northern cliff.  I bet Delmont killed him, and this is the payment from Achaicious.”

“But why would he want these people dead?” Aeryn found himself asking.  That was something he already knew the answer to, but he needed to hear what Zia was thinking.

“Because he’s a Specter, and that’s what they do.”

“Maybe,” was all he gave her.

Zia felt…lost.  Although part of why she wanted to become Ventori was because she wanted to find the thing that had killed her brother, she had never expected it to be so soon.  And she had never expected that Donataen would be connected with Rinehart the Unbreakable.  As she sat on the couch with Aeryn, she thought of how she would prove that Achaicious was behind the deaths and found the only evidence was in Aeryn’s hands.

“We should tell the Board,” Zia said, not really wanting to do anything with the Board.  But before they could bring in the Caster, he had to be declared a STRAY, and the only way to do that was talk with the Board of Justice.

“We can’t, not yet,” Aeryn told her.  “We need more evidence.”  He checked his watch.  “And we have another meeting to get to, so we better leave.”

Aeryn began to gather up the computer and files.  Zia bit her lip, but went with him.  It was only a matter of time before she would be able to find out everything, whether Aeryn helped her or not.  She asked, “Where are we going now?”

“Woman’s shelter across from VA,” Aeryn said.  “They’ve got a little problem that nobody else wants.”

“Are Specters dying again?” Zia asked, thinking of how nobody cared to solve the deaths at the hospital.

“Not exactly.”

The shelter was an old red brick building that sat across from Ventori Ark and just between two other short towers.  It had a sign out front reading, “New Havilan Western Women’s Shelter”, in bright white writing against a black board.  Zia pouted, wanting to keep working on her brother’s case rather than do this.  She still had trouble thinking that; her brother’s case.

“You’re here!” a young woman called out to Aeryn as she burst through the front door of the shelter.  She immediately grabbed onto both of their hands and shook simultaneously, a large smile on her face. Her brunette hair was tied in a loose string and hung over her shoulder.  She couldn’t have been much older than Aeryn.  A small stab of jealousy stung at Zia, but she pushed it away, remembering that he had never told her he knew her brother.

“Well,” Aeryn said, taking his hand back, “it sounded like you needed help.”

“We really do,” the woman said and looked at Zia, “I’m
Trinila, I’m one of the victims.”

“Victims?” Zia squinted at the woman.  She didn’t look hurt, in fact she looked excited.

“Yes, come inside,” Trinila ushered them into the building, and showed them to a table where three more women sat.  Two of them had babies on their laps, while the third was at least seven months pregnant.  The Ventori remained standing.

The shelter was small and overcrowded.  Extra beds had been set up in the living room areas and were separated by sheets hanging from the ceiling.  Women and children sat in various areas, while two volunteers attended to them; she had never known anyone in New Havilan that needed this kind of help.  And she never thought about helping anyone either, other than catching STRAYs; she never thought further ahead than that.

“You’re the ones hiring us, then?” Aeryn questioned the woman and they all nodded.  One began to rock her baby as it began to fuss.

“What’s the case?” Zia asked, getting tired of everything.  These women looked fine, and perfectly healthy.  None of them were wounded or showed any sign of even being upset.  Most of them just looked mad.

“We need you to find someone,” Trinila explained, “the man who got us all pregnant.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Zia said before she could stop herself.  “Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously,” Trinila pouted, “he slept with us and then left, leaving us with the children.  I only just found out I was pregnant!”

This wasn’t even about a STRAY Specter, why would Aeryn bring her to this case?  Actually, it wasn’t even a case!  Zia crossed her arms with a huff, “So you all have a one night stand with some jerk that leaves in the morning, and you call Ventori to find him?  Why not try the Human Guard?”  Not that they would care either.

Trinila’s eyes dimmed a little.  “You don’t understand.”

“Why don’t you explain it to her,” Aeryn suggested, “we’ll take the case.”

“But—“ Zia began but was cut off by Trinila.

“We didn’t want to go to bed with him,” she said, looking to the other women, “but we were compelled to.  He was very charming, and always so nice.  I wouldn’t say it was…rape, but…we didn’t have much of a choice.  It was like a spell, we can’t even remember how we had met him.”

“Spell?” Zia repeated.  She turned to her mentor, “So it was a Caster?”

“Maybe,” Aeryn shrugged.  “What would you do now?”

Zia faced the woman, suddenly feeling bad for trying to turn them away.  She asked, “What did he look like?”

Each woman gave a different description. 
Trinila remembered him being tall, dark, and brooding, while another one said he was average height, with light hair.  None of them matched, and Zia furrowed her brow.  When Aeryn noticed that she wasn’t getting anywhere, he excused them and pulled her aside near the desk.

“Casters can do spells to hide their appearance,” Zia theorized, “but they can’t usually get humans pregnant, can they?”

“Don’t let the victims wording affect your judgment,” Aeryn said, “look at what you know.  You have four women that slept with a man, they each got pregnant and he vanished.  They say he’s the same man.”

“I guess it could be different people,” Zia tried to think, “and it could just be a coincidence.”

“It’s not.”

“So you know what it is?” Zia looked up at him, and he nodded.  If he knew, why not just tell her?  Right, another test.  She started to search her brain for an answer, and only came up with one, “Incubus?”

“Good job,” Aeryn winked and it sent a jolt of excitement through Zia’s body.  He turned and leaned backwards on the counter, resting his elbows there as he surveyed the room.  The women, the victims, watched the Ventori, but began to converse among themselves. “It’s been at least a year, and it needs to be someone that’s close by all the time.  An Incubus’ magic takes time to affect someone.”

“So a volunteer?” Zia eyed the two men serving women.  It was the perfect opportunity for an Incubus; he could get close to the women, sleep with them, and when they got pregnant nobody would consider it a Specter crime.  It had gotten past Zia after all, but thankfully not Aeryn.  It did make Zia wonder, though, how many cases were thrown away, how many victims were ignored because a Ventori didn’t want to do it?

“The one on the left has been here the longest,” Aeryn mused.

Zia wasn’t so sure, and replied, “Maybe it isn’t who’s been here the longest, but who’s been here the least?”

Without telling her mentor her plan, she marched over to the man on the right.  When she tapped on his shoulder, she didn’t get the feeling that he was a Specter the way she did from the others, but she thought she saw his nose shift positions.  It was so slight, she almost missed his facial structure changing as he turned around.

“It’s you,” Zia declared, hands on her hips and ready to reach for her dagger.  The man furrowed his brow, his hair changing to a lighter shade of brown. 
Trinila came up behind.

“That isn’t him at all,” she said, and Zia waved her away.

“It’s an Incubus,” she explained, “they change their appearance to match their latest target.  He shifted his bone structure and hair colour to match what you would prefer.”

Trinila’s
mouth made a tiny “o”, and the Incubus shoved his hand against Zia’s shoulder.  Not expecting an attack, she stumbled backwards into Trinila and the Specter leapt over the nearest bed.  He went for the door, knocking down a tray on his way there, but Aeryn caught him, hooking his elbow around its throat.  He went down easy, and Aeryn applied the reduc-chains; the thing was now locked into his current form.

Trinila
helped straighten Zia, who was thoroughly embarrassed by being knocked down so easily.  She hurried over to Aeryn, leaving the pregnant women behind.

“We’ll take him over to the Ark,” Aeryn called to the women, who tried to advance on the man that had technically raped them, “I’ll be back later with the details of his trial.”

As he pushed the Incubus out the door, the women called out their thanks to them, to Aeryn.  Zia bowed her head in their direction, and followed her mentor.

“It was a little obvious,” she told the Specter under the afternoon light, “that it was you when you shifted your appearance right in front of me.”

“I thought it was my only way of tricking you,” he shrugged, clearly not too worried about being caught, “I had to match the boy in your head if I wanted you on my side.”

“I would never be on a Specter’s side,” Zia argued, her eyes sliding towards Aeryn.  They waited to cross the street, each keeping a hand on the Incubus.  He just laughed.

“Not that one,” he sang to her and leaned towards her to whisper in her ear, “but I would lie too, if I was a Ventori falling for that boy.”

“Knock it off,” Aeryn said, and he yanked on the Incubus to keep him away from Zia.  He hadn’t heard what it said to her, but he could tell she was spooked; more so than when she had found out about her brother.  He offered, “I can take him in alone, if you want.”