Pendant of Fortune (24 page)

“
There will be.” Dereath’s words were cut off by the slamming of the door.

Archie walked out into the parlor and stopped, inclining his head curiously at Volle. “I take it the talk didn’t go well,” he said, folding his arms.

Volle took a deep breath, letting his ears come up and trying to relax. “You could say that.”

“
That’s too bad. Captain Nero was counting on getting some more information.”

“
I’m sorry. De—” He couldn’t bring himself to speak the rat’s name. “Lord Fardew is being rather unreasonable.”

Nero joined them. “What did he say to you?”

“
He wanted…” Volle grimaced. “Physical compensation. For letting me in.”

“
Lord Vinton, if you’re going to make up stories, at least make up credible ones.” Dereath’s voice purred behind him.

Volle spun to face the door, which had opened silently. Dereath stood there, leaning against the doorframe. His eyes were half-lidded and he wore a faintly amused smirk on his muzzle. “The truth isn’t credible?” Volle snapped.

“
The
truth
,” Dereath said, “is that Lord Vinton, knowing how important this interview is to your investigation, Captain Nero, would not agree to disclose everything the wolf told him, unconditionally. When you are ready to be more reasonable, Lord Vinton, you may come see me again.” He slid back into his room and closed the door.

Volle stared after him, muzzle hanging open. He turned to Nero and Archie, aware that his ears were pinned back again. “That…he…”

“
Don’t ask us to believe you instead of him, Lord Vinton. It’s your word against his. Right now I have no reason to believe one over the other,” Nero rumbled, holding up a paw.

“
You
can’t
believe that! I was telling you the truth!”

“
And are you prepared to disclose anything he might tell you to us, unconditionally?”

“
I…” Volle paused. Say yes! a voice shrieked, but he restrained himself. As a matter of fact, he wasn’t willing to. “I would disclose anything that pertained to the murder.” Even that, he felt, was a bit too bold. Technically, because the murder victim was a witness, anything pertaining to his hearing would also pertain to the murder.

“
And who would decide that?”

“
All right. Forget it.” He didn’t mean to snap, but the words came out that way anyway. He started to walk to the door, but Nero’s soft voice stopped him.

“
I would like to talk a bit more with you, Lord Vinton, if I might, about that night and your movements.”

“
Fine,” Volle growled. “Not here.”

“
Of course. We can move to my chambers if you like. Or somewhere else if you’re more comfortable.”

By the time they reached Nero’s chambers, Volle had managed to calm himself down. Archie was trying to keep a lighthearted tone in the conversation, sticking to subjects like the huge mess the King’s horses had caused when the caravan stopped just outside Ikling, and it was that as much as Nero’s carefully neutral demeanor that helped Volle get himself under control.

Nero’s apartments were barely furnished at all. Volle stepped into the parlor and looked around with some surprise. The floor was bare, and the three wooden chairs were very plain, though the largest did have a dusty-looking cushion on it. There was no desk, no sideboard, and no table. The door that probably led into the bedroom was slightly ajar, but Volle didn’t try too hard to peek into it. “None of this looks like it came from the palace.”

“
It didn’t,” Nero said. “By the time I learned I would be able to accompany the King, it was too late for me to gather any of my belongings.” He sighed. “I would like to have brought some of my flowers, but I do not think this climate would have suited them.”

“
Why did you come along, if you don’t usually?” Volle was suddenly curious.

“
My doing, I’m afraid.” Archie grinned. “I had met Captain Nero once before, when I visited the capital, and I tried to implement some of his policies and methods here. We keep good historical records now, at least, though our thoroughness in some cases is still lacking. I hoped to discuss some methods with him, and I thought that the two weeks’ rest would let him start writing the book he wants to write.”

“
But you didn’t come until the last minute?”

Nero, having settled his frame onto the cushioned chair, coughed as he shook his head. “The King had filled the party with invitations to nobles. The week before the retreat, Lord Ullik suffered a bad attack of gout and was pronounced unfit to travel. Lord Ikling petitioned that I be allowed to take his place, and the King was gracious enough to grant the favor. Fortuitously, as it turns out.”

“
That means ‘luckily’ to you and me,” Archie said with a wink at Volle.

“
Quite.” Nero waved a paw lazily at Archie. “Be a good fellow and see if there’s some tea in the kitchen still, would you?”

Archie rolled his eyes. “I wish you’d had time to pack a valet.” He slipped out the door, closing it behind him.

Nero waved Volle to a chair. “Lord Vinton, I was hoping to talk to you about a matter of some sensitivity.”

Volle sat down warily, ears perked forward. He didn’t say anything, and after a moment, Nero continued. “I need to know how important the victim was as a witness in your trial.”

“
Ah.” Volle sat back, looking at his paws as he formulated his answer. “The truth is, I don’t know. I don’t believe I’ve ever met her, but I don’t know, of course. I never got to see her.”

“
We might be able to provide you with a chance to see her, if you think it would be useful.”

“
I didn’t know her scent, and I don’t think seeing her would change my mind one way or another. So she might have been very important, I suppose, because I don’t know what she’d been told to say.”

“
So you doubt her testimony?”

“
Of course. I am innocent, so any witnesses to my guilt must be lying.”

“
I see.” Nero eyed the door for a moment, then went on. “Is there a chance that she saw something that could be construed as evidence against you?”

Volle threw up his paws. “Of course. Or she could have been instructed to say something. It doesn’t really matter now, does it?”

“
It does if her testimony was real,” the wolf said, a trace of irritation in his tone. “Which is what I am trying to establish.”

“
I don’t think it was real.”

“
But Lord Fardew seemed to indicate that she was crucial to his case.”

“
I don’t know why. I told you, I’ve never smelled that scent before.” He realized he couldn’t very well say that she was nowhere around when he took the documents, so he paused and then said, “If she were a servant from the palace, I’d have run into her at some point.”

The wolf nodded. “She was unfamiliar to me as well. But I don’t spend a lot of time in the palace. Lord Vinton, I’m sure you can see where this is going. Do you feel your chances of winning your hearing are greater now that Lord Fardew’s witness is dead?”

Volle sighed. He didn’t think a lie would be credible, but he knew the truth would make him—and Streak—look bad. He looked down at the floor and then back up at Captain Nero. The wolf’s squarish muzzle faced his, impassive and waiting. “Yes. Probably.”

“
All right.”

“
But I don’t know what she was going to say.”

The wolf tilted his muzzle. “As we said, if Lord Fardew planned to call her, it can’t have been anything that would help your case.”

“
Then why did you have to ask me?”

“
I wanted to know how much of a threat you considered her. An unknown quantity could be quite a considerable threat, and its sudden appearance could provoke a rash action.”

“
But it didn’t.”

“
Not on your part, perhaps.” Nero’s whiskers twitched, and he brought a paw up to stroke them. “You seem to be a very intelligent fox, and one who reacts very well to unplanned situations. I don’t think you would be prone to rash actions.”

Volle detected the slightest emphasis on ‘you.’ He let it pass. “I assure you, I did not feel particularly threatened by the news of this witness. I was a bit worried, and puzzled.”

“
Because you’re innocent.”

“
Yes. And I don’t believe I said anything that would worry Streak.”

“
Did he know enough to get worried by himself?”

Volle chewed his lip and hesitated, again. The more he thought about Streak and his mood from that night, the more he seemed tense and worried in retrospect. But had he been tense before he’d asked about the witness? Or only after? He honestly couldn’t remember now. Streak had certainly known enough about the case to be aware that the lack of witnesses was a large part of their defense, so there was really no reason for Volle to hesitate. Of course Streak knew enough to get upset.

He opened his muzzle to answer, and wondered suddenly if Nero were fishing for some ground to go back and question Streak himself, now that Dereath had kept Volle out. “Are you going to go ask him questions?”

“
I reserve that right. But I’ve already asked him about the victim and he claims he’d never seen her before and didn’t know her.”

Volle heard Archie outside a few seconds before the weasel pushed the door open, balancing three small cups of tea on a tray. “You’re in luck, Captain,” he said. “They were just taking the pot off the fire.”

“
Thank you, Archie. Now, Lord Vinton, let’s discuss your actions on the night of the murder.”

Volle rehashed what he’d told the wolf the last time they’d talked, adding as much detail as he could remember. He was deliberately vague about Streak’s state of mind, making him out to be generally tense, but not determined or afraid. Nero didn’t ask him much about Streak’s state of mind anyway, sticking more to exact movements and times. He seemed particularly interested in the time between Volle learning about the witness and dinner, and finally Volle was forced to admit that he and Streak had snuck out of the castle together.

“
For what purpose?”

“
Well…” Volle searched for the proper way to phrase it. “He’s a young wolf, and sometimes impatient, and he thought it would be exciting…you know, he didn’t want to wait until we were back at our room.”

“
Oh. I see.” Nero flicked his ears.

Archie grinned over the wolf’s shoulder and winked at Volle, then composed himself. “Can anyone else verify the time that Streak learned about the witness?”

“
Lord Tistunish, maybe. He was discussing it with us.”

Nero half-turned. “We’ve talked to him already, and he did allude to that, Archie.”

“
All right. I suppose it’s in the notes.”

“
I should hope so.” Nero harrumphed and adjusted himself in his chair. “Thank you, Lord Vinton. I don’t think I need to ask you anything else. Will you be available tomorrow?”

Volle shook his head as he got up. “I’m going to the Burning Waters resort to spend the day with Lord and Lady Dewanne. But if you need me, you can find me there.”

“
I’m not familiar with that establishment.”

“
Neither am I.” He shrugged. “I was told it would be easy to find. I’m sure if I can find it, you’ll have no trouble.”

Nero nodded curtly, but his whiskers twitched in what Volle interpreted as amusement. He waved back to Archie and left the room.

For a time, he wandered the corridors of the castle aimlessly. When he found himself near the north tower, he turned deliberately away from it, not wanting to confront the guard and remind himself of what was happening to Streak. A few passages later, the scents of spiced meat and roasting vegetables reached his nostrils. He followed them to the kitchen, where a servant told him dinner would be served in about an hour.

He considered seeking out Tish, but decided that he needed some time to be alone and think. Restlessness and a feeling of suffocation led him further up, until a chilly breeze that smelled of rain led him to a crumbling staircase. He navigated cautiously up it and emerged into the cold wind on a narrow parapet, with ancient stone walls to his left and the mountain falling away to his right.

Overhead, clouds massed, but the scent of rain was just a threat; the skies remained dry. Volle walked along the parapet, taking careful steps and avoiding the cracked slabs where he could. Twice he had to jump over small gaps, but apart from that, the walk wasn’t difficult. When he reached the corner, he could see down the mountain, where Helfer’s red-roofed mansion was just visible through a screen of trees. To his left, the walls dropped away into the main courtyard. He glanced down, but nobody was about, and when he stood against the outer wall, he felt securely hidden from any eyes below.