Off Armageddon Reef (28 page)

“You can't be serious, Bynzhamyn!” the Earl of Gray Harbor protested.

“I know you don't want to hear this, Rayjhis,” Wave Thunder said, “but I can't justify not taking it seriously.”

“And have you told His Majesty about it?” Gray Harbor demanded.

“Not yet,” Wave Thunder conceded. “His Majesty and Cayleb are even closer to the duke than you are. Until and unless I'm certain there's a fire somewhere under all this smoke, I'm not going to tell them anything which could hurt them this badly on a personal level. Surely you don't think I enjoy telling
you
that someone I know is this close to you and your daughter, the father of your grandchildren, could be a traitor?”

Gray Harbor looked across at him with narrow eyes. The two of them sat in facing armchairs in a private sitting room in Gray Harbor Hall, the earl's Tellesberg mansion. Each of them held a half-filled glass, and a bottle of excellent Siddarmark whiskey sat on a table at the earl's elbow. It was late afternoon, and heavy weather was rolling in from the southwest, sweeping through the passes of the Styvyn Mountains and in from the Cauldron, that shallow, current-wracked stretch of seawater between Charis and Tarot Island. The rising wind drove heavier waves against the harbor's breakwaters, and all along the waterfront crews were battening down in preparation for heavy weather. Overhead, the morning's sunlight had turned into the heavy dimness of cloudy early evening, and thunder muttered ominously. The clouds which had obscured the sun were black-bottomed and thick, and lightning flickered here and there among them.

The weather, Wave Thunder thought, was an unfortunately apt mirror of the tension inside this sitting room.

“No, of course I don't think you enjoy telling me,” Gray Harbor said finally. “Which doesn't mean I think you're right, however.”

“Believe me,” Wave Thunder said with the utmost sincerity, “in this case, I would far, far rather discover my suspicions are misplaced. And I have no intention of damaging the King's relationship with his cousin until and unless I'm certain there's a reason to.”

“But you're not quite that concerned about
my
relationship with Kahlvyn?” Gray Harbor said with a wintry smile.

“You know better than that, Rayjhis.” This time there was a bit of bite in Wave Thunder's voice, and he met the earl's eyes very levelly. “I wouldn't have told you anything until I knew one way or the other, either, if the law didn't require me to.”

Gray Harbor gazed at him again for a second or two, and then, unhappily, nodded.

The law was very clear, and had been since Haarahld's great-grandfather's day. In Charis, unlike most other lands, not even the most commonly born man could simply be seized and hauled off to prison. Not legally, at any rate, although Gray Harbor knew as well as any that the law had been bent, and even outright violated, upon occasion. Legally, however, any citizen of Charis must be charged with some specific offense before a King's Magistrate before he could be imprisoned, even on suspicion, by the secular authorities. And he must be convicted of that offense before the King's Bench before he could be kept there. The Church's courts were another matter entirely, of course, and there was a certain tension between Crown and Church as a result, but both Haarahld and Bishop Executor Zherald attempted to minimize it as much as possible.

Nobles enjoyed considerably greater protection, however, even in Charis. Which, Gray Harbor would have said (if he'd ever bothered to consider the point at all), was the way it ought to be. In the case of a noble of Kahlvyn Ahrmahk's stature, even the Crown was required to move carefully. Wave Thunder could not legally initiate the sort of investigation he obviously intended to propose without the express approval of the king…or of his first councillor. In fact, it was entirely possible, if Gray Harbor wanted to be a stickler about it, that Wave Thunder had already exceeded his legal authority in this case.

A part of the earl was tempted to make that point, but he put the temptation aside. The very idea that Kahlvyn could possibly be a traitor was beyond ridiculous, yet Wave Thunder was right. He did have a responsibility to examine even the most ludicrous allegations. And the fact that Kahlvyn was Gray Harbor's son-in-law only made the situation more painful for both of them.

“I know you wouldn't have told me if you hadn't had to, Bynzhamyn,” Gray Harbor sighed after a moment. “And I know this is damned awkward. I think the entire idea is preposterous, and more than a little insulting, but I know where the original…accusation came from. Personally, I think this so-called
seijin
has overreached himself, and I'm looking forward to seeing him try to explain to His Majesty why he's seen fit to falsely impugn the honor of a member of His Majesty's own family. But I realize you need my authorization before you can continue. So, tell me what you suspect and how you intend to prove or disprove your suspicions. Unless, of course,” he smiled thinly, “‘
Seijin
Merlin' has seen fit to accuse
me
of treason, as well.”

“Of course he hasn't,” Wave Thunder said gruffly, then looked down into his whiskey glass. He considered the clear, amber depths for a moment or two, then took a sip and looked back up at his host.

“Very well, Rayjhis,” he said. “Here's what we have so far. First—”

Thunder rumbled, loud and harsh, crashing across the heavens, and Rayjhis Yowance, Earl of Gray Harbor, stood looking out an open window across the immaculate garden of his townhouse. Wind whipped branches and flowering shrubbery, flogging the dark, glossy leaves to show their lighter under surfaces; the air seemed to prickle on his skin; and he smelled the sharp, distinctive scent of lightning.

Not long
, he thought.
Not long until the storm breaks
.

He lifted his whiskey glass and drank, feeling its hot, honeyed fire burn down the back of his throat as he gazed into the darkness. Lightning flared suddenly out over the whitecapped harbor, flaming through the clouds like the braided whip of Langhorne's
Rakurai
, etching the entire world ever so briefly in livid, blinding light, and fresh thunder exploded, louder than ever, in its wake.

Gray Harbor watched for a few more seconds, then turned away and looked around the comfortable, lamplit sitting room Wave Thunder had left a little more than two hours ago.

The earl walked back across to his armchair, poured more whiskey, and sat. His mind insisted upon replaying everything Wave Thunder had said, and he closed his eyes in pain.

It can't be true
, he thought.
It
can't
be
.
There has to be some other explanation, some other answer
,
whatever Seafarmer and Bynzhamyn may think
.

But he was no longer as confident of that as he had been, and that lost assurance hurt. It hurt far worse than he'd believed it possibly could when he'd been so certain it could never happen.

He opened his eyes once more, staring out the window, waiting for the first crashing waterfall of the gathering storm.

He'd been prepared to reject any possibility of his son-in-law's guilt. Not simply because Kahlvyn was the king's cousin, next in line for the throne after Haarahld's own children and the designated regent for his minor children, should something happen to Haarahld and Cayleb. Not simply because of Kahlvyn's importance to the kingdom. And not simply because of the undoubted additional power and influence which his daughter's marriage to the duke had brought to Gray Harbor's own position, or because Kahlvyn had always been his staunch ally on the Privy Council and in Parliament.

No. He'd been prepared to reject that possibility because Kahlvyn had always been a kind and loving husband to his daughter, Zhenyfyr, and a doting father to her two children. Because he'd stepped into the place of Gray Harbor's long-dead son Charlz.

Because the Earl of Gray Harbor loved his son-in-law.

But, he admitted grimly to himself, if it had been anyone else, he would have found Wave Thunder's suspicions…persuasive.

Not conclusive!
he told himself, rallying gamely. But then his shoulders sagged again.
No, not conclusive
,
but suggestive enough that they have to be investigated. Suggestive enough that they have to affect the way Haarahld feels about him, the extent to which Haarahld can trust him
. Damn
that so-called
seijin!

He could have dismissed all of it without a qualm, but for the deaths of Seafarmer's investigators in Hairatha…and Kahlvyn's association in ventures with known Emerald trading interests. Like many nobles, Kahlvyn sometimes found the expense involved in maintaining the appearances expected of a man of his rank punishing, and his own taste for expensive hunting hounds, wyverns, and lizards, and for occasional high-stakes wagers, put even more demands on his purse. He was far from a poor man, yet the financial strain was undeniable, upon occasion, and although that was scarcely common knowledge, Gray Harbor had known about it for years. But somehow, whenever funds seemed to be growing a bit tight, one or another of his trading ventures always succeeded. And just a few too many of them, the earl knew now, involved partnerships with men whose ultimate loyalty was suspect, to say the very least.

But there's no evidence Kahlvyn knows he's dealing with people like that
, Gray Harbor thought.
His duties are mainly military, and he's not anywhere near as deeply involved as Bynzhamyn and I in the day-to-day effort to ferret out Nahrmahn's agents. He's never been briefed as thoroughly as I have. As far as I know, he's never had any reason to question the loyalty of his partners…or wonder if some of them have been using him without his knowledge
.

The earl brooded over his whiskey glass as thunder rolled and rumbled again. The blue-white flicker of lightning flared once more, driving eye-searing fury across storm-purple heavens, and he heard the first few raindrops pelt down on the townhouse's slate roof.

Was it truly possible that Kahlvyn—his son-in-law, the king's first cousin—was a traitor? Could he have fooled
everyone
that completely for so long? Or was it all still a mistake? Only a matter of circumstantial evidence which ultimately meant nothing? Nothing but appearances manipulated into something suspicious by “
Seijin
Merlin's” accusations?

The earl drained his glass and refilled it. He knew he shouldn't. Knew he'd already drunk enough to impair his judgment. But it helped with the pain.

He ran back over Wave Thunder's proposal, and his jaw tightened. The most damning evidence—if it could be called that—against Kahlvyn were the deaths of Seafarmer's investigators in Hairatha. The investigators whose identities only he had known. So Seafarmer proposed to give him the identity of another of his investigators, along with the information that the man in question was hot on the heels of a highly placed Emerald agent. From Seafarmer's description of the suspected agent, it would be apparent to Kahlvyn (assuming he was actually guilty) that the agent was one of Kahlvyn's own business partners.

And if he
is
guilty,
Gray Harbor thought grimly,
Seafarmer's new investigator will go the same way as his predecessors. Or that's what would happen without the dozen additional men Kahlvyn
won't
know about
.

If there was an attempt on Seafarmer's man, or if the suspect in question abruptly disappeared, it still wouldn't
prove
anything. But the circumstances would be utterly damning, and a full-scale investigation would become inevitable.

Gray Harbor emptied the whiskey glass yet again, and refilled it. He was halfway through the second bottle, he noticed, and grimaced.