The Eyes of a Doll (The World of Shijuren Book 2) (10 page)

“Sevener.”

I looked up from Ludmilja. “Yes, Zvono?”

“We have some ideas.”

I nodded and gave Ludmilja back to Soraya. She had been asleep in my lap for the past hour and did not even notice when I handed her over.

I moved to my table, and we huddled over the scrolls.

“First, we need to make sure we know what your goals are.”

I paused to collect my thoughts. “Make sure that Honker and his family are safe.”

Anything else?

“Get the information Gibroz wants. Who is shipping what and when on the Kopayalitsa. He also wants to know who had Aca killed and make sure the appropriate message gets sent to others who might attack his people.”

Kapric and Zvono sighed, though Sebastijan grinned. I looked at the two quaesitors.

“I need to keep my oath with Gibroz. He needs to know I’ll do what I say.”

Kapric raised an eyebrow, and I answered his unspoken question. “I know I can’t trust him. I know he’d like to kill me, but he’s not the first. He gave me this information with the agreement that I’d tell him exactly what Ylli is doing. I’m not going to break my word, even to a man like Gibroz.”

“And that’s why.”

I looked at Sebastijan warily. “Why what?”

“Why I’m going to Lezh with you.”

I shook my head, but he continued.

“You can’t do this alone. None of the ideas we have will work with one person. You have to have help. Also, I’m not unknown in Lezh.”

“Gibroz thinks going to Lezh will get you killed almost immediately. And me too, come to think about it.”

“Was he talking about his people getting killed?”

I paused and nodded. “Yes, he was.”

“I’m not his people. I’m not anyone’s people, except those who hire me. Gibroz knows this. Katarina knows this. More importantly, Ylli knows this, and so do the others in Lezh.”

“So?”

“So they know I’ll do what I’m employed to do. If I come along, and we have a plausible reason to do business, then they’ll look at us not as competitors but potential partners.”

“You’re saying because of your reputation, Ylli will at least listen and negotiate. We figure out a business opportunity attractive enough to Ylli that he’ll work with us. We discover the information we want, and we make Honker Harald and his family’s safety part of the deal.”

I thought for a moment. “Tricky. We have to make sure that whatever information we get to Gibroz does not then make Ylli want to kill Honker in return.”

They nodded.

“Yes, we have to separate Honker and his family completely,” said Zvono.

“How are we going to do that?”

“Not sure. You’re going to have figure that one out once you’re working with Ylli.”

I shook my head.

“I can’t risk Honker and Soraya and the children on something that vague.”

“I understand your point, but do you have any suggestions that are more specific?”

I sat back and thought.

“Anything better at all?”

I finally shook my head.

“No, Sebastijan, I can’t think of anything even as good.”

They sighed and nodded.

I had a sudden thought. “Do we have to involve Ylli?”

“Do you think Gibroz sent the thugs to attack Honker?”

I shook my head. “No, nothing in it for him. He doesn’t care who gets to Aca’s killer, as long as someone does.”

“Katarina?”

“Not her style. She’d play with Honker first, probably try to threaten hiring his oldest daughter at Tresinova’s or something.”

Sebastijan nodded. “The threat of her becoming a whore would keep Honker in line, much more so than a simple beating.”

“Exactly. Katarina likes to give people bad choices and see which one they take.”

“What about Pal?” asked Zvono.

“Pal? Pal Gropa?”

Zvono nodded.

“How would he matter?”

“Katarina is using him,” said Zvono.

“Of course she is. We knew she would when she saved him instead of letting us take him that night.”

“How she is using him might be relevant.”

“Do you know what she’s planning?”

Kapric leaned in. “There’s some talk that she is giving Pal his own separate kral to run.”

“Make him a third kraljevic? That doesn’t seem wise.”

“Depends. If she can make it so there are three slices of pie, and she controls two of them, then she controls more than the half of the pie she has now.”

I nodded at that logic and then chuckled. “Plus, the idea of Pal to create conflict between himself and Gibroz would seem quite fun for her.”

“Are you saying this might be Pal’s style?”

“What do you think?”

I thought for a moment. “No, I don’t think Pal would do anything to Honker. He doesn’t care too much what Honker does or says now. He already knows he’s wanted for Marija’s murder. Aca’s murder matters nothing compared to that.”

“That leaves either someone we don’t expect here in Achrida or someone from out of town. Ylli is the only powerful person from out of Achrida that we know might be involved.”

I nodded. “So, we’re back to where we started a few minutes ago. Sebastijan and I go to Lezh. We start working with Ylli. We find out what we can and use that knowledge as leverage to protect Honker from both Ylli and Gibroz.”

They nodded.

“So how are we going to do this?” I asked.

Zvono turned her attention back to her wax tablet. “We think we have two good methods to get close to Ylli. What you get from him will be up to you at that point.”

I nodded.

“First, look at this goldsmith Timoshenko. He has been putting out some fine works decorated with gems not normally found around here. Gibroz thinks he’s getting those gems and some of his metals from east on the Kopayalitsa.”

“And?”

“And I know you have some armrings that might attract him. They’re of different designs than he’s likely to have ever seen. He could help us sell them.”

“Sell my armrings?” I could not imagine ever giving them up. My lord Penwulf, his father Cynric, and my father had given me those rings when I had earned them.

Yet…

I had planned to use some of them as money while I got settled here in the Empire. If I could use them for money, then I could use them to save Honker.

“You misunderstand, I think,” Zvono was saying. “We use the armrings you have to get Timoshenko to look at them. Then we see about creating a trade route from Brunanburh to Lezh.”

“But that will come by sea, and even if they were shipped overland they’d be coming from the north, not the east. How would we find out how Ylli is getting items across the Kopayalitsa?”

“You’re assuming the rings would stop in Lezh.”

“Oh. You’re thinking that we set up a trade route from the Seven Kingdoms through Lezh along the Kopayalitsa to Ylli’s factor on the other end at Anzhedonev and then to places farther east.”

“Exactly.”

“And we make Ylli or Timoshenko tell us who Ylli’s factor is.”

I paused, thinking it through.

“I wouldn’t need to smuggle them. It’s a legitimate idea.”

“That’s the beauty of it,” smirked Zvono. “It is a legitimate idea, it could make you money, but it would mean that Gibroz would have to get his cut if you shipped it the normal routes.”

“Ah.”

“Ah, indeed. You can easily point out the problems you’ve had with Gibroz. Few will doubt that you don’t want to share your wealth with him.”

I thought about that for a while.

“Will that get us to Ylli?”

“Timoshenko is a craftsman. I’ve met him,” said Sebastijan. “He doesn’t really care about anything other than making beautiful things. He’s part of Ylli’s organization because it provides him protection and resources. Ylli, in turn, takes a part of his profits.”

“So if we convince Timoshenko there’s a potential trade route, he will ask Ylli, or one of Ylli’s lieutenants, to organize the route itself.”

“Exactly.”

“What was your other idea?”

“This Besnik here. Did you look closely at how he’s described?”

“Yes, but I didn’t see anything particular about him, other than another of your odd Imperial names.”

Zvono smiled. “That’s not surprising, but did you see what he does?”

“Yes, he organizes caravans from Lezh to Achrida and back on Crownstreet. So?”

“So think about how guarded Gibroz is about his realm.”

“Yes?”

“This list of names refers to Besnik as a ‘useful man.’ None of the other names have any kind of reference that is similar. Why would he call Besnik that?”

“I don’t know.”

“Because I’ll bet that Besnik actually helps Gibroz smuggle small items of his own through Lezh.”

“Why didn’t he tell me that?”

“Because he is protective of his contacts. If you spot the clue and use it, he can console himself that you had to work for it.”

“I forget that a man who looks and talks like Gibroz can be so cunning.”

“It’s Achrida. I thought you learned that with the Gropas?”

I chuckled. “Even so, what does that mean?”

“It means that you can go to Besnik with a message supposedly from Gibroz to confirm the deal that they have to smuggle spices or something from Achrida through Lezh.”

“Blatantly lie?”

“Exactly.”

“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that.”

Kapric, Zvono, and Sebastijan laughed.

“You are definitely not from the Empire.”

I glared at Sebastijan. “No, I’m not.”

“The point is that we use this leverage to convince Besnik to either introduce us to Ylli as potential smugglers or tell us the information we want.”

“Brokering either arrangement is a job that I’d do,” Sebastijan added.

“Meaning Ylli would not see anything amiss.”

They nodded.

“What about Honker’s family?”

Zvono answered. “Again, you’re going to have to manipulate whoever you meet along the way.”

I sighed and nodded. “What if Besnik refuses or recants while we’re vulnerable?”

“He probably is already working around both Ylli and Gibroz. He’ll not want to call attention to that. We simply take the scroll and show him that special reference that Gibroz made. He’ll know it would make Ylli doubt Besnik and put his life at risk.”

“We hold that over Besnik’s head?”

“You’re not comfortable with either, are you?”

“No, I’m not.”

The three Achridans exchanged glances.

“The Timoshenko plan is stronger anyway. We can try nudging Besnik if that doesn’t work.”

“Sebastijan’s right,” agreed Zvono.

Kapric grunted something like approval.

I leaned back, shaking my head.

“Something wrong?”

“I think we’re missing something, Zvono.”

“What?”

“Well, who was the man who led the attack on Harald?”

“We don’t know yet.”

“Exactly, and that bothers me. Especially with these plans.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s assume that our initial expectation is correct, that Ylli is behind all of this. That means he’s most likely to have sent the thugs after Harald this morning.”

They nodded.

“The leader of the thugs had an Achridan accent. So, unless he changed his accent—which seems strange for a street thug beating on a guy like Honker—he’s not from Lezh.”

“You’re worried that if he has Achridans in his group now, they might mess with our plan?”

“I guess, Sebastijan. Actually, I just don’t like either of these plans, and unanswered questions make me worried.”

They nodded.

“It’ll get easier the longer you live in the Empire,” said Sebastijan smugly.

I glared at him. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

A round of chuckles answered that.

“Do we have any reason to wait past tomorrow?” I asked.

They shook their heads.

“You’re the most experienced at this sort thing, Sebastijan. What should I bring?”

“We’ll be there for several days. You’ll want your armor.”

He emptied his mug and stood up. “I have some preparations to make as well. I will meet you where the Old Road meets Crownstreet in the morning.”

“When?”

“Whenever you make it there, Sevener.”

Kapric raised his hand as Sebastijan turned to leave. “Go see Mother before you leave.”

Sebastijan nodded. “I shall,” he said as he left.