Magic Can Be Murder
Page 8

"Don't look," the soldier told her, which was good advice even if she was supposed to be the one who had cleaned up Innis's blood.
They entered the silversmith's shop. Even though everybody looked up when the two of them entered the room, the soldier introduced her, sounding as though she was receiving an audience: "The maid, Brinna, is back."
Pendaran's man Galvin smiled at her. Nobody, she thought, had ever been that pleased to see her when she looked like herself. "Hello," he said, immediately walking away from the other two men.
Nola was totally aware of her appearance. Brinna was a very attractive young woman, and Nola was sure that accounted for the considerate actencion she was getting, first from the soldier, now from Galvin. [fit was me, she thought, with hair as limp and straight as dead and dried grass, the other one would have said, "Came on, then, snap out of it," and this one wouldn't be so quick to smile at me.
Well, maybe he would have. They had Innis's ledger op^n, and Nola guessed Galvin and Kirwyn and Alan had been in the middle of trying to take an inventory, to determine if any of che silver had been stolen. Even now Kirwyn and Alan continued to debate whether the woman's bracelet with the embossed cross was missing or if it had been sold or if Master Innis had melted it down and made it into another item. Spend long enough doing that, she had to admit, and Galvin would have been sincerely relieved to see anyone.
"Well, it's about time," Kirwyn said to her. "Did you feel you had all day to loiter about the market, gossiping, keeping everyone waiting for you?" He made to step past Galvin.
Without even turning to face him, Galvin put his hand up, a definite "Enough, and step no further" gesture.
Kirwyn was used to more respect. He stopped, but scowled at Galvin's back.
Nola realized she was clinging to the soldier's arm when Galvin said, very seriously, as one might to a child, "Truly, I very rarely bite."
She forced herself to smile. But couldn't resist saying, "Nor do I. Usually."
His smile almost broadened, but he fought it, perhaps thinking the situation too serious for levity: talking to a woman who had discovered her employer only moments after he had been murdered. She remembered Brinna saying he had kind eyes. Were they? Hard to tell. They were gray and his hair - Nola had a tendency to notice hair - dark brown. He was probably used to women making a fuss over him, so she decided to like the soldier better, though he looked twice Galvin's age and not quite so clean.
As though to explain to Galvin why she was so apprehensive, the soldier said, "I gave Brinna quite a start in the kitchen. For a moment she thought I was the killer come back."
Galvin's attention, which had gone from Nola to the soldier, snapped back to Nola again. "Does Sergeant Halig bear a resemblance to the man who killed the silversmith?" he asked.
Sergeant Halig. Now she wouldn't have to ask, "What did you say your name was again?" and hope that he had introduced himself to Brinna. But as far as resembling innis's killer..."No," Nola said, for Kirwyn was younger, shorter, and smaller than Halig, with hair that was longer and darker than Halig's, which could almost have been called blond.
"How close a look did you get?"
Nola realized her mistake at once. Brinna had said Galvin was full of questions. "Well, not very close," she admitted. How could she come out and accuse Kirwyn without revealing herself? Even pretending she was Brinna didn't work. What could she say? I saw Kirwyn kill his father, only I didn't say anything about it last night, and I stayed in the house overnight because I knew that Kirwyn hadn't seen me see him, and I was waiting for you to  come so that I could tell all to you, except I didn't tell anybody else because I didn't want Kirwyn to have a chance to run away or to kill me, and then once you DID come, I took the first opportunity to get away from you because I absolutely needed to do the marketing. Galvin might look too young to have much experience in this sort of thing, but he didn't look that gullible. And what would happen when she left and the real Brinna came back and denied saying it at all?
"But," Galvin prompted, gentle but insistent, "you were close enough to see he didn't look like Halig?"
Nola considered, then decided that couldn't get her into trouble. "Yes," she said.
And what was that expression chat flickered across his face? Was he amused at her, or just trying co appear friendly and not frightening? He was definitely waiting for her to say more. What had Brinna seen? What was Brinna celling people in the market? It would be better for everyone, later on, if their stories matched. If only Nola could say enough, without putting herself or Brinna into trouble, to get Galvin to take notice of Kirwyn. She said, "I saw him only for an instant. From the back, as he was running away."
She caught the quick flicker of surprise in Galvin's eyes. He'd been paying attention before, but now he was scrutinizing her. She'd just said something wrong. Then it came to her: This was more than he expected. She remembered when she had looked into the bespelled puddle and she had heard Galvin calking to Alan. Galvin had asked whether Alan and Brinna opened the door leading into Innis's bedroom together. And Alan had said yes. They would have seen the same thing. She glanced at Alan, wondering what he'd said, what Brinna had said earlier and was now still saying in the market. Had either of them seen anything at all? Alan, she decided, looked surprised by her statement. She looked back at Galvin and realized that he'd seen her glance away from him. He didn't look over his shoulder, but surely he knew where everybody was standing.
She said, "I just saw the back of his head." Even that could be too much. "There was just the fleeting impression of brown hair, maybe a smaller build." What if they didn't suspect Kirwyn? What if they were so convinced it was an intruder that they found someone else, some poor innocent, who matched her description? She said, "But I may be wrong. Ic happened so fast and the light wasn't good. And I could see Master Innis on the floor, dead, and I was frightened, and distressed, and..." She was babbling again. She finished. "Confused."
Galvin asked, "Could you tell he was dead right away, or did you need to check?"
What in the world was he asking? And what was the right answer? "I ... hoped ... he wasn't."
Which they both realized wasn't an answer.
Behind Galvin, Alan said, "I checked to see if he was breathing. He was not."
It would help, Nola thought, if she could guess what was wrong, for something obviously was, though Galvin said nothing.
Kirwyn said, "He was definitely dead by the time I got there."
Nola fought to keep her face from showing amazed revulsion that he could say such a thing.
"And the silver?" Galvin asked her.
That she had learned in the market. "Scattered on the bed and floor," she answered confidently.
Kirwyn added, "Just as we've all told you before."
Galvin ignored him. "Did you notice anything missing - besides the money?"
And that she didn't know, She hoped he hadn't asked Brinna the same thing earlier. "I can't be sure nothing was taken," she said.
Kirwyn sighed. "I know we are all distraught over che terrible thing that has happened to my father, but that is no reason to be heedless. We must try to remember details so chat Lord Galvin can finish here quickly and find the man who did this."
"Exactly," Galvin said, despite Kirwyn's implication that he was wasting time. If he was being sarcastic, Nola thought, it didn't come through in his voice. He said, "Sergeant Halig, please help Master Kirwyn and Alan continue to check the books against what's here. Perhaps I will get things straight in my mind better if Brinna showed me about the house."
At last, the opportunity to get down to the root cellar. Of course, it would only work if she made sure she got there at least two steps ahead of him. And if she could only be sure all he wanted was to see the house.
Alan asked, "Are you feeling unwell, Brinna? You look..." He shook his head and didn't finish with any of the things Nola felt and knew she probably looked: worried, unsteady, afraid she might vomit from fear.
Instantly Halig moved to put himself between Alan and Nola, to prevent Alan from joining them. He knew Galvin wanted to be alone with her.
Galvin didn't take her arm, as Halig had earlier, but only motioned for her to precede him. He did, however, repeat what his sergeant had said, "I mean you no harm."
No, Nola thought. You just want to get me away from the others. At best that might mean he wanted to see if separated from Alan and Kirwyn she gave the same answers to his questions. But under the circumstances even that wasn't good.
"Sir," Halig said, and stepped aside to whisper something into Galvin's ear.
Galvin nodded, giving no indication of whether he was pleased, dismayed, or surprised by whatever his sergeant told him.
He just gestured to Nola to indicate for her to start moving.
Anxious to get to the bucket, anxious to get away from Alan in case he wanted to dispute her version of what had happened, Nola started moving. "Where did you want to look?" she asked as they walked into Innis's room.
She paused, assuming this was the logical place to start, but Galvin asked, "Is there anything more to see in here?" and she realized that, of course, this room was so logical a place to start that Galvin must have already thoroughly searched it, and no doubt Brinna had either seen or been aware of him doing so.
Putting the blame on him, she answered, "I would have thought you were finished, but I'm just an ignorant serving maid."
He said, "You were in the kitchen when you heard Master Innis cry out..."
She nodded and led him back down the hall into the kitchen.
Galvin indicated for her to sit down.
So much for "Show me about the house," Nola thought.
She was worried that he would sit closely next to her, but he remained standing - which, of course, made him tower over her. Well, then, it was to be serious questioning and not flirting. All in all, that was a relief.
"So," Galvin said, "Brinna. Is there anything you'd like to tell me?"
"Didn't I tell you everything before?" Nola asked, hoping to delay, hoping to learn something.
"Did you?" Galvin put his foot up on the bench next to her and leaned in, giving him the advantage of nearness to go with his previous advantage of height.
"Yes," Nola said. The table was already pressing into her back, and she couldn't retreat any further. "I caught just the merest glimpse of the man, and I'm not - "
Galvin interrupted. "What are you afraid of?"
Nola shrugged to indicate she didn't know what he was talking about.
"We won't let harm come to you."
It was the way he included Sergeant Halig - or perhaps by "we" he meant Lord Pendaran - that finally satisfied her that his interest in her was to learn more about the killing. She nodded, for Brinna would acknowledge what he had said. We won't let harm come to you. He probably meant that they would protect her from the culprit if she incriminated someone. But in truth, he and Halig and Pendaran and people like them were the biggest threat to her and her mother.
"Start at the beginning."
Because she didn't know exactly what Brinna had seen, what she had said, Nola countered with, "I was born."
Finally he looked exasperated with her. "Had a bad morning at the market, did you?"
She smiled innocently.
"Couldn't find a thing to buy?"
Nola worked to keep her face blank. Fool! she called herself. Of course Halig would have noticed that she'd returned from shopping without anything, without even the basket she had left with. That would be what he had told Galvin, and now that they were here in the kitchen, Galvin could see for himself.
She said, "People kept crowding me and pushing me and wanting to know all about last night and asking me the same questions over and over, and I couldn't stand it anymore. I couldn't breathe." It was how she sometimes felt when she became convinced people suspected her of being a witch. "I panicked. I dropped my basket and ran home."
"All right," he said. Did he believe her? He had a tendency to say everything so mildly that she couldn't tell if he was thinking The poor thing! or Liar! She was more inclined to believe the first, but she told herself that was just foolish wishful thinking. And then he spoiled everything by asking, "Are you afraid of Alan?"
Alan? He was suspicious of Alan?
"Oh, for goodness' sake!" she blurted out in exasperation. Too many years of being afraid, of seeing justice gone awry, of having to hide because she was a witch while she saw dishonest folk get richer and richer - all this caught up with her. "That's just like someone in authority: arrogant, corrupt, a bully, and first chance you get, jumping to the wrong conclusion."
His eyes widened in surprise. A bit-too-innocent surprise, she thought, a moment before he spoke. "You are perceptive to see all that on such short acquaintance. I usually try to hide at least some of my worst qualities so people don't guess what I truly am till I've said at least five or six sentences."
Nola, she told herself, if you don't force this man into  being your enemy, you'll be luckier than you deserve. By trying to hide her fear, she was being so surly she was forcing a confrontation. Still, she couldn't resist finishing, "And too clever for your own good."
"Can someone be too clever for his own good?"
Oh, yes, she could have said. But she estimated she had already said far too much. She was fortunate that so far he seemed more amused than annoyed. That, she could thank Brinna's good looks for. If a plain girl acted this way, he wouldn't have taken it. She looked down at her hands in her lap.
Galvin sighed. "You were in the kitchen...," he prompted.
She nodded. "Scrubbing the floor. Cleaning up after supper." She remembered the crock of beans she had seen. "I was preparing for the next day's supper."
"Alone?"