Thraxas and the Ice Dragon - By Martin Scott Page 0,58

to recent events, and worries about losing her. That would only leave me, and I'm always liable to get drunk and let her down.

"I can't see Lisutaris really falling for Kublinos," I tell her. "He wears that fancy cloak. Probably not Lisutaris's type."

"You have no idea what Lisutaris's type would be, do you?" says Makri.

"None at all. Here's the Record House. Prepare for some extended studying."

We have two hours before we're due at the tournament fields. Upstairs in the record house, I drag another chair over to the table in the corner, then carry on reading. Makri starts working her way through the contents of the shelves on the left and I take the cabinets on the right.

"This is hopeless," I say, after wading through a court report about some merchants who'd been swindled. "I can't take much more."

"We've only been here ten minutes."

"It feels like ten hours."

"I like it. It's interesting."

I sigh, and get back to work. I struggle through another court case concerning a merchant's complaint that he'd been cheated in a land deal, When he put up the funds for what was supposed to be a valuable Queenstone mine in the mountains, only for it to turn out worthless. I'm mildly surprised to notice that a co-signatory to the law suit is Baron Vosanos, who apparently lost a lot of money too. That will teach him to be greedy. I wonder if Baroness Demelzos knows about it. Perhaps her son isn't marrying into quite as rich a family as she thought. I turn to Makri and tell her that I really can't go on any longer. "My head's swimming with all these documents."

Makri shrugs. "If you want justice you need to do the work."

"Who said anything about justice? I'm earning a fee and helping Demelzos. Justice doesn't come into it."

"Well it should. Alceten deserves justice."

"Since when did you care about Alceten?"

"Since I discovered she was murdered and nobody cared," says Makri.

I shake my head. Makri does get these odd ideas occasionally. She has a tendency to start going on about rights and justice, particularly where women are concerned. I blame the philosopher Samanatius. He was a bad influence.

"This is Samsarina. Justice here is in even shorter supply than it was in Turai. If it turns out that Alceten was murdered, and someone influential was responsible, then forget about justice. It'll just be covered up."

"Then why are you even bothering to investigate?" asks Makri.

"I told you. To help the Baroness. If I can solve this, and find out who's responsible, Demelzos will be able to protect her daughter. But that's as far as it will go. I've got no great hopes of sending anyone to court for murder. Samsarina doesn't work like that. The Barons have too much power to be held to account."

"Do you think one of them was responsible?"

"Directly responsible? I doubt it. But it would need money and influence to organise the murder, and more to make sure people didn't talk afterwards. So someone well-connected was behind it. Anyone who's well-connected here ultimately has some Baron or other looking after him."

Makri isn't satisfied. "Are you saying that even if you find out who did it, nothing will happen?"

"Probably. If the killer is being protected by a Baron, only the King could do anything about it. You've seen what the King is like. He's so young and inexperienced, he won't want to alienate anyone powerful."

"So someone can just kill a young woman and get away with it?"

"Yes."

"Maybe I could make sure they don't."

I stare at Makri. "Abandon any thoughts of vigilante activity. It will reflect badly on Lisutaris."

"I'll bear that in mind," says Makri, and gets back to her scroll. We read in silence for a while. I glance over my shoulder a few times at the marked candle, wishing that time would pass more quickly.

"I haven't felt like this since I was at school," I mutter.

"You actually went to school?"

"St Alembiun's Institute for the Children of Disadvantaged Turanian Citizens. One of the worst educational hell-holes in the city. I still dislike St Alembiun, whoever he was."

"A minor saint from Mattesh, before the True Church revised their canon," Makri informs me.

"Have you ever thought you might have learned too many things?"

"I thought you said Baron Vosanos was rich," says Makri.

"He is."

"Then why's he being sued for non-payment of taxes?"

"Let me see that." Makri has been studying a large tome of court documents, lists of upcoming cases. Baron Vosanos is indeed named in one of these case,