Pathfinder Tales: Shy Knives by Sam Sykes

Author:Sam Sykes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

14

Empty Bottles

All right, so, the good news is that I don’t think that Alarin’s behind Gerowan’s murder. I recommend you hold onto that bit, because that’s about all the good news you’re going to get. What is this? Whiskey? I thought I finished this bottle.

“Anyway—woo, that stuff packs a kick, doesn’t it?—I found a note in Alarin’s study from one Lady Vishera Stelvan. Apparently, he’s been pushing rather hard for a marriage between her son and a cousin of his. That in itself isn’t too interesting, unless Alarin thought Gerowan was a problem for some reason, which isn’t too likely.

“Sorry, did you want any? No? Well, don’t say I didn’t offer. Anyway, the note I found there completely matched the penmanship of the note I found in Halamox’s stable—I mean, his camp. Hah. Sorry. Long night. Anyway, I was going to come back down and tell you about it when someone smashed me in the back of the head with a dagger hilt.

“I’m fine, for the record. Nothing another few sips of this can’t cure. Now, I don’t want to bore you with the details, but it turns out I have maybe … four days to solve this thing before someone cuts me into little pieces and feeds me to sharks—or rats. Sometimes it’s rats. Naturally, if I die before solving it, you can keep the latter portion of my payment, no worries.

“So, long story short, I’m thinking I’ll break into Stelvan’s manor tomorrow night and see if I can’t find anything explaining if she’s behind Gerowan’s murder and, from then, we can use it to accuse her in a court of law. Then you pay me, I ride off into the sunset and—and this is crucial—we don’t spend a lot of time asking questions.”

I took a deep breath. I smiled across the table. I swirled the whiskey in my cup and took another sip.

“So,” I said, “how was the rest of the party? Did you have a good time?”

To her credit, Dalaris, as she stared at me and blinked once, looked like she had taken the news rather well.

“WHAT?”

For about a second.

“Okay,” I said, holding up my hands, “I know that technically, just screaming ‘what’ is more of an exclamation, but I still count it as a question and I was quite clear in—”

“No! NO!” Each of Dalaris’s words was punctuated with a flail of her fists that I might have found petulant, were they not also accompanied by bright bursts of light from her eyes. “You can’t just come in and tell me this! You can’t drop this … this madness on me!

“Which part? There was a lot of mad stuff I just told you.”

“All of it! Any of it!” Dalaris shrieked. “I was mostly willing to explore the possibility of Alarin because I was largely convinced he wasn’t at fault!”

“And he’s not. What’s the problem?”

“The problem is that not only are you telling me that you suspect House Stelvan, a house so far beyond mine that it

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