The Sultan's Spy

Chapter 43: Connections

Ajani reclaimed his seat behind the small desk that almost filled the back end of his small office. Eliska sat across from him, hemmed in on each side by wide bookshelves stuffed haphazardly with papers and books. She couldn't make sense of it, but she was aware Ajani knew where absolutely everything in his office was.

"Well, Bright Joy, you certainly didn't take any half-measures." He tossed a second folded paper beside the first, leaning forward and steepling his fingers in front of his face. "Take a look and let me know what you think."

Opening the first note, the more crumpled state telling her which one it was, she frowned. The paper was a jumble of letters that made up nonsense words. Eliska sighed, recognizing the cipher for what it was. If it was a simple one, it wouldn't take long to crack it, but if it was one using a keyword, then it would be incredibly difficult to break it without the word used to create the cipher. It was why her and the others shadows used that kind.

"Did you search Diallo's rooms to see if there were any other papers?"

Ajani nodded. "He says he burned them. He's a clever boy and I don't believe he's lying. Leaving that kind of thing around would certainly invite questions, not that his care saved him. I will be questioning him properly shortly, but from the little I did gather, he won't have kept anything that could prove troublesome to him. I will have to be most persuasive to get him to tell me everything he knows."

The smile Ajani wore was dark and sharp, his eyes glittering dangerously on the last words. Eliska nodded, knowing just how convincing Ajani could be. "Will you need to borrow Almira? If we can get this rolled up quickly, it shouldn't be dangerous for her to know."

"No, no need to bother sweet little Almira with this. She's has quite enough work to do as it is. And you know as well as I do that she's not to know about the shadows, and this incident gets perilously close to that."

She shrugged. Ajani would know better than her whether this was important enough to bother her sister about. She still thought it would be useful to have Almira there to let them know what was true and what wasn't. Eliska reached out and snagged the other note, flipping it open and studying it.

It was similar to the first with its jumble of letters that made no sense. The handwriting of this one was different, finer, far more precise. Something she'd expect to see in properly filed documents or books. "Whoever wrote this one has education of some form."

Ajani nodded. "That was my guess as well."

Bringing the paper closer to her face, Eliska studied, eyes narrowed. The paper was pretty standard palace stock, the ink the same, but her nose twitched slightly at the faint scent still emanating from it. She inhaled more deeply and her nose was able to identify the hint of storax rising from the page.

She straightened, frowning. Most people didn't use storax anymore, it was considered old-fashioned as the tradition of using it to purify air had fallen by the wayside decades ago, so it wasn't often she smelled it anymore. There were a few of the older officials who still liked to burn it, but no one in the harem did. Eliska only recognized the scent as she'd been taught the medicinal uses during her training and she'd been sick enough of the stuff after only a few days with it. Perfume-wise, she'd always preferred sandalwood.

Something tickled the back of her mind, some memory attached to the storax scent. Not from her days in the shadow school, but something more recent. Something that had happened in the palace...

Eliska shook her head, the memory eluding her. "I smell storax on the paper. It's faint, but hard to miss." She handed the paper to Ajani.

Eyebrows up, he brought the note up to his nose and breathed in. He closed his eyes for a moment then nodded as he opened them. "You are indeed right, Bright Joy. Not many people use storax these days. The only time I smell it is when I visit Israr in his office. He still burns it every few days for purification."

The name froze the flitting scene from Eliska's past where it was and she nodded. "That's where I smelled it last! Israr was burning it in his office before he had a meeting with his aides, some people from the army and Kasimer..."

Eliska trailed off as the full import of her own words settled onto her shoulders. Israr was well known for his habit of burning storax, something occasionally laughed at by younger men at court who saw him as a foolish old man. She grimaced. "This isn't good."

Ajani's face was just as sober as hers. "Indeed, it isn't. While there are other men who still believe in purifying with storax, it's fallen enough out of favour that only Israr is well known for it. It could very well be a misdirect, something done so he becomes our suspect and the guilty party can slip away, but there's a chance it's not. The scent is faint enough that we almost missed it."

She nodded slowly, not liking the path her mind was taken down. "That's a possibility as is the fact there are others who use storax still. There are probably more than a few we simply don't know about as they keep it quiet. I'll ask Lizina when she returns what the word among the servants is, and I'm sure we can find everyone who still burns the stuff."

"It doesn't change the fact that Israr is the most obvious suspect."

Eliska sighed. "I know, but he's been with the family so long that I hate to suspect him. How has he been lately?"

Ajani shrugged. "The same as always from what I've seen. Lizina will know more."

"Then we'll have to leave it at that for now. This could very well just be a case of Israr gathering information through the use of others. Practically every official in the palace spies on everyone else, directly or indirectly."

"They do. But not everyone turns a member of my brethren, a guard of the harem. That is cause for concern, no matter who it was who did it."

Eliska winced, but couldn't deny the truth of Ajani's words. One way or another, someone was going to be punished severely for this.