Death and the Emperor

Book 2 Chapter XVII: A Great Deal of Jewellery

...for within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court...
-- William Shakespeare, Richard II

Kilan probably was being watched by his aunt's spies. He didn't notice them even if they were there, so he tried not to think about this. Instead he focused on assembling a list of everyone who would have been affected by Duke Adrino's land purchase -- in-between his regular duties, of course. He wasn't allowed to get out of visiting a newly-built school for something as trifling as a murder investigation.

He dreaded that the apparent lack of any progress in catching the murderer would provide plenty of fodder for the press to grumble about. But astonishingly, the murder had apparently been completely forgotten. The journalists were now obsessed with an upcoming society wedding, and the rumours of scandal in the background of both bride and groom. The murdered Duke had become old news, and writing about the case was no longer fashionable.

The good thing about this was that now there was less public attention on the case, and the murderer would be less cautious.

Nimetath was still searching for people who had bought ruby bracelets. Qihadal had almost entirely retired to her rooms, now that the baby's birth was expected in a week or two. He hadn't had a chance to ask her about her half-brother yet. Kilan, with the help of Deran, one of Nimetath's spies, was researching the land purchase. And that was how he first heard the name of Lindesin Traglei.

Lindesin was at first nothing but a name. Just one name among many on a list of possible suspects, with nothing to distinguish him from the rest. Kilan didn't give his name a second glance. There was no reason for him to realise he'd found the murderer.

It was only days later, when the spy Deran found that Lindesin had stood to inherit a large part of the land the Duke had bought, that Kilan began to wonder.

"Am I on the right track?" he asked Death when she visited that night. "Am I only investigating innocent people as if they were criminals?"

"There's no such thing as an innocent person," Death corrected. "There are only people not guilty of certain sins. Every one of those people you're investigating is guilty of something. And don't worry. You'll catch the murderer in the next week if you keep searching."

Kilan ignored the first part of her answer in favour of feeling relieved about the second. "Will I have found the group, too?"

Death shrugged. "That depends on Nimetath."

~~~~

Nimetath was as busy as Kilan that week. She was quite determined that she would solve this case as quickly as possible. Her pride depended on it, and so did her peace of mind. And if that meant that she had to ask jewellers for lists of what their customers had bought -- a subject in which she had never felt the slightest interest before -- so be it.

"Ruby bracelets?" repeated the jeweller, the latest in a long line of jewellers she had visited. "Don't think I've sold any of 'em lately. Not in fashion right now, you see."

"Well, can you find a list of the people who bought them when they were fashionable?" Nimetath asked, trying to sound reasonable.

There was something about the stark white uniform of an Inquisitor that made people nervous. Even people who hadn't committed a crime in their lives tended to shake in their shoes when an Inquisitor walked by. The jeweller practically fell over himself in trying to give her the information she wanted.

Forty minutes later Nimetath left with a list of over one hundred and fifty names.

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