Old Tin Sorrows

24

We stood looking at the tombstone. I asked, "Do you know much about your mother?"

"Only what I told you, which is all Cook ever told me. Father won't say anything. He fired everybody after she died, except Cook. There wasn't anyone else to tell me."

"What about your grandparents?"

"I don't know anything about them. My grandfather Stantnor died when I was a baby. My grandmother Stantnor went when my father was a boy. I don't know who they were on my mother's side except that they were a stormwarden and a firelord. Cook won't tell me who they were. I think something bad happened to them and she doesn't want me to know."

Ting! A little bell rang inside my head.

A favorite pastime of our ruling class is plotting to snatch the throne. Though we haven't lately, sometimes we go through periods when we change kings like underwear. We had three in one year, once.

There'd been a big brouhaha when I was eight, maybe seven. About the time Jennifer had been born. An assassination attempt had gone awry and had been so blackhearted at its core that the would-be victim had gotten so righteously pissed off, he'd made a clean sweep. Not a bit of forgive-and-forget. Necks got stretched. Heads and bodies went their separate ways. Arms and legs got hauled around the kingdom and buried individually beneath crossroads. Great estates got confiscated. It hadn't been a good time to be related to the conspirators, however remotely.

From my neighborhood it had been great fun, watching the ruling class chase its tail and get it caught in a door. Or some such mixed metaphor. When those things come up, everybody on the outside hopes that crowd will wipe themselves out. But they never do. They just select out the least competent schemers.

Shouldn't be hard to find out who her grandparents had been. "Would you want to know?" I asked. "Is it important to you?"

"It's not important. It wouldn't change my life. I don't know if I care anymore." After some silence, "I used to dream about them when I was little. They were going to come take me home to their palace. I was really a princess. They'd sent me and my mother here to hide us from their enemies, only something happened. Maybe they'd forgotten where they'd hidden us. I don't know. I never figured out why they never came. I just pretended that they would, someday."

A common childhood mind game. But, "It could be true, Jennifer. Things were unsettled politically in those days. It's possible the marriage was arranged to put your mother out of harm's way. With your grandparents dead, your father might have been the only one left who knew who your mother was."

"You're kidding."

"No. I was young but I remember those days. Some people tried to kill the King. They blew it. He went crazy. A lot of people died, including some who had nothing to do with the plot." Sometimes you tell the white lie. Wouldn't hurt to leave her the option of believing her grandparents had been innocents caught in the storm.

She laughed without humor. "Wouldn't that be something? If my kid's daydreams were true?"

"Do you still not care?" I could find out about her grandparents without doing much but poke through some old records. Worth the effort if it would brighten her life.

"I think I do care."

"I'll find out, then." I started moving again. She followed, caught up in her thoughts, paying no attention, while I got back onto the trail of the draugs. We were almost to the road before she realized we were still headed away from the house. She might not have noticed then if we hadn't gotten into some cockleburs.

"Where are you going?" She sounded almost panicky. There was a touch of wildness in her eyes. She looked around like she'd suddenly wakened in enemy territory. Only the peaks of the house were visible above the hummock where the cemetery lay. Once we reached the road, those would be out of sight.

"I'm backtracking the thing that came to the house last night." I was backtracking all three, really. There were three trails smashed through the weeds. But there were no return trails. That left me a little uneasy. We'd only disposed of two. "I think it came from the swamp that's supposed to be up ahead there."

"No. I want to go back." She looked around like she expected something to jump out at us. And maybe something could. Those draugs hadn't behaved like story draugs. Who was to say they weren't immune to daylight? And I wasn't equipped to handle them. It hadn't occurred to me to bring any heavy weaponry.

Still, I wasn't particularly nervous. Without the dark to mask them, they couldn't sneak up on us.

"Nothing to worry about. We'll be all right."

"I'm going back. If you want to go out there... " She said "out there" like I was headed for another world. "If you want, you go ahead."

"You win. You seen one swamp, you've seen them all. And I got a plenty good look in the islands."

She'd already started walking. I had to trot to catch up. She looked relieved. "It's almost lunchtime, anyway."

It was. And I still had to find Morley and rehearse him for Saucerhead's return. "I should thank you. I've missed so many meals, I'm light-headed."

We went straight to the kitchen. We ate. The others eyed us curiously. Everyone knew we'd gone for a walk. Each invested that with his own special significance. Nobody mentioned it, though Wayne looked like he had a few words he wanted to say.

As Peters was about to leave I asked, "Where can I catch you later?"

"The stable. I'm trying to catch up for Snake." He didn't look pleased. That kind of work wouldn't thrill me, either.

"I'll be out. Need to ask you something."

He nodded and went his way. I ingratiated myself by helping Cook for a while. She didn't say much with Jennifer there, fumbling around. Cook never said much with a third party present. Made me wonder.

I hoped Jennifer wasn't going to attach herself permanently. But it did seem that way.

I'd just been kind to a stray. But pups run to where the kindness is. My own fault. A sucker, as Morley says.

I had to see him soon or adjust my scheme for the afternoon. I told Cook I'd be back to help later, then headed upstairs, hoping Morley would be in my suite. Jennifer tagged along till it was obvious where I was headed. Then she chickened out. Afraid of a guy with my reputation.

I said good-bye and kept a straight face till I'd let myself in.

No Morley. No sign of Morley. Curious.

It made me uneasy. Morley is an odd bird but he'd make an effort to stay in touch.

I had a bad moment imagining him dead in some hidden place, ambushed. Not a pleasant thought, a friend getting offed for helping with something that wasn't his concern. But Morley was too much a pro to get taken that way. The mistakes he makes aren't those kind. When he buys it, it will be because an irate husband appears unexpectedly while he's in no position to react.

I took a quick guess at how long it would be till Saucerhead returned, decided I'd have to manage without Morley. Black Pete would have to carry the load.

I shrugged into my coat and headed for the stable, making sure my telltales were in position.

I kept an eye out for my blonde sweetheart, but the only person I saw was Kaid on the fourth-floor balcony west scoping out how to haunt the place after his own death.

Kaid was close to the old man. I ought to spend some time with him. He might give me a lead on who might want the General out.